G16 - Witch Deal

Date: Planting (4) 21st Starday 760

Sidenote: After the party departed Little Tree, Aka Noone took the sign for Tankard and Toad as a trophy.

With the troll dead, the party took a moment in the Forbidden Forest. Olar and Jonom got stolen. This gave the opportunity for Jimmy to store Olar's stuff in a box with a magical lock.

They headed south with Mel as the guide, and Jimmy keeping an eye for threats. An hour later, they came across a totem made out of sticks and animal bones, further down a brown house could be seen in the distance.

The totem appeared to have been around for a while used for wards, and it was based on a more of a primordial, older religion. Extremely cautiously, the party approached the house, it was made of a brown substance, and right next to it was a partially submerged greenhouse.

An old lady opened the door for Mel, the smell of ginger permeated the air. Mel approached her, while Jimmy went further away. The old lady invited them in, but Mel wanted to ask questions outside the door. The lady just slammed the door, not wanting to let the cold in.

Hesitantly, Mel knocked on the door and accepted the offer to get in. After some tea with lemon and cookies that she didn't want to eat. Mel wanted information about Winterspire but the lady needed a favor in return.

Old hag Carolyn, told them about Little Tree harassing her for years. Mayor Sally's husband came to visit her to get her help to conceive a child. She agreed under the condition that he fathers a child with her as well. Apparently the deal was complete and all was well until the Mayor's child died tragically. Carolyn was blamed for the child's death, and the mayor came with guards and took Sammy, Carolyn's daughter, to raise as their own.

She wanted the party to get Sammy back in exchange for information. As a gesture of good will she mentioned that it appears that Mel was infected by a parasite. With Jimmy in tow, she retrieved a berry that she boiled for a while and eventually turned into paste for Mel to consume. It tasted horrible and made Mel sick for a day.

She also gave Jimmy 4 anti-septic valves (1d4 healing). While Mel had trouble ingesting her medicine, the rest of the party asked more questions about Sammy. Apparently she was half-dragonborn, her father a human, and the mayor a dragonborn. Carolyn also cast a spell on Mel that lasted for 24 hours, locate object spell to find her house.

Mel led them back to Little Tree while vomiting but made it out, it felt longer to leave the Forbidden Forest than come in it.

At Little Tree, Mel went straight to sleep, Jimmy purified their food to avoid any more vomit incidents. The next day Mel, still feeling sick, skipped breakfast and drunk water she brought in herself.

Jimmy and Aka Noone used their disguise kits to dress up like Carolyn and an even older witch, Carolyn's mom. The rest of the party crept up the mayor's house.

Sammy answered the door, and called her dad. The husband recognized the witch, but said he met her when he was a teen. He did confirm after some prodding that he received a fertility potion and unnamed favor 5 years ago. Meanwhile, Sammy got bit by a spider. As she came back out, when she was asked who her mom was, she pointed to Jimmy in his disguise. The party asked Sammy if she's happy here, she said "yes". Then they asked if she wanted to see her mom, and answered "sometimes".

Collectively they decided that Carolyn should put more of an effor to see Sammy, if she is indeed her daughter, and decided that the deal had been satisfied. In their opinion asking Sammy if she wants to see her mom was the same asking if she wants to go back to the house Mel thought that it was suspicious that Sammy got bit by a spider.

Three hours later, they found themselves at the witches house, using Mel's compass to locate it. Carolyn didn't feel that their deal was fulfilled and refused to help them locate Winterspire. So instead they left with no new information and a whole day had passed since entering the Forbidden Forest without much to saw. They travelled further south, about an hour later Jimmy noticed the shadow of a dragon, as he was letting everyone know about it a frost giant snapped a tree while sneaking up to the party, alerting them.

A fight broke out, with no healer at hand and missing one of their tanks the giant almost killed Volgis, but they were triumphant.

Unluckily for them, the Dragon had taken interest in the fight below, circling closer and closer to them.