Goodman Games

OOC: Was going to do this in character, but seems to be a bit too much info.
Fire:
1. cornfield seems reasonable enough. We obviously are still missing something
2. Was thinking of the thorn on the gravestone, not as protection, but as a marker that says that something important might be buried under it.
3. How can we put the staff and symbol together? Can we tie it on with something, glue it, use a spell from the spellbook to stick it on?
4. I think the danger level is intentional. I think our dear Raven has something up his sleeve for after we die. Maybe the phantoms can only be beaten by being fought in their own realm?
5. Mimic house: ranged attacks?

OOC: I figure the marker could be a sign of something to dig up, but it's not like any of this is a "hee hee play my marvelous game" type dungeon. If we wreck it and we needed it to protect us from ghosts, then we're done for.

That's the thing about this: something is messed up about Sour Springs. Think about it: we're at a wedding, we (commoners) wake up in a strange field surrounded by houses for this witch-family. The problem is that the witches AND the cleric are dead right now, so it's not exactly a ritualized human sacrifice like in horror films (ie: jock, sloot, sage, drunk, virgin, a monster kills us all, blood appeases the gods). Maybe the corn dolls are part of the curse of the place, but the monsters seem to be the ghosts/witches, who SHOULD be the cultists performing the ritual. Who's doing it now? Are we trapped in their blood sacrifice, or are we "champions" like the cleric and sent by the powers of goodness to end the curse? Or have we been dumped by some surviving Witches to feed their ghost family?

1) Amalthia counts the gravestones, and lists the names on them. Are all the Witches accounted for? Is there a grave for the people in the kid's drawing we saw, or one for the child who drew the picture?

2) Is the cornfield attached to our area? (I thought it was sort of an out-of-bounds area, like the forest, which is why I didn't go into it. Murphoi went into the woods, not even a description of his death (great narrative point, but not a helpful clue for getting out of here)).

This is a puzzle. Great module. I'm genuinely stumped.

fireinthedust wrote:1) Amalthia counts the gravestones, and lists the names on them. Are all the Witches accounted for? Is there a grave for the people in the kid's drawing we saw, or one for the child who drew the picture?

Some of the markers are old and rotted wood, but there seem to be about 25 of them. Not all have names. What are the names of the people in the kid's drawing? What was the name of the child? Without knowing that, it would be impossible to determine whether or not they had graves here.

2) Is the cornfield attached to our area?

The cornfield begins at the west end of the clearing, and rises in tiers up a low hill.

Markers: Hrmm... fair enough. Any sign of whether they're recent or old? Someone would have had to have buried them/dug graves. If this tragic event happened suddenly, someone would have needed to bury the dead. Oddly, too, I recall some mention of the cabins being left virtually untouched: like everyone just vanished.

1) what's the freshest-looking grave or grave-group? Or are they equally old-looking? I assume that, as an elf, I'd have some experience seeing plants grow over an area (even in passing) that humans wouldn't normally have seen. Does it look like someone buried the dead, or that these graves were here before the family of witches fought the cleric?

2) Do all 25 markers have the devil's thorn, or just the one Gran pointed out?

fireinthedust wrote:1) what's the freshest-looking grave or grave-group? Or are they equally old-looking? I assume that, as an elf, I'd have some experience seeing plants grow over an area (even in passing) that humans wouldn't normally have seen. Does it look like someone buried the dead, or that these graves were here before the family of witches fought the cleric?

None of these look particularly fresh, and many are sunken. I guess the grave of Bertha Hobbs might be the newest. The plants, now, don't look particularly healthy here.

2) Do all 25 markers have the devil's thorn, or just the one Gran pointed out?

Only the one marker carries the sign.

Merry Christmas!

OOC: Do you mean the plants on the one grave are unhealthy, or the plants on all the graves are unhealthy?

You have yet to see a healthy looking plant in this place. It is like you are trapped within a cursed land, dry and unchanging, with a weak sun hanging perpetually in the sickly yellow sky.

ooc: Hmmm... I'm not sure what we'd gain by attacking the mimic. Maybe there's something we can use on the staff to put the pieces together.

Amalthia puts on the hold symbol, calls out "Sovereign, avenge your fallen servant, and help us here. Mend this, your staff, so that it can be used to smite your enemies!" She then holds the two staff pieces together, fitting the bits as best she can (looking to fit the fibres or jagged edges).

ooc: Do they mend together?

OOC: If not, can we use the mending spell?

ooc: do we HAVE the mending spell? I'm feeling very resource-lite right now. Unless we get the staff together, or discover some power from the holy symbol (neither of us are Clerics, so I'm not sure we'd have access to anything it's got), I'm not sure what we can do. Avoiding "meta-thinking", our characters just want to escape this mess. I don't know if it's even a puzzle to solve, so much as a dangerous situation that we could try to break out of. There may not be an in-built "solution" so much as tools that could help fulfill vague criteria for escape or "winning", or even survival. Or, y'know, we discover we're all actually wicker people who've been dreaming we were ever alive, and it's a "woooooo" twilight zone ending (which would be kind of awesome for a funnel, in a way, given the lifespan of ttrpg sessions).


