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Sam steps just a bit closer to get the cave entrance in range. Then magically throws a bunch of rocks at the bear. "See if it can dodge all of this."
I have also used a couple of other GM-type aliases. One for running NPCs or botting players that have to step away for a bit...
Constance peeks through the curtain covering the window that overlooks her courtyard and the street. The gates, still in crumpled ruins, have been drug inside the courtyard and now lay in a heap in the corner. Two of the tables and three of the chairs are still embedded in the ground where they sank when the ground was temporarily turned to mud. But this is all old news. What drew her attention and caused her to peek through the curtain was the town official making his way through the courtyard to her door. She quickly dropped the curtain back in place and stepped back. She gave a quick glance at the stack of opened letters on the counter. Frederick had made good on his threat to sue for improper termination of employment. That notice went unanswered along with the ones regarding notices of investigations, requests to be interviewed, summons to hearings, and even the arrest warrant. That last one was the one that convinced her to stop picking up the mail. What she found most surprising about the charges listed on the arrest warrant were that imprisonment and threatening bodily harm towards the ladies at the ill-fated party were only listed at the end - almost like they were just an afterthought. Those charges she was expecting. Sure it would cost a bit to sway the judge to give her nothing more than a fine. But that was something that she was accustomed to. But then there were the other charges. Kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap, and the top charge - engaging in acts of war against the sovereign nation of the Forest of Verduran. 'That is just absurd, she thinks to herself. 'There were no people involved, and certainly not children. Just those little plants. And who ever heard of a forest being a government of its own? What, do the trees vote? Do they appoint King Mossy Rock that all the squirrels and slugs come to kneel and swear fealty to? Still, that charge sounds an awful lot like Treason - but there is no way that it would hold up in court.' She was broken out of her musings by a sharp rap on the door. 'Out of time.' She looks over at her two companions - the remaining leshy pets that didn't get destroyed in the battle in the courtyard. "Remember your orders. Don't kill him. Just injure and then try to escape. And grab the dress. That's important." She points imperiously to one of her old dresses that had been ripped to tatters and soaked artfully in crow's blood. As the knock on the door is repeated more insistently, Constance walks quickly into the other room where she has a couple of scrolls prepared and set out on the table. 'Time to go. I'll go stay with some friends in Almas for a while. They aren't as wealthy as my friends here were, but it will be enough to get back on my feet.' She quickly casts the first scroll - Pass Without Trace - as the knock comes again with the added shout of, "Constance. Open up. I have a warrant. I will break your door down if needed." 'Pfffft. Imbecile. You will never capture anyone if you announce your presence. Much less a spellcaster like myself.' She goes to the side door and opens it. Then quickly casts the other scroll and turns into a small cat. She slips into the side yard silently and heads past the neighbor's shed and into the servant's trail in the back. 'With any luck, I will be out of this backstabbing town by noon. Even without any luck I will be long gone by dusk.'
The human guests from the party continue fleeing - the women still mostly in a panic, Frederick stalks stiffly down the path seeming to be in a state of controlled fury. The tiny leshies follow the group away from the place of their captivity. After a few minutes with no humans in sight they lose their apprehensive stance and begin skipping and running around.
As her pet leshies return to her side, Constance looks at them in confusion. "What are you doing? Get ..." She stops and takes a better look at the two that are left and decides not to send them back into battle. They do take a lot of work to create. "'Twas no' a pleasure tae meet ye, lass!" "Well, I didn't invite you here in the first place, so - aaaa" Whatever rant she was going to launch into cuts off in a wordless shriek when she feels herself sink to almost her knees in mud. She stands there wordlessly watching you all leave. No one is listening to anything she tells them to do. Her best employee just left. Her tiny cute leshies are gone. Half of the ones of her own making are in ruins, and the other two are going to need some time to recover. Her gate is in ruins. And now she can't even have the satisfaction of stamping her foot on the cobblestones because there is a huge pit of mud covering a large section of her courtyard. Five minutes ago, everything was going so well. Then those new plant creatures showed up and just started breaking things for no reason. No reason whatsoever. She eventually squelches her way out of the mud and back into her mansion.
"Stop. Don't go anywhere. Get back here this instant." The two remaining leshies hear Constance's demand and turn and make their way back towards her. Both of them looking visibly relieved that they no longer have to try and fight or restrain these unknown and rather hazardous new leshies that entered their lair.
The last remnants of Cedar's inspiring magic lingering in the air cause Pixie's well aimed rock to hammer Bamboo's head as it is being brought back up to a more normal position.
