EPISODE FIFTY-EIGHT: The Winterchild (Level 25)
The Players:
Kristy Eagar (Nirvani)
Mike Eagar (Sadhai)
Tylor Austad (Terulai)
DM: Graham Ward
The woman floating behind Sadhai introduced herself as Mozralchi, Maurathel’s mother and the godess of combat against blood magic and necromancy. She congratulated Terulai for discovering the complete record of Maurathel’s Song. The entire Winterchild affair had been a ruse orchestrated by Gauren to distract the group from reaching the song tablet first. Gauren was, coincidentally, also attempting to gain the Winterchild’s loyalty.
Leaving Angrecca, the group traveled by Sadhai’s crytal arm to the eladrin lands in search of the Feywild Gate. They arrived in the forests of Oruna near a dokalf outcast community. The dark elves, exiled from the city due to their "deformity" of dark skin, were impoverished and starving. Nirvani and Terulai approached them cautiously, offering food and medical attention, which they suspiciously accepted. Terulai meanwhile learned that the ruined walls in the distance were actually the eladrin city in which the Feywild Gate could be found. The dokalfur cautioned them of the cruelty of the eladrin.
The adventurers approached the fey city on foot. It was apparently deserted, only a wall of golden stone. Loud hailing at the gate went unanswered, so Sadhai climbed the wall. On touching ground within the walls, a full city appeared around him. A troupe of guards was fully alert to their presence, and Sadhai was captured. They questioned him in a language he couldn't understand, then locked him in an oubliette under a grate in the street nearby.
When Sadhai didn't return, the others climbed or flew over the wall to find him, and were promptly surrounded by guards. When the party refused to be bound and imprisoned, the guards attacked. At Nirvani's insistence, the heroes tried to avoid killing the guards as they fought. She called out again and again during the fight, trying to reason with the eladrin. Once he heard Nirvani in the street above, Sadhai easily escaped the dungeonand joined the fray. Arhuzimel captured the guard captain, but when using him as a hostage only enraged the elves further, he reluctantly left him alive, albeit unconscious. Despite being outnumbered fifty fold, they fought the guards to a standstill and insisted they be brought before the king.
The fey king placated the unintentional intruders with their choice of treasures from his hall. Sadhai and Terulai demanded that he treat the dark elves better, and he agreed with dubious sincerity. Taking the guard captain as a guide, the five wearied friends followed him into the mountains above the city to a partially ruined ring of standing stones. First forcing the captain through the gate to show it was safe, they then followed into the world of Iltallach.
The corresponding gate in Iltallach lay in an area of barren, winter-locked fields and trees. Passing through bleak, raven-haunted fields, and into a snow-choked wood, they made their way to the hold of the Winterchild. In the wood, they came upon a lone feychild playing with bones and dressed in humanoid skins. Nirvani had little success in attempting to aid him. Something about him seemed unnatural, but she couldn't define it. He led them to his tribe of cannibal children, who had eaten the adults of their vilage and now preyed on solitary travelers. They worshiped the mad goddess Forlortha. Terulai forced Nirvani to leave off trying to help them. Sadhai and Terulai sensing something powerful and unwholesome in the camp, they urged the party to move on.
Deeper in the wood they encountered a second tribe of cannibal children, more dangerous and deranged than the first. They claimed to be high priests of the Winterchild, preparing rites of sacrifice in her name. The children forbade the party to trespass in the sacred frozen lake north of the camp. The group headed back south, then circled around stealthily toward the heart of the Winterchild’s domain.
They approached carefully, hastening as they realized the cannibal tribe had discovered their ruse and was now pursuing them. When the frozen lake came into view, they saw the Winterchild, a frail fey woman with flowing white hair, meditating on an island just off the shore, and radiating strong aberrant energy. Just as they reached the shore, the feral children closed in before them, blocking passage across the ice to the Winterchild’s island.
XP: 10,258 Each
[Roleplay with the Dokalfur: 600 XP
Entering the Eladrin City: 1,000 XP
Eladrin Guard Encounter: 14,975 XP
Roleplay with the Fey King: 1,000 XP
Finding the Feywild Gate: 1,000 XP
Entering the Feywild: 5,600 XP
Navigating the Feywild: 400 XP
Roleplay with the Feral Children: 600 XP
Finding the Winterchild: 5,600 XP
TOTAL: 30,775 XP]
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