In reply to Breya (msg # 19):

Moon coughs a bit after Cassandre about absent comrades.  She claps a hand against her chest.  "Sorry.  That went down the wrong pipe.

"And gettin' there is no problem. You take the path out by the Merskin place and go right at the first fork, then left at each next one until you get to the oak that they used to hang lanterns on...

"Yeah.  Lemme just draw you that map..."

---

Salt Lick is up and at work as you all head towards the Brangham's place.  You head north and east out of town.  Farmers you pass by wave at you.  Seems word of you has spread rather quickly.  Everyone is friendly.  One farmer offers you a basket of squash.  Another one offers you all some water from a bucket he just pulled out of his well.

You soon come up the road to what must be the Brangham place.



As Moon said, the scarecrow is unique.  A rusted chest piece from some old suit of plate mail.  A dented kettle helm perched on top of an old, petrified cabbage which is serving as the scarecrow's head.  One of it's arms is a thatch of sticks tied together.  The other is bracer stuffed with hay they stuck an old glove on.

It's definitely distinctive.

The scarecrow sits by a cornfield next to a small stream.  On the other side of the path is a wheat field.  You can see the farm proper not far away.  It's a little run down looking, but no one seems to be around at the moment.

Bellinha stood in the road, her hands on her hips and her head tilted to one side as she looked at the Scarecrow in the distance.  "Maybe the crows find the armor intimidating?" she asked.  Shrugging, she carried on along the path and across the small bridge towards the scarecrow.  "Guess there's nothing else to do but check it out."

"People sure have gotten more friendly around here, huh?" about all the farmers and their niceness and generosity.

Kozibi, when they stopped and saw the scarecrow in the distance, leaned towards Breya without taking his eyes off of the thing. "Sayyyy...do those look those arms end in...crab claws to you?" He quickly took a step away from her, smiling.

He nodded at Bellinha. "Sure, let's go say hi."

"I'm going to invest in some crab traps.  Real big ones."  Breya responded.

Part of her just wanted to drop kick this thing and see what fell out, but she wasn't going to do that.  If they were shoving love notes in it or something, surely it couldn't be that hard to find.

In reply to Breya (msg # 24):

The "scarecrow" is even more odd up close than it is from a distance.  There's an odd insignia on the breastplate.  What looks like a blue and silver Ocean Lion The monster that's half lion and half fish.  Used to be called Sea Lions in D&D.  There's some kind of flower in it's mouth and a coat of arms behind it. But the rust is too thick and the scars are too much to make out more than what you have.

The helm has a gate style face plate.  It's still attached and in working order.  It swings open easily, as if it's been freshly oiled.

As you are examining the scarecrow, the front door of the farm house bangs open.  An old woman with a quarter staff ambles out.  She glares at you and then shakes her fist.

"You damn young'uns!  You leave my boy alone!  He ain't botherin' none a' ya!  Stop tryin' ta feed him them mud pies!"

Bellinha put on her most friendly smile and held out her hands in a placatingly warm gesture.  "Good morning, Ma'am.  You need not worry yourself.  We were admiring your scarecrow and wouldn't dream of putting anything like mud near it."  she said diplomatically.

She reached over and grabbed Breya and Kozibi, pulling them close.  "I was just telling my friends here about how fascinating it is to see such care given to a scarecrow.  Why, the breastplate alone was...un-crablike...and that is not something that you see every day in a corn field.  Oh, but where are my manners?  My name is Bellinha.  And you are?"

Cassandre left all pretence  behind, it was obvious that the locals will have noticed them, seen them go to the scarecrow, and if a spy was about, they would know that the secret of the scarecrow being a formidable letterbox was known to them.

 She walked with Belinha towards the farmer, waved amicably and grinned politely.
 “Cassandre is the name! We’ve come from afar to see your scarecrow! He’s a local celebrity, is he not? Now pray tell though; who’s been feeding him mud pies? Who dares? We’ll bring them to justice, I tell you.”

