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"We are likely being watched as we speak," Mouser says, looking around the dark surroundings. "We need to leave the area, throw them off, regain an element of surprise, get on the offensive. Any building becomes a trap for us. The wilderness is safer."
Inferno wrote:To the distant north, the heroes hear an owl. Then again, to the far south. They cannot see the cornfield to the east, from whence the ferocious attack was launched.
The anxious thief peers into into the trees. "My old mentor told me to listen to nature's words. I'm not sure if she warned me of something." He turns to Bo the druid. "When we escaped, did you hear the owl north of us? Then to the south? Is that normal? Can you speak with the avians about to discover if we are being tracked by the owls?"
"When I was stuck in the cage I did some thinking back on rumors we heard. One was the town water was poisoned and drove the villagers mad. And a dark sorcerer is in the Dim Forest. And that villagers were being replaced with changelings, recognizeable by fang marks on their throats. Did anyone notice fang marks on villagers necks?"
Inferno wrote:“Quite!” said one of the other adventurer-guests of the Anchor and the Bell; a drowsy, white-bearded man with a young, mercurial spirit. “They say the well water at Briarsgate has been poisoned by a rather powerful drug. The poor villagers have gone mad, you see.”
“No,” said a dark, thin spider of a man with a black turban atop his high head. His suspicious eyes slid across the room as he solemnly uttered, “I’ve heard it whispered that a black sorcerer from the Valley of the Mage has moved to the Dim Forest, to work his foul enchantments upon the unsuspecting townsfolk.”
A large, hairy, well-dressed half-orc looked down his wide nose and proclaimed, “Stuff and Nonsense! I Dare Say, None of You Have The Gist Of It! If I May Be So Bold, Positively Everyone Who is In The Know Recognizes That The Good People of Briarsgate Are Being Replaced! And Their Ghastly ‘Changeling,’ if you will, Can Be Recognized by Two Dread Fang Marks On Their Throat! Rest Assured, You Have It Upon My Word As A Gentleman.”
"I didn't look that closely at the villagers, Mouser. That could certain explain their actions. I agree with Avril in vacating this town. I would rather take my chances with what lies in the woods than the inhabitants of this village. There is also a matter of importance I like to bring up but not while the ears of this town are still listening upon us."
"Oh Khorst, where are you when we need you the most?.." Ingrid whispers almost inaudibly. Then she re-joins the conversation.
"Fang marks, you say? No, what I've seen here doesn't resemble the thrall of a vampyr. Trust me on that. Beswill alone - yes, he may be the servant of some bloodsucking in-breeding baron of Briarsgate, but this isn't a vampyr's doing. My old friend Henri Kolde told me about certain types of charms - mass hypnosis he called it, if I remember correctly, that can affect a whole crowd of people... Especially if their will is tamed by poison or drinks beforehand."
"Hoom is right, though. We got to get moving. Let Bo's avian friend scout out whether there are vermin around us, and then move through the cornfield to the east."
"Agreed," says Grothnak. "Let's get out of here. Maybe we can leave a sentry on the road back to town. Bo, is that something one of your animal friends could do?"
Bo continuously nods his head as the others ask him their questions. He seems to be thinking about all the things that everyone said, trying to tie them all together in his mind.
He begins to mumble some words that sound like mostly gibberish to your ears. He takes Sephus by his legs and whispers some things into his tiny ear. He then releases the black crow into the air and it quickly flies off into the darkness.
I saw no bite marks on any of the people I've seen in this town. I heard the Owls as well, or the supposed owls I should say. I have instructed my bird to fly around a bit to see what we cannot. He will then return to tell me what he has found. After that, I will have him seek out other possible avian friends and will recruit them to watch over this entire area for us. Hopefully the animals of this area are a little easier to deal with than the people.
As Sephus flies off, Bo dons his gear and follows the others already on the move.
Inferno wrote:A large, hairy, well-dressed half-orc looked down his wide nose and proclaimed, “Stuff and Nonsense! I Dare Say, None of You Have The Gist Of It! If I May Be So Bold, Positively Everyone Who is In The Know Recognizes That The Good People of Briarsgate Are Being Replaced! And Their Ghastly ‘Changeling,’ if you will, Can Be Recognized by Two Dread Fang Marks On Their Throat! Rest Assured, You Have It Upon My Word As A Gentleman.”
Heeeeey... I recognize this guy...
"Perhaps you're right - the temple may not be worth the risk in our present state," agrees Telkis. "And the bird keeping watch should help, with me using my dark vision in a rear- guard position, perhaps? And Grothnak in the lead? Or vice versa." He listens to the others plan and at he's Bo release his crow. "I can also try speaking with the field-mice again - if they have any conscience at all, they may feel bad about how their reluctance to help turned out last night - it could have just as easily been their precious fields that burned... I'll speak with them again if I see one." He looks around. "Mouser is right. As we're being watched now, we might want "leave" in another direction, then loop around to the abandoned farmhouse, if that's where we're going. Of course, the fact that it's abandoned means their reach extends at least that far... so that's something to consider."
