So I left off with Sister Mara telling us that we needed to get this Oil of Disenchantment from Dylhana the eremite. Since it was very late, and we'd not gotten much sleep at all in the last few days, we decided to go find her in the morning, and after waiting around for Tolec to argue with Mara about what to do with the book that we'd found at the warlock's circle (Tolec wanted to keep it, for some reason), that's exactly what we did. A long, boring walk it was, too!

Eventually, we got there, though, and let me say that I don't think I like Dilly very much. Talk about a pushy woman! And no sense of civic duty whatsoever! Also, she has extremely poor hearing and likes to lecture. First she asked us who we were, so I told her my name and explained our mission. Then she interrupted me and told me to have my bodyguard put away his sword because she didn't take well to being threatened. (She meant Prihelm, although I can think of any number of people I'd rather have as a bodyguard, personally.) And then when she did that, she asked us why we were there. So I explained again. And I guess I must have sounded a little impatient, because she told me that my impatience would be my doom one of these days, and then asked why we were there again!

After a whole bunch more of this nonsense, I was eventually able to get through her thick skull that we needed Oil of Disenchantment to make the elixir to stop the hags, and she said "Oh! Well, why didn't you say so?" That woman sure is solid rock between the ears! But once she figured it out, she decided she had us over a barrel and made us promise to do her a favor in return for her giving us this oil stuff. Mercenary little wench! We were forced to agree, and I just hope that she doesn't come up with anything too horrible for us to do!

So we took the oil back to Sister Mara, who told us all sorts of unpleasant things about how tough hags are and how we were all going to die and so on and so forth, then said to come back in the morning to pick up the elixir. Why is it that I have to be the one who does the dangerous stuff? I'm only a bard, after all, and I have no desire to die just to put my name in some object lesson story!

Since we had plenty of time to kill, we decided to go take a look at Teena's Terrific Tracts (remind me to tell the woman to choose a better name for her bookstore when I have the chance). Unfortunately, while we found all sorts of papers and books that might have meant something (including what I think is another spellbook for the warlocks), and also a journal in some strange language that none of us could read, there was nothing that was immediately useful. The journal might have been, of course, but we didn't have the time to translate it (Teena had apparently been doing so, since there were all sorts of translation books scattered all over the place), so that was that. A true waste of time, really. Oh well.

So the next morning yet, we went back over to Sister Mara's, and she gave us four bottles of the elixir and a couple of vials of Talitha's tears; we were to pour the tears on the ring, pull it off the hag's hand, and only then could we force the elixir down the hatch. Also, she gave us a couple of potions of healing, a poison antidote, a potion of speed, and a potion of heroism, which we were to use or else return to her. At least we had some equipment for the battle! Still, that last warning of "I don't expect to see all of you alive again" wasn't very encouraging!

Well, it was time to do the deed. We borrowed a boat and Pri and Tolec rowed us out to the island while the rest of us contemplated dying. Very cheerful way to spend a morning! And when we got to the island, we found another boat there, obviously the hags'. Prihelm decided he didn't want to land near it, so he took us all the way to a whole ten yards farther down the little harbor and then landed us. Truly effective cover. And since of course the hags didn't know we were coming (yeah, right), he also hid our boat underneath a whole bunch of branches and stuff. Not that this pile of branches on the beach is any less conspicuous than the boat itself was, but at least he tried...

There was a path of sorts leading up into the island from the beach, but we didn't trust it, so I tried to lead us through the woods. Of course, Sam and I were at home, but the rest of them were stepping on every loose branch they could find; I wonder if they were doing it on purpose? Either way, it was painfully obvious that anything with any ears whatsoever (i.e. not Dilly) could have heard us coming from a mile or three away, so we reluctantly moved onto the path instead. I tried to follow the group while remaining in the woods, but they were so thick that I couldn't keep an eye on them at all well, so we reluctantly decided to stick together and not have anyone try to leap out from the woods to make surprise attacks and all. I wonder why anyone would want to make their home in such a dense forest? Even elves like to be able to see each other!

The path didn't go that far before it split off into three. We decided to head on south (there was also a branch off to the north and another that continued on west from the beach), and spent a good deal of time following the windy little thing until it eventually petered out. There seemed to be a clearing up ahead, and for some reason, the others elected me to go look and see what was in it. Why is it that I always get asked to do the most dangerous parts?

So I went up to investigate the clearing, and it was really only a small opening in which there was what seemed to be a body. Not wanting to bother it on my own, I went back and got the rest of the group, then led us all in, keeping Prihelm close to me since he could cure me at a moment's notice.

Well, we were just wandering into the clearing when a large sticky web-like net dropped on us! I started to leap one way, Prihelm shoved me the other way ("Here, Jen, escape!") and the net result is that he and I were both stuck. This by itself wasn't such a big deal, but then the monsters came out! Ettercaps! I should have known; we had an infestation of those things back home in Gannorean once and they pulled the same trick on us then, too. Fortunately, they were too busy trying to mangle Prihelm and I through their net to bother defending themselves, and Tolec and Sam made pretty quick work of them, though not before Sam, the idiot! stabbed me pretty good with his dagger. And what beats the heck out of me is why he even did that, since by that time, there weren't any ettercaps anywhere near me! Haley, of coure, laughed her fool head off, but I don't think it was very funny, and Sam is going to get a piece of my mind next time I have a chance to talk to him in private.

Since the south branch had obviously been the wrong one, we went all the way back to the intersection and tried the west branch, just for consistency. And we hadn't gone very far when a quartet of hobgoblins came rambling around the corner and tried to do us a bit of no good. Of course, they were only hobgoblins, so between my blades, and Tolec's axe, they weren't long for this world. I think even Prihelm helped a little bit! Alas, they were very poor hobgoblins as well, but we can't have everything.

