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• Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
• Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
• Baldur – Human, Pack Chain Warlock (Spear) / Paladin
  • Hellina Kaitlyn Deramu – Human NPC, Wererat
• Wickedstraza – Dragonborn (Bronze), Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline) – Not present

A second Great Howl is heard, and all those who purity in their hearts, find themselves inspired.

Brandon Crowfeather explains that the Vargouille are creatures where someone has been infected with Vampirism – but not completely turned – and what happens is, the disease rages inside the person’s body, draining their constitution until the disease can take over – at which point, the person’s head rips itself from the torso and sprouts bat-like wings, effectively becoming a Vargouille. (Note – this is my own lore that does not follow the lore of the information found in the Monster Manual as to the origin of the Vargouille).

Brandon notes that Waesyn has been infected during the Vargouille attack and that his wife (Erica Crowfeather) can keep the effects at bay (a Daylight spell prevents the disease from taking action), but that the party will need to move quickly to find a cure for Waesyn – because his wife can not keep up the spell forever.

He mentions there’s a Seer who lives along the beach named Shelly Cadwell, who might have information on how to reverse the effects of the Vargouille’s Kiss as well as the root cause of the Vargouille in general as they seem to appear, roughly, every seven days. He describes Shelly Cadwell as what was once a very beautiful woman – with striking blue eyes – and long, blond hair – until her husband and son had been “taken by the fog” one night. She sought them out, for years – using all her knowledge and arcane magic – but never found them again. As a result, she went to a tree – well known to many – called Lover’s End – where many heart broken souls seem to be drawn to take their life. The tree is easily found, due to its massive size and many trunks – and often times – the bodies of those who took their life are still hanging. Most who take their life at Lover’s End are rarely recovered, for fear of the spirits of the deceased haunting them.

Brandon explains that sometimes – those who have hung themselves at Lover’s End can be called forth – to answer questions. However, attempting to do so – may arise other spirits who do not take kindly to their “eternal, heart broken rest” being disturbed.

Brandon hands Ramgor a rough drawing of a map as to where they could find Lover’s End. Ramgor helps Galiena onto his horse, detaching it from the wagon so they can ride faster. Baldur climbs on the back of the horse he named “Walter” and helps Aros to double up with him.

The party arrives at Lover’s End – and are surprised to see, despite being warned – that there are several bodies, in various states of decay hanging from the tree.

Baldur calls out, from a safe distance, “Hello. Lady Seer.”

Only the wind, and the swaying of the hanging bodies, seems to answer him.

Galiena takes the risk of dismounting from the horse and steps forward, calling out, “Lady Shelly Cadwell, we could use some assistance, if you could appear before us.” (DM’s Note – I made it a Charisma check DC 12 to summon Shelly Cadwell).

The ground rumbles, and what emerges from the ground – as Brandon warned – is not Shelly.

Remarkably, the ghoul is surprisingly fast – lunging forward at Galiena – but Ramgor uses his reaction to block the hit, preventing the undead beast from sinking its teeth into her arm. Aros is able to leap from “Walter” and rush forward, sinking his magical dagger, Lycan Biter deep into the ghoul’s rotting flesh. Ramgor, furious that the creature had tried to bite Galiena, lands a Critical Hit – cutting deep into the ghoul’s pale skin. Galiena strikes from behind Ramgor’s shield and lands a strike into the ghoul’s throat – killing it. Again.

Baldur steps up and puts his hand on Galiena and says, “Wait – before you call her again. Let me try this. She might not like you.” Using his Minor Illusion he creates music to help sooth and summon (playing a feeling tune), and shouts, “I know you’re the Seer! Come and party with us!” (He fails the CHR check; uses Inspiration; fails again; and uses his Great Howl Inspiration and finally succeeds).

And the spirit of Shelly Cadwell appears –

Baldur keeps the music going and urges Galiena to ask her the questions that needed to be asked. Galiena says, “We’re deeply sorry for your loss, and to have needed to call you forth. But someone you know named Brandon Crowfeather said you may be able to help us. We recently encountered Vargouille and one of our friends had become infected by its kiss. Brandon mentioned you may have information about the Vargouille – where they’re coming from and how to stop them.”

