Session 9 - A cold welcome

Thamund and Mery the gate guards recognised you and let you into Frostwyck. Thamund was disappointed that you had returned without the sheep. He said that Eileen hadn’t returned from Dragonback Farm either on her mission to buy sheep. Thamund suggested staying in the Serpent Longhouse or the Golden Longhouse. Burcheim the merchant said he was staying in the Golden Longhouse and then he woke up in the cells deep under the oak.

Angie offered to take the kids home. In fact Angie said she was visiting their parents, the money changer Haskali. “When got I there they were out looking for their missing children with their guard Erroll. When I came into the shop it was a little bit of a mess it looks like I’d surprised Wylie in the middle of something. He suggested we help the search for the kids. We met up with some other villagers who took me captive. Instead of fighting he just waved goodbye and headed back to the village.”

You went to try and buy equipment from the smith but nearly got into a fight when Christoph suggested he use the smith’s equipment. He accused Christoph of trying to steal his job and took a dislike to Dusty. You left while the smith’s sons restrained him from coming after you. 

You headed to the Golden Longhouse. Everybody in there was quiet and stared at you as you entered except for Bertram the bartender. He sold you some cheap nasty beer and some expensive nice beer. You ate breakfast, making up for the short rations of the night before. He asked you where you were from. He persuaded to you to stay the night. Even gave you a small discount. 

When Thorto mentioned witches, Bertram said that there used to be more witches in the area until Dama Zhadna came and cursed the village. He thinks that Rufina played a part in cursing us. She lives down the south road, with her boy and her rabbits. Definitely a witch. He also warned you to stay away from the Gray Hill on the east path. Witches used to haunt that evil place. They probably still do.

An armoured man named Kearny persuaded you to have an audience with his mistress, Lady Jaranta Winterule. She offered you 100gp to find out what happened to her dead father, Lord Reder Winterule. She looked like an Aquilonian to you, with a small pair of horns on her head. She also offered you 100gp if you could find a way out of this accursed village. She talked of Heny, a man who knew her father and was under the care of the priests in the temple. She gave you 20g as a down payment.

At Lady Jaranta Winterule’s behest, you headed to the temple of Valar outside the palisade. In the temple you met Misha Devi, who asked where you had come from and what you were doing here. At Thorto’s mention of witches she said “Sometimes at night I hearsomething howling off to the northeast. My mother says there’s an old stone circle out there where witches used to meet and make curses.” . She said that he had recovered for a while and lived at Dragonback Farm for a few years but he’d taken a turn for the worse and returned to the temple. She denied you access to Heny, saying he was too sick to receive visitors even after repeated requests.

You headed to the lake to see if you could find any sign of the Vodnik, the demon that lives in the lake. The lake was mostly frozen over with an odd patch of weeds in the unfrozen centre. A couple of villagers were fishing on the north side of the lake. You talked to one who very down about prospects in the village. At a splash from the lake both fishermen legged it. Dusty pocketed the fishing rod which had a trout on the end by a stroke of good fortune. 

Thorto was trying to remember something when a wolf cloaked in raven feathers rounded the corner of a longhouse. Borto and Brian saw off the wolf. However you heard a scream and rounded the corner of the longhouse to see the ravenwolf attacking another villager, Andrei. The ravenwolf bit him badly but Andrei finished it off with his sword.

A man named Claydon came out of his house with his bow prepped to see what the fuss was about. Claydon and his wife expertly bound Andrei’s wound. Claydon said that Misha Devi had stopped healing people. She said that Valar was losing her powers. He said that the only healer left in the village now was Xenia but she was out hunting. Upon hearing that you had returned disappeared people to the village, he seemed encouraged by the news. He motioned that the family that lived in the longhouse by the lake had disappeared for ten days, everybody assumed they’d just vanished but they came back.