33 Erathisway 4520 - Poisonings, a Hag and Dunkelgrun East

Arkomir writes...   In the morning, Dharra gets up early (for her) to try her mystic conflux spell. We cast fly on the horses again to look around for land marks and we see some new ground, but still can't quite make out what we want to see. We give it up as a lost cause for today and head over to the road. We land our horses and head along the road to Dunkelgrun East. We travel the whole day and in the afternoon there is a light rain that falls that cools us down a bit. As it approaches sundown we arrive at Dunkelgrun East.   The town itself is about the same size as Oxenhalt, but a bit more spread out. There is a lazy river that meanders through the town and a wall (of sorts) that surrounds the town, but doesn't completely circle it. The town is a relatively loose cluster of buildings with a small town green or common in the centre with a small statue to one side of the common. As we enter, a gnome crosses our path, hunched with thinning hair and she turns to us and tells us to "Fuck right off". We also see a Tiefling male up ahead, who seems to be a local worker. His name is Thaniel Infernus, who turns out to be Aleifs brother. He apologises for the gnome, whom everyone refers to as Old Bitch. We enquire about the Moulton delegation and they have been invited to the Landry house. Benjamin and Elsa Valtervold Landry invited them for dinner. Thaniel agrees to show us around the sites and the tavern. We walk into the common and past the statue and as we do, Dharra sends a quick message to Moulton saying that we are here. Dharra gets a quick message back saying that they are poisoned and to come quickly. As we look at the home up ahead, we see Moulton come to a balcony, and is then struck from behind.   We quickly enter battle with our intent being to save Moulton. As we arrive at the dining room of the Landry house, we see a scene of carnage. Moulton is on the ground, poisoned and beaten, Kugulex, Essa, Alby Kelder and Saldr Baumer are all also poisoned. Dharra arrives next to me and gives her axe to Moulton. I heal Moulton a bit and then stand between him and the attacker. This male attacker is covered in scars down his arms, and has as open wound as well. He says to the room 'we have trouble - time to help' then slashes through his arm again before attacking me. As Moulton gets to Essa to start healing her, the serving girl in the room transforms into a hag. The Hag then starts attacking us as well, and is clearly in charge of the fighter as well. The battle rages on and Moulton falls again, but we manage to stabilise some folk during the battle. Kugulex takes out one of the demon dogs during battle, but Obek also falls. We finish off Blake, the ,male attacker and Hag flunky, and start working our way through the demon dogs. I finally manage to finish off the Hag and her last dog and turn my attention to helping Essa and the others. We stabilise all the folks in the room as Kugulex comes back in from the balcony. We then turn to Moulton and ask, 'What the hell happened'.   Moulton, now stabilised, tell us that things happened pretty quickly. Dharra asks where Elsa is and he tell us that she is apparently on her way to Battervold. We hear sounds coming from the stairs as reinforcements start to arrive. Thaniel arrives with some Middenwald Cavaliers. They survey the scene and then tells us there is another body on the stairs before asking for details of what occurred. Moulton lays out what occurred at the start of their arrival in town saying they were quickly invited to dinner after arriving in town. They booked some rooms at the tavern and then made their way to the Landry house. As they started their main course, people started to freeze up. Moulton luckily had not eaten much as was able to let us know what was taking place. Blake then entered the room, killed Benjamin, then headed to Moulton. Obek was able to start helping folks before the serving girl said something and then Obek became a mouse and she put him in a carafe of wine. It was at that moment that Moulten received Dharra's message and we entered the scene. We lay out our part of the battle and how we managed to overcome them. Dharra thinks back to the dog's voice we heard that sounded familiar. When we were on the road to Riverfall, we had an encounter with some things we could not see. That voice is the same as the voice from the dog and they were talking about Goblins.   We turn our attention to Thaniel and ask if anyone in the area is referred to by the name Granny. He mentions a Granny Rowena who lives outside of town and often offers help and advice to those who ask. The man in charge, Garrett Hulmer, asks our names and we offer to help. He signals to Keddra, a dwarf who arrived with him, to lock the city down, whilst he scouts about. Dharra says that we have a chance to speak with Benjamin and ask him limited questions so we prepare what we would like to ask. After setting our list of questions, Essa offers to say a few words to him once the spell is cast to try to tell him that we are hear to listen and not to judge. We move him to another part of the room and clean him up a bit and then Dharra casts her spell. Essa says a few words to him and we then ask our questions.   We start by asking hat were the circumstances around Elsa's departure. In a raspy and laboured voice, the reanimated corpse of Benjamin Landry responds that his wife came down from the tower above and announced she wanted a few days in Battervold to do some shopping. This is not an uncommon occurrence, however, not usually so spur of the moment. She left mid afternoon with a small retinue of Kelsey and Oscar.   Our second question is whether knew Blake and the Hag referred to as Granny. Again, he answers that a maid named Sally sometimes served them. She is a nice girl. He doesn't know a Granny per se though. Elsa would sometimes visit a Granny in the woods, a woman called Granny Rowena. She did this before they were married. He only knows Blake as a local huntsman who they used to get good cuts of meat.   Our third question centres around why they he may have been targeted. He answers that he can't think of a reason what he would be targeted, only his fears explain a potential reason why and he will take those e fears with him. He wants us to tell Elsa that he loved her.   Our fourth question asks what are your fears about why this may have happened. He responds that he doesn't see himself as important, his wife was more so. His fears are more those of a simple man who marries above his station. He urges us to look closer, there is sadness and despair in this town, too much and too many end their suffering and themselves. He wishes he could have made more people smile.   