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NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 20, Olwen the Sullen

Okay, so I may have been a tad off when it comes to how one spells “Olwen.” So sue me.

(Please don’t Murph I beg of you.)

Welcome back to another installment of the NADDPOD Listen Along everyone! The series where we provide a recap and occasionally insightful commentary on the story of Eldermourne.

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We last left our Third Mates off in the bowels of the Temple of the Guardians in a confrontation with the Great Fairy of winter, Olwen the Sullen. He had previously frozen Batilda the Blade Witch solid for eight freaking years and is hoping to do the same to our brave adventurers.

Let’s get into it.

Recap

Henry gets the jump on Olwen in initiative order, and immediately starts attacking. Olwen has a handful of ice attacks, which often have the added effect of hindering PC movement, making for a pretty interesting combat situation.

Fia and Zirk both start using fire attacks to combat the ice and snow.

Olwen isn’t fighting to kill, however; he’s simply trying to freeze them all into place to make beautiful sculptures of their living bodies. Henry gets dropped to 0 hit points (and begins failing his death freeze saves) and is followed into that good night by Zirk.

Fia’s the only one left standing (if you don’t count Spritle and Bukvar, who is currently and octopus), so Emily takes the risk and attacks Olwen, as he is looking pretty hurt.

She uses her war priest ability to make a second attack, as well as her final Chronal Shift to make sure the blow lands. It’s enough to destroy the projection of Olwen, and Fia thaws out her friends with a Greenflame Blade.

The whole party — Batilda included — get swept back down the river and realize that they’re being pulled into a steep waterfall.

They grab onto a rope before falling over the edge. They’re pulled up by the Luskroar and the rest of the Deep Folk onto the side of a massive cliff.

They had stuck around to see if Batilda could possibly still be alive, and are happy to see that she is. The have an outpost nearby with a bed where the witch can rest.

The Third Mates follow the Deep Folk through a pathway behind the waterfall, entering a magical stone passageway that leads to an underground town. There are stone houses, a town square, sprites,  shops, taverns, inns, and a wide variety of Deep Folk going about their business.

They have been at the outpost for a few years, and there are over a dozen others throughout the mountains.

They used to have a huge city names Zelbodar but it was destroyed by a great Earthquake many years ago.

The crew aim to get Batilda to a bed within the Earth and Ale inn (Luskroar’s mom owns the tavern), which is full of the sounds of drums and music and lively chats.

Fia lights up a cigar to celebrate saving Batilda while Henry gets in a shouting match with some Deep Folk children. They all go upstairs to a room where they can finally lay Batilda down. All three decide to stick around to make sure that the witch begins healing properly. They spoonfeed her some magically infused ale, and she wakes up.

Batilda introduces herself to Henry and Zirk, and Fia explains Henry’s curse, his shadow Shank, and Zirk’s Spritle. The witch is aghast at having been frozen for 8 years, but is not mad at Fia for not coming to rescue her sooner. She asks how much they know about the Guardians of the Grove.

Fia fills her in on the adventure so far without holding anything back. She’s shocked that Kane has come back and that they know about Irena and Serenesis. She’s relieved that the Trickster’s daughter hasn’t been taken yet.

Zirk asks if Batilda has any leads on where Serenesis could be, and she explains that was actually why they had called together the meeting of the Guardians eight years ago.

Batilda says that Irena had just gone on the run again and couldn’t be found by Batilda or Kenley. Kane revealed that he knew all about Serenesis to the rest of the blades, explaining the secret of the Guardians. He knew that the Reaper was aware of Serenesis and had locked the gates of Reverie until she was hunted down so that no soul could ascent to heaven.

Kane said he learned from a sorceress named Maxorra. She offered a deal to hunt down Serenesis, but the rest of the Guardians refused. Most of them were then cut down by her and her constructs.

Fia wants to try to find Irena. Batilda says that she may have come into her powers more fully by now, so that she could potentially help them as well. The witch has a magical connection with Irena, as she is sworn to protect her. She wants to officially pass her blade onto Fia, and to welcome Henry and Zirk into the Guardians.

Batilda offers herself up as their Smith. Fia is hesitant to take the blade, but Batilda says “Fia, you are my blade. This is your blade. Will you take me as your Smith?”

“I will.”

The Third Mates take the oath of the Guardians. Candles are lit, a circle is drawn, and the three take a knee in the circle. Batilda knights them with the Blade while doing a reading.

“I am the Smith that crafts the blade. You are my ward, my iron, forged in fire, turned to steel to protect ideals, fragile, beautiful things. Warriors of whimsy, arcane assassins unseen. The Trickster’s mind and soul made whole by your human heart.”

