# Session Start >*Shhhh SH shhh.  It's the dry sound of magpie square shusshing beneath anxious shifting feet that only now meets your ears... only now as Bimbap and Jonah proceed beyond earshot toward the cornfield in the distance.* > >*Bimbap and Jonah pause, and the crowded stalks begin to rustle in unison, their husky ears shaking together like horrible heavy fingers on a lanky hand shaking itself awake.* > >*As the chorus of squeaky husks builds, you're unsettled by a foreign and primal sense assuring you that this disturbing song is not just corn quivering in the wind.*   > >*You're sure you hear a voice from within the choir of maize, but just as it's words begin to resolve in your mind, the field settles, once again leaving silence to permeate through the square.*   > >*When Jonah finally turns his back to the corn to face Bimbap, his face is filled with resign and horror when his voice pierces the silence: "I think we're gonna need a bigger rope..."* # Session Summary - Session begins with the party standing before the field, and jonah explains that he thinks he needs to take some time to think this over after seeing what he has seen in there. Bimbap agrees with this, and they go back to the square and explain what they heard in the field. - They immediately take the ribbon off of the neck of Isaac, and his head falls off like a watermelon rolling off the end of a picknick table. Martha nearly notices, but she ultimately does not. - They try and fail to recover the book that jonah used to learn the spell from - The party recovers a number of things from the green queen - Ember - 40gp - Louis - a gemstone in his inv already - We learn about the new potion brewing system, and the party finds a bunch of Reagent Points - Bimbap crafts a potion - There's more banging between Martha and Cleatus - The party long rests, and when they wake up they find that there has been an altercation between the lurker and William Lodge, who is now missing from the Green Queen Inn. - Martha freaks out when she finds ember sleeping under the bed. - They tell Martha that Isaac was taken into the corn, she gets upset about this - When Martha learns that they are going to go into the corn after Isaac, she gives them the shotgun, and Louis convinces her to hand over the locket. - Ember sneaks some leach juice into martha's tea, and she seems to settle down to some extent. - They check out the library, and find the song "Virgil's Birdcage" - booker plays it and its sick - They then go to the General Store, and find the SECOND banjo, this one is a six string and it just appears to be a normal banjo. - They finally make their way over to the fields with Jonah, and they all tell their secrets and go in there. - They learn that they have 3 hours total in there before they are going to turn into scarecrows forever. - They come to a clearing in the corn where it is raining blood, and they find what appears to be martha and william lodge.. nobody but jonah realizes this, but he lets them know and they quickly dispatch the doppelgangers. - They proceed to the next junction where they find a massive murder of crows (both crow swarm roll) - Bimbap stabs the final one to death he twirls and stabs down on this thing - Cletus huk tuas on this thing and casts another glare at louis, then plunges the dagger down on the chest of this thing as if nothing happens without missing a beat he says to louis, I would bear any secret to you! he's upset! # The Secrets ### Bimbap >When he was being constructed he was on this binding table and saw a room full of metal cages and lab equipment. he started examining these things, levers and pulleys.. pulled one of the pulleys and burned all these creatures alive that were in there the master thought it was a simple mistake but he didnt say anything - ### Louis >**REDACTED** ### Seraphine >When her mother was at the end of her years she was shitting the bedf and all of this shit -- she asked for osmething to take her suffering away and something answered - it said that it would take her mothners pain away = and she could smell wet and dead and her shadow grew horns = and that her mother was some sort of a sacrifice and its possible that her mother new about this and the horned king situation was her mothers intention - shes not sure if this thing is actually the horned king or if it is something else! ### Cletus >Lend not an ear but all of them.. when i was but i pup... me and my brothers and sister... there were 6 and 20, piled together at the bottom of the pit - their tails all bound up in there and he just remembers his fathers voice - the fastest way to herd cattle is the slow way, and just as someone herds cattlte, he made his way out of that pit - biting