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Everyone gathers around a makeshift stage as the sun starts to slip below the horizon. Pathfinders whisper to each other in anticipation.
Venture-Captain Oraiah Tolal addresses the group. “Pathfinders, our expedition begins tomorrow. We have a day’s travel to reach the site where we will find the Door of Seasons. The founders of our Society may have been unable to reach the realm that lies beyond this magical gateway, but we have something they lacked.” The Venture-Captain holds a verdant crown aloft. “This is the Perennial Crown, an artifact that will serve as the key to opening the door. I hope that Alseta will bless us as we find this doorway to a new place. From what we’ve been able to gather, there’s a demiplane on the other side. The demiplane and the crown alike are closely tied to the Thorned Monarch, Qxal, an evil fey who once terrorized this region. The Pathfinders who recovered this crown faced steep opposition from the Monarch, and I have no doubt they will defend the Door of Seasons even more fiercely. Be wary any fey you see along the way; they are likely to be working for Qxal. Stay in groups of four or more for safety and help each other. Make any final preparations that you require and get a good night’s sleep; your next few nights will be on the trail. We leave an hour after dawn.”
Day breaks, and the excitement around the camp is too high to allow any Pathfinder to oversleep. Agents perform morning rituals, eat breakfast, and take a final look through maps and plans. Venture-Captain Oraiah Tolal gathers everyone together one last time. “I know that we’ve prepared well. We’re going to stop this Thorned Monarch. I have a small gift for each of you: a signal whistle with an engraving of the Perennial Crown. Use it to signal your fellow Pathfinders if you need help. And now, into the wilderness!”
An aasimar woman with violet marks on her face looks around. “Urwal? Urwal, where have you gone? We’re setting off now. Urwal?”
She jumps slightly as an iruxi man suddenly drops to the ground from the tree overhead. He begins talking without missing a beat. “Pathfinders, watch your feet and know your plants and animals. The Thorned Monarch is wreaking havoc on the ecology of this area, and we don’t want to make it worse. Valais, aren’t you ready to go? We’re departing now.”
Valais Durant stares for a brief moment before replying. “Yes. Yes, I am ready. Pathfinders, we’re very close to the Door of Seasons now, and things are about to get dangerous. Watch each other’s backs and don’t be afraid to call for help.”
Durant points out a series of small tracks. “There are fey coming from somewhere around here. We think Qxal might be using mushroom rings to allow their fey allies to cross over from the First World to ours. See if you can find one and shut it down, but be careful. By the looks of things, they’re already operational.”
Silence angrily flaps his wings.
Redd, Eltis and Meadow are able to find the mushroom ring in the middle of a nearby pond. Krek was no doubt distracted by Silence making so much noise.
In the middle of a small pond, a ring of large toadstools glows with a slight magical energy. The ground inside wobbles and is almost translucent, as if one could step right through it.
As you approach, the shimmering becomes more pronounced.
Redd Scouts, giving everyone +1 initiative!
Unknown assuming Perception
Unknown assuming Perception
Detect Magic w/ Religion
Defend w/ Perception
Scout w/ Perception
Investigate w/ Nature
Bolded may act.
Round 1:
Meadow
Eltis
Symeon
Redd
Mushroom Ring
Krek
Darlann
Meadow tries, but can't quite figure out what to do with the strange mushroom ring.
Eltis is also stumped by the mushroom ring.
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Symeon pauses for a second, and then moves in closer. Coming up next to the ring of mushrooms, he takes a long look at the shape of them and then tries to rearrange a few.
"Hrmm seems spelling out my name doesn't work... How about...?" He pulls a few more mushrooms out and spells the word Redd out as well.
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Redd pulls the cuffs of her breeches above her knees and cautiously wades into the pond, taking wide steps. Upon seeing Symeon spell out her name with mushrooms, her rosy cheeks turn even brighter as she blushes and giggles softly.
Aww. That's so sweet, Symeon. Tee-hee-hee!
Whatever he did seems to make the ring of mushrooms react differently.
Oh! Look!
Redd points at the ring.
It's changing! Let me try spelling out a name.
She plucks a few of the brightly colored fungi and arranges them into letters, her tongue sticking out as she concentration.
