A Fine Prospect – Celina Zabinski – 01/09/21
Sept 8, 2021 15:39:05 GMT
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Post by Celina Zabinski on Sept 8, 2021 15:39:05 GMT
The Cabin In The Woods
"When four friends arrive at a remote forest cabin on a quest to retrieve some stolen goods, little do they expect the horror that awaits them. One by one they fall victim to the menacing items that lie within the place. Do they survive? Will these items get the better of them? Read on to find out more…"
Written by Celina Zabinski
Celina had seen a small note on some of the notice boards next to every inn in Daring Heights, they all smelt like lilac. The notes are the same, just a couple of lines written in lovely cursive: 'Lady Jeziah is in need of capable adventurers who are willing to help a poor widow for a just remuneration. Please bring footwear suitable for a lengthy outdoor stroll'. There are no other details except for the address. Celina was intrigued, so she arrives early in the morning in Daring Heights. As she’s there she meets the familiar faces of Kelne (the Halfling), Felix (the Mountain Dwarf), Carnan (the Firbolg) and Carnan’s wolf, Ulfr. They make small talk and then head towards the Iron Gate which was mentioned in the note. Looking over the gate they can make out a large garden and further in they can see a large grey mansion. The whole place has a quiet sombre atmosphere. Then all of a sudden a butler appears at the gate. He is polite but gives a cold greeting. He has a stern look on his face. “Jeesh someone needs to lighten up a bit”, Celina thinks to herself. The Butler leads them the way to the mansion. As they’re walking in Carnan, followed by his wolf stops to look at every plant along the way and says “Hello” to each one he sees. Celina chuckles to herself amused by his actions. Once they arrive to the house and walk in, they can see the colour scheme is blue and purple throughout the house. As they walk further into the house it is clear that the whole house is completely empty and the only thing they can get is a smell of lilac in the air. There appears to be no theme throughout the house. There is a beautiful portrait of a drow lady, who is very attractive. As Celina looks around the place she smiles happily thinking “Yes, this woman certainly has money. She better pay well”.
The Butler eventually gestures to a table in the room with bite size pastries of all types laid out. He bows his head and leaves. Carnan spots some more plants in the room and goes to say hello to them. Kelne seems to be busy running back and forth trying to talk to everyone in the room. More towards Carnan since she seems to not have met him before. Felix takes out his guitar and starts to tune it, so he can start playing music. Celina decides to be snoopy in this rich ladies house and goes to open some of the drawers she comes across. However she sees nothing she can grab or take easily. Everything appears to be nic-nacs and they’re bolted down into place. They’re all exhibition pieces Celina discovers. Suddenly there’s footsteps and Celina just manages to shut one of the drawers shut before a lady walks into the room.
The lady walking in is the same lady that’s painted in the portrait. She is wearing a black dress and a long black veil held with a pin. She wore it like someone who was supposed to be sad and also to show that she was much wealthier than everyone. As the lady sees our group she sighs loudly and introduces herself as Lady Jeziah. She begins to tell the group what she wanted. Her husband had died two weeks ago and she had organised the wake just last week. However someone had broken into the collection and stolen everything. She talked to the guards and they had traced the thieves back to the Angelbark Forest. However the guards refused to go any further. She mentions that each item lost hold deep sentimental meaning to her. She would pay a substantial figure for our group retrieving her items. Celina proceeds to ask what items they were looking for exactly. Lady Jeziah apologises for not already mentioning it and she passes a list to her. As Celina’s reading she thinks “This isn’t so bad”. Then Celina notices that there’s some more writing at the back, as she goes to look all of a sudden the list starts to unfold and the list becomes so long and detailed the paper hits the floor. There were a LOT of items. Celina eyes up Lady Jeziah and asks exactly how much was in her head a substantial figure for all this. She mentions that she should have known adventurers would ask this. Then says she will pay us all 180 gold each. Celina is so pleased with that figure she keeps her mouth shut and says no more. Everyone is also pleased and they all get ready to leave.
The butler walks back into the room and ushers the group out towards a coach. They finally learn his name is Victor. The coach was quite small and narrow for Carnan and his wolf, so they sit on the back of the coach on the trunk. Victor then hops onto the driver’s seat and heads out on the way. It takes them 3 hours before they arrive to the Angelbark forest. Celina decides to spend this time trying to talk to Victor… for the majority of the way. Celina consistently asks him question about his life and a bunch of other things. He just nods a lot of mentions that he’s busy driving and can’t answer. He remains professional throughout the whole journey and Celina learns nothing else about this man. He is a closed book and refuses to give into Celina’s pestering questions.
