[[Day 2|<< Day 2]] | [[Day 4|Day 4 >>]] ## Day 3 We made it to Thither without issue. It's not a swamp, thankfully. Just a forest. Clapperclaw and Dumphrey departed, with Dumphrey promising to return after a reminder that we owe him. We were left next to a cave. A tree outside the cave had a wanted poster nailed to it for someone named "Will of the Feywild." The listed reward was an item from Granny Nightshade's child-slavery-run workshop. Based on the picture, the criminal in question is a child. We figured that it'd be a good idea to find the kid before the hag could. Before we could get lost about it, though, a voice called out to us from inside the cave, beckoning us all in. Inside, there was a blindfolded old man surrounded by piles of gold pieces — tens of thousands, if I had to estimate. The man, Nib, gave us his story: he used to be a slumlord in Waterdeep until he was cursed by Granny Nightshade to turn his ill-earned funds into "useful items." In the meantime, he's confined to the cave and haunted by tenants of the past, who often distract him from his work. Hence the blindfold. He wasn't looking to rid himself of the curse, which was convenient, because I certainly wasn't looking to break it for him. I don't have a lot of personal experience with landlords, but I've seen enough of Waterdeep to know how bad it can get. Nib did plenty to help us, though. We sat there as he crafted some of those useful items for us: a flying broom for Nia, a sharp sickle for Skoll, and a protective cloak for me. It looks gaudy as hell — but if it helps, it helps. We managed to get some information out of Nib about Granny Nightshade before we left. She's currently in a place called Loomlurch, for one. He also said that she's made of wood, or something, and has a key in her back like a wind-up toy's. Nib couldn't tell us much more about the hag than that. He could, however, point us in Will's general direction — namely, north. So that's the way we flew, foraging along the way. It wasn't long before we found some giant animal tracks on the forest floor. By the look of them, they belonged to a draconic creature of sorts. The tracks weren't recent enough to be cause for worry; we continued on. The next sticking point was a small lake, in the middle of which was a tiny islet. We tried to fly over it — me with my wings, Skoll and Nia on the broom — but there was a crazy updraft, and we couldn't get close to the thing. Skoll theorized that some kind of magical creature was living under the lake, preventing us from passing over it. We went around. We then promptly ran into an owlbear tied to an empty chariot. Skoll talked to her, of course, because that's what Skoll does. Her rider — an elf — got snatched up by a dragon. If I had to guess, it was likely the same dragon whose tracks we had seen. The owlbear's name is Juniper. Skoll let me know that I would need to hunt "at least a cat" worth of meat a day to keep her happy. I was not at all surprised that Skoll made the executive decision to adopt an owlbear. He's still carrying his little vine blights around, after all. Not to mention the entire zoo that we had accumulated in Barovia. Me and Skoll got in Juniper's chariot. Nia wanted to keep flying, which I definitely understood — I've loved flying ever since I first learned, back when I was still an owlet. Will lives with a bunch of other children in a treehouse atop a treant. As we approached, he told us to stand down or die or whatever — but once we told him that we were there to deal with the hags, he invited us up and inside. It was at that point that it sunk in that we were about to team up with a child. Even Nia seemed amused by the idea. The kids were helpful, at least, even if Will himself was a little irritating. He kept going on about how old and lame we are — which is funny, considering that we're going to save this whole place. But whatever; I'm not going to let an eleven year-old get under my skin. Will let us know that Bavlorna is now in Thither — unsurprising, but still annoying. He also told us that Granny Nightshade has a habit of kidnapping kids. And here I was hoping that time at the windmill outside of Vallaki would be the last time that I had to rescue children from some hags. Another kid — a little orc girl named Zennor, I think — told us of another possible information source: a unicorn named Lamorna. We could find her at the "Wayward Pool," which just so happened to be the tiny lake that we couldn't pass over on the way to the treehouse. Will didn't think it would be worth our time — he called Lamorna a "do-nothing." We decided to go anyway. The reason that we couldn't get to the pool, Zennor told us, was because we weren't disguised as a unicorn. I was a little wary of being made to dress up like an idiot again, considering how the last time went. And the costume that Will provided us was incredibly shitty — but the kids seemed to be telling the truth, even though I figured that the unicorn was probably just humoring them. In any case, we dressed up and headed for the pool. Along the way, we came across a circle of little dancing mushroom men, which made Skoll sad — he misses Jord. Skoll informed us that the circle was a fairy ring, which acts as a teleportation device when active. Although it wasn't active at the time, Skoll was close to figuring it out — until I stopped him. As much as I want to get the fuck out of here, we still have a job to do, and I didn't want Skoll getting transported to gods know where when it will be faster to just do the damn thing. Still, I guess it's good that we have a theoretical