"Should be easy to find, then," Saraon comments when they find the tracks. "I have prepared the spell that will enable me to communicate with it, so hopefully we should be able to learn why it decided to leave and hopefully convince it to return."
"Oh, good!" Ronan exclaims. "It's like yer readin' my mind, Saraon." He grins. "Well, let me know if'n ye need my help with any of it. If it's try'na hide or whatnot, I should be able to find it from, oh let's say, about 200 meters out."
Following the tracks, Ronan's spell picks up a few false leads before encountering a blip. A very, very big blip.
It's faintly visible in a clearing not far from where the spell picked it up. In the center is a large standing stone, weathered sigils and Druidic runes carved along it. And sprawled on one side of it, basking in the clearing's sun, is a humongous flytrap. Far from a small and innocuous plant, this verdant behemoth is the size of a small house. An uncomfortably small house, but a house nonetheless.
It doesn't seem to have noticed the party.
Saraon gulps a bit.
"That's a big flytrap," he says quietly. "Grimple's work is impressive, even his...happy accidents? Do we still want to try and communicate with it?" he asks.
"Well I reckon so," Ronan responds, marveling. "I'd rather that than cut it apart. Not that I'm much good at that."
Ronan takes a moment to consult his spirits on whether they've heard of anything like this before.
Sprig tilted his head and squinted at the giant plant. "Ah think we should try luring it back, maybe some kinda bait 'r somthin we can use."
This creature is a dire flytrap. Less powerful than a giant flytrap (which oddly is said to be the same size) it is still a powerful foe. As with other plant creatures, it’s immune to mind-affecting magic as well as sleep, paralysis, and poison effects. They are also immune to electricity.
"Bullets still be workin' on it right?"Katheryn asked.
Sprig shares what he knows with the party.
"Fer now, Ah'm plannin' t' lure the thing back, jes' rile it up a bit or maybe bait it out with some food. It ain't terribly fast, though with somethin' that big it's best to keep yer distance anyhow."
He clacks his teeth, "Ah dunno if it's got some kinda ranged attack, spittin' venom 'r somethin. Ah'm thinking of doin' a little test with a summoned creature. No tellin what Grimple's done to it."
"Would you like me to try negotiating with it before we try anything that might scare it?" Saraon asks.
"Ah think it's worth a try, though it might try t' eat ya, so be careful!" Sprig said with some concern.
"So its rooted down? or it walks? Im a mite confused of killer death plant anatomy."
"May as well try talking first." Hezekh says, staying well back. Plants you can talk to he thinks, shaking his head. What a world.
Saraon casts the spell to speak with plants.
"Could be it's one of the kind that usually roots to rest, but can get up and walk if it feels it needs to relocate to a place with more plentiful food. That may be the reason this one wandered off."
He cautiously approaches the flytrap.
"Ho there, greenfriend! I am no threat to you."
"just let me know if we need to choke it out..."
He said solemnly.
The flytrap starts to move a bit more vigorously as Saraon calls out to it. Though the rest of the party just hears rustling leaves and sees tendrils waving, Saraon hears a ponderous but oddly high pitched voice, "Whaaaaaat? Greeeeaat liiiight gooood. Beeetteeer tooo snaaap and eeeaaaat. Yooouuu sooouuuunnnd liiike weeee, buuuut noooot weee. Yooouuu noooot fooood? Oooor aaaarree yooouuu?
"Not food," Saraon replies. "When you say "wee" do you mean the one who planted you?" he asks.
The flytrap waves it’s fronds as it “says” rather bluntly, ”Weeeeee are weeeee.”
Though it can talk, it is far from being a scholar.
"Did you leave where you were planted to find more light, so you could snap and eat?" Saraon asks.
Hezekh nervously backs up a few paces and, catching the others' eyes, motions to spread out and surround it.
Katheryn noticed Hezekh's reaction and moved slowly to spread out as he was suggesting.
"Mmmmmmmm, snnnnaaaap and eeeeaaaat. Goooood to snaaaap and eeeaaaaat. Liiiitttleee toooo fiiiiind heeeereee. Trrriiiieeed toooo fiiiiiinnnnd heeeereeee. Coooouuuuuld nooooot."
"The one who planted you misses you. If we offered you things to snap and eat, would you be willing to come back to them?" Saraon asks.
