It’s winter when you emerge from the ruins of the old asylum and start making your way back to Birchstead, which is odd because it was it was late summer when you went in. As you enter the village the familiar faces seem shocked to see you and when you ask why, they explain that you have been gone for two years and everyone thought you were dead!

This also doesn’t quite add up, because if it’s two years since you were last seen then it should be late summer again. The villagers explain that this is because Birchstead and its environs has been beset by an unending winter for 18 months now. Other villages aren’t affected by this bizarre freak of weather and the effect on the local economy has been devastating.

After visiting your loved ones and breaking the bad news to Immin about his son, you head to the manor to find out more about the strange winter. To your surprise Lord Aldo agrees to see you instantly. He tells you that this very morning he has received a mysterious letter from someone who claims to know how to end this eternal winter; the author asks for some representatives of the village to meet him at an old inn in the mountains some two days’ ride away. Aldo asks you to take up this offer and will provide you with food, winter clothing and horses for the journey. You accept.

By dusk of the first day you are approaching an abandoned farmhouse in which to shelter for the night from the terrible cold when arrows fly out of the trees across the road. Six men rush out to attack you. The fight is close as they are well-armed and armoured but eventually four are killed, one flees and another is captured. He is terrified when you question him and claims to be a soldier from the neighbouring manor of Kanshek. He says that a spy informed Kanshek that you were being sent to stop the magical winter; as Kanshek is benefiting from Birchstead’s decline the lord decided to send an ambush party in disguise to stop you.

You camp for the night and take your captive with you the next day. The going is tougher in the snowy wilderness but by sunset you reach the crossroads where the ruined inn lies. A single candle is lit inside and when you enter you see a large figure in the shadows. He introduces himself as Primus, servant of a mage named Kavon Deralia. He tells you that two years ago she visited another mage in the mountains but never returned; clearly the unnatural winter is a sign of the mountains mourning her loss.

For two years he has searched for his mistress and has now discovered her whereabouts, trapped under the ruins of the other wizard’s tower. He is too large to fit through the crevice but will show you the way; when you rescue her, the winter will surely end.

You doubt the details of his conclusion but agree to help free his mistress and the next day he leads you to the ruined tower, which looks like it has been blown apart. As you approach a gigantic ice-worm bursts from the ground and attempts to grab some of you, but with Primus’s help you wound it and drive it off.

Primus gives you a device for rescuing his mistress and instructs you how to use it, then lowers you into a narrow crevasse and you emerge into a huge icy cavern. You hear creatures grunting down a passage to the south so decide to head north, where the rocky tunnel soon turns into a paved corridor. You enter a room full of bookshelves on which sits a small, winged blue creature grumpily reading books. On seeing you it starts asking if you can make it better – it claims to be a water mephit who’s been turned into an ice mephit, and promises to show you how to free Kavon if you ‘cure’ it. Eventually you decide to ignore it and leave the room full of ruined books, but the mephit continues to follow you.

You cross the corridor into a destroyed laboratory containing some broken cages and a lot of snow. As you begin so search it three frost hounds burst out of the snow and attack. They are very tough and breathe blasts of frost but eventually you defeat them and move on.

You enter a high-vaulted chamber in which a great magical battle appears to have taken place. The remains of a mage lie crushed beneath a large chunk of fallen ceiling but the far wall holds what looks like a frozen waterfall. Inside this is a huge, translucent, vaguely human shape, reaching up to grasp at a blue-robed woman clutching at her throat, also suspended in the ice.

You use the device Primus gave you, holding the orb as close to the frozen woman as possible and saying the word ‘sun’. Brilliant flames burst out of it and in an instant the ice melts, dropping the woman to the ground with a splash. She is very groggy and doesn’t respond clearly to your questions, but before you can grill her further the melted water coalesces into its original form – a large water elemental- and attacks her. She has not recovered enough to be any use in a fight so despite your battered condition you engage the creature to save the mage and eventually the water elemental is defeated.

Kavon is very grateful and when she has recovered she escorts you out of the caves, explaining the story as you go: the tower belonged to Magal the Undying with whom she had a long-running squabble. The two mages met to resolve their dispute but the discussion turned into an argument and then a duel. Powerful spells were unleashed until, dying beneath a piece of fallen ceiling, Magal summoned a water elemental to drown Kavon. To save herself Kavon activated a necklace called the Circle of Ice, but with all the raging magic in the air this had unexpected consequences: Kavon and the elemental were frozen in ice and a magical winter fell upon the surrounding area.

When you reach the surface you find Primus lying dead, his hands locked around the dead throat of the ice worm you encountered earlier.

