GM Lantern: A Fistful of Flowers (Inactive)

Game Master breithauptclan

Aeon stone seems nice for me, but I don't want to step on any toes--the items do seem tailored to our characters, though, so hopefully I've nailed it lol :)

"Oh! Wardens!? What an honor!" Pixie preens and happily accepts the gift from Glimmer.

Pixie later accepts the blue seed from Popcorn, thrilled to have more goodies to stow away. "I've never had so much stuff! Do we need to do anything special before we head after the human?"

"Wow. They pop up blue. Cool!

"I think the cloak would be better suited for you, Popcorn, so that leaves me taking the wand."

Popcorn picks up the cloak and looks it over. “Not sure what sort of plants this is made from.” She puts it on. “Snug! I like it.”

“I’m not sure why the cooked seeds turned blue, but I have seen other things change color when cooked. It is only when they turn black that it seems to be a problem.”

the items do seem tailored to our characters, though, so hopefully I've nailed it lol :)

Actually, I didn't tailor them to specific characters. Maybe I should have. I think it worked out pretty well though - other than the spell on the wand. But I can just swap that out.

As the morning progresses to early afternoon, you say your farewells to Glimmer and follow the trail leading out of the forest. You can tell that you are on the right path from the occasional purple flower petal that you are now reasonably certain is from Zitha or Solyin trying to leave a trail to follow.

The trees have been thinning out as you near the edge of the forest. But even so, the abrupt open view of grassland is a bit unexpected. Nearby you can see a couple of farm plots, and in the distance you can see a small village.

You also fairly quickly spot that a few farm goats are wandering loose around on the grassland. If it was Forest deer, you wouldn't be too worried about - they know not to eat mobile plants. Goats will eat anything though.

Hazard: farm goats
Stealth DC 20: you can all individually sneak past, or one or more of you can sneak up to them to do something before they react.
Suggested disable actions:
Wild Empathy DC 17
Intimidation DC 20
You can also 3-action run from them - which will keep yourself from being targeted, and if you all run you can escape (though it will cost you some time)
You can also fight them off.

Not running this in initiative order - at least not yet. So you are all up. The goats haven't spotted you, but they will if you move out of the tree line without stealth checks.

Popcorn realizes she isn’t very sneaky so she waits to see if someone else can take care of this situation.

Wild Empathy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9
Wild Empathy Hero Point: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19

Harrumphing, Fengal walks towards the goats holding out their hands. "Be ye calm an' no eat us. We jus' be passin' lookin' for wha may be kinfolk tha' was stolen from their homes."

Seeing a new food that comes to them, the goats come over to investigate. As they approach they hear Fengal speaking to them in a language that they understand on an intuitive level. They recognize that this new type of thing is not meant for eating.

They lose interest in things not edible fairly quickly and go back to grazing on the less talkative and more edible grasses of the plains.

Everyone +1 hero point for the adventuring so far.

Going a bit farther into the open plains, you come across a small dirt road. The trail that the human made is completely lost, among the other footprints on the road. But it is not hard to tell that the human was headed towards the village that you see in the distance.

As you come closer to the small town you see several more fenced in fields of crops - and many of them are growing nothing but wildflowers. Bees are buzzing around everywhere, but they pay very little attention to you and likely wouldn't harm you even if they were interested.

At the borders of the town you see a small sign. In the standard human language, that you all learned from your druid friends and mentors, is printed, "Welcome to Petalbrook".

Skill challenge: interacting with the villagers
DC 18 - Diplomacy, Intimidation, Deception, Performance, or Society.
One check from each of you.
Purpose is to befriend the villagers - or at least convince them to leave you alone, and to find out more information about where your friends were taken.

Entering the village you find several storefronts selling things like farming equipment, food, seeds and plants, clothing, and other household supplies. There are a couple of people walking through the town that looking at you with a mixture of caution and curiosity. But they do not seem to be hostile.

Popcorn picks out the biggest human she sees and walks up to them. “We are looking for the human that invaded our forest and kidnapped our friends!” She gives a brief description based on Glimmer’s description of the man.

Intimidation: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

She comes across as grouchy rather than threatening. It is so hard to be taken seriously when you are small.

Cedar walks up to one of the humans that Popcorn was not trying to intimidate.
"Hi, we are looking for a human male that has been causing issues in our forest."
She gives them the description of the man that Glimmer gave.
He might also have been carrying a sack, the sack might have been making noise. Have you seen anyone matching that description?

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

Hero pointing this.
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Haha, well, nice that it happened to work out that way! regarding the items.

