Skittering through the bush cover, Bloodsucker takes a bite out of Simon, remaining yet low and ready to pounce again!
◆) Hide
◆) Pounce
◆) Take Cover
Terrain: Logs are Difficult Terrain, Bushes can Take Cover, Trees (black spots) are obstacles
Effects: None
Shardul (20/20)
Simon (11/21)
Toavandil (06/17) @ Dropped weapon (see Map!), Wounded 1
Delta (19/19)
Shimmer (15/15); & Sprinkle (??/??)
Bloodsucker @ Taking Cover
...
The party is Up!
Simon’s cursing perhaps throws off his frustrated aim as he pummels the beast ineffectually while Delta closes the gigantic gash in his side...
Terrain: Logs are Difficult Terrain, Bushes can Take Cover, Trees (black spots) are obstacles
Effects: None
Shardul (20/20)
Simon (21/21)
Toavandil (06/17) @ Dropped weapon (see Map!), Wounded 1
Delta (19/19)
Shimmer (15/15); & Sprinkle (5/5)
Bloodsucker @ Taking Cover
...
The Bold are Up!
Toavandil retrieves his Bo while Shimmer closes in with great reluctance (joining the party in the bush!) - Shardul sends lightning instead, readying another deadly dart!
The Bloodsucker chooses it's next proximal victim , and setting eyes on the wee sprite, crouches low to gobble it up!
◆) Hide
◆) Pounce
◆) Take Cover
Felling the brave investigator, who collapses off from her loyal corgi, dropping her weapons, and begins to bleed out!
Still surrounded, the beast shrinks once more into the low brush!
With another party member fallen, but the beast slowly chipped at (bleed by punch by shock), - and the battle proceeds, despite the numerical advantage of our hero Pathfinders, well within the terrain to the Bloodsucker's compensating advantage...
Terrain: Logs are Difficult Terrain, Bushes can Take Cover, Trees (black spots) are obstacles
Effects: None
Shardul (20/20)
Simon (21/21)
Toavandil (06/17) @ Recovered weapon(!), Wounded 1
Delta (19/19)
Shimmer (00/15) @ Dropped weapons (please place on Map!), Prone, Unconscious, Dying 1
& Sprinkle (5/5) @ Unmounted
Bloodsucker @ Taking Cover
...
The Party (except Shimmer) is Up!
Risking another quick trip into the bushes, Toavandil loses the Bloodsucker among the brush!
Terrain: Logs are Difficult Terrain, Bushes can Take Cover, Trees (black spots) are obstacles
Effects: None
Toavandil (06/17) @ Recovered weapon(!), Wounded 1
Shardul (20/20)
Simon (21/21)
Delta (19/19)
Shimmer (00/15) @ Dropped weapons (please place on Map!), Prone, Unconscious, Dying 1
& Sprinkle (5/5) @ Unmounted
Bloodsucker @ Taking Cover
...
Bold may Act!
Bloodsucker, thoroughly pleased with itself, sets it’s sights upon it’s next prey amid the bushes...
...licking it’s lips, it eyes the small, defenseless corgi, and drools profusely with sadistic hunger!
Braving to approach the bushes, Shardul advances upon the Bloodsucker as it eyes the corgi, Retribution on her mind!
Delta and Simon (then followed by Shimmer) are Up!
|
Delta, with his loaded hand crossbow waiting for him, imbues the same with magic and shoots the Bloodsucker!
Hero Point!
piercing damage
◆◆ Cast a Spell, Magic Weapon
◆ Strike
OR
Now that the enemy is gone, Delta quickly heads to Shimmer to give her healing. HP for Shimmer. ”There you gooo…”
◆ Stride
◆◆ Cast a Spell, Heal
...later, back at the ranch...
”Gnarly!” as the PCs recount their story, he exclaims - followed by ”Tell ye what. One my does bore a little’ un while you all was away. Say I don’t name it after one of ya?” he looks around expectantly, wondering what the baby alpaca’s name will be...
The sherif comes by and produces a document for Wilhuff Harjack to sign, and ripping it into several pieces, distributes one to each of the player characters.
”You can redeem these at the local notary. Well done team.”
And with that, files another paperwork for the baby alpaca’s new name - Sprinkle - which causes her lip to curl, and settling all the taxable affairs, heads back up the hill...
* * *
Another day, another coin...
Our heroes have recently arrived in the village of Scallion's Wrap. As they approach the center of the village, an older halfling woman in bright clothes quickly approaches, a large golden wolfhound at her side. She places herself before the heroes with a glint in her eye and grins.
“I don’t suppose you’re looking for any work, by chance?!” she asks. “If you are, I have just the task. Doesn’t pay much, but you’ll get full bellies and a place to stay, along with the joy of helping an old woman on Winter Week!”
