Scarecrows
It's late morning at Trollskull Manor. Jofina, Ivy, Torryn, and Kairos are sitting around the table listening to Kled tell them the tale of his hunt in the wilds. As he's finishing his story there's a knock on the door.
Kairos gets up from the table and opens the door, "You're right on time."
Renaer comes in excitedly saying, "Hello my friends. It's so good to see you all again."
Jofina smiles at him, "Thanks for offering to help us out."
"Anything for my friends," he says taking an empty seat at the table, "I would like to offer you a no-interest loan for the full start-up costs of your businesses. All I ask is you pay me back within the first year of business."
"I'm not saying 'no', but what's the catch? Nothing comes this easy," says Torryn a bit skeptical.
The human smiles at the rogue with a jovial twinkle in his eyes, "You saved my life. And the life of my dear friend Floon. Plus, helping a friend's business is good business."
Renaer looks expectantly at the party and one by one they all nod their heads in agreement to accept the loan.
"Excellent! I will have Rowena contact the appropriate guilds and magistrates and set the money up so that they have access to it. Rowena will need to stop by with a few things for you to sign for the various guilds, but she should be able to run the remodel for you. She may also stop by with any questions or if there's a problem with the construction. And of course, you can ask her any questions you have."
"I'm eager to get our magic bar up and running," says Joffina excitedly.
"And my new shop," adds Kairos with a smile.
"I'm looking forward to it also!" says Renaer jovially.
Jofina stands up saying, "I would love to stay and visit with you Renaer, but I need to get to the Halls of Justice for my swearing in ceremony."
He smiles at the fey elf, "Not a problem. I need to visit the contractor and get things started."
"Hey Renaer, before you go, where could I find mastiff breeders? I'm planning to buy a dog," asks Torryn.
Renear thinks for a moment then says, "My neighbors have purchased their dogs from a few places. I'll write them down for you before I leave."
Renaer writes down the names of three dog breeders in the Trade Ward and hands the page to Torryn. He stands up and asks, "Can I be of any other assistance?"
The others shake their heads 'no' and Renaer heads to the door. Before opening it he turns and waves enthusiastically, "Goodbye my good friends."
Renaer leaves and Jofina turns to her friends, "Is anyone accompanying me to the Halls of Justice?"
"I'll go with you," Ivy says.
"I'll be at the breeders Renaer recommended," says Torryn excitedly waving the sheet of paper.
"Somebody needs to buy us some healing potions," Kairos reminds the group.
"Right!" exclaims Jofina. She looks at Kled, "Last night Ivy and I almost died and we didn't have any healing potions."
"Shit, sounds like I missed a good fight," Kled says.
"We really could have used you. But we couldn't wait and let the Dockward Decapitator kill any more innocents," says Jofina.
Kairos offers to buy healing potions for everyone if they all pitch in to pay for them. Before everyone leaves on their various excursions, they all give Kairos gold for a potion.
It's a brisk autumn day, Ivy and Jofina walk along the streets towards the temple of Tyr in the Castle Ward. The women are both happy to walk along quietly next to each other, comfortable in each other's company.
Ivy breaks the silence asking her friend, "Why are you in summer today?"
"It seemed more appropriate for a swearing in ceremony than spring," answers Jofina.
The two women walk up to the Halls of Justice and see Griffon riders are posted outside the doors and Savra Belabranta, herself, is waiting on the steps for them.
Savra smiles warmly and does her best to hide the bit of disappointment she feels. She had hoped a couple more people from this new party of heroes would join the Silver Gauntlet. Her eyes light back up, and the bit of disappointment fades, as she focuses on Jofina because she's scored the feywild paladin, the eladrin who the whole city is abuz over.
Savra does her best to hide her shock when she sees Jofina's skin practically glows like the sun. She had heard the eladrin could change her appearance. "Welcome to the Halls of Justice. You're just in time for the swearing in ceremony." She ushers them in.
They follow Savra into the main audience chamber and see a couple of other recruits. Two other Order of the Gauntlet members stand on either side of a table with a wooden chest on it. Savra directs the candidates to stand in a line for the swearing in ceremony.
Savra looks over and sees Ivy is still standing off to the side. She motions saying, "Ivy, please join the others and we'll begin the ceremony."
Ivy replies politely, "I'm just here to support Jofina."
Savra says, "Very well. You and any of your other companions are still welcome to accompany Jofina and assist with any of the missions that she works on for our faction," she returns her attention to the new recruits, "We are glad that our ranks have swollen today."
Savra walks over and opens the lid of the chest and lifts out a silver gauntlet. She turns around saying, "The silver gauntlet is the symbol of our order. Each of you will speak your oath while wearing this gauntlet."
