Kay's Journal, 8/7/2020, Reaper Errant Episode #008

 Reaper Errant Episode #008 can be found here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj9cdpOPrc&t=368s

We rested in the mountains, and then the next morning headed toward a nearby cave that both appears on a map the group has, and is pointed to by Fathom’s dagger. Before we left camp, Fathom inspected the half-read scroll from the witch’s house and found that it’s now blank. Whatever magic was on it has disappeared.

As we walked along, Abran noticed a trail in the snow like a large animal was being dragged. A little farther along, Pujol found some hair and determined it was an elk. The trail matched the direction we were going, so we just kept following along. We hadn’t gone too much farther when I noticed a female giant ahead of us, standing behind a large rock. She had a boulder in hand and looked ready to throw it at us. I shouted to her (and the group, to let them know she was there). Letting her know she was spotted didn’t diffuse the situation at all, and we all ran for cover behind the trees that were scattered about the area. Next thing, I saw a troll stomping out from behind a tree – lovely, more hostile critters – but then I saw Pujol concentrating, noticed the troll wasn’t making any sound, and realized he’d made an illusion to fool the giant.

Corncob and Abran both shot at the giant and hit her, but she was focused on the troll. She threw her rock at it. It was a great distraction, but sadly, everyone – including the giant – saw the rock pass right through it. Well, it was a great distraction while it lasted. As the giant was turning her attention to other targets, the troll illusion started making rude gestures at her. I assume that was more of Pujol’s work. It seemed to get her riled up again.

Fathom cast a bolt at the giant, and Corn Cob and Abran both shot her again. I snuck forward and shot at her as well, but seemed to get her attention in the process as she started looking for me. While she was distracted looking for me, Gooseneck snuck forward toward her.

The giant spotted me, dropped her rocks, drew her axe, and started running toward me. Good to keep her distracted from Gooseneck I guess, but I did not want to be on the wrong side of that axe. I booked it, trying to keep my distance, and her attention on me while the others attacked, with Fathom and Abran both shooting her again. Gooseneck finally got his chance, but missed. That was bad – she swung at him with her axe, and he immediately fell to the ground.

That seems to happen to him a lot, from what I’ve seen.

We all shot at her again, but it didn’t seem to be slowing her down in the slightest. She ran to Corn Cob, and once again, her axe took him down in one swing. Things were not looking good at all. She threw her axe at me and hit me with it – ow! I grabbed the axe and ran, trying to both keep her from getting it back, and lead her closer to the rest of the group, in better range for the bows and crossbows. A couple more shots, and she finally fell. Whew!

Pujol and Abran went up to start healing Corn Cob and Gooseneck. Fathom searched the giant’s body and found a pouch with 230 silver. Pujol went through her pile of rocks, and found a bunch of gems. Not bad! Gooseneck took a bone from the body to make a weapon.

Just on the other side of the rock, Abran spotted the cave entrance we’d been looking for. Since we were still pretty beat up and it seemed like more giants might live in the cave, we decided to rest outside it for the day and watch what came and went. The rest of the day and the night that followed were uneventful.

The next morning we approached the cave entrance. Abran and the other wilderness-aware people didn’t see any evidence that the giant lived in there. Yay! That’s a good sign. We moved inside, and everything was very quiet and very cold. Fathom held out her dagger, and it pointed deeper into the cave.

We moved on. The floor managed to somehow be both icy and web-like, like water had crystalized into a web-like structure. Corn Cob said we’re all good, unless it’s giant ice spiders. Then the giant ice spiders fell on us. Sigh.

Corn Cob started hitting the ice spiders, but they managed to get him and Abran webbed. Abran immediately broke free. Ab-tastic!

Fathom brandished her dagger, and that seemed to give the spiders pause. She moved up and hit one of them with the dagger, and it did waaayyy more damage than a dagger should have. There’s definitely something up with that dagger.

Pujol and Corn Cob took out one of the remaining spiders, and Gooseneck got the other one. With the spiders all down, we looked up at the ceiling…and quickly wished we hadn’t. It was full of remains of various woodland critters, presumably previous meals. Yuck.

We moved forward. Past that room, the cave was still cool, but at a more naturally cave-like temperature than it had been in that first room. We started to hear a grinding sound, like something digging through solid rock. Corn Cob, being a dwarf, has some experience with such thing and told us there are various critters who can do that. Yay.

Abran scouted forward and saw a three-legged, three-armed critter dragging a stalagmite. Abran called Corn Cob up to take a look, and Corn Cob said it’s an elemental critter that feeds on gems and precious metals. We snuck past it, with Pujol and Fathom feeding it one of the gems the giant had to get by it.

After we passed the rock critter, Fathom’s dagger swung about on its own and started making a weird noise that seemed to unsettled her. She told us that the dagger had an infernal vibe to it. I’m wondering…maybe it would have been good to mention that before we went into the cave???

