Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 15

February 3, 2019

The grove was dimly lit by starlight. Making their way through the thinning tree line, they spotted in the middle lying down, a sleeping man. Rasotto and Billy stood on one end of the grove with the porters Ludolf and Sledgey, while Mad Jack and Bruick the other.

The party stomped over hoping the man would awake.

The guide Bruick heard rustling in the bushes and was scared. He said that he thought they had dealt with the forest creatures and that they wanted him dead for cutting down a tree. Rasotto told the forester that they liked making sacrifices to the forest creatures and so he would be next. Mad Jack in through confusing released the man from service and he ran as the soft rustle of laughing trees made there way after him.

They poked, kicked, punched and kicked the sleeping man again to no avail. Splashing water on his face to no avail. They made camp, Rasotto making a map with the help of Billy and Billy preparing the Rabbit as jerky for later, and Rasotto teaching Billy how to fight.

Rasotto decided to plug his nose and cover the man’s mouth. He slowly turned blue, then purple. Upon release, he was no longer breathing. They lamented not having a cleric there to help this man. They decided to leave this man now slowly losing colour in his cheeks, but not before checking his pockets. They found copper. Counting their luck, they set off to find the Cathedral. While simultaneously blazing a trail, Billy also searched the forest for signs of deer. He got turned around, but Mad Jack managed to find a rabbit to eat.

Rasotto ever the vigilant scout, was up ahead a bit and so was the first to hear muffled music floating through the trees. There was a man eating food, fat and sloppy, and another man, more creature than man, his goat legs tapping a beat and this slighting goat head was blowing into a set of pipes, whose music beaconed them to eat. Shrugging off the music Billy talked with the beast, and so struck a deal after talking about the nature of meaning and reality. The agreement was they could take the man out of here and the Sleeping man too, back to the lands of men, and to make sure that they never return to the forest. So, they set off after the man puked behind the bushes for quite some time. He came back a little lighter. They travelled again in the direction of the Cathedral, Billy leading still but this time not hunting, and paying close attention to the direction of travel.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 14

January 27, 2019

Billy and Rasotto discussed the next course of action a bit. They decided to go back to town, drop off the porters and get new ones to allow these ones some time for self-care while taking the goods back to get rewarded. But first, they decided to go to the first tree and get Rasotto’s bottle and iron spikes.  Since it was on the map, it was just an easy few days journey into the words.

Afterwards, they went to Crowthorne and gave the large sack full of goods to the merchant from Crossroads Keep. Of note, in Crowthorne, the stables had burned down. The merchant gave them a preserved ration which is accepted as trade-in Crowthorne. Billy used the gold to bribe the butchers’ guild for a job. They wanted a stag, and they will be waiting to cure the meat at the gates of Crowthorne. Rasotto used the preserved rations as trade to hire the porters Ludolf, a third-generation immigrant and Sledgy, an old farm hand with a coarse voice. Billy emotionally unloaded on Rasotto about not knowing his real parents, and one of the only clues is that St. Vicious might know more.

The next course of action was then to travel to St. Vicious’s Cathedral deep in the woods and see if anyone there knew anything. They set out and went to My Son Rock. As soon as the party sent out, Rasotto went out to start scouting and immediately ran into some beast-men on the prowl. The beast-men recognized Rasotto as the slave who was apart of the slave escape up near Liar’s Castle and so tried to capture them. A scuffle ensued, and it resulted in a buckle on Rasotto’s leather armour being torn, and the beast-men at weapons’ point. They realized these were the beast-men who the Forest-kith bargained the heads for. They broke their ankles and were planning on dragging then back to the Forest Place when the wind spoke with the voice of the children. They were to drag their bodies onto the rock and decapitate them. The beast-men were eyed wide as Billy and Rasotto callously discussed how they need to decapitate the body on the inside first since they don’t have a large blade. They pummelled the neck with a large wooden mallet. It was hammer time…

They quickly collected the porters, since they didn’t make it far in the dark wood, and they took off in the direction of the cathedral. After hours of travel, they came across a strange clearing in the leaves thinned, allowing rays of light through the canopy. The leafy pattern of light through the canopy danced wildly across the mossy ground. In the clearing lying face down in the moss, sleeping, was a man.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 13

January 20, 2019

The party went into the cave to check it out. It was a small animal cave with a chute at the back where dripping noises were coming from. Rasotto recalled some lore about animals and was able to determine that this cave was a hibernation cave of some larger animal used only in the Winter.

