A Dread Mist: Session One

A Dread Mist: Session One

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
                        -Robert Frost

About a tenday from Sharnn, you met a Vistani caravan leader named Stanimir who told you an ancient tale about a prince his people saved from death. He asked your help in lifting a curse that afflicts the prince. and kept him trapped in his kingdom.

Before you could find out more, a pack of wolves attacked. You leapt into action, but the beasts stole a child, still in swaddling rags and raced off into the fog-enshrouded forest.

Through skill and daring, you managed to chase down the wolves, just as they were giving the child to a sallow-faced elfin man. When he saw you he ordered the wolves to attack, mounted a horse that glowed like cold embers, and disappeared in a cloud of soot and brimstone.

You slew the wolves, only to discover that in the fog and the dark, you’d lost your way. Among the unfamiliar trees, you befriended a squirrel and found a lodestone that seemed to appear at just the right moment.

Without many options, you made camp, but ne of you, unfortunately, fell asleep during the night. The morning found you next to a cliff that hadn't been there before.

In the distance you heard a waterfall and followed the wall in that direction. Before long you came upon a young bard perched atop a wall built into the cliff face.

The bard told you the tale of being murdered by his own father -- “a knave by the name of Tengrave” – and his later resurrection by his new father, a man he called Karrn. Summoning skeletons from the earth, he attacked.

Successfully destroying these undead, you uncovered the bard’s remains behind the wall as well as a signet ring with the letter “T” inscribed on it. You also found a magical lute pick that plays an ancient melody that only the person holding it can hear. You buried the bard's bones nearby and performed a ceremony, that seemed to put his troubled spirit to rest.

Following the rumble of the waterfall again, you came upon a river that you followed until a storm started to brew. Flashes of lightning revealed an old manor house at the edge of the forest with two young children waving from a lantern-lit porch.

The children told you that the was a monster in the house and pleaded with you to help save their little brother, Walter, who was stuck in their bedroom upstairs. Bravely overcoming your trepidation about whether the childrens' tale was truthful, you opened the rusted gate and stepped into the darkened foyer of the decaying manor house.