Kay's Journal, 7/24/2020, Reaper Errant #007

 Reaper Errant Episode #007 can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBMk6b_s4Io

We were on the second floor of the witch’s weird, bigger-on-the-inside chicken house, still searching for the witch. Pujol had just found a caged area with zombies in the cage, and we had a couple doors yet to look through. After some discussion, Gooseneck and Corn Cob spiked the cage door. Hopefully that would keep the zombies safely contained. While they were doing that, Fathom searched the desk and found a spell book, a potion, and a scroll that apparently had been half read. Weird – that’s not usually a thing that can happen, according to the magic folks.

Abran opened the interior doorway with his foot, ready to attack if necessary. Turn out…it wasn’t. Two oxen were stuffed into the tiny room. Pujol went forward to talk to them and try to make friends (moo!), but it didn’t look like it was going well. He did find out their names are Lox & Nox, and that they ate a book, and the witch left the room in a hurry.

Gooseneck checked out the porch door. Nothing out there, but he did see that we were moving very, very fast up a mountain.

One door left. On the other side of that door was a spiral staircase going up. Pujol liked Abran’s plan – send the oxen up first! We started up the stairs (oxen at the back with Pujol). Probably just as well the oxen stayed toward the back…I have no idea how we’d get them back down the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a hatch leading in to the top of the tower. Abran went through first. I thought I heard the weird language of a spell being cast, but I wasn’t sure. Corn Cob went next, then Gooseneck. By the time I got up there it looked like she’d taken some damage, but was still in pretty decent shape. It was also getting crowded. I managed to shoot an arrow at her, then Fathom followed me up and cast a spell. We were probably whittling her down. Pujol stuck his instrument up through the hatch and played a merry tune.

We heard a metallic clang as the zombie cage opened on the floor below. So much for the spikes. The oxen were still at the bottom of the stairs, though…the zombies would have a hard time getting through, though the oxen might not come out of it so good.

The witch reached out to Abran and made him…uncomfortable. In return, he swung at her with his sword and hit her quite solidly. The rest of us all attacked again. That seemed to do it. The witch fell to her knees, begging forgiveness from….something. An image appeared, telling the witch she was unworthy, that she had failed. The image said they was going to take their house back. The house started shaking, and the witch fell to the floor, dead.

Well, ding, dong, the witch is dead, but now we have other problems. The house’s movement was becoming very rough and we were all unstable. Pujol almost fell off the stairs, and the zombies slid into the lower room, off balance. He considered cow tipping as a combat strategy – pushing one of the oxen onto the zombies. Instead he came up through the hatch and joined the rest of us.

A window appeared, and the house tried ejecting us through it. We all tried to resist, but most of us were pushed out. Only Gooseneck and Pujol got pushed out. Gooseneck grabbed Pujol and jumped out. Gooseneck landed well, but the rest of us got banged up. The witch’s body was ejected with us.

We searched the witch’s body and found an amulet with a red gem that was warm to the touch. Fathom inspected it, and was fairly sure it was the focus of the transmogrifying curses. Corn Cob smashed it, and the gem shattered. We looked at the biscuit from the witch, and a bracelet that apparently came from the rat-children. The biscuits had turned to worms (yuck!) and the bracelet was cracked, so we were pretty sure the curses had been broken.

We followed the house to look for other survivors, and found the oxen had been turned back to their humanoid form. Good! They were also surrounded by zombies. Bad! We killed the zombies pretty quickly. Now we need to rest and recover, and decide what to do next.

Kay's Journal, 7/10/2020, Reaper Errant Episode #006

Reaper Errant Episode #006 can be found here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLNlHhMT5IM

We pushed on, calculating that we could stay ahead of the snail if we travelled an hour or so longer than usual. We did it, but Fathom, Pujol, and Mark were really wiped out, and we made camp at that point rather than continuing on longer. It also meant we had limited options for choosing a spot to make camp, and we ended up on wetter ground than we would have liked. Some of us went up into trees to rest, a couple stayed on the ground, and Pujol strung a hammock for himself and Mark the Goat.

I ended up on second watch with Gooseneck this time, which was fine with me. Nothing ever happens on second watch. Everything was quiet for a while, but then 5 very large frogs fallumphed into camp. They looked like they might pass right on through, and I was inclined to let them. Gooseneck and I both watched carefully, ready to intervene if they did anything aggressive.

Giant frogs are, apparently, very fast. Two of them approached Pujol in his hammock and nearly ate him before either Gooseneck or I could react. The only thing that saved Pujol was that the two frogs were fighting over which one got to eat him. Two other frogs approached Abrand, who was on the ground doing his elfy meditation thing.

Gooseneck charged one of the frogs on Pujol, and I jumped out of my tree and stabbed the other one. Once his head was free of the frog’s gullet, Pujol cast an illusion of an alligator that distracted the frogs near Abrand. Gooseneck had some kind of lightning effect that was going off and hurting the frogs, even though his traditional attacks were missing. Corncob and Fathom both woke up and cast spells at one of the frogs, doing more damage. Eventually the remaining frogs decided they would do better elsewhere, and fled. Abrand took a parting shot at one of them, even so.

