Session 42: On the way to the Hag Report

General Summary

Session 42 – Wednesday July 5, 2023 – To the hag

  4 Hour Battle/role play session 5:30 PM to 10:00PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6

It is the 2nd day of the month of Nightal (The Drawing Down) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Early December.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L7 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L7 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L6 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Thomas – Human, L7 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L7 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L7 Paladin – Will Johnson

Rest at the Stronghold

The party noted that the stronghold is well designed for defense. They met in the common room and Abrash mentioned that the comet in the sky was clearly red and getting larger. As they lounged around, Thomas suggested they go to their other keep and get the kobold and other stuff and bring it here. Then there was a knock on the door and Warfus, son of Borfus, Son of Doofus, son of Murthen entered the room. He explained that with Ogian out, they need some help to follow up on reports from the wolves.

The wolves had apparently reported that one of the hags that had been evicted from the forest has returned and Warfus asked if the Stone bearers could take care of this diplomatically. Gazlowe asked if they had to use force, and someone should die if anyone would be upset. Warfus explained that the party can certainly defend themselves if diplomacy doesn’t work. Warfus also mentioned that the wolves were babbling about a missing tree and a mushroom infestation, but Warfus seemed to dismiss that as random musings of the wolves. Warfus told them to head to the ancient ruins of Morynarth. The Party asked about the ancient city and Warfus provided a brief history of the Elven empires.

A Brief history of the Elven Empires

The oldest and largest empire was Aryvandaar. Established in -23,900 DR (about 25,450 years ago) in the High Forest. Known also as the Vyshaantar Empire, Aryvandaar was a sun elf kingdom that fell during the Fifth Crown War. The Crown wars were a series of wars that spanned over 3,000 years. They were started by the Elves of Aryvandar and resulted with the banishment of the Dark elves to the Underdark and the ruin of Aryvandaar.

Other empires emerged over time including the Siluvanede (which had bred with demons and were half elf/ half demons known as the Fey’ri) and the Eaerlann (Mostly Sun Elves) and Sharrven (Green and moon Elves). Around -4,500 DR the 6th Crown war broke out (also known as the Seven Citadel’s War) where Eaerlann and Sharrven fought against the Siluvanede and defeated them and imprisoned the Fey’ri.

Around -3830 DR, the Eaerlann elves began to teach magic to the relatively new human empire of Netheril. The humans eventually became obsessed and discovered ancient, long buried, and forbidden scrolls that taught them more powerful magic. The humans were granted stewardship of the Eaerlann fortress in Ascalhorn on the promise they would defend the forest from orc hordes. But the corrupt humans started summoning devils, and then demons and the land was laid to waste. In the Year of the Curse, 882 DR (about 668 years ago) the combination of the demonic invasion that spilled forth from Ascalhorn, the continued assault of the orc hordes, and the weakening of the kingdom by elves retreating to Evermeet resulted in the kingdom's collapse.

The size of the High Forest has been greatly reduced over the years. War, humans, and misused magic have destroyed or changed large swaths of the land. There are many ancient cities or long-lost remnants of them throughout the forest as it exists today. The Ladies of the wood wish to have the Elves unite and restore some of the cities. The Red Lady has a vision to restore the kingdom of Eaerlann.

After Warfus finished explaining the history and the mentioning the Red Lady, Gazlowe persuaded Warfus to believe that Eversus was incompetent. The party had the staff pack them a lunch and they were off.

A corrupt Druid grove

The party journeyed north along a well-worn trail. Abrash talked to some birds who hadn’t seen anything unusual. They passed by some ancient ruins. The party examined them for a bit and Thomas passed through the ground with his ethereal walk. He found that this is just the tip of an ancient tower buried at least 60 feet down. The party saw that it was getting late. Abrash provided Thomas with some good berries and the party continued.

After walking about 8 hours they reached a Druid Grove with a plethora of standing stones in concentric circles. Abrash saw that the grass was grey and the edge of the forest just outside the circle was also grey and dying. In the center was a decaying stump of a tree whose bark and rotted holes resembled a screaming face. Juan walked up to it, and it bit him. The stump eyes glowed it awakened a tree, vine, needle, and twig blight. Juan’s shield took on a shocked expression. Juan and his War Rooster (Bird) struck the stump (which was a Shadow Blight.) Gazlowe hit the shadow blight with fire and found it to be vulnerable to his fire. The Tree blight started attacking Juan with his branches and roots. Thomas cursed the tree causing 2 of the four attacks to miss. Abrash pointed and said “Pew” and obliterated a twig blight with his fire bolt. Isabella pulled out her axe and started chopping on the tree.

