"Bah," Felix mutters. He draws his sword and hurries after the man, expecting to be detected well before he reaches him. At least he's reasonably sure that the man is alone.
"You there!" he calls out when the man detects him, or when he gets within 20 feet, whichever comes first. "You wear the armor of a brigand who has been terrorizing the people of Spielburg!"
The man drops the deer meat and spins to face Felix, spear and shield at the ready.
Felix is first. I don’t have a map for this but you’re 20 feet away. Vegetation isn’t difficult terrain but prevents charging/running.
Feeling that the brigand has made his intention clear, Felix rushes forward to attack.
The brigand easily deflects Felix’s blade with his shield, then counters with a thrust.
Remembering that he missed the first swing or two against the goblins, Felix is not discouraged by his opening attack. He strikes again.
He's still not discouraged!
Brigand isn’t either!
This is a very encouraging battle!
Felix scores the first hit and it's a good, biting thrust. The brigand goes pale, but continues to stab...badly.
Felix lets out a rousing cheer when his sword strikes flesh, which unfortunately distracts him from a successful follow-up attack.
Clank!
Whiff!
The back and forth between the two opponents began to wear on the already exhausted Felix. He failed to get his shield up for one of the brigand's spear thrusts and took a nasty wound to the chest.
His head swimming from the pain of his wound, Felix made one final desperate attack.
Clank!
The brigand can’t follow up his attack with another and goes down to Felix’s sword.
Breathing deeply, Felix falls to his knees and tries to get his breathing and adrenaline under control. He considers his next steps.
Due to the gaping spear wound in his chest, he is near death. But the bleeding seems to have stopped, so he is stable. He bought a magical healing potion from the healer Amelia Appleberry, but it wasn't cheap, and he doesn't have another one. He could probably heal safely at her hut or even resting inside the city walls, but he doubts he can make it there before nightfall, especially as exhausted as he already is.
Felix looks down at the dead brigand and the deer nearby. The man seemed to be alone, but if he is expected back at camp any time soon, other brigands will be out looking for him. If they can hunt down a deer, then can probably track footsteps.
Felix digs his healing potion out of his backpack, pulls the cork out of the top of the vial and drinks it.
Feeling much better as his wounds magically knit together, Felix searches the dead brigand for anything valuable (especially his spear), and then starts to consider where he can camp for the night.
Actually…
Felix uncorks his healing potion. Raising the vial to his lips, he looks up and is transfixed by the appearance of a majestic white stag across the clearing. The stag stares back at him, slowly approaching as he kneels there, frozen by the spectacle. The stag comes within inches: it’s a huge, terrifying beast, but Felix feels no fear, even as it lowers its massive antlers towards Felix’s gut. The stag pokes him gently and a yellow-white light slowly washes from the rack of antlers into Felix, knitting together his wounds until he is fully restored. The stag then retreats across the clearing and stands there, seemingly waiting for him.
Eyes wide, Felix stares at the stag even after it healed him and retreated across the clearing. Finally gathering his wits, he re-corks his potion, gathers up the brigand's spear, and moves to follow the flag.
"A fox that can talk, and knows a magical white stag!"
The stag waits at the edge of the clearing and doesn’t move. It’s big brown eyes, so deep you could fall in and never hit bottom, looks at you, unblinking. The stag is clearly waiting for you to do…something.
Felix comes closer to the stag, and utters a soft, "Awwww!" as he looks into its big, brown eyes. Realizing that the stag is waiting for him to do something, he hesitantly places his hand on the side of the stag's neck. If the stag doesn't react, he'll try and climb on the stag's back.
That is definitely NOT what the stag was waiting for, and he bucks Felix halfway across the clearing.
Felix utters a soft, "Owwww" as he looks into the stag's soulless brown eyes. He gets up and comes closer to it, but stays out of bucking range.
"Do you want me to follow you? I'm ready."
If that doesn't garner a reaction, Felix looks around the clearing, thinking. He spies the corpse of the deer that the brigand killed. He hefts it onto his shoulders and comes closer to the stag. Maybe it wants him to bring the deer's corpse somewhere?
The stag seems satisfied and is now ready to lead him. Felix’s exhaustion seems to have been washed away by the healing power of the white stag, so he’s good for several more hours.
At one point, Felix passes a large split in the southern valley wall. Signs of extensive human passage suggest that a lot of people have come in and out of this large cleft. There’s also a sound of repetitive sproinging coming from the cleft, like someone jumping on a pogo stick over and over again, though way louder. The stag hurries past this opening.
An hour later, he leads him to another cleft, this one much smaller, leading to an opening just big enough for him to camp comfortably. Ancient remnants of a fire pit suggest that others have used this cleft for just such a purpose. The stag does not enter but instead stands guard outside the cleft.