----- The two ladies need no further invitation and scoot quickly past Popcorn and out of the gate. ----- Frederick also marches purposefully past the now rather mangled Bamboo leshy and Popcorn. He pauses slightly as he passes Bamboo and gives a rather impressed look in Pixie's direction. ----- All of the tiny leshies also make a break for it - scrambling under the tables and through the shrubs and out the gate. ----- Constance watches open-mouthed as Popcorn rips her gate off of its hinges and tosses it to the ground with seemingly little effort. When Frederick tosses his keys at her, she shouts back at him, "I did no such thing. Frederick, you get back here this instant. You can't quit on me." As nearly everyone else in the courtyard leaves through the now ruined and opened gate, she screams,
Seeing the gate open, Melanie runs through it. The other two ladies look both hopeful and terrified. Hopeful because the gate is open, and terrified at the idea of having to go past Popcorn to get through it.
Frederick just starts laughing as he walks sedately across the courtyard. "My dear, you can't forbid me from anything any more. You fired me in spectacular fashion just a minute ago. For which I am going to be filing suit for improper termination shortly." He watches in a bit of awe and apprehension as Popcorn, with one hand, rips the gate off of its hinges. "And from the look of things, you are not the one giving orders around here. And I no longer need my keys. You can have them." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring of keys and casually tosses them in Constance's direction.
All four of the other tiny leshies leap off of the tables and run towards the bushes along the edge of the courtyard. Constance looks at Frederick with a bit of shock. "Don't you dare. I forbid you from opening those gates." She doesn't seem to have noticed yet that another of her leshy thugs has fallen. Or that all of the tiny leshies are free.
Wisteria stoically shrugs off the hit from Popcorn and the rock from Pixie. It takes a step or two following Popcorn, and then its eyes glaze over and it drops dead. A few seconds later another burst of released energy washes over the courtyard.
----- Mint takes a swing at Cedar, but can't get a good angle to get past the shield with.
Seeing another target, it flails wildly at Fengal, connecting with one blow.
----- Bamboo lurches up to Pixie and snaps at her, then stretches itself taut for a sudden strike.
Wisteria staggers a bit from the rock that Pixie flings at it. It glares over at the spike coated fungus leshy for a moment before turning its attention back to Popcorn.
The distraction proves to be more than Wisteria expected as it swings where Popcorn only used to be. It tries to break free from the webbing and move out of the area of entangling threads.
----- Mint casts its gaze around looking for the dazzling root leshy. It spots her and tries to rip its way out of the webbing as well.
It follows Cedar and takes a couple of swings at her.
----- Bamboo, seeing that its favorite target is too far away, takes a couple of snaps at Popcorn and then coils itself up for a quick attack if given the slightest distraction.
"Constance," Melanie calls across the battle, "you can't keep us here. Let us out. Who has the key for this gate?" Frederick steps away from the wall of the house and calls back to Melanie, "I have one here. But getting over there may be a bit of a problem."
The grasping limbs of the Mint leshy are off target, making it easy work for Cedar to sidestep the clumsy attack. Mint blinks and looks around slightly confused.
-----
A bit dazed and confused, Wisteria quickly scrambles back to its feet and lashes out with a branch at Popcorn again...
and hits nothing but air.
----- The Mint leshy rubs its eyes again and can finally see again, though not clearly.
But seeing clearly enough to find Cedar, it brings a fist around at her.
Encouraged by having what it thinks it sees actually being where it thought it was, the Mint leshy charges around the table and tries to engulf Cedar.
----- The Bamboo Leshy makes a couple of quick strikes at Popcorn and stretches itself taut, ready to strike at range again.
Melanie screams again as the leshy grabbing her collapses and explodes. She flinches from the burst of energy, but it doesn't seem to do anything to her. ----- Constance stands there stunned as her Honeysuckle leshy falls. "You... you... you filthy wretches. You can't do this to me." ----- Zitha and Solyin pick themselves up off the ground and scamper past Pixie and hide in the bushes.
"I can't get them open. Constance," she calls across the battle, "you can't keep us here. Let us out. Who has the key for this gate?" "Don't you dare open that gate," Constance screeches. Seeing the Honeysuckle Leshy staring in confusion at Pixie, still covered in spiky thorns that hurt a lot to hit, Constance hollers at it, "Don't just stand there looking stupid. Keep her away from the gate. And stop those plants." Honeysuckle dutifully goes over to Melanie and grabs at her and swats at Fengal.
Melanie shrieks and flails ineffectively as the leshy wraps a rough hand around her arm. Fengal continues dodging attacks from his foes.
