The Adventure

The team’s boat arrives at Wollerton. As they arrive, they hear the sounds of a brawl at the local bar. After someone is thrown out the window, the adventurers attempt to calm the bar brawl. There’s also a halfling with a sign yelling that the end is nigh. The party tries calmly asking people to stop, but the humans and dwarves do not listen. A mastic that belongs to one of the brawlers ends up biting Jackal. Eventually they end up dragged into the fight. A human and dwarf attempt to head butt each other and knock each other out. Eventually Appeluna ends the fight by casting sleep on the brawlers.

Niva, the bartender, thanks the PCs and tells them that these two families don’t have love lost between them, but have never come to blows before. Niva shoves the halfling off the bar and kicks him out. Then she wakes up Lanter and the dwarf explains that the miller told him that Rodwin had killed his prized ewe. Jackal slaps Rodwin awake. He explains that the village priest told him that Lanter burned down his barn. The party asks them if they are sure it was the other person or if someone could be tricking them. Each one is a little ashamed they didn’t try to ascertain the truth. They gather their families and leave. The party wonders if they’re once again dealing with doppelgangers.

The party went to speak to the miller. They question her and find out that she hasn’t spoken with anyone from the brawl and also that there was someone with spiky black hair and no facial hair who was spying on her. They speak to the elf priestess and hear a similar tale.

The team then goes back to speak with the family heads to relate what they learned and to ask if they’ve seen anyone strange in town.

As evening arrives, they speak with the innkeeper and learn about the cottage that’s been abandoned for 6 years and yet has had lights in the windows for the past 3 nights. They decide to stay the night to rest up.

The next day they go to the cottage. The door is barred and Jackal is unable to break it open. Jackal breaks into the window and they see the cultists. Hector insists they are escapees from a wyvern in Reedthorp. They see through the ruse because Hector has spiky black hair. Eventually things devolve into a fight. Three of the cultists gave up as they were failing the fight (getting very low on HP). Appeluna makes these 3 sleep. The team knocks out Hector and tie him up. They interrogate him and find out about the hideout and get a map of the valley with the hideout and wyvern cavern marked up. When they search the house they find gold, a hat of disguise (which Hector had been using), amulets with the symbol of the Servants of Nidhogg. They bring the cultists back to the inn. The bartender agrees to keep them arrested in the cellar and reaches out to the local baron. He offers them 100 gp each and a plot of farmland if they investigate the cult site. Before heading out, Appeluna asks the bartender about the hell hounds. He doesn’t know anything about hellhounds, but knows that mentions the Learned CIrcle of Enlightenment was awaiting some sort of shipment and that their leader is Maretta Cyneburg.

The team heads out into the valley. They pass a farm and come across a Shepherd who tells them that Maretta was headed in the same direction yesterday. After another day of travel they arrive in Reedhthorp. Ariana finds the survivors and Appeluna convinces them to tell their story. They talk about how a halfling showed up talking about how the end was nigh and then all hell broke loose. They were also attacked by Lambsbane, a wyvern who has been eating their sheep.

Jackal convinces the group to head to Lambsbane’s lair to kill the Wyvern. They all climb up without trouble. His lair is empty so the team explores. Jackal and Ariana climb up and find his hoard. Ariana also finds the secret entrance to the cult lair marked on a map at Lambsbane’s cave. They wait for him to arrive to fight him since they promised the villagers to fight him. They launch a surprise attack when he arrives, with Jackal and Ariana jumping on his back to attack him. He tries a few times to get them off his back, but they continue to hold on. In his frustration, he takes to the air with Jackal and Ariana on his back. The team does incredibly, but with the wyvern nearly mortally wounded, he gets a few lucky attacks on Jackal and Arianna and they end up unstable and fall off the wyvern. He flies off to lick his wounds (literally). Appeluna, who had been fighting safely from inside the cave, stabilizes the others and they stumble into Reedthorp where people there help them recuperate. It takes 3 days to get back up to health.

Afterwards they head to the Hidden Tomb, climb up the mountain, and go into the hidden entrance. They end up in a stairwell. From there they go into the robe room. Appeluna wears purple robes (disciples), Arianna and Jackal wear grey robes (novices). They leave that room into the main room and meet some Servants of Nidhogg. From there they are guided to the novice dorms. At the dorms they speak with Gratiosa Featherby and Appeluna recognizes her, but doesn’t reveal herself. She speaks with the other novices there to try and free Gratiosa, but it turns out they are part of Maretta’s group. They take them to the scriptorium where the team has to copy pamphlets for 5 hours. In that time, the members of the Circle of Englightenment figure they can trust our heroes and take them to the library to meet with Maretta. Maretta confides in them that she wants to disrupt the ritual because she doesn’t want the world to end. She gets her crew member to distract the librarian and Maretta takes them to the lower level of the library. There they learn how to disrupt the ritual. Maretta takes some books and flies out. The team goes into a few empty rooms, but eventually they stumble into the room where the ritual is taking place. They stop the ritual by destroying the bone of the void saint.

The battle is going poorly until they free the sacrificial person who helps them get things disrupted to the point where they can escape. On the way out they see Gratiosa again and she tells Appeluna that her sister Oranegterra was also kidnapped by the void cultists and taken elsewhere. After they get out, Appeluna’s patron tells her that it was good that they helped stop the end of the world, but Maretta was lying about who she was. She actually belongs to a cult that serves the arch-devil Parzelon, the King of Secrets, and a rival of her patron.

GM Commentary

Early on when they were hearing about the feuding families, the kids immediately suspected doppelgangers. They asked how common they are and whether they always target millers. It’s a consequence of doing this adventure right after Trouble at Mossbeard Mill, but that cracked me up.

• Tales-of-the-Valiant