"Yes"! "Tie her up tightly". "I'm afraid she might turn into one of those bug things if we kill here, and we're in no condition to fight right now".
Soon the Lupescus and the crew are all gathered at the mayor's house once again albeit in far different circumstances. Ma, Pa, and Anya are firmly tied to chairs and look like they've had better days.
Anya finally comes around, blinking, and trying to take in her new situation.
Tum-Bobo has been its inscrutable self, but you could swear it is watching the fallen Kaul with something possibly resembling concern or at least great interest.
Dibbets collapses next to wherever Kaul is laid in rest for the night. He still holds on to Tum-bobblehead in one hand, and just before sleep claims him as a victim he whispers "I'm watchin ye"
"If there be no windows in the pantry, best we set up in the kitchen so we have a place to retreat should the bug return. Tomorrow we can search the place."
Before turning in Dibbs suggests "Leave one o' the culties tied in front so they'll get fed on first like. Iffin the skeeter comes back we ken get alerted when they scream."
"Right." Moving gingerly, Jim sets the chairs with the bound captives in front of the doors to the kitchen. "Make yourselves comfortable, folks. This may be a long night." He'll settle in and keep watch while the spellcasters sack out. Before Anya's parents wake up, Jim will try to get her talking about the settlement in general; what she knows about its history, and like that. If any of them start yelling, he'll gag them.
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"I don't like that he builds a bookcase when he has so few books. I am too beat to worry about it now, but will sleep against it if something tries to move it aside..from behind or beneath."
Kaul's fevered state between the soul's time and tide feature dreams (visions?) of a leering monkey effigy feasting on chitinous demons and, perhaps most concerningly... Dibbets unrolling an oversized tongue...
At Jim's questioning, Anya's eyes roll back and she speaks in a very formal voice, "It is written that in the early days Aroden forsook us and we were lost upon the shore and we were preyed upon by the bandits of the coast and the hunters in the woods. Then did Iola Kriegler receive a vision that even the weak and vulnerable might feed on the powerful like the tick feasts upon the lion and worm feeds upon the king. The great god Ghlaunder sent us two of his servants, the Ugothol, to teach her and we survived and prospered.
The Kriegler line has ruled us for several generations now and the Ugothol strengthen us though only the select few know it."
Before she can continue there is a pounding on the front door and you hear shouts for the Mayor, "Mayor! Mayor! The corn fields are burning!"
Dibbets rolls his eyes as the pounding starts at the door "Jus what we bloody need. I'll stay wi lummox here" patting Kaul on his scarred noggin.
Jim will stay still, murmuring to any of the Lupescus who might be awake, "Not a sound."
The hostages are quiet as church mice. Around the front of the house, the voice grows more desperate. "Mayor, are you there? The fields are BURNING!"
Then the voice falls silent. A faint buzzing sound is heard that steadily grows louder and then a piercing scream fills the air followed by yelling and shouts as the villagers quickly retreat from the manor.
Guess the fire didn't do for the bug.... Jim hisses, "Dingus! Mate, sniff out any magic the Mayor might've had here sharpish, or we're dead men! Groom, see if there's anything else he left around."
The fields are burning....and yet the harvest continues...fools
the Groom arises at Jim's hisses. Seems Morning has arrived on bloody wings.
He will search the library, including the big bookcase, trying to move it from the wall.
Deep in torpor, Kaul's mind dances with more nightmarish dreams: a field of maggot trees nourished by bloody rain; a mishapen pig split roast... and Dingus unrolling an oversized...
Dibbs waits quietly with Kaul's insensate form. To relieve the tension and boredom he busies himself with tickling one of Kaul's ears so that he bats at it like a cat in the depths of his slumber.
"Yes, I guess I might as well give a look around".
Dingus takes 20 on his search, and liberally uses detect magic as he searches the house...feeling better by the minute.
The few books on the shelves appear to be horticultural in nature and a couple outdated almanacs. One book appears to be a sketchbook of nightmarish figures that blend bug and man. It's creepy, but good enough you reckon someone would pay good money for it.
More to the point the back of the bottom shelf does indeed slide aside and the Groom finds a damp chest behind it.
Dingus' search reveals a pair of magical potions in the pantry.
Outside you hear more screaming as the buzzing moves away from the manor and in the direction of fleeing villagers.
Hearing the buzzing move away, Dibbets yawns and succumbs to the sweet sweet sleep of the exhausted. Nuzzling into Kaul's armpit and using his shoulder as a pillow, contented snores soon echo quietly through the house.
The Groom flips through the books, "Now who would make some pact with a god to become something, not quite a man" <cough, cough, gurgle> But he slips the book into his satchel for later study., Might be a way to pull the Man out of the Mansquito.
the Groom then reaches into the cavity he discovered. "Come here Darlin'", as he pulls the chest out.
Listening to the fading screams of the villagers, "T'was worth it. Now to see how much worth."
as he looks for any obvious traps or if the Mayor managed to open it.
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Deep within himself, Kaul futilely swats away the firebugs that buzz annoyingly in his ear. Then the insects scatter as Gumbo, his long lost pet donkey rat, nuzzles affectionately into the crook of his armpit.
