The Children of Granny Nightheart
Jhelnae stared at the girl in the doorway. It wasn't just the blood now matting her ringlet curls, covering her face, and staining her night dress that made her look so different. Nor was it the venomous knife she held in her hand. Not even the cruel expression marring her youthful features.
It was the eyes.
No one could mistake the soul lurking behind those eyes of belonging to a young girl. Something old and evil, done with deception, unmasked itself there now.
"And I did it all because I was bored." the grinning girl said. "Bored of this little insignificant backwater that I hated with all my heart. So, imagine my delight when learning from my real mother I could have power. Power and immortality if I performed just one little dark ritual. Made one little sacrifice of a household of stupid and easily manipulated people, that to me, were no sacrifice at all."
She didn't move forward, letting the threat of her malicious intent stretch.
"You killed your family for the promise of power and immortality?" Aleina said. "A family that you just told us did everything they could to try and make you happy?"
It wasn't really a question, but the girl-hag answered anyway.
"They weren't my family!" she shrieked, advancing into the room.
"Well, you didn't gain it," the aasimar said, eyes hardening as she lifted her moonstone orb. "At least not the immortality part. Because you're dead. You're just a sad little remnant we've come to destroy!"
"Liar!"
But even as Carina screamed, Aleina's words seemed to fall on the girl-hag like a physical blow, halting her steps and clouding her visage with doubt. Aleina's fingers tightened around her orb, knuckles whitening with the intensity of her grip and her expression became a mask of focused concentration.
But nothing happened.
"Damn it!" Aleina finally yelled.
And just like that, the sadistic smile reformed on Carina's lips and all uncertainty fled from her face and posture. She took another step forward and Kuhl moved to meet her.
It seemed a complete mismatch. He wielded a longsword, she just a knife. He was tall and muscular and she was a mere wisp of a thing. But she showed no fear.
"You're very strong," she said, repeating her admiring words from when she'd feigned being a poor damsel in distress. Now her tone held nothing but mockery. "But that sword is probably still too heavy for you."
And suddenly Kuhl seemed to struggle to hold the weapon in his hand let alone wield it. The sword Jhelnae held, its mate from the crisscrossing wall decoration, also became heavy. The surprise change in weight made the half-drow lose her grip and the blade fell with a muted clatter onto the throw rug covering the flagstone floor.
"This is all quite remarkable," Volo whispered. "My Trollskull chapter quickly went from dull to exciting."
"It has been fun," Sky agreed. "But enough is enough. I can't listen to any more of her self important shrieking."
She drew and whipped out a dagger at the girl. It tumbled end over end, then struck, point first, in her target's chest. But while the tip sliced easily into Carina's night dress it didn't penetrate the skin beneath. Sky's dagger unceremoniously dropped to the floor.
"Oh…" the tabaxi said.
"Shit!" Fargas finished for her.
He threw his own dagger, this one Carina batted aside with a sweep of her free hand.
"Hags are very resistant to non-magical attacks," Volo said. "All covered in my book."
The girl took another step into her sister's bedroom. Kuhl was in range now and she stabbed at him with her poison coated knife. He dodged back while struggling to even lift his sword in response. Jhelnae gave a cry of frustration and dove down to retrieve her dropped blade. She managed to get the hilt off the floor with effort, then let the weapon fall again, realizing she'd never effectively wield something so heavy.
When she looked up, she found Kuhl chose to discard his sword as well and had grabbed Carina's knife wrist in a double grip. It seemed he should have no trouble at all controlling her, but he strained with effort just keeping the sharp point away from him. Poison dripped off the blade between them - staining the floor with acrid droplets.
"Ghosts are often vulnerable to weapons from their past," Volo called out. "Maybe try and stab her with that?"
Kuhl tried. Putting on a burst of strength he inexorably guided the dripping blade away from finding his flesh and back towards the girl-hag. The contest of strength unfolded in both a slow pace that was mesmerizing and also too quickly for the companions to gather their wits to leap forward and help the half-elf.
Carina hissed with effort, then wrenched herself to the side. The combatants spun and she slammed Kuhl against the doorjamb of the open bedroom door. From this point of leverage, she was able to briefly force the knife towards him. Then the half-elf managed to push off the doorjamb and their struggle carried them out of the room and into the balcony landing beyond.
