Confused, but safe, the Hellbenders went to bed safely in the guest room at the Stonemaker family.
The next morning, they were awaken by Krautious, the old man servant. After he told them breakfast was served, he lingered and in the end quickly whispered: “You should not be here. Leave!” and scurried down the stairs to the common area.
Downstars breakfast was served, but since Kaari had a sense of fey in the air, the party dared not touch the food.
The Stonemakers looked confused and a bit worried but let the heroes be.
Scouting ahead
Thorga ventured outside and sent his Pseudodragon and his flying machine out to scout across the Lushlands that looked untouched by the ravages of the war with the undead forces. Almost like they had stepped 5 years back in time.
Unfortunately, a violent storm started brewing so the flying creatures had to return, but nevertheless Thorga learned the lands looked completely free of the scars of war.
Waiting inside, the heroes talked to the Stonemakers but learned that they didn’t seem to know, or care, much about what was going on beyond their farm.
The girl, Little Juniper, was fascinated with Pestilence whom she thought was a tiger. Pestilence let Little Juniper pet his tail as the girl seemed obsessed with the him.
The jump game
As the weather improved, Kaari and Pestilence went out side with the the three children and they played a little game of who could jump the furthest from the gate to test whether they could actually leave the boundaries of the farm. They could.
Krautious, watched and cheered on the participants.
And as the evening creeped in, they all went inside.
but the evening had more confusing conversation where the Stonemakers didn’t seem to have no real memories of the past. Nor did they care.
Thorga reached into his Box of Need and to his surprise he was left emptyhanded for the first time.
Talking to Krautious, the party learned he was an old avdenturer who had retired to the farm. He encouraged them to stay, but the heroes told him they were not done yet with their adventuring life.
On top of that, our heroes started getting suspicious about how the exact foods, drinks and general items was in the cupboards of the house. Whatever they asked for, somehow the Stonemakers had it somewhere, be it books, arrows or other goods.
The heroes started wondering if they were in one biiiig Box of Needs.
The fog and the soup
In the morning our heroes has breakfast (most delicious) and told the Stonemakers goodbye to leave. Unfortunately a seriously thick fog had crept in over night and they decided it was wisest to wait til the next day.
They were suspicious on the fog’s timely appearance and decided that leaving before the Stonemakers woke up the next day was the best plan.
But for the time being they stayed.
And with the Stonemakers they agreed soup would be nice for dinner. Sissel, the girl, went out to get some water in a bucket.
But none of the heroes remember seeing a well. Pestilence quickly followed only to discover a well now appearing near the house. It looked old as if it had been there forever, but it certainly wasn’t there earlier.
They also noticed that when Krautious was not in the room, the Stonemakers went passive. They did not speak and they continued doing what they were doing when he left without changing. They would still answer but it would be short answers not carrying any conversation forward.
Krautious must be key.
The Giant Silhouette
The party snuck out early morning, but Krautious was there to see them off.
As they started leaving they heard big heavy footsteps and saw a mighty silhouette deep in the fog.
nevertheless they decided to venture in.
Creeping forward, barely able to see a hands length in front, the party inched their way forward towards their destination Elderthorn Forest.
But suddenly the massive silhouette came charging and out of the fog emerged the largest giant they had ever seen. Huge with blue skin and thunder crackling in his eyes: A Storm Giant.
The Giant brought down his sword first nearly knocking Kaari unconscious and then hurting Pestilence badly.
The party decided this was not a fight they could win and ran back to Sunflower Grange and to safety.
Let’s visit a circus
Desperate, they tried a new tactic: If the Giant had appeared after they asked for adventure and if everything they asked for in general just appeared, could they ask for a circus or a market?
They tried first with a market, but when they asked for a circus, Little Juniper got excited. The chance to see a real tiger was too much for her. And that got her siblings interested too.
It was like they woke up. The heroes exploited this by winding up the children more and more.
Until Krautious bang in the table and shouted “STOP” and told the Stonemakers to go upstairs like children. They did.
The story of Krautious Eversmile
Krautious looked stressed, sad and like he was trapped. But in the end he told his story.
Krautious was a peaceful, yet immensely powerful fey from Elderthorn.
Old beyond reckoning, yet naive and good hearted like a child, he was sworn to peace and pacifism to prevent his powers hurting other fey.
One day he ventured outside Elderthorn and came upon the Sunflower Village.
But quickly the superstitious farmers noticed his odd look and demeanour and soon he was blamed for every misfortune that befell the village.
With torches and pitchforks, the villagers chased him down.
Krautious, having never experienced violence, panicked and lashed out as a reflex to defend himself.
But his immense powers caused a ripple in the history of time. Not only did he kill all the villagers in a single outburst, he killed their ancestors back to the root of their family lines erasing the entire families from history.
The family Stonemakers had not been part of the attack on Krautious and as such were left the only family alive, but seeing the horrors on Krautious’ powers, their fragile minds were broken and they went insane.
Krautious, coming to his senses, realised what has happened and crying he transformed the whole village into a single Domain of Delight, a tranquil farm The Sunflower Grange.
then he restored the minds of the Stonemakers erasing their memories and vowed to protect them forever for as long as they lived, the Sunflower Village was not entirely erased form history.
And thus the family and Krautious had lived since then. Without any sense of time or space, there was no way of telling whether they had lived like this for 2 years or 2,000 years, but what was certain was, if the Stonemakers regained their memory, or left Sunflower Grane, they would die of the trauma of the experience or the brutal flow of time.
A bitter sweet goodbye
Our heroes having seen much in the world, struggled with the scale of the story, but decided that they would leave Krautious and the Stonemakers.
To mend their actions, they told the children that circuses were not all that interesting anyway, but the kids had already lost interest in the topic… it even seemed they had very little memory of the conversation.
With that, the Hellbenders swore never to tell anybody about the Sunflower Grange, the little Domain of Delight that was both the heaven and hell for Krautious.
Krautious told them they would always be welcome and gave them a few tips:
- Elderthorn is protected by the wild and dangerous Thornhunt lead by the Thornjäger.
- There is another Domain of Delight inside the forest. it is called the Grim Glee Jubilee and is run by Chief Chester Nihilus.
- Chief Chester Nihilus is generally good spirited but he has a passionate hate for unfun.
As our heroes walked away on this beautiful sunny day, the grass underneath their feet grew less and less lush, less and less green, more and more destroyed form marching undead feet and war.
And as they closed in on Elderthorn Forest, a little piece of them wished they had stayed at the Sunflower Grange.
But looking back, it was gone.