# Kill the Hag, Take her Stuff



## LostSoul (Nov 8, 2005)

Kill the Hag, take her Stuff

The First Session

We had some off time from our usual game, so we decided to play in a homebrew adventure scenario I had written up.  Not setting specific, high on high-EL encounters, and run with a "Kill things and take their stuff" mode in mind (at least by me).

Alex made Edward, a human Bard4.
Duncan had Magnus Klaganson, a dwarven Fighter4.  I think he had a dwarven fighter-substitution level in there as well.  His name was a play on a character name from our regular game, an uncharismatic dwarf (aren't they all?) cleric.
Ben made Ty, a human Monk3/Fighter1.

I allowed evil characters - actually, I was hoping someone would play an evil character, since I thought it would be fun.  Somewhere in the beginning of the first session, Ben's Lawful Neutral monk went to Lawful Evil.  There was some kidding about Ben's throwaway line about the pleasures of "women and orphans."  He didn't mean what we all heard, but it became his defining characteristic.  "The goblin children look at the monk and cry."

The other guys were neutral of some shade.

So our game began when the PCs entered the cursed little valley and were beset on all sides by evil WOLVES!  They were guarding a caravan, but the other guards didn't help out much at all.  So our heroes proved themselves by killing the wolves.

There was a little wondering at the "big wolf with glowing red eyes" watching them from the forest, but since it didn't attack, no big deal.

So the score is DM 0, PCs 1.  They killed the wolves and took the only things they had - their pelts.

Into the dreary little town.  I went totally overboard with the melodramatic "boxed text" - but it was fun.  Here's a snippet:



> Mountains.
> 
> Endless miles of mountains loom over you like walls of granite.  You thought they would be more scenic; but here, in their midst, you find them claustrophobic.  It is as if the mountains did not want you here.  As if they were towering giants of stone threatening to crush you for daring to trespass on their holy lands.
> 
> ...




I hammed it up too, so it wasn't just "towering giants of stone", it was "towering *GIANTS* of stone".  It was fun. 


Into town.  It was a dreary little town, full of ugly, suspicious people and rotting old abandoned homes.  A tall keep watched over the town (and the mountain valley/pass).  Ooo, spooky.

They talked to Johann and Peewee, the only two normal people here, while getting served a (very rare) meal from the wait staff.  The waitress, her father, and her mother were all very hairy - I was hoping that this would be a red herring, making the players think that werewolves were at work here, but they were on to me.  (They were just hairy folk, with no silver since they were poor.)

Anyway, Johann and Peewee tell the players a couple of things:

1) You can get a decent reward from the baron for killing wolves.
2) The baroness is hot, and you can see her hanging out on the keep's outer wall now and then.  (Which the monk did.)
3) They (Johann and Peewee) were guarding a noble from "the Kingdom down the road" (did I say it was a generic world? it was), and they were bored senseless.
4) The baroness comes to visit the noble now and then.
5) There are lots of wolves, they come into town at night, but they don't cause too many problems.  They seem to live in the Ruined Tower (cue crash of thunder), and they're led by a demon/witch.

So the PCs got drunk and went to sleep.  The monk made a nice spot check and saw "something" vaguely man-shaped lurking about the base of the keep's tower when the night was lit up by lightning.  But then it was gone.


Morning came, and with it, a new goal: kill wolves and take their heads.  Off to the Ruined Tower then.

They hacked through a thick undergrowth (plant growth spell) and made it to the tower.  They went in, killed some wolves (DM 0, PCs 2) and got some stuff.  There were some strange potions (a worg's heart, a vial with two pickled cat's eyes) and some cash.  I'm pretty sure they suspected Druid by now.

With nothing else there (I got my timeline screwed up), they went to do some wandering.  They found a cabin in the woods, triggered a few wolf traps, and broke in.  The owner, a Trapper by the name of Neil, showed up.  When they told him they were hunting wolves, he welcomed them in, gave them stew, etc.  He told them about the demon who leads the wolves.

They bid farewell to the Trapper and went back to town before it got dark.


Back in town again.  The keep's castellan (Dager - a lame name) escorted them to the Baron.  Some more melodramatic boxed text followed and gave the players a good sense of the creepy flavour I wanted for the game. 

The Baron was happy to see all the wolf heads and gave them a nice reward.  He invited them to stay for dinner and, in the morning, they'd go and slay the demon witch together!  (He promised more gold of course.)

Dinner came and went, a nice little role-playing time.  I introduced the Baroness (hot but quiet, detached), "Lady" Anna (the Baroness' niece, who was sent up here to learn how to be a lady like her aunt, but was being ignored and has become totally bored), the Castellan (who was torn between his duty to the Baron, whom he disliked, and the Baroness, whom he loved), and Raxus, a "diplomat" from the principality down the river.

Some things happened:

1) The bard tried to hit on Anna but his diplomacy checks were bottoming out; she was bored with him;
2) There was much suspicion of Raxus, as was planned.  I think the dwarf tried to figure out what he was about, and Raxus gave him a lot of strange answers;
3) The castellan was shown to have the hots for the Baroness;
4) The Baron really wanted to kill that witch;
5) and the Baroness was kind of removed from everything.


So later that night Anna proves why she gets quotes around the "Lady" bit in her name and screws the bard for kicks, but since she doesn't like him she's like whatever, dude, when it's all done with.  Which the bard doesn't mind.

The dwarf watches all of it from a closet.

