Thuldrin Kreed, the most hated man in Falcon's Hollow, approached the heroes and offered them 4,000 gp to travel to Darkmoon Wood's lightless reaches, bring back any survivors, and deal with whatever menace laid siege to the cutyard.
Thuldrin assured the heroes they wouldn't be alone out there. He's sent his best men to aid them in their mission and ensure that justice is meted out in the name of his slain workers. Thuldrin dispatched Boss Payden "Pay Day" Teedum and a squad of his regulators along with the heroes to lend their swords to the task.
When Wrack demanded more money, Thuldrin told him he drove a hard bargain before grudgingly acquiescing, upping the reward to a cool 5,000 gp.
Pay Day is friendly at first, but soon chafes at working with the heroes. Teedum's used to people taking his orders and can't treat anyone like an equal. Kreed is a god to him and everyone else is a dung beetle, there to be herded toward useful work or crushed under his boot. Payden's an ugly thug, with a bull neck, a huge round face, and a mashed-in nose. He's thick-shouldered and stocky, yet he moves like a trained killer. He's overly fond of chewing blood bark, and spits its crimson leavings all over the place (probably hitting a hero's boots on more than one occasion). He's a Consortium Man, concerned for the safety of the lumberjacks left behind by their yard master, Mutters Condlan, whom Teedum calls a "jelly-spined coward" and whose name he always accompanies with a thick hawk of blood bark juice.
There was no path to the cutyard yet, as it was only prospected by the Lumber Consortium only a few weeks ago. Kreed Supplied the heroes with a rough approximation of the yard's location, but a 3-mile hike into the unforgiving Darkmoon Wood awaited them, extended when the group got lost in the woods. The sun did not often pierce the shroud of autumn leaves above, and darkness reigned even during midday. As the heroes set out, Boss Teedum was happy to let them lead the way. He had no wish to risk his or his regulators' lives on any foolishness. When Aranthor contended with him, he spat, "You's the ones hungry for a re-ward! You go ahead and earn it, then! We's right behind you, never fear!"
During the night, a pack of worgs attempted to circle the heroes and tear them to pieces. Pay Day did not fight at all when the heroes were doing his work for him. His goons fired their crossbows at enemies engaged with heroes until all the worgs were dead.
Friday, February 2, 2018
Monday, November 27, 2017
Interlude (Lamashan [October]-Neth [November]) 4708 AR
A brief respite from horror and a tankard of ale or three of ale at the Sitting Duck are about the only joys a resident of Falcon's Hollow can look forward to. As summer wields to autumn, the leaves of Darkmoon Wood pale to jaundiced yellow or bloody crimson. They dying summer is another reminder that life is cheap in Darkmoon Vale. There is a saying in Falcon's Hollow: "Sorrow becomes joy, joy rots to misery, and so all things turn bloody in the end".
Many died during the carnival. Falcon's Hollow fell under a pall of mourning for months, and the town shrunk as many abandoned it as an accursed place. In addition, a good number of Syntira's followers were polluted beyond redemption (forever becoming dark ice fey). Still, our adventurers are heralded as heroes for preventing more death, and Syntira and her loyal followers were able to push her corrupted court members from Darkmoon Vale, banishing them as she once did their forebearers to the frozen wastes inhabited by the Witch Queen.
Although free from her torment, Tessa was forever changed (at least according to Namdrin) by her harrowing experience. She became a cold woman, stern, and quick to judge others. She grew to despise Namdrin for his weakness of love and falling for the cold rider's duplicitous plan. She left the half-elf, regretting her involvement with him, and sought companions unswayed by heady emotion - far more practical, and even iron-handed in the pursuit of law and control. After being snubbed by the heroes, she was seduced by Thuldrin Kreed, who impressed her with his ruthless pursuit of power and authority and his utter lack of whimsical notions.
When his love left him, Namdrin was crushed perhaps even more than when the cold rider took her from his side. He became a dangerous man, as fiery as his mistress had turned cold, prone to violent outbursts of drunken revelry given way to brawls and street battles. He soaked his pain in alcohol and whores, and soon ended up tied around Kabran Bloodeye's little finger. He in turn grew to despise Tessa.
The nymph queen was indebted to the heroes. Additionally, Syntira and her fey were blamed for the cold rider's assault on Falcon's Hollow. Thuldrin Kreed tried to harness the rage at the fey's attack on the town to galvanize his place at the helm of the town by calling upon the townsfolk to hunt down the fey and slaughter them to the last. Thuldrin has big dreams of being elected mayor of Falcon's Hollow in the settlement's first organized election, and he tried to use the people's hatred of the fey as a rallying point. Fortunately, the heroes successfully countered his fey propaganda and offered their own candidate for the mayor's office: Wrack.
