Dayo rushes forward to help.
"This is how you make scarecrows?? This is horrible! I had no idea!"
Vy pumps a cure light into the young man anyway
Back to being called "Bait," Eoghan shrugs and scans the area for any potential ambushers.
"Is he someone we know? Is the culprit sending a message with these vile tricks?"
The young man does not look familiar to any of you. With Snowflake's healing, the bleeding stops, but he doesnt regain concious.
Snowflake is pretty sure there is something else wrong with the man. His skin is clammy and he is running a fever. He's clearly sick.
Vitro composes himself, taking the walk of shame to pick up his bow, then realization hits and he gets a shade paler. "I think he was infected with ghoul fever and hung out here to die and turn. Whoever is behind this is truly vile."
"Or maybe this is the ghouls' way of propagating. Eat a victim but leave them alive, tie them up, leave them for someone else to find, the cycle continues. I mean, they're smart enough for it." Eoghan shudders, and goes grim. "Whoever is behind this, they receive no mercy from me. Sarenrae might preach forgiveness, but undead are high on her list of no-no's. If this is the same person who's behind the murders back in Sandpoint, I'd say that person is irredeemable.
On another note, what should we do with this man? Can he be cured, or would it be a mercy to end his suffering right now? I don't want to do this all over again next week."
"I'm not a doctor, but from what I understand humans can recover from most diseases if they can rest in a good bed. We have to help him."
"And if this guy turns into a ghoul tomorrow while we're not around, we're only continuing the problem, maybe even be part of it. I will not let this person become an undead."
Eoghan looks Vitro right in his eyes and maintains eye contact.
"Fair enough. Make him as comfortable as possible, but make sure he's tied up. It's not like we can do anything for him in the meantime."
"NO' Vy resolutely says, and that one word carries a chorus of growls with it.
He takes his sword and starts cutting the corn around him, bundling their stems into two long slender bales. He then ties both their ends to each other, making something that looks like an ellipsoid preserver found on ships.
Gently he places the sick man on top of it within a blanket and makes sure he is stable.
Vy than attached a rope to the entire contraption, so he can pull it.
"We'll find shelter, and we will heal this man"
He looks at Justin
"For those who do not see the logic in helping someone in need, think about this. He is our only witness on this side of the veil between life and death"
"He probably lives in one of these buildings. Someone will surely recognize him. I wonder what his name is."
Dayo helps carry/drag the impromptu stretcher.
After a while, Vy checks up on him and heals him a bit more
"That's should do the trick. Welcome back, friend"
Vitro meets Eoghan's eyes while the rest fuss over the sick man. He thinks for a moment, then speaks in precise sentences, like you could cut into a gravestone.
"I know. I don't want him to turn into a ghoul either. But killing him just in case? No, I'm not going to do that. We'll take care of him, try to cure him. If it really does't work, we'll be there to deal with it when he turns into a ghoul right in front of us. In front of us, we won't let it happen behind our backs. But we don't give up before it's even happened."
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"We. do not. have time for this. Someone is out there actively making more of these. I am sorry for this man's plight but if it takes us an hour to see to every victim and 15 minutes to make another victim all we are doing is delaying the inevitable and not for very long at that. By all means help him but if he can't lead them to us quickly we need to move on or everyone in town is going to be in the same boat. "
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Slowly the man stirs and his eyes flutter open. "Mah? Pah? Were are you? The monsters! The monsters are coming!"
"I know I look a bit..frightening, but I and my colleagues are here to help"
Vitro softly murmurs to Justin "I thought he looked to big to still be an infant?"
"Island communities as well."
Dayo places a hand on the lad's leg, a warm light attempting to heal his cuts
"Where are your parents? Can you take us to them?"
You take some time to calm the man down. He is pretty weak, but remains concious. You dont know the ins and outs of ghoul fever, but you remember that unconciousness is bad.
When calmed down enough the young man speaks.
"Things have been bad for days. First there were rumors of walking scarecrows that came out of the fields at night to feed—nothing was seen,
but plenty was heard. Screams in the dark, glimpses of people being chased through fields and out over the moors by... things. When we visited those farms in the morning, they were empty.
