Winter Mystery

Summary

Scribe Notes

Adventure: Winter Mystery
GM: Bernard
Session: Winter 823
Night: Tuesday
Location: Online(Roll20/Discord)
Level: Low/Medium+

Party

• Snowdrop - dessert maker
• Remel elderly cook + "Cat" - scribe/mil sci
• Elidon - talented archer
• Boom Boom - clumsy alchemist
• Arcadia - good talker - PL
• Malga - Goblin warrior

Employer: Baroness of White River
Mission: People are going missing from local villages and farms, and some animals are behaving strange
Plane: An Alternate Alusia
Pay: TBC
Days on Adventure: We'll know when we get back

Scribe Notes

Summary

• Meet Frederic. Head to Alternate Alusia. Walk for two days. Malga receives "blessing"
• Walk for two days. Hill Frost fort. Fight in tunnels with snow goblins.
• finish fight. Malga dies. Retreat to castle.
• heal up. Clean up Ice. Traverse pass to Southpark
• Travel to White River. Meeting Baroness and learn about mission
• Arrive at lake. Dog attack
• Cross lake. Find abandoned village. Corrupt attack attack
• Examine river. Follow upstream to dam. Snowdrop goes missing.
• Fight on the lake

Details

Getting Started

A few hours after the Guild meeting security rounded up those of us still around and asked us to meet in the pub. As we sip our beers, Boomboom his orange juice, the black clad security member explained they someone from Alternative Alusia had arrive at the guild, he was a "ghost" and difficult to communicate with. They had learnt he was from up north, near Rank, from a place called White River. People are going missing from local villages and farms, and some animals are behaving strange. He has been send by the Mayor, and we will needed to negotiate with them for payment, so the guild will underwrite this if there is not sufficient payment.

Security explains that we can travel to Alternative Alusia by travelling throught the guild gates and can return back the same way. We need to stay at the guild until we depart, if we leave it may not work. We agree on party roles and sign the paperwork, and start planning. We arrange for supplies to be send to the guild, food and winter clothing, as well as arranging for potions and greaters.

Heading off

We meet with the Frederic and his mule the next day in the guild courtyard and indicate to him we are ready to leave. As we toward the gates a bubble appears, the closer we move the more prominent the bubble becomes. We step into the bubble and find ourselves in a cold frigid environment with 3ft snow on the ground, our winter clothes and cold resistance make things bearable. Our employer is now solid and as we look behind us the guild is now a few simple buildings. Boombooms and Snowdrops wings have become flowing cloaks.

Frederic explains it took two weeks for him to walk here, however with ice mages it should take significantly less time to get back. He explains we need to hear north until the mountains meet the coast, head east until we hit the castle on the rolling hills then north again until we find White River. If the geography is the same as our Alusia we think it will be about 200 miles walk.

Malgas Blessed

The first day passing without incident, at some point we have lost the road, but with suck deep snow it makes little difference. The second day as evening approaches we notice smoke to the east, probably a camp fire. We keep moving and find a copse of trees to camp that would protect us from the elements.

As we setup camp we find what looks to be an inactive fey circle at the centre of the copse. The circle seems to belong to "The Slought". The name seems to inspire Malga and he immediately sacrifices most of his life energy to them, after the blood stops he is weak as a small child. The party are surprised by his conviction, and I council Boomboom that Malga may not be an appropriate role model for him. We examine Malgas "blessing" to leave what his sacrifice means and then camp for the night.

Mountain Pass

We head off that morning, Malga is weak but otherwise ok. We travel the day without incident. That evening Happy gives Remel 5 silver, not the normal 10. Its unusual but he doesn't seem too bothered. The coins have antlers on the head and fish on the tails.

Another uneventful day of marching passes and we reach the Hill Frost fort that evening which guards the mountain pass. Frederic explains they are not use to strangers, and to keep our head down and unusual ways to ourselves. As notice crows on the roof that are carefully watching us, and a glimpse of movement further up the pass. The guards explain the usual dangers are in the pass- ice, snow, snow goblins and other monsters.

