Aino "The Mad" Wyldclaw

 

Wolfkin Hunter

Oracle Cave

“Did you hear about young Roric? The boy was taken from his farm outside Outskirt. The tracks lead to the Iron Forest. People say he was brought to the Oracle Cave. The Oracle is ancient and knows all there is to know about the Misty Vale, and she’s said to be sitting on immense wealth. But now and then she demands a human sacrifice. I reckon we’ll never see Roric again.”

A dark hole, wide enough for several people to walk next to each other, gaping straight down into the earth. The cold of the underground flows from the opening.

Thistle (dead)

 

Halfling Hunter

He died on his first adventure, eaten by a swarm of spiders.

Session 12

PCs: Garreth, Markus, Thekla, Thistle -> Aino

meet Thistle

travel to Oracle Cave

spiderlings, Thistle dies

Aino arrives

The Demon Ix

He promised Kato the Curious immortality. Never trust a demon.

Kato the Curious (dead)

In the winter of his life, the dragon emperor’s loyal sorcerer Kato the Curious, charged in vain with securing immortality for his master, decided to try to cheat death himself. To this end he made a deal with the demon Ix, a servant of Sathmog, in exchange for treason on Kato’s part.

Kato, who was close to Eledain’s court, sowed lies and discord that contributed to the empire’s downfall. His contract with Ix was as complex as it was convoluted, written on a long scroll of tanned skin in a demonic language whose grammar and vocabulary relied on ambiguous phrasing to allow for ironic consequences in contracts with mortals.

Instead of making Kato immortal, Ix fulfilled his part of the bargain by trapping his tower and the village of Blackridge in a sphere of disjointed time where the last hour of the sorcerer’s life constantly repeats itself. Coincidentally, this is also the final hour for all the villagers of Blackridge, as Kato’s betrayal had just come to the emperor’s attention and a flight of dragons had been sent to obliterate the wizard’s tower and the village as punishment and as a warning to others.

The dragons approaching in v-formation can be seen from Blackridge throughout the time loop, getting closer and closer, until the dragon riders order the village’s destruction and jets of flame erupt from the dragons’ mouths. The cycle begins anew at the moment of Kato’s death. Anyone who dies a violent death in the time loop wakes up exactly where they were when it began.

The Village of the Day Before

“Seven centuries ago, this valley was home to Kato the Curious, a sorcerer who served Emperor Eledain but betrayed his liege. Kato’s tower and the nearby village of Blackridge, in the far northeast, perished in dragon fire when his treachery was discovered. Now he’s said to haunt the ruins of his tower, which supposedly holds all kinds of treasures. But no one who tried to loot the ruins has ever returned.”

In a valley between two hills, the road is blocked by a barricade that seems to be a mixture of orc palisades, dwarven structures, elven ironwork, thorny hedges of the kind grown by halflings, and other things of indeterminate origin. Texts in unknown languages have been painted on the various parts of the barricade.