Molemen Pit
Duskmeadow Fringe - March 10
Cai's accounts
Razzy: humble, used to be cowardly, she is filthy - half witch. Forages medicinal herbs and making potions. She’s been on a couple of adventures. 44
Hilda: 18 years old - her parents disappeared under sus circumstances. She is convinced her brother is alive though, and wears a necklace with him. She loves mushrooms. She loves the dark. She is aggressive towards people.
Matheus: No memory - beast hunter.
Sinkhole opened up in the fields. Looks like caverns with “things” roaming in the dark.
Weather is cloudy but warm in the morning. We set off. Start moving west and explore the fields.
Fields are barley, wheat.. They are divided by very short stone walls, simple structure, not meant to stop people, just divide the land. The fields open up in front of us, we can see from above. You think that you see some movement!
Sigisfarne has been very unlucky in recent years. Attacked by bandits, travelers to and from there. Rising tensions and mistrust,, daily life getting more difficult and the community got split in factions, blaming each other.
We saw a bandit. We went away from him.
Arrive at destination in the afternoon.
Weather update: Wind picks up. There is pollen in the forest on the W-SW.
In the middle of a field we see a sinkhole, fallen ground 8-10 feet (2-3 meters). Looks like a cave.
We all went down, but only Razzy made it gracefully. Hilda and Matheus lost an item each and Cai just screamed in the dark, but nothing happened.
It’s claustrophobic here. The tallest has to crouch a little. At times we have to squeeze through. The walls are smooth earth, a bit humid, and soft. The kind of earth you expect under farmland.
There is a sweet smell in the cavern on the right, and a commotion on the left. We follow our noses. Further down the caves, we hear a noise coming from the left, we stay to investigate, when we hear scuttling, like many legs/steps. There’s no footsteps on the ground, but the floor is heavily used. There are no precise digging marks that dug the tunnel, looks like an animal made it. Where the sound comes from, we see 2 shapes approach us very quickly (with eyes).
Mattheus backtracks and tried to go where we came from. 3 (bigger than dog) humanoids are blocking the way. Look like rodents, their mouths. They are dressed peculiarly, they wear armor that looks like its made of beetle shells and they are armed with spears at the end of which are big scorpion pincers. They’ve been tied around these sticks.
The other 2 look like beetles and have antlers on their head and their abdomen glows orange.
The rodents say “do exactly as you are told, don’t fight us”.
Cai says “what the fuck are you?!?”
We give the orders and you follow them. You can consider yourselves lucky..
They open up their way and tell us to proceed North. More are coming from the South. They don’t say anything. Cai realises they are way out of their element and they should follow those weird creatures. But Matheus is too scared and tried to throw his net on one, which backfires. He is attacked by the 3 humanoids. Hilda is attacked from the back from the 2 creatures - one explodes and one charges him. He gets very injured, but eventually kills it. Matheus throws his net on one of them and escapes. Cai passes the torch to Razzy and draws her bow, but misses. She tries to “save it” by saying “Stay back or next time I’ll get you!”. Razzy got braver, took her iron dagger out and stabbed one at the top of his helmet, and went berserk on him, killing him!
Several yell “Alarm! Alarm!” in a different language.
The ones in the back attack Hilda, but she survives despite all odds! Cai is charged by one, but her armor protects her.
Razzy is running back to stab the guy that’s attacking Cai. With a super violent hit, it’s messy as hell. She grabbed the back of his head, by the antler of the helmet, and twists it so that the back of the neck, is exposed. The sides of her vision blur, full of adrenaline. She plunged the dagger repeatedly, and violently ripped his flesh out, blood spilling everywhere. It is horrific! She is then ganged up by the 3 rodents. She is hit and is deprived.
More rodents come and Mateus leaves his torch on the ground and says “run you fools” and goes back. Everybody follows and Razzy drops her dagger and casts a spell. A thicket of trees and dense brush up to 50 feet wide certainly sprouts up….
The enemies get entangled in the vines,, they yell out as their home is getting wrecked by vines and there is serious damage in their infrastructure. Now we hear voices of pain, desperation and fear from the ones.
We take the creature to the council and they are superstitious about them - think it’s a bad omen to keep them around - we should set it free, away, in the farms somewhere. Some of them think they should tell the King, others are terrified and creeped out and offer no opinion.
Matheus has a letter addressed to the Lord of the Winter. He asks them if they know him. They say yes, he is at his castle, North East.
When the rodent wakes up, he is terrified and feels helpless. We tell him that the crops are dying and that’s why we went there. The creature says that this is because you have taken too much land past what you need and what you justified taking. We are doing what we must to bring balance. We were trying to discourage you from expanding. We are exporters, and we expanded indeed in the forest, so this makes sense to us, it’s justified.
We asked whether they were there way before us.
Their fathers knew the people that built the magnificent buildings, upon the ruins of what we built - like the church.