After looking around, they jumped into the chute, and with some quick pushing, Rasotto managed to get everyone down the shoot without incident. Deep in the cavern fog obscured a sizeable round figure. Their footfalls made a slight wet noise, the slippery watery covered floor. It spoke in a rich piping noise as if playing its vocal cords like a bagpipe. Its spindly arms ended in webbed hands, and the frog face stared back with coal-black eyes. Samson listened and determined that the language that the frog-man was speaking was old and not often heard by man and that he was a river spirit from the northeast near Alderport.

The runes that encircled it mention danger and eating people was the reason why he was imprisoned. Here and there woven into the story was the lock that the runes themselves were powering. The frog creature gesticulated and silently pointed at the rune lock. Unable to read and perhaps bored with the pantomiming of this weird, dangerous frogman Rasotto smashed the runes with a heavy pointed rock and freed the giant.

The frog spirit belched up gold and did a ritual and poured something on himself and turned himself into water vanishing. A little relieved but sure that they released something evil into the world, they started when they heard “Mad” Jack’s voice. He had tracked them to the cave, and with his help, they managed to easily extract them from the chute and out of the cave.

“Mad” Jack managed to find the trail of the bandit back to their camp where they saw the two brother porters standing on buckets with nooses around their necks. Mad Jack thought this smelled fishy and so circled the site but altered the bandit.

The bandit was ready and fired at the buckets beneath the porter’s feet, making them topple over. This let the party with the choice to free the brothers or immediately try and capture the bandit. They saved the brothers, and after picking up the trial, they pursued the bandit into the night. After a great chase, the bandit had managed to evade the group, disappearing into the darkness. The party was able to see the lights from Crossroads Keep far in the distance, in the direction the bandit was heading.

The party went back and camped near the Town gates and was spotted by a guardsman collecting weeds, thistles and grass for use in a tea to help sleep. During the camp phase, Billy added the route to the old tree to the map.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 12

January 13, 2019

A merchant heading along to Crowthorne from Crossroads Keep was ambushed. Bloody and barely conscious, when leaving town the merchant fell into the arms of Rasotto. Barely conscious, he whispers that his goods were stolen. Samson exclaims that it is the guards he should be after, but the guards respond that their duty is to the community and not to some merchant wanting to get rich off of their isolation. When leaving town again, the man promised a reward if they could recover his goods. So they decided to go after the bandits.

They travelled north into the badlands. The Badlands is an area of maze-like cliffs and scrub that separates Crossroads Keep form the wild Southlands. Scouting the ground and forging a trail into the cliffs, they hit a dead end and were surprised when the voice from behind them. Three bandits stood there.

“You killed my brother!” One of the bandits exclaim. “You murdered him, cut him near in half and left him for the buzzards! Prepare to die!”

The party steeled themselves to capture someone who didn’t want to be. They fought and with only a few injuries managed to capture the man who claimed his brother died. The other two managed to escape. After a brief civil interrogation, he wanted them to torture or even kill him knowing full well that it was against the law and that his friends would take the risk of returning the goods and claiming the party were the real criminals. After debating the chances of making him disappear, they decided to return him to Crowthorn.

As they collected their packs, they noted that the porters have gone missing, having run away at first sign of conflict. They tracked them to a cave entrance that they must’ve entered. Only a shoe and a fork was all the trace of them, and they would probably have to check out the cave. Deciding that it would be easier to do, they returned to town and delivered the man to the guards they did so.

When they got back, the merchant came to speak to them about the reward was for recovering his goods. A bag of grain. He suspected that Crowthorn was hungry, so he brought them in a handcart to try and trade. His guess was correct, with the town’s foresters unable to trek into the forest to hunt due to them continually going missing, they were forced to eat only grain and whatever the grass scrubs of the cliffs could provide.

