"Welcome back."Azriel tells Nigel. "Good to see you're still with us."
"Look, just lie down until the gnome fixes you,"Robert urges Nigel. "We don't want you worsening your injuries."
"Praise Pharasma for staying her hand."Hedran states as Nigel wakes up.
Ratel looks from Nigel to Robert, then to the gnome. "The gnome? It wasn't the gnome, it was the Moss!"
Shrugging his shoulders,"If someone wants to heal me, I wouldn't tell them no."
Looking around he adds, "Do you think it's safe to go back to bed?"
Ratel nodded, "Thanks, come on Bear, no rest for the furry." He stripped the ogre of it's armor and grabbing by the arm began to drag it away from the area they had been sleeping.
|
Nigel nods, and drags the other corpse away.
"I vonder..."
With a shrug, he pulls out a large syringe, and extracts a vial of blood straight from the Ogre's heart, to which he adds an anticoagulant.
"Zat may prove useful... yes..."
Shortly thereafter, he returns to camp, and goes back to his tent.
Gren takes the wand and peers at it for a moment, then blinks in a surprised way when the unconscious fellow is woken up briefly. He looks at the wand closely for a command word, and then asks ”Erm, how do I activate this thing? Usually there’s a command word” he asks Nigel. When prompted, he wiggles it around, over the form of Nigel and then touches him, repeating this as many times as he is asked.
After doing the “healing” he returns the wand and responds. ”Of course, how could I be so rude. Grenwold Houtvester at your service, but my friends call me Gren... though I don’t have many of those any more given that they are mostly dead these days. Oh, other than Ringo here. And my raven. She’s somewhere in the trees, waiting for corpse to eat.” He pats Ringo and turns to Bear, delighted. He pets Bear with scratches behind the ears and says ”You are super cute, Bear.
He explains some of his life story to the group and then interrupts himself after a few minutes ”Oof, us gnomes can be long winded, right? Suffice it to say, I am on your team, whatever team that probably is, and would be willing to join you if you’d have me. I can take care of my self (mostly, with the help of my buddy Shelyn here)” he taps his holy symbol ”and I want to free this land from it’s malign influences, be they goblinoud or the darkblight. WILL you have me?” He smiles and then extends a hand in friendship to each group member.
"I think the command word is "strenuus" but I tried using it and it doesnt work for me."Hedran answers. "Nigel usually waves it saying activate until it works."
The rest of the night passes uneventfully and the party sets off on their way the next morning.
"Hey, you're fine, right?" Azriel asks Nigel the next morning."You got clobbered rather badly last night."
The party then sets off on their way.
3 hours into the journey through the Fangwood, everyone except Hedran hears a squeaking noise coming from Nigel. Everyone except Hedran sees Nigel clad in a white with red polka dot dress, wearing pink bunny slippers which squeak with every step he takes.
"What me?" Nigel hears a different voice from above the trees. "We've never met before!" The voice exclaims.
Everyone looks up, but sees nothing. Thin air seems to be speaking.
Ratel smiles, as Gren scratches Bear behind the ears, "Welcome Gren" But as Gren get's longwinded, he heads to bed, posting Bear in front of the crude shelters door.
Resting the urge to snicker at the change in Nigel's clothing, Ratel begins to look around telling the others, "I think bunny girl is back."
Hearing the voice, but not believing, Ratel calls out, [b]"Just because it doesn't sound like you, and you say your not you, it doesn't mean it's not you. Can you prove your not you?"{/b]
"Well, I could appear, and you'll see I'm not the one you're talking about."Then a creature that combines the features of a sprightly girl and a white rabbit appears, with a whimsical grin gleams on her face. Nigel recognizes it as a pooka, but unlike the previous one, this pooka combines the features of a white rabbit instead.
Grenwold recognizes the creature as a pooka.
Pookas are capricious in nature, pookas are always in search of fun, though they don’t often care who they inconvenience with their antics—they’re just in it for the whimsy.
They have DR5/cold iron or silver and the following spell like abilities:
At will—detect magic, invisibility (self only)
3/day—minor image, sleep
1/day—suggestion
Gren sighs with relief, then says excitedly ”Ooh, make me look like a goblin!”
If she does, he cackles in goblin while raising his hand “menacingly”:
He then giggles and after growing serious, says to the pooka ”Please be careful, the darkblight is slowly consuming the forest. They will kill you or enslave you if they can. Stay away from the northern part of the Fangwood.”
"So what did the other of my kind do to you?" The pooka asks eagerly, "I'm always interested in new pranks!"
"Well, you need to believe you're a goblin for the magic to work."The pooka tells Grenwold. Then she makes a series of intricate looking gestures, then points at Grenwold. "Abracadabra! By the power of me, a goblin you shall be!"