The Shadow blight’s eyes grew green, and it awakened another twig and needle blight. Thomas ran to the shadow blight and struck it with his whips. Ajani said “pew,” but his fire bolt just missed the Tree Blight. The blights swung at the party, but all missed. Juan and Bird focused on the stump and Juan destroyed it with his lance. Gazlowe pulled out a bottle of explosive liquid from the lab and threw it at the tree and blights. It destroyed one of the needle blights and hurt the tree. The Tree Blight in return smacked Gazlowe and then grappled him. Abrash hit the vine blight with his fire bolt. Isabella continued to chop at the tree with her axe.

Thomas went nuts on the tree with his whip and bloodied it. Ajani hit the tree with a chromatic orb, but the damage was minimal. Thomas was struck by the needle blight. Juan’s war rooster kicked the tree in a critical spot and knocked it over. Then the rooster hit it again and Juan struck it with his lance. Gazlowe then finished it off with his thunder gauntlets. Abrash went “pew” and obliterated the twig blight. Isabella killed the needle blight and then killed the vine blight.

An evil presence

The party started examining the druid grove looking for clues as to what it was. Abrash however (being a Druid and all) recognized it as a place where druids come to pray, commune with nature and the gods of nature and to learn new spells. This grove however has clearly been corrupted somehow. He told the party not to destroy it and then Abrash sat in the center to commune. Rather quickly, in his mind he saw a vision of a hooded humanoid who began raising his hand towards Abrash. Abrash quickly broke off the connection before he suffered any psychic damage.

Abrash explained his vision, and everyone knew that this grove was somehow corrupted. Juan got a rope from Gazlowe and started to tie it to his rooster and then a stone to pull it over and destroy this grove. The party was split on this action not knowing what would happen. Abrash knew that whatever that evil creature/god/demon was, that he had a vision of, this area was a means to commune with it. Abrash knew that a Cleric with a 5th level Hallow spell may be able to purify this land, but anything less probably wouldn’t do it. Thomas sat in the center of the circle and tried to commune but being unfamiliar with Druid practices he couldn’t make any connections.

To keep it out of the hands of evil, Abrash agreed to destroying at least a portion of the circle to disrupt it to the point where it no longer works. The party worked together to destroy one of the stones. Then Abrash again sat in the center. It took longer but Abrash was again able to make a connection to the entity. As the connection started to be formed, Abrash pushed it a bit and asked, “Who are you and why did you corrupt this place.” The vision started to form and Abrash sat the gaunt, grey skinned face more clearly, at least the lower half of the face. The lips were chapped and started to form a crooked smile. The lips moved and said, “Abrash…” Abrash quickly broke the connection knowing that the entity had reached into his mind and learned his name.

They pulled over a 2nd stone and Juan started to smash the stone. After that Abrash couldn’t make the connection again. They felt confident that the druid circle has been sufficiently disrupted. They were tired and had other things to do so they had some dinner so Juan and Thomas could rest and then they moved on.

The Hooded Robin

The sun was getting low on the horizon as the party continued traveling. They heard music in the distance. Someone was playing a mandolin and several voices were singing. They came to a small group of men. The mandolin player wore a grey cloak with a hood and had a red breast plate. There were 3 other men of differing caliber standing near him swinging mugs of ale as they sang along. The Bard looked at the party and shouted “Friends, come join us and have a pint!” Thomas, Isabella and Gazlowe all fell into the Bard’s “Fast Friends” spell and ran over to have a drink.

The bard sang a quick diddy of how they spent their day building a bridge. The bridge was made from chopped down trees and looked very sturdy. He asked the party what they were doing and Gazlowe said they were heading to take care of a hag in the swamp. He also warned the Bard that some in the forest don’t take kindly to chopping down trees. The Bard instantly knew he was talking about Ogian, and he asked the party if they knew Warfus the dwarf. Being friends, Gazlowe told him all about Warfus and what they’ve done for Ogian etc.

Seeing that Gazlowe and Thomas were acting very odd, Abrash suspected they were charmed, and he went to the woods to cast dispel magic. As he went into the woods a person who was hiding in the woods spotted Abrash and approached him asking him, “What are you doing.” Abrash quickly said, “Peeing” and unzipped and started to pee. The man got closer and Abrash turned around. The man stepped back. Abrash zipped up and ran to the party yelling, “They have men in the woods, it’s an ambush!” The man in the woods shook his head and walked calmly after Abrash.