The cost of grain had risen to such a level as to be worth their weight in silver. Laws had been enacted, making the theft of food punishable by the rest of your life in a Gibbet. The guards delighted to punish a food thief led the bandit away.

As they started to set off a second time, a traveller interrupted them and claimed to see a man leading two people described as short and tall, much like Tom and Dil the porters are. They had their hands bound and looked in trouble. The party pulled their packs tight as Rasotto lead them back, ruminating on the way, his honour left away, leaving him feeling cynical and Faded. He promised himself that he would no longer play by the rules.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 11

January 6, 2019

After getting their barrings, Samson led the party through the forest. Samson asked for Billy’s help, but he was unable to help due to stinking fear making him scared. He leads them to a fork in the road, and though not lost, they had some thinking to do to set out on the trail successfully. Those able to helped determine which way to go and they soon found themselves in front of the boulder that they had dubbed My Son Rock. Here both Samson and Billy threw up their sickness, sweating out the fever of pneumonia that set it.

Now back on the map, they travelled to Crowthorne. They made it to the gates and rested before entering. Samson made a poultice, and Billy added the trek from town to the old woman’s hut to the map. The Blacksmith’s Guild was on duty. This was a peaceful town, and Rasotto managed to find a lucky penny.

Rasotto ever the shrewd merchant managed to get a deal and the bow as it was considered a unique item, it was an elvish bow of legend. “Mad” Jack went and played Wizard’s Dice using the Bow as an Ante and won. The moment he bet everything, their most valuable piece of treasure was intense. The party watched on as he rolled his Wizard’s Dice. The dice failed to come up traitors and caused a reroll with victory; there was an audible cheer from everyone at the table. He secured two additional bags of silver coins. Samson bought a few bundles of torches and asked around and hired Bruick The Forester as his guide and Rasotto hired Tom and Dil, a couple of labourers.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 10

December 6, 2018

The party set out form the forest, making their way back to town. On their journey, Rasotto successfully scouts and hides from a patrol of beastmen walking around in complete darkness. Mad Jack sets off to find a perfect camping spot. Upon returning to the party he couldn’t remember where it was, though he recalls it being well hidden, would provide shelter from the elements and had a nearby pools of water.

Tiberius blazed a trail and ended up taking a wrong turn ending up in the campsite of Lord Melleck. There was evidence of sorcery since any clue that a fire was here was long absent. Mad Jack searched the place for something that could in any way help to find Lord Melleck, but his search turned up nothing but a sinking feeling like he failed.

They made camp here and recovered a bit and hunted a rabbit. The party set out, but after cooking, they realized they attracted the attention of wolves. Before the conflict, Rasotto and Tiberius ran off, afraid for their lives. During the fight, Mad Jack delivered the killing blows to both wolves, but not before realizing that they were able to speak the common tongue. After killing the beasts, they set off to get Rasotto and Tiberius, before they ran off too far. They caught up and had a quick word about the meaning of bravery. Tightening their belts, they were getting ready to head back to Crowthorn.

Torchbearer
Cursed Lands Session 9

December 2, 2018

Rasotto, Mad Jack and Billy were down in the hole when they heard Samson exclaim “spiders,” and heard him run off! It was not spiders but some giant rats. Samson went outside to get Tiberius. He agreed he will help out by continuing doing precisely what he was doing. Watching the exit.

So Samson went in alone and told them that it was just rats. And was promptly chased out of the First Tree by them. The remaining party was led out of the pit by the dwarf, Rasotto after being pulled free by “Mad” Jack. They had gotten Billy to squeeze through the gap and collect the grappling hook first. Now there was just copper coins and a single unspent torch in stalactite room.

Once outside, they decided to make their way to Crowthorne, and so set out in search of it. Billy, the Halfing, took the lead and led the group to a strange tree structure in the woods. Here they made a pact to exact revenge on the beastmen and bring the children their heads so that they may bathe in the blood of their enemies, in return they were allowed to camp by the structure.