Mica is slightly irritated that the venom sack is damaged and unusable, but at least they already have a supply of poison.  The arrow is a happier story, it looks intact and he slides it back into his quiver.

He smiles as the young child hands him the geode and bows his head gracefully to accept the gift.  “Much appreciated, young one. You shall have your blessing.  What can you tell me of the mountains that fly, that I may honor them as well?”  Mica pulls a wide leaf from a nearby tree, and kneels by the river, sending the leaf out in the current and placing his hand into the sandy soil of the riverbank. “It is not oak or ash, but it will have to do.  Father of the trees, hold this village and its people in balance and harmony with the jungle.”

As he watches the leaf flow downstream, Mica stands and follows the others to meet with the village elders, listening with interest at the story the share.  He helps Ran with the campsite and looks forward to the evening celebration.  As the work, he asks Ran and the others  “Are these white wizards just red wizards in disguise then, or do they seek something else?  Allies or enemies of the red? What do you know of them?”

Whether handshakes are universal, or the old druid had simply met so many foreign explorers that he knew the custom, he eagerly takes Danica's hand in friendship.  Your use of druidcraft gives you the intuition that the evening will be clear, but that heavy rains will move in overnight.

Conferring with each other, the village elders agree the two women passed through just under a month ago.

The boy conversing with Mica struggles to articulate the legends.  He shares that the elder's stories tell of rocks, large and small, that soar in the sky.  The greatest of these is a massive stone heart, the size of a mountain.  It is known as the Heart of Ubtao, and is a holy place, revealing itself only to the most devout of his followers.

***

As full dark settles in over the jungle, more villagers turn out around the fire.  In addition to the many huts and homes, a number emerge from the mineshaft.  All told there are nearly 100 souls gathered around the bonfire.  

Soon Bolélé emerges from the largest building, draped in ceremonial robes of feathers and attended by two children.  One of the children carries a large, leather shelled egg.  As Bolélé tosses pinches of material into the bonfire, it flares up in different colors; red; green; blue.  One of the children places the egg in the fire, while the other speaks in the native tongue.  Inete translates for the rest of you.  "They are offering the egg of one of Ubtao's children as a sacrifice.  They praise and thank Ubtao for preventing the world from falling into shadow."

With that complete, the old druid throws down another handful of powder, which erupts into a flash and cloud of smoke.  As it drifts away, Bolélé is gone and in his place stands a dinosaur, something similar in appearance to the deinonychuses you saw in the arena, but with longer and more colorful feathers.  It begins to dance around the bonfire while the people chant, and the two children sing.  Inete communicates that they are singing a balad about a great battle ages ago.  Great Ubtao created many of the other gods of Chult, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes by mistake.  His greatest mistake was also his greatest nemesis... Eschowdow.  Over millennia, Ubtao's own shadow grew sentient, and it resented its master.  The dark god Eschowdow split itself from Ubtao, and created its own people to worship it and oppose those who remained loyal to Ubtao.  To save the land of Chult, Ubtao battled Eschowdow and sealed him away in a place called the Valley of Lost Honor.  The men who worshiped Eschowdow were all slain and now there is no trace of the shadow left in the world.  But the battle left Ubtao full of grief and it was one of the events that drove him to leave this world behind.

The song complete, the druid ends his wildshape and returns to human form.  Most of the villagers return to their homes but some remain around the bonfire.  Pipes and drinks are shared, including some of the tej you delivered.  Inete, who brought her own tent, retires early to pray before sleep.  Hew sits and stares at the bonfire and smokes many tobacco cigarettes, being one of the very last to leave for bed.

Additionally, I need CON saves for Hew and Danica.

Hew CON save:  16

Ran smiles and laughs at the colors and then the transformation of the old man into a dinosaur. That’s good magic he thinks to himself. You could really distract a crowd back home with a stunt like that. He’d have to look into trying to learn some while he’s here.

He retires to their campsite and watches the mountain and waterfall.

(are they inside the walls or outside, wasn’t sure about that - if inside he’ll just sleep, swords by his side; if outside the walls, Ran volunteers to take first watch).

