Sarenith 8, 4709 AR
Witch’s House, Darkmoon Wood

After a fairly quiet night, we began our trek to the second stop on our quest. We didn’t get attacked by any of the wildlife on the way, though we did encounter some large, goat-like footprints. I looked into the trees above the prints and saw many broken branches, as if something horned or antlered had crashed through them. The prints themselves didn’t seem to go anywhere in particular, and were not in the direction we were headed anyway, so we continued on to the west.

Several hours passed when we finally came to a circular clearing. If the trees twisting away from the ugly cottage in the center didn’t confirm we’d found the witch’s residence, Thorab’s detection of evil and Liake’s detection of mild abjuration magic confirmed it. Thorab and I walked up to the door, past several oddly-shaped fetishes in the surrounding yard, with the intent of knocking, but the door was rotted on the frame and came right off. Calling in through the doorway, we were met with no signs of life whatsoever, so we called Keth and Liake over and we all entered the little hut.

We quickly scanned the shelves and surfaces covered with little jars and pots, a cauldron and— a mummy. The chair near the hearth had a bound figure perched in it. None of us wished to touch it, but Keth decided a well-placed arrow would make sure it didn’t get up and attack us. As hoped, it didn’t, but the huge iron cauldron near it stood up on four legs and charged at us! We got out the front door with the pot hot on our heels. I managed to cast a spell on Thorab to make his weapon magical, as we weren’t doing any damage to the cauldron. The cauldron took a dislike to me though, and grabbed me, pulling me to the inside; all the while my friends were attacking it from the outside.

At some point, Liake found a magic amulet that looked to be important, and got chased (and caught) by the rogue pot, but eventually our comrades managed to hit it hard enough and often enough that it ceased to be animated. Climbing out, I healed everyone’s wounds as best I could, and we did another look through the cottage to find the pickled rat tail needed for the cure. The mummy turned out to just be twigs and linen, not a body. The magic item that Liake found, however, was a shrunken head; we’ve yet to figure out what it does. Figuring the hut had been deserted for a long time, we did grab a few other trinkets that may or may not aid us on our quest, and headed off to find the last of the ingredients for the cure.