Effulgyn holds Fin's eyes. "Nothin that can regrow legs, alas. Fin?"

The young wizard conjures a pair of slightly glowing, long work gloves, the kind he has used for planting back on the Nimbewynde farm, which extend up one's forearms. He wriggles his hands into them, then picks up the dove and tries to get a good look at what Avra describes as 'the sick.' (Effulgyn is proficient in Animal Handling.)

"Come here little 'un. I mean ye no harm."

OOC Effy are you trying not to touch the mold or are you assuming that your gloves are going to protect you? Also please roll a an animal handling check 

(OOC: Trying carefully not to touch the mold. The gloves represent an abundance of caution.)
Animal Handling: 7

"Nothing but the highest blessings that I've heard of can bring back a limb." Fin stares at the bird with a growing heaviness.

‘The way I see it,’ Effulgyn thinks, ‘we’ll have to get up close at some point to get a sample. Under who knows what conditions. Now is a good time to enhance our first-hand understanding of it in what seem like quiet surroundings.’

Effy the bird is writhing and flapping its wings in panic or in pain--which, you cannot tell--and your cooing and soothing noises do nothing to lessen its upheaval. You can't be sure if the gloves you conjured will protect your hands, or for how long, as you know that once they take damage they will disappear. For this reason, you would be inclined to try to keep the mold off, so please roll a dex check at disadvantage to see how well you manage. 

(OOC: Hmmm. Forgot the conjured object disappears if it takes damage. Those odds are terrible.)

Effulgyn thought a legless bird might be in shock and barely alive. It surprises him when it flutters. He throws up his arms instinctively and backs away.

(DEX rolls 15 & 15)

The bird falls out of your hands, landing on the ground with a sickening thump, the underside of its wings blistered and open like sores. 

Effulgyn grimaces at his own fumbling, his heart pained to see the creature suffering, and moreover, adding to its suffering through his missteps.

But he’s here for a reasons. The young conjurer wants to understand the effects of this substance he has quested after and lost friends to find.

It appears to damage living creatures (only) with the burning effects of acid. But is there a magical component to what it does? If so, what kind of magic? And knowing that, where might it have come from? Or, is it purely a natural substance. Acid pouring from an open wound in the earth’s soil?

Here is where things might start to get interesting. Effy, perhaps an arcana check? Otherwise let me know what kind of testing you would like to do. Fin, same for you--are there any things you would like to try now that you have this opportunity

((Not much more probing that Fin is capable of. The whole ordeal with the bird alone, let alone how it's likely spread through the area, is unsettling to say the least.))

Oh now I wonder if I should have warned you about how dark things would get...:(

((Oh! Yeah, don't worry about me lol. I'm no stranger to dark campaigns. I mean from Fin's perspective. You're doing just fine thus far.))

*wipes sweat from brow*

(Effulgyn arcana: 4+4 = 8)

Effy you sweep the edges of your mind for anything related to necrotic materials, or oozes, or acids--but you are too stressed and exhausted to reach the furthest expanses of your mind and come away with not much. Could be an ooze--you've heard of those. Could be some sort of magic substance, something dark, something necrotic even. Could be a combination of those. You're just not sure. 

“Let’s be on our way to find yer Pa, Avra,” Effulgyn says.

(OOC: can we look at how a conjured object takes damage? For example, will water boiled in a conjured pot cause the pot to disappear? Since boiling hot water can damage a creature. If a conjured shield is hit by a sword, will it disappear? That kind of thing. I had thought the damage would have to be intentional and surpassing the defenses of the “real” object that the conjured object copies.)

Avra stoops down to the bird and, not unlike you would a chicken, wrings its neck with one crisp movement in the wrist before meeting you all back at the cart.

You continue on your trip, the goal being to collect enough of the substance to bring back to ID by somehow getting it into the vials he gave you, with only one event of any kind of note. About an hour from your destination, you witness something truly special--a large cast of bird people fly past you, seemingly coming from the west. Do any of you have any history with Aaracokra?

(OOC: Bo history w Aarocokra for Effulgyn. But is the west the same direction we’re traveling, where Avra is leading us?)

The Aaracokra are traveling from the west coast, is what I should have said.

The map of Stoacia is here. Represented by the yellow star, you are now toward the west side of Kindermarsh Lake, having bypassed Kindermarsh Village. You are traveling south east to the edge of the lake to Avra's farm, represented by the green star.