Elric steps forward, trembling slightly but holding his chin up: "I am ready. This should be quite an adventure, as well as a chance to learn humility before nature!"
Nemi senses a stirring in her pack as Cheetah slinks out and down a belt on her back to the ground creeping quietly towards Horkur as he plants the treat down for Tapdance and looks up at him hopefully. Nemi notices this but doesn't say anything as Cheetah doesn't appear to be moving in on Tapdance's morsel.
"6 inches? Instead of 6 feet sounds amazing to me, and if we get done early I could study some of these plants from a completely different perspective! Absolutely, count me in! But could Cheetah stay the same size?" She says eyeing the less than warm Tapdance. "You know, just in case?"
Horkur pulls a handful of bite-sized pieces and one larger one from the ration and puts all but the large one down for Cheetah. That one piece he places into an easy to access pouch at this time.
If Cheetah allows it, Horkur will pet him until we are ready to go outside (unless something interesting around to fiddle with, then my interest will wonder quickly).
But could Cheetah stay the same size?" She says eyeing the less than warm Tapdance. "You know, just in case?"
Rezlin eyes your cat thoughtfully. "Hmm," he says, "That's not a good idea. These pets people have can act in unpredictable ways once the sizes are altered so drastically. And maybe little Cheetah will stay loyal to you, but are you certain she won't see one of your friends," (and here he glances significantly at Horkur) "as a tasty treat? It's best to give some potion to little Cheetah, so that she stays in proportion to you. Don't worry, the potion is perfectly safe for all manner of creatures to take."
Rezlin has a small wooden crate resting on the kitchen counter, and inside are several large vials of swirling light blue liquid. He picks up and holds the crate in one hand and says, "Well, best get on with things. Shall we head into the garden?"
Then with the other hand he opens the back door in the kitchen that leads out back to the gardens. Tapdance heads towards the open door but he shoos her away with his shoe. "Tapdance, stay inside!" Offended, the cat marches towards the front room, head held high and tail swishing.
"After you," invites Rezlin.
As you head out the back door, you get a full view of the gardens. The area is overall small and quaint. The oak tree provides a lot of shade on your right. A path of cobbled stones set into the earth leads away from the cottage and then loops around a little pond festooned with lilypads, tall grasses, and cattails. Before that is a highly diversified vegetable patch, what appears to be an herb garden, and a large flower garden with more of the same varieties you noticed out front. The entire area seems to be bounded by unkempt weeds. Pine trees can be seen further out.
(see map posted earlier today)
(feel free to continue to interact with Rezlin as he ushers you along)
Horkur walks over to the vegetable patch and looks over the beets afore-mentioned by Rezlin while looking for signs of ants or mice. (Nature: 13 in Game Log) (Investigation: 2 in Game Log)"They seem to be coming along nicely.." He pulls the large morsel of food from his pack and places nearest the edge of the vegetable patch where he thinks it may attract visitors before walking back over to Rezlin to retrieve a vial of the mysterious liquid. "What does it taste like?"
Rezlin cringes noticeably as you, Horkur, deviate from the stone pathway. "Please be careful, don't tread on any of the plants!"
"Let's get to the flower garden. Previous groups have said that was a good place to start. You'll want to already be there, once you drink the potion, so you don't have to travel so far."
Algernon is wandering along with the group, seeming focused on something off in the horizon, before shaking out of it, and crouches down to look at the flowers as they pass by them, looking to see if there's anything from the Feywild, and using Druidcraft to breath some life into any plant that's looking unhealthy. (Nature check: 12)
"My apologies for being so distracted. Life can really hit you with a curveball when you're not expecting it."
If he sees any corrupted bees, he'll call for it to fly over to him using Speech of Beast and Leaf, and show it to Rezlin. (Persuasion: 14)
You do indeed see a few bees, but they ignore your efforts, which is odd. The bees are quite focused on pollinating the flowers.
