Session 03

#### The Road to Lowmarsh

Following a strange encounter with ghouls in the Greenwoods, we open our session with Merida, Nik, Drizella, Bigby, and Mordred returning to Lowmarsh. Their companion, Sibylla, seemed to vanish into the woods without a trace.

While Merida, Drizella, and Bigby were holding up relatively well, Nik still seemed terrified of himself and his new powers. As they were walking, Nik heard footsteps behind him, and soon, the figure of an ostentatiously dressed green man appeared. He questioned the party, asking them by what right they travelled through his lands. Merida, recognising the figure as the mythical “Green Man,” responded in Sylvan, as is custom, “*the right of those who have two feet*”. The Green Man appeared content. After speaking to the Green Man and informing him where they were heading, Mordred attempted to read the fey’s fate, with one word appearing in his mind: Sunderance.

As the party walked away, Drizella spat on the ground in disgust. The forest seemed to turn against her, with a thistle springing up from the ground where she spat and roots opening up, trapping her feet. Mordred tried to pull her out of the roots but didn’t want to risk hurting his new friend. It was Merida who calmed the forest, apologising to the Green Man.

Despite their many hours on the road, when they arrived back in Lowmarsh, the party realised they had been gone for less than an hour.

#### The Burnt Sage Hospice

Upon arriving at the Burnt Sage Hospice, Matron Simone appeared surprised to see the party returning so soon. But wasting no time, she asked for Mordred and Drizella’s aid in creating the antidote and recommended the rest of the party seek accommodation for the evening. Before they left, however, Simone noticed that Bigby had been bitten and treated his early-stage infection on the spot.

While the others sought lodgings for the evening, Mordred and Drizella helped Matron Simone extract and distil a cure for Ghoul Fever. After they successfully managed to create a cure, the Matron gave the pair two *elixir of life* potions and *false life* scrolls. Mordred gave Simone the Camelot ensign he had taken from one of the corpses and asked if a memorial could be held to honour the dead. Once Mordred had left, Drizella received her reward: a medicaster’s provisional license and a set of medicaster robes. Finally, Matron Simone offered them a job to help the Northern League of Medicasters and asked them to return before leaving the city.

As they left the Hospice, Mordred thanked Drizella for helping and staying to fight alongside them. The cleric seemed unused to the compliment but appeared more comfortable in her new medicaster’s mask.

Meanwhile, Nik visited the Bricks to retrieve his sword. Here, Officer Bradley offered him and the party a job. For 30 silver, he wanted them to pretend to rob the Town Hall to boost the morale of the city’s guards.

#### Beef (Or Rumoured Lack Thereof) Between Barkeeps

Merida and Bigby, on the other hand, travelled to the Lone Pine Inn. They were greeted by the Inn’s owner, Trevor Becker, who suggested the pair stay at the Split Bell instead after learning Bigby was an investigator. Bigby immediately left for the Split Bell.

At the Split Bell, he asked the innkeeper Chops about the goings-on around town, discussing the missing treasurer and learning about a local dwarvish speaker, Corpus’s uncle Craig. After some time chatting, the conversation turned to the Lone Pine Inn, with Chops wondering how Trevor made coin, considering his lack of customers. Bigby left his details with the innkeeper should anyone be seeking an investigator.

Back at the Lone Pine, Trevor urged Merida to seek accommodation at the Split Bell. But Merida was defiant and refused to leave. Trevor confided in the ranger, telling her that something strange was happening at the Split Bell. According to Trevor, the owners, Corpus and Chops, had recently bought cows from the next glade over. Despite this, there was no beef on their menu. He asked Merida to find proof of foul play.

At this point, Nik, having returned from the Broken Bricks, immediately caught onto the Innkeeper’s strange behaviour and asked what was happening. Over a mug of mediocre ale, the pair decided to find Bigby at the Split Bell and investigate. On their way to the tavern, Nik pulled Merida aside and informed her of Officer Bradley’s strange request.

As Bigby drank a pint of beer at the Split Bell, Merida and Nik joined him and explained their unusual experience with the innkeeper across the road.

Finally, Mordred and Drizella made their way over to the taverns and visited the Lone Pine, where they were greeted by Trevor. He once again tried to turn them from his premises, claiming that they would not get rest at his inn. Drizella tried to intimate the man into letting them stay, but with some convincing from Mordred and the same (at this point pretty tired) spiel about the Split Bell from Trevor, the pair decided to stay at the Split Bell.

