Mediums and Messages

Eyes Unclouded - Session 3

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Figures in Conversation in a Garden. Between 1696 and 1770.

These are the records of a lightly modified game of Cairn 2e that I am playing with a new in-person group. I've expanded Eyes Unclouded, a now out of print collection of Studio Ghibli themed 5e adventures, into a more open-ended sandbox. You can find our last session here. I'll try to keep these spoiler free, so enjoy!

Through the Door

This week we rejoined in the in the townhouse of the late Calvero Brightflame:

Additionally, they were joined by:

Nanaki faded into the background, as is their way (their player being unavailable).

The party was packed and ready to go. They had hired Whimwick to lead them to "Eleutheria," an unknown location apparently reachable through the house's second floor.

As they prepped, they heard a knock at the door: there was Ambrose with an identical letter to their own. Ambrose said he had a special message for Aviquin (in addition to the contents of the letter), but were happy to join the party in transit. Sir Percius was suspicious, but they welcomed the newcomer anyways.

The group assembled on the second floor after painstakingly leading Sir Horsius up a flight of stairs to the empty room with the locked door. Once everyone was inside, Whimwick leapt up onto the door knob and turned the lock above. As he did the gem shifted from blue to green. The ferret then scampered out through the door the party had entered by.

Confused the party looked around. They found that the room they occupied now filled a small garden shed on the edge of an orchard of orange trees. The trees were covered in small fruit and netting, but most strikingly had blue leaves. The night sky above was a dark green. The edges of the orchard were high walls of blue hedge.

The Lay of the Land

Madrigal immediately went to inspect the oranges, finding them normal enough. Ambrose tried a piece, but when he went to speak his words came out as bubbles that floated away only to pop and release what he had said. This effect lasted for about a minute.

Meanwhile, Flame searched for Whimwick. The hedge walls were broken by an open arch to the north and in the east corner of the south wall. The latter exit was filled with a barricade of rubble - an old cart, half a broken statue, stray dead saplings. Flame called out for the ferret, but heard no response except for a strange leathery flapping sound from beyond the rubble.

Madrigal climbed one of the hedge walls to get a better view. Up top, she could make out that they were in a small garden - less a maze than a series of separated lawns. To the north was the main exit and beyond that an antiquated looking castle with lights on in the windows. Beyond that maybe a small village. The rest of the horizon was full of tall trees with blue leaves.

More pressingly, Madrigal found the source of the leathery noise - a giant moth with six foot, glowing wings. It was hovering over a large tiered fountain. She admired the spectacle and called down to the others to describe what she saw. It was flapping its way over, more curious than hostile.

Sir Percius suggested hiding in the garden shed, but the party let the moth come. It fluttered towards Flame who promptly shut their automaton's visor to hide. Ambrose lit a torch and the moth landed on his shoulder. It grabbed the torch and, when Ambrose released it, flew off with it due east.

Fountain Folly

The part decided to follow the moth. Sir Percius cleared some of the lighter rubble, but Flame finished the job by loudly crashing through it. The party found themselves in a semicircular garden dominated by a central tiered fountain. It was still hemmed in by blue hedges and had an exit due east and another due north from the east corner of the space.

The party investigated the large fountain. Strangely, the water seemed to flow upwards from the base, up three tiers and into a small bronze statue of a ring of hoplites with spears extended outwards. Ambrose investigated for inscriptions or other markings but only noticed a purple gem, fist sized and neatly cut, mounted where the water disappeared in between the hoplites.

Meanwhile, the moth was busy. It flew up and east before dropping its torch on a large dogwood tree in a small circle hedge-room down the way. The tree seemed to be home to a colossal wasp nest which instantly burst into flames. It danced a little moth pirouette before fluttering due south.

The party quickly decided to put out the fire they had indirectly caused. Madrigal pulled out a pail while Percius took off his helmet and Ambrose pulled up a small handcart he had been towing. Madrigal managed to successfully grab a bucket full of water, but Sir Percius was not so lucky. The tug of the upward current was too much for him and he found himself dragged in.

Madrigal and Ambrose tried to grab the knight, but he was moving too swiftly up one tier than the next. Flame tried to extend a spring-loaded arm to the knight. He grabbed it, but was still carried up into the sharp points of the hoplite statue at the top, receiving a sharp jab and getting wedged in place.

Finally, Flame pulled out the unidentified magical rope they had recovered from the ruins of Barrowemere's wagon the day before. Flame tossed it to Madrigal (I think, though this might have been Ambrose) who twirled it over head, tossing the end to Sir Percius while the others tied the other end to Sir Horsius who had been waiting patiently nearby.

