Elliot wakes up near a campfire in the mid-afternoon. He is under a tarp held up by three sticks; a makeshift tent. He crawls out, wincing as he feels a wound on his side, and a throbbing injury in his chest.

“Maybe we should leave him. Jayce is already awake. But we’ve been waiting on the boss for ten hours.” Jeremiah says.

“His potential is too great to squander.” Frederick hisses.

“His potential? What about his life? We can’t leave him for dead. Talia stands firmly against them.

“I saw a man get kicked by a mule and never wake up again,” Lillyput says. “Could be brain dead.”

“He isn’t brain dead. His heart beat stabilized on its own, his deep wounds clotted on their own, that isn’t human. He is healing from fatal injuries.” Esmeralda says.

“If he is a demihuman it could explain his access to an advanced class.” Frederick muses.

“Advanced class!” The others turn in shock toward Fred.

“Would you all shut the fuck up,” Elliot says as he stands up behind them.

He has a scar above where his heart is and a handful of bloody bandages.

“We are heading back to Bakers to put this shit hole behind us for now. We can’t risk fighting them head-on again.” Elliot says.

The group stares at him in shock.

“What?” He shrugs.

“I thought you were gone,” Talia says as tears start to form in the corner of her eyes.

“I think I was for a second there.” Elliot scratches the back of his head. “Would have been pretty shitty of me to leave you all high and dry.”

“We lost the two kids from Taft. Jayce, Hauss, Esmeralda, and myself are all wounded.” Jeremiah quickly reports to Elliot.

“Thanks,” Elliot tells Jeremiah, he wonders who Hauss is, but he tries to turn back to Talia focusing on her.

“We have no rations. If we don’t stop at a nearby village we will starve on our way to Bakers.” Esmeralda reports.

“Yeah, we’ll figure it out.” Elliot shrugs away the report.

“You have the experience. Over four-thousand. If I take three-thousand of that we can set you up with a primitive class.” Frederick says.

“Huh, alright. Let’s do it.” Elliot says.

“Now you can be a Chronicler, a Judge, or an Antibaptist because all of us are here. You could also reset the 3000 exp to change your base class of fighter to bard or druid since there are some peculiar people in your group that would be a good source of those skills.” Frederick explains.

“I want to be a Chronicler,” Elliot says with firm resolution. “I need to understand the system governing our world.”

“Alright.” Fred lifts his tablet up and shifts some values around on a spreadsheet.

“Wait that’s it?” Elliot asks.

“You aren’t going to really feel the effect for maybe even a few days.” Fred shrugs.

True statement (Insight 8)

“Hey, we need to move out soon.” Jeremiah says.

True statement (Insight 5)

“Does every statement have this weird, like, voice in your head telling you it's true or not?” Elliot asks.

“Oh, you are already at that stage. I imagine with your Insight you see relatively low numbers. Just try to tune it out.” Fred advises.

“Alright. Tune it out.” Elliot pushes the thoughts from his head. “We need to move out, so where are we going?”

Elliot winces as he asks the question. He can feel neurons firing in his brain and the sensation isn’t quite like pain, but discomfort. Being aware of your own nervous system, every bit of charge in your body, it’s almost overwhelming.

“We are heading to Fort Reed to the South of our position. It’s an eight-hour trek though, so we should be ready for attacks just in case.” Jeremiah says.

“Alright, let's go.” Elliot rolls his shoulders.

The party heads south across the wasteland. Through the slight bit of greenery and vegetation that is in the vicinity of Fresno. They don’t encounter anything along the way of danger but they notice various critters along the route.

They eventually arrive at the town of Fort Reed. They see a family outside their house packing their things. As they approach Elliot scans the rest of the town. Most of it is deserted or there are others packing what they own so they can leave.

“What’s going on here?” Elliot asks the family.

“The beast has set a path towards our village. It’s best for us to go to Fresno for the day, and then come back when it's moved through.” The father says.

“Well, why leave if it's just going to pass through? And why won’t Lord Neries kill it?” Elliot crosses his arms.

“It will target the closest human, march towards it for days without stopping, and devour them. No one knows if it is killable. And the Lord has used it in the past to defend the town from sieges.” The father explains. “Look, I need to get my family out of here.”

“Alright, go, I’ll take care of this monster.” Elliot nods to him.

The group continues through town looking for a tavern. They near large wooden palisades in the center of town that surround an estate. And enter a market area. There are simple goods lying about, abandoned.

“Sir, we can’t face a monster in our condition. Let's take some of these supplies and go. We can camp outside town where any large beast would have to cover open ground to get to us.” Jeremiah advises Elliot.

“Grab the supplies and do as you please. I think I’m going to see what kind of creature we are dealing with.” Elliot looks at the estate and one large wooden tower rising from the center of it.

Elliot marches towards the estate, finding a gap in the palisades that leads towards the gate, and his company follows.

“For the record. This is a bad idea.” Jeremiah says.

As they approach the estate they see three servants filling two wagons with the belongings of the ruling family of Fort Reed. They stop as they see Elliot and his band.

“Did I say to stop working!” A man with a cane walks out of the front doors of the estate.

He’s maybe thirty but has a knee locked in place. He stops as he sees Elliot and starts to stammer.

“Take what you want. Don’t hurt my family.” He says.

“I need to use your tower. I want to see this beast from a distance before I fight it.” Elliot tells the man.

“Fight it?” The man mutters as an idea comes to him. “Of course. Right, this way.”

The man waves to guide Elliot in. The young smith motions for Jeremiah, Talia, Frederick, and Esmeralda to come with him. They follow behind the man into his estate.

