this post sponsored by dwarvenforge (it’s combat and i’m ignoring homework)
i’m having Feelings about the hag so it’s time for loopholes.
POINT ONE and the most obvious way to break beau’s deal with the hag: beau offered only her own misery, not understanding/realizing that her actions would lead to misery from the rest of the nein. as their misery is not part of the deal, conceivably they could argue or bargain with isharnai to break the deal on the grounds that their misery was NOT freely given. theoretically logical fallacy could work, but (*attempts to figure out ishanrai’s alignment*) as hags are native to the feywilds and also are not lawful, ishanrai may not accept this as a break in the deal, especially as she seemed to have no issue with scapegoating a yet-unborn child.
POINT TWO. nothing in beau’s deal prohibits the rest of the nein from following her (by wording i mean. obviously something like being on a different continent would be an obstacle). beau offers to leave, and we know that the nein would probably not be down with that shit. so a logical course of action would be to undo nott’s curse, cast some locate object or some such on beau’s staff, and go get her. by the terms of the agreement beau did still leave the nein and her blood family behind, but changing nott back to veth beforehand ensures (IN THEORY) that ishanrai will not renege on her end of the deal. though she may not accept a logic issue to break a deal she has made, i can’t see her actively going back on her end, and might actually appreciate the stunt. if she tries anything they can go back to plan A of Murder.
issues come in mostly when you consider where beau would be isolated. does she just wander off into the swamp? does the binding of the deal prevent her from accidentally crossing paths with the nein? what if isharnai puts her in a pocket dimension and communication/location spells can’t get through? then we get to deal with Emotions And Other Fun Psychological Aspects.
suppose nothing is blocking the nein from attempting to follow beau, but beau is prohibited from communication with them (this could be in the form of wards that block out Sending/Scrying/etc. or in some sort of dimension/plane disparity). this means that a) the nein have no way of knowing if beau is alive, and b) beau doesn’t know the nein are looking for her. a is fun stress for the entire group, but b would bring a specific type of pain (which i think makes it more likely that isharnai would use it): beau knows that the nein can search for her, so every day that they don’t find her/she doesn’t hear from them reinforces her own belief that they always meant more to her than she did to them. regardless of whether or not she’s only separated from the nein (on tal’dorei perhaps) or in complete isolation (deserted island scenario), this would probably send her into a spiral of depression. obviously the hurt/comfort route demands that the nein DO find her and go the ever-wonderful amazing affirmation and crying and like maybe a little kissing as a treat BUT
i like causing myself pain.
POINT THREE. beau’s offer of misery is entirely based on the the notion that beau’s happiness directly correlates to her relationship with the nein. so, IF beau gets to a point where her absence from the nein is no longer directly causing her misery (because again, it was HER misery that was bargained, not the nein’s, so their feelings have no bearing on this), and isharnai is no longer getting new misery out of the deal.... is it worth it to maintain her end of the deal? keeping an eye on every deal she’s ever made can’t be easy, so if some are no longer functioning as she hoped, wouldn’t it be easier to cut her losses?
so beau is released, but the nein haven’t found her.
and where the fuck do you go from there?