Feywild: Into the 'Wild Blue Yonder':

[Spearmint]

Health Status

Moriartus, 13/13hp
Dougal (Conmhaol), 23/23hp (5/8hp)
Raven (Lenore), 6/8hp (12/12hp with Familiar) (4/4hp)
Jorly, 7/13hp
Dalin, 23/23hp
Dufr, 5/6hp
Hake, 10/10hp

Two-Birds, 7/9hp (benefitting from +4 temporary hp)
Ben 11/12hp
Jake, 12/12hp
Froed, 1/6hp
Ash Gnolem 6/6hp

Village of the Damned

Moriartus nice anticipation and planning. What could have been a dramatic an dreadful fire, blown by wind and fuelled by bone dry crops to become a nightmarish hell to the hamlet actually becomes a controlled flame, the tongues dancing large in heat and size to chase and harass the Scarecrows who try and fail to 'blink' in and out of the flaming conflagration. With coordinated help from Ben n' Jake, you can pinpoint the Scarecrows and immolate each completely and then with the fire under control, reduce it to mere embers that can be extinguished altogether underfoot.

Those still on the fringe can assist in quelling any reigniting sparks and secure the rest of the cornfield crop. The rat swarm chased away by Hake or burned alive if among the crops. Coming to from their mesmerized state, Jorly, Raven & Dougal recover. Lenore returns to her master once summoned. The group can walk into the hamlet, their presence well and truly announced as heard by the distant clanging bell.

In the hamlet, Dufr watches the older man ladle his stew into the churns. At the sound of the bell he stops his cooking, dousing the hearth flame and grabbing two churns in each hand, waddles quickly out of the back door and towards a stone well. There he looks downwards and reverses over the wall, seeming to climb down a ladder in the well shaft interior. After a few moments he returns up, reaches over the wall to grab the two other churns he left behind from the first descent. He does not reappear.

Dalin curses his luck, but not out aloud. He can remove his trapped boot from the splintered decking hole but the failed FRT check to free himself means the woman who rings the bell frantically, goes back into her cabin, snatched up the sleeping child and runs out the door. She trips over an unseen dwarven hazard, sprawling upon the decking and dropping the sleeping baby with a thud. The harsh fall does not wake the baby though it rolls free of the blanket bundles it is coddled up in. Landing at Dalin's feet, the dwarf can see the baby is actually deceased, not from this fall but some unknown cause of a few days ago.

The woman reaches to grab her baby again but senses the unseen dwarf on the decking. Drawing a blade from her side, she blindly stabs out, warding the baby from the danger or threat she thinks she perceives.

Harassed woman: dagger vs Dalin [1d20-4]=15-4=11 [1d4]=1

After not stabbing Dalin (and I will assume you leave her be), she takes the dead baby and seeing the continuing rise and fall of the flames in the field, runs also to hamlet well and climbs inside herself.

The group can rejoin together as enter the village and take stock of the situation.

Actions please.

[Rex]

Dufr

Dufr checks out the stone well. Looking down, checking for a ladder etc.

[Spearmint]

Dufr checks out the stone well. Looking down, checking for a ladder etc.

You can sneak to the well. Looking down inside, there is a ladder which descends about forty feet or so. The bottom of the well is probably only ankle deep in water and there must be a wider cistern or cave at the bottom where the old man and woman have taken refuge.

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


Assembled in the village, he nods at Jorly, Raven, and Dougal. "It was the scarecrows. Some kind of enchanted, evil, constructs. Care of the hag, no doubt." He looks about the deserted hamlet. "I heard an alarm bell. I had thought if anyone was still here they would attempt to extinguish the fire. Any sign of Dalin or Dufr?"

[GreyWolfVT]

Dalin leaves the woman alone lets her leave and works on freeing his boot and going back to the others.

[Rex]

Dufr

Dufr heads back to the others.

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


I assume Dalin and Dufr anounce their presence. "Mr. Dalin, Mr.Dufr, you missed quite a nasty encounter in the fields." He recounts the scarecrows, rats, and subsequent fire. "I assume that bell was not your doing?" Any sign of living inhabitants?" He emphasizes this last part, recalling the encounter with the blight wights in the Sylvanus shrine.

