Recollections by Amon
We've been informed that bandits have attacked some farmers to the south of us. As we don't have a good idea of how far they might be, Ci gathers us and informs us of the situation and suggests we go seek out the last farmer to have complained about the bandits. After some... inspiration from Cassio, we set out. As this is our territory, finding and getting to the farm is trivial. It's about 40 miles southish of us. Arwel and Kaydranth join us, as well as Cordite. We cover the distance seeking out Harlan Grove at his farm, Grovestand. As we approach the edge of the domain, we see that south of us the weather does not seem to be cooperative of time spent outdoors. Neither Arwel nor Ember, our resident druids, are able to discern if this is naturally occurring or not. It seems to be a torrential downpour.
Deciding that for the moment the inclement weather outside is unlikely to trouble us here, we enter Grovestand to look for Harlan, as the sun sets. The people who are good at talking to people do the talking. Harlan answers to Ci's knock at the farmhouse door. His wife Wylla stands at the stove, cooking, his kids are nowhere to be seen, likely working the fields. We are welcomed relatively warmly, and are told about the "night creeps". He tells us that these creatures have been around since before we were here, stealing livestock, leaving animals in gory ruins, stealing vegetables, kidnapped children, killed people, "it's not very common but at least monthly, we have some encounter or another." No one in the party seems to have heard of these creatures previously. I inquire if the farmer has any idea where they might be coming in from. He guesses to the south. He informs us a cow was completely slaughtered down to the bones, four or five weeks ago. We promise to rid him of this problem, and head off to the cowshed where the attack took place. Before we leave we try to get as much information out him as possible. He tells us it's affected other farms around here, but it's come mostly from his lands. They seem to carefully cover their tracks. He notes that they haven't seen unpleasant rain like what's going on outside the domain in recent times. The rain outside has been going on for a week or more. As far as he can recall he hasn't noted any direct correlation between the rain and their attacks, though they do seem more frequent when it rains.
We go to see the cows. They all seem to be fine, there are only 2 milk cows, the rest are here to be raised for slaughter. Seeing as the attack took place outside the shed, we go to investigate the pasture. Ember casts a spell that allows her to speak to cows. Much mooing ensues. She gets a sense of loss from the cow, and a rough empathic image of a different cow, but nothing more concrete. Ci seeks guidance from his invisible friend, Master Feng. He pulls out a bag from his belt and starts talking into it. This doesn't seem as odd to me as it might the others, though I used my brain instead of a bag to talk to the Great Old One. The results are inconclusive. We explore the pasture out here in the dark, looking for signs of bovine violence or tracks. We are unable to find anything conclusive, but do notice a path that goes to a neighboring farm, outside our domain. We decide to follow the path, which takes us toward the bad weather. As we approach the farm, and notice that the ground seems to be swelling and that it's getting more humid. The rainfall is almost like a wall of water that tapers off as it approaches the border of our domain.
After some deliberation, we enter the rain, following the path with the intention of finding the other farm. The forest here has almost completely flooded into what is basically a swamp. Flashes of lightning illuminate a drowning meadow. We pass a wheat field, Ember, Ci, and Cassio see a figure staring directly at us in a brief flash of lightning. In the distance all they can discern is that it was vaguely humanoid, and about 300 feet away. They inform Jeroy and I. Ci decides to approach it without us first, stealthily. As another flash of lightning hits, he sees that it is, in fact, a scarecrow. Just a scarecrow. After a few minutes of trudging through the mud, he joins us and informs us that the coast is temporarily clear. We continue past the field. As we pass by, another of flash of lightning erupts and we see a strange, large mound with a hole in the ground that appears to be flooding with water. It's about large enough for a small human to swim inside but not much more. The path leads past the hole. Ember thinks it could belong to goblins or similar subterranean creatures.
We follow the path as the foliage thickens and see four more similarly sized and shaped mounds. I'm able to recall that these are likely interconnected tunnels. We make our way quickly back to the first mound and investigate. Ci attempts to climb down. He's unable to see much past a certain point. As he descends the disturbance of the wet earth causes it close in on him, swallowing him up. Ember starts to hear a sound coming from one of the nearby holes, that sounds like a low grunt and the shuffling of some mud. As she prepares to transform into an Earth Elemental and go rescue Ci, the rest of us decide to go investigate the hole. We see a head beginning to emerge from the earth below, looking like a strange, demonic-looking face. Cassio is unable to detect any whiff of anything unusual about it, but draws and ignites his sword anyway as a form of intimidation. All around us we notice other heads emerging, five in total. The sounds are horrible gurgling and wailing. Cassio prepares a spell as I #bless us, but we do not engage. Jeroy gives instructions to Cordite to cast a spell on the nearest mound if they run towards us.
[We are briefly scared shitless out of game by Jim's adorable child at an ill-timed moment.]
Ci gets the impression of movement around him down below in the mound, of him being encircled warily by the creatures in the mounds. He holds out his pouch and says "This is Master Feng." Ci gets the sense that the Master wants him to use him more literally, and he begins pulling out some bones. They are basically bone nunchucks. Bonechucks. [Yes this is actually what Avi was going for. No we aren't totally disturbed by this, why do you ask?] Combat starts. Ci shouts "In the name of Master Feng" and attacks the nearest creature with his +2 bonechucks. He's unable to see the results of his attack but is at least certain of his success. He attacks again at a different target and connects. And again, successfully.
