D&D: Fog at the Party

D&D once again! Here's last time.

Our heroes spend a few days in Cian doing their various things. Clara meditates with the city monks and learns about how they view city life as having its own pulse and vibe, and she gets it, but it's not for her. Zook takes some gold from the group's collection and scribes a bunch of the scrolls he's collected into his spellbook, and helps Silé to do the same. Dara visits the library and reads up on treants, looking for a way to help Shol and Ros rest. She learns, unfortunately, that what Breasel essentially did was murder a thinking, living being and put its soul into weapons - the only way to help them "rest" is probably to burn them. Is that appropriate, like putting down a monster? Dara isn't sure.

Aisling, however, has machinations within machinations, and a few days later they are revealed - she's throwing a party! She rents out the courtyard behind the Lute's Echo, pays some junior bards from the Bard's College to come and play music and do some decorative magic, and makes sure the ale and wine flow freely. 

Midway through the party, she gets up on the stage and thanks everyone for coming, and then hops down and finds her party, one by one, to give them gifts and thank them for their contributions on their adventures.

She gives Dara a pair of hair-sticks with birds on the top. She gives Clara a pair of Boots of Elvenkind, which make her stealthy and silent. She gives Zook a new scroll case, and Belle a new quiver, both decorated and embossed professionally. She gives Keenan a fancy new hat.

And to Fearg, she gives the ring she commissioned from Darragh Bumpshadow, a ring with two hands holding a heart that carries a bit of magic; it will keep him warm. She calls it a "ring of heart-warming." 

The party continues, quantities of wine are consumed, Clara eats too many tarts...and then suddenly, the entire courtyard is enveloped in fog. Someone yells out "Is this part of the party?" Aisling confirms it is not, and Zook can tell just by looking around that this fog is magical. Belle backs up and jumps up on the wall that separates the courtyard from the stables, but the fog is higher than that. She jumps back onto the stable roof and can see the "borders" - the fog pretty much just covers the courtyard, as she can see the street, but no clue what's causing it.

Aisling and others start trying to get people towards the inn doors, and people are nervous, but no real danger seems evident...but then there's a loud cackle, and Keenan cries out in pain and stumbles against Zook. "Something stabbed me!" 

Aisling pokes her head into the inn and sees that it's free of fog. She sees Buach, the proprietor, and tells him to summon the guards. He agrees and runs off...a little too frightened for a famous adventurer, Aisling thinks, but she doesn't have time to deal with that now. 

Dara dispels the fog magic, but only half of the courtyard is de-fogged; apparently two spells were cast. Most of the partygoers are now visible, though a lot of them have headed for the street (including Silé's party and Séadna, the former Sworn). No one is wearing their armor or carries a weapon, which is making folks nervous. Belle remains on top of the stables, acting as lookout, though she notes that she doesn't have her bow. 

Fearg is trying to guide an old lady into the building, and she snaps at him, "You keep away, you little lovesick puppy!" She taps him on the forehead and Fearg melts into a little dog! The woman, too, changes - she becomes taller and uglier, her claws elongate. The adventurers gasp - they know a hag when they see one. But that's not what stabbed Keenan.

Another hag steps out of the fog, cackling evilly! Clara scampers over and punches her, stunning her (which might well have made the difference in this battle). 

The battle is joined! Dara hits the hag with a moonbeam, and she loses concentration and Fearg regains his form. He rages and punches at the hag, but without his weapon there's only so much he can do. Zook throws magic missiles and Keenan casts burning hands, but the just growls, backs up (ignoring Fearg's punches), and throws lightning at them!

Well, she tries. Zook counters the spell, but it's much more effortful than it should be. He realizes that one hag is drawing power from the other, and had that lightning hit them, there's no telling how much damage it would have done. He throws some scorching rays at the hag, but misses and only succeeds in setting the building on fire.

"Wasn't me this time!" yells Keenan. Aisling rummages around in her bag of holding (which she was using to hold presents) and pulls out Shol. She hands the axe to Fearg, whose eyes light up with manic rage and he charges the hag, slicing at her.

"A LITTLE HELP HERE, SALLY," yells the hag, but Sally is otherwise occupied, getting halfling-punched. Aisling and Zook pepper her with magic missiles, and Keenan mutters "Sorry, big guy" and casts a sleet storm, extinguishing the fire and dousing the hag in ice (also Fearg, but he doesn't seem to care). 