One by one each of the recruits wears the gauntlet and swears to find and destroy evil in all its forms, becoming new members of the Order of the Gauntlet. Savra welcomes the new members and returns the silver gauntlet to its box.
The other new recruits warmly welcome Jofina and pat her on the back in congratulations. They're excited to be new members of the Order, and for the esteem they've gained because the eladrin was part of their swearing in ceremony. Jofina smiles and also congratulates the other new members, enjoying the comradery.
Savra eventually interrupts the new recruits' excited chatter and sends the others to train in the yard, asking Jofina to stay behind.
When the others are gone she says to the fey elf, "We've heard the Zhents are paying gangs in the Field Ward to attack suspected Xanathar Guild members. Fights are breaking out in the ward daily and the Order would like you to stop a fight before it happens. We need to send a message to these thugs that further alterations won't be tolerated. The city watch doesn't patrol the Field Ward. Which means many crimes go uninvestigated, so the Order of the Gauntlet will often take it upon ourselves to help police the area."
Jofina smiles, saying quickly, "Go to the Field Ward, wait for someone to get in a fight, jump in and stop it. No problem."
"Patrol the area, while looking intimidating and vaguely official. Discourage violence, and if a fight looks like it's about to break out, or starts to break out, step in and stop it," Savra reiterates and then adds, "Oh, and try not to kill anyone."
Jofina stands a little taller trying to look official and says, "Okay, I can be intimidating."
Torryn heads to the Trade Ward to visit the mastiff breeders. The tiefling steps into the first place on her list to check out their dogs. She spends some time watching the pups play and a couple of them catch her eye. She asks the breeder to pet them.
Torryn gets down on her knees calling, "Come here puppies!"
They come bounding over to the tiefling, tails wagging. She pets and plays with the dogs for several minutes. One of the pups particularly loves the attention and keeps snuggling into the tiefling.
The breeder says to Torryn, "Looks like she wants to go home with you."
Torryn continues petting the mastiff pup, "I'm just looking today. What's her name?"
"Her name's Drixxie. She's well-behaved, well trained, and as you can see well-muscled. I can show you the commands she knows."
Torryn stands up and allows the breeder to show off the mastiff commands. He finishes the demonstration and says, "So, what do you think? Interested in taking her home with you?"
"I'm just looking today," replies the tiefling.
"I've had several people interested in her. So if you want her, better come back quick," says the breeder trying to entice Torryn to buy the dog.
"I'll keep that in mind," she says and leaves.
Torryn heads to the next name on her list. This place is a little bigger than the first one. The owner is talking with another customer so his assistant, a female human, comes over to Torryn when she walks in.
The assistant says cheerfully, "Hi! Welcome to Pick of the Litter. How can I help you?"
"Hi, I'm looking to buy a mastiff," answers Torryn.
"Certainly. Come right this way and I'll show you our dogs," the assistant says. She leads Torryn over to the dog pens.
Torryn stops at the sight of the perfect looking dog. She points and asks, "Can I pet that one?"
"Of course," says the assistant and she brings the dog over to the tiefling.
Torryn immediately gets down on her knees to pet the mastiff's sleek coat. She can feel how well muscled the pup is. The tiefling asks, "Are they* well trained?"
The assistant answers, "Oh, yes. Would you like a demonstration of their commands?"
Torryn gives the dog another pat then stands up, "Absolutely."
The assistant runs through the mastiff's commands and they are indeed very well trained and behaved. While watching Torryn thinks to herself, I'm already in love!
The breeder saunters over saying, "Ah, I see you spotted the prize of the litter. That one is special and won't go as cheap as the others. But you won't find another like them in the whole city. I've had a number of people looking at them, but I've said I won't hold them for anybody. I'm looking to get at least 250. But I can see they really like you. So for you, I could do 150."
"Fucking sold!" exclaims the tiefling. Without another thought, she opens her pouch and pulls out the money.
The breeder gives her a huge grin as he gleefully counts out the tiefling's money.
As she watches him count her money, Torryn realizes she accepted the offer too quickly. She could have gotten him to come down a whole lot more if she hadn't been so eager to own this mastiff.
The breeder puts a leash on the mastiff and hands it to Torryn, "Well, I'm so glad to see them go to such a nice young lady."
Torryn pets her new mastiff. The dog furiously wags their tale and gives the tiefling kisses. With a gigantic smile on her face, Torryn thinks to herself, You're worth every Dragon I paid for you. And she happily heads home with her new dog.
After the three women leave, Kairos says to Kled, "Want to come with me?"
"Thanks for asking, little buddy. But me and Skaarl are gonna finish getting settled in here. Got some trophies to hang up," Kled says gesturing to the bag sitting by his door.
