In the Cart

The group was reunited after Ravina’s and Bean’s spectacular jailbreak of Pete Smalls. They huddled in the cart as Odds pulled them away in a slow get-away. Their destination – The large farm of Sir Turnip Reed.

As the cart made it’s way around the outer city wall, Ravina and Pete huddled under a blanket catching up on on the past several months. It truly hurt Ravina to see how injured her old friend was, but the spunky koala wasn’t one to wallow in misery. They began to nap as Odds reached the road South. Soon, only Jay was still awake to keep Odds Company.

Ahead, Jay spotted wreckage of a wagon. Everyone was woken up, and the team inspected with utmost caution They found a day’s old slaughter of a handful of travelers.. Bean, as a cat, noticed the stink of rat was all around. Bean found a very helpful trinket blessed by the God Sol.

Odds, with Jay’s help, buried the remains. Petalfoot stepped up to provide a marker, but saw the bloated, butchered corpses and had to retreat to the cart. Odds comforted her after the burial, and Bean allowed himself to be cuddled as an emotional support cat.

The group moved on, falling back to rest as Odds started pulling the cart again. The night was not destined to be peaceful, though. Not an hour had passed before flames were spotted in the distance – large flames. There was a quick discussion, and Ravina lead the stealth-charge towards their next challenge.

Note: Jay had the others look away as he hid the garden cart in his flask.

The Battle at Bumblebrook

Sneaking through the tall grass in torrential rain, they intercepted a fleeing mouse. They learned her name was Hazel, she was fleeing from a horde of rats who were attacking her town. She pleaded for help.

Bean ensconced Hazel and Petalfoot in a cocoon of briars to keep them safe. Then the warriors headed to battle.

The battle was fierce, with Odds, Bean, and Pete int the front lines, and Jay and Ravina providing ranged support. Odds separated to cover more ground, efficiently dispatching rats as he moved. He encountered another group of fighters on the far side of town – one of whom cast hast to speed Odds up.

The rest of the group wasn’t fairing as well. Jay was downed. Pete was swamped and about to be felled when Ravina bravely jumped out to grab the rats attention away from her friend.

A squirrel druid leapt out of a nearby house and cast healing upon Jay. She joined in, helping where she could.

Suddenly the leader of he rats blew his war horn and called retreat. Odds tasked the druid – Acorn – to call surviving villagers home and to fetch Hazelnut and Petalfoot. The heroes had won, but could they have done more? The street was littered with many bodies of the fallen.

In the aftermath, The other group introduced themselves as members of the Church of the Flame, the other fighting group defending the town. Barukus, the leader, who they had seen just earlier that day in Notting Hill casting a frightening fireball in the sky, thanked everyone for their help, then told Odds he might request help for a job.

Ravina and Jay retreated to the tavern in Bumblebrook, where they were recognized by some locals and given free drinks.

Odds and Petalfoot went to the local church where they found most of the townsfolk and met Father Skybeak. Hazel was reunited with her son.

Jay, wandered to the cemetery and found an abandoned altar. It was for Konika, the trickster god. The alter was empty, a sad thing as the tradition was to take an item and leave an item in its place. Jay restarted the swap-chain by leaving a gold coin. He felt a shiver as Konica looked back and gifted him with a blessing.

Bean took a quick rest, then went and claimed a large abandoned cart. He turned himself into a cart horse pulled the rest of the group towards the Reed Farm.

Reed Farm

It was just after dawn when the group arrived at the small settlement of the Reed estate. Ravina quickly disguised herself as Madam Ravi and disguised Pete as a Wombat. Jay allowed Odds to sneak a look at Mayor Radish’s letter to his brother Turnip, and they found that The Ex-Mayor’s goals aligned with Father Tucker’s.

Bean, exhausted, reverted shape and curled up in the cart and fell asleep. For the Bean’s safety, and for discretion, Pete was left to guard the unconscious Racoon.

Everyone else went to the manor house and met Sir Turnip, whom they presented with a letter from Mayor Radish. They also passed along Father Tucker’s request that the Reed family continue feeding NottingHill.

