Session 3: Woodstone Farms

Synopsis
The party approached the farmhouse to be spotted by a woman on the porch. As they approached, the woman drew a heavy crossbow and threatened to fire. She didn't take kindly to strangers or missionaries, and they seemed to be both.

The party huddled up in the path and Vadha attempted to disguise Twilight as a sickly child rather than a goblin, while Twilight fashioned a necklace out of some string and a coin. The party planned to try and convince this woman that she had won the Farmer of the Year award, and that Twilight was a Make-A-Wish child who wanted to meet her.

The woman, Ma Clampet, saw through the ruse of being named Farmer of the Year, but did think Twilight looked quite sickly. After some convincing she told the party why she distrusted missionaries; specifically those from the nearby temple, Lighthome. They claim to be followers of Kord, but the war god doesn't proselytize or go in for community service. They seem really interested in helping in the fields, so she always sends them on their way.

The party offer to help her in any other way she might need in exchange for the information she gave them. Twilight pretended to fall asleep on the porch while the others went inside to help can and jar fruits.

Twilight took the opportunity to scout around the farm. The back fields that Ma was so concerned about were empty of farmhands, but he didn't notice anything back there, so he returned to enlist the help of "Wolfie." He used a pack of cards from the tavern the night before to give the wolf a scent to follow. And off they snuck together through the fields before finding the source or the scent. But Twilight was intimidated by the swishing sound of a large scythe through the corn and turned back to tell the others.

While Twilight investigated outside, the rest of the party was inside chatting with Ma over preserves. They were able to get information from her about the fact that the missionaries only come out to the farm on days that coincide with the new and full moon. Celwyn checked her detailed almanac and discovered the full moon was only days away. While asking Ma if she had seen the bard they had been tracking they discovered that she hadn't, but there were "forgettable faced" men who had been coming out with the farmhands lately. Vistra asked if any had come out today and she said yes. So he immediately said he wanted to challenge this farmhand to a wood chopping competition.

Twilight arrived back on the porch just in time to pretend to still be asleep in the chair as the rest of the group emerged from the house. Vistra and Ma headed off into the field to find the new farmhand while Vadha, Celwyn, and Twilight compared notes.

Ma and Vistra found Ma's husband Bob to find out where the farmhands were. They headed off to find that the new farmhand wasn't where he should be; instead there was Steve. Steve explained that he must have misheard the assignments. Bob and Ma headed off to find the other farmhand while Vistra stayed to chat with Steve. Their conversation slowly started to unease Steve until he bolted off through the fields.

The rest of the party came out to find Vistra having failed to tackle Steve. While the party tried to decide what to do, Ma and Bob returned, pissed. They had found the real Steve right where he should be. Vistra explained that the imposter had run off behind the house. Ma shouted and ran after him saying that he ran off to the back fields. The party laid chase, Bob turning back to get more help from the farmhands.

The trail left by fake Steve and Ma was easy to follow through the fields to a small forest at the foothills behind the farm. When they arrived they found Ma dead, her throat slit. Vadha stayed behind to try to tend to Ma's body while the others continued further into the clearing. They found a small abandoned campsite and behind another standing of trees a circle of standing stones: eight stones surrounding a stone altar. Each stone had a carving of a phase of the moon in it.

While investigating the standing stones, fake Steve popped out to attack. Twilight immediately hurled insults at him with vicious mockery and threw him off his game. Celwyn drew her hand crossbows and fired, only one bolt taking him in the shoulder. The wolf launched at him to bite but missed. Fake Steve stared unnervingly into Twilight's soul and then lashed out at the wolf, nearly killing it.

Sir Vistra struck out at him with his hammer. Each hit making the fake Steve start to lose focus and shift back into a doppelganger. Twilight drew his bow, but missed. The wolf lashed out again after his wound, and gashed the fake Steve's leg. And Celwyn fired both bows again, staggering the creature as it fell to the ground dying.

Staying his hand, Vistra cast a Command Word spell on the creature to speak and the group questioned the changeling. They found out it killed Ma because she was "in the way." It had killed the bartender Carl for the same reason. They asked about what it wanted with the standing stones, but it didn't know; only that it had orders to find them for an unnamed ritual. They also learned it had come from Lighthome. Vistra finally questioned the creature "how do we stop you?" At which point the creature pointed at it's bleeding and broken body, gave him the finger and died.

The party then had another moment of flashback while looking at the reverted and dead changeling. Celwyn took a moment to tend to the wolf, calling on nature around them to mend his wounds, and spoke with him. Finally, Twilight severed the creatures head, they collected up Ma and headed back for the farm.

As the emerged from the forest, they found Bob and the other farmhands coming. They all stopped at the sight of Ma. Vistra explained what had happened, but Bob was in shock. Twilight held up the creature's head and explained that it said it came from Lighthome and they had killed it near the standing stones. At this, Bob sent the farmhands back to work and lead the party down into the farms storm cellar. In the cellar they came to find a small group of brown robed "priests" living like refugees.

This immediately made Vistra suspicious and uncomfortable. They learned that the priests had used to live and worship at Lighthome, but that when the fire went out 20 years ago, they abandoned their faith to live among nature. They used to live near the stones but had been taken in by the Clampets when the missionaries started coming around. That the light had been relit, but not by any of Kord's faithful. The priests had been disillusioned by the Silence of the gods. Vistra felt bad for Gavin, their head priest, and cast a blessing of hope upon him. This seemed to renew some of Gavin's vigor and he said he would help the party if they wanted to investigate Lighthome. He would make them a map of the old temple.