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Campaign Journal 35 -
PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 34 - ASCENDING TROLLSKULL
The Owlbear League faces a second Oni, screaming in rage, re-charmed by the powers of Mathilda Knucklebones - the hag of Trollskull Manor. The first one lay dead on the floor, and this one stands wielding its glaive and starts growing. It balloons to fifteen feet tall, smashing through part of the ceiling and roof. Screams erupt from the street as the yellow eyed giant becomes visible to passers by.
The yell of a young woman can be heard from three stories below, "Squiddly, no! They said to stay away!"
"But they need our help!" says a boy from the street.
"Grab the child." orders Mathilda as she moves through the wall of the attic and disappears.
The blue-skinned Oni crashes through the wall and flies down towards the children below. Pedestrians in the street scatter and run for their lives.
K'ronk releases an eldrich blast and bathes the Oni in magical forces to almost no effect - its wounds start closing almost immediately.
Dain runs out of the room to get to the street, while Immeral steps to the destroyed window and tearing a star from his cloak of stars, sends a salvo of magic missiles down towards the monster, riddling the back of the beast and doing massive damage to it, diverting its course from the children and sending it landing in the middle of the street.
Seraphina, the halfling cleric and devotee of The Raven Queen casts hold person and paralyzes the creature. "We have a minute!" she yells.
Atlas whips out her rope of climbing and fastens it to an exposed beam while quickly sliding down to the street. Orryn follows, so does Nowhere as Seraphina maintains the concentration needed to control the beast.
From the window, K'ronk fires his wand of magic missiles, sending another volley of magical energy into the Oni, tearing at its flesh, as its magical healing tries to undo the last blast. The League is winning, but it's taking all they have.
Still up in the shattered attic of Trollskull, Immeral casts Ray of Frost, which just barely reaches their enemy down in the street, freezing its flesh while still paralyzed by Seraphina's spell.
Atlas reaches the creature and leaps through the air, crushing the monster with a flurry of kicks and blows. She digs deep into her Ki energy and with blinding speed hits with more unarmed strikes improved by her gauntlets of ogre power, devastating the creature. "Where is Dain?" she cries.
Orryn stabs at the creature with his magical dagger, sending gouts of black blood into the street. From down the road, whistles can be heard from closeby, obviously the City Watch of Waterdeep is aware that something is amiss on Sourdoun street.
Seraphina's spell ends and the monster quickly rises, fury in its eyes. Suddenly, an arrow appears in the chest of the creature, and it looks over at the archer - it's Squiddly, who though shaking in fear, stands tall on the street and reaches back for another arrow.
Suddenly, a half-sphere of ink-black magical darkness appears in the street, enclosing Atlas, Nowhere and the Oni, ending just before Squiddly, Jenks and Nat.
Nowhere screams into the darkness "I'm here you filthy beast! Come get me!" Daring the creature to come to her and racing in the opposite direction of the children, hoping to taunt the monster, when she steps out of the sphere and into the light.
Seraphina debates what to do, go looking for Dain, or deal with the monster below. She knows most of her spells cast into the darkness may hit Atlas and Nowhere, so she sends a guiding bolt where the Oni should be, but it seems the radiant energy of the blast is smothered by the magical darkness before it hits its target.
Seconds later, Squiddly is lifted into the air, seemingly grabbed around his torso by an invisible arm, and he flies up towards the small window of the Trollskull's turret, just feet from the broken rooftop where Seraphina and Immeral and Kronk stand. He drops his bow into the street near Nat. The hag can be seen in the window, laughing maniacally. Nat screams and Jenks looks somewhere between stunned and amazed at the scene before him.
K'ronk steps over some of the destroyed frame of the window and makes a running leap at Squiddly, flying through the air, risking a thirty foot drop to the cobbles below, but he catches the boy by the legs, slowing the ascent. They still rise to the window and as they enter, K'ronk tumbles to the floor with the tiefling boy, putting the child behind himself for cover. The Oni reappears, standing over them, wounds healing and pulling back his glaive for the killing blow. The hag cackles.
Down the street, a squad of the city watch approaches, but as they sight the tiefling boy flying through the air against his will, and the dome of magical darkness, the sergeant takes a wand from his jacket and pointing it into the air, sets off a flare high into the sky of Waterdeep. "This one is for The Blackstaff" he tells them. "Stay here at the ready."
Atlas and Orryn try to make their way out of the magical darkness, and finally step into the light, seeing Nowhere quickly climbing the rope of climbing to return to the roof of Trollskull manor, they race after her, Atlas going up the rope, and Orryn races up the stairs.
Risking sliding on the broken tiles and sliding off the battered roof, Immeral steps out and races to the turret, his view inside blocked by the back of the Oni, who is swinging its glaive. He unleashes one of his strongest spells - a witch bolt, which sends a beam of crackling, blue energy out toward a creature within range, forming an arc of fearsome lightning between Immeral and the now human-sized monster. The Oni falls to the ground, dead.
