Session 16: The Empty Witch

Session 16: The Empty Witch

The party decided to stake sides in the feud between the witch Zalvorex and the demon Bazekop. Having heard reports from their host Malichar that Zalvorex’s courier Vaz was missing, the party decided to try to hunt him down to win the witch’s favor. Upon further questioning, Malichar reported that Vaz had some business at the northern “shore” of the jungle, where the brambles meet the endless Azure Sea. From there he was to make his way to the pagodas of the hanging merchants. Although he never made it to the pagodas, Zalvorex somehow knows him to be alive. When asking if scrying had been employed, Malichar said that there were vague indications of an interfering agency. When the party asked if Bazikop employed any minions who might have detained Vaz, Malichar said this was entirely possible.

Cletus remembered that the submerchant Bulras was selling a hunting vole, and eyeless creature that could pick up scents. He shrewdly asked Malichar if he had anything with Vaz’s scent. One lucky roll later, Malichar presented them with a large pillow that he used to supported Vaz’s sometimes massive girth as “befit a dignitary of his station”. This gave the hunting vole the scent, and the party set off, having it vaguely in mind that perhaps Vaz had travelled to the caves reachable through the tunnel through the brambles.

As they travelled into the thickets, they encountered some ominious Lobster Mantis, who issued vague threats and pursued them for a time. When they reached the hex where they had encountered the wicker cages, they chose to poke around in the hex, exploring parts of it they hadn’t seen before, and employing the vole to try to pick up the scent in case Vaz had passed through here. They came upon a wicker cage that contained another of the Lobster Mantis creatures, which they freed. At that point the vole picked up Vaz’s scent and was raring to go.

However, the freeing of the captive brought a strange figure, a silent humanoid they recognized as one of the spore-headed, riding a giant serpent with a jeweled eye. The spore-headed uttered incantations in the voice of a shrill crone, and vanished from view. The serpent attacked, its eye glowing an angry red. It was beaten back by the front rank and failed to score a blow. The cleric Cletus commanded it to bite itself, and it succumbed to the force of his will, biting furiously at its own tail. At that moment the spore-headed reappeared, uttering an incantation that brought up a great and unnatural wind. This induced a falling check on everyone. Ironically, it swept the serpent down, but did not affect anyone else. (Cletus who has the lowest climbing score just made his roll. Had he failed, he could well have died.)

Steadying himself, Cletus cast hold person on the spore-headed assailant, who failed its save and was frozen in place. (A lucky initiative roll for the party!) The party bound it tightly and debated what to do. They decided to kill it, but this proved frustratingly difficult. Every time they slew its helpless form, it would simply assume another form that was uninjured. There was a definite cycle of five creatures whose shape it could assume, including a chittering mason, a strange lumpen man, and a humanoid mole rat. The cycle looped around and seemed capable of continuing indefinitely; nor did burning work any better.

Leaving their captive in the form of the mole rat, they waited for the enchantment to wear off. When it did they questioned the strange being who claimed to be a hermit and stressed the sanctity of his property. When they pressed him about who it had in its cages, it was vague and obfuscatory. They agreed to escort it back to its abode, where it claimed it would trade them riches for its freedom. But along the way they heard the calls of another caged creature. It turned out to be a mole rat who introduced himself as Viscount LeGrande. When they freed him, the bound figure lost the form of the rat and went to the next one in the cycle. Surmising that the captive was shifting through a series of forms possessed by his caged captives, the party gagged him and set about emptying the cages in the hex.

Eventually, led on by the hunting vole, they freed Vaz from one of the cages. He informed the party that they had captive the Empty Witch, a cancer on reality that feeds on the essences of her captives. He affirmed that were they to free the rest of the captives they would confront her true form, and that she could then be slain by a magical weapon. Having done so they were confronted by a hooded cloak, containing a void within, from which strange stars shown. Despite its protestations, they slew the thing. With Vaz, Viscount LeGrande, and the chittering mason, who introduced himself as Artisan Five, they tracked down her abode at the end of the alluring fey path.

Risking nothing, the party went in through the side of the hut, where they discovered various items detailed below. Vaz took his departure, inviting the party to come seek his master at the Emerald Pools. We left it with the party paused. They have hopes of escorting Viscount LeGrande back to the root warrens of his people, and, most of all, of escorting the chittering mason to the village of the masons, where they have heard they might learn the location of the legendary Summer Palace of the Incandescent Kings.

Creatures vanquished

Cyclops Snake 80 XP
The Empty Witch 800 XP
Silver Belt (unusually large) 250 GP
A fine silver dagger 100 GP
Bronze headdress set with agates (unusually small) 100 GP
A snuff box set with an amethyst 100 GP
Numerous spell components 150 GP

Four unidentified magical objects:
An eerie black mirror depicting the starry void
Bucket 1: Violet Brew smelling of pine
Bucket 2: Silvery Ooze with a chemically smell
Bucket 3: Sparkling yellow with no odor

XP per player: 622
GP per player: 199 plus whatever you (might) get for selling the magical things
Note: I took Selwin's half share into account

Chris P. Joshua Blackketter Eric Boyd Aleksandr Revzin