The Admiralty lumberjacks that Casca attacked at Lofton Castle spot the party outside Ulm’s monument, but the party escapes with Hughe’s magic. Rowan gets helpful news from her fellow thief Harbin, but when she relays it to the party, Casca uncovers Rowan’s history of stealing for the Coven. The party goes to the harpies’ Eyrie where they find sharp-dressed devils wooing the last Duchess, Hercate. Rowan exiles Hercate to the restful plane Hereward with the Shank of Banishment, and they rescue the kidnapped changelings Luna and Flora and their friends Gertie and Thelonious.
Asked if Beale had a muse, a wench or something in Hollin that inspired him as a bard, James said Beale was inspired by the story of Ulm harpooning Huhner, and was driven by thoughts of the harpoon still being in the immortal whale. Beale gained an inspiration point and a permanent +1 to Performance.
We revisited what items the party found on the witches Annabelle, Beatrice, and Clementine in Game 3. They found:
Casca claimed the Talisman of Ajana and Hughe claimed the Ward of Ajana.
Game 3 had ended with the party interrogating Laurel in the alley behind Ulm’s Monument. Now the party decided they would have a short rest in the Mooncalf’s opium dens, then head to the Circle at Lofton Castle to tell the fairies that Astrid was going to attack with Fey Extinction Event.
When they came out of the alley into the square, they heard voices ring out, “There they are right there!” and “That’s the one who shot me right there!” Two Admirality lumberjacks were there, including the one that Casca attacked in Game 2, and two Admiralty marines armed with Congreve rockets. The party ran back into the alley, where Hughe created a Minor Illusion of crates for the party to hide behind. As soon they were hidden, a Congreve rocket exploded near them, and the marines ran into the alley. But, the marines failed their Intelligence checks against Hughe's illusion and turned to search another way. The party ran the opposite way, escaping back to Market Street by running through a mannequin shop.
They headed to the Mooncalf for rest. While the others rested, Rowan went to visit her friend Harbin, another thief who sometimes worked for the Coven and lived at the Mooncalf. Harbin told Rowan (via private text message, as in Game 3):
Harbin confirms that harpies working for the Coven stole the Penance Stone from the Chapel of Ajana.
He also tells Rowan that the three pieces of jewelry that the Coven gave the Duchesses (the Ring, the Girdle, and the Broach that the remaining Duchess is wearing) aren’t just beneficial. Unknown to the Duchesses, each piece also has an enchantment that lets the witches bring the wearer down (paralyze them) if the witches need to.
Rowan relayed Harbin's warning to the party, and Casca and Beale took off the Ring and Girdle. Not sure if just carrying the items would make them vulnerable, they decided to give them to the Circle for safe keeping.
The party questioned whether Rowan had heard this from the Coven, and Casca asked if they could meet Harbin. Rowan agreed and the whole party went to Harbin’s room, where Casca immediately Charmed him. Harbin catastrophically failed his Wisdom save, rolling a 1, and he instantly fell in love with Casca. Harbin answered all of Casca's questions, throwing Rowan under the bus with abandon. He told the party that Rowan worked for the Coven as a thief, and that although Rowan appeared to be confused by deja vu in the catacombs, she had always known about the Coven. But, the party again decided to keep working with Rowan, like they had in Game 3.
Their short rest finished, the party crossed the bridge to Lofton and returned to the Circle. They introduced Laurel and told the Circle about Fey Extinction Event.
The party discussed what to do next. The Circle had told them in Game 2 that the harpy Eyrie was in Durning Hill above Lofton, and the party suspected the kidnapped changelings were there. On the other hand, Laurel had told them in Game 3 that Astrid would kill all of Hollin's fairies in three days. Casca argued they should pre-empt Astrid and attack her before the three days were up, but Hughe said his own goal was to rescue the changelings. Aurelien and Aurora encouraged them to search the Eyrie first. The party agreed, if Aurora and Aurelian would come with them, which they agreed to.
But the party went to the top of Brice Hill first, to see if the Coven was preparing for Fey Extinction Event yet. They didn’t see anything or detect any magic there. They looked down at Hollin, and across to Durning Hill, and they noticed that the back of Durning Hill was gradual and hikable. They decided they would hike up the back of Durning Hill and then rappel down its south face to openings in the cliffside.
Party members had repeatedly gone down in combat, so they took a detour to visit Chambers the apothecary, who Gertie and Thelonious had told them about in Game 2. They each got two healing potions, and Chambers mentioned that he hadn't seen Gertie and Thelonious in a few days, which was a little unusual.
They went back to Lofton and hiked up the back of Durning Hill. They decided that Rowan would rappel down the cliffside invisible and scout the Eyrie ahead of the main party.
As the party was tying their ropes for rappelling, a group of seven women stepped out of the forest nearby, out of nowhere. They brazenly criticized Casca for writing off the changelings, saying that Fey Extinction Event killing a thousand fairies was just a statistic, but harpies killing Luna and Flora was a tragedy. They also belittled her name, saying Casca wasn’t a name at all, but just some random letters. Casca threatened to attack them, but they dismissed her threats by saying their purpose was to judge the party, and that Casca couldn't attack them anyway because they weren't a part of the story. Having said their piece, the women turned somewhat abruptly and returned to the forest.
Turning back to their task, Rowan repelled down the cliff face invisible and entered the mountain. She found a tunnel about 100 feet long, which led to a kind of natural gallery or balcony looking down on a large cavern. In the cavern, hundreds of harpies were singing a piercing black chorale. She continued another 100 feet through a rising tunnel, and came to the Duchesses’ throne room, where four sharp-dressed devils were wooing Hecate. Four rusty cages with children in them lined the far side of the room, below natural windows in the granite wall.
Rowan climbed back up the cliffside and reported to the party, who all rapelled down and snuck to the edge of the throne room. Still invisible, Rowan snuck up behind Hecate and hit her with Hughe's Shank of Banishment. Hecate failed her Charisma save and was transported to Hereward, the Elysian-Fields-like restful plane. As Rowan attacked she became visible, and the rest of the party burst in to fight the four devils. As they burst in, two of the children in the cages - Gertie and Thelonious - squealed “Hughe Lane, help us!”
The party killed the devils and freed the children. They looked out the natural windows above the cages. The Circle had told them that the Eyrie was an intersection between hell and the normal world Balaal, and outside the windows they could see hell's capital city Pandemonium, far below. There, they could see a Louvre-like palace on a square, with busy devils and demons coming and going. A wide river ran through the middle of Pandemonium, and they saw suspiciously mundane trading ships going up and down it.
The party didn't detect any magic at the top of Brice Hill, called Apogee, but they should have - we discovered in Game 10 of the original campaign that there's a portal to the restful plane Hereward there.
The party went to level 5 after this game.