Riding the Dark Trail

I had a bad feeling about this.
 
We made it to the Tarntaise Farm by 2 am. Homesteads, from my view, take on the sense of the people living there. Almost taking on a life their own. The Tarntaise Farm wasn't any exception. Now? It felt tired. Spent. Like a body giving out its dying breaths. That was an unsettling thought. This place had been alive a few hours back.
 
I tied up the Mollies and headed with Lee Chung to take a look around the house. The others headed off to check the rest of the farm.
 
Taking a slow loop around the house, there were clothes on the clothesline. A smell of baked clay was everywhere, enough that it was starting to bother me. I took a long sniff of the air. Exhausted dogs. Old wood fire that had been out for a while. Smells of cooking yeast and then there was the usual farm smells of chickens, rabbits and such. I figured the yeast was the brewing of that rutabega beer they made here.
 
Then there was the crickets I kept hearing. Crickets sing to the moon, the stars, and each other. These weren't doing that. They were just singing and only stopped when the wind cooled them down. After that, they'd start back up. Crickets don't do that. I warn Lee Chung about that while we move around the house.
 
I also warn Lee Chung about what I've been suspecting. All this time, we're run all over the country from one bad time to another. I know when I'm being led by my nose. Someone wants us tired and worn out. That says 'trap' to me. After a trip around the house and checking the windows, Lee found an odd flower on the porch. He pocketed that before we eased inside.
 
Inside the house was still. I'd say people were grabbed in the middle of their late afternoon chores but there was no sign of a struggle. Lee Chung went for the kitchen, I kept nearby checking for any sign of possessed farm animals. I didn't find any but Lee found the fire had been out for at least a couple of hours. There had been food on the stove but it wasn't finished. Had gone bad too.
 
We moved through the house. The idea was that if the place had been searched there might be some hint as to what happened to the people that lived here. No luck though. Talking through what he had found, what I had smelled, left us with searching the rest of the farm. If Lee was right, the attack came around five in the afternoon give or take. Which meant farm hands might have been in the fields, looking in on that brewery they have or checking on the animals before evening fell.
 
That was when the screaming started somewhere on the farm.
 
Stepping outside, we hear Jessie warning us about some thorn bushes that will, if you mess with their berries, will snap shut on a person like a thorn-bear-jaw trap. Nasty. I've heard of those things. But Jessie and Wrong Way set a batch on fire. I looked around and saw some near - maybe - the other scarecrow out in the field. Then Jessie points out the tumbleweeds that weren't moving with the wind but were moving on their own.
 
Looked like it was time to do some gardening.
 
The tumbleweed wasn't any such thing but more like some sort of 'land jellyfish'. A big rolling weed with a mouth. Not the oddest thing I've seen since I've been here. But it didn't try and take a chunk out of my hide. Instead, it looked a little confused by the burning scarecrow. So we head out toward the odds sounds on the south side of the farm.
 
We didn't make it but halfway before Sephia flies up yelling about needing help. She found Jackson Tarntaise. He had been hung and nearly beaten to death. Lee Chung figured out how to slip some healing potion down his swollen throat while Jessie and I looked after his other wounds. We stopped most of the bleeding and got him - at least mostly - back in his right mind. But he was still scared witless and had every right to be. This place was enough to put someone off salads for at least a week. Unless you roasted the veggies first, then it might be all right.
 
From the roof, Chef let us know something about a critter in the chimney. The description sounded like the tumbleweeds again. Lee jumped up there while Jessie, Sephia and myself hauled Jackson inside the house. He needed a bed and someplace safe. Jackson - being a survivor - would have some idea what happened. Any clue would be some help.
 
Once he came to, he told us in bits and pieces what happened. There was a banshee wail right before a dead tree - he called it a 'lich tree' - walked onto the farm. He attacked the whatever it is then woke up after getting the hell beaten out of him. But we've seen no tracks or really ... anything. So we've no idea where the others were taken. What he described sounded like a treant gone bad. That would makes sense we've got so many evil plants running around.
 
Miro found his way back to us about then. Turns out he found and got into a fight with more plant creatures. No surprise. Seems the farm is overrun.
 
Jackson finally got his wits together, then told us the rest of the story about the trouble between the ranchers and farmers. The farmers got tired of dealing with the ranchers letting their herds loose. They went to talk to Miss Melinda to come up with some sort of plant that would taste bad and act as a natural fence to keep the cattle and sheep out. So she hired someone to come in and help find a solution. They hired an alchemist who came in and created some thorn plant that can attack what touches them to keep the sheep and cattle out. Then the ranchers found a way to have the cattle and sheep to handle eating those attack plants. So then this alchemist came up with something to counter that.
 
Yep.
 
This is a big problem.
 
