Once at the butchers, Bahili suggests "There is no reason for us all to wait. Maybe a few others can look for additional sources of bones, just in case these are not 'lucky'?"
Anabel spends some time asking people about sources of bones. She is rewarded with a story about a cow carcass just outside of town. According to rumor, a farmer brought the cow to market along the crowded road when the cow stood stock still, uttered the words, “A market in the city? Death would be better!” and died on the spot. No one has bothered to take care of the unusual cow’s remains just yet.
"Those sound like they might be lucky bones!" the elf says.
Drazhan is smart about a lot of different subjects, but interacting with people is not one of them. Letting Anabel take the lead, he approaches her after she gathers the information and remarks "You are quite skilled with conversation. People listen to you."
Answering Bahili, he notes "These bones do not seem lucky."
Anabel looks up at the bigger warrior and smiles, blushing slightly. ”Oh, thank you. Before I came to the Magaambya, I trained as a shaman for my tribe. It was my role to mediate disputes and offer wisdom. Those skills are sure to prove useful here, as well.”
You find the cow's carcass and are able to harvest its bones and return them to Anchor Root. The ant gnoll closes her eyes as she handles them reverently. "Yes, these are very lucky! They will make good bone oil!"
"I can try. It doesn't sound too different than some things I've done before." If the others agree, Bahili starts. Following Anchor Roots direction miticulously, the young man manages to get it done. "Is it right?" he asks Root with worry.
"Um... y-yes! Yes, that's correct," Anchor Root says, sighing with relief. "You won't have to wake Chizire, after all!"
With the bone oil complete, you follow Anchor Root's directions into the jungle outside the city to find the next ingredients. You reach the area after about an hour. A tree covered with mushrooms as high as 20 feet up its trunk stands in the middle of its clearing. Several wide leaves droop down from the top of the tree.
"I can deal with these!" Firinn says confidently, moving to scale the tree. Thankfully for someone as small as him tree bark provides plenty of hand-holds, and a boost from those taller than him makes the process much easier too!
As soon as Firinn begins clambering up the tree, a strange humanoid creature emerges from hiding among the large leaves! It resembles a bipedal mushroom, and it doesn’t look happy to see you!
"That's a bad mushroom!" Okapi declares confidently. She thrusts her staff forward, the small fetishes jingling and a ripple in the air slams into the creature.
"A bad 'myceloid'" Bahili corrects politely "Its spores can give one the purple pox which will allow it to psychically influence the sufferer." the druid goes over his spells in his head quickly and decides sending a ball of flame into the tree would not be good, so instead he pulls his club and shield into the ready positions.
Even having successfully resisted the strong urge to join Chizire in her cat-nap, Unya still shows traces of somnolence. Shaking off the daze, the amurrun dashes to the tree and scrambles up. Reaching the aggressive fungal-creature, she slashes at it with a pair of kukri.
"Take care, Unya!" Anabel calls. She casts a spell to protect the catfolk from the mushroom man's attacks.
Climbing is tricky at the best of times, and especially so when there are threatening mushrooms around.
On the second attempt Firinn is able to move up the tree, pulling his blade as he does so.
The myceloid reels from Okapi's magic missiles. Unya scrambles up the tree and slices the creature with one of her kukris, the slashing weapon dealing significant damage. Firinn eventually makes it up to the large leaf as well.
The myceloid swings its fists at Unya, delivering a critical hit! She dodges its follow-up strike, though. The creature then emits a cloud of spores around itself!
Drazhan scrambles up the tree, but takes note of the purple pox and decides he does not wish to close that distance. Instead, he throws some acid at the creature.
"So many up the tree." Bahili worries a bit, further deciding a ball of fire would be a bad idea. That leaves him wondering what to do, but as Unya is pummeled, he breaks out of his indecision. Casting two spells on her in quick succession, one to heal and the other to help her tear into the bad shroom.
Unya coughs violently as the released spores envelope her, but she continues slashing with her twin blades.
Firinn stays out of the cloud as best he can and fires a small arrow at the fungus thing instead! The arrow shines silver as it flies into the cloud, and then straight out the other side...
Drazhan splatters the myceloid with acid, then Unya slashes it again and again with her blades! With the final critical hit, the mushroom creature’s cap pops, spreading more spores in the air as it falls from the tree! Luckily, Unya resists the spores’ effects.
With the creature dispatched, you are easily able to harness the mushrooms. While you are still up there, you spot a cache of treasure hidden in a crook of the tree: +1 handwraps of mighty fists, a holly bush feather token, a wolf fang talisman, and a hand of the mage.
Unya drops back down the ground after retrieving the small trove of magical goodies. She shakes her head and grimaces as more of the purple spores fall from her fur. With a growl of annoyance, she moves away from the others and finds a spot where the ever-present rain can hit her more directly and attempts to scrub off the toxic material.
"What else do we need?" she calls out as she brushes her hands across her fur.
