Clouder

The last session was a slow one as we leveled-up characters, but had a couple conversations that led to more understanding of who Pyrrhic Gert is and what her goals might be.

Session 6
The Adventuring Party
Bob - he/him - Silver Dragonborn Paladin level 2
Stringer - he/him - Human Rogue level 2
Bum Fuzz - he/him - Red Panda¹ Wizard level 2
Ori - they/them - Wood Elf Circle of the Moon Druid level 2
Beta Max - he/they - Halfling Fey Patron Warlock level 2
Massile - she/her - Halfling Bard level 2

Map of the Cimiri Region²

We open with the aforementioned housekeeping, as the group divvy's up most of the treasure horde they found last time and level-up their characters. Ori's player opts into Circle of the Moon for their Druid. Bum Fuzz's player also picked an archetype, but I failed to write down which one he picked for the Wizard. My suspicion is School of Evocation - despite his insistence that he likes to play tricks, the lil' Panda likes his explosions!

Driven mostly by Massile, the party bargain and divvy up the treasure horde they found with the Grick last week. Importantly, Ori gives up their share of gold for two potions found in the pile and Bum Fuzz gives up his share for two spell scrolls. Bum Fuzz regrets this later when the spell scrolls turn out to hold Light and Feather Fall - a cantrip he can't add to his spell book and a spell he already had.³

With everything sorted out, we pick-up the scene where we left off - outside the burning home of Old Bjorn. Next to the wreckage is a mastiff and a rugged Troll woman with one claw on fire, which worries the party - even the most common tales say you kill trolls with fire. Gert recognizes them as the folks causing trouble at the mine and seems miffed at Beta Max's squire tabard, but does the "kind" thing of warning them to leave the region.

Keeping their distance, the party has a chat with Gert. They learn she's married after Bob fails to flirt with her; that she's never heard of the Sensuous Gary book series⁴ after Beta demands to know if she has any copies; that she has some sort of grudge against the Two-Fold Church after some prying by Ori; and that she's maybe concerned about the group's cold iron weapons after everyone catches her looking a bit too long at Bob's cold iron sword. After briefly considering whether to fight the towering woman, they let her walk off with the mastiff. As Gert leaves, the entire party notices the regenerating Troll has a prominent chest scar.

The group then spends a short rest and wait for the fire to burn out, Ori, sitting alright on hit points, spends the time investigating. Casting detect magic reveals the fire likely was started with something magical, as they spot one flame in the greater blaze that is enchanted. That flame is the last thing to go out when the fire stops. They also try to determine if Old Bjorn's inside the blaze by wildshaping into a mastiff and sniffing about. They have no luck, but they do learn the scent of Pyrrhic Gert and her mastiff.

After the blaze winds down, the group dig through the wreckage and find the charred remains of Old Bjorn (as well as a few coins that they promptly pocket - Massile's first question was if they could loot the body!). Bum Fuzz suggests taking the body to the Altar of Meddlesome Ki in the swamp to see if it will revive Old Bjorn, but ultimately they defer to Bob, who believes the old dwarf would rather have been buried. Ori and Bob build a cairn for the dwarf in accordance with dwarf funerary rites.⁵

The party then pack-up and head down to Cimiri to turn-in the Violet Fungus they collected to Mother Sybil. Along the way, they spot another campfire near a river bend. Still wary from the last campfire playing host to an Ankheg, they skip it. Better to head to town, where it's safe.⁶

Mother Sybil greets them saying they were supposed to return yesterday for the results of the research she was doing. She pays Ori for the Fungus with a potion of growth and relates the imperfect history of Gert she found in her books. The troll appeared in stories about Giorgio Tramas, the Martyr Penitent, a half-fiend who lived hundreds of years ago and attempted to conquer the region, only to be converted to the right good faith of the Two-Fold Church by St. Baion the Pardoner. Sybil theorizes that the half-fiend nature must have made Giorgio a half-demon, a Cambion, as the records would have said if he was a much more noble Tiefling. Sybil then notices the cold iron weapons the group has and says it's good they have them - those will serve well against any demons, as they can't stand the deep order of that metal.

While listening to the story, Beta Max asks his mysterious patron if they should take the remains of the Martyr Penitent to the Altar of Meddlesome Ki if they find them. The woman's voice responds with "Oh, now that is an interesting idea!" Beta Max, hoping the question would indicate if his patron was comfortable with demons is instead left a bit unnerved by her glee.

The group winds down and takes a long rest in Cimiri. And with that done, we head into a multi-week break as several folks have vacations lined up. We might try playing some other games in the intervening time, but I think it will depend on how Massile's player's schedule lines up.

1. We kit-bashed a custom race together for Bum Fuzz because his player wanted to play a red panda.

2. The map was created using Hex Kit by Cone of Negative Energy, with additional art assets built for the hex mapper.

3. This was an oops on my part. I legit tried to pick a spell I didn't think Bum Fuzz had and didn't realize he already had Feather Fall in his book. If I remember, I'll give him an opportunity to trade it for another spell scroll in Cimiri or at the Vistana Camp.

4. A joke I stole from the Jemjammer actual-play podcast and their guest dungeon master, Chris Sims. Give that show a listen!

5. I realized after the game I should have given Bob and Ori inspiration for this. I added a note to my binder to fix that next time we play.

6. This is where the nature of random encounter rolls gets funny. The campfires have belonged to Cissie, a gnoll the party briefly press-ganged into service and who Ori felt sympathy for. After I saw how Ori's player reacted to Cissie, I redid my random encounter tables, replacing the most common encounter with Cissie. The idea was to have them encounter the woman a few times, with each occurrence showing her slip further into the otherworldly, demonic need to hunt and eat that is associated with people who become Gnolls in my setting. But the party skipped the first campfire that came-up, and only returned to it when I rolled a different random encounter, an Ankheg. While I laid hints that whoever set the campfire left before the Ankheg, the party now associates the fires with danger. At this point, I am either going to start having Cissie actively raid the couple communities in the area - stealing a horse then maybe murdering a person - to play this out. It's a dark storyline, but that's kind of on purpose as well - this is supposed to lead toward the explicitly horror campaign of Curse of Strahd.