Once the half-elf has finished her self-imposed labors, Tasha takes her by the hand and forces her to sit down with the tiefling on one of the crude bedrolls. "Now you will rest," she commands, pulling Ruinë into her lap to enforce her words.
As you are resting atop the platform, another clay golem lumbers up to you. This squat clay golem is sculpted to vaguely resemble an enormous female dwarf. The golem’s hands are raised in the air, stubby fingers splayed in a gesture of surrender.
"Runkrunk," the golem grunts, a sound reminiscent of that made by a wild boar. They effect a somewhat awkward bow. "Runkrunk," the construct repeats.
"Does anyone speak ... golem?" Tasha asks the others. "And is this normal behavior? I thought they were just animated constructs without a will of their own."
”They normally are,” Grelda says.
”Runkrunk! Runkrunk!” The golem points to themself, then to you,
”I think it wants to follow us?”
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"I do not speak golem." the cleric responds, unsure what to do.
Ruinë's first thought in response to Ashlion's comment is that he intends to have sex and impregnate this golem somehow. She shakes the though away, and rises from Tasha's lap.
When they suggest they bring it back, she is unsure. "I suppose?" she offers, helpfully. "I hope this is not a bad idea?"
”Runkrunk!” the golem says happily. They nod in acceptance.
When you return to the circus, the other members of the family are quite impressed by the strange golem. Runkrunk is surprisingly gentle and docile, seemingly wanting no part of the violent purpose they were created for. As a circus attraction, however, Runkrunk is positively unique; they are incredibly strong and have a way with animals. Runkrunk’s preferred act is to work alongside animals like boars and wolves (whose tusks and bites they can mostly ignore), hefting the animals above their head and even juggling them for the amusement of crowds.
There’s not much else to do here in Castinlee. In the morning, you should set out for Turpin Rowe to the east.
The next day, you pack up your circus tents and begin to make your way east. After a couple of hours, a curve in the trail reveals a gruesome scene. The grass at the side of the trail is sodden with pooled blood, and an emaciated figure is pinned to a nearby tree trunk with a heavy iron spike. Small, goatlike horns protrude from the corpse’s forehead, and its lower body is a pair of furry legs that end in cloven hooves. The blood on the figure descends both from the deadly wound in its chest and from its mouth and nose. The scene here is at least several hours old, and the air is thick with the scent of blood.
Ruinë gasps when she sees the horrific sight, covering her mouth with her hand. "Who would do such a thing!?" she asks rhetorically, checking out the body and surrounding area.
Grelda identifies the corpse as that of a satyr. Examining the body, Ruine determines that the satyr bled to death. She also realizes that some narrow instrument was shoved forcibly up the satyr’s nose only moments before the satyr died of blood loss. It seems that some small portion of the satyr’s brain—the pituitary gland—was extracted through his nose by this instrument.
The hardpan of the trail here prevents any tracks from showing.
Tasha frowns at the fate of the fey. Her expression turns to disgust when Grelda explains what was done to the poor man. She directs a couple of the Family to pull the body down and see that he's buried respectfully.
"Keep an extra careful eye out," she says, staying near Ruinë with her hand on her rapier as, with the task completed, they continue on their way.
The logging town of Turpin Rowe lies on the far side of the Swardlands from Kerrick, at the verge of the Immenwood. The best roads to Turpin Rowe swing south through Castinlee or east through Arbo. Both roads meet at Cawshax at the edge of Potter’s Lake, and a logging road runs for about 7 miles from Cawshax to Turpin Rowe.
Several tree trunks stand upright for a climbing competition at the edge town, near a wide stream. In the stream itself, logs float for a competition where two loggers stand on a log to spin it and topple each other. Townspeople gather around the area as loggers move into place. At the sound of a horn, the log-rolling begins and loggers begin climbing the tree trunks using a hatchet in each hand. One particularly lean fellow with a head of shocking red hair considerably outpaces his fellows. Once at the top, he gives a deep bow to the cheering crowd before doing a backflip off the log. He lands on one of the logs in the stream below, spinning it with his landing and sending the two competitors on the log flying. The red-haired logger than begins running in place while spinning his log, only to be met with laughs and raucous applause from the crowd.
