"Well, I'll be! To think I was doubting the generosity of this gift," Auriel says to himself when Serelis confirms that they are dewberries. He takes a fistful of berries, turns away from his companions to gaze broadly at the forest and raises the fist to his heart as a sign of gratitude. He then softly utters in the language of the fey, "Beannaithe an fhoraois agus a leanaí, mar tá siad flaithiúil agus cineálta croí."

Finding the garlands the next morning, Auriel feels his spirits lift as well, but perhaps even more so because he sees the others in such good moods. Especially Sylyra, who seems to be shedding his silent demeanor little by little. Deep down, the eladrin is a bit worried about what they will encounter as they continue traversing the forest, knowing that fey are prone to swift mood changes. However, he chooses to enjoy this moment of bliss while it lasts and doesn't express his concerns.

While the party prepared for the journey ahead, the paladin took a moment to tie the garland to the shaft of his halberd. It was a gesture of appreciation, but also a wish that the forest dwellers would continue being kind to them. As he walked, the flowers swayed gently, caressing the hand with which he held the weapon.

"Do you know what these flowers are, Serelis? Do they represent something, maybe?"

"There are several different kinds here," Serelis answers. "None of them are common. Whoever did this knows this forest well...and apparently, know their way through the shadows. I saw nothing during my watch."

Though the forest is quiet throughout the next day, the journey is not so. First, after a short break in the afternoon, Carl stands up to find the laces of his boots have been tied together, though it only causes him to stumble and wobble in place before he recognizes what occurred. Later, Sylyra and Uragum discover possessions missing from their packs; Sylyra's viol and Uragum's waterskin are nowhere to be found, and a search of the area yields no results - yet a short time later, both are found hanging from trees. In the evening, after another break, Auriel feels a sharp, shooting pain up his leg as he begins to walk. Falling to the ground, he removes his boots to find them full of nettles. Then, after settling for the night, Hex suddenly has to drop her things, brushing a plethora of ants from her arms and legs after feeling their painful bites. The items in her pack, seeming to be the real target of the ants' affection, are found to be covered with honey.

As the day goes by and more and more things begin to go wrong, Hex's mood begins to sour. It was funny at first, just harmless pranks, but the nettles in Auriel's boots immediately has her guard up. As she throws her pack to the ground and furiously tries to brush off all the ants on her body, she lets out an annoyed huff. "Urgh! This isn't funny anymore! Whoever or whatever is doing this, show yourself!"

Auriel sighs audibly as his concerns materialize throughout the day. He initially chuckles at the first prank when Carl stands up and nearly stumbles to the ground. However, as the pranks continue, they become increasingly annoying and less amusing. Fortunately, the viol and the waterskin are quickly found, and the sting of the nettles is one Auriel can endure. But Hex's backpack is a real mess and requires considerable time to clean. The eladrin muses that it is a pity to waste all that honey, which he would have much preferred to have with bread, as he helps the tiefling clean away both honey and ants.

Auriel joins Hex in addressing the hidden creatures around them. He tries to sound conciliatory but also firm, as he requests, "All right, you've had your fun. Now, will you let us continue our journey in peace? Your help will be greatly appreciated, but your pranks are only causing harm. We are here to assist the Forest, after all."

As the day progresses, Sylyra's good mood — whether an unconscious reaction to the others' darkening moods or a genuine change of heart — sours. He continues to wear his crown of blossoms as a sign of thanks, but his patience ultimately wears thin where the unkind "pranks" are concerned. He wants to find them funny, but he's having difficulty. The honey in Hex's pack is the last straw. The elf tears the crown from his head and holds it in his clinched fist. Taking a page from Auriel's playbook, the druid addresses the forest in Sylvan, spinning slowly in one place, trying to broadcast his words through the trees surrounding them, the words like a windchime's melody or the laughter of a babbling brook. "Cén fáth? Cén fáth a ionsaíonn tú sinn? Ní dhéanann muid dochar duit. Táimid anseo chun na daoine a tháinig isteach i do choill naofa gan chuireadh a bhaint. Má chabhraíonn tú linn in áit muid a chosc, críochnóimid níos tapúla. Má tá rud éigin ar gá dúinn a dhéanamh chun tú a shásamh, abair é! Ní chuirfidh na cleasanna seo eagla orainn. Nuair a bheidh ár dtasc críochnaithe, fágfaimid thú arís go tapa. Ní dhéanann muid dochar duit." When he finally falls silent, Sylyra appears more tired than angry. He looks down at the garland in his hand and sighs. Shrugging, he tries to arrange it on his hair once again in some semblance of order for finding somewhere to sit and eat more berries.

Once Sylyra says his piece and sits down, Auriel kneels in front of him and arranges a couple of the flowers in the garland that were still a little in disarray, so they look better in the druid's hair. He places a gentle hand on Sylyra's shoulder — a sign of support for his speech and a testament to the fact that he has remained patient and not succumbed to anger — and then stands up again to find a spot to rest. Lying on his back, all the eladrin does is stare at the forest canopy, hoping that their words will be heard.