Rezlin hands each of you a vial of blue liquid. "It should taste of mint, I believe. The procedure will be to drink the potion, then quickly hand me the empty vial and stand where you are. Once you've shrunk, I'll go back inside and await your return. You have the list of items. Remember, whatever you collect there will grow when you grow back, so the yield will be incredible!"
Nemi nods in agreement with Rezlin, "Yes I hadn't considered that, eyeing Cheetah's sharp claws and teeth. I don't know how she'd act towards a tiny, mouse-sized version of me or the others." She kneels to share some small bit with Cheetah and then drinks the potion herself, standing where he guided them and passing the potion bottle back quickly before the size difference starts taking effect.
(assuming Algernon follows suit, we can proceed. But Algernon may want to interact with Rezlin a bit more before you all shrink, which we can also do while still progressing the story)
The world expands around you, including Rezlin. He cautiously steps past you on the path, carrying his crate of now-empty vials, and retreats back to the cabin. Each footstep is a thunderous crash. The flat rocks of the path you were standing on become veritable islands of stone. You had been standing together in a tight group, but now you are far from each other and it takes a few minutes to regroup.
Just off the stone path is the flower garden, where Rezlin recommended beginning your quest. Only now it is a flower forest. Green leafy stalks as thick as you are, or even thicker, extend high into the air, ending in large flower petals that create a multi-color canopy that blots out the sun, making the ground dark and somehow foreboding. Tiny pebbles now appear as significant obstacles. Bits of grass or weeds now serve as formidable underbrush. All is strangely quiet.
There's something about all this that disquiets you, something you can't quite put your finger on yet. But your characters are bothered by something. Yes, having been shrunk like this is a strange experience, and yet...
Let's have a group nature check (if you haven't guessed already from my descriptions in this post)
Horkur looks about with amazement. He has been small his entire life, but this was something different altogether! Once he is able to regroup, he finds a tall flower or blade of grass by which he might climb to take a better look around:
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Nemi looks around in amazement at the massive flowers and filtered sunlight through them. "This is what an ant must see, or a spider...." then a dangerous thought occurs to her, "'We should seek some cover very soon." She says trying to remain calm. All her life small insects were insignificant to her and now, well now they were probably quite dangerous. Would they attack, or disregard the strange creatures in their realm? Probably the former. She checks her gear and looks cautiously about.
Cheetah arches her back, realizing her new predicament as quickly as Nemi has and creeps back into the safety of the pack peering out. (if allowed perception18 ) she is trained to alert for danger, although this might misfire under the circumstances due to her strange surroundings.
Nice rolls. As Horkur climbs a flower, he realizes it was one that he had admired before shrinking, a royal purple zinnia with many petals arranged in ever-smaller concentric circles (now admired from the underside). But those zinnias weren't all that tall, and now this plant is akin to some gigantic ancient tree. The proportions seem off...
Nemi muses on the dangers of ants and spiders and instinctively feels exposed. If she were about 6 inches tall, an ant would still be pretty small, so why is she nervous about it... She's looking at the stone of the path, the size of the flowers, the size of the pebbles and chunks of dirt...
Realization dawns on both of them at the same time. They are much smaller than 6 inches!
Cheetah is on alert, but senses no danger at this time.
As realization hits her, she speaks up. "Those pebbles are much too big for us to be 6 inches tall. Perhaps that potion worked a little too well? Rezlin must have known that it would have this effect if others have come before us? What do you suppose he's up to?"
(I'm posting this now in case it comes up tomorrow while I'm at work. Horkur already got a glimpse of it anyway)
Horkur hops onto a chair in an attempt to be closer to the group's level.
"Well I for one am in, anyone else wanna get tiny with me and get to work?"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Elric steps forward, trembling slightly but holding his chin up: "I am ready. This should be quite an adventure, as well as a chance to learn humility before nature!"
Nemi senses a stirring in her pack as Cheetah slinks out and down a belt on her back to the ground creeping quietly towards Horkur as he plants the treat down for Tapdance and looks up at him hopefully. Nemi notices this but doesn't say anything as Cheetah doesn't appear to be moving in on Tapdance's morsel.
