Adventures in Oakstead

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

"She asked me to," Tarjun protests.

It's probably one of the only times he's shared anything resembling a moment of complicity with Clara. Which is a bit worrying, if you think about it.

"Yeah - push me
so that I loop here,
til I can get my
satisfaction." Clara sings to a random melody.

Something instinctively makes Tarjun recoil from Clara. "Maybe you're right, it's making her weird," he says to Jewel.

Jewel chuckles. "Making her weird? She's just being Clara. We don't judge her for being herself!"

She looks up. "Clara? Can you float down here with the swing now?"

"You mean it's permanent?! That makes it even worse..."

"No." Clara's voice tells through the green. "It's all entangled up here."

Jewel just looks up at the tree, frustrated. "Come on Clara! With your ability you can climb a tree better than.... well anything. You can't fall and get hurt. Can you please untangle the thing so we can play? Or do we need to move it. Maybe make a frame to mount it so it can swing over the top? But that will take a lot more materials and work. That's not fun...."

Clara starts to ruthlessly take the tree apart to free the swing from it. "Let go of the rope you stupid thing."

"Clara! Don't hurt the tree! It hasn't hurt you!!! And you know Bruihu wouldn't be happy if the tree told him that you hurt him for no reason."

"It doesn't have hands so its not holding the swing. It's just tangled. Have a little patience! You know if I ever can learn another hex it'll be that one that lets you float, just so I can protect the trees. I'd really rather learn your water breathing one...."

"That tree is losing its leaves in winter anyway and the autumn storms will break off branches. It's not like I'm cutting the tree off to turn it into timber." Clara replies stubbornly and continues with her not so gentle freeing of the swing.

Tarjun whistles. "Damn. That how you gonna treat anything that annoys you?"

He climbs the tree and tries to give Clara a hand.

Climb: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

Escape Artist?: 1d20 ⇒ 14

Jewel watches as Tarjun climbs up the tree. What is it with boys and climbing trees!?! She hopes that he doesn't fall and break his good leg, but knows better than to say anything. Their curing spells don't fix bones like they do simple cuts and scrapes.

It isn't so much entangled, just to get it out you'd need to be bigger than Clara and you can't throw it, because the tree is very dense. And you can't easily climb the branches that hold it as they are not thick enough for that.

Tarjun gets back down safely. "Can't reach it. Maybe if we just cut the rope? We can get another one."

"You could untie it at the branch down there and then try pulling it through."

Tarjun follows Clara's instructions. Not that it helps much.

"It's really, really stuck!" Escape Artist?: 1d20 ⇒ 5

"Jewie, do you have a knife or anything?"

"What are you trying there? Just pull it out!"

The idea was to untie one of the ropes the swing is tied to the tree with and then just pull hard on the other end. The use of gross sensory motor skills - known as Str check - much more fitting for Tarjun ;)

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

"Has it come off?!"

Tree Resisting: 1d20 ⇒ 5

With a hard yank, Tarjun frees the swing and accelerates it towards himself. Luckily for him the swing has little mass and the rope is long and has a lot of friction where it needs to be pulled through.

Jewel watches, still worried that Tarjun might fall and hurt himself. How would they explain that to their parents.... ??

Was she becoming too much like their mother? She is shocked when that thought passes through her mind. So much so that she misses the swing being pulled out of the tree and almost hitting Tarjun as it falls! "Great idea Clara! It worked."

"Yeah, you're free now. Hurray. Now get down here." At least Tarjun does not seem to consider saving Clara as something to brag about.

Some might even say he looks mildly disappointed about it.

"Did the swing hit your head? Only the swing was stuck." Clara shouts down. She jumps off the tree and lands softly as ever.

Jewel looks at her brother, confused. Clara hadn't been stuck up there. She had been trying to free the swing.

Then of course she had her normal response so everything was back to the usual. "Well, do we tie it back up here and try not to push it so hard? Or figure out someplace where it can be tied to not get stuck high up?"

"I remember there's a big oak tree down by the stream, with a branch that was pretty good for a swing. If you jumped out of the swing you'd land in the water."

"Yeah, that was just wishful thinking on my part," Tarjun retorts.

"I'd say we move it to the oak."

"So what do we do now?"

"Sure. You lead the way." Clara replies.

Jewel helps Tarjun gather the rope and board of the swing and heads to the river. She wonders how deep it is there. Would it be safe if they swung really high and jumped off?

"Clara? Can you make it so we can all breath under water? I think we might want to look under water to be sure there isn't anything dangerous that we might land on...."

"Like crocodiles? I don't think it's much safer to look for them first." Clara repleis. "And no, I can't make you."

"Well, OK. We'll just have to hold our breath...."

Jewel stops when she realizes what Clara had said. "Crocodiles? I meant like rocks or branches that are stuck in the mud. I've never seen a crocodile here. If there were any I think your mother would have chased them away to keep us safe." She looks ahead as they approach the water. "I wonder if my hex would let me talk to one? I don't think I've ever tried to talk to a reptile. Birds and mammals. If we see one let me try to talk to it!"

"You think you can talk fast enough to persuade it not to eat you, before you're eaten?"

"Maybe I could," Tarjun thinks aloud. "I run my mouth pretty fast. At least that's what Pa and Ma tell me."

He bends down, picks up a pebble, and tosses it in the river as far as he can. If there's a crocodile in there, he reasons, it will manifest itself if someone throws rocks at its house.

Jewel shrugs. "If it's really hungry it might be dangerous. But it's still an animal. They don't normally attack people unless the people invade their space. Even kids are too big to fit down their throats!"

She scans the area before considering stepping into the water. Perception?: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

"Tarjun? Do you think you can climb up there and tie the swing on that branch?"

"Sure!"

Climb: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

Tarjun makes such a show of it that he gets distracted and nearly slips several times.

The swing gets tied.

Hopefully no crocodile is planning an ambush for a careless boy...

As she steps into the water Jewel uses her feral speech hex to speak crocodile/alligator and calls out, "Are there any crocodiles here? If there are I'd like to talk to you...." She smiles, feeling a little silly.

Clara wrecks her brain how she could abuse her magic to appear as a crocodile, but can't come up with anything.

Climb: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10

"Well, I was expecting something worse to happen," Tarjun climbs down from the tree, clumsily. "Who wants to have a go on that swing? I can push," he smiles a wicked grin.

Jewel moves into deeper water, looking for any obstructions that might be dangerous to land on when jumping from the swing. "Give me a little more time. I want to be sure nobody lands on a sharp rock or stick...."

Once she is sure it is clear she swims back to the side. "I'll go first unless Clara wants to. ??"

"Nah, I'm good." Clara replies and wanders the shore looking for stuff too.

There are a few branches lying in the one could remove and the water isn't too deep as it only deepens slowly. But you can't see too far either, as the water is brownish from flowing slowly through the woods. Not muddy, but colored from all the leaves lying in the bed of this small river.

Jewel gets on the seat of the swing, taking the ropes in her hands as high as she could reach. She lets Tarjun push her to start, but then gets the swing going to the height that she wants before jumping off....

Swing?: 1d20 ⇒ 19
Jump off into the stream?: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Not sure what modifiers would be right. Acrobatics? Intelligence? That 1 could be a problem!

Jumping far and high is acrobatics, so it seems like the best joice.

No ranks but +2

Perception?: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

Tarjun is happy to give his sister a push on the swing!

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

He doesn't exactly hold back. Perhaps he finds it amusing to watch Clara or Jewel fly through the air. "Woo-hoo! Try not to land in the water!"

Perception: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

He doesn't really notice anything else.

So, for acrobatics that would be a 3....

So, for acrobatics that would be a 3....

Why? You can always jump shorter than you roll. Wasn't the thought to get into the water with jumping though? There are two requirements for an acrobatic roll - 1) the distance you want to jump and 2) if you don't jump into the water a DC15 to land on your feet and not get hurt if you jump off at the highest point.

Her intent was to jump off of the swing into the water. The roll that I had (Jump off into the stream?: 1d20 ⇒ 1) was a 1. I don't have any ranks in Acrobatics so that would be a 3.

Jewel jumps off the swing as elegant as a dead cat. But at least the splash when entering the water is impressive.

Jewel comes up sputtering and spewing water, having a little trouble getting right side up and standing.... "Help! No! I mean.... I can't" She hacks out some water, and a bit of her breakfast. "That didn't work. Yuck! Let the current take that!"

She swims toward the shore. "Do you want to take it next Tarjun? I slipped off when I wasn't quite ready. I think I swallowed half of the river!"