The others ran after them. Again and again, they spun, careening into a stuffed chair and knocking it over on their way to the balcony railing. Jhelnae thought they were going to crash into it and worried they would fall over together. But as they neared it, Kuhl tightened their spin and hip tossed Carina, letting go of her wrist and sending her so far over the railing she struck the chandelier on the way down. It rocked back and forth, and a resounding thud sounded up from below.
"Is she dead?" Aleina asked, clutching the balcony railing and looking down.
The unmoving form of Carina lay on her back from where she'd fallen on the flagstone floor of the foyer, eyes closed. Before anyone could guess she might be dead, or even knocked senseless, her eyes snapped open. She opened her mouth wide and cackled, a disconcerting sound, incongruent to the girlish form she wore. But now she shed that, limbs and torso lengthening while her skin grayed and darkened towards the color of midnight. A pair of back sweeping horns sprouted from her forehead and sharp, black nails formed at her fingertips. Her lips withered and pulled back, showing more white teeth, and giving her a feral, haunting presence.
"A night hag," Volo said. "As I suspected. Very resistant to non-magical attacks."
The night hag grinned up at them, cackling again for a moment before its eyes widened in horror and surprise as the chandelier came crashing down upon it in an explosion of wood, glass, and spent candle wax.
"Did I hit her?" Fargas asked, running up to look for himself.
In his hand he brandished the dagger he'd used to cut the rope holding up the chandelier.
"You got her," Kuhl said, still panting with the effort of his fight.
The broken frame of the chandelier shifted, and the night hag pushed it aside and stared up at them balefully.
"She looks very angry," Sky said.
"Like I said," Volo said. "Very resistant to…"
"Non-magical attacks," Jhelnae interrupted. "We know. You said that already. Is there anything she is vulnerable to?"
"Magical attacks," the little man said. "Silvered weapons or those made of cold-iron some say."
"Anything else?" Jhelnae asked.
"Work, damn it!," Aleina yelled, staring at the moonstone orb she held.
"Nothing I can think of," Volo said.
The hag had finished pushing aside the remains of the chandelier and stood. Now she gestured, a lifting of both hands. At first it didn't seem to do anything, then the body of the house servant on the stairs twitched and rose. The corpse of the boy had also animated, walking into the foyer and staring up at the companions on the balcony with dead, unseeing eyes.
"Trickster's toes!" Fargas yelled. "You've got to be kidding me!"
"Ah…it is actually worse than you think," Sky said, pointing.
They turned, but Jhelnae heard the shuffling step of bare feet on carpet and knew what she would find. A chill ran down her spine even as she looked.
The body of Carina's sister stood in the open doorway to her bedroom, still with her throat slit and still very dead. Neither of which kept her from shambling forward towards the companions, arms outstretched and hands grasping. And that wasn't all. From the room that Kuhl had glanced in earlier emerged another corpse, this one a boy of only eight or so, with multiple stab wounds gaping from his chest.
"Regroup?" Kuhl asked.
He scooped-up a chair and hurled it at the advancing zombie of sister Serene, sending her falling backward.
"Regroup!" Aleina yelled. "Through those doors there."
She pointed at a pair of double doors at the end of the landing. The doors furthest from the stairs.
"Children…" No more of the sweet girl remained in Carina's harsh and gravelly voice as it came up from the floor below. "You've been very naughty, and Granny Nightheart is very angry. Attacking Granny Nightheart. Lying to Granny Nightheart. Come and accept what is coming."
The companions made no reply as they opened the double doors and hustled through. It was another bedroom, far grander than Serene's. Triple the size with its own study and dressing chamber. A middle-aged man and woman were getting up from the large, canopied bed, tossing aside blood soaked sheets and moving with the stiffness of undeath.
"This must be her mother and father's room," Sky said. "There is a balcony out here."
She knocked the male zombie sprawling back onto the bed with a kick as she led the way to another pair of double doors with squares of glass inserted in the wood. A large stone balcony was visible outside. Cold, mist filled air spilled in as she pulled them open and beckoned everyone through.
"Can we lock it?" Kuhl asked, slamming the doors closed so hard the glass inserts quivered.
"The bolt is on the other side," the tabaxi said.
"Of course it is," the half-elf sighed.
"Well locks are meant to keep people out, not in," Fargas observed.
"I'll hold it shut," Kuhl said.
Inside the male zombie had regained his feet and the woman had made her way around the bed. They shuffled forward, arms outstretched, heading for the glass doors. Serene and her younger brother also entered through the doors into the bedroom.
"Zombies, very strange," Volo said. "Night hags don't normally employ zombies. And she didn't retreat into the ethereal when the chandelier fell on her."
