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I have made one of my players make That Face.
Like all such stories, this requires a certain amount of setup. One of my players created a character named Jaromir, who is a woodsy sort of healer, an alchemist with some spellcasting. No combat spells, but he has been creative in the past when need be (he used 'shape wood' to drop a tree on a monster at one point). He has oracular dream powers as a sideline.
I was delighted by Jaromir, because he was perfect for slotting in to one of my planned plotlines in background and personality - a magical path that is focused on combating evil spirits. The fact that the healer with no particular combat skills was the guy that suits this is just bonus fun.
After some strange dream encounters, he met his tutor in this path, a burly ex-farmer named Lucas, who is rather secretive about approximately everything. Jaromir has learned that he is secretive about his stuff because being too forthcoming about it at one point has caused him a world of trouble with people who Just Don't Understand his demon-hunting lifestyle.
Lucas is kind of in and out, with a fair amount of "Damnit, why are you never here when I need to talk to you" on Jaromir's part, but he's an easily spooked sort of fellow.
Anyway. The party has been dealing with preparations for an Unnatural Winter Storm that's hitting late in season and hitting hard; they believe it is demon-influenced in some fashion. Jaromir tried to dream up information about it and got a vision of a wolf fleeing from creatures made out of ice.
The ice monsters seemed more or less self-explanatory, so he became obsessed with the significance of the wolf. Is there a god whose symbology could match this? A spirit? What would a turbo-evil-boosted winter storm want with a wolf? Does anyone have any thoughts about wolfy forest spirits or fairies? Who or what was The Thing In The Storm hunting with its ice monsters?
The local winter priestess came down with a terrible illness, which they cured, but she had no particular insights as to why there might have been a wolf. She did talk about the illness feeling like a mote of ice in her chest that was spreading, which was generally deemed Creepy. The creepy but apparently well-meaning local immortal wizard was asked for assistance (he is very non-interventionist but he found some things he might be able to do and described the problem in a bit more detail) and also had no ideas about wolves, just about the weave of reality wearing thin over that way.
Lucas, who had been nowhere to be found, turned up eventually, looking wrung out, and said he'd been trying to get information about where the evil was coming through, and just couldn't smell it out, and there were things out there in the storm. Eventually the party decided to grab a few NPCs and go as far as Lucas had scouted and try to press further on.
They passed some refugees who were being stalked by a half-dozen angry chickens made entirely of ice, and eventually figured out how to deal with chickens. (Which included weaponizing the 'melt ice' spell, because Jaromir's player with the lateral thinking.) They decided to tangle with the ice bull, which fortunately rolled badly on damage and did not kill one of the NPCs, and its associated farmyard friends. The matter of the ice monsters in the dream was pretty well satisfied. The wolf remained mysterious.
They eventually located a ritual site located on top of a hill that also had several clusters of ice monsters on it. They determined that it was suicidal to try to disrupt the ritual without first clearing the ice monsters, but they didn't want to fight the monsters too close to the ritual lest the ritualists decide to join in too, and the visibility was crap from blizzard and it was the middle of the night and they didn't have much in the way of ranged fighting ability so what to do.
Lucas sighed, and clearly had to resolve to do a thing. Jaromir asked if he was okay, and he said, "I can get the dogs." (It was ice dogs they were going to pull first.) He was not happy about this. "Are you sure? Is it too dangerous?" Lucas said, "This is the thing that gets me hunted," and walked off into the blizzard (again; he did this earlier while the party was having a breather).
They heard barking.
Then they heard something coming.
A wolf burst into view and charged between the NPCs, hotly pursued by several baying ice dogs.
Jaromir, quick on the uptake, shouted, "Don't hurt the wolf, it's a friendly wo--" and then the player just stopped.
Because on the field, there was a wolf.
Being pursued by ice monsters.
No deeper meaning. No special symbolism.
Just that guy.
He saw that guy in his dreams.
Again.
