188: Hay Fever
General Summary
Background
Continuing her self-serving hunt for lucrative bounties, Aiko set about locating her next victim quickly discovering that the nature of undeath can be a curious and peculiar study, with negative energy accruing and altering even the most basic properties. Exposure to evil and corruption can make matters particularly dark and challenging. Such was the case for a scarecrow, which once watched over the fields of a farmer with a horrific tendency to hunt and kill innocent people. The farmer would bury them in the scarecrow's field as fertilizer, and the negativity of this act eventually animated the scarecrow, filling it with a dark hatred and a penchent to hunt down various farmers and transform them into scarecrows themselves with Its first victim being the very man whose cruelty had brought it to life.The Scarecrow's Reign of Terror
Naturally a creature of deception, the scarecrow preyed on the fear and fright of its victims, attempting to break their spirits and leave them feeling depressed and sorrowful. By draining its victims' will to fight, it would then mock them and slowly kill them in the most torturous ways, paralyzing them with fear and forcing them to watch whatever cruel acts it committed. Death was not the end for the victims; those it killed would be slowly transformed into inanimate scarecrows, petrified and forced to watch whatever occurred around them. The scarecrow would then place these petrified creatures in various fields to watch over them for centuries. Though this scarecrow had been around for quite a while, the number of its victims will likely never be known. Thus, one must admit that what the adventurers would come to do was an act of kindness on two levels. Their curiosity led them to discover two of its victims upon the farmland where they decided to hunt it down.The Adventurers' Mission
Freeing these victims from their petrified state, the adventurers discovered that the scarecrow was still nearby, relying on a hidden demiplane to wait out the search party before it would once again start terrorizing the land. The adventurers discovered the portal to this plane and invaded it, armed with a poppet from the chest—the condensed material form of the scarecrow’s soul.The Demiplane Maze
Upon entering the plane, they found an endless maze of corn. Inside, the scarecrow had created numerous illusions of itself to play tricks on the mind and fill the adventurers with nervousness and fear. Finding the true scarecrow proved troublesome, as it had the ability to swap places with one of its illusions, avoiding attacks. Each illusion was imbued with the ability to transform into various monstrous creatures, meaning the longer it took to find and hunt down the true scarecrow, the more foes the adventurers faced.The Final Confrontation
Through the use of magic and clever tools, the adventurers ultimately hunted down the scarecrow. They broke the poppet, preventing it from reforming and continuing to plague the lands. Using the poppet as evidence of their success, the adventurers were richly rewarded for their acts. The woman they freed from an extended state of torture thanking them with freshly baked apple pie.
Report Date
06 Aug 2024
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