Chapter 34: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

The Wicked Hag of the East

As the party faces down Hala at the final location of the corruption, she comments on how fast they were getting here. The group tries to convince her that she is under the curse of love, but it's a tactic that does not work so well. Willowbark is not pleased at all, and wants to see Hala's demise. The hag tries to make a deal: Return what they stole, the crystal ball, as it is no use to them, and they can all go their separate ways, "no harm done". Willowbark and Penny is not having it. Penny moves up next to Willowbark, and gives Hala a gift. The wizard dunce cap they found in the goblin cave. Hala tries to avoid it, but Penny is too fast, and the hat instantly attunes to her, causing her to be less intelligent. Hala is not pleased by this, and turns invisible. The party manages to get a few hits in before Hala manages to remove the curse of the cap, tossing it aside, smouldering.

Fie takes to the skies, to attack from above, while Kal summons a thunderstorm. Willowbark and her pets attack as best as they can, and Penny inspires the party while attacking from a flank. In the beginning, it seems like this will be an easy fight, but Hala soon shows her true vindictiveness, causing Penny to be severely nerfed. As Fie is flying, he is mostly out of Hala's reach, but he takes a few nasty hits, before ascending above the cloud cover. Hala tells Willowbark "Today is the day you watch your friends die.", and goes all out on Kal, opening two rifts below Kal, trying to make her fall in. Kal luckily manages to just avoid entering the rifts, much to Hala's annoyance. She uses every attack she has to get Kal to perish, but Willowbark and Penny both comes from each side, attacking the hag. Fie has been awfully quiet, so the party suspects he is escaping, but as soon as Kal goes down, the cloud cover dissipates, and they can see a floating, lifeless half-orc form in the sky. Fie is very close to perishing himself.

Penny comes up from the rear, terrified of the many crabs that are coming out of the forest to attack her (that nobody else can see), and gravely wounds Hala. Willowbark, being face to face with her enemy uses the powers of her new staff to drain Hala of what little vitality she has left, to give to herself. Hala, mortally wounded, falls to the ground. Willowbark immediately helps Kal awaken, and the crabs disappear from Penny's view. Hala's body lies on the ground, and Willowbark sets Wolfsleigh on her, trying to reach the heart so they can destroy it. It manages to tear off a chunk, with Penny opening the rest. She takes an Alchemist's Fire flask, shoves it into Hala's now open chest, and strikes it, igniting the heart. Immediately, the ground shakes, and green, yellow and blue sickly energy creates a beam that surrounds the obelisk and shoots upwards to the sky. The obelisk starts to show cracks, and the red runes that are etched into it starts bleeding, and the party realizes that it will soon explode. Kal runs to the woods, as does Willowbark after jumping on Wolflee's back. Penny sends her animated sword to go help Fie escape, before running herself. Amazingly, Fie manages to wake up, maybe sensing the danger, and flees away, just in time. The obelisk detonates in a massive explosion, sending shrapnel and dark energy hurtling outwards, pushing our heroes into the growths, with a giant mushroom cloud now looming over the forest.

The Journey Home

The party, now having defeated the final hag that plagued the forests, are escaping through the thick growths surrounding the lair. Willowbark says her goodbyes to Wolfslee, hoping she will see him again, before he sets off through the woods, past the various undeads who are now shambling and dragging their way towards the party. Spending a minute, they turn themselves back into clouds, and starts to move their way west, back towards civilization. After travelling for the rest of the day, they reach the river that leads towards Rivergrounds. After the spell expires, the party descends to the ground, and tries to set up camp for the night, with Penny setting up the Tiny Hut. That evening, she takes first watch, and can hear laughing coming from the river, floating downstream. She tries to see if she can tell what is making the noise, but it is too dark, and the laughing soon disappears. She tries to tell the others about it, but they do not take her seriously it seems. Next watch, Willowbark tries to listen for the laughing, but hears nothing. On Kal's watch however, she can see the Mysterious Figure that have been seen observing them before. She tries to wake the Willowbark, but she can't see it, as it's too dark. Kal tries to approach it, but as soon as she exits the bubble, almost as if something compels her to, she blinks, and the figure disappears. She returns to the bubble, and soon hears a big shambling figure approaching. An owlbear has decided to sleep next to the bubble. She again wakes up Willowbark and Penny, and they manage to convince it that they are friendly, and if it could kindly go sleep a little further away. It complies, going to sleep next to a treestump.