A couple of festivals occur in Falcon's Hollow during this time as well. The first is held at the temple of Iomedae, celebrating Ascendance Day, the day the mortal Iomedae became a goddess. The second is Jestercap, a day of pranks and practical jokes, favored by gnomes.
One cold, misty morning a man came stumbling into town. Mutters Kondlan was the task master at Thuldrin Kreed's newest cutyard, 2 miles into the shadowy glens of Darkmoon Wood. The poor wretch arrived at dawn, his finery in tatters and his stringy hair matted with sweat and blood. His tidings soon reached every ear. He didn't see the horror that cut down his men, but he fled the cutyard pursued by screams and dying gurgles of his lumberjacks that echoed through the trees. Anxiously, the town waited for other survivors to appear, but only cold silence came from the forest through thinning mist. Fear gripped the town. Nearly two dozen men and women were missing in the darkness beneath the forest canopy, and the shouts and wails of their kin ringed across Falcon's Hollow. And on the perch looking over the rest of the town, Thuldrin Kreed, his interests threatened by this new incident, met quietly with advisors to discuss possible courses of action.
Many died during the carnival. Falcon's Hollow fell under a pall of mourning for months, and the town shrunk as many abandoned it as an accursed place. In addition, a good number of Syntira's followers were polluted beyond redemption (forever becoming dark ice fey). Still, our adventurers are heralded as heroes for preventing more death, and Syntira and her loyal followers were able to push her corrupted court members from Darkmoon Vale, banishing them as she once did their forebearers to the frozen wastes inhabited by the Witch Queen.
Although free from her torment, Tessa was forever changed (at least according to Namdrin) by her harrowing experience. She became a cold woman, stern, and quick to judge others. She grew to despise Namdrin for his weakness of love and falling for the cold rider's duplicitous plan. She left the half-elf, regretting her involvement with him, and sought companions unswayed by heady emotion - far more practical, and even iron-handed in the pursuit of law and control. After being snubbed by the heroes, she was seduced by Thuldrin Kreed, who impressed her with his ruthless pursuit of power and authority and his utter lack of whimsical notions.
When his love left him, Namdrin was crushed perhaps even more than when the cold rider took her from his side. He became a dangerous man, as fiery as his mistress had turned cold, prone to violent outbursts of drunken revelry given way to brawls and street battles. He soaked his pain in alcohol and whores, and soon ended up tied around Kabran Bloodeye's little finger. He in turn grew to despise Tessa.
The nymph queen was indebted to the heroes. Additionally, Syntira and her fey were blamed for the cold rider's assault on Falcon's Hollow. Thuldrin Kreed tried to harness the rage at the fey's attack on the town to galvanize his place at the helm of the town by calling upon the townsfolk to hunt down the fey and slaughter them to the last. Thuldrin has big dreams of being elected mayor of Falcon's Hollow in the settlement's first organized election, and he tried to use the people's hatred of the fey as a rallying point. Fortunately, the heroes successfully countered his fey propaganda and offered their own candidate for the mayor's office: Wrack.
A couple of festivals occur in Falcon's Hollow during this time as well. The first is held at the temple of Iomedae, celebrating Ascendance Day, the day the mortal Iomedae became a goddess. The second is Jestercap, a day of pranks and practical jokes, favored by gnomes.
One cold, misty morning a man came stumbling into town. Mutters Kondlan was the task master at Thuldrin Kreed's newest cutyard, 2 miles into the shadowy glens of Darkmoon Wood. The poor wretch arrived at dawn, his finery in tatters and his stringy hair matted with sweat and blood. His tidings soon reached every ear. He didn't see the horror that cut down his men, but he fled the cutyard pursued by screams and dying gurgles of his lumberjacks that echoed through the trees. Anxiously, the town waited for other survivors to appear, but only cold silence came from the forest through thinning mist. Fear gripped the town. Nearly two dozen men and women were missing in the darkness beneath the forest canopy, and the shouts and wails of their kin ringed across Falcon's Hollow. And on the perch looking over the rest of the town, Thuldrin Kreed, his interests threatened by this new incident, met quietly with advisors to discuss possible courses of action.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
The Cold Rider Cometh (Lamashan [October]-Neth [November] 4708 AR)
The heroes then set up a trap for the quickling. Wrack removed Aranthor's blindness, while Seoni rendered Wrack invisible, and he and Mrunk lay in wait while Seoni and Aranthor were stumbling about. The quickling could not resist, and the heroes managed to kill it.
