GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 14 - Death Frost Doom - Part 2 of 2

So, here stands the final chronicle of my two-year Basic Fantasy campaign. It ended a year ago and I'm just now getting around to finishing off the write-up. I'll save the campaign summary for the end. For now, let's dive back into the adventure.

The party find themselves in the tomb of one of the Greater Repugnances, the Crypt of the Exalted Interrogator, Aetheldredd Aleph. She begins to question and taunt them, particularly Nyphus, the paladin, who carries on his person the purloined, cursed dagger from the altar in the ice-skull chapel. The paladin and Renic the dwarf take up the attack while Mel, the elven cleric, and Pater, the halfling thief skirt around the melee to check the front door. Nyphus struggles in fight before realizing the mummy is taunting him about the dagger which keeps him from landing blows (due to disadvantaged attacks, see previous post on Knowledge Checks). After Mel and Pater give up on the door, which is barred from the other side, they all join in the fight and best Aetheldredd damaged mostly from bone hooks caused by responding, "I don't know," to her questions.

The crew head back up the air shaft to the kitchen and return to the chapel, finally examining the east door and the basins requiring a gift of a tooth to pass. Once they figure out what is required, Nyphus wrenches out a molar and they proceed. The droning of the Sacred Parasite unnerves them as does the embalming station, the hall of memory, and each of large crypts they briefly explore as they make their way down the hallway. When they get to the Sacred Parasite, they see through the creature's body and realize their quarry, the Miter of Tah, sits upon the altar. Intense (largely fire-based, missile) combat ensues resulting in the death of the creature and the group a bit worse for the wear, two having been paralyzed by liquid time vomit, and all escaping with only a few hit points each.

That's when the crypts started opening releasing the living dead, beginning with the children next to the Parasite. They high-tailed it out of there trying to secure doors as they went.They made it up and out of the cabin before the dead were able to follow. Nyphus used his bridge arrow given to him by the elven deity in the medusa's shrine which created a straight, though narrow shot down the mountain. Zeke Duncaster was likely a goner as would be the village at the foot of the mountain, but the party had to get back to Nemesine's acolytes to take them back to his skyfortress over Ravenstone and give him the Miter of Tah so that he would leave the Western Lands and disband the Green Mark's slave trade.

They make it back through portal and deliver Nemesine the miter, his ticket off of this plane. He thanks the party who then ask what will happen to the undead hoard they now unleashed on the world. He shows them the seaport town where they had sent the freed Mothers of the slave pits. Nemesine explains this small village is just due south of Demonfrost Mountain and will be crawling with zombies within a week's time. Before the party can object to the trick, Nemesine places the miter on his head and the sidhe disappears.

Immediately the fortress begins to crack and slowly fall from the sky. The party follow the stunned acolytes of the Green Mark outside to the portal connected to the chapel. Within the space of a half hour, the fortress crashes into the bay of Ravenstone demolishing ships and buildings. A riot of slaves revolt against the cult and the town. All is chaos and the party climb up into the hill with others to survey the carnage that was partly of their making.

Campaign Epilogue

This campaign was epic compared to the exploits of my youth and a good way to get back into gaming. Although I used the Morgansfort module as the setting I re-wrote and re-worked most of it. Basic Fantasy is a terrific system that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good neutral OSR game. As I've said before, it's like the mix of Basic and Advanced D&D that I had played as a kid if only I had thought of some of the changes Chris Gonnerman made. Going forward, it's what I would use if I want to play a standard fantasy B/X-style game. One of the reasons I haven't bought Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials is because it is just a (very good) restatement of a game I already own. I like the changes Basic Fantasy made to that game and I don't think I'd ever want to go back.

However, in running the campaign, I discovered my tastes for the kind of game I wanted to run started to change. I found myself not as thrilled to just play elves-and-orcs/Keep on the Borderlands D&D anymore. I wanted something darker and weirder. It's easy to tweak Basic Fantasy to do what I wanted, but I longed for something I didn't need to tweak. I didn't want demi-human PCs anymore. I didn't want to re-skin humanoid monsters to humans anymore. At least not all the time. When I feel like running that kind of a classic game again, this is the one I'll turn to. I could easily see using something like Titan (Advanced Fighting Fantasy) as a setting, or even Necrotic Gnome's Dolmenwood.

One of my players was a disappointed with the way the campaign ended. He was bummed they had unknowingly unleashed a hoard of undead upon the world. He wanted to know if that had been inevitable. Was there a way that they could have "won," meaning gotten the quest item, not awoken the dead, and not caused the city of Ravenstone to burn in the fires and chaos of a slave revolt. It wasn't inevitable. They could have declined Nemesine's offer since they weren't affected by his Geas. They could have fought him or joined his ranks and freed the slaves from within. They could have left the Miter of Tah where it was. But no, as a party of 3-4 levels, they was no chance for them to beat the dungeon within a couple sessions. He felt that was somehow unfair and had hoped for a campaign end with closure around the various story arcs that tied up all loose ends. To me, that's a narrative story, not a role-playing game. I don't blame the module or the player choices, it's just a mismatch of expectations.

This is biggest hurdle I face going forward. Finding players that are willing to be challenged, not afraid of character death, and open to a system that doesn't have a lot of mechanical player options. I'm willing to hang in there in order to get what I want though. This campaign was a learning experience playing with people used to more modern play styles. There were disconnects sometimes, but mostly the sessions were just really fun.

Thoughts on Death Frost Doom

Death Frost Doom was a satisfying way to end my campaign. Although it has a reputation as a campaign-ender (or maybe campaign-ruiner), I think it could be equally effective as a way to begin a campaign. I can easily see a campaign starting off by a group of hapless 1st-level PCs wandering into this evil cult tomb and unleashing doom upon the land. Okay great, now what are you going to do about it?

Even before I ran the module I considered it among the best adventures I'd read. I know some others disagree. Some find it too slow or too drastic in its outcome. More than this though, I think people take issue with it because they, like my friend above, don't see it as an adventure that is winnable. Personally, I take issue with the notion that adventures should have at least one outcome possible where the players kill everything, take all the treasure, and suffer no losses within a 4-6 hour session. Technically, "winning" is doable in Death Frost Doom. It would just take time, a lot of research, and some divination. The skulls will break, but if the Sacred Parasite is not be killed, the party can lock the doors, take the book of names down the mountain and start consulting sages, looking up rumors, etc. Once they divine the nature of the curse, they could bring a large scale clerical force to prepare to properly deal with the thousands of living dead. Then the Greater Repugnances could be dealt with. It's not impossible and would likely take years in game to do, but if you really want to deal with the evil once and for all, there is a campaign's worth of adventure to be had.

