Scenario 2.2: Crow Bait

“Hear ye, hear ye!” said the town crier. “Undead attack Sandpoint. Farmers report their crops have been trampled by skeletons and zombies! Possible villainous activity suspected! Mayor Kendra offers a reward! Random pick of items from the town armory for any group of adventurers that can stop the peril! Wheel of Luck now open at the General Store if you want to get some new equipment before taking them on!”

Ezren closed his spellbook. Okay, well, I guess it’s time to stop studying and get to an adventure again, he thought. Speaking of farmers – in his studies he had heard of magic spells that can create food and water, and techniques for creating magical items that can cast simple spells at-will. Why hadn’t anyone thought of making such an item that could create food and water at will? In that case, you wouldn’t need any more farmers, right? That would be a big help, because all the farmers could do other stuff instead, and you would never have to worry about starvation or famine again. On the other hand, if there were no farmers, there would be nobody to give new adventurers low-level pest-killing quests. Perhaps then new adventurers would have no way to advance, and then eventually old adventurers would retire and there would be no adventurers left at all, and then the lands would be easy prey for monsters, and monsters would kill everyone, and you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you? Who know? But anyway, right now, it was time to decide what to do. The monsters were getting tougher now, and they had heard rumors of villains that could not be defeated by just one of them. Thus they decided this time, to stick together. Ezren, Valeros, and Lem went to one of the farmhouses that had been attacked, to start their investigation. Harsk tried to cross a nearby bridge – he wanted to observe from afar to lend support, and he figured the bridge would offer a way to escape back in case of an unlucky villain encounter.

The inhabitants of the farmhouse introduced themselves. “I’m Farmer John, and this is my lovely wife Matilda,” the farmer said. “I’m so glad you’re here. I was really hoping you would be able to help us solve our rat problem…”

“Rat problem?” asked Valeros. “I thought we were dealing with the undead?”

“The undead, I don’t really mind so much. They wander through our fields, but don’t do much. It’s just they leave flesh everywhere, and the flesh attracts rats.”

Several giant rats – actually they weren’t really as giant as a giant rat, but were still much bigger than a regular rate, so more of badger-sized rats – crept out of the cellar and started running around. “See what I mean?” Farmer John said.

“Oh, man, not these again,” Valeros said, as he drew his longsword to slash at the rats. Lem joined in with his song:

We can kill the rats, but they will come back,

As long as they think that your house has good snacks.

Valeros slashed the rats to death, and they went around the house patching up rat holes. The rats weren’t that hard to kill, he figured just about anyone with a good sword could do it. You’d think that these farmers would learn to solve their own problems and not rely on adventurers for everything, Valeros thought.

Meanwhile, Harsk was exploring by the wooden bridge, where he saw Ven Vinder, proprietor of the General Store. “What are you doing out here?” he asked. “I didn’t realize you were an adventurer as well.”

“Mayor Kendra asked me to come out here,” Ven Vinder explained. “She says that one thing that encourages adventurers is the chance of meeting random interesting characters out there, and I guess I count as an interesting character. I guess that’s a compliment. Yeah, it’s weird. I’ve heard rumors that the mayor herself is planning on going into a random dungeon, just so that some lucky adventurer has the pleasure of rescuing her.”

“I’m happy to help you explore the area,” Harsk said. They explored a bit and came across a chest that was just lying there, that had a nice elven breastplate in it. Maybe the mayor had put that there too – who knows? Harsk said a brief prayer to the gods looking for extra treasure, and upon looking further in the chest found a potion of ghostly form. An archer ally also helped them search the area and found a night watch, but they went off and did their own thing rather than going back with Harsk. Harsk looked around, and found there was a small graveyard nearby, that looked like it was possibly haunted by the undead…

Meanwhile, back at the farmhouse, the farmers were pleased that the rat problem have been solved. “Unfortunately we also have an ogre problem,” Matilda said. Matilda led them out to a barn, where an ogre burst through the doors. Lem was able to kill the ogre, but only with the help of his party and by calling on one of his limited blessings of the gods. Ezren was suspicious of why the ogre was there, and used a spell of detect magic, which led him to a corpse in the corner of the room that had an Amulet of Mighty Fists laying on it. Probably this was someone else who was killed by the ogre.

The party by now suspected that John and Matilda had something they weren’t telling. Farmers having rat problems wasn’t too surprising, but a farmer having an ogre problem? And a corpse with a mggical item just laying there? That doesn’t look right. But rather than confronting them directly the party continued trying to gather more information. Ezren tried to detect magic again, and that led him to something else – a blast stone! This was even more suspicious. The suspicions were confirmed when Valeros continued exploring and found a tickwood boar. He was able to beat it up with his mace, but still – this was not normal.

Meanwhile, Harsk decided to brave the graveyard – encountering the undead head on was the only way to find its source. He triggered a skeleton horde that attacked, but the party’s forces combined was easily able to defeat it. In fact they felt a little invigorated by the fight – litike they had recharged their energy and were ready to take on more challenges. Harsk moved on more deeply into the graveyard, calling upon the gods for aid, and found – a ghoul scarecrow! With a speed spell from Ezren he shot the scarecrow, then went back and chopped down one of the bridges in the area so the skeletons could not make it back to the main town. Lem caught up with Harsk, and together they prayed to the gods, and felt their strength returning.

