Session 78
7th of Land’s Blessing
The adventurers walk back outside into the warmth of the early afternoon. The old shack creaks uneasily as they leave.
“Nothing seemed to have been recently used, though,” Glod says.
“Yeah, but you found some quicksilver! What are the chances of finding the same stuff like that?” Mathus asks.
“It’s a fairly common component for spells. It might mean nothing.”
“That puts us back at square one,” Gante says. “We may just have to wait for the festival tomorrow.”
“Wait, what?” Mathus looks at them incredulously. “If he’s a necromancer, he’ll come back with tons of undead minions. We’d be far outclassed.”
“Psh. I can handle those with one hand behind my back,” Epona says.
“Still, I say we track down his grave, dig it up, and burn it down.”
“I’m not so sure this necromancer is the culprit,” Glod says. “He seems pretty, well, dead. And while that doesnt always mean anything for necromancers… eh, call it a hunch.”
“I don’t know if I’m fully comfortable with the guy who hired us,” Gante says.
“He seemed fine to me, at the time at least,” Kerwyn says.
“On the one hand,” Glod says, “he is an odd character. On the other hand, why bring us out here if he’s causing trouble?”
“Maybe we should just head back to the town and see if there’s anyone else who might have an idea of what is going on.”
“Hey,” Gante says, “how about we find the guy who met up with the scarecrow?”
“Worth a shot,” Kerwyn says.
Back in town, Hoople directs them to a farmhouse near the outskirts of town. A rather large field nearby has about a dozen scarecrows in it. Mathus knocks loudly.
“Whadyawant?”
“We’re looking for information about a necromancer!”
“A what-a-whatser?”
“We want ta figure out what’s putting up all these scarecrows,” Glod says.
The door opens. A old fellow, thin, but strong, stands in the door. He holds a wide straw hat in his hands, gripping it tightly. “You say you kin git ridda them things?”
Kerwyn nods. “That’s what we’re trying to do, yes.”
He nervously looks around. “Whatdya need t’ know?”
“Tell us about your encounter with the scarecrow.”
“I just wanted to toss it out of my field, but… If you go up to them, ya… ya start seeing these things. I don’t even know what I saw. I don’t know nothin’ else ’bout em. But you can stop these things from showin’ up?”
“We hope to try. Do you mind if we stake out your field for tonight?”
“Not at all,” he says, a bit more relaxed.
The team walks out to the field. “Well,” Epona says, “I suppose we should empty his fields of scarecrows and then see what happens tonight.”
“It may draw in more,” Glod says. “That’d actually be good.”
“Alright,” Mathus says. “I’m on it.” He walks out into the fields, blades drawn.
“Should we have told him about the whole enchantment thing?” Gante asks.
“Eh… he’ll figure it out,” Glod replies.
“Gah! Whoa! Die, scarecrow!” Mathus takes several frantic swings at the scarecrow, finally knocking it over. Out of breath, Mathus shuffles back to the party, shaking. ”There’s something wierd about those things…”
“I’ll take care of the rest, then,” Gante says.
Glod surveys the surrounding landscape. “I’m going to see if the farmer will let us stake out from his roof.”
8th of Land’s Blessing
Just after midnight, the party waits on the roof for anything unusual. The scarecrows have been piled together, hopefully drawing whatever is responsible.
“Okay, so I’ve got use covered by illusion. Mathus has the area triggered with an alarm spell, so we’ll know if anything bigger than a mouse gets near the scarecrows.”
“Sounds good,” Epona says. “You and I can take first watch.”
After a few hours, Mathus senses his alarm has been triggered. “Guys, somethings going for the scarecrows. I’m going down to check it out.”
“Quoth, fly over and check it out.”
Glod’s familiar checks the area and returns. “Nothing unusual. Might just be an animal…”
Mathus returns to the roof. “I didn’t see anything either.”
“Well, we’ll wait for anything else, I suppose.”
Another hour passes. Mathus’s alarm is triggered again, and this time, a voice is heard. ”Guys, someone’s down there. Sounds muffled; I can’t understand a word…”
Glod listens closely. “Actually, it’s Gnomish. Gante, you sense anything?”
“It’s evil, whatever it is. Epona, what do you have for us?”
“Hmm… Mathus, go down to grab this guy. I’ll slow him down.” Epona casts daylight on the area, illuminating a small figure near the scarecrows. She then casts hold person, paralyzing the gnome.
“Gotcha!” Mathus says.
“Kerwyn, go tie him up good.”
“I’m on it.”
After the rope is tied, the spell wears off.
“Greem! Foota bee cloopt!” The gnome struggles like a madman.
“Uh, what’s he say?”
“He wants to be let go. Not surprising, really…”
“Tell him to calm down,” Epona says, drawing an arrow.
[Ok you, what's this all about?] Glod asks.
“Vee Noop creclackle to! Freepa veem tavo beek!”
“He wants the scarecrows put back up,” Glod says. [Why do they need to go back? They are causing trouble to the farmers, and have an evil aura about them.]
“Veema hast loopa gwee fritbo too!”
“Hmm, something about wanting the spell to go off correctly,” Glod says. [Why would we want it to go off correctly?]
“Mea favivi loopa sam moosa boo. Glipt fluvit meeka hoo samma gleeb…”
“Looks like the gnome who brought us here was right,” Glod says. “Some large magical event is going to occur. I don’t know about the fish, but the scarecrows are some sort of distributed runic thing.”
Mathus grabs the gnome by the throat. “Tell us what is going on!”
“Hey!” Glod says. “Keep that windpipe operational or we won’t get much information!”
“So as long as these scarecrows don’t go back up, will that stop whatever is suppose to happen?” Kerwyn asks. “Or will something even worse happen?”
Glod turns back to the gnome. “Llghes, ghnahs bredg neak blor teratog?”
“Glitt? GLITT? Farmaf graeg too teev sah mako?”
“Tama gwin suhul clip heeto…”
The gnome begins laughing and smiling widely. His matted beard covers most of his face, but his eerie smile gets through.
“Kerwyn, knock this guy out. We aren’t getting anything useful out of him for now. Arion and I will try and take down all the scarecrows.”
“Take Quoth along. He can help you spot them.”
“Thanks, Glod.”
Gante summons his steed. Mounting the horse, he gallops off into the fields.
—
The others, heading into town, are stopped by Quoth. “What are you doing back so soon?”
“Squawk! Gante’s found something unusual! There’s a pattern to these scarecrows.”
“Really,” Glod says. “What is it?”
“They’re in a weird shaped circle around the town!”
“Ah, that is interesting! Whatever the effect is will happen within the circle, and… hey! What if we were to reposition them? Preferably around our prisoner here…”
“Hmm, then he might be more willing to talk,” Epona says.