No response comes to the party's pleas, but no further pranks are played as Hex's backpack is cleaned. The further you've traversed into the forest, the more you have heard unusual and inexplicable sounds in addition to the cracking, breaking, and rustling of flora; babies laughing, women crying, men groaning...Serelis explains that this is not out of the norm, but the noises are no less unsettling as you drift into sleep.

Hours into the night, Auriel is the only waking member of the party, keeping watch on the surrounding forest while Sylyra sits in a trance and the others sleep. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices motion, snapping his head toward the center of the camp, where Uragum, still asleep and unaware of the fact, has begun to float upward off the ground, drifting several feet into the air. The big goliath turns slightly as he rolls in his sleep, his arms dangling downward.

"Oh no. No, no, no," Auriel muttered, leaping to his feet to catch the floating wizard and push him down towards the ground. He tried not to wake anyone up, but in truth he was more concerned about being quick than being gentle, as he was pretty certain that whoever had done this had only one thing in mind: to lift the goliath up and let him fall painfully to the ground. "Sorry to ruin your fun but I'm not letting this happen on my watch", he said to no one in particular, and began securing Uragum to the ground, covering him with his own chainmail and tying the party's backpacks to his arms and feet.

If he manages to keep the goliath on the ground, the eladrin will sit down and, once again, try to speak to any playful fey that might be listening. After all, he didn’t have anything else to do until his time to trance arrived, so he might as well give it another shot. "Cén fáth nach dtiocfaidh tú amach agus labhairt liom? Tar ort, ná bí cúthail. Féach, tabharfaidh mé é seo duit fiú ionas gur féidir leat leanúint ar aghaidh ag imirt. Ach amháin má gheallann tú go stopfaidh tú ag magadh fúinn", he says, and produces the blowgun he got in the marsh. He then inserts a dewberry into it and fires at a tree trunk.

If he gets no response, he'll shrugh and spend the rest of the watch checking that Uragum doesn't float away, eating a few more berries and shooting some others until his time to rest arrives. 

Sylyra stares at Auriel as he kneels before him and very kindly adjusts the garland the druid had damaged in his momentary frustration. The wood elf's eyes stare into the eladrin's, but he fights to communicate absolutely nothing. Do not react, he tells himself. Do not look angry. Do not look happy. You do not need him. He does not need you. Then why does he continue to try to slide into any moment of weakness? It doesn't matter. I can't count on him. I can't count on anyone. And he shouldn't count on me.

As Auriel gets up and moves away, Sylyra's stony exterior slackens just a hair as he watches the paladin's back. Before anyone can notice, Sylyra blinks, and he opens his pack to look inside. He reaches in and touches the viol, remembering the emotion that had surprised him when he had discovered it missing before. Thoughts of home had come unbidden, and that bothered him greatly. Even now, visions and memories fought for the front of his mind. Particularly, of his mother, the musician of the family. She had been the one who had encouraged Sylyra to learn the instrument. He had never taken it seriously. To both his satisfaction and disappointment, his lack of skill due to laziness and stubbornness had convinced his mother to stop her encouragement, and he had only learned a basic level of skill. At times, she looked at him with such sadness.

He grabs a handful of berries and begins feeding himself as he struggled to clear his mind before turning in.

Carl begins snacking on the berries when he is told that they are safe and the identity of them confirmed.  His mood lightens and he feels that this expedition might not be doomed after all, for a short period of time.  When his laces are tied together, he nearly falls but is able to right himself, he starts muttering and cursing under his breath as he unties them.  But at the end, he has to acknowledge the prank and gives a hearty laugh.  “Alrigh, alrigh.  Ya little tricksies.  I’ll try to catch sight of ya.  It’s on then…”. he says, with a laugh again.  

When the pranks turn more serious, Carl says “Clearly they are tryin to dissuade us, turn us away.  I’ll fix their little wagon….”  He listens but doesn’t understand Auriel and Sylyra’s railing at the woods, but he gets the general meaning.  As they make ready to camp, Carl ritually casts Alarm over the area that they are grouped together, trying to set off an alarm when anyone approaches.   He smiles a little smile, also making sure that Squirt Mudbottom is standing nearby, ready to grab anyone who sets off his trap.  

Once Auriel returns Uragum to the ground - with the goliath sleeping peacefully throughout the whole ordeal - the rest of the night is quiet and uneventful. The same cannot be said for the following morning, when just outside of your campsite you discover an effigy painted in what appears to be blood, leaning up against a tree. The figure, created with sticks, has a bundle of twigs forming a beard, and a branch shaped like an axe held in one hand. A dozen paces later, you see another; similarly covered in blood, this one taller, with two long thin branch resembling a bow in its hand and two smaller sticks assembled like horns on the figure's head. Shortly after, two tall, thin effigies sit back to back, heads downcast; one holds a large staff, the other a long halberd. Lastly, to complete the set, an effigy larger than any of the others, tall and bald.