While they still had not gotten to the bottom of the farmhouse issues, Ezren’s mind still churned, remembering new spells, and he remembered a spell of visions. He had visions of weird stuff happening at the Desecrated Vault, so he went there to perform an augury reading. He saw visions of monsters, which he avoided, but ran into another monster, although the new monster was an easily defeated zombie. He also released a pet toad which Lem had given him, which found a potion of gracefulness with Ezren discarded as useless.

Valeros kept exploring the farmhouse, more carefully this time. He tripped on something which rang a bell, then he realized this was a bell to alert the goblins! He heard goblin war cries, and goblins attacked the farmhouse. He was able to drive off the goblins, but kept going forward and continued encountering monsters. He returned to John and Matilda.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked. “What are you hiding?”

“This!” John said, as a scarecrow golem crashed through the door of the farmhouse. It took a strength spell from Ezren to make Valeros strong enough to kill the golem, and when he did, the golem exploded, revealing a plague zombie inside it. Fortunately the strength spell hadn’t worn off yet, so Valeros was able to kill the plague zombie as well.

“I’m placing you both under arrest for willfully harboring evil as well as for obstruction of an investigation of villainy,” Valeros said. “Please come with me and we will return you to the city guard. You have seen how I can defeat these monsters, so do not try to resist me.”

>>> 

Harsk went into the woods to search, and found a yeth hound, which he was able to defeat. Meanwhile, Lem joined Ezren at the Desecrated Vault – and walked right in on a group of skinsaw cultists performing a ritual! Lem had no weapon – Harsk had told him he would give him his crossbow, but must have forgotten before heading out into the woods. Lem put on his Cape of Escape and ran back to the guard tower to report the news, while Ezren killed the cultists with a lightning bolt spell. Ezren continued exploring and found a ghoul scarecrow, which he defeated with his longspear. He was now getting close to the center of the vault, and had a choice. He could purify the vault now and leave, or he could continue exploring. He chose to purify the vault now and leave. On the way out he heard a voice from the gods:

What is it that you desire to aid in your quests?

“I desire the ability to cover more ground, that we can find the villain faster.”

Perhaps you would have had a spell that could do that, had you not turned back so quickly. It is only by taking risks that you can find great reward. We give you a full thirty blessings on each quest for a reason. Do not waste them.

>>>

Valeros joined Lem at the guard tower, where the guards were trying to fend off another ghoul scarecrow. Valeros joined the fight and killed the ghoul scarecrow. Heeding the advice they gave to Ezren, Valeros decided to stay at the guard tower, hoping to find out more information and get more equipment. Soon a stray dog approached the guard tower. Lem started his song.

It’s a dog! It’s a dog! It can help us search!

If we don’t use it then the villain might leave us in the lurch!

Lem and Valeros charmed the dog. And just like in the first adventure, the dog let them right into the hands of some cultists! These weren’t ordinary cultists, they were skinsaw cultists. As usual Lem took the easy way out and cast a sanctuary spell, leaving Valeros to fight off the cultists. A bandit tried to rob Lem, but he just ran away. Lem walked back to the guard tower, where the guards were trying to figure out who should get a Flaming Mace +1 that they had looted from a monster recently. Unfortunately it wasn’t Lem, since he had no idea how to wield such a beast.

Ezren also walked in on the action, and the guards were doing the same thing with a Bastard Sword +1. Aldern Foxglove was also there, and when he saw Ezren come in, he asked him if he wanted the sword. Ezren wanted in because Valeros could use it.

“If you give me that bastard sword, I’ll get Mayor Kendra to increase your vacation time and health benefits,” Aldern told the guards. The guard agreed and gave him the sword. Then he and Lem cast some healing spells, and Ezren started exploring outside some more. A storm of carrions bore down on him, and Lem started his battle song:

It’s some birds! It’s some birds! Real bad birds these are,

But we all know your magic powers beat their strength by far!

That was true; unfortunately, Ezren didn’t remember any of the spells. He did have a longspear though, which he was able to use to kill the carrionstorm, although it took some help from Harsk and Valeros, and the longspear broke in the fight. They heard someone singing of their victory – it was Ameiko Kaijitsu! Lem sang to her as well:

That was tough! That was tough! We could really use a drink,

That way we can get back our spells and really think!

Ameiko gave them some drinks, which were refreshing. Ezren remembered his lightning bolt spell again.

Valeros killed another bandit (bandits always seems to attack the guard tower, which was weird, because one would think that that would be the least likely place that a bandit would attack), But e killed the bandit, and the bandit was carrying a mattock and a cloak of elvenkind. He went into the guard tower to divide up the loot, and he got the mattock but one of the other guards got the cloak. That was it for what was there.

Harsk continued exploring the woods and found a dead body. It was long dead, so he didn’t care much what happened to it, it was just good because of the loot. There was a small magic dagger and some caltrops – he didn’t really care much about the caltrops, although the dagger was nice.

Lem started to explore the general store and was soon saw the villain Rogors Craesby! This was basically a repeat of what had happened last time – thirteen blessings left, and they decided to just end it here. The villain was captured and brought to Sandpoint’s prison.