Wisteria swings a limb of tangled vines at Popcorn.
When the vines hit, instead of pulling them back, the Wisteria leshy wraps them around Popcorn and squeezes.
----- Mint takes a look around and sees something that it has never seen before - nothing. It takes a moment shaking its head and rubbing at its eyes trying to get them to work again, but it is not effective. Frustrated, it slams its fists at where it thought it last saw Cedar, but hits nothing but the table. It makes a low bellowing sound of anger - the first vocal noise you have heard any of these leshies make - and begins feeling its way around the table.
----- When Mint hits the table, Solyin takes a panicked and premature leap onto the chair still occupied by Zitha. In a tangle of tiny branches, both roll from the chair to the ground and land in a heap. ----- Bamboo, seeing that Popcorn is in the hands of Wisteria, continues its instructions to defeat all of the unknown large leshies at the same time. It bends itself into a taut position and launches its head at Fengal again.
Then it bends itself taut again ready to launch again at a moment's notice.
While Mint is considering its next attack against Cedar it wasn't expecting the root leshy to shoot it at point-blank range.
And it certainly wasn't expecting to be blinded by a brutal assault of colored light.
Zitha hops down to the chair near Pixie, and Solyin follows her to the edge of the table. Both are looking a bit nervously at the larger Honeysuckle leshy that is right next to them, but the dangerous plant seems to be ignoring the tiny ones.
"What is taking so long?" Constance shrieks. "I want all of those troublesome plants subdued immediately!" ----- In a bravery induced from panic, Melanie slips past Pixie - careful of the thorns that have suddenly sprouted from the leshy - and rattles the gates of the courtyard. "I can't get them open. Constance," she calls across the battle, "you can't keep us here. Let us out. Who has the key for this gate?" ----- The Honeysuckle leshy, hearing the commands from its master and seeing that Wisteria and Bamboo are already handling the snapdragon, turns its attention elsewhere. Turning around, it spots Cedar on the other side of the table, and Pixie nearby. It chooses the latter and steps over to Pixie.
It hits Pixie rather hard, but takes a thorn in its arm in the process. It pauses for a moment to consider how to handle this new development.
But it can't really figure out any better plan.
Seeing the fungus leshy waving their hands and spear around, the Bamboo leshy strikes out. It launches its head towards Fengal while he is busy casting a spell.
The wide mouth snaps shut just inches away from Fengal's elbow. Bamboo quickly reels its head back towards the rest of its body and back into its normal position.
Both the Wisteria leshy and Honeysuckle leshy dance around a bit as the electricity hits them, but they manage to avoid the worst of the damage. With all the dancing around, Fengal isn't able to quite pin down the leshy with his spear. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Player Stats:
Cedar -6 ♥️ 31/37 ☘️ 2 ⚕ Fengal
Pixie
Popcorn
Enemy Stats: Wisteria - Orange AC 18 ♥️ singed ⚕ Mint - Green
Honeysuckle - Yellow
Bamboo - Red
The Wisteria leshy lumbers over to Popcorn and lashes out with a gnarled branch.
Missing with the first attack, it takes another swing
which connects.
The large Mint leshy clomps its way over to Cedar and brings a large fist down on her.
And then another
which she avoids.
The Bamboo leshy takes the other path around the table to get to Popcorn, much to the dismay of the two ladies there, who cower into the bushes a bit as it passes. It strikes out at Popcorn
then twists itself into a tightly bent position that looks ready to strike out again at a moment's notice.
"You are free" Constance glares balefully at Cedar. "That's theft," she bellows. Then as the glass dome rolls off the table and shatters on the ground, she adds, "and destruction of property."
The Honeysuckle leshy sees Popcorn on the other side of the table as being the easiest target to reach. It wordlessly and nimbly dashes past the chairs in its path and swings a whiplike branch at Popcorn.
Constance shrieks again. You are fired. Not only fired, you can pack up your shack and take your family and just leave Rosentry. I'll make sure you never work anywhere here again. "So hard to find competent help." She glares at you each in turn as well as the guests. "Fortunately, I know how to make my own." She gives a tight lipped smile and calls out suddenly, "Honey, Mint, Wisteria, Bamboo: Restrain these intruders," she points to Melanie and the other guests, "and destroy all of these weeds," she shouts while pointing at you.
