HighRollers: Lightfall/Episode 4

Campaign Summary
As Elora and Trellimar reach the centre of town they can see a group of people gathered around the well. One of the men has his head in his hands sobbing uncontrollably, as others stand around dumbfounded at the situation. In the middle of the group they see Cam seething with rage. He is hurling abuse and insults at the bystanders, spitting on the ground, and taking kicks at a nearby wagon. Noticing Elora and Trellimar he threatens to punch Elora, as one of the bystanders informs them that he has been behaving in a terrible manner, pointing out that Cam said horrible things about Bill's mother, which is why he is sobbing.

Elora can sense there is something off about Cam's body language, so she suspects something may be controlling him. As Cam goes for Bill again Elora tries to put herself in Cam's way to stop him, but as she does he dodges swiftly around her and splashes water from the well in her face. Cam then grabs Bill by the scruff of his neck and marches him to the well. Elora questions Cam asking who he really is, as Trellimar whacks him in the face. Cam shouts more insults at Trellimar, which weirdly seem to hurt him a lot more than they normally would have, as if Cam is using some kind of magic to give more meaning and harshness to his insults. Trellimar then tries to dunk Cam's head in the water to snap him out of his rage, but as he grabs Cam he notice his hands go through his clothing and he can feel he is holding onto his arms instead. Trellimar says this thing is only pretending to be Cam. One of the guards says they were called by Finny because Cam was causing a raucous in the tavern and asks Trellimar to knock him out, so Trellimar blasts him with a bolt of energy. The bolt strikes Cam in the chest, breaking his form, and in his place they now see a half elven woman in her late 20s. Her eyes roll back in her head as she falls unconscious from the blast. Elora runs up and quickly ties the woman up. The guards are incredibly confused and cannot grasp how Cam has just been transformed. Elora has them take the woman to the marshal's office, also telling them to send Jiǔtóu to meet them in town.

Just after they leave the real Cam emerges from a side street, totally unaware of what has just happened. He had been visiting the reev's wife, who he had taken a fancy to so they went for a meal together. She expressed an interest in Cam since he is a cleric and she wants to become a priestess. However he became bored with the conversation and left. Elora marches up really close to Cam and flicks her wet hair right in his face, much to Cam's surprise. She asks him where he's been but he only replies saying it was a dull story. Elora fills him in on the event he has just missed, that someone disguised as him was just thrashing the tavern and then burst out onto the street annoying and insulting the townspeople.

Meanwhile, the guards reach the marshal's office and tell Jiǔtóu about what has just happened in town with the woman they are holding, and that the others have requested her presence. Jiǔtóu was meditating as they enter and looks dis-pleasingly at them for interrupting her as they put the woman in a cell. As Jiǔtóu reprimands them for their actions, Viksanis, seeing all that is going on, says to the guards she bets they wish they were only dealing with her now. The guards are now left feeling quite awkward and afraid being caught between Viksanis and Jiǔtóu. This is very new to them since they are only farmer's sons who have limited experience and are not well travelled, so they leave. Jiǔtóu has rested and healed herself while she waited in the office. She goes to this woman's cell who was just brought in and takes a look at her, before moving to the window. Looking out she can see a red blood moon rising. She sighs and heads for town.

Back with the others the only concern Cam seems to have is if this doppelgänger was good looking, which annoys Trellimar so he hits him. Finny comes out from the bar and seeing the real Cam starts on him for the damage he has caused to his tavern. Trellimar fills Finny in that this Cam wasn't the one responsible, but rather the woman who has now been locked up. They head back into bar, where the blacksmith Dana is leaning against a wall. She looks at Cam with a smirk as they walk in. Finny gives Cam a drink of brandy, but before handing it to him requests 1 gold as payment, looking around at the damage. Cam asks once again if the doppelgänger looked good, to which Finny replies he looked exactly like him. Cam pays the gold for the drink, but Elora and Trellimar decline Finny's offer of a drink for their efforts. Elora sits back in a booth and takes a rest.

