A Gimble In The Wabe Session 5.

The Ogre With No Heart Part 3.

We do a lot of resting in the Tugleywood, many a nap is taken, and many a day ends with making camp for the night shortly after lunch. It is an enchanted forest and the air is filled with golden magic and the heady fragrance of faerie. Also, spell slots are precious.

We were short a Druid this game, Bata’s player needed a real nap.

The session started as others have before, with the party making camp inside the crumbling ruin of the temple to which they had tracked the ogre’s heart. They had obtained the heart from an owlbear egg, and bashed a hole in the doors to the inner sanctum of the temple through which they could see a black granite altar, so feeling reasonably secure they rested.

While they slept, Tekka was visited by a sprite named Dustbelly, sent to her by the Archfey (The Faerie Queen) to serve as a familiar. Dustbelly immediately proved to be crass glutton for flesh, ravenously consuming the putrid bits of roebuck Theolis had slain days earlier and then passing out on Tekka’s blanket. Tolbert the Paladin was also visited in the night, having a vision while he slept of Sir Kewish the Thorn Knight for whom he once squired accompanied by the Faerie Queen in the form of dappled golden light. Sir Kewish praised Tolbert for adhering to the rigorous path of the paladin and inducted him into the Order of the Ancients, telling him that he was not yet a Knight, but that he was on the right path.

Most of the party is now level 3, and Tekka the Warlock gained the Pact of the Chain while Tolbert the Paladin joined the Order of the Ancients.

Dustbelly, like nearly all Sprites is a nasty little shit. 

During the night, Theolis heard the signature grumble-hoot of more owlbears in the area, but they seemed to keep their distance. In the morning the party awoke to a rotten ghoul face leering at them from the other side of the hole they had smashed in the temple door.  Tekka wrecked it with an eldritch blast that also enlarged the crack in the door. The Ghoul shimmed through only to be hacked to bits by the party. They could see several more inside the temple milling about a black statue of a goddess.  The ghouls seemed mostly interested in trying to croak prayers, so the hero’s started picking them off one by one. Frustrated that they couldn’t open the door further Tolbert put his mighty thews to the task and broke the massive granite door from its hinges smashing a ghoul in the process.

After defeating the pious ghouls the party stood before the twenty foot tall black granite statue of the goddess, the sanctum was also of black granite with an arched ceiling strewn with diamonds in the patterns of constellations. The wizard, Mysterios IX explained that he had read about the ancient Club Men venerating two gods, the Sun Goddess and the Night Mother. As they tried to determine how they could pry diamonds from the twenty foot high ceiling the door to the inner sanctum opened and the ghost of a Priestess emerged bearing a black blade.

The Priestess praised the Night Mother and asked if they sought the power of the King of Clubs in the name of the Red Queen, and after some murmuring the party decided they did not serve the Red Queen. The Priestess then asked if they would willingly take the black blade and use it to slay the foes of false darkness.

Tolbert affirmed they would and took the blade. The Priestess’s ghost merged with it and she was relieved to “once again see the stars and taste the blood of her foes.”

All Hail Brom! 

The Sanctum had another door, bearing a mural of the Night Mother and an inscription in the ancient tongue of the Club Men. Pooling their collective and limited knowledge of the language the party determined it said something along the lines of: devotion would open the way. Several attempts were made to show devotion until Pasco alighted on the idea of kissing the door, which opened it. On the other side was the entrance to the temple housing a multi-breasted statue of the Sun Goddess and an owlbear nest with a mewling owlbear chick in it. Theolis again heard the grumble-hoot of the chicks parents. The party wasted almost no time in deciding a live owlbear chick was worth facing two adult owlbears and rather than just close the door they prepared to fight. Pasco viciously mocked a mama owlbear, Tolbert called on the primeval powers of nature to root one in place with vines, and Tekka mercifully put the chick to sleep so that it would not witness the death of its parents. The male owlbear moved in and scooped up the chick however, and made good its escape, saving its innocent brood from the clutches of adventurers.

