E: “So can we just take over the tavern and start running a tavern instead of running the rest of the game? Would that be okay?
O: “Yeah!”
Z: “Time to play Stardew Valley”
SECRETS
Waking up in the tavern the party find a box with a note attached. “I think you all will be better off with this. It kept Isaac safe. We’ve gone to return his body to the soil.” Jiwho opens the box and finds a magical locket engraved with a shield, he tosses it to Grimm who wraps it around his bicep. The group discuss their plan to go into the cornfield during the witching hour. Jiwho gives people darkvision, Osiera conjures an owl that perches on her shoulder, Zora sighs thinking “what could go wrong?”
Z: “Don’t forget to be truthful now.”
O: “I’m scared.”
Approaching the massive maze, an eerie ambiance washes over them as they feel a chill running down their spines. They feel like they are being watched. From inside the corn, Beau senses something call out to him in his mind. Zora is oddly unsettled, noticing this about Beau and nudges him. Beau shakes his head at Zora as the wind picks up and they notice, peeking through the stalks, are a pair of glowing orange eyes with pupils shaped like a four pointed star. A source less voice instructs them,
“Lay bare your secrets, lighten your burden. Do this and you may enter my land of dreams.”
Eleana shivers
O: “Okay, who’s first?”
Grimm steps up to the corn, pointing back towards Beau, “See that rat guy back there? He once… and framed the victim’s widow for the crime.”
B: “YOU RAT BASTARD, YOU DIRTY FUCKER!”
G: “He’s been running because he’s scared that the widows son’s coming to kill him.”
Grimm tries to walk into the corn maze but is shunted out with laughter. “Laying someone else's secret is not the same as thine own. Try better.”
Eleana steps up, “I don’t want to hurt anyone… I don’t… but there’s this hunger? Or thirst… It courses through my veins screaming until I feed it. It is never satisfied but taking a life keeps it at bay until it’s starving again.” The cornfield opens, allowing her to walk in. Jiwho attempts to sneak in behind her but is shunted out like Grimm before the stalks close again.
Beau walks up with a sigh, “No easy way to put this but I once had a business partner that went by the name Remy Boudreaux. We came up together, a couple of gentlemen from the swamp. Started a business together working with a couple guilds around Faerun. After a while I started noticing that we had fewer and fewer clients that came back. I found out that Remy had been killing said clients. I had a talk with him and he wouldn't tell me anything so eventually we went out to the swamp together and I was the only one to come back. I made Remy dig his own grave and I buried him out there. I regret it to this day.” The cornstalks open to the voice welcoming someone with ‘similar values’. Beau’s story was so long and convincing that Jiwho was able to sneak in behind him.
Grimm tries again, explaining “In a past life, one could say, I performed an experiment that was to aid my quest for perfection and unfortunately in doing so I had to give up a memory. A memory of a child that I don’t know.” Once more the corn gives way, allowing Grimm to enter this time. The voice tells him, “Don’t worry dear one, beyond those stalks we are all family.”
Osiera is solemn, and says, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my sister. And that includes burning our father in his house and running.” The voice reveals that her story was known but allows her through regardless for sharing her pain.
Finally Zora approaches, her metal plate armor clanging loudly. “My tale isn't long but it's true in that I've never told anyone. As close as Mila and I were, I always resented her and she never knew it. And I was always afraid that that resentment is why my oath never came to me and I'm scared that my oath came to me here in this land when she's not around anymore.” The voice explains that her oath came to her when it was most needed and allows her to pass.
DOPPELGANGER ATTACK
The corn stalks tower above them framing a glowing orange sky as they look up. They hear this laughter one final time, “Such strong wills have entered the rows. I can feel your souls struggling to cling to your flesh. Now you scurry like rats in my maze. I give you no more than three hours before your souls are lost forever. Come to me in the heart of the fields.”
B: “Ladies and gentlemen now that we have a couple of skeletons out of our closet I say we move on.”
They trudge on through the dirt and arrive at their first junction. They spot William and Martha bound to chains and hooks in the middle of the clearing. They spot the party and start screaming for help. Beau and Grimm approach the bodies as Eleana screams out “Wait! It’s a trick guys!” but it’s too late as the figures transform into grey amorphous doppelgangers. The group obviously fucks them up and then move on.
PUMPKIN PATCH KIDS
Eleana gathers everyone's attention, “Guys, huddle up real quick. Listen. Team huddle. We are going to be tricked in this cornfield. Those two people that the doppelgangers were never game in this cornfield and we knew that. We need to be a little smarter.” Grimm impatiently continues on. The party trudge after him as Beau and Grimm yell at each other about the sharing of secrets.