Pixie approaches the storefront consisting mostly of seeds and plants and enters, feeling a little more at home. Perhaps whoever was bothering them would also have an interest in plants, and perhaps the store owner would know? She taps herself with a guidance spell just to be safe before talking.

"Petalbrook. A pretty name!" Pixie opens her discussion with whoever is at the counter by complimenting their town, something she would see as a favorable opening if someone were to approach her. She describes the problem they've encountered and the man that Glimmer described to them, ending with, "So, you see, we are wondering if you know of this man, or what he might be up to?"

Diplomacy with guidance: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 9 + 1 = 17 womp womp. I'm going to burn two hero points.

Diplomacy with guidance: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 9 + 1 = 16

Diplomacy with guidance: 1d20 + 9 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 9 + 1 = 22

1/3 hero points now.

As using a Hero Point is a Fortune effect, you can not Hero Point a roll a second time.

Whoops, I forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder.

“We are looking for the human that invaded our forest and kidnapped our friends!” She gives a brief description based on Glimmer’s description of the man.

The big man takes a wary look at the small grumpy plant. "Quite the fierce one for such a little thing. But it sounds like you have good reason for it. From your description, you could be talking about any number of people in town. Looks like I fit your description - other than the kidnapped forest creatures. Everyone in town knows that taking things from the forest is illegal though."

Cedar walks up to one of the humans that Popcorn was not trying to intimidate.

"Hi, we are looking for a human male that has been causing issues in our forest."
She gives them the description of the man that Glimmer gave.
He might also have been carrying a sack, the sack might have been making noise. Have you seen anyone matching that description?

A woman herding a couple of children down the street looks up a bit surprised as Cedar approaches. She calms down fairly quickly though.

The older boy whispers to the lady, "Mom, what is that?"

"It is a leshy from the forest," she replies. "It has been years since one has been seen in town though."

She listens to Cedar's request and description. "No, I haven't seen anyone coming back from the forest carrying a bag."

The older boy pipes up again, "Jake was out looking for some goats that escaped his dad's pen during morning feeding. I'll go check with him." Before his mom can say anything to stop him, the young man takes off running down the street.

"Petalbrook. A pretty name!" Pixie opens her discussion with whoever is at the counter by complimenting their town, something she would see as a favorable opening if someone were to approach her. She describes the problem they've encountered and the man that Glimmer described to them, ending with, "So, you see, we are wondering if you know of this man, or what he might be up to?"

The lady running the store looks over at the newcomer. "Why, thank you my dear. What brings you out here from the forest?"

After listening to the description of the man and the crimes against the forest that he is accused of, she looks nervously out the front window of the store. "My, my, my. No, I've been cooped up in here all morning. Haven't seen anyone coming back from the forest with stolen plants. Don't know anyone dumb enough to do that either."

Looking about the village, Fengal shakes their head before trying to find someone that could be a leader, perhaps an elder of the village. When they do find someone that looks old enough, the leshy begins to ask them about anyone arriving from the forest.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

"Apologies, Elder. Me friends and ah 'ave come from the wood, followin' a suppos'd 'uman. They mayhaps 'ave disappear'd a group of youngins from our tribe. Err, leshies, like us. Ya know o' anyone who woul' do tha?"

The most prominently placed building on the street is Alice's Honey Boutique - which isn't actually a government building, but is the businessplace of the town gossip, Alice herself. As soon as Fengal steps into the building the shopkeeper bustles over. "Oh my, my, my. Aren't you something extra. Not often we have visitors from the forest. You and your friends here to see the sights?" She grabs four little sample size bottles of honey from the display case nearby. "For you and your friends, sweetie. A little something for being good neighbors." They will affect you leshies like a Lesser Elixir of Life.

"Apologies, Elder. Me friends and ah 'ave come from the wood, followin' a suppos'd 'uman. They mayhaps 'ave disappear'd a group of youngins from our tribe. Err, leshies, like us. Ya know o' anyone who woul' do tha?"

"Oh, lordy. The only people I hear about going into the forest are Allen Owenson who will sometimes go in to collect some fallen branches for making his wood carvings from, James Peterson who has to go in there and chase his goats back out, and Darius Wick. Now Allen and James are good people. They know what's what. Now, you didn't hear this from me, you hear, but Darius though - now he is a piece of work. Doesn't talk much with the rest of us, and seems to have a chip on his shoulder. I think he thinks he is better than all of us put together. Always talking about some big breakthrough that is going to turn him into a rich bigshot in the big city somewhere. Doesnt' have the sense the gods gave a turnip if he thinks that he is going to find that breakthrough from scavenging in Verduran Forest." She gives Fengal a critical appraising look. "If you are looking for him, he is usually holed up in his candle shop at the south side of town. But again, you didn't hear that from me."