[Rex]

Dufr

"Yes, the huts were occupied. When the bell started they headed to the stone well and went down inside. I checked it out and there is a ladder inside that leads down to some sort of underground place. Caves maybe. the water looked to be pretty shallow."

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


"Indeed? Well, perhaps we should introduce ourselves." He proceeds to the lip of the well and hails down its shaft.

"Hello! My name is Moriartus. We come in service of the Green Man, to cleanse the blight from the sacred grove! The scarecrows in the field are destroyed. The fire extinguished!"

Charisma (17): [4d6]=18

[Spearmint]

"Hello! My name is Moriartus. We come in service of the Green Man ..."

There is no immediate answer to your call. Perhaps you need shout louder or go down ...

[GreyWolfVT]

Dalin "I had a bit of a strange encounter myself. Lady came running out carrying a dead baby that'd been dead for a while. She stabbed at me and then left."

[Rex]

Dufr

Assuming I am still invisible.

"I can go down and scout first."

Dufr heads down the ladder.

[Spearmint]

Assuming I am still invisible.

that is correct.

Could you roll a Move Silently please.

[Rex]

Dufr

Move Silently (15%) [1d100]=61

[ravenn4544]

Jorly watches and listens as he collects himself still. Not eager to jump into any action - and it seems the others are taking the next steps as appropriate already.

[Spearmint]

Ok. The hamlet is otherwise empty of people though goats are still in a pen. So there isn't much more for the group to do otherwise apart from waiting on Dufr to report back. You can search a few cabins, I will update any discoveries in the next main update.

I will conduct Dufr's delve in the well shaft in his private thread until he can make public what he discovers.

[Spearmint]

There are a tense few moments of staring down the dark well shaft, waiting on an invisible Dufr to return.

You vaguely hear several loud splashes, a grunt ...

Another tense moment when you might consider sending the next visible dwarf to follow after the first or even monk Jorly to rappel down the shaft and find out what is going on.

Then Dufr appears in the flesh, holding a struck firebrand to light up the cistern bottom. He looks up and waves,

"It is a group of villagers, mostly women and children hiding down here. They need our help dealing with something they call 'The Stalkers'. Can one of you come down and shown them we are not 'The Stalkers'?"

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


"I will come down." Moriartus hands his staff to Two-Birds and slowly, but carefully, climbs down the well's ladder.

[Spearmint]

Moriartus climbs down the rickety ladder, stepping upon the loose rungs and descending the tight confines until he can step off the ladder some forty feet below. Looking upwards you can see the silhouette of Dougal and others looking down.

The water in ankle deep and you make little splashes and ripples as you stand at the shaft bottom. The well shaft is about 5'ft in diameter, descending about 35'ft before it widens out into a natural cistern at the bottom. The waters flowing into the cistern have worn some ledges which rise above the current waterline. One of these ledges is like a large flat platform and huddled upon that are a few villagers; the old man, several urchins and the harassed woman among others. Looking around, you estimate maybe twenty people, mostly children or youths shelter here in various states of distress. Grimy, some with recent wounds bandaged. The churns contain a stew which has been ladled into bowls for each. They must be hiding here in fear of some evil above. You have of course, seen the hamlet cabins ransacked and distressed.

They are still very wary, but make room for you to come onto a ledge and out the water. Dufr is there, introducing you to Heston, the elder man.

"We are wary of strangers and she struck the bell when the fields were aflame. We have sheltered here several days now." he says forlornly.

I am going to smooth the waters here, as your group present a modicum of security that will mean these villagers climb back out of the cistern and into the village where you can talk with him in a more suitable environment.

Actions obviously ask what is going on and script any specific help you give to the villagers, (healing spells, potions, 1st Aid, etc).

[Quonundrum]

Moriartus


"Greetings, Mr. Heston. I am Moriartus. The evil and corruption of the blight is slowly expanding from the sacred grove. I suspect the Stalkers are yet another symptom of the blight. Who, or what, are they? We will certainly help you against these creatures." He pauses to survey the mostly women and children of the hamlet. "What of your menfolk?"

He produces a chunk of honeycomb and offers it to Heston. "For your injured, it has healing properties. We also have some food and can share what little we have. We were only provisioned for a short expedition. I was honestly not expecting to encounter any settlements."