12 Kythorn 1491
Will shoos the kids out and reveals himself to the party, sitting down and saying:
“I’ve not always been Will. Once, I went by Mugan. To my sorrow, I used to work for Skabatha as a kidnapper of children.”
“Sometime ago, the sisters placed a curse on me that had a side effect. I believe an unintended one. She meant to cause me pain, and while it achieved its goal, it was in an odd way. It caused me to regret my actions.”
The Party moves forward with plotting shenanigans. The party could convince Skabatha that they’re bringing her a child; at this, Mell morphs into a dwarven child she saw when at the witchlight carnival.
The party reveals their intentions to overthrow the Hourglass Coven.
Phee asks Will’s age, who states he’s older than Phee. Mell flirts shamelessly with him upon hearing he’s not underage. She’s got a a thing for someone with power and a story.
Phee runs forward to hug the tree. As she gets closer, a faded image of a hulking beast juxtaposed over one of the children appears. They are more than what they seem. Phee is largely unperturbed, and excitedly chats to the ‘lead’ kid about her party, Clapperclaw, and their interest in meeting Will. They respond well to this. Apparently the child she’s speaking to is none other than Will himself! She waxes on about Nib, and the kids are delighted at the idea of someone giving gifts in the forest.
Mell is a bit disconcerted by the monstrous images and comments to Yndrus about it, who had yet to see them. Perturbed, Yndrus tries to detect them with magic. Upon the back of Will, an image of a glaive highlights, but he still cannot see the creature.
Mell whips out the doll of Skabatha and states they have a shared enemy. Will asks to see it, and Mell passes it over, stating it’s possibly meant to be something more but is currently just a doll.
Will states they wish to save all the children being held by Skabatha, and Mell says they’re looking to save a child as well, Star. Will states that they are looking after Star inside the oak tree. Phee is super excited, and flies immediately towards the tree-house in the walking oak.
Inside the house is an oil can that looks out of place, and a costume of a unicorn crumpled in the corner. Phee spies a tentacled tail and tosses the mirrored ball toy towards it. Star leaps out from under a pile of cushions and catches it. She tries to get across that she’s there on behalf of their dad, but Star playfully grapples with her and hops out the window, alighting on the ground and leaping into the faded arms of the Will-beast.
Upon seeing Star, Mell exclaims “Star! Dirlagraun has been so worried about you!”.
A conversation ensues. An exchange for them looking after Star and getting them home, for the party’s help in freeing more children. Mell shakes Will’s hand, grinning happily and morphing into the image of what she sees as the faded form behind Will. Yndrus recognises the image of Mell as an Oni, a legendary boogeyman who haunt the nightmares of children and adults alike, who prey on people and find babies to be the most delicious.
Yndrus asks the other kids more about how they came to be there, and Will hushes the party, gesturing them to go into the tree-house. So they do.
Will is very protective of the kids when Mell shifts. She bows her head and states that she wished only to show him the assets she can bring to their cause, then proceeds to shift into the Pigchild. He is still guarded, but seems to take it as an odd ability, but a positive thing.
The group hatches a plan inside the tree-house.
The party is tasked with being a distraction. To arrange a meeting, and get Skabatha talking. More info on the scaly beast surfaces, perhaps it’s a dragon? Huge, green, scaly, massive tendrils, spindly, and what looked to be eyes like balls on its face.
The oil can in the corner yawns. Phee notices and sidles up to the can and asks “new friend?”
It coughs a little, and Phee gives it a bit of water. It spits it out. “Water? Oil, thank you!”. Phee is delighted that it talks and asks if it’s always been an oil can.
It responds that it has always been an oil can, but that the can existed before it had any consciousness. It’s all very confusing. Phee compliments it on its philosophic tendencies and asks how it fits in with the strange folk that live there. It basically just chills and enjoys the adventure of a moving house. Mell asks after an Alicorn and it’s heard of it! Well, one Alicorn, that has lost its horn and is the steed of Skabatha.
Mell waves the unicorn horn around and the can checks it out curiously. Yndrus asks its name and it goes by Squirt.
Phee asks bluntly what Will really is.
