"Crafting will be important soon, since we can't create water maybe we can make some kind of bowls with leaves?"
"Teniel can make water for us." Makoto had always paid a lot of attention to everyone else, seeing what they could do and what they were good at. It was part of what made everyone unique.
"Though having simple flatware will also be nice." she sighs rather loudly. "I hope so very much that we can find an answer to all of these... things."
"I wonder if we can find any clay around here. That would help a lot. We could make bowls and other simple items pretty quickly. They might be fragile, but we could probably figure out some way to fire them if we put our heads together."
Day 1, Time approximately 7 PM. The group arrives at the lake, tired and exhausted, elated to have finally made it. The sun is setting quickly behind the mountains to the west, casting long shadows over the lake. The sunset reflecting off of the lake is beautiful and you are all taken aback slightly, particularly Makoto. While Goodwin's artisty was exceptional in crafting the natural beauty of his demi-plane, this unspoiled lake and view resonates deep down with you.
As evening draws closer you see the birds start to nest up for the night but some early insects buzz around briefly. You wonder where they go when it gets so cold. The waves gently lapping against the shore brings a peace over you. While the lake itself is not very big, this is the lowest point of the plateau, the depression serving as the 'bowl' for the lake, all the snowmelt flowing in this direction. During the off season the lake levels may be lower, but now, it flows briskly. Waters from multiple streams flow in the north, east and west sides. The south end of the lake empties its contents into a river, its waters crashing down through a gap in the mountains. These rapids signal the path from the mountains for those who cannot fly or traverse the treacherous peaks.
The water is cold, very cold, but fresh. As with in the forest, wood here is plentiful and more available in smaller amounts. Driftwood and other pieces of wood has washed up and lie scattered about the shore, deposits from the fast flowing streams that made their way back to shore. The breeze here is still strong, and the cool wind picks up as the warmth of the sun disappears. In the dusk you occasionally you see or hear a fish jump into the air or surface to grab a meal from an insect that came too close to the water.
You take a moment and then need to decide on your next plan. You have about an hour before dark. The temperature is dropping quickly.
While you decide, have some more inspirational pictures:
Snowmelt streams
River
Lake
Lake Close
Lake Side
Lake Side
More Lake!
"Crafting will be important soon, since we can't create water maybe we can make some kind of bowls with leaves?"
Prestidigitation can create small objects, but they look crude and artificial. The materials created by a prestidigitation spell are extremely fragile, and they cannot be used as tools, weapons, or spell components
Lucina as you stand at the lake side pondering the questions of earlier it occurs to you, as a prestidigitator, you could make flatware and dishes or plates etc with this spell, you could not make a knife to use for anything overly 'tool'-like, but you can make forks or spoons and things like fragile bowls or glasses. You cannot use them to cook things in however as they are too fragile. A simple utterance and a small ugly but functional spoon appears in your hand. Smiles erupt from the group over this triumph as you hold it sheepishly aloft like a weapon of war. Lucina whispers, "We have spoon!"
Mlinzi looks up from the shoreline as his search for high quality clay ceases, noting the spoon.
Why are you looking here!?
"I'll scour the shore, at least until it gets dark and we lose color vision. Maybe I can find something washed here from a village upstream; then again, maybe not."
You take some time to give the shore a good once over. You find no signs of anything interesting. As dusk sets in and your group works on your campsite, you hear the other groups around the lake doing the same, campfires spring up and dot the shoreline. Tolheimia's large group appears to have a big campsite, with multiple fires.
The sight of the beautiful scene awakens something primal in the Vanaran, and he feels an urge to climb a tree and build a nest for the night. Seeing the spoon, Mlinzi's face brightens. "I have GOT to learn that spell!" Assessing the situation as quickly as he can, Mlinzi looks for the best campsite. This place is good overall, with clean running water, fish, and other useful things.
"Okay, our first priorities are to pick a place to camp and build a fire. Let's try to find some place out of the wind, if possible. We can use stones to contain the fire, and we can heat up more stones to help keep us warm tonight. I know we're getting tired, but let's push on just a little longer. Once we get the fire going, someone will have to maintain it while Tavros and I bring back some wood. We'll have to erect a shelter and get this food cooked."
The Vanaran looks around for some flint, hoping there might be something he can use to strike a spark. If there's nothing suitable, he'll have to do it the hard way.
"Tired?" Teniel asks, "You're the ones who have been walking all day in bare feet—I've been riding. Don't know anything about fire, though."
Tavros and Mlinzi easily gather wood, and get a fire going which will protect Lucina and Dalang from the cold over night.
