Court Cleanup, Kings, and a Noble Quest
Barnabus
Now that we had finished our round of interviews with the various powers of the Soggy Court, it was clear that the intrigue and plotting were coming to a head and things would tension in the court would soon boil over, like the contents of a hag’s disgusting cauldron. Now we simply needed to chart a path for the cleanup that would surely follow.
We began by attempting to convince Sir Mugwort, the only one in the court with any honor, that perhaps she would make a good leader for the Soggy Court for the near term. She was not interested and while she offered us support in our quest to dispatch the hag, she refused any part in courtly schemes. On to plan B.
We returned to Duke Ickrind to take him up on his offer to ‘help make sure king Blackcroak the 2nd’s coronation was a smash hit.’ We bargained with him a bit as one does with a slimy bullywog noble and he promised us that if things, like say large boulders, were to fall in place and allow him to assume the mantle of king, he would surely offer us aid in our quest to overthrow the hag. As well as providing us with this mysterious book of Bavlorna’s. We discussed logistics and confirmed with Sir Mugwort that she was ready to pilot Ickrind’s balloon for proper viewing of the coronation.
We returned to the Soggy Court proper… where the Lady Squelchtoe the long running royal advisor was discussing something with King Blackcroak. The king summoned us and informed us Squelchtoe had accused us of plotting to assassinate him! Which I suppose was partly true, but she certainly had no proof. Afterall, we had only discussed hypotheticals with Duke Ickrind…
The king presented us Squelchtoe’s “proof” - it was one of her many assassination plots and she hadn’t even bothered to write a new one. She had simply crossed out “King Gullop” and written in “King Blackcroak the 2nd” and replaced her name with “the five foreigners” … Her sloppy work seemed typical of the bullywog nobles and was easy to question. To settle the issue, the King ordered a trial by combat. PB jumped at the chance to cleave one of the slimy nobles and swiftly dispatched Lady Squelchtoe, bisecting her from head to toe with a loud squelch. How fitting.
With that sorted out, Amrynn convinced the king that the proper place for his coronation was at the watchtower overseeing all of the Soggy Court. He was overjoyed at the prospect of pomp and circumstance and the court immediately departed for the watchtower… meanwhile most of us headed to the balloon so we could “properly observe” the festivities.
True to his word, Duke Ickrind dropped a large granite boulder directly on King Blackcroak the 2nd… who promptly croaked. Ickrind declared himself the new king and named us full members of the Soggy Court. He also announced we were starting a noble quest to handle the hag and asked for volunteers from the court to assist us. Several bullywogs agreed along with Sir Mugwort and we headed for a boat to travel to the Hag Hut. We seem to have forgotten about the book the king is holding for us. We will have to retrieve swiftly but that will have to wait, as we floated to the center of the murky swamp.
Mugwort and our (not so) brave volunteers stayed at the landing to guard our boat and the party ascended the rickety staircase running up the structure. We found a trap door, and when no one answered our knocking, let ourselves in.
We found a disgusting hovel full of discarded junk and grisly remains. An empty balcony covered with frogs looked over the swamp, another room led to a disturbing taxonomy room filled with bizarre “creations.” When opened, another door appeared to be filled with swarms of angry wasps, we promptly shut that back up. Another small room held a cupboard with a sigil of the hourglass coven on it. We discovered the trick to opening the cupboard but its contents were random odds and ends and appeared to be junk. Finally, we found another room with two small reptilian dolls stuck with spikes or pins. Perhaps these are voodoo dolls of some sort.
The main floor of this level of the hut was covered in a pool of murky water with a large lily pad sitting almost like a seat in front of a large mirror. As we regroup, we will need to decide if we investigate this further or simply climb the ominous staircase and ascend further into the hag’s lair.