Just finished up Shadow etc. Here we gooooo.
Last time, the party mixed it up with the Inquisition of the Holy Kingdom, but also a demon masquerading as an Inquisitor. They're now making their way to the city of Seven Spires to report, with Oballa, the spy they met last time, to Queen Moira. Genevieve goes on ahead, reporting to her superiors (her player was absent).
The party comes to an apple orchard outside the city of Seven Spires, and they see a very pleasant old lady beating a rug. She recognizes them, since the Holy Kingdom guards that were ahead of them apparently told the old lady about them, and asked her to give them food and shelter for the night. Veni is initially concerned, but is won over by the prospect of apples (cronch).
They pass the time until dinner in their ways; Dagmar combs and styles their beard, Veni eats apples and reads, and Bashir talks with Vidre, the farmer, and Mirra, his wife, about apply farming. Mayfly zips up into a tree and keeps watch, and notices a thicket where the trees have grown heavy and, well, thick. Mayfly tries to check it out, but the branches are too close and it's afraid to tear its wings. Mayfly does find canine tracks around the thicket, though.
That night, they sit down to dinner (pork chops with an apple sauce!) and Vidre says that some time back, something magical went haywife and made the trees grow up into that thicket. He's planning to cut it down when his workers come back for the picking season. As the characters eat, they realize they're feeling tired and sweaty. Vidre brings out some cider, and they all imbibe, but it makes Bashir even sicker. He realizes too late that this food isn't safe to eat, but isn't sure why.
The characters bed down in the barn (except Veni, who sleeps outside), and Bashir realizes his nose is bleeding. Mayfly heals him a bit, but he's still got the shakes.
After dark, Veni hears a bell, like something tripping an alarm, and then a snarl. He gets up and wakes the others, and they all run out just as three wolf-man creatures break from the brush and charge them.
Veni hits them with a spell to slow them, and Bashir just runs right up and cracks one in the head with his club. Oballa starts to sing, strengthening the group, and Dagmar wades in with their staff. Mayfly zips around healing friends, and the wolf-creatures snap and bite, but then a roar from the brush gets everyone's attention and a minotaur appears.
It winds up and throws a log, knocking Bashir on the head. Veni throws a spell of binding around it, but it charges right through, soaking up the damage, and crashes into Bashir, knocking him down. Veni throws a fiery blast spell, killing the wolf creatures and injuring the minotaur, and Oballa switches to casting magic to shock it. It charges again, knocking Dagmar and Veni down, and then spins. Mayfly fires a crossbow bolt into its head and it paws the ground, ready to charge, but Veni teleports the log the minotaur threw above its head, and it falls and drives the crossbow bolt into its brain, killing it.
The characters take a breath and regroup. Dagmar goes over to the brush to try and see where these things came from, but the ground is too torn up from the minotaur. Mayfly flits inside to see if Mirra and Vidre are OK. In the basement, Mayfly finds a rack of herbs and powders in glass containers, but they're labeled in a language that it can't read, so it zips upstairs to the kitchen and finds Mirra standing there. They talk a minute, and Mirra asks Mayfly's help to go and get Vidre.
Meanwhile, Veni wanders inside and goes to the basement, and casts Translate Anything to read the labels. They're all poisons - ingested, blade treatments, all kinds.
Upstairs, Mirra takes Mayfly into the bedroom and has it talk to Vidre, and then, when Mayfly isn't looking, stabs it. Mayfly falls and Mirra says "Kill it, quickly." Vidre throws a dagger and incapacitates the clockwork, but downstairs, Veni hears the thunk of the dagger in the floor, grabs a powder poison, and runs up. He throws the poison into the room and definitely gets their attention, and Mayfly throws itself out the window. Oballa sees this and starts tending to Mayfly, and Dagmar and Bashir go running in, but the two assassins roll under the bed and everyone hears a thump.
Bashir, seeing this, figures they've gone downstairs and runs there, while Veni and Dagmar follow through the poison (Dagmar laughs it off; dwarves are resistant to such things). In the basement, the assassins appear and stab at the characters. Bashir runs down the stairs and flings a magic acorn at Mirra, but Mirra throws a dagger into Bashir's stomach and drops him.
Dagmar faces off against Vidre and sustains some wounds, but jams their staff into Vidre's mouth and bashes his head against the wall, killing him. Oballa leans in and casts a Shock spell at Mirra, who retaliates by hurling a dagger into Oballa's neck, but at the point, Veni, also poisoned and wounded, manages to teleport behind Mirra and whack her with his staff, felling her.
The characters manage to pull Bashir and Veni back from the brink of death, and repair Mayfly. They find the weapons and armor of the guards they met last time (Bashir takes a mail shirt and Dagmar takes a sword), and they find some money in the place, but other than that they just find corpses buried in the orchard. Mirra confirms that they were hired to kill the characters, and work for the Cracked Mirror - the same organization that gives Genevieve her marching orders (and pamphlets).
The party needs to rest before heading into town. They're planning on bringing Mirra with them so she can face justice, so that'll be a fun trip.
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