Raj takes one of the vials of poison and then heads up the ladder to check out the crawl space and if there is a flying head with guts lurking up there.
Park moves toward the door, but then notices Raj climbing the ladder to the crawl space above. Seeing that it is dark up there he quietly sings a ditty to summon dancing lights and send them ahead of Raj....
"Don't want to find that flying head and guts in a dark hole!"
No flying head with guts lurking in the shadows of the crawl space luckily (or unfortunately, if you were looking for it?). The windows up here are boarded up, and indeed look to have been for many years now, but looking out between boards affords Rajuna a good view of the front of the farmhouse.
What Rajuna does find is an attic closet and taking only a quick moment to riffle through it, he uncovers a quilt richly embroidered with scenes of sacrifice. The embroidered designs depict mosquito masked cultists and stirges circling a central figure covered in black tumors caressing a bound prisoner. The embroidery depicts the victim smiling pleasantly as a ghost-like form leaves his body and accepts the embrace of the cancerous cult leader. Other scenes depict flourishing crops beneath the watchful gaze of the sacrificed victim’s spirit. It would collect as much as 100 gp to a collector of folk art, should you be able to find someone who would be interested in such a macabre piece.
Raj rolls up the embroidery and carries it down the ladder. "Here's a great tapestry for your bed chamber." he says to no one in particular before handing the 'art' off and moving to inspect the closed door.
Park glances at the tapestry, then rolls it open a little bit. "Stirges.... I hope they don't all go crazy and kill the town folk. The kids." He rolls it back and sets it in a corner, then moves over by Raj.
He indicates the tapestry with a nod. "More than just stirges there. We got these bug-mask freaks and a priest with pustules sacrificing a prisoner... But why are they hiding their art in an abandoned house?"
"Probably because they can't admit to the world that they are followers of a god of plagues and death? They'd never get any tourists to come by and get sacrificed...."
Mila shakes her head as Park shows a bit of the tapestry. "This place is creepy. I keep thinkin' about that kid we met, with his pet stirge... hope he doesn't grow up to get caught up in all this. I guess it's on us to put an end to it."
Zhandar nods furiously, brooding on similar thoughts. "Indoctrination and a culture of evil," she muses. "The mayor has much to answer for." While the others search the farmhouse, she looks outside for signs of the insect swarm she sent to spy out the manor.
Rajuna takes a look at the other door in the room, and determines it is neither trapped nor locked. When you're ready to open it, it does so with a loud creaking sound that puts just how old this farmhouse is on obvious display.
In its eastern half, this long room is empty save for a large mound of compost covered with tiny black mushrooms (that look suspiciously like the ones you tried at the feast earlier) heaped nearly to the ceiling in the northeast corner of the room, while to the west, an old kitchen seems to have been repurposed into some sort of indoor garden. A workbench cluttered with pottery stills and glass alembics stands below small alcoves filled with vials and beakers. Dozens of clay vessels rest haphazardly on wooden boxes, each sprouting neatly-pruned shrubs or large, exotic mushrooms. They appear surprisingly well-tended, given the state of the rest of the building, though the roots of several have burst through their pots.
As Park's dancing lights shine their light into the room the large mound of compost actually moves, as if in reaction to the difference in light level.
Init
Round 1
25- Zhandar
16- Rajuna
14- Mila
12- Park
12- It
"Some kind of ooze," she mutters. "I'm going to try to neutralize it with acid." She begins speaking the words of a spell while gripping her staff with her left hand as she draws a flask with her right.
Her familiar covers his face with his hands and screeches.
Zhandar's duo of acid attacks do impact it and deal damage, albeit only a little bit.
Park follows Rajuna in and slashes at the thing. "Don't use fire on it. It's too wet. Won't burn."
Raj doesn’t have the luxury of waiting. He slides into the 'kitchen' and makes room for his allies. He can only hope the creature won’t eat his boot as he stamp-kicks it.
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xxx
Shuriken (16): xxx
MW Shuriken (12):
Scabbard of Vigor (1):
Wand of Mage Armor (50): xx
Effects:
AoOs (6/rnd) – Constant
*Uncanny Dodge – Constant
Mage Armor – 4 hours
Cat’s Grace -- + 4 DEX = +2 to HIT, +2 DAM – 4 mins
Tears to Wine – 40 mins
"Hopefully I can poke it fulla holes."
