The session began with the sounds of violent retching coming from Chumley and Hieronymus, the two unlucky adventurers to fall to the nasty effects of their poorly prepared goat and viper stew. They bewailed their lot at the lack of a cleric when they heard a wrapping upon the manor doors - it was +Kathryn Jenkins as "Atkantha" who turned out to be, conveniently, a cleric that had been alerted by the town of the commotion up at the Prem estate.
Sidney, who answered the door, was smitten and Atkantha felt the same (thanks to the Tenra Bansho Zero Emotion Matrix) but she did not care for Hieronymus at all to the point that she refused to heal him but looked after Chumley. They decided it may be best to bed down for the night instead of trying to tackle the garden in the dark.
They took the night in shifts, occasionally hearing grating stone outside and the odd yet gentle humming of an unseen elderly lady wandering the corridors. Despite their attempt to keep guard though they all got a surprise in the morning when they realised that sitting at the table was a Chapel Wight. He was here to meet his good friend, an eccentric fellow, but far more pressingly he had misplaced his pipe and was wondering if any of the characters had seen it.
Unbeknown to the group, Hieronymus had found a particularly delightful looking ivory pipe the previous day in the smoking room. Hieronymus however was now keeping quiet. Chumley and Amelia managed to be rude to the Chapel Wight who lashed out at them with a bonesaw and a scalpel respectively. Meanwhile, Sidney managed to sneak around and tried to snipe the creature through the head with an arrow. He succeeded but this did little to affect it who in turn sighed, took off his hat and focussed on Sidney. In that moment Hieronymus quickly placed the pipe on the table, defusing the situation considerably as Sidney tried to hide behind one of the few remaining statues.
After the Chapel Wight left, the group explored the courtyard but were quickly driven back in by a bizzare creature on the roof spitting acid. Sadly during the encounter Hieronymus took a face-full of acid so Chumley quickly through the remains of the goat and snake stew over him to try and calm him, prompting a Save Vs Poison which he failed. Poor Hieronymus was nearly dead, horrifically disfigured, and now poisoned once more. Atkantha gave in and healed him while they contemplated their next move.
Sally and Sidney tried to lure the creature down with the remains of the goat on the end of a rope chucked into the courtyard. Meanwhile Chumley ventured upstairs with a plan: his logic was to chuck a bundle of burning clothes out onto the balcony to try and smoke the creature down. A failed Saving throw scuppered this plan, treating the rest of the party to the sound of Chumley's agonising screams as he burned. Jack ran up the stairs and quickly extinguished the flames, fearing for his possible father's safety. Meanwhile the balcony caught fire though thankfully the sound of the creature moving across the roof could be heard.
The group decided they needed to go back to the town to re-evaluate their approach. This gave them a chance to level up, offload some of the items they had pilfered, receive medical care, purchase a few scrolls, and have a good night's rest. The next morning they set off once more to the manor and, after some scrambling around in the bushes, managed to get round to the garden and avoid the courtyard (pausing briefly to observe the burnt down balcony).
Naturally their attention was drawn to the circle of oak trees around a hole which appeared to have an oak tree under the ground, it's tip poking out the hole. Chumley observed it for the pagan wonder that it was, a shrine to the druids. Atkantha saw it as a blasphemous affront to God. Sidney fell down the hole.
After reflecting on Sidney's fall the group decided to adopt a more sensible system of lowering themselves into the cavern. There they found a map to the tunnels below, a brass acorn (that sent Atkantha into a trance when she looked at the tree) and three cherub statues that they decided not to smash.
Naturally these statues attacked them at the next opportunity but the group managed to take them down before anything deadly happened. As they explored the caves they found more information on the excavation, an entrance back into the manor (that opened up into the cellar) and another big hole leading about 100ft down.
Sidney was lowered down, finding himself landing atop something soft and squishy. He lit a torch and declared that their appeared to be the bodies of several dead bearded children (having never seen a dwarf before). Jack tried his best to create a safe way to lower the group down by hammering a pickaxe into the ground and tying the rope to it - this failed, but everyone appreciated the thought never the less.
The group now found themselves approaching what sounded like an underground stream and it wasn't long before their torchlight revealed just that, along with a rose bush growing by the side. From the bush grew a single elegant black rose. They had found their target.
Sidney plucked the rose and held it aloft but nothing dramatic happened as they realised they had no real way of immediately testing it's power. Hieronymus then ordered Sidney to drink some of the water, thus killing Sidney instantly - it would seem that they had definitely found the River Styx anyway!
The group tried slapping Sidney's face with the rose which failed to restore life. Atkantha then called Sidney a prick before clarifying that she meant to prick him with the thorn of the rose - both actions failed. Sidney was an ex-adventurer, he was no more. A sombre silence befell the party as they kicked his body adrift into the stream and began their scrabble back up the tunnel.
Final Thoughts
The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem took us in total 5 hours of play. I dropped the random encounters drastically because I initially aimed to have this wrapped up in the first evening of play as a quick palette cleanser before beginning A Red and Pleasant Land next week. Had they been left in however and we had been playing a by-the-book crawl with a group who were seeking to explore the whole estate then I could see this taking a group up to 12 hours to complete. As it stood, our group were aware that the rose existed and assumed it'd be underground based on all the rumours they had heard so upon seeing the gardens they gravitated towards what looked the most promising. Going underground via the tree coupled with not searching that immediate room for secrets resulted in them missing out in some of the finer areas of the Stygian Garden (like the Stone Mother and Saffron).
The monsters are a delight though I felt moved to furnish the manor with something exciting so I dropped in the Chapel Wight from +Rafael Chandler's 'Lusus Naturae'. The manor definitely needs something I think, while at the same time it could do with losing the secret passage in the cellar - had the group found this, they'd be at the River Styx in no time, even if we had been rolling random encounters.
I initially viewed the monsters as being a bit overpowered but after seeing the group take down the cherubs fairly quickly it occurred to me that while they're strong and tough, the group did have a strength in numbers.
The premise of Stygian Garden is simple but the cards it has it plays really well. I know I'll be keeping it in my LotFP storage next to 'Death Love Doom', should I find myself needing an 'abandoned' building for some characters to stumble across. A great adventure from +Clint Krause, I advise you purchase a copy as soon as he makes it available.
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