The Timberlands: Session Six

Session Six: Blood and Roses.

An untamed frontier. Dark cults. Fickle fey gods. Ravenous fiends. Nothing black powder and sorcery won't fix... . Timberlands Campaign Diary

Hidden just outside the grounds of the Sandy Hills Chalet, the heroes planned on how best to deal with the cannibal cult within and rescue whatever of its victims remained alive. The possibility of rescuing survivors stayed the champions' hand when they considered just burning the place down. Instead, the rogue Sykes when to scouting the grounds.

She discovered the chalet populated with the decadent nobles, all wearing a variety of masks. They chatted beneath grisly chandeliers of humanoid bones. Stuffed bearfolk, otterfolk, and tabaxi adored the halls and stuffed heads of fantastical beasts the walls. Worst of all she spotted strange imp-like creatures in butler suits serving the assembled cultists. The touch of the infernal was everywhere.

The party elected a stealthy route. They intended to take out a clutch of gunmen in a hidden hunting blind first, then secret themselves inside to deal with the villains in small groups at a time. However, they didn't realize the hunting blind was a construct. Gwaedd's ever-useful hypnotic pattern incapacitated the sentries, but the likewise charmed construct dropped its disguise as well. The other guards in the ground's gardens knew something was afoot.

Still, Sykes the rogue, Riley the dervish, and Orym the gunslinger made short work of the stunned sentries. Their ranger, Wild, picked off targets from a tree overhanging the chalet's fence. A running battle amid the hedges broke out with musket balls whizzing everywhere. The lodge's hellboar rained down cannonballs into the heroes.

Even with gunmen firing from the first story windows and giant boars stampeding after them, the champions were able to whittle the opposition down thanks to Gwaedd the bard's enchantments and Siegfried the wizards more destructive spells. As they got the upper hand, however, the lodge's hellcat and his fiendish dire lion erupted from the front door and almost tipped the battle in the cult's favor. War masks floated about, using their magic to keep track of these heroic interlopers. Likewise, the hunting blind snapped out of its stupor.

By the end of the pitched battle though, all of the cultists either lay dead or retreated into the chalet itself. The heroes took a moment to breathe and gather their wits. No doubt, more horrors awaited within. No rest of the wicked meant no rest for the good.

… Even if they'd gotten enough xp to level up.