Yesterday we finally played Good Strong Hands. I say "finally" because I've put it on my game menu a bunch of times and it's come in second a lot, but this time the choice was pretty much unanimous so HERE WE GO!
In the midst of the land of Reverie is the Forest of Flame, so called because all of the leaves are brilliant reds and yellow. The Forest is home to lots of Folk (as well as natural creatures), but every 100 years the entire forest dies and the leaves fall. At that point, one of the Folk must take the last leaf in the Forest of Flame to the top of a nearby mountain and drop it into a chasm, whereupon the forest springs to life again...or at least, that's what our heroes have heard.
Our heroes, by the way, are five Folk with ties to the Forest. We have Feris, the Paragon of Hawks. Feris was actually around (in a sense; he reincarnates) last time the Forest died, and knows that throwing the leaf into the chasm will release a magnificent phoenix to renew the Forest of Flame. But this time something is different - the trees are charred and blackened where the leaves have fallen. He has brought together some other Folk to help him investigate.
We have Dandelion, a faun who lives in a colony of her people in the Forest. Dandy is a dancer and performer, eternally sunny, and very swift and nimble. There's Gracelyn, a rabbit wildkin, who has both of her floppy ears to the ground at all times to collect information, and has contacts and informants all through the Forest. Orrin, the stonekin, kind of wanders through Reverie as the mood takes him and wound up staying the Forest for a bit, and was there when it died - he's slow and maybe a little simple, but gentle and strong. And finally, Lieutenant Gerkin (pronounce it the British way, /lɛftɛnənt/, it's cooler), a brave, dutiful mouse armed with an ornate silver sword, has been assigned here by his General to help out Feris and protect the Folk of the Forest of Flame.
Our heroes stand outside the Forest, and note that the air smells cold, with that frigid, clear bite that the air gets before it snows. As they watch, Dandy notices little groups of pixies flying out - some of them are in her dance troupe! She calls to one of them ("Blueberry! Down here!") and the little pixie buzzes down.
She asks what is happening, and Blueberry tells her that everyone's leaving - the forest is dying, there are too many snakes ("snakes in this weather?" muses Gerkin), and the Deeping Well has turned into a swamp! There are frogs! Dandy shudders - she's afraid of frogs, and Blueberry mentions that another pixie, Bumble, flew off toward the Deeping but hasn't been seen since. "But he had the solo in our recital next week!" cries Dandy.
Blueberry also mentions that the Forest is hard to leave - unless you know a way out, it's hard to find one. This is a new development, of course.
Feris decides to scout a bit, and takes to the sky. He does a big circle and flies over the dying Forest, but as he crosses the border into it he immediately feels dizzy and lost. He pushes through the feel and dives out again, but clearly the Forest is exhibiting some magic on the inhabitants.
Gracelyn plucks up her courage and crosses the border into the Forest, and approaches a stump, inside of which lives her friend Harold, the stoat. She taps on the stump and Harold pokes his head out, and she asks him what's going on, and whether he knows where the last leaf is. Harold hasn't seen it himself, but he has heard it's in or around the swamp surrounding what used to be the Deeping Well.
The other Folk follow Gracelyn in, and they decide they need to head to this swamp (despite Dandy's frog-related misgivings). Lt. Gerkin pulls a map out of his knapsack and unfolds it into a human-sized map ("how'd that-"), and begins to navigate.
(Here, incidentally, is where we ran up against something that would prove a kind of ongoing obstacle for these characters: No one has a Mind rating over 2, so things like "navigation" and "perception" were difficult asks.)
Gerkin confidently leads them into the Forest, but they're walking (or riding on Orrin) for hours before Gracelyn notes that they've passed this tree before, more than once. She peers at the map and realizes they've been going the wrong way! It's getting dark, so the band decides to rest and continue on in the morning. Gerkin builds a fire (and Feris edges away; he's afraid of fire) and starts to toast tiny marshmallows. Everyone else huddles close against the cold...
And then the skeletons arrive! They're humanoid, though perhaps not human, and they stumble into the clearing and reach out with sharp, bony fingers! Feris, a little embarrassed that he didn't hear or see them coming, swoops down and takes one of their skulls right off! The rest of the skeleton collapses into a pile of bones. Gerkin draws his sword and scampers right up into the skeleton, stabbing at the place where the skull meets the neck until it breaks and that one collapses. Orrin simple flicks one's head off.
The others don't fare quite as well. Dandy jumps up and does a high kick at a skeleton's skull, but misses and lands too near it. It grabs her shoulders and she feels cold start to spread through her chest. Gracelyn grabs a femur off the ground and swings on another, and connects, but just manages to knock the skull a little off center. It grabs her, too, and she likewise feels cold spread through her little rabbit body.
But Feris and Orrin come to the rescue! Feris swoops down and snatches another skull, and Orrin flicks the other away with his big rocky finger. The skeletons defeated, the heroes decide to move on a darkness be damned. The Forest is not safe.
The walk until morning and find a path, which leads to a crossroads with a signpost that simply says "HERE." ("Oh, we're...here," says Orrin). Gracelyn notes that this signpost normally contains helpful information, pointing travelers to the Deeping Well or the Burrows and so forth. As they ponder this, a faun steps out of the brush. "Widdershins!" cries Dandy.
Conversation with Widdershins proves difficult - they ask him if he's all right, and he is. But then Dandy asks if he's glad to see her, and he rather hurtfully says he's not! The dialog proceeds like this for a while, Widdershins answering their questions but the answers don't always make sense. He does or does not know where the last leaf is? He does or does not want to ride on Orrin's shoulder? He is able, however, to point to where the last leaf is on the map (near the Deeping Well, to no one's surprise), and even to show them which direction to walk. Feris puts his head to Widdershins' and senses Void magic, but also realizes that something noticed him looking. He keeps that to himself for now.