A short adjusting step and Mila lets fly with her stock and trade-- more arrows.
Um… is this thing likely to eat my hand if I punch it? Does it have a weakness to blunt vs piercing attacks?
Rajuna's kick, Mila's first arrow, and Park's dagger slash all connect, causing the thing to shudder under each strike. In response, the slime mold rushes forward (if a thing that big could be said to rush) in an attempt to engulf both Park and Rajuna inside its form of disgusting rotting plant matter.
Init
Round 2
25- Zhandar
16- Rajuna
14- Mila
12- Park
12- It
With reactions (and magic) like a cat, Raj side leaps away from the engulfing filth. Wherever her lands, the thief resumes his curb-stomping attack on the mushroom monster.
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xxx
Shuriken (16): xxx
MW Shuriken (12):
Scabbard of Vigor (1):
Wand of Mage Armor (50): xx
Effects:
AoOs (6/rnd) – Constant
*Uncanny Dodge – Constant
Mage Armor – 4 hours
Cat’s Grace -- + 4 DEX = +2 to HIT, +2 DAM – 4 mins
Tears to Wine – 40 mins
With the slime monster 'rushing' forward to engulf them Park ducks to the side, then slashes at it.
Another step to get out from behind Zhandar for a clearer shot, and then-- pew pew!
"Watch out, Park! --and Raj!" Mila cries as the ... pile... tries to wash over them.
Zhandar continues her acidic barrage.
Luckily the ooze doesn't seem to be that threatening, and the gang is able to put enough punishment into the pile of disgusting plant matter to finish it off. The only sign the thing was even living before it explodes into a spray of disgusting plant offal is the remains it left behind on Park and Rajuna.
An examination of the plants growing here reveals a large collection of poisonous mushrooms and other strange fungi, including several containers of pale blue mold. There's a single door in the western wall, past all of the alchemical equipment which, despite its disgusting use is still a masterwork alchemy lab worth 200 gp once you take the time to clean it all up.
Raj allows his professional demeanor to crack briefly as he looks at the plant goo coating the room, Park, and himself. ”Why is everything in this town disgusting?” He points out the secret door to the yard but instead focuses on the remaining door in the house, going over it with a professional eye.
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xxx
Shuriken (16): xxx
MW Shuriken (12):
Scabbard of Vigor (1):
Wand of Mage Armor (50): xx
Effects:
AoOs (6/rnd) – Constant
*Uncanny Dodge – Constant
Mage Armor – 4 hours
Cat’s Grace -- + 4 DEX = +2 to HIT, +2 DAM – 4 mins
Tears to Wine – 40 mins
Zhandar looks over the contents of the lab with an experienced eye.
She takes the easily portable objects, and though she considers taking the alchemical materials (certain they will come in handy when added to her own back in their wagon) she decides to wait and suggest they come back for them-- if they survive.
"...y'all do look... uh... not your best," Mila admits at Raj's words. You don't smell too hot either! remains unsaid.
Mila throws a glance around...
And notices various bottles just as Zhandar does. She expects Zhandar will know a lot more about the bottles, and instead investigates a spot on the wall that seems to...
"...huh. I think this is a door. Oh. Yeah. Good eye, Raj."
The last door in the house isn't locked either, and opens easily under Rajuna's hands. Apparently the cult didn't expect people to investigate the farmhouse, likely because of the rumors of it being haunted by misshapen beasts in the cornfields you heard earlier.
The windowless room beyond the door is lit by a single brass lantern hanging from a rusty nail on the northern wall. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of moths crawl throughout the ceiling’s rotting rafters and on the moldering curtains of boarded windows, the disturbance of their movements causing eerie shadows to wiggle on every surface. Old floorboards have been ripped up in the room’s corner, allowing a flight of earthen steps to lead down into the ground.
Hearing Mila's assessment Park considers pausing long enough to clean up with Prestidigitation.... But they hadn't found Kendra, the head & guts monster, or anything else that they were searching for. "We can clean up after we find Kendra. Good eye Mila!"
