Foulest Fowl

The Foulest Fowl
Date	6/27/2025
Storyteller	Doug
Tier	Expert
Player Characters	Seskro, Boophis Bright-Eyed, Calamity Button, Phyl, Arumi
Rewards	250exp, 300gp, Scroll of Teeth to Terror (Rank 2), Scroll of Call the Blood (Rank 4), Clandestine Cloak
Result	Success
Author	Arumi (Aru)
Downtime	16

Associates investigate strange bird-related happenings.

(The following report is written cleanly and with crisp penmanship)

07:43:57 – Day 1

I await my fellow associates.

In theory, I should be here mostly in an academic capacity due to my inexperience – this job has asked for experts. With that in mind, this is expected to be a long expedition, so I’ve taken the liberty of stocking up on supplies in advance. I’ve obtained enough food and water for four weeks of travel, and have prepared the necessary passages ahead of time in my spellbooks should I need to make more for the others; I might as well make myself useful to them.

I will include descriptions of the others as they arrive.

• Arumi – Civic wizard and scribe.
• Boophis Bright-Eyed – A soft-spoken wizard of formidable stature. He’s taught me much of what I know.
• Calamity Button – a halfling sorceress of some renown in Onadbyr. She has a penchant for explosive spells.
• Phyl – a ratfolk marksman with a keen eye and quiet steps. He takes very meticulous notes.
• Seskro, the Destroyer of Men – a horned kobold with a large crossbow. She seems very eager to follow orders.

With that, we’ve all arrived.

08:02:18 – Day 1

We are currently meeting with the representative for this expedition.

She’s a human woman in military garb – I find it hard to place the age of the younger races, but it seems as though she’s retired from active duty.

This expedition has been put together because three of her scouts have gone missing; they’re no longer responding to messages. They were last stationed in a nearby abandoned hamlet which serves as a resting station for travelers and merchants along the road. Four days ago, she received a sending with a standard report, stating that a large bird attacked the hamlet and that they would monitor the situation from a safe distance; there were few casualties. She was in the process of organizing an expedition to aid the scouts when she received another sending two days ago, this time simply stating four words: “Send immediate help. We-“, cutting off suddenly here.

She’s informed us that her scouts are trained with the following focus reinforced into them: safeguard their own lives, and prioritize their lives over any intelligence they could acquire in the field. She has no idea why they would have returned to the hamlet.

We’ve been provided a cart with no horses; she says the scouts do not have enough resources to spare any more.

With that, we’ll be departing from the gates, traveling southwest along well-traveled roads; it should be an easy journey.

(In between this page and the next is a small parchment containing a brief conversation between the expert associates)

“Sendings can be up to 25 words. I don’t know why anyone would waste a whole sending on only 4.” – Boophis

“Unless they were interrupted.” – Phyl

“But then wouldn’t the last words be like, ‘ahhhhhhh’?” – Calamity

“You don’t have to speak the words out loud you only have to think them.” – Boophis

“But then they’d be like, ‘ouch fuck that hurt’.” – Calamity

“Maybe they died before they could think anything.” – Seskro

“Perhaps the creature has some sort of ability that takes one’s mind away from themselves.” – Boophis

“Maybe the bird is wealthy and paid them.” – Calamity

“I don’t think that makes sense.” – Boophis

“I mean, we work for money – if someone offers a lot of money, it’s hard to say no. I’ve seen crows pick up coins all the time.” – Calamity

“I think that’s more of a… shiny obsession than any societal value of money.” - Phyl

11:37:18 – Day 6

We’re two days away, but we’ve entered the start of the woods that comprises the area where the hamlet is located.

These woods seem fairly dense, but the road seems well-trodden and the cart is having no issues. There’s not a very wide diversity of flora here – but one thing does stand out: there’s a very large population of small birds here. Boophis and Phyl have identified them as Golarion Thrushes – it’s apparently not uncommon to see them in such large concentrations in woods such as these, though typically they’re migratory. The males are mostly black with a single white stripe along their face, while the females are brown with white facial stripes.

