Wednesday, December 5, 652 AU, continued

After investigating the bodies of the bandits and their stolen carriage, the party moves on to investigating their horses. Valya attempts to calm them down, but this just seems to make the horses more agitated. “I’m… not very good with animals,” says Valya. Qhask tries instead, and soon the horses are docile enough that Qhask thinks they can untie them from the overturned carriage without any trouble. He’s right, and they start walking the horses down the road.

An hour and a half later, they find themselves passing through the outskirts of a large farming town—not nearly as large as Crystalport, of course, but larger than the small farming villages they’ve been passing through. According to their map, this must be Maplethorn. They notice smoke billowing into the sky from further ahead, and as they approach they see the remains of a burned-down farmhouse, still smouldering. Odd, but not that odd. Farmhouses burn down occasionally, right?

But as they pass through the heart of the town, they see several dozen people standing around what looks like a small temple of Corentin, shouting that they demand justice. The party asks one of them what’s going on. Apparently, a young halfling girl named Riley Lighthands burned down a farmhouse. The owners, Bodo and Miriam Stumbletoe, escaped, but their son, Tobias, was caught in the fire. He’s in critical condition in the temple of Corentin, and is likely to die soon. The girl is to stand trial in a few days—a judge has been called from Basinglen to preside over the case (Maplethorn is too small to have its own local justice system).

The party debates whether to stay and investigate or to press on to Basinglen and investigate on their way back. They decide to stay. They find a stable nearby, and the stableboy charges them 5 cp to take care of them. He says he will talk to his boss, Finlay Camburn, about the possibility of buying the horses from the party. Then, they return to the temple and make their way inside.

They are greeted by Gordon Marsh, a human priest of Corentin, and Judge Merimas, a tiefling. The priest seems relieved to see Aurelia, a fellow cleric, and Aurelia offers to see what she can do for Tobias. He leads them to a small infirmary in the back of the temple, where Tobias Stumbletoe lies unconscious on a bed. Severe burns cover much of his body, and Aurelia is unable to do much for him, even with her healing magic.

“I thank you for trying anyway, sister,” says Gordon. “You’ve come to Maplethorn at a troubling time. Our herbalist, Cora Anwen, left yesterday to collect ingredients in the Mire of Frogs—she believed she could help Tobias. Unfortunately, she has not returned.”

“What’s the Mire of Frogs?” asks Valya.

“A swamp south of here, along the coast of the Cobalt Bay. It’s quite dangerous—the townsfolk tend to avoid it, but Cora is fearless. There’s a small settlement of grung—frog people—who live there. They’re wary of strangers, but Cora befriended them. She often journeyed there to collect rare ingredients for her potions. Usually she leaves in the morning and returns by the evening, but…” he trails off.

“We’d be happy to help you look for Cora,” says Aurelia.

“We could also speak to the Stumbletoes and the Lighthands and investigate this crime,” says Abundance.

“I’m afraid the case is quite open-and-shut,” says Judge Merimas. “Multiple witnesses saw the girl at the scene of the crime, and she was caught with flint and steel in hand, taken from the kitchen at her parents’ bakery. She has no explanation for why she was there—says she was sleepwalking, dreaming about comets or somesuch.”

That draws the party’s attention. “Call it an intuition,” says Aurelia, “but we think there’s more to this case. Could we speak with those involved?”

Judge Merimas shrugs. “If you’d like. Bodo insists Riley be locked up in the town jail, but I don’t think she’s much of a threat—she’s with her parents until the trial. The Stumbletoes are staying with relatives, since their farmhouse was burned down. I can show you where.”

⁂

They decide to speak with the Lighthands first, and walk a few blocks to their bakery. The parents, Reginar and Nora Lighthands, greet them at the door. Inside are several customers, but the party suspects, from the size of the bakery, that there are fewer customers than usual. Nora and Reginar look distraught, but agree to let the party in when they find out they believe Riley might be innocent. They speak in the back of the bakery, near the ovens.

“She’s just eleven! She’s never done anything like this before,” says Nora.

“Has anything strange happened lately?” asks Aurelia.

