The morning after their adventure in the asylum, the Party heard screaming coming from outside. Apparently, a local Farmer had fled to town after a horrible encounter. The town guard fetched the Party and brought them over to hear the man’s story.

According to the shaken farmer, something had been terrorizing the nearby farms. The best way he could describe them were “walking scarecrows.” He and some of the other farmers tried to take care of it, only to fall prey to the creatures themselves.

Farmer: “They even ate the dogs!”
Chaka: “NOT THE DOGS!!!”

The Party set out to investigate. When they arrived at the fields in question, they saw over a dozen or so scarecrows on stands, each with canvas sacks over their heads. Remembering what the Farmer said about “walking scarecrows,” Jyn shot the closest one as a precaution. This was a normal one, so they proceeded as normal.

The next three, however, were not so normal. Growling and snarling, they broke free of their frames and attacked.

During this first encounter with the scarecrows, Chaka had some rather…interesting things to say, each on both sides of the “interesting spectrum.”

The first came after he tanked a scarecrow’s paralyzing claw swipe. The scarecrow’s follow-up swing was a Nat1, which made it turn around and invoke a Nat20 attack of opportunity. Chaka called out to Draco, telling him to finish it off.

However, due to the trauma of the last attack he received, Draco kept his distance and instead spent his turn healing Chaka. This resulted in the scarecrow breaking free and landing a Nat20 bite on Ciara. No crit confirmed, and she rolled a Nat20 herself to resist a rather nasty status effect (more on that later).

This created a nice role-play opportunity for Chaka’s player. He pulled Draco aside and gave him a surprisingly motivational pep talk about swallowing fear and moving forward.

That…was the last sensible thing to come out of Chaka’s mouth for the rest of the session. After they defeated the first set of scarecrows, we had this lovely revelation.

Chaka: “These scarecrows are wearing the same clothes as that Farmer!”

Ciara: “So…they’re dressed like scarecrows.”

To add to the hilarity, Chaka lifted one of the dead scarecrows up and did his best impression of Patrick Star’s “Look at the ugly! LOOK AT IT!” As he swung it around, the sack fell off its head, revealing a dead ghoul.

Realizing this was connected to their ghoul situation, the Party continued through the fields. Ciara heard a couple more scarecrows growling. One nearly broke free of its restraints as Jyn approached, but a Nat1 Strength check made it knock its own frame down, dealing 3 points of damage and making it both prone AND bound (essentially grappled with itself). As for the other one, second verse, same as the first. As Chaka’s player put it, “What is this, a Wes Anderson film?” My DM dice certainly fit the part. Nat20s at the worst times, Nat1s at the best times.

Ymir also heard one of the scarecrows making noise, but instead of growling, it was whimpering. She approached it cautiously and removed the sack from its head. Instead of a Ghoul, it was a Sick Man.

Draco healed him while Chaka used Diagnose Disease. The Sick Man had been infected with Ghoul Fever. For those who don’t know, anyone with Ghoul Fever must make a daily Fortitude Save to resist it. Two consecutive saves would cure it. However, any failure would result in 1d3 Constitution damage and 1d3 Dexterity damage. If a humanoid dies of Ghoul Fever, they resurrect as a ghoul. This was the status effect Ciara resisted earlier.

The Sick Man warned them that more ghouls were in the barn and begged them to find his wife, who had also been kidnapped by the ghouls. Although he fears the worst, he’s still hopeful. Draco volunteered to guard him. “Gotta swallow the fear. Right, Chaka?”

Now, this warning would have been great, if not for a tiny detail: Ciara wasn’t close enough to hear it. While everyone else tended to the sick man, Ciara had moved on…out of earshot…toward the barn.

Cue “Never split the party” theme and me rolling up initiative rolls for what was waiting inside.

Now, because of the split, a lot of things happened simultaneously.

Jyn, who had already started a combat round with another ghoul scarecrow, ran back the other way to warn Ciara. The ghoul in question broke free with a Nat20 and attacked Ymir. While she dealt with him, another one snuck up on her and bit her. Unfortunately, she failed her Fortitude Save and was immediately infected with Ghoul Fever. She retaliated by entering Rage and using a Hellfire Strike to…well…Remember that zombie she bisected the bad way last session? Imagine that on fire.

Ciara got to the barn’s front door and came face to face with its occupants: six ghouls and one ghast. Best way to sum up her reaction: (0_O)

After making sure the Sick Man was in a safe place, Draco raced to Ymir’s aid. He attacked one with a force spear from Hedging Weapons (think Noctis from Final Fantasy 15) and went to town on it with his new Morning Star. Of course, my DM dice spare no one, not even my beloved NPCs. The ghoul swiped back, missing the first attack, but landing a Nat20 critical with the second. Two steps forward, one step back…

Jyn and Chaka caught up to Ciara in time to help. However, the stress of the situation triggered something inside of Jyn. He was beset by a splitting headache, and the others noticed a visible bulge in his back. One turn later, two black wings sprouted from his shoulders. This was due to a racial trait called Tengu Wings. He technically earned it upon reaching Level 5, but we chose now for it to manifest. The main change from the normal Tengu Wings trait is that Jyn can’t put them away.

After dispatching the ghoul scarecrows she and Draco were dealing with, Ymir found the Sick Man’s wife on another scarecrow stand. She was in the same condition as her husband, weak from Ghoul Fever, but savable.

To finish off the encounter, Ciara power-leapt over the ghast’s head, landed behind it, and leveled it with a well-placed shot. The rest of the ghouls were easy to clean up.

Most of the ghouls wore farmers’ garb, which made their origins easy to deduce. The ghast, however, was dressed differently. Furthermore, it had a key on its person, bearing the family symbol of the Nobleman from Session 1.

Ciara had done some digging before, and she knew that the Nobleman’s mansion was located a couple miles away from their current position. However, they couldn’t pursue that lead yet. They had two people in serious condition, and their overpowered Samsaran Blood Rager had been afflicted with Ghoul Fever.

Chaka: “Don’t worry. If you turn into a ghoul, I’ll put you down quickly!”

Jyn punched him for all of us.