He moves up by the door.
We haven't checked K4 or K6 yet have we?
the open room to the west features broken chairs, old straw-filled mattresses, and water stained, moldering quilts, but even from here you can see a handful of lit candles on the boarded up window sill for some purpose.
Park glances in to the room with the stairs down. "Good place for storing their dead? Until they animate them."
”Or a good place to store a prisoner. Let’s find out.”
Raj moves across the room and down the stairs quietly. His attention is diverted as goo drips into his eye.
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xxx
Shuriken (16): xxx
MW Shuriken (12):
Scabbard of Vigor (1):
Wand of Mage Armor (50): xx
Effects:
AoOs (6/rnd) – Constant
*Uncanny Dodge – Constant
Mage Armor – 4 hours
Cat’s Grace -- + 4 DEX = +2 to HIT, +2 DAM – 4 mins
Tears to Wine – 40 mins
Park follows....
Since everyone else seems to be being quiet, Mila also does her best...
The walls of the low-ceilinged basement you discover when you take the stairs down are decorated by curtains made out of a mix of thick sheets of webs adorned with countless dead insects. Most of these are flies and mosquitoes, some of which are quite large. At the far end of the room sits a low wooden table on which a hideous shape crouches—a human-sized statue of an insectile monster made from corn husks, dry branches, rags, and bones. The floor of the room is an uneven layer of moist soil and earth, and three shovels, their blades caked with earth, lean against the side of the stairs.
Closer inspection reveals not only that parts of the disturbing statue have been splashed with blood, but that a number of strange objects lie under the table: a dozen cult robes and mosquito masks set aside evidently as replacements or for new members.
The group's perceptiveness is enough to detect a faint stink of rot and decay, a stink that’s stronger near the floor. Even an idle attempt to sift through the soil with the shovels or even by hand soon reveals the source of the smell, for it is here that the cult has evidently hid many bodies of unfortunate travelers over the past several years. Most of them are nothing more than skeletons now, but a few are much fresher. The freshest still bears a full head of red hair and wears a suit of ruined nobleman’s clothes.
Raj finds the goo from above makes a horribly perfect glue for the sheet of spider webs he stepped through on the stairs. He spends a little time trying to wipe both from his face.
Park struggles to keep the bile down as they suffer the stench. Recognizing the body he shakes his head. "Disgusting! We'll have to come back and properly bury these poor souls after we destroy this cult. At least it seems they haven't killed Kendra yet."
Mila shudders a little at the creepy sight, but isn't able to put anything specific together about the statue. Putting her hand over her face to help block the smell of rot, Mila pads closer to the disturbed earth, crouches, and investigates....
Mila is silent as her fingers gingerly inspect the fresh(er) body, her face creased with sadness. "We found Mr. Kyle," she says softly.
The gruesome state of his abdomen makes her flinch a little. Mila shakes her head, then does her best to lay his corpse out straight.
"I dunno what they hoped to do by pullin' this poor man's guts out and puttin'... this stuff in there instead," she says slightly queasily, indicating some blood-stained corn husks and rotting stirge carcasses. "He deserves a proper burial. All these folk do. Might have to wait til we can do it in safety. I.... really need to wash my hands now."
After clearing the webs and goo from his face, Raj looks over the body, ”After we finish off this cult, I think we need to bring the other locals here to see what their neighbors have done and let them bury the dead.”
When the team is ready to go, Raj will head upstairs and check the secret door out for traps and locks before using it to leave the farmhouse.
A small patch of reddish-brown plants grow here, reaching heights of nearly six feet in places. The plants grow thick, and periodically something within rustles the leaves and chitters. A small outhouse stands just past the patch looking extremely dilapidated, and a heavily rusted pen sits beside a trio of closed barrels.
Further beyond the small patch to the right lies a muddy cattle pond , buzzing with the sound of gnats, and its surface writhes with a thick layer of wriggling mosquito larvae. The stench of rot emanates from the maggot-filled corpse of a dead ox calf that lies half submerged on the edge of the pool, tangled in the vegetation.
Farther to the east, an old barn somehow still stands. You can see evebn from here that holes perforate the roof, while streaks of bird droppings and smears of dark red stains decorate the portions that remain intact.
