Session VI: The Old Man in the Woods

General Summary

Continuing on through the fog-addled Willowy Woods outside of Helzand following a tense battle with the undead Goblin horde our heroes ran into, our brave Halfling Ranger, Vimley, successfully navigated the group out of the fog and into a clearing where they were met with a mud-brick tower rising up among the trees. With strange decorations hanging from tree branches and lining the pathway, and multiple "No Trespassing!" signs, the group made their way to a short stairway adorned with gargoyles on either side. Tapping on the iron door several times to no response, peeking in through a window to see a warm but empty room, and narrowly avoiding annoying an apparently not-so-statuesque Gargoyle, the party tried the door and found it unlocked. Stepping inside immediately met by the warmth of a hearth fire and for our keen-eared Ranger, the sound of murmuring voices from upstairs, our group found themselves beset by a metallic grinding as the previously still suit of armour to the left side of the room turned and began attacking them. Attempting to back out of the room and proclaim their innocence, the animated suit of armour seemed impervious to the party's claims of not being a threat and struck down hard on Mielikki with the sword in its gauntletted hands, as Taliesin's magical psychic attack struck it to seemingly no effect. With no response from the master of the tower, Vimley joined them in combat, piercing the armour with her shortsword as Taliesin wailed on the armour with his longsword as Mielikki's spores sunk their necrotic energy into the metallic exterior. Though brought to within an inch of her life, Mielikki was brought back up thanks to a swift heal from Taliesin and they dove into flanking position, the through of them finally bring the armour to a clattering demise as Taliesin shoved it down the stairs they had just come from. Closing the door on it, the group of heroes tried once more to get a response by yelling upstairs for Old Man Gerhardt when a young female voice shouts back down at them, "Well are you coming up then?" Seeing no other choice if they were to solve the problem the Blight Stone had wrought upon Helzand, the three heroes began climbing the carpeted spiral staircase in the centre of the room. Upon reaching the first-floor bedroom, they found a large tiger blocking their path, growling and ready to strike. Not wanting to jump into yet another fight being quite exhausted from a day full of demons and undead battles already, the group remained cautious, though Mielikki quickly realised that something wasn't quite right with this tiger and they stepped through the illusion to ascend further and discover what was going on up there. Upon reaching the second floor, the group were met by the image of chaos. Scattered coins, and papers, and strange items collected and dumped, including a broken and useless rowboat. Arcane equipment and books everywhere. Yet most disturbing where the 3 cages, two of which were occupied by a young man who appeared to be the same Niko they had met earlier that day in the temple and an older man who must have been Old Man Gerhardt. The opposite side of the room saw a curved stone table from behind the stairwell, with a beautiful young lady with flame-red hair, rosy-hued skin, and glowing yellow eyes the likes of which had been seen on Iwon, the fire Genasi from back in the temple who had asked the party to look for his daughter, Rozalina, who seemed to be the same lady pacing back and forth across from them right now. Attempting to talk to her at first seemed useless. She talked of following her destiny, finding her power, and people being in her way, yet the more they spoke of her father and how worried he was for her and how much he seemed to care and miss his daughter, the more sorrowful she seemed to become, before stopped in her tracks and simply saying, "I've made a mistake." And unlocking the two cages, waking the sleeping and tired-looking old man. Descending once more to the ground floor, they gathered around the fireplace which Vimley stoked and discussed the situation in Helzand and the Blight Stone that was making Rebecca's child, Rolanda, deathly sick. Returning the Blight Stone to Old Man Sylvester Gerhardt, who promptly deactivated the item and popped it into a pocket in his robe, the group moved onto other subjects, like Sylvester's experimentations with Necromancy and the cemetery behind his home and healed up some. Deciding to head out and investigate alongside the now much quieter Rozalina, to make sure everything was now okay, finding a skeleton key among the scattered armour at the foot of the stairs, the group headed a little north. Finding the ancient Goblin cemetery among dead trees, seeing a sea of headstones and even a small mausoleum, with all visible script written in the Goblin language, our heroes decided to rebury the now fallen corpses and skeletal remains of the risen Goblins. While this is not their own death ritual, it seemed the right thing to do in this situation, and after 3 hours of hard work, Mielikki helping with her Druidic abilities, they returned by dark to the old man's tower to rest up. Finding Sylvester once more asleep, this time comfortably in front of the fire, Niko browsing the nearby bookshelves, Rozalina chatted a little with the group about the magic she would miss if she were to give up her Warlock patron who had her deluded into "following her destiny" and Mielikki joined in, transforming into the tiger she had seen by Rozalina's illusions. Rozalina smiled and then opted to wake Sylvester up to get him to bed. As she did so, they recalled the skeleton key found within the armour outside and asked him about it. He got a smile upon his face and told them to uncover 3 more keys and take them into the cellar where he keeps a small black metal box. If they could open this box successfully, they could keep what's inside. Jumping to the task, especially Vimley, the party uncovered the keys, each one with a different number of teeth, and headed into the cellar where they were a little discomforted at the site of a jail cell and disembodied body parts laying around but chose not to look too deeply into it. Uncovering the final key from the cell, Vimley laid them in front of the box side by side and noted engraved writing on each key. Taliesin almost instantly realised the solution to the puzzle and one by one turned the suspected corresponding keys in the locks. Opening the lid, nothing happened and they felt a wave of relief, uncovered a silver branch with golden bells which after spending some time with it, went to Mielikki who played with it a little in her tiger form. With that, our heroes spent a long rest on the ground floor of Sylvester's tower, who was able to spend a night in his own bed for the first time in a couple of weeks, and the next day after a little breakfast, set off back towards Helzand with Niko and Rozalina in tow, ready to find out just who Niko's identical imposter in the temple was and give Lina the good news, recovering their reward from the Tiefling woman.

Rewards Granted

Bell Branch - Mielikki
Segment of Cheese - Taliesin

Missions/Quests Completed

Deactivated the Blight Stone and returned it to its original owner, ending Helzand's Zoblin problem.
Found and talked Rozalina down, saving her from herself and Sylvester Gerhardt and Niko from her.

Character(s) interacted with

"Old Man" Sylvester Gerhardt - A Necromancer who lives a hermitted life out in his tower in the woods beyond Helzand.
Niko - Family friend of Rozalina and Iwon, apparently has a double back at the temple with Rozalina's family.
Rozalina - Daughter of Iwon, a Fire Genasi and Warlock who almost went rogue.

Campaign

The Dragon's Shadow

Protagonists