his way out of the other rats - my salvation was also my sustenance - he consumed them one by one over days or weeks - but when he was strong enough - he made his way out of there and he would tell his father that there can be a winner in a knife fight, and he would make no promises to that dying - fastest way to herd cattle is slowly ### Ember >What I told you all about the night I survived the vampire attack and gained my powers wasn’t exactly true…. That night in the woods, I wasn’t alone. Perhaps I should start at the beginning…   > >You see, as a Gnarlborn, it is impressed upon us at a young age that our bloodline must remain pure, our rootline unbroken. To love beyond the tree is to invite destruction. I, being inherently defiant, managed to fall in love with a much… harrier creature than those of the trees. I will not speak his name. Only that It started with an L… and ended in my undoing. I met L foraging under a full moon. The moon was full, and I could see well enough that I didn’t even have a lantern. I was crouched low in a hole in the earth where a tree had ripped out, when I saw him. He was…. well, it turns out he was more than one thing. I saw him transform, from man to beast. When our eyes met, I thought this was certainly where I’d meet my death. But I was wrong.   > >Anyways, by the time I met the vampire, I had been sneaking out under the cover of darkness for many, many moons to meet my love. This particular moon was full, so I knew I’d be meeting his beastly form. When I arrived at the willow, I found L chained with silver and vines of wolfsbane. His skin was burning and he was howling in pain. It was then that I felt the fangs plunge into my neck. Now… I know I told you that it was a cold night, and the sap in my blood froze as the vampire was drinking, causing him to fly off in horror and pain. But that’s not exactly how it happened. The vampire drained me nearly dry. I was seeing stars at the edges of my vision. Right before I passed out, he said “there is another way this can end you know”. He told me that because the moon was full, and my blood carried sap, I was in a unique position to gain an insurmountable level of power, if only I were willing to perform the ritual. I was too weak to speak or ask more questions. The vampire said “I’ll show you,” he bit his own wrist and dripped a few drops of blood into my mouth. I saw EVERYTHING. I saw myself at the peak of a mountain in a different wilderness, cutting my own wrist and summoning the power of 1000 suns. It felt better than anything I had ever experienced. Better than sex with a werewolf. Better than love. The vampire told me that power such as this was not merely given. There must be a sacrifice. A ritual. The old ways must be satisfied. He told me I had to drain the body of my beastly love dry. I must drink every last drop of his blood, while looking him in the eyes. There could be nothing left. And so I did. The vampire made the first puncture wound in his artery. Then I drank it. All of it. While looking him in the eyes. As I drank him I could feel all of his sorrow, betrayal, and loss. It took what felt like forever. With my hands on his chest, I could feel as his heartbeat slowed. I watched the life flickering in and out of his eyes, the vampire told me there was one more step. I had to eat the heart of my love. I could feel I had already gained an immense power this far. As I looked at my hands my nails grew into sharp, knife like talons. I placed my hands back on his chest, and I ripped at this skin until I reached his barely beating heart. I ripped it out of his chest, and with one final howl, he was gone. I cried as I ate his heart. But I must admit, I also laughed, drunk off the power I had acquired. I was a blood sorceress now. There would be no place for regret, or shame.   > >I wish I could say I maintained that fearless, shameless confidence, but I did not. The next morning I carried both - power and sorrow, tangled together with a tidal wave of regret. I thought if he still lived anywhere, it would be in the blood I had consumed. I had a flicker of an idea. I went to a swamp I knew was infested with leeches, and I laid in it for 10 entire days and nights. My new powers allowed me to convene with the leeches. I instructed them to take the blood of my love. To hold it. To become it. And so they did. I collected 100 leeches full of L’s blood. I keep them with me in this chalice to this day. When the moon is full…. I can feel him. Not as he was. Not as anything whole. But as something that remembers being betrayed. If you’re wondering if he’s forgiven me after all this time…. The answer is no. He hasn’t. But in many ways he is still with me. And I think that might be worse.