Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 1: Ghouls and Ghasts

Introducing Ylva Ulfsdottir, my new Pathfinder 2e character.  She's a fey-blooded sorcerer.  Or 'forest witch', as she prefers to put it.  Our GM is aiming for something a bit more dark and gritty than your typical Pathfinder adventure - although with us lot involved, who knows how it's going to go?

It's at least twenty-five winters since Ulf went hunting in the greenwood and disappeared.

Parties went out looking for him when he first failed to come home. One of the tribe's best trackers managed to pick up his trail, and for a while was making good progress, but as the tracker got further off the beaten path, he and his companions found themselves increasingly confused, and ultimately had to abandon the attempt and follow the setting sun until they got back home. Ulf was given up for lost.

Imagine everyone's surprise when a few years later he reappeared, carrying a little girl.

Ulf never spoke of what happened in the woods. In fact, he never spoke again. The girl was too young to give any coherent account, beyond saying that her name was Ylva. She looked enough like Ulf that nobody had any doubt who her father was, although there was much speculation about her mother.

Ylva grew up as part of the Winter Bears, cared for by Ulf and other members of the tribe. As she approached adulthood it became obvious there was something a little odd about her beyond her strange origins. Nobody was going to argue too much with the girl who could tame wild animals, although sometimes when they thought she wasn't listening, people would refer to her in less than flattering terms.

Suspicions were raised when Ulf disappeared again, within a few days of Ylva being declared an adult, but she seemed quite unconcerned. Once again, attempts to track him ended in confusion. Many people expected Ylva to follow suit, and disappear after him. But as yet, she seems quite content to be a part of the tribe.

---

Hello little ones.  It's me, Ylva.  I know you're listening.

We left the camp today.  We didn't go far.  Just to the meeting place.  It felt good to walk in the forest.

There were Ulthani there.  I know, but they are not unfriendly to us.  Listen.  They had seen a ghoul.  Yes!  Of course we did.  My companions are quite skilled.  More came in the night, burrowing through the earth.  They tried to take the Ulthani, but we stopped them.

Yes, we were very brave.  Thank you.  We went in search of the ghouls and found a barrow.  There was writing on the top.  I don't know what it said.  It was written in the oldways.  We dug it up to get to the sleeping ghouls.  But when it got dark, a terrible creature appeared.

Yes, it was scary.  Let me finish!  I summoned a mitflit to help us fight.  No, I didn't get hurt, although some did.  And we won.  Remember that shriek?  That happens when we defeated the creature and the stone tablet cracked in two.

Shh.  Sleep now.  More stories later.