Hollow’s Last Hope (pt. 3) The Witch's Hut

The sounds of the forest become suddenly distant as the trees part, opening into a small, almost perfectly circular glade. The nearest stands of pine, eyln, and darkwood—all typically sturdy woods—twist away from the clearing, as if bent by some impossibly strong wind or seemingly in an attempt to flee despite their paralyzed roots. At the glade’s center squats an ugly cottage, little more than a pile of twigs, shoots, and ivy stacked upon mud walls. From the thatched roof dangle bundles of gnarled roots, old dried beast carcasses, and knucklebone bangles, all clattering together like gruesome wind chimes. A dozen small thatched fetishes—each shaped like a tiny man, imp, or rearing serpent—stand propped in the yard, keeping guard before a rickety plank door.


The heroes approach the small hut cautiously. Immediately, Surinder kicks down one of the small thatched fetishes to reassure his companions there is nothing to fear. There is an uneasy pause as everyone waits with dread that something horrible will happen. As their approach receives no resistance, Surinder again kicks, this time the rotting hut door shatters open.


Inside, the cottage is dank, reeking, and filled with shadows. Haphazardly hung shelves line the walls, covered in all manner of clay jugs, clouded bottles, strangely cut rocks, rotted bunches of herbs, and a museum of other crude curios and remnants of a bone grinder’s artifice. A rusted iron cauldron, with a mouth nearly 5 feet wide and a depth of at least 3 feet, dominates the hut’s single room, its ash-covered surface shaped with a relief of capering fiends and leering devils. Across from the door, against the far walls, stands a high-backed chair made of wicker, the gigantic curved tusks of some monstrous beast, and thousands of human teeth. In the chair sits what looks like a corpse wrapped in filthy burial linens, its form padded with pungent herbs and sprouting patches of thick white mold.


Surinder boldly marches inside and goes left while Br. Bjorn cautiously goes right. Eja is fixated by the figure in the chair opposite the door; she aims her bow at the figure and nervously waits for whatever horror haunts this cursed grove. Eilo stands behind Eja outside of the hut facing the forest. The crafty rogue fears an attack from behind as they are focused on the hut.


Eja reminds Surinder and Br. Bjorn to look for the jar of pickled root called rat's tail. Br. Bjorn peers at the shelves on his side of the hut being very careful not to disturb anything, suddenly everyone is startled by Surinder ransacking his shelves nosily. Directly following Surinder’s clatter, the hut is filled with sound of iron bending as if by a great wind. The heroes look in all directions but there attention returns to Surinder when screams in shock and pain. To everyone’s amazement the rusted iron cauldron has come to life and is attacking Surinder. The “mouth” of the cauldron has become a sinister toothless maw that snaps open and shut.


Eilo rushes to Surinder’s aid and attempts to restrain the cauldron. Eilo, in his heroic zeal, accidentally places his hand too close to the cauldron’s mouth. The cauldron bites Eilo’s arm, flips him into the air, catches the hobbit in it’s open mouth, and swallows him whole! The others gasp as the cauldron continues it’s biting attacks, they can hear Eilo’s cry’s for help coming from inside the cauldron. Br. Bjorn rushes over and begins hammering the beastly cauldron with his war hammer. Surinder catches the jaws of the cauldron and with all his strength holds it open just wide enough for Eilo to leap free. Other then some bumps and bruises Eilo appears unharmed. Surinder screams unintelligibly in rage then madly hacks at the cauldron with his long sword. Eilo and Br Bjorn beat on the cauldron. Eja fires an arrow and it reflects off the rounded iron.