Amalthia muses over the staff and holy symbol. "I've been thinking: The forest is some kind of deadly; the houses all have their perils, as did the well. After all this, we've only got two of eight people (and one heroic goat) left, the rest are all wicker-people (and goat). There's a corn field, and the pictures showed the cleric posted up in the cornfield as a scarecrow (iirc). MAYBE we need to get her down, give her the symbol and staff, and she can help us break this horrific curse and escape. Maybe... maybe the power of the staff could summon her spirit. I've heard of this kind of thing before, sympathetic ghosts or connections like that. Maybe getting to the cleric's scarecrow body would give us the firepower we need to, I don't know, vanish out of this nightmare?"


ooc: So if the staff doesn't heal itself, I'm ready to go to the corn field (assuming we're a bit rested?). If you want to dig up the devil's thorn stake... maybe, but with our luck that'll cause the cemetery to gobble us up. Maybe the stake keeps the relatives from animating. Or it stops the ghosts from resting in their coffins... but either answer is confusing, as the witches would (I assume) want to empower their ancestors, not imprison them.

I mean... who the heck uses the devil's thorn, anyway? They've protected us from the ghosts. Why would they put the symbol on their own graves? It... it makes no sense!!!! I'm... I'm so confused!

The broken staff does not miraculously heal itself.

OOC: Pretty sure I have the mending spell - Raven ruled that my doubled spell choice meant I could choose.

OOC: Sorry been gone so much. A lot going on.

Would you care to attempt to learn that spell on the fly?

EDIT: As a reminder, a wizard normally requires one week per spell level of study, and an Intelligence check (DC 10 + spell level) to learn a spell.

OOC: Raven, not yet. Cornfield first. Then I'll risk forcing the laws of nature and magic to bend to my will
OOC: Lead the way, Fire. Gran is right behind you, weapons ready.

And away we go! To the Cornfield we go!

Alrighty, then.

Five terraces are carved into the steep hillside and reinforced with fallen logs against erosion. Like a ladder, these plots ascend some 30 feet up the embankment. each plot is filled with dense stands of tired-looking corn stalks, their ears shriveled and their husks like parchment from long drought. A ragged-looking scarecrow peers over the heads of the dried stalks at the upermost tier, lookind down on the farm like a forgotten god.

As you move into the corn field, fighting your way up against the stalks, Gran notices something on Amalthia's shoulder...it appears to be a corn husk doll, rather favouring the appearance of the ill-fated Murphoi. Before she can say a word, the doll slashes at Amalthia with its sharp arm....and rolls a natural 20. This is only 1 point of damage, but the creature rolls 1d4 on Table M, modified by Amalthia's Luck....2....Stunned by the attack, Amalthia drops to the bottom of the initiative order for this combat, as your survivors come to the sudden realization that all of the corn husk dolls that you have been carrying are now beginning to move....

OOC: Looks like we shouldn't have brought the corn husk dolls with us. Maybe if we ran back and left them in a pile just outside of the cornfield? Unless they are now alive for good.
OOC: Oh, I guess it's my turn?
Gran grabs Alathea's arm and sprints back out of the cornfield with her, grabbing and flinging cornhusk dolls off her if she's able.

Amalthia will flee with Gran, dropping all the cornhusk dolls she'd been carrying this whole time. (Dangit!)

"This horrible place! Why would they attack us? And why bother with making those dolls in the first place?!" the elf huffs with the effort of running, but speeds with her companion to try and outdistance the dolls.

OOC: Ugh. Well, whoever made the dolls so they could attack us is getting a kick in the narts from a she-elf, if not now then in a few years when amalthia has spells and mithril armor and weapons handy!

OOC: Should we cue the "two women running through cornfield from evil wicker dolls" sequence? this would be a great movie moment.

Running away through the corn field is as effective now as in a slasher movie. Amalthia sees a doll climbing Gran's back....attack roll 11, 1 point damage if that hits. Then the doll on Amalthia's own back attacks....2.

Raven_Crowking wrote:Running away through the corn field is as effective now as in a slasher movie.

lol, yes.

How many of these dolls are there? Are they chasing us through the corn field, or are they climbing all over us? And how are they attacking? With teeth or claws or magic...? And if they're running after us: wow, they're sprinting fast. I thought we were all out running.

Amalthia will use her newfound elven skills to attempt to get the doll off herself.

"Gran! They're climbing all over us!" Amalthia shakes and thrashes at the cornhusk construct on her body, hoping to knock it away. If successful, the elf will try to stomp on the creature, crushing the evil magic out of the homunculous-thing. ((ooc: I don't know if it would be one, just using vocabulary))

attack roll to throw it off: 13
attack roll to stomp: 16

both unmodified, have to get to my sheet at some point (would the thrashing use STR or Agility?)

OOC: Sorry taking so long.

No worries. I am headed out of town until Sunday night anyway.