In the meantime, the party heard angry buzzing from due east. They could see the forms of huge ground wasps - about as large as a person, wingless, and covered in segmented armored exoskeletons. They were singed and clearly angry after seeing their home torched.

Madrigal and Flame abandoned helping Sir Percius down and tried to pantomime helping. Flame lit a little fire in the hedge and the halfling tossed water on it from her bucket. The wasps seemed either not to comprehend or to be too furious to care.

Wasp Warfare

Having drawn the lead wasp's attention with her display, Madrigal realized she was in danger. She drew here sharpened spade and tried to de-sting the wasp with a quick chop to the tail. Her blow bounced off the things armor and in return it rammed into her, knocking her unconscious with its heft.

In the meantime, Ambrose led Sir Horsius to pull Sir Percius out of the fountain (and conveniently to the safety of the orangerie).

Sir Percius regained his footing and charged to defend Madrigal. He struck the creature with his sword and, discovering it to be a spirit of some kind, smote it with divine energy. The creature sizzled and crumpled under the assault.

More wasps could be heard approaching from the eastern hedge-gate. Flame went to bodily block the passage, assuming the automaton's body would resist their attacks. In the distance, bells could be heard from the direction of the castle.

Ambrose dashed into the fountain area, then north towards the sound of the bells. He met two guards rushing towards her - a toad and a magpie the size of a human being. Each was clad in formal coats with rapiers drawn. Surprised they called "Who are you and how did you get in here?" Ambrose dissembled and said they were trying to fight the fire, leading the two guards back to the rest of the party.

These guards rushed forward and deftly slew another wasp as it approached Flame. The remaining wasp decided not to press the issue and retreated.

Guests of the Cat King

A company of firefighters, again small animals grown to human size, rushed into the clearing. Flame helped join the bucket brigade to try to put out the flaming dogwood. The group worked hard, but to no avail. They had contained the flames but the tree would burn to the ground.

In the meantime, the rest of the party nursed their wounds. Sir Percius roused Madrigal and found that she was only lightly injured. The toad and magpie gathered them and the other party members (including Airen and Sir Horsius) for an interview by the reverse fountain.

The duo introduced themselves as Jaspern and Viora asked them who they were and where they had come from. The party presented their letter from Aviquin, saying they were headed to the Verdurous Court and had arrived through the garden shed. The guards didn't understand the latter, but knew about the former, saying it was just down the road from Eleutheria.

The party asked the guards a series of questions in rapid succession:

Jaspern (the magpie) explained that they would need to make an appearance before their lord, the Cat King. The party said that was reasonable given the circumstances of their arrival. They asked if there was any etiquette they should know about. Viora (the toad) noted that they should refer to the Cat King as "my king" or "your grace" even if he was informal with them. Additionally, she noted that the non-spirits in the group had a distinct smell (as all mortals do). They'd need to bathe and be dressed in something more suitable before their visit.

Jaspern made clear that while they were the Cat King's honored guests, they would be under constant watch during their visit. Then, the two guards turned and began leading the party towards the castle to the north.

GM Notes

Following up on last week's notes, I drafted a quick letter of invitation from Aviquin to potential player characters. This mostly worked? It was a convenient way to introduce a new player character, but also made it feel less like a personal invitation and more like a billboard posting. Alas.

We had our first combat this session! As ever, Cairn combat is pretty deadly. The wasps with their d6 damage sting and armor 2 were a real threat to the PCs, who have hardly acquired any gear at all. It was pretty unlikely that anyone would actually die, but a TPK wasn't out of the question here.

Sir Percius' smite might be a touch overtuned. It deals +d6 damage to spirits and other outsiders. That might be fine under normal conditions, but they have journeyed to a spirit world. Most things will be spirits. We might need to make some power level adjustments.

As ever, I have trouble keeping track of hirelings. Every once in a while someone would ask "what's Airen doing?" and I would have to fumble around. I might need to set up a sort of always-on initiative card for allied characters and just iterate through them the same way I would encounter rolls.

We're now firmly in content pulled directly from Eyes Unclouded. There's been a real tonal shift - a sudden lurch towards Alice in Wonderland - but that's part of the fun of running a pre-written module. I don't think I'd ever add a character as on the nose as "Merlina the Court Wizard" on my own, but I look forward to her appearance now.

#Cairn #Eyes Unclouded #session reports