Little Susie and Mruno’s Soiled Pants

Returning to Ashwood Hollow

After escaping General Garric Thornvale's martial law, the party travels toward Port Town and a demon-haunted island. Movement inside the otherwise deserted town of Ashwood Hollow draws them into its inn.

Little Susie is introduced as a young girl living alone in the inn. She says the town is overrun by ghosts and zombies. She believes the residents will return if the party kills the undead and ends the haunting.

The inn is strangely clean for a place supposedly abandoned and haunted. Valen Silverpalm comments that Susie seems to have kept the place in good condition. The party notices that there are no ghosts or zombies currently visible inside.

Susie's story begins to fail

Susie says that the town's people disappeared and that the ghosts and zombies are responsible. She asks the party to kill all of them so the people can come back. Her explanation is vague, and the party repeatedly asks her to explain what happened.

Grenak Goateater offers to teach Susie how to fight and drink. Grenak also tells her about Reese's history with demons and his dead wife. The conversation is intentionally ridiculous because Grenak treats an apparently vulnerable child as a potential drinking and combat student.

Reese is primarily interested in finding transportation toward the demon island. He makes clear that the town's zombie problem is only relevant if it prevents the party from reaching a boat.

Mruno notices that Susie's behavior and story do not sound right. She speaks too casually about killing people and claims their deaths will restore the town. He watches her closely and becomes certain she is hiding something.

Susie's disguise is broken

Mruno casts Dispel Magic while Susie is distracted. He describes using hand symbols and sweeping his hand in front of him to break the effect.

The spell tears away Susie's disguise. Her eyes widen, her face begins to melt, red skin appears underneath, and small horns become visible. The child is revealed to be a demon. The party immediately prepares for combat.

Reese curses and activates Hexblade's Curse. Mruno backs away to fight from range. Valen moves toward the demon. Grenak is initially furious that the demon deceived them, but that anger quickly becomes excitement because Grenak finally has a real demon to fight.

Grenak's reaction to the demon

Grenak feels cheated because he spent time giving Susie important life advice about drinking and fighting. The target of that advice was not a child but a demon pretending to be one.

Grenak studies the demon's horns and decides they are disappointingly small. The small horns are not enough to impress Bertha. Even so, Grenak accepts the fight because demons are the opponents Grenak has been seeking since leaving Eldenhold.

The fight in the inn

The party surrounds the demon inside the inn. Reese attacks with cursed and radiant-enhanced strikes. Valen uses his quarterstaff and unarmed attacks, repeatedly trying to keep the demon in reach. Grenak enters a rage and attacks at close range.

Mruno stays farther back and uses magical insults, support, and ranged attacks. He gives Reese Bardic Inspiration and encourages him to start doing something useful instead of being paralyzed by grief.

The demon is mobile and difficult to pin down. It uses shadow-step movement to disappear and reappear behind Mruno. It unleashes a necrotic shockwave that blinds and frightens the party. Several characters become unable to see, unwilling to move toward the demon, or too frightened to attack effectively.

Grenak is briefly frightened and attacks blindly with handaxes. The party struggles to track the demon while it moves through the darkened room. Reese uses his fear-related abilities to impose disadvantage on the demon and prevent a lethal follow-up.

Mruno panics and runs. At one point he slides between Grenak's legs while trying to escape the demon's attack. The maneuver is effective but humiliating, and Mruno also soils his pants during the fight.

Mruno briefly goes down or becomes unable to continue effectively. The party stabilizes him while continuing the fight. Valen remains in the battle despite taking severe damage.

Valen kills Susie

The party gradually recovers from the blindness and fear. Reese's effects weaken the demon, while Valen continues to land close-range attacks. Valen's daggers miss, but his unarmed strikes connect.

Valen punches the demon in the face and smashes her head against the side of the bar. Her skull deforms against the wood, blood pours out, and the thing wearing Susie's face finally dies.

The haunting ends

As Susie dies, the darkness and unnatural atmosphere begin to lift. It becomes brighter outside. The villagers emerge, wandering in a dazed and confused state. They appear alive and normal, but they have difficulty remembering what happened.

The party finds the innkeepers who adopted Susie. Valen asks whether their daughter's name was Susie. He tells them that the party killed her and that a dead demon is currently in their bar. The innkeepers are shocked and struggle to understand that the child they loved was the source of the haunting.

The party explains that Susie had trapped the town's people in a supernatural condition, separating their awareness from their bodies and leaving the town filled with ghost-like and zombie-like activity. The exact explanation is difficult for the innkeepers to process, but the villagers are alive and returning to themselves.

Compensation and the next musical rivalry

The innkeepers offer the party either twenty gold pieces or free drinks and food whenever the party returns. The group chooses free food and drink, correctly judging that they will consume more than twenty gold over time.

Mruno negotiates an additional privilege: permission to perform at the tavern and earn coins from the villagers. The innkeepers agree.

The innkeepers mention the Silk and Sonic musical troupe and Dark Bronson. The conversation establishes that Dark Bronson has replaced or displaced Mruno in the troupe's public musical rivalry. This becomes the seed for the coming bard-off conflict.

Leaving the inn for the night

The party is badly injured but alive. Mruno heals the group and casts Protection from Evil and Good on Grenak before they leave the inn area. Mruno also changes out of his soiled pants, hides the embarrassment behind a dramatic cloak-billow, and returns as if nothing happened.

Grenak remains hungry, thirsty, and sexually excited from the fight, but the demon's small horns are not sufficient for Bertha. The party stays in Ashwood Hollow overnight. Roland Blackstone enters their lives the following morning.