Male LG Human Paladin 3 Race: Human | HP: 27/31 | AC: 21 (11 Tch, 20 Fl) | CMB: +6, CMD: 17 | F: +8, R: +6, W: +7 | Init: +3 | Perc: -1, SM: +3 Classes / levels: Paladin/3 | Speed 20ft | Smite Evil: 1/1 Lay on Hands: 2/4 | Spells: N/A | Active conditions: None.
"I've got a couple of sunrods on hand. I'll light one and toss it out of a window if I need help." Adoril shakes his head and looks slightly embarrassed. "Hopefully I won't require back up after I settle down and wed..."
The mayor is disheartened to learn that the PC's will not stay in his manor, but is receptive to your desires (after all, the whole village just conducted a festival to Desna).
The party wanders around the surrounding farmlands until they come across a weathered sign pointing them to the Chenowitz farm. Corn left to grow high surrounds road and farmhouse, where the subtle glow of candlelight can be seen from within as it shines through the partially boarded up windows of a rickety old farmhouse. A cool breeze blows leaves through the air, rustling the patchwork clothing of a wicker-and-gourd scarecrow of a moth-winged woman that leans against a rickety frame in the front yard, interrupting the constant hum of insects you've grown accustomed to in the Ravenmoor hinterlands.
The combination of the stars and full moon provide dim light.
After a final, hushed congratulations from his colleagues, Adoril saunters off to the barn while the others take refuge in some of the nearby corn. Although part of the siding has been broken off, the structure appears solid and resolute.
ADORIL ONLY:
As you enter the barn, Shel leans her face out over the ledge of the hayloft. She pouts at you and says she isn't lowering the ladder until you takes his armor off (she doesn't want your full plate to wake the Chenowitz's). She doesn't seem very interested in talking.
Male LG Human Paladin 3 Race: Human | HP: 27/31 | AC: 21 (11 Tch, 20 Fl) | CMB: +6, CMD: 17 | F: +8, R: +6, W: +7 | Init: +3 | Perc: -1, SM: +3 Classes / levels: Paladin/3 | Speed 20ft | Smite Evil: 1/1 Lay on Hands: 2/4 | Spells: N/A | Active conditions: None.
Adoril cautiously looks around, "Let's just be certain we are alone. Wouldn't want any nasty surprises."
Detect evil, if nothing comes up:
Adoril slowly starts to take off his armor, making some small talk. He's clearly nervous. "So, uh, how have the harvests been? Farms are the cornerstone of any community, you know. Very important especially to we who follow Erastil!" He takes special care to tuck a sunrod into his belt behind his back.
Detect evil, Adoril turns out to be a strategic genius:
Adoril instead draws his sword and reaches for a sunrod.
Your detect evil finds no evil. Armed with his trusty sunrod, he climbs the ladder to find Shel in her undergarments. However, her flirtatiousness and charm have been replaced by an expression of sadness. Her makeup has smudged near her eyes--she's been crying.
"I'm sorry...it was going to be one of you or else it was going to be me....I'm so sorry..."
2 figures rise from the hay (there's no way you could spot them with your perception). They are dressed in patchwork clothing and carry sickles, but most interesting about them are their strange, insectoid masks (complete with antennae and proboscis).
So drawing and activating is going to take a full round, but you could totally drop it down the ladder you just climbed up (dropping something is a free action). The others will be able to see the sunrod through the barn's damaged siding.
The ladder is 10'. The only entrances to the hayloft are the ladder and a window on the southwest side of the barn (above the doors).
"Maybe he's bad at throwing, but Ugly Kidd thinks that's a little bright for mood lighting!"
'I would have thought that Adoril would have had a little more athletic aptitude... or maybe he's in more danger than we thought!' Ugly Kidd thinks to himself while rushing (double move) towards the barn door.
Dejat I've moved you outside the barn, near Ugly Kidd. Corrin was only able to get through the broken side of the barn because he is small.
GM:1d20 ⇒ 4
As Dejat and Ugly Kidd run across the cornfield, a scarecrow leaning against the farmhouse (crudely in effigy of desna) springs to life. As it shambles onto its feet, its head turns eerily towards Ugly Kidd.
UK Will:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11
Ugly Kidd can't look away!
Fascinated, see below
Meanwhile, inside the barn, the two masked figures advance on Adoril, coordinating attacks with their sickles. Shel reaches under a blanket and produces her own sickle, stands up, and 5' steps towards Adoril.