To everyone but Ratel and Hedran, Grenwold is now a green goblin with huge head, pointy ears and nasty red eyes. Ratel and Hedran see Grenwold still as a gnome.
Nigel's white polka dot dress and bunny slippers disappear, 12 seconds later.
Hedran and Grenwold don't know what the pooka did!
"Sorry, it won't last for very long. But enjoy your goblinness while it lasts!" The pooka says cheerfully.
"Darkblight? What is darkblight? Is it something you're making up?" The pooka asks Grenwold.
Gren strongly believes he’s a goblin during the magic casting.
”If only we were that lucky - no, it’s a horrible disgusting disease that infects folks like you and me and plants and turns them into zombie-like monsters. It has claimed countless fey lives. I’m glad you’re still safe. I’m Gren and these are a bunch of big folk that I met who killed some ogres recently. What’s your name?” he says in his goblin form.
Then he menaces the party again, in goblin:
"Oh my gosh, that's horrible! I don't want to become a zombie. They don't have any fun! I'm glad I'm safe too!" The pooka gasps, while covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide open in horror. "My name is Willow. " Willow answers Grenwold.
"Oo-kay..."Azriel drawls as Grenwold "turns" into a goblin. "You certainly look goblin to me, but why anyone would want to look like one of those pests...I have no idea..?"
Ratel shakes his head, "Nope you don't look like a Goblin to me, Sorry." He shrugs "But if it will help, "Oh no it's a goblin! Please Mr. Goblin, don't make me sick my bear on you."
He then looks at Bear and winks, then turns to Willow and winks at the white bunny girl, "Nice to meet you Willow."
"Nigel! Noooooo!" Hedran screams as he sees Nigel fall. "Negative energy....negative energy...yeah...where is that wand.." Hedran rumages through Nigel's pack. "Pharasma...please don't let me be too late..." He digs out the wand then hands it to Grenwold."Use this on him."
"Praise Pharasma for staying her hand."Hedran states as Nigel wakes up.
"I think the command word is "strenuus" but I tried using it and it doesnt work for me."Hedran answers. "Nigel usually waves it saying activate until it works."
After doing the “healing” he returns the wand and responds. ”Of course, how could I be so rude. Grenwold Houtvester at your service, but my friends call me Gren... though I don’t have many of those any more given that they are mostly dead these days. Oh, other than Ringo here. And my raven. She’s somewhere in the trees, waiting for corpse to eat.” He pats Ringo and turns to Bear, delighted. He pets Bear with scratches behind the ears and says ”You are super cute, Bear.
"Well met Grenwold, and thank you for your help" - the half-orc accepts the extended hand - "I am Hedran" - and from his backpack a weasel sniffs at the air for a few moments, then goes back in - "That's Weasel, don't mind him"
Hedran really does not understand most of the conversation going on around him, until he sees the pooka - "Another one..." - he rolls his eyes, looking surprised at Gren and his goblin antics - "Are you feeling well? You definitely don't look like a goblin..."
"Well, I've had my fun, I'll be off!" The pooka vanishes, and 12 seconds later, Grenwold is a gnome again, this time to the entire party.
Both Hedran and Grenwold have no idea what she did again...
The party travels for an hour before seeing 3 black and white speckled newts feasting on the remains of a small donkey rat.
Grenwold knows everything about lich newts. Nigel knows lich newts are carrion eaters and have a poison mucus.
A lich newt secretes poison from its skin, and any creature that successfully hits it with a natural weapon or unarmed strike must immediately attempt a save against its poison.
"I say we pass them by" - Hedran suggests.
EDIT:
”I agree, leave them to their, uh, feast”
Hedran identifies the boots as boots of striding and springing and the dagger as a +1 dagger.
The party continues on their way and finds a shack hidden in a thicket of brambles. A little smoke is coming out of its chimney.
When Nigel knocks on the door, the party hears an aged, rasping voice curse, "I hate to be disturbed! Now go away and leave me alone!"
|
|
"Fair enough. My apologies. I bring a vord of varning, zough - an army of Hobgoblins have overvhelmed ze town of Phaendar to ze south, and have been vorking zeir vay zrough ze forest settlements, as vell; ze settlement to ze vest of here has been razed, its inhabitants tortured, killed, and flayed - and not necessarily in zat order..."
As requested, he then leaves.
"Urhhh??" The party hears the tapping of a cane and footsteps, then the door opens, revealing a wrinkled old crone with rhuemy eyes, hey greying hair in feed-in braids, walking with the aid of a walking stick. "Why don't you come in and tell me more about those hobgoblins?" The old crone invites the party into the shack, before tottering her way back to her rocking chair, near the fireplace, which is next to a small oak stand, where a teapot and a cup of hot tea rests, then locking the door behind her.
