And yesterday was the second session in our Shadow of the Demon Lord. Pigs were involved. Here's last session.
The party has been slowly traveling through the land, not really with a goal in mind. As we open today, they come across a village called Porm's Hollow. The odor makes it immediately clear that Porm's Hollow is a pig-farming community; they see carcasses curing, and smell rendering happening somewhere nearby. They talk amongst themselves, figuring that they should buy some meat while they're here, and a young boy walks up and asks them if they're here to buy. Once they get through his accent (which Buboe in particular is hard-pressed to understand), the boy leads them to his father, the patriarch of the village.
When they meet him, he's poring over a map of the village thoughtfully. He's happy to sell them meat, but, noting their weapons, asks if they're capable fighters. It seems that someone or something has been snatching pigs at night, and despite the villagers setting lookouts, no one has seen what's doing it. If the characters could figure it out and stop it, they'd be happy to hook them up with meat. The party is happy with this arrangement.
Turns out that last night, the pig-snatcher stole a sow who'd recently given birth. The young man assigned to lookout, Ketik, reported seeing nothing. The characters check the area where the pig was last seen, and Dagmar sees that the top slat of the fence is cracked as though something heavy leaned or climbed on it. They find footprints leading away from the enclosure - two sets of prints, heavy, as though laden. And then they find a third set running towards the first two sets, as though someone chased them. Tracking those prints back, they find a chair and a burned-out lantern - this looks like the lookout station.
Following the prints, they walk down a hill to a stream coming from a cave. All three sets of prints go into the cave, but only one comes out, and now it's bloody. The bloody prints lead to the stream and then up the hill, at which point the trail goes cold. In the cave, they find a human corpse, stripped of meat. Dagmar and Buboe figure this to be the work of a ghoul, and worse, when a ghoul eats someone, it takes their form for a short time. As such, if "Ketik" is still in the village, he might not be Ketik anymore. They decide to clear out the cave first, though.
Inside, Mayfly casts a light spell on a stick, and rides on Bashir's shoulders. They're walking into a larger cavern when Buboe feels a click under his feet, and a gout of flame engulfs him and Dagmar. Dagmar's magnificent beard is singed, and both of them are slightly burned, but the damage isn't too bad. Mayfly finds the mechanism; pressure plate activated rocks that squished pig bladders full of gas into the torches in the room, and the gas ignited. Clever.
Now watching a bit more carefully, they continue, and in the next room find something truly strange. It looks like a suit of armor, twice the size of a man, man of pig bones and tied together with sinew. Mayfly, figuring it might be a clockwork, flies up and looks inside. It's not exactly a clockwork, but there's a seat and levers, about big enough for a goblin. Buboe climbs inside and tries to make it work, but can't, and spots runes etched in the bones - maybe necromancy. Dagmar and Bashir smash the armor into fragments, figuring no good can come from it. No sooner have they done so than a high-pitched voice screams "NOOOOO!"
Entering the room is a goblin, and one they recognize. His name is Grime, and he faced off against them during their last battle, but fled when his magic wasn't working. This time his magic is working fine, and he calls up bones from the ground to grab the characters and hold them. Bashir and Buboe free themselves, and Buboe casts magic at Grime, but fails. He puts up a spell to shield himself, and just in time, as a pale creature with black, snaggly teeth - a ghoul! - bursts into the room and snaps at him.
Bashir swings at the goblin, and Dagmar hucks their spear at him, but misses. Mayfly zips over and lands on Bashir's should to sling stones at enemies, and Buboe faces off against the ghoul, which bites him savagely. Dagmar grabs a big honkin' bone and runs over to smash Grime, but Grime hurls magic and weakens the dwarf, and throws magic bolts at Bashir.
Buboe swings his staff at the ghoul, but the ghoul grabs him, lifts him up, and bites his head clean off. Bashir, seeing this, runs over and decapitates the ghoul as it takes Buboe's form, and Dagmar strikes at Grime. Grime throws a spectral hand at Dagmar, knocking them back, and laughing manically at his old foe...right before Bashir cleaves his head in twain.
The group mourns Buboe...OK, well, they acknowledge Buboe's death. (Dagmar: "I'm not really going to miss him.") They loot his body and leave it there for his roaches, and head back to the village.
They explain what happened to the patriarch, and reveal that Ketik might be a ghoul. They head for his home, but he's already gone, presumably fled into the hills. The villagers thank the characters and let them stay a bit, fashioning pig leather into soft armor and curing them some pork to take with them on their travels.
And in a month, we'll see who joins up with them.
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