When they all arrive at their destination they can see grooves in the undergrowth leading a clear path into the forest. Felix says to the group that this might be a trap and we should be cautious. Carnan says “Of course it’s a trap” and walk straight into the forest with Ulfr following after him. Celina chuckles to herself and follows behind the rest of the group as they head in. As they walk in they notice that it’s not a normal forest at all. It’s wild. There’s lots of undergrowth around the place. There are so many trees and shrubs all grown wild. As they walk in the area becomes so thick it’s hard to walk. Looking around the forest as they get further in, the forest appears to be like an undead infestation. Celina can hear sounds like birds wings flapping around her, the sense of something bigger hiding in the shadows and ominous sounds being whispered in the wind.
The group begin to realise they’re lost, so they decide to think of ways to get out. Kelne starts jumping around the place trying to find a path which leads to nowhere. Carnan decides to talk to the plants and ask them to help guide our group but they aren’t helpful. Celina doesn’t do anything helpful and just decides to sneak up on everyone in the group and jump out shouting “Boo” a numerous amount of times which amuses her. Felix attempts to investigate the area for clues but comes up empty. The group just keep getting further into the forest and still have no clue where they’re going. The group try again, Kelne goes looking for a path but doesn’t spot anything useful. Carnan finds something in the corner of his eye and leads the group on one path. Celina feeling how creepy and omnious this forest has become decides to summon her invisible servant “Barry” and demands that he shields her from harm. He does this and Celina feels immediately safer walking around this forest. Felix takes out his guitar to play music and he does an amazing song. It was quite impressive. Some of the group would even call it ‘the greatest song in the world’ and sadly some would even say if he were to play it again it would merely be ‘A Tribute’. As Felix hits the last note on his guitar a wooden board falls on his head. He rubs his head and bend down to pick it up. He sees that it’s a sign that says “We have found a prospect” which looks like it was carved out with a dull knife.
The group try one last time to find a way out, Kelne continues to jump from tree branch to tree branch. But she’s so small she fails to see anything. Celina shouts at Barry to go find them a proper way out. That he should fly or float above and look for an escape. Barry attempts what he can but eventually finds nothing and shrugs his shoulders to Celina. Celina shouts at him that he’s useless and sulks to herself. Felix attempts to do something but falls flat onto his bum which makes everyone laugh. Carnan ask Ulfr to find a path and using his keen sense of smell and successfully he does. He finds a clear path for our group and leads the way.
They all continue walking on this path and eventually they come to a river area and they spot what looks like a rock. But as they get closer they can see it is actually a gnome. He is holding a large wooden tankard and has wild hair. He introduces himself as Dekin. Dekin mentions he has fresh water for sale and asks our group if anyone would want to buy some? Felix says maybe and then asks Dekin if he happened to see anyone with a sleigh carrying a bunch of items. He seems reluctant to say anything at first. Celina eventually walks over and attempts to sweet talk him into getting him to talk more. Appealing to the shopkeeper to shopkeeper tactics she had developed. He eventually caves and says he does know who might have taken the items. He says they are just a bunch of firbolg kids. He knows one of them, he goes by the name of Tiny Tim. However Dekin also mentions he hasn’t seen them in a few days, now that he thinks of it which he finds quite strange. He then asks our group if they won’t mind going to check on them to see if they’re ok. He can’t leave as he’s got his water business to run. He says he can offer the group some of his special stuff and opens his coat to reveal some flasks hanging on his belt. He says they’re booze alright and only the good stuff. Felix and Celina seem the most intrigued by the booze and nod to each other that they’ll be back. Dekin mentions that the kids usually hang around in a cabin and gives detailed instructions of where to find them. The group thank Dekin and then make their way to the new location.
They walk for a while, following the directions exactly until the finally come across a cabin in the distance. Kelne decided to change herself to look like Dekin, so no one would be any wiser. Everyone else decides to hide around the place. Felix decided to go closer to the cabin and listen but couldn’t hear a single thing. Kelne and Carnan decide to enter the cabin and as they walk in a light forms around Kelne’s head. They can finally see into the place but they can see no one else here. The rest of the group enter and everyone can see the whole place is cluttered with stuff. It’s a large room but it’s just stuffed with things. Felix notices that it is actually everything on the list that we were asked to find for the Lady. Looking around the cabin, on the left they can see a simple bed and on the right they can see the broken sleigh but it’s now repaired. All around the room, there’s gems and nic nacs, swords, chairs, statues. The air has a sense like someone has just left and they will be right back. There’s an intriguing rug with a fancy design on it and another statue missing its head. Kelne immediately casts a spell and there’s now 4 Kelne’s that look like gnomes walking around the place. Celina walks over to the note on the table. She’s curious if there’s any indication on where the kids might have left. She sees the note is written in thieves cant. Lots of symbols. Celina smiles, this was her speciality. What Celina reads is “Will let it cool down for a week. The old knob didn’t clean shit. Chair and cup have…” but it seems to have ended just there. Celina mentions some of this to the group and loses interest in the note.