Apollo the Cat was circling around the place, ever the little scout, ready to report anything he find noteworthy—which would range from a group of goblins hiding behind the farm, to a stack of fish pies on the window sill.

Breya just contemplated what her life even was at this point in time.

In reply to Breya (msg # 28):

The old woman studies you all, especially the smiling Cassandre and then spits over the side of the porch.

"Well, if ya'll are gonna try to bullshit me, you might as well come in and have some coffee while you do tha bullshittin'.  I'm Claudia.  This is my damn son's damn farm.  He's out in the damn fields with his damn sons.  My daughter in law went to gather some berries.  So if you're plannin' ta rob the place, jokes on you. Cos we got shit.  Now who takes milk and who takes honey in their coffee?"

The inside of the house is much nicer than the outside.  It's a large kitchen with a table capable of seating all of you.  Claudia shambles over to the stove and pours you each a mug of coffee from a coffee pot even the boisterous <purpl>Breya</purple> would call gigantic.

"So what about our scarecrow's got you young'uns panties all wadded up?"

Kozibi smiled at the woman as he finally spoke up. "No, you're quite right. To be honest, however, that scarecrow is...quite a monstrous masterpiece. Did your son put that together?" He waved one hand. "So many different pieces put together to make an interesting whole."

He gave a light shrug. "A little honey couldn't hurt, thank you."

"Thanks."  Breya accepted the coffee as offered.  She was now very, very used to things not being sweetened, and drinking coffee gave her something to do.  She decided to let the others do this with finesse.  If it didn't work, Breya was going to launch plan B.

In reply to Kozibi Januson (msg # 30):

"The 'crow?"  Claudia glances in the direction of the scarecrow, as if she could see it through the wall.  "That's been somethin' we been puttin' together for years.  Hell.  I think we put that glove on it when I was a little bit of a thing.  Or maybe it was the helmet?  Anyway.  Whenever we find somethin' washed up on shore that looks kinda interesting, we slap it on the scarecrow.  Hopin' we'll get a new bit of armor here soon.  That breatplate's gettin' kinda rusty.  Worried it'll rust up the corn.

"Anyway.  Why you folks interested in our 'crow anyway?  Too many folks been comin' by, stickin' their noses into it.  It's gettin' a bit worrisome if you ask me."

  "Worrisome indeed!" Cassandre exclaimed, as she slammed down her mug back on the table, having drained it all of its content of black coffee no milk no nothing.

  "Have you a list of names? We're with you on this, scarecrows should be left to their endeavour, of well, scaring crows away, is that not right? So well chase down these people you say have been feeding him mudpies, and talk them out of the habit."

 "That crest on it, the seahorse that's really more of a lion... you happen to know where it's from?"

In reply to Cassandre Lagrene (msg # 33):

Claudia perches her warty chin on one fist and grins.  "That crest?  I've seen it before somewhere.  Now where was that?

"More coffee anyone?"

Apropos of nothing, can everyone roll me a d20 please?

Mmmm.  That's good coffee.

You know these paranoid players who never drink anything given by anyone? THey exist because of you Mr. Whetstone. Yes yes.

Cassandre Lagrene rolled 11 using 1d20.  intuition.
Cassandre Lagrene rolled 5 using 1d20.  ominous post-coffee roll.
 (darn I should have been content with my roll of 11!) 

  "Coffee? Yes please!" Cassandre chimed cheerfully, but also wary of something being afoot... maybe this bitter beverage was making her paranoid.


 Cassandre Lagrene rolled 18 using 1d20+4.  sense motive

Kozibi took a sip of the coffee to be polite. It wasn't bad actually. He declined taking more but did sip at what he had.

"Who else has been interested in the scarecrow? And why?" He waved a hand. "It's just a scarecrow, right? I mean, unique, yes, but just a scarecrow nonetheless?"

OOC: Heh. I mean if there's a chance to roll a 1, I take every opportunity.
18:35, Today: Kozibi Januson rolled 1 using 1d20.  Cake (Coffee) or Death?