As he finishes his performance, the man is quickly surrounded by a crowd of admirers vying for his attention. Several young women bat their eyelashes and flip their hair, making the man visibly nervous.
"That was quite impressive. I wonder if he might be interested in joining our circus?" Grelda muses.
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"PERHAPS IF WE PROTECT HIM FROM THE WOMEN!" Ashlion adds in amusement, before pushing his way into the crowd. "YOU WERE VERY GOOD MY FRIEND." He declares, clapping the man on the back. "COME WITH ME. I MAY HAVE A JOB FOR YOU." He drives the young man through the crowd, parting the women like a battering ram.
The man seems surprised as Ashlion ushers him away from the crowd of fawning admirers. He scratches at his head and gives a sheepish smile. "Uh, th-thanks! I'm, uh, not really good around people. I grew up in the Immenwood with me da, and we rarely saw anybody else. I've only been to town a handful of times in me life, but the whooping cough took me da last winter, so I'm only now starting to get used to living among other people."
He slaps his cheeks in embarrassment. "Oh, dang! I forgot to tell you me name! I'm Dingo! Dingo Dray! What's this about a job, now?"
Dingo blushes when Ash mentions the fine women and men of the circus. "Oh, golly! I, uh, that is..."
He looks around in wonder at the various members of the Family that pop out of the wagons to wave to him. "Wow, a life in the circus could be a lot of fun! But the life of a logger--and perhaps settling down with a family of my own someday--is attractive as well. Hmm... This is a real conundrum, as me da used to say!"
"YOU MUST MEET TASHA, OUR RIGMASTER.
"The life of the circus Family certainly isn't for everyone," Tasha says, placing a long, lavender arm around the man's shoulders. "But the amount of people you meet drastically increases the chances that you'll meet the love of your life. I say this from experience." She gestures at Ruinë. "And this way, you can build up a nice little nest egg for when you do meet them and finally wish to settle down."
"Shucks! Well, when you put it that way, how can I say no? I'm in!"
***
It seems you'll have difficulty setting up your circus in Turpin Rowe, as the town has just started its 2-week Stump Festival in celebration of the local industry. A dour dwarf named Commissioner Ikener is the town’s leader, as the lead representative of the Yalbrough Consortium that owns the land and buildings in town. Commissioner Ikener worries that the circus would draw attendance away from the Stump Festival, and therefore away from the city coffers that receive the Stump Festival’s proceeds. He allows the circus to set up during the Stump Festival only upon payment of 100 gp to offset this loss. If you'll agree to wait until after the Stump Festival, Ikener still wants to charge you 50 gp to offset the loss of productivity from the loggers’ attendance at the circus. Even Opper Vandy’s recommendation does little to sway the dwarf; he respects Vandy, but Commissioner Ikener has his bottom line to consider.
Asking around town, you hear several rumors:
“The Stump Festival is here! This two-week festival is full of drink, food, and good cheer. Local loggers compete in events of strength and skill for prizes and to impress others. More than one couple gets hitched at the festival every year. Dingo Dray is the solid favorite to win the Top Stumper prize.”
“Turpin Rowe is primarily a logging town. Its secondary industry—and the source of the town’s original name— is distilling turp spirits from local tree resin. It’s used in paints and liniment. There’s a distillery in the woods a few miles outside of town.”
“None of the distillery folks have come into town for the Stump Festival, which is strange. Normally it shuts down for at least a few days of the festival for its workers to join the celebration.”
“Things have been seen shambling through the woods recently, usually at night. Whatever they are, they aren’t human and they smell awful. It’s not a good idea to go wandering under the trees these days, and some of the loggers usually based further out feel safer here in town—good thing it’s the Stump Festival.”
“The Old Forest Tower is somewhere northeast of town. No one goes there, because it’s cursed—if you look too closely at its light, you turn into a monster. Folks at the distillery probably know the best way there.”
“The commissioner has been hushing it up, but some folks have been dying hard around town within the last month. Two people, Harper Fie and Miss Landra at the Stump ’n Chow, died in their sleep, but both were fit as fiddles the day before. There’s some bloody business at hand here for sure.”