Felix says thank you to his guide, and giving them a wide berth, makes his way inside the cleft. He lights the fire and uses its light to...
update his map with the various landmarks he's encountered
draw a rough map of the places in the valley that he's travelled
lament that he doesn't have a map or even parchment to draw one on. He'll have to fix that the next time he's in town.
He'll eat some dinner and wait a bit for something to happen. Perhaps the stag lead him here for a reason other than just a safe place to sleep. If nothings happens during that time, Felix will take off his armor and go to sleep.
Felix cooking some of the deer meat?
"Nom nom nom."
The stag appears to approve of that and Felix realizes that it’s the natural order the stag was concerned with. It’s natural for humans to hunt deer for food, but not acceptable to waste the meat after killing the animal.
Night falls quickly this close to the valley wall and Felix feels safe and protected here. The stag prowls back and forth as Felix drifts off to a much more pleasant sleep than at ‘Enry’s cave.
That is, until he is awoken by the sounds of growls, grunts, and thrashing vegetation from just outside his hidey-hole. The light of the nearly full moon causes the white stag to glow with a pale silvery light, highlighting the majestic creatures battle with two tall, humanoid creatures with long scraggly beards carrying big clubs. In the time it takes for Felix to reach for his gear, the stag has nastily impaled one of the trolls with his antlers, driving the vile creature to the ground (trolls in this game do not have regeneration; they have stats of ogres). The stag takes a vicious blow from the other’s club before he wheels about to drive it off. The second troll, injured, flees into the woods, and the stag returns to the mouth of Felix’s campsite, panting and bleeding. Felix waits for the stag to heal itself, but it seems either unable or unwilling to do so.
Felix looks up at the sky to assess how much time has passed since he went to sleep. He rises and goes to check on the stag.
"If you can't heal yourself like you did me, I have a potion that can help."
He offers to pour the vial into the stag's mouth.
It looks to be a few hours past midnight. The stag accepts Felix’s offer and the potion soothes its wounds. It returns to its guard duty, and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.
Upon waking in the pre-dawn light, the dead body of the troll is the only thing to show the whole thing wasn’t a dream.
Felix puts his armor on first thing.
Next he searches the troll's body!
Then he has a venison omelet (minus the egg). Finally, he spends some time dragging the troll's body away from the campsite. If he or someone else ever wants to use the campsite again, he doesn't want a rotting body attracting wild animals or monsters.
Finally, he looks at the remains of the deer and sighs. He's not a hunter, so he normally wouldn't bother with it, but the white stag seemed to be concerned about it, and he did heal Felix's wounds and stand guard through the night.
With another sigh, Felix hefts the deer's remains onto his shoulders and...
...starts trudging back to town. He's pretty sure he knows the way.
The troll doesn’t have anything of value, except Felix remembers something about the healer wanting troll beards.
Felix starts to head towards town, but the stag quickly intercepts him. Apparently their little journey isn’t over yet.
In fact, the stag leads him further west for several hours, until Felix estimates that they’ve travelled to the far southwest corner of the valley. Suddenly, he notices that the trees around him are in full leaf, rather than swelling buds, and the grass in the clear places is green and lush. The birds are singing more sweetly and enthusiastically, and the winter’s chill is significantly less.
Finally, Felix and the stag arrive in a clearing right up against the rocks of the valley walls. A massive oak tree dominates this clearing, beside which the stag moves to stand.
”Hey, you made it. Good to see you. Now mind you remember what I said,” a familiar voice says as the talking fox appears from behind a bush.
"Red! Good to see you!"
Felix pulls the deer off of his aching shoulders.
"Hungry?"
He tilts his head to the side, trying to recall their conversation from the other day. "You said a number of things."
The fox doesn’t reply but instead turns towards the oak tree and bows its head low. The bark of the enormous tree splits vertically along a fissure of bark and from the opening steps the figure of a (naked) beautiful woman of bark and wood, with leaves for hair that cascades tastefully across her nether regions.
”I am Nerisil, the dryad, the keeper of these woods. Are you a friend of the forest?”
Felix thinks of his metal armor hanging from his shoulders, his steel weapon that's not derived from a tool once used to build or hunt, and his still sore shoulder from where the magical nature guardian kicked him.
"Yes.
"Yes, I am a friend of the forest."
He performs an awkward bow.
”You have shown courage to fend off two goblins to save an innocent creature, you have shown proper respect for the forest’s animal inhabitants by making acceptable usage of its given life, and you have shown compassion and sacrifice to spend your potion to heal the wounds of another. I have one final test for you. Along the northern wall of this valley grow the magical spore-spitting spirea plants. Bring me a seed from those plants, that I may help preserve this magical species, and you will have proven yourself a true friend of the forest.”
