Being treated to a banquet in their honor, having thus solved the case of The Murder of Jose Sujeira, rather than sit in the spotlight or get to know some of the inhabitants of the village, the group decided to slip out to investigate some loose ends; primarily, the disappearance of Vicente Anbrosio, who vanished from the cell he was locked in.

Searching his home didn't yield any physical evidence, but the place had clearly been ransacked; Svorcra was able to deduce that three sizeable people had been there recently searching for something. By following their footprints, the group was able to track them to the dark alley near the Mayor's estate, where the trail diverged.

The clearest set of prints lead out of town and into the outlands, towards the village of Aldeia de Espiga, where Irmã Tempestade had warned them that an ill-wind was blowing. As they ventured into the woods they found the discarded clothes of a village guard, the same they last saw Vicente wearing. Errnie and Kadav befriended a hungry pack of wolves who lead them to a cave - inside, Vicente was being confronted by three large monstrous creatures.

Pip Vellum

The cave hid more than just a clandestine meeting of elite members of The Mycelial Thread; a halfling farmer from nearby Aldeia de Espiga named Pip Vellum had sought shelter in the cave for the night, only to find a group of strange beings enter shortly thereafter.

Hiding behind a stalagmite, he was able to overhear the conversation between the group. The man, Vicente - former deputy of Aldeia de Raiz - arrived last and bowed to the three mycelial beings, calling them The Emissaries of the Thread; specifically naming them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Vicente begged the Emissaries for forgiveness for his failures, and begged them to arrange a meeting with someone named Nebuchadrezzar. The leader, Shadrach, admonished Vicente and informed him that his life in Raiz was over; that he could never return. He was instructed to return home to Espiga, keep his head down and await further instructions.

This shadowy gathering was interrupted when the adventurers stumbled into the cave. Unafraid of the supernatural beasts, they clashed head on with the Emissaries, dispatching both Meshach and Abednego - though the leader, Shadrach, escaped early in the encounter. Elgor pinned Vicente to the ground with his immovable rod while the group swept up the mushroom men.

After the combat Pip introduced himself and explained the plight of his hometown. Not only were the crops being decimated by a supernatural blight, but the population of the village was slowly vanishing as a strange cult was rising in worship of a corrupted bird named Pica Pau. As he was on his way to Raiz to seek help, the group told him it would be a waste of time, as they would just be put in charge of the investigation anyways, and agreed to cut out the middle man. Together they navigated The Outlands en route to Espiga.

The Siege of the Crow's Head

Having arrived on the outskirts of the village, the group stopped at Cabeca de Corvo, the village inn - owned by the Família do Corvinho. The manager, Tristan Corvinho, an old friend of Pip's, welcomed the group with kind and open arms. Though he informed them that he intended to leave the village that night with his sister Graça, he invited the strangers to stay in the inn as long as they needed, though he strongly suggested they should flee as well.

The night was a chaotic cascade of surreal events. Morga followed a faun named Veada into the dark and dangerous woods alone, only to gamble with a couple strange monks at the crossroads. The faun begged him to clear the nearby cave of the brutal wolves who have recently allied themselves with a weredog. Back at the tavern, Kadav played renditions of his popular song "Bring Back Jasper" on the piano for hours.

Ernie and Kadav noticed a few strange creatures outside and, instead of hiding from them, they banged out pop hits and made faces at them from the window. After they left, the two put up a sign directing people to the open door. This door would later be used when the strange creatures returned with reinforcements, entering the inn and immediately knocking a couple members of the party unconscious. They appeared to be after Vicente, who was still bound and captive by the group.

Though the battle was bloody and hard fought, by the time dawn was beginning to crack, they finally vanquished the Gourdhead Manherd, successfully reclaiming their captive. It wasn't until dawn that Pip realized that, while Graça had left alone in the night, there was no sign of Tristan - though a thorough search of the office unveiled a secret door with a strange locking mechanism.