Boophis wishes to examine some of the birds for signs of disease; some time ago, the both of us encountered a similar looking bird near Onadbyr which fell from the sky, dead, plagued by some unknown disease. I’ve offered to harmlessly place some to sleep for his inspection, but he’s elected to instead simply grab one by hand with the aid of Phyl.

In the meantime, I’ve made the same offer to the other experts should they wish to inspect some for a second opinion.

Calamity has taken the liberty of using her magic to simply appear next to a bird and grab it with her bare hands, returning it to us while it thrashes in her grasp. I took the opportunity to put it to sleep – for its sake. Seskro has mentioned that she has performed an autopsy before, and has offered her services if we need to examine one internally.

12:48:00 – Day 6

The expert associates’ examination of the birds has concluded.

Boophis has provided us some alchemical antiplagues, and those with masks have taken to wearing them while in the woods. It appears the birds are carriers for some manner of disease; it does not kill them, but they can infect other creatures, including us. Every bird that we have examined has had the same external signs – a ring of green around their eyes.

Boophis and Seskro have performed a more thorough examination of the bird that I put to sleep – performing an autopsy to see what internal symptoms there may be. They have reported that the inside of the lungs of the bird appear to be stained pale green with spots of black. While the infection is clearly present inside of the bird, it appears the other birds show no signs of altered behavior, and so are likely not hindered by the illness.

From this, they have determined that the illness is airborne, and likely affects the lungs and throat first, with the initial symptoms likely being a cough. Because of the nature of the symptoms, Boophis is convinced that the final stages of this disease are death, though it’s unclear how long it would take for this to kill someone.

With that in mind, these birds being migratory has become a severe concern for us. Calamity has proposed burning the forest down. The other experts are not in agreement – yet.

11:00:48 – Day 8

We have found two of the scouts.

We’re still an hour or two away from the hamlet, but as we entered a small clearing, Phyl managed to spot a human scout crawling on the ground towards us, dragging another person with him. He’s completely collapsed on the ground, dragging himself forward with a single arm while his other arm holds on to his comrade.

Boophis has contacted the man with Message, and he’s replied – alive, but barely.

Upon hearing this, I volunteered to attempt to heal the man; my magic had no effect. His skin is sunken in from exhaustion, he’s drenched in sweat, covered in scrapes from dragging himself and yellow stains as though he’s been wretching, and his eyes are spotted black; I can’t see his pupils. It seems he’s been rendered blind.

His friend is dead. Seskro has agreed to perform an autopsy.

Boophis is trying to treat the still-living scout. He found some kind of stabbing wound that is particularly infected – he believes this is the injury that caused the disease. It’s very apparent that this condition is separate from the disease present in the birds, although it’s something Boophis has never seen before. He’s one of the finest medical experts in the entire city; his uncertainty is concerning, to say the least.

In the duration of his treatment, the living scout has given us a summary of what transpired in the hamlet.

The scouts managed to evacuate the hamlet when the giant bird attacked. After the evacuation, they returned after seeing huge fires in the area; there were towers of black smoke pluming in the sky. When they returned, they saw several humanoid figures, but before they could do any investigating, they were attacked – each scout was injured in their flight with one of them instantly killed, each shot with what appears to be arrows coated in different potent diseases; the assailants did not pursue the two who lived. It seems they were confident the wounds would kill them.

Seskro has confirmed that the other scout was killed by a disease that was much more fast-acting; it also had different symptoms entirely. The man’s body has black liquid oozing out of every orifice; the stench is horrible. By Seskro’s estimation, it was likely a very painful death.

The others have pointed out with these findings that each disease we’ve encountered so far has been unique, aside from the mass infection present in the birds.

Boophis intends to continue to try to cure the still living scout, so we’ll spend some time here.

13:39:01 – Day 8

The scout is dead.

