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Watergreen steps forward and slashes at the frog with her newly formed claws, nearly felling it with what appeared to be a dismissive backhand! Fuzzzy's flying blade seals the deal, and the second frog is vanquished. A few moments later, a torrent of water strikes the ground about 2 feet away from the fallen frog.
Falbin peers out from behind a mushroom. "They gone?"
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Jamila grins wide at the mention of 'fey.'
"Well Falbin? Fey frogs? Do druids summon Fey frogs?"
Falbin sputters "b-b-b... w... well they do summon giant frogs..."
Jamila's grid widens. "From the first world?"
Falbin hangs his head, then fishes around in his pack. He hands a small coin purse to Jamila, and a Tangleburn bag to Angrboda. "Fine. So we have First World problems..."
An eye-catching collection of glittering rocks rests by the side of the pond, stored inside a floppy hat, one of which appears particularly valuable.
After another mile of travel through increasingly tropical conditions, you arrive at Deepstead. The riotous jumble of ferns and fungi gives way to a glade with a low stone well at its heart. Wet, warbling sobs escape from a small gray figure slumped against the mossy bricks. The gnome appears bleached of all color—even their gaudy costume and intricate tattoos seem incongruously bland and ashen. Their tears flash briefly with iridescent rainbows as they fall.
As if half-waking from a dismal dream, the gnome looks skyward and cries, “A love so close, so far! I’d give all and more for a drop of crimson or a dab of teal!”
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"Would you care for healing Watergreen? My stores may be limited, but with an allies aid I would like to make sure your wounds are tended to. Coin saved at the cost of injury is not worth it's weight."
Korad works carefully around the gnome; with each step he tries to maneuver himself into a better turn of phrase to help the sorrowful person. With a final push he tries to offer a hand of friendship.
"My friend! What ails you? What brings you so far into the woods. If it is colors you wish, I'm sure I could get dyes from the town."
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"Oh, look! What a lovely hat!" Fuzzzy exclaims. He picks up the floppy hat and tries to put it on his head. Unfortunately he's already wearing a hat, and this new hat is full of rocks, which hit him on the head.
"Ouch!" he exclaims as they fall around his feet.
Fuzzzy looks inside the new hat, but doesn't find anything! The rocks have already fallen out. "What a strange hat! It hurts!" He puts the hat into his bag for later. As he does he notices the shiny rocks on the ground. "Oh, look! What lovely rocks!" He picks them up and smiles. Then he puts them in his bag.
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When he sees the grey gnome crying out rainbows, Fuzzzy smiles. "Hello! Why are you crying?"
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"GEMS!" Watergreen exclaims! She picks the shiny rocks up out of Fuzzzy's back and puts them into her own. Then she smiles at him.
"Oh, thank you! That feels much better!"
Watergreen looks around at all the weird mushrooms, soil, and soggy water. She collects some for Ashasar. She also looks at the fairy frog to see if there's anything interesting he might want from it.
Then Watergreen leaves with the others.
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Watergreen sees the ferns and tropical plants. She picks some for Ashasar. Then she goes to see the grey gnome. "Why are you crying?"
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Watergreen: The fairy frog's skin has some interesting properties and a sample may be worth bringing back.
~~~
The gnome blubbers and groans. "Azure, as I'm sitting here, but blue of a different hue without my palette. But it's nearby! Just on the other side... In my grayest hour, I'd welcome knights of any shade. Maybe you?"
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“There’s a hole here, to the many-splendored First World. I confess my heartbreak tore it open. You see, long back, one of the Eldest caught me borrowing a bauble or two, and knowing I’m nothing without my indigo and verdigris, he plucked them right out of me and stuffed them into a bindle bag! Now it’s ever so close, but I’m too yellow to cross!”
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"I feel like I'm a step behind, but who are the Eldest and who are you? I admit that I have done some number of chartible efforts and I'm willing to do so to aid you as well."
Ivok turns to the party and Jamila. "I heard it said that magic can break open holes between worlds, but could a mournful heart truely do this?"
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“Azure I am, yet azure no more... If it was yearning for my colors that made it be, then as long as I’m bleached, it’s sure to stay. Ah, what does it matter? I’ll fade to nothing in a day or two.”
Jamila slowly speaks. "It is... possible that this poor gnome's extreme longing for his... palette bag... opened the rift. And should that prove true, it stands to reason that reuniting them should enable its closure. If this is true and you choose to cross over then I shall stay behind and compose a ritual for sealing the rift as soon as you return with the bag."
Azure lights up. "You'll help? Be wary of the wild hunt! They caught me once... back before and beat me black-and-blue! Now they guard the Bramble Bank, in the Heartgrove, where my palette hangs. Be wary of those wily ones from the moment you cross through!"
Jamila stammers, "... now let's not get ahead of ourselv-"
Azure hands Korad a scroll with the header marked 'Hallucinatory terrain'. "Take this! Perhaps it will help on your passage!"
Falbin steps back and shakes his head. "An aunt of mine crossed over once... She came back with a thick mustache, and bluebells growing from her ears."
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Watergreen collects the useful bits from the frog and puts them in her bag.
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After the gnome's done talking Watergreen says, "Oh, dear. I hope I don't lost my colours! Then I'd be 'Watergrey'! And wouldn't that be a sad day?" She smiles at the gnome. "We will go get your palette bag."
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Fuzzzy smiles at the elf sticking her hand in his backpack. ”You’re welcome, miss!”
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Fuzzzy smiles and nods. ”Oh, of course I will help! I love helping. I’ll go get this colour palette! Come along, Bobby!”
