Maury was unable to figure out exactly where the playing was coming from. Leto however could determine that the playing was coming from a small patch of forest to the north. A decent amount of trees to hide among, but it shouldn't be too hard.

"He's over there in those trees somewhere. Let's get'im before those strawmen get too frisky." He says pointing at the tree line and heading that way. Keeping an eye on the scarecrows and keeping his distance from them.

Brewzilla followed Leto with her crossbow ready.

Maury too follows Leto with a fork at the ready.

 Headed to the woods with the others. The strange little man speaks to the trees to find this wayward wizard.

03:17, Today: Kookaburra rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  Perception to track

 Goes with the group, maybe She can force information out of this guy on how he made these straw highwaymen.

 Stepping into the woods, Kookaburra was able to trace the flutist down, even though he had stopped playing. He is a thin disheveled middle-aged human  tattered black robes and a worn pointy wide-brimmed black hat. He looks like he was wearing a costume people would associate with the stereotype of a witch instead of any serious outfit. He stuffed his flute in his belt and made hand gestures at the group when he noticed he was followed.

"What are you doing here?! Who are you?! This is MY land!"

"Morning!" Leto shouted over to the man "There have been some complaints about the scarecrows along the road. I think there might be a misunderstanding." He puts his hands on his hips in easy reach of his whips.

 "Did you pay them, or otherwise be afraid of them?"

 The man does not look all together there.

"Ah, extortion. We didn't pay, what gives you the right to collect a toll?" he looks around trying to check if the constructs have started surrounding them.

Maury puts away his fork and gets out his favourite woodburning stylus asking "I didn't see your sign when we came in. Would you like me to burn one for you?  I'm an excellent pyrographer".

Brewzilla didn't want to jump to conclusions, so she decided to look into this further, "when I talked to the neighboring house they didn't say anything about a private road.  Do you talk to your neighbors much?"

"What right? WHAT RIGHT?! They all laughed at me, they kicked me out of town. Said Ol' Clem's unstable and he'd never get dem things to work. Well, who's laughin now?"

 The man has some kind of accent that drives home thoughts that he is a poor crazy peasant who is messing with forces beyond his understanding.

"That wasn't actually an answer. You only said people think you're crazy and now you have power. Revenge isn't a great look." Leto keeps his hand on his whip watching the apparently mad man.

OOC: I actually do ready an action to disarm his pipes if he moves to use them. Using a whip so 15ft reach.

"Well if you like, I could put that on your sign as well."

She nodded, "Ah I get it! proof of concept. They said I couldn't make a light beer with all the flavor of a regular beer, but here it is!" she held up a jug, " I call it Brewzilla destroys Tokyo. Tokyo was the guy who said I couldn't do it." she took out a cup and offered it to Ol' Clem.  "But why do you need so many?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:38, Fri 21 Apr 2023.

"As much as I love a good revenge plot, and I do very much, we have a job to do here, so unless you plan to give Maury and me the secrets of making your little toys, we're gonna have to insist you knock it off, with extreme prejudice.

 In a total not act of intimidation, Nefaria tries and fails to crack her knuckles.

"Why are they so mean? Why don't you make them dance? People will give money to the dancing Scarecrows... I would."

 Kook is probably missing the point while simultaneously making one of his own.

Maury frowns and looks at Nefaria.  "Why me?" he asks, "I just offered to write this gentleman's sign for him.  Much as I like the idea of producing an army of straw golems, if I knew, it would send me down a path I have no wish to follow and then I'd be gone and Slim Shady would be back, and none of us want that, especially me."

"Dancin?! I aint some performing monkey to make people happy! I want money or I want respect! Fear works just as well."

 Clem seems adamant on not backing down,but does look antsy enough to want to back away or run.

Leto turns to the party "So what do we really need to do to get the reward?"

As he speaks his whip strikes out and wraps around the man's leg. But he looks like a fool as he tries and fails to pull the man from his feet.

09:57, Today: Leto Hyperion rolled 9 using 1d20+5.  Trip Attempt.

SUPRISE!

Brewzilla nodded in agreement with Clem. He was an entrepreneur like her. If they played their cards right, they might even get him as an ally against the wizards. It's not like their mission required that they actually do anything other than investigate.

In response to Leto she said, "we just needed to find out why there were so many scarecrows.." then he struck with his whip which surprised Brewzilla as much as anyone, "Hey! What the Hell?!"

Maury frowns as Leto cracks his whip without getting it anywhere near Clem.  "Leave it out", he says, "It's like Brewzilla says, all we had to do was find out what all the scarecrows were about.  We've done that.  Sir, would you like to come along to tell the town council what you're doing and we can give you a share of the reward?  Plus, you'll get respect.  Job done, job won.  Wakarimasuka?"

"Well, I don't know... Pretty sure the Town Council is trying to put worms in everyone's heads. Can't trust them. Will yall go with me to keep them from arrestin me as soon as I show up?"

"Happy to go with you, Sir." Says Maury.