The Group met for breakfast at the Inn as normal and discussed what to do for the day. It was soon decided to go check out the problem at the outlying farm with the giant ant. 50 gold was not a lot of money to us. At least not these days. But we came to the conclusion that a giant ant running rampant and killing cows might hurt the beef industry here in town. Mordin had to have his steaks, and if he didn't get them their was going to be hell to pay.
So off we set to the south of town to the Parker Farm. As we approached the farmhouse proper we noticed it was very quiet. Usually a farm is a noisy place with dogs and chickens and such. But nothing made a sound. We are used to a certain amount of quite when delving underground. In fact the only sound we have grown accustomed to hearing on a regular basis down there is the sound of Draco brushing his hair. But up here in the world of light and the living there is almost constant noise. We readied our weapons and approached the farmhouse door.
I knocked.
I heard something or someone scrambling around in there. A dog growled, and then I female voice said loudly from behind the door, " Who's there?"
"Uh, we're from Thornkeep." I said. "We are here about the Job to kill the giant ant. "
A heard a locking bar being raised from it's catch and the door swung open to reveal a portly woman in her 30's. She had a huge and intimidating meat cleaver in her hand. " Well get in here!" she yelled. "Its dangerous out there!" We filed into her main room of her farmhouse as she gave a quick look around outside and then slammed the door shut and locked it.
The inside of the house was chaos incarnate. Dogs, cats, chickens, a cow, several children, an old man Mrs. Parker introduced as her husband, armed with a pitchfork, were all cramped into this house. I even noticed a pig under the table.
"There is only six of you?" Mrs. Parker asked incredulously. " I don't think that's going to be enough."
"Ma'am." I replied. " We are professionals. I am sure we can handle one ant."
"Are you sure? This thing is huge." She said, spreading her arms wide.
"Just point us in the right direction." Shakes said. "We will take care of the rest."
"What are you going to do?" She asked Shakes. Apparently giving him the once over and noticing his apparent lack of weapons. "Scream at it?"
"Something like that." Shakes replied in a dry voice.
"Maybe you better take this." offering him her meat cleaver.
Shakes held out his hands in a placating manner and said. "I'll be fine. Is the gold good?"
Mistress Parker got wary then, and said. "The gold is hid and you will get it when the ant is dead."
"Fine. Where is this ant so we can get this over with." Shakes is almost aways about the business.
She opened the door and pointed to a large wheat field about ten acre's in diameter. "It came from that direction and carried my cow back that way after it cut it in half."
"Did it carry both pieces at the same time?" I asked.
"I don't know. I guess so." She said, waving her meat cleaver around animatedly. "Just go kill the darn thing, if you can, so things can get back to normal round here."
"Do not worry ma'am." Draco piped in. "The job is as good as done."
She looked at Draco. Then did a double take, and then decided she needed to straighten out her skirt and touch up her hair. Acts that made me a bit nervous for her with that cleaver in her hand. "Oh I am sure with someone like you on the job I have nothing to worry about." she smiled.
Oh give me a break....
Draco smiled back, and that seemed to make the Matron of Parker Farm's morning. This could have went on for a while so to get things moving I said, "Let's get moving."
We started into the field when Mrs. Parker hollered out, "And if you see Ned tell him to get his arse back here!"
Everyone of us stopped and turned around and Aramel asked. "Who's Ned?"
She hollered. "A good for nothin farm hand who took my best pitchfork and said he was going to solve the problem when no one showed up to help."
"When did he leave?" I asked.
"Early this morning."
We looked at each other. "He might still be alive." Abrandon, our cleric, whispered.
"No he is not." Mordin said simply.
Spreading out, with Shakes and Mordin in the lead, we proceeded through the wheat field. We found a path with a blood trail where something about cow sized was dragged through it, so finding the giant ants lair was easy enough.
It was an ant hill.
Only this ant hill was ten feet in diameter and about five feet high. a large hole about 3 feet in diameter led down into darkness. "That's not going to be easy to crawl down." I said.
The ant, and it was a big one, only not as large as I thought it would be with the farmers wife's tale, came barreling out of it's hole and straight at Mordin. It was about the size of a large dog. I fired my heavy crossbow and hit it square between it's eyes. The barbarian skipped nimble to the side and cut it's head off easily. It all happened so fast no one else got a chance to react.
Then Abrandon said incredulously. "I can't believe it! You actually hit something!"
Everyone else chimed in then with, "Did You see that?" and. "Nitro hit something with his crossbow!" and "Lucky Shot!" and "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it!"
All this hoopla was probably the reason no one noticed that two more giant ants came scrambling out of the hole to bear down on us.
With a yell Mordin had his feet knocked out from under him and Shakes barely jumped into the air above a pair of mandibles that tried to grab him. Aramel recovered first and stabbed the one the barbarian was rolling frantically to avoid. I finished it off with a Magic Missile.
Draco ran backwards and cut lose with a firebolt that cooked the last one.
"Whew!" I said. "That was a close one." Silently thanking the pair of giant ants that saved me from the tirade of embarrassing comments about my marksmanship.
"Do you think there is any more?" asked Aramel, looking at me.
"I don't know." I replied. "There could be a queen, and maybe thousands of them in there."
"Only one way to find out!" exclaimed Mordin as he crouched and shimmied down the hole.
We shrugged and followed him.
The ant hole contained only one chamber. In it we found the remains of the cow and the farm hand Ned. He had been dead for only a couple of hours. "Good thing he was good for Nothin." said Mordin. But I could tell he was not happy about this. "This is why they should leave this to the professionals." he growled.
We looted and didn't find much but did recover Parker Farm's best pitchfork.
Mrs. Parker was so grateful she invited us to stay for lunch and made sure she sat right next to Draco.
She was a good cook.
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