This report covers session seven of a Dolmenwood campaign refereed by the fantastic inner_blaze. Read the previous session report here. Spoilers abound for Dolmenwood and Winter’s Daughter. Some details may have been lost in translation.
Characters
- Brom Tolmen, 2nd level human knight (played by yours truly)
- Kitty Pouncemouse, 2nd level grimalkin magician
- Kungus Cobwallop, 2nd level woodgrue enchanter
- Marib Twiggler, 2nd level mossling friar
The Chiding of Squire Brom
The party gave the circle of trilithons a wide berth and approached the barrow. Marib stood on Brom’s shoulders to excavate the top of the stone slab and then tied a rope around it. With the help of Marib’s Hop-Clopper, Fern, the party pulled the slab so that it stood upright then fell with a heavy thud away from the barrow. The removal of the slab revealed a descending stairway.
Kitty had a vision of a ghostly, violet-eyed owl, and fainted at the sound of its hooting. Kungus and the hounds watched over Kitty while Brom and Marib explored the barrow entrance. They found a square room with exits in all cardinal directions and four plinths, one standing in each corner of the room. Upon each plinth lay what appeared to be holy relics: a chapes (the symbol of the Pluritine church), a wooden statue of a cherub, a fine-looking tome, and a thick candle.
The moment Brom set foot in the room, all four relics flew towards him, chastising him for entering the tomb of Sir Chyde and scolding him for his past sins and misdeeds, of which they seemed to possess exhaustive knowledge. Brom clove the cherub statue into splinters before retreating, not wanting to damage the more valuable relics. Once Kitty awoke, the entire party returned to the entry room. They managed to bundle the chapes and book into sacks, and the relics ceased their wriggling once brought outside of the barrow. Loomer chomped the candle.
The party’s activity in the first room revealed patches of color beneath a thick layer of dust. They cleared the dust away and saw a mosaic depicting a knight atop a white charger, piercing the heart of a frost elf with his sword, its blue-gray blade ablaze and decorated with red wave motifs. The party could not read an accompanying Old Woldish inscription but made out the words “frost,” “king,” and “Sir Chyde.”
Eastward, the party found a small circular room with an empty plinth and a fine mirror. Incongruously pristine stairs led down to the northwest, and a hallway led north. When Marib stepped into the room and passed in front of the mirror, she froze, a thin sheet of ice covering her entirely except for where her holy symbol hung around her neck. Kitty lassoed Marib’s frozen body, and the party brought her above. She thawed in the sunlight, unharmed.
After the party returned to the circular room, Kungus crept up to the mirror and turned it to face the wall. Continuing north, the party entered a room featuring seven statues of footmen, each bearing a different weapon. A thick sheet of yellow and purple mold covered the eastern wall. A thick cloud of mold billowed from the wall as Kungus attempted to scrape some away. He suffered a fit of coughing and choking but survived the toxic mold. His efforts revealed part of a faded mural depicting Sir Chyde battling a frost elf army, right hand raised, with two hounds at his side, one named Chedar.
The party tied a rope around the hafts of the weapons held by the stone footmen, and with one strong pull disarmed the majority of the statues at once. The statues did not animate, however, so the party collected their weapons with ease. One such weapon was a longsword with a blue-gray blade decorated with red wave motifs—evidently Sir Chyde’s sword.
Continuing north and then west, the party discovered a large hall with a row of pillars at its center, carved with reliefs depicting a war between mortals and frost elves. To the north, two massive hound statues flanked a set of large double doors, an inscription above them reading, “Call to the companions.” A passage led west, and another door led south.
Through the south door, the party discovered a room containing five coffins (two smashed open). Pale slime cascaded through a rift in the ceiling, and two skeletons waltzed through the air, passing through the curtain of slime now and then. Brom closed the door as quickly as he’d opened it, and the party considered their next move…
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