In this episode, Ixir/Rae acts as DM…
A week after The Avengers cleared out Phandelver, Kavier, Oohye and Redspear sat with Sildar at Stonehill Inn’s tavern discussing mining operations. They were interrupted by Belkin, a would-be brothel owner, who pleaded with Sildar rid him of a night hag haunting. Though skeptical of his story at first, Toblen chimed in and added that they did have a night hag problem awhile ago. Bree and Maree who sat nearby overheard and asked to join in on the hag hunt.
They went to the hut where the hag was last seen — a hut with a collapsed roof an hour away from Phandalin. There, they found a black stone as well as a book (bound in human leather) written in script none present could understand. As they left, Maree destroyed the hut with her word of radiance. They heard the gasp of young children; Sildar caught the three 7-year-olds, one of whom is Pipin, Toblen’s son. Sildar scolded the children for playing in such a dangerous place and got them to promise not to return.
Back in Phandalin
They show the book to Sister Garaele who translates (what turns out to be) a journal written in Infernal for them. Written by Anya, it describes her consorting with a devil, whom she refers to as Master Lucien. In order to regain his attention, she plans to present an evil soul to him as a gift. They realise that the night hag is haunting Belkin in order to steal his soul. It also describes the ritual words to travel to the night hag’s dream realm.
Into the dreamscape
Sildar leads the group out to a clearing in order to carry out the ritual. They chant the words ten times and fall asleep. When they awake, they find themselves in a foggy stone building. A gibbering mouther appears and a fight ensues. Its incoherent cries disrupts some of the characters’ composure. However, they fell on the creature and promptly takes it out. They investigate the surroundings and find a kitchen and bedroom. The bedroom contains a bed which had a body pillow with a red devil’s face on it. Next to the bed is a large dog bed. The bookshelf also had biographies of each of the characters… it details all the ways they die. In the kitchen, the pipe was dismantled and cups with saucers (and teaspoon) stolen.
After raiding the bedroom and kitchen, they hear a woman and a dog coming down the stairs. The beautiful woman invited them upstairs for tea.
They deceive her and tell her that they are from the municipal department and looking into plumbing and tax collection. She turns out to be rather lonely and relates her story of how she has found a evil soul to present to her Master Lucien. They convince her that if it is a soul in Phandalin, it would be taxed — she tells them that she is content to wait for the soul to leave Phandalin before taking it. She tells them that the person had done many bad thing, stealing young girls from rural villages and selling them to the sex slave trade.
She returns them back to the clearing. Sildar briefs his constables to monitor the activity Belkin and his thugs, Tegan and Bram, on suspicion of human trafficking. They gather at Stonehill Inn and send for Belkin. They tell him that he has a reprieve from his problems but must donate money to Maree to build a temple to Lathander in order to make the problem go away. He agrees to pay her 2000gp in 10 days.
Raid!
During the 10 days, Maree show Belkin various sites to build the temple. Sildar alerts his faction in Waterdeep that one of the henchman, Tegan is headed to Waterdeep and to investigate his activities. They find evidence of the human trafficking and proceed to instruct Sildar to arrest Belkin.
They surround the inn where Belkin stays, with Oohye and Redspear keeping a watch of the windows where he and his henchmen stay.
Sildar kicks down the barricaded door and, after a fight, subdue and arrest Belkin. He is deported to Waterdeep for his trial.