No one can resist this. 

After having spent a hectic morning putting an end to the undying devotion of penitent ghouls and attempting to abduct an owlbear chick the party was understandably tuckered out. They took shelter in the sanctum of the temple and prepared camp, eating up the last of their trail-rations in the process. While they slept they were subject to disturbing visions of the empty/death/winter aspect of goddesshood. Most of the heroes were able to come to some unconscious understanding that there is no light without darkness, but Theolis and Pasco did not rest well.

We had some grumbling about my ruling that the rations were used up, but at least a few weeks had passed since the start of the game. You cannot really “buy” rations in the Tulgeywood and I want the players to care about food and eating so I decided this was the last of the rations they came out of character creation with. I think that having characters eat and drink as well as hunt for food helps to define the setting by forcing decisions on flora, fauna, and cuisine. I also enjoy the “realism” of the characters being hungry sometimes and caring about something other than XP. Generally I will not allow a long rest without food and water. This quibble also produced the memorable line from Tolbert's player:"Don't I have some kinda Paladin crackers?"

With the monstrous heart in hand, the party set off the next morning to return to the Hag’s house in order to put the organ back into the Ogre.  As they approached the pond that surrounds the house the bloated and swampy Ogre erupted from under the surface of the water, the Hag now in her true (and hideous) form riding on its shoulders. The Ogre still had a hole in its chest where the heart was removed, only now it was filled with an owl bone charm that the Hag seemed to be using to control the creature.

Of course she knew they were coming back. 

Pasco was nearly crushed by the cypress stump the Ogre wielded as a club. Tekka and Mysterios IX wisely backed up from melee, while Theolis and Tolbert bravely charged. Mysterios hit the Hag with a Witch Bolt, and while the fight raged an arc of lightning connected the wizard to the evil fey witch. The Hag mocked the party, threatening to use the heart to again seduce a satyr and make more swamp daughters. Tolbert tried to put the heart back in the ogre during the melee but failed. After a few rounds of being zapped by the Witch Bolt the Hag fired a necrotic Ray of Sickness at Mysterios IX who was rendered unconscious only to be saved by the always timely intervention of Pasco. Realizing that the combined threat of the Ogre and Hag were deadly, the heroes decided to try and restore the heart again. Tolbert handed the organ to the greasy sprite Dustbelly, who Tekka commanded to become invisible. The warlocks will kept the sprite from the temptation to eat the heart and the Sprite easily placed it back into the Ogre’s chest.  Restored, the Ogre was released from the Hags charm. It threw her off it's back and with a furious roar went after her, seeking vengeance. The party wisely stood back and let the monsters fight. The Hag however, was no fool and disappeared into the ether.

Night Hags have well over 100 HP and are not stupid. She was not going to die to a party of 3rd level adventurers. Frankly I’m kinda surprised she only knocked one of them down to 0 HP.

All I want to do with my life is grow bloat-fruit. 

The ogre thanked the party, and vowed to return to the Goblin Wood and do no harm along the way. It promised to live the rest of his life as a farmer. Tekka who has a magical connection with her Sprite familiar knew that the Ogre spoke the truth since Dustbelly was able to read the heart while it was in his hands. The party weighed the merits of letting it go versus killing it as were their orders from Lady Haldora. The eventually voted, and let the creature go free. It gratitude the Ogre agreed to give them the treasure that it had stashed near the river bank. They followed the creature cautiously and were awarded with a sack of chalices and golden vestments.

I wonder if Bata would have swayed the vote. I suspect he would not have let the Ogre live…

Odolotino the titmouse returned to check on their progress for the Lady Haldora, and was incredulous that they had allowed the monster to live. The titmouse told them of an Utari village to the south and suggested they rest there while he delivered the tidings to the Thorn Knight and received new commands for the recruits. They marched south, leaving the cyprus bogs of the northern Maze Marsh and entered the reed beds of the true marsh where they found an empty crannog and two Utari houses on the shore of a small lake. Here we called it a night.