With the hobgoblins out of the way, you'd think that we'd have been free to explore the western path, and you'd be right, except that a really big tree grew up through where the path was going and blocked it off. Seeing the others glancing meaningfully at me, I sighed and set about climbing the tree, once again risking my own neck in place of theirs. I should get paid for this!

It's actually a good thing I did go up the tree, though, since there was another clearing a ways off to the north, and when I went (or was sent, to be more accurate) to take a look, I saw what appeared to be Merissa Norbury tied to a tree there! I came back and told everybody what I'd seen, gave them a plan (I was going to come around from the rear and they were going to make enough noise to make sure that my approach was hidden), and off we went. Of course, only Sam actually bothered to follow the plan (these people are really just too hopeless), but he can be plenty loud when there's a need for it, so I got up behind Merissa, started to untie her, and then.. then things went very wrong very fast. You see, I noticed she was wearing a ring, and being immediately suspicious, I tried to pull it off of her. When it wouldn't come off, I yelled for Alamon, since I now knew I had the hag on my hands and he was carrying the tears, and before I had a chance to whack her over the head, she pulled free of the ropes and tried to strangle me! And at the same time, another hag mauled Al and became visible!

Things rapidly grew very chaotic. I swallowed the potion of speed, since if ever there was a time for it, this was it, Al tried to heal himself (ignoring the plan, of course), and the hags' other minions came charging out of this little shack which we had all somehow failed to see! Then the Annis hag beat on Al again, and he went down, just as a hobgobling or two started to pound poor Haley into the ground. The only thing that saved us, I think, was that Sam hit the hag that was trying to strangle me over the head with his dagger, and he must have caught a sensitive spot, because she went down like a ton of bricks! Very lucky for us!

I ran over to Al, grabbed the tears and the elixir, and took care of the ring and the hag before she could recover, thankfully, while Tolec and the others kept the Annis and the various other creatures (a few ettercaps and another several hobgoblins) busy. Since no one was paying any attention to me, and I thought Sam or someone else like Dar would take care of Al, I ran up behind the Annis, leaped to the attack, swung the blade I'd gotten from Meri's room, and... the hag grabbed it between her hands and snapped it! Feeble construction, if you ask me! But it really must have been magical, because there was this big explosion and next thing I knew, I'd become one with one of the trees! Very painful!

I guess things worked out sort of alright, since the explosion did a good bit of damage to the hobgoblins and whatnot as well, but I was really annoyed! That was my best sword! And the explosion certainly did a lot more harm to me, at ground zero, than to anyone else! I'm not sure the scarring from the blast will ever go away, and I'm very unhappy about all of this!

When I came back to my senses (the explosion also knocked me for a loop), I saw that Al was not long for this world, so I ran over to save him, and fortunately, I was able to put Haley's amulet around Al's neck before he died, since when he did die, a few seconds later, he promptly came back to life, albeit very week. That's yet another time I've saved his life; I must be getting soft! But it's a good thing I did, for the Annis promptly proceeded to maul Prihelm, and then he dropped to the ground as well! And since Al was now conscious, he was able to keep our pet paladin alive!

Things got somewhat more chaotic yet at this point, and all I really remember is that Sam foolishly let one of the ettercaps bite him before Dar was able to kill it with his arrows (for a human, he's not a bad archer, actually), and I was forced to stop long enough to give him the antidote potion. And then the Annis beat Sam to a bloody pulp, and Al was forced to take time out to heal him. And then the Annis beat Tolec to a bloody pulp too, and Al was forced to take time out to heal him, too. But eventually, we were able to knock the Annis out, feed her the elixir and one of the healing potions, and then do what we could to make sure that we were going to be able to make it back to town, and then we headed on into the shack.

I was expecting there to be a third hag in there, but it was only Salli, who'd not yet been haggified, I guess. We gave her some of the elixir just to be safe (apparently it tastes pretty bad, but once I told her it was a healing potion, she went ahead and drank it anyway), and then the whole lot of us headed back to town. I'd given Al the ring and the last healing potion (he was the worst off of all of us, and it only made sense to use the potion rather than give it back, but the jerk just swiped it from me and then said he was going to return it because we didn't need it! How did he know that we weren't going to get attacked on the way back into town? I really don't like him! He's this close to having his pocket picked!), and off we went.

When we got back to town, we met with a surprisingly warm reception, all things considered! Sister Mara and her friends told us that in their gratitude for what we'd done, we could keep the last few potions, and then they healed us! Sir Paige came down and explained that he'd bought us out of Ferny's service (thankfully) and that, better yet, he was willing to let us live at his place as a sort of home! I won't mind settling down for a while; I do love wandering and all, but I think a brief vacation is in order. Although Paige did mention that he's hoping we can help keep his niece out of trouble, which seems likely to be a full time job by itself! Better yet, he's willing to let Haley have the run of the lab downstairs, and his dead wife apparently had some nice equipment which we can keep too! And lastly, he said he's willing to drain us in the arts of fighting the dark creatures of this world, which might come in handy, since this isn't one of those things that Aunt Leandra told me a lot about... I think Paige must be part of some secret order or something like that, because he had some neat little poem that went with all of this and which he said he was going to explain later, but that for now, I shouldn't write it down even in my journal, so I'm not going to. And it doesn't really matter anyway, because I firmly intend to take the next few weeks to enjoy my vacation. I just wish I knew what that idiot Dylhana has is mind for us!