Breya drank more of the stuff.  "Yeah, I don't like the sound of someone messing with the scarecrow."  She figured she'd pile on just a little, Kozibi seemed to have the right idea here so far.

20:04, Today: Breya rolled 11 using 1d20.  No reason.

In reply to Breya (msg # 37):

Claudia nods slowly.  Very slowly.

"Oh yes.  It's just a scarecrow.  No one's usin' it for anything other than scarin' crows anymore."

Breya, you feel...fluffy.  Like a little cloud wafting about on the wind.  Waft waft waft.  A joy, a childlike joy spreads through you.  Everything is charming.  Everything is fluffy.  Even the way Kozibi and Jevin seem to be drooping sideways and laying their heads on the table.  Oh my!  A nap?!  That sounds fluffy!

Cassandre, you notice Claudia seems a bit more spry than she did a moment ago.  You think maybe she's not as old as you thought she was.  The good news is that the only thing Apollo has found of interest in the yard is a dead squirrel.

But damn!  That's good coffee!


So yeah.  Coffee was drugged.  Breya, you are up for the moment, but are about to go down for a snooze.  If you want to take an action, I will allow one action at a -4.

Cass...let me know what that roll gets you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:37, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

Bellinha stayed silent as she let Cassandre and Kozibi lead the conversation.  It was interesting however that the scarecrow was wearing pieces that had washed up on the beach.  As she sipped her drink, she pondered the implications of this.

OOC:
Bellinha Grunnel rolled 19 using 1d20.

Cassandre felt the numbing effect of the coffee, and it seemed she was about to go down for a snooze… and then she did.

But something in the back of her head tingled, and whispered: “not today…”

She feigned sleepiness, and then collapsed from her chair and under the table. But she wasn’t asleep, through squinting eyelids she kept an eye on the scene, and an ear as well. Or was she dreaming all this??! Maybe she did fall asleep and only dreamt that she was so clever as to feign a sudden slumber…

Cassandre Lagrene rolled 15 using 1d20.  Reroll — is it enough though??

Breya realized what was happening too late.  With a final surge she lunged for their "hostess", hoping to take her with them.

Of course that won't work because no one past level 1 gets knocked out with a single shot anyway in this game system, but Breya would try.

05:46, Today: Breya rolled 13 using 1d20+4.  Punch after modifiers.
05:46, Today: Breya rolled 14 using 1d3+13.  Power Attack.
05:47, Today: Breya rolled 2 using 1d4.  Bleeding Attack.

In reply to Breya (msg # 41):

Sorry Cass.  You missed it by thiiiiisss much

Cassandre, you start to feel fuzzy as you slump towards the top of the table.  You see Breya lurch forward, trying to haymaker Claudia.  But Claudia proves to be quite spry, much more sprightly than she should be at her age, and sidestep the juggernaut that is Breya.  You see your Big Buddy go down as your own eyes close.

But not you Bellinha.  The coffee makes you feel a bit...off.  But you seem to be keeping your feet.

For the moment.

Edited my earlier post Bell.  At the moment, you are the only one up.  Your actions are at a -2 though.  It is very good coffee.

Claudia starts waving her hands in the air...Like she just don't care...

"Breya!" Bellinha shouted as she saw her friend collapse on the table.  She knocked over her chair as she shot to her feet, the coffee mug falling to the floor.


Claudias waving hands immediately made Bellinha think that she was trying to cast a spell of some sort.  That meant that there was little time to think.  Bell had to react.  "Isifutho..." she chanted, gathering up arcane energy causing her hand to glow with a swirl of colours.  "...Sombala!" Upon uttering the last of the incantation, Bell unleashed the colour swirl into a cone directed at Claudia.

OOC:
Casting Color Spray at Claudia.  Will save DC 15

In reply to Bellinha Grunnel (msg # 43):

Bel, let's roll a quick init please.  I got a 14.  Need to see who's spell is going off first here.

OOC:
I rolled a 13 :(