(Dan: I was reading this and nodding my head in recall when I realized Dave had forgotten a massive battle. At least as I recall it. Right after we defeated the wolves and crossed the bridge it started to rain in a massive torrential downpour. Almost immediately afterward a water elemental attacked us. Its default attack was to engulf and grapple, with the next action being massive pummeling damage. Kaladin spent the first part of the fight flying after this creature as it swallowed half the party in turn. Considering Kaladin has a 60ft movement it's fair to say it was all over the place. It moved so much that on the 3rd attack I didn't have enough movement to use mobility. Naturally, since he was hit, he was one-shotted and engulfed. Water elemental take half damage from most things but for a little while Kaladin's fiery fist did full damage. The NPC was knocked out early and we played hot potato a few rounds to pull her out of the elemental and then get her away. Unfortunately, this thing was so large it would immediately swallow most of the people that used their action to escape the next action. We were pretty beaten up and living on one hit point each, thanks to good berries, when Granny spent an action to turn her knocked-over cart upright and teleported away. At least we think that's what she did. After a few more engulfs from the creature and some more good berries, we finally kill it. Unfortunately, elementals don't carry loot. After the fight, we had only one hit points for most of the party. So, even though it was only early afternoon we decided to stop for the day. We had taken one short rest and the DM clarified that we could take multiple short rests in a day bit NOT a short rest and then a long rest. I suppose it would be too overwhelming if the warlock got his 2 spell slots back and the monk his ki points before sleeping for the day. Despite this helpful clarification we did not get attacked during the night.)
We did get that short rest and made it across the bridge without issue. When we reached the crossroads where we had to decide whether to honor the dinner invitation of Strahd or press on to the city, we found a black coach with two black horses and no people waiting there for us. We decided to honor our commitment to deliver the NPC first. Someone made formal apologies to the empty coach and we moved on. I think there was a raven (familiar?) there watching us. I can’t remember if anything else happened but we soon found ourselves at the Old Mill. We then debated on what to do. Attack, sneak in, walk up, ignore for now, ignore forever, etc. By the way, a raven was watching us again. Was that the same one? It was recalled that technically we had the deed for this place from the first adventure, not that it would do us much good out here in the middle of nowhere. Lord Q sent his messenger into the future(?) and it came back with an answer of “Woe”. However, since Lord Q was vague about what he asked, this vague answer was even more vague than a normal Augury spell. Eventually, we agreed that we were justified to “stop by” to make sure she and the kid Walter made it home safely. And since it was near evening maybe we could ask to spend the night. We did rescue her after all. Although she just disappeared when she had to so the rescue was probably unneeded. That would give us a chance to ask questions, look around and find the hard proof that she was as evil as we thought.
She was polite enough, thanking us for our concerns, but unwilling to let us in. Lots of discussions, in and out of character, made it all very messy. Basically, it was the same story. She was doing a public service, providing dream cakes with low prices, and her baking practices and secret ingredients were her own business. Thanks for stopping by. Now go away. Charismatic Lord Q attempted to play the deed card but to no one's surprise, she was not impressed. Possession being 9/10s of the law out here. He then tried to pull rank, using his majordomo Friends spell to gain her favor. That didn’t really change much. He tried to muscle his way in but couldn’t beat her surprising strength. But Kharn helped and they piled in. Meanwhile, Zolton sent his will o wisp familiar to find a way in upstairs but it found that despite its rundown appearance, there were no holes big enough until the very top where the blades were. Ambrus cast Invisibility and snuck past in the confusion. A round or two later, Loki transformed into a spider and attempted to follow him up the walls but since he couldn’t see him, they were pretty much acting independently. Loki basically saw what he saw, a round later.
So, Granny started to get pissed with her uninvited guests nosing around her operation. Zolton could sense a foul evil smell from a particular barrel. On the second floor, we found the mill’s grinder stone which was moving despite the fact that the blades were not. Ambrus spotted some bones in a pile. They could be chicken bones. Loki made a Nature roll a round or two later and thought they were small human bones. There were two more hags up there, working. On the 3rd floor, Ambrus found Walter and two other children in cages. As he worked on the locks, Granny called her daughters down and initiative was rolled. One of them used a high-level spell that got our attention. Lord Q unleashed 3 swarms of ravens and the room got very small very fast. Then Granny went and all 3 hags disappeared. Arcana rolls were missing and while we were sure it wasn’t Invisibility or Misty Step, we weren’t sure what it was. We stayed on initiative and everyone spread out, figuring they’d reappear somewhere in the mill or nearby outside. Granny and one daughter reappeared outside 2-3 rounds later. When one of them unleashed a doubly upcasted Lightning Bolt (i.e. 5th spell) which dropped Kaladin and injured others, we knew we were in big trouble.
