Arriving at the Heart of Vitalia, we had the chance to check in with the Concierge, Amathadwan, who assured us that for the rest of today and tomorrow, the Adjunct Rawanis was picking up the party’s lodgings. He looked us over and suggested that we go to the baths and laundry in the basement and then a fine meal and some entertainment to follow. A room was arranged for us on the 3rd floor and as for Hoggar, he summoned the Hotel’s Stablemaster, a ghoulish (no literally – she was a ghoul!) named Dyndrel.
She was affectionate with the wild boar and Gryg felt good enough to leaving his companion with her. She took the pig out, leash firmly held, promising to get him something “meaty to eat”. We went up to our chambers and dropped our bags and armor before heading back down to the manager’s desk. He had some attendants take us down to the basement where we were undressed and washed in a series of differing pools, each designed to relax and cleanse us. A variety of bathers “helped” us along and on completion, we were then taken to a tailor who took our measurements for a set of clothes, “Befitting travelers of your station”. From there we were invited to go to the brothel adjoining the Hotel, Grave Desires, where about half of us had some entertainment for the evening. A few of us went to the smoking room instead and mixed with the upper crust locals.
And Dizzy avoided all of it and everything and instead ate his trail rations and went back to his room alone.
We slept well and the next day we ate and early breakfast and Birthmonth the 24th at 7:30 Am, found us at Rawanis’ office. He inquired about our evening and afterwards thanked us for a good first mission. Today was something else. Grymeria has a single large area where all the growing of the needed vegetation for the kingdom takes place. West and North of Vitalia, it is referred to as The Grains and is looked after by the Reeve, a serious man named Amrain.
It seems that the Scarecrows that are used in the fields aren’t functioning correctly and that in many of the local acreages, yields are down due to an increase of insects and poor behavior by the scarecrows and the birds that are released there from the aviary to help keep the insect population down. It has crossed the Adjunct’s desk too many times and he would like someone to go and see first hand what the problem is and resolve it.
So we left by 8 Am and after making it to the Grains, were directed through the Acreage to the Reeve’s place, a half mile or so in. Each farm was about 2 acres in size and had a master farmer and whatever aids he or she needed to keep it weeded, planted, harvested, watered, tilled, and anything else needed. We eventually found Amrain who was pleased to meet us and was thankful that Adjunct Rawanis had finally sent someone here to take the problem seriously.
There were a half dozen other farmers here and they all got to explaining the problem. The Scarecrows were a mix of two types – prisoners or criminals, living or dead, who had various body parts removed but were stationed in the fields to yell and howl and thrash around to startle any birds who stayed too long as they were in danger of feeding on too many of the vegetables or damaging them inadvertently. We met a few of them and they were surly, but showed they could do the job on the knowledge they would one day be free.
The other type were a bit more disturbing as they were volunteers. Hedonists and pleasure seekers, they recognized that euphoria or other strong positive emotions (sexual and normal) were felt sometimes as waves throughout the body. But if there were “less” body (say an entire leg missing) and the euphoria was still the same “amount”, they would feel it THAT much more intensely. They were…odd…and disturbing…but they also gyrated and yelled and moved about while out on the poles effectively doing their jobs.
Maybe 30 weeks ago, one of the scarecrows had gotten a strange cut on its body and ceased to have any higher brain function. It still reacted to some stimuli, but no longer as needed. So the larger birds (the gulls and some of the crows) were not scared away and has resulted in too many insects, ruined younger crops, too much bird droppings in the soil and eventually lower yields for that farmer and field. Which meant less pay and in some cases, no bonus. If it was just one, it would be no big deal, but roughly once a week or so, another scarecrow (of either type) had gotten a strange cut on its body and ceased to work correctly. And those that did still stay, they were rotting on the poles.
The farmers wanted the matter resolved and the Reeve was hoping the group could turn something up. We took a tour about and got a heads up on a rough map of where the affected scarecrows were – almost entirely in the south east section of the Grains.