Following up on the deaths yields more information. Harper was the town drunk, considered a shiftless yet harmless layabout. Miss Landra was a cheery woman who waited tables at Turpin Rowe’s busiest tavern, the Stump ’n Chow. Both were discovered in similar circumstances, two mornings apart: stone dead just east of town, in pools of blood running from their noses and from deep knife wounds. Commissioner Ikener hasn’t done much about these killings, since neither victim was technically an employee of the Yalbrough Consortium. The murders would cause more outrage or even panic in other times, but Ikener has been working hard to keep everyone focused on the Stump Festival. He even had the bodies both buried here in Turpin Rowe, rather than sending them to Kerrick for Opper Vandy’s services. Most people blame the vague yet menacing “monsters” wandering the forests at night.
"You have such a way with words Tasha, you always know the right thing to say!"
"It doesn't look like we'll be putting on a show here any time soon," Tasha explains to the family. "Although, some of us are going to see what's going on at the distillery and see if they can give us directions through to the Old Forest Tower."
"Exactly," Tasha says, clapping Ashlion on the shoulder.
As the group gathers their gear, preparing to leave for the distillery, the tiefling gathers her love in her arms. "Flattery will get you all sorts of good things," she says before leaning down for a soft, but quick, kiss.
Four miles southeast of Turpin Rowe, near the northeast edge of the Immenwood, sits the turp spirits distillery established by the townsfolk. Here workers harvest resin from a grove of terebinth trees and distill it into turp spirits for medicinal use and commercial trade in paints, varnishes, and solvents.
A silence descends upon the forest as the track reaches the distillery, constructed in the middle of a grove of terebinth trees. It’s possible to see where workers have driven metal gutters into tree trunks to gather the sap in clay pots. Two structures stand in the clearing along with a single wagon.
The largest structure is a combination bunkhouse and covered shed with an oven and tanks for distilling the turp spirits. A second covered shelter stands some distance away and contains barrels awaiting shipment. The pungent smell of the chemical hangs heavy along with traces of xulgath stench. The bloody corpse of a horse lies dead in the wagon’s traces.
Ruinë blushes and pushes Tasha away, "Taaaaaasha!! There's people here!" she says, embarrassed.
The cleric takes a knee next to the dead horse and instinctively knows exactly what's happened.
Anyone examining the dead horse can see that it was recently killed and has a number of javelin shafts protruding from its flanks. There are also other blood stains and signs of battle on the ground, but no other bodies or evidence of the combatants.
The bed of the wagon holds a single body wrapped tightly in a sheet. Studying him, Ruine realizes that he was killed by a narrow metal rod inserted into his nose. She also notices that realizes that some small portion of the man’s brain was extracted through his nose by this instrument.
You don't have time to investigate further, though, as no less than eight xulgaths pop up from the nearby trees and bracken, javelins poised to attack!
Ruinë casts bless and then moves along with the group as they advance.
Grelda conjures a field of black tentacles that grab four of the xulgath. Ashlion rushes at the other group, landing two hits. Those four xulgaths move to surround the barbarian but only one manages to slice him with its blade. Three of the four grabbed xulgaths escape the tentacles and hurl their javelins, one striking Ash as well.
As the fight gets underway several people unbar the door to the distillery, step out behind their barricade of wooden barrels, and fire arrows at the xulgaths to aid you!. However, it’s clear the survivors are disorganized and need some leadership.
DIRECT SURVIVORS’ FIRE [one-action]
The hero calls out directions to the survivors firing their bows from the barricades and identifies a single target the survivors can see. The hero attempts a DC 25 Diplomacy check.
Critical Success The target of the survivor’s fire takes 4d10 piercing damage.
Success The target of the survivor’s fire takes 4d6 piercing damage.
Failure The survivor fails to hit a target and deals no damage.
Critical Failure As failure, but the instructions confuse the survivors. The next check to Direct Survivor Fire takes a –2 status penalty.
Seeing the occupants of the distillery needing direction, Tasha shouts out at them.
"You with the bows! Everyone fire at him!" She points towards one of the javelin-throwing trogs before racing off to engage the selected target.