She then looks around for the most expensive looking thing she can find. Immediately she’s drawn to a magnificent looking sword. Celina’s eye light up and she heads over to it. Just as she’s about to pick it up when Carnan shouts over and warns her not to touch it. That everything here is potentially cursed. Celina hesitates, however in that moment Kelne makes a chair explode and then suddenly this chair appears to turn into a mimic. It’s a mimic chair and starts to slowly make its way over to Celina. Celina ignores the sword and begins to attack the mimic. Celina does her best to cause some damage however she isn’t doing enough. After a few moments she gives up fighting it alone and she runs away towards the rest of the group. As she’s walking she sees Felix trapped in a rug which has a firm grasp on him. Almost like it’s smothering him. Before Celina can try and stab the rug, Carnan takes out a stick and slams it into the ground which causes blue light and flowers to grow around. He casts a spells which explodes the rug into many pieces. Kelne casts another spell which completely destroys the mimic chair. After this the other cursed items in the room flee, leaving behind just the items that the group were looking for. Carnan notices something about the statue, that there was something in the body of it and it’s no longer there. The group can work out that something came out of the statue and scared the kids and they ran off.
The group pack up the items they can carry and slowly start making their way back towards the mansion. They pass by Dekin again and let him know what they found. He thanks everyone and said that he was going to have to find those kids now. He hands over two of his flasks as reward as promised. The group walk back to through the forest and they find the coach again, who drives them back to the mansion. They deliver all the goods. Just as they were unpacking, something falls to the ground. It’s a sword, a rapier to be expect, the same one Celina was looking at. Celina immediately goes over to it and it starts to swirl around her head in a happy dance. Lady Jeziah sighs and says she doesn’t want something that isn’t loyal to her and that Celina can keep the sword. Celina’s eyes light up and she is delighted to have a new weapon. As Lady Jeziah is counting and going through all the items returned, she sighs yet again and says she’s deducting money for damaging two of her items. The group only get 160 gold each. As they take their payment, they promptly leave and happily make their way back to a tavern in Daring Heights. Celina is happily staring at her new sword the whole way.
"When four friends arrive at a remote forest cabin on a quest to retrieve some stolen goods, little do they expect the horror that awaits them. One by one they fall victim to the menacing items that lie within the place. Do they survive? Will these items get the better of them? Read on to find out more…"
Written by Celina Zabinski
Celina had seen a small note on some of the notice boards next to every inn in Daring Heights, they all smelt like lilac. The notes are the same, just a couple of lines written in lovely cursive: 'Lady Jeziah is in need of capable adventurers who are willing to help a poor widow for a just remuneration. Please bring footwear suitable for a lengthy outdoor stroll'. There are no other details except for the address. Celina was intrigued, so she arrives early in the morning in Daring Heights. As she’s there she meets the familiar faces of Kelne (the Halfling), Felix (the Mountain Dwarf), Carnan (the Firbolg) and Carnan’s wolf, Ulfr. They make small talk and then head towards the Iron Gate which was mentioned in the note. Looking over the gate they can make out a large garden and further in they can see a large grey mansion. The whole place has a quiet sombre atmosphere. Then all of a sudden a butler appears at the gate. He is polite but gives a cold greeting. He has a stern look on his face. “Jeesh someone needs to lighten up a bit”, Celina thinks to herself. The Butler leads them the way to the mansion. As they’re walking in Carnan, followed by his wolf stops to look at every plant along the way and says “Hello” to each one he sees. Celina chuckles to herself amused by his actions. Once they arrive to the house and walk in, they can see the colour scheme is blue and purple throughout the house. As they walk further into the house it is clear that the whole house is completely empty and the only thing they can get is a smell of lilac in the air. There appears to be no theme throughout the house. There is a beautiful portrait of a drow lady, who is very attractive. As Celina looks around the place she smiles happily thinking “Yes, this woman certainly has money. She better pay well”.
The Butler eventually gestures to a table in the room with bite size pastries of all types laid out. He bows his head and leaves. Carnan spots some more plants in the room and goes to say hello to them. Kelne seems to be busy running back and forth trying to talk to everyone in the room. More towards Carnan since she seems to not have met him before. Felix takes out his guitar and starts to tune it, so he can start playing music. Celina decides to be snoopy in this rich ladies house and goes to open some of the drawers she comes across. However she sees nothing she can grab or take easily. Everything appears to be nic-nacs and they’re bolted down into place. They’re all exhibition pieces Celina discovers. Suddenly there’s footsteps and Celina just manages to shut one of the drawers shut before a lady walks into the room.
