Routes and Routs

Session Report: Wolves Upon the Coast 02

Having slain the manticore the previous session, the party further explores the cave and finds its loot. &treasure does not have a table of contents or working CTRL+F, so I have a hell of a time finding the 2 magic items and defer those for later (I later find I have a markdown doc I can search, alleviating future searches). They find a man roused to consciousness there: Tinius Winius, whose first language is Latin, a failed pursuer of the bounty for the manticore. He is welcomed into the party. Cecilia's named is also retconned to a more fitting Gormlaith. The party explores further, finds the bodies of four failed attackers of the manticore, then exit the caves without getting lost (1in6 chance). They continue to Dorbog, experimenting with the manticore's head on the voyage down they find the face can easily be detached. In Dorbog they go to the home of the faceless man, hollowed out of furniture, devoid of all except the man himself: He had sold everything for the bounty and waited alone. They give him the face: He cannot reattach it. Despairing, he digs into his yard by a fence post to retrieve his bounty, but it has been dug down to from the other side long before, on the other side is a hole with a puddle in it. The man recounts that his dog attacked him, then fled north, and he did not first realise what had happened to him. His family left shortly thereafter, and he remembers neither them nor his name. Gathering from this man's use of Latin for his sign that he spoke it, and was either from the continent or a religious man, the party visits a priest in the small church in town (would there be a church, with a Druid advisor to the leader? I decided it was there, but not flourishing) who expounds at length on his disdain for druids who 'infest' the interior of the island. The priest cannot offer assistance re. the faceless man, but speculates that St Olham's monastery to the south may.

The day is fading: The party goes to the castle of Durbog and its leader, Donnagh: A barefoot, foliage-decorated druid lurks behind his seat. They discuss the manticore whose head they have brought without conclusion. Donnagh applauds their efforts but declines to hire them on for vague reasons (bit of a roleplay lapse there, haha) but segues into the discussing the illness afflicting the town. The vector by which disease is spread he feels unequipped to speculate on, but offers vague promise of reward for rectification.

Over supper, a mercenary of Donnagh's retinue discusses dead animals found in the river. How convenient! Next day, the party rows upriver, passing out of farmed area to a zone of abandoned and overgrown farmsteads. I imagine that Ruislip was much more populated in the past, given the presence of lost Donenashoe in the midst of the isle, and the population is very much contracted in the present day.

At length they arrive upriver. A dead deer, so fresh it still trails blood, floats lazily past them. I draw a quick map, depicting a sinuous river and a gaggle of dots I declare to be stone ruins. Movement is spotted on one: A landing party composed of all PCs + 6 ex-thralls makes their way through the muck to investigate. A ruined tower surrounded by rubble. A skull is visible: It moves. On a stick? No, tracking - definitely watching. Another appears beside it. Four skeletons in bronze armour (their skeletal limbs give it away) are seen on a causeway from river to tower over swamp, escorting a figure in bronze armour wrapped in black fabric (the mummy). Meanwhile, more figures appear atop the tower.

Shots are loosed at each group as they approach and the party stands fast, in swampy water, near the rubble at the bottom of the tower. Fortunately the skeletons lack ranged weapons and favour a direct response and vault the ruined lip at the top of the tower to march down the rubble and attack while the mummy and the rest move to occupy the tower behind them, or perhaps flank: In the ensuring fight three ex-thralls are downed as is luckless Hemingr.

The remaining ex-thralls fail their morale and rout. The remaining PCs recover Hemingr and retreat.

Date: 20260317 Players: 4 PCs:

Didn't know whether the face could be reattached, decided against it as I couldn't picture it - grim!

I worked to implement the vanguard/middle/rearguard system I saw here after this, as I found diagramming this battle onerous, and I want the PC being targeted to be more randomised.