The Upper Valley. Map by Amanda P.

Introduction

This session marked a milestone in the campaign, as rather than pursue a paying job from one of our established faction contacts we all decided to venture back into the Stone Forest to pursue an opportunity that arose from Scott's character Cobb performing a Downtime activity related to resolving the Stone Heart Bond that he started play with. In many ways, it is the most Omen-like of the Bonds in that it grows continually worse the longer you play the character without resolving the issue.

Read on, Gentle Reader, and discover what happens when our party seeks out the Woodwose of the Stone Forest, discover once again that the town of Reprieve is the worst, and manage to piss off a forest witch.

Player Characters:

• Harrow (Derek/Me) - Fieldwarden Background
• Aster (Zedeck Siew) - Beast Handler Background
• Cobb (Scott AKA Lonely Adventurer) - Marchguard Background

Journey Log

20th of Highwater, Year 7728

No Omen (again!). Harrow ruins everything.

In Search of The Woodwose.

The party opted to not take on a job this session, and instead return to the Stone Forest to try and find a Woodwose, which Cobb determined was the best way to cure his Stone Heart affliction that he received from crossing a creature of The Woods (actually a Bond result from character creation). Harrow, being a Fieldwarden, told him everything he knew about a creature that might be able to help: A Woodwose.

Fair weather upon leaving, so they opted to take the path that lead them past Isthmus Town and Reprieve. They noted as they passed that the vines covering the Garden Maze seem to have grown thicker and more numerous. They stop in Reprieve to buy a goat, acting on intelligence that suggested that the creatures favor offerings of animals to get their attention. However, the only goat for sale was poor quality, and so they sent the tracker they hired, Blodwen, to hunt wild game while they went ahead to the Stone Forest.

Arrived at Stone Forest. Root bridge was still clear from where Snowdrop used Control Plants. Six crows watching instead of one. Two fly off. The party moved to the Southwestern path that they failed to explore last time. Their horses didn't respond well and they came upon some swaying plants. Various experiments to determine if they were dangerous, but none proved successful.

A Sticky Situation

Continued onward and came to the moss-covered altar that Cornelius saw through his prism last time. The broken red arrow shaft remained, blood on the altar, and remnants of some sort of plant that had been burned. They investigated the altar while they waited for their tracker to catch up. The arrow seemed broken off, like it was taken out of a wound. Cobb wondered if there were perhaps two magic users in the Stone Forest, and the one they had seen was not the evil one. Harrow was unconvinced.

They continued Southwest and came to a glen. Huge beehive sat within made of glistening honeycomb. A figure stood to the side of the hive, hooded and carrying a staff, with face obscured by shadow even in the sunlight. On the ground near the hive is a metallic object that Cobb believed to be a sword judging from its shape. Aster attempted to talk to the figure, but it didn't respond. Almost seemed to have an herbal smell similar to what had been burned at the altar.

Meanwhile, Cobb approached the sword, noting the rust on its blade, but that the grass seemed to be greener by it. Aster finally approached the man and attempted to pull him away from the hive, but his hand past through the figure before he was revealed to be an illusion. The bees from the hive burst from their home and surrounded Aster, but did not immediately sting. The bees formed a face within the swarm that Aster could see, but before any communication could occur Harrow tossed some Repellent that he had readied at Aster's feet and Cobb broke it with the rusty sword, scattering the bees in the opposite direction.

They collected some honeycomb before fleeing, meeting up with Blodwen the tracker on their way out of the glen.

"Oh, What A Tangled Web We Weave..."

Together, the reunited group ventured to the central pond in the hopes that enough water remained to call the Woodwose (information gathered suggested they like water).

Encountered a wounded boar staggering away from a black mass of twigs, with crows cawing all around. Cobb tried to get closer to determine what was happening, but stepped on a twig (DEX Save failure). Boar turned but didn't run, but four large black spiders crawled out of the black mass.

Brief combat ensued, during which Cobb and Blodwen were almost defeated, but ultimately the spiders were slain. Aster calmed the boar and administered Antitoxin while the others searched the black mass. They found several spider eggs (which Cobb smashed), about 200 GP worth of Black Silk, and a strange saw with wooden teeth.

The boar indicated that they should follow it, and it led them up the path to Bottleneck Cave. They heard raucous sounds coming from the grove where they previously encountered the troll, but opted to avoid that area. On the way up, Harrow tested the wooden saw and discovered that while it did not cut wood, it cut through stone perfectly.

Up past the cave, they passed the cabin that they had encountered the previous expedition and found that it was completely unharmed, though it lacked the tablecloth they had stolen. Aster went inside and stole the white stone with the black gem again.

They finally arrived at the waterfall to the East of the cabin, and were astonished when the boar stepped into the water and began to dissolve. Water became dark and a massive hairy being rose out of the water, its hair composed of tiny plants. The Woodwose.

It gestured thanks, then raised its hands and the surrounding trees filled with crows which then began speaking for the creature. Offered the party thanks, and explained that he had been injured and unable to shift back because of being away from water. He offered a boon for every member of the party as thanks.

They offered him the rabbits that Blodwen had caught as an offering, but he confessed to being a vegetarian. Cobb asked for help with Stone Heart, which the Woodwose transformed into a Heart of Vine.

Harrow asked for help finding Fasha and was told that he had left and was hiding in White Tower Grove. The Woodwose also retrieved silver ore from the ground and gave it to the Fieldwarden to aid him in bringing Fasha to justice.

Aster asked about the Sorcerer of the Stone Forest, and discovered that he was a person who crossed over to Faerie and had yet to return. Very dangerous and likely aware that the party had mettled in their affairs.

Aster also learned that the lady of the Woods was not their enemy. Annafranax is known to be a healer of animals and mostly keeps to herself, but is known to set traps to protect the denizens of the forest from threats. She resides to the Northeast up the waterfall.

Harrow collected sap from the gashed trees that lined the pathway toward Bottleneck Cave, which according to Blodwen is known as Wolf Honey and is highly desirable to them. He hoped to use it to lure Fasha into a trap.

The party left the forest, richer in resources and in knowledge if not in Gold.

Reflection

This was an interesting session. One of the things that I enjoy about having variable party size is that can really dictate your strategy for a session. We had other options (and neglecting them had consequences...), but Cobb's player Scott wanted to deal with his Stone Heart and Zedeck and I were happy to go along for the ride since we hadn't fully explored the Stone Forest yet.

I haven't really talked in detail before about what the Stone Forest is from a mechanical perspective: A Forestcrawl. I think of a Forestcrawl as a way to navigate exploring a PoI (or hex) in a more zoomed-in fashion, similar to what Anne of DIY & Dragons talks about in her Sub-Hex Crawling Mechanics series. It results in a very liminal experience that isn't quite a dungeoncrawl but doesn't feel like wilderness exploration either.

Hilariously, this session we discovered that we had decided that the wrong magic user was the evil sorcerer and accidentally angered her by messing with her bees. Maybe we'll go make amends at some point, but right now I'm just happy to know which person we have to worry about eating people in the forest.

The Woodwose was a deeply satisfying encounter and my play report no doubt does not do it justice. We were all very pleased with ourselves to have chosen correctly to save the "boar", and in the end every party member got something valuable from the experience. Ironically, since we earned the Woodwose's favor we didn't have to give it the Heart Seed and it was that bargaining chip that originally gave us the idea to seek out something like the Woodwose in the first place.

Next time, we will find out the cost of letting a time-sensitive job sit unresolved for too long...