When the heroes managed to recover the witch ice shard, Namdrin appeared next to them immediately. Seizing the shard, he casually snapped it in half and kneeled over the fragments, sobbing. As his tears trickled off his face and onto the fragments, they slowly began to melt and grow, eventually expanding into the unconscious (but living) form of Tessa, his lost love. With a smile, he picked up her sleeping form and carried her into a nearby wagon, returning moments later with his twin swords, a fully charged wand of cure light wounds, and a determined look on his face. He handed the heroes the wand and then slowly faced each of them in return and calmly thanked each one for restoring his life to him. Then the expression on his face turned grim and he said, "Now let us put an end to these vile creatures and drive them back to the shadows where they belong". From that point on, Namdrin aided the heroes as they struggled to overcome the fey.
When the heroes disrupted or stopped six different carnival events, the cold rider appeared to challenge the heroes directly, and with his appearance, the heroes finally had a chance to put an end to the fey carnival once and for all. Striding out of the forest came a horrifying creature of ice and bone mounted atop a rotting dead stag and clutching a tremendous icy glaive in one mighty gauntlet. Impressive antlers of jagged ice perched atop the rider's helm, putting his stag's to shame. At the center of the dread thing's frost laden breastplate sat a crystal of pure sapphire, glittering in the dancing light cast by the floating lights above. The cold rider stood on the frozen ice of the river and yelled his challenge: "Heroes, those who would stand against the power of ice and the might of the north, come and face me, and face death!"
The cold rider meets the heroes on the frozen river. The area he chose was where the carnies were setting up the fireworks display, and several small stacks of firecrackers still littered the ground there. The cold rider used ride-by-attack to harry foes while remaining out of reach. It fought to the bitter end.
When the cold rider was defeated, the Eye of Rapture melted away into nothingness, and all the lights above the carnival winked out at once, plunging the scene into darkness. The fey withdrew. They had been defeated, for now, but the town might never recover.
After the heroes succeeded in defeating the cold rider and released Syntira's fey from his evil influence, she brew up a special concoction that reversed the transformation of ale imbibers into trees, restoring the revelers back into their original forms. Among them was Millon Rhodam. A couple of hundred fair-goers died or went missing. Among the dead was Sheriff Deldrin Baleson, while among the missing were Kimi Eavewalker, Hollin Hebbradan and Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks.
When the heroes managed to recover the witch ice shard, Namdrin appeared next to them immediately. Seizing the shard, he casually snapped it in half and kneeled over the fragments, sobbing. As his tears trickled off his face and onto the fragments, they slowly began to melt and grow, eventually expanding into the unconscious (but living) form of Tessa, his lost love. With a smile, he picked up her sleeping form and carried her into a nearby wagon, returning moments later with his twin swords, a fully charged wand of cure light wounds, and a determined look on his face. He handed the heroes the wand and then slowly faced each of them in return and calmly thanked each one for restoring his life to him. Then the expression on his face turned grim and he said, "Now let us put an end to these vile creatures and drive them back to the shadows where they belong". From that point on, Namdrin aided the heroes as they struggled to overcome the fey.
When the heroes disrupted or stopped six different carnival events, the cold rider appeared to challenge the heroes directly, and with his appearance, the heroes finally had a chance to put an end to the fey carnival once and for all. Striding out of the forest came a horrifying creature of ice and bone mounted atop a rotting dead stag and clutching a tremendous icy glaive in one mighty gauntlet. Impressive antlers of jagged ice perched atop the rider's helm, putting his stag's to shame. At the center of the dread thing's frost laden breastplate sat a crystal of pure sapphire, glittering in the dancing light cast by the floating lights above. The cold rider stood on the frozen ice of the river and yelled his challenge: "Heroes, those who would stand against the power of ice and the might of the north, come and face me, and face death!"
The cold rider meets the heroes on the frozen river. The area he chose was where the carnies were setting up the fireworks display, and several small stacks of firecrackers still littered the ground there. The cold rider used ride-by-attack to harry foes while remaining out of reach. It fought to the bitter end.When the cold rider was defeated, the Eye of Rapture melted away into nothingness, and all the lights above the carnival winked out at once, plunging the scene into darkness. The fey withdrew. They had been defeated, for now, but the town might never recover.
After the heroes succeeded in defeating the cold rider and released Syntira's fey from his evil influence, she brew up a special concoction that reversed the transformation of ale imbibers into trees, restoring the revelers back into their original forms. Among them was Millon Rhodam. A couple of hundred fair-goers died or went missing. Among the dead was Sheriff Deldrin Baleson, while among the missing were Kimi Eavewalker, Hollin Hebbradan and Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Blind Peep Show (day 1, Lamashan [October] 4708 AR)
Ambrosia blinded Aranthor and Seoni before she cast a a spell to call for aid from a lion. She fled (using magic) as soon as she took any damage.