Hill Frost Fort

We are led to a room off the great hall, as we unpack and make ourselves comfortable other travellers decide to move to the great hall. Happy has no coins for Remel and some coins are missing from his purse, very strange. The guards locate themselves near us, beings strangers.

Tunnel fight

At second watch the sound of bells resonate through the halls as the alarms are raised, we can hear orders been shout to the guards. Once we all have donned armour we find someone in charge and offer our help, they send us in the tunnels beneath the castle which are dug by giant worms.

We are lead down to the basement and through heavy doors in the tunnels. We follow them for a hour, finding a secret door that we investigate briefly. Some minutes later we are attacked by snow goblins, they are weak but numerous and a luck blow downs Snowdrop. As we fight the temperature drops considerably, and ice magics are cast around us.

After a brief pause, rats emerge from all directions, we cannot see the ground under the squealing carpet. Enough get through the walls to swarm over Elidon, Snowdrop and Malga - we lose sight of them under the \squealing, biting grey bodies. Waves of goblin warrior follow behind the rats, most cannot pass the walls, however two wolves, two elementals and an owlbear do. The fighting is deadly and ends when the goblin forces retreat, much to the relief of the party, due to their losses.

We quickly return Elidon to consciousness but unfortunately Malga has died. We have little time to mourn as a dark fey appears, pulling Malgas ghost from his body and states a claim on the soul. We fail to stop the fey - we try to negotiate but he is determined to have a soul, and it is too powerful for us to defeat. The Fey provides one concession, letting us each summon Malga once to assist us with a quest, before pulling Malgas ghost through a portal. We quickly loot and retreat back to the castle with Malgas body.

Recovery and repair

Arriving back at the castle we find wounded in the main hall there is ice around the roof and injured and wounded around the room. The winds violently howling outside the castle.

There are three soldiers with ice bolts protruding from their chests and their bodies are slowly changing to ice. After some examination and deliberation Remel pulls the bolt out from the first soldiers chest, which stops them freezing further but Remels hands now start freezing. He rushes to the fire to defrost them, which works, but the power to the ice extinguishes all the fires in the room!

The temperate in the room quickly drops the ice slowly creeps down the walls as Boom Boom tries to restart the fires. He needs to use magic and lots of oil to get them restarted, just in time before we all freeze. We remove the bolts from the other patients, extinguishing some fires again.

Over the next few hours we help out and address the ice bolts in the wall. Boom Boom tries to heat them, which requires him to keep in contact. It "works", but there is a small explosion and some of the wall crumbles, the stone was shattered by the ice. Elidon purposes a much better approach, using a weapon of fire, which has much less explosions involved.

The attacks bodies, powerful goblins and wolves, are gathered up to burn. We skin the wolves and Remel turns their bodies into stew, although its chewy it gives people low level cold resistance for some days. There is no healer able to preserve Malgas body, so we arrange to have it stored in the cellar, where it will freeze, and retrieve it on our return.

Through the Pass

The next day we head through the pass, we are accompanied by two soldiers returning home. In the afternoon we spot three undead (no heat) figures at the top of a hill we are climbing moments before an avalanche descends upon us. We all crowd around Elidons ice shovel and it protects us from being swept away, we are battered but are all alive. It does take some time to dig ourselves out.

That evening we reach a small village on the other side of the pass called Southgate, its quiet as there are few travellers at this time of year and we rest for the night. Frederic explains we have completed the hardest part of the journey.

The night passes uneventfully and the following morning we manage to obtain fresh garlic bread from the local bakers for breakfast. Fulcher and Roulf arrive just as we finished breakfast with some additional guard in tow, that are all wanting to return to White River, we are all pleased as travelling in a larger group is safer.

Travelling

We spend the next week travelling on the main road to Alkazar, the capital city. We pass the occasional patrol, each of which has an ice mage. Alkazar is full, people are hiding here during winter as the snow is 20ft deep in some places. Spigot explains farms and villages are packed up and people stay in the city. We stay in an up market inn as its one of the few with space and have a comfortable nights sleep, Boomboom tells us a firey hand reach of the hearth to him but Remel think it was his imagination. The inn has breakfast ready and a packed lunch for us, helping us leave as quickly as possible, so kind.