"6 inches? Instead of 6 feet sounds amazing to me, and if we get done early I could study some of these plants from a completely different perspective! Absolutely, count me in! But could Cheetah stay the same size?" She says eyeing the less than warm Tapdance. "You know, just in case?"
Horkur pulls a handful of bite-sized pieces and one larger one from the ration and puts all but the large one down for Cheetah. That one piece he places into an easy to access pouch at this time.
If Cheetah allows it, Horkur will pet him until we are ready to go outside (unless something interesting around to fiddle with, then my interest will wonder quickly).
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Rezlin eyes your cat thoughtfully. "Hmm," he says, "That's not a good idea. These pets people have can act in unpredictable ways once the sizes are altered so drastically. And maybe little Cheetah will stay loyal to you, but are you certain she won't see one of your friends," (and here he glances significantly at Horkur) "as a tasty treat? It's best to give some potion to little Cheetah, so that she stays in proportion to you. Don't worry, the potion is perfectly safe for all manner of creatures to take."
Rezlin has a small wooden crate resting on the kitchen counter, and inside are several large vials of swirling light blue liquid. He picks up and holds the crate in one hand and says, "Well, best get on with things. Shall we head into the garden?"
Then with the other hand he opens the back door in the kitchen that leads out back to the gardens. Tapdance heads towards the open door but he shoos her away with his shoe. "Tapdance, stay inside!" Offended, the cat marches towards the front room, head held high and tail swishing.
"After you," invites Rezlin.
As you head out the back door, you get a full view of the gardens. The area is overall small and quaint. The oak tree provides a lot of shade on your right. A path of cobbled stones set into the earth leads away from the cottage and then loops around a little pond festooned with lilypads, tall grasses, and cattails. Before that is a highly diversified vegetable patch, what appears to be an herb garden, and a large flower garden with more of the same varieties you noticed out front. The entire area seems to be bounded by unkempt weeds. Pine trees can be seen further out.
(see map posted earlier today)
(feel free to continue to interact with Rezlin as he ushers you along)
Cheetah starts purring loudly and crouches down to nibble daintily away on her feast, glancing up at Horkur periodically in gratitude.
Nemi grins a Tortle grin and sighs, "Food is definitely the fastest way to win her over, but you might regret it. Let me know if you do."
Horkur walks over to the vegetable patch and looks over the beets afore-mentioned by Rezlin while looking for signs of ants or mice. (Nature: 13 in Game Log) (Investigation: 2 in Game Log) "They seem to be coming along nicely.." He pulls the large morsel of food from his pack and places nearest the edge of the vegetable patch where he thinks it may attract visitors before walking back over to Rezlin to retrieve a vial of the mysterious liquid. "What does it taste like?"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Rezlin cringes noticeably as you, Horkur, deviate from the stone pathway. "Please be careful, don't tread on any of the plants!"
"Let's get to the flower garden. Previous groups have said that was a good place to start. You'll want to already be there, once you drink the potion, so you don't have to travel so far."
Algernon is wandering along with the group, seeming focused on something off in the horizon, before shaking out of it, and crouches down to look at the flowers as they pass by them, looking to see if there's anything from the Feywild, and using Druidcraft to breath some life into any plant that's looking unhealthy. (Nature check: 12)
"My apologies for being so distracted. Life can really hit you with a curveball when you're not expecting it."
If he sees any corrupted bees, he'll call for it to fly over to him using Speech of Beast and Leaf, and show it to Rezlin. (Persuasion: 14)
You do indeed see a few bees, but they ignore your efforts, which is odd. The bees are quite focused on pollinating the flowers.
Rezlin hands each of you a vial of blue liquid. "It should taste of mint, I believe. The procedure will be to drink the potion, then quickly hand me the empty vial and stand where you are. Once you've shrunk, I'll go back inside and await your return. You have the list of items. Remember, whatever you collect there will grow when you grow back, so the yield will be incredible!"
