Crossfire Trail

General Summary

 

Rewards Granted

• Each Player Character receives 960 XP for solving a "Hard" Challenge Rating 8 multi-piece puzzle at Tarntaise Farm!
• The Intrepid Trio of Jesse Devonshire, Bruthazmus, and Zhang Sephia receive a Responsibility Bonus of 200 XP each for going to the barn despite exhaustion, not burning it down, and not killing all the newly transformed bunnies.
• Chef does not receive Experience Points this session because he mostly did not participate in any problem-solving.

   

• Lee Chung acquired Recipe of Uncle Ned's Rutabaga Beer Sticky Spice Ribs, Chef John's Root Vegetable Gratin, and Tarntaise Farm's Rutabaga Beer Cheese Soup.
• Miro Teague acquired Band of the Dozing Drifter, a low-slung belt with two long low pouches (one below each hip), and a five hundred year old compass that could use some cleaning up (not yet appraised nor checked for magic properties).
• Jesse Devonshire has not yet noticed that he acquired a suspended spell: a single casting of the druidic spell Blazing Rainbow, represented by a single bald cypress seed (a tiny, beige little thing that looks kind of like a deformed shelled walnut) tucked inside the band around the crown of his hat. Although it was cast at 12th level, once Jesse triggers it, despite costing him no Spell Points at all, it will operate within the limits of a 6th level caster's work: if used as a bow, it will fire six times; if used to form a bridge, it will stretch up to 60 feet long and last for up to six minutes, plus give Jesse's allies a boost or Jesse's enemies a penalty equal to Jesse's Wisdom bonus in regard to bridge use. The spell must be used up before winter 578.

Missions/Quests Completed

• Saved Jackson Tarntaise from imminent death!
• Got 8 hours of sleep!
• Met and interviewed Yiara the Naiad of Arjory Pond!

Character(s) interacted with

• The farmers got together a few years ago and wrote to some far-away group of scholars for what it would cost to hire an expert for advice on their troubles with the ranchers.
• A stranger (whom Jackson never was permitted to meet) showed up and started helping the farmers defend their crops ... by changing some of the plants to behave strangely. Briar bushes would slap a cow. That sort of thing.
• After the party visited Tarntaise Farm early in the afternoon with Padre, life was normal for a period of time. Then the banshee wailed! A terrifying thing (that looks a little like the Lich Tree behind Miss Melinda's Alchemy and Branding in town) walked onto the farm, possibly charmed Faylene Tarntaise, and then
• darkness
• Jackson Tarntaise woke up once after he had been badly injured and dressed as a scarecrow and put up onto the scarecrow pole in the south field, but he did not stay awake long
• until Zhang Sephia and the Snafu Posse rescued him and treated his injuries.

 

---

---

 

• She has custody of 3 members of the Bicchieri Caravan, who she is keeping in an air pocket deep below the surface of the spring. They are in extremely poor health.
• Yiara is concerned that if they die, the caravan members will rise as revenants.
• Yiara does not have custody of Ruggiero Bicchieri the Caravan Master.
• Other members of the Bicchieri Caravan are either dead, or enslaved, or both!
• One side of the problems is the Pisky. Who thinks she is more clever than, in fact, she is.
• The other side of the problems is (something to do with plants and undeath, Yiara did not know how to properly describe what she has observed) plus a Fiend
• The stranger tried to persuade Yiara to join his efforts.
• The stranger spent part of his persuasion effort in complaints about an adventuring party of Pathfinders who attacked him in (some dwarven place to the northeast) instead of asking the questions that would have proved the stranger was doing The Right Thing. Oh, no, they ruined it! He described a paladin who does not follow tradition, a man with no shoes, a short human entirely too fond of lightning, and some companions of theirs. When he spoke of them to Yiara, it was clear that this stranger hates them all.
• If the stranger seems to be dead, he is not dead. Only if his life is found and destroyed will he TRULY die.
• The Fiend tried to achieve her freedom while the stranger was away this past early summer.
• The enslaved people are somewhere (1) beyond Yiara's (watershed / territory, she called it either one) and (2) partially obscured by "The Dead Place".
• The stranger and the Fiend use "The Dead Place" as their base of operations. Yiara cannot perceive inside there.
• "The Dead Place" is what Yiara calls a spot where, long ago, a star fell from the sky and struck the Longgrass Plains. Even to this day, the only things that live there are extremely short-lived.
• "The Dead Place" never sees a sunset.
• It is not safe nor wise to travel in the dark.

Created Content

• abchanito -- vampire bunnies!
• Briarseed Children -- some of whom pile up and wear a trenchcoat!
• Ravenous Tumbleweed -- have been enough of a pest around these parts that driving them away is a standard farm hand chore
• Forester's Bane -- rooted dark green carnivorous shrubs, freshly planted around the scarecrows' poles, with razor-sharp leaves!

Notes

1. By the time the Snafu Posse gets back to Purgatory Gulch and sends Wrong Way back to Arjory Pond with citrus-laden jam, the sun will be setting!
2. The GM seeks a broad outline of the Snafu Posse's next step. Please compare notes and do your planning by real world date Saturday night, June 27th, 2020, so that I can prepare maps for your first encounter on the July 4th weekend!
3. This is also a great time to suggest the next title of a Spaghetti Western! Difficulty: If you make it a town-centric movie, I will 100% have the bad guys come flatten Purgatory Gulch.