Fleur follows along, though following Aurelian specifically was not on her dance card.
The building is a simple one, with no door and it is a matter of moments to ascertain that it is almost completely empty. A few scattered farm tools including a couple of towels and a how are present but nothing else. This building appears to be a glorified tool shed.
The field behind it proves more interesting however. Dominated by the looming shape of a large plum tree, this field seems much quieter than the previous one. There are no signs of the burrow which characterised the previous ones and am in all, apart from neglect the field seems remarkably undisturbed.
Ashlyn and Elizar move forward to the next field together.
Noticing the small skeletons, Ashlyn moves forward warily, well aware that sometimes the dead keep moving.
Once she's checked for tracks and other clues she begins to dig up the skull and bones.
Elizar drifts forward beside Ashlyn, containing his wails to soft whimpers, but unable to contain his slow dripping upon the ground.
He keeps an eye out for danger while Ashlyn starts digging in the dirt.
"There are skeletons here, in the plants."
FLeur will go get the hoe out of the tool shed. "Maybe this will help?" She offers it to whoever wants to dig... If no one will take it, she'll try to help using the hoe.
to identify the skeletons (race, age, etc)
"What did you find?" Sarine asks as she moves up to Ashlyn.
Aurelian frowns as Ashlyn's words, watching as Fleur begins to till the field in search of more bones.
"This is a strange place to bury the dead..." he muses, looking around.
"Aurelian, I am not sure these dead will have beenburied here. I've heard of no customs of people who bury their dead with their crops."
As Ashlyn approaches the bones, hoe in hand, the large pumpkin plant makes a strange groaning noise and erupts in a great red burst which sweeps across the entire cornfield, rising above the plum tree and blotting out everything in sight. Those on the edge of the cornfield are unaffected but those who have already approached find their eyes, ears and mouths clogged by the thick red spores.
Party to act! (Map is the third slide - the red square is the spore cloud.)
Evie gasps, but without hesitating she rushes towards the plant she had watched Ashlyn disturb.
Evie coughs a few times to clear her throat from the red spores and luckily, the spores do not affect her and she make it to support her new companions.
"Ahhhh now what, by damnation!" Jenner swears as the red spores explode. He hurries forward, into the red mist.
The dwarf comes to a stop almost as soon as he's in the 'mist', unable to see. "Damnit! This stuff gets in your eyes!"
Sarine staggers back from the crimson burst as her sight fades. "This place is cursed. Even the crops are attacking us!"
Aurelian starts to enter, but like Jenner, is quickly overcome by the spores, so he can't see.
"Ah!" he calls out. "Come fight like a man, you creature. Aurelian must see you to defeat you!"
He backs back out of the spores, blinking furiously to clear his eyes.
Ashlyn coughs and hacks the spores out of her lungs, blinking and groping around blindly in the cloud.
Where are you, Elizar? What's going on?
She strikes out blindly into the space with the pumpkin that shot her with spores, unsure if it's a monster or mundane plant.
Also, blinded by the cloud, Elizar wails and moans loudly.
Caaaaan't seeeeeee.... he thinks back at Ashlyn.
He lashes out blindly at the strange groaning pumpkin.
Fleur rubs at her eyes, trying to clear them.
"I can't see a thing... damn spores!"
With most of the heroes stumbling around aimlessly in the spore cloud, the creature attacks the only person who managed to land a blow on it - Evie. The 'pumpkin' rears up on short leg-like roots and lashes out at Evie with a whip-like appendage which has appeared from it's stalk.
Thankfully luck appears to favour the chronicler and the creature becomes entangled with the hoe that Ashlyn let fall to the ground. It's wild flailing, combined with the light breeze disperses much of the spore cloud, revealing the battlefield.
Party Up!
Evie manages to dodge every attempt to harm her with unusual grace.
"What are you all doing? Are you okay?" She yells towards her companions.
Fleur continues to inspire the group ... she moves around to get into flank should Ashlyn arm herself.
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HP 13/13
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will -1 (0/1 reroll)
CMD 14 (16 vs. disarm)
Panache: 3/3 (0/1 deed reroll);
Effects:
"Yes, Aurelian is fine. He couldn't see for a moment, but now he can!" Aurelian responds, dashing forward.
"Aurelian's sword will burst you," he taunts the pumpkin thing, "like you'd been gourd gored!"
He stabs at the creature, ready to knock its vines aside if -- somehow! -- his sword doesn't kill it quickly enough to end its threat.
Finally able to see, Ashlyn punches at the strange pumpkin.
But as she steps on the bones of the poor soul buried in the field, she loses focus missing the plant-monster.
Elizar lunges forward at the pumpkin monster as well, wailing loudly in anger!
"Yeh, just had a moment of not bein' able to see," Jenner grouses, and tromps forward through the garden to take a hack of his own.
"Does anyone know what that thing is? That's the weirdest pumpkin I've ever seen."
"I don't know! Elizar?"
Elizar looks at Ashlyn in surprise.
Meeeeeee?
"Of course you!" Ashlyn exclaims.
Elizar eyes the pumpkin.
Elizar shrugs.
"We don't know!" Ashlyn calls back to Sarine.
"I don't know what it is either... making the issue of what it might be a gourdian knot?"
