The Tarak D&D Campaign - Back to the Woods, and an Important Discovery

about 1 year ago

Welcome to the next post in a series where I describe the adventures during a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while ago.

In the last post, the players returned from Heimial Forest with the plant they needed to make the cure for the paladin's disease. Then they went and ambushed the creature that had killed Wardaff Dybbolson the shepherd's flock; it was a hellhound, but they were perplexed when they discovered it was wearing a collar, as if it was a pet.

Return to the Woods

With no immediate further clues as to what is going on, the party decides to go back to the woods to try to do some more harm to the brigands. They had just levelled up, and were overflowing with the misplaced confidence that a few abilities and extra Hit Points can bring.

This time around, they borrowed a small wagon and tried to make themselves look like merchants on the road to Filrath. It worked ! They were about a day's travel into the woods when they were jumped by a group of the brigands.

The "Q-Wagon" travelling through the woods. Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio

The rank and file of the ambushing group consisted of half a dozen longbowmen, using the "Scout" stat block from page 349 of the Monster Manual. They were commanded by Johann Diminus, one of the named NPC's of the gang (a third level warrior with a quarterstaff), assisted by two villains using the "Thug" stat block from page 350 of the Monster Manual.

The brigands' plan was to set up an ambush by setting up trees to fall in front of and behind the wagon. Caltrops and cords strung along the sides of the path would provide a temporary obstacle, which would allow the archers to get a few shots in, with Johann and his two thugs charging in at an opportune moment (they'd left a small gap in the obstacles).

Sadly for the brigands, the plan failed miserably. The trees fell and the archers opened fire as scheduled. But at that point it all went south as the characters threw off their merchant disguises. The archery suffered from poor die rolling, and good Perception checks by the party allowed for an effective response. Archery and spells rapidly whittled the archer numbers down, and when Morson Blackmont and Roland the Ranger passed through the obstacles, it became a massacre.

Johann Diminus' two thugs lasted a single round each. The last surviving archer clearly had a decent Wisdom ability score, he decided that being elsewhere might be a good survival trait and legged it off into the woods.

That left just Johann facing the wrath of the party. I was right to expect a quick fight, but I didn't expect what the party did next. Failing to follow their normal murderhobo methodology, instead of killing him outright they weakened him, and then used non-lethal damage for the last couple of blows.

Getting Information

Poor Johann woke up with a bad headache and firmly tied to a tree. The party had decided that capturing him for interrogation to try to find out more about what was going on would be a good move. It was, and when they started to describe their methods I just sat and let them do it.

Then I asked the paladin what he thought. He didn't object, he thought getting the information was the priority. I think the player (rather than the character) didn't get the requirements for the class, but he'd soon find out he would need to atone for what could definitely be considered as an evil act. Paladins are supposed to be merciful and not allow a helpless defeated foe to be tortured !

But the key thing is that (after some suitable die rolling) the party gained some vital information.

It turned out the brigands were working under the guidance of a coven of hags, the Magpie Sisters. There were three of them, known as Black, White and Claw.

The reality is that everything that has been going wrong in Tuadun is the work of the Magpie Sisters. They thrive on discord and chaos, but there's more. They are gathering blood to work an incantation to bring something really nasty through from the Netherworld – a devil who will turn them from Green Hags (unpleasant fiendish things) to Night Hags (really bad news super-nasty evil powerful things).

The brigands are encouraged by them as distraction and to bring them funds plus an occasional captive to drain. Mirag and his wife were killed not for anything they had done, but because the sacrifice and blood of their 13 year old daughter Samad is needed as the final ingredient of the hags’ incantation. The sheep-killing Hellhound was one of the hags' pets, and the nailed-up head was just an added bonus from it.

The characters find out "Mother White" the town healer was a hag working undercover all along ! It enabled her to gather a huge amount of information she could use. The whole "spit in the potion to make it more potent" thing was total rubbish. She was making stronger potions than she said to maintain the fiction. But having samples of each character's saliva meant they had a -10 on their saving throws against her scrying spells; she was watching them every step of the way (and they thought I was making them roll perception checks....).

Black is also in town, disguised as an attractive teenaged girl calling herself Miss Belinda Lark. She has a Broom of Flying stashed in a hollow tree trunk nearby to allow her to travel freely. She has also seduced Dorbit Hangnail, one of the Town Watch, who gives her useful information on what is going on in town.

Johann tells the characters that Claw is the leader of the coven. She doesn't go to town, she prefers to stay in the hag's lair, a cavern deep in the woods.

The three hags talking to a brigand leader - Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio

To be continued..... next time, it's time to find the hag's lair !

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