The room is made out of wood and there are a featherduster, broom, dustpan hanging on the wall. A sturdy table made out of oak has four matched chairs. Dishes and cups are in a small cabinet on the floor, while the shelves are lined with books, with the top shelves having cobwebs on them. The place smells of faintly of mint. There is a closed door at the back of the room.
"Help yourself to the tea, cups are in the cupboard," The old crone rasps gruffily. "And don't break anything or I'll have your hide!" She adominishes the party.
"Gren, there's a sick little boy back with the rest of Phaendar's refugees. We think that he has Filth Fever. Are there any herbal remedies that you know of that can aid his recovery?"
I'll take the arrows.
"This is the reason why I wanted to live out here alone in the woods! Everyone would start bothering you about their every whim and fancy and expect you to slave over their problems!" The old crone starts on a long rant. Then she imitates a high pitched falsetto, " Gran, there's this boy that I can't live without who's in love with another girl. Can you please make me a charm so he'll ditch the other girl and be mine forever? Else I'll die of a broken heart!"
"Bullsh*t, I tell you, bullsh*t! People die of a stab wound to the heart, and not from pining over others!" The old crone wheezes.
"As for your boy, brew him an infusion out of willow bark off a 2-3 year old willow tree, the size of your palm to a cup of water, once in the morning and once at night. "The old crone says gruffily.
”We will leave if you’d like, but take heed of my companion’s warning. You may want to make your way to the nearby settlement. They’ve gathered folks together for safety and could always use another person.”
Gren listens carefully and tries to recall if her remedy seems like it would work to help cure a disease.
"Be serious! Firstly, I don't like people because they keep bothering you and expect you to work without reward. Secondly, this is all I have here, and you're not expect an old woman like me to be able to move all this," She gestures at the room, "by myself, do you?"
"And that's not counting my workshop at the back, my bed...I'm too old to be sleeping on the forest floor. I won't be able to get up the next morning!"
Grenwold realizes that willow bark contains salicin which is effective in bringing down fevers, but an overdose can cause stomachaches.
”I have a bit of leechwort, which can help, though I could always use more. It takes a while to make it so I should start gathering as we go now. I might be able to spot it from Ringo and then we wouldn’t be slowed down much, but herbs are tricky. The best thing to get is bodybalm, but you’d need an alchemist to craft that. Really helps with diseases... Maybe I can help you keep your camp clean to help prevent disease. I am very... fastidious these days.” He shudders.
”I doubt we could move the cabin, no... but maybe we could improvise some new camouflage for your house if you are set on staying? A bit of netting, some dye and some leaves and we could drape it over the house here and there. Maybe it would keep your home hidden to casual inspection.”
”What a brilliant idea madam, we will try to gather it for the young man as we go. Hopefully, someone other than me can administer it - I’m not the best at the ‘administration’ part.”
The old crone wags a finger at Grenwold, "Actually it is possible to move."
"Firstly, I want a promise that wherever the new settlement is, I want you to stop people from bothering me. Secondly, I want to be escorted all the way there." The old crone demands imperiously.
"Now,the logistics of the matter."The old crone thinks for a while, "Firstly, we'll need a cart to carry everything,and me as well, so I don't have to trek through Fangwood. I'm fair decent at building things, so I'll supervise the construction of the cart myself. Do you have something to pull the cart?"
"Next, I wouldn't trust you ruffians with the delicate dishware, flasks of herbs, alchemical reagents or the books, so I'll summon some unseen servants to carry them to the cart. Some are on shelves, so I'll need to help getting planks laid out to them. Unseen servants will carry orders out to the letter, but they aren't very smart, nor very strong."The old crone comments.
"What I really need help with, is to build a new shelter where the new settlement is, away from the others, and moving the heavy items like the alchemical workbench, portable artificers lab, my cupboards and the bed. Earth elementals do have the strength to move those, but they hang around for less then half a minute, so it isn't really helpful."
|
|
Nigel carefully works his way across the room, making sure to not disturb anything, and pours himself a cup of tea.
"Zank-you."
He then gets the old crone up to speed on recent events.
Nigel then gives the crone a thoughtful look.
"Unfortunately, it is not a permanent settlement, as of yet; ve are still looking for a permanent site. At present, ve are holed-up in a cabin to ze east of here. In a pinch, I am sure zat Bear could pull ze cart, if zat helps…?”
He then turns questioningly to Ratel, to check that that would actually be possible.
”Oh, of course, I can help with a lot of that. That being said, I think you may need to get used to people asking you for help if you move - there’s a lot of people who lost everything at their impromptu settlement and a person of your magical skill and expertise may be called upon from time to time. I won’t speak for everyone else, but my elk Ringo can pull a cart and I’m handy enough with tools. I’m not very big but I’ll do what I can if it is agreed. I don’t think you gave us your name, though. I’m Grenwold Houtvester. Gren smiles at the lady as politely has he can.
