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.
Monday, November 27, 2017
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.
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