Perception DC is 20 to notice the hazard before arriving.
Perception DC 25 to notice the hiding figure.
The trip north to the fairy ring that Talliree told you about proves to be a slog. The snow is at least waist deep on Erigga and often even deeper. Progress is slow and more than once feet slip on icy ground and leaf litter. It takes over an hour to cover two miles, and it appears that it will be midday or later before you reach the copse of trees and winter mint patch that marks your destination.
It's late in the morning when a fallen tree blocking the path along a gorge forces you to find a new path forward. As you travel along to meet back up with your original route, you come across a glade. In the snow at the center of the glade you see the prints of something large with no tracks indicating how those prints got there and a smaller trail left by something closer to the size of the taller members of your party going from the edge of the glade to where they end in a mess of disturbed snow in the middle of the larger prints.
The tracks are fresh, less than an hour old.
The large prints that seem to have appeared out of nowhere? You recognize them as coming from a dragon, probably a younger specimen judging by the size.
Before anyone steps into the glade, you notice an odd purple glow coming from beneath the snow. It's faint, but in the darker shadows of the deeper prints it's noticeable even with the sun glaring off the snow. Tanglefoot and Histya both eye the glade warily. Something is definitely not right about this place.
As you are studying the prints, you feel Tanglefoot trying to get your attention through your link with him. The little hedgehog tries to show you what he notices, but you can't see what he apparently does in the image he sends you.
You spot a figure hiding among the trees. They aren't an orc or any goblinoid given the flash of pale, pinkish skin you catch, but you can't tell more than that from across the glade.
You spot a figure hiding among the trees. While you can't tell if they are human or elf from the brief glimpse you catch, you can definitely tell that they are a she and she isn't wearing a stich of clothing as she tries to spy on you from behind the trees.
Maidie regards the clearing warily as she studies the tracks. After a moment, she glances towards the overcast sky with a look of concern.
"Those are dragon tracks! Notice the claw marks...and there's something purple underneath them in the snow. Be extremely careful and don't enter the glade until we know what we're dealing with here."
Almost by instinct, she checks the area for magic auras.
The entire glade radiates a magical aura. One that you swiftly identify as from the school of transmutation, though the-- call it flavor of the aura is closer to what you saw on Talliree's medallion.
Tricksy humanses, why you gotta ruin all the fun, a voice asks in your head.
Save for the few clouds left behind by the storm last night, the sky is clear of anything, not just dragons.
"Dragon tracks, eh? They're about an hour old."
Then he adds in a softer tone "Also, some nude woman is watching us from the trees. I can't tell if she's a human or an elf."
"Probably fey, considering the cold." Erigga answers, even if she can't see s@!% with snow this high. "Unless her nipples have frozen and cut through her clothes, which I think could very well happen." If she wasn't wearing a breastplate, that could be her.
Histya emits a low hiss and backs away from the glade.
Cued by the cat’s response, Moon looks past the prints. She shades her eyes in different ways to cut down on the glare. ”There is some sort of purple glow beneath the snow. It’s easiest to see in the deeper prints.” She looks at the leopard, ”You’re right. There is something wrong here.”
Maidie focuses on the glade for a moment, then stops abruptly and shakes her head vigorously.
"Get out of my mind and show yourself, or I'll make you visible myself. And you won't like my way of doing it, I promise you...! she snarls at the glade, looking in the direction of the figure Grobradon mentioned.
A naked woman in a frozen glade, playing mind tricks on mortals who pass by. That sounds somewhat familiar, although there must be a dozen fey who fit that description.
"Or maybe the girl is a transformed dragon. The prints are very strange but could be read that way. Let's give this glade a wide berth and continue on our way. But first..."
Moon stands up and waves towards the 'girl'. "Hello! We mean you no harm, IF you have no ill intent. We are heading that way." She indicates a rough direction past the girl's position, "We're going to circle around this glade and carry on. We are not coming after you. Do you understand?"
Grobradon tries Sylvan as he calls out to the nude woman, "옛 방언을 할 수 있나?"