Elidon leads us throught he snow for the next eight days, staying in a mix of small villages and camping, and we arrive at the capital of White River looking forward to a warm Inn. There are no room available so we rent out a barn, which is still considerable better than the countryside. Our arrival is notices and a scroll soon appears asking us to attend the Baroness for an evening meeting. Arcadia is the only one with appropriate skills, and clothing, to attend the Baroness so we decide to let her do all the talking.

Meeting the Baroness

The Baroness is in her dining hall seated at the table that can fit at least 40 people. We are fed some tasty fried fish, and definitely don't cause any disruption while Arcadia talks. The Baroness explains;

• some of the hamlets on the north shore of the blue lake have gone missing, as have the animals.
• Happened at least several weeks ago, possibly earlier. A patrol before the snows noticed this.
• Three of the villages were deserted and they had not moved to town.
• A number of the other hamlets have reported animals behaving oddly.
• The guards did not find anything obvious, no tracks or bodies. All their possessions were there.
• Nothing like this has happened before.
• No census of the area, they are not fond of it but they pay their tythe on time so not worried.
• There are undead undead lurking in the shadows, as we all know the Dark Circle shattered to dark places, but they think its unlikely to be undead.
• There are creatures deep in the blue lake does not freeze in winter, the in/outlets freeze but there is obviously some underground rivers feeding he lake.
• They don't know all the creatures in the lake, are some minor water demon/spirits?
• Compensation for services - depending on outcome. Offer a purse of silver for us being there, more on results.

The Baroness bids us on our way, not before we have a second helping of fried fish, Snowdrop and Remel ponder recreating this excelling food. The chatelain provide Arcadia a large sack of coins, which is about 6000sp. Spigot is astounded at the amount of money and we happily accept his into the party, a locals knowledge will be invaluable!

The next morning we purchase some food to resupply our dwindling stocks, and Spigot but himself a silvered weapon.

Corrupt Signs

We travel for a day, reaching the fort at the pass between the hills, and a second day to reach the lake. We find a room at "The Misty Fish" and settle in the for night. In the middle of the night we are awoken by howling and yelling in the streets. Donning our armour we head downstairs and the Inns dog violently attacks Snowdrop, biting her arm down to the bone. We head outside and find the source of the noise, some guards have killed a crazed dog that was attacking people. The dead dog has magic on it from a corrupt demon (rhymes with havnock)! We help the guards, reporting out finding, and head to bed.

The next day we head to a nearby farm that reported dogs pointing at empty spaces, spoiled milk from cows and hens spooked. There is deep snow on the farm and we search reveals no definitive evidence. We head back to the village, reaching it that evening. Snowdrops wound has become unusually infected, which Remel heals.

Walking around the lake will take days so we use Arcadias unique water wings we flying through the water, and we arrive at the other side in a few hour. Spigot glimpses a goblin sized, lizard skinned human (4.5 tall) during the swim but it was such a brief view he is unable to provide much detail.

We walk for half a day and encounter a well-used track, There are signs of handcarts, livestock and people on the track but they are all weeks old. Following the track north we arrive at an abandoned village in the hills as the sun is setting. We search the villag, the cellars are filled with food and houses have many belonging. There is no sign of conflict or panic.

Corrupted Animals attack

We camp in a guard tower for the night and are awoken soon after midnight by the sounds of animals. There are cows, goats and chickens in the village and they all madly charge the tower, trying to beat their way in. The guard tower shakes and we struggle to stay on our feet, Snowdrop falls from the tower but it quickly from the jaws of the sheep. The animals are killed and upon examination we discover

• Their forms are changed, and they are signifyingly more dangerous- claws long and teeth sharper.
• They are under the effects of corruption, even under death. Eating the body will corrupt the eater.
• They have been corrupted for months.
• Only a divine power can remove the corruption.
• Their aspects are corrupted, changed to dark.

