{"id":507,"date":"2019-07-31T18:11:32","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T18:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/?p=507"},"modified":"2020-03-01T10:06:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T10:06:33","slug":"fairmeadow-fair-session-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/31\/fairmeadow-fair-session-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairmeadow Fair, Session 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2190 Session 15<\/a> | Campaign Summary<\/a> | Session 17 \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Last time<\/a>, our heroes ran into old adversaries and once again ruined their plans. These folks are prepared for everything except our heroes, it seems.\u00a0 Now they’re in jail.<\/p>\n

The morning after the excitement at the docks, Friday the 15th, our heroes prepare to travel to the lost city of Saarland.\u00a0 Gleador the Druid shape-shifts into a Hippogriff, and Lucia the Paladin hops on his back.\u00a0 They fly northeast, across the river. They see the estate and mill of Lady Evelynn behind them and the beet fields giving way to forests in front of them.\u00a0 On the horizon, the forests rise into hills.<\/p>\n

As they fly over the canopy of the forest, a flock of flying creatures swarm about them.\u00a0 The creatures are energetic and curious, and seem to have adopted our heroes as playmates.\u00a0 The creatures are HummingDragons. They have lizard-like faces, elongated bodies (about 4 feet, including the tails) and wings that flap too fast for the naked eye to follow, like hummingbird wings.\u00a0 Gleador lands to get a better look at these strange creatures.\u00a0 He has to circle a bit to find an opening in the canopy that admits a horse-sized creature.\u00a0 The HummingDragons follow, but land on branches, not the ground.\u00a0 Their claws are made for grasping and can’t open up flat to walk on the ground.\u00a0 Gleador studies them and finds cocoons nearby. The HummingDragons metamorphose. Their larval form is about the size and shape of a baseball, and rolls up and down tree trunks with the help of long, spindly legs.\u00a0 The larval form has a sharp proboscis to pierce tree bark and extract sap for food.\u00a0 Gleador can speak to the HummingDragons because, as an Elf, creatures of the Great Forest are known to him.\u00a0 He asks if there’s anything cool nearby. The HummingDragons all rush off in the same direction.\u00a0 Gleador has to run on the forest floor to follow, because there’s not enough room for his 18-foot wingspan below the canopy.\u00a0 The HummingDragons zoom over a large patch of brambles, heedless of the danger to those who can’t fly.\u00a0 Gleador leaps and clears the brambles, but a low-hanging branch smacks Lucia off of his back. She tries to hold on to the branch, but slips and falls into the bramble patch.\u00a0 The thorns do nothing to her plate armor, but the fall hurts a bit. The HummingDragons continue to rush off, leaving our heroes behind.\u00a0 To delay them Gleador suggests playing hide and seek. A few dart off in different directions, but most aren’t interested and zoom away.\u00a0 Gleador retrieves Lucia and they try to follow the way the HummingDragons went, but they lose the trail.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Lucia’s quest gives her an unfailing sense of direction towards Saarland. Without that, they’d be lost.\u00a0 Gleador rises through the canopy and they fly for the rest of the day without incident.\u00a0 At sundown, they set up camp in the forest.\u00a0 Lucia casts Sanctuary, so she will know if anyone enters the area with hostile intent.\u00a0 Gleador keeps his Hippogriff form and lies still, using his Camouflage skill to look like a big rock.<\/p>\n