The heroes fell the hag, and the remaining one, Sally, screams "NO! ANN! You all weren't supposed to do that!" She vanishes into the Ethereal Plane, the fog finally falls (revealing Darragh curled up in a ball, trying to avoid getting hit), and the heroes breathe. Belle emerges from a door with her bow ("OK, I'm here- oh, dammit"). 

They hear battle sounds from the street, but they end a second later. Séadna comes around the corner and tells Aisling that there was a third hag, but he and the other adventurers fought her off. Naoise, the elf rogue who runs with Silé, arrives rubbing his jaw, and asks if anyone has seen his wizard. The heroes look around, but Silé is nowhere to be found.

Zook grabs something from her room and gives it to Maeve to sniff, but there are too many smells and she's not sure what to do. Dara casts a spell and instructs her, and Maeve picks up Silé's scent and leads them behind the stable. As she does, she starts growling, and tells them she smells fire and bad smoke - the sometimes-winged lady they've fought before. The heroes guess that what Maeve means is Nymnixia, the succubus.  

Maeve leads them to a hole behind the stables that leads into the sewers, but at that point she can't smell Silé anymore (or Nymnixia, for that matter). The heroes gear up and return, where they find Silé's party ready to head down. They're prepared to go on their own, but the heroes insist (and Aisling feels perhaps a little responsible). They enter the sewers and spend hours searching, but Maeve can't get a trail. All they find is a phrase carved in Abyssal on the wall: "If you hesitate, the getting is gone."

They aren't sure what to make of this; Zook feels it means they need to press on, but they don't really have anywhere to press on to. They head back to the inn, dejected, and wash off the stink. All they can do is bed down for the night.

In the morning, they reconvene and decide to go and ask someone at the Wizard's College for help. First, though, Aisling shares her suspicions about Buach, and asks him if he has any knowledge of hags or succubi. He doesn't, but Clara notes that he's hiding something. He's not lying, really, but he's not telling them something important. 

Most of them go to the Wizard's College, but Dara stays behind. She turns into a mouse and follows Buach throughout his day, eventually winding up in his office. He's got a lute over his desk and a sword crossed with a shillelagh on the wall, but when she looks at them closely, she realizes the sword has no nicks - it's brand new. 

Meanwhile, the heroes go to the College and ask for help with hags. The apprentice they talk to tells them there's a wizard name Idé who is expert in all things feywild, but she's not here at the moment. What about succubi, then? Best one to talk to about fiends is Luch, who of course they know. She sends them up to his office, but they find it locked.

They knock, but there's no answer. Aisling tells Fearg to kick it in, and he tries, but then staggers back in pain ("magic," he mutters). They call the apprentice, and she tells them that the doors has been closed up with an arcane lock spell, but she can easily find a wizard to open it with a knock. Once she does, they open the door to Luch's rooms...and find them in disarray.

Everything is knocked over or smashed. Luch himself lies up against a wall, his throat slashed. They find a wizard's robe in the corner, covered in blood; someone stood in front of Luch and cut his throat. His collection of tiny mice are scattered on the floor, and the characters assume his stuff has been plundered.

They aren't sure what all he kept in here, but they search anyway, and determine that one thing is particular is definitely missing: the tablet that contained the contract between Madoc and Orcus. But why steal that? Luch himself said that it was devoid of power since it was broken. The heroes theorize that it might be the third signatory, the one Luch called "the Witness," trying to cover his tracks. 

Investigation reveals that the wizard that owned the robe is one Pól, and he's missing. He's never been known to have a predilection for demonic things before, but he's gone now.

The heroes reconvene and share everything with Dara, and she tells them about Buach. They decide they can't just let that go, not given their history with inn proprietors, so Aisling, Fearg, and Clara take Buach into his office and confront him.

With some prodding (and Fearg glowering menacingly), he tells them the truth. He's not Buach the Bard. Buach was his twin brother; he's called Lugh. He and his brother lived outside of Cian after coming south from the mountains, and Buach fell in with the Bard's College while he just worked and lived in obscurity. And then Buach went away on an adventure and never returned, and Lugh took his place and opened the Lute's Echo. 

This is what happens to adventurers, says Lugh. They go away, they retire to remote villages, or they get eaten by something. The heroes nod, and agree not to blow Lugh's cover (he's trading on his brother's name, yes, but he's not hurting anyone and the inn is really nice). He's not a doppelganger, anyway.

The adventurers decide to pursue Pól and make him answer for what he did to Luch. Belle points out that he has a two-day head start, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem - not like the guy is subtle. The heroes prepare to leave, and Dara glances as Shol, currently strapped across Fearg's back. 

"Remember", it whispers to her...