[IC] Chapter 2-3: Safe Haven

[DM Surranó]

Cranberry gracefully ignores Giant while sending a penetrating gaze at Portho. Finally she replies in common.

"You remind me of a treant called Bregalad. Yet, he was allowed into the Council of Treants so you, too, deserve a chance. Will see if our matron agrees. Follow."

Once again, the party is led through twisting paths amongst thorn bushes and poison ivy and other pleasantries until finally Cranberry stops in a small clearing, centered by one magnificient oak. Toot thinks it must be four centuries old, at least.
"Wait." Cranberry says, and when Myshnue attempts to follow, she adds, "You too."

Walking closer, she appears as if she scratched the oak's bark, or maybe rapped some rhythm on it, then simply stepped inside the enormous tree trunk.
With Merri's familiar returned, the party can listen birds chirping abovehead.

After a few minutes, Myshnue scurries around the edge of the clearing, looking for some food in the grass, apparently bored. Then returns to Merri.
"You said something about food?"

OOC - this tempo may look a bit pushy but feel free to add tidbits here and there, just as Shanna, Toot and Portho did some retroactive chat. If possible, please mark these "revisits" with some prefix like [SHORE], [CRANBERRY], or [CLEARING].

[Lugar]

[Woods] Lugar wasn't as tall as SG, Merri, or Shanna, nor was he short like Toot so all the grasses and weeds just smacked him in the face.  He could feel his face was scratched up, and walking right into a spider web he considered chopping down everything in front of him... Destroying these little fairy's woods, however, would put him in a little fairy jail or worse, so he drove on.  Holding out a small stick in front of his face to catch the cobwebs, Lugar was glad to reach the clearing of the oak.  

[Clearing]
Lugar mumbles some curses about stepping in animal poop.  He wasn't sure if it was Toot's or some other small rodent's.  

"Little guy."  Lugar addresses Myshnue after he returns from his foraging.  "What is this place?  What is that old oak?"  

When Myshnue asks for food from Merri he thinks of Toot's Good Berries.  "Toot, do you have those juicy berries still?"

[Torin]

[CRANBERRY]
After the elder fey spoke a few words in sylvan he casts a comprehend languages to himself. He doesn't want to miss any important part of this revelation, but this is a foreign situation for him. So he won't speak if it's not necessary.

[Shanna Rendin]

Wrinkling her nose, Cranberry thinks,

Questions. Curious lot.

but then just says,
"You both have three yes'es. How many do I have?"

Hmm...Fascinating.  Magical, Outsider, and it has a defined form.  What do I know of that demonstrates all of this?

I must know if there's any information on such an organism and, also, if it might have any connection or similarity to the one everyone else in my group is so fearful of.

((Know: Arcana +17, Know: Planes +15, Know: Religion +10))

"If we doing challenge then we need to organize ourselves.  Me have two rods that will extend spells.  Me let you borrow rod to double duration of spells.  But me might want yous to cast spells on me too!"

[OoC: If someone needs their mage armor or some other spell extended, Toot will lend them his rod to extend the spell.  Having a Mage armor for 16 hours is a lot better than 8 hours.  Toot will also happily accept any buffs from anyone else that he can extend too such as Sculpt sound to help him be more sneaky.   ]

"A good suggestion friend Toot. I have a spell that would make us all extra stealthy for a full day, absolutely silent except our voices in fact. Even Boo. I was going to use it anyway, but tat would double the duration if you agree?"

[OoC Sculpt sound on all 8 of us, for 16 hours rather than 8.  I can leave our vocal cords out but completely 100% mute any sounds we make like footfalls, scuffling, even combat.]


Portho pauses a moment himself.. then replies to her conversation, also in Sylvan.

Having asked his question, politely enough he hopes, he stops and takes a deep breath. Then pauses and waits.

[Diplomacy roll if appropriate Diplomacy [1d20+17] = 9+17 = 26

]

Shanna looks at Portho with renewed respect as he communicates with Cranberry in her own language.  Wonderful.  Now the little thing couldn't hide anything from them very well...well, we hope.  In addition, he demonstrated versatility with some of the buffs assistive magic he could provide.

"The strength of my magic is primarily combative in nature, so if it comes to that, I may be able to assist as well."

Cranberry gracefully ignores Giant while sending a penetrating gaze at Portho. Finally she replies in common.

"You remind me of a treant called Bregalad. Yet, he was allowed into the Council of Treants so you, too, deserve a chance. Will see if our matron agrees. Follow."

Once again, the party is led through twisting paths amongst thorn bushes and poison ivy and other pleasantries until finally Cranberry stops in a small clearing, centered by one magnificient oak. Toot thinks it must be four centuries old, at least.
"Wait." Cranberry says, and when Myshnue attempts to follow, she adds, "You too."

