The hags' eyes glitter with malice as they stare at Elwin. "What else is in the maze?  All I can say is, there'd BETTER be something else, or something else will come. Something...unfortunate."

"We'd rather not spoil the surprise, though," says the other hag sweetly. "Enjoy your nightmares until the half moon."

It's clear they intend to speak no more. (If Del does his Shatter, that is enough damage to finish them

-------------------------------------

Quentin goes up a floor, birds fluttering around his head and cats skittering up around his feet. He finds another library like the one before. This one is filled with religious texts and folklore about the gods, deities, demigods, archfey, and all other manner of powerful creatures, and the churches and organizations that follow them.

Quentin seems very excited as he says, “Mindartis! There’s so many books!” Looking through he grins and tries to find something about The Forgotten Lady and the Archwitch

Elwin jumped back and blinked as Del cast his spell. He turned to the bard, somewhat surprised. Was this a bit of the Slate City slums coming out? True, he himself had thought just finishing them was most expedient, and that interrogating wouldn't provide much; but truth be told, he had hoped that Del's idea would have yielded results. That the hags were so obstinate.... well, such was life.

"It seems they had no interest in playing fair, Good Del," he said with a sigh. "At least we have confirmation on where the children are." He stood nearby for a second, awkwardly trying to think of something more... comforting? reassuring?... to say. Clearing his throat, he decided to just move onto business, as it were. "They were carrying these," he half-mumbled, showing his companion the contents of his sack. "And a little gold, although we can stop to split that later."

Another throat clearing brought his voice back to normal volume. "Once Quentin and Mindartis come back, I imagine we'll be pretty much done here anyways."

Yeah, Del acknowledges  I thought there was a chance they'd rather die than turn, and to be fair, I would die before betraying y'all. So a certain kind of honor I did not expect them to have. Inconvenient. But t'were it done t'were best done quickly, as the bard of Avon said. Shaking his head, then switching gears I think that more than the 5 of us have a claim on the loot. And, it is late afternoon, I will guess we have to camp here. There might be good company though, the defenders will be pretty pleased. I keep remembering at the wrong time, we ought to lay in some ale and wine in our tapestry dungeon, for events like this. Del looks for Laughtrack, after she has eaten her fill of gnoll, and gets her settled and groomed

Mindartis follows Quentin, "Wow... that is a lot..." is all he manages to say.

Raven shrugs as the hags are taken out, saving her the work of doing so.  She glances to the tree then.  "Suppose we best wait here for those two to return then?" She asks, half hoping someone suggests  they follow the others into the tree.

Quentin finds a book full of essays on the Mysterious One, speculating on Her identity. Some of the most mainstream theories include that She is Sune, Mystra, Selûne, Leira, or the female aspect of Corellon.  Others speculate She is some powerful demigoddess or Archfey, an aboleth or other powerful force that has diverted the worship directed at a dead or absent goddess, the embodiment of the land, or refuting that she actually exists at all and claiming her clerics are unrecognized and self-deluded sorcerors.

There is a large tome that seems to be a Who's who of the most powerful archfey, and the Arch Witch has a lengthy entry.  She left the Feywild centuries ago to build her own empire without stepping on the toes of her sister, the Queen of the Night Court, organizing the devoted Hags into a sisterhood as her devoted followers.  There is a long list of her foul deeds, the famous battles she won or lost, the famous heroes she killed, tortured, suborned or enchanted, leading up to her defeat.  There is not a lot of useful information that you didn't already know.

Mindartis chuckles at the last bit, "I don't know about self-deluded sorcerer. I have seen her though... so the general agreement is that no one knows who she is... Anything about eclipses in there?" He starts looking for information on eclipses himself.

Upon hearing the information on the Archfey, "Doesn't explain about why they're trying to bring her back all of a sudden."

Del finishes in the field, retrieving his well-fed hyena, and checking with Lady Welles and Captain Garalm and other leaders - I assume healing has been handled by now, but Del will check if he can drop some recovery on the wounded. Then he suggests We should gather by the Tree, for when Lords Quentin and Mindartis are finished. Or if they need help or have something to show. I think it is too late to march back to the Hall, we should set up camp here. Sister Raven, you know where your vassal has got to?

We did not say, but probably Mr Fiskins was looking after the horses of all but Elwin - probably he has the tapestry stable set up safely away from the battlefield with the rest of the army's baggage - lets all get together near the Tree and think about dinner - and being near, maybe those who want might get a chance to go in. Or maybe there is a celebratory feast &or mourning the fallen

Elwin nodded. "I'm curious as to what they might have found in there."

