Session 5: Bait & Switch

Tuesday, November 24th, 2020 6:30pm-11pm

General Summary

After catching each other up, in the most basic of senses, with their mission successfulness (or lack their of) from the previous session, Duul and Emyr "introduce" the hoard of former slaves to the group. Thimbald questions their presence on the property, learning that these dozen slaves, eleven of whom are magically inclined, have been "adopted" from the former baron's daughter's business. He is unsettled by this but can do little to argue against it. He then informs them that they have another job request, which comes with a sponsorship opportunity. This, at least, would make up for the one-third of potentially missed funding. Before the party began to discuss the new job itself, they met up with various members of the estate, each of the remaining party members was given their various new weapons: Eldin's Leafbow, Emyr's Bow of Doubling, Lavug's Wofrite Quarterstaff, Duul's Brass Knuckles, and Ghozun's Wofrite Greataxe. Taking advantage of their downtime, Slab worked to try to persuade the newly freed slaves into joining a militia. They try to coax him into training them for their own means, to which he retorted that they would owe him if he granted such a favor. Emyr makes arrangements to have a custom saddle commissioned for Chompsky, which would be equipped with a plethora of quivers, which puts him down 60GP. 
Thimbald, a bit exasperated at being ignored, draws their attention back to him in order to explain the request. A Ghizian Duchess has heard of the estate's plights, and offers the exchange of funding for a favor, requesting that they meet up with her for the exact details. Heading off of estate grounds, they discover that they have been afforded a new, much sturdier carriage, designed specifically to be pulled by a bear. The roof in particular is actually specifically fashioned to support the weight of people riding atop it. Moving to test such a thing out, Slab accidentally bounces atop it too much, affording their shiny new carriage a nice new, Dwarf-Orc ass sized sun roof. With an otherwise uneventful journey, they arrive at the Oglethorpe estate at tea time.
They are introduced to a well-dressed human blonde woman whom they greet pleasantly stating that they have arrived upon their request. Exchanging pleasantries and dancing around the topic at hand, she invites them to the tea room for a more private conversation. Suspicious of all the privacy and polite dodging, the party follows cautiously, making sure that they are not followed on the way there. They party checks for poisons as Duchess Oglethorpe dismisses the staff and instructs them not to interrupt. Her task is a rescue mission for her son, who was taken in the night a few days prior, likely the day she penned the letter to them. She has no suspicions on the culprit, in large part because no demands or ransoms were placed. The child is only two years of age, and aside from the disturbance in the room proper, there are no signs of anyone entering or exiting the property. With the party members agreeing to take a look at the scene of the crime, she tears up as she retrieves the portrait beside her, offering it to Lavug before standing to request the staff return and lead them to her child's room.
Following one of the servants to the second floor and taking a right, they head towards the west wing to investigate. Searching the rooms for themselves, they discover that there is still nothing of apparent note in the room; no strangeness in a physical sense. "Alistair" is in cursive iron lettering above the crib, signifying the baby's name. With Duul's Detect Magic, however, he is able to see a very vivid magical trail going from the crib to the window. Emyr takes a stuffed animal and silk blanket to use for Chompsky to attempt to track him by scent. The party makes their way along the paths and trails, trying to track where someone may have come, though there's little trail without the aid of the magical bloodhound. 
Eventually, they make their way to a small archway made of sticks. However, scorchmarks can be seen around the archway. The archway appears to be some form of magical doorway, though how it works or where it goes is anybody's guess. Hazarding a guess, Duul launches a Firebolt at the archway, immediately activating it for the portal that it is. Slab jumps through the portal first, discovering that the forest on the other side seems like a less lively one but still somewhat normally. He cannot hear anything from the portal except for the crackle of fire. He can, however, still see them, and pulls Lavug through, who is followed more willingly Eldin. Emyr and Duul follow after, more cautiously. With everyone through, the portal closes, but is reopened upon Duul's recasting of Firebolt. From what they can tell, they appear to either be in the feywilds or something very distinctly fey in some measure. Because of their new location, Duul's Detect Magic trail has been largely snuffed out, his senses overwhelmed by the sheer volume of radiant, stagnant arcanic essence in the forest. 
Continuing their search, they eventually find footprints, which at some point are joined by a set of small human footprints alongside it. Cautious to the point of concern, the party begins to draw their weapons in preparation for a battle, following the trail. Eventually, they come up to a rocky cliffside, where the footprints proceed onward towards, between the trees. Eldin tosses a rock towards the cliff face, though it acts according to normal rules. Duul, meanwhile, decides to play by fey rules, walking up and knocking on the rocks. They part like sliding doors to reveal a dark tunnel within, where the footsteps proceed onward. Duul immediately warns them to accepts no deals or food while here before walking onward. Eldin decides to hang back and sneak along after the party for back-up. This doesn't work terribly well, but Emyr and Slab, however, end up inadvertedly becoming one with the stone. The party begins to hear three distant voices further into the cave. Duul immediately speaks.

