Our group sets in for the evening, with Baldur taking the first shift. About halfway through the evening, he hears the sounds of hunting dogs off in the distance. When the baying seems to be getting closer, he wakens the group. A few moments later a soft glow and the sound of horse hooves comes from the up the mountain. Quinby decides to hide in a tree, ready to pounce, or at least safe amongst the leaves. A few moments later, Thiseas comes in to view for Baldur, Enoki and Sharn.
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| One version of Thiseas |
"Are you all safe and present?" asks the large centaur. "As the great hunt is coming by attracted a bit by you, " he continues, looking over at Baldur. Quinby is quiet in the trees, and despite some broad hints, does not come down.
"I'll shield you from Hern, the Horned God. He has been on the hunt in these mountains for something these last few weeks, and I think having one of his adherents here has helped drive him in this direction on this eve." With that, he says a few words and the staff he carries grows a bit brighter, casting a light on the adventurers.
Outside the light, in the trees, Quinby holds tight to the tree as more than a dozen great hunting dogs run through the night airs, followed by a horned god almost 12 feet tall. Three of the dogs look at him, and as they race by, the great horned one also looks down at the halfling hiding in the trees. Inside Quinby's head, the voice of Sir Ignatius speaks with a fervor: "Close your eyes young halfling! Close your heart to those voices calling you to the great hunt!" Somehow Quinby holds on as the hounds and their master race up the mountains and are soon out of sight and hearing.
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| from https://www.deviantart.com/velamir/art/Wild-hunt-419009265 |
When Quinby climbs back down the tree, his once dark hair is now an elegant silver, and there are fine wrinkles around his eyes. Sharn looked up at the halfling thief, and her eyes widened at the sight of changed him. Baldur tried to say something about Quinby's altered appearance, but Quinby managed to avoid listening or paying attention to anything anyone said.
Thiseas explained he was watching and taking care of the Vele Hory Range, the mountains they are on. While he worships Tonna, he has no issues with a worshipper of Hern, the Horned God. The area they are in sits on a ley line, and that mushroom circle across the creek can be a dangerous place to be. And in fact, if they could do him a small favor, he would appreciate it and possibly help them in their time of need as well.
"There is an abandoned farm a couple miles up the path. There are some mischievous fey hiding in there, with a magic stone that needs to go into the mushroom circle at moonrise to put it back to the few world. I am too large to fit into the caves that were used as a cold storage room for the house that was there." He also told them that the water goddess was actually Verey Ambervale, a river Naiad. And he has twice, in the near decade he has been here, seen what looked to be the Salmon of Knowledge. He leaves soon after that, continuing is walks about the mountains.
The night remains calm, as most creatures are still hiding from the Wild Hunt. Sharn has the last shift, and the other wake up to the smell of pancakes and fried river trout. Eating a good breakfast, they hike up the mountain path and find the remains of the sign post. They manage to find most of what Sharn needs on their hike up the mountain, and the rest she can pick at the campsite when they return. Turning up the trail they see the remains of the house, and next to it a small entrance to the caves.
They do a bit of exploring, and then are attacked by three large ants. Large as in almost 6 feet long large. Not quite Them, but it was quite the battle. And Enoki somehow got hit twice with a natural 20! Fortunately, I did roll low on damage. And sadly, Sharn managed to critically fumble and whacked herself on her arm. She never did any damage! Yet they managed to kill the ants, and Enoki got a little bit of healing from the sole healing potion Sharn had.
We stopped there for the evening, with the rest of the cave to be explored.
Characters Met
Thiseas of the Gallantos Herds of the Western Fields, now a druid of Tonna.
Herm the Horned God, of the Wild Hunt
Verey Ambervale (river Naiad), who they actually met earlier but did not get her name
3 giant ants
Miscellaneous Notes
I sort of winged this one: one of the players asked if they could help the Druid, and having nothing really thought out, came up with returning that magic rock to the fairy ring basically. I found a map I had from Dyson and threw that out there. A random roll for the encounter turned out to be those giant ants. Which almost killed the group, and Enoki is almost mortally wounded again. Not sur ewhy those ants managed to do a natural 20 and Sharn kept rolling really low, including that 1 for a critical failure. She will be nursing that arm a few days!
And I really need to prep better if we are going to use Owlbear. I do have a LOT of various creature icons but I can never find the one I want when I need it (partially because they are in a few difference collections. I probably need to figure a better organizational process for this). I also had several books that fed into the adventure and world building, though it took me some time to find some of the passages I wanted.
So for the next session I need to finish that map, and throw in the mischievous fey, and figure a few more things. There is at least one more possible fey encounter in that glade.
Quinby actually failed his save with the wild hunt, but rather than have him run off with the hunt, I just aged him about a decade. I left his stats alone, so there are no mechanical changes other than he now has silver hair and fine line around his eyes. I could have taken a bit of his level 18 charisma stat away but decided against that. I used the soul of Sir Ignatius to help him keep himself attached to the tree rather than that hunt.
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