Walking Scarecrows, Part 1 (Wednesday-Thursday, Lamashan (X) 31-Neth (XI) 1, 4707 AR)

The heroes returned to Sandpoint with Caizarlu, Erin Habe and Grayst Sevilla in tow. The first two were held for questioning, while Grayst was contained in the hopes that he could be cured.

Although the swindlers and the millers were the first murder victims discovered, they were not the first to fall. This dubious honor fell instead to a family of farmers who lived relatively close to Foxglove Manor.

In the days after their murder, local farmers began talking about walking scarecrows that came out of the fields at night to feed - nothing was seen, but plenty was heard. Screams in the dark, glimpses of people being chased through fields and out over the moors by...things. When neighbors visited farms in the morning, they found them empty. At first, the fiercely independent farmers though they could deal with the unseen menace themselves, but yesterday it became too much. A group of farmers armed with torches went to inspect the Hambley place, and only one survived.

A day after the heroes were called to investigate the murders, this one survivor, a man named Maester Grump, arrived in Sandpoint breathless and covered in mud and sweat. He sought out Sheriff Hemlock to tell his tale, and soon thereafter Hemlock tracked down the heroes.

Farmer Grump broke into frantic bubbling as soon as the heroes arrived, nervously muttering about walking scarecrows. Calming him down required a few minutes of work, at which point he told a short but harrowing story, speaking of how the southern farmlands had become plagued by foul walking scarecrows that stalked the night. All the farmers knew that the problems were coming from the old Hambley place - things "just ain't right there for a few days now" - but when a group of locals paid Hambley farm a visit yesterday evening, they were attacked by folks that looked like corpses but fed like starving animals. At this point in the telling, Grump had worked himself into a lather again and shrieked "They even ate the dogs!"

Hemlock explained that his men picked up Grump as he ran into town screaming about walking scarecrows. The sheriff asked the heroes if they could investigate, and agreed to provide up to four of the local watch to help them - he would provide more, but dared not leave the town any more exposed than it already was. He hoped that Grump's story had been enhanced by the booze he could smell on the old farmer's breath, but worried that the moonshine may actually have dulled the man's memories of the grim fate that had been visited upon the Hambleys, and that the situation there was even worse than Grump knew.

The heroes took Sheriff Hemlock up on his offer of aid. And of course, since the heroes had already visited Habe's Sanatorium and had uncovered the truth about that place, they already had a good idea of the peril that awaited them on the farm.

The Hambley Farm

Over three dozen farmsteads dotted the fields and vales southeast of Sandpoint, the farthest being some 6 miles from town. Footpaths, dusty tracks about 10 feet wide hemmed in by fields of corn and other crops, connected the farmsteads. The Hambley farm was nestled at the western edge of the Whisperwood, a forest said to be home to capricious gnomes, pixies, and other fey, but now overshadowed by the closer menace. Six ghouls remained in the vicinity of the Hambley farm, eager to continue their murderous spree.

Fields of tall-stalked plants transformed the paths between them into oppressive tunnels, making it dangerously easy for visitors to become lost. The Hambley farmhouse and barn sat in the western portion of these fields. Both house and barn seemed unremarkable from the outside, but an exploration of the interiors revealed the true extent of the horrors visited upon the region.

The ghouls had not been idle over the past several days, and had been adding to their number by binding the victims they had chosen not to eat, making scarecrows of them and hanging them up to "ripen" in the surrounding fields. Bound by baling twine to their frames, they hang blinking through sack-covered faces in the harsh sun. Each of these poor souls was effectively a ghoul now, and when the heroes approached them, they struggled hideously against their bonds, in an attempt to break free. To confuse matters further, several normal scarecrows stood in the fields.

Farmhouse. The farmhouse was in a terrible state. It was here that the Hambleys were murdered - a mutilated body lay in the farmhouse's kitchen. Although the corpse was already decaying and swarming with flies, the Sihedron rune was still plainly visible upon the man's chest, as was a single scrap of parchment pinned to his tunic. The parchment bore the name of Bruthien; the contents were:

"You, and you alone, have brought this fearful harvest. They are dead because of you, and more shall join them soon."

A search of the rotting body uncovered a rusted iron key in one pocket - the key to a footlocker hidden in the master bedroom. A one-eared ghast lurked inside the Hambleys' farmhouse, which the heroes killed.

An iron key hung around the ghast's neck on a leather cord. The key bore a heraldic symbol of a curious flower surrounded by thorns. Tsela identified the heraldry as the Foxglove family crest - and so did Bruthien and Thurden, since they all spent more than a few hours with Aldern Foxglove a month ago. Fen and Tsela knew that the Foxglove family estate was located on the coast a mere 3 miles to the west of the Hambley farm.

A search of the master bedroom uncovered a loose floorboard under which the Hambleys hid a stout wooden coffer. It could be unlocked with the key found on the body. Inside, meticulously organized into leather pouches containing 100 sp each, was the Hambleys' life savings - a total of 3,400 sp.

Barn. The barn was the larger of the two structures, an L-shaped building constructed around a unique feature - a 12-foot high stone head, canted slightly to the left, depicting a helmed warrior, his face a stern model of determination. Moss had grown over much of the weathered figure, making his features hard to discern. This head was known locally as "the Stone Warrior". It was used as a support for the barn and incorporated into the building's structure. The ghouls themselves had made this barn their primary lair, and the place had become a macabre tangle of bone and partially eaten carcasses (in most cases livestock, but in some, human farmers).

In all, there were seven "free" ghouls dwelling in the region - six typical ghouls, who dwelt in the barn, and the ghast lurking in the farmhouse. The heroes ended up fighting the barn ghouls.