Kavon asks that you not reveal her existence to anyone as she wishes to remain anonymous. She cannot reward you at present but promises that if you meet her at the ruined inn in a week’s time she will give you some gifts in gratitude.

You return to Birchstead where Lord Aldo and the whole village are now in your debt …

The last goblet is in the Lake of Sorrows, a calm misty lake with a small island in the middle. A rowboat is pulled up on the shore so the party gets in; Badwood would rather stay on dry land.

As you row out, the fish in the lake begin to seethe around the boat and it starts to rock violently. Rular thrusts a sun-rod into the water to scare the fish away but they are not fish, they are seven-headed serpents. Abdjib and Coran struggle to row the boat back to shore without losing anyone overboard. When they finally make it Coran unleashes his frustration and batters one of the serpents to death with his staff.

Quarion thinks to ask Badwood whether he knows how to get to the island. He reveals that you have to sing to the snakes; melancholy songs work best. Armed with this knowledge the party rows back across the lake, singing songs that truly bring a tear to the eye.

The last goblet rests on a stone table on the island and with this in their possession the party head back to the hill where they first arrived. The spirits are waiting for them and direct them to the circle of stone pillars where the ‘ritual’ has to be performed.

The four goblets are placed on the four pillars and they slowly start to fill with wine. As each party member drinks a draught they take on a red glow similar to the red shield that surrounds the castle; when all are ready they set off to confront the Coven.

The castle’s gate stands open and as the group sneak in they spot a Coven member crossing the courtyard. She is quickly killed but not before letting out a scream that alerts the test of the castle.

The party runs up the steps to the main hall where they are confronted by the Coven and their skeletal servants, plus a strange creation – a large red egg-shaped device with four mechanical legs and four halberd-like arms.

During the ensuing fight out becomes clear that the once-powerful Coven sorcerors have largely lost their magic, a fact which seems to come as a great shock to them. They move to protect the automaton – which they refer to as “the weapon” – but when it becomes clear that they are losing the battle the Grand Wizard activates the thing. It moves slowly but its four arms are extremely dangerous.

Rular’s spells and any light blows do not affect the machine but at the first strong hit it starts to go wrong: there is a loud ‘bang’ and one of its arms is out of action. Soon all the Coven are dead and only the malfunctioning automaton remains, now going round in circles venting steam and emitting a loud whining noise; a final blow and it starts to disintegrate in a series of small explosions.

The party notice that with the destruction of the machine something strange is happening – the very fabric of the spirit world seems to be streaming away towards the hill where they first arrived. They run back to find that a portal similar to that through which they entered this world has appeared and beside it the spirits waiting for them, eager to be freed from this rapidly-vanishing realm. As each person steps through one spirit accompanies them.

They emerge back in the old asylum, in the real world again at last. The ‘spirits’ now have material bodies, albeit vague and partially-formed ones. They seem ecstatic to be real at last and cackle with unbridled glee before vanishing like mist …

Asked to find the local ranger Immin and his son Hast you head out to the old asylum, where 80 years ago a coven of evil mages was overthrown by the local lord. After fighting your way through insane pale elves and freeing their still-sane children you pass through a strange glowing portal and step out into an eerie other-world.

You are immediately attacked by flocks of unpleasant little creatures. Disembodied voices tell you how to deal with these before leading you to the Coven’s castle, which is protected by an impenetrable red shield. The Coven taunt you for a while before the voices return and tell you about a ritual you can perform to break the shield – collect four goblets from four inhabitants of this world.

You obtain three goblets from three strange fairy-tale stereotypes: Old Usine the witch in the Forest of Questions who asks you lots of riddles, Cynan Moel the boastful giant who bombards you with rocks while one of you robs his hall and Mayer Ythel the Great Cat in the Hills of Cowardice, who turns out to be frightening but easy to kill.

Along the way you find Hast’s remains and meet a poor broken wretch called Badwood, who seems to be from the real world.

Only the goblet from the Lake of Sorrows remains …

You emerge from the one-way portal into a strange spirit world: colours are washed-out, pale and grey-tinted and vision becomes misty after a few hundred yards. There are strange creatures in a herd at the bottom of the hill, indistinct in the mist, but their sickening chittering can be heard all too clearly. When they notice you they swarm up the hill and attack.

The things are grey bipeds with a parrot-like beak and large, black eyes; they are cut down in their droves but other herds hop over to investigate then attack. But then you start to hear whispering voices: “Don’t look at them! Don’t look at them!”. Fighting your instincts you look away from the creatures and they stop trying to bite you.