Upon seeing the clear night turning to rain, Danica would put up the second tent, figuring that four of their party could take shelter at least. As she worked, she watched Mica conduct his impromptu blessing and smiled at his words, watching the leaf flow along the river. "Well said." If there's any time between that and before the bonfire, she would ask Meili if she wouldn't mind reading to them from Volo's book. Glancing between Ran and Mica at the lack of answer from the fighter and she shrugged at the genasi. 

Danica was excited to see how these people conducted their worshipped and even more so seeing it in action. Though her wide grin did falter into nearly a frown as Inete translated and basically explained that they were sacrificing the egg as an offering. She tried not to let it further color her expression, though she didn't personally like that a life was being snuffed out for such a reason. It was easier to focus on the story that their newest addition translated for them. It left her with a couple of questions but none that she would voice aloud for fear of showing their hosts any disrespect. When the deinonychuses reverted back into the old druid, Danica's eyes lit up, a hand at her chin as she wondered if she could manage such a feet, eyes roaming over the dinosaur's form. 

After everything wrapped up, the elf would follow her companions to their assigned camp site and state to her companions, "I just need about four hours of sleep. Would you all mind if I take first watch most of the time? I like to try and chart the stars in my free time. Hard to do that in the wee hours with dawn approaching, not to mention impossible when it's storming."

Assuming that was okay, she would see that Hew and possibly Ran were still up and ask, "I wonder where that Valley of Lost Honor is. If only to avoid it."  Assuming no one else feels like chatting, Danica would either stay up listening to Meili read aloud or just mark the stars that she could see, beginning a small map of her own and wondering what interesting names the people of Chult had for their constellations. 

Con Save: 12

((GM: In the rules for wildshape it just says that the druid has to see the creature and it be within their CR limit to wildshape into them. Would the time in the arena be enough even though it wasn't up close? Or would seeing another druid wildshape into one count?))

Of course, Meili would read. The faster they all learn about the dangers of the land, the safer will be the journey. But first things first - the camp and then the local ceremony. It could be common for the villagers but so very exotic to her! Come to think of it, using shapeshifting to emphasize the story was a great idea, and yet, it was the song, the voices, the alien flora and no less alien fauna around under the stars, that here looked unfamiliar too, that made the story feel very real. Meili realized, she believes that legend, as if it was a historical fact.

When last notes of the strange song died out and the druid returned into his human body again, she could shake the impression enough to do her reading duties and think of the journey ahead. But Chult became that closer that night.

"Of course. Wake me up when you want to retire to bed." Nodded Meili to Danica's question. "I do hope too, that this valley is not the one we are heading into. And the Shadow of Ubtao is not the one we are against here." She immediately smiled and shook her head. "I am sorry, it was a silly idea. The story was very convincing but I should not have to give in to my imagination. Good night."

When everything planned was done, she crawled into one of the tents and fell asleep.

(Missed the question about the white wizards but Ran doesn’t know more than he’s already said about them - the wayward noble he’s chasing us mixed up with them and that’s it).

Ran listened to the readings while he watched the waterfall and mountain, matching mental images with the words.

Mica listened to the old druid’s tale with great interest, watching the pageantry of the dances and fires.  He was quite taken with the stories of Ubtao, especially with the story the boy told of the heart of Ubtao.

Heeding Danica’s warnings on the heavy rains overnight, Mica sets up a raincatcher to refill their skins the next day.  Camp setup complete, Mica stretches out on the ground, looking up at the stars and listening to Meili’s readings from Volo’s book.  “I fear the Valley of Lost Shadow sounds like the rift we seek. But who knows what secrets lie buried within the jungle.  I guess we will begin to find out tomorrow.”  He prepares his bedroll to protect himself from the rain.  If they are outside the village walls, he will take a shift on watch.

While Hew sits by the fire and Inete sleeps, the rest of you gather around Meili and listen to her read from Volo's Guide to Monsters.  [With 1/3 of the book read, if you encounter any monsters featured in the book, DM will roll 1d6.  On a 5-6, it will be a monster you covered in the material and you will have access to its stats/basic info in-character.]

After a couple of hours, Hew comes to join you, settling his bedroll under a palm tree.  "... Rain coming," he mumbles.  You are inside the walls, near the main gate of the village, but Hew encourages you to set a watch anyhow.  "It's good practice... you need to get used to the jungle sounds at night - learn to recognize what is and isn't a danger.  Tomorrow night we will be camping in the bush."

