Lead ghoul was a ghast, a slightly stronger version. He stinks more. You think this is somewhat compatible with the sawmill murderer.
Donimah:
I think you don't need to roll for this: The Thassilonian rune magic discipline of necromancy is associated with Gluttony.
You don't see any runes on the ghouls.
Arrian easily removes the key from the split neck. The barn and the farmhouse sit still as the group decides on the next steps. Cherry flies away and peeks inquisitively into the farmhouse but shakes his head and continues to fly away northeast.
Between Ethan's divine power and Juriya's bomb to the face, the stronger undead trailing behind also dies instantly.
Combat over
While the 6 ghouls were just normal farmers, the stronger one carried an interesting item. Around its neck, there is an iron key hanging. It bears a heraldic symbol of a curious flower surrounded by thorns.
Knowledge nobility DC 15:
This is the Foxglove family crest.
In the silence of the afternoon, the barn and farmhouse rest unexplored.
Sorry Juri, I'm travelling and can't update the map properly. I'm going with theater of the mind. So in my head, you are making two rows of PCs. If you want a specific formation, let me know, it hasn't made a difference yet.
Although the group has already verified that ghouls are weak creatures, the sheer number of them is overwhelming. Alicia does get one of the ghouls down, but Ano and Arrian get hit
Ano take 4 damage, Arrian take 2 hits, 3 and 5 damage. For each hit, roll 2 Fort saves, the first is DC 13 vs ghoul fever. The second is DC 13 vs paralysis (elves are immune)
Doni's readied action can go off, then Ano acts before the ghouls. BTW, all minute/level duration spells have already expired by now. Also, you have 2 very weak farmers with you. Sorry I don't have a map of the encounter since I don't have access to my desktop, but we can theater this.
The farmers understand Ethan, but they're clearly too weak to walk to Sandpoint. They do, however, seem very keen on hiding in the high plantation until all of this is over.
After Alicia speaks, some movement is noticed from within the barn. The farmhouse is quiet. However, nothing comes out. Yet.
There's no mundane way of knowing whether the treatment of the disease has worked. There is a cleric and paladin spell called Diagnose Disease that tells you exactly that.
GM only:
1d20 ⇒ 6 1d20 ⇒ 19
1d20 ⇒ 17 1d20 ⇒ 20
Ethan:
You know that the Antiplague can help delay the disease, but it doesn't guarantee a cure. You'd need to take care of them for a bit for them to be free of it.
Mechanically, ghoul fever needs 2 consecutive saves (which are done once per day) for it to be cured. The Antiplague guaranteed their saves today (one of them would have failed and turned into a ghoul). This means you'd need to treat them tomorrow as well, and they'd have to fight it off with a reduced Con score, but with your bonus. If you have 2 more Antiplagues for them to take tomorrow, you increase their chance by a lot. And after that, it's a lot of rest, hydrating and healthy eating to slowly recover the lost ability scores.
The two farmers feel visibly better after taking the very bitter Antiplague. But they still look terrible.
No, the disease, once spread, acts like that, a disease. Killing the source won't affect the afflicted.
The prisoner's voice is very raspy as he says "So many days. I don't know, many days." Alicia can tell that it's been also many days he hasn't had a sip of water, so he might die of dehydration before he dies of ghoul fever.
You can track some of what Carol mentioned, that people have come here, there was a lot of running around and some fights happened. But there are too many tracks to actually see which way whoever came from or went to.
Ok, let's save some time. These ghouls pose you no threat anyway. The illustration in the book for the scarecrows scene is much more dramatic than the game itself.
The group moves forward slowly the farmhouse, taking care to sense the auras and kill any ghouls. They do encounter some scarecrows that aren't ghouls but are wiggling. It seems that their strategy is to keep some people alive and strap them to the poles to "ripen" until they wake up as ghouls.
Please describe how you resolve this.
They come before two buildings. The barn is L-shaped and the larger of the two. It is built around a unique feature: a 12-foot-high stone head, canted slightly to the left, depicting a helmed warrior, his face a stern model of determination. Moss has grown over much of the weathered figure, making his features hard to discern.
The farmhouse is a smaller building but bears no noticeable marks.
Just realized that the cleric spells Detect Undead and Deathwatch are supposed to do exactly that, determine who is undead. But Detect Evil completely overrides that.
Ano can tell that the scarecrow closest to the group is indeed just a scarecrow. However, further down the road are two ghouls posing as scarecrow. Yet they don't really behave like so and are bound to the post. As in, they would have to struggle to get free if they were to attack the group. Its head is covered by a sack and it seems to be moving its head. Further down are two other normal scarecrow.
She can't really see beyond that because the plants have grown tall, but she can smell that there are more ghouls that these ones.
You sure you want to spend your rage rounds demonstrating your new looks?
The group walks through Sandpoint, and its residents seem a bit worried. Maybe some word of the lumber mill killings got out, maybe some hurtful rumors about the heroes are being spread, or maybe it's just word of a certain pregnant lady being passed around. For whatever reason, the group welcomes the calm of the road. The sun has come out and the spring warm begins to set as the group makes the way back.
As they arrive near the Hambley farm, they notice quite a few scarecrows hanging around.
Map updated. Black rectangles are scarecrows. The buildings to the left are the barn (L shaped) and the farmhouse (rectangle)
The group awakens with renewed strength and resolve.
There are 2 places to go that you know of now. The Hambley farm where Carol said the ghouls were originating from, or the Misgivings. I can drop you off there once you decide.