The disembodied voices become more talkative. “Yes, they cannot see you if you do not look at them. See? They go about their business. But do not look!” “You have come for the Coven, yes?” “We can show you where they are, we can.” Eventually they coalesce into ghostly humanoid forms, but they seem only vaguely interested in you. When asked about the missing boy they reply “yes, a boy, he went to the Coven, we think. They have him.”

You follow them as they drift across this strange world but they vanish as you approach a spired castle. You cannot get close to this as it is surrounded by a red shimmering field which you are unable to penetrate. Presently several ancient-looking, emaciated figures appear on the battlements and start laughing at and taunting you, boasting of their invulnerability and claiming that you are now trapped here and “your life-energy will feed the Coven’s work!”

Then you hear the earlier voices again, back to being invisible. “We can help you” they whisper. They tell of a circle of stones that keeps the shield in place: the stones cannot be broken but if four goblets are placed upon them the spell can be ended. The Coven hid these goblets but they have been found by four inhabitants of this world; you just have to retrieve them and place them on the pillars to break the spell. The goblets are held by Cynan Moel the giant atop his mountain; Old Usine the witch in her cottage in the Forest of Questions; guarded by Mayer Ythel the Great Cat in his cave in the Hills of Cowardice; and the last on an island in the Lake of Sorrows. The voices don’t know or understand what these places but they point you in the right direction: you decide to head first to the Forest of Questions.

The Forest of Questions is a creepy wood. Trees look like faces, there are spiders’ webs everywhere and strange noises fill the still air. Rhen can tell that the place is even more magical than the rest of this spirit world. Paths lead everywhere but you quickly find yourselves at a small cottage outside which stands an old woman, clearly Old Usine. She is ancient and stooped and very, very ugly. She greets you with a cry of “Ah! Wanting to be cooked up, eh? Jump in the pot! Jump in the pot!” and opens her door and beckons. All your questions are answered with more questions but she eventually concedes that she does possess a goblet will give it up if you answer her riddles.

When enough riddles have been answered she looks deep into your eyes and says “very good, very good” in a slightly surprised tone. “Maybe you shall have the cup. Yes, I think you shall.” She then winks and you find yourselves holding the cup, a goblet is of plain pewter. “Now, begone, or I shall put you in my stew!” With that she chases you from the forest with a flurry of suddenly animated pots & pans.

Next you make your way to Cynan’s Mount, a bleak and windy peak devoid of all but the scrubbiest vegetation. It is an arduous climb which gives plenty of time for Cynan to see you coming. When you are within earshot he starts shouting at you: “WHO dares to come to Cynan Moel, strongest of the strong, bravest of the giants, undefeated in battle by any mortal or spirit? Do you wish to be CRUSHED, puny ones?” “Know ye not that those who cross Cynan Moel’s enchanted threshold without invitation will be cursed for eternity?” “The wisdom of Cynan Moel is legend; dream not of outwitting me, little ones! I am the wiliest of all the giants and I can see into your hearts!” “Watch for my guard dogs, little ones! If Cynan Moel does not crush you then his guard dogs will surely eat you!”

His taunts break your spirits: the best that you can come up with is to repeatedly demand that he hands over the goblet. However a giant with a superiority complex, an altitude advantage and a plentiful supply of large boulders is in no mood to comply and rocks rain down upon you.

While the others weather the giant’s storm of boasting and boulders Coran sneaks up by a different route. Creeping into Cynan’s stone hall he spies a goblet sitting on the table with the food: a great cup of brass set with stones. Guessing that this in not the one you are after he spies another, normal-sized goblet being used as a holder for a giant’s candle. He just has time to grab this and run before Cynan realises that he is being robbed; the angry threats and boulders reach a deafening crescendo as the party flees desperately down the hill.

Possessing half the goblets you next decide to face Mayer Ythel the Great Cat in his cave in the Hills of Cowardice, but as you approach these deserted hills a scrawny-looking man emerges from some scrubby bushes as you pass. The strangest thing about him is that unlike the bizarre fairytale beings you have encountered so far in this place he looks fairly normal. However he seems to have almost completely lost his mind; you manage to get him to tell you that his name is Badwood, he has been here a long time and Mayer Ythel took his ring from him and he is to frightened to get it back. He begs you to retrieve this ring although he doesn’t seem entirely convinced that you’re real. When questioned about the missing boy he does recall seeing him but doesn’t believe he was real either.

