Session 4: September 12, 2023: The Hollows: Come for the Restless Dead, Stay for the Hauntings (6th Day of Springrise, 1165 AS)

Session 4: September 12, 2023 (6th Day of Springrise, 1165 AS)

Dramatis Personae:

• Echo, Wolfkin Hunter, played by Mike "That's Armore" P.
• Kelter Tealeaf, Halfling Rogue, played by Mike "Peter and the Wolf" Y.
• Vinny Boombatz, Dwarven Fighter, played by Eric "A Scholar and a Gentleman" M.

Quod Occurrit:

Downtime

The party decides to essentially loiter in The Hollows until the next night's full moon, taking advantage of time to rest before trying to find what they hope is an un-plundered tomb full of exciting goodies and Absolutely No Danger At All. 

In the morning, they pick up the armour that had been altered for Echo, who is now looking incredibly stylish and much less squishy. Kelter befriends the innkeeper Olm and helps him in the kitchen for the morning in order to learn something about cooking, a useful skill to have on the road. Kelter took to it quite naturally, despite having not been talented as a cook in the slightest, which is strange for a halfling in any fantasy setting. Echo wisely takes the time to talk with the gamekeeper Vike, who helps him improve his skill with the bow. Echo also purchases part of a deer, which Kelter cooks up as well.

Breaking into the Nepola's Tomb

Night falls, and the party heads out into the dark, almost forgetting to ring the bell to keep pesky undead at bay. Oh well. They make it to the hill without being detected by either the living or the dead, and investigate the hilltop. The moonlight shines directly through a hole carved into the central menhir, casting a circle of light onto a large stone, long overgrown with roots and vines. Whatever or whoever Nepola is, this must be the place! 

The stone is carved into the likeness of a gate, but appears to be essentially friction-fitted into a passage of some kind, as there was no mechanism to be found anywhere that could open it. Vinny was immediately put to work, as all dwarves know something about stone, right? Looking around, he discovered an old discarded crowbar, presumably left by someone attempting to gain entrance some years ago, but had to leave in a hurry. Hmm. That surely can't portend anything. Between the Vinny, the crowbar, and the encouragement and assistance (some of it useful) of his friends, the stone was rolled away and did not roll down the hill and crash into someone's house. Better luck next time.

Before we go any further, let it be known that Vinny is not the smoothest talker from a game mechanics perspective. When they roll away the stone, they can see inside a glowing green flame some metres down a tunnel. The dwarf decides to recon the place with Kelter tagging along and Echo keeping an eye out near the tunnel entrance. Kelter is quite stealthy, and Vinny is not. Vinny exits the tunnel into a round chamber with three stone sarcophagi standing up against the wall. There he can see a translucent woman kneeling and crying by the smallest sarcophagus. Being the gentle-dwarf that he is, Vinny approaches the apparition, who turns to him. One would think that Vinny had had quite enough of ghosts by now, but perhaps the apparition touched his stony dwarven heart in some way. He cautiously greeted the ghost, and offered her a handkerchief. Due to an unusually successful Manipulation roll by Vinny, the ghost merely reached out as if to take it, but it just fell to the floor of the tomb through her etherial fingers. This didn't appear to bother her in the slightest, as she wiped at her eyes as if she held it nonethless.

Vinny asked what she was doing here, and she replied that her name was Ursula, and that she was imprisoned here by Zygofer to watch over her husband Count Nepola and their child, who Zygofer buried alive here centuries ago. She asks Vinny to wreak vengeance on Zygofer for his cruel deeds, and Vinny agreed to do so, not wanting to anger the shade. Surely Zygofer must be long dead by now anyway. Perhaps they can find his tomb and bring back some memento to appease Neopla and let her find her final rest and perhaps gain some reward for doing so.

Feeling that while things were going incredibly well considering they were more or less pleasantly conversing with an undead countess in a newly opened tomb, Vinny decided to get while getting was good and bid farewell to the Countess. Neither Echo nor Kelter were inclined to risk the situation deteriorating either, so they left the tomb and resealed it. 

In the clear? Not so much.

No sooner had they done so, grey, dead hands grasped up at them from the ground below, trying to drag them under the earth. The party strained to get away with all their might and succeed, leaving the silent embrace of the dead behind on the hill. 

The Generous Dwarf

However, on the way down the hill, the temperature suddenly plummeted, and the party could hear a faint tune on the air that matched the chill of their breath. Coming out of the shadows towards them was a gruesome sight: a ghostly, slender, and hooded figure with a noose around its neck, playing a song of mourning for the dead upon a lute. The figure approached them, finished its song and held out a hand. Echo and Kelter gave the spectre a copper piece, which the figure accepted with a bow. Vinny had no small coins, only silver, which he regretfully parted with, handing the undead bard a silver coin, which was accepted with a low bow, and then continued past them into the night, its song hanging in the air like snowflakes buoyed by the wind.

Let's Blow this Pop Stand

The party then retreated to the Dead Man's Hand with the intent of going to get some rest. However, they run into an unexpected person there: Dalb the bard, who they met at Weatherstone. It tuned out he had decided to play in The Hollows for a couple of nights. Pleased to see that the party had survived, he regaled them with stories, in particular the legend of Amber's Peak, the abode of Zygofer's son, Zertorme where he delves into the lore of arcane fire. Perhaps our heroes will venture there someday? They also glean information about Count Nepola, Zygofer, and the terrifying Zytera, who is linked to Zygofer in some way. After spending some time with Dalb over a bottle of wine, the party heads off to bed. 

In the morning the party gets up with the intent to leaving The Hollows, its living and its dead far behind and never come back. The decide to just strike out due east to see what can be seen. Usually, Echo is an exceptional wayfinder, but in this instance, he leads them straight into a mass of quicksand, which threatened to pull them all under, never to be seen again. At least is wasn't undead hands coming out of the earth like the night before. The manage to scramble out, but no more progress can be made that day. 

Looks Like Meat is Back on the Menu, Boys!

Rather than sitting around doing nothing, Kelter decided to go hunting all by himself. Unfortunately, the hunter became the hunted: a wolf decided to make a snack out of the young halfling. The wolf soon found out that this halfling was most definitely Hard to Catch, with plenty of Willpower to spend on using that talent. Kelter dodged this way and that, first shooting at the wolf before it got too close, and then stabbing at it with his knife, while trying to disengage. Kelter's knife broke in the combat, but the wolf was damaged enough to decide that our hero wasn't quite the tasty morsel he appeared to be, and ran away. Kelter then readied his bow, and shot the wolf dead as it retreated.

Back at the camp some while later, Echo and Vinny turn to see a bedraggled and injured Kelter hauling a dead wolf back to camp, which he then turned into food and pelts. Echo and Kelter then decide to get some shut-eye, leaving Vinny to his own devices and keep watch

I Have the Eyes of a Hawk and the Ears of a... Fox?

One might think things couldn't get any weirder, but they do. As Vinny is doing his rounds, he hears some gruff, low singing coming from not far away. Investigating, he happens upon only a silent fox, who just looks at him with a curious gaze. After a few moments, the fox follows Vinny back to camp and falls asleep by the fire, curled up in a ball, tail over nose. Apparently Vinny cannot only charm ghosts, but wildlife as well!