"My good man, Noble Farmer, calm yourself. You are in the presence of the Number One Investigator of the Occult, the Venerable Li Kao. This is my most talented pupil Xer who has kicked to pieces many evil things including possessed and unholy farm items." Li Kao shrugs at Xer in reply to his exaggerations, but his words seem to take effect and after a little more coaxing, the two travellers manage to the man calmed down and seated on the edge of the wagon.

Xer steps back from the man as soon as she can – it is quite clear that he has been drinking heavily, and his breath rivals that of Li Kao’s on his worst days. She modes to the edge of the corn field and tries as best she can to scan the area for signs of danger while Li Kao talks the farmer, who identifies himself as Maester Grump.

“A few days ago people started talkin’ ‘bout walking scarecrows that came out of the fields at night to feed – nuthin was ever seen, but plenty was heard. Screams in the night. Glimpse of … things chasing people though the field and out onto the moors. Neighbours would visit a homestead the next morning and find it completely empty.” Farmer Grump pauses for a moment to take a swig from Li Kao’s offered wine gourd. He wipes a dirty sleeve across his mouth and continues.

“Now us southern homesteaders are a pretty tough lot. We carved these farms out ourselves. Cleared the land of beasties and kept them that way with no help from no big city militia neither, so folks figured they could handle whatever this was too. So yesterday a bunch of us got together and headed over the old Hambley place. Things just ain’t been right there for a while now.” Grump pauses again, growing agitated as he continues his tale.

“We got there just before sundown. We never made it to the house. They came out of the fields – folks that looked like corpses but fed like starving animals!” At this point Grump has worked himself into a lather again and shrieks, “They even ate the dogs!”

Xer, who had been listening from her post at the edge of the field looks nervously at the fading autumn light. “Uh, master,” she says to Li Kao. “Maybe we should get back on the road.”

“Er, yes, I think that’s an excellent idea,” Li Kao says, trying to hide his own disquiet at the farmer’s harrowing tale.

Xer and Li Kao both pulled the wagon down the Lost Coast Road, while farmer Grump sat in the back, frantically chanting a Varisian nursery rhyme over and over again all the way into Sandpoint:

Mumble mumble scarecrow,

Alone in the maize,

Sleeping in the daytime,

A stitched man he stays.

But when the moon she rises,

Up mumble gets.

He shakes his hands at first,

And moves his feet the next.

And when the dog is snoring,

And when you’re fast asleep,

Mumble mumble scarecrow,

Will find you good to eat.