The Forgotten Wish

"Oh, ok.  Guess I know very little about forests."  He just shrugs and lets those who know more about these things carry on.   He knows he is along to protect from ornery pigs or other issues that might pop up.

Breldo knows that these mushroom circles are a not too uncommon sight, so it's not as if it is an odd sight by itself, only when combined with all other factors currently at play. Even if admittedly he does not know this particular species of mushroom... And that on closer inspection, some of the mushrooms have started perishing.

... Of course there are many fairy tales surrounding these things, but those are just that.. 

---

The young man glances around quickly when the seat is offered, then quietly responds. 

"Sorry, if it's no big deal could we take this outside real quick? It's rather noisy in here." 

Rick looks to Boss Pallen for confirmation before rising and gesturing the boy along with him outside,

"Rick is curious what...Ger...Gerry knows! Tell Rick all about the woods and what Gerry remembers."

Rick will keep moving to keep anyone from catching up and listening in if Gerald is concerned.

"I agree, they do look odd though, probably why folks have come up with all sorts of fairy tales to explain them! Your suggestion of someone tending them is much more reasonable than some of those flights of fancy..."

The boy responds somewhat awkwardly to Rick's comment as he, and any of the group that'd like to join them head outside : "Erm... It's Clyde, actually..." 

It was an introduction he would repeat once outside, offering a handshake(s) to the tabaxi (and others. In the latter case, the grease spreads to everyone.) 

"So, like I said, name is Clyde. I'm one of the kids that ended up abducted one of these nights, for lack of a better word. Though only the one night, and I do honestly recall none of it. Which is why... I've not exactly told any of the adults any of my thoughts on the matter because I don't want them to worry, or think I'd do something stupid- But..."

"Maybe... It's hard to explain, but, I don't feel like whatever did this is... Bad. So maybe your group could just consider letting it go..?" 

---

(What is the clearing group doing? There are no more obvious tracks you can see, so I would ask what your next direction will be should you try to keep searching.) 

 Rick looks confused,

"Rick thought Gerry was coming? Clyde is good too!"

He shakes Clyde's hand heartily,

"What stupid thing would Clyde do? And what makes Clyde think the Thing is not bad?"

Insight on Clyde's story: 7

Magic is not real. Magic is not real. Nuria thinks to herself. "Um. M-Maybe the children just like to play make b-believe here? Are those mushrooms toxic? Perhaps the s-spores c-cause memory loss?" Nuria suggests before hiding behind her hair again. She doubts her suggestion is right, but she doesn't want to think about fairy tails.

"Hmm... Stand back in case it throws a cloud of spores."

Breldo shoots a bolt into the largest mushroom on the far side of the circle from them.

"Gerry? You mean Gerald, maybe? Erm... Not sure, maybe. Anyway, I'm not planning anything stupid! Just... Everyone in the village is already on edge. I feel like anything I'd say would just make that panic greater? Especially if they start assuming I WANT all this to happen, which I don't, " the kid says, seeming genuine... Though maybe a bit confused on what the" proper " way to do things would be.

"As for why... It's just a feeling that's hard to place, for the most part. Like... Waking up from a pleasant dream, you know?" the kid says hesitating for a moment, and eventually shifting the subject. 

"I'm not saying you should give up and not be paid or anything of course. I just... Think it might be better if you make something up to put everyone's mind at ease..?"

---

Breldo, after taking what he presumes to be a safe distance, shoots a bolt at one of the mushrooms... 

(Everyone roll a dex save) 

The bolt hits the mushroom without much fanfare, a slight dusting of spores perhaps straying about, but mostly mushroom flesh. 

He'll give the spores a chance to settle then carefully walks over to inspect them and see if he can identify anything about the mushrooms that might have caused memory loss or any of the other things being reported in the kids.

Just at a glance, there doesn't seem to be anything odd about either the mushroom or the spores, beside maybe that there isnt nearly enough to think it could be the cause unless the kids actually just ate from them... But he's still not familiar with these mushrooms, so the only way to verify potential effects would be to somehow test it. 

Breldo gathers some leaves to be able to pick up some large chunks of mushroom without touching them. He keeps up a running commentary to his companions.

"Not much in the way of spores, unless we missed the height of their season, don't think they were huffing spores. Fungus can put out mushrooms fast though, could be they're eating them and getting to high to recall?"

He'll back track carefully to see if the wild boar is still nosing about, and toss the mushroom chunks in front of it.

Rick takes this in an his good ear cocks to the side as he thinks,

"Rick will let the rest know what Clyde feels and wants but Rick can't make any promises. Three from Rick's team are already out looking, Clyde's pleasant dream friend might already be grabbed."

Rick shifts the questions as well,

"Clyde only went out once? Was Clyde with one of the first nights or the last? At what point did Clyde stop remembering and start remembering?"

(I'll take an animal handling check if Breldo wants to find some animal, be it boar or not, to try and convince to eat the mushroom)

Animal handling: 16

*trying to nudge the roller

Halfling Powers Activate: Animal Handling: 13

With some backtracking, Breldo discovers the boar from earlier must have moved on, and so he turns to look for other animals that might serve as test subjects, but at least at first comes up blank. He does spot a few wild burrows which he thinks must belong to hares, and tries to feed out there, but such animals are naturally far more skittish to eat anything than a boar which tends to eat most things it can get its hands on.

---

Clyde shrugs softly, briefly glancing in the direction of the forest.

"...Yeah, sure. I mean, I can't stop you from doing whatever you think is right. I mostly just want everything to return to normal," the boy admits, before Rick decides he might as well continue the questioning, to which he does not take long to answer.

"Going to bed is the last thing I remember. And then... I think the first thing I remember is walking through the forest, just a few moments before we'd breach the main forest line close to the village."

There seems to be another moment of hesitation at the end, though it's unclear whether he is simply waiting to see if the tabaxi has further questions for him.

Nuria watches as Breldo tries to test her theory with little success. "W-what should be do now?"

"So...the kids all came this far, but didn't go into the mushroom clearing?   No footprints, right?   Why would they not go in there?   Just come this far and turn around?   Yeah, this makes no sense to me."  He begins to slowly walk around the clearing, then slowly spiralling inwards.  Searching for anything that might make this make more sense.

Investigation:  3

(Note because I didn't explain clearly: the tracks stop in the middle of the mushroom circle. You've been following them backwards, so it's as if the people started walking from there, but never walked TO the circle from what you can see.)

Oren does a quick investigation at the outer perimeter of the clearing, looking for any kind of clues... Besides some animal tracks however, he finds nothing of interest.