The Fangwitch’s Falls - Session Three Play Report

Background

This is the third part of my play report for EmemyCo’s The Fangwitch’s Falls, read Session One, and Session Two. The module can be purchased here, or alongside Em’s currently kickstarting module Try The Beetle Milk.

I’m using Brighter Worlds, which is my own hack of Cairn, Electric Bastionland, and Macchiato Monsters. You can pick it up here for free, or look at the SRD here, but if you imagine “Whimsical Cairn with Class Abilities” you’re most of the way there.

The Cast

Granny Hexwhistle

Witch on a flying broom with a small, frog that sweats hallucinogen. All-around bad person.

Mercutio Smock

Gentleman and Runewright extraordinaire, crafting interesting logic-based magics.

Tibbius Sacrum

A skeletal Bag of Bones slowly turning into a literal cartoon skeleton with all of his hijinks.

Pele

The Cleric of Small Gods couldn’t make it to this session on account of using his large amounts of PTO to have a fulfilling life going camping with his wife.

Previously On

The party arrives at Mahruko, chases down some rumors, talks to a rhyming skull, has tea with some long fish ladies, harasses some fishermen, rescues a gravekeeper, and fails to exploit a mushman himbo.

Session Three

The party wakes to a loud rumbling and grinding as the ground beneath them shakes in what seems like some sort of earthquake. Mercutio takes off running deeper into the Deep Woods in a panic (he will later claim he was trying to figure out where the epicenter of the quake was).

Mercutio barely manages to avoid hitting a spider silk trip wire, and after stopping just in time is greeted by a strange, raspy voice thanking him for not disturbing the traps. He turns to find an overly lanky, extremely thin figure draped in shapeless clothes with oversized hands like sledgehammers.

This figure introduces himself as Riko, a fae currently participating in the hunt for the Candlestag. Mercutio holds his shit together long enough to politely finish the conversation before running back to the rest of the party.

Reunited, they decide to head deeper into the Woods to see if the fae have any information about the Fangwitch. Granny Hexwhistle reveals that she has some knowledge of the fae, for which she traded a pinky finger in the past, and that if the fae are here they’re seeking something unique and interesting. Also that although they shouldn’t take their explanations about their own business seriously (or at least literally) they will always follow through on deals.

GM’s Note: Granny’s player asked me if she knew anything about fae, since it seemed like the sort of thing a witch would know about. Brighter Worlds doesn’t have any explicit knowledge or skill mechanics, so I just asked what Granny had to trade to gain this knowledge.

The party finds a different fae: this one is smaller, and floats in space surrounded by a billowing starlight cloak while wearing a half-moon mask with twisting horns. This fae introduces itself as Felu and agrees to an exchange of information for services, largely because Granny managed to remain polite the whole time.

While Mercutio enchants a chain with runework to eternally bind the Candlestag, Felu describes the original purpose of the Fangwitch to the party. It was one of many such organisms used by the “original creators” to reshape this world from an inhospitable waste into a place people could live. This one went rogue and refused the shut down command, leading to it being bound and sealed. A seal which is now breaking.

GM’s Note: Getting straightforward and unambiguous information about the mysterious “big bad” of the module needed to have a cost, especially if you’re getting it out of some fae whose whole deal is exchanges. Mechanically each of Mercutio’s runes cost him a point of Max Grit (Brighter Worlds’ HP) to activate, so if he holds his end of the deal he’s down a point of Grit forever.

Felu further expands that if they had access to tools of the original creators, they may be able to rebind the Fangwitch. The party immediately thinks of the ancient Mask they’ve been told is at the bottom of the Lake. Granny Hexwhistle and Tibbius decide that, given access to these tools, they’d be more likely to try and take over the world than save it. Felu finds this entertaining.

All parties satisfied with the exchange (although Mercutio ruminates that he’s likely to deactivate his runes at some point in the future to gain his Grit back) they go their separate ways. Upon reaching the lake they discover two things. First, the earthquake from earlier was the Lake splitting open on one side and creating a channel to the sea. Second, they’re blocked by a large group of Witchspawns: strange spiny creatures with some connection to the Fangwitch.

GM’s Note: The Fangwitch’s Falls has an interesting mechanism where each location has a potential catastrophe that can occur. One of these happens every d6 days, until 3 occur at which point the entire location falls apart. This was the first one to happen in this playthrough.

Granny Hexwhistle immediately provokes them with imperious commands to obey her. They respond with strange clicking and then a stab attempt as Granny realizes, in horror, that since they don’t have eyes her signature spell Staring Contest has no effect.

