Session 02 Report
Session 02: 01.01, 2024
General Summary
20th of Deepwinter / Hammer moon 1489 , Year of the Warrior Princess
The moon is slowly waxing crescent
The party wakes up after a well-slept night at Geldenstag’s Rest. Viridian has booked her own room, while Annie and Primrose share their lodgings. The beds are comfortable enough, and only a small draft in Prim and Annie’s room lets in cold air throughout the night, but it’s nothing a blanket can’t fight against. In the stables, Vilu sleeps in the haystack they’ve dubbed as their bed for the past week or so already, so it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Mostly through the night, the most they can hear is the sound of horses shifting their weight from time to time, perhaps a soft noise here or there. Everything feels calm and peaceful. The morning is rather grey, but it has stopped snowing for now. Knowing Ten-Towns, it’s likely not very long-lasting, however. As everyone heads to the dining hall, they notice the place quite vacant - Dannika must still be sleeping, and the workmen of yesterday have likely started their day already. In the corner by the fire, there sits an older dwarf that was there yesterday as well, with them a massive battleaxe that looks as big as they are. They smoke their pipe in peace, and the party decides to not bother them, instead getting breakfast from Myrtle before setting off towards Targos.
As the town of Bryn Shander is walled, all of its three gates are manned at all times. The northern gate is less grand than the one at the south-western entrance, as it does not lead down the Ten-Trail and thus have more commerce, but there’s still a decent amount of people coming and going. Mostly merchants it seems, nothing out of the ordinary. Primrose recalls Bryn Shander’s militia being fairly well organised, with over 200 people serving the guard, many of whom mostly serve as patrol guard. The uniform is a distinct dark blue, with an emblem of golden wheat and black antlers - Bryn Shander’s official insignia.
Without too much of a hussle, the party starts their trek towards Targos. Annie spells up a beautiful blue disc that floats slightly above ground and seems to follow her, carrying her items as well as other, heavier things from the others. On top of the pile sits Dannika’s lantern of tracking, currently inactive. The skies are grey but beginning to clear for now, as the wind picks up. Even starting out early in the day, there is no daylight to speak of - the best they can hope for is a slight dim, a thought of sunlight above horizon but it never comes. Before too long, starts begin to twinkle in the sky, and Viridian points out her favourites as they walk. Somewhere in the bushes next to them, a hare walks along with them for a time.
As they journey northwest to Targos, the trail begins to climb. It’s hard to tell, as the horizon stays the same evermore, and an endless snowscape hides the topography a little too well. Once they have found their way up to what seems to be the peak of a cliff spine, they notice tracks coming from Targos towards Bryn Shander… except the trails end at the cliffside, where clearly something has caused the heavy cart to topple over and down the cliff. It seems that the cart was pulled by a bear of some sort, and both have gone down the hill. Viridian also notices humanoid tracks in the snow, left with a heavy steel boot.
As an experienced wilderness traveler, Viridian carves out a safe way for the party to climb down the hill without toppling over themselves, and it does not take them too long to find themselves at the bottom of the cliffside, where they can see the remains of a crashed cart, and a whole lot of blood. A quick deduction lets them know that it’s likely from the bear, but curiously, they can’t seem to find its body despite there being no tracks that suggest it leaving the crash site. Annie casts detect magic to see if she can find anything magical within the crash, but avoids the bloodbath on the snow. Within the trashed cart she finds large wooden crates that seem to be either pried open or opened during the crash. In the crates are traces of necrotic magic, in the form of dark crystalline powder and a small piece of black, obsidian-like crystal that feels cold and vile to the touch. The pulse of magic is definitely coming from the object. Curiously, to Vilu it feels warm and almost welcoming in the palm of their hand. They remember seeing it before, and it might have ritualistic purposes. A closer inspection in the wreckage unveils a note written in dwarven glyph, a cryptic note Viridian knows how to read - it seems more like a threat, as the unsigned letter reads:
"Work or die. In the first case, you are useful. In the second, you are entertaining."
They pocket the letter and the offputting crystal, and decide to head back up, as there seems to be no survivors from the crash - however, a set of steel-booted prints is seen heading south from the crash, but the tracks vanish after a while. There seems to be no point in further examination.
Once they find their way back up and over the spine of the cliff, the party notices that clear skies shall not last for long today - a storm is brewing in the horizon, likely a blizzard. With the direction of the wind, it seems to be coming their way, and shall likely be upon them within hours. Technically, a route to Targos from Bryn Shander should only take a couple of hours, but with the scenic route, it has already taken slightly longer than that. The party decides the safest way is to weather the storm and set up camp while it’s still relatively easy to do so.
Viridian digs a hole for their firepit while others look for firewood, and before long they have a nice little fire going, with two tents set up - Annie and Primrose in the other, and Viridian and Vilu in the other. There is discussion about sleeping habits, and while Vilu sleeps like the dead, Annie is a bit of a tosser and turner - both Viridian and Primrose snore. As they chat and warm up, Viridian chats with Vilu’s pet mouse, Plotter. A sweet but greedy little mouse by nature, Plotter and Viridian’s budding friendship grows with every crumb of hardtack Vir shares with him. After some time, the wind picks up so much it gets harder to hear one another, and so they put out their fire and head to their tents. Once inside, all they can hear is the leather of the tents rustling against the wind… and after a time, what sounds like it might be an animal howling in the wind. Some of the voices sound awfully human, however. After some time, Viridian decides to tell the other tent that they should also get some shut-eye, as the storm is likely to be a long one - but as she steps out of the tent, she notices small, bird-like steps dancing about their camp, clearly curious in nature. In the other tent, Dannika’s lantern picks up traces of chwinga from time to time, glowing brighter before dimming once more. In the next tent over, Annie attempts to detect magic again, and her aura also picks up on the small creatures.
Inside the tent, Vilu decides to speak to them in primordial, a language that does not seem to have any clear grammar or vocalisation, and sounds inhumane to untrained ear. However, nothing happens. Perhaps the chwinga do not hear them, or do not understand.
Primrose and Annie decide to leave offerings to the chwinga that are clearly curious about the camp. Annie leaves a bag of glazed almonds, and Primrose leaves one golden coin, set aside so that the wind hopefully won’t take them. As they focus on their work, a howling noise stops them in their tracks, coming significantly closer than before. Briefly, Primrose considers howling back at the beast, before realising it’s likely a wolf or its relative, and thus it might be better to not provoke one. Slowly, they both get back to their tent, and drift off to fitful sleep. In the other tent, Vilu and Viridian try their best to do the same. Outside, the blizzard rages on.Notes
"Work or die. In the first case, you are useful. In the second, you are entertaining." - note found on the destroyed sled.
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