Session 43 & 44
General Summary
The Battle at Old Bonegrinder
Sintyavr 28th
(3:30 PM)
Time for Action- The binding circle, which extends five hundred feet vertically into the air, remains for the next ten minutes. During this time, any night hags named by Lady Wachter who remain within the circle cannot use their etherealness ability to enter the Ethereal Plane.
- The tendrils of fog and mist which formed the circle seem to settle into the ground and are imperceptable in the air, save for a trace of shimmering arcane energy circling the base of the hill.
- Lady Wachter’s crow familiar, Majesto, gives a haughty, defiant caw and joins them from the skies, assuming its true imp form before becoming invisible.
- Victor reminds Verce that, according to Ethereal Entities, he'll need to remain close to the windmill—within forty feet—in order use his counterspell to protect the circle from any of the coven's ability to dispel it. He asks to be protected accordingly.
- Rumex is able to shimmy down from the second story unnoticed and scampers towards some cover at the base of the hill to the east.
- Vincenzo slinks to the front of the windmill after altering the deed to windmill (obtained in the Durst manor) to add his name to it.
- Verce mounts Fenrir and crouches at the base of the hill in a semi-covert attack position.
- Vince attches the deed to the front door with a crossbow bolt and messages towards the third floor "It's Mine!"
- He receives a reply, "What's yours?", to which he responds with a powerful ELDRITCH BLAST that obliterates the wooden door inwards.
- Victor takes off, using Fly and Greater Invisibility, to get in position and assist as he can, Majesto employs similar tactics.
- Morgantha leads her daughters out of the windmill to meet them Vincenzo as he steps back from the entrance by about 15 feet, arranging herself and her daughters directly in front of the door of the windmill.
- She greets the tiefling surprisingly warmly and congratulates him on taking his "ransom." She then asks, pleasantly, what items or boons they've come to bargain for.
- Vince reiterates his desire for the hags to get lost, stating specifically the crimes against children and is summarily rebuffed...
"Child, their souls were forfeit from the moment that they were born into these Mists—a soul bag larger than any one I could craft, and holding a far deeper evil. What difference does it make who claims them, or when?"
- Verce bursts forth upon Fenrir and pushes the attack!
- Each hag prioritizes a different target—Bella attacking whichever player seems most attractive...Vincenzo, Offalia attacking whichever player seems most confident...Ilyson, and Morgantha attacking whichever player seems physically strongest...Verce.
- Thunderous blows are rained down by the Paladin and Fighter alike. Both are met by cunning attacks by the coven.
- Rumex, the ranger, uncharacteristically distracted, lets loose volleys of silver arrows as presrcibed by Van Richten's Monster Manual...and inexplicably misses the mark several times.
- Acid Arrows, Lightning Bolts, Arcs of Witchlight and various curses are thrown about by the Coven in an attempt to subdue the party yet our adventurers tarry on, determined to fell the wicked dealmakers.
- The Coven conjures the very wind itself attempting to control the pace of the battle and gain some distance to weave their hexes.
- The combined might of the party however seems to have them on the ropes as the injuries they are sustaining seem to be shared by all three of the hags.
- Eventually, with the barrier still holding, and Victor still undetected, the Coven drops, appearing to sustained too many injuries. Victory seems at hand.
- One by one, the lifeless crones begin to stir....and their forms begin to shift, sinew and bone cracking, skin stretching and discoloring, muscles tearing and reforming in new hideous shapes and textures...
- Bella assumes the form of a monstrous giant crocodile, its scales jagged and irregular and its eyes glowing with a baleful light.
- Offalia takes the shape of a demonic elephant, its skin mottled with black veins and its tusks blackened and twisted like corkscrews.
- Finally, Morgantha's skin becomes pitch-black, her eyes becoming inky voids as shadows swirl around her.
- The Battle rages on anew with the raw unleashed power of two gigantic beats combined with a ghostly form of dread shepardingnnightmares aroundnat will.
- The party again bravely stands toe to toe with this renewed threat, and succeeds in bloodying the trio, nearly exhausting themselves in the process.
- Rumex quickly recites a Web spell from a scroll pilfered way back in the Durst manor and just barely manages to ensnare Morgantha in place as she approaches him.
- Morgantha attempts to use her etherealness action to escape—which is prevented by Lady Wachter's binding circle.
- Horrified by Morgantha's failure, the coven uses its powerful dispelling ability to regain their all-important ethereal escape plan.
The air grows thick with power—and then a terrible, screeching groan cuts through the wind. As the coven's eyes glow with unified purpose, the massive vanes of the windmill begin to rotate—slowly at first, then gaining momentum, the creaking of its ancient wood melding with the grinding of its weathered gears to form a terrible cacophony. The wind betwixt the vanes shimmers with shadows, shrieking with a baleful glee as the windmill's crescendo becomes a blur of light and dark. Then, with a sound like booming thunder, a shockwave of arcane force bursts from the vanes' central joint, distorting the very air with the intensity of its power. "Begone!" screech the hags.
however
With a flourish of his hand and a whispered incantation, Victor conjures a complex tapestry of sigils and runes in the air before him. The coven's blast, a swirling maelstrom of shadows and baleful light, meets the shimmering shield of Victor's counterspell—a radiant lattice that shimmers with power. For a moment, the two forces collide in a deafening clash, a spectacle of light and dark that seems to strain the very air around it. Then, with a resonant sound like the shattering of glass, Victor's spell triumphs—and the coven's shockwave dissipates, its dark energy unraveling into harmless wisps of shadow. The hags release a bloodcurdling scream of rage, their voices melding into a single, resonant note of high-pitched fury.
- Then silence for a heartbeat that stretches out into forever.