Walking closer, she appears as if she scratched the oak's bark, or maybe rapped some rhythm on it, then simply stepped inside the enormous tree trunk.
With Merri's familiar returned, the party can listen birds chirping abovehead.

After a few minutes, Myshnue scurries around the edge of the clearing, looking for some food in the grass, apparently bored. Then returns to Merri.
"You said something about food?"

OOC - this tempo may look a bit pushy but feel free to add tidbits here and there, just as Shanna, Toot and Portho did some retroactive chat. If possible, please mark these "revisits" with some prefix like [SHORE], [CRANBERRY], or [CLEARING].

[CRANBERRY]
I find this little Fey to be abrasive, unwise, and uncouth.  Deliberately insulting strangers who might otherwise offer help is among the more foolish moves one can make.  If she truly distrusted us, she would have accepted us at least warily and then waited for the proper moment to stab us in the back.  This only makes us wary of you, little perennial.  Or at least it does so to me.

[CLEARING]
Hmm...perhaps our resident druid can determine the age of that Oak.  Why is it alone out here?  What is the significance of this clearing if the tree itself is significant?  Is it, perhaps, a portal or summoning stone, given what Cranberry was doing to its bark?

[DM Surranó]

OOC @Shanna Rendin - I'm guessing the magenta colour all through the end of your post was a mistake, please check if it's correctly formatted now. If they are your thoughts you may want to italicise as you did so far. Colourful italics are also welcome.
OOC @Toot - oops, I missed your post... Just in case it didn't occur to some, wearing a magical helm necessitates removal of any other magical headgear, like, hats of disguise... So this may have been the first time @Shanna Rendin saw your true form.

It occurs to Shanna that her questions weren't so specific as she thought at first. Some outsiders call Prime Material their home, and from the opposite perspective, many natives of many planes are not really outsiders. She also wonders whether the fey consider dragons, demons, devils, drow, duergar, dwarves, mind flayers, or even themselves "magical".

Myshnue looks at the elderly miner with a hint of superiority in his gaze.
"This is Crystal Meadow. That old oak is where our matron mother lives. No mortals are allowed to see her. She never leaves but she has a huge nasty badger that roams the forest at night."

[Silent Giant]

Cranberry gracefully ignores Giant while sending a penetrating gaze at Portho. Finally she replies in common.

"You remind me of a treant called Bregalad. Yet, he was allowed into the Council of Treants so you, too, deserve a chance. Will see if our matron agrees. Follow."

Once again, the party is led through twisting paths amongst thorn bushes and poison ivy and other pleasantries until finally Cranberry stops in a small clearing, centered by one magnificient oak. Toot thinks it must be four centuries old, at least.
"Wait." Cranberry says, and when Myshnue attempts to follow, she adds, "You too."

Hey dude, how can we know they are not the bad guys? Don't you think this is a trap? - he asks Lugar in orcish

[Lugar]

"Hmmm, Crystal Meadow, that's a nice name." ~Ooh boy crystals, money!~ Lugar clears his throat, "I have some trail rations if that is what you like? The lake we came from, that is Crystal Lake then?"

In Orc:

I think everything is a trap.  If it springs I'm ready.  We should try to get information from them, about this world, the neighbors, and the challenge. 

[DM Surranó]

Myshnue stares at Lugar as if he offered charcoal for a dish with slate for dessert before looking at Merri expectantly. It seems that elves prefer elven food, size doesn't matter.

[Silent Giant]

Myshnue stares at Lugar as if he offered charcoal for a dish with slate for dessert before looking at Merri expectantly. It seems that elves prefer elven food, size doesn't matter.

In orc:

Huh, little choosy. So he is not really hungry.

[Lugar]

Myshnue stares at Lugar as if he offered charcoal for a dish with slate for dessert before looking at Merri expectantly. It seems that elves prefer elven food, size doesn't matter.

In orc:

Huh, little choosy. So he is not really hungry.

"Hrumph." Lugar huffs at the little Fey's rejection and SG's remark. "Well it's all I got... unless your thirsty." Lugar smiles, thinking about giving the little guy a vial of Drow poison to knock him on his arse.  He looks over the tiny elf-bug-man to see if he has anything of obvious value.

"Hey Toot. Fork over your good-berries man.  This guy, ahem, Myshnue wants to tell us about his homeland.  Don't you Myshnue? My name is Lugar Bargrimm, the big guy is Silent Giant, we call him Essgee, and the bear tamer is Toot.  The other tall folk are Merri Starsong and Shanna, Shanna, I can't remember her last name.  Our traveling music-man over there is Portho Nihilibuck."

"Why would tiny folk like you need strangers like us?"

[OoC: Maybe we should call SG Forest Gump? I'm waiting for the Tropic Thunder jokes to come pouring in ]