The monk gets lonely and goes to hit on the Baroness (who has her own suite).  She's sitting by an open window, getting soaked in the cold rain, and all she's got on is her nightgown (which is all she ever seems to wear).  The monk tries to talk with her, she sorta tells him to leave, but doesn't really seem to even notice him - until, that is, he spots a beautiful dagger.  She screams at him, "Don't touch that!"

He tries to touch her, and of course she's a ghost.  (I meant to use one of her ghost powers along with her scream, but forgot.)  The monk heads down to get his buddies (and gets there just as Anna is leaving).  So they all go to talk to the Baroness.

Talk talk talk.  They tell her she's a ghost and one good diplomacy check later, she believes it.  She killed herself with the dagger (now a +1 ghost touch dagger).  Why?

The melodramatic boxed text explains it all:



> "I was in love - once.  With the Baron.  But time and circumstance changed all that.  After - it - happened, he would not touch me.  He could not.
> 
> "At night I lie awake and I wonder why he let it live.  I wonder the same thing about myself.  I still can hardly believe that it came from inside me - that thing, that beast that is my son.  I have never had the strength to kill him.  He is my child and deserves my love."




Hmm, I thought there was more.  Anyway, she tells them that after the childbirth, they drifted apart, and she was all alone, and he blamed her for the demon-child, and her son was all boo-hoo I'm evil, and she couldn't take it any more, so stabby-stabby in the old pumper.

(Technically, I guess she should be an Allip; but if you were thinking that, you suck.)

Nobody noticed that she was a ghost, least of all her, and she just floated around and used her TK power to do all the normal things.  That was a year or two ago.

So armed with this knowledge, the PCs go to sleep.


In the morning, they confront the Baron.  He evades the questions (although he's shaken by them), but just pushes forward with his "let's kill the witch" plan.  He grabs a couple of his men (3 War2/Exp1 - a class mix that really threw the players, but made sense since they needed to survive in this dismal town) and rides out to the Ruined Tower (cue crash of thunder).

Oh yeah, I may have forgotten to mention it.  (Yup, I did.) The Baron had a beautiful longsword hanging over his throne that seemed to radiate its own light - the only bright thing in the gloom of the main hall.  He didn't take it.  They asked him why, he gave some lame excuse.


At the tower - this is where things started to go wrong for the PCs. A flock of ravens (they call that a murder, you know) flew around, so the demon witch in the tower knew something was coming.  Since it takes a long time to get through plant growth, she had some time to prepare.  But I was nice, and didn't let her start buffing up until the PCs arrived.

She was a half-fiend druid5, CR 7, but I figured CR 6 since she ran around in the buff (no equipment).  They didn't need her to be fully-charged, she'd be tough enough already, especially with the 6 wolves and 3 worgs that were there as well.

So they hear some spellcasting.  The bard makes his spellcraft check.  "She's casting Bull's strength.  Are you doing anything?"  No.  "She's casting barkskin.  Are you doing anything?" repeat until she's done buffing herself and her animal companion.

And _then_ they decide to go in.

Now the tower was ruined, so you could climb up the side pretty easily into the room where the half-fiend druid5 was.  The monk did this while the rest of them went into through the main entrance.  Hack hack hack went the dwarven fighter, and man you can really carve through CR 2 creatures with a dwarven waraxe.

So the monk gets up to the second level where the witch is.  WHAM!  He unloads an amazing 7 points of damage with a magical sai or something.  The horror!  The witch turns on him and smiles (I had some nice boxed text here) and does a sweet full attack routine for something like 28 points of damage.

Ha ha, looks like it'll be DM 1, PCs 2 pretty soon.  Monk flees.

(The floor was rotting through and I was supposed to have anyone fighting up there make a balance check or fall through, but I forgot.)  

The witch cast spike growth around her tower to make sure nobody could get away.  And she revealed another backstory hint when she said, "I'm so glad you've finally come to see me, father," to the Baron.  Who then freaked out and ran his horse to the ground getting out of the spike growth.

The dwarven fighter is all alone now, fighting worgs and wolves.  The Baron's men are all dead.

The bard tumbles past the wolves to get to the monk, who's coming down the stairs being chased by a big wolf (buffed animal companion - although I forgot about the +1 from magic fang, which might have swung the battle, but f-it).  They meet up and heal heal heal.

So more fighting.  The monk goes down and is healed up.  The dwarf fighter is taking some damage but he's going to win - only question is will he be able to take on the witch once he finishes off the wolves?  (Answer is no.)  They have a sweet piece of luck when the witch blows a defensive casting check to cast Poison on the bard.  (Do you have to make the check for touch spells?  Who cares.)

Then the bard saves the entire party.  That's right, the _bard_.  He targets the witch with a _Tasha's Hideous Laughter_ spell.  So I look it up - "Ooh, so I've got a good will save, decent Wisdom, and a +4 bonus since I'm an outsider.  I only fail on a 1 or 2.  Ha ha, I'm not scared -"  

Up comes a 2.

(Which is even worse than rolling a 1, since a 1 always fails, and I was gloating about how I was going to make it...)

So she falls down.  I guess the humour translated.

On the final action of the fourth round, the PCs killed her.

Dammit: DM 0, PCs 3.  (This doesn't get any better, though not for lack of trying.)


That's where we called it.  

Highlights of the session:

- the monk's decision to "go evil" and his line about the pleasure from "women and orphans."
- the dwarf hiding in the closet while the bard does his bardly duties for the "Lady" Anna.
- and of course, the bard's spell and my total whiff on the save.

Good game.

We had 3 more sessions, so I'll write 'em up whenever I feel like it.


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