I have read the claim that DFD is a rip-off of an old White Dwarf adventure, The Lichway. There are only two real similarities between the adventures that I could find.

1.) The Lichway is a long corridor filled with 652 skeletons that lie dormant unless disturbed.
2.) The Susurrus (later compiled in the Monster Manual) creates a dronesong that can be heard through the dungeon.

Both of these elements have an analogue in Death Frost Doom, however, they are different enough to make claims of DFD being a rip-off a bit of a stretch. DFD's mass graves contain thousands of undead in separate huge, themed chambers. And they awake based on the ice crystal clock in the chapel and the defeat of the Sacred Parasite (the Susurrus analogue). Mass graves in tombs are pretty common in adventures. The Sacred Parasite's dronesong is the closest parallel between the adventures, but the Sacred Parasite is described as a dirty white balloon with a face like a twisted knot at the end singing its drone, whereas the Susurrus is a 7-foot tall headless gorilla-like beast whose breathing through pores is what makes its sound. Not alike.

There are a few other similarities - a giant spider, a violet strain of black lotus - but on the whole, there's not much there. To my mind the actual evidence of the claims of plagiarism are pretty weak. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see it. Not when there are countless B2 copies, S3 clones, and X1 hommages. The cabin in the woods as dungeon entrance, the liquid time element, the ice skull clock, the chapel organ, the Greater Repugnances - these are not in Lichway (as I could see). The Lichway has a lot of water elements and is packed with monsters including new ones like the gollum-like Svarts and toad-ish Spinescales, as well as bog-standard stirges, lizard men, and goblins.

Adventure modules prove themselves in the playing. I found it to be easy to run and my group had a good time with it. You want to know what makes an adventure one of the best ever? The test is not how fondly people remember it or how much money it goes for on eBay. The proof is people still play it after 20 or 30 years. B2, X1, S1, Thracia - people still play these and will continue to play them. I can easily see people running DFD 20 years from now, no problem.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 13 - Death Frost Doom, part 1 of 2

In the morning, the party leads the group of freed Mothers to the chapel of the Green Mark, down to the crypt, and through the green crystal portal to Bishop Nemesine’s floating cathedral over Ravenstone which is built into a dead titan’s decomposing head. Nemesine leads the group into a small chapel/shrine room of the side of the main chamber. There is an altar, and a bloody magic circle off the floor. Off this chamber is a set of two opposing alcoves, which between them function as a in/out portals, each with green crystals. Nemesine sends the Mothers through first to a small portside town on the western side of the northern continent. The party sees the Tarred Goose in port.

Nemesine then delivers his terms to the party. He will send them with two of his acolytes to an area north in the Demonfrost Mountains, specifically to the foot of Mt. Deathfrost. The top of this peak is said to house the tomb of the Duvan’Ku death cult, the original worshippers of Shah Gzerohn. A group of 12 clerics of Tah sacrificed themselves to seal in the evil there. Also sealed inside the mountain is the Miter of Tah, a powerful relic stolen by the cult which Nemesine seeks to erase his curse and leave this dimension. If the party returns with the Miter, Nemesine promises to disband the Green Mark, end the slave industry of Ravenstone, and leave the known plane. The PCs are welcome to any other treasure found there. Nemesine has also gives them a green gem which will allow them to read ancient runes and writings they may find in the tomb.

The party is equipped with furs, boots, and camping/climbing equipment. They pass through the portal half a day’s journey from the town at the foot of the mountain. Rumors of horror are told that night before an early rise to head up the mountain. Halfway up the mountain the two acolytes take their leave as they cannot approach any closer to the peak without intense mental and physical anguish. A little further on the party discover the shack of Zeke Duncaster, a crazed old trapper who has made his life on this mountain by giving headstones to the unmarked graves at the top of the mountain. One notable marker for Marybelle Walker is in progress. Zeke discovered the names in a book in the cabin at the top of the mountain. He begs them not to proceed and even attempts to stop them short of physically barring their way.

The party reaches the top about 10:00 p.m. The moon shines overhead. The cabin sits at the top of the summit looking down on a huge field of graves and markers covered in snow. An evil-looking dead tree with a hangman’s noose watches them. There is a faint droning sound as they approach the cabin which gets louder the closer they get. They move to the back door where a set of somewhat recent tracks leads off amongst the graves. They find a frozen corpse there in a nightshirt perhaps from a few days ago. There is also a well that the party decides to stay away from after Pater’s episode in the buried elven undercity.

The party enters the cabin from the back and start to explore the back rooms. A harpsichord can be heard upon entering, but it immediately stops as the PCs enter the room with the instrument. That room also features a large painting of the party themselves dressed as they are now, standing before a large skeleton-encrusted altar with a dark passage open to the left of the altar. In the painting, Mel is seen drinking from a cup in one hand and holding a handful of fist-sized glass spheres. In the empty bedroom across the hall, they find a stash of purple lotus powder which Renik recognizes as a potent natural hallucinogen. They take the lot. They find a plain kitchen and a front room with a fireplace, mounted stag head, mirror, a clock, and a desk with a book of millions of names of sacrifices going back millennia – the last few pages full of Zeke’s checkmarks. There are also three chairs that face the party as they come in. The mirror is cold with runes for “every brother” and “every sister” on either side. The stag’s eyes are cloudy and bubbled. Oh, in the middle of the room is a trapdoor on the floor with a padlock on it.

Before trying the padlock, the group inspects the last bedroom where they find the belongings of the corpse outside, one Norquist Orve, a mountaineer and tax dissident. His journal details the path he took up the mountainside, not the longer, cleared path the party took. They take some of his climbing gear and rations and go back to the trapdoor which the unlock and open, exposing a dark shaft, 50’ deep with iron rungs inside. They descend without light as there is no room for lantern or torch within the shaft. Renik and Pater spark a witchfinder candle at the bottom. The droning becomes louder with the opening of the trapdoor and as they go down.

