Alright Gents. Was hoping to get to this sooner, but here it is. Apologies in advance re names. I need to remember all of them, but still haven't got them down. If I miss anything or wrongly attribute something to the wrong characters, please let me know.
Players in attendance:
Karl, Tim, and Josh. As the group was significantly smaller, both characters were played by each player simultaneously.
Scenario Summary:
A small group of the band (Barnaby (Josh), Red, Helga (Tim), and Tamelin the Otter, and the platypus mage (did I mix up the names?)decided to go looking for the missing villagers for which the reward was offered. Information from the townspeople seemed to point toward the closed mine as a suitably good starting place for the search. The band trekked half a day's walk through the forests near Ne'erdale to the small collection of buildings that surround the mine entrance. They approached the footbridge that crossed the small river that ran past the outskirts of the mine.
Karl's character noticed something off the path and proceeded to take a look. The object was an unusual standing stone a little smaller than man with slightly glowing runes in a familiar shape. The team realized the runes where similar to those on the amulet. Barnaby felt an underlying vibration that irritated his innate wildness and sought to draw him into a change. The Otter fired an arrow at the stone which embedded itself solidly but did no further damage. The impact caused the vibration to increase forcing Barnaby to clench his teeth in resistance, and urge the others to leave it be.
The buildings were in an unusual state of damage and disarray for the limited amount of time they had been abandoned. Some of them however did look still lived in despite the mine's abandoned state. The group crossed the Bridge and knocked on the doors of the first building. Their only response was a solid "Go Away" yelled through the door.
They proceeded to scour the buildings and found the town blacksmith pounding away on a spear head. Their attempts at conversation were met with grunts and nods, nothing more. The blacksmith shop was in equal disarray and lack of care, and there was a odd pile of large spearheads on the floor. Barnaby used his leatherworking skills and offered to make a new apron to replace the Blacksmith's torn ratty one in exchange for information. The Blacksmith was cryptic at best telling them to leave, and having absolutely no idea why he was making spearheads... even seeming to look at them as if he had no idea what he was doing, then continuing to hammer.
They searched... finding barrels of squid, and spearheads galore.
Red found a book on a familiarly carved pedestal in one of the buildings. They removed it and the hum increased, but otherwise nothing happened. The book was kept for later perusal. About this time, another plinth was noticed in the woods and the team approached. The hum increased, and the team suddenly noticed several bedraggled figures standing in the woods a distance off surrounding the area. Just standing. Were these the villagers? The Platypus mage and Helga ran to help them.
Barnaby still resisted the hum though it's insistence was increasing. He spotted a familiar figure running through the woods... the pickpocket who had taken his money purse... About to give chase, several screams rent the woods, and some of the standing figures fell writhing to the ground. The hum doubled in intensity and the figures changed, turning into large werewolves before the band's eyes... just as Helga approached to help.
Barnaby struck the plinth with his axe, but only a glancing blow... fighting the influence of the plinths was taking it's toll. A chip of stone fell to the ground... then disintegrated into an oily puddle and dissolved into the ground. Fortunately for the team, the werewolves were slow to come out of the stupor of their change... The platypus mage cast multiple attempts to bind or charm the werewolf before Helga, and though his success was negligible, the repeated mental assult prevented the wolf from taking more than a single swipe at them and held it fast in place. The mage was injured, but quickly healed by Helga. Red and Barnaby took repeated blows against the standing stone, but it resisted going so far as causing Red to loose his sword grip and be forced to retrieve it.
Finally Barnaby struck true (let me know if it was Red) and the stone shattered to dust, battering Barnaby in chips of stone and then seeping into the soil. The Werewolves faltered... but still approached. Realizing the stones were the source of this evil, the band split searching through the nearby woods for plinths, and destroying them as quickly as possible. Tamelin the Otter, shot a steel headed arrow with the maximum force he could pull, a near perfect shot, exact center through the base of a smaller plinth cracking the base... from which it toppled an likewise dissolved away... the ground stained and black. Red and Helga approached a third stone, Red running ahead. He struck the stone a glancing blow.. and green lighting shot from the stone travelling up his sword... the hum enveloping his entire world... till he could hear nothing but the song of the stone, and fell writhing to the ground just as the townspeople had.
Helga saw and ran faster than ever... could she heal him... No... the stones must be destroyed. She hefted her club... realizing... it would have little impact on the compact stone... the Werewolf loping towards here would be on here in moments... instead she knelt and touched the stone, calling on her stone touch power and focusing it unlike she had ever done into a compact blast instead of a soft seeking touch. The stone vibrated madly... and shattered concussively knocking her back, bruised and scratched and battered, but alive. Almost at the same time, Barnaby on the other side of the forest shattered the final plinth taking minor injuries himself from it's violent explosion. The humming stopped.... the Werewolves crashed to the ground mid lope... and turned back into villagers who lay strewn unconscious where they fell.
The Band moved to check on them, and carried them back into the buildings for care. They managed to get the barricaded innkeeper and his wife to help and layed one of the unconscious women turned back from were on their bed inside their home to recover.
Red opened the book, wondering if perhaps they had the information to resolve their issue all along. In fact they did, and as he read his horror grew... there were not four, but five plinths... they had only destroyed four. Where was it... Where? A frantic search ensued... and suddenly. The pedestal... the very pedestal on which the book stood. That was it!! They ran to the broken house, and struck at the pedestal to no avail... but with the very first hit... the humming returned stronger than ever... and the bodies of the prostrate townsfolk... turned back to were... with frightening speed. The platypus mage went to work... casting a cross charm which interfered with the binding on the woman sleeping within the inn... her form did not change. A second hastily cast binding... and the werewolf that formed stopped and leaped at him...... crushing him to the ground with doggy affection instead of ripping him asunder.
Helga approached... and again used her stonetouch to make the pedestal stone resonate... the vibration increased to frantic speeds... and she released the stone... and ran... Barnaby behind her... but stumbling as the vibration taxed his soul... the stone exploded, and Barnaby's world with it as the entire house collapsed in a cacophonic thunder of brick, morter and shingle.
Barnaby found himself scratched and bruised and trapped but uninjured. A heave of his bulk a timbers gave way to his raw bearlike strength... digging himself slowly out. The villagers were again villagers and the binding was no more. Except for the woman charmed by the Platypus mage... somehow the binding did not wear off and she followed him about the town like a puppy dog.
The team gathered the villagers and headed back to Ne'erdale the next morning for their reward. 8 of the 22 villagers had been found. They tried to heal the blacksmith, but his madness had reached it's final conclusion and he died convulsively. They also searched the town and found several valuable books, another amulet (which zapped Helga again) a complex telescope (aimed at the path into town), and in the bottom of the barrel of dead and putrid squid... they found 5 small runecarved stones... which could not be destroyed... and damaged Barnaby's axe when he tried to do so. As if the Axe could literally not be in the same space as the stones and slid off of them leaving them untouched, and a square stone shaped gouge in the Axe head. They buried the stones instead.
Finally the encountered some Mushroom men... near the mine entrance... who through sign language indicated some disaster to their brethren within the mine itself... and warned them not to enter. They were able to convince one of the miners rescued amongst the villagers to guide them (for 7% of whatever valuables they find in the mine) and made plans to return. They then tracked the following day back to town with the villagers in tow. The End.
Or is it... Bwa... BWA HA Ha... Bwa ha ha ha haaaaa.... err... that is...