Coughs continue to rack Pelias's chest. He continues to look down upon the ground, eyes devoid of emotion. He speaks in slow monotone "I care not where we go. Lead the way and I will accompany."
"I've been here less than a day, and I've already had my fill of this town,"Avril spits in disgust. "If there are good people here in the town, they deserve to be saved, but that determination is best made after a night of rest... outside the reach of this town," she says matter-of-factly. "The abandoned farmhouse I observed is a few miles east of town." she says, pointing west, in the opposite direction, on the odd chance they are currently being observed. "That is where I plan to spend what is left of this night," she says, eyeing the rest of the group, all still relative strangers to her. "Anyone interested in accompanying me is welcome."
"I am leaving this way --" she says, again pointing west, "-- and, once this cursed town is out of my sight, I will circle back, careful to disguise my tracks, and find my way back to Hookhill Road which will lead me, or us, there." She pauses for a moment, allowing her plans to sink in, before continuing. "Absent a better option, it is the best course of action, no? And," she adds, "We're not even certain we will be pursued. Perhaps what is controlling their minds even prevents them from leaving? Regardless, with proper precautions, I find it difficult to believe a significant enough number of them would be able to follow us the entire way without being detected."
She pauses a moment, looking from one member to the next. "There is no time to waste," she says, before turning and walking towards the exit leading west out of town. Avril is determined to carry out her plan whether she is accompanied or not. If not, however, she will bid the group adieu and hint that their paths will cross again.
Telkis follows Avril and (presumably) the others, staying towards the rear, keeping an eye out behind as much as possible using his infravision. He will also keep an eye out for any field mice. If he sees one along their way, he'll momentarily drop to the ground, lying on his stomach and speak to it in the soft, staccato squeaks and twitches of that race, hoping his dialect is close enough to the local one to be understood. In mouse, he says, indicating the burning barn: "Do you see? Do you see now, friend? This could be the fate of your precious fields of grain. At any rate, if we do not defeat the evil in this town, there will be no planting next year, no more grain and then... hungry, hungry mice." He eyes them with a kind of gentle sternness. "Please help us as you are able, and I vow to help you as I am, in turn. All I ask is that, as you go about your business, you note anyone sneaking behind us, or skulking ahead of us, and alert me if you can, perhaps using a kind of relay system from mouse to mouse. I thank you." He holds out his pinky for the common "fist-bump" gesture mice use to seal agreements. Then he jumps back up and resumes following the party.
Grothnak glares at Avril. "What did I just say about threatening to run off alone?" he growls. "It is not a matter of your own safety. Anyone who goes off on her own could come back an enemy. We must remain together!" He slams the butt of Vadok against the ground for emphasis. "Afar vadokanuk! If one more person says, 'This is what I'm going to do, anyone who wants can come with me'—" He looks around and his voice trails off. "It won't be pretty," he finishes lamely.
He sighs and loosens his grip on his halberd. "We were planning to go to the farmhouse anyway. But if this bunch of foshnus does not start working together, we will die!"
Having said his piece, he proceeds along with the group.
Bo smiles at the gruff words of the half-orc, thinking of a few comebacks.
He decides to leave it alone as he knows the brute means well enough. He silently follows the new elf with her plan while watching the night sky for his bird friends.
Day Five
Village of Briarsgate, An Abandoned Barn
Thursday, October 20th, 576 CY. Hours before dawn.
Cold, mist
The adventurers narrowly escape the fiery deathtrap of the Book Family's Abandoned Barn (17). In the raging, riotous light of Vodarte's massive funeral pyre, the adventurers discuss and debate their next move as they don and secure their armor and possessions.
Long Bo the druid casts a magic spell, whispers to Sephus the crow, and sends him flying up into the sky upon wings as pitch as night.
Telkis returns to the field mice, requesting their aid again. The fat little rascals exhibit much less cheek in the forge-like heat of the roaring inferno near their food source. Jenkins, the spokesman for the field mice, squeaks in a high-pitched voice, "Oh, master gnome, sir! Please forgive us! We're ever so sorry! We didn't know! We'll spread the word and be watchful whenever we can!"
Ingrid secures her midnight-black horse,...
...the party's last surviving steed, and pads its hooves with strips of torn cloth to muffle its sound.
Avril spreads mud on her fair skin and pointedly points west for the benefit of any who might be watching.
Then the heroes set out west, into the black heart of Briarsgate. The forsaken village is as dark as a wolf's mouth. Disconcerting, stygian shadows loom and writhe as if of their own volition. Visibility remains near sixty feet due to the low-lying mist and the night. The torchless procession allows the demihumans to keep watch for any enemies that may be following. But none are discovered.
The adventurers progress westward on the muddy main road, passing many darkened buildings in town, including the Blacksmith (15), a Rundown Farmhouse (13), and the Mayor's Residence (10), ominous and foreboding in the night.