The party go over the plan with Mugan, and settle on checking out the goblin market next to Skabatha’s domain for information, with Squirt as a guide. After a time, the party finds themselves walking through a sickly looking forest. The sun has become dimmed through the canopy, the place is darker, more foreboding. They come across a very sad looking large tree. Around it are metal objects, and three goats. They are bleating and pawing at the ground, covered in old foliage. Phee uses a magical wind to blow the ground cover away. On the ground are three sickles, covered in a rusty looking material. Phee listens in on the thoughts of the goats. Their thoughts are “Slash, murder, blood!”
Mell starts to creep forward and tries to get the attention of the goats. Mell overhears someone telling them urgently to stop, and she does so, crouching down and peering around for the source of the noise. There are about a dozen creatures above them in the branches, hiding in little houses. Pixies!
Turns out the goats were once Redcaps, and the pixies had turned them into goats.
They are too small to kill them, and Morgort suggests she go and collect the sickles in order to prevent further harassment from the Redcaps. The goats are small and ineffective at attacking Morgort, and she condescendingly pats one of the goats. One of them takes a couple dozen steps back and runs full tilt at Morgort. Its little neck cracks and it falls over, morphing into a prone Redcap on the ground.
Morgort - “And what have we learned?”
The Redcap gets up and starts screaming at Morgort to return his sickle. Morgort declines, and starts lecturing the Redcap on proper weapon care. The Redcap glares, lets out a homicidal sigh, and grabs the other two goats by the necks and drags them off.
Squirt is nowhere to be seen, but the fairies are helpful in tracking the oil can down. Yndrus assures the pixies that the party is going to reverse the damage of the forest by ridding the area of Skabatha. They don’t seem convinced, so Phee blooms for them a bouquet. It’s so large, that when a pixie goes to drag it into a house, it fills up most of it, flowers poking out of the door.
They also give the party some useful info on that Skabatha grows Redcaps in her garden.
The next morning, before the party heads off to find Will, they recommend to the pixies to visit Nib. Yndrus asks after the mysterious large tracks the party saw yesterday.
Whatever it is, is big and scaly, big claws and wings. He asks after the Star, and the party discovers that the cub is with Will. Next, they ask after the Alicorn, and are given info about a unicorn at a pool of water. But they (the pixies) can’t get there. Clapperclaw has seen this lake from a distance but can’t seem to get there despite trying. Lastly, Yndrus asks for any useful info about Granny Nightshade. They have nothing new to offer.
Mell investigates the doll of Skabatha she pilfered earlier. It’s not magical, but seems to have been meant to be something more instead of just being a doll.
Clapperclaw leads the party through the woods, toward Little Oak. They seem to be skirting the edges of a corrupted area of the forest on the way. Eventually they come across a small group of children cavorting around a large oak. In the trees branches resides a ramshackle house.
They travel on, and an hour or so later, they come across the distant image of Loomlurch. Dusk has come, and gloomy lanterns light the area. Squirt is hesitant to go in, so the party tucks them away at the top of Phee’s pack with the added incentive for Squirt that they get boggle oil at the market for them.
Phee summons her fairy dragon familiar for the first time, with a flourish. Their name is Fai. She sends the dragon off for recon, to look into a nearby window that appears to be attached to the workshop. Phee, connected to her dragon, her body is blind and deaf, so Mell takes it upon herself to draw a moustache on the fairy’s face.
The dragon peers into the window without being seen. There’s some toy related stuff in various forms of completion, with three kids surrounding the large table within. One drow child is dancing upon the table, with the other two laughing and clapping.
Phee returns to her body and rubs her nose, smearing part of the moustache, and recants what she saw through her familiar.