Nemi nods in agreement with Rezlin, "Yes I hadn't considered that, eyeing Cheetah's sharp claws and teeth. I don't know how she'd act towards a tiny, mouse-sized version of me or the others." She kneels to share some small bit with Cheetah and then drinks the potion herself, standing where he guided them and passing the potion bottle back quickly before the size difference starts taking effect.
Elric looks relieved that Cheetah will be shrinking with them, then takes the vial from Rezlin.
"Well, cheers I guess!" he says, gulping the potion and quickly handing the vial back to their patron.
"Mmm, mintyyyyyy....."
Horkur watches everyone drink their liquid before following suite and handing the bottle back to Rezlin. He closes his eyes in anticipation...
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
(assuming Algernon follows suit, we can proceed. But Algernon may want to interact with Rezlin a bit more before you all shrink, which we can also do while still progressing the story)
The world expands around you, including Rezlin. He cautiously steps past you on the path, carrying his crate of now-empty vials, and retreats back to the cabin. Each footstep is a thunderous crash. The flat rocks of the path you were standing on become veritable islands of stone. You had been standing together in a tight group, but now you are far from each other and it takes a few minutes to regroup.
Just off the stone path is the flower garden, where Rezlin recommended beginning your quest. Only now it is a flower forest. Green leafy stalks as thick as you are, or even thicker, extend high into the air, ending in large flower petals that create a multi-color canopy that blots out the sun, making the ground dark and somehow foreboding. Tiny pebbles now appear as significant obstacles. Bits of grass or weeds now serve as formidable underbrush. All is strangely quiet.
There's something about all this that disquiets you, something you can't quite put your finger on yet. But your characters are bothered by something. Yes, having been shrunk like this is a strange experience, and yet...
Let's have a group nature check (if you haven't guessed already from my descriptions in this post)
Nature Check: 14 (in game log)
Horkur looks about with amazement. He has been small his entire life, but this was something different altogether! Once he is able to regroup, he finds a tall flower or blade of grass by which he might climb to take a better look around:
Athletics Check: 16 (in game log)
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down
Nemi looks around in amazement at the massive flowers and filtered sunlight through them. "This is what an ant must see, or a spider...." then a dangerous thought occurs to her, "'We should seek some cover very soon." She says trying to remain calm. All her life small insects were insignificant to her and now, well now they were probably quite dangerous. Would they attack, or disregard the strange creatures in their realm? Probably the former. She checks her gear and looks cautiously about.
Cheetah arches her back, realizing her new predicament as quickly as Nemi has and creeps back into the safety of the pack peering out. (if allowed perception 18 ) she is trained to alert for danger, although this might misfire under the circumstances due to her strange surroundings.
Nemi nature 5
Nice rolls. As Horkur climbs a flower, he realizes it was one that he had admired before shrinking, a royal purple zinnia with many petals arranged in ever-smaller concentric circles (now admired from the underside). But those zinnias weren't all that tall, and now this plant is akin to some gigantic ancient tree. The proportions seem off...
Nemi muses on the dangers of ants and spiders and instinctively feels exposed. If she were about 6 inches tall, an ant would still be pretty small, so why is she nervous about it... She's looking at the stone of the path, the size of the flowers, the size of the pebbles and chunks of dirt...
Realization dawns on both of them at the same time. They are much smaller than 6 inches!
Cheetah is on alert, but senses no danger at this time.
As realization hits her, she speaks up. "Those pebbles are much too big for us to be 6 inches tall. Perhaps that potion worked a little too well? Rezlin must have known that it would have this effect if others have come before us? What do you suppose he's up to?"
From atop the flower, Horkur yells:
"I think we drank too much potion!"
He carefully shimmies down the flower.
"You think Rezlin is up to somethin?"
Horkur Beren in Tending the Garden
Geraine Lucineous in Onward Down