20200801 Nightmare at Agoseris Ranch

The Agoseris Ranch was absorbed into the Whippetal Ranch some years ago apparently. Whatever evil showered upon Whippetal thouroughly drenched Agoseris. But we didn't realize that until after we had thrown open the barn door. And then it was too late to change our minds.
 
We thought the plan was sound. Our wagon, though not the fastest on the roads, was better able to negotiate the rocky hillsides than any other, so we rode to the Agoseris barn directly, ignoring the long winding road which even herds of evil were forced to use. Lee Chung would infiltrate the barracks built for human habitation and free any hostages, then lead them to the wagon when the rest of us drew the attention of their captors. Then we would all gather at the wagon and ride back to town, leading the army of hell bovines (developed by the Ranchers) nipping at our heels straight into the other equally destructive, and equally evil, army developed by the Farmers, and the two would settle their differences, violently, preferably in view of the whole town of Purgatory Gulch, so they could all see that the "troubles" that beset them, growing year after year, were of their own making, and thus up to them all to stop.
 
Before we approached the Agoseris barn, we didn't know the scope of the evil that possessed this area. It had only been several days since the sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance of the unnatural hurricane storm drew our attention. No time to amass an army, much less two, but this trouble had been festering for many years.
 
With our wagon parked at a rendezvous point northeast of the barn just into the rocky hills. Lee took to the barracks as planned and worked as silently as anticipated. I walked, in my normal human form, to the open barn door at the southwest corner of the horseshoe-shaped barn, and heaved the barn door shut on the cows and sheep, and locked them in. The rest assembled around the remaining open barn door at the southeast side. The central area inside the horseshoe shape of the barn was empty. Wait, cows and sheep comingling in the same barn? And letting themselves come home in the wee hours before dawn with no human intervention? Odd.
 
The plan was to attract the attention and the bodies of all the captors to give Lee free reign over the building, so Miro made some magical gestures at the nearby barn door, then he tossed a stone at it. The door rang and reverberated like an alarm bell. We had their attention now.
 
No shouting of cattle rustlers nor bandits. Only the cows and sheep wandered from the barn toward the door making the noise. Had we been mistaken? Was this just a peaceful, if odd, ranch barn full of innocent domesticated animals?
 
No, we had not. No, it wasn't.
 
The first cow, (let's call her Bessie), rose up on her hind legs and brandished a long sharp polearm weapon from nowhere I could see. The sheep and ram by her did the same. The rangers and Miro let loose arrows and other missiles.
 
I took a few steps to the door, feeling somewhat alone with so few plants in the dusty dirt around the barn. All the plant allies I could call had been trampled by many hooves into nothingness long ago, Then I remembered how the druids from the deserts would call on the elements to assist them. I asked, and Mother Earth started the dirt and gravel shifting like desert sands. No more hell-spawn animals could leave the barn by that doorway without great difficulty.
 
As the team continued to pummel the beasts, Brother Fire created a blazing bonfire in the doorway and lit the ground on fire for me. We were unable to slay those three, and there were hundreds in there.
 
Then the other barn door I had locked burst asunder with a stampeding herd of cattle and sheep intermixed. They galloped into the light of the barely risen sun. Yes, there were hundreds of them, stampeding. The angry herd turned our way, toward our standing battle at the southeastern barn door.
 
I'm not sure who was first to call the retreat. I think it was unanimous.
 
Sephia took to the air, finding the fruits of Lee Chung's labors running and limping toward the wagon with a half-dozen Hellwoolies giving chase to recover their captives. She of course had a thing or two to say about who should be allowed to win that race.
 
Mother Earth again came to my aid, kicking up the gravel and rocks in the stampede's way to slow them down and inflict more than a little pain on each one. But the herd was almost mindlessly charging headlong, directly at us.
 
Miro, Bruthasmus, Rowtag, Spiro, and even Chef with his meat cleaver did battle with the wounded-but-still-possessed-of-demonic fury Hellcow and the Hellram who was equally injured but not defeated. We pushed enough to get a view around the corner.
 
The remainder of the beasts in the barn were kicking their way through the wall to cut us off. And Brother Fire still raged at the door near us, blocking us to the north, but equally blocking the beasts. The only retreat seemed to be the open plains to the south, offering certain death under the hooves of the stampede.
 
If only we could fly like little Spiro and Rowtag. Then we could escape. But my favors from Nature were running short. I might never again see Wrong Way or any of the animal friends who helped me so much in these plains, like the little poisonous frogs who did so well in a swarm against the first solitary Hellbull we found, pouncing and leaping about in the mud left from the unnatural hurricane. Hmm... Maybe I could muster another favor or two.
 
I leaped at Bruthasmus' back, shifting myself, boots and all, into a poisonous frog. I granted him the favor of sticky hands and feet and strong legs. And Chef. Then I lept, onto the Hellcow's crown, then off, onto Miro's flamboyant hat. I would recognize it anywhere. The same gift to him, then, after just a breath or two, up onto the side of the barn, clinging and climbing to the roof.
 
Returning to my mundane human form, I called for the others, and made them aware of their new gifts from Nature. Between them, they had the fearsome Hellcow on its knees, but the Hellram was still fighting. They lept and climbed up on the roof with me as both stampeding herds were starting to come together at this corner of the barn beneath us, a bountiful supply of certain death.
 
With one second of peace, I had to try one unlikely strategy. I asked Sister New Moon, who is only up in the daytime, and who keeps secrets so well, to bless us and hide us from all animals. It is a simple request that every training druid learns, and a fragile one, easily broken. But would it be any use on these poor animals possessed by hell's minions?
 
It worked. They could neither see nor hear us, not while the newly risen Brother Sun hampered their demonic minds. That favor, I did not have to request. It appears to be a weakness of the hellspawn, if only a minor one.
 
So carefully, we crept north toward the barracks. Miro and Bruthasmus contacted Lee Chung, just under our feet, clinging to the rafters of the barn with several more humans, goblins, and even a dwarf whom he had lifted up into the darkness and momentary safety. Our distraction, though it had brought the wrath of well over a hundred head, had not cleared the barn of all the hellspawn.
There were still many more than we could fight. Yet, we had the remainder of the hostages out of the building in just a few minutes with our ability to cling to the walls and be unseen by the captors, two feats which Lee Chung duplicated with no magic whatsoever, only his eerily silent and methodical movements.
 
Apparently, what humans (I assume) bargained for their herd animals to become possessed of demonic intelligence, dexterity, and rage were no longer in control of this situation. They were, in varying degrees, no longer stewards but prisoners of the herds they once tended.
 
Back at the wagon, Miro and little Spiro aided Sephia in totally bedeviling the posse of Hellsheep, who failed to recover their captives. A very full repurposed beer wagon then plodded across the rocky hills that early morning, pulled by reliable Dagnabbit in his protective horseshoes, carrying us back toward town... which still had its own troubles.