The cauldron is being dented by the heroes vicious attack but it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Eja realizes this thing is some kind of guardian and runs over to the shelf to finish the search for the rat's tail root. A few moments of heated combat pass and Eja finds the jar. She quickly throws it and a couple of other items on the same shelf into her pack. Eja shouts over the clanging of battle, “I’ve found the shit we came for! Let’s just get the hell out of here!” Eja bounds for the door. Eilo and Br Bjorn rush out after Eja. Surinder backs up to the door and continues to slash away at the cauldron with mindless fury. Eja calls out to him, “What are you doing? Let’s go!” Surinder shouts something back about destroying it. Eja is confused by Surinder’s obsession and implores him, “We have a long way to go! Every moment we waste more people die, perhaps our loved ones! That thing is not even alive, let’s just go!” Surinder comes to his senses when he thinks of Maggie, the voluptuous barmaid he swore to save from the black scour taint. He gives the cauldron a final knock with his sword and races after the others who are almost to the tree line. They hear a crash as the cauldron breaks through the narrow door way in pursuit of the heroes. Terrified that the fight is not winnable, the heroes flee to the trees! Soon as they crossed the threshold of the glen, the cauldron stops it’s pursuit and lazily waddles back into the hut.


The heroes rest after placing a comfortable distance between them and old witches hut. Other than the rat’s tail root, Eja grabbed several items on the same shelf in her hurry. Inside her pack is a disgusting, shrunken head on a necklace size string, a pouch filled with tiny statuettes and rare stones and another pouch containing essential salts. After pondering over their hard earned oddities they decide to press on to the ancient ruins of the dwarven monastery.

Hollow’s Last Hope (pt. 2) Into the DarkMoon Vale

The heroes leave straight away into the dark forest. They know they have a long way ahead and every moment counts to save the people of Falcon’s Hollow. They go as fast as they can through the thick dark forest.

Not even a couple hours in the come upon a set of deep, goat-like tracks. Eja determines that whatever made these depressions walks upright, and she can easily follow them. The tracks only persist for approximately 50 feet before mysteriously disappearing. The heroes are concerned but are pressed for time and continue heading for the river.

Still traveling, a couple of hours later the happen upon several large rocks deep in the forest whose undersides are covered in rare, glowing mold. Bjorn informs everyone if they harvest enough of the mold without destroying it can serve as a light source. Once removed from the rock, the mold continues to glow with the brightness of a torch for about three days. Eilo Buckram, the hobbit, strips and rubs the mold over the parts of his body that can be concealed by clothing so he could illuminate their way by simple opening his shirt.

Almost to the river, the Heroes happen upon a dead tree streaked with multicolored fairy blood. Three sprite-like creatures, known as keld piskies, are pinned here, their exsanguinated bodies turned to gnarled wood. Bjorn recalls dubious stories about fairy blood being used to turn lead into gold.

Finally the heroes reach the edge of the river at twilight. Not far from the edge of the forest-shrouded river, a fox with large ears and bright orange fur lies bleeding, its hindquarters caught fully in the jaws of a crude iron trap. The heroes rush to its aid. Eja uses her natural animal empathy to calm the distraught fox. Surinder mightily pulls apart the trap. Bjorn calls out to Iomedae to heal the small woodland creature. As the Bjorn begins his praying two very large rooks with distinctive, jagged beaks and unkempt, oily black feathers, known as Razorcrows swoop down on the other heroes. Both birds take a slash at Surinder as they fly by. When the others are distracted by the birds, an arrow whizzes past Bjorn’s head from further down the riverbank. Bjorn runs for the cover of the tree line, shouting for the others to take cover. Surinder places himself between the unseen archer and Eja. Eja looks over Surinder’s shoulder and with her sharp hunter’s eyes she spots their assailant, a grayskinned hobgoblin with a prodigious cleft palate, lurks in the nearby tree line. Eja swings her mighty longbow from her shoulder, cocks her truest arrow, pulls back with all her strength, aims carefully, and releases. The others watch as the shape of the hobgoblin falls from his hiding place onto the shore about 80 ft away with Eja’s arrow deeply imbedded in his forehead.

The heroes know that time is of the essence but have traveled so far in such a short amount of time. They know they will become exhausted and the forest is dangerous enough during the day, they reluctantly agree to sleep for the night. Despite their strenuous day, their worry for their sick loved ones keeps them up a few moments longer.

Hollow’s Last Hope (part 1)

The Characters I introduced in my previous blog have finished the adventure and have saved dozens of people from the plague. It was a wild ride and below are the highlights of the game. Enjoy!

