Mildew's Mission

General Summary

Sallie Mildew invited Kingra, Procella, Ryke, MJ, and Zaketh to her flooded basement with the promise of a time-sensitive opportunity to strike against Olga Wormwiggle and her coven. Mildew explained that she had been spying on the rival hags and discovered they were going to be engaged elsewhere, leaving their coven lair exposed. Using the magic of her cauldron she would be able to send them halfway across the world to the swamps of Nault, where they would find and infiltrate the lair.
Kingra was to stay behind as a connection point to allow them to communicate back and forth and form a link to bring them home again when the time came. He could also provide magical support by casting his healing spells remotely through Mildew's anglerfish talisman, carried on this mission by Procella.
Mildew told them that in the lair, she had detected the ward-stones the hags had stolen from the Ebbenvogel Halls (see report: Shadows in the Stacks ), and this might be their only chance to take them back. She said that the stones and anything else they found was fair game to loot or destroy, except for a distinct large chest which they were to bring back for her. She gave strict instructions not to open it, stressing that to do so would be extremely dangerous to them.
One by one, they stepped into Mildew's stinking cauldron and were transported away, and each found themselves alone in a dark swamp. Calling out and shining lights, they were able to find each other, and with Kingra passing along Mildew's guidance, they searched around for the lair. After stumbling around in the dark and the muck and tangling with some of the dangerous plant and fungus marsh creatures, they entered the tree stump cave. In the odd and eccentric lair chambers they fought with an undead cockatrice disguised as a mouldering turkey dinner spread; avoided the predations of a lurking moss monster in a flooded room; and spoke with a caged prisoner, taken captive by the hags. Near the cage, they found a spatial distortion that led a path into the Feywild, and a cauldron much like Sallie Mildew's, bubbling with planar magics. Also in that room was the chest that Mildew desired, but the ward stones were nowhere to be found.
Ryke studied the cauldron a moment, and—under the belief that disrupting the liquid would close the distortion and trap the coven in the Feywild—toppled it over. The resulting spill of chaotic magic caused the party (and the caged man) to teleport unpredictably, scattering them in all directions through the lair. Procella and the prisoner appeared near the moss predator, and it lunged from the waters and devoured the man. As Procella fled, and MJ rounded the corridor to help her, the plant monster seemed to struggle with its meal, somehow attacked psychically from within—the man had not been all he seemed. MJ's druidic magic grew thorns in the tunnel to slow the creature, and they fled to find the others.
Ryke had not traveled far, but Zaketh had been shunted directly towards the planar distortion. Ryke went in after him, the distance in the chamber stretching as he advanced, until all was the strange foliage of the Fey realm. Soon, the two of them emerged, but disheveled and bearded—the passage of time had differed on the other side of the rift, and they had wandered the woods for months.
Assembled again, they prepared to make their exit. Mildew, via Kingra's communication, told them they didn't have long, that whatever arcane confluence had allowed this excursion was ending, their window closing. They grabbed the chest and the fish talisman, and vanished.
The party were once again separated by the imprecise teleportation magic, scattered throughout a small village, and their communication with Kingra and Mildew severed. They reconvened and took their bearings. They found the village was two week's travel from Quan, and so, purchasing a wagon and animals, they loaded up the stolen chest and set out. But halfway into the trip, opinions became divided on what to do with the chest.
Reasoning that Mildew was lying about the danger so as to scare them and keep the contents herself, Ryke maintained they should defy her and open it. Whatever power it held would be just as dangerous in the hands of the sea hag as with the coven, he argued.
MJ argued that Mildew had been nothing but truthful and helpful. They maintained that the coven were a proven threat to the Library, and that Mildew had shown she was on the Library's side. They should honour their end of the bargain and deliver it unopened.
Both Zaketh and Procella's curiosity and mistrust of Mildew won out, and MJ was outvoted. They stopped the cart and unloaded the chest. In the event that Mildew was truthful about dangers, they took the chest off the road to a clearing and cast protective spells, then opened it from a distance with an unseen servant.
Nothing happened.
Returning to the chest, they found several items: a black gemstone in the shape of a heart, and two black sacks of stitched flesh. All were infused with powerful dark magics, and Procella recognised them from descriptions she had read when researching hags: the heartstone allowed a night hag to pass in and out of the ethereal plane so that she could haunt dreams, and the soul bags trapped the corrupted souls of those they had tormented to death. Both were dangerous tools in the hands of any of the hags they had encountered.
There was a flash, and Dedric Eregast appeared by magical teleportation. The party hurried to hide the items, eventually sealing them back in the lead-lined chest. Eregast explained that Kingra had been worried since losing contact, and had pestered him into coming to find them and deliver them home to the Library. He created a teleportation circle and they returned to the Bibliopolis grounds, wagon and all.
Ryke and Procella hid the chest in Fastandia's extraplanar mansion, while MJ went to Sallie Mildew with a peace offering. MJ had gathered the corpse of the cockatrice that had attacked the party in the coven lair, thinking the rotting monster would be to Mildew's tastes (whether that be in food or decor). Mildew met them with fury that the party had not brought her the chest. She snatched the cockatrice and threw it at the wall, where it burst open revealing one of the stolen ward-stones. MJ took the stone and slinked away from the ranting sea hag's den.

Rewards Granted

1 x Night Hag's Heartstone
2 x Night Hag's Soul Bag (each containing a corrupted mortal's soul)
1 x Ebbenvogel Ward Stone

Report Date

30 Mar 2022

Primary Location

Nault

Secondary Location

Mouldering Alcove