Fire at the Granary

Having finally rested after the siege, the crew was then tested when they found the village granary in flames. The symbol of Aldeia de Espiga's transcendence from serfdom to the free and humble village it once was, Pip immediately realized that without the mill, there would be no salvation for his hometown. Luckily, the rest of the group took little convincing before they sprung into action.

On the ground floor, an older woman was cornered by two Sweepers, though they were easily dispatched in the burning room. The woman begged the adventurers to save the others who went upstairs to attempt to put out the blaze; there was little hope to save the building, and she didn't wish to see it claim any lives unnecessarily.

The call to action was enough to send the group on a rescue mission. Pip lead the charge, feeling most invested in the safety of his fellow Espigians, and wishing to save the mill if possible. He scouted ahead for any other Sweepers that might be present. Ernie turned out to be quite adept at dousing the flames, creating torrents of water to purge the tower of the inferno that was consuming it.

On the second floor they managed to rescue a local farmer by the name of Francisco, who informed them that there was still one more man on the floor above. True enough, the foreman of the granary, Manal, was trapped behind a rapidly spinning cog. In a rare display of true heroics, Lord Elgor leapt over the gears and carried the man over one shoulder - this was perhaps offset by the fact that he carried Vicente Anbrosio INTO danger over his other shoulder.

Rather than retreating from the tower, the group decided to ascend to the top floor to douse the flames and save the building from complete destruction. In the small office at the top of the windmill, Pip found another misplaced Sweeper who seemed to accept that he was going to meet his doom in the blaze, yet was happy to chase a worse fate when it attacked the group.

After it was subsequently destroyed and Ernie put out the last of the flames, Pip cracked the lock on a chest and discovered a trove of psychotic notes and illustrations, effectively serving as a confession from the oldest child of the Família do Corvinho, Graça. It illustrated her plan to burn the mill to the ground, as well as a host of other cruelties she planned to enact. They also found a lockbox full of coins labeled "Wages", containing 200 silver coins and 1,000 copper. At the bottom of the chest, they found a pendant in the shape of the Corvinho family crest, bearing the family creed "Walk Amongst the Crows". Pip put it around his neck.

Having saved the most lucrative building in the village and several lives along the way, the group was greeted with a heroes welcome upon exiting the mill. The woman they saved on the first floor turned out to be Claudia Corvinho, the matriarch of the most influential family in the village. Wishing to thank the group properly, she invited them to a feast that evening.

Julia De Maya, who was travelling with the group, recognized the woman from a description given to her by her father and offered to help her prepare the meal, leaving the group to join Sra. Corvinho.

Legends of the Hidden Temple

Returning to the Cabeca de Corvo, Pip slotted the pendant into the panel, which fit perfectly and engaged the mechanism, allowing the door to be opened. Desccending into an earthen cellar, the group found an inner chamber being guarded by two cultists wearing the regalia of The Mycelial Thread. Confronting them with aggression only served to initiate hostility, but the two were no match for the full force of the adventurers.

This door was, again, locked and the they were unable to convince those inside to open the door. Without any other options available to them, Pip set to picking the lock, which he was eventually able to accomplish. Unfortunately, the other side of the door presented a frightful scene; a gathering of fanatics had just performed a gruesome sacrifice on a stone altar. Presiding over the occult practice was Shadrach, the lead Emissary in service of a mysterious high priest known only as Nebuchadrezzar.

The cultists wasted no time assaulting the interlopers, while the Emissary seemingly sunk into the wall itself. Adding to the gruesome environment, a flock of sinewy crows burst from the dead woman's belly, after which a massive bird-like beast crawled out from her abdomen to join the melee. These dangers were overcome by the group through pain and determination, leaving the chamber vacant once more.

Unable to pursue the Emissary, they instead surveyed the temple. Pip immediately recognized the victim of the ritual slaying as Rosa Corvinho, the middle child of the influential family. The altar was set up to filter the blood through a macabre alchemical contraption, resulting in a small opaque potion. Unsure what else to do, the group decided to look elsewhere for answers.