While Fengal is having their ears talked off by Alice, Peter, the young boy talking to Cedar, comes running back. A bit breathlessly he gives his report. "Yeah, ...puff... Jake says he ...puff... saw Darius coming out ...puff... of the forest ...puff... about an hour ago."

Chronography:
Darius's candle shop isn't hard to find. When you walk in, there is a young boy who is obviously not Darius Wick hired to run the store part-time.

Popcorn goes up to the boy at the counter and says “We’re looking for Darius. Official forest business. Where is he?” Popcorn doesn’t really have a good understanding of what makes something official but it sounds good to her.

The lady running the store looks over at the newcomer. "Why, thank you my dear. What brings you out here from the forest?"

After listening to the description of the man and the crimes against the forest that he is accused of, she looks nervously out the front window of the store. "My, my, my. No, I've been cooped up in here all morning. Haven't seen anyone coming back from the forest with stolen plants. Don't know anyone dumb enough to do that either."

Pixie narrows her eyes with suspicion and adds the lady running to the store to a silent, mental list of people to follow up with should they run into a dead end. "Well, thank you anyway...My friends and I are asking around town if you hear anything. You can't miss us." The fungal woman leaves the shop, looking to meet back up with her companions. She wanders into Darius's shop alongside Popcorn and Cedar, looking carefully around the room from her position to see if she can see anything... leshy-esque.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13 if necessary

-The Way Back Machine-
"Ah thank ye Miss Alice for yer generosity. Ah'll make sure me frien's get the gifts ye gave," Fengal says with a bow before heading towards Darius' candle shop. Turning back around, the leshy smiles and winks, "Ah'll say it was divine blessin' that told where Ah shoul' go."

-At the Candle Shoppe-
Following behind Pixie, Fengal speaks up, "Child, Ah know Darius be back in town. We be thinkin' he disappeared our younglings, an' we be tryin' ta find them. Can ye help us?"

Before heading to the shop.-

While Fengal is having their ears talked off by Alice, Peter, the young boy talking to Cedar, comes running back. A bit breathlessly he gives his report. "Yeah, ...puff... Jake says he ...puff... saw Darius coming out ...puff... of the forest ...puff... about an hour ago."

"Oh, thank you so much for checking." Cedar strums a few cords on her Lute as thanks, then walks away.

At the shop.-
Cedar just enters quietly thinking the others have said enough for now and will wait for the young man's response.

As you open the door to the shop, the first thing you notice is the nearly overpowering pungent smell. Hundreds of candles line many of the shelves. Candles in all different colors and shapes ... and scents. On other shelves there are nearly as many crystals. Fewer colors, but more shapes. Fortunately none of them add to the aroma of the store's front room.

At the sales counter, you see a young man. Behind him and the counter is the only other door in the room other than the front door that you just came through.

The young man behind the counter stares wide-eyed at you as you enter the shop. As you approach the counter, he manages to stammer out, "Uhh, wel-welcome to Crystals and Candlewax." Managing to say that seems to snap him out of the stunned silence. "Sorry, I just haven't ever seen walking plants before. I'm Galan. Are you here to buy a candle?"

“We’re looking for Darius. Official forest business. Where is he?”

"Child, Ah know Darius be back in town. We be thinkin' he disappeared our younglings, an' we be tryin' ta find them. Can ye help us?"

"Well, Darius did come in earlier this morning. He is downstairs working though. No one is allowed down there under any circumstances." He gestures to the closed door behind him. Clearly getting nervous again, he falls back onto an obviously prepared sales pitch. "You should try one of the latest creations - a Jasmine candle. These candles have been specially crafted with the finest oils and jasmine root. They are mystically connected to youth, beauty, and vitality. They are becoming quite popular among the noble ladies in Rosentry."

Open to nearly any plans you come up with for getting through that door - sweet talking, distraction, stealth... The door is locked, but the key is nearby. Galan is clearly not hostile, but will run for help if need arises.
Skill check DC 18. The party needs 3 successful checks, crit success counts as 2, failures worth 0, critical failures lose you 2 points. If you go negative, Galan runs for help.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

“Leshies are forest spirits that are given a plant body. Some serve the forest, others serve the nature priest who gave them a body.”

“When you saw Darius come in, was he carrying a bag? Did the bag wiggle, as if several smaller leshies were trapped in it?”

“We are investigating a case where smaller leshies were kidnapped from the forest. Darius was in the forest during that time, so you can understand why it is so important we speak with him.”