K...R...E...K...
She leans back to get a better look at her work.
How does that look?
Although his first attempt doesn’t work, something about what Symeon did the second time seems to have had some effect.
Redd feels she is very close with her attempt.
Just then something pops out of the shimmering area of the ring. It immediately attacks Symeon with it’s tiny shortsword.
It does 2 points of damage with its first strike and misses with the second.
It angrily babbles something in a strange language as it attacks.
Round 1:
All water and island squares are difficult terrain
Thievery or Nature to disable the ring. You have one success so far.
Nature to identify the creature. You have a +1 to this check to Recall Knowledge for the atlas.
Will save from everyone within 20’ of the creature, Roll twice and use the worse result. This is a fortune effect.
Krek
Darlann
Round 2:
Meadow
Eltis
Symeon 2 damage
Redd
Mushroom Ring and creatures
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Symeon gives a blush as Redd compliments his gesture and starts to move with a few jerky movements. He barely notices the sting from the fey thing next to him and completely misses the unlucky aura.
The halfling draws out his bow and an arrow, trying to distract himself from Redd standing right there, and focuses on the fey instead.
Not finding much of another distraction he tries to spell out something else with the mushrooms. He gets an L and then an O out before blushing even redder and quickly scrambling the mushrooms.
Symeon feels his luck drain away. Fortunately he has an idea of what the creature is.
Round 1:
All water and island squares are difficult terrain
Thievery or Nature to disable the ring. You have one success so far.
Nature to identify the creature. You have a +1 to this check to Recall Knowledge for the atlas.
Will save from everyone within 20’ of the creature, Roll twice and use the worse result. This is a fortune effect.
Krek
Darlann
Round 2:
Meadow
Eltis
Symeon 2 damage failed save, roll twice
Redd made save
Mushroom Ring
Although Eltis can’t figure out the fungus, he does discover it works better if he just considers it a magical trap and ignore what it is made of. He manages to weaken the gateway further.
Round 1:
All water and island squares are difficult terrain
Thievery or Nature to disable the ring. You have two successes so far.
Nature to identify the creature. You have a +1 to this check to Recall Knowledge for the atlas.
Will save from everyone within 20’ of the creature, Roll twice and use the worse result. This is a fortune effect.
Krek
Darlann
Round 2:
Meadow
Eltis failed save, roll twice
Symeon 2 damage failed save, roll twice
Redd made save
Mushroom Ring
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Redd offers a quick blessing to Chaldira then begins spouting off the words of Chaldira for encouragement.
Chaldira gives us strength when we band together. Fight for your friends and they will fight for you!
Having barely any time to react, she spots a fist-sized rock nearby.
She points a finger at the rock while muttering an incantation and magically flings the rock at the creature.
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Redd’s words are inspiring for the moment.
Her rock goes skipping across the pond.
Round 1:
All water and island squares are difficult terrain
Thievery or Nature to disable the ring. You have two successes so far.
Nature to identify the creature. You have a +1 to this check to Recall Knowledge for the atlas.
Will save from everyone within 20’ of the creature, Roll twice and use the worse result. This is a fortune effect.
Inspire Courage is active.
Krek
Darlann
Round 2:
Meadow
Eltis failed save, roll twice
Symeon 2 damage failed save, roll twice
Redd made save
Mushroom Ring
Darlann refuses to have his luck leeched away.
He strides forth and shouts at the creature. He also waves his sword about, but the creature doesn't even have to dodge the blows.
Round 1:
All water and island squares are difficult terrain
Thievery or Nature to disable the ring. You have two successes so far.
Nature to identify the creature. You have a +1 to this check to Recall Knowledge for the atlas.
Will save from everyone within 20’ of the creature, Roll twice and use the worse result. This is a fortune effect.
Inspire Courage is active.
Krek
Darlann made save
Round 2:
Meadow
Eltis failed save, roll twice
Symeon 2 damage failed save, roll twice
Redd made save
Mushroom Ring
Meadow refuses to let her luck be taken from her.
Meadow knows something about this creature!