The lady walking in is the same lady that’s painted in the portrait. She is wearing a black dress and a long black veil held with a pin. She wore it like someone who was supposed to be sad and also to show that she was much wealthier than everyone. As the lady sees our group she sighs loudly and introduces herself as Lady Jeziah. She begins to tell the group what she wanted. Her husband had died two weeks ago and she had organised the wake just last week. However someone had broken into the collection and stolen everything. She talked to the guards and they had traced the thieves back to the Angelbark Forest. However the guards refused to go any further. She mentions that each item lost hold deep sentimental meaning to her. She would pay a substantial figure for our group retrieving her items. Celina proceeds to ask what items they were looking for exactly. Lady Jeziah apologises for not already mentioning it and she passes a list to her. As Celina’s reading she thinks “This isn’t so bad”. Then Celina notices that there’s some more writing at the back, as she goes to look all of a sudden the list starts to unfold and the list becomes so long and detailed the paper hits the floor. There were a LOT of items. Celina eyes up Lady Jeziah and asks exactly how much was in her head a substantial figure for all this. She mentions that she should have known adventurers would ask this. Then says she will pay us all 180 gold each. Celina is so pleased with that figure she keeps her mouth shut and says no more. Everyone is also pleased and they all get ready to leave.
The butler walks back into the room and ushers the group out towards a coach. They finally learn his name is Victor. The coach was quite small and narrow for Carnan and his wolf, so they sit on the back of the coach on the trunk. Victor then hops onto the driver’s seat and heads out on the way. It takes them 3 hours before they arrive to the Angelbark forest. Celina decides to spend this time trying to talk to Victor… for the majority of the way. Celina consistently asks him question about his life and a bunch of other things. He just nods a lot of mentions that he’s busy driving and can’t answer. He remains professional throughout the whole journey and Celina learns nothing else about this man. He is a closed book and refuses to give into Celina’s pestering questions.
When they all arrive at their destination they can see grooves in the undergrowth leading a clear path into the forest. Felix says to the group that this might be a trap and we should be cautious. Carnan says “Of course it’s a trap” and walk straight into the forest with Ulfr following after him. Celina chuckles to herself and follows behind the rest of the group as they head in. As they walk in they notice that it’s not a normal forest at all. It’s wild. There’s lots of undergrowth around the place. There are so many trees and shrubs all grown wild. As they walk in the area becomes so thick it’s hard to walk. Looking around the forest as they get further in, the forest appears to be like an undead infestation. Celina can hear sounds like birds wings flapping around her, the sense of something bigger hiding in the shadows and ominous sounds being whispered in the wind.
The group begin to realise they’re lost, so they decide to think of ways to get out. Kelne starts jumping around the place trying to find a path which leads to nowhere. Carnan decides to talk to the plants and ask them to help guide our group but they aren’t helpful. Celina doesn’t do anything helpful and just decides to sneak up on everyone in the group and jump out shouting “Boo” a numerous amount of times which amuses her. Felix attempts to investigate the area for clues but comes up empty. The group just keep getting further into the forest and still have no clue where they’re going. The group try again, Kelne goes looking for a path but doesn’t spot anything useful. Carnan finds something in the corner of his eye and leads the group on one path. Celina feeling how creepy and omnious this forest has become decides to summon her invisible servant “Barry” and demands that he shields her from harm. He does this and Celina feels immediately safer walking around this forest. Felix takes out his guitar to play music and he does an amazing song. It was quite impressive. Some of the group would even call it ‘the greatest song in the world’ and sadly some would even say if he were to play it again it would merely be ‘A Tribute’. As Felix hits the last note on his guitar a wooden board falls on his head. He rubs his head and bend down to pick it up. He sees that it’s a sign that says “We have found a prospect” which looks like it was carved out with a dull knife.
The group try one last time to find a way out, Kelne continues to jump from tree branch to tree branch. But she’s so small she fails to see anything. Celina shouts at Barry to go find them a proper way out. That he should fly or float above and look for an escape. Barry attempts what he can but eventually finds nothing and shrugs his shoulders to Celina. Celina shouts at him that he’s useless and sulks to herself. Felix attempts to do something but falls flat onto his bum which makes everyone laugh. Carnan ask Ulfr to find a path and using his keen sense of smell and successfully he does. He finds a clear path for our group and leads the way.
