Speedwell takes off his wings, forgetting they were even there considering everything else they were going through and he rustles through his backpack. "I have this carnival ticket for you. It is an item that is emotionally attached to something else of great value to me. This ticket represents the beginning of a long journey that I am only just recently realizing I have been on for most of my life."

“Well thank you all. How nice.” Tsu says as yo offer trinkets or to help. She then adds, “If you need to be off I can let you off at the next stop. The House usually stops about every mile or so. The waters may have receded by then as well. Though you’re welcome to stay if you need rest.”

"Thank you," Speedwell says to Tsu. "Do any of you need more than an hour to rest," he asks the rest of the group.

Autumnleaf shakes her head, putting her fake wings back on. "An hour is more than enough for me, now that I've filled my belly."

@DM: Does Karib gather any more information than the party already knows?

Karib finishes the repair work, then shakes his head. "I am as ready as I will ever be. Where do you plan to go?"

Inif nods in agreement.  "Yes, an hour to mediate and I'll be ready.  We'll get off as close to the Tollway as possible."

Getting a short rest and some food in you, Tsu drops you off the next time the house lowers down. Though not exactly at the Tollway, she points you in the general direction of the huge stump and you begin trudging through the muck, happy that the water seems to have receded. After 20 minutes or so, you find yourself in a mist-veiled field of tall swamp grass dotted with clusters of cattails and hear rustling in the vegetation ahead of you. You then hear voices speaking in goblin as six hobgoblin stilt walkers with wire cages filled with eggs and straw emerge from the mist, walking in your general direction, though not directly at you.

What would you like to do?

Karib's grip on his staff tightens, and it almost seems like it is growing green sprouts before he relaxes again. He stops, and turns to the newcomers. "Hail strangers. What news?"

Though making no haste, being able to avoid the muck on their stilts, the group seems to move with ease. As they begin to pass by, one near the rear of their pack plants one stilt into the mud and, with a surprising amount of upper body and core strength, leans down into the brush picking a couple eggs from a patch of tall grass and places them into the cage on his back. The leader pauses before passing you by and begins to reply in Goblin, but seeing the lack of understanding on your faces switches over to Common saying, “Not many eggs after flood…Where you headed?”

Inif reponds, "Towards the Tollway and further beyond to a place called Downfall. What can you tell us of this area and the haregone bandits?"

"Downfall that way." the one in the front says, pointing a stilt towards the west. "Can trade eggs there. Go through Tollway if you don't have boat or stilts."

Autumnleaf flutters quietly behind the others, listening to the exchange, head tilted.

Karib looks dubiously at the stilts and wrinkles his nose. "I believe that the tollway is our destination, then. Do you know how much these tolls are?"

After a pause, he shifts his pack on his back, "...or where we might find a boat?"

Inif looks at the eggs the goblins are collecting closely and considers the beasts they've seen to determine the creature.

"Thanks.  Those eggs you are collecting...do you trade them with the bullywugs?"

To the human the stilt walkers simply shrug, and to the alien the nod and say, "sometimes." And looking at the eggs, and the patch of grass from which they were picked, they appear to be mostly bird eggs, likely from birds like the large crane you saw upon your arrival.

Karib shrugs, "I guess we will find out for ourselves." He shifts his pack on his shoulders, and looks in the direction of the tollway, ready to leave.

“Well, then, gents,” Speedwell says before looking to Autumnleaf and continues, “and lady, onward to the tollway?”

As the party continues walking a west by north westward you soon see a large stump of a tree just coalesce out of the mist a couple hundred meters in front of you. There then seem to be a number of old rickety wooden walkways spiderwebbing out from it. ((See the map for a general idea)) Just before reaching the walkways through you find an old wooden raft and a 10-foot pole laying on top of it. The raft is currently stuck in the mud a couple meters below the wooden walk ways, though you can see a water line on the posts about a meter up.

What would you like to do?

Autumnleaf hums, fluttering a bit higher up and looking around. "A rather convenient find makes me curious who left it behind. Best not to take without asking first, lest we all end up further cursed."

At the moment you don't see, or hear, anyone around. Just the sounds of your companions mucking about in the... muck. Note: the raft is a solid wooden craft, and likely rather heavy to carry.