Session 2
When last we left our heroes they had tracked a band of goblins through the Neverwinter wood to an old temple of the Delian order. They interrupted the goblins foul ritual and in the ensuing fight one of the evil creatures escaped. After destroying the goblin menace they discovered a secret door to the ancient tomb of Delian knights whose undead bodies rose up when they disturbed their graves. But the party prevailed, rescuing a young girl named Bessie from a goblin cage.
It is late afternoon and you have a ten hour walk ahead of you, back through the Neverwinter forest to the village of Villaine and the girl's worried family.
If the characters wait out the night in the temple they're ambushed in the night by goblins who toss stirge boxes through the windows and pour lamp oil down the steps.
Sky castles and Strange noises
You notice a dark smear in the sky and looking closer you see a huge castle floating on a distant cloud. Nestled in the fluffy white surface is a castle made of dark stone with crenelated walls and three conical parapets.
It's a cloud giant and there's nothing they can do for now. That evening:
As night falls you hear a strange sound in the darkness.
It's an owlbear that doesn't attack. This should hopefully have them set up watch and during the night they meet the sewn sisters.
The prophecy
A grey mist rises from the ground limiting your vision and muffling the sounds of the forest. It rises until it reaches the branches of the trees overhead and you find yourself in a bubble of cold silence surrounded by dead misty air.
And later
You spy a thatched cottage in the gloom, the dirty windows glowing with ominous flickering red light. The dirt path to the front door winds between two raised garden beds containing hundreds of human hands flexing and gesturing as if sprouted from the oily earth. The door of the cottage shudders and then swings open revealing the dark interior.
The cottage is small and with the exception of an outhouse outside there is nothing interesting. The trees crowd up against it on all sides and the only entrance is on the front side.
You make out the dim shape of an old woman standing in the doorway. She motions you over and says, "Come, come, enter and be seated. I can tell you your future for 1 copper piece."
Future predictions are done at higher costs. (1sp, 1gp, 1pp, 100gp gem, magic item, soul)
page 12 of CoS
- This is the card of history. Knowledge of your adversary will help you in the future.
- The card says a black spider rests in it's a dark lair upon a web of strings. It knows the secret and guards it jealously.
- This is the card of hope, It tells of a bulwark against the darkness.
- The card says there is a town where all is not well. There you will find a house of corruption, and within, a dark ravine hungry for blood.
- This is the card of power. It tells of a weapon of vengeance.
- The card says what you seek lies in a dragon's house, in hands once clean and now corrupted.
- This is the card of friendship. A friend waits here.
- The card says your brother hangs by a thread under the earth among the stench and rot of evil
- This is the card of darkness whose powers lie beyond mortality. This card will lead you to your doom!
- The card says a forgotten forge beneath the gaze of a mountain god and admist the crashing waves.
The sewn sisters page 178 of ToH
hag dolls ac 10 with 1 hp and the soul of a child.
Three tiny figures waddle toward you through the smoky haze: a straw doll with rusty pins sticking into its body, a faceless child molded from clay, and a stuffed monkey with the lower body of a unicycle. The straw doll says, "You need to run away! The Sewn Sisters will be back any moment now!"
The cottage:
Green smoke billows out from a bronze cauldron in the middle of the dingy room. Barely visible through the haze are three rocking chairs, several work benches heaped with haberdashery, and a spinning wheel. The old woman sits at a small table near the door, illuminated by candles and covered with a patterned cloth. A deck of cards lays on the table.
THE SEWN SISTERS
Widow Groat has tarnished gold coins covering her eyes and ants nesting in her skull. The ants serve as her spies, and their presence often portends her arrival. She carries a heartstone, a soul bag, and an iron ring with eight keys. The ants hang down over her face like black veil.
Peggy Deadbells wears a string of chattering children's teeth and thumps about on a heavy peg leg. When she laughs, yellow gas billows out of her nose and ears. Around her neck, she wears a pouch made from gnome skin, inside which Is a heartstone and five lustrous black marbles (see area 81). Tied to Peggy's rope belt is a soul bag.
Baggy Nanna has a squirming leather sack sewn over her head. The bag also contains a cockerel, a viper, and a terrier. One animal can emerge from the bag in place of her own head to speak on her behalf, and the animals become smoke when Baggy Nanna dies. In her pockets, she carries a heartstone, a soul bag, and three goblin fingers.
So your fate is spun and I am done. Now return from whence you came!
You jerk awake back at your campsite. The fog is gone and you only hear the comforting sounds of the dark forest.
Characters are teleported, woken, or sent back to their camp, if they show hostility or refuse the witch.
A chance meeting
Mordrian? Is that you? I can't believe I found you here! It's me Gundran, Gundran Rockseeker. We met in Lelion remember? Oh, I'm glad to see you, Listen I'm onto something big, something really big but I don't want to discuss it here. Oh this is Sildar Hallwinter - he gestures at a muscular man standing behind him. Hey, how would you and your friends like to make some money? I've been looking for someone who could take our cart to Phandalin but it's hard to find good help and there are a lot of bandits on these roads. I can pay you and your friends 10gp each if you can get it there safely. How about it?
Great! I've got some business to take care of in town so Sildar and I are going to go on ahead.
Ambush on the triboar trail.
Snozzmallow's revenge
On a 20 perception check you smell lamp oil.
You hear a voice from the rocky outcrop high above the dirt road. Looking up you see a lone goblin standing there with a crossbow slung across his back and a clay bulb in one hand. He's wearing a dirty loincloth and a bandolier of bulbs draped across one shoulder. He has a long unlit cigar clenched between his teeth and he's wearing wooden goggles with narrow horizontal slits where the glass should be. He speaks in broken common.
"Hey bitches, I'm Snozzmallow the third. Need a light?"He throws down the bulb and there is a crack and puff of smoke and then a wall of flame leaps up and roars down the hill, flashing up from the stream behind you. You hear a loud cackled barking and two giant hyenas bound around the edge of the outcrop and attack as crossbow bolts rain down from above.
Snozzmallow thinks he's a demolitions expert and framed himself as such to the other goblins after escaping the Delian temple. He's convinced them to give him a bunch of alchemical fire and has rigged this trap with several barrels of lamp oil. He retreats leading characters to the dripping caverns.