Indeed, there are a number of fey that naturally possess the forms of beautiful women. You remember finding a beautifully illustrated tome dedicated to cataloging such creatures hidden away in a dark corner of Holgast's library. Even now, you can recall many of them. Baobhan sith, blodeuwedds, dryad, hesperids, huldras, iduns, lampads, leanan sidhe, naiads, nereids, nixies, nymphs, oceanids, rusalkas, swan maidens, and selkies were all possibilities, and that didn't even count the fey that could create illusions or change forms, or take the forms of others like skin stealers. Several of them, the rusalkas and nereids in particular, are extremely dangerous. Many of them, however, have one thing in common, a reliance on water, and you don't see any water nearby. As you ponder what it could be, Moon says that the girl could be a dragon that's been transformed, and things begin to click into place as you call out to whomever is talking to you.
The voice speaks again, sounding like a petulant child.
Fine! Youses wants be a meanies? How's about youses be meanies while teenies?!
You feel an uncontrollable urge to sneeze as you realize with a sinking feeling of dread that the woman on the other side of the glade has nothing to do with voice you hear nor the glow coming from under the snow.
The nude woman hides behind the tree she was peeking out from behind when it becomes clear you have seen her. However, a moment after Maidie's outburst, the purple glow that had been faint and almost imperceptible now grows in intensity for a couple of heartbeats before there's a blinding flash. Thankfully, everyone's eyesight recovers quickly and you all see the glade now cleared of snow as what was there comes falling back down. For a moment, it seems that will be the end of it.
Maidie tries to stifle the sneeze she feels, but the urge will not be denied. Her sneeze when she finally loses the fight against it echoes a few times across the glade, probably alerting everything for at least a mile that something is here. More worryingly, the wizard seems to disappear, leaving her gear and clothing behind to collapse in a pile. A second later, there's a high-pitched, terrified scream that sounds a lot like Maidie that ends when something lands in the snow with a paff just a foot away from where Maidie had been standing.
When you give into the sneeze, you feel something unsettling happen to your body in the same instant. The warmth of your clothing is replaced by a cold wind blowing down on you. When you open your eyes, you see that you are flying up, and slowing down. Looking below, you see the ground slowly stop receding as you clear the top of the canopy by several dozen feet. As you start to fall, terror rips a scream from your throat. There's little you can do as the ground hurtles up at you with horrific speed and your mind insists on imagining what it's going to feel like when the landing breaks every bone in your body. Just before impact, you squeeze your eyes shut. Then, everything is cold, though nothing hurts. You must have died instantly, so why does your heart feel like it's going to pound its way out of your chest?
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Betzolte grimaces as the discussion of strange women and dragons goes on. She doesn't have anything to add to the conversation really, but she's growing increasingly concerned that things are about to get weird...
She gasps as Maidie disappears.
"Maidie?! MAIDIE?!"
She rushes over to where she heard whatever it was landing in the snow.
As you lay in the embrace of something cold and trying to figure out what just happened and if you are dead or not, you hear Betzolte calling you name, though it does sound a bit muffled to you. The sound of feet crunching through snow getting closer to you is much clearer. You feel yourself start to shake and shiver as you let out a breath through teeth starting to chatter.
Betzolte finds a crater in the snow, about a foot and a half wide and just about as deep. A puff of steam and billowing snow comes up from the bottom of the crater as the snow down there begins to shake and quiver.
Betzolte begins digging with her hands, trusting her mittens to keep her hands from getting too wet and cold and risking frostbite.
Bow ready, Moon’s eyes keep roving, watching for whatever had ensorcelled Maidie. She nudges the cat and points to Betz, ”Go dig. Get the girl out.”
Histya hisses at the eldritch area but leaps forward. Her wide front paws hurl piles of snow between her legs.
Grobradon takes his new long spear, lowering the handle into the crater carefully, "It hurts humans but should be safe to grab onto I think? That you down there, Maidie?"
A part of him is amused. He's not always nice, but he's wise enough to be wary of rousing a wizard's wrath.
"What in the name of Nethys' charred face just happened?! And why am I so cold?
As Maidie's mind races to figure out what kind of magic just affected her, her hands pat down her body to check for injures...and clothing.
