Snake Stones of New Hillborrow (Birds in a Cage 25/07)
Aug 18, 2019 15:14:48 GMT
Grimes, Jimbo (Traavor/Torvald), and 4 more like this
Post by BB on Aug 18, 2019 15:14:48 GMT
Well today’s adventure was odd. We managed to find a lot of information without actually solving the issue we were asked to do. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised when Igrainne’s brief was simply ‘Snake stones and missing kenku’, she certainly doesn’t like to mince her words. Anyway, after also meeting up with Traavor and a dwarven woman I have not met before our group set off to a place called New Hillborrow which was accessed by some quiet roads between Port Ffirst and Daring Heights. On the walk over Igrainne gave us some more information about the situation, of the kenku druid called Chirper she helped in the past and how children from the town had also gone missing (and they managed to find) but that the fellow kenku druids were still gone.
Upon arrival at the town (filled with farming folks who all wore quite a nice range of hats) we strolled into the only inn where we were loudly greeted by a guy called Mathew clutching a lute. Turned out he knew Igrannie from helping out Chirper before, she was surprised that he had stayed here the whole time. Between our group and Pervinca, the owner of the inn, we discussed the events that led up to the disappearances. My memory of the details of this are a little foggy because I got really distracted by the mention of a large abandoned flower field on the edge of town (how did I miss that on the way in?). As much as I understand that the facts in these situations are important, they are also really boring in comparison to the wonders of fields of flowers. So rather than pretend I was listening, I thought it was better to be honest about my interests and left for the field (told the others to pick me up when they were ready to investigate the snake stones). Interestingly Igrannie joined me, guess she was done with the facts as well.
Let me just say that the field was certainly not disappointing, had a slightly burnt hut at the front of it but that didn’t take away from the excellent array of flowers behind. Managed to make a bouquet twice the size of my head, something I don’t think I could have managed with the flowers I have growing in the clearing at the moment.
Eventually the others dragged me away from the flowers (my mood was not lifted by Mathew’s strange horse trying to eat my flowers, in fact I was livid) and we finally went to the snake stones. They were three unassuming stone monoliths arranged in a clearing, forming a vague semi-circle shape. After much deliberation over a poem sung by the villagers ‘12 legs and 3 gifts, when the snake mouth opens, birds fly’ Mathew decides to slap his freshly cut hand onto one of the monoliths. The stone did seem to shift slightly after this, but at this point the aforementioned Chirper emerges and voices their concerns of the dangers of what was happening. As a group we decided taking the risk was worth it if we actually wanted to find these druids and so we all joined in on the bloody hand stone slapping.
For a moment nothing happens as silence descended on the clearing and then a very ominous voice sounds in my head ‘you didn’t pay the full price’, and then a lot happens at once. The middle stone shifts and slithers into a massive stone cobra with its jaw wide open, I get the most searing pain shoot through my skull, and then Chirper and all the crows that were around flee all at once in a blur of feathers and sound.
Even though it took its toll we managed to open the secret entrance I guess? So we all tiptoed into the darkness of the warm cave, which turned out to be a series of stone tunnels leading to who knows where. Some of the hallways were dead ends, some even had traps which I only avoided thanks to the others. The walls even had carvings all other them, of course all snake related, even the ancient words that were translated were prayers to a snake god called Merrshaulk? All these carvings repeated themselves along the tunnels which eventually led to a red lit room (yes, somehow it got even more ominous). We emerge into the room with weapons and spells at the ready only to find it empty apart from a coffin in the far corner and a magma pool on the other side. The group automatically gravitate towards the coffin, whereas I go to look at the magma pool (I’ve never seen one before, the heat it was producing was immense!).
As Mathew is fiddling with the coffin unsurprisingly some ghosts and banshee emerge to voice their annoyance at being disturbed and attack the group. We got rid of them pretty quickly but that ominous voice sounds in my head again ‘it was fun but now you’re all being cocky’. As it’s saying this I notice a little statue by the magma pool holding a chest, so I take it to see what’s inside but that voice sounds again ‘and now you’re trespassing in my domain and my servants are on their way’. And just like that we’re being transported to another plane, this one seems like the same room but it’s just got more mist or smoke on the edges? I think I might have annoyed it by moving the chest….
I turn around to apologize to the others but they’re all very occupied with dealing with some massive dogs and men with whips that have emerged into the room from seemingly nowhere. So instead I force the emergers to slow down significantly, hopefully that makes it up to the others for angering the ominous voice. We all manage to get rid of them quickly enough, so I take the opportunity to try and open the chest again only to have the ominous voice say in a rather annoyed tone ‘we’ll meet again’, sounds like they gave up if you ask me. At least they teleported us out of that weird shadow plane, annoyingly they teleported us back out of the tunnels so we couldn’t keep searching for the missing druids.
We reported our findings to Chirper and the lack of any signs of his friends, I’m really hoping someone has better luck than us for Chirper’s sake, they seemed pretty upset by it all.
I also managed to have a quick word with Pervinca about the abandoned flower field in town, she says that no one really cares much for flower growing so the maintenance hasn’t really been taken over by anyone. I managed to convince her that I had a genuine interest in looking after it and to not turn it into farmland, I just had to retrieve my things from out of town.
