Against the Cult: The Next Day (1.2)

"Oh, thank you, most Gracious Mistress!" the farmer fawns and scrapes for a moment, and then backs away, bowing, toward the game trail leading to his farm.

OK, so I'd like to get a sense of what everyone is doing. It seems like Morgran, Quest, and Aanbo are looking to follow the farmer into the Dim. What is everyone else doing? Will you continue east toward Orlane, stay here with the wagon in the road, look for cover to conceal yourselves and the wagon, set up the wagon as bait, silently track the three going with the farmer, take a long rest, or something else? In particular, what are Sara (steering the oxen) and Xana (driving the oxen) doing with the wagon (as that may color others' responses)?

Morgran, OgbarQuest, and Aanbo follow the farmer down the path. (OoC: anyone else who is going to join them, speak up now)

The rest of the party looks to find a place to conceal the wagon off of the road again. If you're doing that, you can roll Stealth to work on concealing the wagon or Perception to keep a lookout...or describe something else that you're doing, of course.

(edited to fix tags AND which characters are going!)

Yes, just to clarify, I think only Quest, Morgran, and Aanbo were going.

(Ooc: whoops! My head thought "Quest," but my fingers typed "Ogbar!" Thanks all for pointing it out)

On the Road

The characters with the wagon - Xana, Sara, Ogbar, Klak, Durren, and Thacogygax - drive the oxen off of Cecily's Road into the cover of the trees and wait, eyeing the road and the trees nervously. Several minutes pass. The normal sounds of the forest resume: creatures scuttling in the undergrowth, birds calling in the trees. Sara spots something large coming down the road from the east (toward Orlane), perhaps 200 yards distant still; if she had to guess, she figures it to be another wagon. But the trees are tall and the little dappled light that comes through the canopy over the Road does not allow for great visibility.

In the Dim

"Luminous Excellencies, my name is Abel. Abel Jarl!" the farmer calls over his shoulder to Aanbo, Morgran, and Quest as he leads them through the dark forest on the game trail. "I came into the woods twenty years ago, cleared space for my farm, and have been working it ever since, without having to pay Keolish taxes. I've hardly ever been back to town since, except once, to marry Elista, and a couple of times since to buy her some pretties..."

As he continues in this vein, you come to a split rail fence. Inside the fence, the ground has been cleared, though tree stumps still poke up from the sparse grass. You see a few sheep grazing, and at the top of a low rise, a cluster of buildings - some rude barns and a ramshackle stone cottage. A tuft of smoke curls from the chimney.

In the Dim, at the Jarl farm

"Honored Zenith, I make most everything we use. Every once in a whiles, a scissors man comes down the road, and I makes sure to buy things like saws if I've broken them."

Abel frowns. "Come to think of it, haven't seen the scissors man lately..." He continues to lead you across the pasture up to the farmhouse. A young girl stands in the doorway and gives a cry of greeting, which Abel returns, waving enthusiastically. "Hello, Emiless! I've bringen help for Devek!"

At the Jarl Farm

The girl, Emiless, runs inside the farmhouse, and the three (Morgran, Aanbo, and Quest) can hear her calling out inside: "Mama! Abella! Papa's brought some help!"

Abel brushes a hank of hair that has fallen over his face back over his ear. "Majestic Worthies, welcome to my home." He bows you through the door. The large room within is dominated by a large fireplace, where a harried-looking human woman is moving back and forth between a cutting board and a pot that's hanging over the fire, bubbling a fine broth aroma to the room. A young boy is tending the fire, while a toddler is playing with a straw doll on the wooden floor nearby, while a sleepy dog wags his tail indulgently. A table is pushed up against the wall on the other side of the room. A door on the left hand wall leads to a cupboard, and a door in the back leads outside. A set of stairs climbs up, and the girl you saw before - Emiless - comes running down the stairs moments after you enter. "There they are, Mama!"

The woman turns, worry lines etching her face. Abel grins. "Here I am, Elista darling! I have brought these Gentlefolk to heal Devek!"
His wife, Elista, looks grimly at the weapons they bear. "No, no, no, my darling - these have come to help! This majestic worthy is a priest!" He claps Morgran on the shoulder.
"Of Kord, the Lord of Battle, Abel?" She turns and then remembers herself, smiling at the group despite her obvious fear of strangers. "Welcome, Virtuous Lords. I beg that you do not take offense at my husband's ignorance of your faith and instead treat us with grace." She's clearly city-bred, and knows more of manners than her husband. "However you have come, we are grateful if you can do anything for our son. We do not know what his sickness is, just that he came home days ago looking pale as a ghost and fell asleep. Come, see for yourselves." She brushes a few more vegetables from the cutting board into the pot and then wipes her hands on her apron. Then she goes over to the girl on the stairs. "Emiless, stir the pot while we visit Devek." The girl goes to tend the pot, while Elista leads the way up the stairs. Abel follows you, brushing his unruly lock of hair back again.

On the second level is a short hallway, with doors leading off to the right. She enters the first door. Following, you find a low cot with a grieving young maid leaning over the body of a dead teenager. At least, he seems dead at first: the color seems drained from his skin, and he seems completely motionless. The girl notices you enter - it's clear that Emiless had announced your approach before - and rises, giving a huge beaming smile of relief that help has come. Then she tries to curtsy and test her knowledge of flowery court language, as only befits such high and mighty people as yourselves. Mabjificent Nobles, welcome! Ant please ye, if ye can do aught to awhist my brother, we employ thee to do so, for our Internal gratitude!" Elista rolls her eyes. "These Wondrous Beings cannot help, Abella, until you move out of the way." Abella blushes and moves to the side.

Near the Road

Just a few hundred yards away, just off Cecily's Road, the party watches as the shape materializes into a large box on wheels, being pulled by a pair of mules. A man sits on a bench at the front of the box, which you see is a type of wagon like travelers use who live on the road, with a roof and walls, rather than canvas over a bed like yours. He draws up, reins his team to a stop, and waves cheerfully. "Hello there! Jonbon the Busker greets you! Ordinarily I'd be worried about bandits skulking in the bushes, but you see, this time I have nothing to steal! That, and you don't look like bandits, what with that wagon on the side of the road. Bandits would have hidden behind the wagon, not in it!"

(edited to close out the boldface speech)