Most sites along the shore are as good as any, although there is less rock closer to the treeline. You gather plenty of stones easily for a firepit, but you don't find any flint or chert, so you start rubbing sticks together. You are having problems getting it going though.
Mlinzi's day of energetically swinging through the trees is starting to tell, and his muscles scream in protest as he tries to generate enough heat to light the fire. He refuses to give up, growing somewhat frantic in his determination to protect his friends, but he's not getting anywhere. A part of him thinks he should ask for help, but he stubbornly continues on, not willing to accept defeat.
Makoto spends the first several minutes of her time using prestidigitation to clean herself and her brethren, slowly peeling away the resin, burrs, and the like. It probably wasn't as important to them as it was to her... but it was significantly important to Makoto.
She seems significantly less perturbed with getting a fire going. She placed her hand on the Vanara's shoulder, trying to soothe him with a touch, bringing him back to reality. "We don't really need a fire. We have a jungle cat, a bull, a monkey, and a fox. We haven't really caught anything that needs cooking, so we can just munch on the berries and the like, right? I wasn't joking about the offer to be a blanket, earlier." she shrugs, transforming into her foxy self once more, now that the resin was gone.
"We're better off focusing on getting the things we'll need in the future, I think. But I don't know what those are. You mentioned being able to make mats from any reeds you might find?"
"Besides... if we start a fire, we'll miss our first night of clear starlight in ten-thousand years... and I'm certain that will be far from worth it." her tails swish.
Mlinzi is grateful to have the sticky sap, twigs, and pine needles removed from his fur. "Thanks Maks." He tries to smile in gratitude.
"But what about Teniel and Lucina? Getting to see the stars is easy - just walk away from the fire a bit, but I have to keep everyone alive, and a fire is our best chance of that!" Mlinzi's tone is a little more abrasive than usual, a sign of just how stressed he's become. He's gotten the notion in his mind that if they don't have a fire, someone would freeze to death, and he refused to let that happen. The Vanaran returns to his work, trying to hold back tears as he forces himself to keep trying. "Besides, I have all these eggs," he mutters.
"It will be cold enough to keep. It's going to be alright, Mlinzi." Makoto said in a calming tone. One of her tails was twitching more than the others. "Unless the others are going to fuss about sharing body heat, we'll be fine. We can just use the energy you're using now to make something more lasting, right?" Her right ear flicked in time with her dancing tail, as if something were irritating her.
Suddenly, the significance of the other fires begins to dawn on him, and Mlinzi jumps up in excitement. "Hey, I think I've got an idea! Maks, can you help me? I think I know a way to get us a fire for tonight! Bring your spear!" Mlinzi picks up a larger stick, about the right size for a torch, then heads for the nearest pine tree. "Cut a nice gash in the bark so the sap runs out! I'm going to make a torch!"
Maks's ear twitches more, along with her tail. She closes her eyes for a moment, inhales slowly, and then exhales in a huff. She moves over towards the tree, to give it a gash, so that the monkey can make his precious torch.
Meanwhile, as they move to begin gathering the pitch, Miyu moves over, and begins to stoke what embers are there, by feeding it smaller twigs, brambles and dried grass coated in pitch... and then slinks away before the monkey and Maks have a chance to finish.
"Splitting up is a bad idea, we all spent most of the day traveling in separate directions you'll never make it back in time." Lucina would try to help Makoto with the fire.
"I'm the only one here who can use a warm, furry tiger as a blanket without getting clawed," Teniel points out. "Worry more about yourselves."
Tavros' ears flicked back at the tension. Mlinzi seemed to really want fire. And Makoto seemed to really want cuddles. And Lucina didn't want to split up. They were all rather separate desires that were somehow managing to clash together poorly. If he could create fire, that should deal with Mlinzi's concern. Which then might make him not want to split up, even briefly, to deal with Lucina's concern. And really, Makoto's wish could easily be dealt with independent of the other two.
Without flint to make a spark, generally you needed to create a lot of friction between two pieces of wood. And from what he read, he didn't think rubbing two sticks together would be sufficient. You could use your hands to make a rubbing/drilling type motion between a stick and some flat wood (assuming you could get a chip in it to prevent the stick from moving too much, which shouldn't be hard with a spear). But that could be rather labor intensive. He remembered reading something about someone using a bow, but looking around, he didn't think they had any. Maybe they could make one?
His amulet was on a chain, so that wasn't likely to work very well (although he supposed it might work in an emergency). Maybe if he ripped up part of his shirt into a long strip, he could tie it to both ends of a stick to make a bow. It obviously wouldn't work for hunting, but for rotating another stick it might work well enough.
Tavros looks around for some flat wood that he can "drill" into as well as a stick for his bow and one to use as a drill.
