09/29/2026: Baba Lysaga, the Lie and the Stolen Treasure
Updated: 7 days ago
Biblo, in a remarkable burst of strength, tears free of the webbing the giant spider has wrapped him in. She approaches; he dives through the door. She retreats upward to wait for the next unwary creature to ambush.
He rejoins the group and finds them discussing something that has upset them all.
Horatio is gone.
This should not be possible. Horatio is magically bound to guard the barn, and a creature bound to a location cannot simply wander off. Nike, especially, feels his absence keenly.
Soulfire and Pinecone join them in the barn and curl up to rest on a bedroll in a dusty corner. As the others slumber, Nike finds faint tracks leading across the floor to the barn's altar. It is an odd thing to find in a barn. Atop it is a statue covered with a black cloth. Nike peeps beneath it and finds it bears the same face as the statue in the fountain down in the cellar. Vampyr. Again.
She wakes Soulfire. A careful search reveals that the altar slides. When they rotate it widdershins, it grinds aside to reveal a staircase descending into the dark.
At the bottom lies Horatio, unconscious and very nearly dead.
Soulfire flies off to wake Shifty and brings him back to tend to Horatio.
The drowsy kobold kneels and speaks a word of healing. Horatio stirs, opens his eyes, and licks Shifty's face in gratitude. Shifty accepts this with deep happiness.
⚔️
Horatio's first words are not about himself. He has failed, he says. The witch's treasure is gone. The witch, Horatio sighs, will punish him for failing to guard it.
The party exchanges the sort of glances that come just before a confession. "The treasure was in the chest Zilk found earlier!" It is the same magical treasure the group claimed with such enthusiasm, its contents already distributed among several pockets and packs.
Horatio strides to the door of the barn and begins to bellow Zilk's name, demanding that he come forward and return the items.
Nike dashes out to find her companions, and a recovery effort begins. Zilk resists the notion that any of this is his fault, but returns his share anyway. Then he rolls over and goes back to sleep.
Shifty surrenders the crusty bag containing the tongue of some creature best left unnamed. Biblo relinquishes the potion he received. Crystal refuses outright, holding firm to the Wand of Identification. She does, however, hand over a stick that looks very much like the wand she took. It is, in fact, a stick.
Biblo calls from outside that Baba Lysaga is coming, riding in her flying dragon's skull. Shifty acts at once, banishing Horatio for his own protection and sending him somewhere the witch cannot reach him. Shifty does not know which plane Horatio has gone to.
It is timely. The clouds part.
The dragon skull descends in a column of radiant light and touches down like a tornado. Baba Lysaga steps out, immense and unhurried. She is in a rage. She wants two things: her treasure, and her pet.
Nike objects to the word "pet." Horatio is not a pet, she shouts in Elvish, and she accuses Baba Lysaga of being an abuser. The witch tilts her head as though listening. Then she casts Command, silencing Nike. Nike's mouth keeps moving. No sound emerges.
Soulfire notices the witch's finger begin to glow with a green light that promises death, and tries to snuff it out. The magic holds. The finger keeps glowing.
So Soulfire does what any reasonable person does when outmatched by a giant sorceress: she lies. The treasure is safe, she assures her. Horatio is fine. Everything is exactly where it belongs.
It is a very good lie. Baba Lysaga studies her for a long moment, then lowers her hand. "It better be there," she says. The party has until dawn to prove it.
She departs in the upside-down dragon skull that flies on its own, drifting off into the night sky with the serene indifference of a woman who owns a flying skull.
⚔️
Horatio returns shortly afterward from his exile on the Elemental Plane of Air, an endless expanse of sky with no ground and no gravity. It is survivable if you can fly and deeply unpleasant if you can't. Horatio can fly. He comes back not only unharmed but fully healed, thanks to what he describes as an "air healer" he encountered along the way. Still, Horatio is troubled. He must return the treasure, he insists, or the witch will punish him.
The party considers what Horatio actually is. On paper, he is a monstrosity. In person, they agree, he is a beautiful, thinking creature who deserves better than a cellar under an altar. Someone raises the idea of freeing him outright, the way one might free a certain long-suffering house-elf. Someone else raises the harder question: if the witch's magic binds Horatio, what happens to Horatio when the witch is gone?
No one has an answer. They make a plan anyway. At dawn, they will kill Baba Lysaga.
They settle in for a long rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Comments