Shelly’s haunting response is –

From the lips of a ghost
You must go to the Coast
Find the song’s allure and search her nest
To find the answer, to how to put these to rest.

Galiena asks, “Which coast? We’re on an island.”

Shelly’s spirit responds, “One of you must be willing, and I can point the way.”

Baldur who is still dancing, says he’s willing – and Shelly touches his forehead – and suddenly Baldur is possessed by Shelly’s spirit. The words that come out of Baldur’s mouth are no longer his – not even his voice. “There – that way – I had books and tomes. We had been attacked by Harpies and forced to flee. One night, while in the woods – my husband and son disappeared forever. Go back to my home, find my tome.”

When she releases Baldur, he is awash in sadness and quickly ends his Minor Illusion of music, uncertain as to what had happened. Riding for two hours, the party sees a beach coming into view – and as they ride closer – a home comes into view – but appears to be in great disarray. The roof appears as if it’s been ripped apart, the doors are broken off the hinges, windows lie shattered.

The party approaches the house cautiously and enters the house looking for the tomes that Shelly had mentioned. They hear sounds – and peer through one of the broken windows and see an all too familiar enemy – a sauhugin. Aros attempts to sneak up on the Sauhugin – however, steps on a creaky board – alerting it to Aros’ presence. Despite still being bloodied from the previous fight – and out of spell slots – Baldur rushes in and manages to run his spear into the sauhugin. Galiena, from outside, fires a crossbow bolt through the window and hits the creature – hitting, but not doing much damage. The Sauhugin sees Aros – and first tries to bite – but misses, but manages to hit with his spear. Aros uses his Inspiration to hit the aquatic creature who howls angrily. Ramgor leaps off the horse and rushes in with his Moon Touched Blade and also lands a hit. Baldur is able to finish off the creature, delivering the killing blow.

The party searches around and can’t find any evidence of the tomes. Galiena does notice that there’s a photo a painting of what appears to be Shelly, her husband and her son – so they know they have the right house – and the painting has been torn apart. As they continue to look around – they notice there should be more jewelry in the house – and though the Sauhugin had some in a pouch – something or someone – has taken other possessions that were clearly in the house before. The party decides that they can rest here and recover and perhaps pick up the search for the tomes after their rest.

The party looks and finds one adult bed and one child’s bed. Ramgor and Galiena take first watch, while Baldur takes a rest in the adult bed and Aros in the child’s bed. Ramgor and Galiena sit out on the tattered porch of the house talking, enjoying each other’s company, and just getting to know one another more during the down time. When Galiena asks about the Broken Lands and how far it is from water – he explains that it never touches the ocean, but after a great war that changed the land forever – a large river split it in half.

Galiena points out that the moon, far off in the distance is a calming notion. Ramgor explains that considering how their “first date” has gone – it’s perhaps the first “romantic” moment they’ve had time to enjoy.

Seeing that Aros is in the child’s bed, Galiena and Ramgor wake up Baldur and swap places. Baldur decided to let Aros continue to sleep while he kept watch all on his own; like Galiena and Ramgor, gazing out towards the moonlight reflected in the far distance on the ocean’s dark waters, far beyond the curse of the clouds and fog that permanently lingered over this cursed island. His mind drifted and wondered what Hellina Kaitlyn Deramu – the woman who was a wererat that he’d somehow found himself attracted to. She’d remained back in Felhorn – at the Inn, where they’d rented rooms. This was supposed to only be a brief two night date – that was now well into five days. Was she wondering where he was? Was she gazing out to the ocean – not far from Felhorn – and staring at the moon’s reflection on the dark ocean?

Unfortunately, Baldur’s mind and ceases paying attention – as two Sahaugin, searching for their companion, have come to the surface to find him. Thankfully, this happens at the end of the long rest – as two Sahaugin see Baldur sitting on the dilapidated porch. The Sahaugin ambush Baldur, but only one of them manages to hit twice. Baldur begins yelling that Sahaugin have shown up again! Baldur tries to attack – while waiting for the others to awaken – but finds himself stumbling back – to get back into the house to make sure the others are awake and fails to hit – but the lunging Sahaugin have an equally difficult time as one of them manages to hurt themselves with a spear attack in their haste to kill Baldur.