"So... aside from warmth, what other things do we need? Something I -can- provide?" Maks asks, moving to the circle of stones the others had set up, where their collection of sticks happened to be.
"Tools," Teniel replies matter-of-factly. "I'd like some woodcarving knives. If we're going to rely on my illusions, I could use new puppets, and something to hang them from for easy access. If we're going to be fighting, we'll need armor and shields... and experience. If we're going to rely on the kindness of strangers, we'll need what currency we can find, as well as knowledge on the local culture and maps. I doubt you can provide those things."
"Actually... how wide do you think that lake is?" Teniel asks, suddenly remembering something. "I can summon a shadow servant capable of walking on water for up to an hour, and ask him to carry Bayangan across the lake. We hand him a long branch and a note, maybe he can go borrow some fire for us."
Suddenly, the significance of the other fires begins to dawn on him, and Mlinzi jumps up in excitement. "Hey, I think I've got an idea! Maks, can you help me? I think I know a way to get us a fire for tonight! Bring your spear!" Mlinzi picks up a larger stick, about the right size for a torch, then heads for the nearest pine tree. "Cut a nice gash in the bark so the sap runs out! I'm going to make a torch!"
Mlinzi in a state of mild panic, realizes the other groups really aren't that far away, perhaps a quarter or half mile at the most. He laughs to himself almost at the ease of the plan. It would only take minutes to borrow some fire from another group. As he and Makoto work to get the precious pine sap from a tree, an arduous process, Miyu works the wooden fire making tool with ease, within a few minutes a tiny curl of smoke appears, the dry pine duff beginning to smolder from the constant friction.
As Lucine helps feed more duff, pine needles and tinder to the fire, she voices her concern. Although the distance is short, she doesn't want to see the group split, even for a short time.
Lucina, studies the location of some of the first stars to appear, and while that may be more under the purvue of knowledge nature, it crosses enough over that she is sure you are on the prime material plane of your origin and on the planet you came from ten thousand years ago. Something about this fact is comforting, as there was perhaps some doubt, in case something had gone wrong with Jovar's magic ritual.
As others ponder alternate ideas for getting fire, they need is quickly dimished as the small lick of flame, quickly grows and before long the group has a successful fire going. Everyone breathes a sign of relief. Despite having enough furry bodies to huddle together, there was something comforting and primal about having a fire for safety light and warmth.
Dalang, eager to make new puppets examines the rocks on the beach. While nothing special, he knows you can crack rocks together to craete a sharp edge. It may be better than nothing to at least start with the crude forms and basic shapes. It will take much longer than with proper tools, but its a start. If the group ever acquires more tools, he will have some blocks and basic rods made and can fine tune them.
Aside from cooking or resting the group does have some time to construct a shelter or relax and eat.
As the night edges on, the stars come out, the sky is clear. You hear the other groups from time to time around the lake. You can clearly hear singing from Tolheimia's large group. Whether that will attract or drive off curious predators is a question, although you have not seen any signs of any predators lately. You have seen signs of deer and mountain goats or sheep, but they would be skittish and usually sense you and disappear long before you see them.
Makoto seems happy to just relax, now that Mlinzi wasn't going completely crazy. She isn't worried about shelter; she trusts Miyu. Though she'd like to try to get some pillows or the like. Using the others as something soft will only work as long as it's cold... and besides, they could definitely use pillowes themselves. On the bright side, her tails probably were fluffy enough for someone else to use for such a thing.
Rather than singing, or dancing, or causing any sort of uproar, Makoto is content to just star gaze. As with the mountains... Goodwin was good, but this was so much better.
She lets her eyes dance from star to star creating imaginary patterns, and trying to maybe figure out where they are. She wasn't a survivalist, nor a cartographer, though... so in the end, pretty pictures were all she would likely get. After a bit of quiet star gazing and chewing on some of their collected berries, she begins to scan the horizon. Even if she can't spot anything significantly distant, she can at least know where their friends are, and count the fires that show that they're safe.
As far as you know nothing seems out of the ordinary. You are vaguely aware of how many groups there might be, but not if there are other splinter groups. For example others may have split from Tolheimia's original large group.
Seeing the fire burst up, Mlinzi begins to relax. There's still work to do, but at least the fire is going now. The sight of the other fires is also a comfort - though the family has split up, they're still quite close to each other. The family is still together, more or less.
He walks over to Makoto, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry, I panicked a little."
