Session 02

## Session Summary

### Into the Woods

We open on the road outside of Lowmarsh, with Drizella Tremaine, Nik Jones, Bigby, Sibylla, Mordred, and Merida preparing to locate a ghoul and Hilltop Heath, where a group of Camlin soldiers were massacred.

While Mordred was hesitant to go into the Greenwood, Drizella was agitated and wanted to get the mission over with as soon as possible. As the party discussed their next actions, she pulled back the hood from her face, revealing her twisted visage, and sighed that a “*few more scars [would] make [her] no different and [might] give [them] some more interesting stories to tell*”. Urged on by Drizella, the party decided to take the fastest path through the woods, led by Sibylla.

Hanging at the back of the group were Mordred and Nik. Recalling Nik’s distress at having his sword taken, Mordred offered his ornate longsword to the pirate. Nik refused the offer, however, content with the plain sword he had been given.

Walking through the Greenwood, a primordial realm with enormous trees so wide they could fit a house inside their trunks and so tall that they were enveloped in clouds, the party kept their eyes open for danger. Mordred spotted a strange figure to the side of their path: a tall, dark figure, almost cloaked with a long head and strange shapes under their arms, who quickly disappeared. Bigby, with his lupine senses, felt the woods teeming with life and fey energy, but underlying everything, he could smell rot and decay, a smell almost like the must of an old abandoned house. Nik spotted a large shadow fly over the tops of the trees, and Drizella spotted a squat, dwarven man on the road ahead of them.

Merida greeted the man in common, and when he spoke back in a language the party could not understand, Drizella spoke in Necril and asked for the ghouls. Seeing that conversation was not getting them anywhere, Mordred took a piece of chalk and began drawing an image of a ghoul and dead soldiers on a nearby ruin. Donning his facemask, he tried to imply that they were trying to help. The dwarf approached, and taking the chalk from Mordred, he drew the crest of Camelot, indicating that both the ghoul and dead soldiers were from Camelot. He then began to draw something else: a deer skull, and pointed to the dead bodies. Finally, he said a new word: “*Beshaba*”.

### Strange Happenings at the Heath

With the dwarf gone, Drizella urged the party not to behead, burn, or otherwise harm any ghouls with holy damage, preparing them for the fight ahead.

As they travelled deeper into the Greenwoods, the natural afternoon light around them became dimmer and dimmer, becoming almost as dark as night. Merida drew her bow, Mordred and Bigby drew torches, and the group readied themselves for what lay ahead.

Coming upon the heath, they saw the remnants of a war encampment, with the scattered corpses of Camlin soldiers littering the ground. They spotted a cloaked figure in the middle of the battlefield, hunched over a corpse and staring at the party with sickly glowing eyes. They appeared to reach into the dead soldier, pulling a heart from the corpse’s chest.

Mordred tried to call out to the figure, imploring them to stop harming the body and declaring their intention to take down whoever was responsible for creating the ghouls. A voice responded, “*This one is already dead*,” unnervingly sounding in each of their heads. The party saw several glowing green lights scouring the field, which then returned to the figure. Illuminated by the glow of the green lights, the party saw the figure’s antlered, dear-skull mask.

Merida tried speaking to the figure in elemental Muan, but they could not understand her speech. Finally, Drizella magically messaged the figure, informing them that the party only needed a ghoul and meant no harm. The figure began to rise into the air and vanished into the darkness, leaving the party to the sea of dead and ghouls.

A tense combat encounter ensued in which Nik discovered his newfound magical abilities, Bigby was bitten, and Mordred heard a familiar voice in his head. Ultimately, the party was able to capture a ghoul alive and destroy those remaining. As the last ghoul fell, a glowing green orb, which appeared to have been watching them during the fight, disappeared into the woods.

Nik was overwhelmed and confused by the fight, and Mordred attempted to help him by healing his physical wounds.

While Drizella was keen to leave, Merida encouraged the party to burn the bodies and prevent any more ghouls from rising. As they dealt with the bodies, Drizella noted that organs had been removed from the soldiers using medical tools and with great precision. Before leaving them to their fate, Mordred cut a Camelot ensign from one of the soldier’s uniforms. Then, after a few words from Mordred, the group burned the remaining Camlin soldiers.

### Making Sense of the Madness

As the group returned to Lowmarsh, they contemplated the strange scene they had just witnessed.

Sibylla noted the occult nature of the deer-masked individual and the strange darkness. She feared that the ghouls were a small part of much larger events.

Drawing on his previous investigations into occult activity, Bigby recalled the upcoming Winter Solstice and Full Moon, a convergence of events known as a “Parallax” that enhanced occult spellcasting. He feared that the deer-masked individual was not a hag or witch but another type of powerful occult spellcaster. He speculated that they needed bodies and a force of ghouls for some occult ritual. Considering the circumstances, if the spellcaster was preparing for a ritual, he knew they would need a large, open clearing that they wouldn’t be able to find in the forest.

Merida recalled Bessa’s descriptions of the upcoming Parallax and noted that the magical darkness surrounding the heath was a very old kind of magic.

Mordred noted that prophecy would be at the height of its potency with the upcoming Parallax, more so than in living memory, and feared the ghouls might have been connected to some divinatory practice.

As they passed again through the Greenwood, Drizella returned to her solitude, humming an unnerving tune, and Nik contemplated his newfound magic.

We end our session in the depths of the Greenwood, under the shadow of the upcoming Parallax, with the party becoming entangled in events far beyond their ken.