Episode 10 - Have the lambs stopped screaming?

General Summary

After Krampus runs off into the snowy night with Davwyn as his prisoner, the party begins frantically searching for their captured compatriot. During the chaos, the party is separated. Chief and Beldhir hunt to the east while Darla searches to the northwest. Due to Darla’s natural proclivity for nature, she locates Krampus as he sulks away into the shadows. Quickly transforming into a raptor, she pursues the fleeing Demon. Narrowly missing Davwyn’s portable hole that Krampus had laid down as a trap for her, Darla shoots over the trap and snags Davwyn in a daring rescue. The two Halflings try to escape but Krampus quickly catches up to them and engages them in combat. The two heroes narrowly defeat the demon through cunning action but burn through their remaining spell slots. They hear a voice laughing in the icy wind as Krampus’ body falls into a dark pile of black ichor.
As the two slowly begin to freeze to death they happen upon a small cottage hidden amongst the trees. They knock and locate an odd Halfling named Moxt Bemin who speaks without speaking, along with his large mastiff (which wears a jug of whiskey around its neck), and a small human boy later identified as Jason Drifk. Needing to retrieve something out of his bag, Davwyn once again lays out his portable hole on the ground, in front of the house; after climbing in, Davwyn attempts to throw a rope out of the hole to Moxt who promptly walks back into the house, ignoring Davwyn's life line. After several more failed attempts to be rescued himself from his reoccurring prison, Davwyn comes to terms with his fate and creates a pseudo shelter from the winter storm with a Web spell.
The party beds down for the night when they suddenly see an unknown shadowy figure appear outside their cottage window. The figure quickly disappears into the wood line, unknowingly watched by a small owl perched atop the roof. Jason runs out of the house and follows the figure into the night, thinking it may have been his family. The owlet, later identified as Big Booty Judy, silently floats over the boy, concerned for the child’s safety. Booty watches Jason as he approaches what appears to be a young girl sitting on the ground. Suddenly, the wild female screeches into the night with a blood curdling wail. Jason runs back towards the house with his attacker at his heels. Suddenly a burst of fire explodes out of the ground in front of the house, the strange Halfling Moxt bursts through the front door, and three large dogs begin going crazy; all of this combined chaos terrifies Jason, causing him to run past the house and unknowingly into the grasp of an unknown monster, hiding under the snow.
As the the party tries to gain their bearing, they are engaged with needle like projectiles from an invisible enemy. The party quickly begins scanning the surrounding area and note the trees had starting walking. Several blights begin flinging more projectiles, others charged the party, while a third blight hid under the snow trapping Jason and Davwyn. While the rest of the party engaged the living trees, Darla transformed into a bear and chased after the screeching female who had retreated back into the woods.
As she crossed the tree line she quickly realized she had been surrounded by several other humans who appeared to be covered in a glowing orange fungus. As she began shredding the infected creatures, Darla soon found herself injected with an unknown contagion from one of the creature’s proboscis. The last infected enemy ignored Darla and attacked Moxt, also infecting him. The blights and infected were quickly dispatched but not without a cost. Both Darla and Moxt were infected with an unknown agent that played a constant tortuous sound in their heads, not allowing them to long rest. As he sits by his mother's decayed corpse, Jason realizes that his family is truly gone; he watches his mother's ashes wisp through his fingers, into cold the night sky.
The next morning Jason led Booty and the rest of the party towards the town of Standridge. While walking through the woods, the party observes that several trees that appear to be dying by an unknown rot. Darla attempts to heal a tree but the decay recontinues overtaking the bark, only momentarily subdued by the druid spellcraft. After a short time, the party locates Standridge and enters the The Battered Beetle tavern to gather information. Apparently several of the towns people recently disappeared without a trace, leaving the remaining villagers terrified that they may be next. To further increase suspicion, the party learns that the heavenly bodies were not acting according to the laws of nature, as a waning moon sits in the night sky for the past few evenings. After interviewing the remaining town folk, the party beds down for the night at the inn; Moxt and Darla continue to remain in a state of restless exhaustion, only benefiting from a short rest. Booty wakes in the middle of the night to the sound of footsteps outside her window. She peeps outside just in time to see Jason pulled into a well by two goblins.
What will happen to the sweet little Jason? Why is nature out of balance? Can Darla and Moxt recover from their horrible hallucinations? Will Raiford’s Keep finally provide answers to their questions? Only time will tell.... if they can make it.

Report Date

17 Mar 2022