She holds up a small cobble stone with great reverence and a slightly crooked facial expression. “My name is Kupyn Baro,” says the halfling. “Me and my pup Darb need your help to make this rock into a stew that will feed our village.”
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"Were I looking, it is here that I had found it, I believe, yes" also an older halfling woman, crease lines streaking her face to suggest a sternness somehow at odds with the softness of her tone which alternately suggests warmth "But hurry we must not, did not, for it is the time before I have had my morning tea, right now"
Observing the dog, she reaches among her things to produce a few mixed herbs, heading off it's possible curiosity as to her shuffling, thus allowing, if Darb decides, the examination of said herbs by smell.
"Kupyn, you may remember me as Zòila, and as I was just passing though, it turns out that The Records hold our meeting time, as well as those of my soon-to-be traveling companions, as close to now. And so. Have you a pot and warm water?"
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A small, youngish Osirian woman in red-and-black dress with hieroglyphic decorations sits nearby and looks bored. Her body looks quite trimmed and the dress, incorporating a leather corset, is clearly made to allow movement. She has a closed fan on each hand, and a shortbow on her pack.
"Well anything sounds good after what that excuse of a circus could give me. Zenobia Thea, or", she changes to a very sarcastic tone, "'The Amazing Arsinoe', as that half-wit wants to present me. A fixation of starting descriptions with the same letter as the name, and 'Z' was just too much for him, and he had to use my second name." She sighs and shrugs, then continues on with normal tone: "Yes, it was me, the girl on the rope and top of the pyramid. If you saw that", then again with sarcasm: "'show' last night."
She listens to the suggestion carefully. "So we will cook for you, from that... rock? Oh no, this isn't like those educational stories I hope?"
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A humanoid adventurer with a handsome vulpine face arrives, his tail lazily wagging as he walks. The presence of the old woman almost startled him, but does not show it. "Greetings, Kupyn! My name is Delta and it is nice to meet you both." he pets Darb as he makes introduction. "I don't understand, how will you cook it into a stew? I wonder." he asks the woman.
"Um. Yes. Sure, I remember you. I've the pot--the warm water comes in later!"
Kupyn nods at Zenobia. "I'll do the cooking, but yes! Those stories originated here, actually. Some information was lost with the retelling, though. See, in the original story it's important that--well, why don't I just tell you the whole thing?"
And, without waiting for an answer, Kupyn begins her story.
"After the town of Scallion’s Wrap lost all their crops and sheep to a roving band of wolves, the townsfolk met in the village green to figure out where they should move now that they had no food.
Their witch, Tulyn Baro, questioned why moving was necessary.
“What would you have us do,” the mayor asked, “eat rocks from the Hollow Hills?”
Some laughed at that, but Tulyn picked up a gray rock and said, “Do you not know this little rock is magic? Why, with it I can make a stew that would feed the whole of Scallion’s Wrap through Winter Week!”
The villagers allowed Tulyn the chance to prove her boast. Thus began Tulyn’s plan. As she poured water into her cauldron, she began to wheedle small things from various folks in the area, “just to help the magic of the rock along." From the farmers, she finagled carrots and celery. From the dwarf miners in the Hollow Hills, she received bags of deep-root potatoes. From the brownies in the surrounding glade, she procured five bundles of scallions. After this, Tulyn grimly left the town to see about meat for the stew, bouncing the “magic rock” in her hand. Where she found the meat, none dared ask, but wolves never troubled Scallion’s Wrap again.
Upon returning, Tulyn placed the rock into her cauldron.
And that is why we have rock stew every year for
Winter Week!
"Tulyn was my great-grandmother. So, I think in the children's stories you might have heard, the person with the rock isn't necessarily a witch whose claims are plausible. And, even if the rock itself was a trick to get the ball rolling, she really did use her magic cauldron to increase the quantity of the stew once she'd made it. It's a tradition now. The rock is just for ceremony, but you win a prize if you find it in your bowl. Oh, and there's a song too!"
Kupyn somehow doesn't wait for an answer even more before she starts (poorly) singing:
Rock stew for me, rock stew for you!
It’s the soup that helps us in all that we do!
If you want to make it, you need a few things,
Potatoes, carrots, celery, and
FIVE SCALLION RINGS
Rock stew for me, rock stew for you!
It’s the dish that helps us see winter through!
Some salt, some pepper,
a cauldron of bounty,
a few cuts of mutton
and a magic rock or three!
Rock stew for me, rock stew for you!
Have a Happy Winter Week, let’s eat some stew!
"Anyway! I just need someone to fetch some of the ingredients for me, and I'm willing to pay to get it done. We'll need...
- "carrots and celery from Farmer Greetle's farm, found in the southwest part of the village;
- "a bag of deep root potatoes grown by the dwarves at the foot of the Hollow Hills, a bit west of the village; and
- "a bundle of scallions from the brownies who tend them in the grove just north of the village.
