Beyond the Wall Solo - Bay of Spirits session 3

 

Prolegomenon

When the air turns to ice the return of the hollow ones illuminates the way and sow great misfortune.

The Abbess of the forgotten monastery in the far mountains has sent word to Winterton of an old and great enemy bringing danger to the Bay and she seeks the help of the people of Winterton and the return of the Bones of St Agnus to help defeat this ancient threat.
But the bones of St Agnus have been almost lost from Winterton, only Grandmother Weaver has any remembrance of where they are.  Five young friends, all hero's in the eyes of Winterton have been charged with finding the casket holding the saints bones and bringing it back to Winterton.

It is time for their adventure to begin.

Dry Gulch, Bay of Spirits.  Map by Roan Studios

Tools used in the session and other stuff.

For this game session we will be using the following Toolkit

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures RPG
Further Afield supplement.
Bay of Spirits 12pk of adventure maps (link here)
Various other Bay of Spirits pdfs for background.
Adventure Haven : Taven Tales. For the Crying Wolf Inn (link here)
My adapted Mune/Zathrum Oracle 

randomlists.com to generate verbs if I need a prompt to work out what happens next.

Location -  Road from Winterton to Dry Gulch , The Crying Wolf Inn at Dry Gulch, Lower bay region, Bay of Spirits

Date - 23rd December 1512CY, two day's after the Winter Solstice.

PCs (click on name to open page with full character stats)

NPC in this session.  Balinus the Elven owner of the Crying Wolf.  

Culdus the young acolyte, Hugo d'Winterton the would be knight, Karina Lankrit the local performer, Rhian the young woodswoman, Strawberri Cottoncloud the fae foundling.

The Hollow Ones. Undead resurrected by powerful otherworld magic.  they look very much like they did in life but spells and magic which can detect the undead will reveal them as such.  
Hollow ones have no soul but can remember their past lives, they can speak and will talk to someone they where close to, like knowing the true name of a creature, if you know the living name of a hollow one you can attempt to command it to do something against its will.
Hit Dice 3d8 (14hp)
AC 16
Attack +3 to hit,  1d6+2 claw attack or as per weapon carried (50% chance of using a weapon, 1-2 Longsword 1d8 +1 hits, 3-4 Battle Axe 1d8+1 hits, 5 Great Sword 1d10+1 hits, 6 Great Axe 1d10+1 hits)
Alignment.  Chaotic
XP 100

Hollow ones do not age, 
Unsettling Presence,  A Hollow One can unsettle a creature it can see within 15 feet of it. The target has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes within the 10 minute. Constructs, undead, and creatures that can't be frightened are immune to this feature. Can only be used once per day.

Dead & Mindless.  Hollow Ones are immune to sleep or charm spells.

Scene 3,  23rd December,   9:54am

Theme :  combat. 

(I decide that as the PC's are all local to Winterton and are Bayfolk they will be well equipped for the inhospitable winter weather, gloves, cloaks, boots etc.  They also will take a pack pony as it is thought they will need it to bring the casket of bones back,  the pony will carry some supplies for them all and the pony itself for the journey).

Grandmother Weaver arrives at the watch house as the party of adventures prepare to leave,  she hands Rhian a rough map showing the location of the Barrow, it is an old hand drawn map and she is not sure of its accuracy.

The map indicates that the barrow mound is to the east, over the hills towards the lower bay, but in the depths of winter and with the heavy snow falls and dangerously low temperatures, crossing over the hills would be foolish, dangerous and at best take far to long.  The party decide to take the longer but safer route along well worn trade route from the village of Winterton to the small coastal village of Rossgull Harbour, from their they can take the shorter route overland to where the barrow mound should be.

Even so, the journey will be difficult and not without danger, at best it will take several days to get to where the barrow is supposed to be, much longer than hoped.  Hugo suggests they ride horses at least to Rossgull Harbour but it is agreed that in the icy, snowy conditions, horses would be of little value and may well slow them down, so on foot it will be.

It is late morning, around 11am when the 5 friends and a pack horse, set off on their adventure.  Dry Gulch is about 6 miles away, the roads out of Winterton are very bad to travel on although Karina knows from her recent travels that the pathways get easier to travel on the further east you go. They expect to make the Crying Wolf inn by mid afternoon and intend to stay there overnight before heading east to Rossgull Harbour, a further good two days walk.

Question. Does anything happen on the way to Dry Gulch?  roll d6 on oracle table 1 = 5, Roll on d20 table, d20 = 9, No (while)

The party make reasonable time, Hugo and Rhian take the lead, Culdus leads the pony and Strawberri and Karina follow behind.  Whilst it remained daylight the pathway, although very much covered in a layer of snow, remained fairly easy to walk along.  The sky was dark but it remained dry and they make good time to Dry Gulch, the only thing they noticed odd about the journey was the ominous silence.  They arrive at the little hamlet in the early afternoon, each one of them hungry and thirsty having decided not to eat any of their rations.

Scene 4, The Crying Wolf Inn at Dry Gulch. 4:05 in the afternoon

Name: The Crying Wolf

Owner : Balinus (Elf)

Staff: 1 barkeep, 2 barmaids, 1 cook, 1 housekeeper.

Number of floors: 2

Seating: 2 round tables, 3 chairs each. 4 rectangular tables with 4 chairs each, 5 stools at the bar

Private rooms : none

Sleeping rooms: 6

Drink: spruce ale 7 cp, black stout 1 sp, hard liquor (rum or Whisky) 1 sp, Crying wolf Grog 7cp

Food: limited to one or two choices, usually seasonal game and fowl.

