Yesterday I ran my sister through Winter’s Daughter

 Winter’s Daughter

Yesterday I ran my sister through Winter’s Daughter. A very folklore-fairy themed adventure. Which I like a lot. It’s been snowing for a few days now and real-life has become the perfect backdrop for this game. (Some of what I wrote here are excerpts straight from the module.)

We got to Winter’s Daughter herself, a fairy princess, and that’s where we’ll pick up next time. A little more than halfway through the adventure. 

Interesting thing is I didn’t reveal a lot of information about the story, so her character Sona the Hermit is really discovering all of it with her. Which turns what would be background information into plot twists. 

To recap:

She got a letter that a distant relative of hers passed, who was a direct descendant of one Brigford the Wise, brother of the fabled Sir Chyde. There was an accompanied lot of 20 gold but also a charter showing the location of Brigford and Sir Chyde’s tomb noting that the knight’s ring and sword are legally speaking, Sona’s property now.

Night time always falls early in the forest where winter has never left. Sona the Hermit was following the road, she first encountered a strange owl, dizzying to look at. Murmurs were coming from up ahead, and Sona followed reaching a forest clearing.

 Two hooded men were standing within a circle of runed stone. 

Chanting in a strange tongue with knives aloft, standing over a red-haired young woman. 

Sona grabbed the girl and pulled her towards the trees, but she knew who these men were, the mysterious Drunes, feared by the common folk. 

She struck one of them with her twin blades and almost took him out. But their pull-rock-from-earth-and-toss-it  + staff of burning green flame magic proved to be powerful. So she negotiated her way out. Successfully. 

What she took with her was a baby goblin tied by a rope to one of the rune-carved rocks. 

This cost her 20 gold pieces. Broke again. 

She left to the tomb mound itself, which was round and awkwardly near the drune’s stone circle and had a single granite slab laying against it. 

Sona looks at the slab, its covered in moss and sweet smelling roses, no inscriptions. 

She goes on top of the mound and scouts around. There’s a second pathway leading to the hillock’s base. 

Sona investigates it, the “road” is a trail of slime and it leads to a hole, which with a lit torch revealed to her goes down into a chamber. 

Sona placed the goblin, called Gobba, for whom we rolled up a level 0 sorcerer (she could choose his class, the hooded drunes did say he is special.) anyways, he’s sticking out of her badolier. 

And with 2 pitons she climbed down the hole. 

There was an old desk, Gobba searched its drawers and found a mouldy book. 

from the hole itself crawled out three tongue-like worms. The battle proved devastating and the baby Gobba came in clutch, capturing the worms inside the drawer over and over while Sona is unconscious. 

One of the floor tiles (flagstone) was loose, which Sona used to shut the hole with after leading the worms back into it. 

Under the tile was a locked metallic box. When finally unlocked, it shot the classic poisoned dart at sona, which was enough to drop her. She did come back thanks to Gobba’s stabilise spell. The box also had holy wafers, decadent at this point. They either healed or did 1 point of damage, depending on if you survived the saving throw. 

Gobba ate one and passed away. Yes. That actually happened. 

Meanwhile the door was opened from the other side, are those 4 skeletal legs? I CLOSE BACK THE DOOR

Its opened again. You see a skull this time too, it floats up in the air along with the rest of its skeleton. They’re two, they’re floating and in a waltz, asking you to join their dance. 

Gobba is dead, maybe I should join the dance... 

What’s in this room they’re dancing in?

It’s a chapel. Old. A tapestry showcases heaven. The altar has a statue of a knight holding a red candle. 

nothing that revives Gobba... I run down the hallway 

You reach a circular room, with the another statue, a fair maiden, marble, holding a finger against her lips as if saying “hush” and her eyes are blindfolded! She is positioned in the direction of a staircase. 

I go down the stairs 

Two candles float about at the end of the stairs, leading into a round pool chamber. The water only disrupted by another marble statue of a maiden. 

I follow the candles

As you step beyond the stairs and inside the water you feel no less than a wave of religious awe, the entire scene dissolves..

wha-what

and reforms into an outdoors scene, its cold, there is a white tower upon an island, sorrounded by a frozen lake. 

is this real? wait what do I see? A tower? I go there

Sona’s acrobatics easily got her across the ice 

Door is unlocked. A grey goblin greets her, sitting atop some large long-limbed and grumpy giant. 

Am I invited? To what? A wedding? Uhm.. yes I am. Okay maybe I’m not.. he offers a mushroom in return for me to be let in, sure. I eat it.

You’re expiriencing a severe case of the giggles. 

Sona proceeds to walk into the kitchen, sneak food into her backpack and run up the stairs 

There’s a large dinner table, many blue elves, some in armor, some in silks, eating ice-wine. 

there has to be a priest for this wedding. He will heal Gobba 

Sona went through all of them, found one memorising a book of prayers and accidentally revealed to him she is a relative of Sir Chyde, which she now found out is the groom and is the reason everyone is waiting. A lot of stares. 

So, she is a fairy princess, he is a mortal knight, their love is forbidden. I steal 12 kilos of fruit from the table and run up the stairs 

Its a sleeping chamber, the bed is veiled by snow and covered in white wolves fur.  The  table has small jewellery boxes-

 damn that’s fairy jewellery! 

A woman in a white gown greets you, her skin white as winter, hair the color of the winter sun. She seems excited. 

conversation happens. The princess hides Sona under her bed when the guards show up, and the bottom line is Sona wants to revive baby Gobba and the princess wants Sir Chyde’s ring. 

To Be Continued.