Cursed Ones Session 4

Calendar Date: 26-3-569 - 28-3-596

Session Notes

The Illusion

• The party were reunited at the Gawping Cod
• The bark curse was now the length of a forearm on various parts of the parties bodies
• They initially sat in the Gawping Cod discussing what to do next and how to lif their curse, but things started to feel off
• The bard was playing a, all too familiar, tune on repeat. A sailor told a joke and everyone in the pub turned around and laughed in unison. The barman had be replaced by a barmaid they hadn't seen before. There was also a large cod mounted behind the bar which no one had noticed before either
• Robin decided he needed to do something and left through the front door only to come out in the hallway near the guest rooms. He knew it was an illusion and convinced the others
• They investigated the pub to find the barkeep was out on the vague business of delivering fish, the sailors kept repeating the same jokes and Old Thom the regular in the corner also believed he was trapped in an illusion and that they had been there for a long time
• The cellar had barrels of ale and food that smelt like sewage
• Robin tried to break a window and get out only to find a sea that went on as far as the eye could see surrounding the Gawping Cod. He jumped out and fell through the water that was incorporeal and eventually woke back up in a bed in the guest rooms
• Lorell questioned the bard to find the music was from Demonhelm, but then the bard started repeating himself and his conversation became muddled
• They investigated the cod which had a crystal eye and seemed to speak into their minds
• It tried to convince them to stay but they resisted
• Robin and Danny threatened the fish if it didn't free them from the illusion but it just said it couldn't be killed
• They gutted it and the fish laughed
• Then the popped the crystal eye out of the socket and found the eye was talking to them not the fish
• Lorell tried to break it shattering his dagger
• Upon investigation it seemed to require magic to damage
• Robin used his Ignid tooth dagger to attack it making cracks in the crystal
• The whole room turned around to attack the party threateningly. They ran with the eye into the guest room corridor
• Elfis use the Xororox Skull Helm to cast a lightning arc taking out those inside the taproom
• Robin stabbed frantically at the eye missing a few times and setting the room alight. At first the rest of the party were able to put the fires out but then they began to spread
• Everyone apart from Robin fled back into the taproom while Robin continued his stabbing and eventually destroyed the crystal eye
• The Gawping Cod faded away leaving them in the sewer room where they had found the sailors earlier
• Surrounding them were six very exhausted looking illusionists who they recognised from the council

Lifting a Curse

• Lorell attempted to throw an axe at an illusionist, missed and instead threatened them
• They didn't want to fight. They had used their energy keeping the illusions going for around a week to try and find out what had happened to their orb to no avail
• The party told them they had destroyed it
• In the week the Thieves Guild from Whiterock had taken over and pushed the illusionists out. They had no chance against them without their orb
• The Guild were ruling through terror and the town had fallen mostly to lawless chaos
• Vastrassa the illusionist who had said she could brew the potion had left, the illusionist believed she was likely in her tower to the west of the Howling Woods
• The other Illusionist who was not present was Hamish. He had travelled to try and find some other artefacts near Demonhelm to try to take back Whiterock
• The party managed to leave the sewers following the route they had used last and the map they had created safely. They narrowly avoided an encounter with a troll
• They entered Whiterock and found the Chaos that had been described
• They decided to avoid it an look for the ingredients they needed to lift their curse as they only had a few weeks left before being turned to trees
• They still needed mermaid breath and three cat hairs
• First they went to the docks to try to see if they could find anyone who knew about mermaids
• All the boats were gone, anyone who could had fled Whiterock. Apart from one old man with a small row boat who they recognised as the man who lent them the boat to get to the caves earlier
• He wouldn't sell or let them borrow the boat because he was leaving but he offered to give them a lift to the nearby island Telvon which was rumoured to have mermaids nearby and may have had someone to sell them a boat
• At Telvon they haggled for a boat, tried to extract wax from a beehive, which resulted in Danny hiding in a nearby house to avoid a bee attack, and stile some laundry to make earplugs instead
• After which they spoke to the locals to find out where the closest mermaids were
• They sailed the boat to the rocks where the mermaids were often sighted with earplugs in. Some of the party were tied to the mast and had earplugs removed to follow the mermaid song
• This lead them to a small rocky inlet. To get inside they used a small row boat which came with the boat. Along the way they came across a mermaid
• They tried to talk to it but couldn't hear the responses, eventually the mermaid began to rock the boat, Elfis cast charm and convinced the mermaid not to sing
• They then took out their earplugs and asked for the breath which the mermaid gladly gave
• Elfis also asked for any loot that may have come from sailors who had washed up. The mermaid gave them a wand that shot fishes, a longsword that cast blinding light from a gemstone in the hilt when planted in the ground and another wand which had a black mark on the end. They determined this was likely cursed
• They returned to Whiterock without a problem. Caught a cat, threatened some thugs that tried to mug them, stroked the cat to get some hairs and then set off to the Vastrassa's tower
• On the way out of Whiterock they found that Eadan, the blacksmith, had formed a coalition of merchants and those who still wanted order in Whiterock. They were planning a communist revolution but needed help. The party offer to help when they had cured their curse
• They then sailed up to the tower which was on the coast. The sea was calm so they were able to rest on the way. Robin played with a carved religious doll with a pointy hat he had found in the sewers. He showed signs of losing sanity since the illusion
• They knocked at Vastrassa's door, she answered, but no longer charmed asked for a fee to brew the cure. She either wanted 500 gold or for the party to test four unknown spells from a worn tome she had found
• They decided to test the spells
• The first was Davish's Far Travel, which made Lorell move particularly quickly for about 5 minutes
• The second was Midnight Howl which made Danny Rolex fall into a terrible nightmare and few oddly different after he awoke
• The third was Shimmerlight which made Elfis' skin shimmer and sparkle permanently
• The fourth was Hairvidash which made Robin permanently grow shaggy hair all over his body
• Vastrassa brewed the potions which cured the Curse of Barkskin Binding and each of their bark sections fell away when they drank the potions
• Vastrassa also told them that she didn't think the Illusionist stood a chance in Whiterock now and she didn't intend to go back. She could happily live in her tower
• While the potions were brewed the party were left in Vastrassa's lobby where there were various artefacts on pedestals. Robin took a shine to a red pointy hat which he stole on the way out without anyone noticing
• On the inside of the hat was some form of organism that looked like it would attach to the wearer when the hat was put on
• The party began the journey back to Whiterock

XP

50 xp = 5 x Sailor
600 xp = 6 x illusionist
650 xp = 1 x Troll
400 xp = 1 x mermaid
3770 xp = total
1700/4 = 425 xp

Published Content Used

• OSE (Classic and Advanced)
• Knock Issue 1