The next morning, they give the owlbear some food, with Fie waking up early to make breakfast, even though Kal already made some on her watch. They ask the Owlbear about the laughing, and it describes it as "water people", which it doesn't like, as they are annoying. Fie and Penny thinks these are probably some sort of water nymphs. As they set out to continue their journey, Penny makes a raft out of nothing, and the party floats down river, allowing them to travel further in a day than they normally would be able to, managing to cut down the journey to two days. On the way, they can see that the river splits, which is highly abnormal, but the group decides to continue down the main river, to civilization. During the journey, Kal casts sending to Right Handed in Woods, updating them on the hag situation, and explaining that they have neutralized the threat. Right Handed in Woods thanks for the update, and says to tell Granny that she can talk to them about permanent membership if she likes. Reaching Rivergrounds at the end of the last day, they immediately goes to the stable to look up their horses, who are very happy to see their owners again. Margerie Heiser is still a bit miffed at the party, having lost her stablehand to their nosing around, and is happy to keep the 40 gold they paid to hold their horses. Speed, Diamond, Thunder and Wildfire have all been treated well, and is looking forward to heading out in the morning. The party heads to the inn where they first met all those months ago, to get some well deserved rest in some normal beds. Tim Brownrigg is very happy to see Kal, hoping that she is finally staying for good this time, but she sadly has to disappoint him. He tries to bribe her by giving her the best room for free, as well as free lodgings for her friends, but she cannot be convinced. She is on a quest from Udall after all. He understands, but is visibly disappointed.

Time for some Answers

That night, after having entertained the guests, eaten some food, and gone to their rooms, the party sits down to talk about their experiences and thoughts on the current situation. Willowbark wants to sleep on the floor, having been "forced" to sleep inside, but Kal insists that she at least sleeps on the soft rug. Willowbark doesn't understand why when the floor is perfectly comfortable already. Penny, in the meantime, seems frustrated at her patron. She asks him what he wants from her, and want answers on why he wants her to do the things he asks before doing it. Vuthul reminds Penny that they made an agreement. If he helped her find Morgan Lowblade she promised to release him from his bonds. He is now even a bigger part of her than he was in the beginning, and he could at any point just force her to do what he says, but he doesn't want to do that. He wants Penny to do this willingly, as she promised. The rest of the party can hear Penny's side of the conversation, and asks what his plans are, and if he is going to kill all the gods, as he has already killed Roshan, whom he describes as simply being "in the way". He tells Penny that he doesn't want anyone to die, he simply wants equality. At one point, he even takes control of Penny, forcing her to walk out the door, but Kal manages to stop her. He tells Penny that it was merely a demonstration of his "kindness" that he doesn't do that normally, but Penny is acting like a brat, so she needs to be put in her place. Seems like they have gotten as much out of him for now as they can, but they remember that Sildar Hallwinter told them to head towards Ravenforge to meet Hamil Fatrabbit, as he might have some answers to what The Key's true purpose is. Willowbark points out that they all, except for her, have voices in their heads that tells them what to do. Ranesh asks Fie if he thinks that he is controlling, to which Fie responds that certainly not, they have a good understanding. A thunder can be heard, looming in the distance, as Udall also wants to be a part of the conversation, feeling left out.

Before going to bed, Willowbark tells the party that as she has now, seemingly, fixed what was wrong with her forest, it is time for a new name. Willowbark was a way of showing that she is out to heal a sickness, and with that sickness now being cured, she now needs a new name. Having thought a lot about it, she has settled on a new name. One that represents the fact that she now follows where the path takes her, flowing with the wind, helping wherever she can... Dandelion.

The party immediately have much feedback on this name, being who they are, but they in the end accept the new name, but makes it clear that they will need a nickname. They can't decide on Dani or Dandy. Dandelion doesn't understand why Dandelion is so difficult.

The next morning, they go down to eat breakfast, with Tim trying one more time to convince Kal to stay for a bit longer, but she again says that it will not be possible. After having eaten breakfast, they go to their room before heading out. Dandelion takes out The Crystal Ball to scry on her family. Before she enters the vision, she can feel something happening, but can't focus on what. As her consciousness gets dragged into the crystal ball, she appears in the forest yet again. She can see Sage sitting with Bear and one other member of the tribe. In the background she can see Aster walking around. It seems like the tribe is relatively calm, having stayed in the same location for a while now. Eventually, Droop walks up to the campfire where Sage is sitting, and takes some food. He asks Sage if they are moving on soon, with Sage responding not for a few more days. It seems like Granny and Wren have not returned yet. As she comes out of the vision, she tells the party what she saw, but also that she felt something go "wrong" when trying to scry. Fie immediately holds his pearl to Dandelion's forehead. He can tell that she has been cursed, and is now one step closer to death (having permanently failed a death saving throw). Fie deduces that repeat use of the Crystal Ball curses the user, and each use further takes the user closer to death. The party decides to not use the Crystal Ball anymore, although Fie and Kal both can use it once before being cursed themselves. Kal tries to remove the curse, but it does not stick. They now know they have to find some way to remove it, so they have to find someone more powerful.