He snapped his fingers.
"She can't retreat into the ethereal because we essentially are in the ethereal," the little man said. "This demi plane sanctuary must be some sort of dreamscape. A nightmare. That is how she was able to make the swords heavy and make the dead walk. She knows how to influence the dream."
"More importantly," Fargas said. "What exactly is the plan trapping ourselves out here? Get some fresh air before she kills us?"
"We aren't trapped, Fargas" Sky said, tail lashing. "We can just climb down that tree there."
That tree was an ash tree, whose winter bare branches spread close enough to reach near the balcony. It was hard to be sure, as the tree and ground were obscured by the mist, but it did look like they would be able to climb down.
"Don't know if I can get down that way," Volo said. "Volothamp Geddarm is not as young as he once was."
"What!" the tabaxi said. "It's easy. Just hold where I hold and step where I step. We'll take it slow."
Hammering came from the doors Kuhl held shut as the first zombie reached them from inside.
"Not too slow!" the half-elf yelled.
Sky leapt onto the nearest branch, then turned and helped the little man onto it after her. Together they started making their way down with slow deliberate movements.
"Drat!" Volo said. "My hat!
Through the haze, Jhelnae could vaguely see one of the branches had claimed the little man's floppy hat.
"I went out with Ront and Surash and I met a lovely halfling girl," Fargas muttered. "I go with all of you and I'm scrambling down a tree away from zombies."
Despite his complaining his jump to the branches was fairly nimble as was his descent.
Glass crashed as a zombie punched his way through one of the glass inserts. Kuhl turned his head, and dodged clawing fingers as he struggled to hold the doors closed.
"Now would be a good time to start climbing!" he yelled.
Aleina and Jhelnae took to the branches together. It proved to be a mistake. The climbing was fairly easy, but in their panicked descent, they went for the same foothold and the aasimar reached it slightly ahead of the half-drow. Already committed, Jhelnae lost her balance and slipped and fell sideways. She was close to the ground by now, but still cringed in anticipation of a jarring impact that never came. Fur covered hands snatched her under her armpits, lifting and guiding her enough to land mostly on her feet.
"Let me guess, Jhelnae," Sky said, rolling her eyes. "This is also the fault of an awakened tree?"
"Thank…" the half-drow started, but her expression of surprised gratitude died on her lips as the tabaxi's words sank in. "You know what, Sky, that tree really did trip me when we were running from those wererats. And I never said it was an awakened tree, I said it probably was an awakened tree."
"But this time was my fault," Aleina said as she dropped to the ground. "I should have watched where I stepped. Sorry."
More breaking glass from above interrupted the half-drow from replying. They all looked upward and saw Kuhl leap from the balcony onto the tree, branches creaking with his weight. He descended quickly. When he reached the ground, he tossed something to Volo.
"My hat!" the little man pulled it on, smiling. "Thank you!"
"You took the time to get his hat?" Fargas said, shaking his head. "With zombies after you? Why am I not surprised?"
Moaning came from above and all looked up to find a zombie family staring down at them from the balcony.
"What now?" Jhelnae asked, tearing her gaze from the undead and looking towards her companions.
"The chapel?" Kuhl asked. "Maybe there is something in there she might be vulnerable to? Something silver?"
"Worth a try," Aleina said, pushing a stray dark lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear.
But they hadn't even made it halfway across the courtyard before Sky called out a warning.
"She's here…" she said.
The gravelly voice of the night hag followed. "So, you found our climbing tree, did you? At least it was our tree until my oaf of a sister fell and broke her arm. Then my idiot parents forbade it for both of us."
Jhelnae turned to see Carina wave a dismissive hand at Serene standing next to her on the balcony. Her zombie sister gave no reaction, just continued to look down over the courtyard and moan. The murdered servant from the stairs and the boy also from downstairs were there now as well. The night hag's spare, gaunt form looked even more corpse-like than the undead family and servants around her.
"Run!" Aleina yelled.
The aasimar only led the way for a few steps, then three glowing darts lanced down from the balcony and into the ground between the companions and the chapel.
"No, no, no." the hag waved an admonishing finger. "Granny Nightheart doesn't like to be ignored. You've met my family, but you haven't met my children."
She pitched her voice higher in a mockery of sweetness.
"Come out, come out," she called. "The hiding game is over, and it is time for a new one. With some new playmates."
In the misty darkness, all around, shadowy forms took shape. The shades of children with red glowing eyes. Boys, girls, in numbers too great to count.