“Well… for the past week or so, Riley has been sleepwalking. Every night we find her standing in the kitchen, and when we shake her awake, she has no idea where she is. She doesn’t remember getting out of bed.”

“She’s been having dreams,” adds Reginar. “Something about fire.”

“Do you think she’s possessed?” Valya whispers to Aurelia. Aurelia shrugs.

“May we speak with her?”

Nora and Reginar look at each other. “I suppose,” says Nora, “but please—be gentle. She’s quite frightened.”

Nora leads the party upstairs to their living quarters, to a door at the end of a hallway. “She’s in there.”

They enter the small bedroom, and find Riley Lighthands sitting on her bed, looking troubled. “May we come in?” asks Aurelia.

Riley nods.

Aurelia does most of the talking, and they learn a few things from Riley. She seems to honestly not remember burning down the farmhouse, but she does remember being shaken awake by Bodo Stumbletoe next to the farmhouse, and not knowing why she was there or why the house was on fire. All she remembers is dreaming about great balls of fire streaming through the sky, and starry voids opening up in space. The party finds this disturbing—it’s very reminiscent of Aurelia’s visions…

Aurelia also notices that Riley’s fingernails are ragged and bloody. Nora explains that after the arson, Nora has been scratching at the floor in her sleep, like she’s digging for something. Aurelia heals Riley’s fingers, earning an astonished expression from the young girl. Valya tells Riley to be brave, and then they return to the hallway.

“Have you had any contact with the Stumbletoes before the arson?”

“Yes, everyone in town knows each other. We’ve eaten at their house before.”

“Anything recently?”

“Hmm… Oh, yes—thank you for reminding me. Miriam gave us a pie a week ago, and I forgot to return the tin!”

“May we see the tin?” asks Abundance.

“Yes, though I don’t know how that would relate to our daughter…”

Nora retrieves a nondescript pie tin from the kitchen. Abundance casts detect magic, and detects a weak aura of conjuration and enchantment! “This pie tin is enchanted,” he says.

Reginar and Nora gasp. “Really? How? Why?”

“It’s not clear what kind of spell this is, but it’s certainly magical.”

“Do you think the Stumbletoes are responsible?” asks Valya.

“I don’t know, but we’ll certainly have to question them.”

The party thanks Nora and Reginar for their time, and head to the Stumbletoes’ current residence.

⁂

The Stumbletoes are living with relatives, who seem overwhelmed by their unexpected guests. The party are led inside, where they are introduced to Bodo and Miriam Stumbletoe.

“Well, has that girl been brought to justice yet?” asks Bodo.

“Not quite,” says Aurelia. “We have a few questions for you—”

“How long have you been practicing magic?” Abundance interrupts, directing the question at Miriam.

“What?” asks Miriam, confused. “Why, I—”

“What are you accusing my wife for?” shouts Bodo. “You should be locking up the real culprit, that girl!”

As far as the party can tell from their reactions, Miriam is honestly confused. “The pie you gave to the Lighthands last week—the tin was enchanted. Know anything about that?” asks Abundance.

“What? No, of course not! What kind of accusations are these?” shouts Bodo.

“We’re just following up on some leads. Do you have any idea what motive would Riley have to burn down your farmhouse?”

“Maybe she thought the pie was bad and decided to get revenge,” suggests Bodo. Miriam gives the party an apologetic look, as if to say she knows how difficult Bodo can be.

“Where did you get the apples that went into the pie?” asks Abundance.

“From the Turney family’s orchard, but what does that have to do with anything? My son is on death’s door as we speak, and you’re asking us about pie?! Do you realize how insane that is? You already have a culprit! Lock her up! Tobias deserves justice!”

Abundance is unfazed. “Were any of the objects in your house acting strangely before the fire? Anything moving on its own?”

Bodo goes apoplectic. “Yes, in fact! A lot of things moved when the floor collapsed!”

Abundance, who had been surreptitiously casting detect magic, tells the party that Bodo and Miriam’s clothes are slightly magical, and that the aura is identical to the aura on the pie tin. Sensing they aren’t going to get much more out of Bodo, they take their leave.

