1. Quests

Slay the Hog Hag

Completed
Follow-up Investigation

Loose Threads: Swine Queens body, Remainder of Coven,

Participants: Xougog, Morwin Diannon, Eleanore, Cati

Locations: Musters villageThe Iron Front, Unexplored Continent

Summary: The party goes out to the The Iron Front to slay the Hog Hag. They run into a few colourful characters along the way before engaging the Swine Queen. They manage to take her down (maybe) and free a few of the citizens of Musters village that she was experimenting on to turn into changelings. Morwin figures that she must have been in a coven in order to cast the spells that she did. Once we go to leave the body of the hog hag is no longer there with no trace to be found.



Full Report: The quest begins normally enough with Xougog, Morwin Diannon, and Eleanore all introduceing them selves to Cati and getting them caught up to speed on what happened last time the group set out to deal with what the group has been calling "The Hog Hag" or "Swine Queen". After some light banter among the party they all head out to the Iron Front. Upon arrival we reconnect with Theresa and ask for a little more information about the village we visited before and Theresa asks us to retrieve the bones of Solomon should we have the time. And with our farewells taken care of we make off for Musters village.

After 2 days travel we arrive and begin to do some scouting with little success. Cati does manage to find a Goblin riding a hog down by the river. Cati decides to engage it in diplomacy which is where things start to go weird. The Goblin is un-trusting of the party and when the boar notices Morwin Diannon, it becomes very uneasy and bolts off. At this the Goblin decides its better to take its own life then to be captured like Tusky (their boar companion). Cati not wishing for any bloodshed turns away from the Goblin hoping to show that we mean it no harm and it works. The Goblin calls back Tusky and introduces himself as Earm letting us know that Tusky is "Afraid of colors eyes". Apparently Tusky saw odd eyes when they were taken (they may have been a humanoid once upon a time). Seems like those with odd eyes have been kidnapping people from Musters village many times. (There is a moment during the conversation where it is noticed that Tusky's eyes are different colors implying there may be some latent Changeling abilities in the boar.) Eventually Earm gives us the location that they always see the odd eyes go to and asks the party to hurt those who hurt Tusky for them. So with the info from Earm the party sets off.

After travelling for a day, Cati notices 2 figures looking to get the drop on us and a fight ensues. We dispatch the first assailant and manage to restrain the second to try and gather more information from it but it begins to act strangely. The surviving Changeling makes sure to cover their ears and close their eyes offering no resistance when being bound. Xougog elects to leave the changeling with use of their hands seeing how they are not offering any resistance. once bound the changeling, using one arm to block both ears points in the direction the party was heading. Xougog tries to befriend the changling the same way he did to Love when he restrained him the last time they were here. the changeling didn't take the offering and so Xougog tries to move the changeling but they dig their nails in and he is unable to move them. So Eleanore uses message to talk to the changeling in their own head. In response, the Changeling lets us know that "The Swine Queen" can share senses with them and that is why they have been covering their ears and not looking at us. Eleanore advises that it would be best to release the changeling so Xougog unties them. After a bit of travelling the party reaches their destination.

Xougog and Morwin scout the area finding a small boar behaving strangely. Slowly, almost walking like a broken toy, a small boar comes out walking. It has foam all over his mouth and their different color eyes seems to be empty from all life in a way. For now, is just standing near the entrance, completely still, except from the occasionally violent twitch from it's muscles. Xougog and Morwin motion for the others to try and hide. then the boar begins sniffing the air finding the party. A voice emanates from the boar that is all too families to the party that encountered this creature before. It's the voice of "Hog Hag". Realizing the wind is probably giving them away Xougog tries to distract the hog to move to a better position but just after the boar turns to look, its head snaps back to where it was looking before. "The Hog Hag" taunts the party some more and Xougog uses that time to try and peer into the cave before them. Inside he sees another hog that is chained to the wall and trying to escape. Just then Morwin realizes that we may have lost the element of surprise but we still came here to kill "The Swine Queen" so she reveals herself beginning the fight.

