Rezlin's eyes crinkle with interest at the mention of beets.
"Ah, I've got a few beets in my vegetable patch. Perhaps you can size them up, see if I'm growing them well. How wonderful. You're going to love my garden, I think."
I am Elric Greenbody, I have a knack for all things green and pleasant thanks to the guidance of Rontra"
Rezlin is again excited. "Excellent, you're just the man for this job! My garden must be protected at all costs, and I'll trust you to have good judgment on how to do that!"
”I am Algernon Rambleroot, and I also am gifted with nature magic... Does your task have anything to do with those poor corrupted bumblebees out there, or is this something supposedly unrelated that will lead us into why they’re suffering so?”
Dice rolls not yet available for this section. - insight
(please re-roll the insight check - if you click it on your character sheet then we can see it in the game log, kinda convenient way to roll, try it out)
Rezlin arches an eyebrow at your comments. "I beg your pardon, but what do you mean about corrupted bumblebees? I'm afraid I don't understand."
Horkur, there's no lack of stuff for you to pick up and fidget with. As you all step into the cottage you see with some amount of alarm that he's a bit of a hoarder. Random junk is piled up in all the corners of this first room so that there's little more than a passage through the middle of the room, with junk piling up on the sides. Thus it's hard to tell what the purpose of this room even was. The junk is mostly opened crates, packing material such as straw (some old and dry, some a bit wet and moldy), old clothes, some old rusty or broken garden tools of various kinds, broken chunks of wood that may have been part of some structure but now hard to say as it's busted up, dirty dishware, a few other odds and ends, etc...
The safe passage through the junk splits, and there are two more rooms further into the cottage.
Hordur mumbles lowly, almost as if thinking aloud: "Garden needs protecting? I would assume a good hound or scarecrow would be just as effective at keeping out rabbits and crows as a group of hired hands, and chea.... " He stops his statement short realizing what he was about to say, pauses briefly, then speaks up to Rezlin.
"Garden must be protected at all costs? The Captain of the Guard mentioned that this is a task you have had done by others before, and needs to be repeated regularly.. Might I ask, protection against what exactly?"
Rezlin smiles benignly down at Hordur. “Straight to business, eh? Very good. I’m sure you’re a fine adventurer. You all must have accomplished many great deeds already, yes?”
"Greetings Rezlin, I am Nemi and this.." she pets a mound of spotted fur peeking up from her pack that stretches a small paw out almost in a wave and disappears again..." is Cheetah. I've tended egg hatcheries in my home village and studied extensively with the elders all the skills a Ranger requires starting out which did include quite a bit of plant research in my 7 years. Although...I already see many plants I've never seen before. You seem quite the traveler." Nemi speaks with a very gravely but extremely upbeat tone.
Nemi doesn't appear to wear any sort of armor as the body of her shell seems to conceal anything customarily covered in society. She does have many straps, belts and a pack with a bedroll affixed to it to hold her gear and her pet.
Rezlin enjoys meeting Cheetah and says, “I have a cat of my own! Her name is Tapdance. She’s around here somewhere… doesn’t really like visitors though…”
“You have a discerning eye, noticing my herbs. I take great pride in my gardens, and indeed, it is my livelihood. You see, I grow my own reagents and process them here, and sell them to the University for furthering their magical research. They pay handsomely for my work! I have imported several varieties of plants here to help expand my capabilities.”
Elric listens intently as Rezlin explains his little business.
"Sounds like important work indeed. What form should this protection take; do we camp in your garden and see off wild animals? Erm, what did all the previous groups do?"
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts. Forest gnomes love animals and often keep squirrels, badgers, rabbits, moles, woodpeckers, and other creatures as beloved pets.
Horkur's ears perk up on seeing Cheetah poke out and hearing about Tapdance. Knowing he couldn't reach Cheetah without causing a scene he pulls a morsel from a ration and tries to discreetly gesture/call for Tapdance while Rezlin speaks.
“No, nothing like that. This will take but a few hours of your time. You’ll be home by dinner! Though I hope you’re not squeamish, as my request is a bit… strange. Allow me to explain.”
He beckons you further into his home. Stepping carefully through the mess, he leads you to a cluttered kitchen. You catch a glimpse of the other room as you go by, a dark room with a large workbench covered in glassware and strange contraptions, and an unkempt bed in the corner.
“As I’ve mentioned, I’m interested in obtaining interesting reagents. As a general rule, the more valuable the reagent, the harder it is to obtain. There are a few reagents in my garden to be harvested that are quite valuable - and therefore quite difficult to obtain. I’m old and really not capable of this kind of work anymore - and that’s where you come in!