To which the Third Mates respond:

“You are the Smith that crafts the blade, I am the Blade that hunts the horror.”

“And it is a good day to begin the hunt,” Batilda says.

The chalk circle on the floor grows lush, and a tree grows from it. The tree blesses the three, making all their weapons +1 and magical, along with abilities “that will be revealed later.”

“Fia, you see Batilda hands her sword to you, and when you touch it you feel kind of like you do when you hold Bukvar. You feel closer to Irena, you feel her magic, and you can tell than now you have become the protector of Serenesis… And that’s where we’ll end our session.”

Commentary

Well I feel like now is about as good a time as ever to dive into one of D&D’s most interesting dynamics when it comes to combat; damage types.

I don’t know if Olwen, being a Fairy of winter, was necessarily vulnerable to fire type attacks, but the cool thing about D&D is that he doesn’t really have to be.

Vulnerabilities in official D&D monsters are few and far between, though there are a lot more immunities and resistances that PCs come up against as they hack and slash their way through whatever enemies a DM decides to pull out of the old Monster Manual and place in their party’s way.

Anyone who was a kid in the 90s/early 2000s would likely have an innate understand of damage types via the global sensation that was/is Pokemon, where Pokemon type plays a huge role in the game’s mechanics — to an arguably necessary point.

Now, D&D doesn’t quite employ the straight up Rock Paper Scissor style of setup that is at the core of Pokemon (fire beats grass, grass beats water, water beats fire. I know there are MANY other types, but obviously those are what we start with over in Oak’s lab), but it does have similar elements — pun intended.

And thebest thing about D&D is how flexible the game can be, depending on how your table/DM wants to rule things. So while someone like Olwen might not necessarily take more damage from fire attacks, they are still smart to use against a winter fairy because they could have the potential effect — if your Dm is kind enough — to melt away some of the frost effects that are hindering your party. The same could go for using water attacks against a fire elemental, or radiant against devils.

All that to say is that I thought it was smart thinking on Zirk and Fia’s parts to pull out the fire spells, and some good sportsmanship from Murph to allow it to effect his icy battlefield.

I love that the Deep Folk weren’t just a one-off Deus Ex Machina situation, either. The fact that they returned to help out the party might feel a little cheap (seeing how long on health the Third Mates were entering into the dangerous wilderness all over again) but the reasoning Murph offered makes sense.

And honestly, I’d been wondering what Murph planned to do for the party after they cleared out the temple. Surely you can’t just send them back across the same exploration/survival gauntlet that it took what, a session and a half to get through the first time? That’s just not good storytelling, and it’s not good D&D, either.

Having a whole town hidden under the mountains adds to the worldbuilding in a believable way, as well as manages to quickly shift the tone and setting from dungeon crawling to some in-town RP, without having to go through the slog of travelling all the way back through the mountains.

A you can probably tell, I’m not the biggest fan of gratuitous travel sequences in D&D campaigns.

I was also very happy to see that Batilda essential “retires” as a Blade to become a Smith for the Third Mates, who have now officially become part of the Guardians of the Grove. It’s cool, too, how the Third Mates and the Hexbuds are part f the same organization, but due to its secrecy and the danger of being caught and tortured, they can’t really ever know about each other.

At least they’ll have some automatic reasons to be friendly if they ever do meet down the line (fingers crossed).

Fia taking on the mantle of protector of Serenesis was another cathartic moment, as it also gives the party something of a lead for finding her and continuing the campaign onwards at the end of a pretty significant arc.

I do wonder if the direction they head next will be towards the sea to get Hank’s arc figured out, or towards ol’ Stella Vervain to explore Zirk’s parental problems.

Knowing Murph, he’ll probably find a way to do both.

And I’m looking forward to it.

Roses:

  • Olwen being an emo poetry writer was absolutely hilarious
  • Bukvar getting used to his book form again
  • The Deep Folk lore
  • The imagery of the Guardians of the Grove ritual was stunning
  • Fia’s clutch last-one-standing moment

Thorns:

  • I wanted to see what Murph would have done had they all gotten frozen by Olwen
  • It’s very hard to get the spelling of names right just going off of how they sound, ok.

Buds:

  • What are the hidden weapon powers!!!
  • Where to from here?

That’s it for this episode! Find other NADDPOD Listen Alongs here and share your takes, predictions, roses, and thorns in the comments below.

NADDPOD Listen Along: Eldermourne Episode 19, Blade Witch

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