A long hallway of crystalline walls writhes with agonized faces calling out in a lost language. It ends with a door with a gargoyle’s head as a lock. A key is in the lock which requires one to place their hand in the mouth. Pater is volunteered and the door opens and he takes the key. An antechamber of small table with severed hands holding quills next to parchment with the instructions to “transcribe” and “replace” carved into the hands. A set of bronze double doors to east feature a huge sigil, the sign of the Duvan’Ku. The party opens the doors and lets out a gust of cold air.

The group enter the large chapel of the Duvan’Ku. The room is shaped like a blunt-tipped arrowhead pointing east. Rows of stone slab prayer plinths cover the floor. Twelve ice skulls hang from a ceiling fixture. An altar inside a huge skull is at the far end. To the left of the altar is an organ made of bones. Murals adorn the northern wall, one of hanged women with a caption, “name them, but build no monument unto them.” Another mural shows a man being stabbed with nine swords and thrown into a pit as an offering. Two sinks of black water are attached to the southeastern wall and filled with teeth. The Duvan’Ku rune for “gift” is atop the basins. There is a large bronze door with a wheeled lock on the east wall between the altar and the sinks. Another small door leads out in the north wall.

The group inspect everything. Nyphus finds and takes a jewel-encrusted dagger and a ruby necklace in a bowl on the altar. One of them (Mel?) attempts to match the note on the organ to the increasingly louder drone to no effect. Pater or Renic fish a locket with a portrait of a man out of the teeth basin. It matches the picture of the man in the mural stabbed by nine swords. During their time investigating two of the ice skulls hanging from the ceiling have fallen to the floor and shattered. Water drips from the others. The group contemplate pulling out a tooth to offer as a gift in the sink but instead head through the north door.

They enter a hallway with many doors. They try the room to the right which contains dirty bedclothes and cots. Searching discovers a wooden mask with human teeth (obviously taken from the basin) inserted into it. The door to the left reveals a small set of rooms – one locked (that they can’t open), a toilet, and a library with a map. They copy the map on a sheet of paper and move on. The next room on the left off the main hallway is a kitchen/eating area with marble benches and a firepit. The upper walls are stained with smoke. Pater searches the cabinets and the upper walls, and finding no ventilation, discovers a place where there are no stains. A small panel in the ceiling is found with a passage or flue about 5’ x 5’ heading above the room. Pater goes first, and the rest follow, but it is a tight fit.

The passage leads into the ceiling of a room with an elaborate bone-encrusted sarcophagus with a scene on the top in bas relief of hundreds of beheaded men on a battlefield. The top is removed and a desiccated female mummy rises. Nyphus addresses her. She looks at him and asks him, “What do you carry?”

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 12

We last left our party across the street from a tenement building in a Ravenstone neighborhood where a cultist they were following had just entered. After a minute of discussion, the group stakes out in an alley while Pater crosses the road and enters the apartment building. Pater hears a voice from the door on the right. It’s a man gruffly speaking in a tone of command. The door begins to open and Pater ducks back into the shadows under the stairs. The cultist exits followed by a chain of very pregnant women. Pater dives and backstabs the cultist who falls under the lethal strike of his blade.

The women, dressed in rags and bound together at the wrists, are shocked, but looked somewhat numb to the violence. Pater asks who they are. A young, dark-haired woman says they are known as The Mothers. They are slaves whose lives are dedicated to breeding slave stock. The unfortunate brother was collecting them to bring them back to the pits from their physician visit. Pater brings them outside and across the street where their bonds are cut. Pater goes back inside to hide the body inside the apartment. He gets the body back inside, but leaves quickly when he hears a voice from the back room ask, “Br. Woodward, is that you,” identifying him as the son of the widow from the night before.

Two men come out of the building just as Pater makes it to the alley after having discovered Woodward. The noon bell tolls and the streets begin filling with townspeople making their way to the chapel. The group find a (for now) empty house where they hole up while they decide what to do next. The household is a middle-class home unremarkable except for the oil-painted picture of the demon lord, Shah Gzerohn, in multiple rooms. The townspeople are apparently true believers. Nyphus and Mel head to the chapel while Pater and Renic head northeast towards the industrial warehouse section of town. They find an abandoned storeroom on the edge of town.

Pater leaves Renic in charge of the Mothers while he leaves to watch the chapel. He meets two men on the street on his way there. Renic leaves the Mothers alone to keep from being left on guard duty. Nyphus and Mel make their way in to the chapel from near back of a long line. The middle of the chapel contains a giant green crystal  coming up from the floor. Both make their way downstairs to the sacristy where a line of worshippers are entering a portal through the crystal. Nyphus enters the portal, Mel does not until later under pressure from the evil brotherhood after she tries to make her way down into the slave pits. They find themselves in front of a giant stronghold on an enormous cloud bank over Ravenstone.

They are given an audience with Archbishop Nemesine in a throne room full of Ravenstone worshippers/townspeople. In the gallery leading to the throne room are large oil works depicting brutal scenes of worship of Shah Gzerohn as well as Nemesine’s personal history. At the end are recent works of the party themselves, saving the early barbarian tribe from the mural in the dungeon of the Island Fortress. Nemesine is a Sidhe, a faerie being from another world. He and his lover are exiles from their home world and were cursed by clerics of Tah shortly after their arrival in this one. He cannot walk the earth in his true form and may not leave this one for another. Here on the cloud demi-plane he at least may cover his hideous new form, a mass of writhing maggots. His lover, similarly disfigured, committed suicide.

Nemesine fails to Geas both Nyphus and Mel. Instead he offers them a deal. He seeks the Miter of Tah which was stolen by the Duvan’Ku, the original worshippers of Shah Gzerohn before the barbarians. The cult was vanquished 700 years ago in their last shrine in the Demonfrost Mountains on a peak called Deathfrost by a group of Tah’s disciples attempting to take back the magical Miter. The clerics never returned, but the cult was also never seen again. It is said Deathfrost’s shrine is filled with gold and ancient artifacts of wonder. Nemesine’s acolytes cannot climb the peak. Their green marks begin to burn and their minds fray approaching the peak. The Miter will let Nemesine remove his curse and leave this plane for good. If the party returns with the item, Nemesine vows to let the freed Mothers go, disband the Green Mark, put an end to the slave pits of Ravenstone, and leave this plane. Mel draws up a contract between them, sealed with the mark of Persephone and Demeter.