Abrand has been complaining vehemently about the whole thing ever since. Dude is never gonna let it go, I can tell.

We had a quick breakfast of frog, and then moved on. Before too long we finally caught up with the house – it was still roosting! So much the better. Gooseneck and Pujol (riding Mark the Goat) took some rope and wrapped it around the house’s chicken legs. They managed to pull it off! Once the house woke up, they had to work hard to keep the rope around the legs. They held, though, and the house fell over on to its front porch.

I climbed up the porch and in through the front door…where suddenly everything was upright, like the house had not fallen over. It took a second to get oriented. It was also clear that the house was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside, and that the windows that were visible from the outside weren’t actually on the inside. Maybe the magic people can explain how all that works…later. Right now, we have to find the witch.

Corncob, Fathom, and Abrand joined me in the house and we started searching. I found a kitchen, and Abrand moved past the kitchen into a hallway where he found sound tapestries hanging on the walls and a staircase going up. Fathom saw Gooseneck trying to claw his way in to the house, carrying Pujol’s bleeding body with him. Apparently the chicken feet started kicking out, hit Pujol, and cut him badly. He didn’t look at all good. Fathom helped Gooseneck get Pujol into the house, and then Gooseneck climbed in. Abrand healed Pujol with magic, and got him looking conscious and functional, if not entirely hale and healthy.

After that, we started searching the house again. Fathom found a café in the last room on the first floor where we hadn’t looked earlier, and then we all started up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, I found a large landing and a closed door. I moved in through the closed door…no witch, but some cages in the shadows with a sense of restless movement inside them. Well, whatever is in there is caged, and caged it can stay for now.

I went farther in, and found an area that seemed like a small library, a door that looked like it went to the outside, and another interior door that looks like it goes to another room.

As everyone finished making their way into this room, Pujol approached the shadowed cages. A rotting hand swiped at him from within…

…and here we are, still searching for the witch, but with possibly another threat to contend with…

…and the house has started moving again, running off who knows where…

…and leaving Mark the Goat alone in the swamp.

Kay's Journal, 6/26/2020 (Reaper Errant Session 5)

Reaper Errant Session 5 is available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rrxcn353Vg

I much prefer not being a door.

Last thing I remember as a human was walking along a trail through the marsh, going past a little house, and pulling a very tasty looking fruit off a tree there.

The door days are fuzzy, but I do recall that the old lady who lives in that house seems to enjoy turning her ‘guests’ into things. Animals. Furniture. Doors.

Next thing, I was back as myself, still in the swamp, with a group of very suspicious people nearby. I don’t know what they did, but I’m really glad to no longer be a door, so I’m not going to complain.

They offered me the opportunity to go with them after the witch. Sounds good to me. I feel like a conversation with her is in order. Or maybe if she like inanimate objects so much, maybe she can have that conversation with my rapier.

We’re following the tracks of the house through the swamp – apparently it has giant bird feet. Maybe it used to be a bird, who knows?

We came across a river deep enough to be a problem for the more height-challenged members of the group, but with some rope we got across with no trouble.

After a day or so of travelling, we got to a spot where the house-bird tracks were deeper than the rest. The wilderness-aware members of the group put forth that the house probably rested (roosted) there the night before. There was also a chest nearby…

…yeah, not a chest. It was rather more toothy and hungry than most chests I’ve seen. It bit Corncob when he approached, and the acid stink of its spit was noticeable even from a distance. That’s gonna leave a mark. Once the rest of the group got engaged, though, it went down pretty quickly. We found a few coins and a jar of healing ointment in the remains.

We camped for the night shortly after that. I took third watch, because nothing ever happens on third watch. Except that night. A board charged in to camp. I shot it once, but it wasn’t until the elf summoned some sort of spiky vine thing that it went down. Bacon, yum!

The next morning we picked up and started following the house-bird tracks again. Around mid-day, we came across an arcane circle carved into the ground. Walking into it didn’t set it off, as nobody noticed it until somebody was already inside the circle. We also noticed that the ground in the area had a sheen on it, like oil on water.

Abran thought it was a summoning circle. We decided to try to move on around it, hopeful that since it hadn’t been triggered on entering the circle we could avoid whatever it was meant to summon. No such luck, as we moved on a large elemental snail surged out of the swampy ground under us.

I ran past it, as did Pujol. Gooseneck approached it, though…and immediately got whalloped by the fail-like appendages on its head. Abran tried using his vine spell on it again, but the spell rebounded and hit him instead. Apparently magic is out. Many of us keep attacking it, and Gooseneck managed to recover and move away from it. Finally Corncob summoned a field of spikes around it to slow it down, and we ran.

It’s definitely chasing us. Now we have decisions to make – do we move on ahead and hope we stay ahead of it? Or do we ambush it and take it out before we catch up to the house?

It was definitely safer being a door.