"Excuse me, ladies, I don't mean to intrude." - Duul Painted-Hide

"You were followed?!" One of the green-skinned women exclaims, where the drow women immediately protests. Duul does his best play at a devilishly handsome, toothy grin at the women, who dismissed the drow. This leaves Duul, who claims that the boy was his snack that has been taken, to a rather disturbingly civil discussion with the hags, offering Lavug as a trade for the baby in an attempt to keep them talking. Duul claims to have raised the child specifically for his meal, to which the hags immediately call his bluff. This falls into a mess of the hags talking circles around each other and Duul about the prospects of demon blood and contracts. 
While all of this is going on, the sneaking members of the party make their way around their meeting, carefully avoiding alerting the trio of women but able to listen to the conversation as it unfolds. Emyr makes his way to one of the tables, collecting a book from atop it. This book, disturbingly, appears stitched together with skin. Cautious, Eldin readies his bow, knocking an arrow in preparation. Slab, for his part, makes his way to a side passage to the right of this first room, discovering the hag's sleeping quarters but nothing else of note or value besides bedside plates covered in bones picked nearly clean, like chicken wings. Proceeding deeper into the den, he comes across another room that has a pair of identical children, both of which look very specifically like Alistair. They seem curious of each other, babbling and investigating each other as toddlers do; Alistair is, after all, 2 years of age.
For effect as he proclaims that the deal was made with him and the child is his due, he casts Thaumaturgy to dim the lights and cause his voice to boom.  During this exchange, Lavug starts recording the interesting occurrences surrounding his tiefling companion, studying as he does. The hags instruct the drow woman to take Duul to the children, where he proclaims that he will know which of them is "his". He tries holding iron coins to their skin, though neither seem to react to it. The tiefling then attempts to use Identify on the pair of children, finding that one is under the effects of Change Appearance specifically while the other is affected by Alter Self. He grabs the one covered by Alter Self, and the drow immediately requests that they make a deal; why doesn't he take both children? She makes a deal with him to keep him protected, forming a temporary alliance with the tiefling-orc. They aim to take out the hags together, freeing them both as well as the babies from the crooked women's grasp. With Lavug having everything to lose, as the bargaining chip for Duul to take the child, he's left with little choice but to roll along with the punches and hopefully dish out a few on his own. Duul instructs the drow woman to remain in the babies' room, having Lavug stay with the children in the hags' bedroom. He goes out to demand they show him the children, claiming that they weren't there. They lead him there themselves and are immediately startled and confused by the lack of babies in the location. James then casts Darkness and books it out. The party catches the cues, mainly him screaming, "Run," well enough to follow along after him before the hags can react. Slab casts a pair of Thunderwaves to ensure their getaway. On the second shot, however, they manage to pinpoint where Slab is located, at least in the vaguest sense. Realizing that Slab is now between a rock and a hard place, Duul uses Minor Illusion to distract the hags from his companion's position, successfully distracting and confusing them. While everyone else gets into position, including the Drow leading the toddlers out of the den, Slab flees the room to the safety of numbers. Emyr moves to Hunter's Mark the drow woman, for tracking purposes, before moving to position. When the Hags finally show their faces, the party immediately pummels them with arrows and magic.
Combat begins, properly.
Once both hags were killed, Duul and Emyr set off to track down the drow, leaving the remaining party members to loot. Thankfully, she didn't go far, playing with the children nearby the cave entrance. Duul invited her to join them, but she declines, wandering off into the wilds and leaving the party with the strange pair of children. The party finds nothing of value, dumping over the cauldron at the center of the room, with Lavug locating a glass dragonfly with tiny fluttering wings and Eldin tossing a gaseous green rag onto the fire. Slab claims their glass crystal ball and the now-emptied cauldron, handing Emyr a very potent poison he identified from the tables. 
Taking them back to the mansion, the duchess is initially overjoyed before realizing that the other child was brought along as well, accusing him of being demon spawn. She explains that her husband was killed an accident, and she was supposed to as well, along with her unborn baby. The duchess took a deal not realizing what it meant, giving birth to the child she glares at in disgust. Eventually, a woman came offering an exchange; a child she could love for the one she gave birth to. She tried to refuse her blood-tied child, requesting the other repeatedly and reminding them of the funding; do as she asks and they will have the deal as she had offered. Emyr decides to take on the original child with the intent to bring him to Wynne for safety and someone to care for him. In the future, they plan to terminate the Oglethorpe contract as soon as they have the funding to do so comfortably.

Report Date

24 Nov 2020

Going Forward...

The party needs to name the "other" child that has come into their care, or at least warn Wynne that he has, up to this point, been raised by hags and does not have a name.