Session 9

October 25th

As the party continues to ascend the mountains, a familiar form turns the corner:

An old man, in a cart, pulled by a donkey.

The group bristles at the sight of the stranger suddenly appearing again and slow to a stop in the path. He greets them casually, and doesn’t seem alarmed by their presence, and answers V’s questions about any possible dangers ahead with non-specific answers. When pressed, he reminds them it’s almost a full moon and lycanthropes will appear soon. “When you get into town, things will fall into place,” he concludes.

Ophelia broaches the elephant in the room and asks what he’s talking about, considering what happened at Respite. He claims to have no clue, but there’s something beneath the surface he isn’t revealing. Feli grows irritated and demands what his damage is, but the old man doesn’t give an inch.

In the midst of this, V pets his donkey.

and Eden try to pry a few more answers out of him, but the old man brushes them off once again. Assuring he used a path around the foothills and knows of no danger. V, while this happens, looks into the donkey’s eyes to try and discern if it’s normal.

For half a second, the donkey’s eyes are blue with a vertical pupil, and staring directly at V. Feli notices this.

The old man makes to leave, but Ophelia demands to know what is going on with his donkey. He seems earnestly unaware what she’s talking about and the donkey is disturbed from being grabbed suddenly by V. At Della’s insistence, V lets the donkey go, but continues addressing the donkey for answers.

The donkey tries to bite V, unsuccessfully.

Finally the confrontation ends and the man moves past them down the trail. As he goes they notice a raven land on his shoulder, nearly completely white with red tail feathers, a Raven of Ill Omen. The knowledge settles over the party that this raven is an ill omen. Before out of earshot, the raven warns, “Watch your step, do nothing you’ll regret!” and mimics the sound of chains and snipping scissors. “If you’re bad she’ll put you in her bag!”

Distantly, they hear the old man talk to the raven and say, “Yeah, not your best.”

They discuss what happened, and upon hearing the description of the donkey’s eyes, Eden feels a sense of recognition but is unable to place it. The somewhat reluctant consensus is that while the old man clearly isn’t their ally, they will avoid starting a fight with him if they can help it.

While at the inn, Ophelia pulls Eden aside to bring up her concerns about the upcoming full moon and Della’s vague plan to go off into the woods. Eden is surprised her immediate concern isn’t Della being a werewolf, which she acknowledges is possible, but there’s no proof currently. He proposes asking Della outright if this is the case and Ophelia agrees to it, but suggests Eden is the one to discuss it with them. They both also acknowledge that there is a ritual known as the Lunar Sacrament, where druids willingly take on a werewolf curse for whatever motivation.

that night, Eden follows through and speaks with Della in their room. He’s surprisingly straightforward about finally asking if they’re a werewolf. Della becomes incredibly uncomfortable. They tell him they don’t want to talk about that. Eden takes that as an answer and leaves.

October 26th

Overnight, Della struggles with jaw and teeth aches. They find in the morning their teeth are larger and sit differently in their mouth. They look exhausted, but trudge on.

As they walk down the path, they hear movement. From behind a pile of rocks a small, strange, clown looking creature appears and approaches them. Then, it speaks. “Hello! Do you want to play? Hello?”

Battle begins from there, with more of the unnerving dolls appearing out of thin air. It’s a quick fight, V tosses one of the dolls onto the ground until it breaks.

At the inn that night Ophelia talks to Eden about his talk with Della, and he says he believes now that Della is likely a werewolf or something equivalent. As such, he thinks they shouldn’t follow them out into the woods due to the danger they pose. Feli doesn’t quite agree, but she’s unsure how to feel about the situation.

That night, Della dreams of being chased. Every time they look over their shoulder it’s the same face; snarling, painted with blood. No matter how fast they run or where they hide they’re never able to out pace them. Before waking, Della hears the entity call them a coward.

Oct. 27th Oct. 28th

Ophelia is particularly suspicious of Della as the morning carries on, finding their insisting on wearing a scarf pulled up to their face extra weird.

Towards the end of the day Ophelia says she wants to travel through the night to reach Stenhwald, but Della sheepishly declines, wanting to go to an inn. This reignites Ophelia to pester Della with questions about what they’re going to do during the full moon. They continue dodging that question, Feli growing more and more frustrated with them. Finally Eden chimes in and tries to bring the argument to an end, seeing as no headway is being made between the two of them.

They end up deciding to come to the inn, and that night V approaches Della to give them a carved sleeping cat.

The next morning, Della leaves with a few well wishes from the party. Ophelia is still unhappy to let them go alone, but relents and continues with the party to Stenhwald.

city itself is very closely packed together and clearly built with dwarves in mind. It was founded by, and primarily inhabited by dwarves and gnomes. Atop the highest plateau is a quartz temple. As the party enters, they see people with blueish/gray skin and ridges down the sides of the face and pointed ears. V somehow recognizes them as a species known as dreamers who had entered a stasis deep beneath the mountains, and have recently been awoken by dwarf expansion. They are known to have strong psychic ability, and still seem unsure of their place in the world.

Notice board:

• Reward for information regarding the disappearance of three children: Alexi Applefroth, Cinder Applefroth, Janysa Stubbornfoot
• Poetry Slam at the Golden Tankard 10/29 (grand prize 15 gold)
• Wrestling Competition in the Eastern Square 10/31 (grand prize 50g)
• Various wanted posters, several list "association with the beast" as crime committed. One particular poster copied throughout all of town names Artem Drago as Public Enemy #1. A reward of 500 gold for his head is named.
• Wanted: Exterminator. Discretion required.

V makes a joke about Feli applying for the exterminator job because she likes to pry, taking her by surprise.