EDIT:
Mender called down celestial flames again, this time targeting the Wagon.
Gorum merely lets the holy fury flow through him once again. Gripping his axe tightly, he charges the hag.
Mender's call to heaven answers as the canvas wagon is struck by a holy mote of energy, the sound of broken bottles and crashing furniture within.
Gorum meanwhile assaults the hag with his own appeals to a quite different power, slashing her along the ribs and spilling her filth.
Suddenly the body parts swaying in the trees become animated as well, their hands severing at the wrist and the little fists plopping down all around like ripe apples. The hands swarm over Giuseppe and Gorum, clawing at their nostrils and eyes...
Io dashes out of his cover, his fingers hot with the fiery spell again, and he hurls his hand out to the animated transport, hitting it square in the center.
Well done, everyone! Let us keep it up!!! Gio calls out, reassuringly.
Quen stays back and readies his shield, in case he becomes the target of the hag's ire.
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Ionnis rends destruction forth like never before, simply willing the animated wagon to combust...and so it abides. Before it was a huge menacing animated gypsy wagon...now it is a huge menacing animated gypsy wagon on fire.
The wagon rears on its hind wheels like a horse, even neighing as some real live creature would before executing a fiery charge straight into Ionnis! Shrubs and body parts trampled in its path...
Meanwhile the hag shoves an old dry stick between her legs cackling "Inchantrix!!" and takes flight into the moonlight "Aieeeheeeheheheee!" flying around in circles overhead laughing.
Thinking quick, the Athkatlan anchors his blade within the scorched spokes of the wagon wheel and it veers wildly off course, smashing face first into a nearby tree and blasting into splinters. The flames continue, sending shadows of hanging corpses dancing throughout the forest.
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Giuseppe pulls his rope from his pack and ties it around the crossbar of his longsword.
Io curses for forgetting to tuck back into that undergrowth, and is momentarily stunned as the flaming wagon narrowly misses him.
Gorum slashes furiously at the hag twice. His blade carried by the strength of his faith.
Gorum paces back and forth impatiently waiting for just the right moment to end the hag with his blade.
Quen calls forth a bead of holy radiance, holding it in his free hand and calling out to his foreign goddess!
The bead erupts into a lance of holy brilliance shooting into the sky!
The beam just misses the hag by an inch!
Such skill on a broomstick!
Io furrows his brow and says "This might bring her back to earth".
Mender continues to call down sacred fire from the heavens, returning to targeting the hag.
As Quen's spell looks all but sure to catch the flying hag in the back, she suddenly whisks upwards and away in a little loop-de-loop cackling her signature cackle.
But this time the shrill laughter ends with an "..ooOOF!" as a trinity of force missiles shatter her ribcage "...Ohhh. One of you likes to dig in moldy old books...careful not to choke, dearie..."
She turns around just as Menders spell completes...
...receiving yet another brandishment of energy that sets her growling.
The hag swoops in on Ionnis like a swarm of bats, her black claws reaching, pinching, out far ahead of the old gnarled broomstick...
...grasping the rogue by the throat, and twisting until the tendons start to crackle against his bones. "Aieeeheeeheee!"
Gasp!
The old crone is very much stronger than she appears, a mountain of stone cresting the forest.
Giuseppe steps away from the rest of the group, and begins swinging the sword around his head at the end of the rope. Trying to lead the throw, the swordsman spins and lets fly!
Oh, I thought she took off. In this case, Giuseppe pulls the end of the rope to whip the hilt into his hand and he surges toward the hag and Ionnis, with a sweeping slash at the hag!
Io will still back the eff up (disengage and move).
We've got her on di ropes, my friends! Let us finish this! Kiss my blade, Ugly Lenny!
EDIT:
Ionnis somehow escapes the hag's further evisceration while providing just the distraction Giuseppe needed to vault forward, his body and blade straight and narrow as the Cloud Peak divide over Amn. A sudden reverse swing spilled forth the contents of her bloated green belly, intestines and black blood falling out in every direction as she uselessly flailed about to catch them and put them back in...
...as they spill off her broomstick she drops to pick them from the forests brambled floor, reinserting just as many pine needles as guts. Her anger is apparent "Curse you! My beautiful figure..."
But then a mutilated torso swaying from the trees catches her eye in the dancing fires of her wagon, and she suddenly thrusts her black claws into the ribs, extracting a moldy rotten heart. She plops the crusty offal directly into her mouth, chewing it slowly as dry spores leak out the sides of her lips...
...and her oily, pimpled belly sutures itself just enough to hold her gross parts in a little longer.
Gorum remains focused on removing the hag from this realms existence and comes toward the hag.
Drawing on his divine connection, the Paladin channels all of his power into one blow and unleashes holy wrath upon the evil taint.
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Having seen enough, Sir Gorum transcended the moment, letting a divine will take over. It carried his muscles and weapon swiftly before the chaotic fey, like an approaching bolt of lightning that seems to linger a split second in the air. But the light was Gorum, and the thunderous strike his slashing greataxe, cleaving the hag apart into a cloud of maggots and gore.
When the sweat settled, the broom glanced around as if confused, then slowly started to tidy up...sweeping the hag bits away under a mossy fabric, where they would decompose forever.
...at the same time, the body parts littering the trees and her lair all flop to the ground and decay rapidly to dark soil, whatever magic bound them to this place having vacated.
A search of the remains of the wagon turns up quite a collection of trinkets and real wealth, some of the coins seemingly very old. All in all, you find about 250 gp in various little memento boxes...prizes from the men she ensnared perhaps.
Her broom of flying is course also free for the taking.
But more importantly, as the illusions and deathly enchantments of this place further evaporate into the moonlight mists...an infant's cry is heard. Ezra, again having avoided a grim fate...but not so for Jory. Apparently Ewella's husband was indeed enraptured by the hag and brought the child here to her. If the party hadn't arrived when they did...it sickens you to think what may have transpired.
A mighty stroke, friend Gorum!
--
What about di man that 'took di walk'? Does anyone see evidence of that man? Giuseppe says as he makes his way toward the baby's cry.
If someone looks through the trinkets with Eadric in mind (the man who won the last fishhooks game) they do find a double-bladed spinner with a yellow skirt of his within one little brittle river birch box. Apparently this hag did have some connection to him. There is no evidence of the man among the piles of rotting flesh however.
Gio looks to Io, Do you think this is enough to break di curse on di tavern keep?
The swordsman, still listening for the answer as he continues to search for the crying baby...
The babe is found presently, Alberto snuffling the way. She rests on a platter of polished ivory, a collection of severed elf ears and newt tongues arranged around the platter in some sort of ceremonial feast that thankfully never was.
Thank di gods, Gio lets out a sigh of relief. We should head back to di village.
Thank you, everyone. You all have been true heroes this night...
When the party returns to the village well past midnight, it seems the fishwives were turned away by Ned and his daughters in a minor skirmish...evidently the young girls were quite skilled in archery. However, Ned's curse, the coughing suffocation when any women other than his own blood came near ultimately fended them off.
But an even more curious development lies with the husbands: apparently the 'gifts' Petraluna exchanged for their time, love, and trinkets was little more than dead flesh under the hag's illusion. Their bewitchment has ended and they beg forgiveness from the strong women. The party is hailed as saviors, but no doubt the village will take time to heal. At least for now the dark mysteries of Wayward seem at an end.
What should we do about di girl? I am thinking about taking her to di Bourne of Candles, and imploring him to take her in as his ward. He obviously knows about her, and perhaps, I can convince him to take her in and teach her to be as noble as her blood would hold, no? Though his words seem set with intent, Gio's tone is questioning, as if asking for approval.