NE Tiny Fey
They are well known for their Unluck Aura. Anyone within 20' of them needs to be strong willed or they will find everything that could go wrong does! Other than that, about the only thing sort of interesting about them is their ability to speak to animals.
She then proceeds to shut down the mushroom ring! With a slurp, it sucks the creature into the gate before the gate pops out of existence.
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"Oh my goodness! That little guy was one of the naughty fey. He was a pugwampi. They bring bad luck. I know what to do to get rid of the bad luck. Everyone do what I do."
She covers her eyes with her hands and hops on one foot in a circle three times, almost falling down twice.
"There that should do it. Come on everyone! What are you waiting for? This is a surefire way to cure bad luck. My friends the sprites taught it to me when I was little."
Darlann lays a comforting hand on Symeon's shoulder, saying "By the grace of Iomedae.". His minor injuries are completely healed.
As you head towards your next destination, Darlann reviews Iomedae's teachings.
A stream nearby starts bubbling and a familiar iruxi pops his head above water.
“Pathfinders, do watch out for the local fauna. The animals of this area are quite intriguing. I even heard some speaking. Well worth further study if we can avoid ending their lives with a blade.”
Before anyone can respond, Urwal is back underwater and swimming away.
You march a little further along the stream and it becomes more shallow.
Up on the ridge, you spot some snakes. There is much hissing and then a sibilant voice calls out "Ah, our mealsss! We were promisssed mealsss."
Another similar voice replies "If you would be good enough to lay down, we will sssnack on you." It turns its head to the other snake and says "I like the looksss of the sssmall one with red fur on top."
"There isss two of the sssmall onesss with red fur. Which one?"
"Both?"
"Well then, I get the big one all to myssselff!"
"The big onesss are in metal. That doessssn't tassste good. You can have them, I claim the resist!"
It seems to be the two brown spotted snakes up on the ridge that are talking.
The first one tells Krek "I asked you to lie down, not lie to me!"
The second one tells Meadow "Silly food, we come and swallow you."
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Symeon gives a small shudder at the vivid mental image of being swallowed alive. He pulls out his dagger and quickly binds it to his clothes in a way that would make swallowing him like swallowing a fish bone the wrong way. "I'm sure there are easier and much more delicious foods out there...
"... Like uh, some boar? "
You swear the one of them that laid claim on the small ones licks its lips with its tongue.
"We can get that anytime. I haven't had anything with a red patch of fur on the top!"
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"Oh, I'm sure we're not worth the effort of trying to eat us. By the time you're done pulling me out of this suit of armour, you'll be hungrier than you are now."
Darlann looks around, trying to think of anything to appease the serpents rather than just dissuade them from attacking.
"We've got some delicious leftovers from our picnic earlier. How about a beef jerky? Or some honeyed apple?"
...snakes don't eat sandwiches, do they?
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Symeon pauses for a second contemplating what the snakes have said. A small burst of inspiration washes over his face as he counters. "Buuutt, you know what brightly colored creatures in nature mean, right? They are almost always poisonous and should never be eaten. Imagine how deadly eating the two of us would be?"
"You offer us ssscrapss in layersss of coursssse bread? Bread is what food eatsss!"
The other of the brown spotted snakes looks over at the other snakes that are on the ridge with it. It then says to Symeon "That isss true of ssssome reptilesss, but they are just better than other creaturesss! You sssure that appliesss to other creaturessss?"
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"While red fur might be enjoyable in the short run, it may be harder to do than you think. Perhaps we should not have a confrontation now and you see if the next red furred creature is less well armed? No sense in all of us getting hurt."
[b]"If you want to eat us, we'll not just lie down, it'll be a fight and we'll probably kill one of you. How about we just move on and we forget it all?"
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Mister snake, I swear I'm not very tasty. Just like my other little friend here said, This bright red mop on my head is to scare predators away. We really don't mean you any harm. We're just trying to get rid of an evil influence that is trying to take over this forest. If it does succeed, you will have no forest to live in. No warm rocks to sunbathe on.
As for my friends here with their armor on, you have no arms. There's no way you can use a nut cracker to get to the soft flesh inside. Just let us pass and there will be no trouble. How about I sing you a little song...
♪ "Soft snaky, warm snaky, little ball of scales snaky..." ♪