The battle is hard fought. It starts with a clash between the party and the small boar outside. The hag using her magic to twist and contort the pig getting it to dodge all the blows. The small pigs mouth opens and says "Fine by me, let's give you a taste of what you are trying to deal with" just before it explodes! Cati is caught in the explosion while Xougog manages to dodge. The vines in front of the cave are also hit in the blast incinerating them to reveal a Giant ravenous boar. It charges the party and knocks out Cati to the ground. Eleanore wade into the fray to heal Cati as the boar turns to face Xougog. The party harries the creature some more when suddenly Morwin hears a voice next to her, the Hog Hag has appeared. The party, save for Xougog, pivots to attack the Swine Queen. The giant boar gets a good strike in on Xougog so Morwin decides to lend a hand with her bow, putting the creature down. With just the Hag left the party collapses on her getting a lot of solid hit in. In turn, the Swine Queen goes invisible, but her spell is no match for Eleanore's eyes. Enraged at being seen and with Cati's reflexes, the Hog Hag lashes out at Cati and Xougog before diving into a nearby lake. Xougog goes and dives after her, Cati moves to cover Xougog, while Morwin and Eleanore try to attack the hag from range. In the water the hag manages to land a strong attack and weakens Xougog but Cati lands a more devastating blow. As Cati's strike lands screams, presumably from the hogs spotted in there earlier, are herd from inside the cave when suddenly one of the screams stops. The Swine Queen is still alive and swims to the surface due to the strength of Cati's blow. Xougog, fearing drowning, swims to the embankment while Morwin looses a poisoned arrow striking the Swine Queen. With the poison coursing though her veins, the Hog Hag slowly swims over to the edge of the lake before dieing. Morwin has a grim realizeation, the Swine Queen was doing things that should have been difficult for a hag of that calaber. The Hog Hag must have been in a Coven. The party takes a few moments to lick their wounds before investigating the cave.

Inside they find 2 boars chained to the wall, a magic circle under their feet. Some parts of the circle read Life", "Connection", "Curse" and "Magic". Further in the party finds a book and a map. Eleanore takes the book and deciphers what she can. she finds out:

• As suspected by Morwin, the "Swine Queen" was not more than a green hag impersonating something she was not.

• She seems to have gained the knowledge to transform "lesser beings" into Changelings with some strange experiments.

• She was trying to expand her abilities by gaining the power to transform humanoids into changelings.

• The mortality rate of this experiments was very high on the swines and 100% on humanoids so far.

• She had two "traditional" changelings working for her to get "test subjects" from the town.

• There is note about a swine that escaped the experiments a couple of months ago.

• Lastly, it seems to be implied that the Swine Queen can see through the senses of every changeling she makes... Some kind of pact? Hard to understand.

Xougog tries to decipher the map but is stunned by all the strange squiggles. Morwin steps in to give it a shot and figures out:

• Part of the process to transform the boars into changelings, seems to involve the Hag feeding the beasts with some alchemical elixir made from her own flesh.

• The transformation is slow and painful, but seems to work as expected on a success: the creature for all means and purposes becomes a changeling creature.

• The humans that are fed with the meat of transformed Boars (even the unsuccessful ones) become enraged/confused, are easy to manipulate and are kidnapped to test the transformation in them.

• The different X on the map, marks small caves where people are being held captive and experimented on to transform into changelings.

Just then the Changeling from before enters the cave and converses with Eleanore. We inform the changeling that the Swine Queen is dead. She is very thankful, introduces herself as Pruyola Rivertopple and shows us her true form. shes asks to see the body so Xougog tries to popint it out to her out on the river bank but there it no body there (hopefully just carried away by the river attaching to the lake). We leave Pruyola there and go to free those in other caves that the Hog Hag was trying to transform. We also try to find the body of the Swine Queen but are unable to find it. We take a moment to retrieve some of Virgil's bones and deliver them to Theresa.