While Seoni and Seelah had been dealing with the mess at Habe’s Sanatorium, Sandpoint developed a ghoul problem. On top of that, it seemed the guard tower was besieged by bandits. Seelah went to help the city guard, while Seoni headed to where the first ghoul was sighted: the farmhouse.
Seelah quickly lost track of how many bandits she’d fought. One had damaged her chain mail, which she had discarded during a lull in the battle. There had also been an ogre, and she recalled the troubadour showing up briefly after that battle. Between two of the bandit skirmishes, Seelah had met a guide, who could prove useful if she needed to explore the woods again. The woman waited patiently inside the guard tower, while Seelah continued to battle with her longsword and her newly acquired quarterstaff, wondering if there would ever be an end to these bandits.
Seoni had heard of Shalelu Andosana, but she hadn’t expected such a strange encounter. Shalelu had told her she would soon find tools she may or may not find useful, then she’d left. Shortly after that, Seoni had found two sets of thieves’ tools. She’d discarded the first set as it didn’t look well cared for, but the second set had been in much better condition, so she’d tucked those away for later. She’d also left the crossbow behind since she was not trained in such weapons.
That was when the zombie showed up. Glad to be versed in ranged spells instead of relying on hand to hand combat, Seoni quickly incinerated the undead creature. Then froze the mercenary who tried to get the jump on her.
The farmhouse was certainly turning out to be an interested place, but she still hadn’t seen any signs of a ghoul.
She looked down at her toad. “I don’t suppose you can sense ghouls, now can you?”
The toad croaked, and Seoni took that to be a negative response.
“Look out!”
“It’s Rogors Craesby!”
Seelah turned from the bandit she’d just dispatched to see the guard falling before this new enemy. She charged in with her longsword. She managed to wound him in their first skirmish but had to use her mirror image spell to protect her from his counterattack. The paladin had managed to come away unharmed, but Craesby had escaped.
Seelah wanted to chase after him, but the bandits had not paused in their attack. She picked up some magic leather armor, and threw herself back into the fray. Somehow she got lucky, and despite having to fight her way through, she caught up with Craesby. This time she dealt him two devastating blows, but he fled before she could finish him.
Unfortunately the bandits chose that moment to retreat, and Seelah lost sight of Craesby.
“It seems that went well.”
Seelah glared at the troubadour but decided to save her breath for a trek through the woods.
Seoni had fought a siren, plague zombie, goblin snake, and a giant gecko with still no signs of ghouls. Buck and the Sage had joined her, and even they looked doubtful about the presence of ghouls. Seoni had needed the Sage’s energy to defeat the giant gecko, so at least she didn’t have to endure any more of what seemed to be a fruitless search.
Just in case things did take a turn for the ghoulish, Seoni put on her Sihedron Medallion and was grateful to have stumbled upon a luckstone.
“Maybe someone poisoned the water supply with some kind of hallucinogen,” Buck suggested.
“I find that highly unlikely for several reasons,” Seoni began. “The most important being that,” she finished, pointing to the rather ghoulish scarecrow coming at them.
Thankfully, Seoni had also prepared her more powerful lighting spell. She channeled the energy through her sage’s journal, and sent the concentrated lightning bolt at the scarecrow which quickly burned to ashes.
Buck looked a bit shaken, but was alert enough to warn her about the cultist. Before this new threat could attack, Seoni used the energy of her luckstone to blast the cultist.
“I’m willing to admit I may have been wrong,” Buck said. “I would like to suggest we perhaps take our leave before anything else tries to kill us.”
With no other spells handy, though her lighting bolt would be ready again soon thanks to borrowed energy from her toad, Seoni had to agree, and they headed for the wooden bridge.
“Is that a door?” Seelah asked.
“Yes,” her guide said.
A door stood in the middle of their path through the woods.
“To be precise it’s a closet.”
“A closet?”
The guide nodded. “There’s a monster inside.”
Seelah felt as though she were going mad. “Can we go around it?”
The guide shook her head. “It knows we’re here. We’ll have to face whatever is in the closet.”
Seelah strode up to the door and, despite protests from her guide, yanked it open. A goblin raider jumped out, and Seelah quickly cut it down with her longsword. The closet disappeared, and to her surprise, there was a mercenary on the path.
“Was he in there as well?” Seelah asked after she had taken him down.
“No, I think we’ve attracted some attention,” the guide responded, pointing to a ghoulish looking scarecrow.
Seelah steeled herself for another battle and charged the monster. She hadn’t expected a scarecrow to be such a challenge, and barely managed to dispatch it. She turned back to her guide who motioned her over. Understanding that she needed to be stealthy, Seelah crept over and crouched down beside the guide.
“Rogors Craesby,” her guide whispered, pointing through the foliage.
Seelah nodded. She told the guide to go find Seoni, describing her traveling companion. The guide left, and Seelah hoped she found Seoni soon.
Seoni swore under her breath.
“What is it?” Buck asked.
Seoni gestured to the approaching scarecrow. “That’s a golem, and my spells won’t be of any use against it.”
“That seems like a problem.”
She kept her sharp retort to herself. She hated physical combat, which was why she relied on her spells, but she didn’t have a choice this time. Praying for the best, she attacked the golem. She needed to figure out the key to the spell animating it which would also be its weak point. It took a few tries, but she finally managed to strike the vital point, and the scarecrow dissolved.
“I think that lady is trying to get our attention,” Buck said.
The lady turned out to be a guide who had taken Seelah into the woods where they had found Rogors Craesby. Despite protests, Seoni sent Buck and the guide to find the sheriff while she went to help Seelah.
With clear directions from the guide, it was an easy task finding the paladin. They decided on the usual plan. Seelah would go for a frontal assault, and when she had an opening, Seoni would end it with a spell.
Seelah burst out of the bushes and attacked. Seoni held her lighting bolt at the ready, prepared to channel it through her sage’s journal. The paladin provided her the opening she needed, and she blasted Craesby.
“I hope this means we don’t have to fight any more creepy scarecrows,” Seoni said.
“Would you prefer happy scarecrows?” Seelah asked. “I’m not sure how much that would scare the crows.”
“Let’s just go tell the sheriff about this.”
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