When the dark moon comes, the vendetta will begin and all you can do is pray. He clearly indicates that they want to ruin our homes. But Matheus realises that there might be something we could do about it.
When asked how old are you, he spits at you (to Matheus).
Hilda's accounts
Sigisfarne, a village of agriculture and not much more, has had multiple crop failures as of late. One of the farmers claims he was walking along his fields recently when the ground gave way into a dug out cavern underneath that he had to climb out of. He heard skittering sounds flee from him as he retreated to his home and will burn the hole if no other solution is found. Four villagers are looking for adventure & investigate the mystery, Matheus (37 years old, canine handler, walks with the animals, wild, fearless & in control, statuesque, tolerant, vengeful), Cai (43 years old, archer, musician, athletic, tanned skin, curly hair, perfect face, livery clothing, gregarious, rude), Razzy (half-witch, humble, craven, athletic, rosy skin, curly hair, fae background & helps people in a way they don’t understand) & Hilda (18 years old, mushroom forager, an affinity with darkness & follows the whisperings of the deep earth, scrawny physique, marked skin, braided hair, whispery speech, bloody clothing (from hunting animals)). They investigate a sink hole that has appeared in a farmer’s field to the west of the village of Sigisfarne. The set off across fields in warm, cloudy weather with stone walls with fields opening up below them (shadows from the clouds shine on the growing wheat). They see movement but not sure if it is just cloud shadows. Matheus leaves the group to investigate & thinks he sees face wearing a mask with a cloth dress that looks like a bandit but the man ducked into cover going south. The adventurers continue & try to avoid the bandit. In mid afternoon, the explorers arrive at the sinkhole following the directions the farmer had given them & the wind has picked up, shaking the wheat & blowing pollen from the trees to the south & south west. In the middle of the field, there is a sinkhole - the ground opened up & falls down 8 to 10 feet into cavern with sunlight hitting the hole (the cavern is bigger than the hole). Hilda tries to slide down into the earthen slope but the soil is too loose & she tries to brace herself but slips & falls & breaks the candle on her helmet & can no longer use it. Cai & Razzy try to lower Matheus down on a rope but he goes down too fast, slips & falls & his wolfsbane falls out of his pocket & is lost. Cai tries a slow & careful decent & Matheus tries to catch her but she also slips & screams loudly before quickly apologising. Razzy asks the others to catch her before her attempts to go down the steep, slippery slope & Matheus catches her in his strong arms. The adventurers are in a claustrophobic tunnel & Cai lights her torch & Hilda takes her glowsnail & heads off down the smooth earth, wet tunnel. They come to a crossroads, to the left there is a sweet smell & to the right there is movement / commotion. Hilda peaks around the corner to the right to see if she can see anything but the tunnel is dark. They go to the left instead. They come to another crossroads: to the right there is a sweet aroma with notice the walls of the tunnels have been formed naturally without tools (like an ant’s tunnel). To left there is some noise, which Hilda carefully listens to & she hears the scuttling of many feet & two dim flame orange lights (not torches) appear & two dog-sized, aggressive stag beetle creatures with antlers with abdomen’s glowing orange approach her quickly. Matheus tries to flee but gets intercepted by 3 short (third size of humans) with mole-like face with snouts & sharp teeth, beetle shell armour, beetle helmets & point their insect pincer spears at Matheus who exclaims “what in the ant eating hell is this?” & steps back defending the party with his shield; the creatures say “I wouldn’t advise taking arms against us! I suggest you do exactly as I say if you want to leave here alive!”. Razzy thanks Matheus for protecting her (he mutters, “I am just protecting myself!”). Cai exclaims “what the f..k are you?” & they reply “we will give the orders & you will follow us & do as I say.” Matheus asks if the stag like creatures are theirs & they reply “everything here is ours”. Three more The party realise that we are out of our element. Matheus tries to escape & attempts to throw a net over one of the mole creatures but he says “Stop - cease right now!” but three mole-man stab at him spears & he takes a flesh wound in the shoulder from one of them. The stag-beetle creatures glow more strongly in a molten light & starts to hiss & squeal as in pain & it blows up in Hilda’s face & she takes burning damage but shakes it off. The second stag beetle tries to gore Hilda eyes out but she deflects the pincers but takes a slash along her arm. Matheus again tries to throw his net over the nearest mole-man & easily throws it over him & tangles him up in it then Matheus flees towards the exit. Meanwhile, Cai passes her torch to Razzy & pulls out her bow & arrow tries to fire an arrow past Razzy to hit a mole-man but misses her target & she exclaims “stay back or next time I will get you!” Hilda grabs her sharpened trowel & stabs the stag-beetle creature into its molten abdomen. It falls to the ground hissing & it tries to fly at Hilda but it falls on her trowel blade; Hilda flicks the stag beetle creature at the 3 pursuing mole-men. Razzy draws her iron dagger apprehensively & shuffles forward to stab a mole-man straight threw the top of his beetle helmet. The remaining mole-men shout “alarm, alarm!”