"It would be wrong to assume he did any of this on purpose. It'd be better to believe he's also an innocent victim here until proven otherwise. Patient zero. If this disease isn't only capable of causing people to dig holes, but to also alter their behavior to make them better spread the disease to others, that's... concerning." Beist said with worry in his voice.

Whatever this illness was, it seemed to grow more complex with each new bit of information about it they were able to gain. Maybe it was something buried in the ground and the gravedigger happened upon it, or maybe it came from one of the corpses he buried recently. It was hard to deduce a source of the disease without evidence, and the only way they'd get any of that would be to go investigate for themselves.

But now Beist was worried about something else. If this illness could change people's behavior in such complicated ways as to have them become more social, what else could it do? He looked at Mureen suspiciously for a moment. What if this disease could make people act normal to blend in and fool others? Would Apogee be safe left alone with her?

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea..." Beist whispered to the other two as Apogee walked off with the couple and the horse. It didn't sit right with him, letting her walk off alone with a couple of strangers in a town full of people acting strangely and a mysterious, unknown disease.

"Moe." He said, tapping a charm hanging from one of his horns, and a small purple and yellow fox appeared in front of him.

"Go with them and make sure those two don't harm her." He instructed the lightning fox who scampered off behind them, keeping a distance to not be noticed.

Beist turned back to Shaa and Leandros, some concern still evident on his face.

"Right, let's go see this special graveyard and our possible patient zero."

---

Lightning Mephit

The road to the graveyard, despite going through a well developed part of the town, seemed unnaturally empty as the travelers made their way down. The sky was grey and overcast like some giant had laid a thick blanket over everything l There were hardly even any sounds except the sounds of their footsteps on the narrow streets. Shaa looks at Leandros with a curious expression. Place is quiet. A little too quiet if you ask me. I wonder what is up with this grave yard?

It wasn’t long before they got their answer. After walking a bit, they came to a sharp bend in the road that seemed to lead further into town. As soon as they made the turn, the big Minotaur stopped in his tracks and looked up. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing with his own two eyes. In the center of the town was a massive tree. Roots so large, the buildings in the middle of the town were built under and around them. But that wasn’t what caught his attention. High in the tree boughs, were large sturdy baskets suspended from thick ropes. The baskets were painted and decorated with flowers and animals. At the bottom of the baskets were names and a series of dates. Then it dawned on him. Oh man, I know what this is. It’s the hanging cemetery.

It had been awhile but Shaa had heard rumors over the years about a town who didn’t have space for a graveyard. To deal with the problem, they hung their deceased from a large tree and held a celebration every year to maintain the baskets. It sounded so weird, he honestly never thought he would see it. Those baskets, hold all of the dead of the town. Looking back to the roots, he notices a large shack that is attached to a rope path up the side of the tree. He points to it. I bet that’s Dales place. Let’s go take a look. As they get closer, Shaa can hear the creaking sound of the ropes as the large baskets sway in the breeze.

"If I had hovered near every time we came upon a strange situation, I would hardly be able to be an adventurer." He smiles softly and gently puts a reassuring hand to Beist's shoulder. "But thank you for sending someone to watch with her."

Shaa's assesment was accurate, this place was strangely quiet. The further along the trio walks, the stranger the silence gets. Something unimaginably dark must have wriggled its way into this town, but finding out what was going to be an issue. Whatever was happening was beyond anything he had ever encountered in his life.

He looked up at the tree as they arrived, a little shocked to be seeing such a sight. Many different cultures had different burial customs, but this was certainly strange. You would think any significant storm or wind would create unfortunate lawn decorations. Shaa's declaration pulls his attention from staring at the tree.

"We shouldn't rush through anything, it will be hard to tell what is waiting for us." He sighed a moment as he looked back to the path behind them before back towards this shack. Maybe they should have gone slower and asked around town, see if anyone else is answering the door. Though the quickest way between any two points is a straight line, so maybe being direct was the best approach. The uncertainty of the situation makes it harder for Leandros to settle on a solid course of action like he usually would. He didn't normally lack conviction like this.

Beist looked up at the baskets hanging from the tree and suppressed the urge to say that this didn't seem like a very good method for interring the dead to him. What happens if there's a storm that might break a limb off the tree or when the ropes or baskets deteriorate? Having old corpses falling from the sky would be a big problem, and that wasn't even mentioning the smell of decomposition in the air. Well, it wasn't his place to criticize their burial customs.