After a moment, Betzolte, Histya, and Grobradon manage to pull Maidie out of the small crater. At least the tiny, foot and a half tall woman with gossamer wings that shimmer iridescently in the sunlight looks a lot like her. Thankfully, Maidie is uninjured, but on the minus side, she doesn't have a stitch of clothing on, and now there isn't an outfit among the party that will fit her. Besides finding herself denuded and freezing, the most disconcerting thing from Maidie's point of view is that everything now appears four times bigger. She could easily curl up in either Grobradon's or Betzolte's hand or cocoon herself in a scarf.
As you examine yourself and find that you now have wings and pointy ears in addition to losing several feet and something like 90% of your body mass, you realize what happened. You have been put under a fey curse, one meant to humiliate and embarrass rather than kill if the results are anything to go by, and a powerful one at that. It's going to take some doing to get it undone since each one needs either powerful magics that most mages will never witness much less achieve in their lifetimes or a specific set of requirements to be fulfilled.
Requirements that, at the moment, you do not know.
Today has not been a good day.
"C..c..could someone hand me a scarf or something...oh, and the naked woman is probably a dragon that also got transformed by the same fey who tricked me. It's likely invisible and laughing at us from somewhere close by." Maidie says in an unusually high-pitched voice, still shivering from cold.
I really should have prepared see invisibility when I knew we were on our way to deal with the fey.
Grobradon takes off a scarf made by his mother, it's garish (She didn't see at the time) but warm "Here you go. "
Gambling that the girl across the glade is equally cold, Moon pulls extra clothes from her pack and holds them up. "Are you cold? Can I bring these to you?"
"Thank you, Grobradon...this will do in a pinch until we figure out something more suitable - or preferably get me back to my real shape."
When Moon speaks to the unclad woman, Maidie acts on her suspicion and adds in draconic: We mean you no harm. If you have also been tricked by this wily fey, perhaps we can help each other.
To Moon, she says: "The trickster who did this to me is likely invisible. Can you see if Histya can pick up a scent?"
When Moon calls out to the woman, she looks around the tree and nods before hiding again. She doesn't reply to Maidie, however. A casting of the cantrip that allows anyone to see magic auras confirms that the glade is no longer enchanted, the glow and the aura Maidie saw having disappeared after the flash. Histya can't find any scents of any invisible tricksters, nor can any signs of an invisible creature lurking about be seen. Thankfully, no fey or other creature seems intent on stopping anyone from crossing.
The woman hiding behind the old pine looks young, no more than fifteen or so. Her hair is a deep, rich black with an emerald-green sheen to it, but it's her eyes that give her inhuman nature away, whatever form she wears. They are golden with slit pupils that burn with a rage born of humiliation and pride. Looking at her more closely, its clear that she must have had a very bad time recently as she's covered in wounds caused by sharp teeth and claws and bruises that stand out against her winter-paled skin. She says nothing as she holds out a demanding hand that shakes as she shivers despite everything she tries to do to stop it.
Those are most definitely the eyes of a dragon. A green dragon to be precise.
She's suffering from exposure and hypothermia. If she's not warmed up within the next hour, she'll probably go catatonic. The clothes will help, but she needs time by a fire and something hot to eat if she's going to start recovering for this.
Studying her injuries, it appears that she was attacked by another dragon, but the wounds appear to be too shallow, even for a wyrmling. Perhaps she got into a fight before landing in the glade and apparently falling prey to the magic here.
Grobradon is amazed at Mini-Maidie, but glances over at the girl hiding behind the Pine enough to guess at her health.
"She's got hypothermia, she needs to be near a fire and a hot meal in her to recover, and if we leave her to exposure she's gonna go catatonic."
Moon puts her weapons away and quickly walks across the glade with the clothes from her pack in hand to dress the other girl.
She makes idle chatter to the non-verbal girl, as if this was a usual day. "It's quite cold out here. And that fae trick could turn deadly, if we don't get you warmed up quickly. Some of my friends might have extra clothes, if you need them. Maidie isn't going to need her boots until that trick wears off, that's certain. I'm Moon." Once she has the girl bundled up, she holds her close and starts rubbing her briskly to try to speed the warming process. "I'm pretty quiet myself, so if you don't feel like talking, that's fine."
