Dolmenwood 8

This report covers session eight of a Dolmenwood campaign refereed by the fantastic inner_blaze. Read the previous session report here. Spoilers abound. Some details may have been lost in translation.

Characters

• Brom Tolmen, 2nd level human knight (played by yours truly)
• Impudence-Hath-Victory, or “Ivy,” 2nd level elf enchanter
• Kitty Pouncemouse, 2nd level grimalkin magician
• Kungus Cobwallop, 2nd level woodgrue enchanter
• Marib Twiggler, 2nd level mossling friar

Winter’s Daughter

The session began in the tomb of Sir Chyde on the 16th of Chysting. The party explored west from the hound statue room and found the remains of a small chapel: decaying wooden pews, a stone altar bearing a statue of Saint Sedge, and a tapestry depicting Sir Chyde meeting Saint Sedge at the gates of heaven. Behind the tapestry, Ivy found a secret door, which Brom broke down with his sledgehammer.

Through the secret door, the party found a musty room with a moldy writing desk and a collapsed corner with a burrow dug through it. From the burrow emerged four-foot-long squirming tongue-like creatures with mouths like those of lampreys. Brom slew one while Kungus and Marib dispatched another. The third retreated.

Kitty investigated the desk and learned that the drawer was locked, and Kungus found a small metal box under a loose flagstone. Engraved serpents flanked the keyhole, and Kungus chose not to attempt to open it. The party sealed the burrow through which the tongue creature had retreated, and then Brom smashed open the writing desk. Inside the drawer was a book rendered indecipherable by mold. Within the book, however, they found a brass sheet inscribed with a pastoral poem about Sir Chyde. The poem provided the name of the knight’s other hound: Flager.

In the final room of the main tomb complex, the party found a stone statue of a blindfolded woman beseeching silence. Carefully revealing the blindfold revealed embroidery of golden chapes in the inner fabric. The pair of dancing skeletons the party had encountered earlier floated over from the east. They scolded the party for encroaching upon their place of rest and refusing to dance. Brom and Kitty danced together. This seemed to mollify the skeletons, who floated off again.

Marib suggested the party call Sir Chyde’s hounds by name, and so the party returned to the hound statue room with the double doors and called for Chedar and Flager. The double doors opened. Beyond, the party found a circular tomb with one stone coffin at its center. A maudlin, pale apparition knelt with head bowed at the far end of the chamber beneath a portrait of a fair elven woman with a star upon her brow.

The party conversed with the ghostly figure, who introduced himself as the long-dead Sir Chyde. He warned the party that his belongings were not for thieves to take but that they could still earn his sword. He explained that his lady love, Princess Snowfall-At-Dusk, daughter of the Cold Prince, yet lived. He claimed she would grant them a far greater reward than Mostlemyre Drouge if they brought Sir Chyde’s ring to her. The party agreed, and Brom received permission to wield Sir Chyde’s sword to better aid him. Sir Chyde named Brom his squire for the duration of the quest.

The party retrieved the ring from Sir Chyde’s coffin. They noticed a pair of precious-looking amethyst-and-gold bracelets, which Sir Chyde offered as an additional reward. Marib said a prayer with Sir Chyde, soothing him and acknowledging his grief.

After Kungus engaged in a spontaneous dance party with the waltzing skeletons—Sir Chyde’s parents, it turned out—the party descended the southeast stair. They found a circular room filled with a shimmering pool of water. A white marble statue of Princess Snowfall-At-Dusk stood at its center. Dozens of ghostly candles floated around the perimeter of the pool. Ivy and Kitty felt the presence of the fairy realm pressing against the ring of candles.

Brom stepped through the ring of candles and into the pool. He experienced a vision of an angelic guardian and felt a wave of awe wash over him. The vaulted chamber dissolved around him until he found himself in an entirely new place. Before him lay a frozen lake with a white tower at its center, surrounded by a frosty wood. Bootprings led from the tower to the edge of the wood and back. Two paths lit by floating candles led into the woods. A pile of mossy corpses could be seen among the trees.

To the rest of the party, it seemed as though Brom had disappeared. Loomer the lichhound proved most faithful and followed Brom into the other world, the rest of the party close behind…