"Oh, are you okay?" Bahili asks Unya, pulling out a handkerchief to try and wipe off the purple dust, trying to clean her off without touching her because that would be rude.
Firinn descends, having avoided any serious spore contact and looks around at the rest of the group.
"Fuzzy caterpillars." He says in response to Unya's question. "Anyone know any good trees for that? Firinn has grace and charm, but he prefers Helena to caterpillars!"
Anchor Root told you where the fuzzy caterpillars roam in the jungle nearby. You take your time and collect enough of the little insects for the oil without accidentally pricking yourselves on the venomous spines. You return to the Magaambya, where you are able to render the mushroom and caterpillar oil with little difficulty.
With all three oils on hand, Mariama holds forth a string of tiny bells made of cold iron. "Some old tales say that gremlins fear and shun hanging bells. The gremlins believe the stories too, which is the only reason they work! But the Magaambya has been working on using gremlin bells to create a stronger magical ward. We're going to go back to the storage room where the pugwampis were yesterday and try to test if the ward will work."
Mariama fills you in on the details of the fey abeyance ritual. She suggests whoever among you is the most skilled in natural knowledge lead the ritual, while the rest serve as secondary casters.
"I know rituals!" Okapi pipes up, "Our shaman did many of them to help the tribe! Can I watch?"
"I can try it." Bahili offers with some nervousness, having never done anything like this before.
The young druid meticulously follows every instruction Mariama gives them. Double, and triple-checking, each time before moving on to the next step. As he hangs the cold iron bells, he whispers over and over the instructions.
Bahili anoints the bells with the oils and performs the sacred chant. At the end of the ritual, he feels the magic spring to life, covering an even wider area than anticipated.
"Wow, what luck! Nice work!" Mariama says, clapping the young druid on the back. "I think we can call this ritual a success. It seems like it is useful, but it might have unintended consequences, since it doesn't target gremlins specifically and could injure any kind of fey. We wouldn't want Firinn to wander into the area and get hurt!
"At any rate, you've done well! Take the rest of the day off, and come back tomorrow morning for your next assignment."
Firinn watches from a safe distance and applauds politely, although its fairly clear that he has no idea either what is going on or about the likely results of the ritual.
"Well, no-one can send me to collect anything from that room now." He comments."But if anyone tries it on my room you will feel my wrath, and Titania's!"
"Yes, we should relax and recuperate," Unya declares. Taking a firm grip on Bahili's arm, she begins leading him back towards the dorms (and assumable, her room.)
"Come," she says. "We must be most meticulous in ensuring that there is no more vile pollen on my fur." She glances back at the druid with a grin. "We must leave nothing to chance."
"Oh... Um... okay" the poor man is easily pulled along.
When you arrive at the meeting place the next morning, Ignaci Canterells and Strands-of-Glowing-Dawn Tzeniwe are there to meet you. “Good morning,” Ignaci says with a smile. “As you’ve no doubt gathered, we’re here to task you with your assignment for the day. Our ever-thoughtful colleague Esi suggested that each of us petitioning to join the five different branches of the Magaambya take turns in requesting your assistance. Strands-of-Glowing-Dawn Tzeniwe and I are hoping to become a part of the Emerald Boughs. Our field of study is the world as it is. We study the communities, people, and events of the present day, if you will. There are some people who feel that simple observation and investigation makes us the Magaambya’s spies, but that misses the point entirely.
“Today, I’d like you to help us deliver the mail.” Ignaci produces a basket filled with letters and parcels. “It’s not a flashy task, but it’s vitally important to the members of the local communities. If you find you have time to listen, people are often very willing to share news with those engaged in crucial public service.”
Tzeniwe adds, “Many recipients are far outside Nantambu, so I have rented elephant birds for you to ride for the day.” She steps over to the large silk sacks bulging with food and odd-looking creams. “I have also packed you snacks for the trip, some hot coffee, spare umbrellas, dry towels, fresh socks, muscle balm—” She suddenly stops, pulling a toy elephant covered in sticky webs out of one of the bags. “Ugh, Zanvi! Sorry, one of my children was eager to help pack.”
"Tell me about these elephant birds!" Firinn says, seemingly much more interested in that than the rather mundane task of carrying mail. "They sound most interesting!"
"Elephant birds are the largest birds in the Mwangi Expanse!" Tzeniwe says. "They are flightless, so if you fall off, you will hit the ground in short order! But just hang on to the reins and you should be fine. Certainly you have experience riding on trusty steeds." The anadi bends down to scratch under Helena's chin.
"delivering the mail is a very important job." the young man says with some anxiety. Worried that the task is being given to students, even highly capable ones like them.
"We must go then!" Firinn declares, having apparently decided that excitement about riding giant birds is the appropriate response to the situation. "Tzeniwe, would you mind Helena for me until I get back? I do not think she can also ride these elephant birds!"
