Adventurer 5: GM Notes:






Basic plot
Basic bug hunt to introduce the new players. Complicate with strong enemy, cooper-tition in tracking down the Witch


Intro for new player Chris
- meets with Patrico, priest of the 3rd tier, liason with the WitchHammers.  Has klein bottle of Sai-ias, elite guards. mid 40's, healthy, active, golden robes.
- asks him to keep an eye on the group, they seem squirrely
- give him 2 magic items, blessing of Sai-ias.  Also a third item, a baton of strange metal, with a seam along the middle.  if things seem truly, disasterously bad, if they have been corrupted by witch-magic, then undo the latches on it and twist the baton.  otherwise return the item after a year and a day



prelude
Late February. Paper work and interviews took a month, then 2 months  on the road after that. Snow in many places and cold, though sunny and crisp during the day. the party is heading North.
- village of people,  the men are wearing ugly masks of cloth, with bits of hay and twigs sticking out from them at odd angles
- hear the story of the Winter Widow.  One winter many years ago, a fancy merchant from the capital  moved out to enjoy the fresh air of the frontier.  A what do you call, a vacation.  She fell in love with a farmer, but he led her astray, and broken hearted she fled into the forest.  ever since then, on cold winter nights just like this, she comes out of the forest, finds the most rugged and handom man she can, and then drains their heart and their life from them. 
- think you hear a bell, far off, in the middle of the night
- they beat a tree to death to celebrate mid winter


Inciting incident
- next town on patrol is Cinna, north of the their usual grounds, population 150 or so. farming, mining 
- meet the population of the town on the road, fleeing, herded by garrison. leader of garrison is Esther
- homestead: maybe 12 people total, all dead. frozen people. some seem flash frozen and drained of all life, like they are thinner or hollow.  a few from gaping wouds in their flesh, the blood frozen solid on the ground.
- some missing parts; an eye, a finger, hair, a gem, a patch of skin
- sleigh tracks leading east, back to the Forest. the sleigh tracks seem to be a darker, colder than the surrounding snow




Encounters:
- issue of speed, will they reach her before the forest?  4 time slices before she reaches the forest.
- tand trap
- ice block with a single ring inside 
???
- raging blizzard 

- cider, forest border
- final fight


 
 Magic Items:
 - jewelry from many years of depradations, 600 GP
 - charming ring. an item that was invented and banned ~40 years ago. exerts psychic pressure against its target, making them more open & agreeable & effusive.  a subtle effect, but can be noticed if the target is particularly aware. has some spill over to surrounding area and anyone in it.
 - several dozen books of mad writing? poetry? just a continual, shifting, bizarre chaining of imagery and metaphor. the ink is oddly cold
  - much abused deed to property, further West in one of the larger cities
      
      
- Postlude   
 - approached by buyer for witchheart?  would like to buy it for one of the merchant houses to study


 
What actually happened

      




Part 2:
- follow the mask into the forest
- turn left, turn, turn, turn, find the ice stair star case
- con save!
- fight with zombie on lumberjacks on the foyer. supported by more of them crawling up over the sides
  - floor and ceiling are maybe 5 feet thick. if they go up there, assailed by wind, by howling void, by lesser ice-witches
- see the stars



- see the ice veins running through the floor
- door to the left: art of moon, sad girl, skeleton, cold empty house, dead tree, snow, bare mountain, and every combination of those things. each chamber has ~5 of these, 89 chambers in all
- door to the right - eye collection, frozen in blocks of ice, along with various Tands
- door to the center - ice maze, frozen corpses in the floor, traps of ice barbs, traps of blocks that fall through, that fall down. can see the veins pulsing here
- fight four lesser versions of the Winter widow
- find the Winter Widow, on bier of ice. terribly thin and emaciated, skin is basically translucent. few blood red berries next to her withered hand. ice blocks in the shape of couches and chairs and such around
- after her death, ice palace dissolves



- ice servitors - little conch shells, scooch around the place
dog tooth -