In the meantime, Renic leaves the Mothers in their warehouse hideout for the chapel. Pater sees him approach from his hiding place. Renic quickly escalates into a conflict with the acolytes and chops one in two. The fight flushes out Pater as well. They are pursued by cultists, eventually lose them, and meet back at the warehouse. Nyphus and Mel return later with the terms of their agreement, planning to return back to the chapel the next morning.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 11

After Nyphus lays down a challenge to the black-cloaked cultists, he starts to cross the street towards them when he hears the whistle of the city guard. He stops in his tracks and waits for the guard to reach him. At the same time, the cultists also begin walking toward Nyphus. The parade, and attending onlookers, remain watchful to see how the drama plays out. Pater, Mel, and Renic blend in to the crowd and watch to see what happens to Nyphus.

The guards approach Nyphus and the cultists and demand to know what’s going on. Nyphus accuses the cultists of evil acts at Morgansfort, and the cultists expose Nyphus and his party as the wanted murderers of members of their order. Things become heated when Jochim, led by the boy from his office the day before, suddenly steps in and advocates on Nyphus’ behalf. With the duties master involved, the guards decide this squabble is above their pay grade and announce that they will bring both parties before the Duke to settle the matter.

A march to the palace follows with guards between the cultist and Nyphus, Jochim, and the boy. Pater, Mel, and Renic all follow separately at a distance. As the group moves into the merchant quarter on the way to the Noble quarter a carriage with the initials, MR, passes them, seemingly on its to the palace too. The procession enters the palace gates, but the rest wait outside before deciding to regroup back at the ship.

Upon entering the throne room, the Duke is seen finishing up some business with a group of elegantly garbed elvish diplomats from Avenrho. It is their ship docked at the wharf next to the Amber Tide and the Tarred Goose. The Duke tiredly asks the guard what this is about. After a brief synopsis of the situation, Nyphus lays out his case passionately. The cultists lay out theirs. During their testimonies two people enter on the side of the throne room, an elderly gentleman in a wheel chair and his much-younger caretaker, a raven-haired woman with cruel eyes. This is Baron Morgan Rathwynn, father of Halden. He recounts the accusations of murder delivered to him by the Bailiff and Father Thelbain. The boy, Caleb, tells Jochim he saw the Baron’s caretaker with a green mark tattoo on her chest while she was undressed. The Duke, not wanting to get involved in a religious dispute, takes each party into his private quarters for an interview. He meets with Nyphus and Jochim last. He tells Nyphus to slip away as early as he can the following morning once the ships are allowed to disembark.

The group go back to the Goose and ask them to leave as early as possible. They gather their stuff from the wagon. They give Jochim the wagon for his trouble. Nyphus thanks the boy and they all leave early the next day. The party and the ship’s crew get on well. Much drunken cavorting occurs.

On the third night of what is to be a two -week voyage, Nyphus has a dream. He finds himself in a long stone hallway. At the end are two fountains. An eerie music plays. To the left is a milky fog of star lights, beyond which is an altar. On the altar, beside two golden goblets and a large book is a miter. Nyphus wakes with a start. The boat rocks restlessly and the crew can be heard up on deck. Nyphus goes on deck as does the rest of the party. Four large Rocs are circling overhead, but do not attack. The crew are alarmed by the great creatures’ passivity and spooked by the strange omen. The next day they Ravenstone is sighted off the starboard bow – a week and a half early.

The Goose’s crew quietly unload their cargo and take off, glad to rid of the strange southerners. The party find accommodations at a tavern/inn near the docks. Mel offers blessings to the fellow clientele in an attempt to strike up conversation and learn any news about town. She meets a middle-aged woman named Mrs. Harrelson, a widow who is proud of her son, a recent acolyte to the Green Mark, Brother Woodward. The widow talks of the cult in an adoring voice, awed that her son was part of such a holy group, reiterating the phrase, “The Green Mark will open the hearts of men.” She mentions that she hasn’t been able to see much of her son since his vows. Mel offers to dictate a letter to him and deliver it on her behalf. The widow graciously accepts and pays Mel for the service. There is a casual reference to slave pit, but beyond nothing seems too out of the ordinary.

The next day, the group heads out in the direction of the chapel of the Green Mark which is said to be at the heart of town, all roads leading to it. The morning streets are gloomy, due to the bank of clouds that hang over the city. The weather is brisk, but not yet cold, due to the humidity. No one appears on the streets which, although clean, are packed with ugly, three-story, shingle-sided tenements.

They reach the chapel, a small, squat and windowless building on its own at the center of a five-pointed intersection. Before approaching, they see a cultist leave the building and furtively move down the street opposite. The group decide to follow him, stopping when he enters a tenement. They wait and decide what to do next.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 10

The party question the young cultist they've just take prisoner, the lone survivor of their roadside ambush, and let him go. They take stock of the wagon’s contents, and bury the bodies of the cultists off the road. Disguised as cultists they head north to Slateholm. Close to the city, they run across a farmer and wife heading south with an oxen and cart and squabbling loudly. Nyphus greets them and learns there is a tax to enter the city in preparation for the Harvest Festival. Nyphus give them the needed funds while Pater sneaks onto their cart as the couple heads back. The plan is to meet up later inside Slateholm. Nyphus leads the wagon after the cart a ways back. They are questioned by the guards and end up paying the fine.

They see notices for their capture, but they look at least a week old, covered by other posters. They make their way through the Docks to the offices of the duty collection manager, Jochim Kellborn – the man who introduced them not three months ago. Jochim maintains an underground railroad for runaway slaves from Urd who stow away on merchant ships. The group enters his office dressed as cult members. Jochim is giving orders to a boy of about 9. He dismisses the boy, greets his old friends without ceremony or surprise, and begins questioning them about what happened at Morgansfort. He digs into them a bit about the mess they’ve made and how they’ve gotten themselves into trouble.

