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Dacys – Noble Dragonborn Monk (Amiee)
Urthez – Half-Orc Folk Hero Rogue (Charles)
Twig – Half-Orc Soldier Barbarian (Jake)
Zelona – Noble Half-Elf Paladin (Tam)
Kai – Tiefling Sage Bard (Sami)
Brolimir – Wood Elf Sage Druid (Matt)

The party returned to Ridgecrest where they met up with the store keeper who owned the stolen key and returned it to Theldrat, who paid them for their time and effort. Shortly after Theldrat’s departure, the party found themselves surrounded by City Guards who “requested” that the party come and speak with Mayor Blackfoot, of Ridgecrest. Zelona pardoned herself, and explained, due to the evil domain she had been in, that she must return to the Church of his Chosen God and seek a cleansing of her soul. The City Guards, not wanting to interrupt a person’s Holy mission understood and let Zelona go, while the rest of the party was escorted to High Ridge, and taken into an elegant home of the Mayor Gillan Blackfoot, a High Elf. The Mayor stood when the party arrived and explained that he had heard what they had done to stop the thief Irontusk, and was in need of their services. He explained a small farming village called Greenhaven, has recently had an issue with a series of grisly murders. Four people had been murdered – all of them found in the middle of their crop fields with their heart torn out. Three males, one female.

The party accepted the quest, and waited for Zelona to return from her visit to the Church; but when night became to come, the party went on without her, knowing that they would all eventually meet back at the Inn. After several hours, the party arrived at Greenhaven and stopped at the only Inn in the small farming village called, The Last Pony. As the party, made up of unusual characters, entered, most of the towns people quickly closed their tabs and rapidly left the Inn; all of them extremely nervous, and suspicious of anyone and everything, after the recent events – especially when Kai, who is a Tiefling, represented what this small town thought was a “demon.” Urthez was able to speak to the bartender, while nervous, did not show it. The bartender explained that the victims were not connected in any known way; other than they were all neighbors. When pressed for further answers, the bartender did admit that many people in the town suspected “Old Man Farek.” He explained that Old Man Farek had not had much in terms of luck with his crops of late, and was blaming all of his neighbors – and that some even said that perhaps Farek was employing magic to extract revenge.

With that lead, the party made their way down to Farek’s farm. They found Farek outside his barn. He immediately greeted the party with a pitchfork, demanding to know what they wanted. The party explained that they were they to investigate the recent murders; and Farek, while he said he had heard about it, had no information in regards to it. He did swear to the party, however, that his neighbors were poisoning his well, and that’s why his crops were dying.

Kai tapped into the dark magic that coursed through her blood naturally and sensed that there was something unbalanced in the area. Brolimir caught sight of what appeared to be a dog, behind the barn doors that were ajar. He walked over and using his Druid magic, checked to see if Farek’s well water was poisoned, as Old Man Farek claimed. After a moment, he assured Farek that the water supply wasn’t poisoned; but Farek was having none of it, not trusting an elf, a half-dragon, two half-orcs and a half-demon to be telling the truth.

Kai followed the unbalanced magic out to Farek’s dying cornfield, where she found a lone scarecrow – and something caught her eye. A small, purple amulet inside the scarecrow’s chest where a heart would be. Glancing over her shoulder, to see that Old Man Farek was distracted and following Dacys towards Farek’s home, with Twig behind him. Urthez was investigating the well further. Kai ignited an arrow and shot it at the unusual scarecrow, much to her surprise, suddenly have it animate and lunge forward to attack her. At that same moment, the barn doors burst open and two death-dogs – massive canines with two heads – burst out of the barn and Old Man Farek threw a dagger at Dacy’s back, and just barely missed.

The magically animated scarecrow to prove to be quite powerful; it’s thirst to kill, based on the command of the one who summoned it, making every effort to rip out Kai’s own heart. Kai fought with the scarecrow, but the creature of the foulest magic, managed to connect to her chest and began to siphon the blood from her veins, and feeding the dark, artificial life of this animated horror.