"Ok," says Kairos. He smiles and waves before heading out the door to Corellon's Crown.
When Karios walks into the shop a wood elf with long, braided hair greets him, "Hello! You must be one of the new owners of Trollskull Manor. I've met your lovely druid friend Ivy. I'm Fala Lefaliir. How can I help you?"
"Uh, Hi," says Kairos, caught off guard by the recognition. He walks closer and then says, "Hi. I'm Kairos. I need to buy five healing potions for my group."
"I can help you with that," says Fala. She heads over to a cabinet, pulls five bottles filled with a red liquid off the shelf, and brings them back to the counter, "That will be two hundred and fifty gold. Also, you should know my potion stock fluctuates. You're lucky. I don't always have this many on hand."
"I'll remember that. Thanks," says Kairos pleasantly, opening his pouch and counting out the money.
Fala takes Kairos's payment and hands him the potions, "I never know if I should say, 'I hope those help you out' or 'I hope you don't need them'."
"I think both apply," says Kairos with a grin.
They smile back at the harengon, "I guess they do. I also sell several other potions. I have potions of animal friendship, potions of climbing, potions of greater healing, and potions of water breathing. My stock on those fluctuates as well."
"Thank you. I'll tell my friends and we'll come back if we need them," Kairos says and waves goodbye.
Just before Kairos steps out the door Fala says with a smile, "Tell your druid friend she's welcome to visit my garden again. And I love what she's done with the manor's turret. The neighborhood needed a dovecote."
It's afternoon in Trollskull Manor. Torryn has returned with her mastiff. She and Ivy are playing with the pup in the common room while the group tells Kled about their various faction missions.
"What do we want to do first?" asks Torryn.
"I vote we go kill them scarecrows," says Kled.
"So let's do the scarecrows if everyone is down," says Torryn.
Everyone else agrees and they head off to their rooms to get their gear before heading out to Undercliff.
The party takes the road out of town and around the plateau Waterdeep sits on. Looking around it's almost like they've stepped into a different world, of rolling grassland and a quaint rural community. The people of Undercliff are fairly friendly and fiercely proud of their town. And It doesn't take the party too long to learn exactly which farms are being affected by the scarecrow attacks.
"We should probably talk to the farmers," says Torryn, "Who do we want to start with?"
"Who's the closest?" asks Ivy.
"The Nortons," answers Torryn.
"Then let's start there," Jofina says and takes the lead heading down the road.
The group walks up and sees a male human, repairing a section of broken fence while a female human is attempting to salvage some of the very damaged crops. The damaged section of the field looks like somebody went on a frenzied destructive rampage, smashing pumpkins and gourds and knocking down fences. There's also a dried bloody spot on the ground, and looking over at the house a sheep carcass is hanging off the porch. It's clear the animal was killed in the violence as well.
After examining the scene. Jofina whispers loudly to her friends, "It's obvious this attack was just mindless violence. And I don't know exactly how to describe it, but there's almost like a rippling kind of step print in the dirt. Like wiggling vines from some kind of blighted plants moving across the earth."
Torryn looks skeptically at the fey elf, "Blighted plants?"
When he notices the party walking up, the man steps in front of the woman and whispers loudly, "Stay behind me, Betty." He looks at the group saying, "Hey now, what you want?"
Jofina smiles and waves, "We came because we heard your farm and two others have been attacked by scarecrows. The Emerald Enclave asked us to look into the attacks."
The man's body posture relaxes, "The Emerald Enclave. I'm so glad they've responded to me. I sent word to the city guard for help three nights ago. Every night, either us, the Wilders, or the Knuckstumps get attacked by these scarecrows and they're walking plant minions, smashing our fields and killing our livestock. I'm Yorrick Norton by the way, and this here's my wife Betty."
"Yorrick, have you seen these scarecrows and plant minions?" asks Jofina.
"Ai, I sat up at night watching for them. But I don't have anything I can do myself. I did try to scare them away, but I thought for sure they were going to kill me. I barely made it back to the house," answers Yorrick.
"And it's just the three farms," Jofina asks curiously.
"Yes. It's only the three of us I tell you. Just look about," he gestures to the destruction they're trying to repair and then over to the hanging sheep, "And they killed Bessie. It started about… well, I sent the letter three nights ago, it started about two nights before that. And I tell you, all three of us have had our crops so damaged that it's definitely going to impact the harvest at this point, it's only a question of how much and I don't know how Mr. Beldorn and his family are gonna make it through the winter or honestly, even balance the year's finances without a full harvest, or at least a solid harvest."
Betty puts a reassuring hand on her husband's arm adding, "They just appear out of the darkness, right around midnight, for the past five nights."
