shifty louts

Tiny Fables Session 7: Crabapples & Ghosts

Players

Summary

The Month of Star. The Fifth Fair of the Sixth Week.

The weather has held with another overcast day punctuated by woodpecker cries and the smell of a campfire’s wood smoke coming from the southeast, but the rest of the journey is uneventful as the group reaches the Crabapple Orchard; Heartache Lake lies in the distance as night falls.

Note: For a faction turn, the Merfolk of Heartache Lake raided Giuseppe’s wood shop back in Thimblewood for materials to build their ship in an effort to attack Prince Sylvester and the Fae Kingdom. The adventurers are not aware of this.

The Month of Star. The Sixth Fair of the Sixth Week.

Another overcast winter day greets the group. The dense forest clears into a clearing with crabapple trees atop a grassy hill. Amidst the fallow of winter, an orchard of crabapples, just sitting there! With food scarce, the group scampers up the hill to forage for much-needed food.

The hill descends into a vista of Heartache Lake in the distance. The water is completely still with a faint iridescent sheen. Vapor wafts off its freezing surface, blanketing the lake in a velvety haze. There is an unnerving silence.

Crocus, Jack, and Cherry forage, collecting crabapples as Dill hears some faint buzzing. He notifies the group, and Jack investigates, seeing a fae soldier with a honeybee on a leash, patrolling the rows of the orchard.

faesoldier

Jack introduces himself, as the soldier turns around, claiming the orchard is property of the fae prince Sylvester and demands all crabapples be turned over or die as the soldier unsheathes his sword. Jack does as demanded and says the group is to visit the Prince.

The soldier is surprised, demanding to meet the rest of the group of “gutterpaws”. Jack leads them back to the group as the fae soldier blows a whistle, attracting three more soldiers and their bees.

The group is accosted by the fae soldiers who once again say the group is trespassing and to hand over the crabapples they have “stolen”. Remington attempts to explain the situation that he has “hired” the group to escort him to the Fae Prince’s court, but their stealing and general uncleanliness doesn’t convince the fae soldiers. The group is escorted at sword point out of the Royal Orchard of Prince Sylvester unharmed.

The group, now at a loss, decides to head north in search of the fable Tomb of Roses in search of Konrad’s sword. They head north as a murder of crows flies above the canopy. In the wind, the smell of campfire smoke, as the group reaches the gigantic bones of some skeleton at the base of the mountain

The Month of Star. The First Fair of the Seventh Week.

In the wee hours of the overcast morning, Jack communes with the bat spirit alongside Remington, who are taking watch. Jack’s eyes see the moonlight catch a silvery flash, but it's too late as a dagger plunges into his shoulder. He screams, falling unconscious as Remington sounds the alarm.

The group of Cherry, Crocus, and Dill grab their weapons and chase after the culprit. The group finds a black and grey furred mouse covered in a black robe with a bandaged tail. They have seemingly fallen and broken their ankle.

The mouse stoically stares back at them as they demand answers. After an interrogation, the group learns this mouse, Lyle, has been trailing the group on the orders of Queen Madeline, the Fox Queen of the Red Rats. She is hellbent on ruling the forest with an army of loyal buffoons who are desperate for praise and approval.

Lyle says that he has to save his lost brothers, Elias and Edgar, who were led astray by The Shadow Thief. Madeline says she knows the location of this Shadow Thief.

Crocus believes Madeline is lying to Lyle, but with no other options, Lyle was forced to help her. He was told if they “got too close,” that he was to “end them”, but Lyle doesn’t truly hate the adventurers but rather is handcuffed by love for his family.

madeline

The group rummages his pockets, finding a quarter staff, another throwing knife, a string of bells, a strange bag that Lyle says not to drop, and a tablet that glows with arcane energies.

They ask about the whereabouts of Madeline, who apparently resides in a wandering cottage in the fallows that walks upon chicken legs.

The group takes Lyle back and heals Jack, who, alongside with Remington identify the strange tablet as containing the Darkness spell.

Remington listens to Lyle’s retelling of Madeline’s wandering cottage, reminding him of nursery rhymes that were taught to him and other tenderpaws to stay away from Agatha the Witch who lived in a cottage in the Fallows or risk having their bones be ground to dust and used in one of her polymorph potions.

Cherry asks if it could be the same cottage, but Remington can’t be sure. The group continues northward, eventually having to camp once more as Lyle is forced to accompany them. The group discusses if they should help Lyle.

The group is unsure of where his allegiances lay, but him injured and them needing all the help they can get, so it's the “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type of scenario. Dill gives a ration to Lyle as the group once again makes camp

The Month of Star. The Second Fair of the Seventh Week.

Note: A prior encounter during Session #6 resulted in a ghostly tornado forming today outside of Thimblewood, lasting for seven watches (a day + ž of a day). The ghostly tornado dissipates on the evening of the Month of Star. The Third Fair of the Seventh Week

The group awakens to the sleeting rain, shivering as their campfire has long been extinguished. As the group slogs through muck and mire, they are surprised by a rat with a red sash and clipped tail daubing red paint on various rocks and trees. The rat is also surprised to see Lyle, and the group learns the rat’s name is Ozzy.

redrat

Ozzy is out all this way tasked with demarcating the realm of Queen Madeline. Lyle introduces the group as “friends,” and Ozzy, waiting to get back to his wife, Sweet Pea, and out of this awful weather, says he will give 200p to anyone willing to finish the job so he can go back home to his wife.

Dill gladly accepts, and Ozzy gives a 100p deposit and says to come collect the rest of the pips at the Fallows when he is done.

Crocus asks the location of a place of roses, and Ozzy points towards the southwest, saying he saw some red bushes, but doesn’t know what a rose exactly is!

Ozzy leaves, waving goodbye, and Dill promptly throws the paint and brush out of sight, 100p richer!

The group then pushes further down the mountainside to the south, absolutely exhausted from the weather and the slow journey with Lyle’s broken ankle. They eventually come to a large earthen mound that’s been daubed red by Ozzy’s paint. There is a foul stench in the air, thick with fog.

ghost

The group huddles close together to ensure they don’t lose sight of each other, as a ghostly spirit springs forth from the ground, scaring them all. Crocus is frozen in fright! Catatonic and unresponsive, the group decides to camp outside this stinking mound in hopes that the weather improves so they can return to Thimblewood to recover from their injuries and exhaustion.

Aftermath

Treasure Found:

Foes Encountered:

Rumors:

Deaths:

XP Awarded:

Notes

  1. “If WIL is reduced to zero, they are reduced to insensibility.” is the exact language of rules. STR and DEX are much clearer end-states for players.↩