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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Particle_Man" data-source="post: 1867874" data-attributes="member: 892">On the hag hunt!  [Sir Anton went to Fairyland for this one.  I guess his player had to work or something <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ].  The party was undecided over what to do (pursue the last hag or go after the king to save him from assassination!).  Lucius (npc older brother of Caius) proved to be the tie-breaker and said they should stop the hag first and perhaps get information about the assassination.Meanwhile, Caius and Toby awaken in goblin bodies (argh) and with the “stepmom” hag (not recognizing them) telling them what to do (argh!).  So Caius "played along" as a goblin.  He even finagled a tile of invisibility from her (like a potion), and found out that the hag was spying on the group through some item the group had (the goblin “pretty”, actually, was a hag’s eye).Caius was a bit, shall we say, upset, at Sir Anton and Sir Andrew not helping out with his battle with the Green Hags (the old “oh, you wish to fight this hag?  Then I shall not interfere, my lord”, nobility thing).  So he sneaks up and steals most of the horses (except the ladies’) and leaves a note mostly explaining his condition with Lady Christine, with instructions to inform Lady Leanne (shortly thereafter Lady Christine’s player had to go for a while (she is in so many extracurricular things at university I wonder she finds time for schoolwork, never mind D&D!), so she won’t reappear until the final fight in this post).Ok, the bulk of the party, after dealing with an Assassin Vine, meets a “giantess” (ogress) with a tree through her gut.  She is dying, and wants the group to save her baby that a hag had stolen.  The party agrees and since Hobb has used all his spell points for healing the party earlier, Sir Andrew administers a Coup de Grace in its original form, that to put her out of her extreme pain and misery.  A pity the minstrel wasn’t able to stop him in time to, y’know, heal the giantess, but it was hard to act fast and keep a low profile (the minstrel doesn’t want Sir Andrew to know ANYTHING about her using magic, or being an elf).Ok, the bulk of the party arrives at a foggy patch, with a tree at the edge of it, and a large baby at the base of the tree.  Sir Andrew picks up the baby, which touches him on the nose, causing some strength damage!  (yeah, this was the baby Greenhag, disguised as a baby ogre).  This was the signal for Caius to shoot Sir Andrew from the bushes, which he actually does! (I guess he was REALLY angry about the whole dying and coming back as a goblin thing).  The Annis (the stepmom hag) then steps out of the mist, and throws an iron sphere at Prince Lucius, which expands and binds him within Iron Bands!  So Lucius the powerful npc is out of the fight.  And Hobb the npc is pretty much a coward when it comes to fighting, especially nonhuman foes.  Great for healing afterwards, though.  (I don’t want uber-NPC’s stealing the limelight from the pc’s)Ok, the fight ensues (Caius did a clever trick with stampeding the stolen horses at the Annis, and then helped out with trying to actually kill her, and the Minstrel fended off the evil Greenhag (mobile, snarling and with a fanged mouth that dripped blood!) baby.  They triumph, and the fog clears, to reveal a lake with a Sea Hag standing on it!  Two more players lose strength just by looking at her, which puts Caius out of the fight.  She turns her evil eye upon Prince Hammoton, who as a noble is immune!  (One of these days I will actually read the rules, grrr...).  With the death of the Sea Hag there is an explosion of white light – the swamp is purified, and the characters’ magic items get an upgrade.  This included Prince Caius’s sword granting him Alter Self at will (so he could look human during the day) and Sir Toby transforming from goblin to centaur.  The Sea Hag’s final words were “No, they mustn’t get into the cave!”  Prince Caius thought it was a trap, and so ordered Sir Andew to check it out (Talk about holding a grudge!).  Inside was a large dire bear that did not appreciate being awoken.  The minstrel followed, and was able to sooth the dire bear back to sleep after it was about to eat Sir Andrew. And they found the “sadly, dead” ogre baby that the baby Greenhag had previously fed on.It is about here I should note that I have made a mistake as a DM.  I should not redesign player’s characters for them.  I liked the whole “nothing is permanent, even your forms” idea of fairyland-style fantasy, but when you change a character’s race, it pisses off the players.  Sir Toby did not like being a centaur (to the point of frantically hitting random buttons on his dangerously random magic item, to try to change things!), even though he admitted that it was more powerful.  Prince Caius really hated being a goblin.  Prince Hammoton actually made it his new fate to regain his humanity and stop being a dwarf!  Ok, lesson learned, and I will try to find an in-game way to fix that…eventually.  Already, Prince Caius is thinking of making a deal with Queen Titania when he sees her next, so wheels are in motion.  Hey, a quest can solve this.  Quests solve everything, right?Ok, now they get back to Prince Hammoton’s castle and heal up (with the aid of priests that are there), and get a blacksmith to remove the iron bands from Prince Lucius.  Sir Toby stays in the woods, helps some kids out (as a voice warning them away from a dangerous man down the path) and gets healing from the rogue/hermit Hobb.  The next day, they set off to save King Anguish!  And Prince Caius was a bit annoyed that no one told him until the next day that his DAD was in danger of assassination.Ok, the party splits up, because Prince Caius and Prince Hammoton have the fastest horses.  So they arrive to see King Anguish and…Sir Andrew!  Who introduces himself as Sir Andrew, defender of the faith, order of the dove, yadda yadda, special agent to Baron Ivo, Witch-Hunter, Slayer of Heretics, and Executioner of Traitors!  