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Addermarch Campaign - Session 7

Into the Cave: in which the party discovers a cave dweller

Featuring: Yvan Greenrabbit, Drou, Fazoth de Brune
In Taelgar: May 12, 1715 DR to May 13, 1715 DR
On Earth: Sunday Dec 01, 2024
Stonewolds

The party navigates a forest, meets Norman, and enters a cave occupied by a giant and his wolf.

Timeline

  • May 12, 1715 DR: The party leaves Fontwick, heading northwest and entering the wooded hills of the western Stonewolds. While pushing through a rocky, forested trail, Drou narrowly avoids a nearly invisible web trap; a swarm of tiny spiders assaults Fazoth but are burned away, and the party flees a looming giant spider deeper in the trees.
  • May 12, 1715 DR, late evening: Camping a few miles from the probable location of the West Stonewolds Caves, the group meets Norman the Wanderer, a rag-clad hermit who warns them of a “double-big man” and wolf guarding the entrance; he agrees to guide them at dawn.
  • May 13, 1715 DR, morning: Norman leads them to the cave and slips off; the ten-foot “big man” is busy butchering a cow for his stew. Drou lures him away with illusory goat sounds, Fazoth’s sleep spell fells the wolf, and the party rappels seventy feet into a dark pit. Fazoth’s pseudodragon severs the upper rope to foil the furious ogre, and the adventurers descend another hundred feet, landing in the lightless depths ready to explore.

Cast of Characters

  • Drou – elven bard-monk; quick-thinking trail scout
  • Fazoth de Brune – human warlock-alchemist; master of witch bolt and sleep magic
  • Yvan Greenrabbit – halfling wild-magic sorcerer with acidic and fiery spells
  • Norman the Wanderer – eccentric hermit who roams the hills of the western Stonewolds and knows local threats
  • “Big Man” – towering, ogre-like cave dweller fond of halfling snacks
  • Wolf – slavering companion to the “Big Man”

Places

  • Western Stonewolds – hilly uplands with a rugged, web-strewn forest where the party was ambushed
  • West Stonewolds Caves – surface cavern used as kitchen and lair by the “Big Man”, opening onto a deep shaft
  • Fontwick – small village west of Roscobome
  • Roscombe – home base to which the heroes will eventually return

Narrative

Wednesday, May 12th, 2 Robert I

We begin as the party departs Samatha of Fontwick’s farmhouse outside the small village of Fontwick, heading in the hills. By mid-afternoon, the party has left behind the fields and pastures, and is struggling through a rocky, hilly forest. Following a narrow track through dense woods, Drou is surprised by a nearly-invisible patch of sticky webs strung across the trail, but manages to dodge out of the way and avoid being entangled. As Yvan Greenrabbit attempts to disintegrate the web with acid, Drou notes a large, shadowy bulk in the denser trees to the left, while Fazoth tramples through the brambles on the right.

Unexpectedly, a swarm of tiny spiders crawl over Fazoth from the brush, stinging him, but are burned off by Yvan’s fiery burst and Fazoth’s flaming rebuke. As the large spider moves to investigate, Yvan burns the webs with magical flame and the party flees.

That evening, the party makes camp in a clearing, a few miles by Yvan’s reckoning from the cave they are seeking (possibly marked on the map recovered from a dwarven explorer in the Kilrath Caves). During Yvan’s watch, a few hours after sunset, a strange man, wearing patched clothes with a bushy, wild beard, wanders into camp. He seems annoyed the party is camped in “his hills”, but after some time is calmed by Yvan and Fazoth, and tells them about the “big man, double-big man” who lives in the cave entrance with his pet wolf, and particularly likes to eat halflings. He introduces himself as Norman the Wanderer, and agrees to lead the party to cave after breakfast.

Thursday, May 13th, 2 Robert I

in the morning, Norman the Wanderer leads the party to the cave, and then scurries off. There is, indeed, a very big man, about 10 feet tall, bulky and poorly dressed, making the cave his home. This morning, he is cutting up a partially rotten cow, throwing pieces into a large iron cookpot and occasionally tossing something to his wolf. After a bit of investigation, Drou uses her druidcraft magic to make the sound and smell of a goat bleating in the woods, which succeeds in luring the big man out to investigate.

While he is not paying attention, Fazoth casts Sleep on the wolf. As it falls unconscious, and then asleep, the party runs to the back of the cave, where there is a pit that drops into the darkness. The big man returns as Yvan is hammering a spike into the floor to anchor a rope, and the party quickly scrambles into the hole.

About 70 feet down, there is a ledge, and the party takes a minute to recuperate, while Fazoth’s pseudodragon flies up to the top of the pit, where the big man is leering into the hole and shouting about his food getting away. The pseudodragon cuts the rope just below the spike, and the party anchors it again, and descends the final 100 or so feet to the bottom of the cave.

We end, late morning, in the darkness of the cave as the party prepares to explore.