"It keeps getting worse!" Fargas yelled.
"The souls of the children she corrupted and killed from the orphanage I think," Volo said.
"Pile on my little sweetlings," Carina called down from the balcony. "Hold them fast and Granny Nightheart will give you each a small taste of them before she takes her harvest."
She brandished her knife and the child-shades surged forward, burning gazes filled with hunger.
"Run for the chapel," Sky hissed. "I'll blaze a trail."
She clicked her magic boots together and sped across the courtyard, feet a blur, sending small forms sprawling with shoves and punches as she went. The companions followed the trail of fallen children at a sprint. From the balcony, another barrage of glowing darts descended and Kuhl, bringing up the rear, grunted in pain. But he didn't fall, and the group made it into the chapel, hustling inside while the tabaxi held open the door. The half-elf slammed it closed behind him. There seemed to be no way to bar it and he put his shoulder against it instead, wincing in pain as he did.
His clothes bore the scorch marks from the magic glowing darts and Aleina touched his back and closed her eyes. Only to open them an instant later.
"I keep forgetting," the aasimar said. "No magic. Which also means no healing magic."
"I'm fine," Kuhl said. "See what you can find."
Even as he said that something, or many small somethings, tried to shove the door open. The half-elf braced himself and got the door closed again.
The others started to search the chapel for a potential weapon against the hag, but Jhelnae grabbed Sky before she could move away from the door.
"Your magic boots," the half-drow said. "They worked!"
"Why wouldn't they?" the tabaxi said with a shrug.
"Why wouldn't they…" Jhelnae repeated, trailing off.
There was an answer in Sky's simple statement and the half-drow let go of her friend in stunned revelation, allowing Sky to search the chapel.
Not that there was much to search. It was a small, roughly rectangular room, meant for the private worship of a household and thus had no need to be large. But it was sturdily built with its elevated roof held up by a series of stone arches. The walls of the far end were rounded, and three elegant windows of stained glass rose behind the altar, one depicting a silver chalice emblazoned with the sun, the next an upright coin with a woman's face, and the last a red horse head game piece with stars for eyes.
"This chapel is dedicated to Siamorphe, Waukeen, and the Red Knight," Volo said, pointing.
The altar of smooth stone was bare and, other than a few rows of chairs facing the altar, there was nothing else.
"Where are the holy relics?" Fargas said. "Or at least a heavy silver candlestick Kuhl could club her with?"
"A private family chapel like this wouldn't have holy relics," the little man said. "Unless it served the royal Obaskyr's or something, and then only maybe. And the silver? Likely locked away. Too tempting a target for theft otherwise."
"Great," Fargas said, throwing up his hands. "Just great."
Jhelnae was only half listening, still reflecting on Sky's words.
Why wouldn't they?
The tabaxi had been talking about her magic boots, but now the half-drow applied the same thought to her own magic as she held her hand out to the side and reached for the power of the Demonweb.
Distantly she heard the voice of Granny Nightheart from outside.
"What's the matter, children?" the gravelly voice said. "They won't come out and play? Don't worry, because I just remembered, this door didn't open inward, it opened out to the courtyard."
Kuhl gave a surprise yell as the door he was holding closed was suddenly yanked open, his pushing almost making him stumble outside. The night hag manipulating the dreamscape again. This only convinced Jhelnae her revelation was right, and she reached further.
There was a tingling! A sensation at her fingertips. And even though she didn't need to really find it with her hand she stretched her arm out to its fullest extent as she sought the connection with her entire being.
The shades of the children stormed into the room and Jhelnae backed away with the others towards the altar and the windows of stained glass, mind still seeking the source of her magic. And just when she thought she couldn't reach any further, the power she sought seemed to surge towards her in turn. Contact was made and the hilt of her abyssal blade coalesced into her grasp as the strength of the Demonweb flooded into her.
"It's a contest of wills you little, pathetic battle captive…"
Jhelnae couldn't be sure if the scolding, but still seductive, feminine, voice in her head was just her own conscience chiding her from taking so long to realize this truth or came from someone, some being, else. But she didn't have time to wonder about it now. She leveled her sword and the power of the Demonweb flowed as she blasted the child-shade leading the charge towards them. Crackling energy tore into him, and his red eyes stared at her as he dissipated into nothingness. Not in accusation, but in relief and gratitude, a brief moment of peace entering his burning gaze before he faded.
"No!" Carina rasped as she too entered the chapel. "Kill her!"
