Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2023-07-13
Travelling south to a small coastal village, the adventurers find out that the idyllic place is not without its dark sides.
At the beginning of the last session, a storm was brewing. The Group was on the fishing boat of young Ves, who kindly was transporting them to a small coastal village to the south, for a small fee, of course. When the storm hit them, all of them opted to use ropes to tie themself to the boat to not get washed away. Which worked for all of them, with the exception of young Ves who went overboard at one of the later squalls.
The group was debating among themselves for a bit, if it was fate and they now where the proud owners of a, well, not new but functional, fishing boat. However, since they knew almost nothing about sailing, and the target of their voyage was still a bit of sailing away, they were not sure if they could manage without their guide.
In the end, Solga decided to not wait for a conclusion of the discussion and instead just threw a rope to Ves. They pulled him back on board together. As thanks, young Ves told them about the legend of the village - and asked them if this was really the place they wanted to get to:
Nameless Coastal Village:
On the coast there is a small village. It is said, that it is inhabited only by beautiful women, that welcome every traveler. And many men who got close spent wonderful nights there. But only few of those return…
While the not returning of people visiting the village did bother them a bit, they quickly found a logical explanation: If the village was full of beautiful women, which man in his right mind would want to leave again?
That the male population seemed to not grow over time, was noticed as a flaw in their reasoning, but they did not bother to think of another explanation, with this one being so convenient.
They soon reached the coast and they found a small boat pulled up onto a small crescent shaped pebble beach with an earthen cliff sloping up behind it. They saw smoke rising above the cliff. Young Ves let them out there and as additional thanks for his rescue he forwent the payment.
They spent the rest of the day on the beach, eating a small meal and drinking their share. Once the sun started to set, they climbed up the path, which was winding up the 4-5m to the edge. Carefully peaking above they saw a rather idyllic scene. The village was beautiful, the small houses being decorated with flowers and interspersed with small flower beds. The village was surrounded with vegetable patches and a small sheep pasture inland. Happily chatting women of all ages seemed to be on their way home after a hard days work. Most of them were attractive, and there truly seemed to be no men around. They decided to approach two stragglers and talk with them about the village.
The two young women immediately seemed worried about their presence and quickly ushered them back to their house, claiming that it was dangerous to be out in the open for the adventurers.
The group gladly obliged and followed them to a small cottage at the edge of the settlement, which, looking at the furniture, the two women seemed to share with a third, who showed up only a bit later.
The women remained friendly and offered food and drink. They also explained their worries: Apparently a powerful druid named Hardar lived in the village and captured all men. Those men were given to the Rust Brothers as tribute. Only women were allowed to live here. And no one was allowed to leave, once Hardar knew about them.
After this revelation they decided to take advantage of the hospitality and rest for the evening. Only Hröd kept watch, not only concerned by threats from outside, but also worried about possible duplicity by the ladies of the house.
When evening turned to night, Hröd went to sleep and the rest of them woke up. Vivirva and Percival were not content with just sitting and waiting and wanted to explore the village. Solga, as the only one being able to see at night agreed to be their guide.
Walking around the small hamlet, they noticed a slightly larger house in the centre of the village. Getting closer, Solga noticed dogs lounging around that house. She warned the others, that the dogs seemed to have become curious about what was going on, and then retreated back towards their cottage. However, Vivirva was convinced that nobody could catch her anyways, and Percival that he would be able to talk himself out of anything - even if his counterpart was a trained animal. And so they approached. Unsurprisingly the dogs gave alarm.
Only a short time later the door crashed open and an angry old man stumbled out in his night gown. He was followed by another 3 dogs, bringing the total up to 6. Spotting the intruders, the man barked a command at the dogs who immediately started to charge them.
Solga, a bit further away saw what was happening and decided to get Hröd.
Vivirva immediately started to run away. Percival on the other hand prefered to smooth talk the dogs. He showed a remarkable skill in animal handling and managed to stop the attack of 5 of the 6 dogs, the last one continuing to follow Vivirva.
Surprisingly enough Vivirva actually manages to shake the dog following her, but she now struggles with the darkness and manages to hit a building. The dog somehow could not sniff her out, while she was lying behind some bushes in full fragrant bloom.
The dogs between Hardar and Percival got more and more confused with both men yelling commands. They were torn between their old master, and this new person who seemed like the natural leader of their pack. Even with magic the druid could only make them surge forward and not effectively attack the halfling.
By then Vivirva had returned to Percival and Hröd had arrived as well. No longer relying on his dogs alone Hardar also sent two swarms of rats under his control to attack the adventurers.
Vivirva managed to hit Hardar with a throwing knife, and Percival convinced the dogs to turn on their old master, one of them even biting the druid.
With the adventurers slowly killing the rats, Hardar still had another trick up his sleeve. Using his powerful druidic magic, he turned himself into a bear. The dogs decided that this is too powerful an enemy, and started to flee. Percival tried to use his skill in animal handling on the bear, not realising, that the beast still had the mind of the druid.
While the group managed to kill of the swarm of rats attacking Percival, the bear attacked. He stormed at Percival and sent him to the ground bleeding with a single swipe of his mighty claws. Percival’s torn off ear flew through the air, and the poor peddler will not be able to get up on his own again any time soon.
At this point we had to interrupt the session because of a personal emergency of one of the players. The bear might be their most powerful foe yet, and one of the swarms of rats is still very much alive.
I am looking forward to the continuation of the adventures of our group of misfit rogues.