Without his armor to protect him, the paladin takes some minor cuts from the sickles. Their blades sting as if coated with something, but it doesn't affect Adoril.
Fascinated:
A fascinated creature is entranced by a supernatural or spell effect. The creature stands or sits quietly, taking no actions other than to pay attention to the fascinating effect, for as long as the effect lasts. It takes a –4 penalty on skill checks made as reactions, such as Perception checks. Any potential threat, such as a hostile creature approaching, allows the fascinated creature a new saving throw against the fascinating effect. Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon at the fascinated creature, automatically breaks the effect. A fascinated creature's ally may shake it free of the spell as a standard action.
Shel's sickle strikes true! Adoril take 5 dmg and update the 5 damage from the prior round. No poison.
Botting Corrin--player is at Convergence.
Corrin draws his wand of mage armor and uses it on himself.
"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" yells one of the cultists. That voice...it sounds familiar...
wis checks:
Adoril wis:1d20 - 1 ⇒ (15) - 1 = 14 Corrin wis:1d20 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4 UK wis:1d20 ⇒ 11 Dejat:1d20 ⇒ 7 Holy s$@* no wis party
Adoril and Ugly Kidd only:
One of those cultists sounds like Saul Lupescu, Shel's father.
The cultists pull out rags and begin rubbing them on their weapons.
Outside the barn Dejat--Burning Hands does 1d4 per CL, up to 5d4. I got you covered-->blam:1d4 ⇒ 2
Scarecrow ref:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13
The straw on the scarecrow appears to be flammable--it takes extra damage!
Total 6 dmg from BH
The scarecrow bounces towards Dejat, swinging one of its sickle-fingered hands at the ifrit.
slam:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14 dmg:1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6 Dejat Will:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8 Do you want to keep that roll? You may use your reroll before I resolve the effect. Let me know what you want in your next post.
Ugly Kidd is still fascinated
COMBAT ORDER:
Adoril
Corrin
Dejat
Ugly Kidd
Scarecrow
Cultists
Adoril, Corrin, Dejat (pending reroll), and Ugly Kidd are up!
The straw and dried gourds roar in flames, but the scarecrow continues to shudder and shamble while Ugly Kidd remains transfixed in fear, the flames reflecting in his eyes. Dejat begins to panic, his mind wrestling with doubts of surviving.
Botting Corrin, Convergence "Worry about your armor later," Corrin says as he uses his Wand of Mage Armor on Adoril, "we can deal with them first!"
Adoril +4 Armor to your AC, doesn't stack with other armor bonuses to AC
Inside the barn. green acro:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2 green dmg:1d6 ⇒ 2 pink acro:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21
The cultists try to jump down from the loft, but one of them does not stick the landing at all. Luckily, the cultist's butt breaks their fall. The prone cultist lets out a groan and tries to get up.
Corrin delivers a quick, upward slice as the cultist stands up. The cultist is bloodied but still has some fight in them! Pink makes an attack at Corrin in retaliation, but misses.
pink attack:1d20 ⇒ 14 dmg:1d6 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4
Shel begins to descend the ladder and makes it to the bottom.
Outside
The scarecrow bounces and smolders like some nightmarish creature. It's eyes glow with frightening intensity. It swings once at Dejat and once at Ugly Kidd.
Ugly Kidd shakes his head as he regains focus. He then gets into a stance to beat the crap out of some scarecrow Swift Action: Pummeling Style (Clustered Shots for fists) and then proceeds to unleash a flurry of punches!
The pairing of sword attacks is enough to drop the scarecrow. Its remains smolder in a heap.
Combat is suspended, as are the fear effects currently on the party
When you get everyone healed up and back inside the barn, Adoril can put his armor back on. Once conscious, Dejat will say "I wish I had bought items!" and a magical cache will appear for his personal use.
Assuming you unmask and interrogate the cultists/Shel
You are surprised to discover that the two masked figures are Shel's parents. Saul Lupescu bemoans their situation:
"We're so sorry we had to do this! Every year's harvest queen is sacrificed to the Dreamtender on the night of the harvest moon! They were going to make me give up my daughter! Never! The mayor told us we'd need to use one of you as a replacement! You don't know what he's capable of!"
Neither Corrin nor Adoril can confirm what deity these robes are dedicated to. The Lupescus only know the object of their worship as "the Dreamtender".