Granny, managing to shrug off the initial wound, flies up out of reach on her broom while Mercutio activates his runic armor and rushes in and Tibbius begins swinging his bone club around.

After downing two of the spawn, Tibbius turns on SPOOK MODE causing remaining Witchspawn break and flee at the terrifying sight. One doesn’t quite get away as Tibbius captures it by spinning it upside down and stabbing its spiny head into the ground.

GM’s Note: I gave each of the (at that point) four remaining Witchspawn a morale save to keep fighting. Each had a 50% chance of failure, and all four failed. Better lucky than good, as they say!

Granny attempts to interrogate the captured spawn, but being unable to communicate with it resorts to dissection. She finds the spines are made of a ceratin-like material, while inside they have a complex crystalline structure. Tucking a few of the spines into her bag the party turns to the problem of retrieving the Mask from the bottom of the lake.

The plan they devise is as follows:

• Mercutio will inscribe runework onto Tibbius’ hand that, when placed in contact with the lake bed will move all the water away from him. Putting him at the center of a buoyant bubble and rocketing him towards the surface.
• Granny Hexwhistle will watch the area using the Bone Sense ritual to keep an eye out for trouble.
• Tibbius, being a skeleton and therefore free from the need to breathe, will be the one going into the Lake to retrieve the Mask.

Granny activates Bone Sense and finds a giant, “Loch Ness Monster” type creature (presumably Old Tago) is in the Like, but currently investigating the new sea channel. Taking this opportunity to be as good as it’s going to get, Tibbius heads into the water. He quickly swims down to the supposed location of the Mask by way of rotating his bony feet rapidly around his ankles like small propellers.

Tibbius finds the mask at the exact center of the lake. He notices that all the nearby fish have fled as Granny simultaneously senses Old Tago beginning to swim in the skelly-man’s direction. Tibbius grabs the mask and begins propeller feet-ing back towards shore as fast as possible.

He barely is not going to make it, and at the last second before Old Tago catches up activates his escape runes. The bubble bobs him to the surface like a cork, where Granny (having been watching through Bone Sense) is waiting to grab him out of the air by skewering her broom through his rib cage. Old Tago peers at them with interest, but doesn’t pursue as they make their way back to shore.

GM’s Note: Only two die rolls happened during this whole process. One was me rolling a die to see if Old Tago would notice and investigate the intrusion. The second was Tibbius rolling against Old Tago to see who was faster. The rest was a result of good planning (uncommon for this group) plus excellent application of skills, abilities, and magic. It’s nice when a good plan comes together.

Reunited, they begin to examine the Mask. Mercutio notes that the interior of the mask has incredibly dense and complex runework, and throwing caution to the wind puts it on. He immediately collapses to the ground as he enters a strange, virtual space where he can see the surrounding terrain along with the sites of future calamities highlighted. By scanning around he’s able to identify that there are some caverns hidden behind the Falls and sees what is likely the Fangwitch within, although everything is labeled in an unreadable language so it’s difficult to say.

Tibbius and Granny smack him around enough that he’s able to take off the Mask, and has just enough time to explain what he saw before Tibbius tries putting it on. Tibbius doesn’t collapse, and sees a similar view but for him it’s all bones. He notes that he’s able to “interact” somewhat with the Fangwitch though this view by focusing on it, but an (unreadable) error message pops up in his view when he tries to do so.

Although unable to fully decipher the interface, the party manages to at least understand that they’ve located the Fangwitch. On top of that there’s some ticking clock counting down towards total catastrophe unless they do something.

GM’s Note: In the module the Fangwitch’s purpose and motivation is randomized, along with the effects of the Mask. I definitely expanded/twisted it beyond what’s written in the book. “Environmental fail-safe” that wants to “devour all the earth has to offer” turned into an ancient terraforming engine. The Mask (whose location is also randomized) being able to “induce an eon-long magical slumber” turned into a control interface for said engine.

Did I follow what was strictly listed in the book? Absolutely not, but the results sparked a fun idea that I ended up running with.

Final Thoughts

This was a super fun session. I think Mercutio’s player really likes fiddling with mechanics to do clever things, so getting to create the “bubble escape button” runework was satisfying and fun. Conversing with the fae was a good time, always enjoyable to play a being who’s perspective and actions are just alien enough from the norm to be unsettling.

Looking forward to the finale of this adventure as the, hopefully complete, party goes to confront the Fangwitch.

Read on to Session Four + Reviews.

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