Gnome Way Home
Summary
Adventure: Gnome Way Home
GM: Martin
Season: Spring 823 wk
Night: various weekends
Level: Low-Medium
- Party
- Dart - Halfling Bard - Alex
- Roxanna - Human Mind Mistress - Paige
- Mattin - The Murder Hobbit - Kyan
- Kassian - Elven Druidic Cheesemaker - Grey
- Tharlin - Dwarven Air Mage - Conal PL
- Duvon - Dwarven Druid (m) - Dean MilSci
- Ari - Human Namer - Stephen Scribe
- Employer
- By way of an urgent request some days after the Spring Meeting asking for a Guild party for a rescue and recovery operation in a location the employers cannot operate due to events dating back to Autumn 790 WK (See Against ze Flying Nomes).
- Mission
- Find, secure, assist, and recover a valuable lost asset and several VIPs.
- Pay
- Yes... definitely... probably quite good.
Scribe Notes
Into the woods
- Frysday 18th Thaw
We're gathered for work in the early hours of the morning, a late and urgent request has come in from Gnomes to rescue a flying ship and crew that have crashed in Bowcourt south-east of Mure.
We gather equipment, do some rituals and head out.
- Greater Enchantment rk 20 on Magic for the season
- 6 x Restoratives 10/20
- 6 x Expired Healing Potions 2D10
- 6 x Special Potions
- Stoneskin
- Slow Trollskin
- Heroism
- Spider Climb
- Gullibility
- Vitality
- 6 x Oils
- Mending
- Sharpness
- Hair Restoration
- Barkskin
- Sharkskin
- Willowshade
We walk into Seagate to Seacliff Estate near Castle Chilton, there we are admitted to an enchanted Garden Gazebo.
At midday there is a lurching sensation, fortunately we're all inside, and then we're in a rose garden.
An elderly man (William of Mure, twin brother of Baron Henry) greets us, we're expected. It is a busy, well looked after estate in Armagnac.
William has gathered supplies for us, a lot of supplies: Food, tree clearing tools, mechanician tools & ropes, and more food. William's nephew Anton will take a ship with most of the supplies to Stormstout Brewery while we fly ahead to try to find the crash site.
The flying vessel is about 50' long with double that in wingspan. Our tracking device is pointing towards the Lupine Woods.
We have lunch, cast some spells (SoS & Flying), then take flight south-east for the Lupine Woods. Following the tracker as we get close, we land nearby on a bare hill with a magical circle of standing stones at the top - a barrow?. Counts as a Druidic Place of Power, associated with a power - Romulag. Ley lines flow around the barrow, it looks like this is probably a fey wood.
Rox picks up something watching us, sitting in trees, small with large heads and bodies but no apparent limbs. Plant-like, Tree Spirit (Kodama), Fae but not associated with any of the courts, Health/Growth ability. Kass talks to them, they are sad, trees were stolen, taken, drained. The rocks contain/seal un-life, rot. They have a friend, ???, not a false-friend. The friend checks on trees after big storms, last visited in winter.
About an hour through the forest, we come to the Gnomes and their crashed craft, feeling a bit sorry for themselves, hungry, & hurt. Sky Gnomes, recently affected by soft-fall magic.
- Splinge (Sterling Cogsprocket) has metal legs and feet. Extra long moustache & pointy beard. Was stuck in a tree - "easier to go up than down".
- Dunbar Stormkinder, pilot/captain, walrus moustache.
- Lorcan Skyratchet, peacemaker/leader.
- Eagan Firehand
- Tawnie Lodestar, engineer, built the ship.
- Tulla Goldhand, severe haircut.
- Pongo (Balthazar Wogglebottle), poisoned (ate red berries and toadstools when they got hungry), hydraulics engineer.
They saw a beacon light (coming from the barrow), came in for a landing, crashed into the trees.
During the night someone barefoot & invisible approached enough to see us before withdrawing, their tracks show them deviating to check us out while travelling north of us, east to west.
- Reapsday 19th Thaw
We walk back to the barrow.
Long ago, a great spirit/god of the forest became rotten, fell and was entombed/contained here. The circle syphoned & flared off (growth/life) energy from the barrow to keep it from building up. Many millennia old (Ancient Elven Empire or older). Broken 3 days ago, restoring the stones to their position won't fix it. The circle was built by great mages of the Elves and powerful Seelie Fae.
We see the prepared smoke signal rising from the Gnome camp indicating they need help.
Fae Hags or Ladies?
We race back, prepared for anything to find 2 gnomes arguing, 1 watching, and Tulla is throwing green leaves on the fire. 3 Gnomes are missing.
- Splinge went east to feed the gremlin (beezly)
- Pongo went north to find a river, he left just after we did
- Egan went north to look for Pongo
We find Splinge fairly quickly, the Gremlin got spooked and made his legs fall off. After carrying him back to camp, Tharlin picks up the scant trail and we follow the other two north.
The two Gnomes have managed to go in different directions so we split up too.
Pongo somehow avoided an area infested with giant spiders that we find by touch. We find him by a small stream talking with a Fae, near-avatar, Green Lady, Seelie Court, Woods Guardian, centuries old. The lady offered to help get the Gnomes flying cart free of the trees, if we help her by getting rid of some unseelie to the north-east who are troubling her. Less than a dozen of them, like dark, twisted Satyrs.
We discuss the mound, it is from before her time but she thinks it may be reborn now that its containment is breached, this is not necessarily a bad thing (from her point of view).
Tharlin, Dart & Tulla find Egan fleeing through the forest, chased by wood animates, made of sticks, bone and rune stones (non-college, spirit binding, dark ritualistic magic, a couple of hours to make each one. Sacrifice animal, binding spirit to its own skull to create the animus, made by a Black Hag). They engage. Tulla fires a fire-crossbow, Dart & Tharlin engage in melee, the fight is quick and one-sided. They then return to camp.
Several times today we have seen yellow-eyed ravens watching us, someone possessing them that withdraws when we pay attention (the eyes reverting). The Green Lady is intentionally vague, she says they are several beings it could be.
After lunch we hike north-east to where the Dark Satyrs are supposed to be, we're followed by moving trees. Clearing around a magic well, faun archers, we try to chat, one of them shoots (elbow jogged by an awakened tree), the fight is on. Hands (of earth and brambles) from both sides are effective, melee damage, spells, arrows. One of the fauns is killed by an awakened tree, one tree killed by fire arrows, one de-animated by the well. We capture:
- 2 x Faun - mostly Seelie court.
- 2 x Cervitaur (Faun-Deer style Centaur)
Chapter 3
Calendar
| Spring: Thaw 823 (10) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
|
Candlemansa | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | . | |||||
|
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |||||||
|
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Urgent request arrives | 18 | Party assembled/depart | 19 | 20 | |||||
|
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |||||||
|
|
28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| Spring: Seedtime 823 (11) | ||||||||||||||
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5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Rites of Thunor | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||||||
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12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | Eostre | 18 | |||||
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19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||||
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26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| Spring: Blossom 823 (12) | ||||||||||||||
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3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |||||||
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10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
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17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | Floralia | 22 | 23 | ||||||
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24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Walpurgisnacht | ||||||