(Quentin, I think I was confused by your mention of The Forgotten Lady and assumed you were discussing Del's Unknown Goddess. Did you mean Mindartis's vision? Or some other lady Fprgotten by the DM? :D)

A few minutes after Mindartis says "Anything about eclipses in there?", a large book comes floating up the stairs from below and several more hover float down from above. They hover, open, in front of his face.  Six or seven seem to be books of astronomy: one is in Elvish and the others in languages you don't recognize, but the star charts and moon drawings make their nature obvious. One seems to be a book about ritual magic, and is open to a page discussing the sorts of effects an eclipse has upon various types of magic. The last looks like an ancient book of folk tales in Sylvan, and is open to a story called The Sky Weaver.  It tells the tales of an archfey named Seryathylle Skyweaver, who had the power to command the sun and moon to move as she liked, bringing extra sunshine to farmers, conveniently high or low tides for sailors, and brightening the dark places of the Twilight Realm. Her trick which drew the most awe and applause was her ability to draw the sun and moon together in the sky, creating darkness and burning light at the same time.  She called this power the Eclipse. The Queen of the Night Court flattered Seryathylle and invited her to live in luxury in the palace of night, if only she would make the eclipse permanent.  Since everyone enjoyed the eclipses so much, Seryathylle saw no reason to refuse.  The sun and moon became fused together, always. Seryathylle spent her days feasting and enjoying the luxuries of the Palace of Night. Outside the palace, the world descended into darkness.  The crops and trees wilted and gave way to the dark flowers, brambles, and choking vines of the night.  Creatures of darkness went everywhere freely, while the creatures of day huddled in candlelight  in the gloom of the eclipse, unable to even raise their eyes to the sky for fear of the burning sparks around the dark moon. The power of the Court of Night grew, and the Summer Court withered and grew weak and frightened. One day a brave pixie made her way into the Palace of Night, found Seryathylle, and begged her to end the eclipse. Seryathylle was surprised and horrified to learn of the state of the world outside, and moved the sun and moon apart at once.  The Queen of Night was furious that Seryathylle had broken their bargain, and she barely managed to escape the palace, the Night Court's servants sent to capture her and bring her back.  Seryathylle found no sanctuary at the Summer court, where she was hated for what she had done to the Twilight lands. She then begged for the protection of the Court of Stars, who chose to remain neutral, but allowed her to stay while the Queen of Night and the Queen of Summer made their demands known.  In the end, the three courts decided Seryathylle must leave the Twilight Realm and wander the planes, forever alone.

Sir Ethen is still out with the rest of your army, though he will come if Raven summons him.  He is helping to pile the dead gnolls for a mass pyre, bring the wounded to where they can be aided.  The door Quentin opened when he entered the tree would probably have closed when he took the amulet away from the wall, except for the fact that a couple of cats are lazily washing themselves in the doorway. It is, of course, inconveniently located halfway up the tree.

"Seryathylle Skyweaver," Mindartis murmurs, "wonder if wandering the plans for long enough can cause you to forget who you were once?" he asks outloud to no one in particular.

Raven would check on her squire to make sure he is uninjured, but leave him to do his work, just telling him to meet them by the tree once he has finished.

“Mindartis, do you know who you mom is?” Quentin asks 

"Yes," Mindartis says, "she's currently living her life in our village. Why?"

"Oh....hmmm.....was wondering if maybe this fey was perhaps your mother." Quentin says aloud 

Mindartis chuckles, "If my mother was an Archfey, or ex-Archfey, I doubt I'd have this much trouble escaping the fury of Summer Quentin. But it is an idea."

"Do you think we should get the others?" Mindartis asks

As Quentin and Mindartis are distracted by the wonderful books in the library, Flitterbug gets bored and starts sliding down the polished neck of the carved wooden stag and pretending to battle the carved bear. She eventually returns to Mindartis's shoulder to demand he read her another story with a brave pixie girl in it, and several additional books of folklore and stories rush up from belowstairs to hover around the barbarian, open at various exciting adventures.

Once the healing and clean-up has been taken care of, the fallen heroes laid peacefully aside to be transported home, and the fallen gnolls unceremoniously burning in a large, pitch-infused bonfire, the warriors begin to gather around the tree.  Del has unexpectedly taken a role of leadership in this adventure, so the various unit commanders turn to him to ask what is next.  On his recommendation, most of the soldiers and knights begin to prepare a camp for the night, while others chop remains of the stockade into firewood and start readying a memorial and celebratory feast to mark the end of combat.  Time passes with no sign of your wizard or barbarian.

"Okay, okay," Mindartis says, taking one of the books that appeared after her demands, "I still think we should get the others," he says again before starting to read to her.