"I don't know if I'm glad or jealous that I wasn't included," Pipyap mutters as you walk past the macabre scene.

"How much farther?" Sylyra asks Serelis.

Auriel is disappointed to find that the fey have once again decided to remain silent and that Carl's alarm spell hasn't caught anyone sneaking around the camp at night. It seems that the party will have to put up with their jokes until they leave the forest for good.

The effigies are certainly unsettling, but the paladin's resolve doesn't waver. He does find ironic, though, that they have put the two elven effigies together, back to back, when nothing could be further from reality. A prank within a prank? Exhaling deeply and shaking his head, all the eladrin says is, "Ignore them. Let's just keep going. The sooner we solve this, the sooner these pranks will be over."

Hex is disturbed by the effigies as the party continue their journey, her original unease of the forest returning back to full after so many so-called pranks.

As they come to the effigy that looks like her, she cautiously approaches to dab a finger in the "blood", smearing it between two fingers and giving it a sniff to see if it actually is blood or just a red liquid.

Carl looks at Auriel and says “I think this is more than a prank.  I think this is their final warning.  Frustrating that we can’t talk to em and discuss what the hell is happening.”  He turns to an empty section of space nearby and says “Squirt, whatsa matter with you?  Why didn’t you grab em?”  Carl scratches his beard as he contemplates his own effigy and wonders why the alarm spell didn’’t work…

The liquid certainly holds the appearance and the texture of blood. Something about it seems...off, but Hex is unable to confirm that instinct.

"How much farther?" Sylyra asks Serelis.

"Not long now. We're in the elves' territory as we speak," Serelis answers. He sighs, "I'm not certain how they will respond. It is good that Auriel is with us, because the elves of Greenhall do not tolerate trespass..." Serelis trails off as you round a bend in the path.

You smell it before you see it. Around the bend, you find the body of a human male lying face down in the dirt with a half dozen arrows embedded in his back. As you approach, a cloud of black flies takes flight, filling the air with the drone of their wings.

His clothes are simple and homespun, and he carries no weapon, though a strung shortbow and shabby longsword are on his back and hip. He also wears a satchel slung over his shoulder, with the flap buckled closed.

Sylyra wrinkles his nose at the sight. Surely this is one of the idiots from Kabel's Hill. He looks at Serelis and back to the body. Stepping off the path, the druid moves around the corpse without getting too close and walks another ten feet further down the path to see if there are any other bodies.

Hex lets out a sigh of disappointment as the corpse comes into view. "Dammit..." she mutters to herself. She approaches the body, kneeling down next to it to try and approximate how and when they died. As she does, she calls out to Pipyap. "This isn't Halvin, is it?"

Carl smells the horrible odor and then walks forward to see the sight.  Instantly his eyes move up to the trees, doing a full 360 scanning the area, looking for anyone observing them find the body.  His right hand grips in anger, underlying eldritch energy crackling at his fingertips.  

At the sight of the body, Auriel feels his heart sink, but also a rush of anger. In response to Serelis, he says, "It is one thing that they do not tolerate trespass, and another to treat a person like this." He steps closer to the body, eyes fixed on the gruesome sight of the arrows protruding from it. Kneeling down next to Hex, he begins to remove the arrows one by one so they can turn the body over for a closer examination. "No one should meet their end like this," he adds, as he gently closes the man's eyelids with his hand. "When I left Greenhall, I was not met with arrows and hostility. There is no excuse for this. If Greenhall wants to remain closed to the world, so be it. But there are other ways to achieve that, without resorting to this kind of cruelty."

The paladin falls silent after this, lost in his own thoughts yet focused on helping Hex investigate the body and his belongings. He opens the man’s satchel, looking for anything that might identify him or that can at least be returned to his family or friends in Kabel’s Hills. Also, was this man carrying the map to Greenhall by any chance?

Quote from BartyMcDougal >>

"Jeny Greenteeth..." he mutters. "I would certainly hope she is not involved. Offending such a dark presence would bode quite ill indeed. I would not put it past the elves of Greenhall or some other fey within the forest to have simply made it appear as if it were Jeny Greenteeth, as a final warning to the people of Kabel's Hill. There is not a chance that I will lead you in her direction. Going to Greenhall with so many seems stupid enough without wanting to walk into such a den of malevolent evil."

Finally, remembering Serelis’ words back in his cabin, Auriel examines the arrows up close and then inspects the man's wounds once again. If there was the smallest possibility that the elves or some other fey were trying to pin these deaths on Jeny Greenteeth, could the same be happening the other way round? Could this man have been killed to make it look as if the elves were responsible?