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Now I have to come up with some story about what he was doing. :) I was just killing time waiting for Nel to come back from GenCon.
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Drispeera lights up like a Winter Solstice tree. Free! Free is very good! Free is even better than getting people to buy things for me, because I don't have to have sex with them afterwards! She narrows her eyes slightly at the slovenly shopkeeper and whispers to Mornie. I don't, do I?
You have a deal!Then she grabs the back side of Bokken's hand, turns it solemnly palm up, and spits into it. I hearby offer you my powerful sorceress spit to seal our bargain! May you make something wondrous out of it! Mornie, do you want to give him some witch spit too? Drispeera is sincerely happy that her first foray into bargaining has gone so well.
With a raised eyebrow, Bokken scrapes his hand into the opening of an empty flask. "Yes, well. Fabulous! The last fangberries I saw were a few miles to the south of here. Maybe you will find them while traveling the area, yes?"
Bokken starts to drift back into his apparatuses and brewing some potions.
Knowledge nature (fangberries) - Local strand of berries. Somewhat rare. Can be used both alchemically and culinarilly.
"The hut does not seem any bigger on the inside, yes?" she says.
Kaeso grins sheepishly. "I wasn't always this tall. I used to be quite the shrimp." Noticing Bingo, he quickly adds "Not that there's anything wrong with shortness. But I'm still not quite used to it. Lots of broken plates in my Ma's kitchen"
"I wonder if any of this stuff would work with arrows. . . "
Bokken squints at the young chap asking about arrows, "Laddie, of course I do. Look, right here I got this oil of magic weapon which will make your bow shoot stronger arrows. I also have an oil of gravity bow. Quite popular with the trappers and hunters in here, yes?"
Kaeso grins sheepishly. "I wasn't always this tall. I used to be quite the shrimp." Noticing Bingo, he quickly adds "Not that there's anything wrong with shortness. But I'm still not quite used to it. Lots of broken plates in my Ma's kitchen"
"Lots o' vantages to bein' short, big guy. Wouldn't have it any other way."
Mornaura continues to chuckle for a while, then shakes her head at Drispeera.
"Well, let's plan our path before someone spends money, shall we?"
She fetches the map and studies it for a moment.
"Well, since those berries are somewhere south of here, and we're almost at the eastern border of our territory, I'd say let's head east first, and then down south in a zig-zag pattern until we find them. After that, we can decide wether we want to explore further or return here first."
Hermia's expression becomes withdrawn at the mention of home, and family.
"Indeed," she says, picking up on Bingo's reply. "Like having so many taller than you to put up the plates when you do not wish to expend the effort yourself," she tries and lowers her eyes.
Hermia listens to Mornura's suggestion and nods. "It would be prudent to have at least one border mapped, and some notion of what manner of lands our neighbors are situated upon, in terms of trade at a later date," she adds and smiles nervously. "Would not like to invest heavily in apple orchards to find our neighbors have an abundance of fruit."
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Drispeera heaves a sigh at having to leave all the shinies. I'll be back for you soon, my pretties, I promise.
Yes, I suppose the sooner we hunt down those fearsome berries, the sooner we'll be able to come back and buy toys. Is it normal, in adventuring, to spend so much time hunting down different kinds of food? My siblings were always bragging about the monsters they fought. They didn't mention so many berries and turnips.
As you travel (roughly 12 miles south-east) you encounter some rolling hills and plains as far as the eyes can see. You explore the area thoroughly for a day, and make camp at night. Nothing of particular interest was found in this area.
rolly rolly
The next day, there are some darker clouds in the horizon, and it could rain later in the afternoon.
"Oh, they are soooooo cute!"
Mornaura digs through her backpack and produces some pieces of dried apples.
"Too bad we only got dried fruit in our trail rations. Those little buggers love fresh fruit, but maybe they take those, too."
After dismounting her horse and telling Faron to wait on the saddle, the witch slowly approaches the Carbuncles, crouching down and putting forth the hand with the apple slices.
During the afternoon, the rain makes the march more tedious, but the party moves along under the darkened sky.
The only unusual feature in this area is an old lightning-struck oak tree stands atop a low hill at this spot—the only tree in a 2-mile radius, in fact. Approached from the north, the tree looks eerily like a claw reaching for the clouds.
As the Carbuncles don't let her get close enough to feed them, Mornaura drops the apple pieces for them and gets back to her companions.
Do they love fresh fruit enough to lead us to Snozzberries, LogansRunberries, what are we looking for again? And does Faron need to worry? Have you found adorable new familiars?
