Iron & Gold, Curse of Strahd
Well, that was more than a few weeks, but we’re here.
Previous chapter: Chapter 19 - The Winery — Next chapter: Chapter 21 - Berez
Being The Curse of Strahd but using Mythic as the GM and with Iron & Gold as the game system.
20 - Yester Hill[1]
After preparing some arrows that Felewin hoped would burn, Hrelgi transformed the horses. The only one of them who could truly ride was Felewin, who held the other horse by a long lead; the animals were not trained for riding, so getting them to gallop was easy: they were trying to get away from the unfamiliar weight on their backs. Steering them was difficult but within Felewin’s ability and they arrived at the hill shortly.
Inside the second ring of cairns, they left the trail and went around the wall of stones and placed themselves on the far side of the ring; they dismounted and gave the horses’ reigns to Elvir, who had come with them. Elvir wished them luck, and guided the horses back to the trail outside the cairns.
Felewin loaded his crossbow with the first of two special bolts that they had prepared; once he had done that, he strung his bow for use after he had fired his two special crossbow bolts.
The bolts had wrappings on the heads that used materials from the winery: sulfur, wax, and cloth. Ninefingers carried a mica-walled lantern with fire in it.
Felewin loaded the crossbow and Ninefingers lit the bolt.
Felewin said to Hrelgi, “Try and make sure it stays lit.”
Hrelgi removed the first bookmark she had placed in her grimoire and cast her spell.[2]
Felewin shot the bolt into the huge topiary statue of a cloaked man.
Wild-eyed barbarians or berserkers charged from the ring of stones. They would arrive in shortly.
“It will take minutes,” Felewin said, “even if it works. Again.” They repeated it as the wild men came closer.
Felewin didn’t have time to see if it caught fire; the wild men were almost on them; he drew his sword.[3] Ninefingers had his out; Uthrilir had readied his mace.
“I got this,” said Hrelgi.
“Not reassuring,” Ninefingers muttered. “They outnumber us two to one.”
The wild men got closer, yelling incomprehensible. Clumps of dirt clung to the blades of their axes. They were very close when Hrelgi cast her spell.[4]
A trough appeared in the soil under the wild men and they fell. All of them landed safely…at which point all of the dirt that Hrelgi had turned into dirt-vapour turned back into dirt. Suddenly all but one of the wild men were up to their thighs in dirt.[5] Two managed to pull free, so temporarily the odds were three to three.
The first wild man arrived, swinging his axe. Felewin hit him while he was raising his axe,[6] with a crippling blow that made him drop his axe.[7] Ninefingers finished him off.[8]
The two wild men who had gotten free charged, one for Ninefingers, one for Felewin. The one going for Felewin missed, and got slashed for his trouble; he was nearly dead. Ninefingers stabbed his opponent, who kept fighting but missed; in turn, Uthrilir killed him. The other three were still pulling themselves out of the dirt, so Felewin took the moment to finish his opponent.
“Better odds now?” asked Felewin.
“Better,” said Ninefingers.”Still not great.”
Ninefingers cut open one who was still getting free, but not deeply enough to kill him. The man swung his axe at Ninefingers, and the goblin easily blocked him. The other trapped one also swung at him, but Ninefingers had carefully stayed out of range—the wild man had more range than the goblin thought, but still not enough.
The third and last one concentrated on pulling himself free, but Uthrilir took advantage of his distraction to hit him.[9]
Felewin[10] stabbed him through the heart as he was getting up; he died, and then there was only one left and deeply wounded.
He roared with rage and managed to block Ninefingers’ attack and his axe hit the goblin on the legs, in a spot barely touched by armour. The goblin fell over, screaming in pain. Hrelgi started flipping pages in her grimoire, looking for goblin healing spells.
Uthrilir killed his opponent.
The wild man, still knee-deep in the earth, grinned. In heavily accented common tongue, he said, “You see how the son of Einarr deals with his foes! Let me stand and you are done!”
Felewin marched over and took off the wild man’s head.
“And that is how Felewin, son of Argor, deals with his.” To Uthrilir and Hrelgi, he said, “Help Ninefingers!”
“No,” said Ninefingers, “I think I’m…I’m okay?”
“We saw him cut you!”
Ninefingers looked at his weapon. “I don’t know. I felt a surge of…of healing? Like when Hrelgi does it. Maybe magic sword? I mean, my legs hurt like they were on fire, but…they seem to be intact. First time I’ve been grievously wounded since I got this sword.”