Lore Legal, untrained: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Garan is fascinated by the explanation of leshies. His face pales at the mention of kidnapping. "Well, he was definitely carrying a bag. He was waving it around and yelling at me so much I wouldn't have noticed if there was someone in it. So, definitely a maybe?"

"Am I going to get in trouble too? I only work here part time. I just follow the rules and try not to get yelled at too much."

Points: 1

“Provided what you said was the truth and you cooperate, I don’t see any reason why you would be in trouble. Only the people involved in the kidnapping would be in trouble.”

Pixie accepts a sniff of the pretty jasmine candle, wondering if any of her kinfolk or people had been distilled to make the mixture, given their pursuit of the strange man. "Smells lovely," She comments with a grin, glancing at the door Darius is supposed to be behind.

"If you will let us go speak with Darius, you'll stay out of trouble. Only those who help him are part of the problem, provided he's who we're looking for. Hopefully, he just knows more information."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

Harrumphing at Pixie's comment about the smell, Fengal points at the door they were told to not go in. "Ah agree with Pixay on thi' matter. Halpin' us ou' woul' be 'elpin' the fores' folk. We be thinkin' Darius mayhap 'ave taken' our younglin's. Min' bein' a good boy and openin' the door fer us?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21

After done speaking with Garan, Fengal mutters under their while trying to not crowed the boy, "Ah rather smell we' dir' than flower, bu' I do be a bi' biased. Thi' shoppe do be nice tho."

"Am I going to get in trouble too? I only work here part time. I just follow the rules and try not to get yelled at too much."

"I am sure you are a very honest young man that is just trying to help out your family. So long as you are not part of the bad things that it appears Darius is part of there is no reason that you would get in trouble. We just really need to get down there and talk with him, please"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

Galan relaxes a bit when you reassure him that he isn't going to be in trouble, though he still seems rather nervous. "OK. Well, since you are here on official business from the forest, then I guess you can go. He'll be mad at me, I'm sure. But the worst he can do is fire me, right." He forces a smile as he grabs the key and heads towards the door. "Well, hopefully not literally - he does have an oven for melting wax. But anyway..."

He unlocks and opens the door, then steps out of the way. "I'll just stay here - and maybe collect my belongings. Just in case, you know."

Through the door is a small square connecting room. To one side is a bathroom with the door open. On the far side is the top of a staircase that leads downwards and back to the basement underneath the shop. There is not much of note in this room. A bit more storage shelves for supplies or finished candles that haven't been set on display yet.

The bottom of the stairs open up into a small storage room with crystals of many shapes and sizes. Three notable ones are rather large and set prominently on a table along the back wall.

"Ah thank ye kindly," they say towards the boy before bowing and heading own the stairs. Looking about, before getting to the bottom step, the leshy points out the three crystals and whispers, "Those loo' nice. Thin' we can 'ave somethin' like tha back 'ome?"

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

“Are crystals supposed to make noise like that? Sort of a low thrumming?”

With a bit of experimentation, Popcorn notices that the sound coming from these crystals are amplifying your footsteps. You can walk quietly enough to not trigger them, but you don't know how squeaky the door is, or how big of a hurry you will be in when you come back through this room later.

Sonic Crystals. Disable with:
DC 17 Thievery or Occultism (trained)
DC 20 Counter Performance

Note: rules for Disable Device you only trigger the trap on a critical failure to disable.

Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Pixie frowns and shakes her head. "I don't know how to disable these, but they're not going to make things easy for us if we have to get out of here quickly..."

Wow those are annoying. Let's see if this helps.

Counter Performance: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

That should do, let's go.

Cedar quietly plays a song that magically detunes the resonance that the crystals had. They all stop their humming.

+1 Hero Point as reward. I think that puts you all at 3 now.

The doorway to the next room is unlocked. As you approach it, you can feel that the other side is rather warm and stuffy. Nothing dangerous, but working with candles is hot work.

Who is going through the door first?

Now that there is no danger from the crystals, Popcorn leads the way into the next room.

Would have moved my avatar except the slide is view only.

Fengal looks about the area and casts Spider Climb before following Popcorn. With the fine fungal growths, the druid begins to make their way up the wall to have a better vantage point.

Fengal is 10' up on the wall behind Popcorn, so someone can be under and close to Popcorn.

Popcorn slams the door open and leads the way through it. The rest of you follow behind - or above in Fengal's case. You can adjust your initial position anywhere in the 2x4 squares behind the large shelves directly in front of you.