Mlinzi's next self-appointed task is to rig some shelter from the wind. Using his hammer, he begins smashing off green pine boughs and looks for some creepers or long grasses to use for cordage. The branches, with their thick needles, should serve as an excellent wind break. Selecting a spot near the fire that hopefully won't be too rocky, he begins to set things up. "Hey, could someone hold this up for me?" he asks, holding one of the thicker, sturdier pieces of deadwood upright.
If no one else offered Lucina would take the deadwood and attempt to hold it upright for Mlinzi.
"What items do we need to craft first? Shoes or a backpack seem like a good idea as its something we can take with us, maybe we can craft during our shifts."
There is some grass near the shore, Scruffy and tough the grass might suffice, but not reeds like you hoped, and no vines. There are some smaller creeping groundcover plants but very spindly and not well suited to the task. You might be able to weave some very crude baskets that might hold light things like some food, but not much heavy stuff. Weaving the grass into cordage will be time consuming but should work ok for very basic things. You won't be making strong rope without more time and so on.
Makoto frowns slightly at Mlinzi's apparent inability to relax and enjoy himself for a bit. Worse, he was throwing away energy that they might need later. It would get cooler, but it wasn't necessary to even have a watch, really, with being so near to their allies, in her opinion.
So, rather than helping out, she let Lucina do so, lying back, tails splayed out. "I think if we could make a backpack, that would be the best thing. Any sort of container would be really helpful. Maybe if you make your lean-to light enough, we could carry it between a pair of us and put our important stuff in it? But... we'd have to make sure it was sturdy enough, too.."
With Lucina's help holding the wood upright, Mlinzi uses his hammer to pound the wood into the ground to serve as an upright post. Then he does so again with a second piece of wood about the same size, and uses the grass to fasten a crosspiece between the two. It might not last very long, but he hoped it should stay up during the night. Then he leans pine boughs against the crosspiece, layering them so that the needles will make a comfortable space out of the wind.
Tavros helps in whatever way he can. As they talk about things they may need he pipes up. "A sled might be easier than a backpack. Although the terrain might make it not useful. But I could drag it along."
Mlinzi tries another grin, wishing to Nethys that he'd been gifted with a face that was better at smiling. "Great idea, Tavros! It shouldn't be hard to lash a few branches together for carrying things!
Now that the shelter was up and the fire was going, Mlinzi was far more relaxed. "Right now, though, I'm tired and hungry! He picks up one of the pine cones he'd collected during the day and began using his teeth to strip the hard outer shells off the kernels to get at the meat inside. After munching the pine nuts for a few minutes, he says, "I wonder when Jovar will be coming around. I'd like to tell the others about the pine needle tea. It can help prevent scurvy. Speaking of which... any ideas for how to boil water?" Once again, he began to wish for clay. "If we had some way to contain the water, we could put hot stones in it to heat the water that way..."
"If we can find a big enough rock, I can try to sculpt it down with acid, maybe..." she said, thoughtfully. "I've only ever really tried it with ceramics, though."
"Hm, that might work. I could work on it, too. Now that I think about it, if we had the time, we could try carving a wooden pot. If we're using hot stones and it's always full of water, I don't think we'd burn it, especially since we can use magic to keep the stones from even touching the sides."
"I'm not sure about using spells that require concentration to keep things cooked evenly." Makoto gave Mlinzi a foxy grin. "But... that sounds amazing if we could! I only worry that we'd get bored and drop it... and that'd be the end of dinner."
"But it'd be really neat to use Mage Hand to rotisserie a chicken. That's probably too heavy, though, huh?"
"Depends on the chicken, I suppose." Mlinzi chuckles a little. "I was thinking it would work better for things we can't put on a spit, though..." He holds up one of the eggs.
"Hm, that might work. I could work on it, too. Now that I think about it, if we had the time, we could try carving a wooden pot. If we're using hot stones and it's always full of water, I don't think we'd burn it, especially since we can use magic to keep the stones from even touching the sides."
This would absolutely work, seems the safest and most efficacious.
Day 1:
Time: After Dark. 9-10 PM ish.
The group settles in for the night. Mlinzi and Lucina work to put the final touches on their shelters. The group discusses making a crude sledge to drag along for anything they may wish to carry. Tavros experiments with some flexible branches and gets a basic frame constructed. Dragging it without it falling apart may be tricky, He experiments with several carrying options as well, perhaps a sort of crude pack or wicker basket, with woven handles. As the night wears on people grow weary and tired. Staring into the campfire has that mystical effect of making one drowsy.