Cam asks Finny what date it is, to which Finny informs him it is the last moon of spring. Cam gives him coin for good luck. Jiǔtóu arrives at the tavern and walks in, met with hollers from Cam, but she ignores him as always. Looking around she can see Elora resting and Trellimar carefully watching Cam, she nods knowingly at him. Jiǔtóu goes over to Finny and asks for some rice wine. Finny checks in the back and returns with a traditional tiefling rice wine, which he claims is a very famous delicacy in Talis'Val and as such would need to ask some money for it. Jiǔtóu obliges and hands him 2 gold coins but he awkwardly and apologetically asks for 5 gold. However Jiǔtóu knows the tiefling he speaks of and therefore she knows the wine is not worth what he is asking, but she offers him 4 coins.

Jiǔtóu then asks Finny if she can use the kitchen, he obliges, saying it is well stocked. Cam peers around the door to see what Jiǔtóu is up to. He purposefully scrapes his barstool on the floor to annoy Trellimar, and calls over to him asking about why Elora is in a state of trance. He then goes over to Elora and starts prodding her forehead, starting softly but pokes harder when she doesn't react. Suddenly her hand subconsciously snaps him away, so Cam goes into kitchen. Jiǔtóu ignores his presence and continues making a simple meal from the rations she gathered earlier. To one side she has cleared a space and set up a sketch with a dish of rice wine placed in front, and some incense. Cam recognises this as something significant enough to not interfere with. Jiǔtóu is more solemn than usual as she works and not her usual angry self, so Cam risks slipping up beside her and quietly gives her a coin. As he goes, Jiǔtóu speaks softly to him, telling him to stay in the safety of the tavern and not go far. Cam goes back to Trellimar again, seemingly just doing rounds of finding someone to irritate, but Trellimar pretends to be in a trance like Elora so he will leave him alone. Finny asks Cam why he thinks someone would want to impersonate him. Cam offers to touch Finny to heal him but Finny doesn't fancy having Cam touch him, saying he'd prefer if it was the elf, referring to Elora, but Cam jokes that he is referring to Trellimar. Finny replies he would even prefer Trellimar over Cam. Finny asks Cam where he will be staying the night. Cam replies that he wil have to sleep outside, but looks at Finny with the most woeful look he can manage so he will let him stay in the tavern the night even though he has no money. Finny says he can sleep in bar. Cam starts to prod Trellimar, but he is fed up with Cam annoying everyone so he grabs him and tosses him aside.

A short time later Jiǔtóu emerges from the kitchen with 5 dishes of food, the first of which she passes to Finnym who's now mending some of the broken furniture in his tavern. Jiǔtóu next comes to Elora but seeing she is resting just leaves a dish for her when she wakes up. She also leaves one in front of Trellimar since he is still pretending to be resting. Finally she gives a plate to Cam, then she goes to a booth on her own with her plate, pours some wine, and eats quietly. Cam is not sure about this food since it is strange to him and not what he's used to, but he thanks Jiǔtóu, and she gives him some wine. He asks her if the food poisoned since he fears his antics in the group would lead her to try, but when she glares at him he knocks back the wine appreciatively. He then asks her why she cooked for them, to which she responds that Cam should know. He says he didn't know she celebrated the Golden Light festival, too, but Jiǔtóu replies that the Golden Light is not the only festival that occurs at this time, and that she is celebrating a tiefling custom that occurs on the first blood moon of the year.

As the night rolls in people come and go from the tavern. The marshal comes in and talks to Finny, gets some food and bottles from him, before heading off again. Dana also enters, laughs at Cam eating his food, and asks Finny for her usual drink, a tankard of local ale. Cam makes sure to note what she was served. Dana sits and drinks. The other locals coming in are still very uneasy seeing the group sitting amongst them. They huddle together and whisper, with some thinking the drow woman is to blame, others think ghosts, and another thinks it is just a trick being played by one of their own townspeople.

