The Black Rose looked up, shook his head to clear his thoughts, and replied to Tarton, "I do have experience with this type of boat." He looked thoughtful for a second. "But I have not sailed in one for a long time. I hope I am strong enough to steer one if need be." As he spoke, his usually happy demeanor returned "But yes, I will gladly teach you what I know” The Black Rose said with a smile on his face. 

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I have +1 in Athletics, +3 in Nature and am exsperience With that type of boat so i guess i am abel to sail it With out training? 

Erolith scans the dock area to see if any onlookers are watching too intently.

”I’d like for us to be on our way soon but I worry about making our departure too widely known. We have already been assaulted and still do not know the full scope behind that attack.”

________

Acrobatics +4

Nature +1

Perception roll = 8

Artifex freely shares where they intend to go, though is careful to dance around the topic of why without directly denying an answer, commenting on things like the weather this time of year, even launching into a story on a previous encounter it'd had with the WitchLight Carnival. They seem quite exited upon seeing the boat, though it deflates slightly upon hearing their expenses are covered. "Ah well. Opportunity to haggle another day I suppose. Though I'm afraid I've not the strength to control one, but Im familiar enough. Unfortunately my knowledge lies more in the theoretical than the practical."

We should be able to start from here without too much delay, unless there's something you need to wrap up in the city.," Gwrgi assures you.  "You all seem well supplied with basic gear, and the good thing about buying boats here is that each has a compartment with tents and bedrolls for four.  As I've said, there are five of us, so I'd suggest we take two boats and use the extra capacity for any backup supplies we want to lay in ... water, rations, rope and basic things like that can be had here or anywhere on the quays without needing to go back in at the gate."

"Oh my stars, I forgot I don't have a bedroll. So just to be clear, you are saying the boats come with bedrolls and tents for four each., not just room for storing them if we had them? I do agree we need two boats. Do you think we need to bring extra waterskins? I was planning on doing some hunting to supplement our rations so we don't have to carry so much. Do you think 50 feet of rope per person is enough? I think we all have rope. Maybe I should buy more torches, I do only have three, though I also have a lantern and oil. I usually stay around towns and cities so I didn't think of such stuff til now. Thanks for the reminder." Tarton says regretting how unprepared he is when he thought he was ready to go. Under his breath he says, "I did lose my mess kit on a bet, so I should pick up another one too."

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Tarton will buy 7 torches and a mess kit. He will also buy a bedroll if the boat doesn't come with one and a waterskin if Gwrgi suggests it. He has never been too far from civilization before and doesn't really know what to expect.

"Exactly.," Gwrgi replies.  "The only reason to buy more bedding is if there are more than three of us that need extra padding.  I must admit, I'm always grateful when there's a spare blanket along.  The earth may be our mother, but she's got a cold hard bosom to cradle you all night long without some ... padding."  She shivers.  "The rest of the equipment you mentioned sounds like it should do, except that someone will need a tinderbox.  And climbing gear if that's in our plans."

Tarton replies, "I have always wanted to try sleeping in a bedroll, but was too preoccupied to get one earlier today. I think I'll be fine with just the one bedroll, though I don't like being cold so perhaps I'll buy a blanket for extra warmth. I have a tinderbox so we are good there. I also have hammers, and pitons for climbing if we need them, but that's it for my climbing gear." He heads off to find what he needs on the quay, while still keeping a lookout for those looking too closely at what the group is doing.

Perception in log: 14

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buying: 7 torches, 1 oil flask, waterskin, blanket, and a mess kit.

Artifex laughs. "I've got a tinder box,and I'm sure we'll all find a way to keep warm. As for food and water, I'm not concerned. Durmista shall provide." They say, their assurance seeming to come less from a place of survival experience and more from a place of faith in natures willingness to share it's bounty.

Erolith, eager to leave the township behind and immerse himself back into the wilderness, offers to take care of the climbing gear and tinderbox.

”My spirit longs for the beauty and peril only found off the beaten path. I am both encouraged and inspired to be a part of this adventuring group including our new travel companion.”

Erolith barters for the required items and stows them in his pack.