“What I’m about to ask of you may seem strange and risky, maybe unnecessary, but please rest assured that it is relatively safe and you will be well compensated.
“I need you to harvest a number of unusual things,” and here he holds out a parchment with items written on it, looks like a list. “Unfortunately, these things really can’t be properly harvested at your current, erm, size.”
Whoever grabs the parchment will see a strange list of items:
“These items cannot effectively be harvested at our current size. The creature must be relatively unharmed when the item is taken from it, or the reagent will not retain its potency. And I will not place traps in my gardens, it adds too much foreign material and throws off the balance of the environment. Over the years, I’ve found that the most effective method, that yields the best results by far, is to shrink down to a much smaller size and then gather the items that way. Plucking the hair follicles off an unharmed ant or aphid is easy when you’re only 6 inches tall!
“And the best part is that when you return to your normal size, if you are holding these items, then they will grow in size with you!!”
“I have a potion that has been developed with help from the University that, if you drink it, will shrink you to 6 inches in size, and it will last for about 6 hours, after which it wears off and you return to normal. We will go to the garden, drink the potion, and then you’ll be off! Gather as much as you can and then return to normal in 6 hours, collect your reward, and celebrate tonight, 50 gold richer! What do you think??”
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts. Forest gnomes love animals and often keep squirrels, badgers, rabbits, moles, woodpeckers, and other creatures as beloved pets.
he pulls a morsel from a ration and tries to discreetly gesture/call for Tapdance while Rezlin speaks.
Animal Handling 5 in Game Log if needed.
You’ve spotted Tapdance in the kitchen, crouched under the sink and glaring at you with unblinking green eyes. She is not coaxed out to you. You sense that she is unfriendly.
Horkur takes the message Tapdance isn't in the mood and leaves the morsel on the floor a few feet from the sink. He turns around to Rezlin, questioningly at first before ending in a smirk:
"Six inches you say, all of us? Finally being the same height as my tree-legged friends here doesn't sound half-bad!"
“Well, the potion keeps things proportional, so I’m afraid you may come out more like 4 inches…”
Seeing you giving attention to the cat, he says, “Ah, there’s Tapdance! Well, she’s not in the mood for visitors. Don’t worry, I’ll keep her locked up inside while you’re out back. You know, she’s quite the mouser. Likes to do her hunting at night, of course.”
(Posts incoming in approx 2-3 hours)
Rezlin's eyes crinkle with interest at the mention of beets.
"Ah, I've got a few beets in my vegetable patch. Perhaps you can size them up, see if I'm growing them well. How wonderful. You're going to love my garden, I think."
Rezlin is again excited. "Excellent, you're just the man for this job! My garden must be protected at all costs, and I'll trust you to have good judgment on how to do that!"
(please re-roll the insight check - if you click it on your character sheet then we can see it in the game log, kinda convenient way to roll, try it out)
Rezlin arches an eyebrow at your comments. "I beg your pardon, but what do you mean about corrupted bumblebees? I'm afraid I don't understand."
Horkur, there's no lack of stuff for you to pick up and fidget with. As you all step into the cottage you see with some amount of alarm that he's a bit of a hoarder. Random junk is piled up in all the corners of this first room so that there's little more than a passage through the middle of the room, with junk piling up on the sides. Thus it's hard to tell what the purpose of this room even was. The junk is mostly opened crates, packing material such as straw (some old and dry, some a bit wet and moldy), old clothes, some old rusty or broken garden tools of various kinds, broken chunks of wood that may have been part of some structure but now hard to say as it's busted up, dirty dishware, a few other odds and ends, etc...
The safe passage through the junk splits, and there are two more rooms further into the cottage.
Yes I would like to join… I’ve been playing for some weeks now. My chacarse i would like to join us level 6 Druid/artificer.
Hordur mumbles lowly, almost as if thinking aloud: "Garden needs protecting? I would assume a good hound or scarecrow would be just as effective at keeping out rabbits and crows as a group of hired hands, and chea.... " He stops his statement short realizing what he was about to say, pauses briefly, then speaks up to Rezlin.
"Garden must be protected at all costs? The Captain of the Guard mentioned that this is a task you have had done by others before, and needs to be repeated regularly.. Might I ask, protection against what exactly?"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Rezlin smiles benignly down at Hordur. “Straight to business, eh? Very good. I’m sure you’re a fine adventurer. You all must have accomplished many great deeds already, yes?”
Already did, I got an 8...
Algernon, you find Rezlin to be puzzled or concerned about your comment.