They party defend themselves, tell their side of the story, and asked to be taken to the Duke. Jochim tells them that the cultists have suddenly rose up in power and influence in the area, and they need to be delicate. He can keep their wagon and belongings safe, but isn’t willing to still his neck out by trying to intercede on their behalf with the Duke. He says that there are a lot of tensions right now in Slatesholm. The followers of the hundred gods (the old, pagan religions) are starting to proselytize on the streets and the Church of Tah, Reformed is watching them carefully, though not doing anything yet. He tells them if they insist on going to Ravenstone they could get a ride on one of the ships in the harbor, but no one will be leaving until the day after tomorrow, until after the harvest festival. The group leave to find a ship.

Pater slips off the wagon before the couple make it to the market square. He nearly bumps into a couple of cultists, but slips past. He finds lodging for the night in a common room of the Medusa’s Mirror in the Merchant Quarter. He starts asking around for information.

The rest of the group talk to Captain Ferris Merriweather of the Amber Tide, a clean and beautiful ship. He asks for an exorbitant rate, and laughs at their attempt to bargain. They next try the Tarred Goose, an ugly-looking longship that looks like it’s undergone heavy homegrown modifications. They approach a group of drunken sailors near the gangplank. They are recommended to “Captain” Baldrick who is currently passed out and must be roused. He bargains their fare down to something they can afford, and will allow them to sleep on the ship that night.

The group split up to gather information. Renik finds Pater in the Merchant Quarter and takes him back to the others. Mel and Nyphus split up and ask around the Docks, no longer disguised as cultists. They learn although there is some support for the cult, there is some among the populace that view them with fear and distrust. They all hear the following rumors:

·        Beware the Green Mark. Its print is poison and will stain your soul.

·        The Monks of the Mark bring peace to the people. Their verdant sign will open the hearts of men.

·        The old gods are restless. They will make their move soon and return.

The party sleep somewhat fitfully onboard with the rowdy, bearded and burly sailors. In the morning they go down to the main thoroughfare and watch the harvest festival parade. A range of  deities and beliefs are represented. The main float features Demeter and Persephone representing their annual meeting with Hades. The parade ends at the “underworld” of the Slateholm cemetary.

A commotion breaks out as three giant rats drop on a group of grubby, poor children watching. The party leap into action and quickly dispatch the rodents. An angry woman dressed in frilly antiquated clothing gathers the children up to lead them off. In the calm, as the parade goers look on the party, they see two black-robed men watching from the other side of the street. Nyphus assumes a threatening, beckoning pose and a whistle blows as the city watch close in to keep the peace.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 9

After spending the next several days resting and recuperating, the group leave the cave they have been hiding in and hit the road. The past few days noises and lights could be heard at night in the direction of the Old Island Fortress and the fort above, but the morning of their departure all is quiet. They have lived off the fruits of the sea as Nyphus was quite capably able to keep them all fed. This includes the sullen and taciturn, Br. Karnoff, the Green Mark acolyte and their captive. They let Karnoff know in no uncertain terms should he attempt to bolt for they will not hesitate to dispense with him. Their plan is to keep to the road until other travelers are heard, and then taking cover in the forest until the way is clear.

Very soon on the road they begin to see signposts with bounty notices looking for four travelers meeting their description. The group is wanted for the murder of one cultist, and the abduction of another. It is signed by the Bailiff Tomandy and Father Thelbain of Morgansfort. Conspicuously absent is Baronet Halden Rathwynn’s name. The group pull the notices and destroy them as they go. Mel cuts her into a choppy shag to hide her ears, Nyphus shaves his beard, Pater and Renic do what they can to look unobtrusive. Karnoff, however, still looks like a cultist.

Nyphus takes off his gear and pretends to beg for food and clothes at a nearby farm. The clothes are for the cultist, to disguise him as well. Nyphus is taken in by a farmer who asks her grown son to take him upstairs to get some of his older brothers’ old clothes. The son quietly complies while the woman fixes some bread and cheese for Nyphus, who hides a gold piece near a window to pay them for the debt. Nyphus gives the clothes to Karnoff for disguise.

A few nights later the group are camped in the woods off the eastern side of the road. During the middle of the night, while Renic is on watch, noises outside the group’s clearing are heard. Sounds of shuffling feet in the brush. More tellingly, a rank smell of fecal death permeates the camp. The group wake up and quickly arm themselves. Figures appear on the edge of the campfire’s light. They are human, naked and smeared with dried blood, dirt, and human waste. They are moaning and one of them is holding his prolapsed bowels below him in his hands. Renic leaves the light to circle around the intruders to find out where they came from. He tracks their trail back to a filthy hole of a cave where the smell of excrement and sickness is more pungent. Back at camp, Mel tries to communicate with them. The figures make motions to stay away from them, but make imploring motions. The group interpret the pantomime to indicate that they are asking for aid. The group gather some of their food and place it outside the circle. The emaciated diseased take the offering and shuffle off.

A few nights later the group is again awoken in the early morning by the emergence of dancing lights moving toward them in the forest. As they come closer they reveal themselves to be otherworldly Will-o-the-Wisps. They get the group to follow them further east, away from the road. Twenty minutes later the eerie lights lead them to a clearing, built like a natural amphitheater with a horseshoe-shaped marble temple at the bottom. Lifelike statues dot the courtyard. Pater scouts ahead and enters the temple building starting with the room on the right, which he finds to be an artist’s studio, smelling of turpentine and stretched canvas.

While Pater examines the left room the group finds a gallery of work in the room on the building’s right. Before entering the middle archway, or the crest of the horseshoe of the temple structure, a cloaked and hooded figure walks out. A female voice asks them who they are and what they are doing here. When she sees the Will o’ the Wisps she makes some snarky comment to them. The figure and Mel exchange introductions. The woman is Calista. She removes her hood to reveal a burlap mask covering her head, the top of which riles with movement. She explains she has lived in this shrine for a millennium, cursed by the elven goddess to remain here for her crimes. Once a rich and beautiful noble woman, Calista was transformed into a medusa for by the goddess after she burned a dryad wood. She came to the shrine and exacted vengeance on the elves there turning them to stone. The goddess imprisoned her in the shrine, doomed to recreate the lost beauty in art form. No one may leave the shrine without permission of the goddess below.

The party explain their mission of rooting out the cult of the Green Mark. The medusa tells the party the Wisps brought them for a reason and they will need to speak to the goddess. Small figures, wood golems the medusa has created through dead dryads. The child-like beings mutely lead the party into the shrine, through underground tunnels to a lower chamber where a door in the wall stands. The door opens and they are presented with avatar of the goddess. All by Mel are paralyzed with fear. The goddess communicates to Mel telepathically telling her she will let the party lead and even aid them in their quest by conferring gifts upon them.