Ruinë extends her bless range another five feet before moving along behind Tasha, staying close behind her.
Ashlion finishes off his chosen foe, leaving it bleeding on the ground. Tasha directs the survivors' fire towards one of the javelin hurlers, moving in behind the arrows and scoring a critical hit! Grelda bashes that one with a rock, finishing it off.
Six xulgaths remain. Three of them circle step around Ash to and slice with their scimitars, while two more move in to flank Tasha. The last xulgath escapes the tentacles and moves away, hurling a javelin that doesn't hit anybody.
Tasha laughs at the feeble troglodytes and calls out at to the archers to target one of Ashlion's foes.
She stabs at one of the creatures ...
... before tumbling through that same one to avoid being flanked.
Ruine maintains her bless and heals Ash. Ashlion takes down another xulgath while Tasha, Grelda, and the survivors finish off another one. The four remaining xulgaths score some hits, but their numbers are rapidly depleting.
Calling upon the offensive power of the divine, she channels some good positive energy and calls out the evil creatures before them!
Tasha's mood remains high as the enemies continue to fall. She calls out again to the survivors, targeting another of Ashlion's foes.
She continues to roll around her foes to avoid being flanked.
Ash single handedly slaughters another xulgath, then the rest of you take down a second. The remaining two are wounded by arrows and divine magic. They withdraw from the fight, fleeing into the woods! The distillery workers cheer your victory!
One of the xulgaths carries a pouch containing a carnelian worth 125 gp and a scrap of hide with a crude map of the distillery grounds. The other side of the map is a scroll of dragon form, but the xulgath never realized it.
The four surviving workers are extremely grateful for your timely arrival. They initially believe you arrived because of the messenger they sent to Turpin Rowe and are puzzled (and alarmed) when you inform them that the messenger never made it. They don’t know what type of creatures their stinking attackers are, but they are aware that creatures have been skulking about the Old Forest Tower for at least a few weeks. They assume their attackers are part of the same group.
They relate that a few days ago one of the workers, Hansdirk, was found dead in the forest, tied to a tree with dried blood trailing from his nose. They assumed it was the work of the mysterious creatures, so the foreman, Gretana Shoom, sent a messenger to town and led an armed group toward the tower to get answers. Later, the creatures attacked and drove the remaining workers into the bunkhouse, where they had been holed up ever since.
These workers worry about their foreman and their comrades who went to the Old Forest Tower. They ask you to investigate, and give you good directions through the forest.
"We will investigate." Ruinë says, "We are something of a combination of xulgath exterminators and evil-tower-cleansing-specialist, as it were. Rest assured, we will look for your friends."
"And some of us are damn fine incendiary aerialists," Tasha adds with a grin, putting an arm around the half-elf's shoulders. "When we get back, you'll have to come see what she's really good at."
You travel through the forest, following the workers' directions. An hour passes as the morning gives way to afternoon. The floor of a clearing ahead is covered with large dandelions and flytrap plants. A truly massive specimen of one of the flytraps, fully 15 feet tall, looms over the bodies of several humans.
Looking more closely, it's clear that the giant flytrap is dead. Ruine's sharp senses recognize similar damage to other plants around it. She realizes that poisonous spores released in a large burst killed it.
She also notices that among the oversized dandelions are two plants with black flowers and sinister patterns on their bracts. They twitch slightly, as if in anticipation.
When Ruine points them out, Grelda nods in recognition. "Countefloras. They are aggressive plants that kill prey to fertilize the soil around them. They are weak to cold and fire. We will have to deal with them if we want to proceed."
"Weak to fire, you say?" Tasha says with a grin. "I can't imagine where we would be able to come up with something like that."
"I will do my best." she says, taking note she should act. Moving to the edge of the clearing, stayin far back as possible, the cleric calls down heavenly fire upon the wicked plants.
Just before Ruine casts her spell, Grelda grants both Ashlion and Tasha the benefits of a haste spell. The plant lurches to the side, though the flame still scorch it! Both of the creatures begin to shamble towards you!
Grelda nudges Ashlion's fate before targeting the scorched plant with phantasmal killer.