When the heroes drove away Ambrosia and her dark ice fey and defeated her lion, the quickling jabbed Aranthor quickly, using his dagger and sneak attacking. When Aranthor took a good swipe at him, the quickling distanced himself from nearby opponents and hurled a small black lusterless pearl. Upon sharp impact, the bead exploded, sending forth a burst of force. A globe of shimmering force enclosed Aranthor and Wrack, trapping them for several minutes. The quickling then attacked Seoni, but fled when Mrunk chased him away.
Wrack decided to use the heartripper blade to restore Mrunk's strength. Thankfully he spoke to the pigs that grazed behind the pie-eating contest first, all of whom were previous pie-eating-contest winners, horribly transformed by the chef as a reward for being the biggest pigs. Wrack then sacrificed one of the carnival's beasts of burden. Unfortunately, part of Mrunk's revivification already included a restoration spell, so another one in such short interval had no effect on him.
Next, the heroes saw a tiny, whimsical-looking humanoid darting about swiftly on wildly-colored gossamer wings. He was wandering around the fair handing out free drinks.
As soon as he noticed the heroes, he dipped his arrows into the brew. He fled as soon as Mrunk and Aranthor got close enough to make melee attacks.
When the heroes drove away Ambrosia and her dark ice fey and defeated her lion, the quickling jabbed Aranthor quickly, using his dagger and sneak attacking. When Aranthor took a good swipe at him, the quickling distanced himself from nearby opponents and hurled a small black lusterless pearl. Upon sharp impact, the bead exploded, sending forth a burst of force. A globe of shimmering force enclosed Aranthor and Wrack, trapping them for several minutes. The quickling then attacked Seoni, but fled when Mrunk chased him away.
Wrack decided to use the heartripper blade to restore Mrunk's strength. Thankfully he spoke to the pigs that grazed behind the pie-eating contest first, all of whom were previous pie-eating-contest winners, horribly transformed by the chef as a reward for being the biggest pigs. Wrack then sacrificed one of the carnival's beasts of burden. Unfortunately, part of Mrunk's revivification already included a restoration spell, so another one in such short interval had no effect on him.
Next, the heroes saw a tiny, whimsical-looking humanoid darting about swiftly on wildly-colored gossamer wings. He was wandering around the fair handing out free drinks.
As soon as he noticed the heroes, he dipped his arrows into the brew. He fled as soon as Mrunk and Aranthor got close enough to make melee attacks.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Pursuing the Prancing Quickling (day 1, Lamashan [October] 4708 AR)
The manhog's machine was filled with rotten entrails. The manhog stomped the pedal and blasted Mrunk with a shot of entrails as he approached. The blast was a ranged attack that targeted all opponents in a line emanating from the wielder. Targets struck were dealt fire damage.
The heroes managed to kill the beast, while Syntira made an appearance to ensure it was dead. According to her, the swine was the one responsible for turning her people against her, and anyone who came in contact with it could suffer the same fate.
The heroes found the quickling around the Titan's Wheel next. As an unaffected patron chased fairgoers away from the Titan's Wheel, the quickling yanked his pants down. When spotted, the quickling ran through this section.
Next, the quickling ran into the Strong Ale Tent. Beneath the ale tent, the reveling lumberjacks stood contorted in various stages of rigor as they slowly transformed into gnarled trees, while their comrades stumbled about in an alcohol-infused haze engaging in one-sided conversations with oak skinned friends. One scrawny jack drunkenly boasted about his axe work and obliviously displayed his prowess by whacking one of the tree men and deftly splitting him into a small pile of logs.
Lumberjacks aplenty began to sprout branches and take root here. The quickling rustled branches in newly formed "trees" as he darted about, stealing a lumberjack's cap at one point flitting about with the oversized (and visible) hat on his head.
Next, the quickling ran into the Blind Peep Show. Signs sloppily painted in brownish-red blood read "Free Peep Show!" Their arrows pointed to a pair of nondescript tents erected in the shadow of the wood, just beyond the ale tents. In front of the tents, fairgoers of all types lined up before the entrance, bristling with excited anticipation to see what caused the bright flashes of light and horrified screams from within. Mangled in the branches of the nearby trees hung the bodies of several half-orcs, dancers, and a pair of foreign musicians, their mouths and eye sockets all stuffed with fresh daisies.
Once the fey took over, Kabran's goons were "sent away", and his dancers were replaced by Ambrosia, who blinded patrons before other fey descended on them with murder in mind. The quickling tugged at Ambrosia's veils, revealing her charms to onlookers, before disappearing again. Ambrosia blinded Aranthor and Wrack, before she cast a spell to call for aid.
The heroes managed to kill the beast, while Syntira made an appearance to ensure it was dead. According to her, the swine was the one responsible for turning her people against her, and anyone who came in contact with it could suffer the same fate.