Aros, Ramgor and Galiena all leap out of the beds refreshed and rush to Baldur’s side to help him. Galiena rushes to Baldur to cast Cure Wounds, while Aros and Ramgor tend to engaging in combat with the two Sahaugin. (Galiena cures 2 points, and decides to use Inspiration to try and cure for more – but rolls a 2 again). They party is able to pull things together, and manage – after several cuts and wounds – to defeat the Sahaugin and quickly realize that staying in this house may not be a good idea – because other Sahaugin will undoubtedly show up looking for these two as well.

The party quickly packs up their belongings and begin searching around the house for clues; when Galiena calls out from outside that there seems to be a trail of jewelry and trinkets leading down the beach. Baldur meanwhile manages to extract five claws from the Sahaugin and collecting three spears, recalling that Jarick – the fisherman in Felhorn – paid for these types of items.

Following the trail – the party manages to come further down the beach where they see a rather unusual looking rock mass out in the ocean, which seems to be the point where the items and trinkets found seem to be pointing to.

Galiena manages to find some large feathers also – that look like they’d belong to a massive predatory bird. However, upon examining it further – the party notices a rancid smell on the feather, that smells as if it belongs to a giant vulture or something. That’s when Galiena and Aros hear something that sounds like music.

Galiena and Baldur aren’t too sure what the music is – but Aros recalls hearing stories about Harpies… or Sirens… ones, typically found near oceans were called Sirens… and he remembers hearing from other Rogues about how if you can find a Harpy or Siren’s nest, you can typically find a wide variety of treasure from the victims of the Harpies/Sirens. Aros explains to the others that the song of the Harpy/Sirens can enchant a person and render them helpless.

The party quickly comes up with the idea of cutting up some of their candles and heating them to become malleable and place them in their ears to drain out the sound of the Siren/Harpy songs. Galiena is able to make one for herself, while Aros makes one for himself, Baldur and Ramgor. Realizing that as they speak – it’s difficult to hear one another now – they begin using hand gestures – gesturing OK when everyone was ready – then pointing to the island and making the swimming gesture – the party leaps into the water and begins swimming towards the unusual rock formation. (DM Note – I loved this idea of using Candle Wax so much that I made a house rule for this session that it would grant Advantage towards saving against the Harpy/Siren song).

As the party begins swimming towards the island, both Galiena and Aros struggle (Galiena having flashbacks of when the Sahaugin and pulled her underwater), Baldur helps Aros, while Ramgor helps Galiena, and together the four of them reach the base of the unusually shaped island. (Both Aros and Galiena earn one level of exhaustion from their failure; having expended extra energy – and now have disadvantage on skill checks). As they tread water, Galiena looks up and shakes her head – knowing what’s coming next. They’re going to have to loop a rope on one of the low hanging trees, and climb up the rope.

Baldur is able to loop a rope into one of the branches and begins climbing; Aros, despite his level of exhaustion, is able to make it up the rope. Galiena… Galiena tries… once… then twice… then three times… then four times… then critical fails on the fifth try… and earns a second level of exhaustion, where now her speed is halved… So Baldur and Aros try to pull her up… but after all her effort, she’s not able to maintain her strength and falls into the water, taking some minor damage… (well, not minor – she actually took 10 points of damage…) While treading water, she uses a healing potion to recover some points.

Ramgor finally has Galiena hold on to him and together they’re able to climb up the rope. (DM Note – it’s funny that the rope thing happened with Galiena again – as she had a similar issue with trying to climb a rope in the Lord Starfall Manor previously). Once they reach the top, they’re exhausted – and Galiena, breathing heavy, tells Ramgor, “And that is why I hate climbing ropes.”

“I think I understand,” Ramgor laughs, also breathing heavy.

After a moment, each of them hear the Harpy/Siren song – and thankfully, with the candle wax in their ears – they’re able to all successfully avoid the effects of the song. The party spots three Harpies – two of which, looks similar – brown in color – but the third seems slightly larger, and white wings and feathers.

The party quickly – and more importantly – quietly – find cover beneath the trees to prevent from being seen by the Harpies/Sirens flying around. Aros manages to spot a very large nest in one of the trees. Aros gestures everyone to stop – and gestures upward (again, because no one can hear one another. (I had Aros do a Performance check then had everyone do an Intelligence check to be able to understand his gestures – just for fun).

