Trying to confirm their Two Guards Riddle solution at the Brock House monument, the party learns about Winnie Brock's riddle curse. They fight the undead Bullington Brock and Stella Brock, beating them, but Barnaby betrays the party. Barnaby sabotages Winnie, but learns that Brand Hill was Bullington's son and Brock heirs might still live in Hollin. Searching Voorman's Prosthetics, Kiltak finds a glass eye addressed to Grunvaldr.
The party found some Brock House lore with dates in the last game, and the players asked what the current year was, but I didn't have it handy. However, the current year in the game is 3925. So the first bit of Brock lore, Holbein Brock's birth in 2882, was 1043 years ago. Marin's Brock's ascension as the first Brock king was 2963, 962 years ago.
I asked to tweak something I told the players in a previous game. I said in Game 12 that their attackers in the Stream Reasoning Guild hall wore clothes that "were reminiscent of Merrick of the Penance Chapel." But now I said more specifically that the attackers' clothes had a symbol that they'd also seen on Merrick's holy symbol.
Fayne wasn't at the game, but I also wanted to tweak something that Ishild had told Elgis. In Game 14 Elgis asked Ishild to give them ten million gold pieces for the remaining fifteen million gold pieces worth of Greencake, and Ishild agreed. However, I now suggested instead that Ishild would tell the party where they could find ten million gold pieces instead of giving them the gold directly.
Christian asked if Haden could have bought 300 gold pieces of powdered silver (I think it was) before going into the Brock House monument, and I said yes. Christian seemed a little cagey about what it was for, and I think he said it was a material spell component but didn't say for what spell.
The last game finished with the party Speaking With Dead with Marin Brock's corpse, in the Brock House monument first basement. Now they went down to the second basement.
As they went down, the stairwell was crowded with beige piles like the ones they'd seen before, and they had to maneuver a little to get past them. When they got to the second basement level, the stair went down again to a third basement, but they went into the second basement for now.
Brock House monument, second basement
They entered the basement at the bottom of the map, and saw a rotunda.
As the party exits the stairs onto this level, they find themselves in a crypt crowded with different burials and memorials.
A tall rotunda here goes from the floor to the ceiling, with banners and tapestries hung all around the outside. Inside of the rotunda they find:
Outside of the rotunda, this half of the level is crowded with caskets.
They (I think Dan) asked if there were any more beige piles outside the stair, and I said yes, a few, but they seemed to be concentrated in the stair. The searched around the rotunda and read the plaques, and learned:
By examining the banners, the names on the plaques, etc., the party learns...
succession wars
After Marin Brock died in 2994, his descendants fought 414 years of succession wars between themselves, with Brock Houses's junior branches repeatedly claiming the throne. Hollin's other noble houses were pulled into Brock House's wars, supplying the armies and navies, and did most of the fighting and dying.
...the burials here are Marin's descendants who fought these succession wars, and a few of their most important allies.
They investigated more. Barnaby did an Investigation check to try to learn a timeline from the burials or plaques. I said he couldn't piece together a timeline, but he could tell that because of the constant succession wars, the burials were chaotic. For example, a king might be buried right next to the king he'd rebelled against and overthrown - although they were enemies, each claimed a place here as an heir of Marin Brock.
Still in the rotunda, Haden also rolled Investigation, with Barnaby's help. They discovered:
Lens Brock, Bullington Brock
During the reign of King Lens Brock in the early 3400's, a singular warrior arose in a minor branch of Brock House, Bullington Brock. The Coven - an order of witches inside the Church of Gradska - saw that Bullington could be the last nail in their thousand-year struggle to take control of the wider church. Bullington had no prospects inside Brock House, and the Coven easily recruited him as their champion.
Bullington was indeed a prodigy, and the Coven mentored him and aided him with their dark magic. In 3408, the Coven sent Bullington against the church and he routed the church's defenders. The church's last stand was at the Cathedral of Gradska in Lofton, and King Lens himself stood as the church's champion. Bullington killed Lens and took Lens's crown, and the Cathedral became the seat of the Coven.
Bullington forcibly married Lens's daughter Stella in a Coven wedding, reuniting Brock House under himself.
They went into the northern half of the basement, and found a rosette of ledger stones - plates covering burials in the floor. There:
As the party explores around the rosette, many Brock ghosts start to appear and crowd around them. From the effigies and portraits they've seen, the party can recognize three of them:
The players seemed to maybe be getting ready for a fight, but the ghosts seemed benign. Kiltak was wearing the tabard he'd taken from Marin Brock's body in the level above, and Marin's ghost was still wearing the ghostly instance of the tabard. Marin and Kiltak looked each other up and down, silently acknowledging this, and Marin complimented Kiltak on his fashion sense. We briefly discussed how Marin's corpse they'd questioned with Speak With Dead was just a meat puppet with dated information, and that Marin's actual soul might know more.
