Game Report: DaggerHunt, Session 20
Editor's Note: This is a recap of my weekly Daggerheart game. I'm the GM; we play in a homebrew world, a tropical archipelago. I'm adapting various 5E content from Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting.
The party finished their preparations in Kapua'I'Keo'Keo, the local border town, and stepped into the Bone Fields. Nothing could have prepared them for what came next.
The morning started light. Otzo (our Druid) scored potions and free artisanal beer. Prim (our Seraph) bought healing powder from a widower who'd lost his crocodile-wrestling husband. Vanna (our Sorceress) picked up cherry blossom knuckle dusters from the local madam. Bell (our Rogue) befriended Llaqta, the sassiest baker on the archipelago ("Protect your peace, Queen"), and learned a recipe for brewing potions from monster parts. When Bell asked about Great Chain, Llaqta's warmth vanished. Bell was out the door before the conversation ended.
That night, Vanna performed at Madame Cherry's establishment. Moulin Rouge meets Chicago. The crowd threw roses and propositioned her from every direction. She held a lottery to pick her nighttime companion.
Then came the Bone Fields, Ilina ʻo Noe Wahine.
After a quick recon flight from Vanna, Otzo was able to map out the locations of where to go and connect it to the lore they found before arriving.
Many conversations about where to go next ensued...and Bell stepped through the iron gates without warning. The fog swallowed her whole. To her, it was seconds. To her friends watching from outside, she was gone an hour. They tied themselves together with rope and followed Otzo, who navigated the supernatural mist by sensing the mycelial network beneath his feet; each grave a point of light on a mental map, the great barrow a blazing beacon. He set out for the big statue at the south end.
The Barrow of King Ban-Gardax hit them hard. Proximity to the effigy triggered crushing waves of grief. Bell saw Zephyr's (a dead PC from our first arc) face superimposed on the stone. Niria (Zephyr's snow leopard companion) prowled through the mist for a moment before fading. Prim's critical success revealed the rules of this place: death comes easier here. Avoiding it costs a permanent scar. Healing costs hope you don't have.
The tomb below was empty. No body. No sword. Looted treasure. Just an inscription: "Here lies King Ban-Gardax. He will return."
"He already returned," Vanna observed.
They should have left. The Rose Knight's armor was nearby...instead, Bell wrapped rope around the effigy. The party pulled.
The statue snapped in two. The ground erupted.
Black ooze — the "vibration" Bell had felt since entering — exploded upward in gouts. It gathered armor from surrounding graves. Coalesced. Formed something serpentine. Malevolent. Hungry.
The session ended with four heroes knocked prone and a massive, floating, angry ooze avatar thing making a beeline for Bell and Prim.