The heroes found the quickling around the Titan's Wheel next. As an unaffected patron chased fairgoers away from the Titan's Wheel, the quickling yanked his pants down. When spotted, the quickling ran through this section.
Next, the quickling ran into the Strong Ale Tent. Beneath the ale tent, the reveling lumberjacks stood contorted in various stages of rigor as they slowly transformed into gnarled trees, while their comrades stumbled about in an alcohol-infused haze engaging in one-sided conversations with oak skinned friends. One scrawny jack drunkenly boasted about his axe work and obliviously displayed his prowess by whacking one of the tree men and deftly splitting him into a small pile of logs.
Lumberjacks aplenty began to sprout branches and take root here. The quickling rustled branches in newly formed "trees" as he darted about, stealing a lumberjack's cap at one point flitting about with the oversized (and visible) hat on his head.
Next, the quickling ran into the Blind Peep Show. Signs sloppily painted in brownish-red blood read "Free Peep Show!" Their arrows pointed to a pair of nondescript tents erected in the shadow of the wood, just beyond the ale tents. In front of the tents, fairgoers of all types lined up before the entrance, bristling with excited anticipation to see what caused the bright flashes of light and horrified screams from within. Mangled in the branches of the nearby trees hung the bodies of several half-orcs, dancers, and a pair of foreign musicians, their mouths and eye sockets all stuffed with fresh daisies.
Once the fey took over, Kabran's goons were "sent away", and his dancers were replaced by Ambrosia, who blinded patrons before other fey descended on them with murder in mind. The quickling tugged at Ambrosia's veils, revealing her charms to onlookers, before disappearing again. Ambrosia blinded Aranthor and Wrack, before she cast a spell to call for aid.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Hearts of Ice (day 1, Lamashan [October] 4708 AR)
Inside the tent, a freakishly small, soot-smeared barker wearing a threadbare wool suit and a top hat incited a crowd, directing attention to the various pieces of machinery around the room as he deftly rattled off his pitch:
"Step right up! Step right up, folks! See the world's most magnificent manipulations of modern machinery! Guaranteed to chop, dice, and saw away yer troubles! You'll just die when you see'em! Welcome to the convenience of the modern age!"
The dark ice fey seized this tent and used the machinists, engineers, and other folk who were supposed to operate and service the machines to put on exciting displays, demonstrating the power of the machinery by feeding it lumberjacks, millworkers, and lumber barons who stopped by to experience the wonder of the carnival. This encounter was a factory of death.
Anyone approaching too close to a machine risked grisly death. While operating, all machines created a threatened area. Whenever an individual entered that area, they were subject to the machine's attacks. Mrunk and Wrack entered these machines' threatened spaces and were attacked by swinging blades, slashing pendulums, or other similar contraptions. Individual machines were stopped by dealing damage to single machines.
The blade of doom was suspended from an old catapult frame, and was a massive circular sawblade with a diameter the length of a cow that spinned at a blinding speed. A conveyor belt crafted entirely from spiked chain hauled people toward the whirling monstrosity that rent them in half as easily as a plough tills land. Wrack got grappled by the conveyor belt. Seoni deactivated the machine before he passed through the blade, and everyone helped to free him.
The chipper was a long wooden chute that led to a gaping metal opening filled with several twirling axles, each fitted with dozens of rapidly rotating blades.
The ten splitter was responsible for the relentless chopping of a mechanized row of ten axes, all attached to a lever and pulley system. Two laborers loaded the machine by placing people upright beneath the blades. Then with a single pull of the main lever, all the axes fell, dramatically killing all ten people at once.
In the debarker people were bolted to titanic iron gears and locked into a frame, creating a giant rotating spindle. As people span, a huge mechanical arm fixed with an oversized lathe blade slammed into them, killing them into thick slices.
The planer was a board-maker of amazing power, demonstrated by one of the lumberjacks who gleefully tossed people between twin churning drums covered with iron rasps. They screamed as their remains popped out the other side.
The board press was a machine that restored and flattened warped boards using steam and pressure. Now it was used to place people onto a bed of short spikes, after which a heavy iron spike was latched down over the top. Giant turnscrews created incredible pressure while a series of twisted copper pipes spilled boiling hot water down on the device, bathing everything in a cloud of scalding steam. After the steam cleared, the screws were released and the remains popped out.
The stacker was a device that stacked and bound cords of wood into shipping pallets.Currently people were thrown down a chute on automated shuffling panels. The remains were then dropped onto panels squared off by iron bars. As soon as the pallet fills to the top, another helper pulled a lever that dropped down a device that looked like an oversized horseshoe from some scaffolding above. It fit neatly over the cord, and when it retracted, it bound all the remains together with small chains.