Abrash cast dispel magic on Gazlowe and Gazlowe realized he was charmed. The Bard said, “Oh you met Much. Please understand that we simply want to build our bridge, and drink beer, there are many ruffians around who take advantage of us, you must understand, we just want to make friends. Look I even have another man on the other side.” He called out to Gusbourne. The party saw a face slowly come out of a bush, a nod of the head and then it slowly faded back into the bush.

A Toll and a bounty

Abrash didn’t detect any deception in Robins voice as he explained. Gazlowe said, “So you just want compensation for crossing the bridge.” Robin replied, “It would be kind of you to make a donation to my merry men, so their work is appreciated.” They asked how much, and Robin told them 100gp. Thomas quickly paid and Robin told them they’re free to pass.

Gazlowe asked why Robin was asking about Warfus. Robin tried to elude the answer and eventually told them that someone else was paying a bounty for him and Robin offered to split the 2,000gp bounty with the Stone Bears if they brought him Warfus. Robin refused to divulge who was paying the bounty, but he did let it slip that it was a “She.”

Robin mentioned that there have been some Orcs just north of the swamp, and they may want to check that out. Abrash asked him to drop the spell and Robin said he would as soon as they crossed the bridge and moved out of sight. Thomas realized he was charmed out of 100gp and was angry. The others contributed back to Thomas for his lost gp.

Guardians of the swamp

The party approached the swamp at dusk and were surprised when the bushes and trees and plants began to attack. Two Shambling Mounds, two Witchalders and a Doom Creeper flower started slamming the party. Isabella quickly raged and avoided being surprised. She Attacked one of the shambling mounds and critically hit it making it bleed sap. The Doom Creeper struck Abrash twice with its decaying vines and cut his health by more than half. The 2nd Shambling mound struck Gazlowe and dragged him to its base. The first Witchalder pointed its fingers at Juans lance and bent it making it a difficult weapon to wield. The other moved forward.

Isabella hacked away at the Shambling mound with her axe as the Doom creeper shot a purple ray at her, but Isabella was able to shake off the effect. Thomas attacked the Shambling mound with his whips. The Shambling mound tried to suck in Gazlowe and Thomas but they both were able to evade the vines. Abrash pulled out some sulfur and sneezed into it creating a wall of fire engulfing one of the shambling mounds, the doom creeper and both Witchalders (along with Isabella.) The shambling mound reached out to grab Isabella and Abrash. Isabella broke free of the grasp, but Abrash was pulled through the wall of fire and was swallowed by the Shambling Mound. Gazlowe cast catapult and threw a rock at the Shabmling mound, killing it and freeing a very badly hurt Abrash.

Ajani hit the Doom Creeper with a firebolt. The Witchalder ran to Juan. Thomas smacked it as it passed him by. The Witchalder grappled Juan and began throttling him so that Juan couldn’t breathe. Juan and his War Rooster fought the Witchalder. Juan used his channel divinity to frighten the plants. The Doom Creeper and one of the Witchalders. Isabella screamed from the fire and ran in a rage at the Witchalder, critically striking it and killing it. She then Struck the other shambling mound. The doom creeper tried to incapacity Juan with its flower, but Juan resisted. Thomas struck the doom creeper with his whips. The Shambling mound lashed at Isabella, and she laughed at it.

Abrash limped into the woods, dropped the wall of fire, and cast Faerie Fire on the plants. Gazlowe cast shatter and hurt the Doom Creeper and the Shambling mound. Ajani and the Witchalder both missed their attacks. Jauan and his bird attacked the Doom Creeper and badly bloodied it. Isabella finished it off with her axe chopping it into tiny bits wielding her axe like a windshield wiper. Thomas finished off the Witchalder by maximizing his whips fire damage.

The shambling mound lashed at Isabella, and she continued to laugh it off. Abrash hit the creature with a guiding bolt. Gazlowe punched it. Ajani hit the Shambling mound with a powerful Chromatic orb. The War ostrich struck the Shambling Mound and Juan finished it off very anticlimactically as he simply stabbed it with his lance, and it groaned and fell over dead.

The party looked at the plant corpses and recognized that they were created by dark magic, perhaps that of a Hag. The skies grew dark and the party, badly hurt, looked at the swamp, hearing the noises of the flies, and frogs…