The heroes were left being overtaken by the city guard of a town in Barovia, and we not not of their fate, the druid escaped, and the rogue was left behind and everyone else was capture; is this the end?

The next morning Shamesh and Melrick wake up in a cell battered, beaten, and bruised. They are awoken by the clang of a mug against the bars on the jail cell they are lying in and the clink of keys opening the cell door. As they exit the station and pick up their belongings they see Andromeda with Lythander, who himself had missed the whole previous incident, and their new friend the Innkeeper. Being a business owner in town he had some political sway and made arrangements to have them released. Bent is nowhere to be found, but they are told he is at the infirmary. Before they leave the area they are warned by the local authorities “no need to cause more trouble here”

The adventurers are now desperate to leave town and simply want out, they decide not to rest and press on immediately to find any clue that might lead to their way out. As such the group heads toward the Bonegrinder to find another piece of this puzzle that hopefully leads home; the heroes travel in the direction noted on the map where they expect to find this character. As they approach Lythander checks the entryway of this dilapidated home for traps, finds one, and steers the group around it. Over the archway of the door they hear another crowing raven; Andromeda fears that this is a dark omen, and does her best to warn her companions.

They enter the creepy looking home, and as they make their way in there is an awful smell from something apparently cooking in the kitchen. They inspect the area briefly and see what appears to be a pot of ichor and a box that might contain some toads. They don’t open the box but they decide to descend to the lower level before heading toward the upper levels where they hear some noises. When they head to turn the corner to the sunken old living room they see an oddly chipper old woman who is alone and mildly cackling to herself. She speaks in a very high pitched voice and is offering them some odd looking pie, “would you like some pie?!?”. Shamesh looks around and notices the crunching below their feet… it’s bones; he immediately identifies the pie as evil and the woman as a covert demon! He loudly calls the old woman out as an evil creature, and demands she show her true form. She is not bothered, and does not respond. Melrick draws his weapons and demands again she show her true form. While this is happening Lythander hears some children upstairs and immediately strokes an arrow and looses it into the demon woman, the arrow sinking deep into its flesh but seemingly doing no damage. In response to the damage the demon woman finally shows her true form: a sickly, gangly, older woman. Melrick then charges and sinks two axes into the creature and again seems to do little damage. The old hag turns her anger towards Lythander and pours her unholy might into a blow on the rogue; Lythander is unable to dodge the incoming claw and is struck, whimpering and falling back after taking the impact. Andromeda heals Lythander’s wounds and heads to the corner of the room to steer clear of the melee. Shamesh then calls down for some divine help to smite his foe, and finally the abomination is wounded. Melrick is not deterred as two new creatures descend the stairs talking to the old woman as if it’s their mother. They are oddly cavalier and don’t seem to be in any sense of rush; they seem to be discussing, loudly, whether to help their “mother”; and then, nonchalantly join the melee. Andromeda sees the creepy younger hags leave the stairs to engage the rest of her companions and the druid girl climbs the wall to the upper level in order to avoid the eyre of these creatures. Once upstairs she sees a bedroom of sorts, with a tattered throw rug on the floor pealing pale red and green wallpaper exposing the wood sheath underneath and the worn wood floor and baseboards that smell of moth; she goes directly toward the crates that are the source of the whimpering. She opened the wooden boxes, prying it apart with her staff and watching the wood splinter around her; she finds wounded children inside. Andromeda immediately helps them out of the crates and conjures some good berries in her hand offering it forward encouraging the children to eat them. Her kind eyes and gentle touch makes them feel safe enough to eat the delicious berries; they immediately feel better. She finds their clothes in the corner of the room sitting on an old single cushion sofa chair that has several rips and a spring poking through the seat. She gives them the clothes to put on; even without words they understood she was helping them.

Andromeda, making sure to keep the children safely behind her as she moves to re-engage the melee below stepping lightly to the top of the wooden stairs only to see Lythander ascending the stairwell toward her; he stops pivots and drops another arrow in the back of the mother demon who finally fell where she stood. Her two children became enraged when they saw their mother fall and they turned their anger toward Melrick and Shamesh; the paladin took blow after blow as his holy aura drew the focus of their hate and down he went. Andromeda went immediately to her friends aid, and healed him to keep Shamesh in the fray. Melrick, still fighting feverishly, but is failing to overcome the evil hags. Lythander, stumbling his way up the stairs further, failes gain his footing and tries to loose another arrow but is unable to be accurate. Shamesh finds his feet and heals himself further to continue to stay on his feet. Andromeda pushes past Lythander, and she takes the form of a large black panther, as the room turns to hear the roar the beast leap off the stairs and surges forward to pounce on the hag fighting Melrick. With the hag now pinned to the ground beneath the panther Melrick, Lythander and Shamesh beat down the hag. Andromeda is forced back into human form as she took damage from the abomination in a last gasp. Seeing the holy weapon of her paladin friend fall to the ground, as she transforms back to her natural form landing on her behind; the druid girl finds her feet quickly growling some incantation and the air around her staff swirled as the shape of the quarterstaff began to curve, bend and look like a crooked shillelagh. She then turned to her attention to help Shamesh; saving him yet again, this time before she would watched him fall in battle. With another grunt, Andromeda was able to stabilize and keep the paladin from bleeding out. He rose, and the two continued to sink magical attacks into the last remaining hag. Melrick closes in on the final melee, and the evil creature made a desperate grasp at the stunty foe to try and bite at his neck, in a move to repulse the creature he pulled his axe up through the middle of the creature to split it in half. The frenzied melee ended, and the adventurers looked upon each other with both a sense of relief and terror. These creatures were torturing children, to what evil end they do not know. While they saved this day, the real challenge is still ahead. Weary, they silently left the home, with the children in tow, ready to face whatever horrific thing may come next…

Our heroes have lived to fight another day, but grow weary in Ravenloft, the prospect of escaping grows ever more dim. They have a map, but no clues on where to go next, we’ll see if they can figure out anything in the next session!