He listens to your discussions about the Valley of Lost Honor.  In the shadows, his face is hidden but his voice sounds different somehow.  "Aye.  It is a wicked place, full of ash and death, and worse things than shadows make their lairs in its hollows.  Far off to the south... it is one of the places I mean to look for this curse of yours."

[Danica, I would say wild shape just requires you to see the animal in the flesh.  CR will be the biggest limiting factor now, as I think you are limited to CR 1/4 for now?]

Danica takes the first watch.  The night sky remains clear and she is able to practice some of her star charting.  With the campfires extinguished and the village darkened, the constellations pop from the heavens.

Ran, Meili and Mica all take turns on watch.  There are no alarms raised through the night and the village slumbers peacefully behind the protection of its wooden walls.  That is not to say the night is quiet.  A group of something, monkeys perhaps, passes through the trees nearby, hooting and hollering, their cries echoing through the darkness like a woman's screams.  And all through the night, the air above your heads is filled with screeching bats and buzzing insects.  And in the last hour before dawn, there is a haunting, mournful cry from some large beast.  It sounds vaguely like an owl, but with a voice that carries across the river valley... Owwwww... hoo... hoo...... hoo......... hoo...............hoo.

Danica:

 Everyone completes a long rest.

With the pre-dawn light come clouds and a heavy rain.  There is no wind this time, like with the storm that occurred while you were in Port Nyanzaru.  The rain just falls in sheets, drenching everything and limiting visibility to 120ft.

Hew organizes everyone to pack camp and prepare to port the canoes through the forest.  It is a short hike, as there is a path around and up the ridge, and another dock at the top on the other side of the falls. 

Ran watches the rain pour down like a waterfall.

"This isn't exactly the most welcoming land, is it?" Ran says to everybody and nobody in particular. "Is it like this all the time?"

He looks around as they move through the rain, carrying the canoes and gear up the trail.

"At least it seems to keep the bugs away while it's pouring down." Ran adds then something in his memory makes him smile. "But still, definitely better than tracking a deadbeat through the stew of the Waterdeep sewers."

"I worry if that rain can wash off the insect repellent." Meili squinted, looking up in the grey sky. "They promised the rain will be often but shot. Hope it's true." She did her share of packing and now was ready to take her place in the canoe, paddling like yesterday. The muscles were just a touch sore (a proper stretching with the simple kata warmed up the body in the morning) and rain... Well, Hew did not even flinch. They just had to accept it as a part of the environment, like heat.

"What was that sound before dawn?" It was difficult to talk through the noise from the rain and the waterfall, but Meili was curious and they were walking anyway, Hew could talk.

Nodding in understanding at Hew's wise words about getting used to the jungle's sounds she had to admit it was jarring being back in the thick of nature after so long the sea was a much different kind of nature and even the forests she grew up in could only have prepared her so much to this foreign wilderness. Cracking a smile she admitted to the dwarf, "I'm sure I won't realize which sounds are from a danger until it's too late though, unless you're there to point them out to me. I get yer point though. Haven't slept with the trees in many a decade, though these ones don't exactly remind me of home." Looking up at the large leafed canopy. 

Seeing Mica set up the rain catcher when both herself and Hew warned of the incoming rainfall, she also took the opportunity lay out her bedroll in one of the tents, even though she wasn't ready to rest just yet. "Might be nice to sleep with nature but I admit I got used to sleeping and not getting woken up by being rained on."  She enjoyed the evening, Meili's voice had an interesting lilt as she read aloud and it was easy to focus on what was being stated while also marking out the movement of the stars, saving the more intense calculations for after everyone else bedded down for the night. Hew was right, there were some rather interesting sounds, none of which she was familiar with and every time she heard something she would tense and wait but thankfully the time passed uneventfully. Once Meili was definitely roused and up, Danica crawled into her bedroll in one of the tents and focused on her even breathing, letting herself fall into a trance like sleep. 

She was grateful for the lack of dreams the elf noted as she roused, working on detangling her hair and putting it up out of the way before beginning the painstaking process of applying the insect repellent from the gourd at her hip, taking care to cover more than she had the first time since she had her armor on then. As she did so though, she began to feel more tired than even before she had laid down the previous night and...cold? Emerging from the tent fully armed and armored and more or less presentable, the brunette's teeth could be heard clacking together as she shivered with a grumble, "Thought th' jungle was s'pposed to be warm." 

