When Ash returns, he says, "the wall seems to extend in a large circle around the village. Should we choose a direction and walk until we find some entrance?"

K shrugs. "I guess so. Digging under or climbing over don't seem like viable solutions."

Badger nods and starts walking.

You walk for a full hour. The magic motes have long gone out of sight, but the force wall has slowly curved as you walked along. Ahead, you see a small shack with smoke piping up through a small chimney. Beside it is a large mechanical contraption that looks like a mix between a huge crossbow and a covered carriage. An tiny, pink, imp-like creature exits the shack and smiles broadly at you, adjusting tiny spectacles on his face. "Aye, adventurers, hoho! Are you in need of passage to the Valley? Hoho!"

Can Kristofferson tell if the being is evil or means them harm? Insight: 22

Badger: "Little creature, hello. Yes, we would like passage to the Valley of the Hills. Do you know the way? Where is the entrance? Are we close?"

Ash circles away a bit in case they need to jump to action.

Kristofferson: He means you no harm, though he is happy to take your coin in exchange for passage to the village, and he perhaps thinks it unwise to go there.

The imp replies: "The entrance is as close to you here as anywhere else along the wall, hoho! For it is not a wall at all! Pay me well and I shall show you the way, hoho!"

Kristofferson: "How much for passage? Will you be guiding us all the way to the village?"

The imp laughs, "Hoho, no no! Pay 50 gold each and I will get you inside the wall. The rest is up to you, hoo-hoo!"

Ash blurts out, "50 gold each!? What a cheat! Let's just keep walking and find the entrance ourselves!"

Badger: "Tiny creature, you said this isn't a wall. What do you mean? How is the entrance the same distance from us regardless of where we stand along it?"

The imp laughs again. "Keep walking. I'll see you when you make it all the way around and charge you double, hoho!"

It turns to Badger, "It is not a wall, but a dome, and the only way in is by using my machine, hehe!"

Badger addresses his team. "What do we think? Do we trust him?"

Kristofferson: "I do. He's being honest, even if he might be taking advantage of his position. I say we just pay the fare and continue on."

Ash just huffs a bit, but he doesn't object.

Badger returns to the imp. "Okay. Deal. Here is the coin." He hands over 150 gold.

The imp takes the coin and stashes it somewhere in his shack, then directs you each to sit in the carriage-like part of his contraption. You hear various clanks and clinks as gears lock into place, bands stretch, and levers shift as the imp hurriedly and expertly prepares the machine for launch. The imp peeks into the carriage. "It has been nice doing business with you and nice knowing you, hoho!" And he pulls a lever. Before you can respond, you feel the carriage launch into the air.

You feel yourselves push back into your carriage seats. It is both frightening and exhilarating. After a few short moments, you feel yourselves almost hover in midair as if there was no gravity. Your vision blurs to the point where everything looks white and you feel briefly like you are in some stasis, as if you are outside of yourself and the world, and then you snap back and feel yourselves falling faster and faster.

The carriage crashes into something and you come to a stop, checking yourselves over to make sure you are feeling okay. You leave the carriage to find yourselves inside some kind of old barn. A male and female gnome and child gnome stand shocked in front of you.

The young gnome says: "Look, pa. Foreigners!"

The gnome male raises a hand crossbow and fires a single shot at you, missing badly.

Badger holds up his hands. "Whoa, whoa! We mean you no harm! We come on a quest to rescue a friend but have inadvertently... crashed... into this fine barn-like structure. We cannot stay to help you rebuild, but we can pay for the damage."

Kristofferson: "If I may: are we anywhere near the Valley of the Hills, or can you direct us there?"

The gnome man looks at his wife. She says, tentatively, "Oh, payment would be much appreciated. But you've done worse than simply crash into our barn. Look!" She points at the wall into which you've crashed. You see splintered wood and a large hole out into what looks like the start of a tree farm, where small trees are neatly planted in rows. Along the damaged wall was a workbench, and broken vials are scattered. "The animating potion has splashed a number of our pines!" The male gnome, realizing that you mean no harm to his family, hurries out of the barn, apparently to start dealing with this new problem.

Badger: "We're so sorry, ma'am. We are the Quote Unquote Fantastic and we specialize in fixing odd problems such as this. What... is... the problem here exactly? And how could we help?"

The dwarf women is clearly alarmed and talks fast. "Please! Run to Lu's and find Guldark. He has surplus of the antidote. Tell him what's happened and he'll come with it. If he gets here in time, we can stop the trees from animating. Hurry!" She starts pushing you out of the barn to get you moving, to little effect.

Badger slows her down, but tries to imply a sense of urgency. "Who is Guldark and where is Lu's? We're new to town, you see."

Ash starts walking in the direction she was pushing Badger. His body language shows his impatience.

She says hastily, "The cafe in town! He's the bugbear waiter! Hurry!" She points in a general direction away from their farm.

Just then, the male dwarf comes back, clearly distressed. "They's splashed a half dozen of 'em!" He starts to load his crossbow clumsily.

Kristofferson puts a hand on Badger's shoulder to guide him away and starts to hurry in the suggested direction.

Badger follows hurriedly.

Ash leads the way.

As you leave the farm, the male dwarf let's loose another bolt from his crossbow, again missing by a long shot.

Badger hurries forward, giving an apologetic wave to the family.

Once out of sight, Ash slows the group down. "Whoa, whoa. Do we really need to hurry? How is this our problem? And don't we need that carriage we left behind? Or wait, how are we supposed to get out of here?"

K slows as well. "Come now, Ash. It wasn't our fault but we did crash into their barn, causing untold damage and this... animation potion problem I don't fully understand. We can at least help by delivering a simple message."

Ash shrugs. "I guess that's fair. They better not fire another bolt at us when we return for our carriage though."

Badger is walking hurriedly backwards, trying to keep the group's pace up. "That carriage was busted. I doubt it's our ticket out of here. We should just ask the locals how they leave. Someone will be happy to help, I'm sure."

K: "So let's hurry on to this cafe to find a bugbear waiter and deliver the message, then we can ask around town for the crystal and maybe the way out?"

Badger says, "Sounds good," and turns to increase their pace again.

You pass a few other farms along the way as you approach a moderately sized village with perhaps a hundred modest but well-tended homes around a town square. Along one side of the square is a larger building with fashionable columns in front and a large hourglass at the peak that looks to be attached to mechanical equipment.

You happen to enter the square at noon. The hourglass empties it's last grain from the top, gears start to whir, and the hourglass is flipped, sand starting to flow again. At the same time, a loud metallic gong is heard, echoing throughout the town.

A villager or two walk about the square, a large open patch of nicely-tended greenery. You also spot a tavern on the corner with a sign that reads "Lu's Cafe." It isn't too busy just yet.

You enter the tavern, but only a male half-elf sits at the bar. When you approach the bar, a half-orc in an apron wiping a glass with a rag appears and asks what you'll have.