The little dolls look over, and the straw girl one responds, "No, sorry.  We didn't see when he got here. But they are very mean to him. They beat him up and poke him with things and ask him all sorts of questions, like what spells the gnome can cast, and is the half-orc afraid of anything, and what magic items the crossbow girl has.....but....we don't like to be around when they do that to him, he screams a lot, so we usually go hide.  There are three of the sisters. They are very ugly old women. One has coins where her eyes should be...her name is Widow Groat. She has nests of ants in her head. If you see ants, then you know she's around."  (Everyone starts looking around for ants..). "There's Peggy Deadbells...she laughs and smoke comes out her mouth...and she has a necklace of kids teeth that is always chattering...and the last one is Baggy Nanna, she has a sack over her head, with animals in squirming around in it that poke out sometimes...a dog and a snake and a chicken. The animals stick their head out of the bag and talk for her....she's the creepiest."  

"Thanks little one, they sound nasty all around.  When they get here there will be a fight so I want you all to go hide when that happens," Grenk says.

He then walks over to the cage and says, "Enough indecision, I'm opening it."  He then tries to open the cage.  Eithwr by brute force of striking the lock or breaking the hinges.

"This is not going to end well." Mal states but makes no move to stop Grenk.

Silas is off to the side tapping his head as he thinks, trying to remembers stories of beings of three sisters of great magical power and abilities from stories and teaching, "This behaviours and appearance shows so familiar but i can't remember where I've heard it,"

Arcane: 10 / if helped 20  

Grenk will run over the description again and what they did to these... children souls.  He'll respond, "Sounds like the stories of witches to me.  And I don't mean like some poor fool born with a little magic in their blood and causing accidents or some book leaned hot shot.  I'm talking some creepy occult creature with strange bodies."

Providing that help.  

Yes indeed. They would be night hags by the sounds of it. And three make a coven. Their demonic creatures with the ability to trap the souls of those they terrorize in their nightmares and as a coven have fearsome magical powers. Also, they can enter and leave the ethereal plane at will. 

The cage opened, skinny Silas crawls out and quickly moves away from healthy Silas. His skin is covered in sores and half healed over wounds. Silas is horrified seeing what he would look like in such a state.  The assorted gathering of folk plus all the extra passengers on the group watch on silently. 

Badger promptly walks over to skinny-Silas and holds out a hand to lift him up. Removing his little-used sling from his pouch, he holds it out with a bag of pellets and says: I know you know how to use one of these, Silas. I'm sorry this is all I have. It is not out of any sudden compassion however that Badger is being kind to fake-Silas. As long as the copy isn't aware that it isn't the real Silas, then it can be used to the party's advantage and help limit the risk to the real members. You've seen these Sewn Sisters then? What can you tell us about them?

Silas frowns, "They can haunt your dreams....and leave you with no rest.  They have wicked sharp claws, bicker constantly....seem to be able to confer with creatures on other planes and fade into and out of existence when they wish.....  Also, they can shape change. They turned into you guys several times to trick me into revealing information....they're witches, so they can cast magic... Also.  They are caring for some sort of child....that is through that door.  They never open it, I assume when they fade into and out of existence they can simply move through the door....I get the sense that the child they are caring for is not normal...I think it might be..." 

"Enough of that...." cackles a new voice in the room. Standing on an upstairs balcony and looking down is a witch with two coins over her eyes. Magic missiles arc down from above, slamming into fake Silas.  He drops like a sac of potatoes....and before your eyes he turns into a pile of snow and dirt...which melts away into nothing...

The three small dolls turn and flee for the corners and for under furniture, the straw one yelling, "AAAHH!!!"

(Roll initiative) 

Baggy : 15

Widow :  5

Peggy :  14

Keshma :   16

Civilian :   3

Sickle: 17

Oh crap...

Initiative: 16

Grenk imitative 15

Silas: 12

Mal Initiative: 13

Another hag, this one with a necklace of chattering teeth appears on the walkway just above Mal.  She cackles as she pops into existence. 

Badger, Mal, your turns. 

[Round 1:  Baggy: 21, Badger 19, Mal 19, Keshma 19, Widow 19, Grenk 11, Peggy 10, Silas 9, Civilian 7, Sickle 4]

Ooc: I thought Keshma had a 19 initiative?

So just checking who's who and who's doing what. Baggy is on the map, but based on description is sounds like Widow appeared and then Peggy. (Widow: coins for eyes. Peggy: necklace of teeth. Baggy: sack over her head)

Badger is a little startled by the sudden appearance of the Sewn Sisters, but at the same time there is a sense of deja vu. Something in this morning's viewing of the crystal ball - a vision of Professor Hopkins but with a different face - gave him a premonition of this moment, and he responds with that forethought to guide him...

Cast Polymorph on Widow (using Portent roll of 4 as the roll for her saving throw) to turn her into a toad.

(big sigh, yes, yes, you're all right...and I'm wrong.  Widow should be there, not Baggy.  Peggy appeared above Mal. Baggy not yet on map. Keshma goes at 19.) 

Widow hisses as the gnome seems to foresee her doom, but perhaps she foresaw his foreseeing because of flick of her wrist and the magic of his spell evaporates.  Counterspell : 16.  She cackles down at him, her coin covered eyes glittering. 

Mal swears and then brings her crossbow up to aim at Widow firing off two shots.

H. Crossbow: Attack: 16 Damage: 8

H. Crossbow: Attack: 22 Damage: 7

Using a Superiority Die on the first attack for Precision Attack: 9 (2d8 for crit damage if that gets doubled as well.)

Then Mal will move past the civilian and up the stairs 15' and use her bonus action to hide.

Stealth: 13

[OOC: Oops my bad I misread the Precision attack, as it doe snot ad to the damage but to the hit, so if one of my attacks misses it will add a +3 to my attack so that to hit 13 becomes a 16.]

Ew! Doe snot!

[OOC: argh, you would think after 30 years of typing I would catch that mistake I make ALL the time but obviously I did not. sigh]

Keshma flies up through the air until she's floating next to Peggy.  "My goodness you're an ugly one...." she mutters as she swings her massive hammer. Attack: 28 Damage: 18. Attack: 14 Damage: 25   Peggy strength check: 23 vs 18.  The hammer slams into the witch, who crashes against the back wall and then lands on the floor of the upper walkway....which is probably for the best, as the second blow narrowly misses her. 

Widow cackles, unleashing magic missiles down on Badger... 11 ... "Ya nosey little wizard.....yer first to die!"

Grenk's turn!

[Round 1:  Peggy: 21, Badger 19, Mal 19, Keshma 19, Widow 19, Grenk 11, Baggy 10, , Silas 9, Civilian 7, Sickle 4]