The players discussed what they actually wanted here, and reminded themselves they were there to confirm their solution to the Two Guards Riddle.
As the characters with the highest Charisma and Persuasion, Haden and Virgil took the lead. Haden said the party was there looking for the truth, and asked if the ghosts could help them. They talked with Lens, who told them about Winnie Brock and her riddle curse.
Ash Brock
Stella died in 3440 and Bullington died in 3442. The Coven interred them in their own spacious crypt under the Brock monument.
Bullington and Stella's son Ash ascended the throne. But Ash never married, and he disappeared without a trace in 3452, leaving no children.
Winnie Brock, Wormworth, Brand Hill
Ash's niece Winnie was next in the line of succession, and she was crowned a year and a day after Ash disappeared.
Unfortunately, Winnie didn't have the wealth or forces to protect her throne. Wormworth, a powerful Archdruid of the Grove, offered to marry her and provide both. At the same time, a man appeared, Brand Hill. Brand stunned Hollin by claiming that he - not Ash Brock - was Bullington Brock's real son. This would have made Brand king in his own right, but he also proposed to Winnie.
Unfortunately, Winnie couldn't choose between Wormworth and Brand, because she couldn't tell which really loved her, and which just wanted her for power.
The other noble houses had been wrung by the succession wars, and with Winnie wavering, they feared a new war. But this time, instead of fighting each other, they united against Brock House and deposed Winnie. They imprisoned Winnie, Brand, and the Brock line of succession in Hobnail Prison, where they all lived out their days and died. Afterwards the houses quietly interred Winnie and the others in a modest crypt in the Brock family monument.
The houses also turned on the Grove, but the Grove's druids went underground and Wormworth was never found.
With the Brocks in prison, the houses ruled Hollin as an oligarchy. Over time the Anhault Charter Company grew to dominate the oligarchy and eventually assumed sole rule.
the riddle curse
The gods / the universe / whatever cursed Winnie for holding out for true love and destroying Brock House. To find rest and peace, Winnie's ghost must solve the following riddle:
One of Brand Hill and Wormworth loves Winnie, and the other just wants her for power. Independently of that, one always lies and the other always tells the truth. With one question, Winnie must determine which really loves her.
Lens also explained that there were two natural things to learn: (1) which of Brand or Worthworth really loves Winnie, and (2) which is honest. But Lens said it was impossible to learn both with only one question. Further, Holbein, Marin, and Brock wanted to know (2), because if Brand Hill was honest, then he was really Ash Brock's heir, and they might still have Brock heirs in Hollin through Brand.
So, they wanted the party to determine whether Brand Hill was honest (2), not whether he really loved Winnie (1). Unfortunately this would preclude solving Winnie's riddle, and she would be cursed for eternity.
Lens also told them that Bullington and Stella were interred in the next basement down. He said Stella was his daughter, and her forced marriage to Bullington continued as a curse after their deaths, and they both continued as undead. So, he wanted them to free Stella from her curse by destroying Bullington.
Lens also told them that Wormworth wasn't a ghost, but as an archdruid of the Grove, he'd gained a kind of immortality by learning to continually remolt. But the hundreds of remolts over the years had left Wormworth a pale, pink-eyed monstrosity. The decayed molts were the piles of beige dust they'd seen throughout the monument.
The players realized that even though they'd solved the Two Guards Riddle using the steam reasoning engine at the Steam Reasoning Hall, they hadn't really internalized how the solution worked themselves. We discussed it a little, with Christian and me both making similar diagrams and confirming that the solution made sense: ask one guard which door the other guard would suggest, and take the opposite door. Lens also told them that if they just wanted to find out who was honest, and not find the safe door, they could just ask one of the guards if 2 + 2 was 4.
The players discussed how they might answer both (1) and (2) with just one question, and whether they had any additional information themselves. I reminded them that Millicent claimed to be "heir to Hollin's Gradskan royal throne" and that "her family had been deposed by Hollin's trading houses." If true, those might imply that Brand Hill really was Bullington Brock's son and that Millicent descended from Brand Hill. But was Millicent honest?