I laughed so hard.
Like all such stories, this requires a certain amount of setup. One of my players created a character named Jaromir, who is a woodsy sort of healer, an alchemist with some spellcasting. No combat spells, but he has been creative in the past when need be (he used 'shape wood' to drop a tree on a monster at one point). He has oracular dream powers as a sideline.
I was delighted by Jaromir, because he was perfect for slotting in to one of my planned plotlines in background and personality - a magical path that is focused on combating evil spirits. The fact that the healer with no particular combat skills was the guy that suits this is just bonus fun.
After some strange dream encounters, he met his tutor in this path, a burly ex-farmer named Lucas, who is rather secretive about approximately everything. Jaromir has learned that he is secretive about his stuff because being too forthcoming about it at one point has caused him a world of trouble with people who Just Don't Understand his demon-hunting lifestyle.
Lucas is kind of in and out, with a fair amount of "Damnit, why are you never here when I need to talk to you" on Jaromir's part, but he's an easily spooked sort of fellow.
Anyway. The party has been dealing with preparations for an Unnatural Winter Storm that's hitting late in season and hitting hard; they believe it is demon-influenced in some fashion. Jaromir tried to dream up information about it and got a vision of a wolf fleeing from creatures made out of ice.
The ice monsters seemed more or less self-explanatory, so he became obsessed with the significance of the wolf. Is there a god whose symbology could match this? A spirit? What would a turbo-evil-boosted winter storm want with a wolf? Does anyone have any thoughts about wolfy forest spirits or fairies? Who or what was The Thing In The Storm hunting with its ice monsters?
The local winter priestess came down with a terrible illness, which they cured, but she had no particular insights as to why there might have been a wolf. She did talk about the illness feeling like a mote of ice in her chest that was spreading, which was generally deemed Creepy. The creepy but apparently well-meaning local immortal wizard was asked for assistance (he is very non-interventionist but he found some things he might be able to do and described the problem in a bit more detail) and also had no ideas about wolves, just about the weave of reality wearing thin over that way.
Lucas, who had been nowhere to be found, turned up eventually, looking wrung out, and said he'd been trying to get information about where the evil was coming through, and just couldn't smell it out, and there were things out there in the storm. Eventually the party decided to grab a few NPCs and go as far as Lucas had scouted and try to press further on.
They passed some refugees who were being stalked by a half-dozen angry chickens made entirely of ice, and eventually figured out how to deal with chickens. (Which included weaponizing the 'melt ice' spell, because Jaromir's player with the lateral thinking.) They decided to tangle with the ice bull, which fortunately rolled badly on damage and did not kill one of the NPCs, and its associated farmyard friends. The matter of the ice monsters in the dream was pretty well satisfied. The wolf remained mysterious.
They eventually located a ritual site located on top of a hill that also had several clusters of ice monsters on it. They determined that it was suicidal to try to disrupt the ritual without first clearing the ice monsters, but they didn't want to fight the monsters too close to the ritual lest the ritualists decide to join in too, and the visibility was crap from blizzard and it was the middle of the night and they didn't have much in the way of ranged fighting ability so what to do.
Lucas sighed, and clearly had to resolve to do a thing. Jaromir asked if he was okay, and he said, "I can get the dogs." (It was ice dogs they were going to pull first.) He was not happy about this. "Are you sure? Is it too dangerous?" Lucas said, "This is the thing that gets me hunted," and walked off into the blizzard (again; he did this earlier while the party was having a breather).
They heard barking.
Then they heard something coming.
A wolf burst into view and charged between the NPCs, hotly pursued by several baying ice dogs.
Jaromir, quick on the uptake, shouted, "Don't hurt the wolf, it's a friendly wo--" and then the player just stopped.
Because on the field, there was a wolf.
Being pursued by ice monsters.
No deeper meaning. No special symbolism.
Just that guy.
He saw that guy in his dreams.
Again.
I laughed so hard.
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