Last session the group decided to help out a cute race of Spirits, called Sbildams, that were plagued by evil creatures at night.
Sbildams
Shadow Creature…Spoooky
The group waited at night to encounter these baddies and fought quite a few of them off. When the fight was over the group went to examine the bodies of the shadow creatures only to find the bodies of several Sbildams… The group knew some evil magics were at work here. Suddenly it began to rain and a cackle carried on the wind and dozens of white orb eyes appeared in the darkness. The group made a run for it and took refuge in a turnip house. Thus we ended the session there.
Fighting Against the Darkness
Players
Nate- Heithcliff, Clan of Fang Hexer
John- Bunq, Barnlig Spirit Master
Not Present: Fletch- Clan of Tusk Shaman
Omar- Brigam, Human Shielded Warrior (NPC’d his character)
Gene- Unnamed, Human Ravager (NPC’d his character)
Liam- Ary, Clan of Fang Hunter
We were light on people who could play, so I NPC’d Omar and Gene’s characters to help Nate and John with everything.
The group took a look in the house and saw the front door and two windows. Immediately the creatures outside started banging/scratching on the door and windows. There was a thudding and grunting coming from a full-sized wardrobe at the south end of the room. The opened it and saw a human gagged and tied. His massive two-handed axe against the back wall of the wardrobe.
Nate removed his gag and Unnamed explained that he had arrived in Bibble Babble the previous evening and was welcomed by the Sbildams; however, as the sun set he saw a change come over the Spirits and they transformed into shadowy creatures. They jumped him and eventually overpowered him. He woke up stuffed into the wardrobe. He vowed to help the group figure out what was going on. They untied him and he gathered his gear.
With that the door burst open and a large ball of shadow rolled into the room. Uncurling itself was a giant worm.
Nate, Omar, and Gene engaged the worm while John ran around the room and blocked the windows with a spice shelf/pan cupboard on the east end of the turnip house and a bed on the west. One shadow creature made it through the window before John could get the bed into place. The fight was pretty quick, but Gene and Omar took a few hard knocks.
Aside: We decided to try the variant armor rules from Additional Things for Black Hack. I wanted to see if I liked it better for Land of the Spirits. John and Nate really seemed to like it.
Aside 2: The challenge with the armor variant is remembering to roll the Usage Die to see if the armor is reduced after taking some hits. Also rolling the Usage Die for ammo, etc. So I’m pondering not using Usage Die until the end of the session for EVERYTHING. When the session comes to an end each player rolls their various Usage Die at a Disadvantage to see how/what was consumed and used. I’m not sure if this will work well, but I’m just thinking of ease/simplicity.
After the fight the group was able to rest and regain some much needed HP and John was able to gain his spell slots back. When Nate was on guard he investigated the house and found several items worth taking: a silver dagger, a small shield, a alabaster vase, and a healing potion hidden in the spice rack.
The next morning the group vacated the house to find the village of Bibble Babble completely deserted. They investigated a few houses and the Spirit Leaders home to no avail. Nate suggested they look at the trail they had found last session. They could tell it was more heavily traveled than last night. With a sigh and a “this is probably a bad idea” resignation the group tromped into the woods.
Into the Woods
The group walked through the woods for nearly an hour before Omar’s character stepped into a trap of quicksand. The group threw him a rope and as they began to pull him out, were attacked from behind by a group of rodents of unusual size with shadowed eyes. Gene’s character and Nate killed the rodents while John attempted to save Omar, but made little progress until Nate and John could work together.
After walking a little longer the group came across a cave that had a blackish ichor dripping from the walls. After a few moments the group came across a holy symbol of the Wind spirits- thinking it was the Spirit Leader’s, they scooped it up and put it in John’s backpack.
Walking on the group eventually came across the Spirit Leader laid on a stone slab and encased in a hardened black ichor encasing. Nate began breaking it off, but made too much noise, bringing a Shadowed Hulk to attack them.
Nate got pounded by the creature, but eventually it was killed- revealing the body of the blacksmith.
With Tygan, the Spirit Leader freed, they decided to continue into the cave. Tygan offered to take up the rear to guard against attacks from behind and cast Light on his hand. The group, desperate for help, agreed.
The group traveled through twisting tunnels for another half an hour before hearing the all too familiar chittering to the Shadow creatures in the darkness. Three of them came rushing at the party from in front of them. Omar and Nate formed a wall to block them. Two crashed in to their shields while the third jumped on the shoulders of his comrades and jumped over them and right in front of John. The group engaged the creatures and heard a squelching noise behind them, but chose to ignore it.
They killed one of the shadowed creatures, but the other two were still going strong. John felt a blast of cold hit him in the back, suffering damage but shaking of the freezing effect. He turned around to see that Tygan had transformed into a hideous worm-like creature. His neck, arms, and legs all stretched and gross.
“Fools” he screeched, “I consumed the energy of the Tygan weeks ago and have spent too long transforming the villagers into my minions and consuming their energies to let you interfere! I will consume you all and use your bones to summon evils into this world! The Ice Queen promised me ample prey to spread chaos here- and she was not mistaken!”
The fight was hard, and John was knocked unconscious twice during it, but eventually the group killed all three shadow creatures and the Worm Priest. The fallen shadow creatures were two named NPCs from the village and a nameless one. They lost Furgen from the General Goods store and Baubles, the oddities shop curator.
With the Worm Priest dead, the ichor on the cave walls vanished almost immediately and they heard the freed villagers coming up from the depths of the cave.
The Aftermath
The villagers were deeply saddened by the lose of Tygan and so many of their friends and family, but were thankful for the help the group gave them- understanding they all would have perished if they had not acted.
The group stayed in the village for several days, resting up and recovering from their wounds. As a reward, Hyssen the Healer- now the acting village leader- gave the group Tygan’s Spirit Amulet of Air (once per day it would create a wind wall around the wearer and deflect any missile attack aimed at them- 1 hour duration), 50 gold bits, 2 short bows and 2 quivers full of arrows, and replenished their rations and water.
Eventually the group set out on their original course towards the Spirit capital, Nobbelberg, which was still at least 3 or 4 days to the north. As the group traveled they noticed the trees were becoming muted and drained of color, becoming grey and brown. The ground was blackish… frogs croaked, owls hooted, crows cawed, and crickets chipped. They traveled and were convinced they should see Nobbelberg any time now, but it never came. The smell of rot and ruin greeted their noses as they pushed through a full-fledged bog.
The group came to a clearing and saw a swampy scene in front of them; a ramshackle village in the distance. In front of them was a rickety dock with a rowboat and an albino bow with a straw hat and elf ears lying on the dock.
He greeted them and said, “well! Visitors! We haven’t had visitors in quite some time. You fellers ain’t from around here, are ya?” The group explained that they were headed to Nobbelberg and seemed to have gone off course. “Well shucks, Nobbleberg is over yonder (pointed NW) about 5 or 6 days, I think. We ain’t had anyone from there in years.”
Nate asked if the youth had noticed anything strange or odd occurring in the area lately. The youth smiled, showing yellowed, cracked teeth, “Aw hell guys, this is the town of Grey- there’s always something going on here. Why don’t you hope in my boat and I’ll take you over.”
“Great” John and Nate both said in unison. With that the group hopped into the boat and rowing towards the small village of Grey…
Next time- a tour of beautiful and pleasant Scenic Dunnsmouth.
