Chapter 1: The Knaves Visit the Spudfields

"I've no idea," Daece says when Audree asks about how such a creature might have found its way into the root cellar. "It's not like there's another way into the cellar. And dad barred the trap door pretty much right away... I don't know if the wicked thing has tried to get out or not, but if it has my parents talk about it. Maybe to keep from scaring us?"

As the group walks on, the muddy path beneath their feet smooths out some as they pass a series of earthen hummocks and strange mounds on their right, some distance off the trail. There are what look like tumbledown stones of some sort scattered here and there, and at least two patches of earth that look like they were freshly dug or disturbed.

"There's my father and brother," the girl says as they come within a hundred paces of her farmhouse, gesturing at a man and a boy working in an animal pen, tending to a pig. The man sees that he has visitors, and puts his son on his shoulders as he makes to leave the pen and greet this daughter and four strangers as they approach his house.

Lagging behind, long-limbed Endrei makes his way into the unruly green field southeast of the farmhouse. The flat, rectangular stone he examines is worn and weathered, but it looks cut, like it was once worked by a stonemason. It has a front and a back, and traces of something interesting on its pitted and white lichen-covered face. The big man sees concentric rings and unknown glyphs running in tightening circular patterns towards the center. Nearby, two spots of disturbed earth in the side of a hillock are evident. Both look like they might be graves to Endrei, though small ones.

When Watters leads the crew towards Mr. Spudfield, the man puts his son on the ground and shoos him back towards the house. He's a wiry soul with a sharp chin and full head of brown hair, young-looking for someone who has a teenaged daughter. Like Daece, he's dressed in humble but sturdy homespun clothes; his hands are dirty and calloused.

"You know, Audree," the man says with a nod, "yes, we might at that. Has my daughter fetched you here to help, then?"

"I have!" Daece announces. "You've met Audree, and this is Clomm, and Elius! Back there -- see the big one? That's Endrei. Four hardy adventuring types, father, surely enough to forcibly remove the thing in the cellar."

Spudfield takes them all in, and shrugs. "I'm Conrad, and thank you for coming to our aid. We can't afford to pay you much for this service, I'm afraid, but we'll do what we can. You'll always have a place to rest your head when traveling through Snodswick, and I can put in a good word for you at Fourtower Bridge."

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The Farmhouse:

"Only my wife saw the thing," Conrad says, "though we all heard the growling. Come inside, she'll tell you about it. I'm hoping whatever it was is long gone... somehow."

When the giant approaches and grimaces in what looks like considerable pain, the farmer does his best to not wince in return. "Hello, sir," he says simply, but his face falls a little when he's asked about the burials.

"Up there? That's an old burying ground. Goes way back, well beyond the founding of Snodswick and the surrounding farms. It's used as a cemetery for animals now, mostly beloved pets and such. One of the graves you would have just seen was for dear Doris, our dog." The man's chin trembles slightly. "We miss her terribly, I must say."

From the door to the house, the man's son, who sneakily hasn't gone inside and who in fact as been watching and listening, calls out. "She's not dead, dad!" the boy manages, but quick as that Daece is shooing her younger brother inside.

"Sorry," Conrad says, wiping a tear. "She meant a lot to us, and the kids... well, I'm happy to say there hasn't been a lot of death in their lives. They're still coming to grips with it."

Turning, he means to lead the way inside. "Come. I'll show you the cellar."

Clomm's wondering goes unanswered as Conrad brings them all into his house.

It is a stoutly made building -- a two-story, timber-framed, wattle and daub structure with a steeply pitched roof. The second floor has a jettied overhang, and an addition has been added to the ground floor at some point; it is through this utilitarian front room that the group enter, behind the family patriarch. They walk past a workbench and some washing basins, past some tools and garments that are in need of mending -- and past a trap door in the floor that is secured with a makeshift lock, into the kitchen, which smells of bread and roasting potatoes.

Eliza Spudfield, a friendly-looking brunette in her thirties with a babe in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, smiles as her son steals a piece of sweetbread from an earthenware platter on a nearby table. "Conrad, Daece, who's this then? You've brought -- oh! There are a lot of you! And you're -- there... there are a lot of you!"

"I found them at the Bellowing Bear!" Daece declares. "The Reeve wouldn't help, just like dad said he wouldn't, but these four travelers -- once hearing about the terrible beast in our cellar -- said they'd have a look, they'd take care of it!"

Eliza looks impressed -- with the height of the one, the hair and wary expression of the pock-marked fellow, the flamboyant clothes of the woman, and the elegant and unusual manner of the bald man. They were a sight... but they were willing to help. Handing her snoozing babe to her husband, smacking the table with her spoon to prevent her greedy-fingered son making off with another sweet, the woman wiped her hands on her apron and came to greet the foursome properly.

"I am Eliza, and I thank you for agreeing to help us. I'm sure Conrad has told you we have no silver to offer, and little copper besides -- at least until we can sell part of our harvest... which is in the root cellar we don't dare go into!"

Daece relays that the four travelers have expressed interest in room and board, and her mother readily agrees to that. "The least we can do," she says as she leads them back towards the trap door in the front room. "Now I didn't get a good look at the thing I saw down in the cellar last night, but it was evil, I'll tell you. It's eyes! It's teeth! It had a kind of... hunger that I could feel. Scared me out of my wits, I ran like I'd seen Death itself! We slammed shut the door and bolted it, and that's when we heard the thing growling -- and what an awful sound!"

"No, only this way, in and out," Eliza says, gesturing at the trap door. "Perhaps the thing dug its way in, or -- yes. It's possible that it slipped in when we weren't watching. The door is left unbarred normally. It's only held fast now by the haft of an old shovel that my husband used to secure it. You see?"

Elius Wax did -- paying careful attention to the room, he'd already noted that the fastening looked hastily made, and none too secure, really.

To him and Clomm, the woman says, "The cellar's loaded with the harvest! Potatoes, turnips, greens -- bushels and barrels and sacks worth." Swatting at the man with the mohawk, she adds, "There will be no fire, no smoke! This is our house, man! That's our livelihood down there!"

Then, when Endrei says his piece, the woman turns sheepish. "I didn't -- I didn't get a good look at it. It was in the corner, in the shadows -- scared the death out of me with its eyes! Kind of -- they reflected the light from my lamp in this awful way. It was like a man, but not. Upright, yes, and there was a smell, there was this... cold." The woman shivers. "It wasn't like anything I've laid eyes on before."