🎲 Dnd game replay thread 🎲
Open on a dark forest path. Sister Gwenllian, acolyte of the Church, leads her pony through the misty woods. She has been sent to investigate rumors of an unsettling nature. Wars on the borders of the Kingdom. Whispers of a darkness returning. The wheels of the world are turning. But she has been sent on a small errand: to visit a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom and report back any word of creeping corruption.
The wind howls. Gwen is surprised by a pack of ravenous wolves. Their eyes gleam with a strange light. They advice on her, teeth bared. As she prepares to fend them off, a blast of red fire lights the night. A wolf lays before her, scorched to cinders. An arrow pierces the throat of another. A young man leaps forward and cleaves the skull of another. The rest of the pack scatter in fright.
The young man introduces himself as Hale. His companions are Sage Norwood, an older gentleman dressed in robes, and Vyne, an Elven hunter. Hale has journeyed with Norwood on a quest to find a cure for their ailing town. A black mist has spread across the lands. Vyne tells a similar story: an elven child raised by woodmen, until a shadow came and scattered them. He now hunts the servants of this corruption. It appears fate (if fate it was) has brought them here on similar errands. They all decide to travel together.
The night passes without incident. Dawn arrives, grey and cool. They break camp and continue on the westward road until they reach the village of Wælcombe by mid morning. It's a small village, little more than a few dozen sturdy stone houses set along a lane skirting a river in a cleft of the rocky land. A water wheel by the bank turns slowly, fed by the lazy water.
The party travels up the lane of the village. Few people are seen about. They are eventually approached by a pair of bounders, men with little more than staves or cudgels in their hands who ask us our business. Hale explains our purpose. When they see Gwen's seal of the Church, they are more at ease. They lead us to see the reeve of the Village.
We arrive at a building just somewhat beyond the main lane. It rests on a shoulder of one of the rocky outcroppings that straddle the village. There we meet one Thaddeus Grout, an older man with a limp. He tells us that some months ago, they began to see black mists crawling down the valley at night. Few would go out after dark. Strange things began happening. Sheep born deformed. People became sick. And recently, people began to go missing. They fear that this is a dark omen.
After some more talk, we decide to investigate. We hear rumor of ancient cairns located some miles north. They had been there long before the ancestors of this village had first came to this valley, beyond years of reckoning. Nobody ever goes there. We prepare ourselves and set out at once.
We follow the river upstream and by mid afternoon, we arrive at the cairns. Tall mounds of bare, stacked stone dot the surrounding hills. We spend a few rounds searching. Vyne looks for any tracks or disturbances along the ground. Hale and Gwen investigate for marks or symbols. Norwood pulls out an ancient book and begins casting a detect magic ritual.
There appears to be signs of recent disturbance here. Strange tracks, stones misplaced, and Norwood senses faint necrotic energies. We locate a single barrow still open to the sky. A reek is emanating from it. Necrotic energy is strongest here. There are rough hewn stone steps leading down into darkness. We prepare ourselves.
Vyne decides to go first, having the keenest senses. Hale is close behind, sword ready. Norwood and Gwen follow at the rear with light magic.
We descend about 30 feet underground. The air grows thicker with decay and menace. The stairs open into a chamber of ancient stone and packed earth. Roots dangle from the ceiling. There is a passageway that leads further on at the opposite end. In the center stands a low, cracked stone sarcophagus, lid halfway off. Inside lies a skeleton in rusted chainmail, still clutching a corroded longsword across its chest. Something has been disturbing these tombs.
After some very tense deliberations, and a few poor rolls later, we're no closer to figuring out what or who this was. Nobody is stupid enough to touch it. "Whomever this was, history has forgotten him" said Norwood, who failed a History check. Gwen says a silent prayer for the repose of his soul, and we venture on.
Deeper inside, we begin to see an eery green light, separate from our own lights. Vyne stops us and bids us to put our spells away. Whatever lies beyond the next turn, even Hale can feel it. We silently round the corner and find the source of the glow: a hunched and robed figure is performing a hideous ritual above the remains of a pale lying figure, green flames flickering in alcoves. His back is to us. Classic.
Before we can really formulate a plan, Hale has declared himself, sword drawn, and demands a halt to the proceedings. The robed figure turns and reveals an abominable vissage. Deep sunken eyes, black as a pit, stare back at us. He hisses a thin laugh and says, "Fools! Who dares approach? Do you not know death when you see it?" He waves his arms and several skeletons clatter to life at the edges of the chamber.
As one, the skeletons begin their assault. One leaps at Hale with a rusted Scimitar, but his swing is parried with a resounding clang. Two approach Vyne with murderous intent. The elven warrior draws his slender blade to meet the challenge. Norwood rushes around the corner. With a wave of his hand he lobs a mote of flame into the melee, striking one of the skeletons. Gwen joins the crowded melee, spear thrusting into a skeleton's ribcage. The spear alights with radiant energy and sears the bones apart with brilliant light.
The necromancer has backed away, gathering himself up to his full height. He lets loose a sickening green light from his fingers. It lands on Hale unawares, his body wrenching with the sudden onset of dark energies. He falls to one knee, clearly weakened from the necromancer's spell. He takes a feeble swing at the remaining skeleton, but his arms are too weak and the stroke goes wide.
Vyne targets the skeleton with all his enmity and cracks it to pieces, his stroke exploding with preternatural force. He helps Hale up to his feet.
Norwood steps forward and spreads his fingers, releasing a gout of red-hot flames across the necromancer. The rotting robes that clung to it catch with smouldering embers and it shrieks in pain. "Fools!"
Gwen aims a bolt of radiant light at the burning thing, lighting up the room.
Hale, shaking off his weariness, leaps forward. with a cry, he cleaves the rotting skull of the stinking figure in half. It crumples to the floor in a smoking ruin of flesh and reak. He stumbles, still weary.
The creature, whatever it was, is defeated. We take a moment to gather ourselves. The pale figure laid out on a dias at the back of the room begins to stir. It is a young woman. Color returns to her face. She comes to, with obvious fear and confusion. We calm her, but this is no place to discuss everything. We do, however, take a few moments to search for loot. A few trinkets and obscene implements. Nothing obviously valuable, but they have an ominous appearance.
We escort the young lady out of the tomb, back to the light of day. We make it to town before sundown. The first major test is complete. But what awaits us? Will the black mist come tonight? What was that thing in the cairns? What did it want with the living? We'll have to find out on our next adventure.
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