This game is full. not accepting new players at this time.
Recap of part 8, act 1.
After putting in the keys/ingredients the PCs stir the stew in the cauldron, everything in the room seems to swirl and shift. The PCs experience a strange, almost euphoric, sense of momentary displacement, before the room solidifies with a final shimmer—but it is not the same room the PCs were standing in just moments before. A sturdy black cauldron sits in the middle of a rustic room with timber floors, log walls, and a high ceiling framed by long beams cut from whole trunks. A grand cobblestone hearth fills one corner, its dying embers feeding the room with a dull red glow. Various barrels, farm tools, crates, and other miscellaneous items clutter the remainder of the space. In the corner opposite the fireplace a rickety wooden staircase climbs to a small wooden landing. A shallow alcove off the landing holds two thick oaken doors. The party speaks with Zorka again, but she is not familiar with this new location, after a bit they go through the double doors.
A long corridor stretches out to both sides, the aged plank floors seeming to continue forever. Solid logs form the passage walls, intricately carved with knotted designs and images of lances, and centaurs, ravens, and female figures. Pale-winged moths and tiny fireflies flutter through the hallway, their flickering glows filling the corridor with dim light. The PC’s make their way down the hallway to another set of double doors.
A symbol carved upon the door to this chamber resembles an inverted half-circle with a horizontal line across the top and several lines exiting the circle. A single extended arrow points downward in the center. Walker recalls it’s a symbol for twilight, in a style favored by Iobarian witches. The PC’s open the doors,
A slight chill wafts through this room, carrying the stale scent of carrion and peat. Beyond that, an impossible forest seems to have devoured the entire chamber. The walls are woven from tangled knots of black, leafless trees, and fine flakes of rusted iron cover the floor, softly crumbling to dust**. A pale light emanates** from a fist-sized orb that rests within a nest of black iron branches in the center of the room, turning all forms into ebon silhouettes. Shortly after the PCs enter the room, the raven flies out of the darkness and settles atop the glowing orb, casting a huge, ominous shadow. Arcelia notices a small iron amulet hanging from a leather thong about the bird’s neck. Walker recalls hearing about awakened ravens of Baba Yaga and spoke to the bird. the raven caws, “Baba Yaga is not here, but you can find her, never fear. First, however, you must persuade me you possess the strength necessary to bear my knowledge. My question is a simple one:
Born twins, they live not, Yet they grow until death. Their fates are often tied. Ever-crescent, as the moon, Symbols of the warrior’s pride.
“The answer to this question lies in the chamber beyond. Bring me the answer, and I shall give you what you seek.”
The party goes down the corridor, it is dark, so dancing lights is cast. As soon as they make it to a room, a dire boar charges Arcelia, Gutrender now realizes the riddles answer is the boars tusk. The Boar hit Arcelia a few times, but the party ganged up on the boar and killed it, also getting the tusk for the raven. When the party gives the tusk to the raven it caws “This amulet holds only one of the three clues you seek. It reveals the first ingredient for Baba Yaga’s kettle. Look for this key where time catches up to us all.” Clutching a boar’s tusk in each talon, Moc lifts himself atop the glowing orb in the nest. As he lands, the orb’s light winks out and the raven disappears, but not before he caws one last mysterious phrase: “Look for the Mother when the moon is full!” Walker deciphers the rune on the amulet to mean “dragon” Walker is also able to tell the amulet is a brooch of shielding. with no other exit the party continues down the hallway until they come to another set of double doors.
A symbol carved upon the door to this chamber resembles a downward facing crescent resting on a horizontal line with arrows pointing outward. A vertical bisecting line with arrows pointing in both directions runs from top to bottom. Walker recalls the carving to be the Iobarian witch symbol for night.
Inside the room wavering darkness devours everything that lies beyond the threshold. Thick stone columns and wooden beams, entangled with pale moonflower blossoms, support the room’s high-vaulted ceiling. A faintly glowing blood-red orb dangles from a black iron chain in the center of the room. The glowing red orb provides dim light in a 10-foot radius. Shortly after the PCs arrive, A pale raven with one red eye hops forth along the beams before fluttering to rest atop the orb. After a little parley the raven says “While you have convinced me of your intentions, you have yet to convince me of your wit. To prove your cleverness, you must find the answer to my riddle.
I mark night’s coming, I will mark your end. I run not in fear, I have not a friend.
“The answer to the riddle lies within the passage of night. To find the path to what you seek, drink from the silver chalice within the grotto. Go now and do not return to me unless you can prove your worth.” The party moves to the next area to find what the raven wants.
Hundreds of tangled roots dangle from the raw earthen ceiling of this rough-hewn, circular grotto, which is filled with dark, placid water. A narrow stone walkway leads to a circular platform in the center of the room upon which rests a stone table set with five silver chalices. About the perimeter of the grotto, a few feet above the waterline, five deep alcoves have been dug into the grotto walls above the water line. Though shadowed by darkness, a faint glitter sparkles from deep within each alcove. The five chalices on the table in the center of the room are half full of dark red wine, and the rim of each chalice is etched with a specific rune in a repeating pattern. The runes are a mirror, an apple, an hourglass, an athame (ritual dagger), and a key. The party gets they need the hourglass to answer the riddle but how do they get it. Walker decides to check the water, it sets off a suffocation spell, Walker is not suffocated but gets the hint of not going through the water. Walker then drinks the wine in the chalice marked as the hourglass, the grotto with the item lights up, and steppingstones rise up from the water to get there. Walker goes across and gets the hourglass, by then the stones submerged again, so Arcelia drank from the same chalice bringing them back up. Walker walks back and they take the hourglass to the raven. In exchange the Raven gives his iron amulet. Caw caw, tiki tiki “You have taken upon yourselves a great burden,” Rozum caws, “for that which you desire, the changeling holds. Know this as well—you will find the Crone only when the moon wanes.” The raven clutches the hourglass in his talons and wings off into the passage vanishing into the darkness. Rozum’s iron amulet is engraved with an Iobarian rune, Walker identifies it as the rune for “gold,” In addition to providing the PCs with a clue, Walker identifies Rozum’s magical amulet also functions as an aegis of recovery. With no other choices the party goes farther down the hallway to another set of double doors.