Phee introduces herself to a nearby goblin with a candy apple for a head. Phee asks if it’s sweet and the goblin grins and says in a sultry manner “Uou can find out.” Mell takes up the offer immediately, and licks his head, much to the disgust of Morgort. Mell notices a small indent and asks after it. Between her and Yndrus, they deduce that something has burrowed into the goblins’ head. Chucklehead doesn’t seem to mind, and has even named the creature Nancy. The other two think he’s lovely, but Mell is suspicious that perhaps Nancy is controlling Chuckleheads, who claims be at peace with the parasite. Phee asks if she can read his thoughts to deduce what’s really going on. She senses only that something is changing his mind and he desires to be a better person, apparently he was unhappy with his personality before the parasite invasion. Seems like their relationship is symbiotic. Just before Phee breaks contact, she hears a thought “Maybe they could save her.” Phee asks after who he was thinking of. There’s a little girl, Mishka, who keeps escaping and being dragged back by a creature called Cradlefall. Cradlefall likes to hide in boxes. She is in the kitchen, likely chained there by now.
Yndrus takes a wee stroll around the area and finds the redcap planting area . Mell, nearby, grabs one of them and pulls it up. A malformed, not fully grown, Redcap is yanked out of the ground. Horrified, Mell punts it a short distance. It’s unimpressed, and starts hurling abuse at the party, clearly intending to fight. Yndrus retaliates by turning into a Tiger. As the party watches, the Redcap continues to develop and starts to spawn a sickle. Yndrus pounces.
Battle ensues! And ends with Morgort laying waste to the creature. As it falls, other Redcaps start to rise a bit out of the surface, perhaps feeding upon the fresh blood of their fallen brethren. Tiger Yndrus snatches up the dead Redcap and tosses it into the river, thankfully stopping the growing Redcaps. The Party decides to get the hell out of there before they cause more trouble.
Phee asks if they know where to get Boggle Oil. He agrees to help in exchange for the party helping out Mishka.
Morgort purchases some fly icicle treats from Chucklehead, that either make the imbiber to shrink or grow.
After they’re done chatting with Chucklehead, Phee connects to her dragon again who flies off to investigate. While she’s preoccupied, Mell touches up the moustache and adds a wee goatee while she’s at it.
Lots of useful info was gained. A dormitory with one restless child sleeping. A room full of looms with children working within. The scent of food from a nearby tree. A bedroom, tidy, with a rotting dollhouse and a large bell jar full of moths.
She tells the party what she’s seen, and after Phee reconnects with her familiar, who is perched atop the large middle tree of Loomlurch, looking down near the garden area. It’s spotted a mossy rocking horse next to a creek, with a creepy painted smile, next to a painted wooden box. The box is about 3 feet squared, with a wooden crank. Perhaps the domicile of Cradlefall?
As the night creeps on, the party hears dogs howling in the distance; Mell, disconcerted, climbs upon Tiger Yndrus and scritches their ears. Tiger, Mell, and Phee creep along towards the howling, and Morgort peels off to circle around the sound.
The sounds don’t seem random, but almost ritualistic. A language, a discussion, rather than nonsensical howling. As the party, sans Morgort, approach, Phee listens in on one of their thoughts. They are clearly intelligent beings, and are looking sadly into a hole. It seems they’ve stumbled across a funeral.
Phee approaches the creatures with tears in her eyes, and says in Sylvan that she feels their sadness. One turns to look at her, it’s annoyed she’s there at first, but appreciates the demeanour of Phee, and turns back to the grave. The party watches quietly until the ceremony comes to a close. She shares their grief with them, sensing the images and memories of the creatures in mourning.
Yndrus de-tigers and casts speak with animals and reaches out to the creatures.
It seems the death of their comrade was at the hands of Cradlefall. Yndrus mentions the party’s desire to depose Skabatha, and the creatures impart some information about the area of Loomlurch. Like the clock crowd that the three sisters use to communicate with each other, and that Cradlefall is a dragon. Not as large as the one wandering the forest, but formidable nonetheless, and pure evil.
Yndrus finally recognises the animals as Blinkdogs. Yndrus thanks them for their assistance and reiterated his commiserations. The Blainkdogs lope away.
Floating ahead of the party, Squirt leads the party back to Little Oak. They arrive late in the night, and scramble up into the treehouse to rest until morning. As Yndrus drifts off into his meditation, he thinks to himself “I wonder what happens when Nancy eats everything inside Chucklehead’s noggin…”
They sleep, with plans to fill in Will with what they learned in the morning.