Briar, Barika, and Nicodemus return to the temple of Ogma, the Halls of Inspiration, to stay with Tenrath Albessac and to promptly follow up on his partial planar map once his foot regeneration progresses.
Sqyylarr, Hops, Ash, GG, and Professor Steele hasten to the Silverymoon palace with their evidence for Lord Protector Osvoril Aerasume that the real hags put one over on the knights executing the overnight raid on the three faux, foe, pho hags. The outraged palace guard wonders why the Quastarte Delegation should haul a revolting hag corpse through the main entrance of the palace. A couple of tired looking knights, up all night killing some hag-dressed townies, respond to the commotion. Hops nudges Professor Steele forward. Professor Steele dramatically invites their attention to the corpse: THIS is a hag.
The persistent party is ushered in to see Osvoril. Osvoril makes his own examination of the hag and retrieves a soul bag containing a black gem from her. The party persuades him that the real hags perpetrated an illusion by invisibly framing the three faux hags. Alas, it turns out that the three faux hags have already been burned, but maybe not beyond Lady Silverhand’s considerable talents.
The three piles of dresses taken from the hag tents are presented to Osvoril. He uses a psychometry spell to discover that at least one of the dresses was recently worn by a current occupant of the palace. GG proposes that knights be dispatched immediately to secure his bride, Elienyphe, and their child against this possible threat. Aerasume charges out of the room and disappears unexpectedly.
Hops urges the knights into action. They hurriedly lead the party up to a mezzanine and down a corridor. The knights no sooner step through a door into a throne room than their gored remains and shredded armor hurl back down the hall at the party. GG pops off a ready firebolt and a cunning insult, and the party engages the waiting fomorian.
Hops blocks the doorway with his dodging body. The fomorian ducks for cover behind a column and improvises projectiles to lob. Hops points out a few darklings waiting inside the doorway. Sqyylarr moves to engage them. A hag reveals herself from invisibility just as Sqyylarr flattens a darkling. Professor Steele ignites a fireball in the middle of the room. Ash slayer-preys the hag while Sqyylarr and GG mow down the darklings. Hops bolsters his health and takes out the hag but gets the evil eye from the fomorian. Sqyylarr takes out the fomorian with a double mauling.
The party follows a spiral staircase up to a covered courtyard. A couple of palace servants lie slain next to a central water feature minus one head. Several redcaps leap from the surrounding bushes to attack, kicking with iron boots and triple slicing with iron sickles and scythes. GG lends Professor Steele a flash of genius preventing a potentially fatal kick. Ash and GG cover the onrush from range. Hops and Sqyylarr gather the fast-moving damage to themselves. The party overcomes the redcaps without too great a setback in time or resources. Sqyylarr and Ash track them from the east where they have evidently slain Elienyphe’s mother in her bedroom.
The party rapidly searches other residential areas off the courtyard for Elienyphe and her child. Hops finds a quartet of statues down a decorative hallway. One has an arm rigged presumably to alert the guard to intruders. Professor Steele wiggles the alarm; more help is better. Hops follows the direction of the arm alarm and finds blood trails. The party stacks up for a fight and Ash opens the door to reveal Osvoril, seizing, bound by black cord, and shooting a fountain of blood from where his face used to be. Ash attempts to stabilize him with cure wounds. Sqyylarr cuts him free of the bindings. Hops removes his curse. Contrary to his appearance, Osvoril gasps that he is fine, and the party should immediately turn its efforts to locating his child in the passage west from the courtyard.
The party dashes back to the courtyard and meets emerging Elienyphe. She carries the child in her arms and Osvoril’s flayed face on her belt. Professor Steele banishes her on sight. The child and Osvoril’s flayed face fall to the stone floor.
Ash revives the child with a curing of wounds and carries him away from the banishing point. A couple of knights show up and tend to Osvoril and the child, freeing the party to prepare a broad selection of readied attacks for Elienyphe’s return from her planar timeout. Hops abjures a beacon of hope.
Banished Elienyphe the redhead returns as Eravastika the blood hag and survives the prepared onslaught. She grapples Hops with her hair and takes some of his life force before misty stepping away from Hops and Sqyylarr. They run her down again. She misty steps back to her original location but has absorbed a great deal of damage including a critical divine strike by Hops. She curses Hops with blood eye. GG scores a final hit on the hag. Confused Sqyylarr scores a critical hit on Hops.
Several more flayed faces and a medallion are fetched out of the irrationally large pool of blood oozing under Eravastika.