Down Came a Blackbird - Part 4: Trail of the Hag

The characters home in on the hag’s lair and cleanse the skies above Moon Lantern of her curse.

A. THE HAG'S LAIR

Salty Maude’s lair is in the fetid corpse of a giant whale. It floats, mouth agape, in a large mass of greenish-brown sargassum. Seabirds, hungry for blubber, vie for positions on its exposed upper half. Hundreds more bob around in the surrounding tangle of seaweed. The whale’s open maw is the entrance to the lair. Torches are crudely staked into the walls of its throat and its gullet forms a watery tunnel into its hollowed-out torso.

The lair itself is one large room in the whale’s chest cavity and here the characters find the ritual focus for the hag’s bird curse (see “Area Features”). Maude animates the whale to dive underwater if things start to go bad for her.

Locating the Lair

Several clues can lead the characters to Maude’s lair:

• Holly Dardusk can provide an eight-line riddle revealed to her by possessed birds (refer to Part 2: A Night in Moon Lantern). In addition, the characters can learn from Hollylove that the bird aggression peaks when the tide is in.
• Having sailed his vessel close to the sargassum, Warren Farscale knows the lair’s location (Part 2: A Night in Moon Lantern). He can also reveal that the seabirds appear calm when the tide is out. Further to this, he’s spotted the whale intermittently belching wet air from its blowhole.
• Fipp overheard Maude and Kraggen talking. Maude said she could be found where the seabirds gather and warned of the bird hostility when the tide is in (refer to Part 3: Town Meeting).

The hag’s lair is at sea, so the characters need to get there by boat: something which Moon Lantern has in abundance. Ships may get stuck in the sargassum, so a smaller boat is preferable. The problem comes in finding owners willing to loan their vessels to the characters or travel with them. If they’ve befriended Warren Farscale, he can sail them there. Otherwise they may be able to convince mayor Lars Brighthol to provide them with a vessel and, if required, a skipper.

Timing the Tides

When approaching the lair at high tide, intruders are assailed by limitless swarms of angry gulls until beaten back from the lair’s vicinity. At low tide the birds are resting and allow the characters to sail by without hindrance. As their boat forges a path, the gulls flap idly out of the way; this should be an eerie experience, with an ocean of birds surrounding the characters for as far as the eye can see. If they don’t know that the tides are linked to the bird behavior, decide for yourself how the gulls act as the characters advance. Bear in mind that restless birdlife is easy to spot from afar. On route, feel free to add any seafaring encounters.

Entering the Lair

When the characters near the lair entrance, read or paraphrase the following aloud:

The stench of rotting flesh, bird excrement, and fish carrion engulfs you. An enormous whale looms ahead; its carcass, teeming with seabirds, rises from the web of surrounding sargassum like an island. Its eye sockets are empty and gulls peck and tear at its blubber. Its open mouth is cavernous, and you can see burning torches inside, lighting the way down the tunnel of its throat.

The whale’s mouth forms the entrance to a tunnel accessible only by small boats. If the characters have no such vessel, they must swim down the throat to access the lair’s main chamber. The water inside is 10-feet deep, and the tunnel is 25-feet long. If forced to swim, the vessel can be anchored in the mass of sargassum. Those who opt to tether their vessel to the whale may find it dragged underwater if the creature animates!

Belly of the Beast

The hag’s lair lies in the belly of the whale. The water here becomes shallow and sloshes against the base of the whale’s tongue, where the characters can disembark and view the chamber ahead. Read or paraphrase the following aloud:

The doughy ground squelches underfoot as you step into the gaping cavern inside the whale. The whale’s internal organs have been pushed aside into oozing piles and a gaggle of mangy gulls feasts on the innards. The spinal column tracks overhead and the ribs descend like rafters. A multitude of objects clutter the slimy floor or hang from fishhooks lodged into the ceiling: bird cages and bottles, bones and shells. As you take this in, a tall figure steps from the shadows at the far end of the room, her head twitching this way and that, like a chicken pacing its coop.

Salty Maude stands before the characters in her illusory form: a tall unsightly crone in stained buccaneer’s garb. She wears a cloak of tattered plumage and a feathered tricorn hat. She’s willing to converse with the characters, as she’d rather trick them with a hag’s bargain than engage in combat (see the “Roleplaying Salty Maude” sidebar).

Characters who succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check notice two sea spawn lurking behind the whale’s ribs. Once women, now mutated thralls, these spawn are the results of Maude’s anatomical experiments. One has large wings crudely grafted to its shoulders, which tremble erratically but are otherwise useless; one has a bony beak stitched to its face, and one sits in a writhing nest of tentacles and moves by slithering along the floor. In combat they use the Poison Quills, Bite and Tentacles Piscine Anatomy feature respectively.

Salty Maude's Bargain

Maude insists that the characters leave her lair. She promises to bestow the magic of the birds upon them if they comply: “the means to take flight, the wisdom of navigation, or the ability to harness the wind…” Each character who agrees to the bargain can choose one power. The hag then produces a nest of bite-sized eggs, and the character must eat one of these rotten morsels to receive their boon.