The flytrap waves it's tendrils, even from a plant the sound of glee is clear in it's voice, "MMMMMMMMMMMM. Yeeessss. Taaaaaaakeee meeee toooo theeeemmmm. Snnnaaaaap annnnd eeeaaaaat aaaagaaaiiinnn."
"Follow me," Saraon says. As he returns to the group, he says to them "Someone should go on ahead and let Grimple know to get some meat ready...this flytrap's hungry, and if he wants it to stay in place, it's going to want easy prey."
Sprig nodded, "Ah'll go, Ah think there's some meat at th' wagon if it comes t' that."
The kobold is fast on his feet, easily outpacing most humans despite his small size.
The party is able to coax the flytrap to follow them back to Grimple.
The gnome's broad mouth cracks into a massive grin as they see the flytrap come lumbering into the clearing, "Spirits! Gods! Holy hells! That is awesome!"
They quickly rush towards the flytrap and begin speaking to it, sounding much like Saraon did when he was under the effects of speak with plants.
As they poke and prod the great walking plant, they wave towards the party, "I'll give my word to Gorsk once I'm done getting the full measure of this big one here. Stop by later if you need help with plants, too. Whatever else, really, got some new sweet potatoes you could test."
Grimple will go on rambling until the party leaves or tries to stop them.
Saraon bows to Grimple.
"Just, please, make sure to keep it fed, or it's gonna wander off again. The sweet potatoes sound lovely!"
Then he turns back to the party.
"So, whom would you like to meet next? Berrind? Jade Bull? You've met Yularia already."
Sprig shrugged his tiny shoulders. "Ah'd like t' see Berrind, but the order we meet 'em in don't matter too much t' me."
Hezekh nods. "Ah tend to agree. Order ain't real important. Who's closest?"
Berrind Starnose resides nearby in a complex series of caverns, part natural, and partly shaped from stone with druidic magic.
It's not far to his caverns, and the entrance is as impressive as any of the other Elder's homes. Vines drape down from the mountainside that the cave entrance sets in, covered in blossoms and woven into ornate whorling patterns. Small bioluminescent plants light the inside of the cave, though it's still quite dim.
Heading in, the party only finds a lone novice druid, a young dwarven woman specifically, tending to some cave plants and fungi. She looks up at the party and says softly, "Ah, hello? What do you need here."
Katheryn gave a polite wave to the dwarven woman but let the others do the talking.
Sprig took a step forward, hat in one claw. "Pardon me miss, but Ah was told we could find Berrind around these parts. Might yew know where he is?"
"Ulla-Maija! A merry meeting!" Saraon says, approaching the front of the group. "It's alright, these folk are friends of mine and friends of the Grove."
Her voice is still soft and tremulous as she answers, ”Oh, uh, hello Duskdragon. Berrind is deeper in the caverns. I am not quite sure where. You might have to track him down.”
Saraon looks back to the others.
"Looks like we've got some spelunking to do."
"It ain't like... super tight space right?" Katheryn asked with a raised brow.
Ulla-Maija gives a rather noncommittal gesture, "Not everywhere is. Some parts are quite spacious. Some are a bit of a squeeze."
"Sprig, you got some twine or something back in your wagon? Might be useful for retracing our steps," Saraon asks.
Sprig grinned and pulled out a ball of string from his pack. "Already ahead of yah Saraon! This ain't too different from home fer me, so Ah think this'll be a snap."
The kobold hands over a ball of string.
The party is able to find a place to tie the string. Before them are three passages. One is small, likely requiring crawling but proceeds straight ahead, disappearing into darkness. Another is big enough for the group to go single file and curves off to the left. The third could fit two horses side-by-side and goes steeply upwards with it's rock floor covered in slick, wet moss.
Sprig peers into the smallest tunnel. It didn't seem that tight for him, but the others might have difficulty. "Hmm... Ah could take a look down here, it doesn't look too tough fer me."
Saraon nods.
"Holler if you run into something unfriendly. Most of the tunnels down here are safe, but you never know what can burrow in from the outside," he tells Sprig.
Sprig gives Saraon a wink and enters the tunnel. "Ah'll be careful."
Sprig begins scrambling through the tunnel. It goes for a ways before heading down and to the right, ending in a large, stalagmite-filled cavern. A pool of still water sits at it's center, in which a few cave fish can be seen swimming about. Of the druid, there is no sign.