Fjörgyn's decent into madness...

When we left off, Fjörgyn and Charlie Bucky met up with Zelligant and Badir outside of The Queen's Cauldron. 

 
Having thought it over, I decided  that rather than leaving town, I would attempt to get some more information about the missing girl, Thorifinna, from the girl's father.
(After John explained to me what provisions I would need to adventure on. I decided that I wanted to gain XP and build up enough GP to carry me through that trek to Gorgoroth and into the dungeon beneath Trelleborg)
Thorifinna's father was nowhere to be found and did not answer when we knocked on the door of his cottage. We peacefully went on our merry way.

 
A brief discussion with one of the older farmers in the village gave some insight into the interesting connection of the villager slain by the ghoul and the missing girl's father (Bodvarr) - the slain villager (Gunnar) was having an affair with the girl's mother. This had me wondering, did Bodvarr have a pact with the ghoul? Is BODVARR the ghoul? Is it a coincidence? Bodvarr disappeared the day after Thorifinna. He was last seen at the tavern where his wife had come in to fetch him. Did they run away together? Perhaps his wife killed him and ran off with Thorifinna? I had so many ideas swimming in my head. 


As for Thorifinna, I've only heard that she is a good girl, 9 or 10 years of age, who does all of her chores in the forest.



Returning to the Shrine of the Forgetful Bear to ask Sister Rebecca some questions, I found the Sister uncooperative [this was determined by dice rolls]. When I offered her some gold to help grease the wheel a bit, Sister Rebecca responded with visible scorn [a terrible reaction roll brought this about] and told us to go find the girl, after which she closed the door on us. This ended up being a huge moment in Fjörgyn's development and my own as a role player. I felt furious that Sister Rebecca would refuse to answer questions that could actually HELP us to find her precious Thorifinna. I was doing her a solid by even looking for the girl! Oh, I was heated and I'm getting revved up just recalling those moments. Perhaps Fjörgyn the do-gooder would have just let it go or tried to see the situation from Sister Rebecca's standpoint? After being treated with less than open arms, something in Fjörgyn shifted.


Irritated by the rebuff, and possessing a new, general dislike of Sister Rebecca, I produced the still beating human heart I had recovered from the ghoul's tomb and placed it on the steps of the shrine as a warning to Sister Rebecca that I mean business. She should rethink her saltiness toward me.

To everyone's surprise, the sky quickly filled with clouds, rain poured down, lightning cracked and the thunder sounded much like the roar of a bear. 

The carving of a bear's head above the shrine's entrance exploded into dust as a thick blackness oozed out of the heart, up the stairs and under the door.

We stood in awe for a brief moment before wisely trudging off in the downpour to the dungeon.


(Kudos to John for creating this scene. It was so intense and awesome in the game)

I am going to add the next session below. I'm trying to get caught up with my D&D posts so that I can be current and also focus on some solo games.
........................................

After resting for a bit, we re-lit our torches, and I lead them back up the steps into the store room to root about the items there. I was hoping to find some treasure in the chests. With Charlie Bucky and Badir watching the exits, Zelligant and I fussed about with the chests.

Out in the darkness of the hallway to the north, Badir caught sight of glowing orbs moving towards them and coming in fast. 


The chests abandoned, Charlie Bucky and I rushed to the door to see four giant fire beetles closing in on them. I named them the Fab Four.

I unleashed an arrow but it did little good and soon the battle was joined.

The gods (the dice gods, that is) were kind to Zelligant and Badir, but both Charlie Bucky and I took significant damage before the surviving beetles were driven off.

Licking our wounds, literally perhaps in Charlie Bucky's case, we returned to the potential treasures where our luck went from bad to worse.

     My feline inspiration for Charlie Bucky. She's fierce huh?

Unable to open a locked box, I instructed Badir to use his club to smash it.

Although successful, he triggered a gas trap inside, which quickly filled the room with its haze. With some relief, here, finally, was a moment of luck for us: only Badir slumped to the ground unconscious.(if you call that luck) This was my first experience with any sort of gas trap. It didn't occur to me at first that it may be a sleeping gas. I thought Badir was done for.

I decided to let him rest there while we scooped out the silver and gold inside the box.


To be continued...