"Well, no point stopping now. Let's go pay this Dale fellow a visit." Beist tried to encourage Leandros, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "We'll be cautious. And besides, I don't think one grave... uh... hanger? will be able to harm the three of us, eh?"

Beist ducked and weaved as he made his way toward the cabin, avoiding bumping his head into any of the lower hanging baskets and being very careful not to touch any of them. Ugh, being this tall really was such a hassle sometimes, but he never thought he'd have to duck under a dead body. This really wasn't a burial method he'd want used on him. He doubted any tree could support his weight anyways.

As they walked toward the cabin, Beist stopped for a moment as he spotted something curious. Between two large roots of the tree, it looked like there was a hole leading down into the ground. A tunnel under the tree? Why would that be there? They didn't bury the dead underground, and Dale lived in a cabin aboveground, so what purpose did such a tunnel serve?

"Hmm... A tunnel?" Beist thought out loud as he stroked his beard.

Shaa looks carefully at the hole. After checking around for a moment, he shakes his head. Well I can tell you that this hole was dug, it not natural. I don’t see our buddy the grave …hanger around anywhere so I think it’s worth taking a look. Shaa rubs his gloved hands together and they ignite into flame. He doesn’t need any light himself himself due to his excellent night vision but the extra light might be handy for his companions. I can take the lead. Underground tunnels are kind of my thing. His hands ablaze, Shaa takes a short hop into the tunnel and looks around for anything obvious.

The tunnel goes on a bit further. It’s pretty roomy so you all should be fine. Come on down. Waiting a bit for his companions, he takes a look around the tunnel. The tunnels were definitely carved out but, unlike the entrance, some of the tunnels looks old, like very old. There were several marks on the ground as well. Someone had been there recently. Following the tracks a bit, Shaa sees the mouth of a small tunnel where the tracks seem to lead. There is another larger tunnel that goes in the opposite direction. They were going to have to make a choice. He had a sneaking suspicion that they were about to get the answer that they had been looking for all day.

Unexpectedly, he sees movement from the large tunnel. A man in raggedy clothes stumbles into the room. Help…help me please. The man reaches out a well worn hand and collapses on the cave floor. Shaa can tell he is still breathing but in pretty rough shape over all.

---

Spitfire Gauntlets 

Admittedly, Leandros is slightly apprehensive about any tunnels. He wasn't claustrophopic, but his size and choice of weapon meant tight spaces were not favorable. Let's just hope it wouldn't come to any of that.

He is at least thankful for the light having no night vision of his own. The tunnel was oddly impressive....a tunnel like this usually takes a lot of manpower, planning and tools. Were people really digging this out by hand or with simple shovels? A natural tunnel like this was impressive....but dangerous without any scaffolding to help keep the tunnels open.

"What drives a town to do something like this? Was there a gold rush in the town? I can see greed whipping everyone into a frenzy, but.....to this extent?"

The soft musing of Leandros is quickly ended when they see the man come out and then collapse. The knight gently pushes past Shaa with an excuse me to try and reach the man. He kneels down, feeling a pulse and leans down to hear a shallow breath.

"He's alive, barely." Leandros holds a hand over the man's chest with a dull pale light.[1]

The man's eyes flutter open briefly after the healing, "P-please....it's still....back there."

"What is?"

"The....creature....it l-lured u-us here....promised....safety...protection." His breathing is labored even with the healing. It was clear this man had been through his own sort of hell. Leandros looked to the others, wondering if they should press for more or let it go.

---

1. Minor Healing

"Hmmm..."

Beist looked down at the tunnel under the tree apprehensively. It was certainly an impressive tunnel, even being large enough for a Minotaur to enter and be able to stand upright, but it wasn't large enough for the gigantic beast man. He'd have to crawl on his hands and knees if he wanted to go down there.

"I'm not going to fit down there. Whatever you find, just bring it back up here. Be very careful. You don't want to catch whatever this disease is yourselves, so watch out for any plants or fungus you don't recognize. I'll lend you one of my companions and stay here to do some investigating of my own." Beist called to Leandros and Shaa.

He reached a hand into the thick scruff of fur around his neck and pulled out a tiny white snake with a pair of golden wings.

"Ugh, I was having such a nice nap." The little snake hissed directly into Beist's mind with an annoyed tone. Beist just rolled his eyes.

"Pretzels, you go with them and make sure they're alright." He said and held the snake out. After a moment, the tiny serpent began to grow in size until they were enormous, their body over thirty feet long and over three feet thick. Their golden wings wouldn't have fit in the tunnel if they didn't fold up on their back.

