Season One Recap

In the village of Gil, three unlikely travellers Qelgar, Duala and Balen met having been inexplicably drawn to the same village. They spoke to the miller, who's daughter, Kelsy, had been taken by the guards from the nearby town of Eyjara as part of a tradition known as The Trials. They travelled to the town of Eyjara and found that the townsfolk had been living under the threat of a Hag known as The Mistress and her many minions living in the surrounding Grindlewood. After a number of guarded conversations (and one very intimate date) they learned that The Trials were a public execution of a girl on her thirteenth birthday every thirteen years in order to stop her turning into a Hag. Some girls were guilty, some girls were innocent, but the loss of the girl's life was worth it to prevent the Hags gaining a strong foothold in the nearby Grindlewood. In order to prevent  Kelsy's death, the party were given a week to kill The Mistress by Isaac Littleflood, the governor of Eyjara, and end the Hag threat. So the party wasted no time in advancing into the Grindlewood where they rescued Binky the Blink Dog from a troll. Eventually, they came across a hut in the forest standing atop four chicken legs with a Dwarven ranger tied to one of them. Before they could advance, an Elven rogue dropped out of the tree next to the party and introduced himself as kBaeryc and he said he had been sent to collect a black orb from within the Hags hut. He joined the party and after a number of shenanigans they freed the Dwarven ranger who introduced herself only as Fluff and told the party she was looking for her pet leopard, Stuff, who had gone missing. Once they had made their way into the hut the party found a small girl crying, who quickly changed into The Mistress and engaged them in battle. The fighting was fierce, and after a troll was briefly released then quickly re-caged, the party defeated The Mistress melting her with a well placed Melf's Acid Arrow spell. The party scooped up the Hags blood and found the black orb kBaeryc had been sent to retrieve.

The party then split, with Fluff and Qelgar searching the Grindlewood for Stuff while Balen, Duala and kBaeryc  returning to the town.the party learned that The Mistress must only be one of multiple Hags after speaking to Fenegar, the Head Mage at the Eyjara Mage's College. Fenegar offered to hold onto the Black Orb and Hags Blood the party had gathered for safe keeping. The party accepted his offer but Duala refused to sell him her amulet. They then spoke to the governor but only got part of the reward since the hag threat remained. They also learned that the governor's son, Jerry Littleflood was betrothed to Rebecca Black of the House of Black, a wealthy merchants family in Skalavik. The party then got drunk with Jerry and had a much needed rest in the Badgers Pint Inn.

The following day, the party went back to the Mages College and found that Fenegar had fled with their magical items to Skalavik, along with the deputy head, Mulhondra. They took off on horseback towards Skalavik and on the way managed to track Fluff's leopard, "Stuff" to a travelling carnival known as "Hilreon's Wonderful and Extraordinary Circus Show". After bargaining with Hilreon they managed to retrieve Stuff and spoke with a half orc soothsayer known as Madame Voxhor. She agreed to transport them to Skalavik, but also offered the chance to draw from "The Deck of Many Things". Fluff drew well and became more charismatic. kBaeryc, however, drew poorly multiple times and his soul was ripped from his body, his body became a blundering fool and he was killed by The Grim Reaper. Hope remains that his soul lingers...somewhere. Before they could teleport to Skalavik, Pelios Creed, a young Half Elf/ Half Tiefling sorcerer and student at Eyjara Mage's College, galloped into the circus and joined the search for Fenegar.

After being teleported to Skalavik, the party attempted to head to the Mages College there but were denied entry to the Upper City. They entered a inn in the lower city called The Bleacher and Shadow Inn where they learned an evil was rising from beneath the city and snatching children. They also solicited the help of Senorun, a Black Dragonborn like Qelgar, who worked for a local gang, The Alchemists, who agreed to smuggle them through the sewers into the Upper City. Once they were there, they made their way into the Mages College and found Fenegar engaged in a dark ritual to a powerful, demonic force. With the help of Mulhondra and Reno Foxtooth, Head of Skalavik's Mages College, the party interrupted the ritual and confronted Fenegar. Fenegar told the party that he was indebted to the demon and had to offer powerful magical items every full moon to retain his soul. He also revealed that the Black Orb was a Night Hag's Soul Orb suggesting another of the Hags was a Night Hag.

During the night's sleep, Pelios was visited in his dreams by a hideous woman towering over him screaming "Come Below" over and over again. The party took this as a sign and headed into the sewers where they dispatched a number of creatures before finding an open cavern, lined with cages, and four possessed children sitting in a ring around a campfire. The children spoke with one voice and eventually the Night Hag, known as "Mother" appeared and fought the party. When it became clear she was going to lose, Mother grabbed Qelgar by the throat and used him to bargain for her life. She revealed the final Hag had been in Eyjara all along before disappearing into the Ethereal Realm, gravely wounding Binky in the process.

After fighting Mother, the party rested and then investigated the cave where they found a rune engraved behind a minor illusion spell. Pelios recognised the rune as a "Blood Glyph" which could be activated with a drop of blood. Fluff gave a drop of her blood and a portal opened. The party passed through and battled several harpy's before emerging in a hovel in Eyjara. Kelsy was due to be executed the next day so the party geared up and rested before linking up with Jackie and Mulhondra, taking positions  around the pyre, and launching a last ditch attempt to detect the final Hag. When the first flames licked up to Kelsy's feet Stuff pounced at Linda Frostblink, the mother of Amy Frostblink who was the previous girl killed in "The Trials". At this point, Linda revealed herself to be the final Hag. After a fierce battle where the party not only prevented any civilian casualties,stopped a full scale invasion of the town, and killed both Mother and the newly discovered Hag the party stood victorious. After her death, the The Frostblink Hag's decapitated head floated above the pyre and a large shadowy demonic force emanated from its mouth. It told everyone present how Amy had been innocent and had been unjustly killed by the townspeople of Eyjara. As she burned Amy had screamed and begged and pleaded not to be saved, but for retribution on the town, and something, dark answered. Amy found her soul survived, and in her half life she had twisted her mother into the Frostblink Hag the party had just slain. Through her unjust death, she gave the town precisely what it feared, a fully formed Hag Coven. The head had then dropped to the ground, and the demonic entity conformed into a gigantic, shadowy vaguely humanoid form. It opened its eyes, one black, and one green, smiled an evil, murderous smile, then blinked out of existence.

Isaac Littleflood stepped forward and announced to the town that the party would hereafter be known as the "Defenders of Eyjara" and granted them land within the town walls to build a house as well as generously rewarding the party with gold. He said a great banquet would be held in Littleflood Manor with the "Defenders of Eyjara" as the guests of honour. Messages had already been sent to the household mages in all the great houses of the Kingdom of Hamrar and the banquet will be taking place tomorrow night with a hunt beforehand - it is even rumoured royalty may be in attendance.

And that's where we left off!