A well-dressed woman stands and watches her most recent aquisition - a tiny berry bush that is currently walking back and forth in front of the glass display case. 'This may be the cutest one yet,' she thinks to herself.
'And not a moment too soon.' She gets a brief scowl as several other Ladies come into the courtyard. She has her proper smile in place as they arrive, however. She is a Lady after all and must remain courteous. "Oh, you made it. Come and see my latest pet."
Her smile almost falters as one of the women comments, "It isn't another animated stick this time, is it dear?"
'Animated stick, hah. I'm getting better at creating them, just you wait. But I certainly won't be showing my own creations again for a while, you horrid hag.' But she somehow manages to keep her smile in place and replies simply, "This one has plenty of leaves and even some berries. And such an adorable way of walking." She turns back to the display case and sees that the ungrateful thing is no longer walking, but has instead settled itself into the dirt at the bottom of the case and is trying to pretend to be a plain plant. She raps viciously on the glass right in front of it, causing it to jump up and begin cavorting around the enclosure once again.
She grins in satisfaction at the shower of 'oooh's and 'aaah's from most of the ladies. All except the one, who pipes up again. "It looks a bit scared to me. Are you sure that they aren't intelligent?"
"Nonsense," she responds quickly - this time showing a bit of a scowl at the obnoxious woman. "They are plants. Of course they are not intelligent. Barely as smart as gerbils, and that is being generous. But they are a lot prettier." 'Both of which are more than I could say truthfully about you.'
"But come, I have a luncheon ready. And after, we can play croquet on the lawn."
The group readily agrees and follows her into the parlor.
Once the group leaves, the little berry bush goes back to the front corner of the case and continues its slow and tedious work of trying to scrape away the glue holding the glass in place.
It is a bright morning in Verduran Forest. It rained a bit last night, but the clouds have dispersed. The tree canopy provides plenty of shade, but there is a lot of light filtering through the leaves. The ground is still damp and smells wet.
Up ahead you can see the creek that runs through this little area that you call home. With any luck you will find some of your friends there already.
Emerging from an opening of a hold at the base of one of the many trees, a short creature of stocky proportions emerges into the light. Covering their eyes from the light, the creature turns its head and before grumbling slightly. "If ye dinnae wan' ta go, ye shoul'a sai so. Come'ere!" Reaching an outstretched hand towards the hole they had emerged from, the fungus leshy waits for a moment before another creature, covered in leaves slowly makes it way towards it. "Aye, tha's righ, ah'll keep ye safe," the child sized toadstool like creature said, embracing the walking bundle of leaves.
Moments passed, and in the embrace, the leafed creature was seemingly engulfed by the walking mushroom, with not a trace of struggle abound. Yet on the base, there seemed to be an image of the leafed creature on the torso of Fengal. With a pat on their thick torso, Fengal nodded and picked up the spear that was laying inside a nearby shrubbery, and started to make their way to the creek.
"Oi! The rains las' nigh' were qui'e nice! Thin' any o'ya coul' 'elp me get new food fer me crop?"
Dressing in squirrel leathers, and items made from sticks, branches, and bones, stood Fengal. A fungus leshy through and through, they took their job of keeping the others that lived nearby in proper health. Their body was that of a king oyster mushroom with a cap of a fly agaric, they made sure to be fairly no nonsense when it came to their community of leshies.
A snap-dragon leshy comes wandering down the path, carrying a variety of nuts and seeds.
Seeing Fengal ahead, she trots up to them and says “Hey there! How are you this morning? Find anything interesting I could fry up?”
A root leshy covered in an odd leaf/moss jacket opens her eyes, and untangles herself from the oak tree roots she had anchored herself to during the rainstorm last night. As she strolls along through the forest she pulls out her tiny lute and strums a few cords while singing an odd tune that sounds like she is making it up on the spot about last night’s rain and this morning’s sunshine.
Lost a bit in her own world she does not even notice Popcorn and Fengal until she is almost next to them. “Hello, such a beautiful morning we have been been given today. “
Nodding towards Popcorn and Cedar, they begin rummaging through their satchel before pulling out a few cordyceps. "G'morning Cedar. Tha rains 'ave blessed us. Ah 'ave a few o' these wee ones. Shame, to no' growing more."
