Thursday, February 8, 2018

Howling Vengeance

With no regard for personal safety the heroes, in hound form, were rampaging their way through the forest.  The dark skinned man blew his horn and directed the hounds while the red haired woman ran with the party.  The heroes were chasing a group of Goblyns and soon had them treed.

As the hounds moved to jump at the Goblyns in the tree, fungus plants splattered some with a glob of acid inflicting a small amount of damage.  Then the tree struck with slam attacks at any who came within 10 feet.  All the hounds moved away from the tree quickly but not before taking some extensive damage.  A howling bray from the hounds soon caused the arrival of the Hunt Leader, the red haired woman and several other hounds.  Suddenly a fireball engulfed the tree and the Goblyns.  The woman yelled Undead Treant, and urged the heroes to attack.  At this point the hound heroes reverted to their normal characters and pressed the attack.  The Goblyn bodies hung, burned to a crisp in the branches of the treant.  Seglun and Varrid attacked the fungus, Arvien let loose her own fireball against the tree.  Grunyar fired arrows at the undead tree, Baru attacked a phycomid and Drovic lost constitution to the poison of the acid glob.  Presently the tree trampled Baru and Drovic and it fell to the red haired woman's fire bolt.  The phycomids also succumbed to the heroes attacks and the baying of the hounds fell silent.
The red haired woman introduced herself and Shelaugh and spoke to Drovic in an unknown, to the others, language.  She asked if he worshiped Belenus or Daghdha.  Drovic responded in the negative.  He explained that she was a Druid.  Shelaugh wore a brown kilt and an off-white blouse, covered by a dark brown, hooded cloak.  On her feet were knee high boots of soft brown leather.  Her sporran was trimmed with gray rabbit fur.  She was carrying a oak staff.  All the party introduced themselves and tried to explain where they came from and how they ended up in Forlorn.  Shelaugh turned to Petar and inquired if he had found his power.  Petar answered that he had been surprised by the flaming sphere that had appeared as the image entered his head in the previous battle.  Shelaugh them asked if he wished to join her clan and learn more of his innate red headed powers.  Looking at Ursula, who gave him and OK, he agreed as long as his grandmother could join them also.  This was agreed and they gathered the wagon and prepared to leave with Shelaugh.
Meanwhile Shelaugh had urged the heroes to fight the evil in Castle Tristentoira, where the Goblyns held sway trying to destroy the Druids and their forests.  She gave the following historical information to the party.
  • In the Forfar year 1594 a holy grove that lay where the Castle now stood was temporarily profaned when a young woman of the ApBlanc clan was hung there by a mob from the village of Brinam.
  • "In the year 1609, a druid named Rual was murdered in the grove.  Her son tried to fend off the attackers, but he failed and was grievously wounded himself.  Thereafter, the grove became a place of evil and was abandoned.
  • A keep was built on the site in the year 1809 by a bard called "the minstrel ApBlanc."  He married and raised a family, bur one by one the members of the family died, due to a horrible curse.  Not even the young minstrel survived.
  • The keep was expanded into a full-fledged castle in the early 1900s by Marc ApBlanc, a descendant of the young minstrel.  This Marc was a determined young man who usurped the rule of the ApFittle family in a series of civil wars.  He triumphed over the ApFittles in the early 1930s and became the clan chief.
  • In 1934, the "Time of Terrors" changed the land forever.  As the land was violently reshaped by some evil magic, Marc, like the rest of Forfar's population, was transformed into a goblyn.
  • Goblyns rebuilt  the castle about one century ago.  They now make it a base for their operations.  They seem to be under the control of a ghostly lord.  The druids have no clear idea of why the lord is persecuting them, but believe that he wants evil to reign supreme in Forlorn, so he's removing any who might provide a force of good to balance it.
Shelaugh, Petar, Ursula and the rest of the druids head off.  The party spends an uneventful night and heads north toward Castle Tristentoira.  On the trail, still muddy from all the rain which continues, ahead lying on the damp ground, they saw the corpses of two humanoid creatures, Goblyns,  surrounded by broken weapons.  The creatures lay with their claws in each other's throats -- it looked as if they were fighting one another.  One more monster is nearby, and sill on its feet.  It cavorts like a madman, dancing and cackling.  Picking up a rock, it begins to pound its own head until blood flows freely across its mangy scalp.  Suddenly, the creature spotted the party.  It dropped the rock and beckoned the group closer with a snarl. 
Grunyar fired and arrow and the creature's head lolled to the side as its life came to an end.  Its wide, fanged mouth opened limply and a whitish gas billowed out.  The smoke hung in the air for a moment and them moves quickly onto Drovic and funneled into his nostrils and ears!.  Out it came and did the same with Grunyar, and Varrid.  Then it moved to Arvien and did not reappear.

DMs Notes:  I will figure the XP for the night later.

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