The gigantic serpent slithered into the tunnel behind Shaa and Leandros, still a little groggy, but his mood was improved now that he'd been given back a bit of his power and was able to grow.

Beist wished he hadn't left Dora with the wagon or he would have sent her in with them as well, but Pretzels should be helpful even if he was a little lazy. The spiritual form of his familiar should also be safe from any diseases since it wasn't their real body.

With that done, Beist headed off toward Dale's cabin to see if he couldn't find anything of note.

---

Ginma's Familiar
Polymorph
Mounted Familiar

Shaa looks over at Leandros and snorts a bit. Well that’s a clue if I ever heard one. A monster, figures. Let’s go find it and punch its face in. Looking at the man, he considers the action. Then again, this guy isn’t looking very good. Maybe we need to send him back up the hole first. Shaa calls up the hole. Hey big guy, we are sending up a guy to look at. Before he can shove the guy back up the hole, a large snake slithers down. Agh snake!

Shaa backs up a bit and looks at the snake warily. It didn’t seem to be attacking them at the moment and had a certain intensity in its eyes. Hey! Did you lose something? Shaa doest hear anything coming up from the hole. Feeling it better to be up there rather than down in the tunnel, he proceeds to shove the man back up the hole. He’ll be fine, let’s head on down the tunnel. He points a finger at the snake. We’re cool right? Right. Ok let’s head on down.

Shaa follows the tunnel where the man emerged and waves for his companions to follow with his flaming hand. It doesn’t take long and Shaa can feel the tunnel starting to descend. As they go down, he notices a temperature shift, the place getting warmer and warmer as they go. You guys ok back there? As he turns a corner, he can start to hear voices further down. He oooks back and outs his finger to his snout signaling the need to be quiet. Slowly walking forward, the voices start to grow louder.

"Be sure that your concern for us, does not leave yourself alone Mr. Beist." Leandros looks back to him, just to confirm that he is truly all right on his own. When Beist gets a bit further out of view he turns to rejoin Shaa along with Pretzels.

He curiously watches the snake grow and then start to slither in before he turns to follow after. At the end of all of it, he is left helping a man to his feet after the healing. He wobbles slightly before bracing himself against the tunnel wall.

"Take your time, but if you can, make your way to the exit and wait for us there. If you see a large man make his way back towards this tunnel, that is our friend Mr. Beist. He might be able to help you recover a bit."

The man nervously shakes his head before he starts back towards the entrance. Leandros gives it a moment before turning to catch up with Shaa. He had to just hope the man didn't collapse on his way back. They couldn't chaperone everone hom if there was a monster about though.

A confused look crosses his face as he hears the noises while approaching Shaa's side. It didn't sound like any language he knew....it barely sounded like any noise a person in the world could make. There was a thrum to the voices that was unnatural.

"It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyways. We need to be cautious going forward."

If the snake's emotions were able to be read on his scaly face, Shaa would likely not think the two of them were cool.

Do I really have to work with him? Pretzels thought to himself as he slithered along, annoyed by the Minotaur's attitude. The wariness might have been more understandable if he came down unannounced, but Beist had definitely called out that he was coming. Maybe this guy didn't listen well. He sighed internally.

Up on the surface, Beist had already moved to the small cabin nearby and was taking a look. It seemed perfectly normal from the outside. He knocked on the door, but didn't receive any response from anyone inside. He couldn't hear anything in there either. Maybe Dale wasn't home. He looked back toward the tunnel, thinking that maybe the grave keeper was actually down there, and noticed a man walking out from between the tree roots.

That wasn't Leandros and it definitely wasn't Shaa. Beist walked back over. His investigation of the cabin could wait. From what he could tell, whoever this man was, he was struggling just to walk and needed some help. Was he sick with the same disease as everyone else? Perhaps he had reached a state of sheer exhaustion from overworking himself.

"Are you alright? Here, let me help you. Are you Dale?" Beist asked slowly as he reached a hand down to support the struggling man. He leaned in close to take a look at him and see if there was anything else wrong with him. Maybe there was something dangerous down there. He needed to make sure he had no injuries that needed to be taken care of.

Suddenly, the man moved as if he wasn't injured at all. Before Beist could react, he reached a hand up to the side of Beist's head and the beast man felt something cold and slimy in his ear.