I metagamed a little by saying that my players in a previous playthrough proposed a way to answer both (1) and (2) with one question. I'd accepted their solution at the table, but when I wrote their game up later I felt their solution wasn't strictly correct. So as far as I knew there wasn't a way to answer both (1) and (2) with one question - whether to answer (1) or (2) was more of a moral puzzle: would they help Holbein, Marin, and Lens, or help Winnie? I also noted that they wouldn't have actually confirmed their solution, as Ishild had asked, unless they solved Winnie's puzzle.
The players proposed solving Winnie's puzzle with the Two Guards solution, and separately determining if Brand was honest using Insight. I agreed that could work, since that was actually exactly what Insight was for. The 5e 2024 Player's Handbook describes the Insight skill as:
Discern a person's mood and intentions.
While the older 2014 Player's Handbook is a little more verbose:
Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone's next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.
Of course, they would have to succeed on the Insight check for this to work.
Still uncertain, they decided to fight Bullington first in case that turned up any other clues.
They went down the stairs. When they reached the third basement level, they saw:
As you come down the stair to this level, you see a faint blue light leaking into the stairwell from the level.
The stairs here also went down again to a fourth basement, but they exited into the third basement. As they exited the stair I put down the map:
Brock House monument, third basement
And they saw:
The pentagram's lines simmer with a blue fire.
At the far end of the level, beyond the pentagram, you see two caskets, and two spirits appear beside them - Bullington and Stella.
I gave them a heads-up that Bullington and Stella were Legendary. So, they could choose to make some saves automatically and would get some legendary actions after the PCs' turns. This level was also their Lair, so there could also be Lair actions each turn on initiative count 20.
Since Bullington was the Coven's champion, and the Coven claimed to be the church of Gradska, Rob asked for a refresh of what they knew about Gradska. Rob said it was OK if I revealed things that his disembodied assistant Jasper had told him. I gave him an inexact recap of what Jasper had said off the top of my head, but the exact things that Jasper had told him were:
I also just read the Gradska section from the Hollin Codex Hollin intro:
Hollin natives believe that the demigod warlord Gradska originally led people to Hollin. For centuries, Hollin had an organized Gradskan religion and kings who ruled in Gradska's name. The old town Lofton was their capital, and some Gradskan secrets wait to be rediscovered under the forest there.
They rolled initiative. Haden and Virgil rolled 22 and 20, ahead of the lair action on 20. Fayne wasn't at the game, but we decided to include Elgis in the fight in round 2, with Rob playing him.
The range from the party at the stair to Bullington and Stella at their caskets was about 180 feet. Haden moved up 30 feet with his normal movement and another 30 feet with Refreshing Step, then hit Bullington with Eldritch Blast. Virgil used his movement, dash, and cunning action dash to move up 90 feet, but was still out of range.
Stella's lair action came up on initiative count 20, and the party saw:
The pentagram's lines burst into red and orange flame. The pentagram starts to rotate on the floor, and the rings around it start to rotate in the opposite direction. Shadows cast by the rotating pentagram move fleetingly on the level's walls, like a horrific disco ball.
The pentagram coming to life cast Fairie Fire on the party. I believe that Virgil passed his save, but Barnaby, Haden, and Kiltak failed, and were outlined in green light.
Kiltak's movement was 40 feet. He dashed, covering 80 feet, but was still out of range. However, Stella responded with a legendary action to fast move up to him, like a creepy accelerated move in a horror movie. The move ended with Stella hitting Kiltak's chest with her palm, knocking him back 10 feet. I described Stella's Coven abilities as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wuxia with "withering" (necrotic) attacks.
Stella then took her own normal turn. She fired off a 2nd level "Withering Bolt" (Witch Bolt reskinned with necrotic damage) on Haden and (I believe) hit.
Barnaby dashed up and cast Spiritual Weapon on Stella as a bonus action. Bullington responded with a legendary action, Dimension Dooring into the party near Haden, Kiltak, and (I believe) Barnaby. Then for his own normal turn, he fired up Spirit Guardians; on subsequent turns the three opted to stay in melee with Bullington and take the Spirit Guardian damage.
On the second round, Haden fired up a Fey Weapon greatsword, Eldritch Smite, and Thirsting Blade on Bullington, doing 43 points of damage in one round. Virgil moved to optimal range and did a sneak attack with his short bow, scoring 14 more.
On initiative count 20, Stella did another lair action, summoning two devils (with imp statistics), who attacked Kiltak and Virgil. One initially hit Kiltak, but he used Shield from Marin Brock's tabard to beat the attack. I believe the other hit Virgil.
Kiltak attacked Bullington with Frenzy. The characters had just gone to sixth level, and Barnaby gave Kiltak a +10 to hit from his new War God's Blessing ability. He hit for 10.
