The party approaches Fort Knucklebone, a palisade of wood and bone surrounding a strangely hand shaped hill
- Anri remembers the area and believes they may have been here
- As they get closer they can see several figures on watch upon the wall
Eliseo is able to sneak closer and finds large wheeled tracks leading to the front door, far bigger than a wagon and with tread
- The creatures on watch are small and distracted, wearing rudimentary armour and red hats and wielding large sickles
- He reports back to the group who decide to approach and see if they will be amenable to guests
The party is spotted as they walk up to the gate
- Strum recognises the creatures as Redcaps, a type of evil fey spirit
- The redcaps shout out in several languages before getting to common, jeering at the party
- They ask why they’re here and what the password is
- When the party is unable to give one, they laugh and ask for a dance
- Marco willingly gives them a performance before a flip lands him on his arse to guffaws from the redcaps
- They are happy to have had their fun and start to open the gate
Letting the party inside the redcaps come down to meet them on the inside
- Within the walls they see several large vehicles, which seem to have nowhere to hitch an animal to and are being inspected by a pair of Kenku
- There are also a number of ramshackle shelters
- In amongst the milling redcaps there are a number who seem to have undergone a change, with black caps that drip ichor which look to have merged with their heads
The leader of the redcaps struts up to Marco and congratulates him on his efforts, even if he was rubbish
- We are told that this is Mad Maggie’s territory and that he is Sgt Guts
- He explains that Maggie brought them here from the feywild
- Guts has never seen Anri before
Mad Maggie is a hag, she comes out to meet the group followed by a huge, stitched together flesh golem
- She is immediately fascinated by Anri and wants to know who owns them
- Marco explains why they are here and what they are after
- She already seems to know about the sword before they mention it, which is worrying
- Maggie invites them to a tent for a drink
They’re offered a bottle of something and she cobbles together some drinking apparatus
- She shows Hayate the bottle (i.e. the seal is unbroken), and Hayate gives it a shake, before she breaks the seal and chambrés it
- She holds a toast and says, “To a constructive relationship”
- Eliseo joins in, smelling the aniseed and recognising it to be something from the material realm
- Apparently it’s from the Wandering Emporium, of which Maggie is a ‘valued customer’
Getting down to business, she starts quizzing Anri, who can’t remember where her name came from
- Vigil tells Maggie that they want her to remember and the hag thinks she can help via a ritual involving a dreamscape
- She’s willing to do so for free because she wants to gather information herself about Zariel
- Marco is angered by a comment about her eating children
- As part of the ritual it will be necessary to separate the two beings that are a part of Anri, the elemental soul that Strum knows will die as they are reliant on the angel for life
- The only way to save them will be to attach them to another ‘host’, such as Strum
The party asks for some time to discuss the deal alone and Maggie steps out
- Once alone, Marco says they shouldn’t deal with a child-eater, but Vigil says that ranks her pretty insignificantly on this plane, and they’re not going to get better help
- Hayate is a pragmatist, suggesting our mission is critical regardless of our feelings
- They can save more lives getting her help and are keen not to have Elturel dragged further down
- Hayate says Marco can have his crusade later
- Eventually they decide to go for it and let the hag know
- She produces a contract for them to sign and says she will need time to set up the ritual
- Digging out a pair of skulls which she addresses as ‘sisters’, she shoos the party from the tent