Adventures in Oakstead

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

"You first. I'll watch that from afar."

Jewel frowned, but shrugs and climbs down. "I explained that we didn't leave on purpose. And we did everything that we could to get back. It's not like we were off just having fun, or that any of us could deliberately teleport ourselves away like that!?!" Her voice rises a bit as she talks, walking away toward where she hopes they can find Dwayne.... Realizing that she stops talking and tries to calm herself.

"Hey? Did we miss the feast? Remember the boar and all the work we did? But the feast was supposed to be three days.... We were gone for longer than that! Dwayne and the lumberjacks were here and got to enjoy the feast that we missed.... Why would they be mad at us?"

"Oh, I dunno, he seemed pretty mad at us when we came back," Tarjun follows along at his usual slow pace. "With all the shouting and all that. Maybe he wasted time with our parents looking for us in all the places we weren't!"

Jewel stays with Tarjun's pace without hardly thinking. "He seemed mad, yes. But I'm pretty sure he was as relieved as our parents that we were back. This is a small town and everyone takes care of each other. We're kids, but once we grow up we're also the next generation that may call this our home."

"That's why Clara's looking for a husband that won't want to stay here, even though we're way too young to really consider such stuff!"

"If she finds one, it'd already be unhoped for," Tarjun mumbles - not too loud. He doesn't want to take another arrow to the foot... Or the knee.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (11) + 9 = 20

"Haha. Looks like someone doesn't want to be invited to my wedding."

Dwayne hangs around the sawmill in his usual grumpy mood scolding some lumberjack for lollygagging.

"Pretty much, yeah," Tarjun retorts unashamedly. "'Specially if you're planning for a shooting contest!"

He gives Dwayne a big, ostentatious wave to catch his attention. "Hey Dwayne, how's it goin'? You're cutting down... many... trees?" he finally asks lamely, at an utter loss for what kind of activities lumberjacks might do besides chopping down trunks all day.

Dwayne looks up. "Why you're asking. You finally want a real job instead of feeding off your parents?"

"We're like ten," Tarjun gives Dwayne a surprised look. "We're not supposed to work and bring money, ya know? We do chores around for our pa and ma, and they don't pay us, and that's why we're allowed to stay. It's all exploitational."

"Nah, we're here 'cause we'd like a piece of trunk to shoot arrows at it. You got any?"

"There is a whole forest full of trunks. There are the tool, if you're able to use them without breaking them."

"Why don't you shoot a tree anyways?"

"Well, we were doing some target practice, but stationary targets are too easy. And they aren't any good to practice for real life targets. We don't want to be shooting anything living, but kind of need a moving target. So, if we could get a piece of a tree trunk that we could hang? Not a big one like what you ship off to sell. Maybe a smaller one about the size of my torso? We thought that we'd hang it by those trees by our house so we wouldn't accidentally miss and shoot near somebody. And then we could swing it or spin it to make the target harder."

"You can check on the firewood pile over there" Dwayne tells pointing to the pile next to the sawmill where everything lies that isn't a proper board "or you take the tools into the woods."

Jewel smiles at the offer and turns toward the firewood pile. "I'm not a lumberjack. I don't think I'm strong enough to use the tools for cutting wood."

Searching quickly through the pile she finds a log about a foot thick that was cut off rough on one end, possibly broken rather than cut? It was only two feet long but Jewel decides it will do fine. "Tarjun? Maybe we can roll this one back? It's too heavy to carry!"

"Probably!"

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

"Hang on! That thing's hard to flip..."

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

"Almost got it!"

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

"Do ya have some kind of wheelbarrow or something?" he asks Dwayne after the third try leaves him panting.

Pierce lets out an involuntary snicker at Tarjun's foibles, but looks a bit guilty afterwards.

Clara is tempted to show Tarjun how it is done, but then refrains from adding to Pierce's entertainment.

"We have a wheelbarrow at home."

"I don't think the wheelbarrow at home is very good," Tarjun mumbles. "But if we got nothing else..." He sets off to fetch it.

"Aren't you strong enough to pick it up?" Clara inquires from pierce. "That would save us from awkwardly standing around while Tarjun takes forever to fetch the wheels."

Pierce rolls his eyes and snickers again. "If it were that fat guy, I'd just stab him with Blooddrinker instead of rolling it around or shooting at it. Tarjun's the one who likes to wield big pieces of wood, so I'll let him deal with it."

Jewel watches as Tarjun goes to get the wheelbarrow. "Once he gets back maybe Pierce and I can help lift one end while Tarjun gets the other." She turns to Clara, "Unless you think Paddington might help? He's at least as strong as any of us. Except maybe Tarjun...."

It takes quite a while for Tarjun to return with the wheelbarrow -so long that you almost suspect he might have got lost on the way. Finally, he reappears, pushing the wheelbarrow in front of him.

"It was filled with potatoes," he explains. "I'll have to put it back where I found it," he adds, in the sheepish tone of voice of a child who knows they'll get in trouble, but decided it'll be a problem for their future self. "Let's try and get that baby in it! Pierce, gimme a hand."

