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Your adventure begins in the small tent city of Hillcross, which serves as a meeting place for Kellids and others traversing the largest
pass through the Tusk Mountains. It is a common waypoint for those traveling to or from the region. The tent city is damp, and the air thick from a heavy rain that occurred the night before, but is still bustling with activity as folk of all kinds pass through.
As you make your way through the city, you hear a tumultuous tapping close by. Turning to the source of the sound, you see a woodpecker at work, affixing a note to a wooden advertisement board. This note is a hastily scribbled message in Common, calling for help in rounding up
stegosaurus nestlings just outside the city.
As you approach the board, you see the following posted:
Urgent assistance requested! Young stegosauruses loose! Help me return them to the wild! Make haste to the outskirts of town, due west, then south between the two large boulders. Payment of gold provided in exchange for a successful roundup.
—Xila of the Green Faith
As you read the note, you notice the woodpecker hovering nearby.
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"Oh! I think I know what that is." The middle-aged Varundi man pulls a journal out of his satchel and a pen from his mass of sun-tinted hair. "Let's see... let's see..."
"That's a... um... quail?" Jiggo stares at the bird and holds his hand to his chin, lost in thought. An simple arc glows on his hand, underneath his knuckles.
At some point he decides to read the letter. "Stego... Stego... sauruses? I wonder if this bird is one of them? Well, let's help Xila catch them. I'm sure they'll have more information." He bobs his staff against the ground, enjoying the rhythm.
"Come on, honey. We have animals to rescue!"
"Oh joy." Her voice drips with sarcasm. "Can't wait to get my hands dirty." She flicks some dirt from her maroon dress and rifles her hand through her gray hair.
Salera stands a head taller than Jiggo. Her gray skin is heavily scarred, especially near her shoulder blades. Atop her forehead is a glowing sigil, the same as Jiggo's.
She sneers at the bird until she feels Jiggo pulling her hand. Gently at first but soon altruism drags her along.
"Okay, Jiggs. Slow down."
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A battered looking upright ratfolk scratches behind an ear that is partly missing. A stained and tattered green cloak over his head to shield the bright sun from his eyes.
"Young stegosauruses loose! Help me return them to the wild!" He scratches again thinking to himself on how he is going to get rid of these fleas. Where he came from in time they didn't exist. But he is here now, with no way back and stuck with them. "If it is loose then isn't it already in the wild?"
He shrugs tearing one of the bounties from the board as he makes his way west. "Coins a coin, doesn't matter if it comes from the Aspis or the Pathfinders, or a bulletin board." He realizes he is talking to himself once more.
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A small mushroom being sprouts from the ground in front of the sign and cocks its head sideways "That's a wood pecker bird. Not the smartest bird but one of the loudest." Eddie reads the signage to themselves and nods at Scerzaq and the other two big folk.
"Stegosaurus.. really big lizards that eat mostly green plants. Hopefully they don't like mushrooms too." They follow after Scerzaq, waving the two tall folk to follow.
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Salera stands aside and lets Jiggo do the talking. "Oh, it's a woodpecker? Oh right, because it drills into the wood. Right."
He removes his Shelyn-marked gloves and reaches down for a shake. "I'm Jiggo Maeleranti. This is my lovely partner Salera." She practices her curtsy as Jiggo reaches to shake hands and appendages.
"Well, if they're young stegosauruses they will look for small, easy to reach plants to munch on, right?" He giggles. "I think you're too mobile for them to bother with."
He looks a Scerzaq. "Come on, come on. We get to save some lives today. We can figure out payment later." He turns onto the path and springs along, double checking the directions every minute or so.
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A small mushroom being sprouts from the ground in front of the sign and cocks its head sideways "That's a wood pecker bird. Not the smartest bird but one of the loudest." Eddie reads the signage to themselves and nods at Scerzaq and the other two big folk.
[dice=Nature vs Bird]1d20+7
[dice=Wild Empathy: Diplomacy vs Woodpecker]1d20+3[dice=Nature vs Stegos]1d20+7
"Stegosaurus.. really big lizards that eat mostly green plants. Hopefully they don't like mushrooms too." They follow after Scerzaq, waving the two tall folk to follow.
