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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fredrik Svanberg" data-source="post: 3896644" data-attributes="member: 12996">The surviving characters and npcs arrived at Seaquen with no more trouble (since I forgot about the elven patrol *sigh*) until they had passed through the refugee camp. I had decided to use a bandit attack to introduce the new characters, so a couple of thugs who had been charmed by the devil Jeszka decided to retrieve the case themselves. They ambushed the party and demanded the case. That was when the new characters showed up - Achandae (another knight) and Khelic (half-orc cleric), escorting a new npc, Cole. With very little effort the combined force of the two parties dismissed the bandits, but not before finding out about their enemy hiding in the house of Auyung.The two groups start talking and learn that they are all heading for Lyceum. Achandae has been paid to escort Cole there, and Khelic carries a message for Lee Sidoneth. On the way Achandae manages to insult Haddin enough to make her totally accepted by the other player characters, while Khelic keeps up a reserved front. Once at the academy the characters meet with Kiernan and Simeon. They deliver the case and finally get to see what it contains. Simeon casts a few divinations and tell them as much as he can find out about it, and then he casually dismisses them. He suggests that they all go visit Lee Sidoneth to let him know that his old apprentice Torrent has died, and to deliver Khelic's message. Cole, Haddin and Crystin leave the party at Lyceum but Cole offers to help them if they are going back into the swamp to deal with the witches.(A quick note about Cole: he was originally a replacement character of one of the players but after their introduction had already been played the player decided to go with a different idea. I decided to keep Cole around as an npc in case I needed someone to guide them now that Torrent was dead and they hadn't rescued Katrina yet. Cole is a Favoured Soul from Sindaire, associated with the monastery of the two winds, sent to Seaquen on a fact-finding mission.)The party passes by the Wayfarer guild's audition on the way to Lee's home, and Tiljan is encouraged to try to join the troupe. She agrees, for various reasons, and stays behind while the rest of the party goes to talk to Lee. They find him in his home. Upon hearing about the ordeals of the party and the fate of Torrent he becomes sympathetic to their plights. He asks them to avenge Torrent and their friends and to recover her remains so he can care for her. He offers them a handsome reward for this mission and even provides a few potions to help deal with the hag's strength damage. He even lets them stay the night in his home.Khelic delivers his message to Lee who reads it and finds out who Khelic really is: one of Emperor Coaltongues sons. Khelic was a member of the inquisition until the death of his father, when Leska had him captured and tortured in order to find out more about the Torch of the Burning Sky, and to get him out of the way as she grabbed the power. Khelic's allies managed to free him from his prison, faked his death and sent him away to get out of Leska's immediate reach. Khelic is a true patriot. He is determined to dethrone Leska and bring Ragesia back to its former glory, but to do that he will need his father's artefact and an army. Lee gives Khelic some advice: the hags are likely to be looking for more victims during the night, and sleep during the day.The next day the party reunites with Cole and Tiljan, who tells them that she was accepted into the troupe and will start rehearsing today so she can't join their adventures anymore. With all the extraneous npcs from previous adventures finally out of the way the party rests and replenish their equipment for the rest of the day before heading back to the swamp in the evening. They want to catch the hags asleep, and when they find the witches' island it's late morning.This fight is just as lopsided as their first was, but in the other direction. The hags manage to fail every listen check to wake up during the party's fight with the guardian skeletons, and are only finally roused by Luna calling down a bolt of lightning on their cabin, which promptly causes the stored supply of Tidereaver's Tears to explode and blanket the area in a rain of blood. The witches are surprised, unarmored and half asleep. A brutal attack by the mounted Achandae kills the Annis in the second round while a barrage of spells finish off the harpy. The green hag makes a futile effort to escape but Mistral the warlock can see invisible creatures and reveals her position with some well-aimed eldritch blasts.The witches are dead and the party finds Katrina in one of the shacks. They gather the remains of their friends - skeletons boiled clean and lain out to be reanimated later, which makes for easy identification. They build a funeral pyre, encouraged by Katrina, to burn all the skeletons and the hags, with Cole praying over the fallen. The pyre burns through the night and the next day the party heads back to Seaquen with the remains of Torrent and their new friend, Katrina, as well as a lot of loot.Next: the war council!</blockquote>

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