Session A16 — Hag Investigation

Summary

A double-content session that marks the end of the Thundertree arc and opens a new supernatural threat. The party faces Venomfang the morning after their rest — the young green dragon proves more flirtatious than fearsome, negotiating a deal involving Cragmaw Castle, ladies, and a locked chest he can't open with his enormous claws. After successfully clearing Thundertree and receiving Reidoth's promised reward, the party heads east toward Cragmaw — and encounters magical sigils laid across the High Road. A tiefling woman has already been taken; Kelvin is nearly taken too; Kavu's incomplete runic notes trigger dread nightmares. The party tracks the source east into the Neverwinter Wood, finds a hag's cave, is forced to bargain for Roland's life, then immediately turns around and fights the hag to retrieve a stolen soul. The session ends with the party having killed the hag, recovered the soul gem of a tiefling named Igwine, and watched Othorion attune to it — Igwine merging her consciousness into his as a permanent passenger.

Key Events

The Venomfang Encounter — The Tower

The party ascended to Venomfang's watchtower the morning of Hammer 26. They had already cleared the spider-infested building at the base of the hill. The tower interior was not what anyone expected.

The tower was filled with art. Busts and statues of beautiful women, naked above the waist, supplicating themselves. Paintings covered the walls. The party took it in. The dragon spoke first.

"Dost thou like my collection?"

Venomfang introduced himself with characteristic flair: "They call me Venom Thing, but you can call me tonight." His first real complaint upon seeing the party:

"So... You're all dudes. God, it's a sausage fest. And where are the fair maiden warriors that are supposed to be at every adventuring party?"

He then issued his standard territorial warning: "I don't know why you have come to face me, adventurers. But be careful. I bite in more ways than one."

The Negotiation — "Bitches Love Castles"

Kavu made the case for Venomfang's relocation: his presence was poisoning the land, killing the ecosystem, making Thundertree uninhabitable. Venomfang was unmoved:

"Because I see a mighty tower from which I, Venomfang, hold my court."

The party nudged the topic toward Cragmaw Castle. Someone needed to overhear Venomfang murmuring to himself to catch the key beat — a perception check passed. The dragon, in a quieter moment, could be heard muttering something that sounded like bitches love castles.

The party leaned into it: "I hear the ladies love castles." Venomfang agreed. Enthusiasm building, he moved to logistics:

"What's to stop me from taking this castle myself after devouring your delicious bodies? Using the energy you give me to slay and lay the ladies."

The answer: the castle was currently occupied by a significant goblin force. Venomfang reconsidered. He issued terms:

"You have a ten day to clear my castle. And if you fail, I will eat every single thing in this village. And then I will find you. I will devour you."

The Dwarven Chest — The Dryad Riddle

Before the deal could be concluded, Venomfang added a secondary condition. There was a chest in the tower he had been unable to open — a cryptex lock, the mechanism too fine for his enormous claws. He wanted whatever was inside.

The lock bore a Dwarven riddle: "Neither fully tree nor maid" — and the letters had to be entered upside-down. Kelvin, who had only recently learned that his mother Eldara was a dryad, solved it immediately. The answer was DRYAD.

The chest opened. Venomfang took the silver and gold inside as his due. The remaining contents went to the party: a hewing axe, a rolled parchment, and a Scroll of Lightning Bolt (which went to Kelvin). The party also recovered a large satchel found in the tower area containing large copper-gold scales — diamond-shaped, hard as iron, roughly half a human hand in size. Brass dragon scales, confirmed by Kavu.

Venomfang concluded the arrangement with satisfaction:

"Well, adventurers, you have shown yourselves worthy. You have, as I said, a ten day to clear out my Venomfang Castle. Fill it with bucks and babes."

The DM, as the party made their exit: "The memories your party has from meeting Venomfang the Wily will stay with you."

Thundertree Cleared — Reidoth's Reward

With Venomfang dealt with, the party returned to Reidoth to report success and collect what was owed. Reidoth provided:

• Directions to Cragmaw Castle — as promised for clearing Thundertree
• His Dwarven Moss from the secret one-acre patch — as promised to Kavu, for Elmar Barthen

The Sigils on the High Road — First Circle

On the road heading east — toward Cragmaw, in the same general direction Venomfang claimed as his territory — the party came across a scene. Clothes lay on the road. No body. The remnants of an arcane circle were visible on the ground nearby.

Kelvin used Speak with Plants. A dandelion at the roadside had witnessed what happened:

"She was walking and whistling. And she was swaying like a willow in the wind. And then she turned into a smoke person and blew off into the woods."

The victim: a tiefling woman. The dandelion confirmed her clothes remained behind after the transformation — the smoke had no need of them. It declined to specify which direction she'd blown.

