M2S27

## The Witch of the Woods

The murky quagmire of Berez, blighted by an evil hag.

“
*-Thalia: "Poor old woman mixed up her potion ingredients and caused a massive conflagration that not only took her own life, but even her house."
 - Aellun: "Real shame that, had a neighbor that happened too... making their afternoon tea, dropped the wrong ingredient and poof!"*
”

**The Witch of the Woods** was the 27th session of the Strahdborne campaign. In this session, the party hunted out and slew the vile hag of the woods, Baba Lysaga, adoptive mother of Strahd.

## Summary

### The Gnome on the Road

The party advances closer to Berez and meets a Gnome on the Road. Sargon Silverback, by name. Though the party distrusts him at first, he shortly proves himself an enemy of both Strahd and the hag Baba Lysaga, telling the story of the demise of his adventuring party at her green, bony fingers...

The gnome has very good intelligence on the hag's fightnig tactics, allowing the party to prepare well for the battle and know which enemy they would face.

### The Ruin of Berez

The party stealthily enters Berez, exploring the ruined structures of the town. The entire village appears destroyed and even swallowed by a swamp.

### The Witch of the Woods

Aellun approaches the hag's lair. While he distracts her, the others move into combat positions. Sargon dimension doors into the hut behind the hag, triggering a battle...

Aellun quickly throws his bountiful gooberries into the witch's vile cauldron, where many unspeakable alchemical concoctions were festering into a deplorable admixture... and the ensuing chemical reaction caused a massive fireball of an explosion!

The battle rages on - Hag, hag's house and scarecrows against the party. The scarecrows are rapidly eviscerated by the blazing inferno, and Thalia engages in single combat with the creeping hut. Meanwhile, the hag flies about on a giant skull, flinging all manner of dastardly spells at the party...

Eventually, the party emerges triumphant, with Lo-thak dealing the deadly bolt against the hag and thus lifting the evil curse that had turned the formerly bountiful area into a quagmire.

As a boon, his patron congratulates him on his success, and from the hag's old staff creates a new arm for the wounded warlock to replace his own - as well as boost his spellcasting prowess...

## Quests

### Ongoing

* **Under New Management (Everyone):** Investigate the coven of hags at Old Bonegrinder mill.

### The Deck of Fate

* **The Symbol of Hope (Everyone):** Claim the holy symbol by finding the tomb of a great wizard with a famous staff. Possibly located in Castle Ravenloft.
* **The Shadow of Barovia (Everyone):** Defeat Strahd. Optional: Suplex Strahd.
* **The Moon (Aellun):** Find the place filled with bones, for the clues you seek lie there.
* **The Headsman (Gromash):** Find the fortress within the fortress, which contains the treasure you seek.
* **The Balance (Thalia):** Discover the whereabouts of Lautrec and Gascarde.

### Completed

* **Treasures of Yore (Everyone):** Recover the other two gems of the Wizard of Wines.
* **The Phantom (Lo-thak):** Find the location of the one who gave birth to evil, for she is the key to your goals. Could this be Baba Lysaga, tormentor of the wilds of Barovia and resident of Berez?

## Quotes

"Now young man, you will explain what you're doing in my swamp!" (Aellun reels at being called young)

"It's treason, then!"

""Can he NEVER let us get the attention off him" 'I don't think he knows how not to be the center of attention' "You'd think at his age, he'd know better!"

"You merely adopted the fireball, I was born in it, raised in it!" -Regarding Sargon's consistently high damage and extremely effective spells

Hag: "You would have me live as an itinerant vagabond, living off herbs?" Aellun: 'something tells me you could just conjure another one' Thalia: "What, Strahd wouldn't put up his old dearly departed mummy?" Hag: 'What do you mean, DEPARTED? I'm still alive and breathing!" Thalia: "Well, that's easily fixed!"

## Reflections

* **Sargon Silverback:** So these are the fellows Van Richten spoke so highly of - really, they're so unique, they couldn't be anyone else. They're so... brave, brazen, wild, reckless even - I like that. My old friends were brave and reckless, but... they didn't have the strength to back it up. As I continue to look for more and more magic to add to my collection, I think, these are the perfect people. I shudder with anticipation, fire at my fingertips, as I relive that battle - I had hoped to take out my frustrations on the hag, but, having seen that house rip flesh from noble adventurer bone, I decided it was the bigger threat. They did not disappoint, however, pushing her 50 feet down to her doom, to be broken and battered upon the cobbles of the very town she decimated. A splendid sight indeed... I'm happy. And I think my friends would be too.
* Arbrek: It was in the midst of a late night forge session when I had a flash of genius. I would test the limits of my powers to fabricate raw materials into a final product by turning the nearby wheat field into a barrel of Ale. Once the repairs were done, I set out during the night and fabricated some fine drink with my brewing knowledge. Unfortunately, the allure of the Ale was too strong, and Arbrek drank the entire barrel. While he was able to stumble a few paces back towards the campsite, he soon went unconscious, and Arbrek had strange dreams of his forge back home where forge auditors were demanding paperwork in order to compute their material price and usage variances in order to comply with operating objectives. He woke with a blistering headache and was euphoric at the thought of inebriation. The pregaming was finished.

## Appendix

Strahdborne Sessions
**Chapter 1: The Gates of Barovia**
 Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 3 · Session 4 · Session 5 · Session 6

 **Chapter 2: The Fall of Vallaki**
 Session 7 · Session 8 · Session 9 · Session 10 · Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 13 · Session 14 · Session 15 · Session 16 · Session 17 · Session 18 · Session 19 ·

 **Chapter 3: The Muster at Krezk**
 Session 20 · Session 21 · Session 22 · Session 23 · Session 24 · Session 25 · Session 26 · **Session 27** ·