"Do you know where they're coming from?" Torryn questions.
"I'm afraid I don't, nor does anybody else near as I can tell. Like Betty said, they seem to just appear out of the darkness. And the plants don't leave no tracks like anything any of us have ever seen, so no one's been able to track them. Then there's the scarecrows, they leave no tracks at all!" the human answers.
Torryn looks at the others, "Maybe we hang out till it's dark."
"Yeah but, how do we know which farm?" Jofina wonders.
Torryn asks the Nortons, "Is there a pattern to the attacks?"
"Not that we've noticed, but I can tell you, you'll be able to hear it. The scarecrow keens something awful, and they make plenty of noise as they, well, smash everything. If you're trying to wait and see which farm gets hit. I'd say you could sit between the three of us," Yorrick gestures to his two neighbors.
Jofina nods, "Gives us a better chance as opposed to picking the wrong farm.
"Sitting in the middle is good for me. I guess we're camping," says Torryn cheerfully.
Yorrick speaks up, "Well, I tell you, We greatly appreciate anything you can do to help us out. I wish the city watch had responded by now, but we're outside the city, which makes it slightly questionable whether we're the watch's responsibility or the guard's responsibility and it always takes them forever to sort that out."
"We're happy to help," Jofina says reassuringly.
"Let's go talk with the other two families before we set up camp," says Ivy.
The party says their goodbyes to the Nortons and lets them get back to work.
They head across the fields to the Wilders' farm. Two fairly young halfling women are finishing up their evening chores when the party walks up.
Jofina gives them a friendly smile and a wave, "Hello, we've just come from talking with the Nortons about the scarecrow attacks. We're planning to sit out in the fields tonight waiting for them."
One of the halflings speaks up, "Oh, thank you so much for coming and helping us. I don't know what we're going to do if this keeps happening. I mean, Margaret and I just took over the farm from old Gertrude like two seasons ago and we still haven't even made enough to finish paying or for the change of ownership. I'm not sure what we'll do if this keeps up."
While the halfling woman is speaking, Margaret comes up and lovingly holds the other woman's hand, "We'll figure something out, Vanessa."
The two women show the group the areas they've already repaired. Some of the gourds still have some thorns left in them from the attack a couple nights ago.
Ivy crouches down to check out the tracks that are still visible in the soft earth. She looks up, "It looks like viney roots are helping propel these blighted plants. I'm pretty sure I can track them."
"We've never seen the scarecrows ourselves, just the damage they caused. It was safer for us to stay in the house with Margaret's mother. But you can probably rule out the Norton's farm tonight because they never attack the same place twice in a row," Vanessa says.
"Thanks. We're going to stop by and talk to the Knuckstumps before setting up camp in the middle of all three of your fields," Jofina informs the women.
Over at the Knuckstumps, Kairos gleefully knocks on a door that is his size.
A female gnome answers the door, "Hello. How can I help you?"
Kairos says, "We just spoke with your neighbors about the scarecrow attacks."
"Oh thank you so much for coming. I'm Mabel and this is my husband Gorn," she gestures to the male gnome who joined her in the doorway. He waves but doesn't speak, and Mabel explains, "Gorn is mute and we communicate with sign language. We'd be happy to show you the damage to our property."
The couple takes the party out to see the damage done to their crops. While they walk Mabel tells them, "Our cow and several of the chickens were killed two nights ago. The chickens were so mangled we couldn't even save them to eat."
As they're headed back to the house Gorn starts furiously signing at Mabel.
Torryn had been watching them sign during the tour and recognized a few of the signs from thieves cant. The rogue thinks to herself, I'm pretty sure he's signing 'tell them'. I wonder what that's about?
Mabel blushes and she kind of shakes her head. Determined her husband gestures more fervently. Mabel sighs and turns towards the group, "I wasn't going to say anything about it, because I'm sure it's just nonsense, but Gorn here, he's got this notion that he can predict bad omens with his stump." She sort of shrugs as she finishes speaking.
Gorn pulls up one pant leg, knocks on his wooden leg right below his knee, and gives them a big gapped tooth smile. Then he signs again to Mabel smiling the whole time.
She sighs and says, "He's convinced his stump is telling him that they're coming to our farm tonight and he wants me to make sure that you know," she glowers at her husband, "There, I told them, are you happy?"
He beams at her and gestures excitedly. Then points at his stump again and gestures, as though he's saying it's never wrong, I'm telling you.
Torryn asks, "Has the stump ever been wrong?"
Maybel rolls her eyes and says quietly, "It's best not to talk about it. He gets very sensitive about the stump."
The group thanks the Knucklestumps for their time and heads across the fields to set up camp.
