The Scarecrow Patch
Hambley Farm is not a long walk, and Woldrack takes you most of the way before returning home to his family. He offers his sincerest thanks, firmly gripping each of your hands before he leaves. The danger of living out here in frontier territory is not over, by any means, but he clearly feels a little more at ease after surviving the previous night's attack.
The hedges here are high, lining all of the paths to a height of some four to eight feet, varying chaotically as if no human hand has tended them for decades. The hedges line not only the paths, but also seem to divide the fields. They are rich with many berries, and are clearly an additional local food source.
Walking through these aisles feels strange. You can see through them, to a degree, and at times they are low enough or broken enough to reveal lots of the fields that lie beyond, but at other points they feel constraining, hanging over and above as if reaching for each other.
You walk together in silence now. Your good spirits dulled by a strange darkening mood that seems to filter through you. Kael sensed it first in Mal. The dog seemed to pick something up in the air, the hackles on his neck rising. Then the others felt it too.
Weapons were drawn, the pace slowed, shoulders were hunched imperceptibly as if ducking down a little to avoid being seen. And then you catch sight of the farm. A sprawl of simple buildings set off, perhaps 50 yards, from the path. It is not unlike Farmer Woldrack's own farmstead, only without the containing wall, and with a more threadbare appearance to it. It also, inexplicably, feels like a place that has not had the warmth of children upon it for long years.
You can see figures standing stationary around the yard. No, not people, scarecrows? It is difficult to tell. They are tall, but strangely look slumped at the same time. You count five of them. One is moving. A slow, slouching gait, as if sleepwalking.
OOC: Actions, etc. You are still 50 yards from the house, so this is not combat yet.
