Village at the Edge of the World Session 2 Report

General Summary

After having spent a week in the village of Daerys , the heroes were awakened by the sound of revelry as the Heroes' Feast had begun. It wasn't long before some of the villagers knocked on the door of the lodge the heroes were staying in, beckoning them to come to the feast. Vihra Durnova had disappeared, but that's not uncommon for the rogue so few thought anything of it. Brandilyn Hart and Ranzak decided not to partake in the feast, as it was in honor of the local spirit goddess Yaga , and they did not want to anger their god, Moon . While walking to the center of town, where a great table had been set up between the Yaga Stone and the town well, Tup relayed some info that she had discovered during the downtime. One of the village children, Anna A'Daerys , had a very well-crafted doll of her mother, which appeared sitting at the Yaga Stone a few nights after her mother had died of pneumonia. In fact, several of the villagers had these dolls of loved ones, but nobody knows who makes them or where they came from; they just appeared a few nights after the death of a loved one at the base of the Yaga Stone. But the party had more important things to worry about, for a great and wonderful feast had been laid out which included roast pig from the farm, free-flowing Ale and mead made from locally-sourced honey. The heroes spent the day eating, drinking (Tup to excess), dancing and generally having a good time. Except for Brandi and Ranzak, of course, who kind of scoped out the village for anything out of the ordinary...though they found nothing. After the feast was over, the exhausted village retired for the night, and the heroes did the same. Brandi decided that she was going to stand guard, suspicious that not everything was as it seemed. Her fears turned out to be true, as a couple of hours into the night a thick mist rolled in, a mist that in the distance held a pare of baleful red, glowing eyes. Brandi and Ranzak alerted everyone else. Soon, the presence in the mist made itself known as a horrid, life draining undead leading a pack of skeletons mixed it up with the party. Thanks in part to a powerful area Heal spell cast by Brandi, the party made short work of the undead with little risk to themselves, save for the life force drain Brandi felt, but a good night's rest cleared that up. The next morning, the group decided to ask Elder Cronyn , the village elder, about the undead, Brandi going so far as to Charm him with a spell. The elder knew nothing of any undead ever entering the village, and none of the villagers had ever said anything about it and, as far as the heroes could tell, the elder spoke the truth. Grilsnick then relayed to the party that, while out hunting with a couple of brothers during the downtime, he discovered an area the locals called the Forest of Bones , a cursed and forbidden section of the nearby forest where noises like the ratting of bones could be heard. This dark and dense forest was said to be cursed, and none from the village had visited it in decades. So the party decided to go talk to the brothers. Knocking on the hunters' doors, one of the villagers, Durrick Yurgin answered the knock. The group questioned him, but he, too had never heard of undead entering the village. The heroes asked where the village buried their dead and Durrick offered to show the heroes. They arrived at the graveyard, but nothing seemed out of place...none of the graves were disturbed. Finding another dead end, the party decided to check out the Forest of Bones. Entering the dark section of the forest, they found the source of the rattling "bones," hundreds of wooden, carved doll arms and legs suspended from the trees..just like the well-crafted arms and legs of the dolls the villagers had. Brandi could sense that the forest emanated some form of magic and Tup decided to go exploring a bit... In the center of the forest was an old ramshackle hut. Outside of the hut was a crafting table, upon which a doll was in the middle of being made..a doll that looked just like Vihra....