Out of the frying pan, into the fireball

Meanwhile, back at the Inn, it's roughly noon and Greg and Jeanne have just left.

Various passersby stop in for lunch and are fed bread, cheese, and eternal stew. The characters realize the Inn is nice and warm, in spite of not having a large hearth. Upon inquiry, they learn that the same person who taught Thurston and Lovey English also taught them about the "Roming People" (Romans) and how they heated their houses with smoke under the floors and in the walls.

Towards evening, two men with thick Scottish accents, Robert and Douglass, arrive in two carts bearing sacks of iron ore. They check in for the night and are apparently regulars.

Night falls and watches are set. In the wee a.m.s, while Solo and Barb are on watch, Barb starts getting a headache "like a rubber-band tightening around her head". She and Solo talk for a while, Poison or Headache? After a while, Barb wakes Tom, who also has a headache. This leads to them waking Liz, who does a couple of "Lesser Restoration" and cures the headaches. It's still unclear the cause of the headaches and everyone goes to sleep, except for Tom, who is on watch.

Time passes and the sleepers are awoken either by Tom's shout of pain, or the Fireball which injures everyone. Tom and Barb are rendered unconscious and are making Death Saves.

Combat ensues, which I will not attempt to document in detail. Lovey (with a wand of Fireballs) is grievously injured by Tamara's bow fire and flees. Thurston does some stabbing and is killed. Liz prevents Barb and Tom from dying. Solo and Tamara flee after Lovey, who has run downstairs into the basement and into a tunnel. She outruns Her pursuers for a time. Solo and Tamara reach the bottom of a deep pit and climb out.

Solo spies Lovey about 100 yards away, running fast. Tamara, targeting on noise only, picks Lovey off with a single shot. Lovey's body and wand is recovered and Solo and Tamara descend back into the pit and examine the bottom, where they realize the climbed over several dozen human bodies in various states of decay. The "freshest" is believed to be the missing Samuel Murphy.

Returning to the Inn, Barb and Liz exhaust their spells casting healing spells restoring most to nearly full health.

Robert and Douglass get up and are told about The Pit of Atrocities and are gob-smacked. Surrounding themselves with indestructible "this is not my problem" fields, they depart to continue their journey to Baltimore Town.

Late in the morning, Greg and Jeanne return and stories are exchanged.

Somewhere around this time, Solo cuts the heads off the corpses of Thurston and Lovery and mounts them on stakes in front of the Inn.

There is much discussion about what to do next and about the subject of genocide and how not to be responsible for it.

No guest book or account ledger of any sort. It's almost as if they didn't care about making a profit. Most of the produce in the kitchen is in cloth sacks, indicating it probably came from Baltimore.

There is 28 gold pieces and near to 1000 silver. There's also 3 pieces of jewelry worth 10, 30, and 50 GP.

In the Thurston & Lovey's sleeping quarters the most notable object is a confederate flag being used as as an accent rug. Someone (Jeanne?) had earlier noted stuff in the kitchen that probably came from the 1930's house.

Eventually the group set out for Baltimore. On the outskirts they encountered William Murphy and give him the bad news, which devastates him. At William's request, the party goes with him to the Poe enclave within the city, where Samuel's remains are delivered (to be blessed by an Anglican priest at a later date). William is brought home and hid neighbors contacted. A handy street rat is hired to fetch some food and says "Woof" to Barb, indicating he recognized her from the encounter with the "cats and dogs" a few days ago. Food is delivered, neighbors come, and the party makes its exit.

The group head to old town, where Greg, Jeanne, and Solo go to speak with the watch captain. The speak of the atrocities, the actual cause for the disappearances over the last couple of years. They also due some questioning about the Squire of Monocacy and whether his reaction towards the Monocacy will be a common one. It sounds like his opinions of the natives were not the most common, but also not rare. A lieutenant and a couple of soldiers are dispatched with the PCs back to the Inn. Night is falling by the time they arrive and the soldiers are shown the Pit of Atrocities via the tunnel from the Inn. They are suitibly revolted. The PCs and soldiers overnight in the Inn.

In the morning, the soldiers riding off back to Baltimore. Solo takes down his heads and the group heads out to Baltimore again. On the way, about a two miles out of Baltimore, they see a wide path of heavily trampled earth, crushed brush, and footprint of man and horse. They divert down the path several hundred yards and find an enormous tree stump, much bigger than any tree nearby. The debris from chopping off the limbs of the tree is scattered all around. Greg does a Speak with Plants and the tree says it was cut down by men. It definitely was a special tree, aware in some sort of fashion. It asks Greg bring it one of its seedlings, which it blesses in some fashion. If asks Greg to plant the seedling someplace with lots of sun and perhaps it will again awaken.

Returning to their journey, the group soon come across the work party, 12 men and 6 horses strong, led by a bard of some sort who leads the hauling. Cross words are delivered to the ones who would kill such a giant. They leave the bard shamed, at least a little.

They re-visit the watch Captain and receive the remaining balance of their bounty, 450 gold pieces. From here they plan to head to Annapolis, possibly by ship to South Port, then South by way of Revel Grove,  to take claim of the area formerly occupied by the Monocacy.