The Lupescus are otherwise unwilling to share any other info about a possible cult in Ravenmoor. When pressed for more information, each of them states they'd prefer a clean death rather than risk the punishment of those who betray the Dreamtender. Paging Mr. Justicebringer
You could have sworn you heard movement inside the farmhouse--it might not be as abandoned as it looks. You also notice something about the moon...it seems more orange than usual....
What are you doing with Shel? What are you doing with Saul and Ana's bodies? I am stating the following to limit potential metagaming--you know the following: 1) there is some kind of cult in Ravenmoor; 2) The cult plans to sacrifice Shel; 3) something is going on in the farmhouse.
There's not much in the way of loot, just some homespun robes, strange masks, 3 broken sickles, 3 antitoxins, and 12 gp.
Shel continues to scream at you until she is gagged, the sound piercing the otherwise quiet night.
The moon is just the harvest moon, Dejat. Autumnal equinox, gave more light into the evening for festivals or so farmers could labor into the night to finish the harvest (hence, the name). Completely mundane.
"Should we bring her with us? They might kill her otherwise... (assuming Adoril informed us about that) And Ugly Kidd wants to investigate that house with the movey stuff."
After being successfully treated like Cherita, Shel's screams are now muffled.
Full plate takes some time to put on.
You start moving hay around inside the barn to hide Saul and Ana's bodies under. Furthermore, the state of the barn, farmhouse, and corn left to grow wild, it's fairly obvious this hay must have been carted in recently. Underneath the hay is a grisly surprise. Scattered about the barn are various human bones. The bones are scattered, but there are enough hands and feet to identify that the bones belonged to at least 10 people. Even more strange, there are no skulls among the littered bones.
There's a broken but serviceable pitchfork leaning against a wall you can pick up to clear away the hay. It should only take a few minutes and Adoril's armor will take 4 minutes (with help).
Scattered about the remains you find the following items: a gold necklace (worth 120gp!), a Masterwork light mace emblazoned with the symbol of Magnimar, a pearl, and a mummified hand fashioned into a necklace.
Detect magics
Corrin can identify that the pearl is a Pearl of Power, 1st lvl. The mummified hand is a Hand of Glory.
Corrin Only:
You take a 10 on knowledge nobility or local and know that the mace you've found is the weapon traditionally held by Magnimarian tax collectors who have duties that may take them into remote or dangerous areas.
Male LG Human Paladin 3 Race: Human | HP: 27/31 | AC: 21 (11 Tch, 20 Fl) | CMB: +6, CMD: 17 | F: +8, R: +6, W: +7 | Init: +3 | Perc: -1, SM: +3 Classes / levels: Paladin/3 | Speed 20ft | Smite Evil: 1/1 Lay on Hands: 2/4 | Spells: N/A | Active conditions: None.
Adoril paces back and forth, mostly upset with himself. At Ugly Kidd's question, he shoots a glance at Shel, "We should probably get her somewhere safe." his words dripping with anger. He shakes his head trying to calm himself down. Assuming we are sharing all of our info and knowledge rolls "The mace that Corrin found confirms that these people are, at best, lying about not knowing much about the taxman. At worst, and now the most likely outcome, they are the reason he disappeared. I'm keen on finding out why and never allowing it to happen again."
Twisted and entwined vines of dead ivy drape the rotting columns and broken boards of this rickety porch, creating a thick curtain of vegetation. Now that you are closer, you see a skeleton overgrown by vines. Insects scatter as the floorboards creak under the weight of your steps, and the night sky is abuzz with the dull hum of mosquitos. Peeling the vines away from the wall reveals a door.
Also assuming Adoril will detect evil on the skeleton.
Like any mundane, non-animate skeleton, it does not detect as evil.
Dejat plz update your gear, after that's updated we can continue.
To deal with Shel--I will say that Ugly Kidd is carrying her over the shoulder. We can say she weighs 110 lbs for the purposes of encumberance. Ugly Kidd has a strength of 18, which means his medium load is 101–200 lbs. While carrying Shel, please account for the following penalties: +3 max dex (to armor), –3 check penalty, 20 ft speed. Shel can be dropped as a free action.
You open the door to the farmhouse. A cold hearth dominates this large room. Between the mostly collapsed internal walls and separate jumbles of crumbled furniture, it seems that this large room may have once been several smaller rooms. A rickety ladder leads to what looks like an upper loft above, visible through several large holes in the overhanging ceiling above. A large wooden cage sits in the southwest corner of the room.
Also inside the room are four cultists, alerted by the large amount of noise from outside.