By the barn, Brolimir and Urthez were working together to slowly take down the dual headed canines, who thirsted to feed on them. Urthez had managed to back stab one of them, and through team work, he and Brolimir managed to kill both dogs; but not before Brolimir had been bitten and injected with something.

Around that same time, Dacys and Twig had managed to beat down Old Man Farek, who had clearly used dark magic to enhance his own life, though he had proved to be far more difficult than “a fragile old man.” Dacys rushed over and helped Kai, and between the two of them, had managed to defeat the magical scarecrow. Kai ripped out the purple amulet and noticed the Infernal writing, which made mention of the name “Belaros” – the name of her father. Trapped inside the amulet, she could see a Glabrezu demon trapped inside, bound to the gem, and bound to Farek’s commands. With Farek dead, there was no one to command the demon; Kai thought of destroying the amulet, but Dacys warned her that it may release the Glazrezu demon trapped in the amulet. On Farek’s body, they also found an empty dagger sheath that had Infernal writing that simply read, “Sha’lack.” As far as Kai could tell, it was words of magic; but she could not be certain what would happen if the words were muttered. She placed that, along with the amulet, in her satchel. Inside Farek’s home, a glove, a necklace, a diary and strand of hair were found. The party would discover, these four items each belonged to one of the victims, because inside the barn that the devil-dogs had been guarding was a pentagram, and a tome full of evil magic; opened to the page of creating an animated scarecrow through dark magic to commit foul atrocities. It required an item from each victim, to find them; which explained each of those items. The party returned to The Last Pony and brought the items to the Innkeeper, who offered to return them to the victims of the family and assure them that the horror was finally at an end. Inside the tavern, to easy the patrons, Kai began to play her instrument, and captured the attention of Grath Lightblade, who was enamored by her music.

The party rested in The Last Pony and the following morning, Brolimir found a post about a girl who had disappeared several days ago. The victims of the scarecrow murders had all disappeared and been found dead the next day in their corn field; so the disappearance of young, Jarela Silverstone did not match the other disappearances. The notice had been posted by Jarela’s father, Saren Silverstone. Brolimir discussed it with the party and  they decided to investigate. Traveling south, near the swaps, they met with Saren Silverstone who explained that his daughter had gone missing several days ago; and that he had searched in the swamp but found no sign of her. The party decided to investigate Saren’s massive farm land and found what appeared to be Jarela’s basket, and drag marks, as if she had been pulled into the swamp. Moving into the swamp, the party moved along a trail that seemed to indicate that she was being dragged through the mud. The party discovered a half sunk village in the swamp, and found themselves attacked by two undead creatures; apparently ghouls or ghasts, which they dispatched fairly quickly. Near the sunken village, they found a large cave, which reeked of rotting flesh. Inside the cave, there were carcasses of various farm animals, as well as what appeared to be people’s remains. As the party explored the cavern, they found the owner and the reason for the rotting flesh – a young Hook-Horror had made its home in these swamps and was living off the farmers live stock. The party dispatched the young Hook Hooker after taking some serious wounds themselves. Deeper inside the cave, they found a wounded Jarela who explained that she had seen the Hook Horror emerge from the swamp and grab one of her father’s cows. She had thrown her basket aside and tried to save the cow, but had gotten caught in the Hook Horror’s grasp and been pulled along with the cow through the swamp. Thankfully the beast had fed on the cow, which allowed Jarela to escape deeper into the cave, but she had no way out until the party had killed the creature.

Brolimir healed Jarela, who thanked him, and the party escorted her safely back to her father, who paid the party in gold, for their time.

Dacys – Noble Dragonborn Monk (Amiee)
Urthez – Half-Orc Folk Hero Rogue (Charles)
Twig – Half-Orc Soldier Barbarian (Jake)
Zelona – Noble Half-Elf Paladin (Tam)
Kai – Tiefling Sage Bard (Sami)
Brolimir – Wood Elf Sage Druid (Matt)