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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 145523" data-attributes="member: 67">Session 2, part 3Here’s where things start to get complicated.We go back to my house, carrying the bodies of our unconscious friends.  Toady and the kid have been sharing my rum.  Again.  I tell Toady that I will give him a raise, which will precisely cover the cost of the rum imbibed this day.  He responds: “Then I hoope eets a beeg raaise!”  Like I say, Toady’s a pretty decent gardener, when he’s gardening, but he’s always good company.We wait around my house for an hour or so, while Dexerion and Virian come to.  I’m itching to go to my cornfield and look for that scarecrow, but I’d like to have everyone (except Toady, of course) with me when I do.  We’ll just have to wait.After a while, we do all make it out to my field and look for the signs of a ghostly scarecrow.  There is an area where the tops of my cornstalks are all cleanly shorn off, as if from a scythe.  I find large boot-marks leading in no particular direction, a little bit of hay (aha! There was a scarecrow!), and…a few pumpkin seeds?  The halfling finds a tiny footprint that I am at first convinced is his own—I still think it might be.  I show the rest of the group my find and Fruff asks the pertinent question: “Are they evil pumpkin seeds?”  Halflings say the darndest things.After searching the area thoroughly, we return to my hut.  Toady is talking to my neighbor, a close friend of mine, about letting him use a hoe.  I have no objections.  He and I shake hands; it has been too long since we last saw each other.  We must get together again, perhaps for tonight’s supper.  He and I always share good stories.Now, however, it is time to head south, to check out these mysterious ghostly caravan attacks.  Along the way, we discover that Father Mehmet performed a wedding ceremony in the villa of Hurst just a couple of days ago.  Most people believe that his caravan was the one that was attacked.  I tend to agree with them.As we travel through the savanna, we become increasingly aware that the day is darkening and a storm is brewing.  I certainly hope that we can be back in my comfortable sod hut before the weather breaks.  Somewhere overhead, a fungal cloud drifts by, darkening the day even more for a few moments.  We come to a point at which a Lake View guard asks us not to divert from the road; this is the site of the abduction!  I try to convince the man that we mean no harm, but have good reason for wanting to see the site.  The man believes me, I think, but orders are orders.  I understand.  I give him a small flask of rum (I usually carry a little on my person for similar situations or emergencies) and thank him for his time.  We press on.A lone tree claws its way from the ground.  Dozens of brightly plumed birds roost in its branches.  Before I can finish the words, “Stay away from the tree,” Fruff has climbed into its upper canopy.  Kids.I discuss our options with my colleagues.  Up ahead, the investigators are not likely to let us anywhere near the site.  But I have an ever-growing fear that something is amiss.  We need to check this out.  If only we had a gnome with us.Wait a minute!  Maialin has a disguise kit!  We’ll just do a little bit of work and, all of a sudden, we have our very own Guild Ambassador.  He looks absolutely convincing, if only he doesn’t speak!We advance to the site, but the head investigator—a man in silk clothing, sporting spectacles—halts us, despite the fact that he appears to believe the tale that Virian spins (Virian is, of course, the voice of the gnome.  The rest of us are bodyguards.  The rat-thing is well hidden), he will not allow us anywhere near the site.  Apparently, the Guild specifically sent this man to investigate.  In truth, they are burning evidence.  In order to justify our presence, I ask which faction of the Guild he is working for, hoping to cause confusion and doubt.  He “pretends” to not know what I’m talking about.  Well, it was worth a shot.We eventually leave the site, but not before Jared snatches up a tube that has fallen, unnoticed, to the ground on its way to the fire.  The tube has a papyrus scroll in it.  After his earlier encounter with the written word, he passes the tube to me.It is a diary of Father Mehmet.  I will not bore you with its intricacies, but I must tell you that it relates some troubling information.  Father Mehmet has found out that the Guild Ambassadors are interested in trading with the long-dead kingdom of Nar-Abar.  Long dead.  As in, “two-hundred years ago, most of the population got wiped out by the spore-fever, long dead.”  Why would the guild want to open trade with nothing?Father Mehmet found out.  The agreements that the Ambassadors were working on are ambiguous, but terms include the import of zombies and skeletons for cheap labor.The import of zombies and skeletons for cheap labor?  Huh?There is more, but I cannot bring myself to mention it.  I store the scroll of papyrus in a safe place for now and move on.</blockquote>

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