The room is hot. And smells even more strongly of jasmine than the storefront above. In the far corner is a fireplace - which fortunately is not currently lit. Along the south wall are some shelves covered in failed candles, dirty bottles, a set of scales and weights, hundreds of candle wicks, and a bunch of flowers, powders, and other items that could be used in candle making or possibly even alchemy. Directly in front of you is a larger set of shelves with more of the same - in addition to various wax sculpting and molding tools and some gem cutting equipment. To the north, the closest round table has the remains of some stew. The farther round table is covered in burn marks and hardened candle wax drippings. More wax drippings cover the floor around the large cauldron in the center of the room. A cauldron that is nearly full of molten wax at a low boil.

Fengal, the ceiling is 15 feet high down here and you can climb on it with Spider Climb. To make the math easier, let's just approximate the ground distance vs ground-to-ceiling distance difference as -5 feet rather than having to do more complicated math. So a 30 foot range spell could be cast from the ceiling onto a target on the ground 5 squares away.

Combat Blocks:
* Green Homunculous Delays until Darius's turn
* Pixie, Fengal, Popcorn
* Darius
* Cedar
* Blue Homunculous

Darius startles at the sound of the door banging open. "Galan!" he shouts, "I told you not to come down here and bother me. And how did you get past -" He finally looks up from his work refilling his candle pouring device and looks through the shelves at the lot of you. "Well, looks like it is my lucky day," he says with a big smile, showing off his strangely discolored teeth. "Now I have ingredients coming right into my workshop." He makes an adjustment on his candle pourer and attaches a different nozzle on it.

Up now: Pixie, Cedar, Popcorn.

Correction: Pixie, Fengal, Popcorn are up. I managed to mix up names.

Pixie follows along inside, hesitating slightly. She hadn't really left the comfort of the forests before, and now they were running headlong into danger? She supposes it was part of the territory, being a Forest Warden, but it was certainly scary.

At Darius's comment about ingredients coming right in, Pixie's face and resolve hardens: she might be scared, but she is certainly not a coward. The fungal sorceress moves around the table a little bit and raises her hands and lifting a loose bit of rubble from the ground to fling at Darius as hard as she can.

Pixie's casting Elemental Toss as her focus spell (Expending 1 focus point). I'm a little confused about heightening spells rules - do I need to spend another focus point on that for my focus spell to be heightened? I've never messed around with spellcasters on this system before, and it feels a little more complicated than I'm used to, lol.

Actions: Stride, Cast Focus Spell heightened. 32/32, 16AC

From their spot on the ceiling, Fengal grabs a small ball of mud from their satchel and tosses it behind Darius. As the ball hits the floor at the corner behind the man, it rapidly expands into dark, sticky mud. "Perhaps, bu' thi' leshy 'as a differn' idea."

Actions
◆◆◆ Cast Mud Pit

The ground in the outlined area is now difficult terrain.

"Ow!" Darius bellows when Pixie launches a piece of broken pottery and hits him in the elbow. "You overgrown toadstool. I'll have you sliced and bagged up -" His rant is cut short as he suddenly sinks past his boots into thick mud. "You are wrecking my house!" he shouts up at Fengal.

“Where are our leshie friends, you big meanie!”

Popcorn knows all about anger. She allows her anger at this man to flow through her.
Rage

She moves up to the big meanie and swats at him with her war flail, making sure to not hit any vital areas. “I’m going to swat you until you tell us where our friends are!”
Stride, Strike
war flail, non-lethal: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 10 - 2 = 22 (disarm, sweep, trip),
Bludgeoning damage, rage: 1d10 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 4 + 2 = 9

"Whuff," Darius grunts from Popcorn's hit to his ribs. "Those little shrubs I picked up this morning? Those weren't for me. I grabbed those on commission." He pulls his feet up from the mud with a squelch and growls when he notices that his boots didn't follow. He moves to the other side of the cauldron - away from Popcorn's flail - and pulls out a bottle from a pocket. He pops the cork out with his teeth and gulps down the contents.

The concoction takes effect over a couple of seconds. Darius's eyes get a feral tone to them, his fingers lengthen a bit and his fingernails get thicker and longer. But it is his mouth that is the most obvious and disturbing change. Both his upper and lower jaw lengthen into almost a snout, and his discolored blue teeth extend outwards. "And you can keep dreaming if you think I am going to tell you where I sent them."

Darius looks back towards his two wax constructs now also struggling to stay above the mud. "Well, don't just sit there looking stupid. Get these plants contained."

◆Stride, ◆Draw potion, ◆Drink potion

One of the wax doll-looking things pulls itself out of the mud and slowly flaps its way across the room on its little stubby wings. It throws a little blob of hot wax at Pixie.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 - 2 ⇒ (19) + 8 - 2 = 25
1d4 persistent fire

◆Fly, ◆Fly, ◆Throw Wax