Yet another leshy of the fungal variety comes bounding up to the group, waving her slightly chubby arms at the group. Her head is capped with a typical red-and-white toadstool and her body is mottled with the same spots. She smiles brightly at all of them, nodding in greeting.
"Morning, you three! The rains really have blessed us. It's my favorite kind of weather. What are we all up to?"
As you come a bit closer to the river you hear a small voice making a lot of noise. "Zzzithhhh... Sooooiin... Zzzziiiithhh..."
Unfortunately, not intelligible noise.
At this spot, the creek is deep enough and fast enough that small size or smaller creatures have to swim in order to cross. About a half hour walk downstream there is a shallower section with some stepping stones that you often use to cross.
Several years ago, Popcorn built a rope bridge across the river here. It has been in place since then, and used by many leshies, sprites, and even more mundane creatures like squirrels. It has been a favorite meeting place for many of the younger leshies recently.
But a few days ago, Amie stopped coming by.
As you approach, you see that Thumis is standing on the bank of the creek and calling across. He occasionally tries wading into the water, but comes back once it gets too deep - which only takes less than a foot of distance into the water for him.
You also see the tatters of the rope bridge hanging from the tree branches. Most of the vines of the bridge are in a discarded pile on the opposite side of the creek.
"Do you think the storm broke the bridge?"
Cedar wanders over to get a better look.
"Does anyone have any ideas of how to calm Thumis down? I don't want him trying to swim the river trying to get to us."
Finally noticing what is missing here, Popcorn screams “”
She goes rushing towards the banks and looks around, trying to figure out what might have happened to it.
low-light vision
"Cedar," Thumis calls out as you approach. "Big-big. Chaa." He says with an exaggerated chopping motion. "Zith. Sooin. Spoosh."
As you come next to Thumis you notice some purple flower petals.
Popcorn gets really mad as she inspects what was once her bridge. “Someone cut it down! Look, petals from a lavender plant are near there!”
While still angry, she starts pulling down vines and thick branches. Once the worst of her rage has spent itself, she tries to craft a replacement bridge.
Popcorn begins the process of rebuilding the bridge. From the look of her progress, it should be less than 20 minutes before it is passable again.
"Hmmph, these pe'als are fro' a laven'er plan'," they say, while picking up a few petals and rubbing them together. Slowly looking between the petals and at Popcorn, Fengal points out towards the other side of the bank. "How long ya thin' until we can cross? Mayhap, we can go 'round?"
Waiting for an answer from Popcorn, the leshy begins to look over Thumis for any injuries, "Aye, you stay calm young one, an' collect yerself. Perhaps ye wan' ta come along an' fin' tha one who cut Pop's Bridge, tho ah think tha not be a smart idea. Migh' get hurt, or worse."
In reply to Fengal, Popcorn says “Probably about as long as it takes to cook a batch of grits!”
As she is trying to get the materials in place, she adds “Less if any of you can provide some competent help here.”
"Here Popcorn let me help you with that."
To Thumis: "Thumis we are working on making it so you can get across. Please wait a little bit. You say the Big Big, was the creature that did this big? I am sure that was very scary to see something come destroy the bridge, but they do not seem to be around anymore, so we are safe for now."
Pixie finally snaps back to reality after some time daydreaming, even through Thumis's and Popcorn's yelling. The fungal sorceress does a small panic dance and then rushes to join the others, a distraught look on her face.
"I'm not much help with making things..." She looks on the efforts to repair the bridge apprehensively, then goes to speak to comfort Thumis a bit while the others speak.
"We will find out what happened, Thumis. But the others are right, you shouldn't come with us for now. Can you maybe draw out what the Big Big looked like?"
Thumis settles down a bit. He still looks a bit anxious and keeps watching the opposite side of the creek. But he does find the rebuilding of the bridge fascinating.
At Pixie's suggestion, he grabs a stick and starts making scratches in the mud. "Big-big. Stompy-big. One, one, stomp," he mutters while drawing two stick legs. "Big-big, big-grrrr." He draws a face with huge teeth.
Working together, Popcorn and Cedar get the bridge back in working order in a few minutes.
Once on the other side of the river, Popcorn looks along the river for any footprints or dropped petals. “Big people tend to leave some signs of passage.” At first, Popcorn is distracted by a plant with bulbs that look like they would puff up quite nicely when cooked. Then they refocus on the task at hand.
“Other than destroying my bridge, what did this big one do?”