“We need to investigate the farmhouse,” says Abundance once they’re out of earshot. They walk down the road to the east, to the outskirts of the town, and find the smouldering ruins. “…Everything in the wreckage has the same aura.” Very curious, but it’s unclear what they can do about it.

“I have a feeling we’ll need to question Tobias. Maybe he saw something,” says Aurelia.

“We’ll need to rescue the herbalist then.”

⁂

The Mire of Frogs is a few miles to the south of Maplethorn, though the trail there is overgrown and infrequently used. As they venture into the swamp the ground becomes mucky and treacherous. Thankfully, someone has laid down a series of old logs, serving as a trail over the more waterlogged parts of the path. Even so, the party is slowed to a crawl. Hopefully Cora didn’t stray from this trail…

Half an hour into the swamp, Magpie, Abundance’s owl familiar, notifies the party that there’s a clearing up ahead, and there’s a pack of dog-like creatures in it. They creep forward, and are able to spy on the creatures without being seen themselves. They look like dogs, but with long limbs that end in webbed feet, and their mouths seem too large for their heads. They’re sniffing around, as if searching for something.

Seeing no way around the creatures, the party attack at range. Unfortunately, the creatures are perfectly adapted to the swamp and have no trouble closing the distance to the party. Even worse, once the dogs bite, they teleport with their victim. Qhask gets dragged further and further away from the party, and is forced to drop his bow and take out a sword. Everyone is teleported in different directions—the dogs are smart enough to separate the party by force, hoping that they’re unable to help each other and can be taken down individually. The party is tough however—they manage to take down the dogs, and reconvene at the clearing (after spending a few minutes looking for Qhask’s bow in the murky water).

Some searching around the clearing reveals that the grass has been pressed down around the base of a particularly large tree, and Qhask finds a melon rind. Perhaps Cora stopped here to have lunch? They press on.

A few minutes later, they spot some grung up ahead. The grung, armed with spears, are delighted that the party have already killed their quarry— they collect the bodies of the dog creatures and take the party to their village, leading them to a large hut where they meet their elder.

“Welcome!” says the elder. “I am r’Riekheph’bhep. You are friends of Cora?”

“Yes,” replies Valya. Everyone introduces themselves to Elder r’Riekheph’bhep. “Do you know where Cora is?”

The elder’s expression darkens. “She ventured into the deep swamp yesterday, to collect white glass snails. We warned her about the stone lizards, but she said it was urgent.”

“Stone lizards?” asks Valya, hoping the elder doesn’t mean what she thinks he means.

“Yes, they can turn their victims to stone with a gaze. We found Cora’s statue last night.”

“Is there anything we can do for her?”

“Once, a few years ago, Cora mentioned that she was working on a recipe for a stone to flesh potion. But I don’t know if she ever finished it.”

“If she has notes, I could try to finish what she started,” says Abundance. “I am an herbalist myself, after all.”

“Can you take us to her?” asks Aurelia.

“My warriors can take you close, but I will not risk them in the deep swamp. I am sorry.”

The party thanks the elder, and a small group of grung warriors lead them to the deepest recesses of the Mire of Frogs. Here, the trees are thick enough to block out most of the sunlight, leaving everything in deep shadow. Eventually, the warriors will go no farther, and stay behind while the party ventures further into the eerie thicket.

Soon, the party stumble across several stone statues of various animals—a few lizards, a frog, and one of the dog creatures. Then, they find a statue of a middle-aged human woman, carrying a basket with a look of surprise on her face. There is a pool of water nearby, dotted with small stones that jut out of the water’s surface. Crawling on the stones are dozens of pale snails.

Suddenly, as the party is taking in this scene, there is movement in the water. A large lizard bursts out of the pool and rushes toward the party, followed by two more. It’s difficult for the party to fight, because they can’t look directly at the basilisks, and the basilisks have strong, venomous bites to accompany their cursed gaze.

The party fight well, though, and manage to take down the lizards, with the only casualty being Qhask’s drake. They harvest some snails, just in case, and return to the grung village. At this point, it is late in the afternoon, and they decide to spend the night with the grung. The grung are happy to host friends of Cora, especially friends who plan to free her from the basilisk’s curse.