Nodding in agreement to leave the newts alone, Ratel helps get the group through the woods. Waiting while Nigel knocks on the door he nods in agreement with the warning Ratel calls out. When the door is opened and the woman invites them in he shrugs and follows. Sitting carefully in one of the matching chairs, he tells Bear, ”Sit” and listens to the conversation.
Turning to answer Nigels quesion, Ratel breaths a sigh when Gren volunteers his reindeer instead of Bear.
The tea has a soothing aroma and a floral taste and Nigel identifies it as sage leaf tea.
”Hobgoblins have an intense hatred for what they call elf magic, which extends to all arcane spellcasters. I certainly wouldn’t want to be around when they arrive.” The old crone states.
”Yeah, I’m going to plant a thorny blackberry hedge surrounding my new dwelling. Blackberries taste good and the thorns should keep nosy parkers out.” Veld grumbles.
”I know there’s a troglodyte cave someplace east of here, but they stink rather badly.” Veld says bluntly. ”I don’t really care to have anything to do with them because their stench turns me off, but troglodytes generally speak only draconic, anyway.”
Under Veld’s direction, the party starts constructing a cart, and lay out planks as well as help move Veld’s portable artificer’s laboratory, her stores of turnips, carrots, potatoes, dried mushrooms and yams, water stored in barrels, her bed, her portable alchemist laboratory, her cupboards and shelves and her pots and pans.
It’s backbreakingly hardwork under the afternoon sun.
By the time the party is done with the cart construction and packing everything, 3 hours have passed.
"Now hitch your deer to the cart and drive the cart. I may know how to construct a cart, but I'm not any use at driving one." Veld commands Grenvold.
The party travels for an hour more before night falls. "So do you have some more comfortable accomodations?" Veld asks the party.
Two of Nigel’s wolves report to him, whining. One of them has a gnash on his hind leg and is limping.
The one that has a gnash on its hind leg starts whining to Nigel.
A boar charged at me and stuck me on my back leg.
The other wolf whines at Nigel.
I saw two dull gray lizards walking on two legs with lizard walking on four legs. Those two grey lizard smelt so bad I ran away.
Veld gives a hiss of alarm when she sees the wolves. "What are the wolves doing here? They shouldn't be approaching such a large party." Then seeing that Nigel is communicating with them, asks Nigel "You can speak to wolves?"
Ringo goes along with the plan happily, but asks Veld, ”if you don’t mind, Ringo loves sweets. If you have a bit of fruit or something he’d appreciate it.”
Gren’s face goes dark, and later to the party he says, ”I would root out those creatures and send them back underground if we can. My family experienced their foulness firsthand. They aren’t as bad as the darkblight but they might smell worse.”
Later, he tells Veld, ”My tent is small, but you can have it for the night. I can sleep with Ringo. I’m afraid that’s the best that I have to offer. I’ve been alone for days.”
”Something sweet right?” Veld gives Ringo a carrot. ”That work?” Veld asks Grenvold.
She sighs at the meagre accommodations. ”I guess that’ll have to do.” Veld grudgingly admits. ”Anyone have a bedroll I can use?”
”Sweet enough, thanks.” Gren will offer her his bedroll, and later to the group ask to borrow someone else's when theirs isn't in use.
The night passes uneventfully, and Grenvold finds some dreamers star in the area the party is camping and the next morning, after Veld grumbles about how much her old bones ache from not having a proper bed, and slowly gets out of her tent, the party sets off, deer cart in tow, towards the log cabin.
On the second hour of their travels, the party sees a jet-black bird with an unnatural gleam in its otherworldly eyes, flying 30 feet in the air. The bird addresses the party, ”Oh hello there, what are you two leggers doing in the Fangwood?”
No one has any idea what the heck that bird is, well except for Veld. "Oh that dratted thing is a witchcrow. Always attracted to magical artifacts, their kind are. And they'll try to steal it from you given a chance."
"Ooooh, such prejudice," The witchcrow crows indignantly. "I've not even said anything bad about your kind yet."
|
|
[spoiler=Wolf]"Oh no! That blasted boar is a nuisance..."
Nigel moves to heal the injured wolf.
He then turns to Veld, and nods.
"Yes, I can talk vith volves. I find zem to be refreshing company - zey have no time for subterfuge, and get right to ze point. Zey are also quite loyal."
When the subject troglodytes comes up, Nigel frowns.
"Agreed, ve should deal vith zem... but first, ve should take Veld to ze main camp, and check in to see how everything is going."
When the Witchcrow is identified, he waves politely.
"Vell, ze reason ve are here, is because ve vere driven out of Phaendar vhen it vas sacked by a Hobgoblin army."