Pixie studies the drawing Thumis made seriously, filing it away for identification in the possible future. Then, the mushroom girl follows along behind Popcorn, looking over the area to try to find something herself. She touches her chest lightly, a greenish glow emitting from her palm--a spell to guide her path just a tad.
Pixie ends up finding a mushroom much like her own coloring and spends far too much time fascinated by it rather than being a help.
Thumis follows across the bridge.
“Other than destroying my bridge, what did this big one do?”
"Zith. Sooin. Spoosh. Stomp stomp."
He thinks for a bit more. "Amie?"
You see prints coming out of the river and headed away from the bank. Definitely not hoof prints, or paw prints, or root prints. These are fairly clearly shoe prints in the soft mud.
But the prints become harder to track once they get out of the soft dirt and mud of the creek bank.
Those prints look really out of place. I think they may go that way (pointing in the direction the prints lead)
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Popcorn looks at Thumis, then the rest of you. “Did anyone understand that?”
When Cedar points back to the tracks, she refocuses and tries following them. She doesn’t have much luck.
"Wish ah di' un'erstan' tha youngling," Fingal said, eyes peeled on the tracks of whatever this giant creature left behind. Whatever it was should have left some sort of trail, and hopefully those that were taken could be found.
Pixie goes in the direction that Cedar points, tapping her chest again for some guidance as she tries to determine where the Big thing went.
She has very little luck, but thankfully, her friends are better at this than she is.
The footprints prove to be difficult to track on the hard ground, but Fengal's druidic skills are up to the challenge. Especially helped with Cedar noticing the occasional purple flower petal left almost like someone was trying to mark the trail.
You head down the deer trail. Thumis looks sad at seeing you leave, but waves hopeful that he will see you again.
The deer trail branches and forks several times. This part of the forest has tall trees and plenty of ferns. The forest floor is carpeted in mosses and clover of varying types.
After about an hour of tracking, you come upon a camp site in the forest. Through the ferns you can see that the camp is currently empty.
Using the long spear made of a sturdy branch and pointed end, Fengal keeps following the tracks silently for about ten minutes before speaking up, "Ye know, is been ah long time since we wa' tha' young. Thumi' be scare' o somethin' big, an' righ'fully so. Wha'ever be leavin' these tracks, they're big and no fauna ah know of." When getting to one of the more distinct tracks, Fengal steps into it to show the size difference between foot sizes.
Wandering into the camp, Fengal looks about, pointing to spots where the tracks double over themselves before hearing the rustles in a nearby tree.
"Ah 'ear you friend. Ye can come ou' and show yerself. We ain't looking to bite."
-On the trail-
Being scared is a good thing for the young, it helps them to stay safe. It is learning how to push through the fear and make smart decisions that hopefully comes with some more experience and age. Honestly I am not really looking forward to seeing anything overly big, but I guess we will see how big, Thumis's "Big" is when we catch up to it. Most things are bigger then Thumis, and us for that matter"
-At the campsite-
Oh, I guess I misspoke, there is someone that is not bigger then us. Hello Pixie, do you have a name? We do not wish to hurt you. I hope you do not wish to harm us either.
"Oooooooh. You saw me. That's no fun." The little sprite flies down to the group of you. "I'm Glimmer. I've seen you around a bit. Though not this far across the creek. What brings you over here?"
Remembering the drawing Thumis made, Pixie frowns. "Big could mean so much. I'm a little scared myself, to be honest!"
Pixie wanders around the camp, looking around at things until she hears Cedar say her name. She perks up, looking back at the shrubbish leshy inquisitively, about to reply...before she realizes that her companion is talking to an actual pixie. The fungal female makes her way forward, grinning and waving at Glimmer. "Hi Glimmer! I'm Pixie. Nice to meet you. We're tracking something big that scared our friend."
"Well, other than a few deer, the only big thing that came through here recently was that human. He didn't see me. He was a pretty fat one though, so maybe that is what your friend was afraid of."
Glimmer thinks for a couple seconds. "I didn't think he was all that much fun. He even left his fire going when he left and I had to put it out. Why are you looking for him?"
“He wrecked my bridge. Left Thumis quite frightened.”
“I want to talk to him about wrecking other peoples things.”