Heading West

After gathering their things and saying goodbye to the innkeeper, they gather their horses and set out west towards Chasten Crossing along with a small group heading that way. After about three days travel, they reach the small town, split in two by a river, connected by a bridge. As soon as they enter the town, they notice that it is very out of the main road, having no shops or establishments, other than a small inn called Pearl's. Dandelion however notices on the bounty board a missing poster. For Tim. They immediately sets out to find whoever put up the poster, a woman named Vicky Sheldon. Penny just starts shouting the name Vicky, stopping a few townsfolks who point her in the right direction. They head over the bridge, to the house that the man pointed out. A nicer looking house, definitely newer than most of the village. They knock on the door, and is met by a young woman, Vicky. She explains that she put up the poster as Tim, a local boy went missing over half a year ago. When the party tells her that they saw someone who fit their description near Phandalin and Rivergrounds, she can hardly believe it, as he doesn't seem like the person to run away. He was a very smart young man who helped his parents out in the fields. When the party asks to talk to the parents, she regretfully informs that they both were found in the river, seemingly having drowned a few months back. It seemed like an accident, as they had no wounds or injuries, other than having drowned. Kal tells Vicky that as a cleric, she can talk to the corpses to get answers. Vicky says that is a splendid idea, but sadly, the crypts where they are laid to rest have been overtaken by steeders, a form of spider-like monstrosity from the Underdark. The party gives a sigh, and asks where the crypts are, as they can surely take care of it. She points them south of the village, and gives the party the key to enter the crypt.

Exterminating the Vermin

The party leaves their horses in the local "stable" if one can call it that, and heads south to the crypts. They find an ancient stone-structure with large metal doors. They realize that this crypt have probably been her far longer than the village have existed, probably from an earlier civilization, being claimed by the local villagers for use as a burial crypt. Fie unlocks the door, and opens it with Penny's help. They quietly descends into the darkness to clear out whatever might remain. As soon as they reach the bottom of the surprisingly long stairs, they can see a few spider-like entities, orange skin, with a yellow sticky substance emanating from their legs. It seems to not be that much of a challenge, as in few numbers they are easily squished. As they descend deeper however, they actually get attacked by a few who manages to get close enough, and they do a surprising amount of damage. Moving south they do take out two female steeders that have set up a lair in the crypts. Seems like the smaller ones are males. Having cleared out the south side of the crypt, they open the double door at the end, finding a long hallway where most of the villagers are buried. Seems like the steeders did not manage to enter that area, so the corpses should be untouched.

Kal, having activated her Spiritual Guardians lead the party north to the rest of the crypt, finding a hulking "queen" of the steeders, surrounded by male suitors. Dandelion uses her moonbeam to burn her, and Kal runs to the centre of as many male steeders as she can to burn most of them away. After almost having overwhelmed Penny, taking her down, Kal, Fie and Dandelion finishes off the rest, before helping Penny get back on her feet. They take a quick look around the crypt, and Fie finds where they came in. Behind a cracked door, he can see a hole in the wall, with a tunnel leading down deeper into the ground. He examines the hole, and removes a few rocks, causing the tunnel to collapse, closing off the immediate danger.

Everyone apart from Fie is sweaty, tired, and full of insect guts and parts. They head back up the stairs, and closes the door behind them. As they return to Pearl's, everyone stops to look at them. Kal exclaims to Vicky "we have purified your crypt". Everyone in the bar cheers, and Vicky sends a few workers down to seal off the wall where they came in. The party sits down for the night, getting free drinks as they helped the town, with Penny putting on a performance for the villagers. Penny creates an extremely expensive bottle of wine, that even Dandelion can drink as it tastes so delicious. Fie is impressed by the taste. After traveling for the whole day, and now fighing off a horde of spider-like beings, the party gets some free accommodation by the townsfolks, and go to sleep.