When the heroes disrupted the Modern Engineering tent, a quickling begun to taunt them from a safe distance. Even better the quickling paraded the witch ice shard in full view of the heroes, giving them an opportunity to gain Quinn's aid. Before they can destroy the shard, though, first they must catch its keeper, and that is no mean feat.
The quickling is 2-1/2 feet tall and extremely gaunt, with elfin features and pale, bluish skin. Long, slender ears rise to a sharp point near the top of his head and his hair flows behind him like quicksilver. He wears a shirt and leggings woven from leaves and tree bark. He called out to the heroes, "So these are the foolish mortals that are spoiling my master's plans. Silly creatures, your salvation is before you, but you can't catch me!" At this point he darted away into the crowd and disappeared. The heroes recognized the witch ice shard around his neck.
The quickling's chase led the heroes all over the carnival grounds from area to area. As he moved through the carnival Mrunk detected his exact location and Seoni targeted him with attacks as his capricious carousing showed signs of his presence. When the heroes moved through an area they drew the notice of any fey (or other threats) and were attacked as the quickling made his getaway.
The delicious scent of sugary berries and fresh baked pastry wafted by, drifting from a tent near the river. Waving high in the air above it, a blue silk banner beckoned "Biggy-Piggy Pie-Eating Contest!" in bright gold letters. Beneath the banner lay a twenty-foot long table covered with a red-checkered tablecloth. Seated at a bench before the table, twelve local contestants eagerly stared at the tremendous steaming pies placed before them. With napkins tucked into their shirts and their hands tied behind their backs, they awaited the signal to begin. Near the table, a wooden sign staked into the ground read "Entrance Fee: 2 Coppers, Winner Gets Fat Prize!"
To the left of the table, the event's sponsor emerged from behind a wheeled cart bearing the weight of a coal-burning oven. With a bellowing voice that complimented his immense rotundness, the pie chef yelled "Begin!" Within seconds, contestants' faces eagerly plunged into the fresh-baked pies as they slobbered and gnashed their way to victory.
Once the competition started, the chef happily filled new pie crusts with a strange device that looked like a giant butter churn attached to a spinning wheel with a big foot pedal. In the front of a churning chamber, a metal spigot attached to a 10-foot hose. When the pie chef stomped the pedal, steam shot out the top of the churn as gouts of pie filling erupted from the hose.
The Master of Ceremonies for the Pie-Eating Contest was a corpulent anthropomorphic hog. He happily fed contestants slop-filled pies packed with rotten entrails. Behind his tent grazed a dozen or so pigs.
Stepping on the foot-pump of the pie-filling machine released a cloud of steam that compressed a central chamber crammed with pie filling. This forced the filling through a long flexible cloth hose connected to a brass fitting that shot the filling into a pie.
The quickling dashed behind the stove and alerted the manhog that the heroes were tailing him. As the contest began, the quickling darted across the table, stomping the contestant's heads into the pies, suffocating them in a bizarre dance. This maneuver allowed the manhog time to position himself behind the oven with the pie-filing machine.The quickling left towards the Titan's Wheel but left behind an easily tracked set of pie-stain footprints trailing down toward the river. The manhog cast a spell before he ran behind the oven for cover, remaining within reach of his pie-filling machine.
"Step right up! Step right up, folks! See the world's most magnificent manipulations of modern machinery! Guaranteed to chop, dice, and saw away yer troubles! You'll just die when you see'em! Welcome to the convenience of the modern age!"
The dark ice fey seized this tent and used the machinists, engineers, and other folk who were supposed to operate and service the machines to put on exciting displays, demonstrating the power of the machinery by feeding it lumberjacks, millworkers, and lumber barons who stopped by to experience the wonder of the carnival. This encounter was a factory of death.
Anyone approaching too close to a machine risked grisly death. While operating, all machines created a threatened area. Whenever an individual entered that area, they were subject to the machine's attacks. Mrunk and Wrack entered these machines' threatened spaces and were attacked by swinging blades, slashing pendulums, or other similar contraptions. Individual machines were stopped by dealing damage to single machines.
The chipper was a long wooden chute that led to a gaping metal opening filled with several twirling axles, each fitted with dozens of rapidly rotating blades.
The ten splitter was responsible for the relentless chopping of a mechanized row of ten axes, all attached to a lever and pulley system. Two laborers loaded the machine by placing people upright beneath the blades. Then with a single pull of the main lever, all the axes fell, dramatically killing all ten people at once.
In the debarker people were bolted to titanic iron gears and locked into a frame, creating a giant rotating spindle. As people span, a huge mechanical arm fixed with an oversized lathe blade slammed into them, killing them into thick slices.
The planer was a board-maker of amazing power, demonstrated by one of the lumberjacks who gleefully tossed people between twin churning drums covered with iron rasps. They screamed as their remains popped out the other side.