Looking up where Aros is pointing – a large nest is visible to the others, and a number of trinkets can be seen.

Aros develops a plan – he puts mud and sticks all over himself to disguise himself. He decides he will climb up the tree and try to get to the nest without invoking any combat. He examines the nest and notices that up on the tree it is near the ledge – and if need be, he could use that as an escape route to leap into the water if he’s spotted by Harpies/Sirens.

Aros begins climbing the tree (Natural 20 Athletics – so I auto “success”ed that as to reaching the nest successfully). He quickly moves into a position of Stealth where the Harpies, who are unaware of anyone on their island, do not see him. He quickly – and quietly investigates the nest – and he spots a book that is open, and has a woman’s writing on it – the the pages are trimmed in painted gold – so he assumes this is the tome that had once belonged to Shelly Cadwell. He’s able to slight of hand the book into his bag successfully. He looks to see if there’s anything else that sticks out in the nest – and nothing does; and spending more time, Aros successfully passes another Stealth check – and begins descending down the tree – and however, loses his footing – tumbling down to the ground (taking some minor damage, 6 damage). Baldur lets out a scream (Critical Fail on his Stealth) when he sees Aros fall from the heights. Panic sets in – as suddenly the sound of the Harpies/Sirens turns to one of alert – and Galiena fails her stealth as well.

The Harpies lung for an attack – and the white feathered Harpy rolls a Natural 20! The party considers running to just jump off the ledge – but Galiena is moving slow (due to her two levels of exhaustion). Ramgor says he refuses to leave Galiena behind and stands his ground – ready to face off against the approaching Harpies – and the leader, the white one, sees Galiena moving slowest – and dives down to target her – and manages to claw and club Galiena, delivering some damage. Baldur growls – turns and casts Hex and tries to attack the one on Galiena, but misses. The second Harpy sees Ramgor trying to defend Galiena, and dives for him – but Ramgor is able to get his shield up in time to deflect the two attacks. The third Harpy goes for Galiena as well, and misses with the claw, but does manage to club her. Galiena quickly quaffs a potion (as a fun note – each successful the Harpies did on a party member – they had to roll a DEX Check DC 10 – to make sure the Candles remained in their ears).

The battle rages on, and things begin looking poorly for the party – as everyone ends up bloodied, and each healing potion just seems to be enough to keep the party up – because the health gained, is often lost in the following round of attacks – but the party manages to begin slowly taking down the Harpies’ health; however, not before Galiena is brought down to 0 (and begins doing Death Saves). The party gets Galiena back up – and as Ramgor sees Whitewing coming back down – Ramgor leaps in front of Galiena and takes the damage. The party finally kills Whitewing – and the other two Harpies are too furious to flee. Ramgor is bleeding profusely, so Baldur moves to try and help Ramgor by attacking the Harpy on him. Ramgor uses his turn – to give Galiena a potion of healing – and in the heat of the moment, he kisses Galiena and explains how he was worried about losing her. Galiena is shocked, and still hears the sounds of combat.

The party, beaten, bloodied, bruised, finally manages to slay the two remaining Harpies. The party decides to take a short rest on the island, before moving down – and climbing down the ropes and heading for the beach and finding a cave to take refuge in (fearful of going back to Shelly’s house for shelter in the event Sahuagin return there). The party reads the tome from the nest, which is indeed Shelly’s – and there’s a note that catches their eye…

I believe there is something going on behind Glacier Falls. There is a cave behind the waterfall – and I believe someone is hiding back there. I believe they’re doing something – I need to go check. Climbing the cliff side, to get to the hidden cave I spotted will be difficult.

Fun DM Note – the “Waterfall” was entered due to the player Aros – who I called on to answer as an NPC during the “Dating Session” had the NPC mention a trip to a romantic waterfall.

Other fun notes – Brandon Crowfeather is a reference to Brandon Lee – and Erica Crowfeather is a reference to the name of the character from The Crow – Eric Draven. And the Seer, Shelly Cadwell – Shelly was the name of Eric Draven’s girlfriend, and Cadwell was the maiden name of Brandon Lee’s mother.