Anyone who accepts the bargain and eats an egg has been tricked. If they chose the means to fly, they sprout feathers all over their body which grow back if plucked. Choosing navigation means they are blinded whenever they look due north. Harnessing the wind gives them uncontrollable flatulence. These afflictions can only be lifted by a remove curse spell. In addition, characters who accept Maude’s bargain find that their throat fills with seawater if they try to harm her. This gives them disadvantage on their attacks against her as they begin to drown. The effect ends when they cease attacking her.

B. FIGHTING THE HAG

Salty Maude must be slain to free Moon Lantern from her evil. The players must fight Maude, a sea hag, and her two sea spawn thralls. If Kraggen escaped the town square, the peryton is present here too.

Area Information

This area has the following important features.

Lighting. Lanterns are fastened to the whale’s ribs and glow with a greenish-blue light. There are lots of gloomy corners amidst the clutter and piles of viscera.

Scrying Pool.At the back of the lair, a large open clam rests atop a driftwood altar. This is the hag’s focus for her bird curse - a scrying pool which she uses to see through the eyes of the birds and control them. Its base is filled with swirling water which emanates green light. An eye has been painted in blood on the inside lid of the shell. Closing the lid disrupts the ritual. The clam’s hinge and underside have been coated in a viscous paste which has hardened, and so forcing the lid down takes an action and requires success on a DC 18 Strength check. Once closed, the clam fractures and the magic drains from it, thereby ending the curse on the Moon Lantern birds.

Flying Rowboat. Maude’s mount, a flying rowboat, lies next to one of the whale’s ribs. Maude uses this to escape if things go badly for her (see “Maude’s Tactics”). The flying rowboat has the same powers as a broom of flying.

Maude's Tactics

Salty Maude prefers to hang back and use her Death Glare on any frightened characters while her two sea spawn fight on the front line. She carries out hit-and-run attacks on characters who find themselves alone. As a reaction to taking damage or being targeted by a spell, Maude commands the whale to dive underwater. Shuddering to life, its rotten heart starts pulsing and the lair begins to move.

Each character must roll a d8 on the Moving Lair Hazards table at the end of each of their turns to determine how they fare as the whale lurches and turns in the sea. Meanwhile, if the encounter isn’t going her way, Maude attempts to reach her flying rowboat and flee. If necessary, Maude abandons her flying rowboat and makes for the exit, in a bid to swim away instead.

Development

If Salty Maude escapes and the whale was animated during the encounter, it floats lifelessly to the surface as soon as she leaves the lair. It spouts one last burst of blood and guts through its blowhole before expiring for good.

With their curse lifted, the seabirds which had amassed on the sargassum take flight, circling and cawing. If a character casts the speak with animals spell, they sense an overwhelming feeling of joy and relief as the birds whirl in the sky.

The lair can be searched for treasure before the characters sail back to Moon Lantern.

Treasure

If it’s still there, the characters can claim the flying rowboat. A barnacle-encrusted treasure chest sits on the driftwood altar. Inside the chest are:

• 6 moonstones worth 50 gp each.
• A necklace made of feathers which enables the wearer to cast the speak with animals spell, but is only effective in communicating with birds.

CONCLUSION

With the hag defeated and the birds freed of their curse, the characters earn the respect and gratitude of the people of Moon Lantern and a number of its officials. However, if Maude escaped, she certainly plots her revenge on the group and could become a recurring nemesis for them in future adventures.

If the characters have the baby peryton, they could try to reunite it with its parents, or attempt to raise it themselves!

Lastly, the birds chirrup the heroes’ deeds in their peeptalk: of how they lifted the weight of darkness from their feathers and gave them back their freedom. The birds acknowledge the characters, and in their own wild and enigmatic way, are thankful.

THE END

Roleplaying Salty Maude

In her true form, Salty Maude stands nearly 9-feet tall. Disturbingly thin, her wrinkled flesh drapes over her bones like wet muslin. Her sopping grey hair trails the ground and is matted with feathers, and her long neck stoops forward while her head bobs erratically like a chicken. Her nose is pointed like a beak and she’s covered in bird droppings. Her large feet have twisted grotesquely into bird claws with rusty metal talons, which she uses to scratch at the ground when standing still.

Maude uses bird analogies as much as possible when talking, giving the characters mocking pet names like “Brittle Little Wren” or “Puffed-Up Puffin”. Water spills from her mouth when she talks.

Her long life as a hermit amongst birds has made her deranged, and she’s prone to clucking, chirruping and shrieking. She spits ancient curses in random languages at anyone who vexes her.

“You are far from your nest, baby birds….”

Parent Plot

Down Came a Blackbird - Overview

Moving Lair Hazards

1 - The whale ascends and knocks you backwards 5 feet. You must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d3 piercing damage and be knocked prone as you stumble into a pair of shrieking gulls.

2 - The whale dives and you pitch forwards 5 feet. You must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or get caught in a fishing net and fall prone.

3 - The whale rolls left, causing you to slide 5 feet in that direction. You must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone by a frantic pelican sweeping into you.

4 - The whale rolls right, causing you to stagger 5 feet in that direction. You must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone by a swinging bird cage.

5-8 - No effect.