At Ran's comment about how the torrential rain they were experiencing was better than one of his previous ventures she looked at him in disgusted understanding. "You could not have gotten paid enough for that." She may be more familiar with Waterdeep's ports than the rest of the city but she knew that the place's populace alone was enough to paint a vivid enough picture for her nose about the state of its sewer system. 

Shaking her head at Meili's concern and then pausing a moment mid stride as she got dizzy from the motion, Danica said in an odd tone, "Uhm....no. The uh, the gal I bought it off of assured me that it's waterproof. The ointment at least. Not the incen-aw God's above that's what I forgot!" She rubbed her sticky forehead. "Didn't light the incense last night." 

(( GM: Would Danica be cognizant that she is sick? Or would she have to roll to recognize that? ....with disadvantage ofc...hnnnghhh. Damned wasps. ))

"It is as hot as usual." Meili looked at Danica more intently. "Are you feeling all right?" She got closer and looked the elven girl up and down, even extending her hand to check Danica's puls but stopped herself. Their captain was familiar enough with the diseases and sicknesses to diagnose herself.

[Danica would almost certainly tell something is wrong... like when you have a 'big head' during the onset of a fever.]

Inete rises early and, learning from the previous day's dangers, casts protective spells on herself.  Then, while the others pack camp and ready the canoes for porting, she huddles under a leafy palm and studies her spellbook for an hour [using arcane recovery to regain the spell slot].

"Not sure..." Hew answers to Meili's question about the call before dawn.  "It sounded a little like a Trike, but they seldom make such a loud racket.  Might be it was injured or lost."

And he advises Ran that, yes, it rains a lot in the jungle.

But his eyes narrow when he sees Danica shaking.  He takes her hand - without asking permission - and turns the palm over, and holds it to his forehead.  Then he looks at her eyes for a moment.  "Dragon shite.  OK!  Everybody huddle up!"

"The boss has the shivering sickness.  No doubt from that overgrown hornet sting yesterday.  This is why we bring the bug shmear.  Every creepy crawly in this god's forsaken jungle can infect you, from the little mosquitos to the giant wasps and centipedes.  The shmear will keep us safe from the little ones.  If we run into more of the big'uns, do your best not to get bit or stung."

He points to Danica.  "The boss is going to have a rough couple of days.  Hot and cold spells... dizziness... bouts of uncontrolled shaking.  She'll fight it off - most everyone does - but she's going to be little use for either work or fighting until she does.  It would take everything she's got just to keep up with us."

"So I need the lot of you to make a decision... do we press on, and keep this expedition on track?  ...Or do we hold up here and let another day or two pass to see if she gets over the shivers?"  His tone suggests he is in favor of keeping moving, though he clearly intends to defer to the decision of his clients.

Ran looks on as Hew diagnoses Danica and tells them all what she's going to go through.

"She's going to have the shakes and her world's going to spin, yeah?" Ran says just to confirm what's been said. "But she's going to have that no matter where she is, right?"

He looks back along the trail they've already come up.

"This next bit of the river," Ran begins. "A few odd animals and the like but any for sure dangers you know about? And the river itself, smooth? If it's like what we had coming in, I'd say press ahead. Danica showed Velan and I how to at least keep the canoe straight. But if there's something right miserable ahead, I'd vote for waiting."

Hew grabs a stick and sketches out the potential travel for the day.

"Once we port the canoes up the ridge and put back in above the falls, we have a long stretch of what should be smooth sailing.  No guarantees, of course.  There's no 'safe' out here.  If we make decent time, we should approach the next set of falls before dark.  We should camp there, because the next port is a whopper.  They aren't falls like these," he says pointing at the nearby cliff.  "They are more like rocky rapids.  The river drops another 25 or 30 feet, but it does it in fits and starts and small falls over the course of a few miles.  Its not quite a waterfall, but it can't be traversed in canoes either.  So we have to get out and go around it."

"So today would be walk, then paddle paddle paddle, then camp.  Tomorrow would be walk walk walk, then paddle.  And if we don't get hung up anywhere, we will reach the Brave and Bold in time to seek shelter there tomorrow night."  At any curious look, he explains that the Brave and Bold is a hunt camp along the river.  They harvest crocodile and other monster hides for sale in Port Nyanzaru.