After several minutes of arguing they arrive at pumpkin patch surrounded by awkward looking scarecrows. Eleana suggests sneaking around them but before the group can discuss it Grimm rushes towards them asking “Where do I hit?” Jiwho and Grimm attempt to funnel crows into the bagmans bag of holding, the scarecrows retaliate with terrifying screams. Beau unleashes a hellish lash, weakening them. Osiera and Zora hit the shit out of them while Eleana reaches out with necrotic magic. Grimm roids out by slamming a random stimpak needle in his neck before mauling the last ones to death. Jiwho casts a prayer of healing.
ADELAIDE
They decide that their way forward is to the right and they continue on. At the next clearing they stop dead in their tracks as they spot Adelaide waiting for them there. She starts laughing, singing “You all made it! I’m so glad you made it!” Beau attempts to detect her thoughts but her mind is blocked by the evil laughter they heard before. She sings again, “You all paid your secrets! You all paid your secrets! Except for one person. Maybe they’ll be safe. Eenie Meenie miney…”
Grimm rushes her but is immediately charmed as she explodes and transforms into a corvo demon. Jiwho attempts to pacify Grimm but fails. Beau looks at Grimm and says “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. The choice is yours! You can stay right over there big man.” and frightens him. The corvodemon rushes the rest of them clawing and pecking at them. Eleana casts witchbolt at the demon, frying it before she backs away. Zora smash, Jiwho tolls the dead, and Osiera wild shapes into an Ape and unleashes on this thing.
O: “Left right goodnight.”
Beau slashes it with a blade and casts armor of Agathys on himself. Grimm, finally in his own mind, tells Beau “Thanks buddy” as he walks up and mauls the demon to death. Grimm leads the party again as he and Beau argue some more. Eleana picks up a bug from the ground and gives it to the Ape. Osiera says “yummo” and looks for rocks.
G: “To the left to the left.”
B: “God Grimm is on the fuckin’ move.”
G: “I have a personal vendetta now, they fuckin’ dominated me. MmmMm.
B: “It’s not their fault you have a weak mind.”
G: “I do not have a weak mind!”
BOSS MUSIC
They finally break free of the maze, entering a large crop circle. Lightning and thunder roar above introducing the figure in the middle. It is a large scarecrow with a rusty cage inset in his chest. In a panic it screams “VIRGILS COMING! IT TOO LATE FOR ME!” as suddenly its body bursts into an abomination. It does a typical boss speech or whatever before lunging towards everyone raising its scythe to the crooked moon. Several corvodemons also appear on the field.
Eleana opens with a hex while Beau banes them. A wall of wind appears infront of them as Grimm rushes the big boy. He casts armor of Agathys and doubles in size. The smaller corvodemons separate Grimm from the party by focusing on everyone who is grouped up. Big boy bites the head of a crow and grows five feet. Osiera is looking rough and tries to run past them. Everyone is throwing attack after attack but it keeps using legendary resistances. Zora hits the smaller demons and they poof away only to reappear seconds later. Vines erupt from the ground grappling Zora and Beau. Eleana casts Wither and Bloom in an attempt to heal Osiera. Grimm drinks his silence potion and tentacles emerge from his mouth as he unleashes into the big guy. Jiwho casts his temp hp bubble.
OSIERA DIES?!?!
The awful aura emanating from The Harvest Terror knocks Osiera unconscious before the corvodemon doubles down and kills her. The party stare at her lifeless body in horror for a few moments. All of the sudden a green ghostly light wraps around her body as her wounds magically heal and she’s just standing there in shock. She looks… different.
BOSS FIGHT PT.2
Zora’s bless comes in clutch as everyone needs to make wisdom saving throws from the big guys aura. Grimm smash, like a lot. Jiwho is still dishing out temp hp like candy which is good for Grimm because he’s getting his ass handed to him by the Terror. Osiera looks at everyone confused with black irises, realizes she’s in a fight, and casts bane on the lil guys. She throws an effigy in the middle of everyone that emanates a healing aura. Beau still can’t move so he turns invisible. Zora makes the corvodemon disappear again but she still can’t move.
Eleana unleases necrotic energy and damages a corvodemon before it disappears. Grimm keeps smash, like a lot a lot. The Terror eats another bird and the swarm around him vanishes as he grows again. Suddenly a spectral Jericoh sticks appears alongside the party as strands of glowing straw appear on each of their wrists all connected to him. “Don't worry friends, If y’all go down I'll get you back up. This is my problem to fix and the fact that you're all here trying to give me a hand means you all must be some swell people. Let’s set this town free, why don’t we?”