escape route if everything goes to shit. We were able to walk up to the pool just fine with the unicorn costume on. On the islet, there was an iron bowl filled with coal; I lit the coals on fire, since it seemed like the thing to do. And it was the thing to do. Lamorna appeared behind us, and we got to talking once we explained our purpose. Lamorna informed us that the hags and Zybilna are step-sisters, which is a little worrying if we end up killing them. Hopefully the fact that the hags froze Zybilna in time means that she won't mind. Lamorna also told us that Zybilna isn't a perfect woman — she's deceitful and vain — but things were certainly better with her in charge. She kept the place safe, which is more than the hags are doing. And it turns out that the archfey isn't the only one in trouble. In addition to using the cauldron to trap Zybilna, the hags also had to use the horn of Lamorna's mate, Elidon. Lamorna is convinced that Elidon isn't dead — she would've felt it, apparently — which means that we have a few rescue missions ahead of us. Lamorna claimed that finding Elidon's horn and Elidon himself will help with the Zybilna situation. She admitted that she had no idea where Elidon's horn is — but when Nia asked her about the horn on our costume, she took a few moments to study it before telling us that it is in fact Elidon's horn. Quest complete, I suppose! Lamorna had a couple of other tips for us: for starters, there was the stuff about the Jabberwock, which is the name of the dragon that left those tracks. The Jabberwock belonged to Zybilna; now, no one is controlling it. Lamorna advised that we stay away from the thing, warning that it can't be reasoned with. She also let us know about a potential guide to the palace once we get to our next stop, Yon: a dandelion named Amidor. I didn't ask if she was talking about a literal dandelion; at this point, it absolutely would not surprise me. Finally, Lamorna gave us permission to rest at the pool when we need to. She told us that the water there can remove curses — so that's good to keep in mind, I guess. It was at that point that some asshole wearing a shitty wooden horn on his head came out of the forest in a full-on sprint, his weapons aimed for Lamorna. Lamorna disappeared and the guy — Zarak — fell on his ass. We found out pretty quickly that Zarak doesn't work for the hags. He insisted that he didn't want to fight us; we weren't too keen to fight either, so we paid him off to learn why the hell he was trying to assassinate a unicorn. Zarak went on a long spiel about his organization, the "League of Malevolence," which is a fun name. I kind of stopped listening partway through when it became apparent that the League of Assholes probably won't get in our way. He did say something about some wizard or something being stuck in the palace, so that might be worth checking out. Me, Skoll, Nia, and Juniper started heading back toward the treehouse to return the costume. We must've taken a different way, because we came across something that I hadn't noticed before: a tree filled with tiny houses, surrounding which were bleating, angry goats. The pixies occupying the tiny houses gave us the lowdown: some redcaps came out of the forest and started throwing rocks at their houses, so they polymorphed the redcaps into goats. They didn't really know what to do beyond that, other than wait for the spell to wear off so they could polymorph them again. Skoll talked to the redcaps and found that they were feeling pretty murderous. So we took their weapons, told them that we found some pixies that they can kill, and led them off the path and further into the forest. We tried to talk them out of the whole murdering thing when they turned back into redcaps, but they couldn't be convinced. I had Skoll and Nia give them their weapons back so that killing them wasn't completely fucked up. It still didn't feel great, though — it was an easy fight. I wish Ezmerelda were here. If I told her that I was having doubts about killing some assholes who planned to kill a bunch of innocents, she'd just punch me or something. And then I would have to come to my senses. Skoll had me bleed the redcaps so that he could give the blood to Bloody, which definitely didn't make me feel any less uneasy. We returned to the pixies. They were grateful that we dealt with the situation. The pixie who was talking to us, Zinnia, was still worried; their tree is sick, and more and more redcaps have been appearing. Granny Nightshade has been growing them, apparently. Skoll did what he could. He cast some spell — then, nearby trees uprooted and formed a defensive circle around the pixies' tree. It'll only last a day, but hopefully that's all the time we'll need to deal with the hag here. Will was waiting for us back at the treehouse. We gave him the costume without the unicorn horn — I thought it would be a big issue, but he didn't even notice. Will has a guy who can take us to Yon when we need to head that way. Specifically, his guy is a talking oil can named Squirt. Squirt informed us that we'll have to carry him — he can fly just fine, apparently, but he doesn't like to. I want to go home. We're at the Wayward Pool, now, resting until tomorrow — not that "tomorrow" means a damn thing here. Then, it's on to Loomlurch to kill a hag or two and save a bunch of kids. --- ## Page Tags/Properties **Tags:** #Journal **Category:** [[Journals and Writings.base|Journals and Writings]] **Character:** [[Krue d'Avenir|Krue]] **Campaign:** [[Wild Beyond the Witchlight]] **Date ([[Calendar of Harptos|Harptos]]):** 12/26/1492