And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow - Sessions 25 and 26 - The Missing
So this session was a remix of "The Missing", the first scenario from the Red Cow Saga by Ian Cooper, with my scenario of the Old Cave, both adapted to the Hearts Aglow setting and taking place into Escanor, which is vaguely like Scandinavia.
It took two sessions to do it and the players were entirely unable to solve the issue of the love between the spirit and the young lady, though they did manage to solve the murder before day 2. This is what I had for these two sessions:
Dramatis Personae
Laimenis (17), daughter of Quildalacon and lover of Nethaner.
Nethaner, son of Vayaner and nephew of Urgnal.
Vayaner, the Ocean Spirit, father of Nethaner, brother of Urgnal, and lover of Laimenis.
Quildalacon (37), father of Laimenis and older brother to Loxion and Mastano. Owns the biggest fishing boat, built with Loxion, as well as a magical frog mask which lets him breathe underwater.
Wife died 2 years ago in a boating accident.
Children:
Narwien (18)
Aistamë (16)
Loxion (33), middle brother of Quildalacon and Mastano, wronged Mastano long ago. Turns into a spirit of vengeance after being killed by Mastano. Wife died with Quildalacon’s.
- Laimenis is his only child
Mastano (28), youngest brother of Quildalacon and Loxion, hates the latter and envies the former. Killer of Loxion and stand to gain the most.
Pelerwen (29), wife
Children:
Sardanis (9)
Lumemë (3)
Sicilon (0)
Sicilno (0)
The Day Prior 2 — Laimenis convinces Nethaner, the Ocean spirit’s son, to come live on land with her.
The Day Prior 1 — The disease starts to spread, no one knows why.
Day 1 — The party arrives on the scene. Over the day, Urgnal, brother to Vayaner, says the land stole his nephew, and that he demands compensation for his poor brother or the disease will continue. With no one else being in conditions to travel, the party is urged to look for Laimenis (perhaps a mini adventure in itself) and try to convince her to give her love away — she won’t, obviously. No one is aware of this yet, but Vayaner is also in love with Laimenis.
The locations they can look into are (it’ll take the rest of the day to go there and come back):
The cove on the side of the fjord. It is empty.
The old burial mound. If they come here they will see an old man sitting on top of it. He will say “innocent hands will be soiled with innocent blood in the coming days” if nothing is stopped.
The waterfall upriver. This is where they are.
That night, Mastano kills Loxion under cover of night (because he wanted the inheritance item that Loxion got*), then takes his head somewhere else, and blames it on Quildalacon. Vayaner brings all of the children to the sea, to live with him and play around, and they see a man with a frog mask going out with Loxion on the boat and assume it is Quildalacon, but he hits his foot on something and complains loudly, thus all the kids know this.
One of the daughters of Mastano also knows this, as she was awake when he came back home in the middle of the night and discussed what happened with his wife — who is his accomplice.
Day 2 — Laimenis kills Narwien (18) through shooting her in the back, or something like that. Blame falls on the neighbours, but the shot very clearly could not have come from that direction.
Loxion’s spirit sucks some more of the blood of Vayaner.
Day 3 — Laimenis kills Aistamë (16) by strangling her in her own bed with a rope. Aistamë scratches Laimenis, who wakes up the next day with bloody arms and rope burns on her hands, thinking she did the thing to her arms herself and believing she’s sleepwalking. Quildalacon becomes so distressed that he likely transforms and just stares at the water.
Loxion’s spirit sucks more of the blood of Vayaner.
Day 4 — Quildalacon is killed by Laimenis. The spirit of hate believes itself satiated and goes away. Mastano wins.
*Their father, a magician, had a lot of magical stuff lying around, and so each of the brothers has something:
Quildacalon has the magical toad mask which lets you breath underwater
Loxion has the girdle of hyppolita, which gives one the strength of a giant
Mastano has a magical scorpion ring which protects him from all disease and poison
Ultimately, though, Mastano has always had a vested interest, he just saw an opportunity with the disease and seized it because he wanted the boat.