For Mel, a Root Crown which gives her the ability to awaken one tree a day per level (achieve sentience, take on human characteristics, and uproot themselves to become mobile). For Nyphus, an Bridging Arrow (single use, creates a bridge over a chasm, river, etc. – fist-sized stone sphere tip). For Pater, a Lantern of Concealment (a steel construction adorned with moons and suns, that renders the bearer + 1 invisible as long as the lantern is lit) and one canister of expensive oil. For Renic, ­­a bundle (6) of Witchfinder’s Candles (detect magical enchantment, spells, conjured spirits, or creatures).

The group leave, taking the terrified cultist with them. They decided to hit the road early. A few days later, a wagon can be heard coming over the hill. The group hide in the roadside forest, waiting for them to pass. The wagon is being driven by two black-robed individuals and out front, two men in leather masks and harnesses clamber ahead on all fours. The group decides to let the strangers pass, but Karnoff runs out into the road, saying, “Brothers! Brothers! Help!” The maniacal leather berserkers rip him to shreds before the cultists on the wagon can stop them. Four more cultists pile out of the back of the wagon (six total) and inspect the corpse of Karnoff. The group launch a missile attack taking out a cultist and hitting the berserkers. The berserkers and five of the cultists are dispatched quickly. Renic is hit by friendly fire from Pater. They take one of the cultists hostage, a terrified, callow youth. They plan to make for nearby Slateholm (only a couple of days away) to catch a ship to Ravenstone, home of the Green Mark.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 8

The party holes up for the night in the room/house with the crossbow skeleton, spiking the door. In the morning, the group listen at the door and hear some shambling and moans. The four zombies they had turned from the previous day had returned. Mel and Nyphus turned two of them again while the last two had to be hacked to pieces.

After the fight, the group head north back to the room/square with the well. They manage to open the door to the west that was previously blocked before. Pater scouts ahead and finds himself in what appears to be a private family’s tomb. Within the wall lay corpses in burial wrapping. A smaller set of child-sized holes lies empty. Hidden in one of these unoccupied holes Pater finds a small stone seal which when pressed opens a secret door into a hidden passage west. Through the short passage another secret door is found (by Nyphus, I believe). This exit ends up on another north-south passage/street.

The group head north and reach a door where they hear intense buzzing behind. They try western room first that houses dozens of bats which fly down the passage south. The room reeks of guano. Underneath the dung is an intricate tile mosaic of elven designs. A minute after the bats have vacated, the group hears eerie singing down the southern passage coming from an open area. Nyphus investigates and finds an ancient elf chained to the eastern wall within.

The group joins him. The dusty fellow proves to be half-crazed, welcoming them to the great elven kingdom of Nevelainen. He speaks in vague nonsense of a calamity that befell the city long ago and mentions the Les Fourmir or the dead. They try to free him of his ancient bonds, shackles pinned through his forearms. Once removed he disintegrates.

The group head north to the door where they heard buzzing. Upon opening they find four giant ant men and six giant ants. All are eating maggoty fly larvae. The ant men speak in a heavily-accented archaic form of the Common tongue. The group explain they want to leave, but the leader of the ants, an apparent head guard explains he must bring all trespassers before their queen, unless some other arrangement could be worked out (bribe). The ants notice that Br. Karnoff is bound and they ask to trade the prisoner for permission to leave. Nyphus and Mel are fiercely against the proposal both from a sense of morality as well as pragmatically wanting to keep him alive to use as a way to get into the northern slave city of Ravenstone in the north, the seat of the Green Mark, run by the Archbishop Nemesine who Father Thelbain said was blackmailing him. The ant suggests he could take part of the prisoner while keeping the conscious part of him alive. Again, they reject the offer. The leader notices Mel’s necklace and scarab broach, and Renic’s golden earring. An exchange is begrudgingly made.

The group leave the buried city and find themselves toward the bottom of the cliff to the north of Morgansfort, facing the sea. They find a small dry cave and rest a few days to rest and heal, fishing from the sea, and planning their next move. That plan is to head back north to Slateholm to find a ship to take them over the Western Sea to Ravenstone where they hope to infiltrate, expose, or destroy the Green Mark.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 7

It is around 11:30 p.m. Father Thelbain acts quickly and has his acolytes clean up the remains of the dead, mute cultist, Brother Malachi. Brother Karnoff is bound and gagged. Before more discussion of Ravenstone and Bishop Nemesine can be had, the Morgansfort alarm bells begin to ring. Fearing soldiers coming to the church to investigate and find a dead cultist, the priest ushers them to the back of the sacristy where he tells them they must leave the fort immediately. He explains that the cultists have ingratiated themselves to the Bailiff Tomandy as diplomats from Ravenstone. If Br. Malachi is discovered to be dead, the PCs will be arrested. Thelbain is also eager to keep his connection to Nemesine via blackmail private as it will mean his de-frocking. He encourages the group to take Karnoff with them which they want to do anyway as a way in to Ravenstone. He gives each of them a healing draught before leading them to the upper level of the Chapel of St. Queril where it meets the northern fort wall.

Thelbain talks his way through a guard tower and follow the inner keep wall around to the central tower. As they make their way above the fort, they see troops below mobilizing and in the distance, strange lights appearing over the Old Island Fortress. Thelbain unlocks the tower door with a special key. Inside they descend a long spiral staircase to the ground floor and beyond until they reach another door of a far older make. Thelbain tells them that they will find a way out of the fort through the cliffs to the north by the sea. It is a way only know to himself, the Bailiff, and the Baronet. Thelbain tells the party the staircase to the passages below heads south. If they turn themselves around and head towards the most northern and western path they will find the way out. The group enter the passage and Thelbain closes the door. The key clicks behind them. They are locked in.

Pater scout ahead down the stairs 20 ft. south, coming to a landing with three stairways branching west, south, and east. The group heads down the western branch. The ceiling did not slope with them. As they descended the ceiling became cavernous above them. They found themselves in a north-south “hallway” with cobblestone flooring and white-washed plaster walls. They realize they are in fact in an underground city. The floor is a road and the walls are buildings. Examining the walls more closely they found a door directly from across the stairs. Pater checked for traps, found none, and opened the door. A crossbow bolt shot out missing Pater and Nyphus at the front, hitting the wall behind them. The “bowman” was a (in-animated) skeleton sitting across from the door with a crossbow aimed at the door which apparently discharged with the disturbance of the door. The room is covered in dust and curtains hanging on the walls. There is no further way forward.