These locals have kicked off a large mage war, or a fake mage war to make some money. From the sounds of it, Miss Melinda and this stranger she contacted is to blame here. Working a magical con to squeeze money out of the locals? Even if it kills them? Sounds like.
 
After that hearing that, Sephia, Jessie and myself head for the barn. One last look around before we set down for the night to be safe. The others stayed in the house to settle down for the night. We made it to the barn with nothing bothering us, so we headed inside.
 
The barn was one story, more long than tall. Plenty of room for storing supplies, and could hold animals if set up right. The chickens were upset given the fire that had been happening in the field. Rabbits? They seemed pretty quiet.
 
Which, in hindsight, was pretty much famous last words. We weren't too far in before the rabbits jumped out and attacked. They headed for Jessie before I realized the rabbits might be vampiric? Somehow I'm not surprised. Jessie starts beating at them, but really... being tired I just roared. They were rabbits after all, and like rabbits will do, they bolted back into their holes. I grabbed a keg of beer and poured beer down the rabbit holes before showing Jessie and Sephia how to make catch traps for the rabbits.
 
Then, we finally go back to the house, set some traps and get some blasted sleep.
 
Next morning, we woke to Chef with home-made sausages. At first we worried Chef killed our riding mounts for breakfast but those had wandered over to the Hereford farm for the night. I really didn't ask about the sausages. Mostly, I didn't want to know.
 
Out at the barn, I found I had caught the rabbits. They had been altered with blood drinking fangs but the rabbits weren't sure what to do about it. Taking their feed, I pulped it for them. That they could eat. Leaving plenty with them so they can eat, that seemed to let them go back to their hutch for now. Still means they need to be fixed.
 
Sephia did ask how many farms I'm going to take care of in all this. I almost told her why I'm doing this. Didn't though.
 
All this - especially since its alchemists, mages, or both - reminds me of how that lich Aflyn used me in his magical studies. Testing out magic items or being a target for his made up spells. I see those rabbits, the cows, the sheep, even those plants... and I see helpless victims under a mage's thumb... or ones that had been under a mage's thumb.
 
I see me.
 
The others argue about what to do about Jackson. Some want to get him back to town, others not. Lee didn't understand so I tried to explain why the nyad was important. He didn't seem convinced. A compromise got made. A message to get someone to ride out and collect Jackson, he would have time to pack then take shelter in the town.
 
We head out - finally - for the nyad's pond. Along the way we pass near the Braunvieh farm. The others are talking it up about what to do, planning - which is good - and some comments are made about the mules and such there. I got the idea they weren't about to stop and really... I wouldn't ask them to. This is my job. So I slip off and take care of the animals on the farm as quick as I can, letting Rowtag get some flight time as well for exercise.
 
To be fair, it was nice. Quiet. I like the hard work and it left me alone with my thoughts. That was the best 'rest' I've had in days. But I couldn't leave the others alone to face what's going on. So I left the farm and caught back up.
 
I reached the others by the time they reached the pond. Naturally, Miro had slipped off and paced ahead and was calling out to the nyad on his own. Really, one day that little man is going to get soundly stomped when he does that. Of course, I've not much room to talk.
 
Sure enough, Miro got her attention. Though, she's not a nyad. She's a cypress dryad! Why she's here of all places is beyond me. Jessie speaks to her in another language. I've heard him speak it before. I think its 'Kayam' or something. An ancient druid language. I don't know a lick of it.
 
Fortunately, Jessie's a damn fine charming druid and he got the dryad talking.
 
Through Jessie we learn that Miss Melinda, who is a pisky, and an 'undead thing' and a hellfiend are behind all the troubles. It took some time, but Jessie finds out from the dryad that there is a place called the 'Dead Place'. Some location where a star fell and wiped out a location and killed the ground. She said almost nothing grows there and is to the West. Also, she can't see this hellfiend when its there. From what the dryad says, this 'undead thing' has some sort of control over the hellfiend. Naturally, the hellfiend tried to get loose.
 
She also dropped a surprise on us. The dryad has some of the survivors from the caravan. They're bad off but not dead yet. We agreed to get some food that will help them. Maybe it was in reply but she warned us that the hellfiend has it in for paladins. Which... could have been helpful... if we had one. Then there was the 'undead thing'. If I understand what she said through Jessie, its a lich.
 
A lich.
 
Damn.
 
On top of that, the dryad mentions that the lich knows Miro, Sephia, and Lee Chung. So, grudge? Maybe. A lich holds a grudge worse than a Geldarian. But, the hellbovines want to hunt the hellfiend. The hellfiend wants to rub out the hellbovines. So... we could use one problem to solve the other. Provided we could draw out the hellfiend. Might even get her to turn on the lich. Which that means the hellfiend might turn on us but the lich would be out of the way. Still...
 
A lich.
 
Damn.