Kavu cast Detect Magic: the circle registered no active magic. Whatever energy it held had already been expended. He examined the sigils, which were arranged in a circle and written in a script no one in the party recognised. He began copying them into his journal.

As he drew the final symbol in the sequence, he felt his clerical magic beginning to flow into the page — the incomplete circle was drawing on him to complete itself. He stopped.

Kelvin, with a nat-15 Intelligence check despite being illiterate, innately recognised the script's character. His fey blood — mother Eldara being a dryad, his father having Eladrin heritage — gave him the intuition: "I feel like this is Fae." The script was Sylvan.

Kavu made the DC15 Arcana check:

Arcane Sigil, when completed, functions much as a Glyph of Warding does. However, it is not the spell Glyph of Warding. It is triggered like one. An Arcane Landmine. You are able to determine that the completion of this rune signifies that anything meeting a specific criteria will be turned into a mist and blown towards a specific direction of the runemaker's choice.

A teleportation trap, not a kill spell. The tiefling hadn't been destroyed — she'd been transported somewhere specific. Direction unknown; dandelion eaten by a cow before it could gesture.

The party partially erased the sigil and continued east. Roland tried the Ear Horn of Hearing. Nothing. Party debated stopping vs. pressing on. The 10-day Venomfang deadline held weight. They continued.

The Second Sigil — Kelvin Taken

About a hundred metres further down the road, a second sigil activated. Kelvin — sitting in the back of the cart, bearing fey blood that apparently met the same criteria as the tiefling — transformed to smoke and began drifting east at 8–15 miles an hour.

"I don't want to go, Mr. Paladin."

And then he was smoke.

Kavu attempted Dispel Magic. Rolled a 1. Spent Roland's inspiration. Rolled a 1 again. Roland channelled whatever was in him — paladin mojo, contact inspiration — to fuel a third attempt. The Dispel landed. At 110 feet from the cart, Kelvin solidified mid-air and fell.

Four bludgeoning damage. Tuck and roll.

Also: all his clothes and gear were still in the cart seat. He was naked. A stinging nettle at his feet: "We're nature. You're disgusting."

Kelvin got dressed. He reported his experience: "I felt like I was getting pushed eastward and I was in a fog and I couldn't do anything."

The party went off-road east toward the source. They failed the nat-20 survival check that would have led them directly to the destination. Reaching the edge of the Neverwinter Wood after 2:30 AM, they camped.

Kavu's Nightmares — The Rune Toll

During the long rest, Kavu alone suffered dreadful visions — caused by the incomplete final rune he'd written in his journal. The magic had partially imprinted on him.

The dream: Kavu was standing on a podium at the base of the volcano near his old home. Ignorax, a red dragon, descended and began giving honours to all of Kavu's kobold brethren — one by one. When Ignorax reached Kavu, Kavu realised he was naked. The dragon laughed at him and flew away. Kavu became the laughingstock of the village. The dream looped until dawn.

Kavu gained no benefit from his long rest. His hit point maximum was reduced by 2.

Into the Neverwinter Wood — The Hag's Cave

Moving east through the Neverwinter Wood on foot (Drizzle left behind to guard the cart and oxen), the party found the cave.

Exactly what they found inside is not fully detailed, but the hag was present — and so was Roland, suspended naked above a pit.

The hag was large, ancient, and hungry. She ran a clawed finger down Roland's bare chest, leaving a line of blood:

"That one looked tasty, but I suppose this one, as he becomes corporeal, is definitely worth it, yes."

She addressed the party with theatrical patience:

"Now, I know what is going through your minds. How can we even bear to hope against all hope to survive such a situation?... Yes, my accurate, yes. Well, I am hungry. Oh, so hungry. But I am also bored. Oh, so bored. I'm always in need of things. And while I could simply have my way with all of you and turn you into that which feeds my soul and my belly..."

And her belly jiggled as she laughed.

She had terms. She showed the party a black gem: "This is a gem that holds the soul of... Igwine, the tiefling." The tiefling from the road — taken by the first sigil days earlier. She wanted two magic items of substance. She had the diamonds the party offered: "Do you think I care of diamonds? Are they magical diamonds?" She did not.

The First Bargain — Trading for Roland

Haldak offered his Amulet of Health as half-payment.

Roland, suspended above the pit, refused to deal: "I don't make deals with fiends."

The hag: "Fiend! How do you know I'm a fiend? Do you know what I am? Are you smart? Are you a smart boy? What am I?"

Roland: "I know exactly what you are, Hag."

The hag delighted in this: "I like... I can't wait for your friends to fail to come up with the final half of this payment, and I get to keep you forever! I'm gonna put you in an especially small gem, Roland. Yes, a tiny one. A cramped one. You will be in a little spiritual fetal position for a whole time. And I will keep you in a special place. Yes, a special place."