Perched at the edge of civilized lands, the small town of Falcon’s Hollow has always had to rely on itself to solve its problems. Meanwhile, the uncaring lumber barons squeeze the common folk for every last copper, deaf to their pleas. Now the hacking coughs of the sick are heard throughout town. The plague has come to Falcon’s Hollow and the town’s leaders can’t be bothered to stop it. Several dozen people in Falcon’s Hollow have contracted a fungal disease called blackscour taint. While the malady is not exceptionally deadly, poor conditions and a general lack of supplies mean that many of the sick—especially the elderly and young—face mortal consequences. Slowly deteriorating, most of the afflicted can hang on for several more days, but already the weakest have succumbed, with their number growing daily. Blackscour taint is an ingested disease with an incubation period of 1 to 3 days. Those who are infected develop a hacking cough that quickly turns bloody if the disease is allowed to progress. But not all the people of Falcon’s Hollow are helpless labors. Among the residents are a handful of locals that are more then what they seem and find themselves compelled to help their friends and neighbors no matter the danger.

The heroes each have a friend, family member or neighbor that has come down with this painfully lethal disease. Eja Clayborne has learned that a little girl and her mom, who shop at the general store Eja works at, have both gotten sick with Blackscour. Br. Bjorn "Ghostsbane" Hammerstein’s mentor and close friend Lady Cirthana, the priestess of Iomedae has also fallen deathly ill. Eilo Buckram’s Father has come down with Blackscour and he has been bedridden. Surinder Murali has always been sweet on one of the waitress at the Sitting Duck tavern, she has contracted the sickness too.

The heroes visit the local herbalist, Laurel to help find a cure. She tells them of a strange medicine she has never made before, but she has tried everything else and nothing is helping. She has most of the ingredients but lack the three major ones that would possible cure the 40 people that are dieing of the Blackscour.

“Some rare roots and concentrations, most of which I have here, but there’s three I don’t. Elderwood moss, which I’ve never heard of, but granny says the stuff only grows on the oldest tree in a forest. A specially pickled root called rat’s tail, again, sounds like hoojoo to me. And seven ironbloom mushrooms, stunty little things that only grow in dark places thick with metal, a favorite among dwarves, or so I hear.”

She gave some suggestions as to where to find the ingredients. “Well, for the elderwood mold, there’s gotta be an oldest tree in the vale. Damned if I know where it is, though. The rat’s tail and mushrooms are even longer shots. Way north, toward the mountains, people say there used to live a bunch of dwarves. They’re not there anymore, but I’d bet their forges are. If you can find ironbloom anywhere around here, that’d be your best bet. “As for the rat’s tail, who knows? Well. Actually. Ulizmila, the witch that lives deep in the woods might. She’s a crafty, mean thing that knows all sorts of strangeness. She might even have one. I don’t know what she might want for it, but I doubt it’d come cheap. My grandmother traded her sight to the old crone for a few pages of what she knew, and that was years and years back, and I don’t know a soul who got any nicer as they got older.”

The heroes seek out Br. Bjorn Hammerstein’s father who works for the lumber consortium in hope that he may know the location of the oldest tree in the forest. He doesn’t but refers them to Milon Rhoddam, the most experienced woodsman in the Lumber Consortium.
The heroes gather their supplies and head out of Falcon’s Hallow. There first stop is at one of the cut yards a few hours out of town near the edge of the great forest, Darkmoon Vale. After intimidating the pompous camp foreman, Jarlben Trookshavits, they meet with Milon Rhoddam. Milon Rhoddam a blunt, quiet man, is one of the most experienced wanderers and woodsmen in the region. His nephew has taken ill with blackscour taint when the heroes explain they’re trying to find reagents to brew a cure, he gladly sketches them a rough map of the forest, marking the location of where he believes Ulizmila’s hut, the oldest tree in the forest, the dwarven ruins stand and advises them of a short cut across the river that could save them days of travel. The heroes examine the map and decide to head to the river and than to Ulizmila’s hut first.







Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!!!