The Rabbit’s Inn
Duskmeadow Fringe - May 7
Drake's accounts
Drake, Razvan and Yarrow travel to the Rabbit Inn while making a quick detour atop a hill to spy the lands to the north, seeing a savannah and even desert sands. A pack of pumas drinking from the stream follow them and lead them around the area south-wise, seemingly protecting the area.
At the Inn, the Innkeep, Ernest, says something big burrowed through the ground and killed many of the rabbits. He served strong liquor which Razvan and Drake drank from and got much dizzier than normal. Yarrow did not drink and interrogated Ernest about the drink. He gave seemingly normal answers and the three retired for the night with Yarrow checking on Drake who got suspicious after Yarrow asked if he feels drugged. He set a grappling hook behind the door so it makes noise should the door open and keeps his crossbow near him and then goes to sleep.
In the night, Ernest sneaks into Razvan’s room and as she wakes up he hypnotises her with his crimson eyes and she turns into a rabbit. She manages to yelp out before she turns completely though, and wakes up Yarrow, who rushes to her aid, and Drake who joins Yarrow outside the room to find Yarrow with the head of a rabbit, having looked at the creature disguised as Ernest and ducked out of the room just in time to stop turning.
Drake bangs on the door and yells for Razvan who cannot reply in her rabbit form, spooking the creature which escapes out the window. With no reply, Drake opens the door and sees it empty. Yarrow has written a message on the wall in the meantime with chalk to tell Drake that the thing has turned Razvan into a rabbit with its gaze. The wife comes up the stairs and held at spearpoint by Yarrow as she remarks that Razvan looks “wonderful” as a rabbit when questioned by Drake about what she and her husband are doing in this Inn. Drake shoots her dead with a crossbow bolt to the neck, too suspicious to let her live.
Drake and Yarrow leave Razvan in Drake’s room and search for the daughters, who they find in a room, confused and scared. Oswin arrives at the Inn, late to meet the other three, and knocks on the locked door, which Drake goes to open while Yarrow stays with the daughters.
Drake explains the situation and him and Oswin go outside to hunt Ernest. They find tracks under Razvan’s room’s window leading to the barn and tell Yarrow, then silently enter the barn and ambush Ernest as he is eating a person-turned-rabbit. After a quick melee in which Drake gets injured, a fatal blow to the creature’s bark-like body is enough to disable it, and Drake finishes it as it slumps down against the barn wall. With the creature’s death, the spell is undone and Razvan and the rabbits in the cages in the barn all turn back to normal, as well as Yarrow whose head turns back to normal. The daughters grow older by a decade at the same time, and as it turns out were under the creatures’ spell (as well as their mother, who Drake killed) and were being held hostage by it.
After freeing and feeding the people from the cages, they recognise Hilde’s parents among them and offer them to run the Inn since Hendenburgh is a ghost town. They agree with the group from Sigisfarne that they are welcome to have free room and board whenever they visit and agree to run the Inn with the daughters who were running it before the creature came into their lives.
People
Locations
Chapters
Travel with Pumas
Drake, Razzy and Yarrow leave Sigisfarne and travel north towards the Rabbit’s Inn. Oswin would come too, but he is delayed. The day is bright and inviting for adventuring. As they travel, Razzie feels happy about hitting the road again.
Yarrow tells the story of his arrest warrant: In the town in the south, she won a competition of corpse flowers. But because he learned special methods from wood creatures, her flowers were different. And they ate a lord.
Half a day later, the group is chased by Pumas. The animals never attack, but the journey is made much longer.
Eating and drinking
The group arrives at the Inn late. Martha and Earnest receive them well, especially when they learn the group is here to help with their rabbits being eaten by some burrowing creature. The group is served plenty of rabbit stew.
Earnest sits with them and offers drinks before bed. Yarrow is suspicious and does not drink. Neither does Earnest. The others do, and become very dizzy.
Ambush
At night, a creature made of bark, in Earnest’s body, comes to Razzie’s bedroom. His bright red eyes start to turn her into a rabbit: “Look deep in my mind!” With her scream, Yarrow wakes up first and comes to her room. She attacks the creature, but she retreats when she feels her body changing into a rabbit.
Drake wakes up and comes to join the fight. He sees Yarrow, with the head of a rabbit. Razzie’s room is empty, beyond a small bunny. The creature left through the window.
Martha meets the group in the hall. Unable to explain what is happening, Drake shoots her down. When her body falls, she is much older.
The group goes and checks for the daughters. They are found in their bedroom and are scared of the weapons. Finally, Oswin catches up with the group and arrives late at night at the Inn.
Prisoners
Drake and Oswin track the creature to the barn. Drake shoots it and, after a skirmish, can kill it.
The daughters return to their original form; they are now grown-up women. The rabbits in the barn are human prisoners. An old couple are Hilda’s parents.
The group helps the survivors in recovery. Hilda’s parents and the two daughters will now take care of the Inn.