Tarton still sees no sign of any further interest in the group, and you are soon all equipped with any basic staples you may have been lacking. (OOC: Just go ahead and make the necessary purchases on your character sheets; I'll trust your common sense what things would or wouldn't be likely available here).  As your boats leave the small natural harbor Llandovoon grew up around, where a massive spur of black stone juts out into the current, your muscles are tried against that same slow but powerful pull south towards the Bay of Spirits.  But Gwrgi soon teaches you how to pace and unite your paddling in a steady rhythm that soon becomes almost a meditation; the small sails also assist whenever there is a wind.  After a few hours you find yourselves able to travel with no more weariness to your energies than if you were moving by land.

The mountains of Ulvsnesshjolm loom on your left as you journey, dark and craggy.  They cast long shadows across your path each day as the sun passes its zenith and sinks slowly into the west; and at night their solemn presence in the light of the moons fills your dreams.  To the east, the rolling green hills and copses of southern Aberstwyth slowly give way to a more densely wooded country ruled by the lordly trees of the northern mixed forest: oaks and yew, the royal trees of the Leaf and Needle woodland courts, with their lesser nobles in attendance upon them: maple, pine, ash and spruce.  Always, though, the black bulk of Cricket Tor is there.  It looms up above the heads of the lesser trees, and glares menacingly between gaps in the greater.  But set in the middle of this stern and forbidding frame is a river valley that seems peaceful enough.  It has its boggy and swampy places, as you can see as you gaze ahead.  The mists from the nearest of these curl across the water from the riverbank only a few miles ahead.  At the moment, though, you are paddling past green meadows and low knolls graced by a small purple and pale green flower which is beginning to show sprinkled among the grass.  Gwrgi inhales deeply as a faintly spicy but delicate perfume tinges the evening breeze, and the softest of whisperings makes itself gently heard.

"Ah, the giddy scent of babbleflower!  A personal favorite of mine, as you might suspect.  And this valley is the only place it grows, as far as I know."

“Gwrgi, I am unfamiliar with the babbleflower. Does it have any special properties?”

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OOC: The DM is a good storyteller. Love it.

Artifex spends most of their time contemplating the passing nature and occasionally sitting by itself, practicing a sales pitch for what appears to be a vial of colored water. Upon seeing the babbleflower, they perk up. "Beautiful plants to be sure. Perchance could we stop for a moment? I'd like to take a sketch, maybe even a sample or two. I've been trying to start a collection of intriguing flora." 

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Agreed, your world building already has me enraptured. Keep up the great work :)

Also does Artifex know anything about babbleflower in particular? And is there any chance we could say Artifex has a painters kit on them? It's a simple enough item and it's the one they're proficient in. Plus I like the idea that they retouch it's tattoos with paint. It's a bit pricey but maybe they could've haggled its way down or conned someone into trading it for one of their bottles of colored water, something of that nature.

"Is this flower what causes this scent to linger in the air?" His eyes alight with curiosity "I too would like to take a sample or two of this... babbleflower, you called it?" he inquired, his tone a mix of fascination and eagerness to learn more about this newfound plant.

—————-

The worldbuilding is very immersive! :D

Tarton looks at the purple and green flowers and waits for Gwrgi's answer while remaining silent, not wanting to interrupt the unexpected soothing meditation the first leg of their journey has surprised him with. But he has an uneasy feeling about the name of the flower, though he can't think of any reason to be uneasy about it. Unless it is because of all the babbling he has done since meeting this group of adventurers, and not wanting to say too much.

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The description really makes you feel like you are there. It's like I'm reading a book and I don't want to put it down, I just want to keep reading to see what happens next.

