Down the Verdant Path...new PbP GM (Inactive)

Game Master R. Sweet

Fey Surprise?: 1d10 ⇒ 4

Ayla's dagger giggles and coos between her teeth. Oh dear...

Back on the other side of reality Minna pulls herself and Blanca out of the well. As the little white fox shakes himself off, Minna begins wringing the water out of her clothes. She's startled to find the bag of shiny rocks from earlier back in her pocket...

1d10 ⇒ 8

...and yelps as she pulls the bag out, dropping it to the ground. The bag peers back up at her with tiny, blinking eyes.

"I'm...gonna need more than apples when we get back to town..."

Blarg noses gently at Ayla and Herbert, hoping for treats.

Ayla absently reaches into her pack, grabbing an Apple and a piece of Jerky from her trail rations. As she cuts into the apple to quarter it, her dagger issues a sultry giggle. Dropping the apple (And Jerky!) in surprise, she looks down at the knife in confusion. "Ayla knife weird. Ayla no cut apple."

Blarg happily grabs the piece of jerky from the ground and starts to munch on it.

"Be a good boy, Blarg, and share," Koani gently reminds her dino.

Blarg walks over near Blanca and bites the jerky into two pieces. He pushes the smaller piece over to her and then continues gnawing on the larger piece.

"Yip-yip!"

Blanca happily munches on the offered piece of jerky after offering a bark of thanks to Blarg.

Thanks! You're not so bad for a big...lizardy...thing!

Journeying back to Bellis, you notice the tropical winds cooling and the overgrown vegetation slowly retreating. When you reach the town, you find the streets abuzz with talk of a great stone beast that appeared suddenly in the town square

An elephant that appears to have been roughly hewn from solid rock towers over tents and kiosks in the Bellis market square. After a moment, a statuesque suli man emerges from behind the elephant, scanning the commons with his electric-blue eyes. When he spots Jamila, he smiles and waves her over.

Typical mutters Jamila, folding her arms but smirking in spite of herself, Even when he’s late, Ashasar knows how to make an entrance. Or should I say, especially when he’s late.

Did we return the colour bag to that gnome? Or was she gone? And was the portal closed now?

Before leaving the well, Narissiel collects some of the water for her boss. Unfortunately, so distracted was she by the threat of a planar incursion, that she had forgotten to collect much evidence of the events for Ashasar. Jamila would not be pleased. Still, she had the water, and she cold probably scrape off some of the flesh from that frog if it's body was still there on the way home. Or from her blade if it wasn't... I totally forgot to pick up anything frozen, and didn't even think of collecting the sparkles. I didn't quite squeak through for that Concordance extra mission. I don't suppose its a team effort? Haha.

At the sight of Ashasar's bold entrance, Narissiel smiles. With the threat of the First World encroaching upon the material plane behind them, her joyous nature was beginning to shine through once again.

"He's a force of nature, alright," she jokes with Jamila. Then she waits patiently with her team to see what's going on.

Oh crap I forgot to collect more specimens after that frog-ageddon. Herbie thinks to himself. A look of shock and craze comes across the little leshys face. I am the sample!!!.

"Narissiel might I get your help over here?" Herbie heads over to a discrete area and shifts into plant form and asks Narissiel "Shake me like you would a rug." as the cavalier shakes out Herbert like a very sad looking forest floor rug, all manner of bits and bobs come falling off him. Soils, diets, crystals, seeds, root balls and is that a squirrel!?!.

Morphing back into humanoid form Herbie looks up at Narissiel "Hopefully this will be enough for Ashasar." Herbert gathers up everything in a sack and presents it.

Koani reaches down and helps Herbert sift through the stuff that falls from him.

Narissiel smiles at the little plant man.

"You are the most clever plant I've ever encountered!"

She picks him up and shakes him thoroughly, hoping to shake out some sparkle-motes...

Then she puts him down carefully.

"Feel alright?"

"For being shaken so vigorously you have a gentle hand." Herbie shakes his head then raps the side of it in an attempt to clear the remaining soil from his 'ears'.

"Um....I'm not sure who this guy is and what you're all going on about but if you need, like...pieces of things, I probably still have some bits of goo and the like stuck on my hammer," Minna offers. She rubs at her temples; ever since jumping back to their side of the portal she'd had a headache. At first she thought that maybe it was just from the shock and stress of everything they'd experienced - most of it pretty darn weird by normal standards. But the more she thought about it, it felt more like the ache of loss...almost as if she'd left a part of herself behind, somehow.
__________

*whistles* Someone has a fey bloodline...