The bundle-wrapped Maidie tests her new wings cautiously, then takes off and flies a careful lap around the grove, studying the young woman from all angles.
"If I were to venture a guess, I'd say our freezing friend here is a young green dragon, based on her eyes."
Not that Erigga is much of a talker, but she suddenly is quieter than usual, busying herself with making a fire.
"She's a bit short for a dragon... but then again, right now you're a bit short for a Maidie." Grobradon observes
The young green dragon turned young woman lets out a surprised yelp as Moon ignores her hand and starts dressing her like a child. It doesn't take long for everyone to figure out that she has never worn clothing before as Moon has to coach her through each step of the process. By the end of it, her face has turned red from embarrassment. She stiffens when Moon holds her close and begins to rub her to help speed the process of warming her up, but after a few moments, and a little help from Histya who wraps herself around the so far mute and nameless dragon girl in an attempt to extort some petting of her own, she relaxes.
Grobradon's joke about Maidie being a little short to be herself gets a snort of laughter out of the dragon girl, not that she's any giant in human guise. She stands a little shorter than Maidie had before the wizardess was turned into a fairy, and is slender enough that Moon's clothing isn't a tight fit on her, though it is definitely too long.
Meanwhile, Erigga gets to work starting a fire after finding a good place and enough stones to make a fire ring. The wood she finds is damp from the snow, but after a few minutes of magical attention, she has enough dry wood and kindling to get things started. By the time the dragon girl is dressed, Erigga has a small campfire merrily crackling away as it dries out more fuel and begins warming up some food and water for tea.
Seeing all of the effort you have put into helping her, the dragon girl looks confused.
"W-why help me," she asks in a hoarse rasp that sounds as if she hasn't spoken in a long time.
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"'Cause you needed it." Erigga answers simply.
”Can you tell us what happened to you? How did you get hurt and transformed? Do you know who did this to us?” Maidie says as she plops down close to the fire with a relieved sigh.
The dragon girl stares at all of you for a long moment, but even as she does, you all see the cracks in the mask she wears. Pain, frustration, fear, and just a glimmer hope show through them.
"I don't know who robbed me of my wings and scales," she answers with a look of longing and envy as she watches Maidie lands near the fire. "I have my brother and sister to thank for my wounds."
She's still reticent to share much, but her tone says a lot, even though she tries to hide it. She sounds hurt and betrayed. Whatever happened, it's clear the wounds aren't just physical.
"Another family dispute...lot of that going round lately..." Maidie mutters, then says more loudly (but still comically high-pitched)
"I'm Maidie...and this is Betzolte, Erigga, Moon, Grobradon and Histya. What may we call you?"
Grobradon looks sympathetically at the girl/dragon. Yeah, family problems certainly seem universal. Even dragons. Mmmph
"Let me look your wounds over, maybe I can treat them?"
"When I was a kid, me and my brothers used to play with wooden swords. I was the youngest child and obviously a girl, so they were bigger and stronger than me. Lost the count of times I've lost to them, but funnily enough I had stuck in my mind that one day I'd beat'em." She decides to share, for some reason. "Convinced my neighbor to teach me how to fight just to do that, you know?"
"Took me a lot of time, but I did whoop their asses and pushed them head first into the mud." She shrugs, smiling from the memory. "Kids, right?"
"As it happens, I liked training so much that I eventually left the farm and became a fighter. So, thing is, you got be positive Lady Dragon, because even a kick in the ass pushes you forward."
The dragon girl chuckles at Erigga's tale, perhaps remembering better times with her own siblings. She hesitates when Grobradon asks to see her wounds, but after a moment of thought she nods. As the druid prepares to tend to her wounds, she turns her attention to Maidie.
"I am--" she starts to say, clearly proud of her name, but as she sits nestled between Moon and Histya with her mouth open to say it the imperious expression she has fades into confusion then wide-eyed, open-mouthed horror.
"I-- I don't remember my name," she whimpers. "It t-t-took m-my name."
She sits in shock as the realization sinks in. The seconds slip past as, slowly, she grabs her arms before she lets out a feral scream of anguish and impotent rage. Her scream turns into a sobbing fit, and she weeps.
