Chapter 13: The Raven and The Ox
E3:A2 of my solo Cairn campaign
Opening the session
Welcome to Episode 3, Act 2 of my solo Cairn campaign.
Last session, Sysa and Ramil continued their forestcrawl deeper into the The fae-shrouded Loch of the Grand Swarm. That’s where they encountered the Snallygaster busily destroying an ancient shrine of the nameless peccary god.
The snallygaster is an enemy they both know is beyond them, but they had no choice but to continue in search of Sysa’s sister.
I opened the session with my theme, weather, and, yes, a random event. Buckle up, folks — this one gets bloody.
Theme: “Surreal” & “Madness”
Weather: “Calm & Pleasant”
Random Event: PC Negative — “Macabre” and “Festival.”
The random event
For the random event, I could have rolled but it seemed obvious it was going to affect Sysa since she unleashed her power last session. I used my oracles to flesh out the “Macabre Festival.”
— Does it have something to do with the Snallygaster? — Yes
— Are there other creatures nearby celebrating this festival? — Yes
The random encounter table generated a new monster: d6 (4) Peccary Freaks. These are my own twists on redcaps. They’re porcine brutes warped by eating the flesh of witches.
And, according to the oracle, they were making an offering to the Snallygaster when our heroes wandered into its den. That seemed to set the thing off and, by extension, infuriate the freaks worshiping it.
Sysa’s witchery burned. It boiled up from under her fingernails like pitch, reaching up the length of her arms towards her throat. Her voice twinned into a polyphonic chorus — hers and that of The Grand Swarm.
The half-witch was fully formed.
Hernogrir’s unnatural gravity pressed on the world around them, swelling Sysa’s power and pocking Ramil’s flesh. He winced, grimaced, roared in pain as the world around them seemed to writhe like a dying animal.
The Snallygaster loomed over the downs and heathlands like a low moon with each beat of its leathery wings. It drew closer and closer until its shadow fell on them.
Evenleen brayed and ripped off into the mist with the cart behind her. Ramil and Sysa chased after their donkey as the Snallygaster overtook them.
The hot downwash of its wings drove them into the muddy heath. Ramil covered Sysa with his bulk as they fell and the heat of her witchery burned underneath him until he couldn’t stomach it anymore. He ripped himself off the ground to watch the beast pull up high into the pink-grey clouds. It banked past the watery sun and wheeled around for another low pass at them.
“Get up, love,” Ramil said. “We have to —” he stopped cold when he saw them surging up the hill toward them: four peccary freaks.
Game notes
I rolled for initiative — nat 1. Game on, Sysa.
I cast “Pit” below the peccary freaks, just as they approached.
The freaks loped like wolves, drawing themselves up hill with their massive arms and kicking, taloned hindlegs that scourged the heath under them.
Ramil readied his axe, stealing glances behind him for the Snallygaster somewhere up there in the grim clouds.
Sysa, pushed herself up from the mud, leaving behind smoldering embers. She extended her hand — black and smoking with the tar of her witchery — and the ground before her opened up like a mouth, swallowing all four peccary. The screamed like pigs down in the hole.
Sysa moved closer to the pit, closing her fingers and the pit she manifested closed in response. She could feel the peccary in her hand — in the pit — drowning in mud and ripping at each other trying to escape the crushing walls.
Magic in the Wenderweald
In the Wenderweald, all magic is witchcraft, and all witchcraft is contagious. Mechanically, this means there’s a 20% chance non-witches catch “Hexflesh.” That presents as 1 of 6 symptoms.
1. Demon-tongue
2. Blood boils
3. Hex burns
4. Root blood
5. Lich breath
6. Far-eye fever
Since Ramil failed his WIL save last session, I doubled this to 40% and rolled an 18%…Ramil came down with a bad case of…1: “Demon-tongue.”
Sidequest
You can get more details about the Wenderweald from my zine on itch.io
Sysa felt the spell sifting through her fingertips like sand. She was losing focus and losing the spell with it. Behind her, Ramil was muttering a foul glossolalia. Those words did not belong to him. It was Hernogrir's essence that Sysa conjured up, spilling out of Ramil's mouth like bile.
She turned to see his eyes black as her witchburns. The mad muttering billowed into howls that drowned out the screaming peccary down in the pit.
“Shit.” The spell frayed and broke from Sysa’s hands, just as Ramil broke into a sprint toward her. She ducked his first axe swing and rolled away from the second as he chopped down recklessly.
Game notes
Demon-tongue is what Wenderfolk call possession. It turns the afflicted into crazed savages who want only to satiate Hernogrir’s thirst for blood — any blood.
He had to swing on his beloved wife — 18/15 — a miss, thankfully.
Between the Snallygaster and her possessed husband, I knew Sysa needed to get away — just to catch her breath. DEX save — 8/12: Passed! She gets away, but there’s no way she’s keeping the spell up.
Sysa crawled away, looking into the low clouds for Rowena. The raven was baiting the Snallygaster and flying down to the ground to meet her mistress.
