Elfhame Session 2 – Actual Play – The Barrow of King Finvarra

The characters in this session were:

XP Awarded: 350 XP

After Sparks started a fight to free to pixie Babs, the party slew several goblins of the Bonegrubber tribe, inhabitants of the Upper Tombs of Lord Finvarra’s barrow. The fight began with Sparks firing off a Firebolt, followed by Blue-Eyed Molly sliming seveal of the goblins with glowing green ectoplasm. Fun-Guy, coaxing the gigantic drunken Cat Sith from the other chamber, lobbed the huge feline into the goblin ranks, producing a hissing, snarling, spitting ball of chaos. As goblins scrambled to evade the cat, Susurrus sowed confusion amongst foes and inspiration among allies, while the stealthy Wick worked through the mob, stabbing kidneys and skewering goblins in the back. Petallu swirled her sword in a beautiful but stunningly inefficient pattern, aimed way too high for goblin necks, while Mud bashed a goblin over his skull, splitting it in two.Weevil, vexed at the death of other goblins, chose to clobber several unconscious rather than kill them. The fight ended when Molly cast Sleep to subdue the remaining combatants, including the winesop cat.

While Sparks and Petallu spoke to Babs (and got her some false wings made up, courtesy of Petallu’s tailor), heavy footsteps were audible down the corridor as something came to investigate the commotion.

“What’s all this then?!” a gruff voice demanded. “Who defiles Lord Lousewort’s domain?”

“Invited guests!” the affable Mud said smoothly, stepping up to block any sight of the carnage close behind them.

“Yes, don’t you know who we are?” Blue-Eyed Molly retorted. “I’m Blue-Eyed Molly, famed bard. Your lord invited us to play for him.”

Fennrix used Friends to help convince the lumbering ogre, while Weevil played on his goblin cred. Eventually the ogre – who apologetically introduced himself as “Nosebiter,” led them down the hall; meanwhile Susurrus and Wick hid the bodies and sleeping goblins.

The party was shown in to meet the grotesque Lord Lousewort and his wives, Bloodeyes, Toothsome Jenny, and Curlyhorns.

“Who’re all these people?” the goblins demanded – a gangly, long-limbed creature splayed over his throne, his brain stranglely swollen in its skull. He scratched his belly and flipped idly through a mouldering-looking spellbook while snacking on some sort of fungus.

“Blue-Eyed Molly and friends,” the bard proclaimed. “You invited me, don’t you remember? I’m a famed entertainer, here to regale your fine court with song…”

Flattery seemed to have proved a wise tactic, and after a few more exchanges Molly was led into a dank “dressing room” to prepare, while the rest of the party – having carefully hid the goblin bodies in sarcophagi – made themselves comfortable. As word spread through the goblin barrow, goblins began pouring into the chamber, introducing themselves with names like Fuckwit, Drool, Batbreath, Wibbly, and Wobbly. Mud conversed with Lord Lousewort’s wives and managed to acquire some exotic spices, and bits and pieces of the embalmed elfin dead the goblins considered a delicacy.

After preparations, the concert was soon underway, with Fennrix adding an illusory multi-coloured feline disco ball, Susurrus on horns, and Blue-Eyed Molly on her tin-whistle. The goblins writhed, danced, and drank, smashing their heads into one another and leaping about the room in a bacchanalian frenzy. Even the Cat Sith wandered back in and, after vomiting all over the floor, engaged in the festivities, swigging from her enchanted bottomless goblet.

At the climax of this concert, Susurrus blew the Drudehorn and conjured a nightmare, Mary, lighting the Lanthorn of Renewal in the tomb, which repaired the broken pillars.

The party initially mistook the lamp for the Sacred Cauldron itself, and later realized they would need this item to bypass the collapse elsewhere in the ruins.

The rousing concert was sufficient for the party to convince Lord Lousewort to lend them the Lanthorn; he also told them that the Sacred Cauldron might be found in the Lower Tombs.