Frederick looks at Constance with a rather concerned expression. "Madam, I do recognize those names that your visitors mentioned. If the little plants did come from the forest it would very much be bette-"
"You know," Constance sneers at Popcorn and Fengal, "name dropping works a lot better if you are using real names of real people. You're just embarrasing yourself at this point." She looks over at Melanie again hoping to get some support. "Unbelievable, don't you think?" When she sees Melanie's cold stare in return, she scowls even more. "Completely unbelievable. " she calls out to a butler stationed at the far side of the courtyard. "Summon Alex and the stable hands. I demand that all of these beastly plants and these traitors be removed from my yard in the next five minutes."
Constance looks a Popcorn with a venemous smile. "You are coming here into my yard and accusing me - an upstanding paragon of this city. This is the jurisdiction of the court of Judge Avenry. Maybe circuit Judge Haverwendt. I have no idea who this Judge Fey is that you are talking about, but there is no way that you are going to get the case moved to some random remote court." "And you," Constance points one bony finger at the guests, "had better tell me which of my neighbors it is that has been copying my ideas and creating these mockeries." she sweeps a hand in the general direction of Popcorn, Pixie, and Fengal. "Is this your idea of a prank? The recorded voices are a nice touch, but your plan isn't going to work. Start talking, or I'll have you all arrested too. You know full well that I have personal ties to both Avenry and Haverwendt. So don't do anything you'll regret later."
Constance looks a bit shocked as two more angry plants step out from her bushes making threats. Switching tactics, she scowls and starts yelling as well. You make big accusations, but haven't shown any evidence. You think you have a case? Sue me. "Honestly, can you believe the audacity of some ... things," she says, while looking back at her guests. But in looking back, she sees two facts staring back at her that she is not happy to see. One, that most of her guests do in fact believe the audacity, and two, that there is a fourth leshy now climbing onto one of the tables. she shrieks - all pretense of civility lost.
Melanie scowls even deeper when she sees the tiny captive leshies waving in response to the request. "I knew it. Not as dumb as they look just because they can't talk." She does a double-take at the actual meaning of that sentence, but is interrupted in her thoughts by Pixie. "Our people have been stolen for your entertainment, making them no better than slaves for your amusement. Does that sit well with you?" She challenges, glaring at the fancy-dressed tallfolk. "Constance, maybe you should just let the little plants go with the big ones. I'm sure they know how to take care of plants - being ones themselves."
Most of the guests are looking a bit concerned, but are keeping their composure while they let Constance take care of the problem in her own yard. One of them, however, has a scowl clear on her face. "You said that the plants couldn't be intelligent enough to talk," she mutters loud enough to be heard - which earns her a quick glance from Constance. Perception (sense motive) DC 16: Most of the guests are a bit uncomfortable with the presence of larger and clearly intelligent leshies. A diplomatic approach to them specifically could sway them to your side.
Constance lets her smile falter a bit and glares for a couple of seconds at Popcorn. After that couple of seconds, however, she has her act back together. She turns and walks back to her guests and titters a bit. "It seems we have a neighbor's lost and confused - and poorly trained - servant crashing our party." She turns back to Popcorn and continues. "Yes, I am Constance. No I did not take these plants from the forest. I animated them myself. I also have some brooms and mops that can do their chores on their own. They aren't very cute to look at, but are much more useful. But since you are neither, why don't you just tell me which of my neighbors you belong to so that I can have my guards return you to your home."
Catching a glimpse of something over by the fence, Lady Constance gets a bit of a puzzled look. "Excuse me for one moment my dears, I need to check on something." She comes over towards the fence and sees Popcorn standing there glaring at her. "What do you think you are doing here?" she hisses through gritted teeth while still keeping her smile pasted on. "Shoo!"
Paula stands behind the counter of the general store humming to herself. She looks up as the door opens, then stares in absolute shock as a three foot tall mushroom with arms and legs and a face walks in - followed by several other walking plants as well. So surprised by the completely unexpected sight, she doesn't really hear what that first mushroom says - but the little plant definitely said something. Something about Constance. "Oh. Umm. Constance. Right, sorry. Lady Constance Meliosa." She finally just decides to mention anything that she has heard or overheard about Lady Constance in the last few days. "Constance is one of the nobles that keeps a manor here. Just down the road that way." Paula points vaguely to one direction. "She is having a tea party this morning - showing her latest work at animated plants." She pauses here as a realization hits. "Oh - like you. Sort of. Only hers aren't able to talk. So - like mice or cats or other pets." She looks at you all again. "At least, that is what the Ladies I have heard talking have said. I haven't actually seen any of them. I'm just a shopkeeper. Not a noble."