You head into the hills without Badwood as he is too scared to come with you and as you make your way you begin to understand why: a terrifying, mournful howl echoes across the slopes and sends shivers down your spines. Three times you hear the howl and each time the fear deepens; by the time you discover a cave a terror has gripped you all and you enter with great trepidation. As the last person passes inside, a black shadow drops from above the entrance and the Great Cat leaps on Abdjib’s back.

Mayer Ythel is indeed a fearsome predator, a panther of light-absorbing blackness with green slitted eyes, but his strength lies in the dread of his howl and a stealthy kill; in a straight fight with half a dozen of you he is outmatched and soon he lies dead. Searching his cave you find the feather-patterned silver ring that Badwood described to you and a silver goblet with spiral patterns. But you also find the bones of a young human, and amongst those bones lies Hast’s family talisman. Your search for Immin’s son is clearly over.

So now you must travel to the Lake of Sorrows, whatever that may be. If you are successful there – and if the voices have not lied to you – you can face the Coven and hopefully find a way home. Maybe Badwood can help you. Probably not …

Leaving the stinky door for the time being the scouts reported that down another passage they could hear a group of creatures trying – badly – to remain silent. Adopting stealth mode themselves they tried to sneak up on the unknown creatures whilst covering their rear. Spinder Stablehand was so focused on covering the front with his bow that he did not notice a tied-up figure dangling by its feet from a beam in the corner. Another party member cut the body down and found it to be an unconscious man that he recognised from Birchstead, fully armed and armoured despite his predicament. When he came round, after a cautious introduction he agreed to join the party.

The hiding creatures turned out to be more insane pale elf warriors led by a tough-looking champion with a sword in one hand and a glowing dagger in the other. These jumped to the attack but behind them cowered a group of elven children who did not seem to be as pale of skin or as mad of countenance. Despite the low numbers of attackers the fight was a tense one and Adjib was brought to the ground. Magic from Quarion got him on his feet again and as the last mad elf warrior was killed the monk was able to rush forward and grab the last of the elven children who was trying to flee with the others.

When he had calmed down and been reassured that no harm was meant the child pleaded with the party to save the other children from the insane adults, claiming that due to a terrible curse a madness descended on them when they reached maturity. Most of the adults and children lived in some sort of village to the south but the party did not want to leave possible foes behind them so they decided to make sure that the areas north of them were clear first.

They approached a door and recognised the foul stench coming from the other side. The door was kicked open to reveal a ghastly kitchen with half a dozen children cowering behind four mis-shapen cooks, who taunted the intruders by throwing mouldy bread at them. They did not put up any significant resistance; the greatest hazard was the abominable reek emanating from the cauldrons, which caused not a few people to weaken and flee the room clutching their guts. Once the cooks had been dealt with the fires were doused and the smell began to subside, but the children had fled the room.

The party set off to find them but instead they discovered a strange room with three pale elf monks sitting in a trance with humming metal bowls before them, surrounded by hundreds of black candles. Covering the walls was a list of names in ancient Elvish but the last few names were those of the party! The monks were all knocked unconscious without resistance and their hands and feet bound. Attempts to scratch out the names didn’t work – they magically reappeared. Dousing the candles just made the remaining ones brighter until there was only one left that wouldn’t go out at all.

Leaving the enigma the group quickly found the children hiding in another room. They took some convincing but with the help of the party’s ‘captive’ child they were eventually convinced that they were safe. Spinder led them to the surface while the party pressed on.

Another room contained pale elf civilians tending giant mushrooms, obviously a source of food. They were dealt with swiftly but then someone noticed a secret door. This led to a room with a trapped chest: Knocker was poisoned while opening it, but the effects did not last for too long and the chest contained what was obviously the pale elves’ treasure.

Further into the maze of chambers was a room filled with termites that seemed to be crawling all over what looked like a very unhealthy-looking tree. The party would have left this if it hadn’t been for the weak telepathic message that appeared to be coming from the tree: “the adults are lost, but please save the children!”

At last the party reached the area where the elves seemed to live. Crude huts and lean-tos lined a massive hallway in which pale elf adults shambled about doing various tasks. The party charged in to the attack and despite the spear-throwing warriors at the far end of the hallway and some elves emerging from side-tunnels to ambush them in the rear, the fight was won fairly easily. The side tunnels led only to a huge chamber containing a bottomless crevasse but some stout doors in the main passageway led to small prison cells. In one of these was found the missing ranger, Immin, but no trace was found of his son Hast. Immin had been hit over the head while camping in the ruins of the asylum and could recall little except the pale elves’ insane behaviour towards him.