Betzolte wordlessly follows the group as they tend to the dragon...woman...person, the combination of shock and awkward and weird keeping her from forming a coherent response, especially when as a wizard she should be the LEAST surprised from these turns of events. Their newfound charge screaming snaps her back into reality.
"Name-taking. Oldest fey trick in the book. And scummiest in my opinion!"
She rubs the hematite pommel of her clan dagger and thinks. Obviously this was something powerful, but just what? It COULD be the work of the Prince, given how he "gave back Coldanna's lost years" by turning her into an elf, but she wasn't sure if what just happened to Maidie and this dragon had been twisted rewards or just humiliating punishments.
"Wait a minute, what happened to Tanglefoot when that fey magicked you, Maidie?!"
While many fey take names in exchange for something, one of the impressions you got from your studies of the fey is that erasing the memory of the bargain is considered bad form and just straight up taking someone's name is a taboo only the most wretched of the most wretched of fey would engage in.
Whatever anger the weeping, nameless dragon girl might have had at the implication, actual or not, that she would fall for such a trick is swiftly snuffed out by hopelessness. Her sobs fade into whimpering sniffles as whatever energy she had left is spent.
Tanglefoot, meanwhile, has been happily napping away in the satchel Maidie keeps him in since all of y'all figured out she was alright.
"Much as I hate to say it...this could be Ganny Black Tongue's work," Betzolte says. "I'm not the only one who thinks things like this are scummy: when fey make bargains like this, they consider erasing the memory of just what the bargain was an artless, cheap tactic. But the act of taking a name away from someone, bargain or no bargain, it's one of the hardest lines a fey can cross. It'd be the kind of thing even a wicked witch would find execrable and disgusting."
She thinks for a moment, and her eyes light up.
"There...there may be a way we can help you! We were out here for a reason: we're trying to get the attention of the Prince of Dancing Leaves, another fey lord who seems to treat this stretch of the Fangwood as his haunt. Some of us have dealt with him before and while it's produced...unexpected...results, they've been...for the most part, just. If we tell him what's happened to you, he might become VERY interested in helping us catch and punish the culprit! And he may feel sympathy for you. What happened to you wasn't your fault. You mentioned your kin wounded you, odds are whatever bargain was struck was done so under duress, and then you were further taken advantage of. Even by the fey's...interesting...logic, you were wronged and GRIEVOUSLY so!"
He is careful as he tends, but at the lack of a name, he is surprised "Maybe you can get it back, or get a better one, but for now..."
He tends to the wounds, not his best work, but infection shouldn't be a problem.
Tending to the dragon girl's wounds proves to be an exercise in three steps forward, two steps back. As Grobradon finds out where she's hurt, it soon becomes apparent that she's going to have to get mostly undressed (with help as her fingers fumble with the buttons, toggles, and ties with little success) for him to tend to her injuries properly. There are bite marks, claw marks, and bruises all over her, on her legs, her arms, her sides, her back, and her neck. Thankfully, none of them are life-threatening on their own, but there are enough of them that if the cold hadn't been certain to kill her, her wounds had a fair chance of doing it. It's not the neatest nor most painless job Grobradon has ever done, but he has every right to be certain that infection won't do her in now.
"We dragons are our names," she tells Grobradon, her voice threatening to break again as she explains why she couldn't just pick a new one or a better one. "We are not so foolish as to use our true names, but our names are as much a part of us as your liver or your heart is a part of you. A dragon would never give up their name, because doing so is as good as killing yourself. A dragon with no name has no deeds, no titles, no legends, no legacy. When it stole my name, it stole my self, my deeds, my legacy." She angrily scrubs the tears building in her eyes again away with the heel of her hand. "My clutchmates, my siblings, break their oaths to me, try to kill me, then some fey monster takes my scales, my fangs, my claws, my wings, and my name! It leaves me in this frail body that can't hear or see properly. All I have left is my honor."
She looks up at all of you, tears streaming down her face.
"Please," she begs, her face flushed in humiliation as she finds herself brought far lower than she had ever thought she could be. "Please, give me an honorable death. I dare not hope that this Prince of Dancing Leaves will do anything for me. An honorable death fighting is all I have left."