The next day we arise and, following Elidons excellent suggestion, we examine the well and discover the water is corrupted. We suspect all the villages have been corrupted from the well water or eating corrupted animals. We not able to work out if there is anything at the bottom of the well, not wanting to touch the corrupted water, so we instead decide to head some miles north to examine the river. The river has shrunk considerably, it looks like its normally 20ft wide but is currently only 2ft wide, so we suspect something it damming it upriver. The water is also corrupted! Arcadia flys upriver may miles to explore and spots a large dam, and gets shot at with a crossbow. Returning, we talk and decide to head to the dam, we can't waste too much time as our food will only allow as a trip there and back.

We walk for many days through the snow, following the river. It takes us three days to get to the lake and we walked through a blizzard on one of those days. Fortunately, Elidon could created a comfortable but cramped, igloo for us to camp in overnight.

The Lake

Dam

We work our way to the west of the lake formed by the dam, hoping our approach from the west will be less obvious that downstream. Using Waters of Vision to examine the area we see four small islands in the middle of the lake, with a strange contraption between them all. Something stops our scrying from getting too close. We have observed guards patrolling at a distance, so we send in Snowdrop, our best scout, to get a closer look. After a worry hour, Snowdrop had not retuned and was not replying to the magical messages we were sending. We later learn she was over enthusiastic and tried to cross the cleared area around the dam and collect some water. She was spotted and following a short fight they took her unconscious body away and made her into a beast.

Remel spend an hour activating his location amulet, which pointed to the dam, while the party discussed a plan and worked out what spells we all needed. We discovered Melga has some very powerful protection scrolls that we used on the party, we think he would have appreciated that. We very carefully snuck to the lake and hid near the dam, unfortunately Remel backfired when casting waterwalking so the party needed to retreat for 6 hours before returning again.

Dam Busters

It was cold and dark, there was mist across the lake as the attack was finally launched. Once all our spells were ready BoomBoom planted grenadoes on the dam and Arcadia cast a number Meteorite Showers to arrive very soon. We walked across the lake, the mist obscured our approach, and managed to get close to one of the islands before we were seen, we could see a tower in the centre of the lake with a large glowing sphere atop it. Remel dropped a fog as the party charged into combat with a mix of beasts, cultists and ice imps. Boomboom struck several devastating blows, dropping his opponents in single blows, and the party fought hard, as reinforcements from the other islands raced toward us. To our horror Snowdrop appeared, transformed and delivering brutal blows, and attacked us! We were able to know her down and stabiliser her.

We had also killed all our opponents, and needed healing, as further reinforcement ran across the lake toward us. We prepared for a very tough fight when the meteorites struck the dam and water started pouring out the like, dragging the reinforcements and some large icebergs with them, removing them from the battle. With the battle turned and few opponents left standing, Elidon clutched his chest, cried out in pain, muttering about a curse, and dropped dead.

With the lake draining and our opponents dealt with, we focused on destroying the corruption. After a few unexpected dumpings in the lake we were able to jump across to the tower and climb to the top, the sphere at the top radiated corrupt magic. An exhausting hour later, BoomBoom and Remel had cracked open the corrupt rock using their incredible strength and magical picks, destroying the corruption.

Aftermath

As we looted the bodies of our opponents, we pondered out next steps. With both Ice mages dead, our journey back would be very difficult. We decided to fly back to the castle, use our incredible strength to carry the bodies - a snow landing would help the poorer flyers. A few miles into the flight we observed a large contingent of mounted knights carrying the flag of the Baroness. We landed and the Baroness explained they had received our message and, now knowing where their enemy were, had come to slay the cultists - having already killed around 50 of them. As we talked, smoke emerged from Snowdrops beast body and formed into an Imp, which was quickly slain.

The Baroness sent a message to the Castilian and let him know of our arrival and bid us on our way. Some hours later we arrive at the castle and speak to the Castilian, he provides us some money and offers us magical training. With to dead bodies we push on and spend a few days flying to Seagate, Remel carries the dead bodies through the gates and returns to the real Seagate. With the bodies safe, BoomBoom and Arcadia return to the castle to undertake the training, returning a month later. Spigot is taken by guild security and begins his guild training.