The large corridor ended in a few more chambers and here were found the rest of the pale elf children. Some gentle words of reassurance won them over and they were very grateful for their rescue from their madness-afflicted parents. They wished to leave these cursed underground passageways and establish a new village in the woods, and asked the PCs if they would obtain a cutting from the withered tree so that they could plant it in their new home – the tree was the elves’ original village tree that had been brought here by the adults when the curse first took hold, and had somehow survived the years underground. They also claimed that the treasure from the trapped chest was rightfully theirs, although they were happy for the party to keep any other plunder that they had found.

The PCs agreed and a cutting was obtained by driving the termites back with smoke. The tree imparted a last mysterious telepathic message: “thank you for saving the children, I will always be your sanctuary”.

Having led all the children to the surface the party tried the last unopened door at the end of the great hallway, a massive one made of iron. Knocker was able to pick the lock and they entered the chamber. Upon a throne sat a grey-haired, long-bearded yet grizzled and tough-looking warrior with a huge battle axe upon his lap. “There is no turning back now. Enter the portal” he intoned flatly, gesturing to a shimmering rectangle of light behind him. This phrase was repeated for every person that entered the room.

One by one the party members gave in to their curiosity and stepped through into the unknown…

The young kingdom of Emmisthein has been a peaceful, ordered realm for several generations. Close to its northern borders the village of Birchstead has been a quiet and productive part of that kingdom for as long as most of its inhabitants can remember. But things are not always placid…

The friends met on Friday night at the Goat as usual. The atmosphere was subdued and they traced the cause to a missing local ranger, Immin, and his son, Hast. Apparently he occasionally took his son off for days on end in the wilderness, but had been missing for over two weeks now and people were concerned. Some locals thought he had travelled North towards the mountains in the area of “the old asylum”.

Some research was conducted amongst the local notables and Lareracan the bard proved very knowledgeable. He explained that a group known as the Coven used to run the asylum until about 80 years ago when their evil ways were discovered and Lord Aldo’s father gathered his troops and ousted them. During the purge the asylum was razed to the ground and has been in ruins ever since, although the area surrounding it is still believed by some to be a place of evil.

With the bard’s directions to help them the party headed towards the old ruins, but when nearing their destination they were ambushed by a pack of starving wolves, desperate for a meal. Despite Rhen’s efforts to save at least a handful with dried meat from his rations the whole pack, mad with starvation, were rapidly killed by the party.

The druid went off in a sulk and devoted much time to burying then burning the wolf corpses. The party camped close to the ruins and had a cold, uneventful night. In the morning the group searched carefully around and an iron trapdoor was found in the otherwise ruined remains of the central tower, hidden in the trees on the hilltop. The trapdoor and lock were definitely not 80 years old…

Everyone except Rhen decided to explore the basement (and tunnel and room complex) below the tower. Rhen in the meantime completed his burning of the wolves, a task hampered by the lashing rain and his general state of feeling sorry for himself. As the party descended the staircase into darkness chittering sounds could be heard behind the brick walls, but this did not cause any concern until half a dozen weird bat-like blood-sucking creatures flew out and attacked.

These were quickly and easily dealt with and the party soon reached a large door that appeared to have been sealed with tar from the other side. Knocker was able to clean some of the stuff from the lock and get the door open but as Coran passed through something sloughed onto him. It was some acidic goo that seemed to have been hiding in the tar but once scraped off it didn’t seem to have done any permanent damage.

Progress was blocked by some makeshift barriers behind which could be seen some pale-skinned elves, who when challenged cried out “back, surface-dwellers” in deranged voices and started throwing spears. A careful tactical battle ensued but as the elves were pushed back a pair of fierce undead dogs rose up in the midst of the party from amongst the debris that made up the barriers. Eventually the foes were all slain without loss of life for the good guys.

Rhen completed the funeral pyre and went to find his friends. In the remains of a library an unusual blank-paged book was found that had not suffered the ravages of time. When taken from the room it caused a ghostly figure to appear and was thus considered valuable. Despite not seeming to do a great deal of damage the ghost was nevertheless relentless and impervious to the group’s weapons but the druid enchanted a handful of stones that were able to damage the spirit. Under bombardment from the magic stones it was eventually dispatched to the nether-world before it could drain anyone’s life force and the book was added to the kitty.

Down another corridor was a torture room occupied by a mean-looking hobgoblin armed with a red-hot poker and tongs. He taunted the party and dared them to attack him but his arrogant confidence was misplaced – despite his evil weapons and his skill with them he was no match for superior numbers.

Choosing between several possible routes the party next found themselves outside a door; sounds of ‘shuffling and mumbling in elvish’ were noted behind it and a foul stench wafted beneath it …