Hags, Heads, and a Hunting Trap
PB
GLORIOUS COMBAT!!!
The air in that kitchen smelled of stale grease and bad magic. We were spread thin— B was dealing with a green dragon wyrmling and a kid, A was fumbling with some paintings (typical), and M was holding the line at the door. I did what any sensible Tortle does when a hag is coming for his head: I reached into my pack and set a heavy hunting trap right in the doorway.
The ticking was the worst part. That clockwork key in Skabatha Nightshade’s back was whirring faster and faster, a frantic thump-tick-thump that told us she was close.
In the kitchen, the little green dragon decided it was time to wake up and try to take a bite out of B. Silly dragon; I can only assume B hit it with a Thunderwave given the sound of pots and pans shaking, and strangely a enough a yelp of pain (what kind of pots scream out???). The dragon had enough of that and scrambled out the side door. Coward dragon. Outside though, more fun in the shape of some redcaps looking for a fight.
Finally, the main event. The Hag burst through the door, eyes full of murder, and - SHINK - stepped right into my trap. It was beautiful. Her ticking key came to a dead stop, and her face turned a shade of red I haven’t seen since the last time I over-spiced a stew (dang it, now I was hungry).
A didn’t waste the opening. He pinned her down with a giant earthen hand, leaving her squirming in outrage. M and I moved in and got to work pummeling her. My axe felt light in my hands, and between my swings and M’s strikes, the hag could barely catch her breath. She did manage to catch M with a spell but the damage we were dealing her was too much and M soon returned to form. Outraged at what had happened to her, M delivered the final blow, and off came the hag’s head. One hag down, two to go.
But all that racket brought the redcaps. B was holding the kitchen entrance alone, barely keeping the little monsters at bay with that plate armor of his. We knew it couldn’t last though so we rushed over to help turn the tide and turn the tide we did! Those three pests were stomped into garden mulch. Looking out into the distance, we could see where they had come from- a circle of red mushrooms in a field with three redcap-sized holes. Pests, the whole lot of them.
As the ringing in our ears from the fight faded, that voice I heard scream out earlier ended up coming from under the kitchen grate. I figured a pot had just fallen down there, but it turns out our “yelper” is a dwarf.
We’ve got a headless hag, a cowardly dragon, and a dwarf in the floorboards. I hope he knows where the food is kept—all this beheading has made me hungry and we still have some looting to do all in the hopes of finding what we’ve lost.