Session 03 Report
General Summary
[session 03: 08.01.2024 ]
20th of Deepwinter / Hammer moon 1489, year of the warrior princess
the moon is still slowly waxing crescent
The party wakes up in the woods, it’s dark and wet and awful. None of them have slept well through the storm, it is a constant howl of the wind that seems to chill them to the bone even through their clothes. There’s pinecones or roots or stones that dig into their back as they toss and turn on their bedrolls, but they do manage to get some shut-eye in the end.
Viridian wakes up slightly earlier than the rest of the party, blinking her eyes against the darkness. Outside the storm has mellowed out, it is much quieter now - which is probably why you hear it, the heavy footfalls of a creature much bigger than you walking in your camp. You can’t tell what it is, but you do hear its four legs, its gait leisurely but most certainly seeking for something. Quietly, she alerts Vilu, who is just waking up next to her, and slowly tries to peek out of the tent to see what their visitor is. Plotter has slept well, far better than any of the others. Then again, he does have the most comfortable accommodations.
Turns out it is a wolf - its tongue lolling out of its mouth as it sniffs the remnants of your campfire, where you’ve eaten your rations before. It’s winter, so its coat is bristly and thick, but the animal looks slimmer than it should - clearly the times are tough even for the predators. She knows that wolves are pack animals, and thus, even if she can’t see any others, she suspects that others might be nearby. Brandishing her quarterstaff, Viridian draws power from the nature to connect with the wolf, and steps outside. She stands firm and tells the animal in its own snarling language to leave, for there is nothing for him to find here. However, the wolf is hungry and opportunistic, and attacks Viridian on sight.
Annie, still with her hair tousled from sleep, reacts quickly to the commotion outside and scrambles out of their tent. She barely misses the wolf trying to snap its jaws at her, and thinking quickly on her feet, she casts every wizard’s trusty magic missile. Viridian sees three glowing darts blast from the tip of Annie’s fingers with frightening accuracy - one after another they hit the wolf in its hind leg, and yelping loudly it scurries away with its tail between its legs.
The party decides to pack their stuff with haste after that, even though the day is turning to night now. The blizzard has significantly lowered their chances of making it to Targos in two hours, let alone one day. That, and the added detour of trying to decipher the strange accident site, with a missing shipment of strange, necrotic shards.
With a torch now in tow, they continue onwards towards the part of the forest into which they saw the small, odd tracks lead earlier. It is quite possible that chwinga are far more common than people think, they just rarely ever see them, as their tracks resemble that of a magpie or other such bird, and thus might pass without notice.
Eventually, the party does chance upon three chwinga - they are tiny elementals, but their faces are covered with a mask. One of them is carrying a fork that it uses almost as if one might wield a staff. They are chittering in their own language that sounds like the chiming of silver bells to those who dot recognise it - Vilu however, does, and gets a sense of the chwinga playing house, pretending to be humans, or bigfolk, as they call them. Within a circle, the chwinga keep the gifted almonds and the golden coin, as well as some pinecones and old dried leaves, and they each pretend to eat the contents of their haul, even if none of them in actuality do so.
After a brief discussion, the chwinga warm up to the party somewhat, and agree to help them and their friend Dannika in exchange for more almonds. The fork-wielding chwinga demonstrates how they are indeed, able to control the weather and even the seasons to a small degree, but the oppressive power of Auril’s everlasting rime trumps their elemental magic. She is, after all, a god. Their discussion is short-lived however, as Viridian hears the cracking of a branch on the cliff above them, and when she looks up, she sees two yellow glowing eyes in the torchlight, and the silhouette of another wolf against the starlit sky. As the party readies for another battle with the wolves, the chwinga scamper for safety, disappearing as if they had never even been there. Annie notices them vanish into a small crevasse between the rocks.
The fight against four wolves takes its time, but with Viridian raising the roots of the forest to aid them, it is not as daunting as it could have been. After one of the wolves manages to bite Viridian, she gets the upper hand eventually. Annie sets two of them on fire, and Primrose’s warm, comforting magic washes over the party as they feel themselves blessed. Everyone learns of Vilu’s penchant for spine-chilling magic as they subvert the wolves to listen to their own looming deaths, although they manage to dodge each of their attempts to frighten them. Eventually two of them flee, and the party is left with one intact body of a wolf and one that has been .. burnt to a crisp. Viridian sets to work, says her prayers to Mielikki for providing for them, and manages to skin her very first wolf pelt. It does take quite some time however, and the party decides to set up camp for the night.
They manage to find the chwinga once more, and offer them their friendship and more almonds, to which they have taken a liking to. The chwinga dance around their campfire as Annie magics some bells to sound for them and Viridian plays her carved flute - of course, after first getting cleaned up by Annie and stitched up by Primrose, who may be inexperienced in healing magic, but certainly knows how to do so. They all watch as torn flesh rends itself anew, leaving behind only a faint memory of jaws closing around Viridian’s arm.
Vilu asks about the origin of the fork, and the chwinga tell them of the Kind Man, who often gifts them things. He lives in The Big City, has long, blond hair and similar complexion to Annie’s, but his ears are much sharper than hers. The chwinga agree to take the party to the Kind Man, if they so wish.
With that and some late-night sewing, the party heads to bed. The next morning, they shall follow the elementals.
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