They all continue walking on this path and eventually they come to a river area and they spot what looks like a rock. But as they get closer they can see it is actually a gnome. He is holding a large wooden tankard and has wild hair. He introduces himself as Dekin. Dekin mentions he has fresh water for sale and asks our group if anyone would want to buy some? Felix says maybe and then asks Dekin if he happened to see anyone with a sleigh carrying a bunch of items. He seems reluctant to say anything at first. Celina eventually walks over and attempts to sweet talk him into getting him to talk more. Appealing to the shopkeeper to shopkeeper tactics she had developed. He eventually caves and says he does know who might have taken the items. He says they are just a bunch of firbolg kids. He knows one of them, he goes by the name of Tiny Tim. However Dekin also mentions he hasn’t seen them in a few days, now that he thinks of it which he finds quite strange. He then asks our group if they won’t mind going to check on them to see if they’re ok. He can’t leave as he’s got his water business to run. He says he can offer the group some of his special stuff and opens his coat to reveal some flasks hanging on his belt. He says they’re booze alright and only the good stuff. Felix and Celina seem the most intrigued by the booze and nod to each other that they’ll be back. Dekin mentions that the kids usually hang around in a cabin and gives detailed instructions of where to find them. The group thank Dekin and then make their way to the new location.
They walk for a while, following the directions exactly until the finally come across a cabin in the distance. Kelne decided to change herself to look like Dekin, so no one would be any wiser. Everyone else decides to hide around the place. Felix decided to go closer to the cabin and listen but couldn’t hear a single thing. Kelne and Carnan decide to enter the cabin and as they walk in a light forms around Kelne’s head. They can finally see into the place but they can see no one else here. The rest of the group enter and everyone can see the whole place is cluttered with stuff. It’s a large room but it’s just stuffed with things. Felix notices that it is actually everything on the list that we were asked to find for the Lady. Looking around the cabin, on the left they can see a simple bed and on the right they can see the broken sleigh but it’s now repaired. All around the room, there’s gems and nic nacs, swords, chairs, statues. The air has a sense like someone has just left and they will be right back. There’s an intriguing rug with a fancy design on it and another statue missing its head. Kelne immediately casts a spell and there’s now 4 Kelne’s that look like gnomes walking around the place. Celina walks over to the note on the table. She’s curious if there’s any indication on where the kids might have left. She sees the note is written in thieves cant. Lots of symbols. Celina smiles, this was her speciality. What Celina reads is “Will let it cool down for a week. The old knob didn’t clean shit. Chair and cup have…” but it seems to have ended just there. Celina mentions some of this to the group and loses interest in the note.
She then looks around for the most expensive looking thing she can find. Immediately she’s drawn to a magnificent looking sword. Celina’s eye light up and she heads over to it. Just as she’s about to pick it up when Carnan shouts over and warns her not to touch it. That everything here is potentially cursed. Celina hesitates, however in that moment Kelne makes a chair explode and then suddenly this chair appears to turn into a mimic. It’s a mimic chair and starts to slowly make its way over to Celina. Celina ignores the sword and begins to attack the mimic. Celina does her best to cause some damage however she isn’t doing enough. After a few moments she gives up fighting it alone and she runs away towards the rest of the group. As she’s walking she sees Felix trapped in a rug which has a firm grasp on him. Almost like it’s smothering him. Before Celina can try and stab the rug, Carnan takes out a stick and slams it into the ground which causes blue light and flowers to grow around. He casts a spells which explodes the rug into many pieces. Kelne casts another spell which completely destroys the mimic chair. After this the other cursed items in the room flee, leaving behind just the items that the group were looking for. Carnan notices something about the statue, that there was something in the body of it and it’s no longer there. The group can work out that something came out of the statue and scared the kids and they ran off.
The group pack up the items they can carry and slowly start making their way back towards the mansion. They pass by Dekin again and let him know what they found. He thanks everyone and said that he was going to have to find those kids now. He hands over two of his flasks as reward as promised. The group walk back to through the forest and they find the coach again, who drives them back to the mansion. They deliver all the goods. Just as they were unpacking, something falls to the ground. It’s a sword, a rapier to be expect, the same one Celina was looking at. Celina immediately goes over to it and it starts to swirl around her head in a happy dance. Lady Jeziah sighs and says she doesn’t want something that isn’t loyal to her and that Celina can keep the sword. Celina’s eyes light up and she is delighted to have a new weapon. As Lady Jeziah is counting and going through all the items returned, she sighs yet again and says she’s deducting money for damaging two of her items. The group only get 160 gold each. As they take their payment, they promptly leave and happily make their way back to a tavern in Daring Heights. Celina is happily staring at her new sword the whole way.