A symbol carved upon the door to this chamber resembles an upward facing half-circle resting on a horizontal line. Several arrows point outward from the circle. At the center of the half-circle, a single extended arrow points upward. Walker identifies the carving to be the Iobarian witch symbol for dawn. They enter; Flowering vines drape the walls of this chamber. Winding, pebble-strewn pathways weave through a magnificent garden of honeysuckle and lilac. A pale, warm light fills the room, emanating from a stone-lined pool of water in the center. The purple and orange reflection of the early morning sky glitters upon the pool’s surface. A raven flutters down from a nearby shrub and perches at the pool’s edge, opposite the PCs. Again, with more parley the raven says “Before I aid you, you must first convince me you have the resolve to fulfill your desire. To prove your mental fortitude, you must face what I, the herald of the coming day, cannot.
Each night it visits— Sometimes horror, Sometimes wonder, Sometimes prophet, When dawn wakes, it flees.
“When you face this thing, you shall know its desire. In its desire, you shall find your own. Only by sharing this desire with me can I bind your fates. Once they are bound, I will be able to see your destiny.”
The raven motions to the dark corridor beyond, the party goes and enters the room. This small, candlelit bedroom is empty save for a plain wooden bed and a night table where a pale candle burns in an iron candleholder. The bed is perfectly made, but the sheets display an ominous, dark crimson stain in the middle of the bed. Shortly after the PCs enter the room, a Witch daughter’s Nightmare manifests from the stain on the bed. Her vaguely humanoid form continually morphs and distorts, though PCs who study the creature can tell it’s the appearance of a female Jadwiga, with a similar appearance to that of the current queen of Irrisen. Walker recognizes her as Yelizaveta, a daughter of Baba Yaga and former queen of Irrisen. After some diplomacy they learn that she was killed by her mother, and desires revenge and death to move on. The ghost attacks and the party does fight back, the ghost has a deadly touch attack, and a curse that comes with it, Walker and the wolf get cursed, taking some wisdom drain. They were able to do half damage with their magical attacks, and eventually dropped the ghost daughter of Baba Yaga. After they did a ceremony to RIP the ghost, and when done the stains of blood on the sheets disappeared. They bring the answers back to the Raven, the desires of revenge, and freedom, and the raven gives them her iron amulet and replies: “So be it. Seek now the sisters three who are one: Mother, Maiden, Crone. But know that the Maiden is elusive, and may only be caught with the waxing moon.” After handing the PCs the amulet, Tryva crows three times and then flies into the pool. There is no splash when she touches the surface. Instead, she seems to pass into another world and wings off into a glorious sunrise, her form growing smaller and smaller until it disappears. Tryva’s iron amulet is engraved with a third Iobarian rune. Walker reveals the rune’s meaning to be “Artrosa.” this as the name of a trio of giant, carved figures in northeastern Iobaria, also known as “The Three Who Watch.” In addition to providing the PCs with a clue, Tryva’s magical amulet also functions as a chime of opening. The amulet can be used a total of nine times, after which it loses all its magical properties. Again, the party goes down the corridor, this time they come across the doors to the cauldron room, but this time a secret door is revealed on the opposite wall in the hallway. Strangely they went in a circle despite walking straight down the hallway.
The secret door leads to a shallow foyer blocked by two more double doors, which are carved to resemble an oversized gate guarded by a scrawny dog. These doors are unlocked, but iron bells nailed to the opposite side of the doors sound when the doors are opened. This spacious room resembles the interior of a wooden cottage. Stairs to the right of the entrance climb to balcony atop which rests a wooden table. A wooden walkway continues around the room to a small landing and another set of stairs to the left of the entrance. A third staircase leads down from the walkway to an alcove opposite the door. Crates, boxes, barrels and other mundane materials crowd the space. The ceiling is 20 feet high in this room; the balcony and walkway are 10 feet above the floor**. A cracked clay bowl sits atop the table on the balcony, with a brownish, speckled hen’s egg inside.** On the landing to the left of the entrance, a wooden ladder climbs to a trap door in the ceiling; this leads to a dusty, disused loft. The crates and containers in the room hold more mundane tools and supplies. In the back alcove, a wooden door leads outside to the Dancing Hut’s porch. Windows in the alcove look out into a snowy forest clearing.
When the PCs first enter this room, a guard named Ratibor is standing guard facing the hut’s outer door. Ratibor hails the PCs and informs them of his duty, to stop anyone from coming in. He is stubborn about not letting anyone in, despite the PC’s already coming from inside the hut. Arcelia goes to get Zorka to speak on their behalf, and she convinces Ratibor to let just the PC’s back in if they come back. He reluctantly agrees. After the parley the they all hear thumps like the hut is being hit, a quick look out the windows and they see Frost Giants throwing rocks at the Hut.