Ivy doesn't set up and instead, she smiles slyly and says, "I'm going to go scout around as an owl. I'll perch in that tree, on the small rise, we walked past on our way to the Knuckstumps. It's within easy hooting range for me to signal if I see something. It will be cool!"
Ivy blurs and then her form shrinks down to the size of a great horned owl. The owl blinks her eyes at the group and looks around. Then the druid spreads her wings and takes flight for the first time in her life, thinking to herself, This is exhilarating!
"Holy fuck!" Torryn exclaims.
Instinctively, Kairos ducks for cover despite being larger than the owl. The Ivy owl swoops past her friends, eyeing the cowering harengon.
Skaarl snaps at the owl and Kled says, "Down Skaarl! I already fed ya."
"That's incredible Ivy!" Jofina says encouragingly, looking up at her friend in awe.
Ivy flies off to circle the three farms as the others finish setting up camp.
Just after dusk, the Wilders show up, shyly approaching the group.
Vanessa says, "I know you're going to be out here for a while, and we do really appreciate this. So, we brought you apple pie."
Jofina gives them a huge smile, excitedly saying, "Yay! Pie!" and accepts the apple pie from Margaret.
The two women smile and wave before returning home. And then up walks Mabel with Gorn trudging along behind her. She says to the group, "The nights get chilly so we brought you some hot apple cider."
She hands the cider over to Torryn. Gorn hands a wrapped package over to Kairos and Mabel explains, "Cinnamon sticks, one for each of you."
They also wave and say their goodbyes wanting to get home before it's truly dark.
Jofina cuts up the pie and serves out a piece to everyone.
Ivy flies over to see what her friends are doing and Jofina sets out an owl-sized piece of pie for her. The druid eyes the pie and circles around to do another sweep of the farms.
Jofina takes a bite of pie, "Now this is interesting. I would have never thought of putting cut up fruit between two crusts and cooking it." While she speaks, the eladrin inspects her pie.
"They don't have pie in your fey world?" Kled says incredulously.
The eladrin smiles and says excitedly, "This is my first pie and I'm finding it quite delicious. I'll have to find a pie shop in Waterdeep to try different fruits."
Torryn whispers to Kairos, "Wait till she finds out you can put other things in pie."
The harengon lets out a quiet chuckle.
The party finishes up their refreshments and settles in for their stakeout. As darkness settles a peaceful quiet falls across the fields. The sky is mostly clear despite the earlier clouds and the three quarters full waxing moon sheds moonlight across the fields.
Kled paces impatiently, mumbling to himself and Skaarl about how he hates waiting. Skaarl Growls and Kled says, "Skaarl! This ain't no time for philosophying!"
Torryn pulls out a deck of cards and absentmindedly shuffles them over and over, while her mastiff snuggles into her side.
Kairos pulls out the broken clockwork dragonfly from his brother and looks it over again thinking to himself, I wonder why Rhyme sent me this broken toy.
Jofina lifts her hand and unconsciously rubs her leaf-shaped necklace. She thinks to herself, It's nice having friends here, it makes the occasional homesickness easier.
Suddenly they hear thumping and a loud keening coming from across the fields. Everyone gets up ready to move on Ivy's signal.
Ivy easily spots a scarecrow figure with a sackcloth hood beginning to trash a field of squash. She circles back towards her friends and hoots three times to tell them which farm to go to. Then she flies off back towards the scarecrow.
Ivy's friends quickly follow their druid companion towards the Knucklestump farm. They get close enough to see the sackcloth-hooded scarecrow and half a dozen vaguely humanoid plants. They look like walking rose bushes, but instead of roses, the briars and brambles are dotted with round red berries.
Torryn whispers, "We need a plan."
"The plan is, I charge!" Kled barely manages to whisper.
Torryn shakes her head, "We need to sneak up closer."
"Let's get closer and then we can release the beast," Jofina whispers, smiling slyly at Kled.
The group sneaks closer, and of course, the two heavy armor wearers are just barely quiet enough to get across the field unnoticed. Dancing in the eyes of the brambles and briars humanoids, they see a weird glowing green flame. And where the scarecrow's face should be in the hood is only darkness and two glowing red eyes.
Kled charges into battle riding Skaarl, halberd at the ready, "I am deep-fried courage and an apple pie of angry!"
Skaarl rams into the scarecrow, knocking it to the ground, and then bites into the prone creature. Kled's halberd tears into the scarecrow, bits of straw and stuffing come loose as it passes through. Bits of stuffing and straw litter the ground around the scarecrow, but its eyes are still glowing, and it looks pretty pissed off.
All the twig blights train their glowing green eyes on Kled.
Jofina runs up to the closest twig blight, her longsword passes straight through the creature, severing its vines in innumerable places, and the green fire fades from its eyes.