Finally, Gerkin, clever little mouse, figures it out - Widdershins has to lie every other sentence. Once they realize that, it's pretty easy to get him to communicate properly. He was cursed, and to break the curse he needs three petals of a blue flower that (normally) grows here.
Gracelyn knows the flower, it's called summer-tears. She whistles up a messenger (a fox) and tells him to go fetch some from outside the Forest. It takes a little while, but the fox returns and Widdershins puts a petal on his tongue and one on each eye. The petals sink into him, turning his eyes their normal shade of blue, and he gasps "Oh, Dandy, I'm so sorry! I am glad to see you!"
Widdershins confirms that the heroes are headed the right way, and then he starts heading out. The party presses on, all sitting on Orrin's shoulders (or crags, whatever), and soon the rhythmic stomps of his footsteps put them all to sleep...
...the wake up when Orrin jostles them. The ground has gotten too blorpy for him to continue on. Gerkin climbs on Feris' back ("ONWARD, PARAGON FERIS!") and he flies them into the swamp. And there, on a branch sticking out of the muck, is a brilliant red leaf.
Gerkin jumps off and runs up to the get the leaf, but Feris spots a pixie stuck in the mud! He flies down and yanks the pixie out, and realizes that the poor thing's wings have been broken and torn, so he couldn't free himself. Gerkin, meanwhile, plucks the leaf, and magic and determination fill his heart. He knows that he has to throw the leaf into the chasm, it has to be him, and in the back of his mind he hears a name - someone sinister, corruptive, and now very much aware of Gerkin - Halak.
Feris flies them back, and Gerkin rolls up the leaf and puts it in his pack. Dandy recognizes the pixie as Bumble, and laments that he probably can't do his solo with broken wings. Bumble asks to be taken out of the Forest, and since the heroes were leaving anyway they decide to drop him off at the tents nearby where Gerkin's superiors will be able to help. Gerkin also reveals the name he heard - Halak - and when he says it they all hear it echo. Feris also reveals that he felt something notice them a while back, and suspects it might be this "Halak" character (...Halak).
The party presses on, and with some effort pushes through and out of the Forest. The mountain looms ahead of them, a sheer climb rather than a gentle slope. Gerkin once again climbs on Feris' back and the hawk zooms up the side. Dandy and Gracelyn start hop-climbing, and Orrin slowly begins working his way up. But he watches his friends get further away and feels lonely (something Orrin fears), and then the snakes come.
They wrap around Orrin's legs and body, and they scrape against his stone in a way that snakes normally couldn't. They exhale ash, and where the ash touches him, he starts to flake away. Dandy and Gracelyn do notice this, however, and they drop back down, kicking with their mighty hooves and rabbit feet respectively, knocking the snakes away. Gracelyn stays on Orrin's shoulder and Dandy start clopping back up...
Meanwhile, Feris is struggling against the growing winds. A storm blows up around the mountain, lightning crashes near the hawk's head, and Gerkin leaps off and lands on the stone face of the mountain. As he does, he sees an immense eye open in front of him, and a huge dragon made of rock uncoils itself from around the mountain.
Orrin recognizes the Rockwyrm - it's meant to protect the mountain, but it's clearly become hostile! Dandy reaches the ledge where the Rockwyrm is rearing back to swallow whoever gets close, and falls back on the universal language - dance!
She dances brilliantly and the Rockwyrm is entranced and filled with joy. This buys enough time for Orrin to arrive, and he puts a hand on the Rockwyrm and speaks to him. The Rockwyrm reveals that he is "on strings," being controlled by something, and he doesn't really want to hurt them. As the heroes watch, the clouds around the mountain form into something humanoid - Halak, the Ash Wraith!
Orrin calls all the rocks he can, and they form a pillar underneath him and raise him up into the sky (Gracelyn is still on his back, cheering him on, although they both fear heights). Halak rushes toward them, its horrible mouth open, ready to...who knows? Swallow them? Corrupt them? Turn them to ash?
Orrin draws back a fist and lets loose with all of the fear and loneliness he has and turns the Ash Wraith to stone.
The Wraith falls, smashing through the pillar Orrin created, and both he and Gracelyn plummet earthwards. Feris swoops down and snatches Gracelyn out of the air, but he's by no means strong enough to grab Orrin. Orrin falls down the mountain, shuts his eyes, and prepares to shatter (something he has always feared).
But Dandelion isn't going to let that happen. She calls on every bit of speed her goat legs can muster and zooms down the mountainside, grabs Orrin and pulls him back. She can't catch him exactly, but she pulls him close enough that they can slide down the rock face, slowing their descent, until they wind up at the base of the mountain on a pile of loose stone.
And at the top of the mountain, Lt. Gerkin scampers to the edge of the chasm. He looks in and sees...nothing. He drops the leaf and it floats downward, a tiny speck of red in a pit of blackness, until it disappears.
A moment later, the color returns. A huge, magnificent hawk, all made of fire, bursts from the chasm! It nods respectfully to Feris (still carrying a screaming Gracelyn), and dives toward the Forest. The Forest erupts in fire, every single tree burning away, and moments later the brilliant red and yellow foliage has returned!
Lt. Gerkin jumps off the mountain and unfurls a parachute, and drifts down the mountain towards the Forest. Feris swoops down with Gracelyn, Orrin sits down heavily in the rocks, and Dandy does a celebratory dance. The Forest is saved, and the Folk who live there stand at the border and cheer!