Didn't someone skin a frog just after that combat.

May I try that perception check also, since I said I was helping Herbie sift through the stuff?

Yep.

perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

While helping Herbie sort through the stuff that falls when he is shaken, Koani notices a sparkley bit, which she carefully picks up.

It seems to be a fluff of fox fur. Maybe Arctic fox? It seems that the fox fur got caught in Herbie's branches. But wait, there's more! The fluff seems to have trapped a mote of sparkle.

Koani carefully hands the interesting bit she found to Herbie.

"Psst! I still don't know who this guy is," Minna whispers to Narissiel and Jamila as Herbie and Koani continue sifting through rocks and water drops and pieces of skin. "Is he someone important?"

I'm sorry, but the benevolent sky halving is out of the office at the moment. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and sky halfing will get back to you as soon as she can.

Turning to Minna, Jamila answers her question. Ashasar is high ranking member of the Concordance, and Chief liaison between the Society and the Concordance.

Please, come join me for tea. It will be sweetened with Bellis' famous honey. Ashasar practically bounces with excitement at hearing your news.

As you approach the tea room, the stone elephant shrinks, startling the innkeeper, but she quickly recovers. Ashasar hands the woman a bag of rocks and several gold pieces and asks her to heat the stones on the stove, explaining that his elephant enjoys resting atop warm rocks. As you settle in, Ashasar comments, Truly, I’m jealous of all of you for getting to go on such a fascinating excursion, but such is the way of a leader, doomed to delegate. Please tell me what you found, and don’t spare the details.

"Well, uh...turns out there was this gnome that'd had all of their colors stolen and so they'd poked a hole in the fabric between this world and the First World so that's why everything was getting really screwy," Minna explains as she finds herself sitting on some of the cushiest cushions she's ever sat upon, squished in between Ayla and Herbie.

"They asked us - name was Azure by the way - to go into the First World and get their colors back for them. We did, but it was really weird and there was this crazy monkey-person shooting at us from the trees and it bounced from summer to winter to fall to spring and back again and then there was this living vine that beat the shit out of me and then we fought some more guys who called themselves the 'Something Hunt' and then we got the colors and came back through the well and man, this bag of rocks has eyes now!" Minna pauses and takes a sip of her tea. "The whole thing was like some sort of strange applejack dream or something."

Narissiel lets out a carefree laugh at Minna's explanation. With a smile and a twinkle in her eye she adds, "Yes, it was terribly exciting. The rift to the First World is closed now. All should be well in this region."

She hands Ashahar some of the odd evidence that she, Herbie and Koani collected. "Proof of the planar disturbance."

with apologies, was having issues.

Ashasar listens with rapt attention to every detail, occasionally asking you for an extra flourish of description. He also asks you to share anything that you brought back from the First World, giving the Concordance PCs a chance to share what they have collected. Ashasar’s elemental companion, the elephant in the room, occasionally interrupts the conversation with snippets of commentary in Terran about how much he is awed and impressed the people of Bellis with his grand appearance.

When you've finish your report, Ashasar praises your efforts, taking special care to praise the contributions of members of the Concordance (Herbie? Narissiel). Finally, he asks any who are not already members of the Concordance if they would be interested in joining the faction.

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Here ends the tale of Down the Verdant Path.

I'll leave this up until Monday-ish.

Minna comes away from the meeting with Ashasar wearing a surprisingly thoughtful expression. She and Blanca had originally joined the Society to simply have somewhere to belong; a trade of sorts with their talents for room, board, and money to live on. A sensible if rather aimless existence. But she had to admit that for all her earlier complaining it had been...invigorating...to step outside her comfort zone for this particular mission. And keeping the elements and planes all in balance?

She smiles.

That's a cause I think I can get behind.

Ayla, very confused by the discussion between Ashasar and her compatriots, shrugs and indulges in the tea with honey. With a mouth full of food she makes a deal with the innkeeper for a few bushels of apples.
Neatly pocketing the 5 'Shiny Stones' she follows Minna out the door toward the docks. Finding a nice tall place to curl up and bask in the sun, Ayla stretches and yawns.

A good nap is the best chaser for a great mission!