Info

People

White River

• Frederic - from the White River. Send to the guild by the Baroness to hire people
• Baroness Adeline White River - ruler of White River

havnock

• his magic is on the corpse of a crazed dog

The Slought

Found at a Fey circle a few days walk from the guild.

Malgas "Blessing"

• time till death: Indeterminant
• Nature of magic in affect: Bestowing Blessing
• Nature of blessing: Bestowing abilities of chaos, harm, kidnapping and undeath
• Duration of Blessing: Potentially permanent
• Power Pacted with: associated with The Slought
• Nature of obligations: causing chaos, harm, kidnapping and undeath
• Method of restoring endurance: time and training

Guards that accompany us

• Lucy - sword and shield
• Oliver - namer
• Spigot - air mage with an axe
• Fulcher - great axe
• Rolf - xbow

Places

Alternate Alusia

Information from Frederic

• The guild on his place is the Seagate mercenary camp
• There is no western kingdom anymore.
• As there is no central power there is no central power structure. Not a lot of wealth or services
• The dark circle was not properly defeated, it broke up rather than banished.
• Its is cold all year around, its winter there now so its especially cold.

Guild security observations

• The plane is drab
• Some items may change when travelling here. They might be permanent when we return. Things will appear functional.
• Standard magic should translate fine. Things will be more drab, things are not bright.
• Cannot banish from Alternate Alusia, as its still Alusia.

Hill Frost Fort

A fort guarding a mountain pass three days walk from the guild camp.

Southgate

A village on the far side of the pass from Hill Frost Forest.

White River

White River

Things

Loot and scars

• Loot from goblin tunnel fight

• Ice wolf furs from Castle

• Stuff from Cultists at the Lake

• Reward from Baroness

• Corruption effects (if anything)

• The Slought (if anything)

Seagate Times suggestions

• Best Death - Malga - sacrificing most of your EN to a Fey power you know nothing about, they dying to an enormous swarm of rats as you have so little EN.
• Smartest - Arcadia/BoomBoom - using grenados and meteorite shower to time delay blowing up the dam
• Jammiest - the dam blowing when reinforcements were on the lake, pulling them away from the fight and killing some with iceburgs.
• Smartest Award - Ice that was quickly freezing over the room and we didnt have the right equipment to damage it. Boom Boom made the performed item out of the weapons of flames a fire ice pick

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

• Cooking; Remel
  

With magic kitchen 8FT/2EN
Otherwise 5FT/2EN

Travel Magics

Snow Shovel (Elidon) R6?

Watch Order

First - Arcadia, Spigot
Second - Boom-Boom, Remel
Third - Elidon, Snowdrop

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File Arcadia, Elidon Frederick Remel , Boomboom Malga, Snowdrop	Single File Arcadia Elidon Snowdrop Frederick Remel Malga Boomboom

Vision

• Arcadia- racial witchsight
  
• Elidon - racial witchsight
  
• Snowdrop - racial infravision
  
• Remel - Witchsight (talent)
  
• Malga - human vision
  
• Boomboom - racial/college infravision 115ft
  

Long duration buffs.

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	AR	BB	EL	RE	SD	MA
Water Breathing (Re)	18	Gills. Breath and see under water	19h		Y				Y
Water proofing (Re)	8	protects completely from all forms of non-magical water damage.	29h/45d		Y				Y
Buoyancy (Re)	8	float at whatever depth they choose. Change depth 21ft/action	9 hr						sit
Cold Resistance (Re)	8	protects the target from the effects of temperature down to -16C. -3 from cold based attacks	9hr		Y				Y
Fireproofing (BB)	11	Protects against non-magical fire and heat effects up to the equivalent of a bonfire. Also protects against smoke effects, heatstroke and sunstroke.	12 Hours		Y				Y
Fire Armour (BB)	11	Protecton from 48 points of Fire Damage	12 Hours		Y
Witchsight (AR)	6	See invis. Vision in the dark of 150 feet under the open sky, and 75 feet elsewhere	3.5 Hours		Y				Y
Coriscade (AR)	6	Defence 14 half in close	3.5 Hours		Y
Rune Shield (MA)	12	Defense 17 absorption 3	13 Hours						Y
	??	??	??
Rune of Willow Healing (MA)	6	On activation Heals 3 endurance for 8 pulses	12 hours						Y

Short duration buffs.