There was no way around it. They wouldn’t get any answers skulking in darkened tunnels. Answers were over there muttering weird nonsense. Ok you guys stay here for a second. With that, Shaa disappears into the dirt below them and tunneled his way closer to the chanting. 

From under the ground, he could only hear the faint mumbling above him. He would need to resurface again to be able to hear them more clearly. He would just need to go past them and then…. 

As he emerged from the ground, he was startled by the scene in front of him. There were a dozen people at least. Presumably townspeople but they were all…wrong. All of them had squid like creatures covering various parts of their faces. And they were all now staring right at him.

Hey guys….. I have obviously interrupted something. My bad. I’ll just leave you to your incoherent rambling. Don’t mind me.

Why no my friend, you are actually just in time. 

Shaa turns his head to see who is speaking. Off in the corner is a large robed figure with a hood over his face. Seriously, where do you guys buy all your gear? If I had had known earlier I would have become a creepy robe merchant. What? Never mind, long story. I don’t mind at all. You are more than welcome to stay. The villagers started to move towards him. This was bad. This was going sideways quick. The only bright side was that Leandros and the snake were still hidden, watching from the shadows. He needed to get as much information as he could before he tried to make a break for it. Nahhh really I’m good. Not really a big chanter when it comes down to it. But I insist.

With that, the robed man pulls back his hood only to reveal deep set yellow eyes in a massive head. A head that was slick and full of tentacles. Shaa would have been shocked, but this was not the first time he had encountered one of these creatures. It was the first time though, that they had come with hostages. They were royally screwed. 

Shaa slaps his hands together and creates a wall of flame between him and villagers. Turning, he runs and bodychecks the robed creature into one of the walls as he runs past him. He would have to separate the villagers and the mind controlled if they had any hope of saving them. He hopes Leandros and the snake can deal with squid face while he leads the villagers on a bit of a run. After him! He is soon running down the tunnels and he can hear the hurried footsteps behind him. This would work right? What could possibly go wrong?

---

Soil Surfing
Prayer of Fire

Leandros hadn't ever run into a creature like this before so it took a beat for him to process the eldritch nightmare creature in front of him. Something inside him seemed instinctually revolted by the being. Seeing it at the head of all of this and seemingly gesturing to the crowd and sending it after Shaa makes it pretty clear this is the target they have been looking for.

The knight doesn't exactly a whole lot of strike from the shadows options, but he can try and slow it down. As he bursts from the shadows, two spectral lions spring from the walls near the chthonian and bite down on its shoulders. The lions don't do damage, but they do hold it in place.[1]

"You will answer for your crimes here, wretch!" Leandros charges the chthonian but before he can reach it, the creature flings out a hand.

Leandros pulls his shield in front of him as the wave of psionic energy whumps into him. He skids back a couple of inches. The chthonian's eyes widen as it clearly expected a much more dramatic outcome.

Changing tactics, the chthonian waves another hand to phase through the lions holding it.[2] It sends another psionic wave to try and overwhelm the knight. When Leandros blocks it again, the monster takes off and disappears down a tunnel. It needed to regather its position...and the further it can pull the adventurers apart, the easier it will be to control and dominate them.

---

1. Ancestral Fervor
2. Chthonian uses Phase Walk

Beist had more experience not being in control of his body than he wished he had. Waking up in the morning with no memory of what he'd done the previous night, wondering what or who he may have harmed, what in his home he'd destroyed and now needed to repair or replace.

But this experience was something different. He was fully aware of everything he was doing, but it was like he was only watching it through his own eyes rather than actually performing any of the actions he could see in front of him. He had no control of his own body. Between this conscious loss of control and waking up after a night where the werebeast took over, he couldn't tell which was worse.

Beist stood back up straight again and walked with purpose, as if nothing strange had just happened. Right behind him, the man he presumed to be Dale walked along back toward the town. They walked directly to a house and knocked on the door.

Inside, Mureen looked to the door without a hint of surprise, as if she was fully expecting the giant man's arrival. She gave Apogee a glance and then simply stood up and walked over to the door, opening it wide.

"Oh, you're back already. Have you found Dale?" She asked.

"Yes, we found him, and we've managed to find the cure. He's fine now." Beist said as he motioned to the man standing behind him. "Apogee, you should come over here and take the cure as well. You may have been exposed to the disease while we were here, so it's best to be safe."

Beist motioned with his hand for Apogee to come to the door, something clutched in his hand for her.