The group head north back in the hall and reach a doorway/gate leading to a 30’ x 30’ octagonal room with a large well in the middle. There are other doors to the west, north, and east. Pater checks out the well and the group are surprised by a giant, fanged skull on a stalk body of vertebrae. The snake-like bone creature begins to sway, hypnotizing part of the party. The group engages in an extended battle. Pater is hit a couple of times and comes close to death before jumping on the back of the spine behind the head. Eventually the group manages to defeat the great thing cutting the head from the spine which clatters to the bottom of the well.

Nyphus “lays hands” on Pater with a loud slap, rebuking him for disturbing the well and reviving some hit points.

The group recognizes the room to be a small, town square and head through the door north. They find another dead skeleton holding a small chest. Inside the chest are two cruets of holy water and a small scarab broach (of protection). Br. Karnoff comes to life and starts mumbling motioning towards the well-room. The party see shambling figures silently approaching the threshold to the well-room from the south. Renic springs into action and charges. Pater fires an arrow. Mel and Nyphus attempt to turn the zombies. Mel’s turning works and four of the foul beasts flee. Mel and Nyphus coat their arms with the holy water and join Renic in bottle-necking the zombies at the door. All contribute, but Renic’s new sword is the bloodiest ending the battle with a pile of a dozen zombie corpses stinking up the room. During the combat Pater tried both the room to the east (blocked/caved-in) and the door to the west (locked/stuck).

Now the party find themselves in an underground city, past midnight with low to mid-levels of hit points, and their spells depleted. They must now decide whether to rest whether to push on to find their way out or hole-up for the night to rest up. Once out, they need to plan a course of action. Ravenstone is far north across the sea. Do they return to Slateholm to find a ship? How do they transport their prisoner (Karnoff) without arousing suspicion? What if he refuses to help them get into Ravenstone?

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 6

The group starts in the cottage basement of Grelda’s confronting the two tied-up robed men. Nyphus attempts to interrogate the men threatening to kill them, but they are not forthcoming. One of them laughs at the threats, his open mouth revealing a blackened nub where a tongue should be. “Brother Malachi has taken a vow of silence. Permanently,” his partner says. Grelda becomes impatient and disrobes. Now skyclad, she grabs a dagger tied to her waist, cuts her left palm open, makes a few incantations, and thrusts her palm against the forehead of the mute cultist. A gruff, bass voice comes out of Grelda’s mouth. The voice tells the cultists’ story.

They are brothers of The Green Mark. An order devoted in the worship of the demon lord, Shah Gzerohn, intent on bringing him back to this plane of existence. The cult has been making inroads in the old Urdish empire, looking for clues and artifacts to help towards this aim. Over the years the cult discovered the location of their lost temple, obscured within the ruins of the Olde Island Fortress. They were sent by their master, Bishop Nemesine, to the Fortress to retrieve the journal of Mordoch the Mage. The book contains a prophecy in an ancient tongue, unlocking the rites to bring about the demon lord’s return. They have failed in their mission.

During this narration, the other cultist, Brother Karnoff, is praying to himself:

There is no dark – only the light of life – light of the newborn god – his path is paved with the blood of the word – through the blood of the lamb the way is laid open – let the faithful rejoice and prepare for his passing.

Grelda gasps and breaks the connection between herself and Malachi. He collapses. Grelda covers herself and reaches over and opens the cultist’s robe to reveal a tattoo of a green hand on the cultist’s chest. She asks the party if they have the book and they produce it. Karnoff curses. They explain that Thelan, the wizard in Morgansfort, hired them to retrieve it for him. Grelda calls him a fool and says the book would corrupt him and drive him insane. Grelda tells the group that whatever they had planned for the book, they would be best off destroying it.

Just as the group is deciding what to do, the young girl from town, Jyni, descends the stairs. Karnoff hisses in disgust. The party are told that Jyni can commune with the spirits of the dead children in the Fortress and has the makings of a great witch. Karnoff accuses her of harvesting the spirits energies for her own magic. Jyni tells her aunt that are packed and ready. Grelda is leaving the area immediately with her sister, Maien the herbalist, and Jyni. They discovered the Baronette Halden Rathwynn and his men are planning to camp in the boathouse that night and storm the kobolds and goblins in the Fortress early the next morning.

Jyni leaves and one of the barbarians, the woman who seemed to be somewhat in charge, comes down to tell the party that the tribe will head south where it is warmer. They are warned to watch out for slavers. They take the three boats south down the river.

Nyphus takes the book and decides to burn it, taking it outside. It crinkles and smokes oddly as it burns. The witches leave, flying off on the plow, this time with a sled attached to it. The barbarians head south on foot. The group decides to wait in the trees behind the boathouse and watch for the garrison to approach to see what happens.

The group hides in the brush and wait. Within the hour the sun goes down and the garrisons of Morgansfort arrive and begin to quietly (as possible) set up camp for the night. The officers (in silhouettes) enter the cottage to set up a base of command. Perhaps 20 minutes later, two robed silhouettes exit the cottage shake hands with officer shadows. They get into a horse-drawn cart which leaves, heading back up the road to the Fort.

Pater follows the wagon on foot in the shadows ahead of the group who stay clear of the road. Pater follows the cart in, talking his way past the gate who seem suspicious. He catches up and sees the cart heading in to the inner-courtyard of the Fort. While trying to move silently, he slips in the left-behind road apples with a loud splat. He isn’t able to talk his way into the courtyard.

The party regroup at Thelan’s who is in the process of leaving. He seems unconcerned about their failure to bring him the book and their apology of burning it. They go to the Inn and gather their things. Nyphus and Mel go into the chapel by the front. Pater and Renic go up top. Nyphus and Mel confront Fr. Thelbain. He confesses that he has been blackmailed for years by the leader of the Green Mark, the Archbishop Nemesine. Nemesine runs the cult from the Northern city of Ravenstone and keeps his former mistress and child as ransom.