Price Range: meals 6 to 8 cp, rooms 1 sp per evening

Hours : early afternoon until late evening

Question, is everything as it should be in the little hamlet of /Dry Gulch?  Roll d6 = 6 so Yes (+1 intervention point, now at 1 intervention point)

Its almost dark when the party arrive at Dry Gulch, the hamlet is quiet and peaceful, soft yellow light from the lamps lighting the Crying Wolf inn can be seen and wood smoke can be seen rising from the chimney which indicates it must be open.

Karina, Strawberri and Rhoan enter the inn and find Balinus behind the bar and, at a round table near the fire are three rough looking men with two large hounds by their feet.

Balinus recognises Karina straight away and welcomes the young bard, “Miss Lankrit! What brings you this far from Winterton in such evil weather, and with your companions too, I hope you have brought your lute, we would welcome some fine music and song this night”.

Karina apologises, she explains that they are on a quest and she has not brought her lute but, if they can have food and lodgings for the evening they have fine voice and happy to sing to keep everyone entertained.

Balinus, upon finding out about their two companions and pack pony suggests that the pony may be housed in the stables of the big house opposite the Crying Wolf, he motions towards the three men by the fire, saying they to are staying the night, they are local hunters, perhaps Rhian knows them, they have been kind enough to supply meat for the evening meal, all the good folk of the hamlet will be over soon to share in the feast, a simple meat and veg stew plus other cuts of meat which the cook and staff are currently preparing. There are three rooms available for the night, which they can gladly take.

Soon, the locals begin to drift in to the crying wolf, the food is served and Karina and Rhian lead the singing accompanied by one of the hunters playing a flute of some kind. The locals are keen to hear about the partys quest but although Hugo is being his usual boastful self even he stops short of telling the full details of their quest. By 9pm things quieten down and most of the locals drift away, Culdus suggests that he stay with the pony and their belongings in the stable even though he is assured there is no need.

Question, does anything happen in the inn over night? Roll on oracle 1d6 = 2 (roll on d20 table) Roll d20 =1 No (on the contrary).

Before long the inn is deserted except for Balinus, the three hunters and the party minus Culdus. Exhausted, the party take to their room.

Question, does anything happen to Culdus overnight? Roll on oracle 1d6 = 4 (roll on d20 table) Roll d20 =12 Yes (While).
I get three random verbs to help find ut what happens to Culdus.  "Boast", "End", "Hunt"

While Culdus is sorting out the pony and his own sleeping area he hears wispy unearthly voices outside, looking through the crack in the stable door, he sees two figures standing not far from him, he reals back in horror as he recognises them for Revenants, pulling himself together he listens to what they are saying to each other, the seem to be boasting that their hunt has finally come to an end.

 Question, the Revenants spot Culdus?  Roll d6 = 5 (roll on d 20 table) Roll d20 = 17 Yes (as long as).

Suddenly they turn towards the stable and shuffle towards the door, Culdus, grabs his staff and moves as far away from the doors as possible, it seems as long as he keeps to the dark the Revenants cannot see him.

Question, the Revenants try to enter the stable?  Roll d6 = 1 (No).

As quickly as they came, the Revenants move on, Culdus waits for a good few minutes before he quietly opens the doors and looks around the village.

Question, is there any signs of the two undead?  Roll d6 = 2 (roll on d 20 table) Roll d20 = 10 No (apparently).

Culdous very cautiously searches the village for signs of the Revenants but apparently they have gone, finding no trace of them he decides he must have have a beer to many and probably saw something that wasn't there.  He goes back to the stables and gets a fitful nights sleep.

Question, is there any signs in the morning of the Revenants being there?  Roll d6 = 6 Yes (+1 intervention point, now 2 intervention points)

Question, did the Revenants take revenge on someone?  Roll d6 = 6 Yes (+1 intervention point, now 3 intervention points)

Intervention type, roll d6 = 4, advance plot.

In the morning Culdus is up early, there is a commotion comming from the Crying Wolf Inn, Culdous runs over and is met outside by Strawberri, "Its bad Culdus, Balinus found the bodies this morning, two of the hunters, the third barely alive, he managed to say that they were attacked by undead and they took the bones, a casket they had was open and its contents gone, The casket was found in a barrow they raided, I think it has to be the one we were to look for"
Culdus asks if the hunter is still alive but Berri says he died too.

I have Culdus make an intelligence test, he needs 11 or less on d20 and rolls 7.

"Then I think the undead I saw were not undead" Culdus says, "they were barrow wardens, cultists of Ka, they hunted down the thieves who stole the bones from the barrow mound, they have the item we seek and will return St Agnus to the barrow she was taken from, we need to leave now and quickly, maybe we can find the barrow wardens and persuade them to help us".
Culdus tells Balinus and the others what he saw and what he believes happened, Balinus says he will send someone to Winterton and tell Elzbeth what has happened.  

Rhian has tended to the two hounds that belonged to the hunters, they seem to take a liking to her and as no one in the village will want them she suggests that the dogs come with them, maybe they can help find the barrow mound or the cultists, although it is two extra animals to feed, she gets her way and the party now has two large hounds as well as a pony.

Balinus wishes the party best speed and the five plus three animals set off east.

I will find out what happens to them in my next session, until then

Adventure On!