Fuzzzy takes a few steps forward. Then he stops and scratches his head.
”Hmmm… Bobby? Where am I going?”
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Azure leads you to the Deepstead well as he speaks to Jab. "I peeped through once, but the wild hunt nearly spotted me. No help there... only the hunt." Finally he points down into the well, whose water swirls with specks of green, orange, and icy blue. "To cross in you must jump in while holding aloft an offering... some trifle you're not too attached to, but an offering nonetheless. Whilst submerged within the waters, spin around thrice widdershins before resurfacing and you'll find yourselves on the other side. To come back, simply reverse the movements and ye shall return."
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Korad looks with a long wary look at the water before looking back at Azure.
"I trust what you say, that is for certain, but me and ponds have a difference of opinion." He takes another look down at the pool and the group as he draws one of his javelin. He measures the weight and takes another look at the pool as he gives a heavy sigh.
"Well, if I were to dive anywhere, this would be the place. I'm ready to see if I have gotten any better at swimming."
Prepared as he can be, the oread prepares to leap with the rest.
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Watergreen smiles. "Oh, this water look delightful! Look at the colours!"
She stands on the edge of the well, strokes Lilith on the head, then pulls out a coin from her belt pouch. She takes the coin between her teeth as her offering. Her fingers look strange, like they're webbed and greenish. She gracefully dives into the well. She spirals under the water, and disappears into the depths of the well.
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Azure looks at Watergreen and says "Coin is not yours but a promise of what should be yours for what you wish to be yours. The bag however... that'd work!"
You all dive into the well and most of you feel your offering vanish into the air as you pass through a small vortex. Flavias and Eniac on the other hand pop their head up and find themselves right back where they started!
This picturesque lake and its sylvan surroundings have been flashfrozen. Radiant flowers hang from nearby boughs, encased in a rime of frost. Just above the tree line, frozen birds float suspended in mid-takeoff. On the ground near the lakeshore, a small campfire burns without heat or motion, even its flames sheathed in ice.
The water is frigid and you find yourselves reaching up to grab at frozen ledges. Above, a Vanara leaps to attention, grabbing a bow and whistling for his 'dogs'. A pair of porcupine-kangaroo hybrids sit up at attention.
"You! You have caused this scar! You are all marked to die by Daisag of the Whirlwood wild hunt!"
Round 1:
Jeb
Korad
Angrboda (Eniac has not arrived yet)
Watergreen
Flavias (Not yet arrived)
The Hounds (Delaying)
Fuzzzy
Daisag
The water is cold... numbingly cold... To climb onto the ice will take a move action and a climb check, DC 12. You cannot take 10 on this at the moment.
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"I do not care if the water is hospitable... I care that that there is a TEAR in the currents beneath!"
She doesn't seem at all happy with you... but she hasn't immediately sicced her 'hounds' on you.
After a few moments Flavius makes his way through as well, struggling to swim up to the surface and get out of the frigid waters.
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Since her coin is no good, Watergreen gives her charcoal to the well.
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Watergreen climbs up out of the water.
"Brrr! Chilly!"
She looks around at all the cool stuff she will get to collect for Ashavar. Frozen birds, frozen flowers, frozen FIRE?!?
"What a beautiful place! And the frozen birds... You're home is so very out of balance. Beautiful, but unstable. Perhaps you will let us fix it? We can close the rift if you only let us collect the bag of colours."
Lilith climbs her way over onto Watergreen's cheek.
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Fuzzzy pops back up out of the well with his owl soaking wet and shivering on his shoulder.
"It's a little chilly to go for a swim."
He climbs up out of the well.
He smiles at the vanara. "Oh! Hello! Can I help you?"
He starts to wring out his wet robes.
"What delightful pets!" He looks around curiously. "I've never been to the First World before! Colder than I thought! Or, at least, colder than I think I thought!" He looks at his shivering owl. "Bobby? Am I thinking I thought that right?"
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"We are not so fond of the opening on the other side as well. We are here to aid in the repair. I'm not certain how, but we have come here to acquire something that was taken and return it to the owner on the other side. We wish to mend their heart and the portal in the process."
Korad speaks carefully as the companions get out of the water.
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Angrboda gasps at the shock of the sudden cold, but otherwise seems to be taking it quite well, not that she doesn't feel it, but is used to enduring it.
Trembling more than usual by an order of magnitude, it almost seems to facilitate, rather than stymie, her making her way onto the ice.
Once she does so, she remains silent and still (tics and tremors notwithstanding).
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"Right! That's just like ye! Making a mess and fibbin 'bout it, then pretendin to be the hero when ya fix it right? And yer here for that rascal of a gnome's pack eh? Well lemme give you this one chance to turn back and swim right back through to the other side!"
*GLORP*
Attempting a strange backstroke, Eniac pops up to the surface.
Daisag looks at the slug as it slowly climbs onto the ice.
"Yep... that's 'bout what I expected. HOUNDS! SIC 'EM!"
Round 4:
Jeb
Korad
Angrboda
Watergreen
Flavias (Swimming in icy water)
The Hounds
Fuzzzzy
Daisag
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Flavias struggles and flounders as his legs keep slipping on the ice, but finally he manages to climb up Korad's rocky arm and get to the ice above. The weather does not look particularly great for archery though, as the swirling winds carry leaves in strange arcs, whipping back and forth around the tree line. You're pretty sure it was winter when you got here, but it's clearly autumn now....
Round 4:
Jeb
Korad
Angrboda
Watergreen
Flavias
The Hounds
Fuzzzzzy
Daisag