Meanwhile Pater and Renic had crept down the back stairs across the altar waiting at the back door where Mel and Nyphus followed Thelbain. The cultists enter the church. Pater and Renic try to hide, but failing that (Renic), they kill the mute cultist and subdue the other. The group discuss going north to Ravenstone, the seat of power of the cult.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 5

The party stops outside Mordoch’s lab and decide to take the passage south – the one passage in this area they had yet to explore. They oil the door to keep it from squeaking. They move into a room where they find a roomful of discarded weapons in poor condition. After breaking into a cabinet and chest, once Pater failed at picking the lock, the group finds a small arsenal of weapons in good condition, including a nice suit of chainmail and a sword which are obviously of special make. In opening the chest and cabinets, they attract a group of three ghouls with the noise they make. The battle is over quickly, but Nyphus is struck and paralyzed for a couple of turns. While he recovers the others hide the usable weapons and take the exceptional chainmail and sword with them.

They move through the passage west until they reach another room of similar size and shape. This room contains a pedestal with an offering basin on top. Pater discovers small cones of incense inside a compartment in the pedestal. The walls are covered with ancient-looking murals, fresco-style of a primitive tribe of people kneeing and genuflecting towards the passage west. The group continues onward.

Further on, the passage ends with two huge, bronze doors. Pater attempts to pick the lock, and succeeds. The lock gives with a loud clunk, but the door does not open. They then try to force them open through brute strength, but to no avail. Mel casts Detect Magic both on the door as well as the armor and sword. All three show a magical enchantment. Nyphus dons the new armor and Renic chooses the sword. Pater goes back to light the incense to see if that helps open the door. He returns and further attempts are made, but with no affect.

The group then hears human voices coming from the mural room. Wary, they go back to find the room filled with close to a dozen men and women in ragged clothing. The incense freed them from their prison within the walls’ mural. They speak a crude and archaic dialectic of the common tongue. They were members of the barbarian tribe who lived in the fortress two centuries ago. As the fog clears in their heads they can remember their complicity in the awful crimes against their own children. Mel makes an attempt to comfort them and gently tells them where they are at. They tell the party they do not wish to stay in the fortress.

The party begins to lead the newly-awakened tribe members out of the dungeon. Reaching the second floor, they can see the kobolds moving things through the entry chamber down the hall. They creep past the creatures undetected. As they head up the north passage, they hear, then see the two, unfriendly black-robed men they met a couple weeks earlier entering a room to the west. They follow them into the room which is empty. Mel finds a secret door in the corner and they continue down a back passage west out of the dungeon. The dungeon opens out into a cave where a small pack of wolves have been slain.

They come out of the cave onto the western slope of island outside of the fortress close to where they hid their boat. They notice their boat is gone. Coming out from the trees and underbrush they saw the two figures crossing the river with two boats (their own and the party’s). Waiting until they are out of site, the group follows down to the river. Nyphus strips down and swims the channel to retrieve a boat. It takes some time to get the entire group including the dozen barbarians to the other side.

Grelda confronts them in her front yard and asks them to come inside her home. They leave the barbarians upstairs while Grelda leads the PCs to the basement where she presents the two robed men, tied up.

GM Notes - Morgansfort Session 3

Here continues the adventure of the Old Island Fortress where our party has just escaped a chamber of gray ooze.

Adventure Recap/Synopsis:

The party finds itself on the other side of a hidden door safely cut off from the ooze in the previous dungeon chamber. The passage runs north ahead of them at least 60 feet trailing off into darkness, but also splits off into a side passage to the east, ten feet ahead of them. Pater scouts the corridor straight ahead. Just beyond the reach of the torch light of the group he sees a small child shaking up ahead speaking in a language he can’t understand. The child is motioning for Pater to stay away and to not come near him. Pater reports back to the group. Mel attempt to talk to the strange child next, but after getting closer the child begins convulsing and blood begins to stream out of its orifices dissolving into a pulpy mess that evaporates into the air. No trace is left of the apparition.

Another child’s voice is heard asking for help from the side passage to the east, this time the language is in the common tongue. After some discussion the group heads down the side passage to the east. This corridor opens up after 30 feet into a dark 20’ x 20’ room with a corridor open to the south. A small figure is curled up in the fetal position weeping on a wedge-shaped platform next to a large chest in the northeast corner. Several nooses hang from the high ceilings above. The party engage the “child” who suddenly stops weeping and rises to reveal itself to be a 7’ tall, slender being. Its head is like an elongated sheep’s skull with a spiky mane of hair on top. Its flesh is a translucent syrup color with its black bones and liquid organs seen underneath. It speaks a wry welcome.

The party attacks, but blows that should cause damage seem to have no effect. The creature says, “Let’s play a game, shall we?” It proposes a deal. It explains that the way ahead as well as the way back all end in dead ends. “There are nothing but dead ends down here.” It proposes a game. It will ask the party three riddles. If they get one right, it will show them the way out. If they fail to guess one answer correctly, it will eat them. With little recourse, they submit.

Riddle 1:

I have a bad reputation,
Yet I have freed slaves,
Helped battered wives escape,
Sometimes I admit
I’ll get a killer out of jail,
But I have been known
To help the mad and sick.
Kings too,
More than a few, I have released from jams.
I will never discriminate
And the darker things seem
The closer I will be.

(Taken from Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)

The party guesses death. It’s a near miss. The creature informs them the answer is “suicide” and counts one for his column.

Riddle 2:

I will wait
For those who left me here
Where the path divides
Between heaven and earth.
I went up, but
I won’t come down again.
The crow knows me.

(Taken from Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)

The party guesses a hanged man, the correct answer. The creature seems delighted and promises to show them the way out, but asks if they will indulge him in one more riddle since he rarely gets to talk to people.

Riddle 3:

My makers hate me
Though
I am a neat small size
And take less work to make.
They give me what they loved,
I keep it safe.
They visit all the time,
But hate coming.
I make them cry.

(Taken from Fire On The Velvet Horizon, by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess.)

Again, the party guesses correctly, “a child’s grave.” The creature signals for the party to follow it down the south passage. After 60’ the passage ends in an old stone wall. The beast entreats them to walk through the wall which when pushed reveals itself a cloth tapestry painted convincingly as a wall. The party walk through and the beast leaves them to return to its lair.