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"I'm Eddie of the Bo Leetus's. Coins are nice but food is free." They point to a pile of moldy leaf mulch covered in mosses and fungus growing in the shade of a large tree. "One just needs to know where to look."
They waddle over and grab up a handful, offering it to Scerzaq "Eddie will share if hungry."
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"True enough" Scerzaa smiles and takes a bit of the fungus to chew on. "Unfortunately coin is all I have, I am a bit out of my depth here." He puts the dry clump in his mouth and immediately turns green. Not wanting to spit it out he chews it for 10 minutes before forcing a swallow. As things go it seems he will be saving some of it for later as a large chunk is jammed in between his incisors.
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"Oh, not the mushrooms.. the mulch is the good stuff." Eddie stuffs a handful into a satchel for later consumption, along with an occasional flat shelf-like mushroom and some mosses with reddish tips.
"If you get bitten or scratched don't run off when I stuff your cuts with these. They are helpful!" Pointing to the previously collected mosses and fungi.
"In the end it is all about surviving. Noone is going to look out for you but you." Scerzaq lets out a deep barking cough as he hunches over.
Salera smirks. "You can't save the world if you're dead." She glances at the fungus, then at Jiggo. Since Jiggo didn't lunge at the fungus in an act of automatic good will, she looks at Eddie and munches on some of his gifts. "Jigs is on a diet, so I'll take his share." Jiggo quickly nods.
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Yes, he does look a bit soft and mushy doesn't he.
"Fungus don't get overweight. We just get bigger and more fecund."
Eddie looks like what you'd expect a walking, talking Boletus mushroom to look like, duh. Other than wearing a leather armor that seems to be slightly waxy, covered in acid burn marks. They walk with a short staff with a wood shield across their back. Both wooden items are streaked with light and dark spaulting.
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"In the end, it's all about making the world a better place. Dinosaurs! That's what I came up here to see!" The young human woman pauses and looks around. "Hi , I'm Caitlin. Are you all interested in this job too?"
Dressed in leathers with short bow across her back, rapier, short sword and light hammer on her belt, Caitlin appears to be a blonde woman, in her twenties, twin braids framing her face. She has a smile on her face and an air of confidence.
Salera eyes the woodpecker and then grabs Jiggo by the collar. "The bird's leading us somewhere. May as well follow it, right?"
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"I like woodpeckers. They chip off bits of wood that fall to the forest floor and feed hungry mycelium. We can trust someone that does something so nice." Eddie moves through the wood after the bird.
"Oh. Does anyone else like to heal things? Or am I the only one?"
As they move through the forest Eddie plucks the occasional berry from here and there. "Fixer uppers!"
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A big ol' half-orc, nearly as wide as he is tall, ambles up to the bulletin. "Now, I say, I say, that there stegosaurus job looks just up the alley of ol' Buford Oxcatcher."
"How do you do, how do you do, son?" Buford says, "I'm a trained in the medical proficencies, son. I can set leg that's broken, and sometimes, I use the primal power to heal, if I so choose."
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"Hmm, I heard there was fellow Pathfinders here in this cold Hell of a territory," spoke an elven woman in a thick black coat, with dashes of yellow over her attire, "Where are my manners? Khenari T'Lok of the church of Calistria, I happened to be traveling in the area and as a fellow Pathfinder on the road I might as well step in to help with my medical expertise.
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By following the directions on the notice board, you find yourselves in a large clearing in a wooded valley to the west of town. It is here you find a haggard Kellid woman in a patterned cloak of several colors. She ignores the sticks tangled in her hair and the dirt on her face as she chases a juvenile stegosaurus through the mud. All around her, nearly twenty young stegosauruses romp across the clearing, play in pools of mud, and trample the ropes and stakes of a ruined animal pen. For each stegosaurus the woman successfully herds toward the enclosure, another storms out, excited to roam and play.
When you arrive, the woodpecker lands on her shoulder, and she slumps away from the chaos to greet you.
