Session 57: Ghostly Monster

General Summary

The party meets at The Eschbach Shields as normal for breakfast. There they talk about what to do for the day. Reolus, sniffing round peoples food, tells them to check with the council as there may be a job for them to do.

Going to the council, they are informed that livestock and a couple of elderly farmers. A large white creature was seen at the treeline of the forest to the south. The Burgeaters do patrol there but not allowed by law to cross over into the forest.

They break out their horses and cart, and travel down to the area, and start talking to the locals. There they find out a bit more.

The creature is sighted at full moons and is the second month it has happened. The two elderly farmers were killed the night before. The creature is bipedal and only some of the adults seen it. They wonder if it's linked to Rudger, a hunter who lived in the forest. The latter would have hunted down dangerous or troublesome. He had been bitten by something o n his arm. He looked ill for a number of of weeks. Some things he is dead.

The party decides to head to Rudger's hunting lodge that's a couple of hundred yards in the forest. They notice that it's colder here and a fine fog is present.

There they find the place empty and when Magnar breaks the door open, the place is dirty and empty. They decide the place needs to be spied upon with dolls, and Keller decides to mark a tree to allow teleporting through plants.

Archi finds a hidden door on the floor, and Arne goes down finding animal skins, a makeshift bed and a rough notebook. Bringing it up it's the general time tine of Rutger, and a map pointing to a grove in the south.

They follow the map, and arrive at the grove. A statue, years old, stands having plant growth removed. It appears as a man, pointing forward, holding a spear, and predatory animals moving behind. Below is the name Wöden and Keller surmises that this represents the local version of Odin, and him leading the Wild Hunt.

They set up here after seeing plenty of different tracks around it, primarily wolves & a bipedal creature. Arne is the first to notice.

Magnar & Arne are patrolling the area, sees a large white creature tearing around in the undergrowth getting closer. Archi sees two smaller creatures heading towards him, and he runs to Magnar & Arne. Keller flies over turning into a bear to land on the bipedal creature.

A fight ensues, with the wolves that appear being killed first and easily. The wolfman that appears is harder taking some damage from Keller. Archi tries to jump on it, and flies over the top of it, into a tree.

It starts beating up Keller who avoids getting infected from Lycanthropy. The rest steps in, and Keller bites the wolfman, and Archi is for doing the same but persuaded to do something different. He fireballs it and gets some of the others in the process. This goes back & forth with Arne trying to finish it off in one go but it jumps up out of the way and flips the bird to the party's bird.

Eventually severely weakened, Arne steps forward and uses Greater Restoration, where the wolfman changes back to Rudger with the curse lifted.

This kills Rudger due to the injuries he took, and Keller uses Revivify on Rudger.

Taking him back to the lodge they go to leave noticing the fog has eased and the temperature has slightly risen.

Magnar goes to the farmsteads and tells them everything is now fine, and a patrolling unit of Burgeaters has been given a money pouch to give the party if they make it. Magnar takes back 600 gold for the party.

Arne is quiet and looking back to going to Eschbach & his bed. Archi teleports to Denmark / Norway to have a holiday, and Keller leaves a disorientated Rudger there. When leaving they hear, off in the distance to the south, wolves howling. Keller notices Rudger look in that direction, smiling wistfully...

Rewards Granted

600 gold