The board press was a machine that restored and flattened warped boards using steam and pressure. Now it was used to place people onto a bed of short spikes, after which a heavy iron spike was latched down over the top. Giant turnscrews created incredible pressure while a series of twisted copper pipes spilled boiling hot water down on the device, bathing everything in a cloud of scalding steam. After the steam cleared, the screws were released and the remains popped out.
The stacker was a device that stacked and bound cords of wood into shipping pallets.Currently people were thrown down a chute on automated shuffling panels. The remains were then dropped onto panels squared off by iron bars. As soon as the pallet fills to the top, another helper pulled a lever that dropped down a device that looked like an oversized horseshoe from some scaffolding above. It fit neatly over the cord, and when it retracted, it bound all the remains together with small chains.
The quickling is 2-1/2 feet tall and extremely gaunt, with elfin features and pale, bluish skin. Long, slender ears rise to a sharp point near the top of his head and his hair flows behind him like quicksilver. He wears a shirt and leggings woven from leaves and tree bark. He called out to the heroes, "So these are the foolish mortals that are spoiling my master's plans. Silly creatures, your salvation is before you, but you can't catch me!" At this point he darted away into the crowd and disappeared. The heroes recognized the witch ice shard around his neck.
The quickling's chase led the heroes all over the carnival grounds from area to area. As he moved through the carnival Mrunk detected his exact location and Seoni targeted him with attacks as his capricious carousing showed signs of his presence. When the heroes moved through an area they drew the notice of any fey (or other threats) and were attacked as the quickling made his getaway.
Once the competition started, the chef happily filled new pie crusts with a strange device that looked like a giant butter churn attached to a spinning wheel with a big foot pedal. In the front of a churning chamber, a metal spigot attached to a 10-foot hose. When the pie chef stomped the pedal, steam shot out the top of the churn as gouts of pie filling erupted from the hose.
The Master of Ceremonies for the Pie-Eating Contest was a corpulent anthropomorphic hog. He happily fed contestants slop-filled pies packed with rotten entrails. Behind his tent grazed a dozen or so pigs.
Stepping on the foot-pump of the pie-filling machine released a cloud of steam that compressed a central chamber crammed with pie filling. This forced the filling through a long flexible cloth hose connected to a brass fitting that shot the filling into a pie.
The quickling dashed behind the stove and alerted the manhog that the heroes were tailing him. As the contest began, the quickling darted across the table, stomping the contestant's heads into the pies, suffocating them in a bizarre dance. This maneuver allowed the manhog time to position himself behind the oven with the pie-filing machine.The quickling left towards the Titan's Wheel but left behind an easily tracked set of pie-stain footprints trailing down toward the river. The manhog cast a spell before he ran behind the oven for cover, remaining within reach of his pie-filling machine.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Carnival of Tears (day 1, Lamashan [October] 4708 AR)
When the heroes returned from their meeting, they found the carnival had been drastically altered in their absence. Yellow globes of light that floated and twirled through the air above the carnival now brilliantly lit the paths and tents of the show. Every so often, a new yellow globe rose from one of the tents and joined the growing multitude above the fairgrounds.
Most of the people had gathered along the lakeshore to witness a breathtaking display of fireworks. When the heroes arrived, the moon was high in the sky; its light shimmered off the ice like pale ghosts dancing in the darkness. On the surface of the lake, fairgoers reveled and hooted, stomping their foot to rollicking fiddle music, played by a band of grigs that maniacally bowed their legs while hoping about the bandstand. A gong sounded from the stage and scores of colorful rockets suddenly sprung into the sky, where they exploded into glistening clouds of multicolored sparks that drifted gently to the ground. As the sparks slowly drifted on the wind, an unseen mist seemed to lift from the scene, and in a moment, everything changed.
The grigs continued to play, but instead of a lively dance tune, they were playing an eerie, haunting melody that dripped with sadness and cruelty. They stood off to the side with expressions of anxious expectation. Meanwhile, instead of colored sparks, a rain of leeches drifted from the sky and settled over the crowd with a series of wet noises.
Unless the heroes can stop the slaughter, most of the population of Falcon's Hollow is likely to die within the next couple of hours. All around the show, the fey have transformed the fun carnival events into death traps, while the hapless townsfolk wandered around with smiles on their faces, only realizing the true situation after it was too late. While a few of the townsfolk realized what was going on, the rest of the carnival blissfully ignored their cries of fear and terror.
Not every area had been changed. The menagerie of freaks, the vacant tents and the ice carving were empty and dark; the carnies that were running them were missing.
Black lines smeared through Sathelbry's name on the signboard in front of his sleigh stop. It now read, "Free Sleigh Rides for Children". Seated in the driver's seat, a queer little gnome with an icy beard waited patiently as dozens of children piled into the sled.
