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Addermarch Campaign - Session 11

The Cursed Song: in which the party discovers a fey mystery.

Featuring: Yvan Greenrabbit, Drou, Fazoth de Brune
In Taelgar: May 16, 1715 DR to May 17, 1715 DR
On Earth: Sunday June 15, 2025
Roscombe, Highmoor, and Haldrenn

The party learns of strange happenings in Haldrenn and rescues a lost girl.

Timeline

  • May 16, 1715 DR: Caradoc visits the party in Roscombe with rumors of maddened livestock in Haldrenn, and asks the party to investigate. After acquiring potions from Caradoc in Brantor, the heroes march northeast into the Highmoor and camp in the open hills.
  • May 17, 1715 DR, day: The party reaches Haldrenn in the late afternoon, and learns from nine-year-old Bran that six-year-old Rowena is missing and a funeral for Olay (gored by his own bull) is imminent. Bran recites a creepy “Hollow Men” rhyme said to warn of the Briarheart.
  • May 17, 1715 DR, early evening: Questions to charcoal-burner Karl and priest-storyteller Helen of Haldrenn uncover more of the strange events. Drou’s animal-speech reveal the cattle are tormented by a relentless song compelling violence.
  • May 17, 1715 DR, sunset: Tracking prints and using Fazoth’s fey-lantern, the party follows Rowena’s trail east into the hills and locates her hiding in a cave filled with maddened bees. Swarms are dispersed by Cloud of Daggers, Chromatic Orb, and Dissonant Whispers; Rowena is rescued unharmed.
  • May 17, 1715 DR, night: As the rescuers crest the last ridge toward Haldrenn the fey-lantern flares and the howls of worgs attacking the village echo across the darkened fields.

Cast of Characters

Places

  • Roscombe – bustling market town and party’s home base
  • Brantor – nearby hamlet housing Caradoc’s workshop
  • Highmoor – rolling upland between Roscombe and Haldrenn
  • Haldrenn – remote village ringed by wooden wards
  • Bee Cave – shallow cavern east of Haldrenn where Rowena hid

Narrative

Sunday, May 16th, 2 Robert I

In the morning, the party receives a visit from Caradoc, who has come to speak with them in Roscombe after hearing troubling rumors of mad animals in the isolated village of Haldrenn, in the Highmoor to the northeast. Warning the party that dangerous Fey may be involved, he asks them to investigate, but tell no one of what is happening. Agreeing, the party walks with Caradoc to Brantor, where they trade a pearl and some gold for potions before heading northeast towards Haldrenn.

Following a rough cart track through the hills, the party camps for the evening on the Highmoor.

Monday, May 17th, 2 Robert I

After nearly a full day of slow walking across the rolling hills and dales of the Highmoor, the party reaches the village of Haldrenn in the late afternoon. Haldrenn is a small, isolated village, nestled in the shelter of a ridgeline which has been decorated with wood wards. The village has a reliable, year round spring, which feeds a small pond and a coppiced wood managed for charcoal.

The village is quiet as the party arrives, with only some children playing with sheep and a pig. The party speaks with one of the children, a nine-year-old boy named Bran. From him, they learn that all the adults are out looking for a 6-year-old girl named Rowena, who has been missing for more than a day. She frequently forages to the east of the village, away from the cow pastures, but always returns before nightfall, until now. Bran also tells the party that Olay was killed 10 days ago, by an enraged bull, and the funeral is tonight, so everyone should be back soon. According to Bran, people say the problems are because of the Briarheart, some kind of Fey entity who sends Hollow Men to get those who disobey. Bran doesn’t know if this is real or not, but he tells the party the rhyme.

Knock, knock, knock;
The Hollow Man calls.
Swing, swing, swing;
His greedy sickle falls.
Chop, chop, chop;
He takes another head.
Burn, burn, burn;
The Hollow Man is dead!

Bran says his parents – Karl, who makes charcoal, and Isolde of Haldrenn, Karl’s wife – might know more, so the party goes to speak to them, after leaving Fazoth’s pseudodragon on guard to watch the children. Isolde is out, but Karl, a dour, soot-stained man in his 40s, is tending the smoking piles of timber that will be charcoal. Karl tells them about how Olay’s bull went crazy and killed Olay out of nowhere. The bull, as well as cows that similarly started attacking each other, are now tied up. From Karl, the party also learns that Helen of Haldrenn, the local priest, is also something of a collector of stories about the fey, and might know more about the Briarheart.

Fazoth speaks with Helen of Haldrenn while Drou performs the ritual to allow her to speak with animals. Helen tells Fazoth that she knows many fey stories, and that the Briarheart, also called Morlaith, has many names. But she is preparing for Olay’s funeral and doesn’t have time to speak at length now. Drou speaks to the mad bull, calming him slightly with her music, and learns he is being driven crazy by a song in his head that he cannot stop that is urging him to hurt people. The cows also hear the same song, although at least some animals, such as the sheep the kids were playing with, appear to have avoided this fate. They all want the song to stop, not surprisingly.

With a few hours until sunset, the party decides to search for Rowena, the missing girl. Careful searching uncovers what are obviously her tracks amidst the tangled prints of the people of the village who headed out to find her. Following the tracks, and having Fazoth’s pseudodragon carry his lantern of fey tracking overhead, the party slowly makes their way east, across the rolling hills. As the sun sets, they find the tracks lead into small, shallow cave from which a buzzing noise can be heard.

Inside the cave, the party is attacked by three swarms of enraged bees. Although their stings are painful, Fazoth’s Cloud of Daggers, Drou’s Dissonant Whispers, and Yvan’s Chromatic Orb make quick work of them. As the few surviving bees flee, Rowena emerges from a small nook, where she had hidden, using her canvas foraging bag as cover to prevent the bees from being able to enter.

Although it is now dark, the party sets out to return to Haldrenn with Rowena. We end as the party approaches the final hill, as the lantern of fey tracking lights up and the sound of worgs can be heard ahead, attacking the village.