"It would be my pleasure," Tzeniwe says.
You mount the enormous birds waiting for you and set off to deliver the mail! You can easily deliver most of the letters, most of which have clear addresses in or near Nantambu. As Ignaci observed, many recipients are happy to talk with you about recent happenings in their lives. A woman named Chinasa is excited for her niece’s wedding and plans to sew the bride a gold embroidered dress, while a woman named Ige talks about her work rehabilitating injured jungle birds and releasing them back into the wild. Musubu introduces heroes to his newest puppy, who he found stuck up a tree, while a man named Jatau offers you a jar of jam after having made too much. These easy deliveries take only 2 hours.
Thirteen deliveries remain, and they will pose some difficulties:
The second letter is addressed to Nethys and explains that five different spells must be cast upon the letter at once (within the same round). Fortunately, the letter-writer has no qualms if the letter is destroyed in the process and in fact expects that result.
The final letter is to Mazludeh, empyreal lord of stewardship, community, and snakes. The instructions are that the enclosed message (a short request that a new canal wall be strong and reliable) must be transcribed onto an egg then fed to a snake; it further notes that the snake’s refusal to eat the egg is a bad omen. Fortunately, Nantambu’s shrine to Mazludeh has many quail eggs to inscribe and several egg‑eating snakes to act as divine messengers. Any hero asking around about this unusual delivery method is directed to the shrine and the friendly priests there. A recent community project resulted in a lot of prayers, so the shrine’s snakes, unfortunately for the heroes, aren’t very hungry today. A hero who succeeds at a DC 15 Nature check can find a snake that’s interested enough to take the egg, or a hero who succeeds at a DC 19 Thievery check can slip an egg into a full snake’s mouth (on a critical failure, the priests spot this behavior and eject the party from the shrine). A hero can also search the nearby jungle for a hungrier egg-eating snake, but the rain means the snakes have taken shelter; a hero must succeed at a DC 23 Survival check to find one. Dealing with each divine letter takes 1 hour, or more if the heroes do a lot of shopping for the items needed to “deliver” them.
The huge birds prove to be quite a distraction to poor Unya. Every little twitch of a huge feather, turn of a head, shift of a foot, seems to draw her eye. It's only through a massive effort of concentration on her part that she's able to follow the details of the task before them.
"We'll deliver these," she says, snatching the parcels with the descriptive addresses.
A number of hours later and she's managed to only deliver two of the four to their final destinations.
Bahili looks at the retreating Unya, chewing his lip and obviously thinking really hard, before sighing and offering himself to help with the snakes.
First the snakes in question will not eat the egg. "It is a perfectly good egg. Please..." but no, then the driud heads out to find a hungry snake, which proves fruitless as well.
Anabel peers closely at the letters with unclear addresses. She is able to make out two of them after a few minutes, spurring her elephant bird on to deliver those two letters.
Several hours of asking around leads the elf to the right houses to deliver the remaining ones.
Firinn, whether through an excess of confidence or something else, volunteers to visit the grandmother to discuss previous deliveries. He makes quite a sight on arrival - a tiny fey on an extremely large bird!
Firinn seeks to resolve the situation involving the angry grandmother. He is able to find the source of the issue—the parcel was delivered to the correct street but the wrong house. The resulting argument has already become the talk of the neighborhood. The person the parcel was intended for, Ndidi, obviously wants the parcel back. The woman who received the wrongly directed package, Jatia, argues that since the venerable Magaambya had given it to her, the package now belongs to her by right. The object of the argument is an incredible Mauxi stained glass lamp, which undoubtedly cost a lot of money to both purchase and to deliver intact.
"It was a simply mistake madam." Firinn says, having decided his side of the argument. "The vase was intended for Mother Ndidi, it must be returned to her. As a member of the Magaambaya" (that thought still makes no sense!) "I say it is so."
”Mistake or not, the lamp was given to me,” Jatia says. ”So now it is mine! Ndidi can get her own lamp!”
It seems that pleas to good nature or fairness will be a difficult sell for this stubborn woman...
"Must I take it from you then?" Firinn asks, remaining polite, although there is a harder tone to his voice. "The Maagambaya will not take kindly to someone abusing its good name to justify theft!"
"Take it? I would like to see you try!" Jatia says, laughing at the tiny sprite.
Firinn doesn't dignify that with a response, simply marching towards the woman's house.
Jatia steps to block Firinn. "What do you think you are doing? Is this how students of the Magaambya comport themselves? Do I need to call the authorities to stop you from trying to barge into my house?"
"So that they can discuss your theft with you?" The sprite replies calmly. "You are a most unpleasant woman. Mend your ways before someone better mends them for you."
He leaves and then attempts to circle around to get a better idea of the house.
Unfortunately, Firinn proves to be less than stealthy in his attempts to case the joint. Jatia spots him skulking about. "Hey! What are you doing back there? Go away!" she shouts.