. The netted mole-man struggles fruitlessly to free himself as Razzy runs past him towards the exit. A mole-man charges towards Cai but she easily deflects the attack. Hilda gets mobbed by 3 mole-men, she takes damage but she throws them off. cai & Hilda hear the stamping of feet coming towards them. Razzy sneaks towards the mole-man & grabs the antler on his helmet & forces his head down to expose it’s neck & she can smell its dank skin & Razzy vision goes blurry, she sees red & stabs him multiple times in the neck. Matheus moves back to the netted mole-man & stabs him with a dart causing him to instantly lose consciousness. Mathues screams for everyone to run. Cai is covered in blood from Razzy’s kill & exxclaims “Holy s..t, Razzy! I didn’t know you had it in you!” Hilda flees past Cai & Razzy & she grabs the netted mole-man & puts him over her shoulder. Cai raises her bow & fires at the pursuing mole-men & grazes one of their shoulders. The three mole-men mob Razzy & she is walloped, she is sent flying landing flat on her face. The adventurers shout “Get the intruders!”. Matheus drops his torch & shouts “Run, you fools!” & flees down the tunnel. Hilda runs with the unconscious mole-man over her shoulder. Cai follows & shouts “what are you doing, Hilda!” & starts pushing her down the tunnel. Razzy drops her dagger & starts to run down the tunnel, she then turns & stands facing towards the mole-men & pulls out her spell book & starts chanting. Suddenly a thicket of dense brush sprouts from the walls & floor encapsulating the mole-men & causing the tunnels to collapse. The mole-men shout in voices of pain, desperation & pain for the ones stuck in the vegetation. Matheus ties the netted mole-men to the shield & gently drags him back to Sigisfarne. The adventurers take the mole-man to the village council who are horrified & tell them to cast it out of the village due to their superstitious nature, they think it is a bad omen. One council man says the king should be notified & says that soldiers should be dispatched to deal with it. A couple of the councilmen are confused & stay silent. Matheus asks the councilman about the Lord of Winter (Matheus has a letter from the past that he got from a dying hunter who told him to deliver the letter but Matheus had amnesia & does not remember). The councilman replies that Matheus that the Lord of Winter lives in the north east & that he should deliver it. The mole-man eventually wakes up & is terrified & fears for its life. The adventurers explain what is happening to the crops & that the mole-men seems to be harming them. The mole-man looks with steely eyes that man has taken too much of the forest & encroached onto the land. The villagers had chopped down trees to grow crops. The mole-men wanted to push man back & sabotage the crops. The mole-man smiles & he says “Our forefathers built the buildings that you have now built your village on top of. Soon the dark moon will come and then the vendetta will begin & then all you can do is pray!” Matheus asks if how old he is & the mole-man spits at him. Matheus ask what he will do if we let him go & he replies that he will join back with his mole-men & they will come & destroy the village imlying that we are completely helpless. The mole-men is reveling in what he is saying but he is holding something back. The adventurers tie the mole-men up whilst the decide what to do.
People
Locations
Folklore
Chapters
The fields
The fields of Sigisfarne were dying. The farmer spoke of the ground that swallowed. He heard skittering sounds flee from him as he retreated. Four villagers answered: Mateus, Cai, Razzy and Hilda.
The fields are barley and wheat. They are divided by very short stone walls, simple structures meant not to stop people but to divide the land.
Matheus wandered off and claimed to see a masked face. Bandits in the Fringe, he said.
A pit in a farm
Sinkhole, eight feet deep. Cai screamed as she went down. Razzy floated like a faerie.
Inside, the tunnels had smooth walls shaped by animals. They smelled of sweetness and rot together.
Some humanoids find the group. Beetle-stags with glowing bellies and mole-men with beetle armour and pincer spears. “Everything here is ours,” they said. “I wouldn’t advise taking arms against us! I suggest you do exactly as I say if you want to leave here alive!”.
A fight ensues. Razzy was unexpectedly violent. The molemen sound the alarm, and the party is overwhelmed and starts to flee. Razzy releases a spell that creates a thicket out of barren stone.
Why?
Hilda takes one of the unconscious creatures as a prisoner. The councilmen spoke of omens. The creature explained that the balance had been disrupted, and the village farms had taken too much forest. They were here before us, and their fathers knew the people who created the ancient structures.
The creature revealed that they had brought a vendetta upon their heads, which would haunt them no matter where they went. “When the dark moon comes, the vendetta will begin, and all you can do is pray.”
Downtime
After agreeing to release the creature, vowing never to attack their people again, and abandoning the western farmland to nature, the creature revealed how to undo the vendetta. They have to win the favour of a faerie monarch, who will intervene on their behalf and put an end to the vendetta.