I can’t believe my luck!
Much Love,
BB
P.S. I finally got to open that chest I had managed to hold onto, it contained a small tube and book both covered in snake symbolism, and a map of a tunnel network. I have no idea what it means, seems to all be written in some odd Draconic, really wish I had taken up those arcane lessons now.
Upon arrival at the town (filled with farming folks who all wore quite a nice range of hats) we strolled into the only inn where we were loudly greeted by a guy called Mathew clutching a lute. Turned out he knew Igrannie from helping out Chirper before, she was surprised that he had stayed here the whole time. Between our group and Pervinca, the owner of the inn, we discussed the events that led up to the disappearances. My memory of the details of this are a little foggy because I got really distracted by the mention of a large abandoned flower field on the edge of town (how did I miss that on the way in?). As much as I understand that the facts in these situations are important, they are also really boring in comparison to the wonders of fields of flowers. So rather than pretend I was listening, I thought it was better to be honest about my interests and left for the field (told the others to pick me up when they were ready to investigate the snake stones). Interestingly Igrannie joined me, guess she was done with the facts as well.
Let me just say that the field was certainly not disappointing, had a slightly burnt hut at the front of it but that didn’t take away from the excellent array of flowers behind. Managed to make a bouquet twice the size of my head, something I don’t think I could have managed with the flowers I have growing in the clearing at the moment.
Eventually the others dragged me away from the flowers (my mood was not lifted by Mathew’s strange horse trying to eat my flowers, in fact I was livid) and we finally went to the snake stones. They were three unassuming stone monoliths arranged in a clearing, forming a vague semi-circle shape. After much deliberation over a poem sung by the villagers ‘12 legs and 3 gifts, when the snake mouth opens, birds fly’ Mathew decides to slap his freshly cut hand onto one of the monoliths. The stone did seem to shift slightly after this, but at this point the aforementioned Chirper emerges and voices their concerns of the dangers of what was happening. As a group we decided taking the risk was worth it if we actually wanted to find these druids and so we all joined in on the bloody hand stone slapping.
For a moment nothing happens as silence descended on the clearing and then a very ominous voice sounds in my head ‘you didn’t pay the full price’, and then a lot happens at once. The middle stone shifts and slithers into a massive stone cobra with its jaw wide open, I get the most searing pain shoot through my skull, and then Chirper and all the crows that were around flee all at once in a blur of feathers and sound.
Even though it took its toll we managed to open the secret entrance I guess? So we all tiptoed into the darkness of the warm cave, which turned out to be a series of stone tunnels leading to who knows where. Some of the hallways were dead ends, some even had traps which I only avoided thanks to the others. The walls even had carvings all other them, of course all snake related, even the ancient words that were translated were prayers to a snake god called Merrshaulk? All these carvings repeated themselves along the tunnels which eventually led to a red lit room (yes, somehow it got even more ominous). We emerge into the room with weapons and spells at the ready only to find it empty apart from a coffin in the far corner and a magma pool on the other side. The group automatically gravitate towards the coffin, whereas I go to look at the magma pool (I’ve never seen one before, the heat it was producing was immense!).
As Mathew is fiddling with the coffin unsurprisingly some ghosts and banshee emerge to voice their annoyance at being disturbed and attack the group. We got rid of them pretty quickly but that ominous voice sounds in my head again ‘it was fun but now you’re all being cocky’. As it’s saying this I notice a little statue by the magma pool holding a chest, so I take it to see what’s inside but that voice sounds again ‘and now you’re trespassing in my domain and my servants are on their way’. And just like that we’re being transported to another plane, this one seems like the same room but it’s just got more mist or smoke on the edges? I think I might have annoyed it by moving the chest….
I turn around to apologize to the others but they’re all very occupied with dealing with some massive dogs and men with whips that have emerged into the room from seemingly nowhere. So instead I force the emergers to slow down significantly, hopefully that makes it up to the others for angering the ominous voice. We all manage to get rid of them quickly enough, so I take the opportunity to try and open the chest again only to have the ominous voice say in a rather annoyed tone ‘we’ll meet again’, sounds like they gave up if you ask me. At least they teleported us out of that weird shadow plane, annoyingly they teleported us back out of the tunnels so we couldn’t keep searching for the missing druids.
We reported our findings to Chirper and the lack of any signs of his friends, I’m really hoping someone has better luck than us for Chirper’s sake, they seemed pretty upset by it all.
I also managed to have a quick word with Pervinca about the abandoned flower field in town, she says that no one really cares much for flower growing so the maintenance hasn’t really been taken over by anyone. I managed to convince her that I had a genuine interest in looking after it and to not turn it into farmland, I just had to retrieve my things from out of town.
I can’t believe my luck!
Much Love,
BB
P.S. I finally got to open that chest I had managed to hold onto, it contained a small tube and book both covered in snake symbolism, and a map of a tunnel network. I have no idea what it means, seems to all be written in some odd Draconic, really wish I had taken up those arcane lessons now.