We looked over the first ones, the middle ones, the oldest ones. Any sort of clue. And we did find one some. Some green hay – undried green hay grasses in some places. There was also a thick dirty sock near a scarecrow and inside its clothing, a 3” long brittle looking blade to a flensing knife of some sort. Ok, we asked around a bit and learned that the local Hayer was a Half-Ogre farmer woman named Leolla. We went to her farm and she had a troupe of Animates working the field, dropping the green hay in long scything swaths and setting them up to be bundled. We showed her the hay and she said it seemed to be from her fields but not sure how it got somewhere else. Yes, some wind, but not enough to blow it that far.
We did note though that the irrigation trenches went all through every farm. They stretched out from Lake Isner at the Northernmost eastern section of the Grains. The thought was that if something was assaulting the scarecrows, and it wasn’t happening during the dark, it was using the trenches to get around. We went next to the farm of Drulas who had recently attacked scarecrow. A reedy individual with an enhanced sense of his importance, he was growing Wineberries and his crop was almost irreplaceable. We MUST need to find out what is going on and STOP it!. It’s grapes man. Grapes. NO! They are Wine berries! Totally different! Dizzy made sure we left before throttling the twit but it did lead us northward to Lake Isner.
The lake was fed from the Flow, a large river that wound its way through Grymeria and ended up here. There were over a dozen channels and locks cut into the banks of the lake stretching out to the Grains. Two men were armed with long wide tined rakes and were cleaning the muck, reeds, and detritus from the channel mouths. A single Scarecrow was here – but it was not an animate of any kind. Seems that when Grymeria first appeared, the farm that was here had this Scarecrow already in place. It’s become a bit of a local good luck charm for the farmers so as the clothes wear out and the hay gets old, they chip in and replace bits of it as needed, leaving the cast offs at the base of the large post to rot away.
The two men were working and watching the group. On talking to them, we learned they were simpletons. One was named Arippe and his brother said nothing. They had worked here on the farms some years ago and had jobs now raking the channels clear. As the group was looking at the lake and talking about it, the silent brother was nervous and ran off, while Arippe was pleading with them NOT to disturb the lake. Why? Don’t. Why? Just don’t ok!? But Why??
And it was then that Gryg had tossed a fishing line with a weight on the end in the lake. And then Something BURST out of it! It slammed on the ground, clad in scarecrow clothing nad wielding a set of finger knives it slashed at the line and cut it free, before leaping back in the water.
What. The. Fuck?!
We talked more with Arippe who was very sad and nervous. And Got a story from him. His family and another family with 2 young girls, 4 or 5 years ago, worked on a farm run by a terrible farmer named Milaine. He was good at farming, but horrible to the young people. He didn’t say it, but Arippe indicated that Milaine might have abused the girls somewhat. After a particularly bad day of it, the two brothers and the girls turned on Milaine and beat him unconscious with rocks. Terrified they were going to get in trouble and not wanting to bury him as he’d arise the next day, they clad him in the cast off scarecrow clothes and weighed him down with rocks, throwing him in Lake Isner and then they went back and had the parents tend to the daughters’ injuries. When Milaine did not return, the families were cleared of indenture and allowed to have their debt cleared and lives returned. Eventually a new person was assigned Milaine’s acreage and time moved on.
About 9 months ago, the water level in Lake Isner dropped. A lot. Drying up the irrigation trenches and according to Arippe – that’s when the Scarecrow arose. It was no longer “buried” and it roamed around. And has been disabling scarecrows ever since.
We went to Leolla and without saying exactly what we knew, asked her about the drop in the lake level. She confirmed it, something about something that happened up river. It was eventually fixed but things were tough for a week. And as for Milaine? She was nonplussed. He was a skilled farmer and was able to seriously get some good yields from his fields. But he was also a prick to those who worked for him and when he disappeared, no one was really sorry to see him go.
We thought about what to do next and figured we’d try to fish this Scarecrow out of the water again – but this to be ready to engage him when he hit dry land. It was almost 1 and we had just eaten some rations, heading back to Lake Isner to do what was needed.
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