About 2 hours pass, until Elora wakes up. As she does Cam immediately starts talking to her, so she walks over to him, puts her food down on the table, and prods him in the forehead in return. Jiǔtóu pours Elora some rice wine, so she sits and eats. Elora and Trellimar don't celebrate this festival Cam and Jiǔtóu are celebrating, but they are vaguely aware of it and understand the sentiment behind it. Cam gives Elora and Trellimar a lucky coin each. It is getting late now and the level of fear is rising in the town as people are leave to go to bed and lock up their houses. Finny also wants to lock up. Cam wants to go talk to the woman who was impersonating him, and but first needs to catch up on everything he missed while he was away. Elora tells him the story about ravens and Jiǔtóu tells him about the bodies they found. She takes out her map to show Cam where all the places they have visited are, and they try to pick out a vantage point.

Trellimar tires of the discussion and so just gets up goes to the old manor by himself. Elora wants to patrol the well at the centre of town, so they will catch anyone leaving. Elora and Jiǔtóu stand facing one gate while Cam watches the other, saying they will call out if any of them see anything suspicious.

As Trellimar approaches the gate to leave the guards question him to ensure he is not possessed or being taken, even though they have no intention of actually stopping him since they are fearful of him. As he leaves he can sense the fields are a lot more aggressive at night, and he has to stick to the paths around fields instead of walking through them. in the quiet of the night the voices in his head are clearer, and he can make out whispers telling him to seek out and find what he has been told to find. When he reaches the manor he finds it in ruin. He spends a few hours looking, but doesn't manage to see anything like trapdoors, so suspects the talk of a vault is probably just stories.

Meanwhile, back in town Cam and Jiǔtóu are getting tired, since it is now after midnight and they haven't yet rested, unlike Elora. However Cam is the first to hear the voice of his childhood friend Mirella, calling him for help. As he glances round he can see the image of Mirella running and beckoning him, so he alerts the others and they run for the gate. Cam doesn't fall for the trick however because he knows this couldn't be the real Mirella. He can also see her form wavering, disappearing and reappearing in different places as she runs. As he calls after her the image suddenly stops and vanishes. not knowing where she went the three head back to the centre of town. As they do they see a young man heading towards the south gate at a jogging pace. As he reaches the gate the guards don't appear to see him at all and don't react so he gets out. Elora, Cam and Jiǔtóu run after him. They shout at the guards saying someone left but none of them saw. The guards get suspicious and try to stop them leaving. They try to catch Cam but he gets away. One of them catches Elora so she transforms into a direwolf. Her transformation breaks the guard's grip on her and they run out the gate.

Trellimar searches the manor for hours, but to no avail. Suddenly he hears shouting from the village so decides to leave and head for the others.

Jiǔtóu, Elora and Cam chase after the man who escaped the village. He built up a good distance between them while they were held up by the guards, but they are much faster and just manage to catch up to him as he runs into a wheat field and they lose sight of him completely. Elora makes use of her wolf form and tracks the man by scent. She quickly locates him and pounces on him, pinning him down. The man desperately tries to get free, constantly saying someone needs his help and begging to be freed. Cam and Jiǔtóu catch up see Elora and the man struggling with each other, she is barely keeping him pinned as they are evenly matched. Cam detects a slight movement out of the corner of his eye, so alerts others to draw their weapons. He also pulls out a dagger and uses it to pin the man's clothes to the ground so he can't get away. Jiǔtóu looks up over wheat and for the first time notices that the scarecrow which had always been standing in the middle of the field is now missing.

Jiǔtóu spins around, using her guandao and her tail to slice down the wheat, since fighting in it would be too awkward if they can't see each other. For a split second they catch glimpse of creature out at the very edge of the wheat Jiǔtóu has just cut down. They can now tell the creature is a scarecrow, with gangly wooden limbs and metal claws, and is made of burlap sacks dressed in farmer's clothes. As they stand over the guy on the floor they notice he is slowly coming to his senses and wondering what is going on around him. Suddenly the scarecrow bursts from the wheat into circle. Elora glances up quick enough to see this and avoid being hit, but it lurches at Cam, and smiles at him with a stitched grin and stitched eyes. Cam can see something glowing in its core. The scarecrow turns and goes for the man, and even though Elora and Jiǔtóu are providing cover, the scarecrow still manages to cut the man badly, tearing his side open with its metal claws. It also makes a swipe at Jiǔtóu but she blocks its attack.