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Grobradon listens, and for a moment, eyes his spear. One thrust through and she'd have what she wants. He can respect that, going on her own terms.
But then...
"Wait, wait... you know of the Prince of Dancing Leaves? We seek him out. If you can help us find him, he maybe willing to parlay with you as well. He and I have spoken before." Then in a softer tone, "Honor also means you should not surrender when there maybe a way to win, right? Let's not have you killed until we speak to the Prince of Dancing Leaves. I do not know if we can trust him, but he is wise in his way and might help you too."
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Moon listens for quite a while. ”Are you in such a hurry to die? It seems like this tragedy, the deeds you do now, will add to your legacy… once we get your name back. Stay with us until we speak with this Prince. If we fail to find a way to recover your name… then I will fight you so you can die with honor.”
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"Don't dispair...even if the Prince of Dancing Leaves won't help, there are other ways of restoring your memory. In the mean time, why don't we just call you Emerald?" Maidie says.
"But we should get moving. We are headed for a nearby fairy ring and we'd do well to reach it before nightfall. I just need a bit of time to get ready" she adds, even though she is reluctant to leave the warm fire.
Getting to work, Maidie adjusts Grobradon's scarf and adds bits of her own clothing and gear to make a somewhat functional outfit that will protect her from the elements. Her top priority is to extend the strings of her spell component pouch so she can carry it like the satchel she usually wears.
She sticks the newly acquired wand into her actual satchel and enlists Erigga's help in adjusting the straps, turning it into a makeshift backpack that won't interfere with her wings. This allows her to both carry her spellbook and scrolls and keep Tanglefoot close as he rests comfortably in his portable nest.
"I'm afraid we'll have to distribute the rest of my gear among you," she says apologetically.
While helping Maidie, Erigga watches the scene unfurl. She is far from knowledgeable about dragons, her only source being the tales of bards passing through Tamran and every one knew not to trust them completely. However, one thing that constantly comes up is their pride, so just refusing her request could be troublesome as well acting like they know better.
So she watches.
"Aye, Emerald is good," Betzolte adds with a nod. "A noble gem, noble like ye, even as ye are now."
"I'm alright with carrying your stuff too, Maidie. Won't be much different than me lifting the heavy grimoires as apprentices, eh?
By the way, Maidie is now a foot and a half tall pixie.
By the way, Maidie is now a foot and a half tall pixie.
The dragon girl's shoulders slump as she realizes she won't be finding an honorable end here. Despite her sullen mood, she does chuckle at Maidie's choice of a name.
"A green dragon called Emerald." she shakes her head. "I guess I can't complain. I'm rather fond of emeralds."
She turns to Grobradon while Erigga, Betzolte, and Maidie work on getting the pint-sized mage's outfit and gear sorted.
"I have never met the Prince of Dancing Leaves, but I do know of him. The fey and their realm have been interests of mine for a long time. One thing I have learned is that you have to always be cautious with them. He may be as kind as his reputation, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have his capricious side," she tells him.
Fashioning a more functional outfit and adjusting Maidie's spell component pouch for the diminutive wizardess proves relatively simple. Adjusting her satchel so she can carry it and Tanglefoot proves to be far more involved than just a simple adjustment of some straps. It isn't long before Erigga realizes that it'd be simpler to make a new one, though it isn't likely to let Maidie carry Tanglefoot. What the halfling can do is make it so Maidie can ride next to Tanglefoot.
After an hour and a half since stopping to investigate what was happening in the glade, the Heroes of Kassen, now accompanied by Emerald, set out once more for the fairy ring that Talliree told them of. The first sign that you are getting close is Histya urging Moon to move faster. After a little while, the crisp smell of mint fills the air and you see a thick copse of trees in a thinner section of the Fangwood. The sun is setting as you reach them and find the winter mint. Histya leaps into one of the thicker patches around the hill in the center of the copse and rolls around in it. Her purr rumbles in everyone's chest as she wallows like a pig in mud.
Looking to the top of the low hill, there is no sign of the fairy ring Talliree said would be here.