Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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"You want US to swear not to kill you?" Barn's outrage still simmers. "You're the one who tried to kill us. Over and over. And just now, I think you were getting ready to cast some magic. So how about you swear not to harm us first? Or send more tricks and traps and monsters our way?"
The big man nods slowly. "Did you call Clotha your bride just now? Did she say she wanted to be? Without you muddling her mind? If not, she is no bride of yours, no matter what enchantments you use to change her. She gets to choose of her own free will."
Barn recalls the men in his company of Duke Darian's irregulars. How they had laughed as they took over the farmstead, pantry, larder and livestock. Taken the farmer's wife and daughters, sobbing and... the big man's jaw sets hard. No! Never again while I stand. Even if I have to die here.
"Those are our terms. And like I said, YOU swear first. And tell us WHY you've done all this. Since I've already told you WHY we are here. For Clotha. If we think you don't threaten us, ANY of us, we won't hurt you either."
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
Smiling Jack watches Barn and listens intently.
There is a drawn out silence, " Try to kill? Ned did not try to kill......dissuade......delay.....deceive.....yes. But not kill......."
" The tree? But that would only harm if you tried to harm Ned first......yes?"
" Calling webs I was....to hold.....to disable....not to harm...."
There was another long pause.
" Swears.......tis ticksy......my tongue will condemn me.....No harm will come to you in my home provided you all present at this time visit none upon me. Yes."
There was a very faint, static feel in the air for a brief moment.
Neds long limbs and pinched face appeared in the entrance of the bolt hole close to Reg..
" Called her my bride for my bride she is, we are handfasted and bound in the old ways of our peoples."
" She mostly cried and wailed, but such is the way of most mortal joinings I have witnessed."
" I have muddled no minds for many days....and that was merely a passing befuddlement."
" I guided her safely and whole through the many dangers of the Old Wood.....protected and kept safe from all dangers."
" Of her own free will? You jest? That is not the way of your people.....she will be sold in exchange for goods or standing, taken by force or honeyed words. Given as a gift or in payment of debts.....that is the way of mortals. No?"
" I provide home, safety, health.....she is afraid but so are many newly wed. She will come to appreciate Ned.......safe....here away from those who would harm her.....her sire can give no such promise."
Ned crawled a little further out....golden eyes glittering as he regarded the group curiously. He was dressed....somewhat incongruously in a velvet waistcoat....that none in Ereworn Village would have been able to afford so likely stolen from a noble traveller....it was somewhat moth-eaten and dirty where it had scraped along the tunnels......his long gray limbs were contained within a yellowed blouse of older design and his lower parts in what seemed a partial plaid like the Reaver Clans of the mountains wore. He was not wearing his boots any more and long prehensile clawed toes gripped the dirt floor as he watched them.
" Why? She asked me to take her. She whispered it into the night and her sleeping mind sent her wish to my ears.......I could not deny her."
Clotha was cut free and awkwardly levered herself up from the floor, looking out from around the curtain......
Smiling Jack is not smiling and rolls back a bit onto his heels. Jack looks to the others for guidance. Jack hears the curtain move and looks at Clotha.
Jack looks back at Ned, then Reg and Ardwynn...whispering, "What to do...this never came up in training...but...the wolves that all but finished me...that was premediated killing..."
Barn keeps his halberd low but his wide childlike hazel eyes still stare daggers at Ned as he emerges. The sight of the fey creature that would have been wondrous to him just two days ago now leaves him in a cold rage.
"We won't hurt you if you don't hurt us or try to keep Clotha 'gainst her will. At least I won't. But as my friend just said, those strange wolf creatures almost ripped the two Jacks here to bloody shreds by the riverbank, and we would have been next. Or did you not send them?"
Barn glances at Clotha for the first time as she emerges, and after startling a bit at her appearance, back to Ned. His rage rises once more.
"NO. You are wrong about mortals. True, some take a woman away by force while she 'cries and wails.' I've been witness and done nothing, ashamed to say. But they're the worst of us. Duke Darian's men. Stood by and watched it happen one too many times. Not going to happen again if I can help it. So you saying you're only doing what the worst mortals do isn't good enough, Ned, and you know it. I think we should ask Clotha what she wants."
Barn is aware that he's been talking for a while now and is not used to it. Speaking for others isn't what he had intended. But he plows ahead.
"If she wants to come home with us, you let her go, help her change back to how she was, and leave the poor people in the town alone from now on. Far as I'm concerned, that should be the end of it. But maybe you think that's not fair. That we're stealing from you. Funny how that works. So if there's something else we can do for you in return, I'm game. Don't think we can find you a bride, but maybe something else in this strange mess of a wood."
The big man glances at Clotha to see whether she has anything to say about what she wants. Otherwise, he keeps his attention fixed on Ned.
Barn(Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5): Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1): Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian(Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia(Sorcerer2): BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1): Culuril's Strixhaven
Smiling Jack speaks louder then his early quiet whisper, "Clotha has a family that loves her and asked us to find her. If you are sincere that she is here on her own choice, then allowing her to say a proper goodbye to her loving family should make no difference in her choice. Allowing her to leave when she desires you, means she will come back...otherwise is the desire true?"