Ran nods and raises an eyebrow at the others.

"I'm for pushing on, through this grotty jungle" he says. "What about the rest of you? Especially you, Danica?"

Ran leaves it there. He knows his decision to push on has more to do with trying to make up ground then it does about whether Danica needs rest or not so he doesn't want to push too hard.

 He watched the village with interest, his mind registering every single bit about architecture and culture. Most of the time he felt more than a little tempted to cast Comprehend Languages, but in the end it was best to conserve his forces, should a new danger present itself before the group. With an enemy as powerful as Vecna or Acerarak, he wouldn’t be surprise if the whole Waxan'abu were set ablaze before dinner. Fortunately, no such thing happened. His spirit was still a little dampened by finding that there was no poison to extract from the giant wasp corpse and when the conversation drifted about the white robed wizards Ran admitted to know nothing more.

By night Velan listened as Meili read out of Volo’s book, making notes of his own about its content and everything that happened in the village. He didn’t want to forget about that. Were they not pressed for time he would love to study more about this culture. Maybe another time, he thought going to rest. Sleep came easy and he managed to wake earlier than the others. As per usual, he studied his spellbook, but considering the possibility of unnatural attacks against the group, decided to cast Mage Armor upon himself and rest some more to regain the energy of the spell. That done he started helping with the packing until Hew called the group to mention Danica’s situation.

“I think that she should be the one to decide if she needs to rest.” The wizard said, ready to defer to consensus of the majority. “Would there be any kind of healing herbs capable of speeding her recover or easing the symptoms by here?”

Notes: Would Velan know about any herb capable of remediating the sickness (or easing its symptoms)?

Nature Check: 18

Brow furrowed as Hew unceremoniously took her hand to press it to his forehead she blinked slowly at his curse and realized that this wasn't just her feeling under the weather just because of the climate change or some such, even as their guide explained. Cursing lowly under her breath, the elf was privately glad that it wasn't due to her own neglect from forgetting to make sure their camp was protected with the incense. She'd be sure not to forget the following nights. Not that it would make her current predicament any better. It was a little hard to focus on the conversation, even with her being the subject of it. 

The journey had just begun and she was already putting them at disadvantage with her weakness. Weighing them down. She was supposed to be leading them. Some 'Captain' she was. She could just hear Captain Trench mocking her. A Captain with no ship and can't even lead her crew without getting sick. Her fists shook and she couldn't tell if it was from this shivering sickness or her own anger at herself. But her eyes closed as she tried to focus on her breathing, listening to the individual queries as to her opinion before centering herself. What would Fran do? Well that was a moot question as she knew that the cleric would most assuredly insist she rest. But Xallin....he'd say that she shouldn't be afraid to rely on her crew. 

Blue eyes opening and focusing on first Hew and then Ran and Velan, Danica said in measured tone, "We'll press on. You'll hafta forgive me if I slow us down but I won't have us grind to a halt completely on my account unless I c-can't walk." Her teeth chattering breaking up her sentence occasionally, "We've already heard from Wakanga that this curse is a ticking time bomb and I'm not all that sure how much longer my benefactor has left. Not to mention we're trying to keep hot on Ran's sister's trail." Squinting in an unfocused fashion at said man before demanding, "Wha's her name anyway, I can't stand to keep calling her just yer sister." 

Listening to Hew speak of how the next two days were going to go made her feel even more tired than she already did. Bowing her head the druid stated solemnly, "I'll be relying on you all until I beat this. Ran's right, I'm going to feel like this even if I do rest so we might as well try and make some progress while I do. Just better not let me steer us for now." She cracked a weak smile at her canoe mates. 

Ran watches Danica's teeth chattering. His first instinct is to take a step back away from her, but he doesn't. He noted that Hew didn't hesitate to check Danica's temperature so you must have to be bitten or stabbed by one of those big insects to get it.

"Her names, Shepard," Ran tells Danica when she asks about his sister. "Ran and Shepard. Guess odd names are to be expected when your parents go by Mute and Haze."

He then claps his hands together and starts moving. 

"Rattle ya dags," Ran says. "We don't want to be still on the river when it's dark.'