“Glad to hear you’re okay.” Felewin patted Ninefingers’ shoulder. “Now, ring or tree?”
Ninefingers said, “Ring. The gem is probably in the ring, where the forest folk are. If the gem is in the statue, we need to get it before the forest folk do. If it’s not in the statue, we need to search the whole thing before nightfall.”
“And the tree?”
“I’ll do that at night, if I have to,” Uthrilir said.
“We’ll light it up,” said Hrelgi.
They jogged to the ring with Felewin reloading his crossbow. “Any idea how many forest folk? Two, three, six, ten?”
Hrelgi checked her grimoire, then cast a spell. “Can’t tell. More than two.”
When they got to the opening in the wall, it was blocked by a thorny wall of plants. Over the wall, they could see the statue had finally caught fire.
“Well, we planned for this,” Felewin said.
Hrelgi looked at her grimoire. “Plant material?…" she said. “Here. Remember to hold your breath as you walk through.[11]”
She turned the entire wall into air, and they dashed through; once they were all through, Hrelgi let the spell lapse, and thorny plant material fell everywhere but mostly in the gap.
Felewin spotted one of the forest folk right away, and fired, giving the man a crossbow bolt in his belly. Felewin was worried he was a diversion. A woman dashed forward and she swung her .quarterstaff at Hrelgi, who dodged easily. Uthrilir hit her with his mace but her bark-like skin made it difficult to hurt her.
Felewin was pretty sure she was also a diversion, so he looked in the opposite direction.
Ninefingers saw plants moving, almost grasping, and said, “Don’t step off the path!”
“Gonna be hard to hit them without getting close, won’t it?” asked Felewin, still scanning for them. He had spotted five — the big burning statue was a big help — but there might be more. He dropped his crossbow so it dangled from its strap, and strung an arrow in his hunting bow. “Hrelgi, we need to nullify magic in this area. I think that one is trying to put out the fire.”
“You’re right,” she said, “but I can’t; brain freeze.”
Felewin fired a second arrow at the Forest folk he’d already hit, and barely succeeded. This woman, like the forest folk behind them, had adopted bark-like skin. He should ask about it, if they lived.
The forest woman attacking Hrelgi and Uthrilir swung so hard that she lost grip of her quarterstaff[12]; Uthrilir hit her again, but didn’t manage to kill her.
Ninefingers said, “I think I see the gem…fire’s not down to it yet.” He smote the forest man with his sword.
Hrelgi had moved behind Uthrilir, and was flipping pages. She slipped a bookmark in one page for later, and then read through the spell. She said it out loud, and the gem slipped from the burning statue and headed straight for her hand[13] as a glowing green star. It was, however, hot, and she did not catch it, dropping it onto the trail. She said an obscenity.[14]
One of the forest folk appeared from the ground and grabbed for it[15] but missed. Ninefingers grabbed his sword and guarded the gem, swinging and hitting the Forest folk but doing no apparent damage.
“Now we can’t suppress magic here,” Felewin said. He fired a second arrow at the Forest folk in the distance; it sank into the man’s eye. Felewin hadn’t been aiming for the eye, but it was satisfying.
Uthrilir mashed the forest folk into the ground, killing him or her.
Hrelgi scooped up[16] the gem and tucked it in her pouch. “Got it!”
Felewin suddenly realized he had lost track of two of them. He fired a last arrow that hit the screaming forest folk he could see, killed him, and looked around. Three dead, at least two missing. They couldn’t try to sanctify the ground for the tree if forest folk might come up and attack them!
Ninefingers said, “There!” and moved along the path to get closer, but the Forest folk was staying out of reach. Sooner or later, we have to climb on the plants, Ninefingers thought.
Two forest folk erupted from the ground to grab Ninefingers.
Uthrilir pulled Hrelgi along. He said loudly over the fire, “Whatever you think you’re doing, we’ve dealt with six of your fighter friends and three of your other forest folk. Do you want to mess with us?[17]” As soon as he finished speaking, he silently prayed to the Maiden to make Ninefingers’ skin like armor.
One of the two forest folk said, "We need the gem back. A simple trade: a life for a gem.”
“Really?” said Felewin. He drew an arrow and nocked it. “I can put your eye out.[18]”
“I can kill your friend,” said the man, holding a sharp woody finger against Ninefingers' throat.
Uthrilir said, “Not the threat you think.” He didn’t know if the Maiden had done as he asked, but he hoped so. If not, Ninefingers now had that healing sword, assuming it worked more than once. Uthrilir dashed forward and smote one of them on the side, and the man cried out in pain. The man who had been talking tried to drive a finger into Ninefingers’ neck, but it did not penetrate.