On Stella's turn, I got up from my DM screen at one end of the table and crossed to Rob at the other end, giving him a note. The players became visibly alarmed while Rob considered the note at length, and he conspicuously did not read the note aloud. Rob and I exchanged a few more secret notes in pencil while the players talked about how disturbing it all was.
Stella then used her turn to hit Kiltak with her palm again for 11.
Despite the suspicious secret notes, Barnaby cast Guiding Bolt on Bullington, missing. He used his inspiration to re-roll, but again missed. Virgil had been seriously injured and he cast Healing Word on him.
Fayne wasn't at the game, and we'd forgotten to include Elgis in the fight. Rob agreed to play him and we rolled initiative for him, coming in right after Barnaby. Elgis moved up on Bullington with his Halberd, taking Spirit Guardian damage and 14 damage.
Haden hit Bullington with Booming Blade at the top of round 3, destroying him. He then hit Stella with his second attack for 7. Virgil hit one of the devils with a sneak attack for 20, killing it. Kiltak hit Stella, and she was out of legendary saves, and failed her Withering Bolt concentration check.
However, on Stella's turn, I gave Rob another note. We had another long exchange of secret notes in pencil, followed by a third prepared note. Stella attacked Kiltak.
Now Barnaby acted on Stella's behalf. He cast Hold Person on Kiltak, pinning him down, and cast Healing Word on Bullington, bringing him back up. He cast the Moon Shadow ability of Lolani Phyla's cloak, disappearing.
However, Elgis hit Bullington on his turn and put him down again, and the party killed Stella.
The party immediately realized that Barnaby might go down to the fourth basement and sabotage their riddle solution. They ran down.
Brock House monument, fourth basement
When they arrived, they found Winnie Brock's ghost, Brand Hill's ghost, and the pale pink-eyed Wormworth. The three were sitting in a circle on the floor, cross-legged, but they were getting up with looks of disappointment on their faces. Indeed, Barnaby had just been here and asked Brand Hill if 2 + 2 was 4. I flipped a coin, and Brand answered yes - he was honest.
Winnie was now cursed for eternity. With the one question spent and the possibility of helping Winnie gone though, the party was free to ask Brand and Wormworth anything they wanted. They asked Brand if he really loved Winnie. I flipped a coin again, and Brand said no, he only wanted Winnie for power. It followed that although Wormworth always lied, he did love Winnie.
Kiltak consoled Winnie and Haden consoled the repugnant Wormworth. They asked whether Winnie could "wander off somewhere nice" or whether they could undo her curse, but I said I thought that Barnaby's decision cursed her forever.
We briefly discussed how Winnie had died in 3482, and her ghost had been pondering the riddle for 443 years.
Barnaby had escaped the monument as an invisible moon shadow and was nowhere to be seen.
Seeming demoralized, the players asked if there was anything in the small north room of this level, but I said it was just more loculi with bodies.
They'd left the third basement in a hurry, and they went back up to search it. They found a necklace of Counterspell on Stella's body, which Kiltak wanted. They also found Bullington's Mace of Sorcerous Rebuke, which he'd struggled to use effectively in the fight; I noted that it was similar to Virgil's existing Dagger of Sorcerous Rebuke. We didn't immediately award it to anyone, and I said I would try to look at the character sheets and see who could most benefit from it.
They also found a book:
Construction of an Arcane Vortex, by Naima Kadiri
Flipping through the book, you surmise the following:
And then as you read further in the book:
Haden claimed the book.
Mike said that Kiltak immediately wanted vengence on Barnaby. I said Kiltak already wanted vengence against his parents' murderer, and Mike agreed, saying he would get revenge on the murderer first, and maybe find Barnaby after the campaign.
Their business in the Brock House monument was finished, and they left and had a long rest.
Kiltak's parents Ragnar and Freya were murdered when Kiltak was a child. Before escaping, the young Kiltak had picked up his father's sword Oath Keeper and gashed the man's face, through the right eye. Kiltak had looked for the man ever since to exact his revenge.
After her Cosmopolitan with Virgil in Game 12, Anya had given Kiltak a clue: the prosthetist Voorman makes glass eyes. The party, minus Barnaby, now went to Voorman's shop.
Voorman's prosthetic shop is in the craftsman village inside the Shipyards, which is a hive of activity. It's on Weaver Street, down a few blocks from the main Admiralty building at Weaver and Ballard. The shop is in a row-house, one of many built side-to-side, that take up the whole block.
The sidewalk entrance to Voorman's shop has double doors. Going in, one of the doors has a mail slot, and you're blocked opening it by a pile of mail that has collected on the floor inside. The other door opens easily. Just past the doors, you also have to climb past or stumble past some piles of delivery boxes to really get into the room.
