7.2: After the Hag Report

General Summary

After defeating Daughter Critchwillow, the party takes the captured villagers back to Meadshill. As thanks, the group is given lodging for the night. In the morning, they are sent away with a gift of  baskets full of honey jars and candles. They return to Silvium and are approached by a rancher in need of help. A Half-Orc rancher named Ruff Gorefist asks the group for help leading three dozen horses to Goristro Ranch and they accept. Partway along the journey a heavy rainstorm kicks up and a group of Allosaurus's ambush the group. Through teamwork and clever use of Speak with Animals, the group are able to protect every single horse from the attackers. Ruff feeds and pays the group, and also asks Iris to say hello to his daughter Tilli, who is enamored with fairies after reading storybooks about the Fey. After a barrage of questions and compliments from Tilli, the group gets ready to depart. Ruff gives them three nag horses as an additional payment, and gives Iris an authentic fairy teapot he came across as thanks for her meeting his daughter.    While en route back to Silvium, they see a large stone tower blinking in and out of existence. The group investigates, finding that the tower remains in place once they open the door. Garrisund places a stick halfway through the threshold in an attempt to anchor the tower to its current spot, and they venture inside. They find a parlor on the first floor filled with nice furniture and many books. After taking a break to read a children's book about a mother cat who lost her kittens, they find the door to the second floor is warded. A portkey is located inside one of the books, and they are able to move upwards.   On the second floor they find a large workshop with shelves and a cluttered desk. In the center of the room is a platform with a cloth covered object. Garrisund steps into the room and activates a fire trap. Uguz is able to dive out of the way of most of the fire, but Garrisund eats the blast, giving him moderate burns. The rest of the group enters the room, after which Amnur removes the cloth from an object. They reveal a large mirror labeled "The Mirror of Truth". Iris, Amnur, and Garrisund all catch sight of it, wherein they see reflections of themselves, but with their heads replaced by potatoes with poorly drawn faces on them. The shock paralyzes them for several minutes, while Uguz looks on confused. The party comes to and investigates the room. Uguz goes to the back of the room, and finds the mirror is double sided and is also paralyzed temporarily. Amnur sees a key on a shelf in the mirrors reflection, but when he turns to grab it, it has dissapeared. He then walks backwards while keeping visual on the key in the mirror, and finds that he is able to grab it now. They unlock the door to the third floor and enter.   The group finds a raging bonfire in the center of the third floor, surrounded by animated chairs and tables doing a rhythmic hopping dance in a clockwise circle around the flame. A chair in the back is striking a roughly made base drum, and other chairs are throwing bits of damaged furniture into the flames. At the top of a stack of more damaged furniture is a coatrack with a key hanging on it, dancing back and forth. Amnur, Iris, and Uguz stay by the doorway while Garrisund touches a dancing chair, deciding to fuck around and find out. The animated objects instantly fling themselves at Garrisund, beginning the fiercest fight they've yet seen. Uguz wades into the pile of furniture and begins swinging, quickly finding himself the focus of their attack. Brutally beaten by the flying chairs, he moves back to the stairway while Amnur and Garrisund continue the fight, with Iris supporting the group. The coatrack throws itself into the fire and begins slinging flaming pieces of itself at the group, but Garrisund bisects it with a well placed throw from his adamantine handaxe. Amnur retrieves the handaxe and terrorizes the remaining animated objects, now docile due to losing their leader. The key is retrieved and they all move to the fourth floor after a short break.   The forth floor is found to be a mixed bedroom/study. By a window is a cage surrounded by a wall of force, containing an elderly wizard woman who is frantically pounding on its walls. They find the room is guarded by a large animated carpet wielding a knife, but they shout it down and it drops its knife and timidly resumes being a regular carpet. They grab a key from the far wall and free the wizard, who thanks them by giving them some dust of corrosion and goggles of nightvision. The group then returns to Silvium.   As they enter town, Garrisund is approached by a woman from his clan named Briar. She explains she was sent to find him, as he left before he was given a ceremonial blade for his journey. She turns over a Mountain Blade and reminds him of his mission. Garrisund is to find a Halfling named Madoc Stumbletoe and retrieve the Storm Orb, a relic stolen from the Peak Men clan.

Rewards Granted

40 jars of honey, 200 candles, Goggles of Night, Dust of Corrosion x3, Mountain Blade (Garrisund)