The Countryside

“The Countryside”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 27
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Sanatorium" "The Foxglove Manor"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes ride out towards the Foxglove Manor, but face undead horrors on the way.

The Countryside

We decided to ride out. As it was soon dinnertime we planned to ride to a farm on this side of Foxglove River, which is the last river you have to cross before arriving at Foxglove manor, to spend the night there. We didn't want to get there in the middle of the night. As we rode out from the asylum, there were dark, rain heavy clouds gathering on the sky and wisps of mist slowly drifting over the fields. We took the Lost Coast Road which led us south between the Soggy Swamp further out on our right side and a high plateau called Devils Platter on the left side.

Farmer Grump.

We passed the plateau and followed Cougars Creek. There was a wet mist drifting in from the direction of the swamp limiting our view of the landscape. Even though it wasn't cold out yet, I had chills. We saw a dark shape coming toward us along the road ahead. It was someone riding a workhorse. Nathaniel hailed the stranger, that seemed reluctant to talk at first, but when we told him we work for the sheriff of Sandpoint he told us that he was on his way there. When he opened up it was hard to stop him. He told us of monsters and repeated "They even ate the dogs." over and over again. We told him we would stop the monsters and he should continue on to safety.

We thought we had better hurry up and continued on. There was a fog enveloping us. It became increasingly hard to see over the newly harvested fields we passed. Then Nathaniel spotted a small dark shape in the fog. It looked like a girl but then we could hear a song and the voice was not so young. It was still a childish song, a nursery rhyme but the text was about monsters and scarecrows. When we came closer it turned out to be Madame Mvashti who sang the strange song. She looked smaller than she did when she did the reading. but on the other hand I wasn't sitting on a horse then. She asked Dorothea
"Did you take care of him?"
"Who? Oh. Yes him. Yes."
"There's more trouble ahead." Madame Mvashti warned us. She gave us an item to help us out. It was some magic thing that help when using magic. Dorothea said she could use it.

Soon after, we reached where Soggy River runs out into the swamp. The road led to a small wooden bridge. There were some shapes vaguely noticeable in the fog. It turned out to be peasants standing guard.
"It's dangerous on the other side." they warned us.
"We will take care of it." Velicia said courageously.
"We're sent by the sheriff." Nathaniel added.
"Don't you recognize us? We're the heroes of Sandpoint! We're the ones who saved Sandpoint from all goblins from there to Fogscar mountains! We conquered Thistletop. We pacified five goblin tribes and slew all their war chiefs!" I said without exaggerating.
They didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I think they were a little slow. Looking at the dense fog in front of us we thought that we might be too vulnerable on horseback. We left our horses in the care of Orik with the peasants. I really don't want anything to happen to Creampuff.

The sky was even darker and we could only see 20-30 feet in front of us. Following the road we passed a another leading off to our right disappearing into the fog. We took the next on to the right. It lead to the farm where we had planned to spend the night. There was a very worn down fence and gate. We closed it behind us. In the fog in front of us we could vaguely see a shadow in the dense fog. It turned out to be a scarecrow standing at the crossroads between the fields. Continuing on to another crossroads where another scarecrow stood Velicia said they show the way. I said they scare crows from the fields and Dorothea said "No. They are monsters." as it tore from the pole and attacked us.

Scarecrow attack.

Most of us were surprised, but Velicia managed to cast a spell. The monstrous scarecrow charged with flaying claws at Honeypot who hit it back. Nathaniel tricked it and I felled it with a throw of my dagger. It turned out to be a farmer that was infected but had not turned into a ghoul. Nathaniel picked him up and carried him as we continued.

At the next crossroads there was a new scarecrow. We cautiously approached it when several others appeared in the fog all around us, but the scarecrow was just a scarecrow. There was a big fight against infected monstrous farmers clad as scarecrows. Velicia was clawed unconscious by one and nearly died but after hard fighting we at last stood as victors. There were a total of 15 infected farmers including the one we brought.

We decide to take a short rest, but before we could, three more shapes appeared out of a house just barely visible through the dense fog. When they came closer we could see that they had turned into ghouls and were harder to beat, but the others had been so many more so we managed to fight off these relatively easy. We killed two but the last one retreated and shouted out "Alarm!". We could hear four more leaving the house but lost them in the fog. Velicia took out a statue of a dog that came alive and protected her. We hid in the fog too and then fought them. As Honeypot killed the last, who was a ghoul leader of some kind, we all finally could take our rest. Some of us took a closer look at the ghouls we just fought and found out that the leader had better clothes than the rest, wearing a livery. He was the groundskeeper of Foxglove manor and called Roger Krespie. He also had a key on a sting around his neck. It was decorated with curious flowers and thorns. It was the heraldic shield of Foxglove. He also had an armor that according to the magic users protected especially against undead. Nathaniel patted Velicias dog.

We entered the farmhouse. My stomach turned as I entered. The peasant living there had been sacrificed and hung on the wall as had been done in the sawmill. The others said he had been carved with a sevenpointed star too. I felt sick. I went on into another room and looked through it. In the bedroom there was a secret compartment in the bed where there was a coin collection of 34,000 silver pieces in neat packages of 100 pieces each.

Honeypot left the house to get some air and I took my mind off the awful things by counting the coins. Honeypot soon came back and shouted that there were more farmers put up as scarecrows. It turned out to be two more that had resisted the infection better. They were called Horran and Lettie Guffmin and lived on a farm next doors.

Velicia thought we should stay and sleep at the farm. I really didn't like that idea. The thought of sleeping in the midst of blood and body parts made me sick. After some discussion we decided to at least go back to the sanatorium. It was dusk when we gathered all the infected farmers. We found a cart and a wagon in the farm. They were in very bad shape but worked and would probably hold together as far as the sanatorium. There were fifteen infected that was sick but not full ghouls and two who were in a better shape but no one of them could walk themselves. We put the six ghouls and the boss in a heap and burned their bodies. While the fire raged Nathaniel went into the fog all by himself to fetch Orik and the horses. When he returned we all left for the sanatorium. I felt so comforted from the warmth of Creampuff in the eerie night. When we arrived at the sanatorium the help from Sandpoint had arrived, but now they were understaffed again. We left the infected in their care and made preparations for the night. I got a bed in the attic of the sanatorium and with some cotton in my ears i couldn't even hear the screams.