Now the hag stops her laughter, and turns. Dain stands behind her, his great axe in hand, his eyes unfocused. "Kill them." the hag orders.
Dain dives at K'ronk and slashes deeply across the chest of his companion with his great axe, drawing blood and knocking the dragonborn wizard backwards. Squiddly cries out and stumbles back too.
Mathilda the hag turns to Immeral at the window and casts magic missile, hitting him with bolts of magical energy. He is knocked unconscious and goes sliding to the edge of the rooftop.. Seraphina sees her friend sliding, and dives out the window, catching Immeral at the edge and just barely preventing his plunge to the street below.
In the meantime, Nowhere reaches the rooftop and dives into the window with the hag. She sees Dain fighting K'ronk, but she knows Mathilda is the source, and she slashes at the hag with Icerazor, cutting deeply.
Atlas reaches the rooftop and dives into the room too, rolling and launching a furious attack of punches and kicks at Mathilda.
Orryn reaches the third floor, but sees no way to open the ceiling door, so he starts stacking chairs high to reach up to the barely visible entrance.
"Protect me!" she yells as she grabs Nowhere and blasts her with black swirling necrotic magic, sending her reeling.
Dain turns and swings at Atlas, cleaving her back open and sending blood splashing across the room, leaving him bleeding and unconscious.
K'ronk, seeing his companion fallen, and knowing their situation is dire, pulls the staff of frost from his pack and blasts the hag and Dain with a blizzardly blast of cold. Dain falls unconscious, but the hag still stands.
Orryn, desperate to save his friends pounds upward on the entrance to the turret, and nearly fails, but in a last desperate push of inspired strength, he cracks the bolt on the hatch and sends it flying open along with a pile of debris. In that debris, Nowhere sees a tattered ragdoll go flying, and dives for it. As she grabs it, the voices of a thousand children cry out, and a grandmotherly emits from the doll, saying "who's been a wicked child?" Mathilda seems to become more solid, more substantial than before. She is corporeal now, not just a spirit haunting the Trollskull, but she is of the flesh again.
"Noooooo!" cries Mathilda, and she lashes out at Nowhere with her claws, striking the ranger, but Nowhere stabs the doll with her sword, but it is tough, magically tough. "Don't destroy it!" the hag cries. "I have suffered, I have been hanged, and I have died and all I want is a place to rest and call home."
"I have a suggestion for you." K'ronk says as Orryn climbs through the hatch. He casts a suggestion spell on the hag. "Go to the window and confess your horrors to the people you have wronged."
With a jerk, the compulsion takes hold and Mathilda walks to the window. Only The Watch stands nearby to witness her confession. "I am Mathilda Knucklebones, and I have eaten your children, and haunted your dreams and stolen your trinkets, and manipulated your lives, and I have plotted to burn down this wretched city after I have eaten all your children or fed them to my friends and lapped up their tears!"
Orryn turns to Nowhere and holds open the bag of devouring that had nearly killed him just minutes before. She drops the doll into the bag, and closes it, and after just a moment, Mathilda shrieks and explodes in a blast of green ichor that covers them all. The Watch makes startled, disgusted sounds down in the street.
Seraphina pulls Immeral in the same window and hurries over to Dain who is pale and barely hanging onto life. He is no longer breathing and has moments to live. She casts spare the dying, drawing power from her patron The Raven Queen, to stabilize Dain, and he draws in a huge breath, but he is still unconscious.
Nowhere goes over to Squiddly and asks if he is alright. He nods, crying a little bit, and hugs her.
Orryn goes and tends to Atlas, who is still unconscious, and K'ronk limps over to Immeral who also lays unmoving, when a shadow appears before him. There is a woman flying outside the window, and she glides in, stepping down gently on the wooden floor of the turret of Trollskull manor.
She looks around, taking everything in. "I am Vajra Safahr The Blackstaff of Waterdeep." She runs a gloved hand through a spot of green ichor and brings it up to her nose to smell it. "Hag?" she says, and Atlas nods.
Atlas says "Ma'am, we are the owners of Trollskull Inn and we were attacked by the hag and had to defend ourselves from her and her minions. My you are lovely."
She seemingly pays little attention, squatting to look at the dead blue creature before them. "One Oni?" she asks K'ronk, and he replies "Two." She nods.
She looks around again and reaches into her jacket, handing out three healing potions. One each go to Immeral and Atlas and Dain to revive them all. She waits as they stumble to their feet.
"The focus?" she asks. Nowhere replies "We got rid of it." pointing to the bag of devouring.
"Can you handle that?" The Blackstaff asks.
"Yes." Nowhere says.
"No." Orryn corrects her, and hands her the bag. She takes it from the bottom and turns it inside out. It makes a strange sucking pop sound, and then The Blackstaff draws it back inside in.
"It is safe now."
"Is the house clear?"