"Well, if we had a method of communicating with them, maybe we could convince them to find those Fangberries for us," she tells Drispeera with a smirk, "but unfortunately, they are crazy little bulbs of magic who can't get one thought straight... So, no, I would never swap Faron for them."
With that, she cuddles her familiar and puts him up on her shoulder again.
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"Hey, good catch, Dris! This could be the right tree... I even got a shovel so that one of you guys can dig if necessary!"
Looking at it for a bit... Yes, this COULD be the right tree...
Kaeso squints at the tree, wondering if it matches the map.
Survival check:
"By 'the guys', I presume you mean me?"
"Aye, it looks summat like the drawing on the dead bandit's map. Lemme see....,"
Survival
"Whaddya think, Mornie?"
Bingo looks up at Kaeso, grinning, "Nah, don't worry, big guy, I can handle it."
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I wanna look too. Drispeera will Aid Bingo with his survival check.
How can anyone tell one tree from another? They all look the same to me.
Drispeera answers Kaeso dreamily. Yes, it's probably something buried very deep. You boys will have to dig for hours in the hot sun, probably with your shirts off, to find it. -sigh-
"Well... The drawing has been made by someone with a severe lack of talent, but nevertheless I'm pretty sure it's the right one," the witch says and holds the shovel out to the guys, "And some digging won't do any harm anyway, will it?"
Kaeso hops off his horse, puts down his lance and shield, and gets ready to dig. He takes a look at the horizon to see if there's any places the bad guys could hide. "I'd hate to get ambushed while I'm digging a hole."
Perception:
He shrugs out of his scale mail and takes his shirt off, making sure to ripple a bit.
Digging?
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And so the companions stood around the tree happily ever after, looking back and forth between it and the drawing, scratching their heads as they couldn't decide wether it was the right one... :D
Drispeera will wander around the base of the tree, trying to notice any heaps of dirt, or barren patches or the like.
Bingo shinnies up the tree to keep watch for bad guys.
Perception
Mornaura finds a patch of dirt and gravel that has OBVIOUSLY (to her) been dug out and back in recently. Digging up the dirt takes around 10 minutes...
Unfortunately, rain seeping down into the cache has damaged much of the spellbook, but five of the spells (identify, mage armor, reduce person,
silent image, and unseen servant) remain intact.
"Hey, I think I found something!" Kaeso puts down the shovel and crouches down to lift out a cache goods wrapped in a cloak. Brushing the dirt off, he unwraps it all and lays it out in the sun. "Hmm. That hammer looks good. Anyone want to take a look? Looks like a fancy stick, a rock, and a book. Oh, a silver ring--that means we can afford more shopping, Drispeera. The cloak looks nice, too."
Kaeso pulls a bit of cloth out of his saddlebags and dries the sweat off his torso, and then starts to get back into his scale mail.
"Well dug, Kaeso. If you ever have enough from adventuring, you can take care of our mine, huh?", the witch chuckles, and for a moment it even seems like she winks at him, before her gaze locks on the goods.
"Let's take a closer look at what we have..."
She sits down, hunkers over the items and mumbles to herself for a while, only pausing for the occasional "hey Dris, look at this one", before she explains the magical properties of their findings to the companions.
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Drispeera looks up in disappointment as Kaeso exclaims about his . So soon? I was sure you were going to have to dig for a while longer.-sigh- Well, lets see what we've got.
Drispeera's initial disappointment fades to real excitement at their discoveries. She'll help Mornie with the detecting and identifying. If we're taking 10, she'll have a 17 spellcraft, so the two of them should be pretty accurate and identify in good time.
The ioun stone is actually an ioun torch!
Bingo picks up the ring. Holding it up to the light, he says "Din't Oleg say sumthin' bout his wife's ring gettin' stole? Wonder iffen this is it?" Then he sees the dagger. "Ooh, ya mind? A thi... uh, rogue like me can never have too many daggers."
"I will abstain. None of the items here seem to be of great use for me, although I bet that spellbook is probably worth some coin as well, since none of us have a use for it. I'm ready to move out whenever you are."
"Should we just fill in the hole? Maybe we could leave a note. . ."
Kaeso tests the warhammer, throwing it up in the air and catching it to see the balance. "Well-made. A lot better than the sledgehammer I've been using." I'm glad we aren't fighting with each other anymore. It was too much like home!
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It's a sweet thought Kaeso, but I don't think the previous owner is going to object. Remember? We found the map on his dead body?
Mornie *can* actually learn most of the spells in the book, so I presume she'll want it.
And Mornie got a cloak of resistance we found earlier, so Drispeera will take this one, unless anyone else speaks for it? She will prestidigitate on it for quite awhile, to get it clean before wearing.