"Tha ot'ers 'ave been disturbed, an' ah wants to see it meself," Fengal mutters while poking a stick in to the warm coals of the fire ring. "Glimmer, why are bartering items in the coals? Wha' 'appened 'ere?" Slowly turning towards the pixie, Fengal points at the items in the ash. "Was anyone 'urt?"
"That vine bridge over by where you play all the time? That's terrible. If I'd known he had done that, I would have done more than just spook him. Not much more, but something."
"I didn't see anyone else here but fatpants. He was grumbling a lot and yelling at a bag he was carrying." In her best pompous male human impression she repeats, "QUIET OR I'LL THROW MORE THAN YOUR TOYS IN THE FIRE." "Pffft. Humans are so weird."
"Oh, hey. I was collecting seeds earlier. I could share a few with you." Glimmer holds out 4 seeds - one for each of you. "They don't taste very good unless you cook them. But that brings out their magic as well as their flavor."
She gestures in the direction that the tracks leaving the campsite head in. "If you want to talk to bigbutt you are probably out of luck. He left here pretty quickly. Likely out of the forest entirely by this time. You would have to find some Forest Wardens to go find him outside the forest."
Popcorn frowns when Glimmer impersonates the person. “Was there someone in the sack? That sounds like a threat.”
Glimmer shrugs. "I didn't look. But who would climb into a sack a human was carrying around? That seems like a silly thing to do."
Glimmer shrugs. "I didn't look. But who would climb into a sack a human was carrying around? That seems like a silly thing to do."
I doubt that whatever was in the bag was there by choice. Did you hear any noise from the bag or just the big human yelling at the bag?
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Glimmer thinks back. "Now that you mention it, the bag was squirming around quite a bit." She looks a bit shocked. "You think someone was in that bag? Stealing creatures from the forest is forbidden. Ooooh. We really need a Warden or two then. But who knows when any Wardens will come around."
Popcorn gets angry at the idea someone is kidnapping the smaller leshies. She fumes about it for a short while before she cools down enough to ask Glimmer for more information.
“We had a crude drawing in the sand of the man. Couldn’t tell what race they were.”
“Glimmer, you have a good eye for details. Is there anything you can tell us that might help us recognize him? Then we could search for him while you go find a Warden.”
Glimmer blushes a bit at the undeserved praise. "Oh, umm. Some big human man. Red hair. Green and yellow clothes. Really strange teeth too."
She does a bit of a double take. "Wait, if you are still searching for him... You are going to chase him out of the forest? Are you stepping up as new Forest Wardens? Oh how fun. Wait here, I've been saving these for the next time a Warden comes by." She zipps off into the trees.
A minute or two later Glimmer returns riding what looks like an oversized skunk. Out of a pack she pulls out a handful of items. "Here, new Wardens should have fun equipment."
She pulls out and explains the usage of:
Aeon Stone Dusty Rose Prism
Cloak of Gnawing Leaves
Battle Medic's Baton
Wand of Protector Tree
Glimmer doesn't really have any more information, and the campsite has been successfully explored.
You can still see the tracks of the human, and with Glimmer's note that he left in a hurry towards the edge of the forest, it isn't hard to know where he is going even if you lose the trail temporarily.
Distribute your new equipment and make your way to the forest edge.
Also, cooking the seeds takes a few minutes in a campfire. Lighting it, cooking the seeds, and putting out the fire again takes about 30 minutes. Faster with a DC 18 crafting or DC 16 Lore:cooking (or similar).
Popcorn is very impressed by the riding skunk. “Wow! I didn’t know you had such a fearsome mount Glimmer!”
“Thank you for the description of the man and these items! We will do what we can to ensure the man has left the forest and doesn’t come back!”
As others are looking over the items, Popcorn goes over to the campfire and ignites it again. Then he takes out his cooking gear and starts to roast the seeds Glimmer gave them.
After cooking the seeds they pop like popcorn into a blue treat. You can tell that it has a magical effect of a Barkskin potion. There are four of them.
As they finish cooking, Popcorn exclaims “These smell wonderful, Glimmer!”
She gives one to each leshy, saying “Everyone can take one, use it if we get into a nasty fight.”
Waddling their way to Popcorn, Fengal picks at one and looks at it, "Ne'er saw blue popseeds. Than' you Glimmer fer gifting them, and to yer cookin' Popcorn." Placing the snack in the satchel, the stumpy leshy then looks at the items before picking the Baton. "Ah thinks this may come in 'andy, if we be chasin' this hooman."