Above ground, Cordite unleashes a spike growth spell on one of the mounds and then attempts to dominate one of the visible creatures. The spell fails, and Jeroy elects to spend some time trying to gain an understanding of the creatures and their weaknesses. Down below again, Ci lights up the area he's in with Faerie Fire, centering it on himself. Four creatures around him begin glowing purple. Cassio bolsters us with an aegis of divine light, then attempts to smite the nearest creature with a sharp, burning sword. He easily slays it, and the creature coming up just past it. The dead seem to sink back into the muck. Garnet holds position. I cast a spell that bludgeons two of the creatures at a distant hole with a thunderous wave of energy, and collapse the hole. Then about 7 creatures burst out of the hole to our southeast. 3 try to emerge through Cordite's spike growth but die. Through the hole I collapsed, 3 more emerge. Up close they appear to be corpse piece-meal creatures, humanoid shapes of parts hastily thrown together with mud filling the gaps. Arwel covers the only unaffected mound with another spike growth. Kaydranth attempts to read the surface thoughts of the creatures around us.
After some difficulty, Ember in her Earth Elemental form is able to figure her way through the earth to get through to Ci. She senses that they are both completely surrounded by the mud creatures. Jeroy advances on the creatures approaching us from the southeastern mound and starts laying waste. He kills two of them easily. Ci, unable to see clearly but relying on his training and senses, manages to block a number of attacks against him with the bonechucks. He holds his own against the others, thinning their numbers slightly. Cassio charges, as Cassio does, and kills two of the creatures to our east. I stay by the mound we first approached and destroy one of the creatures with the Staff of Withering, and am then immediately surrounded by the three survivors, who luckily fail to find purchase against my armor. The creatures near Jeroy and Cassio are similarly safe for the time being. Down below, Ember's darkvision adjusts to the light below, and sees the creatures surrounding Ci holding unusually clean and polished-looking spears that Ci is able to dodge completely. Able to see clearly in the dark now, Ember quickly realizes that these are kobolds. Ember shifts back and attempts to talk to the kobolds in draconic. She asks why they're afraid, and are answered by a cacophany of panic and fear from the kobolds and curses on the name of the kobold deity Kurtulmak. Her next move is to attempt to calm Ci down. A spike growth appears at the mound near me as Cordite moves to keep me relatively safe. Jeroy continues to kill the creatures near him. Ci continues to kill kobolds in a blind fury, listening only to the voice of his master in his head.
[Because listening to the voices in your head is ALWAYS the right call.]
Cassio decides to lose some of the new friends he's made through generous application of violence. Garnet torches two of the creatures near me, leaving just the one. I injure the last one near me, and they all utterly fail to harm any of us. Jeroy kills the last one near him, returns to my side, and kills the one fighting with me. Down below, Ember catches up to Ci, who is now angrily chasing after the retreating kobolds. The retreating kobolds nick a number of ropes along the passageway and trigger another cave-in, trapping Ci and Ember in the chamber. The last above-ground creature is knocked out by an attack from Cassio. He cleans it up and we realize we've just been fighting kobolds the whole time. We take a moment to catch our breaths, and then attempt to figure out how to locate and rescue Ember and Ci. Cassio uses a spell to figure out where they are, and as we deliberate what to do, Ember polymorphs herself into a Bulette and burrows back to the surface. Turns out the ones that seemed to have two heads were in fact mothers carrying their children.
We wake the kobold and try to get some information out of it. We extract Cassio from the situation to avoid any further complications, as Ember attempts to speak to it in draconic. When asked what they're doing here it tells us that this is where they live. It informs us that the reason they have well-made weapons is because of a "Master Zevane" that gave them weapons 3 weeks ago, who "looks like us" probably indicating he's a human, or at least humanoid. They've been hunting and killing the cattle, not really understanding that they're livestock owned by humans, having no real concept of such a thing. They only came to the surface because the harsh rains were filling their burrow. He has no real information on Master Zevane. The storm started up last week and has been torrential. It seems it really was a natural occurrence that drove them to the surface. Zevane outfitted them with weapons and simply told them to "be better." Ci and Cassio are able to recall that "Baron Tedor Zevane" is a noble from Solace. His holdings are just to the west of our own. It seems like he's been outfitting the kobolds with crafted spears in order to stir up trouble for some reason. They claim to have avoided attacking humans because we taste bad. When asked if they've seen any other creatures that may have been attacking, and it says no. It is able to identify the other farm we were heading to as "Millstone" and doesn't recognize Grovestand, simply begging us to go back and not return. Cassio forces it to smile using his belt and it suffers a mental breakdown.
Ci and Ember collaborate to make signs along the border in draconic, warning the kobolds away from entering our lands, on pain of Master Feng. Ci gets some more wisdom from the magic bones. We have, as far as we can tell, successfully dealt with the night creepers. We return to the Keep. Cassio is uncharacteristically silent and introspective. While I share the remorse of the others, it is clear this situation wasn't just an unfortunate misunderstanding, and other forces are at work against us. As we near the Keep, Master Feng speaks to all of us.