"Once all is ready, you should bring the ingredients to my house within the village, where I will mix them into my family’s cauldron—a special magical item with the power to multiply whatever food is put into it.
"Now, it’s best to ask nicely, as it’s almost Winter Week and it wouldn’t do to offend anyone in Scallion’s Wrap.
"Questions?"
|
|
"It's a true story?" Zenobia asks eyes wide open from surprise. "Well this is quite different, not everyone can say to have a connection to the source of a legend. I'd do it for that reason alone, the girls will be so envious."
She listens to the instructions, but then focuses on the last sentence. "That sounds odd, why do you have to make sure we ask nicely? If it's a tradition, don't they expect it?" She pauses a moment, then asks: "Oh no, has someone angered them? And if, how, why?"
|
|
"Ah yes. This was the day in which morning tea was put off. A shame really. Priorities rearranged I suppose" Zòila takes the disappointment well having observed at a later time the outcome and so ratcheting her expectation in accordance with the deft avoidance of negative feeling "Carrots, Roots, or Onions then?" she ponders whether the order of tasks matters "Probably want to soak those Roots first..." and here a small psychic projection of a cauldron being filled with water and potatoes emanates faintly for the gathered party to share in the vision of "...steeping those good before wending in the Carrots for their heartiness..." and so it is in the projection that those vegetables now tumble in "...and finally, sliced Onions for garnish!" the third phase of the shared vision now shaving scallions atop the broth.
"Can you smell it?"
"The meat's taken care of, as are other ingredients like seasons. And the rock, of course." Kupyn holds up the small stone with a grin. "I just need the vegetables to be picked up."
She looks uneasily at Zenobia. "Well, you should always be nice, right? Yes... yes, they'll all be expecting it. But, um, it's just... well...
"Stingy old git tried to charge me for vegetables. Don’t know why; always gave them to me free before! If I set foot on his farm again and see his smug face, I don’t know that I could control my temper!
“Every month I give the head miner, Jaget Steim, a tincture to help with aching joints. Only this month... well, my own joints were aching and I didn’t make enough for more than one person. If you could help Jaget out somehow, it’d go a long way toward making things right.
“And I caught the brownies knotting my hound Darb’s hair as a joke... I may have lost my temper with them and knocked over their hut. It’ll go better if someone else asked. Might be good to bring Darb with you, though. Those brownies love him."
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Zenobia listens to the explanation, her expression tightening as Kupyn gets further. Finally, at the end, she asks annoyed: "All three?!, and snaps open both her fans. with a metallic ting. She closes her eyes, concentrates a moment, calms her expression and gently pushes the fans closed again. "All right, we all have bad years. I will try to soften them up to agree to participate in the cooking, once again", she agrees to the task, calmly.
"So apart from gold, pain relief and restoration of huts with puppy love on top, I suppose you don't have more knowledge about how to delight these people? If not, I am as ready as I can get.". Zenobia turns her focus to the party. "Shall we go?"
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"Oi, is that right what I just heard? Poor Jaget's joints are acting up again?"
An older Dwarven lady approaches the group, patting Kupyn on the shoulder as she arrives. She wears a leather apron over robes of red, green and brown, and something about her smells like home.
"Looks like I arrived just in time. They said they're making a stew so I came to offer my recipe, but it looks like you've got that all in control, so I guess I'll join these handsome looking folks in gathering the ingredients. My name is Gerrika, by the way," she says with her hand outstretched, "but you can just call me Granny."
"Oh, they always are!" says Kupyn. "So, did you want to take Darb? He won't mind the walk."
A small mining compound sits just at the foot of the Hollow Hills. Several dwarves sit outside eating lunch. Hanging above the entrance is the sign “Steim Mine: Our Roots Run Deep.” At the head of the table sits a venerable dwarf with a flowing white beard spilling over his mining leathers. “Hello there. Here for ore or potatoes? If it’s the former, you’re in luck. If it’s the latter, there might be a problem.”
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Zenobia looks sour as the team travels to the dwarves. "Stupid old hag, angering all the producers, she mutters to herself.
At the mining compound, she joins Simon in the introduction. "Yes, potatoes, as is the tradition. We have been trained in creative problem solving, so please tell us all about this problem. We might be able to see more ways to solve it."
"Oh, turns out there's no problem after all!" says the dwarf with a chuckle, "Problem was our next batch of potatoes was earmarked for the rock stew at the feast. If you're picking those up for Kupyn, then we're all--say, if Kupyn sent you, does that mean you have my joint pain tincture? Kupyn makes such good tonics! I have a standing order either her but this month she's a little..." he winces and labs back in his chair, "...a little late delivering it."