It seems that Father Zantus is slowly accepting that the town is physically safer with the group around, but he still needs to take care of the people's spiritual needs.
The sheriff says "Oh, I see. Forget what I said... It seems you're already on top of it. Please, do rest and prepare. And thank you for the information. I will arrange a heavy patrol for tonight. I think it would be wise to patrol the river, what do you think?"
Ano has straight up face planted the bed. What's everyone else up to?
It takes Father Zantus some effort, but he finally nods and says "Very well then, come Carol. The good thing about this big cathedral is that they built extra rooms. You can take one. Come, let's talk." Looking at Ethan, he says "Thank you, Ethan. I'll take it from here." He clearly ignores the bit about ghouls. It looks like his priority is the pregnant woman for now.
Father Zantus can be found praying in the cathedral. As Ethan and Carol come in, Zantus looks up a bit confused and says "Ethan, hello! And who have we here, Cara, I believe?" Carol looks at the ground a bit disappointed.
Arrian finds the sheriff in a meeting with Corporal Redmane and the guard that came with him. They're reviewing all that was documented. He looks up and says "Oh, you're here! Great!" He seems happy to have something to do other than look at the boring documentation. He says "There seems to be some problems that need some attention. Do you have the time?"
Ethan remembers that Carol's pregnancy is her first.
The woman calms down after the reassurances. The company also helps, as does the daybreak. The group arrives in Sandpoint and the smell of food can already be felt. It will be soon lunch time.
Where to? Group is extremely tired, I haven't rolled because you have a chance to rest now if you want, but if you want to get back to it, you're going to have to roll fatigue for the time traveled to Sandpoint and then back.
The group doesn't find anything of value on the ghouls. They were just farmers.
On the way back to town, daylight breaks and begins to warm the group, as they realize they would be hungry if it weren't such a bloody night. Carol calms down and eventually starts to speak. "It all started when the Hambleys didn't come out to buy milk as they do everyday."
Ethan remembers from his visits that the Hambleys were a bit disliked, but were cordial enough. They live closer to the Foxglove mansion.
She continues "Then people started to... well, farmer Curit told me he saw a scarecrow coming out of the fields and chasing people. I thought he went coo coo, but then madam Betty told me the same thing, then Purio too! One night, I couldn't sleep and I heard screams."
She gulps then continues "So a group of our neighbors decided to go see the Hambleys. I told Maurice not to go, he still needed to be a father, you see? Only one survived. Maester Grump. I think he went to Sandpoint to talk to the sheriff. He told me the... things killed everyone, even ate the dogs too! So Maurice and I talked and... I think in our fight, the things heard us, so we fled." She stops herself, not wanting to continue. She figures the group can figure out the rest.
She looks at Ethan and says "What am I going to tell my son? That his father was eaten by the neighbors?" She slows down to cry again.
The woman relaxes a bit and becomes accepting with Alicia promises to escort her to Sandpoint.
It's a long hike back to Sandpoint, but you'll be able to talk to her and find out what she knows. Let me know if you're doing that. If not, what else?
Carol looks at Ethan and her eyes start to water as she says "Please, don't leave me alone. Take me with you, I won't be in the way, I promise. Everyone around here is... dead. Or they fled." She strokes her enlarged belly, looking at it with a sad face. She seems regretful. It's fair to assume that she was also given the option to flee, but chose not to, probably due to her pregnancy.
Arrian can trace that the ghouls were, in fact, following the couple, only were much behind, when they stopped to chat, probably discuss something, then caught up to them.
You could, of course, ask them woman, too... Also, you don't have spells to regenerate him. Lesser restoration wouldn't do the trick here.
Carol looks at Ethan incredulous for several moments. Although she understands, she is having trouble coming to terms with it.
After a while, she asks for a moment with her unconscious husband. She takes his head on her lap and whispers things into his ear. The pain across her face gradually grows until she can't speak anymore, only emitting squeals and hugging his head, although he doesn't reply.
She needs someone to drive her out. As she is walking away, she whispers back "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She doesn't look as the group does what needs to be done.
@Arrian: leveling up my inquisitor in another game made me review teamwork feats. Don't know if you've seen this one, but it seems that you could benefit from Feint Partner and its Improved version, given Juriya's preferred fighting method. That is, if you can spare the skill points and feats for the pre-reqs.
He's still alive, but much of him was eaten. He won't last long. It's also fair to say he was infected by ghoul fever, and if he dies now, it will be from ghoul fever, which would turn him into a ghoul.
Woman's name is Carol, btw.
The woman goes with Ethan and seeing the man on the ground, shrieks "Maurice, what have they done to you?" She kneels and, after Alicia's channel, which closes some of his wounds, starts crying and says "Brother, Sower, please tell me you'll heal him." The man has many parts bitten off, although he is still breathing, albeit barely.
Arrian:
Checking the tracks, you can clearly see that the man and the pregnant woman were running until they came to this crosswords. They stopped and paced around a bit, then the ghouls came from nowhere and the man seemed to have taken a defensive stance as the ghouls reached him.
Ano:
You hear the evening breeze. It will be morning soon.
The three ghouls charge the group. Two of them get their heads bashed in by Alicia's hammer. The third one, however, gets close. Ano tries attacking it, but the thought of fey distracts her and her thrust is wild. The ghoul tries biting Arrian.
GM only:
Bite:1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 51d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Seeing its fellow ghouls be cut down distracts the last one, and it nearly faceplants.