As promised to him earlier, our last question is, what are the last wishes or instructions he may wish to convey. One last time, the raspy and laboured voice of Benjamin replies that we see to her safety. He urges us to find the reason behind Blake being here. He also urges us to find Granny and the reason behind her being here. He grants half the docks ownership over to the village and asks to be remembered well if possible.   We thank him for his time and for answering our questions. He says that the queen beckons him and he calls her beautiful - with that, he is gone. Moulton says that they will stay in town for a few days to see to the plans for the city. Keddra returns and says that the butler, the cook and Sally were found asleep downstairs and they don't remember anything of the night. They fell asleep just before the guests arrived. Thaniel says that he knows where Blake and Granny's houses are - in the Willow & Whisper Wood nearby. We decide to head up to the tower to suss that out for any information.   Heading upstairs, we are in a cupola and these top floors are more recent than the rest of the house. It has lookout that is pointed North toward Battervold and the Willow Wood and from here we could just about make out Belhaim. There is a small set of stairs that lead up to another lookout and we see a looking glass here as well as one down below. The one up here is pointing down the road to Darin's Fall. The one below is pointed roughly toward Belhaim. We ask if we can see Elsa's rooms and we don't find many papers but we we do find an excessive amount of jewellery. We see some correspondence from her brothers and whilst we are doing this we take a short rest. We then decide to head to the Willow Wood to check out Blake's house.   Moulton heads back to the tavern whilst we head to the Willow Wood with Thaniel. We cross the river and head into the woods and as we do he points out a shrine to Pelor on the road into the woods. There is a semblance of a path but it is a bit tricky to navigate. Without too much drama though, we arrive at a hollow under a ridge line and there is a small cottage nearby that is Blake's house. Looking around, we see there is some light leaking out from the windows and doors and I hear the faint sounds of a horse from the stable nearby. We knock on the door but don't get a response. I open the door and survey the scene inside. It is a very neat space with a curtain that closes off a bedroom section. The fittings in here look better than we would expect and we see Elsa in a silk nightdress trying to open the back door. We start to quiz her on why she is here and what she is doing whilst also sending a message to Moulton to come as quick as he can.   We ask Elsa to sit and we wait and some time passes and before Moulton and Essa arrive, follwed by Kugelux, Obek, Alby and Saldr bringing up the rear. Essa lets the Cavaliers know that we have Elsa and that she is safe. She casts Zone of Truth, but Elsa manages to resist this somehow. Moulton lets her get changed and then takes her into custody on conspiracy to commit murder. Dharra looks around for any evidence that may be useful in the cottage. We look around for any evidence of Elsa's groom and maid, but find none. Elsa confirms that they are at the way station on the road to Battervold. The Moulton delegation takes Elsa into custody and heads back to town. We head over to the Whisper Wood to check out the Hag's house.   Thaniel leads on again as we head to Granny's house. The wood starts to get a bit thicker and danker as we head into the Whisper Wood. After about 10-12 minutes we come to a smallish clearing with a hillock atop which is a small cottage. I reach out with Divine Sense and get the feeling of a fey being inside the cottage. Dharra casts Detect Magic and gets a feeling about the cottage as well. What we are seeing is an illusion and the actual cottage is fetid and putrid and decaying. Holding an action, we move up a bit and call out before Dharra throws a fire bolt at the door. We hear something sloshing and slurping about inside. We head into battle with something.   Looking through the door of the cottage, we see a large cauldron bubbling away. There is a body slumped on the floor in front looking like it has slopped out of the cauldron. The body stands up with a vague resemblance of Eleanor. We ascertain that this may be a further illusion and start attacking. As we start to make inroads, the figure transforms into Granny again. I manage to tip over the cauldron, spilling the contents into a pit nearby. Another being rises from the pit and moves toward Dharra. This being is a conglomeration of foul and fetid things with numerous arms and appendages and it slops and slurps its way toward us. The fight between us and the Hag and its being rages through the cottage. During the fight the cottage starts to shudders and moves as we inflict damage to the Hag. At the end of the fight, with the hag and its being dealt with, the tree that formed part of the cottage stands up.   The tree rips the remains of the cottage apart and then it speaks to us. The tree asks who brings the light to this place and we introduce ourselves. It pulls a jar from the remains of the cottage and opens it, releasing a faerie which flits around behind the tree. It asks if we came to end Granny and we say that we did. We ask if the wood will recover and it says it will with help and with time. It continues to smash the cottage to pieces and then reaches in again and brings out a small book. It gives us the book, calling it a record of her deeds. We take it and flick through finding numerous entries with Elsa's name. The tree tells us his its name which is Quercaya The sprite then flits down in front of us telling us its name is Rhubarb. We ask if granny is gone for good now and it confirms that she is. We also ask if we can come back and see them again and they say we are welcome in their wood.   We question Thaniel about the entry that relates to him in Grannies book. It was to give Aleif a good luck trinket, a ring which she wears. We head back to town with Thaniel in tow. As we head back, we can here Quercaya moving through the woods as well. Back in town, we relate everything to Moulton and hand over the ledger to him as well. We partake in some food and drink. As we are having our meal, Thaniel's father comes in and they have a chat. They embrace and they sit to catch up. The door opens and a young woman comes in, wearing a dirty, foul dress. This was the gnome we saw before called Old Bitch, now transformed. Her name is Ursula and she is in tears. It would appear that things are starting to revert back to their true forms all over town. The Rosanna mentioned in the Hag's book is Elsa's mother.