Session 4: The Witch in the Wood #4 Report

General Summary

Our worthies -- Bahlsen, Banzi, Cedric, Tyrone, and Grumble -- enjoy some rabbit pie while visiting with Granny Merry, a hedge witch who lives out in the Burnfaire Bogwood west of Hitchcock. They discover that she has been holed up in her home, terrified of a thing that batters at her house at night, what she calls a "shape-shifting river troll".   As Granny Merry's story unfolds, a pounding comes at the door. One of the orks, companion to the one Tyrone found floated dead and dismembered (possibly not in that order) in the waters of the bog, has come seeking succor at the house of Granny Merry. He pleads to be let in, but the heroes don't trust him, and eventually he flees back into the woods.   Our worthies, after a few last bites of pie and following up on some questions they had, agree to help Granny Merry with her monster problem, in exchange for 5 silver coins (total). Then they set out after the ork, hoping that he will lead them to the missing child, Claude (aka Sorry).   Tyrone tracks the ork into the bogwood, and is, fortunately, alert enough to spot that devil when he attempts to ambush our fearless-ish protagonists!   An epic battle with this strangely stalwart ork ensues. Nothing, it seems, can overcome the ork's damage threshold, earning him the name 'Ironsides'. Worse, during the fight, Grumble's mortuary sword is lost in the swamp. She switches quickly to the Zweihander, and though it seems that Old Ork Ironsides will never fall or flee, the Zweihander eventually proves too much for even this, toughest of Low Orks, to endure, and he is split in half, spraying Grumble with his lifeblood.   An examination of the body afterwards turns up three javelins, a war chopper (which Grumble takes when NO ONE can find the mortuary sword beneath the shallow water and muck of the bog), 7 pieces of silver, and the knowledge that the GM was looking at the wrong number when determining the ork's damage threshold. Boo yah!   Tired, wet, and cold, our adventurers continue tracking the last of the orks, but when they find him, it isn't how they expected: he is impaled on a broken-off branch 15 feet up, entrails spilling out of him like vines. And around the tree? The marks that something huge, monstrous, and not a river troll had done this bloody deed.   Tireder, wetter, and colder, the party tracks the beast back toward the river, and Granny Merry's cabin. There, they see in the dusk-light a horrible sight: the very creature they have been tracking -- twelve feet tall, made of limbs and vines and moss, as if the bog itself had ripped part of itself out of the mire to lay siege against the trappings of civilization.   The bog beast flails at Granny Merry's house, but cannot penetrate her wards.   And so it turns its attention to the heroes ...

Rewards Granted

200 RP to Bahlsen, Banzi, Cedric, Tyrone, and Grumble; 3 silver to Grumble for the loss of her sword, and 1 silver each to everyone else, taken from the first ork's body; plus 3 javelins (2 for Bahlsen and 1 for Tyrone) and 1 war chopper (for Grumble)

Missions/Quests Completed

Defeat the Monster Terrifying Granny Merry: Ongoing; Find Out What Happened to Claude ("Sorry"): Ongoing