Ellu'kha and her companions had come across Karlach, the so-called Devil, who was actually a tiefling who had escape a devil's clutches and was now a proud member of Ellu'kha's group. Because Wyll had failed in his quest to kill Karlach, his patron — a devil woman named Mizora — had appeared in the camp and punished him, transforming him into a tiefling also.
The next objective of theirs was to traverse the old temple of Selune they had found where they had killed the goblin leaders, but first Ellu'kha wanted to explore this area and discover any secrets. And she supposed she could go back to that swamp hag's hut and deal with that monstrous woman too.
Hopefully the girl who was there was still alive.
On their quick traipse through the wilderness, they found and overcame a pack of harpies, spoke with the druids who had reclaimed their grove now that the tieflings had broken their camp, discovered some buried treasure near the goblin village, and then made their way over to the cave near where they had found the beautiful white dog, Scratches.
Inside appeared a shrine dedicated to a goddess, and there was a small gilded chest that had been locked by magic. Thankfully Gale was with them and saw straight through the enchantment, and then magically unlocked it for them to get into.
They continued searching through the remainder of the cave... and walked straight into an owlbear's den!
The great beast jumped in front of its cub and bared its fangs at Ellu'kha, determined to eat this trespasser. Ellu'kha quickly utilised her ability to commune with the animals, though, and convinced the owlbear that they weren't a threat, and this was all an accident — they would leave, right now.
The owlbear told them to hurry up and go, or she would attack, right now.
So they hastily fled, not wanting to harm a beast and her child.
With that situation sorted and survived, Ellu'kha dragged her people back out to the swamp and to the witch's home. It was time to deal with this wretched woman once and for all.
They descended down into the depths of the witch's lair, through her museum of people who had dared deal with the witch for her 'blessings', and through a door the shape of a tree-man.
The tree-man tried to convince them not to enter, that he would be punished if they did, but they had no other choice if they were going to deal with this swamp hag. The door-tree-man would have nothing to worry about once they had taken care of the evil that lurked here.
They got set upon by thralls controlled by the witch. Ellu'kha was loathe to kill them, but they had no choice but to defend themselves.
In the end, their corpses came in handy for on the descent further into the witch's lair were poisonous vents... and the dead covered those vents very nicely so that the party could pass through unscathed.
The swamp hag was most displeased as Ellu'kha and her group waltzed into her lair.
"I'll rip your spine out your arsehole!" she shouted, summoning mirror-images of herself around the room to confuse them and quadruple her damage output.
She then set a cage on fire. The girl they had seen earlier was in the cage.
Thinking quickly, Ellu'kha grabbed out a bottle of water and threw it at the flames, saving the cage from the flames, then they focused on finding out which witch was which.
It was a difficult fight, and they only won the battle thanks to a well-timed eldritch blast from Wyll's warlock hands. The witch was pushed off a ledge and into the depths of nothingness, her minions disappeared, and the girl was saved.
The girl thanked them, but was clearly in mourning. Her husband, Connor, had died. She was pregnant. She was going to give the witch the baby in return for Connor's life. She guessed she would have to drag his corpse back home and bury him instead. Sullenly, she left the witch's lair with Ellu'kha and her group quietly watching her departure.
Because the witch fell into a chasm, they were unable to loot her corpse... but they found a room out the back which held a new staff for Gale that he very quickly equipped. In the backroom, they also found a strange wand... with the name 'Connor' written on it.
Ellu'kha and her group hurried back through the witch's lair and found the "museum artifacts" now alive and well. They thanked her for killing the hag and allowing them their freedom and ran out of the horrid place.
Outside the witch's home they found the girl beside a coffin... taking out the wand with Connor's name on it, Ellu'kha stepped over to the girl and offered her the wand.
The wand did indeed bring her husband back to life... in the form of a zombie.
At first the girl was horrified, but this was her husband and surely someone would know how to help him. She would take him to Baldur's Gate and hopefully someone knew of some magic to restore him to his proper living self.
Ellu'kha asked if she was sure... after all, this was an abomination, not her husband. But the girl was adamant. She would find a way.
That night, at camp, Lae'zel accosted Shadowheart.
She demanded the relic that Shadowheart had. It was a githyanki relic and she would pry it from Shadowheart's cold, dead fingers if she wouldn't give it up.
Ellu'kha tried to calm tensions, but neither woman would have any of that. They would have a duel for the relic, at dawn.
Instead, however, Ellu'kha awoke in the middle of the night to find Shadowheart about to assassinate Lae'zel in her sleep. No one else was awake, no one would ever know of what had happened.
Ellu'kha persuaded Shadowheart to think about her actions and what she was doing, and then convinced Lae'zel that they needed the relic in their care and camp and not off to the gith. It was protecting them against the influence of "the Absolute" and they needed it.
Lae'zel sullenly agreed.
The next morning, they continued their exploration of the immediate region and found their way back in the goblin village. It wasn't really a goblin village, but a village decimated by war and now the goblins inhabited it — a ledger from a previous villager spoke of a secret in his cellar; Ellu'kha was very curious about this secret and they looked for the cellar.
They quickly found it, and once inside they found a lever that activated the bookshelf as though it were a door.
Behind the door was a long cave that spread out to a cavern complete with wooden chests. Opening one, the entire group were surprised as a skeleton leapt out and screamed at them, and then rushed over to kick open other 'chests', releasing more of its skeletal brethren.
Though they were surprised, they swiftly defeated the skeletons and then continued investigating the area. Apparently this man had been a necromancer and this was his secret... this was not what they were expecting at all.
Further into the village was a dilapidated blacksmithery. Inside they found an old journal written by a long-gone apprentice who claimed he could out-blacksmith his master and he was finalising the components of some epic weapons the likes of which no one had ever seen before. He had stashed the plans somewhere.
Curious — and desperate for more weapons to choose from — the group hunted high and low for these plans... even going so far as to destroying a giant spiderweb in the middle of the room.
That had been a good choice though, for beneath the spider's web was another room...
And the blueprints!
Ellu'kha quickly shoved them into her backpack. They didn't have the materials to follow this man's recipe, but perhaps they would one day.
Further exploring the cellar of the blacksmithery, Ellu'kha noticed a cracked wall just above them... it was as though there had been a hole there and it had been hastily filled in.
She wondered what was behind it...
After breaking it open, she was welcomed to the sight of a great cave complex and a lot of spider web. She decided it was probably for the best that they have a bit of a rest before exploring this unknown cave.
That night, camping in a small pocket off to the side of the great cave complex, Ellu'kha was awoken by an owlbear cub. It was hungry. It wanted food.
Ellu'kha happily tossed it a sausage and it gobbled it up, wanting more, more! It was such a cute little creature. It was still only a cub though, surely it's mother was nearby somewhere...
Suddenly, Gale stepped over to them, smiling. He told her that she had fed the thing, and now it would love her and likely never leave her side. An owlbear for a friend. How amazing!
Unfortunately it wasn't to be... it took one look at Gale and reacted with terror. It had to run away. Now. And the owlbear fled before Ellu'kha could speak another word.
Perhaps it was for the best. She did have a terrible parasite in her head, after all, this was no place for a baby beast.
Until next time! 😊
and are from the game: Baldur's Gate 3