Reg knew enough to tread carefully with regards to the good-folk. Caelan knew enough too, although he was top side. They (the good-folk) had laws to govern their actions, laws they applied to all without regard to whether one agreed or not. He supposed it was the same of all societies. After all, did the ant or the bee care what the farmer called a transgression of space and property.
He made no commitments to this one, as it was his acts that had ended the bard’s life.
The man kept his back to the wall, where he currently stood. Perhaps he shied away a bit as Ned emerged. Either way, he looked not upon the hob, nor at Clotha, honoring her request.
Ned was right on a few points, the worst of society cared little for what could be considered civilized, particularly these hard days in the Erworn. The problem the trapper had was he didn’t know the laws Ned was using well enough. One can’t negotiate with the bee or the ant, but they might find a way to coax them. He reached back into his studies to leverage what he knew.
”You can’t pick and choose our varied ways of living as you see fit to justify the application of your laws, Ned Hob.” His voice was measured and sure, but not accusatory.
“According to the ‘old-way’, there is still free will. ‘Hand-fasting’…why, who tied yours and hers together? Who performed the ceremony? Was it here, in the Red Cap hole? The ‘old-ways’ call upon an open sky, or a living hall such as the trees. One can’t discern the four elemental direction from down here.”
“And the vows are to be given freely on the day of the ceremony. Even if, once upon a time, her heart desire came upon your ears as she dreamt, it is the proffering of commitment on this day that matters.”
“Then there is the matter of witnesses, even if no one officiated your day, even the ‘old-ways’ call upon a representative from each party to bear acknowledgement. It would appear Clotha had none, even if you did.”
“And there is the matter of jumping the broom now that I think of it. Very bad luck to have entered into your ‘home’ without that ‘old-way’ tradition after the ceremony. And if you performed the ceremony here, then how can you perform the jump now? Bad luck to follow all the days of your marriage.”
“On the other hand, oh yes, before I go there, speaking of hands.” A separate point enters the sage’s mind. “While rings are exchanged according to the ‘old-way’ in the tradition of the ‘standing stone’ they are to be adorned. The brass one on her finger is of simple design. Indicating you are perhaps inclined to the ‘new-ways’ or mortal laws of matrimony.”
“Which brings me back to the other hand. If you are using the ‘new-ways’ to secure a bride, then those things such as the hand-fasting and the lack of an officiant fail to achieve a true wedding ceremony.”
The Recluse takes a breath before wrapping up his dissection of the faults in this fare. “Therefore, you could neither have married her by the mortal laws, nor by the ‘old-way’ as tradition calls for.”
“Clotha” Reg address the girl, still not making eye contact, “Answer this question true to your heart. Do you wish to take Ned Hob as a husband, in either of the ways of mortals or of those according to the good-folk? Fear not, for he has sworn to do no harm to those presently here who do not harm him.”
Ned cocks his head, sharp teeth clicking together, " Ah.......fair.....but more defending ones home than attacking......no?"
Ned listens attentively as if weighing each word for meaning and intent, but there is a certain exasperation.....a slight tremor of not annoyance.....pique? Regardless.......Barn got the impression this was the longest conversation Ned had ever had and he wasn't enjoying it at all......
Ned narrowed his eyes at Smiling Jack trying to understand the meanings and phrases of thoughts and feelings he had never experienced.....
The matter of fact delivery of the words was what effected Ned the most....he was not impressed by the timbre or beseeching but it was an undeniable fact that Neds knowledge of mortal marital customs was haphazard at best and gathered in snatches from a thousand years of stealing glances at ancient Reaver betrothals, Selentine invaders nuptials, Mercanian ocean raiders a-viking and a dozen other sources.
" Not wife?", Neds eyes roamed the room, lingering more than once on the bolt holes, " Swore.......Ned swore.....must needs....."
Ned spoke but the voice that exited his mouth was Clothas, whispered and deeply sad, " Please, in the name of the Aos Si and all Good Folk keep me safe from them...take me far away and under the hills like in the old tales..."
Clotha gasped loudly, " Thats me! I did......I remember I did....say that......four nights back...."
" Father was closing up and I was tidying in the pantry.....he was speaking with Eldron.....you know his wife died of the flux last winter......Eldron offered him bride-price for me, now that I am of age.....I was taken back awfully. He is nearly of age with Father."
" I said those words....its true, when I lay a bed. And I remember I dreamed of a prince like in the old tales...."
" I am not comely, and there are precious few prospects in Ereworn Village.....but in truth though I was terribly afeared when taken...I do not know my own mind if my choices are but Goodfellow Ned and Headman Eldron.", her eyes rested wistfully on Ardwynn for a moment then down to the floor.
Jack shivers, he is well aware of how...uncomfortable it could be to have a relationship forced on you, especially one you neither desire and with someone so much your senior.
He would still let her choose.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale