Clara starts collecting all the stuff she thinks she needs to take along. Once she is done she calls out unseen from behind the huge pile "Who is going to carry all that?"
"We might need to stay out for a night. So I have a tent, a sleep roll. An extra blanket in case it's cold. A pot, cutlery, plate, mug, soap, hairbrush, food for five days, waterskin, thread and needle, some twine, compass, my journal, arrows, the bow, change of clothes, ... only the bare necessities." Clara tells, reiterating her list of things.
Gertrud doesn't fully agree with Clara on what are necessities but she sees the issue of the kids not able to carry around everything that is needed.
"I'll see if I can help with that." she tells and leaves.
After a while she returns, accompanied by the joyous "hee-haw" of a donkey equipped with a pack saddle.
"This should do the trick.
Gertrud provides some tools to extract the sap from the tree, Clara raids the pantry once more and then off it goes. Of the donkey, only the neck, head, legs and behind are visible. The rest is covered with the luggage.
The path is in principle layed out to the elevation in the landscape, but due to the dense forest it is not always easy to see. After some hours you reach a rock formation that raises 20 feet high. With you facing a steep cliff. You could climb it - but the donkey can't - or you could walk around it. The forest floor rises slowly to the left and the right and it can only be a few hundred yards to get around it.
Clara has fun. With nothing to carry, she runs up front, then falls behind only to quickly catch up again. Then she demands to lead the donkey and plays around with the leash. Pulling here, pulling there and even dangling herself from the headcollar as they stand in front of that rock.
The donkey is annoyed and refuses to go any further.
Jewel rolls her eyes when the donkey refuses to budge for Clara. "Clara, You gotta be nice or we'll have to carry all of that stuff!"
She switches to her Feral Speech hex and explains the the donkey. "Hello donkey. We need your help to gather the things we need to stop everything around here from dying. And you are important too because we can't carry all of the stuff. Please walk along with us?"
"Well, since donkey can't climb let's pick a way that we can all go. I say to the left. And maybe we can circle back once we get to the top and see what's up there."
The Donkey comes along with Jewel, but tries to keep her bitween him and Clara. You make the way along the rock. The steep cliff wall becomes less and less high.
Clara takes over the lead and steps right into the the snake.
The snake only manages to bite itself. And the secong attempt is also off.
Clara steps back from the danger noodle and douses it in fire.
The snake is pummeled and burnt, but still alive.
Seeing the (unnecessary) battle starting Jewel calls out "STOP!"
"Stop! We don't want to hurt you. Stop attacking and we can heal the hurt that you've taken!"
She moves up to try and grab Clara and stop her from burning the snake again. "Clara. Tarjun. Give it a chance. He's just an innocent snake! It only attacked 'cause Clara almost stepped on it!"
The snake hisses and rattles and retreats from this pack of mostly unfriendly humans.
While Clara gets the proper smaller sibling treatment from Jewel.
Standing between the retreating snake and any of the others Jewel calls out again,
The snake disappears into the undergrowth.
Moving on with the stoic donkey you get on top of the rock. Nothing special there, just a small plateau in the woods.
Without a path you wolk further through the trees, getting a glimpse of the hill you aim for every now and then. As the sun reaches the highest point of its dayly path you come to a small creek. It appears from the North-West and with a wide bow turns about the direction you want to go. As you trot along the water you notice, that it gets deeper and wider. As you encounter a ford, you have to decide if you stay to the right of the creek, or change to the other side.
Clara jumps into the shallow water at the ford that runs quickly over the pebbles that form the bed of the creek. She sings a funny jumping song.
Using the compass Clara tries to see what Tarjun means. "Why? There's the hill, isn't it?"
Jewel looks over where Clara is pointing while she stands in the water...."What hill? Come out of the water. You're getting all wet! You know there are snakes that live in water too don't you...."
"You mean that funny red, yellow, black, yellow, red, yellow, black, yellow snakes? Where? I want to catch one." Clara replies, walking deeper into the creek.
As she finds none, she points to the hill again and continues down the path on the right side of the creek.
A mile down the creek, it takes a turn to the left. And it is deep enough, that passing it wouldn't be easy. You're lucky to be on the right side, or you would have a large detour in front of you.
But the creek is not the last potential obstacle in your way. only a shor tdistance further, the undergrowth becomes thick and thorny, and forbids to move straight on.