The man on the floor can now sense he is in danger, so he pulls Cam's dagger out of the ground, freeing himself. He holds up the dagger in defence and keeps a close eye on what's going on. Cam shouts at him to not lose his dagger. Elora attacks the scarecrow, biting into its clothes and tearing at straw and burlap, but there seems to be some sort of magic holding it together, so her attack only damages its physical form and doesn't affect the magic controlling it. Cam invokes duplicity, causing a copy of him to shimmer into existence. The copy winks at him and they dart in opposite directions into wheat to get out of sight.

Jiǔtóu lights a torch, and using some of her rice wine, spits fire at the scarecrow. The scarecrow is clearly afraid of the flames and dodges back, after getting slightly singed. Some of the wheat catches fire in the process, which Trellimar is able to see from a distance, indicating the group's location to him. Jiǔtóu can sense the fear take hold of her as the scarecrow opens its mouth, trying paralyse her. However it has little effect and so it strikes at her, but thankfully misses. The man they caught also tries to throw a few attacks at the scarecrow, but doesn't really distract it. Elora leaps onto the scarecrow and uses her paws on his arm to pin him down. Cam and his clone seize the opportunity and burst out from the wheat behind the scarecrow and they slash at it with daggers. Again this is only hurting the scarecrow's physical form, so Cam and his clone retreat into the wheat again. Jiǔtóu swings her guandao through the flaming wheat, flinging it onto the scarecrow, causing it to take some damage from the embers. The man sees his opportunity and tries to stab at it also, but his wounds are hurting him badly which stops him.

At that moment Trellimar arrives on the scene, bursting through the wheat behind Jiǔtóu. He wastes no time in grabbing some oil from his supplies to pour over his arrows, which he then lights on the burning wheat, loads into his crossbow, and fires. Unfortunately his attack misses. Cam watches this from the wheat when suddenly he feels a claw rake into his back, as another scarecrow slashes at him. As Cam sees its mouth open he becomes terrified of it.

Elora returns to elf form so she can cast shillelagh on her staff, and she smacks it right into the chest of the scarecrow. Her staff strikes the creature with a flash of magic, this time having much more of an affect on it than any of the physical attacks previously.

Cam runs away in fear from the scarecrow that attacked him, but as he does it strikes at him, fortunately missing. Cam and his double runs back to Elora, his face pale. As he runs in looking round he pulls out a torch and lights it in the flames before he and his clone begin stabbing at the scarecrow she has just attacked, setting it ablaze. Jiǔtóu attacks again, noticing that the fire seems to be working. Once again she tries to flick up the flaming wheat with her guandao, this time hitting the scarecrow. She can now see a gemstone in its chest throbbing with energy, so she takes a kick at it, cracking the force around it. Trellimar makes a final eldritch blast right into the gem, shattering it, and the scarecrow falls to the ground limp.

The man begins to thank everyone but Cam informs them the fight is not over yet. He screams as the other scarecrow appears from wheat, and just manages to turn in time to avoid being hit as this the creature strikes him with its metal claws, causing Cam to once again wet himself in fear. Elora makes an attack at this scarecrow also with her shillelagh and hits its gem, cracking the force around it. As it swipes at Cam's double it now knows that one of the Cams is only an illusion, as they both vanish into wheat again with the man following them.

Jiǔtóu stabs her guandao into the scarecrow, skewering it, and shoves it into fire. Trellimar makes a quick apology to Jiǔtóu in case he hits her guandao, before shooting an eldritch blast at the scarecrow it, breaking the gem a little more. The scarecrow desperately tries to struggle free but can't get off guandao as its body is smoking and bits fall off it. It tries to pull itself along Jiǔtóu's guandao to hit her but the thoughts of the festival keep her strong and she continues to hold it back. Elora makes another attack with her staff right at the gem, and it is now on the verge of breaking.

