I don't even know where to begin with this one.

As you can probably tell, if you've been reading these journals, that there's been a large gap between this and the last one. I'm not 100% sure where the pages went (I know I wrote them down somewhere), but I have a sneaking suspicion that fucking Erkki tore them out and used them to wipe his arse with. On second thought, that would be giving him the benefit of the doubt that he actually wipes his arse.
 
Given that I don't recall where the last entry left off (isn't that the point of these, anyway?), I'll just resume with what I -can- recall.
 
We had a run-in with a creature in the woods on the way to the Windmill (which apparently I had forgotten that we have the deed to, so I guess we own it?), and encountered that crack-pot of a hunter off on a small detour from the main path, wounded and otherwise being pathetic. It looked like there was no hope for him, so I took his magical sword. I think a couple of the others gave him some spare weapons so he could still defend himself, but I wrote him off as a lost cause. We came back after doing what he couldn't (like usual) only to find his body gone. All signs of the scene suggested that either he was a werewolf, or was taken by one. Either way, good riddance.
 
We resumed our journey onwards towards the Windmill, and on one of the nights, we cast a spell to identify the cursed necklace I'd been carrying around. Turns out it's a Necklace of Lightning Bolt, and the curse, other than not being to remove it without a priest, is that each time the amulet is used, the necklace tightens until it kills the wearer. Unbeknownst to the party, I put it on before sleep to attune myself to the item. No telling when a quick sudden lightning bolt spell could come in handy. Not too far beyond, maybe a day or so?, we encountered a woman in our path, trying to give Erkki some food, if I remember right? A lot of this part just sort of blurs together in memory, given what comes next. We deduced fairly quickly that she was one of the hags we'd been warned about from the Windmill. Somehow, we managed to coerce the other 2 to appear as well. They tried to convince us to go to the Windmill to make a deal in exchange for freeing the children they were butchering to make pies with, but Oswald began to debate them on trying to get them to stay here and make a deal now, rather than go back to the Windmill, and give them any sort of advantage where they were more prepared than us. I had plotted quietly with Bryndan to "borrow" Oswald's horse and make a run for the Windmill to set it on fire, but ever since he lost his eyeballs (...maybe that happened during the fight against the creature that Kiril got his ass handed by? I don't remember. Memory's kind of fuzzy, given what happens a little later.), Oswald has been using this.. undead horse he summoned, to help him get around. Fucking creepy, but I have the suspicion that the curse of this place altered the spell or ritual Oswald used to summon the creature. Anyways, that plan became a wash, and instead they all decided to keep on arguing with the hags. Bryndan was about to chime in and add his own opinion to this exchange, but honestly, I had grown tired of the whole thing.
 
So I hit the bitches with a lightning bolt. Fuck the curse.
 
We began the fight right there on the spot. Erkki ran to the Windmill to save the children, I think out of some sense of needing to redeem himself for the shit we've been giving him ever since he ate that first kid-meat pie way back when. (It feels like we've been here much longer than we have.) I feel like we were woefully unprepared for this fight right now. Some of us didn't exactly get a good night's rest the night before, and I guess they hadn't recovered their magics, but.. I felt like we didn't have a choice. Our best bet to deal with them was there and then. I.. regret my decision already. The battle was arduous, taking out to the limits of our capabilities. Oswald lost his horse in the scuffle. We.. lost Elaine. I owe my life to Marushka, several times over I believe, and I don't know how to repay her. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do for Elaine. At some point between my bouts of consciousness, Elaine had killed one of the oldest hag's (Morgantha was her name, now that I'm reflecting on it) daughters and downed the other one, earning her the ire of the strongest hag there. We tried to stop her, and eventually did, but not before the damage had been done. We spent the night in the Windmill, and Oswald gave Elaine her last rites and Erkki made a sort of stone coffin for her to be laid to rest (...is it in poor taste to think that she finally got laid somehow?). We're picking up our journey and resuming onwards towards Vallaki.
 
I don't feel like I should tell him, but I'll be keeping a closer eye on Bryndan from here on. I was hired to protect him and his sister, and even though no one could have foreseen us all being taken to this cursed land, I still feel largely responsible for not preventing Elaine's death. I won't blame the boy if he gives me shit about not protecting her. He would be right, after all. I can't ask for his forgiveness, but I'll try my best to make sure he makes it home alive, even if it costs me my life...