Sometime in the night, a figure approaches: a Halfling woman wearing a black cloak. She has a big traveler’s pack on her back, and several large empty sacks, secured to the main pack by their drawstrings.\u00a0 She also has an axe across\u00a0 her shoulders.\u00a0 She sneaks up to the campsite, using a large rock (actually Gleador) to keep out of the firelight.\u00a0 Gleador shifts his eyes over to Lucia, who is not reacting like Sanctuary has gone off.\u00a0 This reassures him, so he shifts his eyes back to watch the newcomer.\u00a0 She comes right up to him and peers over him at Lucia.\u00a0 Gleador reveals himself by tapping her on the shoulder with his tail.\u00a0 She squeals and stumbles back.\u00a0 One hand goes to her axe, the other to a large amulet around her neck.\u00a0 Lucia jumps up at the noise and quickly prays to see what her is evil.\u00a0 She detects the Halfling woman as evil, but, since her quest gives her the power to see through all illusions, she also knows that the evil she detects is fake. This woman can someone pretend to be evil.\u00a0 Lucia calms the situation and invites the Halfling to share the fire.\u00a0 The Halfling agrees and swings wide around Gleador to approach the fire.\u00a0 Her name is Rose, and she’s relieved that Lucia is a real person.\u00a0 Halfling food is best fresh.\u00a0 Meat pies and pastries don’t keep on the road.\u00a0 Rose has some carrots and biscuits which she offers to share.\u00a0 Lucia asks what brings her to this desolate place.\u00a0 Rose explains that she harvests rare lumber in the forest.\u00a0 The axe is for chopping wood, and the empty sacks are for carrying wood.\u00a0 Lucia knows this is all lies.\u00a0 Lucia says she’s going to Saarland.\u00a0 Rose tries ineffectively to stifle a reaction.\u00a0 Gleador can’t talk in Hippogriff form, so he tries Mister Ed shenanigans to prompt Lucia to ask questions on his behalf.\u00a0 He fetches a nearby stick and offers it to Rose.\u00a0 She puts it on the ground, neatly chops it with her axe, and puts the pieces in one of her sacks. Ok, so she knows how to use it as a tool and not just a weapon.\u00a0 Lucia continues to press her with questions about her work, and Saarland, and Rose gets really uncomfortable.\u00a0 She jams the last few bites of her supper into her mouth and starts to leave. Thanks, I must be going, see you around, and so on.\u00a0 Lucia cast Hold Person, paralyzing Rose as she tries to flee.\u00a0 Rose agrees to come clean if Lucia will please release her.\u00a0 Lucia agrees.\u00a0 Rose admits that she goes to Saarland to smuggle out whatever artifacts she can find.\u00a0 Le Grind (owner of one of the three mills back in Sugar’s Crossing) pays big money for such artifacts.\u00a0 She warns Lucia not to go to Saarland, because there are ghosts. She disappears into the forest.\u00a0 Lucia wonders how Rose protected herself from ghosts, but it’s too late to ask.\u00a0 The rest of the night is uneventful.<\/p>\n

In the morning (Saturday the 16th), Lucia directs Gleador where to fly, and in the afternoon they reach the ruins of Saarland.\u00a0 Saarland’s walls were living trees, 150 feet tall. The ring of closely-packed trees around the hole in the canopy is easy to spot.\u00a0 Gleador circles the ruins to see what’s happening.\u00a0 One side of the city, including the wall, is burned. The other side is overgrown with plants, bushes, young trees. Most buildings are either burned or overgrown. Few are intact.\u00a0 As our heroes watch from above, a few trees move to the burned side of the cities. These living trees are Ents!\u00a0 Three of them surround a small building with a collapsed roof and start to tear it down.\u00a0 Spirits fly out of the building and swirl around the Ents, driving them away.\u00a0 Ents are trying to demolish the ruins to let nature take over, but there are spirits resisting them.\u00a0 Gleador also notices a squat, powerful-looking building whose gate has been smashed in.\u00a0 Soren said<\/a> that raiders struck important targets while the populace rushed to deal with the fire.\u00a0 This must be one of those important buildings. As Gleador flies near the Ents, they shout, “Begone, grave-robbers!”\u00a0 Gleador lands within shouting distance, but out of reach and turns back into an Elf.\u00a0 Perhaps showing that he is a Druid will convince them of his good intentions. He also whispers to Lucia that they should keep the Saarland coin out of sight.\u00a0 Our heroes call out to the Ents, “We promise we’re not grave-robbers!” “Why did those spirits attack you?” The Ents are not convinced and rip large stones out of the ground and nearby buildings to hurl at our heroes.\u00a0 Lucia dodges, and Gleador turns into an Air Elemental and lets the boulder pass harmlessly through him. They run from the Ents. Knowing no other landmarks, they head for the secure building Gleador spotted from the air.\u00a0 The streets are full of tall grass and bushes from years of growth, but even so, our heroes easily outpace the slow Ents.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A plan view of the Saarland Mint: forge in the center, storerooms on the side, surrounded by a fence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The building is two storeys tall, mostly stone, and surrounded by a high metal fence.\u00a0 The fence was probably decorated in the past, but now all but the main posts have been stripped by looters.\u00a0 The gates were smashed inwards off their hinges.\u00a0 A sign over the door (carved, not a plaque, so it can’t be removed) indicates that this building was a forge and a storehouse.\u00a0 The front doors are gone, and the sunlight illuminates a small patch of floor inside.\u00a0 There’s a corpse just inside the threshold.\u00a0 Lucia advances to cast Speak with Dead on the corpse. The edges of the shadows around the doorframe stretch and pull towards her, turning into ghastly Spectres, undead spirits who refuse to move on! Gleador unleashes a wide blast of freezing breath, which passes harmlessly through the incorporeal creatures.\u00a0 He shape-shifts into a Fire Elemental to light up the interior.\u00a0 As he bursts into flames, the Spectres shrink back, seeking the shadow.\u00a0 “The Destroyer!” they hiss.\u00a0 The raiders who sacked Saarland and probably killed these Spectres’ mortal bodies used mainly fire. The Spectres remember!\u00a0 Gleador has secured some space, so Lucia can examine the body.\u00a0 It’s fresher than ten years old, so it probably did not fall in the attack on Saarland. Maybe it was a looter and was killed by these Spectres. It carries a number of empty sacks, similar to Rose, and wears a charm around its neck made of leaves and metal.\u00a0 Lucia grabs the charm. This chamber appears to be a foyer. There’s a reception desk in the center, and benches along the sides.\u00a0 Everything that isn’t nailed down is long gone.<\/p>\n