Before heading out, the leshy looks towards Galan and asks, "Aye, Darius spoke about a Rosentry. Mind if ah ask how tae get there?" Pulling out a few dried mushrooms form their satchel, Fengal gives them to the child before any other words are spoken. "Oh, well, thank you," Galan stammers as he accepts the mushrooms. "Uh... Rosentry is a bit of a resort town over..." he pauses and looks around trying to get his bearings and sense of direction, then finally points, "that way. I think. At least, the road that goes there is on that side of town. Amer has a hardware store over there and the road that leads out of town that direction is the one you want. Go down that road for a ways and there is a split. The wrong way will take you to the bridge that crosses the river, but you don't want to go that way. There should be a sign at the road there too. Follow the road that goes along side the river. It will take you right into town."
Galan looks questioningly at Popcorn. "That must have been a rather interesting conversation you all had." From downstairs, you all hear Darius holler, "Galan. Order a new pair of boots for me. I don't think I am ever going to get these ones out of the floor." Galan looks at the door to the back room and the stairs. Then looks back to you. "A very interesting conversation." "You know what. He can order his own boots." Galan grabs his belongings and simply walks out of the front door of the shop.
As you walk back in to the storefront room, you notice Galan over to the side of the room doing his best to keep watch over the front door, stare at the back door that you just opened, and not look nervous all at the same time. "So... how did it go?"
Darius looks at Fengal a bit surprised. "I might do that. Later. For now, I am going back to bed. Prob'bly shouldn't have left it this morning."
Seeing that he is being given a moment, Darius takes the opportunity to concentrate for a moment and absorb the mutagen - which causes his teeth and fingers to return to their original state. The then proceeds to lose his breakfast into the mud.
He staggers back to a standing position, looks at his non-claw-shaped hands, then his empty wax sprayer, then to Popcorn still menacing him with the flail, and finally back to Pixie. "Fine. Yeah, I don't think I want to go back into that forest any time soon anyway." Darius tosses the empty wax sprayer into the mud and hollers at his wax helpers, "All right, you two. Back off. Go on - back." With a bit of screeching, the two constructs fly over to the shelves at the south wall and stay there. Darius goes and sits down at one of the round tables. "Constance Meliosa," he says abruptly. "That's the name you are looking for. Crazy pampered brat that lives in Rosentry, but her money is good. She certainly has plenty of it. She won't be hard to find - practically has a mage-light sign with her name on it over her estate. Though that is pretty typical for those who can afford to live in Rosentry." "Anyway, I'm rambling now. I sent the latest two little plants with a mail runner this morning. Lady Constance," he says the name with a bit of derision, "is wanting them as the centerpiece for some sort of big event tomorrow afternoon. One she made a special point to mention that I was not to come to." "Any more questions?"
"Hhrrrrrnnh" Darius grimaces as the mental attack from Cedar hits. He also looks like he is about to toss his cookies. He looks over at Pixie again. "Your word as a fungus from Hell itself - I tell you who wanted those little ones - and you go away and let me live?"
The blue wax construct shrieks unintelligibly at Pixie and flies over to the cauldron of molten wax ... and jumps in. It emerges a few seconds later looking repaired.
The blue wax construct, seeing Popcorn right there, bites at him. Then runs out of the way against the wall and throws a glob of wax at Fengal on the ceiling.
Darius, flat on his back in the mud, stares upwards and watches in a bit of shock as Fengal crawls along the ceiling. "What in the wastelands of Abbadon is this?" With a grunt, he struggles to his feet and looks at Pixie. "Hah, you won't get me that easily," he blusters - though his eyes are starting to betray a bit of uncertainty. Hoping that the mud hasn't gunked up his wax filler too much, he squeezes the trigger and sprays molten wax in a wide arc. It covers Pixie, the cauldron, and Popcorn.
“Coward! These wax figures have more backbone than you do!” "Yeah, you are one to talk hiding behind my cauldro-" Darius's jibe falls as flat as he does as Popcorn's flail snakes out from under the cauldron and pulls Darius's foot out from under him. Unable to get his other foot out of the mud quickly enough, he topples over onto his back and is now doing his best to make a snow angel in the mud.
"Aaahh" Darius shouts as he feels his teeth moving around. He reaches a hand up to his mouth and the illusion is quickly dispelled. He glares at Cedar as he regains his composure - such as it is. The green wax construct ignores the projectile launched at it. The blue one flaps to the other side of Darius and throws a wax blob at Popcorn.
Missing with the first one, it throws a second.
But it has no better luck with that wax blob either.
"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."
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.
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. he shouts up at Fengal. Enemy Stats: Darius AC: 19 ♥️ cuts and bruises Blue homunculous
Green 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.
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