Boophis expended great efforts to try to help the man, but it seemed as though no matter what he did, nothing improved. After a few hours of trying in futility, the man clearly in a great deal of pain the entire time, the other associates and I agreed that the most humane thing to do would be to put him to rest. Boophis was very reluctant, but I managed to convince him.

After speaking it over with the others, I volunteered to be the one to do it. After spending some time consulting my spellbook, I came up with a method I think is the least painless out of anything we could collectively do with our resources at hand. While preparing myself, I had the others move him behind some trees.

I had never had to consider something like this before – I’ve never taken a human life, with or without magic.

The first step was to ensure he was no longer awake; a simple sleep spell, a harmless thing I’ve used by request at times, even. From here, my goal was to render him as insensate as possible within my means, gradually making it more difficult for him to wake up. From here, time was of the essence; if any of the enchantments faded before the act, he might have felt something in passing.

He seemed almost peaceful while he was asleep. The horrible gasping had quieted down considerably.

Out of respect, I will refrain from describing the act that put him to rest – suffice to say, he exhibited no signs of pain, and it was over in an instant. I spent some time using my magic to dig a grave for him, and managed to get him inside of it, burying him with a small mound of rocks to mark the spot.

I have taken the liberty of informing the other associates that I may be distracted for the remainder of our expedition.

15:02:40 – Day 8

We’ve arrived in the hamlet.

On the road into the hamlet, we discovered the final scout. He was dead, as previously reported by his comrades.

We’ve discovered the source of the billowing black plumes of smoke we spotted on the way from the forest – the same ones the scouts returned to the hamlet to investigate. It’s bodies. Piles of bodies. Four of them, to be exact – each pyre containing 10 bodies arranged carefully in deliberate piles. There’s little left of them but scorched bones at this point. The smell is horrifying; even the village razed by dragonfire didn’t have this pungent of an odor.

The hamlet doesn’t seem to have caught fire. There’s plenty of buildings with massive holes in them, likely from the initially reported giant bird. A sole building on the top of a hill at the far corner of the hamlet appears to be where the creature landed and began its rampage; there’s a massive hole in this one, and the creature appears to be dead on its back.

We’ve split into two groups: Boophis and Seskro will investigate the giant bird, and the rest of us will investigate the bodies in the pyres.

I will take some time to find an appropriate spell to douse the flames.

15:14:01 – Day 8

The pyres have been extinguished.

Our preliminary findings are as follows:

• The bodies have been very deliberately and carefully stacked.
• There are no religious or occult markings present at or around the pyres.
• There are no obvious identifications or similarities between the bodies.
• These bodies appear to have been brought here from somewhere else.

We’ve also made note that the scout’s body was not thrown into a pyre.

Phyl has managed to find some cart tracks to the southeast – fresh ones. It seems as though after the giant bird attacked, some other group traveled here with 40 bodies and placed them in these bizarre pyres. He counts tracks for at least 10 other people present alongside of the carts.

We’re still awaiting Boophis and Seskro’s examination of the bird.

15:15:18 – Day 8

Combat Report:

Casualties:

• A writhing, flying pile of purple insects – completely destroyed with the combined efforts of the expert associates; numerous fireball-related injuries and massive munition damage

Injuries:

• Boophis – Slight lacerations due to a swarm of insects attempting to burrow inside of him

• Seskro – Minor burns from a mostly-dodged fireball, several small incisions from a swarm of insects

Summary:

Upon investigating the corpse of the large bird, Boophis and Seskro discovered some strange yellow pus-like substance on its upturned stomach. It didn’t appear to be coming from any wound; rather, it seemed as though someone had applied the pus to the creature’s body for some reason. Boophis got closer to investigate, using a small knife to try to make an incision. As soon as he did, the creature’s stomach exploded into a massive swarm of chittering purple insects, which promptly took flight and attacked the two of them.