Turnip heard them out, then invited the group for breakfast at the large farm table. They weren’t there long before Sir Hiss arrived with his own offer (heavily sprinkled with threats). Sir Hiss failed to completely see through Ravina’s disguise, though he appeared to see that something was off with her. He let her give him a card reading, though. He didn’t catch that she stacked the deck.

Before he left, Odds talked to the guards Sir Hiss brought, Beansie and Logs, both of whom were from Riverdale. He asked about survivors and shared experiences.

After Sir Hiss left, Ravina revealed her identity to plead against helping Sir Hiss and the cultists – which might have worked better if Turnip had recognized the legendary Fox champion. Odds joined in the discussion, Sussing out more about the deer brothers commitment to the people of NottingHill. He got Turnip to finally agree to take in up to 3 families of refugees, but only if his brother vetted them first.

Turnip then invited the party to stay for a while to rest up. They stocked up on supplies. Jay even used some of his reward money (earned for delivering the letter) to buy additional gear and an Ox.

Jay spent his time talking Turnip into giving him an enchanted dog collar which summoned a spirit dog. He and Petalfoot then spent the afternoon playing with the huge ghost-wolf.

Ravina and Pete spent time chatting with the farm families and spreading tales of their exploits.

Bean got help harvesting herbs and processing them to make a few healing potions.

Odds discovered a fellow bee-fan in Turnip and they spent hours with the family hives on the huge farm.

When they finally left, Turnip gave them a new suit for His brother to wear. The group had mentioned how sad a dejected the Ex-Mayor had looked.

Stuff they got:

• Orchard cuttings
• 6 Adventurer kits (one per person, plus a spare)
• dried fruits for food or seed stock
• potato starts
• 3 bags of different grains for food or seed stock
• herbs
• 3 healing potions (made by Bean)
• 1 Ox (now named Burger)
• Bee House schematics

Cults & Counteroffers

They were a mile away from the farm, when they saw a cast crowd on the horizon – the church of the flame and the refugees they’d gathered. Odds felt a nudge on his mind. Barukus wanted to speak with him to offer the party a job. Reluctantly, Odds agreed to listen. They listened, but neither accepted nor declined.

The job:

• Meet 2 weeks from now
• Join a big battle against rats, led by The Church of the Flame, but many other fighters had been invited.
• Cherla and the Fleet Feet have already agreed to join this fight
• 1,500 gold per group or 25 gold per rat tail.

Pushy Bastard

After the job offer, Barukus headed towards Turnip’s farm. Eager to return to base and trusting in Turnip’s ability to stand his ground, the party continued on their path home. Until Petalfoot spoke up, that is.

She was concerned about leaving Turnip alone with a pushy, possibly dangerous, magic user. The party listened, and Ravina snuck back (with Pete following to provide distraction). Ravina found a way under Turnip’s porch where she eavesdropped and Barukus’ conversation with the farmer. To her surprise and disgust, she caught Barukus casting Suggestion to get his way. She waited until he was gone, then made a tough decision and confronted Turnip to try to shake him out of the mind magic. He was uncomfortable he was spied on, but grateful for the heads-up. Turnip still supplied the cart of food to The Church of the Flame despite being informed that Barukus had used magic to influence him.

Meanwhile, Jay got his hands on one of Barukus’ shed feathers.

When Ravina returned, she told the others what happened. Odds let Petalfoot know how proud he was of her for calling out their negligence in trusting that sly priest.

Would they join the battle in 2 weeks or not? There was a big decision laying ahead.

Notes

There are plans to start a rumor campaign against the sheriff – about how he’s abusing Lady Blackberry’s power and how he’s kept her out of the public. Rumors could be started using Father Tucker, the Real McKaw, and Ravina’s contacts.

It was brought up that it would be dangerous for Lady Blackberry to take over until her name is cleared (or at least until the sheriff’s name is muddied more than hers).

Ravina’s Hero Tally:

	# of Heroic Acts	# of Stuff > People Acts	# of strangers who recognized her
This Episode	3	0	4
Running Total	7	5	5