As the heroes approached, the gnome driver cracked his whip, lurching the overpacked sleigh toward the nearby wood at a breakneck speed. The heroes saw a mangled corpse bound beneath the sleigh, its head dragging against the snow leaving behind a bloody trail. Searching the feed trough revealed limbs diced into the horses' oats. The sleigh driver was a frosty chiseler who the heroes could not stop.
The Titan's Wheel had undergone a drastic change. Stripped of its once colorful decorations, it jutted like a rotten claw from a quagmire of mud and blood. Fairgoers navigated toward it on rotten planks arranged as stepping stones to span the fetid morass. Ghoulish trophies dangled from the great metal wheel, bound by their own intestines to the rusting metal so they dragged through the mud and up into the air as the wheel rotated. A gang of dark ice fey had transformed the Titan's Wheel into a sadistic torture device.
The barker tried to act as if nothing was wrong while the other three dark ice fey tried to get heroes to come around back and trick them into entering the machine. When injured, the fey disappeared.
A towering mass of sinew with a skeletal visage stalked the perimeter of the machine tents, randomly plucking carnival attendees and violently thrusting them beneath the tent's greasy canvas folds, where their hellish screams were mostly drowned out by the deafening grinding of the machinery within. Nothing walked from the tent's exit. Instead, a dark fey raked piles of shredded flesh and ground bone into a shallow trench of bloody pulp that trickled down the hill and into the river.
The gruesome tentkeeper, Jhoruk, did his best to maintain his Eye of Rapture cover. When the heroes gave him trouble, he attempted to bounce them first, trying to appear as menacing as possible, though when pushed he didn't hesitate to dig his claws into Mrunk. Jhoruk used his claws against Mrunk, saving his axe for Aranthor. When injured, Jhoruk had no problem calling for aid from within the tent. Despite that, the heroes emerged victorious. The other fey fled when Wrack cast shatter.
Most of the people had gathered along the lakeshore to witness a breathtaking display of fireworks. When the heroes arrived, the moon was high in the sky; its light shimmered off the ice like pale ghosts dancing in the darkness. On the surface of the lake, fairgoers reveled and hooted, stomping their foot to rollicking fiddle music, played by a band of grigs that maniacally bowed their legs while hoping about the bandstand. A gong sounded from the stage and scores of colorful rockets suddenly sprung into the sky, where they exploded into glistening clouds of multicolored sparks that drifted gently to the ground. As the sparks slowly drifted on the wind, an unseen mist seemed to lift from the scene, and in a moment, everything changed.
Unless the heroes can stop the slaughter, most of the population of Falcon's Hollow is likely to die within the next couple of hours. All around the show, the fey have transformed the fun carnival events into death traps, while the hapless townsfolk wandered around with smiles on their faces, only realizing the true situation after it was too late. While a few of the townsfolk realized what was going on, the rest of the carnival blissfully ignored their cries of fear and terror.
Not every area had been changed. The menagerie of freaks, the vacant tents and the ice carving were empty and dark; the carnies that were running them were missing.
Black lines smeared through Sathelbry's name on the signboard in front of his sleigh stop. It now read, "Free Sleigh Rides for Children". Seated in the driver's seat, a queer little gnome with an icy beard waited patiently as dozens of children piled into the sled.
As the heroes approached, the gnome driver cracked his whip, lurching the overpacked sleigh toward the nearby wood at a breakneck speed. The heroes saw a mangled corpse bound beneath the sleigh, its head dragging against the snow leaving behind a bloody trail. Searching the feed trough revealed limbs diced into the horses' oats. The sleigh driver was a frosty chiseler who the heroes could not stop.
The barker tried to act as if nothing was wrong while the other three dark ice fey tried to get heroes to come around back and trick them into entering the machine. When injured, the fey disappeared.
A towering mass of sinew with a skeletal visage stalked the perimeter of the machine tents, randomly plucking carnival attendees and violently thrusting them beneath the tent's greasy canvas folds, where their hellish screams were mostly drowned out by the deafening grinding of the machinery within. Nothing walked from the tent's exit. Instead, a dark fey raked piles of shredded flesh and ground bone into a shallow trench of bloody pulp that trickled down the hill and into the river.
The gruesome tentkeeper, Jhoruk, did his best to maintain his Eye of Rapture cover. When the heroes gave him trouble, he attempted to bounce them first, trying to appear as menacing as possible, though when pushed he didn't hesitate to dig his claws into Mrunk. Jhoruk used his claws against Mrunk, saving his axe for Aranthor. When injured, Jhoruk had no problem calling for aid from within the tent. Despite that, the heroes emerged victorious. The other fey fled when Wrack cast shatter.
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