Mother (Session 21)

Stub-class article · First seen: s21 · Last seen: s24
Mother (Session 21)
Mother
Portrait of Mother (Session 21).
Character
StatusUnknown
First seens21
Last seens24

Mother is a figure known only second-hand: in session 21 Fen, the one witness to the kidnapping of Pell from Greysmere, said that one of the three charcoal-robed kidnappers said “Mother wants him alive.” as they dragged Pell “up north to the woods” [1]. In session 22 the silver dragon Rime, hiding in the ridge temple, spoke of a woman who arrived there “a couple of weeks ago” and “said her name was Mother Sarah”, with “Something about bringing back stronger undead” [19], and in session 23 he asked the party “Are you ready to face Mother Sarah?” [22]. In session 24 he says only “Sarah”: he will join the party “when you go to fight Sarah”, and she is “completing the ritual” [16][17]. She is probably the same figure as the kidnappers’ Mother, but the DM has not said so, and she has not been seen, so her status is unknown.

Overview

Mother is known first through what Fen told Father Thomas and Terry at the Greysmere inn on the night Pell was taken. One of the three charcoal-robed people who came with undead said “Mother wants him alive.” [1]. It is not even certain that “Mother” is a name rather than a title. The DM has said it is for the party to investigate in play, and that the title alone does not establish who or what she is (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). Session 22 brought a second-hand name, “Mother Sarah”, which is probably the same figure; the DM has not said so, and the spelling of Sarah is unconfirmed. In session 24 Rime says only “Sarah”, and that she is “completing the ritual” [16][17]. This page keeps its title and does not take “Mother Sarah” as an alias until he does.

Appearance and demeanour

She has never been seen or described. All that is known is Rime’s report that she arrived at the temple a couple of weeks before the party, and that a black pulse runs through the statue “every single time she does it” [18][19]. In session 24 she is still undescribed: Rime says only “Sarah” and “she” [16][17].

Relationships

  • The charcoal-robed kidnappers: the three robed people who took Pell, and who invoked her [1].
  • Pell: the boy she wants alive [1]. Father Thomas’s guess that he is “a human sacrifice” is his own; the DM states no link between Pell and the ritual [14].
  • Rime: the only person who names Mother Sarah, and who has been hiding in the temple from her cultist [19][20]. In session 24 he will “join you when you go to fight Sarah” [16].
  • The pendant cultist (Session 23): the woman the party killed at the temple, who spoke of an executioner and a master, not of Mother. She is not Mother Sarah on the evidence [5][6][21][22].
  • Fen: the only witness. His own mother, at whose house the innkeeper says he might be found, is a different and unnamed woman [2].

Disposition towards the party

Unknown. She has had no contact with the party, though Rime wants them to stop her and the sealed door suggests that whatever is inside knows they are in the temple [18][23].

Notable quotes

“One of them said, one of them said, what was it? Mother wants him alive.” — Fen (Nick, DM), [1]

“She came in here a couple of weeks ago. She said her name was Mother Sarah? Something about bringing back stronger undead.” — Rime (Nick, DM), [19]

“Sure. Are you ready to face Mother Sarah?” — Rime (Nick, DM), [22]

“Now hurry, she’s completing the ritual.” — Rime (Nick, DM), [17]

“Seems we have uninvited visitors. Deal with them, my darlings.” — Nick (DM), [24]

History in the campaign

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Main article: Session 21

Mother is named once, second-hand. Fen, the only witness to Pell’s kidnapping, told Father Thomas and Terry that three people in charcoal robes had come with undead, and that one of them said “Mother wants him alive.” as they dragged the boy “up north to the woods” [1]. Nothing says who Mother is, or whether the word is a name or a title; the DM left the question for the party to investigate in play (the DM’s post-s21 clarifications, 2026-09-27). Fen’s own mother is a different woman [2].

Session 22: The Dragon in the Statue

Main article: Session 22

In the ridge temple, the wounded silver dragon Rime squeezed out of a statue’s back and said, “She wasn’t supposed to start taking people.” [25]. He asked the party to stop “her”: a black pulse ran through the statue and ached in their bones, “every single time she does it” [18]. Asked who she was, he said she had come “a couple of weeks ago” and said her name was Mother Sarah, with something about “bringing back stronger undead” [19]. He had hidden from the cultist and meant to “stop the cultist before I leave” [20], and offered a hand once the party was ready to face Sarah [26]. Hugo’s label for the cult’s leader was “the Necromancer” [27], a player’s word, not the DM’s.

