Rewind a bit, and we find Keenan, Zook, and Brébhin watching the others go out into the woods to track the brackish hounds. They go into the kitchen of Woodsedge Manor and find Eimile, the maid/housekeeper, washing dishes. They chat for a bit - Zook asks her if the master of the house, Íosac, is really as violent as he appears. Eimile says he's not really violent towards anyone here, though certainly he's gruff and has a bit of a temper.
Keenan peeks out the kitchen door and muses that he thought he heard something, and Zook investigates, finding the front door ajar. There are dog footprints outside, and a trickle of blood. Just then, they hear footsteps on the stairs and see Aingeal, the little girl, coming downstairs. She says there's something wrong with her mother - "she won't wake up." Brébhin goes back up with her to investigate, while Zook and Keenan follow the tracks.
The tracks loop around the house, and as they round a corner, they see two of the horrible brackish hounds slip into the kitchen! They hear Eimile and Mic (the groundskeeper, who'd joined her) scream, and they leap into action!
Keenan - after noting that a fireball probably isn't going to be a good idea - runs in a swings at a dog, calling up a shocking grasp, and misses (in what would be a pattern). Zook throws some magic missiles, but is unable to prevent the dogs from attacking and biting Mic. Once the missiles land, though, the dogs turn on Zook and Keenan, biting them and causing that horrible wound that bleeds continuously.
The fight rages briefly, but then Zook sees Aingeal enter the kitchen. She grins a leering, horrible grin and snaps her fingers...and Zook blacks out.
He comes to a moment later as his beard begins to burn. The kitchen is on fire and Keenan is dragging him outside. Keenan manages to cast a sleet storm into the kitchen to put out the fire, and then passes out from blood loss about the time the others come back.
Dara quickly casts a lesser restoration spell on Keenan to stop the bleeding, while the others check the ashes of the kitchen. They find Eimile, alive but burned and bleeding. Mic, however, did not survive. Aisling and Clara rush upstairs and find Brébhin guarding Bairbre, Aingeal's mother. She's bleeding from a hound bite and clearly dying, and Aingeal is nowhere to be seen.
Dara and Brébhin manage to stabilize her until Dara can recover enough to cure her bite, and everyone compares notes. Brébhin says that a dog ran in and bit Bairbre, and then Aingeal started throwing magic missiles around and ran out. She then cast the sleep spell that felled Zook (but did not affect Keenan, of course, as he's half elf), and left with the dogs.
The heroes figure that the hag - maybe Granny Snowmelt? - was impersonating Aingeal, but maybe someone in the household made a deal with her? Maybe Aingeal herself? Fearg points out that, based on what Hilde the swamp woman told them, hags reproduce by eating children, so that might be why she wanted Aingeal.
They don't have all the details, but they know time is of the essence and they have a pretty good idea of where she's gone - back to the blood tree. The seven of them troop through the woods to the tree and, after a moment of discussion (mostly amounting to "ew, do we have to?") they dive in.
They resurface in a dank, slimy, underground chamber, complete with benches, a table, and a bed. As their eyes adjust to the dim light, they spot two truly horrible things. First, a massive lump of fur and flesh turns out to be a huge brackish hound, continually spawning more. And second, all the way at the other end of the room, they see a night hag with a pair of legs emerging from her mouth, kicking, as she swallows the child.
The adventurers spring into action, but are unable to prevent her from swallowing Aingeal! They can see her stomach moving, however, and figuring that Aingeal is still alive. Clara runs over and attacks, punching at the hag's head (trying to avoid the child in her belly), and the hag taunts her, saying the best they can do is retrieve the girl's corpse (Clara, not the best with comebacks, just yells "OK!"). Dara calls down a moonbeam on the birthing dog as two brackish hounds run over to them, biting at her and Aisling, and Keenan hurls a fireball at the monstrosity. It burns (not like it could dodge), but continues producing brackish hounds - three more wriggle out.
Fearg rages and charges at the hag, and Zook moves in on her and hits her with some magic missiles (but is wary that they can't kill the hag, not if they want any chance of saving Aingeal). Keenan follow him and reminds him that somewhere in the hag's robes is a hearthstone that allows her to shift into the Ethereal Plane, and they need to find that! And then he casts a haste on Zook.
Aisling throws a cloud of daggers into the birthing dog, and that plus a witch bolt from Brébhin and Dara's moonbeam kill it - it bursts into a pile of fur and goo. But four of the hounds still live!
The dogs continue to savage Dara, dropping her and chewing on her. Aisling takes a couple of bites, too, but stands her ground, and Brébhin throws spells at the beasts. Meanwhile, the fight against the hag continues. Zook zips over to her and rummages around in her robe, managing to find the hearthstone! Fearg draws back his hammer and Zook yells "No, big guy! Flat of the blade!" Fearg manages to snap out of the rage and strikes the hag, but pulls his punch.
"I'm unfazed here, too", she sneers, and starts to vanish. Zook remembers that Hilde said she could also shift into the Ethereal with a spell and tries to counter it...but fails. Granny fades away, but leaves behind Aingeal, cover in fluids best not dwelt upon. Clara throws a blanket over her and tries to reassure her.
"Hey, not done yet," yells Brébhin. The heroes run back over and take on the remaining hounds, Fearg hurling javelins and Zook and Keenan hurling spells. But then Aisling spots movement across the room in the bed. "There! In the bed!" she yells, and Brébhin throws all the magic missiles she can muster.
The dead hag's hand flops out of the bed, and, taking no chances, Keenan blows it up with a fireball. Aisling throws some healing at Dara so that she doesn't die, and the heroes wade through the blood, holding the terrified Aingeal.
They make it back to Woodsedge and Bairbre runs out to meet them. Aingeal breaks down crying again, and Bairbre holds and comforts her. "It's over, love," she says. "Done. Like rain that you slept through."
Íosac speaks to the heroes, and apologizes for his previous brusqueness. "I am, perhaps, too rough for the life I have," he says, "but don't think that I don't love it. Love them." Zook advises that this experience might soften him and push him to show that love, and he agrees. He also obviously gives them shelter ("and a bath?" asks Aisling).
Once they have rested, they discuss their next moves. Aisling still wants to go south and retrieve her harp-lute, and they decide to make that their next journey. Zook muses, though, that their continual running afoul of demons might require them to break the boundaries of Abhaile, and see what lies beyond the borders. (Maybe not through the Enclave of Thorns, though; those guys are nuts.)
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