Up on the Mountain, After the Flood Session 3
If you can't take the heat, get away from the altar
The party at level 1:
- Ama Ekström - Folklorist, Mage (Alchemy, Animism)
- Bugs - Mime, Rogue
- Nadine - Pilgrim, Priest of The Fates (Chronomancy, Divination)
- Vex Ire - Marine, Mage (Chronomancy, Shadowmancy)
With Nadine free to untangle herself from conversation with Cyrene the party sets off to the village apparently housing the Citrine Clot. As they approach what they think is Borelcairn their journey is interrupted by a line of corpses impaled on stakes around the village. They see signs of a large camp that was moved within the past few weeks. The village itself is run-down and almost empty. Several of the cottages have collapsed and there are untended barricades in the streets. A lone figure scurrying between two buildings notices the party approaching and hurriedly warns the remaining inhabitants. As the party gets closer a ragged militia forms up to man the barricades, led by a large man brandishing a pistol. Once within shouting range the party assures the villagers they aren't fomorians (think Warhammer Fantasy's beastmen) and are warily welcomed to the village of Crag Fields.
The large man introduces himself as Aldo and informs the group that Crag Fields was terrorized by fomorians since the sun returned to normal (after being black for a while during the Enchantment) before they suddenly left a few weeks ago. Between the fomorians, the blue fever, and crop failure, the village isn't doing well. Several people have tried to get help, including from the nearby city of Ravens, but no one has returned. They were beginning to fear there was no one else out there. Aldo provides directions to Borelcairn and invites the party to stay the night before heading on. They take him up on that offer, which gives Bugs a chance to put his miming skills to use and cheer the villagers up some. Before they set off the next day, Aldo takes Nadine aside, given her leaderly vibes, and tells her that he suspects one of the inhabitants of Crag Fields, Boroc, had been turned into a fomorian during the Enchantment. Boroc was apparently a nasty piece of work even as a human and if they can get Aldo the ring Boroc wears around his neck, he'll give them his pistol.
The party encounters the fomorians besieging Borelcairn, having set up a ring of altars piled high with offal about a mile from the village. The fomorian ritualists are performing some kind of rite directed at the village which Ama interprets as trying to suppress something inside. She also reasons that if one of the altars was interfered with it could cause a magical backlash and disrupt the entire ritual. They witness some kind of argument between a wolf-headed fomorian and a goat-headed ritualist which causes the wolf fomorian to storm off with one group of followers while the ritualist goes back to tending the nearest altar. The party decides to move in and manage to dispatch the fomorians around the altar, allowing Bugs to set it on fire using the magic censer they found last session. The burning altar causes magical backlash that envelops the other altars in darkness that emits a terrible howling. This causes the other fomorians to flee the area and give the party a clear way into Borelcairn.
The village itself is empty, though it seems to generally be in better condition than anywhere they've seen since the enchantment. The Citrine Clot, object of their quest, is mounted on a metal pole in the center of the settlement. The party take it and decide to make their way to Ravens to get help for Crag Fields. On their way they encounter a group of Ravens militia fighting some brigands. They intervene on the side of the militia and help them fight off the brigands.
Not a lot of mechanical observations for this one. There were a couple of things I forgot to telegraph this session which might come back up later in the campaign.
The fight at the end of the session with the brigands was the result of a travel event roll and not something I'd planned. Having to sketch out zones on the fly took a little time, but I don't think it slowed things down too much.