It was a bit cliche, but Shaa was actually right in his element. Underground, in winding tunnels, in the dark. He could see in the dark and had an uncanny sense of direction so , even though he had never been there before, he was actually mapping the entire place out in his head as he went. (1;2). He was also fortunate as his would be pursuers were all mobbed up and not in their right minds. Now that he knew what he was dealing with, he guessed that they were probably in a hive mind. That came with some serious advantages and a couple chunky disadvantages the sneaky Minotaur was going to use against them if he could. He just hoped that Gerhart and the snake were ok with squid face. Maybe if the big guy was done, he could come help them. But that was too many unknowns. He needed to do his part.

Having finished a section, he takes a hard left down a tunnel he  knows he has not been down yet. To his surprise, one of the villagers is there and tries to make a grab for him. Unfortunately for the villager, Shaa is already running full speed and has more than enough momentum to grasp him by the face and smack his head roughly into the tunnel wall as he runs by. The villager crumples to the floor roughly but Shaa keeps running without slowing down. He hoped he didn’t hurt the guy too badly but he couldn’t afford kid gloves with these guys. If it was going to be him or them, it was most definitely going to be them. The idea of becoming a meat puppet to tentacle face was not something that he was going to allow for so many reasons. 

As he was running, he noticed an odd shift in the temperature again. What was with this place? Usually, when you are in big caves or tunnels, it gets colder the deeper you go, most of the time. If you go too deep or you are in a place that traps heat, it can get really warm unexpectedly like this. But usually because of something else. Was it the tree that was doing this or something else like a hot spring? It was kind of academic at this point. Even though he had knocked out that villager, he had probably communicated to the others were he was so it would only be a matter of time before they found him. He just needed to find a way to slow them down a bit. 

When he gets to a fairly narrow part of the tunnel, he stops, touches the ceiling, walls and floor, casting vine field as he goes. The vines burst from the places he touches and, having no where else to grow, start growing in and on top of themselves until the entire gap is filled with thorny vines, sealing it. It was a risky move because he was cutting off his ability to back track but it would slow them down. Shaa takes a minute to breathe and look around. He can feel the temperature shift sharply down another tunnel going further down so he decides to follow it. It’s not long and, to his surprise, the ground starts getting soft, much too soft for being this deep. Almost…muddy. As he continues to move in, he can see strange oblong shapes in the ground. Walking over, he attempts to pick one up but finds it’s securely fastened to the odd mud/ clay like material of the ground. He digs out the base and finally manages to dislodge one of the objects. He taps it gently only to find that it’s mostly hollow with a liquid inside and a thin shell. Could it be…this thing was big. It took a minute but eventually everything clicked. It was a nursery and Shaa and stumbled right into it.

---

1 Night Vision
2 True North Tattoo
3 Iron grip
3 Cast Vine Field

The Chthonian had succeeded at separating the adventurers, but to what advantage did that bring? It was now in hiding as a lion and a bull now stalked through its halls. The monster was all but backed in to a corner. If only it could overtake one of these fighters, that would give it a powerful addition to its growing army. Villagers were fine for menial tasks, but it realized now it had gathered too much attention. It needed protection now.

It would have to use stealth to try and tackle the knight. Leandros had his head on a swivel trying to find any tracks of the Cthonian, but its ability to levitate meant there were nearly no tracks to follow. His grip readjusted on his halberd as he scanned the area around him.

It happened in a flash, the squid-like face phased through the walls and tried to jump the knight and eat his brain. Leandros saw the tentacles at the edge of his vision, letting him move just enough out of the way that the beak would only scrape against his toughened skin.[1]

A gauntleted hand grabbed the head of the Cthonian and pried it from his own face. He pulls the monster over and slams it onto its back. He moves to strike the thing down, driving his halberd down but before it can fully land another psionic blast hits the knight. Leandros' blade still carves a deep wound into its shoulder as it starts to run again.

The Chtonian holds its shoulder as it runs and tries to escape again. It needs a brain to eat, to heal, it needs sustenance. It sprints towards the nursery where it knows there should be some food. Shaa would see the Chthonian for a moment before a bright flash of light[2] burns a hole through its midsection.

Leandros pants as he catches up, looking to the corpse then to Shaa, "Are you all right friend?"

Back inside the home, Apogee raises a curious eye to Beist. She can't help but notice something is a little odd, but exactly what she can't figure out.  

"And what exactly is that cure? Why would I need to go outside or even get a cure if I don't feel sick?" She smiles towards Beist, her hands moving to rest on her lap so her rapier would be within reach if need be.