We thought they could deal with the unseen menace ourselves, but yesterday it became too much. We armed ourselves with torches and weapons and went to inspect the Hambley place.
But... But... strange things came pouring out of the barn. They bit and they scratched and they.... they started eating people alive! They bit and scratched me too, but they didnt eat me. They dragged me into the barn, dressed me up as a scarecrow and hung me out in the field. Ive been too weak to get loose. I saw them drag my sister, Lettie, in the barn too. She has to be out here! You have to save her!"
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Justins claws are clicking in a pattern that he uses when he's doing math too complicated for just his brain. Which is otherwise very good at doing math. After a second he deadpans.
"Roughly how many people are missing? "
and then lower
"What is the next level of government organization you have above the mayor? "
"There aren't any dragons here. I think Mayor is the highest these humans go."
"We were... I think twelve? Maybe fifteen of us that went to the barn? It was three families. Pa, ma, Lettie and me, that's four. Maester Grump and his two sons. So that is seven. And the whole Tanner family. That would be seven of them. So... fourteen?"
Dayo taps on his fingers in a manner similar to Justin's.
His point made, Eoghan stands back as the rest of the party questions the farmer. He's smart enough to know throwing his voice in the conversation wouldn't be appreciated. He starts pacing back and forth, hoping to get the message across.
"You're not going anywhere. We need to stay together if we're going to overcome this."
"Let's deal with the immediate threat first. If we get out of this alive, we can warn the other towns later. Maybe someone in Sandpoint can cast Animal Messenger, that'd save us the hassle."
Horran, the young man, can tell you how to navigate the corn maze. The farm is the house the Hambleys lived in, and a barn.
With the talk of moving, he has no objection to just lie here and wait for you to return. He doesnt feel up to walking, much less going back to the barn to be confronted by what is out there.
He also begs you to find his sister.
Eoghan isn't going to question the logic of a wounded man staying in a corn maze while ghouls are all over the place. He'd just make the man cry.
"They don't want to eat him, Eoghan. They want to turn him into a scarecrow. He's the safest one here."
Dayo squats and looks the young man in the eye.
"We will look for your sister. Stay still, drink this," to which Dayo hands him a waterskin, "and we'll be back for you."
Horran drinks thirstily. "Good luck. I'll pray to Gozreh and Erastil for you."
"Those are fine enough deities, thank you. We'll do our best."
Vitro mulls things over and talks just to the others, not wanting to upset the man.
"So... potentially fourteen ghouls... if we're lucky we're down six, if we're not then fourteen or more... do we have a tactic to make sure we don't get in trouble? If one of them scores a lucky scratch sudenly things could go south very fast."
"Then let us not waste any more time."
"Plus we found several of them just hanging around in the fields. It's possible the majority is still somewhere in this corn maze, so they might not mob us all at once."
Eoghan looks around, and sighs.
"We're probably going to have to comb through this entire maze to weed out every last one of them, right? Let's get to the farm and get those people out first, though."
That ability doesn't kick on till 9th, sorry. For now his only unique schtick is the +4 dex reduce persons, +4 strength enlarge persons and the +6 bulls strengths
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1) Buffing is justins bag. His archetype is all about it
2) Giving Eoghan reach gets him one AOO at least during the fight, which one 1 hit a ghoul and kill it. Thats WAY more damage than a magic missile can do
So....
+4 dex reduce person on Dayo
+4 str enlarge person on Eoghan
You guys have fun in there...
"I would suggest simply lighting the places on fire to draw them out, but you're unlikely to do that because there might be people alive. As an alternative Paul Bunyan here could chop down a wall and draw them out that way. That section there doesn't look load bearing "
He puts his hands out and they glow blow, shrinking Dayo down as he increases Eoghans Height up
Vitro will raise a Shield before we do the open door, find goat thing.
"If we clear the smallest building first, me and Justin could climb on top of it and use it as a sniper nest."