Dalang has made a start on a few crude puppet forms, as Pamburu snoozes close by. Makoto gathers a few pieces of promising driftwood and experiments with acid splash to form them into better bowls. Unfortunately the instantaneous splash leaves little room for precison or artistry, and the bowls only improve slightly, and are ugly at best. A few of the larger rocks on the shore do have depressions in them, where years of wave action has worn away the rock, but scarcely deep enough to boil an egg in. It occurs to you that you could just crack the egg and fry it on a hot rock and scrape the cooked results off and eat it that way rather than attempting a hard boil. Messy and less portable but doable.
I am going to get things to the overnight stage, and prep for the next day of adventuring, as well as focus on character crunches.
"You can just eat pine needles," Teniel points out to Mlinzi, chewing on one, "No need for boiling."
Teniel would request the darkest watch, so he can practice casting shadows from the fire, something he has not done in the true outdoors in quite some time.
Mlinzi is happy to take any watch, and expresses approval at Makoto's work with the bowls. Satisfied that the group is at least safe, Mlinzi begins to relax, willing to let others have a chance at making decisions now that the most basic necessities have been dealt with. He did what he could to help prepare the meal, cooking the eggs on flat rocks and trying not to get caught up in too much wishful thinking.
Thinking of the day ahead, he began to ponder the next set of obstacles the group was likely to face. Shoes, he decided, were the next priority. He wished he had a knife, and he hated always asking for Makoto to use her spear to help him. He looked around for a sharp rock, then used it to strip the bark off of a larger piece of firewood, thinking that maybe he could use his time keeping watch to figure out some way to make it into a pair of makeshift shoes. Animal skins would probably be the best. Even if they weren't tanned, they'd be better than nothing, and wouldn't be too gross if the fur side was kept against the foot, he thought. Still, after a long day of thinking hard, he was growing weary of the constant planning, and decided it was time to give himself a well-deserved rest.
He listened to the crackling fire and the sounds of the night, and looked up at the twinkling stars. There was something refreshing about being back in the real world. Not that Goodwin's demi-plane hadn't been wonderful. It had been a refuge of tranquility, especially after the horrors he'd had to endure, but at the same time, there was something more authentic about this place that made it feel like home.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to the Vanaran's grasshopper-like mind, and he got up to go hunt for pebbles along the shore, counting out 48 of them before returning to the fire. "Anyone want to play a game?" he asked, using a stick to dig out some shallow holes in the dirt.
"I wouldn't mind... but if we're keeping watch, we should probably get to sleep, so we can be up early." Makoto stretches languidly as she starts to curl up, watching him steadily.
"I agree... Mlinzi, if you want to take first watch, Bayangan can play with you until I actually fall asleep, which might take a while since we're all used to actual beds. Teach him a bit about gambling, too, if you can—he's got the personality for it."
Mlinzi nods in acknowledgement. " Sounds like a plan, Teniel. I'll take first watch. Teniel wants the darkest hours, so he can take second. Makoto wants fourth watch, and Tavros should take fifth so he can prepare spells. That leaves Lucina for third. Sound good?"
He begins to chatter to the peacock, explaining the rules of the game. It will be more difficult for the peacock to pick up the pebbles, lacking hands, but they work out a system. He also works out a system with flat skipping stones to serve as currency for bets.
As the others begin to fall asleep, the Vanaran keeps his eyes and ears open for signs of trouble, and gets up every so often to replenish the fire. He makes sure the others have hot stones to keep them warm as they sleep.
Teniel spends his watch working out the first part of a story about two brothers who tried to fight the moo, fashioning rudimentary characters out of bundles of sticks and leaves. Pamburu patrols the edge of the camp, quietly on edge.
If it made it to 5am, Makoto would complain about being woke up to Lucina... and be a lazy bum about 'getting out of bed'. She'd blink her eyes a few times, then yawn a large foxy yawn... before stumbling into her meditative pose to call back her foxy friend.
Then she'd spend the morning performing until dawn, keeping the noise low, as she stepped through the motions of a lullaby, played an octave low, as she danced and kept her attention on her surroundings as best she could, until sunrise.
While Makoto continued to dance, ever twisting and turning, that portion of the performance was made less great by the fact that she was paying more attention to her surroundings than her footing. Meanwhile, Miyu would move down into the lake, and while tethered to Maks, would do his best to catch fish, being patient. After the hour of performing, Maks would start to spit whatever fish he had gotten for smoking... and boost the fire back up.
Unless she spots something Lucina spends most of her watch in silence likely toying with her spells to see if any of her current spells could be used to help them. Freezing water with Ray of frost, flavoring things like bark to suck on and help fight off hunger, ect.
Tavros will spend his watch in silence. Then at the very end (when people should be waking up anyway), he'll go a short distance away and start tap dancing.
Then for the next day he will prepare spark, but otherwise leave his one other cantrip and 1st level spell unprepared.