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	AR	BB	EL	RE	SD	MA
Waters of Healing (Re)	10	neutralise vemon and heal 1 EN. If no venom then heal [D-5]+10	22min
Weapon of Flames (BB)	11	+12SC +6DM	16 Mins		Y				Y
Swords of Blazing Light (AR)	10	Base damage + extra to creatures of dark	15 Minutes
Weapon of Cold (SD)	8	+9 BC & +3 damage	13 mins
Armour of Ice (SD)	6	6AP wgt 5 -2AG	210 mins
Ice Traversal (SD)	6		140 min
	??	??	??

Talants, Skills, other buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	AR	BB	EL	RE	SD	MA
Sense danger	##	sense the presence of a hazard to the Adept's life or wellbeing	Always				66%
Detect Hidden (ranger)	##	In a natural setting a ranger may notice hidden entities, or recognise an ambush or trap before they walk into it	# Hours				50%/56%
Recognise danger (Navigator)		recognise non-magical danger at sea before subjecting the ship to it.	# Hours				77%
Create Fog	20	In addition the conjured mist has the effect that all entities within the fog have their Strike Chances reduced by 25% due to limited visibility. Visibility is reduced to 1 hex. The spell of Water Breathing completely negates the effect of this spell.	126mn
Rainstorm	10	The caster summons a miniature rainstorm, radius 15 feet, that appears over the target's head (little dark rain cloud, tiny lightning bolts and all). If the target fails to resist, the storm will follow them for the duration (even inside buildings), completely soaking everything not waterproof in 10 seconds. The distraction caused by the storm will add 20% per Rank to any rolls the target makes that are of a mental nature (i.e. require thought or concentration) or 10% per Rank to other rolls. All characters in the area of effect will suffer these effects although the effects are halved if they are not the actual target of the spell If the target is waterproofed the effects will be minimal and if they are a Water Mage they will suffer no ill effect, but will have their Base Chances increased by 5%.	5.5h
	??	??	??

Calendar

Winter
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Samhain
Frost (7)
			1	Guild Meeting	2	Depart for Alternative Alusia. Walk for a day	3	Walk for another day. Malga sacrifices to The Slought	4	Walk for another day.	5	Walk for another day. Hill Frost fort. Snow goblins.	6	Recover and clean up Ice
	7	Walk through pass to Southpark	8	Travel to Alkazar	9	Travel to Alkazar	10	Travel to Alkazar	11	Travel to Alkazar	12	Travel to Alkazar	13	Travel to Alkazar
	14	Arrive at Alkazar	15	Travel to White River	16	Travel to White River	17	Travel to White River	18	Travel to White River	19	Travel to White River	20	Travel to White River
	21	Travel to White River	22	Arrive to White River. Meet Baroness	23	Head to Lake	24	Arrive at lake. Night dog violents	25	Search farm	26	Cross lake, find village. Night animal attack	27	Walk to dam
	28	Walk to dam, blizzard	29	Walk to dam. Arrive	30	Scout out lake. Snowdrop goes missing. Damn fight. Baroness. Back to Castle
Snow (8)
							1	Fly to Seagate	2	Fly to Seagate	3	Fly to Seagate	4	Fly to Seagate
	5	Fly to Seagate	6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Solstice	16		17	The Duke of Carzala's Winter Ball	18	Yuletide
	19	Days of Chaos	20	DoC 2	21	DoC 3	22	DoC 4	23	DoC 5	24	DoC 6	25	DoC 7
	26	DoC 8	27	DoC 9	28	DoC 10	29	DoC 11	30	Twelfth Night
Ice (9)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6	First Plough	7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30