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Jewel moves over to the opposite end and works with Pierce to try and lift the log onto the wheelbarrow....

Strength: 1d20 ⇒ 3

Pierce moves to look like he is helping but doesn't actually contribute much.

Strength: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (8) - 2 = 6

"Come on!" Tarjun cries out, seemingly struggling to lift the piece of wood by himself. "Clara, gimme a hand."

Str: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

Clara rolls her eyes, but does as requested.

The kids make it utterly clear even to Dwayne that they are not cut out for this kind of work. Even though the piece of wood finally lands on the cart.

"Finally!" Tarjun exhales noisily. "Just have to push this to the tree house. Thanks, Dwayne! Don't cut down too many trees - at least not the ones that are old and precious!"

"Oh, shut up!" Dwayne replies annoyed.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Tarjun says cheerfully, before pushing the wheelbarrow towards the tree house.

It's so heavy that he's even slower than usual, but after a lot of efforts, more than one pause, some grunting and even a few swear words, the log finally reaches its destination.

"Okay! Now we tie it to a branch?" he pants, wiping the sweat off his face with his shirt. "Maybe we're gonna need a pulley or something."

"Do you have rope? Just tie it to a branch while on the wheelbarrow. Then pull the wheelbarrow away."

Jewel looks up at the branches. "Any of these low branches would just bend under the weight and the target would just be on the ground."

"I think we should go down by the river and gather long weeds. Then we can braid and twist them into a rope to tie this up and off the ground. Tomorrow I'll ask Erastil to let me cast Bull's Strength. With the extra strength we should be able to lift this up and get it tied. Then between swinging and spinning it will be a good target!"

Tarjun just stares at Jewel. "That's a whole lotta work just to lift a log. Can't we just fetch a rope instead of making one? I don't even know how to do that!"

"Maybe there's rope at the farm. Or at Clara's."

Jewel turns to stare back at Tarjun, "Of course there's rope at home. And if we were going to borrow it, and return it when we were done without cutting it, I'd say lets just use that. But if we want it to stay here? Then we do the work. And Mom and Dad would say, 'Good that you learned how to make rope!' And it's not just to lift the log. It's to hang the log as a target that we can set moving, or spinning. Maybe paint a face on one side and we have to hit the face...."

"Come on. It can't be that hard. Especially after everything that we've learned recently."

"And we've never seen anything that started with 'it can't be that hard' deteriorate into chaos." Clara comments dripping with irony. I go and steal a rope we won't bring back.

Clara leaves.

"See?" Tarjun gestures vaguely at the distant figure of Clara. "Arguably faster."

Pierce snickers again.

Clara walks home and searches through some chests for a rope she hopes no one would be missing anytime soon. In a dusty and webby corner hidden in a pile of 'may need that later'-stuff in the basement she finds some rope of questionable quality.

She happily grabs it and sneaks out, to run back to the others.

"Got one."

"See? Faster," Tarjun comments. "Thanks!"

He ties the rope to the piece of trunk securely, and steps back to admire his work. "That should hold on. Guess we just have to heave! Pirate boy should be used to it," he adds jokingly, gesturing at Pierce.

Jewel shakes her head and watches.... "Tomorrow I can cast a strength spell.... Just didn't prepare it today."

"Wait, lemme try something." Tarjun rubs his hands together, grabs the rope, and attempts to lift the log by himself... Rage; Strength boosted to 16

Strength: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

All he manages to do is to pull a muscle in his back. The log barely shifts.

"Nope!" he releases the rope, panting. "No luck!"

Str: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (18) - 1 = 17

Clara lifts the log. "Pull the rope, quick!"

Tarjun gapes at Clara, amazed, but quickly does as she says. "What the hell, Clara," he still manages to comment.

Almost in shock at Clara's amazing feat of strength Jewel tries to help.

Strength check if needed?: 1d20 ⇒ 20 LOL!

Pierce shakes his head and backs away slowly from the girl children's shows of physical prowess. "That's unnatural," he mutters.

When Tarjun pulls the rope, having it slide over the branch of the tree, a lot of dust and dirt is released and forms a cloud. The rope itself feels very dry and brittle. But for now the trunk hangs in the air and swings a little as Clara releases it.

Pierce shakes his head and backs away slowly from the girl children's shows of physical prowess. "That's unnatural," he mutters.

Tarjun can only nod in agreement. "But damn useful," he adds, ever the pragmatist.

"This seems to hold! Right; who wants to shoot it first?"

Jewel draws a face on the trunk, then grabs the bow and three arrows. She runs a short distance and calls back, "OK. Start it swinging with a slow spin. I'll try to shoot the face. Get back in case I miss....:

to hit: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 3 - 4 = 15
to hit: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (7) + 3 - 4 = 6
to hit: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (9) + 3 - 4 = 8
-4 for non-proficient?

She runs back and hands the bow to the next person, then past the target to try and find the arrows that completely missed....

Tarjun swings the piece of trunk gently - and ducks when Jewel's arrows fly wide. "Hey! Careful with that!" He shoots a worried look at whoever grabs the bow next. "Keep your aim on this thing!"