“Sorry,” said Felewin, and let loose the arrow. It sank into the man’s eye.
Ninefingers responded by attempting to break free; he did not, but he distracted the man.
Felewin drew his sword quickly and hit the same man but the man’s bark-like skin repelled his blade. Uthrilir also struck his foe, and killed him.
The other forest folk ran forward and grabbed Ninefingers. One of them chanted a spell, and the wall of thorns and vines grew around them.
Hrelgi said, “Again?”
Inside the wall of thorns, Ninefingers[19] managed to wrench free.
Instead of vaporizing a section, Hrelgi undid the magic holding the thorn wall together.[20] The wall fell apart, and Felewin struck at the forest folk who was nearest[21].
Felewin struck again and killed his opponent, and Ninefingers killed the man who had held him.
Felewin asked, “You okay?”
Ninefingers said yes.
Felewin looked at the sky. “We don’t have much time if you’re going to make that into hallowed ground.”
“Forest folk from around Barovia might be returning,” pointed out Hrelgi.
“We burn the tree while he’s consecrating,” said Ninefingers.
Hrelgi said, “Don’t forget that the Gulthias tree makes scourge beasts. We might meet those.”
The big black tree was in the middle of a copse of smaller dead trees and as they approached it they could see both that the tree was bleeding, and that six humanoid figures covered with needles were marching in the space, traveling between the shadows.
The group of adventurers stopped outside the copse; Felewin his last burning bolt in his crossbow. When he said he was ready, Hrelgi lit the bolt.
The humanoids headed for them, pausing few meters away.
Felewin fired. The flaming bolt hit the tree, but like before, there was nothing obvious.
The scourges turned their backs to the group, and needles flew off their backs. They hit Felewin and Ninefingers but did not harm them, getting stuck in their armor.
Hrelgi looked at the dead fall grass under them. The perpetual mist made it wet, but the grass looked dried out….if she set one of those shrubs there ablaze, it might spread…
Uthrilir was praying.[22] “Let this land be purged of the unclean in your sight…”
A mound of vines by the base of a shrub began to walk toward them.
Felewin reminded people, “The job is protecting Uthrilir, not going out to meet them.”
“Easy for you to say… you have a shield,” said Ninefingers.
“Get behind me, then.”
The needle scourges fired again. Again, two found their mark, which was now just Felewin, but both needles bounced off or stuck to his shield.
Hrelgi set[23] the shrub on fire.
One of the needle scourges hurried over to it and attempted to put it out but couldn’t, because Hrelgi was maintaining the transformation. It set itself on fire, and shrieked.
Felewin waited with his sword and shield. Perhaps he could reach them with an arrow, but then he would have to give up his shield, and the shield had been useful so far.
Uthrilir chanted his plea.[24] More blood gushed from the tree. Felewin didn’t know if it was connected, but he felt something…some voice…calling to him.
He tried to ignore it; the last time he had obeyed a ghostly voice, it had been a spirit trying to drown him.[25]
The voice was trying to get him to go to one of the cairns, but Felewin reminded himself that he had other things to do.
Felewin concentrated on the tree. He threw a flask of oil into it,[26] hitting the tree easily.
“Turn the oil into flame,” he told Hrelgi. “Then maybe the oil inside will burn.”
Hrelgi looked for the flask. She just had to point the same spell at a new target.[27] There was a boom and the hiss of flames; the needle scourges looked up, high in the tree, at the two sources of flame.
“Done?” Felewin asked Uthrilir.
“Done,” the dwarf replied. “This is now hallowed ground.”
Ninefingers discovered the plants around their feet were growing, and he pulled his feet free. “Watch your feet,” he told the others. “Something’s controlling the grass here.” They all shuffled to free their feet; no one had trouble.
Uthrilir asked, “Forest folk?”
Felewin stepped forward and hit one of the needle scourges, nearly cutting it in two.
Hrelgi checked the grimoire again. She followed the instructions and then…[28] “Back here,” she said. “Step through the rend I’m going to make!” She chanted. The needle scourges launched another set of needles, and again two of them hit, but hit Felewin’s shield,.
They stepped out in the fermentation room at the winery. “Hello!” Felewin called. There was no answer, and Felewin got a sick feeling in his stomach.
Then Elvir popped out on the balcony upstairs. He called to the others, “They’re back!”
Hrelgi reached into her pouch and pulled out the gem. “I think you wanted this?”
