"Hey, the more the merrier. We seem to have about the same amount of knowledge about our current whereabouts, so traveling together makes sense. Now, I believe Svipdag suggested we should go south, didn't you?" Claw bends down and picks up the huge turtle. "We might as well set out."
"The Lady said the southern forest was where she needed me to explore. Shall we?"
"In which direction do you intend to go?"
There's a road; running roughly north and south.
The tanuki looks at the 1/2 orc;
"wwww.....what's so great about being sober?"
And off to the north,......between trees,.....far in the distance, a few miles maybe, you can see a low pink cloud slowly forming.
Dok:
Dok:
"Hold on." Dok says, somewhat curtly before he begins casting a spell. Seconds tick by, until finally the spell is completed with no discernible effect.
There's a village, about 10 miles north, on a large river that flows east and west. The road leads there.
There's a cloud of......pink.....something,....pouring down on that village. It doesn't look like smoke; if anything, it looks like....leaves. Very odd; they're very high, up in the sky, for leaves of some sort.
There's two people on the road north, 5 miles ahead of you and headed north. One, a male, has a wide brimmed, squat and conical hat made of reed perhaps; he has two swords at his waist; the other, a female, carries a bright red parasol.
You see another larger town, maybe 20 miles up the river east of this village of the pink cloud; a road north from that town, maybe thirty miles past a couple villages, then a village by the sea side, surrounded by marshes that have been cultivated as rice paddies.
West, into the woods, there's a complex of buildings built up on a largeish squared off hill, probably artificial, which is girded by or made up of great stone;
several buildings, one of which is maybe three stories, make up this building.
This is 10 miles, off of a trail and through thick woods. No problem for a ranger;.....
south and east views coming up; need to reperuse my map.
"Impressive," comments Beldan deadpan as nothing happens.
About thirty miles south, there's a seaside town, and two villages along the way there.
Also, a largeish building standing alone along the road;
you can make out foot traffic along this road, it is more common down between the villages and the seaside town.
The river flows northeast, maybe 60 miles where it finds the foot of a mountain chain and splits to run north east and east.....
"Impressive," comments Beldan deadpan as nothing happens.
"What?"
says the tanuki.
"Exactly," replies Beldan, tapping the side of his nose.
"I knew a dog that didn't have a nose," he says.
Ignoring Beldan's comment, Dok begins rattling off details about the surrounding countryside.
Once he's finished, Dok says to Beldan; "Aye. It's useful."
heh heh.....
the tanuki asks;
"any....distilleries about?"
"North, then? If it turns out be uninteresting, we can double back to that forest fortress."
"Aye. The pink cloud sounds unusual, even if it is not dangerous." She looks at the tanuki, "Or, maybe you know, does this village always have this pink cloud?"
The tanuki replies;
"I can see it. Smell it.
Cherry blossoms. In autumn.
No, this is a weirdness."
You look over at a tree. It is a pine tree.
Watermelons are growing at high speed before your eyes off of the pine tree.
You can see flowers blooming all about as if in high speed photography now.
"Huh. This is unheard-of on Oerth, even if we account for this place having a distinct flora and fauna. Looks like our stay here could be rather interesting."
"I, uh, I'm not a botanist, but, yeah, that does not appear normal to me."
“I suppose it is,” Beldan concedes grudgingly. “Well I’d prefer to head south, to the beach, but if you guys want to check out that pink cloud then – whoa, did you see that fruit growing off that pine tree just now?”
There's a whole bunch of them. Watermelons....
"That is not natural, and foul indeed. I bet they taste horrid."
“Only one way to find out,” says Beldan. He walks over and snags a watermelon from the lower trunk of one of the pines and cuts into its rind with his dagger. “Anyone want to try some? I wish Tensor was here ...”
"I think I will pass. Is your friend Tensor a professional food taster?"
“Well, he’s a dog, and ‘food’ is a subjective term where he’s concerned, but otherwise ... pretty much, yes.”
She just smiles and nods in understanding.
"Anyway ..." Beldan chops out a triangular chunk of watermelon and nibbles cautiously at the tip, unless the appearance or smell warn him off before hand.
Dok silently ponders what else he might be able to get Beldan to taste merely by stating it must taste horrid... Earthworms come to mind...
~munch, munch, munch~
~munch, munch, munch~
It's really really good. Sweet. It's a proper watermelon.
"Mmnm, this is good, you guys should try this," says Beldan, taking another bite.
"Huh..." is all Dok can manage.
North?...
“Seriously, you gotta try this fruit,” insists Beldan, cutting himself another slice. “I had one of these in Sasserine, it was good but not this good. Not many pine trees there though ... we should take some with us, maybe we can sell them for profit in the village up north.”
Dok shrugs and, making no move to partake or to collect watermelons to sell, turns North. Calling Colu to his side, he begins walking, looking back to make sure that's the direction everyone else is going to head in.
"profit!!!" wiggles ferengi ears.
The small party heads north for a few hours, and finally reaches the small village, maye 10 or 12 smartly kept huts on a narrow rise bordered by a river to the south, rice paddies to the west, and a good sized lake to the east.
As the party approaches the "cloud," it appears to be entirely comprised of cherry blossoms, falling and carpeting the woods like some odd fey snowfall.
All around, odd fruit are growing out of trees that they don't have any business growing off of.
A line of swans appears in the sky. Black swans, heading for the lake. As you approach, they seem to be on that lake in hundreds.
Then,
"NAMAZU!!! NAMAZU!!!" can be heard, shouting ahead at the village.
You're as far as the yellow area on the road at the very south.
A massive catfish has schlorped out onto the land from the river, and has vomited up a muddy humanoid figure, a scummy, vaguely humanoid figure, a floating ball of intestines and mouths, and.....a great gob of animite slime.
oh, and Emrael....
guess that would help.
Get thee to a nunnery!!! Or... bed... Bed would work, too...
“Ah dang it, they’ve already got weird fruit growing here.” Beldan lets the watermelons he’s been carrying fall to the ground.
“Man, that’s a lot of birds. Are they swans? I’ve never seen black swans before, and – oh my gods that is a big fish! What is it doing, that’s disgusting.”
"Namazu... mythology has it that Namazu is the earthquake catfish. The gods guard it, but when they let their guard down, it thrashes around and causes earthquake."
"Now that's a large fish, but even if Namazu exists, that can hardly be of sufficient size to be him. And I haven't heard any myths of it regurgitating up playmates."
Get thee to a nunnery!!! Or... bed... Bed would work, too...
heh heh.
I feelya, Ophelia.
“Ah dang it, they’ve already got weird fruit growing here.” Beldan lets the watermelons he’s been carrying fall to the ground.
“Man, that’s a lot of birds. Are they swans? I’ve never seen black swans before, and – oh my gods that is a big fish! What is it doing, that’s disgusting.”
We need Randall the honey badger guy.