She punctuated the command with a sending of glowing darts at the half-drow. Jhelnae only had time to wince in anticipated pain. But before the missiles reached her, Kuhl intercepted them, using a scooped up chair as an impromptu shield. The chair became kindling and some of the power of the attack got through, sending the half-elf reeling to the ground.
"Kuhl!" the half-drow yelled.
But he was already scrambling to his feet.
"Hit her with everything you've got!" he screamed, kicking a shade into the surging oncoming tide of gray skinned, red eyed, children.
He grabbed another chair and swept it in an arc to try and keep them away from the half-drow.
"We'll hold them off!" Fargas yelled, already grappling with a pigtailed girl baring her teeth in a feral expression. "Just kill her!"
Jhelnae nodded and fixed her gaze on the night hag in the back, focusing on her target.
"Your magic is still there!" she called out. "It is just a contest of wills. Believe!"
Eldritch energy hummed through her being as she sent crackling beams of force across the space between her and the night hag. Carina screamed as she was flung back against the stone wall behind her, harsh, piercing, discordant, and at the same time the sweetest sound the half-drow had ever heard.
But the night hag wasn't going down without a fight. Glowing missiles answered Jhelnae's attack and this time there was no paladin to protect her, he was too busy fighting off the horde of small bodies trying to get to her. The darts burned into the half-drow and sent her crumpling to the ground. She didn't stay down for even an instant, knowing a moment of respite would cost her life and the lives of her companions. Using the altar for support, she hauled herself to her feet and pointed her abyssal blade.
Snarling in defiance at each other they traded attacks again, Jhelnae using the altar to keep upright while Carina leaned against the wall. The half-drow only had a vague knowledge of the gods of human lands, but knew the Red Knight was a goddess of strategy while Siamorph one of nobility. Neither was on display under the stained glass symbols in this dreamscape chapel. With primal savagery, giving no thought of defense or dodging, Jhelnae and night hag blasted each other in turn.
The half-drow saw Carina was weakening. Barely keeping her feet. But the same was true for herself. Even as Jhelnae gritted her teeth and gathered her magic again she doubted she could weather another exchange.
Then sunlight scorched through the room, three bright rays in rapid succession, that blazed into the night hag. She shrieked in agony and writhed against the wall.
"It's like I told you bitch!" Aleina yelled, holding up her orb, and eyes seeming to glow with pale radiance. "You're just a sad little remnant we're here to destroy."
The half-drow sagged against the altar and allowed herself that moment of respite. The aasimar had heard her words, had believed, and then found a path to reach her magic.
Carina looked at the aasimar, then at the half-drow, then ran for the chapel door. Jhelnae knocked her off her feet with another blast of crackling energy before she reached it. Her knife of dripping venom clattered to the floor and the night hag ended up crawling out on hands and knees.
"Don't let her get away!" Kuhl said.
Calling on some reserve of strength he moved towards the exit, sweeping the chair he wielded back and forth as he did. Clearing a path through the attacking children, Sky, Fargas, and even Volo forged a wedge behind him. The shades actually gave little resistance, as if the absence of Carina left them directionless.
Jhelnae tried to follow, but stumbled to the floor as soon as she let go of the supporting altar. She'd have ended up crawling herself if Aleina had not helped haul her to her feet and to the door. Healing magic coursed from aasimar to half-drow as they made their way and, by the time they left the chapel, Jhelnae could support herself.
Granny Nightheart, or the ghost that was left of her, was still crawling when they reached the courtyard. There they finished her, Jhelnae and Aleina working in concert. All under the moaning gaze of the zombie family and household servants watching from the balcony.
The world faded around them, buildings disappearing first, then ground, and finally even the pervading mist and they were back in the cellar of the Trollskull.
Okay...the ending is very rushed, I know. Please feel free to give me any feedback on how to fix it. As always, I really need to stop thinking about this and get to other 'real world' stuff.
Well this was my solution to the Haunting of Trollskull. Does it work for you? I think as a DM you could take the concept (the idea of a nightmare dreamscape) and incorporate modified versions of Death House or the Haunted House in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft into the campaign. There is also a classic one called the Ghosts of Mistmoor that I quite enjoyed reading. All of course, would need to be heavily modified to fit the idea of a night hag dreamscape.
Or do you feel rules as written are better. Once Lif learns you are re-opening the tavern he becomes friendly? That was the way it played in our campaign and it worked fine.
Okay, side quest ended, and we're back in Waterdeep!
Update 4-12-2022 for some typos and such