They pass the Small Whitewashed Cottage (9) where Hoom heard Elves were said to live, the General Mercantile Store (12), the Jeweler and Moneychanger, one F.A. Praetorius (7), and the Golden Grain Inn (6), now as lightless, shut and silent as a mouth that's been sewn closed. Of the deranged, murderous rampage that the party had witnessed here today with its own disbelieving eyes, there was now no outward sign.
They cross by the Weaver's Shoppe (5) that Felicity had told them about. They pass the darkened Constables' Quarters (2) where Bo had been questioned by the town's lawmen. Finally, they proceed down the west road out of town, passing between the town Graveyard (west of 4)...
...and old Hewitt Twaine's Sheep Meadow (west of 1), where the sheep silently, intently watch.
At this ungodly hour, the entire village is eerily cloaked in a chill penumbra of silence, darkness, and unsettling normalcy.
The adventurers escape Briarsgate on the western road toward the Dim Forest and Hochoch, passing through the wall of rose briars for which the town was named. They soon see the outlying farms, murky, vague in diffused moonlight. Intermittently, the harvest moon breaks out from the fog and the fleeing thunderheads.
After a league on the trail west to Hochoch, the party sees they are being followed by a small murder of crows. Sephus alights on Bo's shoulder and says to him, "They stopped shadowing you when you left the village."
With this information, the adventurers circle around Briarsgate to its north, traveling cross-country over farm fields, trying to cover their tracks as best they are able in mud and with a horse.
Map to Briarsgate.jpg (161.59 KiB) Viewed 860 times
After passing around the village, the adventurers continue their arc southward and find the Hookhill Road, a league east of Briarsgate's borders. Before the road forks, one path north to Hookhill and one path east to Shiboleth, the adventurers find the forlorn farmhouse that Avril saw yesterday.
A dim, smudged, twilight dawn slowly awakens. The mist smothers visibility at one hundred feet but from the road they can see tall, unharvested crops that signal abandonment.
Bo's murder of crows wheels overhead and raids the overgrown cornfield with a fierce, predatory hunger.
Sephus lands on Long Bo's shoulder, cawing. The druid utters magic words of power so he can understand the crow's report: "No one followed us here. They stopped hours back, when you left the town at its western border."
Sephus looked east. "No one is around. Now's our chance. We should just continue on, to Hookhill or Shiboleth, away from Briarsgate forever. In the name of all that is holy, I implore you. Please. Let us leave this hellish nightmare... and live."
Actions?
Fyi:
You are standing on the Hookhill Road, one league east of Briarsgate, before an abandoned farmhouse, at dawn.
Wakefulness:
Avril, Grothnak, Pelias and Telkis have had 2.5 hours of sleep.
Bo, Hoom, Ingrid and Mouser have had 5 hours of sleep.
Ingrid, Mouser and Telkis remain groggy from their poisoning.
Each dawn:
Everyone gains their daily healing. Please see the new House Rule for healing, and post your die roll.
Also, Pelias recovers his ability to lay hands.
In order to recover spells:
Avril first needs 4 hours of sleep. Bo, Hoom and Ingrid need 2 hours of sleep.
After resting, the spellcasters then need to pray/study/meditate for 15 minutes for each 1st level spell slot, and 30 minutes per 2nd level spell slot.
Thanks.
Status: Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/1: AC 7, HP 9/9, Spells: 0/3 1st lvl Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 4, HP 9/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl. Slightly groggy (-1 to hit) Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 2: AC 4, HP 7/17 Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 3, HP 6/8, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 13/16, Spells: 0/4 1st lvl and 2/3 2nd lvl. Groggy (-2 to hit) Long Bo, Human Druid 2: AC 6, HP 5/15, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 0/2 2nd lvl Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 6/19, Laying Hands: 1/1 Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 2: AC 0, HP 13/19 Groggy (-2 to hit)
Magic: Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
"Now that we are free of spying eyes and cupped ears I must tell you some very important. While rescuing Mouser, Ingrid, and Vodarte I acquired some of Bertram financal papers. It seems that the Golden Grain Inn was merely a front for something else. The business was making very little money. Not enough to stay opening. I also found a deed for a building in Hookhill that Bertram recently purchased." Hoom stops speaking and digs through his pack pulling out a handful of papers. He then extend them out to the party. "See for yourselves."
Inferno wrote:
Hoom... secretly reviews the parchment pages he stole from Bertram Beswill's desk. He alone sees that they are financial papers. Some purport to be bookkeeping records of the Golden Grain Inn. Reading them, it's apparent that the inn isn't a real, functioning business. Another paper is a deed. It seems that Bertram Beswill recently purchased an inn in the capital city of Hookhill.
Bo lets his new sentries eat to their fill, including Sephus. He then sets them around the area, instructing Sephus to have them caw loudly if any danger approaches the farmhouse while the group sleeps.
He takes a shift at watch if the group thinks that is still necessary, then he sleeps and meditates whenever possible.
There has to be some folks in that town that are still worth trying to save. I think we need to make a stealthier approach next time. If the cultists don't know we've returned, we might be able to infiltrate their group and discover what is going on back there.