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

Mother is not seen, but the name returns. The party killed a woman cultist who was leading a manacled prisoner to be sacrificed and who spoke of “the executioner” and “the master”, not of Mother [5][6][28]. Told that the party had fought a female cultist, Rime asked whether they were ready to face Mother Sarah [21][22], and looked to a sealed door that needs “the black orbs” [29][30]. Father Thomas smashed it, and the DM said that whatever was inside now knew they were there [23]. Then a voice rang through the temple: “Deal with them, my darlings.” [24]. The DM did not say whose.

Session 24: The Knight of Smoke

Main article: Session 24

Sarah is not seen, but Rime speaks of her twice more in the DM’s voice. Asked for help, he said “I’ll join you when you go to fight Sarah.” and “Now hurry, she’s completing the ritual.” [16][17]. The DM says nothing of what the ritual is. In the same stretch he narrates a pulsing that speeds up “as something is growing in the antechamber”, a low chanting that begins as the last skeleton falls, and a chanting “nearing a peak”, and he links none of it to her [10][11][15]. Terry’s “the world will end” and Father Thomas’s “human sacrifice” are the players’ guesses [13][14].

Status

As of session 24. Unknown. Mother has not appeared. If she is the woman Rime calls Mother Sarah, his reports put her in the temple, arrived about two weeks before the party and behind the pulses the party felt [18][19], and his glance puts her behind a sealed door the party cannot yet open [29][30]. In session 24 he says she is “completing the ritual” [17]. The DM has not said that she is Mother. Open questions: whether Mother and Mother Sarah are one person, how Sarah is spelled, what the ritual and the “stronger undead” are, who chants, what is growing in “the antechamber” and which room that is, whose voice said “my darlings”, whether the dead cultist’s “master” is her, and where Pell is [19][31][6][24][10].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 21, line 289: Fen: "One of them said, one of them said, what was it? Mother wants him alive." and "they were dragging him up north to the woods".
  2. ^ Session 21, line 454: Fen may be found "at his mother's": his own mother, a different person.
  3. ^ Session 22, line 864-929: Rime: "She wasn't supposed to start taking people."; the black pulse "every single time she does it"; "She came in here a couple of weeks ago. She said her name was Mother Sarah?"; he must "stop the cultist before I leave".
  4. ^ Session 22, line 1899-1904: As the session ends, one cultist and five undead minions walk into the temple.
  5. ^ Session 23, line 310: The cultist of session 23 speaks of an executioner and a god, not of Mother: "take him to the executioner and make him a sacrifice for God".
  6. ^ Session 23, line 891: Her last words name "the master": "I will gladly die for the master, but you first.".
  7. ^ Session 23, line 1640-1649: Told that the party "fought a female cultist", Rime asks "Are you ready to face Mother Sarah?" and looks to the sealed door.
  8. ^ Session 23, line 1677-1690: The door needs "the black orbs"; Father Thomas strikes it: "whatever is inside the room knows you're here now".
  9. ^ Session 23, line 1748-1757: An unidentified voice through the temple: "Seems we have uninvited visitors. Deal with them, my darlings." (the plural confirmed; not identified with her).
  10. ^ Session 24, line 321: The pulsing in the temple is "starting to slowly but surely speed up as something is growing in the antechamber".
  11. ^ Session 24, line 382: As the last skeleton falls, "a low chanting spreading out through the temple".
  12. ^ Session 24, line 427-429: Rime: "I'll join you when you go to fight Sarah."; "Now hurry, she's completing the ritual.".
  13. ^ Session 24, line 603: Terry's guess, not the DM's: "possibly the world will end".
  14. ^ Session 24, line 938: Father Thomas's guess, not the DM's: "I think he is a human sacrifice".
  15. ^ Session 24, line 1633: The chanting is "nearing a peak" and the pulsing "more violent and more erratic".
  16. ^ Session 24, line 427: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 24, line 429: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 22, line 887: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 22, line 890: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 22, line 904: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 23, line 1641: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 23, line 1647: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 23, line 1690: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 23, line 1748: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 22, line 864: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 22, line 929: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 22, line 897: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 23, line 1442: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 23, line 1649: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 23, line 1677: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 23, line 652: Inline citation.
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