Kavu — realising the hat he'd been carrying produced three rats per day — demonstrated it. The hag watched a rat consumed from Kavu's hand, then devoured her own demonstration rat whole. The squeaking echoed through the cave as it descended her throat.

She accepted: "Yes, I think that this will do. Give me the trinket and the hat of snacks and we will consider ourselves equal and done. I shall give you your friend."

The hag floated Roland off the pit, away from the hole (Kavu caught this distinction and made her reposition him before letting go), and released him:

"Now, the next time you come across something like what you found at the road, don't fuck with it. Lest myself or whoever made it is a little less understanding than I was. Do you understand?"

The party asked about the tiefling in the gem. The hag turned her head owl-slow and looked back: "You want to trade for yet another knife? I really like this one. Do you have another two items? Well then, fuck off."

The Return — The Hag Fight

The party exited. Roland was furious. They debated for exactly as long as it took Roland to get dressed.

Kelvin asked his wildfire spirit — born of fey blood and Eldara's flame — three questions about the hag. The voice was "wrathful but calm at the same time", a woman's. Three answers to three questions about what the hag feared, what could protect them, and what to avoid. Each answer: Death. The hag. Much.

Kelvin translated: "I feel that we have to fight this hag. It'll be a hard fight. We need to be strong and heroic, because it's something it doesn't like."

Othorion received the Scroll of Lightning Bolt from Kelvin for the fight.

The party walked back in. Kavu offered a Cloak of Billowing as bait for more negotiation. As the hag's attention shifted to Haldak's second item offer, Kavu screamed directly in the hag's face.

Initiative.

The fight: Haldak activated Cloak of Displacement on himself and cast Protection from Good and Evil on Roland. Othorion opened with a 26 to-hit, landing 11 damage. Roland recovered his gear — including a Masterwork Silvered Rapier that had been with Othorion's belongings.

In the midst of the fight, Othorion lifted the soul gem from wherever the hag had kept it. "Feeling things isn't the only thing I'm good at, Kavu."

The hag fell — into or near the pit with the bubbling yellow cauldron below. Haldak's Amulet of Health and Kavu's Hat of Rats were lost with her.

The Altar and the Inscription

After the fight, the party examined the cave's centrepiece: a 10-foot-tall demonic skull fixture, glowing purple in the eyes and nasal cavities, horns wickedly curved. The altar bore two scripts: Abyssal and Sylvan — the same Sylvan script as the road sigils.

Othorion and Kavu between them had Abyssal. The inscription read:

"By the bones of ancient power we speak, through darkness across realms our voices unite."

The sigils on the road connected to this altar. The hag was not acting alone — or the altar represented a network.

Igwine — The Soul Gem

Othorion held up the black gem. Sylphrena (Roland's lantern spirit) examined it via arcana:

• The gem contained the soul of a woman named Igwine
• She could be attuned to; if compatible with the attuner, she would impart benefits as long as the attuned was meeting her expectations or actively trying to save her
• Sylphrena described her as "a debonair woman with a sly smile who buckles swash"

Othorion attuned. The gem disintegrated in his hands as Igwine's soul merged into him. Her first words to him:

"I suppose you and I can get along. You are quite handsome. And you seem to be good with a blade. I suggest that you ask your friend there for mine. I think it might be better than one of you. Let's see if we can't find someone who can fix this, yes?"

She faded to the background of his consciousness — a passenger, not a controller. Othorion felt both stronger and weaker.

Othorion gained: +1 Dexterity, proficiency in Investigation, expertise in Perception. The feat equivalent of Skill Expert.

NPCs Encountered

Loot / Discoveries

Threads Opened / Advanced

• Venomfang — 10-Day Deadline: Party must clear Cragmaw Castle of goblins within 10 days or Venomfang eats Thundertree and hunts them. Clock is running.
• Cragmaw Castle: Directions secured; this is now the immediate destination.
• Dwarven Moss Delivered (Promised): Reidoth's moss in party's possession; Elmar Barthen waiting in Phandalin.
• Igwine — The Merged Soul: A tiefling swashbuckler soul now rides in Othorion's consciousness. She is functional, aware, and wants her rapier. Her soul is bound — she needs a specialist to be properly restored to a body.
• The Altar — Sylvan/Abyssal Network: The skull altar in the hag's cave bears both Sylvan and Abyssal writing matching the road sigils. The hag may have been part of something larger; the sigils may continue to be laid elsewhere.
• Kavu's Max HP Reduction: Lost 2 max HP from nightmare curse. Requires magical intervention to restore (Greater Restoration or equivalent).
• Haldak's Amulet of Health: Lost permanently to the hag's cauldron.