"I could burn it." Clara suggests, pulling Caspar out of her pocket.
Jewel glares at Clara when she mentions burning the undergrowth. "And what do we do when burning it gets out of control and we burn down this whole area? We need the tree sap for the ceremony and we can't get any from the ashes of the tree."
"Any way we could go around this dense area? Without getting lost?" She looks around for the landmarks they'd been following.
I'm sorry for having gone missing for so long. I absolutely HATE it when others do it and I hate it even more when I do. I have some excuses but they really don't matter. I just went quiet for a long period, that is my fault, and I sincerely apologize
Its become obvious that I just don't have the time for this and so I think that it is best that I officially bow out.
Thank you for the game everybody, it was fun while it lasted
Feel free to NPC Bot Tobar if you wish, or just kill him dead.
Jewel checks thoroughly what way to go, but from that point it is just the decision if to go right or left around this obstacle.
As no one has a better suggestion and there is no visible advantage to any of the directions, you travel around the dense undergrowth going to the left.
As you're half way around it you hear some wild roar, followed by a loud shriek and then silence from the opposite side of the shrubs. Maybe you made a lucky decision.
Jewel is visibly startled by the sounds, then obviously upset. "I know it's the way of nature, predator and prey and all that.... But do they have to eat each other?"
She turns a little wider from the sounds apparently trying to avoid whatever was making the noises.
"I'm glad it's not eating us. Hopefully it got something big, so it won't get hungry again anytime soon." Clara states showing a little less empathy for the prey.
Jewel smiles at her brother, "I know. But it can be hard if I use my magic to understand them.... So I don't but I know I can. I mean.... we eat animals too, but they are dumb animals that we raised for that. Sorry!"
"It's reckless of these animals to taste that good." Clara comments. "See, sprouts are more clever. They are totally safe from me."
"If a wolf comes to try that, there will be roasted wolf on the menu!" Clara replies with an angry look while waving Caspar in the face of Tarjun.
Continuing the walk carefully, always checking that nothing follows you from the direction of the feast, you finally reach the area where the hill raises. The slope is steep and leads to a vastly diffent vegetation. The trees have sturdier leafs, or needles. The rocky ground seems to offer less water, the higher the hill climbs.
Every now and then you notice a tree that looks different but to find the ones you need will be an interesting task. Especially as the sun comes ever closer to the horizon, making the shadows longer and longer.
Jewel wanders, looking at all of the different types of trees, a bit overwhelmed. "Wow! I never realized how many different types of trees there are. I wish my hex let me talk with trees like I can talk with animals. Like, Hey tree! We're looking for a particular tree. We need some sap to help stop a ghost from killing everything around it...."
"It's getting close to night. Maybe we should figure out a safe spot to camp?"
Jewel finds a nice spot, besides a steep wall of rock, where the ground is mostly level. After some weeding out the shrubs at the place, there is a small clearing, surrounded by the rock wall and brambles on three sides. The tent would be hidden completely there.
The trees already look all the same with the waning daylight.
"I'll make a campfire!" Clara proclaims and starts collecting wood. She does, because it is much more fun than building a tent, where you have no clue how to set it up.
After a while it becomes clear that the 'campfire' she builds will be more like a bonfire or a beacon to signal the position back home and beyond.
Clara is blissfully unaware of all side effects that might have. I would guard for sure from most dangerous animals, which are more clever than sitting next to such a fire. But it might as well burn down the tent, and the wood, if it is lighted.
Jewel moves around the camp site area looking off in the distance to try and see the 'best' place for the tent. When Clara volunteers for wood gathering she absently nods. "Tarjun. Give me a hand setting up the tent, over here."
Once done and she notices how much wood Clara is piling up she gets mad.... but then forces herself to relax. They were all still kids. "Good job Clara. But lets move the pile away from where the actual fire will be. It should just be a small fire, for cooking and a little heat. If you light that pile you'll be struggling all night to gather enough wood to keep it burning, unless it lights the trees on fire and burns up the one that we need!"
Once she has a place clear of burnable debris she sets up some tinder. She considers her spark cantrip but instead digs out the flint and steel. "I think we should learn how to start the fire with non-magical stuff, just in case we ever need to know."
"Amateurs" Clara teases the others as she lights the disappointingly small stack of wood with a magical spark.