Immeral states "We did not check every room." Then adds. "Do we have to worry about The Watch?" nervous they had broken something in the code legal or their deputization as magists.
Vajra walks over to the window where she sees The Watch is milling about, keeping people away from Trollskull as pedestrians are starting to return to the street. She calls down "Sergeant. There has been no unlawful use of magic here."
With that, she turns and walks to the trap door that Orryn had battered open and jumps down.
The Owlbear League gathers, dusting themselves off, then looks at each other. "Sorry I tried to kill you." says Dain to K'ronk and Atlas.
K'ronk replies "Sorry I just about killed you back." Dain nods.
"Do we follow her down?" asks Nowhere, just as the sounds of a magical battle emanate from below, with explosions and the howling of unnatural creatures.
Immeral says "I say we take the rope down."
They all clamber down, tired and weary, but glad to be alive, including Squiggly who asks if he can go up and slide down the rope again, but he runs over and retrieves his bow. Orryn notices a necklace in the street, and picks it up. It has some of the ichor of the hag on it, but Orryn pockets it for later examination.
Some friends and neighbors have started to gather outside. Avi the blacksmith, Dierre Silvermoon, the baker and his son Roekin, Wrenly Stafford from the Mocking Mustang stables, and more. Even Emmett Frewn, who still looks a bit surly. The neighbors ask what happened and The League quickly relates the defeat of the hag of Trollskull Manor. A few more sounds of magical explosions can be heard in the building, startling the crowd, but shortly after Vajra comes down the stairs, and the onlookers clear.
"The house is clear, but could use a blessing. I don't do blessings." she says, looking at Seraphina, who nods.
She turns to the sergeant of The Watch. "Send for three carts."
"What can we do about the man who gave us this house without telling us it was haunted by a deadly hag?" Orryn asks.
"Someone gave you this house?" she asks
"It was to pay a debt." Nowhere says.
Vajra looks back at the building. "It needs work." she says, then asks "Name?"
"Orryn" says Nowhere angrily.
"Volothamp" says Vajra, nodding with recognition. "You will hear from him shortly. You may not kill him." With that, she raises her staff and flies off.
Jenks adds "That was a-maze-ing."
Nowhere says "Can we stay back to the Yawning Portal for tonight?"
The party agrees.
The party makes their way back to the Yawning Portal and Durnan is able to give them some rooms at the usual exorbitant rate. They eat, sleep recover. The next day, they return to Trollskull, and go through the rooms looking into the magic items and trinkets that The Hag left behind.
K'ronk casts spell after spell to identify many of the odd items that they collected from the house. There is an old wooden puzzle box that smells of rotten eggs. Immeral studies the box for a few moments and manages to open it, revealing several rotten eggs, along with one larger chromatic looking egg. K'ronk looks it over carefully and decides it is a Pseudodragon egg.
They discover a candle of darkness that can project magical darkness 15' for up to one hour. They find a magical teapot of warming that upon speaking the command word of "brahay" (elvish for boiling), it will warm and boil anything within in within seconds without any fuel. A glass jar full of embalming fluid containing the chubby hand of a halfling. The hand is magical and constantly points to the nearest food vendor. Food placed in the jar will receive a thumbs up or thumbs down review, and will even indicate poison by floating to the top. There is a ragged and worn teddy bear that when hugged gives them a warm fuzzy feeling, but if not hugged it will inflict nightmares upon anyone within 15 feet. There is a book of disgusting recipes which Dain seems intrigued by.
There is also the bag of wasps that they previously used. There is a cloak of gender disguise that changes the appearance of the wearer when the hood is raised. There is a mirror of reflection is a small handheld mirror that can transmit the view from any reflective surface within 60', but the face of the watcher can be faintly in the source of the image.
In the nest of ravens they find a magical rod and the enchanted skull of a raven. The rod is a rod of security that she believes is obviously a gift from the Raven Queen. The rod of security can be activated with a button and transport up to 200 beings to the imagined paradise of the user. Users rapidly heal in this space, and when ended, all inhabitants return to the exact location they left. There is a maximum of 200 people-days that the extra-planer space can exist.
The skull of the raven will emit a smoke-raven when thrown to the ground, that can only be damaged by magical weapons, that will follow the commands of the user. But, the thrower will be stunned when they stop controlling the smoke-raven.
They also find a magic clay pot that once per day can be slapped and will produce a live skunk.
In the roof storage room of the Inn, they find a painting that displays the weather for the next day. Nearby, they find the unmagical namesake of the Trollskull manor, a giant pale-white troll skull.
Finally in the loft where the battle with the hag took place, they find a necklace of eyes. When a lock of hair is placed in the locket, for up to 10 minutes, the wearer can see through the eyes of the source of the hair, as long as they are within 10 miles.
Then there is the cauldron of the hag. It is a cauldron of power which can half the speed which ritual spells can be cast.
NEXT - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 36 - NEW DAY FOR AN OLD INN
This adventure used material from the D&D Module "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist".
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