• As the dragonborn priestess begins to reply to Erolith’s question, she waves her silvery hand at the rolling meads you are currently paddling past, They are covered in a uniform blanket of low well-cropped grass; you are not certain by what creature, as you have seen no signs of sheep or any other domestic cattle: Erolith can make a DC 13 (as this is not his favored terrain, and as a wood elf he is naturally uncomfortable under so many miles of open sky) Nature roll if he wishes to try and search his elven memory to see if he nevertheless knows what grazers inhabit river valleys such as this one; the characters who have had contact with river gnomes can make a similar roll at DC 10 It is not the uniform lowness of the grasses that Gwrgi is drawing your attention to, though, but to the two-to-three foot tall meadow flowers that increasingly break the monotony among the tightly-shorn green. The swaying stems bend and nod in the wind as if they were greeting all that pass, and the sibilant rustling you hear is so synchronized with their movements that it is not difficult to pinpoint the sound as being caused by the rubbing of stem against stem and leaf against leaf in the wind, as their strange small flowers nod and bobble atop them. A single flower is close enoguh for Erolith to make out details, and he looks with interest at the bright purple primary petals interspersed with smaller ones of pale green. The whole plani appears to have a fuzzy appearance, flower, stem, and leaf.

“The noble babbleflower. As far as I know, it only grows in a zone beginning a few miles north of Llandovion, and only in this river valley. You can hear the beginnings of the first reason for its name already. The whispering you hear will quickly become more complex as the plants thicken until they truly do sound like the voices of a crowd of intelligent beings softly murmuring and babbling to each other. Those hairs which coat the plant are affected by the natural low-level magical affinity of this land which many scholars think was what attracted the many portals to various realms which make this such an … interesting … place to live, and incidentally spurred the founding of my order to protect travelers and keep the routes at least marginally open through the Haunted Lands and, to a far lesser degree, the paths through Ulvsnesshjolm to and from the Feywild Landes. I’m sure you won’t need our eladrin friend here,” she waves at Artifex, “ to tell you that the powers of the Feywild are less absolutely guaranteed that those of the Domains of Dread to devour any and all travelers on sight.” She shakes herself back to the topic under discussion with a visible effort. “Anyway, the interaction of so many subtle ley lines causes the hairs on babbleflower to grow in an infinite variety of shapes and lengths which modulate the sound of those willowy leaves and that rustling stem rubbing against each other to mimic voices, Then there is the nectar of the flower. That can be collected and fermented into the most exquisite wine, which loosens the tongue among friends like nothing else on earth. Something about the flower, though, doesn’t seem to like it if someone tries to use the wine to elicit information from others against the will they’d have had if they wre sober, and mysterious magical demises have tended to befall those who have tried anywhere from a few weeks to several years later. For convivial relaxation, though, it is unexcelled; and the nectar is so subtle, far more so than the honeysuckle, that vast quantities of flowers need to be collected for each bottle. You can imagine what that does to the prices, especially since the subsequent process is rather fiddly and requires the constant hand of a trained master vintner. The wine produces a giddy euphoria in which the highest delight the drinker can conceive of is to sit and unteel endless stories and reminiscences which become not less but more clearly spoken as the drinker consumes more babbleflower wine and their stories grow more and more delightfully (or maddeningly, depending on your point of view) strange and convoluted.”

You noticed that Myrtea did not mention babbleflower wine as being on the menu at the Riverkin’s Arms at all, even with regular clients of the caliber of Mr. Leewamba,, though as you think further about the subject you’re not sure if that would be because she doesn’t want the endless hubbub of cross-talk and blatter of a gathering of babbleflower drinkers, because she reallly doesn’t want Myrine to get her hands on it, or because she’s keeping it all for hersellf. You would also imagine thatif Mr. Leewamba were to personally ask for some himself, it would porobably not be too long before it appeared. But apparently it is too great a luxury to be cheapened by sharing with too newly-met associates. You could definitely imagine Gwrgi and “old Zanexi” sitting down to a glass, thugh, so you are enabled to cherish a faint and hopeful daydream of someday being admitted to that level of closeness with your generous employer.

Just not yet.

Erolith gazes over the river valley as Gwrgi describes the babbleflower and its uses. He notices the manicured grasses throughout the valley but cannot recall what kinds of creatures would inhabit this region who could accomplish this. It was a passing thought as his mind moves to enjoying the serene beauty around the adventuring party.