Our heroes advance into the main chamber.\u00a0 The center of the room is a huge forge with many openings, surrounded by workbenches. The large chimney goes up to the roof. The second floor is a balcony that overlooks the forge on all sides. There are stair cases at each corner, and smaller doors to side chambers on each side.\u00a0 Most things that could be carried off or pried out have been ,but there are a few dead bodies and some scorch marks scattered around the floor.\u00a0 Gleador advances to secure space, pushing Spectres back into the darkness in the corners of the room.\u00a0 Lucia casts Speak With Dead on an old-looking corpse.\u00a0 She gets three questions.\u00a0 When she asks, the responses come not from the skeletal face of the corpse, but from above.\u00a0 A Spectre peers over the edge of the balcony and speaks for his dead body.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How did you die?\u00a0 Defending the forge for invaders<\/li>\n
  2. Why did they invade? To steal our treasures<\/li>\n
  3. Why are you still a Spectre?\u00a0 Devotion to my craft exceeds devotion to any god<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Gleador and Lucia walk the perimeter of the room. As they approach a staircase, a metal canister, maybe a gallon or two, drops from the top of the stairs. Gleador flies straight up to avoid it and is suddenly face to face with a Spectre with several more canisters nearby.\u00a0 The canister hits Lucia on the head. Her helmet absorbs the impact, but the canister bursts. She’s covered in soft expanding foam. Definitely not a horrible glue trap<\/a> like in the Dwarven science building.\u00a0 It doesn’t burn, melt, or freeze her. It has a vaguely chemical smell, but there no immediate harmful effects.\u00a0 Gleador roars with flame to drive the Spectre back, and it hurls another canister.\u00a0 Lucia dashes up the stairs to catch it.\u00a0 The canister springs a leak and a stream of foam slashes across Gleador, extinguishes the flames that it touches.\u00a0 Lucia realizes that the Spectres have repurposed flame retardant foam that was used in the forge as a weapon against Gleador. The standoff is re-established.\u00a0 Gleador’s light and heat keeps the Spectres back, so he and Lucia can creep around the balcony and investigate. There’s a lot more stuff up here. It’s much harder for looters to reach.\u00a0 Lucia grabs a fine wooden box containing delicate metalworking tools. Quite valuable for the right smith.\u00a0 In the shadows on the other side of the circular balcony, Spectres manipulate the environment to set traps. At the far side of the balcony, above the foyer where they entered, our heroes notice a wall-mounted cabinet with curved marks on the floor in front of it. Apparently this cabinet swings out from the wall, like a secret door.\u00a0 There’s a big sheet of metal leaning against the cabinet.\u00a0 Our heroes approach, and Gleador reaches glowing arm around the metal sheet to light up the shadow behind. His arm meets the ghostly arm of Spectre, using the shadow as cover to get close enough to strike!\u00a0 The two non-solid arms pass through each other, causing damage to each creature.\u00a0 Gleador blasts a super-heated jet of flame into the metal sheet, heating its center to glowing before bursting through and burning the Spectre behind it. The Spectre howls and flees back into the shadows.\u00a0 With that trap dealt with, Lucia pulls the cabinet out from the wall, triggering a mechanical trap placed by the original owners.\u00a0 Pneumatic pistons fire tiny darts!\u00a0 Lucia uses her shield to smash the mechanism, but a dart finds a gap in her armor and her limbs get heavy. The poisoned darts have paralyzed her! Gleador has a dilemma. As fire, he can’t grab or move Lucia without injuring her, but without fire, the Spectres with overwhelm them. Fortunately, his Chimera ability gives him amazing flexibility. He combines a Salamander for fire breath, and a boyd made of flame, with a monkey tail that is not on fire. He uses the prehensile tail to shove Lucia into the secret compartment and stands guard at the door.<\/p>\n

    GM note:<\/strong> This is where we had to stop for the evening. Quite a cliff-hanger!<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u2190 Session 15<\/a> | Campaign Summary<\/a> | Session 17 \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u2190 Session 15 | Campaign Summary | Session 17 \u2192 Last time, our heroes ran into old adversaries and once again ruined their plans. These folks are prepared for everything except our heroes, it seems.\u00a0 Now they’re in jail. The morning after the excitement at the docks, Friday the 15th, our heroes prepare to travel … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Fairmeadow Fair, Session 16”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-diary","category-fairmeadow-fair","category-rpg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cliffnordman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}