The Ioun torch still hasn't been claimed. Sure you don't want it, Bingo? Or would it give away the position of a th... I mean a rogue like you?
That leaves the wand... I presume both Mornie and Drispeera want it? But if she gets the book... can I have the wand?
Some assumptions are in there... let me know if anyone has different thoughts.
Onward! To berries and shopping! Shall we continue exploring the current hex?
Mornaura looks back and forth between the wand and Drispeera for a while, then tells her with a shrug, "Well, you have get awefully close to your target to use that wand, so if you still want it, you can take it."
After all the loot has been split up, Mornaura gets back on her horse.
"Onwards it is!"
After an easy ride south-east, and now with more loot than before, the group gets closer and closer to the Tuskwater. With no obvious landmarks in the area, the party starts to map the area while heading west.
After a few hours of march, you encounter a small hut in the shore, like an old fishing hut. Upon closer inspection, you can see that at some point in the past, there was a bridge crossing over the river here. All that remains of it now are two ropes, the top and bottom supports of one of the bridge's sides. There are some old waterlogged planks still floating on the river, with quite a few laying against rocks further downstream.
A sign near the hut identifies the place. "Nettle's Crossing." There seems to currently be no one home.
"Let's try to find out if someone lives here, shall we?"
The witch puts Faron on her shoulder and walks over to investigate the hut.
To Mornaura, it looks like an old hut! None of the footprints outside are very fresh, so it must have been some time since the last time people were here.
There is an old bell hanging from a pole at the start of the 20 foot trail to get to the hut's porch. The river rushes past to your left just 5 feet away or so.
"Looks like it's been abandoned, but who knows..."
With that, Mornaura tries to open the door, in order to take a look around inside the hut - and casts Detect Magic, just in case.
The hut is empty. Looks like an old fisherman's cottage. There are still some clothes and fishing gear strewn around.
Outside however, is a different matter.
As soon as Mornaura went inside the hut, everyone outside sees some of the water in the river start to rise. The water, swirling around in its own vortex, comes up to about 6 feet tall, with a slightly... humanoid shape.
After a few more seconds, the water BURSTS, leaving behind an old man. He looks pale and gaunt, holes where his eyes should be. The stench of undeath starts to hit you. He holds in his hand a ranseur, which he is using almost like a cane to stand up. The undead man's mouth opens, and he speaks with a throaty voice, little louder than a whisper.
"Staaaag Loooord. Youuuu... Staaaaaag Loooord. IIII..... Davik..... Staaaaag Looooord eeeenemy..."
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Does it occur to anyone else that we are mapping so-called uncharted territory? But this uncharted territory has bridges and road signs? And... what's that supposed to be, sla... er, servants quarters? She examines the hut too.
When the undead creature rises up, Drispeera gets huffy. Really? Stinky undead? Why can't we ever come across the dilapidated hut of a master shoemaker?
Addresses the creature, Well Davik, is it? You wouldn't happen to know where any fangberries are would you? No? Fine. Tell us about this Staglord. It just so happens we're trying to hunt him down. Maybe you could help us. Diplomacy check if it matters with undead:
Norn is a bit baffled that we are attempting to speak with undead. With his hand on his falchion's hilt:
"Evil creature. Throughout my journeys you are the first undead who has not attacked us on sight. Why do you hesitate?"
"Sssstag Lord.... killed Davik Nettles. He... would not pay... the bridge toll. I... am forced to guaaaard this place... until hissss body is returned... to the river's waterssss... Let hissss dead body flow here... my curssse, will be lifted..."
"Until that day... no one may crosssss the Tuskwater... Or they face me..."
Kaeso lowers his lance at the sight of the undead, ready to charge if necessary.
"Is there a body around here somewhere? The Stag Lord wouldn't steal a body, would he?"
Looking for signs of a body: Perception
"Hmmmmm... Stag Lord needs not crosssss these waters.... He makessss his fortress to the west... Past the old Sycamore Treeeee, at the northern shores of the Tuskwater lake..."
Kaeso scratches his head, confused. "Whose body needs to 'flow here'? Davik's? The Stag Lord? Damn. Is there something here I can hit?"
Thinking is hard.
"You humans... a little slow... Yessss, the Stag Lord'ssss body... vengeance for my suffering... Do thissss and yo may cross my river... as well as earn ALL my treasures..."
Davik approaches Kaeso. His body still drips from the river's waters. He reaches out with his ranseur horizontal, asking Kaeso to reach out and take his weapon from him. Kaeso can see easily the fine craftsmanship of this old man's weapon. He knows it is surely magical.