"I am Xila, a follower of the Green Faith. When I heard rumors circulating around Hillcross that this clutch was to be sold into captivity, I knew I needed to return them to the wild. As young as many of them are, I believed their herd must be in the nearby lowlands. I paid the trapper’s fee, which was quite a sum, but money is nothing in comparison to their quality of life. I have kept them here while I searched the valleys. I found a herd nearby, with many young missing—it might even be their family. I intended to reunite them today, but
this morning I discovered them like this. They’re quite the handful."
"Before I escort the young to their herd, I need to round them up and calm them down. There are far too many, and I’m exhausted. Please gather them up and bring them to me, without hurting them. While you’re at it, see if you can find out how they broke free—I don’t want to head into the wilderness only to be set upon by some dangerous creature."
"Are there any questions?" she asks you.
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A big ol' half-orc, nearly as wide as he is tall, ambles up to the bulletin. "Now, I say, I say, that there stegosaurus job looks just up the alley of ol' Buford Oxcatcher."
"You look very healthy." Eddie head bobs, looking Buford over and smiling. Afterwards, they turn to Khenari "Are you from a warmer climate? A nice chill in the air can keep the burrowing insects at bay, so long as its not cold enough to freeze. Brr."
Once introductions are complete Eddie continues moving through the forest towards the clearing "This place is nice. The trees are mostly intact, full of nice lignin."
Once Xila speaks up "Oh, these are the escaped stegosaurus from the sign. I'm Eddie of the Boletus. Nice to see another of the green here." Eddie tries to get a good look at the babies, hoping to know something that could help them out.
"They don't eat mushrooms do they? Do they have names yet?" Eddie points to the nearest one "This one looks like a Connie. That one with the mad face maybe a Fred..."
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The roundup plays out over the course of 3 rounds, each representing about 5 minutes of activity. During each round, each of you can attempt a single skill check to help herd the clutch. You are free to use any skill as long as you can describe how you will use the skill in this situation.
Some Examples:
Nature to calm the dinos
Thievery to untangle ropes
Performance to lure the the curious dinos using odd noises or gestures.
** Be creative **
Each round, you can forego herding the stegosaurus babies and inspect the enclosure. You can make a Perception check to seek. As this is also a secret check, please post your Perception mod and I will roll it for you. You can also attempt both checks but at a penalty due to your divided attention.
It is Round One! Please go ahead and make your checks. Remember, only one check per player.
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Scerzaq successfully untangles several babies from the ropes. Jiggo and Salera head over to examine the enclosure. Eddie makes noises that hopefully resemble stegosaurus mothers but the babies don't pay much attention. Khenari looks around, quite unsure of what to do.
You discover signs that the stegosauri forced their way out of the enclosure, likely out of boredom.
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"One doesn't contain nature inside a box of bars and ropes. You should see what lives in the soil, most of the time the only things that can stop the roots and mycelium are solid stone and deep water. Sometimes even those don't last long."
Eddie starts to change tactics a bit, this time trying to get the babies trust and attention, hoping to lead some back into the enclosure, at least for now. "We are taking you back to your herd, your home. Its worth it." I hope.
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Jogging her memory for a bit, Khenari remembers potentially something to do with dinosaurs, or at least the application of herd like species in order to help at least bring them over to get their attention. She'd the Druid calm them down being that it was only natural for them to have the required knowledge for the task at hand.
"Come on.... get along... something like that yes!"
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Caitlin heads off to the enclosure to see what happened but doesn't find anything of note, other than what Jiggo already shared. Buford tries to appear larger to try to scare the babies back into the enclosure but a particularly large stegosaurus baby looks at him in a funny way.
It is Round Two! Please go ahead and make your checks. Remember, only one check per player. Try not to use the same skill as last time
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"One doesn't contain nature inside a box of bars and ropes. You should see what lives in the soil, most of the time the only things that can stop the roots and mycelium are solid stone and deep water. Sometimes even those don't last long."
Eddie starts to change tactics a bit, this time trying to get the babies trust and attention, hoping to lead some back into the enclosure, at least for now. "We are taking you back to your herd, your home. Its worth it." I hope.
[dice=Diplomacy - Wild Empathy]1d20+5