1. Journals

61 - Webbed Forest

AR: Sessions
Ardenian Heritage
September 14, 2019

Goals

Locate the hags, prepare a plan to help them in the fight. The hags know the party defeated Zekrol, and will set up a trap.

Setup 60 - Encounter in the Sewers

The party defeated Zekrol and acquired the Hag's Eye. Auron was asked if he wants to marry Rosalinde, his blacksmith master's daughter. The party participated in the Spiegelfest, getting into weird situations and buying exotic potions, while Zook and Aaron were transported to the hags, finding out more about their location at the Unterwaldsee.

The party find themselves the next morning in the Schnizel Träger for breakfast. Most of the party is hangover with Lex and Levin sending a note that they will be late.

Locations

  • Arcastle
  • Wildlingen
    • Last town before the forest.
  • Winterwald
    • Magically enchanted. Colder, and even in the day the sky is dimmed, showing stars that aren't the ones that normaly shine in the sky. 
    • The hags have set up traps for the party to slow them down before finding them, forcing the party to be split into two sections.
    • The deeper they go, the more uneasy they feel with spider webs scattered around. The hags will try and weaken them before they appear to them.
    • Inspiration: Mad Mage Wyllowwood
      • Levin and Lex vs Medb, Zook and Auron.
      • Red flowers: Nature check reveals they are safe. Except they've been tampered by the hag's black magic. DC20 con save of poisoned.
        • Sound of fast animals nearby, attacked!
      • Herdel river: the location is noisy, as if the water was rapid, but the water looks calm. The hags have placed an illusion that a DC15 investigation or perception check can detect.
        • Crossing the river will require a successful DC15 strength check or have the player be caught offguard and be pushed below the watery illusion. A second check can be attempted before the player starts drowning because of the pressure/tumbling.
      • Bear Cave: by a mountain, a cave covered in spider webs catches the party's attention. From it a spider-bear (Elfrun) appears and leads the party somewhere else if possible.
    • Unterwaldsee
      • The home of the hag coven. The river is emitting a lot of cold vapour. The coven village is visible further along the coast, as in Zook's vision.
        • The whole lake is an illusion, the players are actually located in a cave.
        • At the centre of the village, they find the altar. Something the players do will disable the magic will reveal their location to be in the Broken Bones Caves.
    • Unknown - inspired by
      • Bones and rotting corpses lying around the entrance, and a giant skull.
        • Investigation / Perception low: reveals that the mouth has no teeth. mid: through the nose a small creature could squeeze through to another room. high: where the teeth should be are black pits of worms that pull into unsuspecting pray. Marrow worms who enjoy bones, not flesh.

NPCS

  • Aaron Bahr (easily excited about knowledge)
    • Feels uneasy about their encounter in Winterwald, this has definitively warned the hags that Zekrol has been defeated, and they will be expecting the party now.
  • Elfrun (female elf, deceptive)
    • Gets alerted by the creatures of the forest of intruders, and tracks the party down, controlling the woods while she observes them.
    • Will appear to the party as a spider bear to the party and lure them deep into the forest (her lair), to a tombstone with written in elven "Here lies Siegbert, loving husband and father of 10". Touching the tombstone will reveal Elfrun's life. She will attack after the vision.
    • When defeated, released from the coven's control: tells the party that the rest of their friends await for them at the coven's base. THanks them for freeing her of her prison, that she is happy she can finally find her husband and children in death again.
  • Konrad Stern (male half-orc, towns guard and ranger)
    • Doesn't recommend going into the winterwald, most people don't ever come out.
    • More activity and tracks recently, with many creatures running out of the forest, as if the enchantment was weaker.

Encounters

  • Winterwald: the party is split up in two sides due to the magic of the place. Diviniation magic is blocked here.
  • Red flowers: 1 Basilisk and 2 Shambling Mound
  • Elfrun (Archdruid) and the forest as her lair actions if needed.

Treature

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