It seemed as though the creatures were trying to burrow their way into the associates’ bodies. Luckily, the experts were able to make quick work of the creature. Calamity and Boophis incinerated massive swaths of the creatures with magic, while Phyl and Seskro managed to destroy the stragglers with precise ranged attacks.

Unfortunately, I was unable to assist in any real capacity aside from tending to the injured after combat with my magic. Everyone appears to be healthy and not infected with any obvious signs of disease.

Boophis and Seskro intend to continue their investigation of the body.

15:25:00 – Day 8

The investigation of the creature is complete.

Seskro has discovered the insects that burst forth from the body seem to be primarily consistent of discolored flesh from inside of the creature. It appears as though the insects spent some time incubating inside of the body, eventually devouring the internal organs and flesh of it to become fully formed. It appears as well that this massive bird-creature has died of yet another disease we have not yet encountered; the pattern, or lack thereof seems consistent.

Calamity meanwhile has discovered that, alongside of the cart tracks leading to the hamlet, there are traces of the same yellow pus that was present on the bird. We expect that each of these 40 bodies was afflicted with the same disease before being burnt in the pyres.

Phyl has discovered spots of dirt and rock recently dug up and reburied in the pyres. After we extinguished the pyres and began looking more closely, it appears that each pyre has 11 such spots present. Upon digging them up, we’ve discovered strips of human flesh. It appears that each of these locations, each arranged in a circle around the pyre, contain a strip of flesh from a different person; he seems confident that the flesh did not come from the bodies present in the fires.

Taking some time to examine these pieces of flesh, it appears that some of them can be rearranged to form spell scrolls. We’ve taken some time to identify two such scrolls: one comprised of two pieces of flesh, and one comprised of three pieces. Alongside of this, we’ve found a strange cloak. I’ll attach a summary of our findings on this matter at the end of the report.

With this discovery, we’ve established a working theory for what transpired here.

After the bird died in this hamlet, some group of people arrived with 40 bodies infected with a disease. They arranged a ritual of some kind with their own severed flesh and then set the bodies into four pyres, burning them. This ritual allowed the disease from the bodies to spread from the smoke billowing off of the pyres, infecting the local bird population in the woods.

It's become clear that this is a serious threat. We’re currently discussing our options on how to deal with the birds before they migrate. It may be impossible to hunt them all down – but the only other option would be to burn down the woods. For now, we’ll see how we fare on the way back to town. Calamity seems to be convinced she can take care of quite a few of them before we leave.

09:00:00 – Day 11

The Golarian Thrush population has been decimated.

Between the experts’ collective efforts, I have long since lost count of how many birds have been killed on our way back. Seskro and Phyl have run out of ammo. Boophis has been destroying wide swaths of the unfortunate creatures. Calamity has been demonstrating some peculiar collection of wands she has – any bird unfortunate enough to come within 120 feet of her is instantly killed by a missile of pure force.

The carnage is unimaginable.

But, we seem to have noticeably thinned out their numbers. By our last day in the woods, there were very few of them left. We’ll have to hope that’s enough to prevent the worst of the spread of disease in the area around Onadbyr.

There’s nothing between us and the city from here – just several days more of travel.

13:05:59 – Day 16

We’ve arrived back in Onadbyr.

We’re all safe – and no one seems to have contracted any diseases from our time in the woods.

Attached is a summary of our rewards for the expedition, including the identified objects recovered from the hamlet.

• One Clandestine Cloak – Boophis has learned its construction, but we’ve decided to sell the cloak itself to split the reward.
• One scroll of Teeth to Terror (Rank 2) – I’ve taken this scroll to provide to knowledgeable occultists in town.
• One scroll of Call the Blood (Rank 4) – We’ve decided to sell this scroll and split the rewards.
• 300 gold pieces – Our reward from the council, split evenly between us.

In total, each of us have received 90 gold for our efforts.

It somehow feels wrong to accept it.

With that, this expedition is over.

-Arumi, Civic Wizard