Suitably equipped, the party used the Lanthorn to clear the blockage they had discovered back near the entrance – only to discover the statues in the hall animating to attack! Petallu convinced some to go after the “goblin trespassers,” while quickly snuffing the lamp returned the blockage to its previous state.

While the blockage was cleared they also found the remains of a knight and a pixie, as well as the Lion’s Shield and the Acorn Key. The party again used the Lanthorn (carried by Fennrix) to descend a newly-repaired stair, and glimpsed the slimy tail of some hideous beast disappearing down a tunnel.

Choosing a different route instead, the party crossed a previously ruinous bridge with the aid of the magical lamp and came to the Hall of Years – which they found mysteriously unlocked. An inscription read: “To Pass the Hall of Years, Thou Must Remain the Same Age As Thou Wert When Thou Entered.”

Here, Mud’s Druidic knowledge of runes (the closest he has to reading) and a degree of trial and error enabled the party to figure out a path across the warded aging and de-aging tiles to remain the same age as they entered.

The party looted the Royal Tomb beyond, discovering a series of journal entries by Fraff the Foolish – a gnome adventurer from the city of Hex – who apparently was transformed into the Lindworm. He told of the sinister Green-Fingered Gentleman and his desire to use the Sacred Cauldron of Rebirth to revive the long-dead Erlking, champion of primal Elfhame, rebel against the four Faeire Kings and Queens. From their knowledge of history the party deduced that this individual would likely have headed to either Joyous Gard or Dolorous Guard, two fortresses in Mag Mell where the Erlking or his Fetch – a kind of magical double used for purposes of strategic and political deception – was reputed to have been killed in centuries past.

Investigating the tomb with the Lanthorn, the party accidentally restarted the magic that reanimated the giant Fachan, a skeletal monstrosity and guardian of the tomb. Although Blue-Eyed Molly managed to blow off the thing’s legs, it was still a terrible opponent.

A fierce fight ensued that nearly saw Petallu and Sparks killed, the giant sweeping the terrible Ablach Flail left and right to scatter his foes; the elfin knight and pixie were sent flying, hitting the far wall with twin sickening smacks. After pelting the giant with spells and blades, the group of would-be heroes lured Fachan to the sarcophagus of Lord Finvarra, over which a stone had fallen, and then through Weevil’s clever use of the Lanthorn managed to break his back with the stone, destroying him once again. Petallu then obliterated his skull and scattered the fragments in the Hall of Years.

Thorough investigation of the tomb yielded the Royal Signet Ring of the King, and a few gold pieces.

The party made their escape, only to encounter the tail’s owner once more – a vile Lindworm, lured into exposing itself via a clever illusion! The hissing beast caused the illusion to disperse and turned to face the party, slaver dripping from its jaws…

Before it could strike, however, Mud offerred forth some of the sweatmeats of Lord Lousewort’s wives. The Lindworm sniffed, cocked a scabrous brow, and took a tentative bite of the goblin treats…

What followed was not a fight but a very pleasant meat tea, over the course of which the Lindworm began to remember his life from before his transformation by Dragon-Fever, an illness common to tomb-robbers in Elfhame, wherein a desire to hoard wealth and leave it unspent transforms the miser into a serpent. It seemed the creature was none other than Fraff the Foolish himself, penned down in the tomb for some time.

Returning to the surface, the party found themselves faced by a roomfull of goblins, who had discovered the dead bodies after some of the unconscious warriors came to. Lord Lousewort – strapped to Nosebiter’s stomach – demanded the return of his Lanthorn. Susurrus instead blew the Drudehorn and scattered the goblins, including the protesting Lord Lousewort, strapped to Nosebiter’s stomach, who screamed protests as his warriors scattered.

The heroes emerged into the sunlight, and in moments Fraff reverted to his gnome form, sloughing off his dragon-scales and the avarice that had cursed him.

The Sacred Cauldron was not at the Barrow of King Finvarra, but the heroes now knows who stole it – and why. Resolving to cover more ground, they split into two parties, one to investigate Joyous Gard, the other Dolorous Gard.