The Snallygaster dove after the raven, plummeting like a comet. Sysa covered her head and closed her eyes as the two swooped just above her. She felt the Snallygaster’s heat as it arced over her. The heath shivered all around her as the beast ascended after Rowena.
The pit opened, vomiting up three of the peccary. They clambered to their feet and surged toward Ramil.
Game notes
The Demon-tongue compells Ramil to attack anything in front of him — thankfully it was the peccary this time. And while he’s crazed, his attacks are enhanced, dealing extra damage.
And he did not dissapoint — 3 to one, and 6 to another, killing it.
Ramil brought his axe up in a guard and butted one in the face with the pummel. It stumbled backward, gripping its crumpled snout.
Before the second could get under him, Ramil wheeled the axe around and hacked off the freak’s lower jaw in a bloody arc. It collapsed to the heath gripping for the jaw that wasn’t there and choking on its blood.
Game notes
Surrounded, Ramil was bound to take some damage and did — a brutal 6 damage! That was enough to bypass his chainmail and put him down with a scar.
I rolled on the scar table: “Broken skull”
It wasn’t enough to kill him (yet) but he’s out of the fight for now.
Ramil brought his axe up to finish the jawless freak, but the third peccary managed to get around him before he could deliver the coup de grace. It gored him in the back, and Ramil fell into a heap of chainmail and sucking mud. The peccary leaped on top of him and gnawed at the back of his skull.
Sysa found her feet — and her dagger — and ran to Ramil. Just then, Rowena dove down from the clouds again, and the Snallygaster soared behind her.
Sysa dropped and covered her head as they passed over her. The Snallygaster snatched at the ground trying to catch Rowena but caught only mud and rock that rained down on the skirmish below.
Sysa carried on, darting to the peccary freak chewing on her husband’s skull. She jumped onto its brindled back and drove her dagger into its thick neck again and again until she felt it go limp under her.
Ramil shoved the freak off him with a groan. He stood slowly, but the last peccary with the broken snout did too. They lurched at one another like blood-crazed bears. Ramil ducked a ponderous blow and tumbled back to his butt. The peccary lumbered forward and roared with its simian arms raised over its head.
Game notes
Sysa had to keep initiative to save Ramil.
DEX save — 3: Pass!
And then for the blow — 4 damage — enough to put it down!
Sysa needled past Ramil, under the freak’s blow, and knifed it square in the heart. Its dark eyes dulled and became vacant as it died and fell over like a tree.
Sysa rounded on Ramil. He was swaying and pale.
“Ramil — let me look at you.” She found a steel in her voice that belied her growing fear. The back of Ramil’s head was dented and spewing blood. His eyes rolled drunkenly in his cracked skull. But the hexflesh was off him for now.
His words came out slurred and confused. “Did I hurt you, lady?”
That’s when she found her steel. She touched his face and laughed unbidden. “No, love.”
The Snallygaster trumpeted a horrible but distant scream. Rowena had drawn it off into a bramble and the thing landed with a muted thud in the misty downs a hundred yards away.
Game notes
Ramil was in a bad way, but Sysa had a healing pouch as a half-witch. That was enough to stabalize him and get him out of trouble for now.
Sysa pulled her herb pouch from her belt, untied the leather thong, and rolled out the leaves and oils on the leather mat. She mixed it in her blackened palms as if kneading dough, and rounded on Ramil to see his broken head better. She tried to focus on applying the magical salve, but every roar of the Snallygaster made her flinch.
She daubed on the last of the poultice and ripped away the hem of her dress to bind it all in place. She tightened the knot with her teeth and Ramil groused in pain.
“We have to go, Ramil. They’ll be more of those things.”
“Where’s Eveleen?” he asked, trying to stand.
“She spooked. We have to get off the trail.” Sysa stood and helped Ramil to his feet. He stumbled, vomited, and swayed as if caught in the breeze.
“Lead the way,” he breathed.
Sysa weaved herself under his massive arm and took his axe with her free hand. “Come on, you big ox.” He would die out here. He would die for her. And she wondered if that’s what this place wanted.
“Should have known better than to marry a witch.” He spit.
“I’m not surprised you’re alive with a head as thick as yours.” She pinched his belly.
But he was right. He’d be better off without her. Everyone would. Everyone except Razvan
They stumbled off the path together, into the thick brambles as the pink-grey sky moldered into night.
Ending the session
With no cart, no donkey, few supplies, and a broken skull, the couple needs to find shelter and lay low until Ramil can regain his strength. Stepping off the trail, though, is going to be dangerous, and I’m not sure where they’ll head next.
I updated my forestcrawl map (image below) and set the dice aside with some relief. This one was close, but Ramil will survive (with more HP now, praise Hernogrir).
Until next time, stay close, and watch for the Wenderweald watching.
Want to use the Wenderweald in your game?
I made a zine for this setting that’s PWYW on itch.io.
Check it out — Witches of the Wenderweald
I've been catching only the highlights of your posts through Notes so I finally read this chapter fully and wow -- have I been missing out! Very evocative, very well-written, it's rock-solid!
Going to go back and read the rest today!
I thought Sysa and Ramil were doomed then. Glad they survived. Awesome update.