Thursday, December 6, 652 AU

The next morning, they decide to split the party. Qhask and Aurelia stay behind with the grung, while Valya and Abundance return to the village to retrieve Cora’s notes. They first head to the temple of Corentin, where Gordon informs them of a new development in the infirmary. Tobias has not died overnight (to the party’s relief), but that morning two badly-wounded mercenaries entered town from the west and collapsed. They catch a glimpse of the infirmary, and note something interesting—the newcomers’ belongings have been piled on one side of the room, and among them is a large crate. Could these be the mercenaries hired by Red Eagle Shipping Company to transport the package?

They ask Gordon for directions to Cora’s home, and head there as quickly as they can. They enter through a second-story window, and search through her house. The second floor is living quarters, while the first is her herbalist shop. They discover her laboratory behind a locked door, along with a large collection of books and journals. Some searching reveals a stack of papers labeled “Stone to Flesh?”, which they take. Notes in hand, they return to the swamp.

Back in the grung village, Abundance gets to work interpreting Cora’s notes. Most of the ingredients are common enough, but one is pretty exotic—the gullet of a basilisk. They return to the scene of the battle with some of the grung, and return the basilisk corpses to the village, where they get to work butchering them. A few hours later, Abundance has what he thinks is a single dose of an oil of stone to flesh.

They head into the deep swamp once more, apply the oil to the statue, and… it works! Cora Anwen, realizing what must have happened, thanks the party profusely. So do the grung. The party and Cora return to Maplethorn, where Cora begins brewing a powerful burn salve using the snails from the swamp.

During this time, the party questions the two mercenaries, who introduce themselves as Jonas (a human male) and Dusk (a female tiefling). They were indeed hired by the Red Eagle Shipping Company that morning, to transport a shipment from Basinglen to Crystalport. They thought it would be easy money, but they were ambushed by some sort of earth elemental outside of Maplethorn. Dusk remembers seeing a yellow gem thrown into their path from the woods, which exploded and became the elemental—someone summoned it. There were originally four of them—Alix and Anders didn’t make it. Jonas and Dusk barely escaped with their lives, casting invisibility and running away as fast as they could. They made it to the outskirts of the town, where they collapsed.

Abundance offers their services to finish transporting the shipment, but Jonas is adamant that he and Dusk don’t want to share the profits, and that they’ll continue their journey before the day’s end. Valya tries to convince them that it’s too dangerous, and that whoever attacked the rest of their party could strike again. Jonas is on the fence, but Dusk convinces him that Valya is right. “Fine,” says Jonas. “Take the package for all I care. Just split the profits with us, if you have any honor.”

Eventually, Cora finishes her burn salve, and applies it to Tobias’s skin. He immediately looks much better, and stirs, blinking his eyes. Before Tobias is overrun with friends and family, the party ask him to describe what he remembers about the fire.

“I… I was asleep, in my room on the first floor. I remember smelling smoke, and when I woke up there was fire everywhere. I couldn’t get out—what woke me up was the noise of a beam crashing down in front of my door. I saw… I don’t know if it was real… I saw a girl—Riley Lighthands—standing on the other side of the flames, just looking at me with blank eyes. I tried screaming at her for help, but I just choked on the smoke. She raised her hand, and just… pointed down with her finger, no expression on her face. It was so strange… I don’t know if it was real. My memory is hazy after that. I remember the pain… and I remember my dad pulling me to safety… and then I woke up, here.”

They thank Tobias, and then inform Gordon that Tobias has woken up. Gordon, elated, heads off to inform Bodo and Miriam. Then, the party shares what they’ve learned with Judge Merimas.

“Very strange,” says Merimas. “Doesn’t that just incriminate the girl even further?”

“We think Riley is possessed,” says Aurelia.

“Most of the items in the farmhouse are contaminated with some sort of magical aura,” adds Abundance, “an aura that we also found on a pie tin the Stumbletoes gave to the Lighthands last week.”

“But why Riley, if everything in the farmhouse is contaminated?”

“Maybe she’s particularly susceptible to whatever that magic is.”

“I think,” says Aurelia, “we need to look under the farmhouse.”

“Why?” asks Merimas.

