Aspiring Heroes of Faerûn

Even though she is face to face with this rather terrifying construct, Chrys is able to shake off the sense of fear and stay focused. 

Meanwhile, Lumen rushes up behind her and jams his blades deeply into the scarecrow's back and neck. His weapons meet little resistance, as his simply stabbing into the equivalent of a thick bush or a bale of straw, and judging by the reaction, they don't do very much damage, but he can tell that his attack has at least some effect. 

And yes, Kess can now take her held action. 

Kess dives in, scimitars lashing!

Attack 1: 15, Damage: 6

Attack 2: 21, Damage: 5

With her readied action, Kess's blades slice and dice into the scarecrow, but with the lack of resistance, it almost feels to her as if she's attacking a large pillow that's filled with sticks, leaves and hay. However, at this point, the creature's clothing and wooden limbs have been cut to shreds and it does seem to be moving more slowly and awkwardly.

Suddenly, you all hear a small splash over by the lake, and out of the corner of your eye, you see a gaunt, emaciated man in rotten, soiled clouting pull himself from the water next to the large Cyprus tree and flop up onto the bank. When he stands up, you see that he's quite ugly, to the point of being repugnant. His arms, face and lower legs are covered with mud and grime, and a number of unsightly bruises. His hair is a thin black stringy mat that extends down to his shoulders, with some of the wet strands sticking to his face. 

"Please... " the man says in a soft gravely voice, making considerable effort to speak the words. "Help me..." 

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Top of Round 2. Kess and Vesper are up. Right now, Vesper is surrounded by the swarm of ravens that are flapping all about and trying to peck and claw at her. 

Does he have any identifying marks, or is there any kind of feature that recalls any sort of story or myth or anything in Lumen's mind? Is he normally-sized other than being gaunt? And last question -- it's pretty clear he was underneath the water for an extended period of time, not just sort of floating there breathing with his head out of the water and we didn't see him, right?

Vanilla d20 rolls for whatever check might be required: 4

I'm assuming Chrys will be fully occupied by this scarecrow until it stops attacking; however if that's not the case, she would glance over and try to insight check this poor fellow to see if he was really a poor fellow :-)

Ignore if not possible insight check: 6

You're in the middle of battle right now, so you can only divert so much attention to this filthy man that just crawled from the lake. However, judging by the body size and shape, he definitely appears to be a middle aged human male, although with his emaciated physique, it's hard to point an accurate range of age. And as far as you know, you don't remember seeing anything or anyone floating in the water when you approached. And while there are many lost myths and wives' tales about mysterious lake dwellers, nothing specific comes to Lumen's mind that would describe this fellow.

Vesper tosses a Fire Bolt at the ravens

Attack: 7 Damage: 9

Vesper's fire bolt slams into one of the ravens, causing a mini explosion of feathers that frightens off a few of the birds. However, the rest of the flock is still swirling and flapping madly all around her, squawking, peking and clawing at her, as the wind from 15 or 20 sets of wings blows her hair in a constant whoosh. 

Kess is up.

((SOrry for the delay, guys!))

Kess, realizing that Vesper is in trouble, sprints into the murder of feathers and confusion. "Hang on, Vesper!"

First swing: 23 Damage: 9
Offhand Swing: 18 Damage: 6

(I also didn’t realize there were so many ravens - Lumen would have cast sleep on them if he’d have realized.)

Leaping to Vesper's rescue, Kess darts over to the surrounded sorceress and slashes at the birds with a frenzied whirlwind of her blades. In a flurry of flying feathers, she manages to slice and skewer a handful of the birds, enough that the rest of the rest of the murder dissipates and flies off, leaving Vesper free once again. 

Krackle, who seems a bit overwhelmed and even freaked out by the commotion at hand, nonetheless stands his ground and launches another small ball of flame at the scarecrow. 

Attack: 8 Damage: 7

Unfortunately, in his distraction, his arcane aim is just a little off, and the fire fails to connect with its target. 

Chyrs is up now. 

Still focused on the skeleton, Chrys pulls back Due Process and sends it hurtling towards the creature.  "I ain't lettin' ya hurt anyone!" she yells as she swings.

(I tried rolling in the game log instead of the forum dice roller this time!)
Due Process attack roll: 8 --> used inspiration to reroll --> 18
Damage: 14

Hurling Due Process with all her might, Chrys watches as her hammer slams into the scarecrow with a solid, but muffled chunk. The blow deforms the creature's torso into a sunken divot, but the strange construct keeps coming, apparently shrugging off at least some of the force of a blow which would have caused a normal person much more damage. It swipes once again at her with its stick-like claws.

Attack: 9 Damage: 4, Attack: 18 Damage: 8.

Chrys easily parries the first attack with her shield, but feels the pain of another gash on her arm as the scarecrow draws more blood from her. 

(Need a WIS safe from Chrys. It is now Lumen's turn.)

(Is the creepy guy in the lake advancing?) Lumen turns and says to him, "we'll consider helping you if you tell us what's going on, and stop this scarecrow from attacking us," essentially trying to check if there is intelligence in him, and also to throw him off a bit.

He presses his attack on the scarecrow.

Attack: 12 Damage: 11

Bonus action: inspire Kess with a d6

Chrys wis save: 4

As she continues to defend herself from this odd, but terrifying creature made from sticks and straw, Chrys looks into its empty, faceless head and feels terrible rush of fear run through her body. (She is now Frightened unit the end of the scarecrow's next turn.)

Meanwhile, Lumen stabs at the scarecrow once again with is own weapon and, once again, feels little resistance as the blade cuts through the stick-filled body. He can tell that his attack has some effect, although probably not as much as he would liked.

In its haggard, raspy voice, the gaunt, emaciated, sopping wet man answers, "I cannot stop it... that thing is keeping me prisoner... I cannot escape its horrid magic... you must kill it..." 

As he staggers a few feet towards you, he begins to stumble from his apparent weakness. Right now, the man is about 40 feet away from you.

Kess and Vesper are up.

Realizing that the bizarre scarecrow was still attacking Chrys and that Vesper was now safe, Kess bolted from Vesper's side and wound her way behind the monstrous creature if she could get there, hoping to catch the monstrosity by surprise, taking the scant moments to shake the gore and feathers from her blades before diving in.

(Assuming advantage for flanking, unless otherwise indicated; including 2 die rolls for you, DM :) )

Attack 1: 10 14, Damage: 6

Attack 2: 17 13, Damage: 5

OOC: Lumen needs to get some fire magic. Really need to change over my spells ASAP! This is so frustrating.

Having dispatched with the ravens, Kess sprints up behind the scarecrow and finishes it off with a flurry of quick slices that tear it to shreds and finally render the strangely terrifying creature inactive. It slumps to the ground, now nothing more than a heap of torn, filthy fabric, broken sticks and loose hay. No one is more relieved to see it go down than Chrys. Now that the creature is no longer a threat, she reagins her composure as the sense of terror within her subsides.

"Ugh... thanks," she says to Kess gratefully.  "That thing nearly scared the piss outta me!  What was it, anyhow?  It said somethin' 'bout bein' controlled before we killed it.  ... Not that I'm sure we killed it, what with there bein' nothin' but sticks an' bones here."   She rubs her chin.  "Maybe what fey's in the lake is controllin' the forest spirits 'round here, makin' 'em do things like possess that pile o' sticks to attack people?"