Kairos throws an orb of fire at another twig blight. The heat from the fire immediately dries out the blighted plant, and it's now crackling along merrily, like a campfire right there in the dirt.
Torryn lets an arrow fly from her short bow straight at another twig blight. The arrow pierces straight through and the twig blight falls to the ground limp. The glowing green flame eyes flicker and go out.
The Ivy owl circles and then dives, talons out, straight at another twig blight, barely puncturing its brambles. Then the druid flies back up out of harm's way.
Kled's halberd hits the ground next to the scarecrow and it looks up at the fighter with murderous intent in its demonic glowing eyes. Skaarl bites the scarecrow, coming up with a mouthful of hay and stuffing.
Jofina moves in to flank the scarecrow and swings her long sword. The scarecrow lets out a demonic howl when the attack hits and the light in its eyes begins to fade and flicker, but doesn't go out.
"Damn," Kled says in disbelief.
"Oh, Shit!" Jofina yells as the three remaining twig blights surround her.
They attack the paladin all at once as a tangled mass of thorns and briars. The first one hits solidly, hurting the fey elf more than she expected. She blocks the next attack with her leaf-shaped shield, but it leaves her back exposed to the third twig blight. It rakes Jofina, and she cries out in pain, barely staying on her feet.
The scarecrow struggles back to its feet. Still focused on the duo who have been tearing it up, the creature lashes out at Kled. The fighter leans back in his saddle to dodge the attack.
Kairos moves in closer for a better view and hurls a mote of fire at another twig blight. It goes up like a torch and another small crackling campfire sits on the ground.
"Nice!" shouts the sorcerer triumphantly.
Torryn lets an arrow fly at another twig blight, and it lands with a solid thwunk. The arrow sticks out of the side of the blighted plant, so she sends her mastiff in for an attack. The mastiff bites the twig blight and gives it the death shake. Sticks and brambles fly everywhere.
The great horned owl swoops down and lands on a boulder at the edge of the field. The owl blurs and grows back into Ivy. The druid pulls out her bow and shoots an arrow into the last twig blight. The dancing green flames in its eyes flicker and go out.
Kled shouts " I'm gonna finish off that scarecrow!"
Kled's halberd shreds through the scarecrow, and its sackcloth hood falls to the ground as the scarecrow's body turns to ash.
"Well was that everything?" the fighter asks, looking around for any other threats.
Jofina lays her hand on her largest wound and the healing light closes it up. Then she looks around the field saying, "I think so. I don't see anything else around."
Kled hops off of Skaarl and searches through the hood. He pulls out a small round ruby with a sigil carved into one of its faces.
"What is this nonsense," he says, handing the gem to Jofina.
Still not feeling her best, Jofina struggles to focus on the ruby in her hand. She hands it back to Kled saying, "I've never seen anything like this before."
He takes it back and takes a closer look at the sigil. Suddenly he exclaims, "I've seen this before, on Noxis, it's a symbol that means something like binding or controlling. I think this was binding whatever spirit that was animating the scarecrow."
Kled sticks the ruby in his pouch and then asks, "We gonna track 'em?"
"I mean, the goal is to find them," says Torryn.
Ivy and Kled look for where the tracks head out of the field. The fight has messed with the tracks making it difficult for Ivy to follow them through the field
Kled shouts from across the field, "I found them over here!"
"I'm still not doing too great," says Jofina grunting, continuing, "I could use some first aid and to sit for a moment before we go chasing after the rest of these monsters."
After taking care of Jofina's wounds the group follows Ivy and Kled across four or five other farms. They follow the tracks through the soft earth towards the wilds and away from the city.
When they reach the wilds, Kled exclaims, "Me and Skaarl were just out here."
As they move through the woody and rocky terrain, it becomes difficult to follow the tracks. Ivy and Kled's progress slows as they have to look more carefully for signs of which way the creatures came from. The group manages to follow the tracks all the way to a rocky hillside.
Ivy doesn't even hesitate and keeps confidently following them up the rocky hillside where she finds a narrow crack going into the hill. The half elf waves the others over and says, "I found their cave."
"Nice job," Jofina says, smiling at her friend.
Once inside Kled, lights a torch to see in the dark cave, and Jofina hands Kairos a rock with magical red light on it. The sounds of a waterfall echo off the walls. They splash along the cave hallway through a trickling stream. The water barely comes over the tops of their boots, but the stream is rocky, making the footing treacherous. They can see the cave opens up ahead, and the water gets darker farther out.
Ivy says, "We should be careful. I think the water gets deep enough we'd have to swim."
"Ok, so we stay in the shallow water. Let's move up and see what we're up against," says Torryn.