“J’aun, can you take our guests to the top of the tower. Let them get a bead on that monster.” The man with the cane says to one of the male servants.

“Yes, master.” The servant bows.

The servant straightens himself, waves to the party, and they run up the stairs to the tower. Elliot stops at the top of the tower. There is ample space for those he had told to follow. The servant stands on the stairs, not coming all the way up, and two more join them. Elliot looks between the Bandit and the Bard with a questioning gaze.

“I know you didn’t call for us.” Lillyput says.

“But we both want to help.” The Bandit says.

“Alright, if you think so.” Elliot shrugs feeling a little exasperated.

They all move to the railings of the tower and look around. Jeremiah points Northward and whistles. Elliot quickly moves to stand next to him. Everyone’s gaze shifts that way.

A trail of dust is being kicked up, intermixing with the spores in the air, as a lumbering beast slowly walks towards town. Its movements are labored. Its form is shifting like its body is unstable, or malleable.

“How big do you think it is?” Elliot asks.

Lillyput pulls out a spyglass, extends it slightly, and takes a look at the beast.

“Oh yeah, it’s at least like two maybe three peoples tall.” Lillyput estimates.

“Do you not even know basic math?” Elliot takes the spyglass from Lillyput and looks out at the beast.

Its body seems to be a mass of swirling vines, branches, and pipes. A strange creature embodying nature. The vines wrap around each piece of metal junk it can find and pull it into its composition.

Shambling Mound

Level 5

Large Plant

Armor Class 15

Hit Points 136

Resistant to cold and fire

Speed 20 ft

04 Stealth

Immune to electricity

“It’s a Shambling Mound.” Elliot says.

“No way we can take this on.” Frederick already has his tablet out looking at the creature's stats.

“Frederick, what is speed based on?” Elliot asks.

“It’s an estimation of how fast their top speed is in what is essentially a second of running.” Fred answers.

“Why is it an estimation?” Elliot asks as he hands the telescope to Jeremiah.

“Two reasons. There is some variation per individual and the system is not based on the time scale invented on Earth. It does not conform to our physics or perception of reality.” Frederick explains.

“Alright. What is my speed?” Elliot asks himself.

30ft speed / 60 ft while dashing

“That's not bad.” Elliot says.

“It’s roughly the same speed for every human. Any one of us can outwalk that monster let alone outrun.” Frederick says.

“Alright.” Elliot sighs. “Then if we can outrun it.”

Elliot begins to think of ways to get it away from town by simply redirecting it. His face brightens up and a smile creeps over his face.

“We lead it back to Fresno. And we use it to free the Judges.” Elliot says.

“Use a monster? It's not even half human this time?” Jeremiah waves a hand at Talia who winces at the statement.

“No, he’s right. The monster will attack the wall. All the guards will have to fight it. We can free the Judges then.” Esmeralda says.

“We can go in the same way we escaped.” The Bandit says.

“Good thinking Hauss,” Talia says.

“Wait he’s Hauss.” Elliot points to the bandit.

“Yeah, what, you’re telling me you don’t remember my name?” Hauss smiles at Elliot.

“I swear you never told me it,” Elliot says as Hauss holds his sides. “You’re fucking with me?”

Hauss bursts out into laughter.

“There was so much set-up.” Hauss wipes a tear from his eye in between fits of laughter.

“Alright, Hauss, you lead the Shambling Mound to town, slip away at the last second, and join us at the secret entrance,” Elliot says.

“What. That sounds super dangerous. I don’t want to do that.” Hauss throws his hands up.

“Then you won’t do it alone,” Elliot says. “Ladies, would one of you help him out?”

A pixie pops out of snake form where they were previously curled around Talia’s ear. The pixie flutters over to Hauss and turns into a snake again on his head. She wiggles through his hair, to his ear, and wraps around it. Hauss shudders.

“I hate this job.” He mutters.

“You get double pay after we are done,” Elliot responds.

“Done,” Hause says giddily.

The group heads back down the tower. They get the group together, ready to move out, and Elliot turns back to the patriarch of the Reed house.

“You won’t need to leave. We’ll handle the monster.” Elliot says to him.

“Seriously?” The man says as Elliot leaves.

Elliot's party walks out to the monster. It’s over twenty feet tall and tendrils of roots trail behind it. The group walks in a semi-circle around it, giving it a lot of space. When it moves to follow the group continues towards Fresno with it slowly lumbering behind.

They encounter nothing on their path to Fresno as nothing will come near the shambling mound. They stop every hour and let it catch up a little. Night falls, Jeremiah takes out the oil lantern the rogue had in the Judge’s hideout, and Frederick takes out a crank flashlight. Jeremiah lights around the party, while Fred can crank his flashlight to increase the intensity allowing the group to check their surroundings periodically at greater distances.

They eventually get within vision of Fresno and its lights. They separate from Hauss, wishing him luck, as they travel to the secret entrance. They cover the lantern and let the flashlight grow dim as they get closer to the city. (21 Stealth vs Perception 12))

The group comes to black rock terrain. There is a metal plate on the ground. Esmeralda drags it to the side revealing a shaft. The group heads down into ancient sewers. They follow it back to the Judge’s hideout. They enter and spread out through the building. Elliot goes to the front door and cracks it slightly open.

Two guards rush by. There is the sound of gunfire in the distance. A huge crash. There is a noise from the secret entrance. Hauss emerges, joining the group, Elliot gathers everyone as his mind starts to piece together a plan.