Session Four - Beyond The Candle Barrier

 

After the violent death of Gramorr, the party retreated back into the ruined chapel to reassess their options. This was when they met a newcomer---a strapping, but somewhat dull-witted fighter, named Couscous. Couscous wore platemail, and carried a dazzling sword, which we learned came from fairy. (It was a random trinket rolled in character generation.)

Couscous apparently found the barrow, and crawled in through the wormtongue's burrow entrance, and, following the sounds of commotion found the party. They were, of course, happy to accept his participation.

At this point, it was nearing 8:30 at night. They had been adventuring since early that morning, and exhaustion would set in soon if a good rest wasn't had. Before they turned in, however, they resolved to explore the final room, to the east, mirroring the chapel, that they hadn't yet entered.

The room was a weapon repository. Seven tall footmen statues held weapons of fine design. A moldy mural covered one wall, featuring Sir Chyde on his stallion, his hounds at the horse's feet. The hounds, as well as his upraised arm, were covered by mold. Considering the auspicious feeling of the room, Ddane and Perrin decided to light the magical candle they took from the chapel. It worked just as it had, every time before, wind blustering through the room, with the sounds of battle.

Unfortunately, the wind also dislodged the mold from the walls, coating everybody with the vicious spores. The stronger members of the party shrugged it off, coughing out the spores before they could do their damage. Perrin, however, got a deep lungful, and started coughing, lowering to the floor. As blood burbled from his mouth---more blood than would normally spew from a mild coughing fit---his life exsanguinated before him. He died, kneeled on the floor, his forehead resting downward on the cold stones.

At which moment, from the southern entrance, a radiant knight strode into the room, in a much bolder manner than Perrin had ever done---Glad Turnhand, a lawful knight (truthfully a squire) of House Harrowmoor! He immediately spotted the details revealed on the mural---Sir Chyde's hand, holding the fine longsword that matched one of the weapons in the room, and the collar of the hounds, with the name of the second dog, Chedr.

Armed with this knowledge, the party retired to the chapel, where they resolved to camp for the night.

Squire Glad recognized the chapel as that of Saint Sedge, the patron saint of holy warriors. While the rest of the party made preparations for a heavy sleep, Squire Glad began to clean up the shrine. Eventually, everybody chipped in, and in an hour the floors had been (somewhat) swept, the pews arranged (a bit), and the doorways barricaded with the broken and unsalvageable pews.

Meowianne told a rousing story (probably untruthful!) of why she left faerie... Apparently, she stole some fine rats from a noble's table, and promptly decided to try her luck at adventuring in the land of the mortals. She also revealed she has many children, and has sired numerous litters. She loves them all, but can't remember... well, almost any... of them.

Everyone slept well, their belly full of a solid meal of preserved rations.

Squire Glad took first watch, praying the first hour at the shrine. To his surprise, Saint Sedge reached down, infusing him with holy favor, granting him the one-time-ever use of the spell Bless Weapon.

In the morning, the 16th of Lillipythe, Chime, the Feast Day of St. Dillage, they arose early and made for the Hall of the Hounds. Speaking the names of both dogs, they opened the doors and entered the burial chamber of Sir Chyde...

...In which the ghost of Sir Chyde rested, leaning against the wall, staring at a life-sized portrait of his beloved Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk.

Squire Glad strode right into the room, engaging Sir Chyde boldly in conversation. The incorporeal knight verified what the party had already learned, adding a few new elements.

• Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk's father was the Cold Prince himself!
• The moonstone ring that the Florid Envoy offered to pay for, is indeed a magical ring of binding, holding Sir Chyde's ghost in situ while it tries to connect his spirit with the princess, who even now waits for him in her tower in Frigia. Its magic would have connected Sir Chyde with the princess forever, had he not been killed and she not been locked behind powerful, and mysterious, magical wards, in Frigia.
• Sir Chyde offered any of the treasures in his crypt if the adventurers would transport the ring into Frigia, to give to the princess. He also said the princess would reward them handsomely, alluding that she could grant their grandest desires, even to the raising of the dead.
• The portal to Frigia was below the crypt... The party connected this with the diagonal stairs going down they'd avoided earlier.