The group creeps up and peeks around the corner where they see five twig blights, three of them seem to be rooted in the shallow water while the other two are idly walking back and forth. In an alcove are two inanimate scarecrows, one has a rotting pumpkin for a head and the other looks like an old blanket wrapped around straw without a head. There are also some marks on the floor by the scarecrows. And there's another taller blighted plant with long needles growing in clumps across its body walking around.
Kairos immediately throws a mote of fire at the closest twig blight, cooking it to cinders.
Ivy follows the harengon's lead and steps out to shoot her bow at another twig blight. The arrow shreds right through its vines and its eyes go out.
Jofina makes her way around the corner headed for dry land, and sees another twig blight and a needle plant. She pulls out a javelin and hurls it at the twig blight. The paladin's feet get caught up in the rocky water and the javelin goes wide.
Jofina calls out, "I could use some help. I'm stumbling between water and dry land over here Torryn."
The tiefling aims her bow and lets her arrow fly. The arrow finds its mark but gets tangled in the branches and briars of the bush creature.
Kled kicks Skaarl into action, "Let's get 'em, Skaarl!"
But Skaarl's feet slip and stumble on the rocks and she turns to run back out of the cave.
"No, no! The other way! Get back here!" Kled yells and pulls on the reins turning her towards his target. Despite Skaarl's cowardness, Kled gets close enough to cleave another twig blight into little bits of garden salad.
Both scarecrows' eyes fully light up as they begin to animate, and a pumpkin head turns towards the sounds of the commotion. The remaining blighted plants also menacingly fix their glowing green eyes on the group.
Determined to finish off these evil plants, Kairos moves closer sending another mote of fire at the twig blight in front of Jofina. The sorcerer's fire turns the creature into a charred wooden sticky corpse, sap oozing out of it.
The needle blights pull back and then fling needles towards Kled and Jofina. The needles hit and bounce harmlessly off their armor.
The rotted pumpkin-headed scarecrow advances and fixes a terrifying stare on Jofina. She freezes in place, paralyzed and frightened from the scarecrow's gaze.
From behind Kairos, Ivy shoots an arrow at a twig blight. The harengon could feel the wind as the arrow passed between his ears. The arrow just hits its target and the twig blight's eyes go out. The half elf then moves in closer to the action.
A twig blight and the old ratty blanket and straw scarecrow move over to Ivy and gang up on the druid. The twig blight's attack misses. But the scarecrow rakes her twice with its claws, tearing through her leather armor and ripping open her skin. Ivy groans and recoils from the pain thinking, Why did I move to the front? I shouldn't have done that.
One of Torryn's arrows goes flying past Ivy, landing in the water next to the twig blight the tiefling had targeted with a splash. Then the rogue moves up onto dry land with Jofina.
Skaarl tries biting a twig blight, but her jaws only snap at the air. Kled, however, slams his halberd into the old ratty blanket scarecrow. Straw flies everywhere and it's rocked a little bit by the force of the attack. The scarecrow, however, does not appear to be as devastated as Kled expected.
While moving up onto dry land Kairos hurls another mote of fire, this time at a needle blight. The fire hits the blighted plant and it goes up in flames nicely.
The other needle blight retaliates and flings several barbed needles at the sorcerer. The needles sink deep into Kairos's soft and vulnerable bunny flesh. He cries out in pain, and his face pales from the shock.
The pumpkin-head scarecrow moves forward and swipes at Kled with its claws. The Noxian easily dodges the first attack. And the second just scratches across his armor with that annoying fingernail on a chalkboard screech. Jofina's body finally loosens and the sudden uncontrollable fear fades away.
Ivy pulls a dagger from her hip and stabs the scarecrow that attacked her. The dagger sinks into the blanket putting a good gash in it. Then the selfless druid sends a healing chant towards Kairos. He smiles at her weakly as some of his puncture wounds heal.
Jofina shakes the lethargy off her body from the scarecrow's mind attack. She glances around and sees Ivy healing Kairos, despite them both being gravely injured. Jofina rushes to her selfless friend and touches one of the half-elf's claw wounds. The wound begins to heal and close up. Then the paladin loudly sloshes through the water, around to the other side of the scarecrow.
"Hey! Over here!" Jofina yells trying to draw the scarecrow's attention away from the druid.
The needle blight attacks Kled, finding a small opening in his armor the creature leaves behind a deep scratch in his flesh.
The torn-blanket scarecrow turns its attention to the loud, shouting fey elf. It rakes her with the first swipe of its claws, but knowing a second attack was coming, Jofina easily blocks the attack with her shield.
