Considering resetting this blog to only be visible to subscribers; it's not like I have a huge audience here anyway, and all I'm doing is nattering about the games I'm running and the movies I'm watching anyway.
Anydangway, the other night I ran Blue Rose again, continuing this game. Having dispatched the corrupted wolves, the characters press on into the Tanglewood, and find a young vata'an man lying unconscious in the brush. He's cut up a little from running through the brambles, but, as Kisha notices, his real injuries were made with fists. Also, he made very little attempt to defend himself, which makes it look like he was ambushed or attacked by someone he trusted.
Whirlpool makes with the medicine and revives him, and he introduces himself as Talaith. He and his cariad (a non-gendered Blue Rose term for partner or lover, which I think is awesome), Dartis, are part of the outpost at Servat. They were patrolling through the Tanglewood and found a ruined manor near here, and while exploring it they found a black skull mask.
When Dartis touched it, he just went berserk, attacking Talaith. Talaith barely managed to get away and send a psychic cry for help before collapsing. He begs the characters to go and save Dartis, since the latter is obviously being possessed. The characters agree, and head deeper into the wood, but tell Talaith to head back to Servat where it's safe. Talaith sends them a psychic impression of the path to the manor so they don't have to blunder around in the woods.
They follow the path, and come to a ring of standing stones. A woman in a dark green hood leans on one, weeping. Kisha, being Daring, is immediately moved to comfort or help her, but Whirlpool readies his trident - this feels like a setup. And indeed, the woman whirls on them, revealing herself to be a fey reveler, but with the reddened eyes of the corrupted.
She entrances them all with her magic and the characters stand there, transfixed, but Pansy the dog zips over and trips up the fey, which breaks the dance effect enough to allow the characters to act. This combined with a really lousy initiative roll on my part meant that Whirlpool closes in and stabs the corrupted fey twice with his trident, and Dobbin puts an arrow in her leg, and Arlen calls up brambles and traps her, allowing the heroes to finish her off quickly, at which point she evaporates into black mist.
Arlen says a little prayer for her - obviously this corruption is making folks do stuff they wouldn't normally, and although it's not curable, that's pretty awful. The heroes press on, and come to the manor. They're approaching from the south, and enter a big courtyard through a ruined wall. The place is basically falling apart, but Dobbin hears noises coming from a small outbuilding, perhaps a forge. Kisha notes that there's a domed section of the manor that might be a shrine over to the east. They decide that noise might mean trouble, so they check that out, first.
In the forge, they find a fey man sitting at a desk, tinkering with clockwork, apparently making clockwork sprites. Around him, several already completed models buzz aimlessly. Kisha tries to engage the fey in conversation, but he just shrugs and mumbles, continuing to work. Kisha puts a hand on his shoulder, and he tenses up and glances back, and they can see that his eyes are red.
Whirlpool immediately draws his dirk and makes ready to throw it, but Kisha intercepts him and catches his wrist, while Arlen grabs his other arm, and they start to frog-march him out. Whirlpool feels Corruption well up within him as his predilection for arbitrary violence takes hold, and he calms down. The characters don't pester the clockwork-maker, and he leaves them be.
They go across the courtyard and check the door into the shrine, but it's magically sealed. Kisha deduces that a Ward spell might be able to get them through, but Arlen doesn't know that spell. Battering the door down might be possible, but the heroes aren't sure that even Whirlpool is strong enough for that. They decide to enter the manor and find an interior door.
They wander a bit and gain entry through the kitchen, and begin searching the place. They find nothing of particular interest until the hit the great hall, and then they find a crest mark on the wall - the crest of the Ebban family. Kisha vaguely remembers that this ancient family was magical in some way, but not the particulars. They also find that the corpse of a giant spider blocks the door into the kitchen from the hall, and they warily poke it out of the way.
Further in, they find a library. Most of the books have been destroyed by time, but they find notes on potions, elixirs, and a page from the journal of Thaddus Ebban. In it, he describes the blight of corruption changing the local fey, and the death of one called "Brae." The characters proceed on through the master bedroom, and then into the a study, wherein they find the remnants of Ebban's lab.
Clearly he was an alchemist or sorcerer; he's got beakers and vials around (now largely reclaimed by the elements). They find a vial with a wax stopper containing a potion; Arlen identifies it as an arcane recovery elixir, something that would make the imbiber able to resist fatigue. Arlen also finds a killing jar with the body of a small fey sprite preserved in a liquid...the sprite matches Ebban's description of Brae. Another journal page reveals Ebban's first forays into the Tanglewood and meeting the fey. The heroes now realize what happened - the corruption claimed this place, and the local fey are still under its shadow.
They still need to go to the shrine, but it's getting dark and they're tired. They decide to camp out in the master bedroom. Arlen sets a couple of noise traps to alert them in case someone approaches, and Dobbin and Kisha sleep against the doors. Hopefully the night will pass without incident.
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