“If Riley was pointing down at Tobias, maybe what she was trying to say was ‘look below’.”

⁂

Back at the farmhouse, they debate what to do. “Farmhouses usually have basements, right?” asks Valya.

“How do we sort through all the rubble and even find the door, though?” asks Qhask.

Abundance casts detect magic again, and notices something this time. The magical aura isn’t spread uniformly throughout the farmhouse. The aura is strongest at the back right corner, where the kitchen was, and weaker on the opposite side of the house. “We should start in the kitchen,” says Abundance.

It takes them a while to clear away enough of the rubble, but eventually they’ve revealed part of the floor of the kitchen. They get to work removing the boards with a crowbar, and immediately notice something odd. There’s a second floor, under the first one. It looks like at some point someone put a new floor over the old floor of the kitchen. Half an hour later, they discover a hatch. Curiously, it only exists in the older, lower floor. Whoever built the second floor was trying to hide the basement, it seems.

“That’s promising,” says Abundance.

They open the hatch. A ladder descends into a dark, musty root cellar, which hasn’t seen the light of day for… who knows how long? They can see shelves stuffed with jars of preserved vegetables near the ladder, but to see the true extent of the basement they’d have to descend.

Carefully, they climb down the old ladder one by one, until they are all standing on the bare dirt floor. It’s silent, and the musty smell of rot replaces the smokey smell of the burned farmhouse above. The cellar is only as big as the footprint of the farmhouse above, and it’s packed with freestanding wooden shelving units containing jars of preserves, but also old vegetables long since rotted away, linens, and rusted farming tools. It’s all neatly laid out, but as they cautiously creep about, they discover one of the shelves has been turned to the side, out of line with the shelves around it.

There, under where the shelf once stood, is a pile of loosened dirt. An old shovel lies on the ground next to it—as if someone dug a hole with the shovel, then changed their mind and filled it back up. What could be in the hole? Everyone feels uneasy, as if they’re being watched.

Not wanting to get too close, Abundance casts mold earth to remove the dirt from a distance. The party is horrified by what they see. In the hole is a statue. It’s about three feet tall, and carved from a waxy black stone. It depicts a disturbing, emaciated humanoid, its limbs bent at strange angles. Even though it has no face, everyone can feel the malice emanating from the statue. Only Qhask is able to withstand the fear, and the rest turn to run, unable to handle the statue’s presence.

And that’s when the gibbering mouthers attack.

Squirming their way up from somewhere under the statue, two misshapen lumps of flesh covered in mouths rush toward the party. They emit a psychic cacaphony that floods the party’s minds, and Valya is rooted to the spot in fear. Everyone alternately tries to flee up the ladder and shoot at the mouthers from afar, only to discover that the mouthers can retaliate with blasts of acid. Eventually, after many fire bolts, arrows, and bursts of divine energy, the mouthers dissolve into sludge, and everyone escapes up the ladder and back to sanity.

They take a few moments to collect themselves. In the bright light of a late fall day, it already seems like what happened was some unreal nightmare.

“We need to get that statue out of there,” says Aurelia.

“Why?” asks Valya.

“Well it can’t stay here! Look what it’s already done to this town!”

They return to the basement and wrap the statue in a heavy cloak, unwilling to touch it directly. Disturbingly, when they lift the statue, they discover more dirt beneath it. Where did the gibbering mouthers come from, then? The statue itself? A disturbing thought. Valya also notices that the jars of preserves closest to the statue appear… disturbing. It might be her mind playing tricks on her, but they look more face-like than the other jars.

⁂

Back at the temple of Corentin, the party explains what they found to Judge Merimas.

“Well, it certainly seems like Riley is an innocent party here, as much as Bodo isn’t going to like hearing it. I’ll write up my report, make my recommendation to the town elders, and return to Basinglen. Thank you, for all your help.”

Gordon and Cora are also very thankful of the party, and between the two of them, offer three healing potions, two antidotes, and Cora’s old herbalism textbook as thanks. “It’s not exactly a standard text… you’ll find information in there you’re not likely to find in any other introductory work. I’ve already committed it all to heart—it would be good for it to pass on to new hands.” ❦