Sunday, January 19, 2025

Stormbringer Wolves Upon the Coast Session 8

Trekking north back to their karvi, the players feel the unhappy eyes of the bird druid upon them as they set sail.

Rather than sail south, they use their enchanted map to sail north to the lair at 07.05, much to the annoyance of the chaos and law demons Scarsabad and Slivec, who was awaiting them in the sea to place them in a situation that would make them agreeable.

Sailing north, the find an island covered in seabird guano, mushrooms and a tower. They let the girffons loose and they run amok eating seabirds. They collect mushrooms. In the tower they find a sitting swordsman, covered in a layer of dust, occasionally mumbling and staring away at nothing.

They try talking to him, inspecting the sword, touching him and hitting him with an axe. When touched or swung at, the swordsman did a fancy figure of eight with the big two-handed sword to block incoming attacks. After all of that, Sigmar had gotten hit in the arm and Hrafnkel had been blocked. They all decided to leave and maybe sell the mushrooms and not eat them.

It was mentioned there was another island present, and they sailed adjacent, a rocky island with a burning light atop a tower.
Landing not at the main beach, the climbed up to the windswept top to find a monastery and beacon. The griffons were let go on the beach, but the seals had slipped into the water. The crew were put to work clearing out some rubble where some skeletons were seen. Meeting the monks, they were chatted to, and reasonable discussions were made that they weren’t raiders, acting more like tourists.

In the discussion, Abbot Caoinleán hinted that since they PCs were known for their heroics on Ruislip, it would be a great boon if they could help, they locate missing brother Conall.

The party split up, searching the different sections. Sigmar tries to climb the large rock since she cannot fly until her wings regrow her feathers. She fails the roll and as per the text is swept off the rock by the wind. And roll determines she is not swept over the sea cliff but hits the island ground, she is reduced to below 0 HP yet she does not die due to the ring. She merely screams for hours. Also, her left leg is broken by the Major Wound and she loses 2 DEX permanently.

Eventually it’s Yerstor and Hrafnkel who successfully edge down the moss-slick steps to find Conall’s body in the cove’s waters, pecked at by gulls. Carrying the body up is both challenging and slimy.

With the thanks of the Abbot, Caoinleán has a brainwave, these are heroes who slay monsters. The abbey exists to keep whatever evil below trapped; would it not be better if the heroes slew the monster below. He conveys this and that there is no intrinsic reward but moral. The party figure out there is probably something material underneath. They leave the crew to keep digging, since they found a sack of silver and some armour.

The go into the drystone room that functions as the centre and pull up the boards. The intricate bone seal is deeply suspicious because that much writing must be keeping something big in. It shatters easily and the party descend by ropes.

The sound of waves, the salt on the walls and the dead crabs in room 2 tell them that this place floods. Moving left they come to a large door which they open and are hit by a wave of seawater that extinguishes all but their lantern (from the young kingdoms) and sweeps away Miklas Domonkos.

The rest decide not to follow him and go up to a chamber with a big sarcophagus which they decide to open after everyone is gathered. They catch up with Miklas Domonkos as he lies in the doorway to a room with a shiny door at the end. Sigmar notices the walls don’t meet up with the floor. Hrafnkel crosses the room and the floor tilts, sending him to plunge into the fetid pool below. He is attacked by the five huge, blind white eels. The remaining members led by Yerstor, quickly cross with a tied room to a rocky outcropping. Allowing them to abseil down into the melee. The eels cannot easily penetrate Hrafnkel’s armour but he takes a few bites, Yerstor gets an eel under his armour and does him great pain (critical hit). Swords are fumbled into the muck yet all eels are killed.

The party sees an orange glow to the north and a blank iron door to the south. They push with all their strength and their combined strength as a roll, pushes the door open (the description for Floor 2 Room 12 and 10 say the door is locked on the room 12 side and both explicitly say there is no opening for the door).

They enter a room filled with rotting furniture and gold decorations, many skeletons which do not surprise them in the last when they get up. But don’t attack, the near whisper of Dainéal Ó Ceannaigh declares his traitorous brother Fionn is the cause of the Isle’s malignance. He gives instructions on the rooms to take as far north or west then as far west or north as one can go.

Heading north, a Witness was rolled for the cross-junction. They seem it, are disturbed by it and Hrafnkel walks up to it. After the creaming starts, he tries destroying it, eventually turning it away from them. But 7 skeletons, draped in Dainéal’s furs block the northern passage.

Figuring now was appropriate time, Scarsabad in the form of an enormous spider finally tracks the players down and offers them a lot of needed power now to serve Chaos and bend Deathless to their will. Hrafnkel will not and cannot partake in any sorcery but will accept the idea of a Chaos Champion with an enchanted axe, which Scarsabad doesn’t have the facilities to provide at the time. Althrow Tams signs up to become a sorcerer on the spot rather than study for months. Rolling Fire for the controlled element, Althrow Tams loses a point of CON as the fire sears through.

The rest say the prefer Balance under the elemental temples or Law.

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