Voorman's prosthetics shop, ground floor
In the first room (1), they found:
The room is a foyer or display room. There are several mannequins fitted with artificial legs, arms, and hands, and several model heads fitted with artificial eyes and noses. Prosthetics are also displayed on all the walls.
A bell above the door rang when you came in, but no one has come to attend to you.
There are two exits to the south - one behind a draw curtain and one behind the counter.
Since Fayne wasn't at the game, Rob was playing Elgis, and I believe he asked about the prosthetics - what were they made of? I said:
Legs vary from plain peg legs up to more natural looking legs with a knee joint, feet, and toes. Hands vary from simple hooks up to an ironwork hand with finger joints, which is beautiful but somewhat skeletal. The prosthetics are made of different materials - different woods, ivory, iron - and most have leather straps for attaching them. You notice that even though the simpler items are basic, they are still artfully crafted.
Virgil explored the room behind the drawn curtain, (3), which was a fitting room.
This room has a bench, a stool, and a full-length mirror. A small table has a measuring tape and a few tools.
Kiltak (I believe) led the party into (2):
This room has a desk and desk chair, and the desk has a pigeonhole mail sorter on it.
They found a few letters on the desk, under a paperweight:
Voorman:
Our captains on Hilde tell me that the fighting there threatens to spread outside of the no-man's-land. Please be ready to ramp up if, unfortunately, it becomes necessary. Thank you for your work as always.
-- Parja
Voorman:
We have a new pneuma and can come over at your convenience.
-- Brunn, Herndon, Zarrada
I reminded them that they'd killed Parja, the Admiralty Secretary, in Game 9.
Kiltak also found a partially packaged box, addressed to:
Grunvaldr
Grunvaldr's Antiques
249 Market Street
Braddock
The box contained a glass eye and a letter:
Grunvaldr,
A first batch of the new eyes has arrived from Welkin. The new glass is light and shines like a real eye. I'm enclosing one with a color similar to your existing prosthesis, but come by anytime to see the others.
Best,
Voorman.
They asked about the eye - what color was it? I said that it was yellow, with a slit pupil like a cat's eye. Kiltak claimed the glass eye and letter.
They went into (4).
This room has four floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, and a comfy chair with an end table next to it.
There's some rubble in this room, mostly around the southern door.
On the end table they saw:
The end table has a cigar box with a few cigars left in it, a half-empty bottle of gin, and the paraphernalia for enjoying each. There are also two books:
They did a Medicine check to find any interesting books on the shelf, but their Medicine expert Barnaby wasn't with them, and they didn't find anything. The also did an Arcana check, rolling a 15, and found the book:
Design of Music Boxes, by Daria al-Haleem
They went into (5).
This dusty room has two built-in workbenches, which are heavily beaten and scarred from use, with stools.
There's some rubble in this room, mostly around the west door to (6).
On the first workbench they saw:
The first workbench is cluttered with tools for working wood, ivory, and leather, and a few prosthetics in progress. Among the clutter you notice a few more curious items:
I showed them a picture of a camshaft caterpillar toy as an example.
camshaft caterpillar toy
On the second workbench they found:
The second workbench has several clockwork objects on it, about the size of a fist, with crank keys on them. Closer inspection reveals them to be wind-up mechanical spiders. There are also several small bowls containing different metal parts.
Virgil pocketed one of the wind-up spiders, and Rob said it was all like Voorman was trying to build robots.
They went to (6), a stairway:
The stair goes up and down. The stair has some rubble in it, all up and down the stair.
Christian correctly guessed that "the story" was downstairs, and they went down.
Voorman's prosthetics shop, first basement
The stair, (1), went down again from here to a second basement, but they exited here on the first basement. This room, (1), was cluttered with rubble, and Rob asked if there'd been an earthquake. He rolled Insight and felt no, the rubble had been brought here from somewhere else. It didn't seem to have fallen off of the walls or ceiling, those were intact.
I believe they also asked if they heard anyone here. They did not.
Haden suggested maybe Grunvaldr came here to kill Voorman, and Mike said Kiltak wanted to fight a dragon.
They went into (4):
In this room there are two workbenches with smallish astronomical clocks under construction, 1-3 feet tall, in various stages of completion. There's also a book here, Astronomical Clocks for Dummies, by Manfred Unger.
They went into the hallway (3). Although they didn't hear anything before, now three large mechanical spiders came into the hallway from (7), to attack. However, we were late in the session, and I suggested we start with the fight the next time.