Kaul snores loudly and a broad jagged smile spreads across his mug as he affectionately strokes the soft folds of Gumbo’s hairy belly... ;)
The locked chest looks to have been unopened and the punky wood around the lock of the old wooden chest is easily prised apart. Once opened, the Groom finds the goblin hoard: a mass of tarnished silver coins called black skulls in Freeport parlance, some assorted low quality jewelry, a few vials, and a manky old hand on a cord.
"Well, there's what we came for. Any potions? Dingus can try to riddle out what sort of magic they are, for we're all in dire need of healing draughts. Especially Kau--oh, gods. I didn't need to see that...best we not wake those two up for a while."
The night passes without further disturbance and dawn breaks with the smell of burned corn and faint sunbeams passing through the heavy black smoke that has infiltrated the house. Half-Hitch wanders down from the upper bedrooms about then and asks what's for breakfast.
At some point during the night Dibbets had rolled over and threw a leg across Kaul's stomach. Coming to with the sun from outside penetrating in, he squints his eyes as he wakes up slowly. Resting in position for a few tens of seconds he eventually tears himself from Kaul's hairy pit - leaving behind a pooled gobbet of congealed drool. Standing up to stretch out with popping joints and creaking neck he gives HH a dagger laden stare, but lets him stew awhile without comment.
Jim rouses himself slowly, the events of the evening before coming back to him in a rush. I'm alive...that wasn't quite a given, the way that fight went last night. He eyes the halfling with suspicion, apparently not sure if he's going to turn into a monster again. "Well, Half-Hitch, the kitchen's there. I need to find the head, myself."
On returning, he checks on the Lupescus.
Spellcraft: Potion 1
Spellcraft: Potion 2
Dingus stands up and stretches. Well, I feel a lot better". "Nothing like a good nights sleep".
Dibbs follows Jimmer out the back for a bladder relief moment, and looks much improved when he returns to the others.
He then moves over to Kaul's laid out body and lets the indifference of Gozreh flow through his hands and over the scarred half-orc...
Any chance o' getting a Heal Check for the night's rest so old Kauly can recover double hit points? Purty Please...
After Dibbet’s curative touch brings him round, Kaul seems not too worse for wear... apart from some light wounds and a curiously gummy armpit...
The brute smiles, then his scarred face drops as he realises that his visions of a young half orc and his loyal rat were but a dream.
”Hur. Been sleeping again ain’t I? What I miss?? The buggering bugger taken care o’???”
The thug stretches his battered body, wipes his slimy pit and looks around for his weaponry and monkey effigy.
Spellcraft potion
Spellcraft wand
Well rested and more alert, Dingus identifies the rest of the Mayor's gear.
Jim finds all the Lupescus awake, but not looking too good. The father squints through his swollen eyes, breathing heavily through a broken nose and mumbles, "What are you going to do with us?"
Anya pleads through her sobbing, "Let us go. We're awful sorry for all the trouble we caused you."
As an aside to Kaul "Heh - too optimistic laddie, the skeeter man's still flyin round.... had tae set the corn a burnin tae even get away." and Dibbs thoughts linger on Tum Bobblehead a moment Wonder iffin they'll kiss n make up
Tum-Bobo speaks up for the first time since his exchange with Dibbets in the field. He speaks to Kaul, "Hey big dummy, how you feel? Get plenty beauty sleep, huh? Um, if you still hurt Tum-Bobo can bless de bananas again 'n' you feel bettah."
Jim shakes his head. "We'll let you go after we've done for the beastie that hatched out of your Mayor. Damned thing flew off 'fore the field fire took it down. Say, you wouldn't know more about it, would you?"
Rolling his eyes Thas jus what we need, more ripe nanas fer Kauly tae be bandyin about.
"Yeah. You and your Mayor chose some poor allies. And now your Mayor is feeding off your fellow villagers. We can let you go, but you are better sticking close till we can ground him."
Ma looks wide eyed at Jim and the Groom, "Is the mayor dead? He was the last of the Kriegler line after his wife and young'uns died. He said Ghlaunder had a special plan for him, but never tole us what that was 'xactly."
Jim snorts. "Special plan, alright. Had something inside him, hatched out after Half-Hitch an' Kaul cut him down."
Ears perking up at a comment "Wife n' young'uns? - how'd they die and where are they buried?" as thoughts beging to slide over themselves within the dark centre of his brain.
"She died in childbirth we heard, buried at the village plot," Ma offers, "and the mayor's chilluns, Leo and Shel, well they were chosen as the Ugothol's new forms once people started getting itchy about how long them druids, what the Ugothol originally apppeared as, were around. You won't find a grave for any of them."
Pa hisses, "Ma! You shouldn't be sharin' our secrets with these outsiders!"
With a laugh, Jim pokes the man in the shoulder. "What's the harm, hey? Kriegler's line's done for, died with the Mayor and burned to the ground with the field. Whether you live or die hinges on our fate, for it didn't sound like the creature that hatched from the Mayor's body was any too choosy about who it slew."
Brow furrowed "Whatsa Uglythol? - that the thing that funbags turned intae?" giving Jim an elbow to the leg to remind him.