Nature roll = 10

Artifex's eyes spark with mischief. "My, that does sound particularly fun. I can think of a number of situations that a loosened tongue would be helpful in. Honestly breeds closeness after all, and what follows closeness but... Intimacy." They punctuate the last word with a giggle, then look once more to Gwrgy. "I'm only more fascinated. May we stop to take a sample of the flower? Something akin to a petal. Or at least we could rest here, just long enough for me to sketch one. There is little more beautiful than the rare and unfamiliar."

After stopping for Arrtifex to take samples of the flower, you continue your journey.  

As you paddle north against the current, you are grateful to feel the breeze behind you strengthening. You’re not sure whether you can technically call it a sea breeze so far up the Athynnvyr River from the bay, although it retains a faint savor of the ocean beneath the clean freshness it’s picked up from the miles of rolling grass it has blown over since. The small square-rigged sails in the middle of each boat swell to their full working curve with the added wind, and you are soon able to use your strength to assist the sails when that is needed, instead of you doing most of the work and the sails assisting you. The babbleflower on the shores is thickening, as Gwrgi said it would, and as the rising breeze stirs it into constant motion you find that she did not exaggerate her description of its sound. What she did not mention – you think deliberately, perhaps to heighten the effect by surprise – is how mesmerizingly beautiful the sound of the infinite soft voices is. At one moment it sounds like a chorus of celestial voices who should be chanting a paean to goodness but who are so overawed by the beauty that all they can do is whisper. Then the spell shifts as the wind does, and the sounds become the sussuration of fireflies in the Feywild where their glow is the soft call of flutes. The spell is so hypnotic you probably would have never noticed anything amiss had you been by yourselves. But Gwrgi’s ears pick up some change in the sound all around you, and she is instantly on the alert. A moment later, she points towards a spot a little way ahead on the eastern shore and cries, “STIRGES!”

It is impossible to prevent your eyes from following a pointing finger when it is accompanied with a cry of that urgency, and you all gaze across the water at the approaching danger. A small cloud of the parasitic horrors Gwrgi just named has flown out from the dark shadows where a clump of bushes hangs out over the bank on the eastern shore, which has been growing increasingly wet and boggy. Low raised banks of peat, two or three feet above the level of the water and pocked with holes, have increasingly taken the place of the low grassy ones where you first saw the babbleflower, though the neadows that roll towards the Ulvsnesshjolm mountains from them are greener than ever … treacherously so, you suspect. They grow thick with babbleflower, and this particular hunting pack of stirges seems to have learned to use the hypnotic whispering of the flower to conceal the beating of their leathery wings as they build up enough momentum to glide silently the rest of the way to their prey. In fact, they were just settling in to their attack glide when Gwrgi’s cry startled them; and you can see their leathery wings beating frantically as they switch to a more aggressive strategy and attempt to build up speed to close the gap between you as quickly as possible. As they fly closer, you can make out eight stirges, all eyeing you hungrily.

Since her warning cry, Gwrgi has been silently busy in one of the boat’s tightly sealed compartments. Now she straightens and tosses thin but strong-seeming coils of rope to each of the characters in her boat (if you got two boats, as seems reasonable to guess, she will be the extra passengers in the boat with three; and she will most likely have delegated The Black Rose or Erolith to pilot the other). Each has a small grappling hook attached to the end, and their use becomes immediately apparent as she calls to the pilot of the other boat, “Paddle alongside us and we’ll hook our boats together! Nothing the creatures love more than to get between and split a party up!”

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(You have time enough before  the stirges reach  you and you are in combat  for each of you  to do two actions.  The boats will be adequately anchored together if three characters spend an action doing it.  All heavy and two handed weapons must be used carefully to avoid upsetting the small boats and impose disadvantage  if you try to use them without spending a round between attacks to regain your balance )

“Black Rose…steer us in as close to the other boat so that we may attach to one another,” Erolith calls out.

Erolith readies his bow and takes aim at the nearest creature that approaches.

The rope tossed by Gwrgi lands in Tarton's lap and he quickly stows his paddle so he's ready to throw the grappling hook side of the rope over to the other boat when they're close enough. "Little blood sucking pests." Tarton says with disdain.

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Nature check in log: 10 to see if Tarton has heard/knows of Stirges for his response above.