Cam takes his dagger back from the man and then holds his face and casts healing word. A glow fills the man and heals him. As he thanks Cam he has his duplicate shout boo at the man to trick him.

Jiǔtóu shakes her guandao to try and disintegrate what remains of the scarecrow, which is now going berserk in a bad way from its injuries. Trellimar makes one final eldritch blast at full force, which obliterates it entirely and the gemstone falls to the ground. Elora decides to take both gems.

Cam sends his dupe running from the wheat into the fire, which breaks the illusion, shortly followed by the real Cam and the man. Jiǔtóu slumps to floor exhausted from fighting. Cam and Trellimar are also very tired. They decide to return to town, but before they leave Elora casts heal wounds on Jiǔtóu which fully heals her. Cam puts his arm around the man as they walk back and asks him his name, to which he replies Barris, before asking Cam his name. Hearing his name he questions Cam if he was the one who damaged the tavern, but Cam just replies that it is a long story. Once again the man thanks them, saying he heard his sister crying so he ran to help, but Elora informs him he was just being fooled by a magical illusion at the time. Cam is really eager for the man to hype them up to the townspeople for their actions. The man agrees thinking they have sorted everything for them, but Cam tells him they still have a greater evil to face. Elora checks gemstones she recovered but all she knows is that they are used in spells used to bring creatures to life.

Cam asks Trellimar if he saw anything during his search of the manor, but he says he had no luck despite his efforts. Barris offers for Cam to come stay at his mom's house. The others reject this idea immediately but Cam is really exited at the prospect. As they reach the town gates they see the marshal and his militia just leaving. A few of the men pipe up when they see the group saying they are the ones who ran out earlier. The group push Barris to front and he explains to the guards that the group saved him. The guards are puzzled since they didn't see Barris run out at all. Barris tells them all about the scarecrows, and how they attacked him with their claws but Cam healed him. Elora takes out the gemstones and says that the scarecrows were controlled buy them. Like Barris, the marshal assumes once again that the village must now be safe because the scarecrows are dead, but Elora says she is doubtful of it. She asks if anyone else might have left but the marshal replies that they have only ever had 1 casualty per night.

Cam goes with Barris to his mom's house. Barris' sleepy mother opens the door to them and is surprised to realise her son left at all. She then asks Barris who Cam is. Cam takes her by the arm and begins to tell her all about how he saved her sons life, requesting he should continue the story over a glass of wine. However, when she says they have no wine and only offers some pie, Cam loses interest and leaves.

The others return to the tavern. Jiǔtóu thanks Elora for healing her and gives her a red envelope. Finny opens the door to them in his nightgown and welcomes them back in. He leads them to the bedroom in the attic, where they find 1 small bed and bundles of bedrolls. He tells them there should be enough space for them to sleep on the floor, before he leaves. Jiǔtóu also gives Trellimar an envelope without saying a word, which he thanks her for.

Elora heads to the marshal's office since she wants to speak with the half elf about the disruption earlier. As she gets there she finds the drow chatting to the half elf, but she is not at all interested in conversation. Elora begins to question her about her identity, asking who she is and how she knows Cam well enough to impersonate him. The half elf is stand-offish at first and doesn't feel she needs to explain anything to Elora, but eventually she reveals she wants to make Cam suffer by hurting his reputation, since she thinks Cam doesn't care about anyone. As she looks coldly at Elora, Elora can can see the hatred in her eyes. At his point Cam turns up, having headed for the marshal's office because it was the only building with a light on. He also wants to speak with half elf. She withdraws as she sees Cam enter, and he recognises her as Mirella's older sister Amelia. Cam perks up seeing a familiar face and greets her, asking how Mirella is. But Amelia looks at him in complete disgust and asks how he can seriously be asking that question, and demands for him to get out. When Cam asks why she says he is the reason Mirella is dead. On hearing this, Cam hastily leaves.