Torryn shoots an arrow from her short bow at the pumpkin head scarecrow. But despite sinking in deep, she could tell her arrow didn't do as much damage as it should have. Then she commands her mastiff to attack the needle blight. The dog once again has a mouthful of sticks.
"Good dog," Torryn praises the mastiff.
Kled swings his halberd and cuts deep into the scarecrow's straw. He swings a second time but misses. Skaarl goes in for a bite and comes back with a mouth full of blanket and straw ripped from the scarecrow's body. Stuffing falls out everywhere and the scarecrow doesn't have a whole lot left holding it on this plane.
Kairos throws another mote of fire at the needle blight. It stands there smoldering, charred, and pissed off. The needle blight returns fire, it pulls back and then flings needles at the sorcerer.
Kairos stands up tall, his whole four feet with ears up, as magic glows around him, the needles bounce off his fur and fall harmlessly to the ground. He smiles confidently knowing he'll have extra protection for a little bit.
The pumpkin-head scarecrow rakes into Kled with its claws.
Ivy attempts to stab the torn blanket scarecrow, but her dagger gets caught up in the ripped cloth and she barely manages to keep hold of it.
Jofina's long sword slices the torn blanket scarecrow in half. The creature's eerily glowing green flame eyes flicker and go out.
Jofina cries out triumphantly, "I killed it! I killed the blanket! I killed the blanket!"
Torryn draws her short sword while moving around to flank the pumpkin head scarecrow. The rouge's sword tears straight through it, but again she feels like the attack should have done more damage. Then she disengages herself from the fight to keep from becoming a target.
"I'm gonna murder you to death!" Kled yells as his halberd passes into the scarecrow's body. But this scarecrow's body feels stiffer and tougher, and the fighter knows he didn't damage it nearly as much as he normally would. The Noxian growls at the scarecrow.
"Stop being a coward Skaarl and attack," Kled says to his mount. She snaps at the scarecrow as commanded, but her teeth don't even come close to the creature.
Kairos turns his nemesis needle blight into a small personal campfire with his firebolt.
The pumpkin-head scarecrow is completely fixated on the fighter riding the bipedal lizard. It claws Kled, who's already pretty bloody at this point from all the attacks he's taken. The scarecrow's second claw attack thankfully misses, swiping through the air where the Noxian just was.
Ivy aims at the pumpkin head and lets her arrow fly. But the scarecrow easily dodges out of the way and gives the druid an evil look.
Jofina moves around, flanking the scarecrow, and slices into it with her long sword. The paladin can also feel how stiff the scarecrow's body is and releases her divine paladin energy into the blade. The radiant energy burns straight into the scarecrow and leaves it smoldering. The scarecrow looks very ragged and part of its rotten pumpkin head is smooshed in.
Torryn confidently steps back up to the scarecrow and slices into the rotted pumpkin head. Half of the scarecrow's rotten melon slides off and lands on the ground with a splat. The scarecrow falls to the ground and a big red gem falls out of its head.
"Excellent!" Torryn shouts triumphantly and picks up the gem.
The group begins looking around the cave for clues.
Kairos picks up the torn pieces of blanket and stuffs them in his pack.
Joffina gives him an odd look, "What are you going to do with those blanket pieces?"
The harengon kind of shrugs saying, "It's free stuff," as if that is explanation enough.
"I suppose you could patch them," Jofina says, shrugging.
"Over here!" yells Kled, waving them over to the alcove the scarecrows were in.
He points to what looks like a ritual site. There's some kind of design or sigil drawn in the dirt within a circle. And some runes next to melted wax from candles that used to surround it.
Ivy says, "This looks like where the ritual to summon the demonic spirits from the planes of hell to bind to the scarecrows took place."
"Yeah, and they were assembled here too," says Torryn poking at the bits of leftover stuffing and scraps scattered across the floor.
Jofina closely studies the sigil and runes thinking, I'm sure I'll recognize that handwriting if I see it again.
The next day the farmers are ecstatic and give the party more gifts of food in thanks for their help. All three families tell the group they're welcome to visit any time.
Melannor Fellbranch of the Emerald Enclave thanks them for their help and tells the party he hopes the crops were saved in time. He does not offer them gold, much to Kled and Torryn's dismay. Instead to express the Emerald Enclave's gratitude, Melannor tells the others they're also welcome to take sanctuary within Phaulkonmere, as long as they respect its grounds.
* I am still waiting on the name and gender of Torryn's dog. I will update it when her player lets me know.
This was a low-energy game for us all. Which was still really fun, but it also meant we did less roleplay in several of the scenes. But since this is an Epic story, it left me, the writer, to create a lot more of the story myself. So it took me a bit longer to write since I was creating more of the narrative. And since everyone was quieter than usual, Torryn's player really stepped up and ran with things.