- A single word escapes from Morgantha's lips as she scans the adventurers....
- "Parlay."
- Morgantha calls for a parley, promising to reveal three pieces of secret knowledge to the players in exchange for the coven's lives.
- She initially refuses to reveal anything until Lady Wachter’s binding circle is taken down.
Verce steps forward, his posture embodying the unyielding resolve of a seasoned warrior. His gaze locks with Morgantha's, a spark of challenge igniting in his eyes. "Morgantha, let's cut through the fog of your illusions and speak plainly, shall we? This windmill," he gestures broadly, encompassing the structure with a sweep of his arm, "stands on land we claim by deed, a claim acknowledged by Strahd himself. We are his guests, honored within his realm, and aligned with Von Richten, Barovia's most dreaded hunter. Your request for parlay reaches me not as a plea from the weak but as a gambit by the cornered." He steps closer, the edge of his cloak fluttering slightly as if caressed by an unseen specter of power. "You find yourself ensnared between the anvil of Strahd's dominion and the hammer of Von Richten's resolve. I am the force that binds them, the wielder of their combined might. Your heartstones, the very essence of your malevolence, are what I demand for a truce. This is no mere negotiation but a lifeline, fraying and thin, offered to those already dangling over oblivion." A thin smile plays upon his lips, not of mirth but of anticipation. "Choose wisely, Morgantha. Hand over the heartstones and retreat into the shadows from whence you came, or stand against us and be swept away by the tempest your defiance will invoke. Remember, secrets and schemes crumble before the might of Strahd and the cunning of Von Richten. As their conduit, I offer you this one chance for salvation or doom. What say you?" His stance is a testament to his readiness for any outcome, embodying the confidence of his words and the power at his back. The air seems to pulse with the latent energy of his threat, a silent testament to the gravity of his ultimatum. "Be keenly aware, Morgantha, that within this mill, under my claim and Strahd's shadow, your heartstones lose their power, rendered inert by the magic that saturates these grounds. A dire revelation for you, indeed. This fact alone should guide your decision towards the wisdom of surrender. Offer up the heartstones, now powerless to aid you, as a gesture of your compliance. Perhaps, in this act, you may yet find mercy in our judgment. Let this knowledge weigh heavily on your next words."The Proposal
- Morgantha feels the party asks for too much when they request all three heartstones, when only one is needed.
- She wonders aloud why they did not just ask for a heatstone in the first place, a deal could surely have been reached...
- She is willing to lend them her hearthstone for a period of three days in exchange for a promise to undertake a particular task.
- She will also hold the player's dreams in collateral until her task is accomplished...14 days to do so. Or she eats the dreams.
- The players must deliver a soul leech to the office of Strahd’s chamberlain, Rahadin.
- Upon arriving in Rahadin’s office, the players must uncork the vial and allow the leech to attach itself to the underside of his desk, where it will render itself invisible and virtually undetectable.
- The party convinces Morgantha to reveal her plans for the leech: When Rahadin returns, the leech will secretly attach itself to his flesh, ensuring that—when Rahadin eventually dies—his evil soul will be ensnared and entrapped in Morgantha’s soul bag, where it will be transformed into a soul larva that Morgantha can use for nefarious purposes.
- A deal almost struck, Morgantha summarized the terms but added one quick rider...
"As you depart here with my heartstone, to do with as you need, you agree to leave behind the two children upstairs and the man in my oven in good faith. Promising to turn a blind eye to my 'business' so that you may have what you need for the moment."
- Not willing to compromise, battle resumes and the tides are quickly turning to a more evenly matched contest.
- The enormous elephant has gored Ilyson numerous times and has just caught sight of one of Fiona's assistants where it proceeds to cut him down (RIP Boris)
- The protective binding circle crackles and fades, no longer keeping the hags rooted to this plane, which as it turns out did not matter for the remainder of this battle.
- One by one the heroes fall, their bodies collected by the severely beaten hags and dragged towards the windmill as they lick their own wounds and begin to heal.
- Vincenzo, who was lost in the confusion of the parlay, misty-stepped his way to the windmill's arm and blasted an entryway into the roof.
- Squeezing himself inside, he destroyed a few of the Hag's Bargain bottles that lined the shelves, watching the spectral smoke escape from within and escape through the cracks in the roof's timber, plaster and stone.
- Quickly peering downstairs he sees no children being kept captive on the second nor the third floors.
- Throwing bottles of alchemist's fire and flasks of oil upon the wooden gears of the windmill, he attempts to bring the structure down one way or another and makes his way for the front door...
- As he bursts out the hags are making their way back...Vince lunges with his silvered dagger hoping to finish off the weary hag by surprise, but perhaps nerves got the best of him preventing a killing blow.
- He attempts to shove a fistful of eldritch power down her gullet but his resolve begins to wane...Hammer perhaps, he thinks...abandoning me for his own amusement, as Morgantha bats his hand away.
- Morgantha asks him to just give himself up, join his compatriots for a rest before making a fool of himself, but Vince wildly hurls flaming motes of magic up the steps towards the second floor, trying to further ignite the smoldering mill gears...
- He is not sure if he sees blackness now from sheer exhaustion, fear, a killing blow from behind, or perhaps he is in a space between dreams where he will wake up in Faerun in 8 hours time...
(9:00 PM)
All we know now is darkness.
Heartstone
Old Bonegrinder
Windmill Schematic
Alternate Art
Report Date
16 Mar 2024
Primary Location
Morgantha
Nightmare Morgantha
Belladonna Sunbane
Nightmare Bella
Offalia Wormwiggle
Nightmare Offalia
Lady Fiona Wachter
Victor Vallakovich