"Just smash it til it's pulp.. maybe we'll have pumpkin soup for dinner?"
"I'm getting gourd bored of being ambushed and we're only on our first day here!"
Between Elizar, Jenner and Sarine the plant explodes like an over-ripe... tomato!
Evie, examining the plants remains, isn't sure what to make of it until she remembers a particularly obscure Garundi herbal she read some time ago which mentioned a Blood Maize which seems similar to this plant.
Rooting through the bones turns up nothing in particular, but...
Evie jumps back to escape the plant's small explosion and easily leaps out of the way of the worst of the remains.
She bends down to look at the plants remains.
"Oh, I've read about this before. I have a strong suspicion that was a Blood Maize. They are really rare wild plants so I have never seen one before, but if there is one there is a good chance there are more of them around, so we should all watch out or run the risk of being gourdagain."
She smiles at her own joke, not realising it is not so funny after Aurelian already using that pun.
"Look over there." She points towards the small unkempt plum tree. "Something has been digging fairly recently."
However, instead of going to investigate, she quickly gets a piece of spare paper out and starts sketching as she knows that Lyra would love this information.
Jenner squints at Evie's words (just getting splattered with the vine's guts himself). "You're right, something is there... let's see here..."
The dwarf uses his axe to root around in the disturbed earth.
Ashlyn and Elizar both get completely covered in pumpkin innards. It hangs of them in messy, wet clumps. Neither of them seem to mind.
"Well that was weird." Ashlyn comments aloud. "I've never been attacked by a plant before."
Elizar nods. He lets out a moan of agreement.
Ashlyn finishes digging around for the skeleton pieces, pulling out the entire body, if she can.
"How sad..." She examines the skeleton to see what kind of person it belonged to, how it died, and how long ago.
"We'll put you to rest soon," she tells the body. "I promise."
---
"You're right, Ashlyn agrees. While Jenner digs Ashlyn looks for clues to what happened, or who/what was digging.
While Ashlyn pulls out the remains of the body, Elizar drifts a few feet away and plucks a flowers from the overgrown field. He floats back and places the blooms on the skeleton.
He wails in
He stares at the body for a long while, then looks around at the empty settlement. He looks confused. He seems to be thinking really hard. "Reeeeeeest," he eventually tells the body in common.
Ashlyn nods at Elizar in approval. "Well done, pal."
"Creatures in the water, crazy insects under the ground and plants that attack you...it's no wonder that we aren't finding anyone here. I hope everyone is OK."
"Evelyn, do you remember if these Blood Maize things...the colonists wouldn't have planted those things. How did it get here?"
Evie replies with a hesitant laugh; "Sarine, I think at this rate, we will have the buildings come to life and walk away!"
"Blood maize is really unusual, I actually read about it in some of Lyra's books on the way here. It seems to have an affinity with blood and constantly craves it to nourish itself."She answers whilst still quickly sketching the Pumpkin like creature.
"They can move themselves in search of nourishment so they are not restricted to one area. They usually live for 4-5 years and hibernate in the winter, although I doubt it gets cold enough here for it to hibernate."
She seems to be happy with her rough sketch and pockets her pen and replaces the paper in her backpack.
"Most farmers who have encountered one treat them as pests, but some less moral gardeners will plant them to act as guard dogs. I can't see that working out too well for themselves though, as it isn't a sentient being."
"That's horrible!" Ashlyn exclaims. "It could have moved here, then, into this poor farmer's crops..." Does Ashlyn see any clues at to which way it could have come from with her survival?
"I can't imagine a farmer planting such a thing to guard his crops or home... it's a horrible idea... what about animals and children? I would think a thing with such a mindless hunger would be an indiscriminate guardian."
"Yes, this plant is very bad, and probably does not even taste good," Aurelian agrees, distractedly, as he watches Jenner dig. "This place is very strange. Plants that act like swords, bodies buried in fields and things beneath trees. They are lucky Aurelian has come to set things straight again."
Cleaning his sword, he resheathes it and stands with arms crossed as he waits for the search to finish.
Digging under the tree turns up a flat leather pouch which contains a letter.
After Dulin went on the "fishing expedition", I thought it was smart to change the drop point, lest they drag it out of him. Rayland is becoming bolder and cockier now that more people have resumed supporting him.
Don't tell hima nything, no matter how convincing he seems. If necessary, talk to Eliza, she's on our side and its clear that Rayland resents her for usurping his authority. Some of us plan on taking the canoe - since those bastards conveniently took the boat - and finding somewhere to hole up until the supply ship comes.
We cant all go at once, so wait for the quarter moon and go down to the docks a few hours past nightfall. Barnabus will pick you up.
Dont get followed!
Una.
The wind sweeps gently through the tree branches, making a whistling noise which is suddenly spooky rather than comforting. Something is terribly wrong here...
After looking at the area around the plum tree and at the letter Jenner pulled from the ground, Ashlyn tells the others "Looks like the letter has been buried here a few weeks."
She waits patiently for Jenner to read it aloud.
---
As the whistling wind shakes the tree branches, Ashlyn shivers. How sad.
"There's been two quarter moons since it was buried," she points out solemnly.
After a moment of thought she asks the others, "Could infighting have brought this all about? Surely the colonists would have unified if dangers like we've faced were about..."