#### The Party Reconnect

With the party together again, they settled in for drinks and dinner. The group shared a little about themselves, with Nik mentioning his desire to know more about what was happening to him and Merida revealing that her family had been turned into bears.

Drizella decided to “help” Nik overcome his fears, and casting *waking nightmare*, she filled his mind with visions of different kinds of magic. Despite casting the spell on Nik, when she spoke the incantation, Mordred was filled with fear, remembering those exact words being used by someone from his past. While Nik fell to the ground, producing magical flames in his hand, Mordred began to back away from the table and asked Drizella, “*Did **she** teach you those words*”? Merida and Corpus attempted to calm Nik down. But Nik was not calm, and once he regained a modicum of composure, he threw a punch at Drizella.

Meanwhile, Chops approached Bigby and took him into a back room. He asked if he would be willing to help kick his newfound friends out of the tavern if they caused trouble. Bigby agreed. Chops also offered the detective a job, should he want one in the morning.

Before settling in for the night, Merida scoped out the people in the tavern, paying close attention to Corpus and an older man that patrons seemed to call Paul or “Mr. Good-Get”. Bigby spoke briefly with Chops, who reinforced the strangeness of Trevor Becker’s business. He also noted that Trevor was jealous of the pair, as he missed out on the opportunity to propose to Corpus. After speaking to the barkeep, Bigby went for a walk around the perimeter of the building and talked to a town guard, who recognised him as the Chairman’s investigator. She noted that Trevor Becker was known for devising “schemes” to put his competitors out of business.

As the other party members headed off to sleep, Mordred and Drizella shared a few words. Drizella apologised for causing him distress, and Mordred revealed that he had known someone who cast the spell the same way. The cleric shared that she followed the Faceless Soldier, who had revealed the words to her in a nightmare.

#### Drizella’s Dream

As Drizella drifted off to sleep for the evening, propped up on a chair in the bar, she suddenly woke to dead silence. The room was unnaturally dark and empty, save for one figure. A tall, dark figure dressed in monastic robes. They introduced themselves as “no-one,” a member of the Shadow Monks or the Shadic Brethren and a follower of the Faceless Soldier. They offered Drizella a warning: “*Leave town tomorrow before the sun sets … Many will survive. None unchanged*”. They warned her not to tell anyone but that she was welcome to leave with her travelling companions.

### 5th of June, 352

#### Breakfast

In the morning, Merida and Mordred updated their paperwork with the city guard to allow them to stay in Lowmarsh. The guard informed the pair that the People’s Committee wanted to reward them for their efforts.

Over breakfast, Bigby suggested they investigate the treasurer’s living quarters at the Big Box while Drizella warned Mordred that they needed to leave by nightfall. Drizella telepathically spoke of her visitors in the night and her message from the Faceless Soldier, but Mordred refused to leave, suggesting they stay to help those in danger.

#### Back on the Trail

At the Big Box, Bigby attempted, and failed, to pick the lock of Thori Black’s door. So, he adopted a different approach. Taking a deep breath, he blew the door down.

As they entered the room, Bigby noticed nothing out of order, Nik smelt a rotten smell in the cupboards, and Mordred saw many dwarvish books on the bookshelf. Merida, on the other hand, noticed that the script on Thori’s letters seemed to shift and distort, and parts of the room disappeared and reappeared. The room was not real.

Drizella, as the only full caster in the party, attempted to dispel the illusion on the room, but she could not effect the magic. Mordred tried to rub chalk over Thori’s desk, but he couldn’t find any apparent distortions or gaps in the illusion.

Drizella and Merida spoke with a guard on duty who directed them to Mother Mary Hill and Vicar Shaun Rothwell at the *Immaculate Church of the Goodly Father’s Left Wedding Band* for help with magical issues. They also noted that the Big Box had a night maid who regularly cleaned Thori’s chambers and might be able to notice irregularities in the room. Nik and Bigby visited the Big Box’s vault, but despite their combined efforts, they could not find a way into it.

Having had no luck at the Big Box, the party headed to the Father’s Church, where they spoke with Mother Mary Hill. Merida refused to enter the church, as her people followed the religion of the Titans. Mother Mary Hill could not offer them much aid in their search but directed them to speak with Vicar Rothwell and the People’s Committee.

The party left the church, with Mordred depositing a copper in the donation box, Drizella wiping her face in the custom of followers of the Faceless Soldier, and Nik shivering upon seeing a portrait of the Dour Uncle, whom he recognised as Davy Jones.

After a slow morning without success, we end our session with the party on their way to the People’s Committee to receive their rewards and discuss their findings on the treasurer’s disappearance.