Delightful.
Not trusting the potential fever-swamp of the 'pond', Raj moves along the side of the building and between the pen and wall to investigate the barn.
Park follows Raj out the door, immediately sending Birdie up to fly around and look down on the area. He stays closer to the reddish-brown plants, looking them over to try and recognize what they are and what might be hiding in the patch.
Zhandar follows behind Park and Rajuna, also idly examining the plants as she goes.
"I am beginning to think the entire town must be complicit," she mutters as she steps carefully across the muddy ground. "How could anyone who lives here not see the signs of the cult's evil influence: animals left to rot, swarms of insects, travelers gone missing? To ignore such things seems almost willfully oblivious."
"...blegh," Mila mutters as they make their way out around the fetid pond. She grimaces at the lack of clean water to wash her hands off in-- no way she's touching that mucky mess-- and eyes the plants as well, wondering if they are safe to use as a hand-degunking-surface.
The calf's corpse makes her grimaces only deepen. Her father's stories of adventure had never included so many details on the gut-turning stench. Adventuring seems to be stinky work.
Recalling the pig earlier in the day, she gingerly fishes an arrow from her quiver and nocks it. "Hang on, I just wanna make sure there's nothin' hidin' in that body there..."
An arrow sent towards the calf's distended body thunks deep into the flesh, and Mila watches tensely in case anything is about to emerge.
If not, she hurries after the others, trying to stay on high alert for whatever horror is about to assault them next. Her eyes rake their surroundings but also the ground, hunting for any tracks that might indicate Kendra was dragged along this area.
Note:Birdie's Intelligence is 7 so she may or may not recognize what she sees. GM's decision.
Birdie is intelligent enough to understand that what she’s seeing amongst the plants (which Zhandar and Mila identify as more flayleaf, and a significant amount at that) are dozens of stirges hanging from both the vines and the metal planters the vines droop from. The majority of them are sleeping, although a handful are buzzing around. None seem to have noticed you yet.
"Hang on, I just wanna make sure there's nothin' hidin' in that body there..."
Raj moves along the side of the building and between the pen and wall to investigate the barn.
Park signals Raj with the Dancing Lights and points to the door of the house. Seeing the others he also signals for them to go back inside and he heads there himself.... He mentally calls to Birdie to return to him.
Seeing Park point for a direction, Mila nods and works her way back to the house with the others.
She follows exactly in Park's footsteps it seems. Once there, she listens, and nods, grimly.
"Don't think these ones would get called off like Applesauce was. Right, so what's the plan? Could we go around the barn on the far side?"
"They look like they're sleeping. If we had some way to stick them to the vines and burn them I'd like that. But since we don't I think we need to go around, staying away from them."
Raj looks a touch irritated at being called back after he’d made it all the way to the barn. ”Fine, the long way.” He heads back through the house, exits through the front door, and works his way around to the far side of the barn.
As you make your way around the 'long way', as Rajuna so eloquently puts it, you see that the southern wall of the barn is crumbling under the weight of both its age and the roof itself. The dilapidated remains of a sagging hayloft drip with accumulated rainwater, while at the barn’s back wall stands a makeshift, candlelit shrine crowned with an enormous set of mothlike wings of moldy canvas. The roof mostly covers the entire barn, but a handful of holes let in the moonlight from above.
Three corpses lay in a pile in the middle of the barn, obviously haphazardly discarded.
Raj creeps forward to take a peek into the collapsing barn. He says quietly to himself, ”More bodies. Can’t say this village isn’t consistent.” He signals the other forward and waits for them to arrive before he tries to enter the barn to explore the dark corners he can’t see from outside.
Mila slips along closer when Rajuna gestures to them to proceed.
She freezes as soon as she can see inside the barn, holding her hand up in a fist for the others to stop walking. In the softest whisper she can manage, she murmurs, "Those bodies just moved."
The tall young woman raises her bow and sights along a drawn arrow, waiting long enough for the others to realize what she's about to do and prepare if they are going to. Then, she employs the 'test' technique she'd wanted to use with the calf-- sending an arrow into the nearest of the corpses.