With that, the dryad returns to her tree.
"Ooh, a quest!
"Red, she gave me a quest! Any idea how long it takes to walk to the north side of this valley?"
”For me, less than a day, but for you, my metal-covered friends, probably at least two.”
"Ha ha, true.
"Do you know anything about these 'spore-spitting spirea plants?'
"What they look like? How many there are? How are they magical?"
”Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Pretty sure you’ll know them when you see them.”
"Yes... that would be 'telling.' That's how answering questions work!
"But all right. I'll start making my way there, I guess. Seems pretty important. Not important enough to give information that might help it succeed, but important enough."
"Lady Nerisel is testing your ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence, so yes, telling wouldn't be appropriate. I have no doubt however, that you will rise to the occasion, reach new heights of heroism, as it were." With that and a chuckle, Red dashes off.
Felix begins to make his way generally northeast towards town. The walk is calm and peaceful, birds chirping pleasantly from the forest roof. This place must be murder in blackfly season, but so far, the valley is insect-free.
Around mid-afternoon, Felix notices that the trees have begun to look more vibrant again, though he's quite certain he hasn't been going in circles. Spotting a large clearing to his left, he feels drawn to investigate, and finds a large open area. In the centre of the clearing sits a ring of large, rectangular slabs of basalt, covered in moss and looking well worn by the elements. Within the ring of stones, grows a ring of large, vibrant mushrooms, with many smaller ones growing also. There is something wild and dangerous, primal, about this place.
Felix also remembers that the healer is offering a reward for several pounds of small magic mushrooms.
Remembering the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School's lesson about treasure actually concealing unseen threats, Felix draws his sword and circles the edge of the clearing, looking for threats. If nothing leaps out at him (figuratively or literally), he'll circle the ring of stones.
Finally, if all seems peaceful, Felix will cross the ring and gently tap one of the mushrooms with the side of his boot.
Nothing happens
Still keeping his weapon cord around his wrist, Felix bends down, lays the sword on the ground, and pulls up a mushroom.
The large mushrooms are quite large (couple feet across and high), so it must be the small ones the healer wants. Felix is easily able to pick several pounds of those. He can easily get several more hours of travel in before nightfall, if he wants.
Felix gathers up the more reasonable sized mushrooms and starts to head back to town.
A few more hours of travel leaves him square in the middle of the woods when night begins to fall.
Feeling like he's made good progress on his first foray into the wilderness of Spielburg Valley, and he's cheerful as he sets up camp for the night. He won't pitch his tent unless it looks like it's going to rain, but he does start a cheery campfire. He sits down to enjoy its warmth as he eats dinner.
Felix passes a pleasant night, and though he’s occasionally awakened by distant crashes through undergrowth, nothing disturbs his camp, and he awakens a little stiff but rested. He’s certainly motivated to get his fire going again, though: it’s a brisk, spring morning.
A couple hours more travel and Felix breaks out of the forest onto an old, abandoned road, though at one time it clearly held a steady traffic of heavy wagons.with nothing better to do, Felix follows it east and shortly after lunch time, he sees the walls of Spielberg ahead.
On his right, just before the town wall, lies the local cemetery, and what a dismal, creepy place it is. It doesn’t look like anybody’s been by to tend or visit graves in quite a while, and while nothing moves in the light of day, Felix is sure he doesn’t want to be anywhere near there at night.
Passing along the north wall of town, the is a road that leads north towards some farms, though none of the ones he can see appear to have anything growing but weeds, and them not well. He can also see the baron’s castle to his left and the fork in the road by the healer’s hut.
Felix walks past the town and heads to the healer's hut to turn in his magic mushrooms and troll beard. After that, he'll run up to the castle and turn in his brigand spear. Then he'll head into town.
Felix walks into town. The sheriff calls out to him, "Hey! Welcome back. Good job in not dying out there."
Talking to Amelia Appleberry, Felix explains that he didn't kill the troll, but that he befriended the White Stag, who killed the troll on his behalf.
"So, you see, while killing a troll is pretty impressive, I think it was even more impressive to befriend the White Stag. Know why? Because..." Felix pauses to tap his armor over where his heart is, "It takes compassion."
He nods solemnly at her and says, "Yeah."
*********
Felix walks into town. The sheriff calls out to him, "Hey! Welcome back. Good job in not dying out there."
Felix calls back, "Thanks! Did you know that there's a hermit living in the caves above Lake Spielburg? His name is 'Enry! He is awful!
"Ha ha ha!"
*********
Bursting into the Adventurer's Guild Hall, Felix scans the room for Wolfgang. Whether he finds him or not, Felix blurts out, "Wolfgang! I met a fox that can talk!
"...
"Also, I need a map of the Valley."