After some bargaining, some questioning about the ring and its powers (and risks), a slight bit of threatening by Sir Chyde and eventually humble begging, they resolved to attempt to grant Sir Chyde his wishes. They took the ring (as well as some highly valuable bracelets) and went to the stairs, the ghost of the ancient knight disappearing as they went.

Before they descended, however, a bizarre twist of fate occurred. Scared that Crump might get impatient and enter the barrow behind them, they decided to hide the various treasures they'd collected thus far... the armor of Sir Chyde, the portrait of Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, etc. What better place than the burial chamber of Sir Chyde himself?

Preparing for this, they went to the mural that held Chedr's name, and scratched it off the painting, to remove the clue for anybody else. Then, to make sure the dogs' guardianship hadn't been permanently 'turned off' since they spoke the names, they closed the doors to the chamber and Squire Glad touched the door.

As he yelled the names of the hounds, they both snapped at him, Flegr catching his chest in a fast snap with the force of a vice-grip. Blood spurted from the crumpled armor, even as the two hounds stood down upon hearing their names. Glad's maximum HP was reduced by 1 for every Hit Dice his character had... so, 1. He was able to stabilize the bleeding, but was drawn and weak from his near-death experience.

That was when they remembered the curious wafers from the hidden room, of the Chapel of Saint Sedge... Glad happily devoured five of them, feeling the holy blessing of the One True God coursing in his body, healing his afflictions.

They stored their treasures in the burial room, behind the closed doors, confidant in the fact that the clues to the hound's names were now undiscoverable within the barrow itself, and went to descend the stairs.

At the base of the stairs, a limpid pool of opalescent water glimmered in the light of hundreds of floating candles, that ringed the circular room. Attempting to gauge the depth of the water, Couscous spear vanished when thrust through the spears.

Realizing this was some portal into the realm of fairy, they tied a rope to Meowianne, and let her through.

Immediately, on the other side, the grimalkin found herself standing within a snowy, winter forest, bounding a frozen lake. At the center of the lake was a tall, white tower. While she stood, she saw messenger crows enter the tower, goblin deliveries of boxes and parcels and foodstuffs, frost elf patrols, and dire wolves... When she eventually moved back through the candles, three days had passed for her, but less than a turn had passed for the rest of the party.

Even though she felt exhausted from lack of sleep, Meowianne re-entered fairy with the party. They left a rope tied through the candles, to a tree, to ensure they could find the entrance again.

At the border of the frozen lake, they saw another goblin delivery, apparently driving across fresh snow. Also, they noted a hairline cut in the sky, to the west of the tower, bleeding strange purple goo down into the trees.

In an attempt to avoid the hulking ogrish form they'd seen accept delivery from the goblins, the party went to the other side of the tower and threw a grappling hook up to the first story... Just as the troll manservant and his commander, the little goblin Griddlegrim who rode upon the troll's back in a scarlet-velvet draped palanquin, caught them.

Griddlegrim immediately checked them against the guest list. Finding their names not listed, he offered them admittance, but only if they ate one of his special mushrooms... Somehow, against all their better judgements, they all took a mushroom. Meowianne's furr sprouted to ten feet long (permanently!), Ddane shrunk to six inches tall (for a number of turns), Couscous alternated between maniacal laughter and weeping (again, temporary), and Squire Glad turned invisible... except for his armor and gear.

Excited, and terrified, by the strange results, the party is ushered into the lower story of the tower of the Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk.

Their goal is to reach the princess, and reunite her with Sir Chyde... for a favorable reward, of course.

What manor of adventures befall them, however, will have to wait for next time...

A few notable acquisitions were made this session. Couscous's fairy sword is chaotic aligned, meaning anything Lawful that touches it suffers d6 damage. It has +2 to hit and damage.

Squire Glad and Ddane have both handled Sir Chyde's longsword, which is also of fairy construct, with +2 to hit and damage... whether or not it has any other characteristics will remain to be seen...

Also, a bog-oak pipe was fished from Crump's looted backpack, and a few rounds of Shaggy Pony shared by all in an attempt to come up with some clues to the nature of the construct hounds... The smoking-intelligence check failed, unfortunately. But everyone greatly enjoyed the sweet, baked tomato and horsey flavor of the pipeweed. In the smoke, by candle-light, they saw the faces of old bog spirits form and dissipate.