"Greetings Rezlin, I am Nemi and this.." she pets a mound of spotted fur peeking up from her pack that stretches a small paw out almost in a wave and disappears again..." is Cheetah. I've tended egg hatcheries in my home village and studied extensively with the elders all the skills a Ranger requires starting out which did include quite a bit of plant research in my 7 years. Although...I already see many plants I've never seen before. You seem quite the traveler." Nemi speaks with a very gravely but extremely upbeat tone.
Nemi doesn't appear to wear any sort of armor as the body of her shell seems to conceal anything customarily covered in society. She does have many straps, belts and a pack with a bedroll affixed to it to hold her gear and her pet.
Looking for a game
Rezlin enjoys meeting Cheetah and says, “I have a cat of my own! Her name is Tapdance. She’s around here somewhere… doesn’t really like visitors though…”
“You have a discerning eye, noticing my herbs. I take great pride in my gardens, and indeed, it is my livelihood. You see, I grow my own reagents and process them here, and sell them to the University for furthering their magical research. They pay handsomely for my work! I have imported several varieties of plants here to help expand my capabilities.”
Elric listens intently as Rezlin explains his little business.
"Sounds like important work indeed. What form should this protection take; do we camp in your garden and see off wild animals? Erm, what did all the previous groups do?"
Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts. Forest gnomes love animals and often keep squirrels, badgers, rabbits, moles, woodpeckers, and other creatures as beloved pets.
Horkur's ears perk up on seeing Cheetah poke out and hearing about Tapdance. Knowing he couldn't reach Cheetah without causing a scene he pulls a morsel from a ration and tries to discreetly gesture/call for Tapdance while Rezlin speaks.
Animal Handling 5 in Game Log if needed.
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Rezlin chuckles.
“No, nothing like that. This will take but a few hours of your time. You’ll be home by dinner! Though I hope you’re not squeamish, as my request is a bit… strange. Allow me to explain.”
He beckons you further into his home. Stepping carefully through the mess, he leads you to a cluttered kitchen. You catch a glimpse of the other room as you go by, a dark room with a large workbench covered in glassware and strange contraptions, and an unkempt bed in the corner.
“As I’ve mentioned, I’m interested in obtaining interesting reagents. As a general rule, the more valuable the reagent, the harder it is to obtain. There are a few reagents in my garden to be harvested that are quite valuable - and therefore quite difficult to obtain. I’m old and really not capable of this kind of work anymore - and that’s where you come in!
“What I’m about to ask of you may seem strange and risky, maybe unnecessary, but please rest assured that it is relatively safe and you will be well compensated.
“I need you to harvest a number of unusual things,” and here he holds out a parchment with items written on it, looks like a list. “Unfortunately, these things really can’t be properly harvested at your current, erm, size.”
Whoever grabs the parchment will see a strange list of items:
hair follicle of ant (alive)
hair follicle of aphid (alive)
field mouse toenail (alive)
Freshly woven silk of a spider (alive)
Rezlin continues,
“These items cannot effectively be harvested at our current size. The creature must be relatively unharmed when the item is taken from it, or the reagent will not retain its potency. And I will not place traps in my gardens, it adds too much foreign material and throws off the balance of the environment. Over the years, I’ve found that the most effective method, that yields the best results by far, is to shrink down to a much smaller size and then gather the items that way. Plucking the hair follicles off an unharmed ant or aphid is easy when you’re only 6 inches tall!
“And the best part is that when you return to your normal size, if you are holding these items, then they will grow in size with you!!”
“I have a potion that has been developed with help from the University that, if you drink it, will shrink you to 6 inches in size, and it will last for about 6 hours, after which it wears off and you return to normal. We will go to the garden, drink the potion, and then you’ll be off! Gather as much as you can and then return to normal in 6 hours, collect your reward, and celebrate tonight, 50 gold richer! What do you think??”
You’ve spotted Tapdance in the kitchen, crouched under the sink and glaring at you with unblinking green eyes. She is not coaxed out to you. You sense that she is unfriendly.
Horkur takes the message Tapdance isn't in the mood and leaves the morsel on the floor a few feet from the sink. He turns around to Rezlin, questioningly at first before ending in a smirk:
"Six inches you say, all of us? Finally being the same height as my tree-legged friends here doesn't sound half-bad!"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Rezlin smiles at you and says,
“Well, the potion keeps things proportional, so I’m afraid you may come out more like 4 inches…”
Seeing you giving attention to the cat, he says, “Ah, there’s Tapdance! Well, she’s not in the mood for visitors. Don’t worry, I’ll keep her locked up inside while you’re out back. You know, she’s quite the mouser. Likes to do her hunting at night, of course.”
Horkur takes another morsel out and puts it down a couple feet from Tapdance.
"Just in case you find your way outside later, may be better you have a snack now.."
Turning back to the group, he says:
"Well I am used to the way things look down here, what's a few more inches!"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down