33 - Frozen in time
Previous session: 32 - MultiLevel Shenanigans
Unfrozen...
When getting closer to the only unfrozen figure, we notice it is a looking human woman between 60 and 65 years old. It looks like she is not used to be around people anymore (due to her messy hair, her dress stained, a slumped posture, and really intensive expressions).
she leads to the church.
We follow her and we enter in that standard medieval looking church. When we're getting in the sanctuary room, we notice it's kept repaired and took care of, revealing it's where she spent most of her time.
She lead us to a side door, then to a set of stairs, then another door, finally leading to a clutter space, her living place. It's just a circular sitting room with two doors, placed in a triangle way, filled with clutter and junk. The smell is stale and full of body odors, but mostly hidden with herbs.
The fire gets lit, and she invites us to sit, and starts to prepare the tea.
she starts to count on her fingers
She stands up and diriges us through the church until the basement, showing her father's studies.
The study...
Nesvalyn conforts her and pats her shoulder, and she takes his hand, reassured.
Beryl excuses herself gets back upstairs to tend the garden, mentionning she is up there if we need her.
We start to check the room.
[Investigation - Pass ✔] Azzy finds writings about the religion of this village. The text refers to other unnamed gods, naming only the Winter Father. It contains the beliefs of the followers: they believe that the Winter Father is the one who provides sustenance during the winter. It appears that the years last only 230 days. Winter lasts for 8 months. It describes the Winter Father more as a force of the nature than an anthropomorphic entity.
Balnorin and Senri find a few irrelevant documents.
Nesvalyn goes around and manages to find a secret compartment in the desk, and by lifting the false bottom, he finds a collection of letters. Through the reading, they are correspondances between the priest and another villager. They're discussing about a dowry, especially that their son can marry Beryl. In the final letter, we learn that the son's name is D'hiara and is asking for jewelries. The final message is pleading "I know my family can't afford the dowry you're asking, but in the name of true love, you cannot deny that."
Nesvalyn shares the info and some banter within the party happens. Azzy shares his information found, concluding there isn't much to find here for now.
The follow-up...
We get to find Beryl to ask a few more questions. As we're walking back to the garden, we find her doing some grooming, the plants are not changing. It's like she's been planting fully grown turnips into the empty soil, like it was for storage.
Nesvalyn conforts her again as she starts to shiver.
[Sleight of Hand - Fail ❌] Balnorin tried to be stealthy when trying to detect the magic.
[Detect Magic] She doesn't have magic on her. But behind us is a strange kind of magic, from an unfamiliar school, probably some divine magic, all over Persy.
↪ [Insight] She seems surprised in a confused way, but doesn't understand why or how, but doesn't look further.
She gets back to her gardening, and we find a place away to gather info.
Balnorin shares the info about the magic around Persy, and we notice he didn't follow us. When checking back, he's standing over Beryl.
When approaching Persy, Beryl's been humming, then let go a "Ah" and falls on her butt, as he's standing back without flinching.
As soon Nesvalyn touches Persy, he feels dead weight, and when looking at him, it seems as he has been frozen too.
Nesvalyn consoles and calm her down. She asks her to take her to her chamber, so she can lay down, and he brings her there. The rest of the party regroups in front of D'hiara's house.
Quatuor at D'hiara's house...
We enter this one room house, which was shared by multiple people. When going through here, it seems that D'hiara lived here with his parents.
[Investigation - Pass ✔] We find a collection of love letters between D'hiara and Beryl. Reading through reveals that the most recent addressed letter from Beryl about his father being dressed with the upcoming Hunt. Even now that he allowed them to marry, she is concerned that he would change his mind due to his temperament.
↪ By reading back through the texts of their religion, it mentions a Hunt happening once every season where a Lamb is hunted and given to the Winter Father.
[History] You don't recall seeing any sheep, lamb or related mask back in the forest.
We're going back to the Priest Study to get more info about the Hunt.
Second pass at the study...
[Investigation - Pass ✔] We find through the letters that there is a consistent amount of gold paid out to different families in the village. This payout is given once for each season, and five times for each family in winter. These amounts are the church paying the families.
In the past years, no family repeats.
The last family paid was in Fall.
With nothing much, we decide to leave. As we're walking out the study room, it seems that we miss a set of footsteps: Senri doesn't follow us. When checking back to the study, she's not moving, and frozen too, right after she inspired Nesvalyn earlier.
[Detect Magic] Same kind of Divine magic.
We notice it's been two hours between Persy and Senri, giving us an idea of how much time remain before we lose another party member. We're heading upstairs to resume our investigation.
[Detect Magic] Balnorin realizes the source of the magic is in Beryl's bedroom.
The trio's plan...
As we enter Beryl's quarters, Balnorin is getting reads from the bedroom.
[Stealth] We're trying to enter stealthy.
When entering, we hear Beryl snoring softly.
The magic trace is coming from a large wardrobe pressed against the wall.
Balnorin tries to open it, and we discover inside is a frozen men, dressed in bed clothes, looking pretty handsome and young.
As we notice, we hear Beryl waking up behind us, then a silence for a few moments.
And when turning back to the wardrobe, Balnorin didn't turn around to Beryl, in fact, he is standing frozen in the position he had when he opened.
Until there were only two......
She lowers her head, doesn't say anything for a while, but nods to acknowledge the fact.
Only one remained......
Nesvalyn sighs as he's getting closer to Beryl, who is crying.
Upon saying that, Nesvalyn plunges a psychic dagger into Beryl, in a way to make it the most painless possible and quickest. As she succumbs from the attack, the rest of the party regains control of their bodies.
D'hiara regains conscience, and looks at his palms who ages suddenly, starts to scream and collapses from the choc into Balnorin arms.
We regroup and hear calls and screams of pain. When going outside, people age and die in front of us.
As we make our way back to our Spelljammer, we understand the scene now, but they all collapsed and withered away.
We notice the pendant on the deer person is the same symbol as the church, implying that the person in front was Beryl's father.
We take off and leave the planet.
The debriefing...
✒Death Inc entry updated.
An explosion happens behind Sprigg.
His projection disappears, leaving us between ourselves.
The scrap planet is 4 days away, and we decide to head to that direction.
Next session: 34 - Robots & Capitalism