Session 43 - Slaughter in Whitewater
There was a young witch in Whitewater,
And the mayor decided to court her,
But when the children turned odd,
We were given the job,
To oust the old crone so we fought her!
10th Mar 2022 - 19:45 - 11:00
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Uktar 15. End of session: 1489DR Uktar 26
Our "Heroes" go to talk with the Mayor. Seeing him talking with a few villagers at the edge of the market, Iwee turns invisible in order to listen in on his conversation. It turns out that Helen Copperpot, daughter of Lesley Copperpot, has developed a mysterious deep red rash in the last few hours. Mayor Crawford is trying to calm Lesley down, telling her that all will be sorted out after the trial decision this evening. Iwee returns to the others and as the group talking to Mayor Crawford breaks up, they decide to confront him about his affair.
Having learned their lesson when they let Derrick do the talking, Iwee steps up. The Mayor, and the rest of the party too, are taken aback at the ferocity of Iwee's interrogation. She is very angry at Bagshott Crawford's infidelity. Jaxii is not so much angry, as disappointed. In pure "Lawful Good" fashion {!} She would like to bribe the Mayor into giving them money. Karoshi is less focussed on the Mayor's dalliance, and more with the prospect of getting paid for the work they are doing. More "mercenary" than "paladin". Derrick is unsure what the fuss is all about.
After some obvious threats, some caustic comments and some Paddington Hard Stares, the group talk the Mayor into submission - he promises Karoshi some kind of reward, promises Iwee to be nicer to his wife, promises Jaxii to do better in future, and promises to get the raunchy book - The Various Trysts of Victoria Sax-Coburg - for Derrick, who promptly stuffs the book into his backpack.
Leaving the relieved Mayor for now, they all head back to Isabel's house, and Derrick inserts the book into its rightful place in the bookcase which seems to unlock the mirror-door behind them. This leads into a passage cut into the hillside behind the house. Derrick starts to head in alone before realising that he now has an owl to do this kind of work for him. He sends in Owl Pacino to scout in the cave beyond.
Pacino sees a very obvious Witches' cave. There are bones scattered on the floor, a cauldron over a fire and a gargoyle statue. Even Derrick realises that this is not a normal basement. He sends Pacino to gather a bone as evidence. Unfortunately as his owl swoops down to pick up a bone, something smashes into it, killing Owl Pacino suddenly, and sending Derrick's familiar back into its origin plane of existence.
The party decide that the presence of the cave is enough evidence, and sensibly decide not to enter the cave and instead to head back to the market square to deliver their verdict - Isabel is the witch!
The crowd is gathering at the square once more. The three suspects, who seem to have been dressed in typical witches' garb for some reason, are lead to the platform and made to stand on a chair each, with a noose passed over each neck. The Mayor addresses the crowd and hands the announcement of the verdict over to Derrick, who loves to play to the crowd.
As Derrick is building up suspense and tension, he is unaware that the witch is trying to manipulate him. Somehow, he resists the mind control, as does Jaxii - helped, no doubt, by the boosting paladinic aura surrounding Karoshi.
As Derrick reaches the climax of his "performance" and announces that Isabel is the witch, it all kicks off. Isabel, getting somewhat bored of the theatrics, levitates above her chair, casts off her bonds and produces three glowing orbs in the air. As her face seems to glow and grow younger and more beautiful before them, the children in the crowd all enter a trance and they too rise from the ground. Their features, in contrast with Isabel's, seem to age, and glowing bands of energy pass from them into the three glowing orbs, and then into Isabel herself.
The party seem to have been proved correct in their assertion that Isabel is the witch, though that may not help them in the fight ahead!
Derrick's Lightning Lure has no effect, but Karoshi uses the power of his new weapon, Smite, to direct a lightning bolt at the hovering Isabel. She dodges, but still takes significant damage. Jaxii rages, then uses her rarely seen breath weapon to smother Isabel in fire. Iwee tries out her new spell, slow, but unfortunately the witch manages to save against it.
Now it's Isabel's turn. She seems to draw upon the power from each of the three orbs. She commands Captain Marphet to flee, and he does so. She seems to regain some of her health, but her attempt to cause harm to Jaxii in some way seems to fail. Isabel then floats down to the ground in front of the platform. The party realise that she seems to be benefiting from the glowing, floating orbs, so some of them focus on destroying them. Derrick engages Isabel in combat and tries to prevent her from moving by using his booming blade. As Karoshi throws a javelin at Isabel, hitting for a small amount of damage, Jaxii blasts two of the orbs from the air using her Fireball generated from her clan's ancient amulet. Iwee follows up with a countercharm spell to help her friends resist any attempt to charm them, but Isabel responds by Misty Stepping next to Iwee and grasping the gnome, injecting her with some lightning damage.
At this point the tide of the battle turns in our "Heroes" favour. Derrick uses his (stolen!) magic boots to leap back onto the platform next to Isabel and smashes her with four hits using his action surge - the witch manages to shield against one of them but still takes significant damage from the onslaught. Karoshi, unable to reach Isabel, focuses on the last floating orb, hitting it but failing to destroy it. He lobs a crowbar at it but still fails to destroy it. Jaxii, still on the platform, runs up to the witch and with two hits from her greatsword the dragonborn cleaves the witch and smashes her nose, causing her to fall to the floor, dead!
The final orb disappears, and the children float back down to the floor, into the arms of their worried parents.
Ding, dong the witch is dead!
The crowd are relieved and don't seem to mind too much at all the magic demonstrated by the group. Mayor Crawford seems to be doing a good job of reassuring the villagers and restoring order. Iwee heads to Father Greatshaw's for a cup of tea and a biscuit, and learns a fair bit about Moonfall, including its location and the fact that it seems to be a sanctuary for lycanthropes, which is a little worrying since her parents are supposed to be living there now.
Meanwhile Derrick persuades Jaxii and Karoshi to head back to Isabel's house in order to deal with whatever was in the secret cavern and that killed Owl Pacino. They enter the cave and are met by a sentient stalagmite, which uses a number of tentacles to drag Derrick towards its gaping maw!
As the fighter is dragged across the cavern he is hit by a falling stalactite, but manages to dodge the bite attack from the stone-looking creature with the scary mouth! Jaxii runs over but misses the rock, and Karoshi tries to hit it with his hammer but also misses.
Fearing that this creature could be tough to kill, the group decide to RUN AWAY! Derrick manages to escape the grapple and runs away, but is hit by the opportunity attack as he runs away. The stone creature bites at the fleeing warrior and gauges a chunk out of him. Jaxii also runs away with Derrick, leaving Karoshi next to the creature. The paladin faces the creature alone, and is bitten for significant damage. He survives to make a run for it, but unfortunately this triggers an opportunity attack, which turns out to be a critical hit! Karoshi is almost taken down by this reaction attack but he manages to escape with the other two.
Meeting up again in the town square, our "heroes" warn the Mayor of the strange and dangerous creature in Isabel's house. Karoshi hints once again at a possible reward for their efforts and the Mayor hands them a purse containing 200 gold pieces.
Having saved the town of Whitewater from a witch, and got some practice with their new weapons and abilities, the party head back to Neverwinter, briefly, in order to quickly get passage down to the city of Baldur's Gate, which is close to the location of Moonfall. They manage to pay for passage on a cargo vessel heading that way and spend the next week once again aboard ship, preparing for their next adventure. After some revelations from Iwee about her past, and a strange discovery of a one-demons-wing amulet in Derrick's father's carpenter's tools, Derrick spends the week trying not to throw up, Iwee meditates and composes, Jaxii ponders upon her clan amulet and Karoshi once again studies Kalten's notebook.