This Sir Andrew is the right hand man of King Anguish, after discovering the treachery of Sir Linus and personally capturing and executing him.  (Prince Caius remembered the nobility of Sir Linus, and finds this hard to believe, but wants to play along for now).  This Sir Andrew has been leading a campaign to capture witches (sort of a mini-Inquisition), and attacks on the “heretical” druids in the Dreaming Woods, has been quite, shall we say, thorough.  Also, there has been a strange series of illnesses that have struck the ladies of King Anguish’s court, leaving many dead, although without any marks on them.  Oh, and the castle has not yet been rebuilt, since there were no sons to marry off, and the money King Anguish had went to buy food for his people this winter, after the devastation of the attack on his castle and surrounding farmlands.Meanwhile, Sir Toby is hiding in the middle of his companions as he goes through his home town, doesn’t get noticed (Embarrassingly low spot check on my part!) and notices that his village seems to have no women around.  The Minstrel later investigates and finds out that Sir Andrew has been raiding the villages, capturing women after accusing them of witchcraft, upon which they are never seen again!  The few remaining women are in hiding.  The minstrel is offered a place to hide but she gets back to her party and warns them (good thing elves only need 4 hours down time a night!).  Oh, the Sir Andrew at court has a lightning bolt on his shield, while the Sir Andrew with the party has that magic shield with the cross on it).  Ok, Prince Hammoton is sent back to warn the party, and so Sir Andrew marches in to challenge Sir Andrew, who demands a joust “to the death!”  So they do (Sir Toby is outside at this point, as he is frightened to reveal himself).  And the real Sir Andrew rolls so incredibly lucky I can’t believe it.  He nearly kills the false Sir Andrew with a single blow!  These causes the false Sir Andrew to teleport out of his full plate and shield, and reveal him as the flying demon from wayyyy back that through that woman that Sir Andrew caught.  The flying demon then swoops down towards the Queen!  Sir Toby sees the flying demon and races into town, activating his haste item to do so.  Prince Caius does the brave hero thing and leaps upon the demon to try to save the mom.  The demon summons a BIG demon to kill the Queen.  The Demon (a Vrock) appears next to her and wounds her severely.  The minstrel gets the unconscious and bleeding Queen away, and heals her, but takes damage in getting her away (heals her 9 points and she is still unconscious!)  The Vrock then turns on Caius, and the first demon gets away (teleport again!).  The Vrock brings down Caius, who is also dragged away, but at this point King’s guards arrive, as does Prince Hammoton, Sir Andrew, and Sir Toby!  Sir Toby is the last one to hit the Vrock before it disappears (it was only there for a little while anyhow) and so gets credit for the “kill”, which helps mitigate the whole centaur thing (the minstrel is the party “spin doctor” and is spreading tales of heroic centaur protectors of the woods).  So it is a good day.  King Anguish regains two of his sons thought dead (Lucius and Caius), and a demon is revealed and (presumed) driven off![Side note: Centaurs are not seen as evil so much as mythical.  The centaurs were fey creatures like elves and dwarves, but were hunted to extinction by the giants.  The last centaur died a millennium ago; Sir Toby is not just a centaur, he is THE centaur.  Little children in and around the court all want to ride Sir Toby]. Sir Andrew is healed by a nun, who learns of what happened to Prince Caius and offers her services to help him (this nun is an old woman from Rome, looking to this “mini-inquisition” to see if it is a good idea to duplicate in other countries).  The nun helps Caius at night at his request, with only Sir Toby as a witness.  And unfortunately, the nun is a bad guy, and dominates Prince Caius!  First he is ordered telepathically to act normal, but later, he is told to assume Sir Andrew’s (via Alter Self) form and kill King Anguish!  At this point, I allow party members to blow fate points to be in the right place at the right time.  They consent and so are warned by a dream to get to the king!  Ok, another Sir Andrew vs. Sir Andrew.  Sir Toby was there (it is a wide hallway) and strikes to subdue both of them, which gives them both a nice fat unconsciousness cushion (smart move of Sir Toby) since at first no one knows which Sir Andrew is the real one.  Then Prince Hammoton (who didn’t blow a fate point because he was worried about another strike vs. the king, and so had independantly decided to spend a watch outside the king's chambers) goes into the king’s chamber to see if he is alright (he is, although bewildered, angry and frightened), and hears a scream from the adjoining chamber, the Queen’s chamber!  Going in, he see another “king” bent over a now unconscious queen!  So Prince Hammoton goes after that “king” (the demon again) as does the Minstrel (with a Shillelagh cast upon a chair).  Sir Toby goes to stand guard over the queen.  [I was thinking of a third “Sir Andrew” but felt that would be too cheesy even for me].Caius/Andrew takes the real Sir Andrew down, but falls victim to Lady Christine’s Dire Weasel (which nearly died!).  Although I was trying to spend Prince Caius’s destiny points to make certain he could get to the king, I only used them to make sure that a) he failed his saves vs. domination, and b) that his misses turned into hits.  So only 4 of his 18 destiny points were spent.  Ah well.  Another time, perhaps.So at the end of the day, both Sir Andrews are in separate cells.  Prince Caius is unconscious, meaning that he will revert to goblin form soon, and is still dominated!Also, people have leveled up and some are getting Leadership.  I hear that Hobb and Hubert are candidates for cohorts.  This could get weird!</blockquote>

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