Previous chapter: Chapter 19 - The Winery — Next chapter: Chapter 21 - Berez
Monsters
I believe the Berserker, here called Wildman, is the only new foe in this chapter.
Previous chapter: 19 - The Winery — Next chapter: 21 - Berez
| Abilities | Fitness 3 Awareness 3 Creativity 2 Reasoning 2 Influence 4 |
|---|---|
| Skills | Athletics 5, Dueling 5, Finesse 2, Stealth 3, Subterfuge 3 |
| Gimmicks | Hardened |
| Weapon | Longsword: 2 inj |
| Armor | Studded leather (1) |
Game Mechanics
[1] Mythic suggested theme: Excitement Fame (Ambiguous Event)
[2] Hrelgi rolls for Athletics: she has prepared for three rounds (+3) ant it’s very oversized (+4) but it’s very far away (-6) so she needs to roll 9-. She gets 6, so the athletics part works. She rolls 7 (margin 2) on the spell, and the flask of oil hits the statue. Yay!
[3] Reactions: Felewin 12 Ninefingers 13 Uthrilir 8 Berserkers 10 Forest folk 9 Hrelgi last
[4] Hrelgi rolls a 5, which makes her Materia spell and difficulty 2. She rolls 1 on R+C, which makes it because it’s trivial at this point.
[5] That’s a lot of dirt so it’s a difficulty 4 Athletics task to get out, or two combat rounds before they can fight again. The berserkers roll 2 3, 8, 10, and 8, so two pull free
[6] Felewin: Margin 7. Berserker: Margin 5. The Berserker’s armor has no effect; he’s at -4 health levels.
[7] Berserker fails his F+composure roll
[8] Ninefingers rolls 10, but the guy isn’t moving and his response is nothing, so Ninefingers gets it.
Reactions next round: Felewin 14, Ninefingers 10, Uthrilir 10 Berserkers 9, Hrelgi last
[9] Reactions: Felewin 9, Ninefingers 14, Uthrilir 12, Berserkers: 9, 8, 8
[10] Felewin rolls a 2. He just kills him.
[11] Hrelgi rolls a 3, so she successfully transmutes all of it into air.
[12] The Forest folk rolled a 12.
[13] Helgi sees it but rolls a 10 with an Athletics skill of 8, and does not manage to catch it. It hits her.
[14] Reactions: Felewin 9, Ninefingers 13, Uthrilir 8, Forest folk 11
[15] Forest folk rolls a 12.
[16] Hrelgi rolled a 3, margin 5.
[17] Uthrilir asking the Lady to improve Ninefingers’ armor value, and she does, by 5; Ninefingers is now armor 8 where there’s a byrnie, and 5 where there isn’t.
[18] Now we’re in a new combat phase. Reactions: Felewin 11, Ninefingers 0 (held), Uthrilir 9, Forest folk 6
[19] Ninefingers rolls a 3 on Athletics; the other two roll 6 and 5 — since none of them actually have Athletics, Ninefingers is free. He rolls a 6 to draw and attack in the same turn, and he hits; the Forest folk he attacks rolls an 8, which doesn’t make his skill. Ninefingers does 3 damage to (odd one with arrow; rolled a 1), who’s now at 4 injury levels.
The other forest folk fails at melee rolling a 9 (margin -2 vs margin 6).
[20] Hrelgi rolls a 7 on her Sphaera spell and 3 on the R+C.
[21] Felewin rolls to see who is nearest: odd is already injured, even is other. Even (2). Margin 4 vs margin -2. He does 2 damage.
[22] Uthrilir has a very low consecrate skill, so he’s going to try and spend three turns to add a cumulative +3 to his skill.
Reactions: Felewin 14 Ninefingers 13 Uthrilir 12 Hrelgi last (7), Needle scourges (4), Vine scourges (5), twig scourges (4)
[23] Hrelgi rolls a 6 out of 9, so the spell works, and a 6 out of 9 for R+C.
[24] Uthrilir needs a 6, difficulty 2 (it would be difficulty 4 but he prepared for two rounds): he rolls a 3, which makes it.
[25] Felewin rolls 7 on an 8- composure roll.
[26] Felewin rolls a 6 for margin 4 on his Athletics. He easily hits the tree.
[27] Hrelgi rolls a 3 which makes it by 6: she makes the flask go boom.
[28] Hrelgi rolls 5 (Fabrica Materia), 8 (R+C), 3 (Fabrica Ge), 4 (R+C).
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