Oakhurst: Into the Darkness

As the group finished off the orc shaman and his orc zombies, a storm blew in quickly. The group sought shelter in the ruined windmill and the Cleric and the Monk (central to the whole Hag debacle) decided to take their leave. Two hirelings, an Arcane Archer and a Bard, took center stage.

They took this time to also discover the magical properties of the obsidian dagger, Shimmergloom, that they found on the orc shaman.

The storm was harsh and they took a short rest and explored the windmill (it had four floors). The second floor was too unstable to walk upon, but they found a chest on the third floor that contained faded letters, a tooth, and a stiletto. The Sorcerer used Arcana to alter the mending spell to make the letters legible and the spirit of their author, Theodocian McClintock, appeared as specter, angrily harassing them for disturbing his possessions. The Bard agreed to track down Alean mentioned in McClintock's letters in an attempt to avoid a conflict. The specter made the Bard promise to fulfill finding Alena (causing the Bard to have disadvantage on Constitution saving throws until he fulfills the promise).

The top floor had storage for a few spell scrolls, 15 platinum and orders to the orc shaman from Gargok Trau to field test his orc zombies and report back in two weeks. They also learned that Trau had been recruiting orcs from other tribes.

After the storm passed they moved on, moving into the Bone Thieves territory and making camp near a small stream. On the final watch of the night, the Bard detected a horrific rotting smell and eventually realized that two wights were approaching camp from different directions. He awoke the group with a shout as one of them crept up to him and attacked. The battle was short, but the Bard cast thunderwave alerting more orcs to their whereabouts forcing them to quickly break down camp and take off.

The Wizard used a device he tinkered with to help distract the pursuing orcs.

But 10am they had returned to the Hag's territory in the Dun Woods and they cautiously avoided the fetishes they found in the trees there.

By Noon they had to leave their mules behind as the trees were growing so close together that they had slowly make their way through the area.

By 2pm the trees began to thin out and they heard the growls of a large cat in five trees directly in front of them. Eventually four kenku and a tiger attacked them. While the battle was pitched, the group came out on top and no from the ominous atmosphere of the woods around them that the Hag was near.