Finn, water dripping from his whiskers, thinks hard about another question. And he's not much of a thinker. "Maybe we could ask what he knows about the guy who runs this place? Maybe a weakness or if he uses the water for his potions?" He pauses, "Oh wait, you're already asking about the water. Ummmm, maybe ask him where the other one is we're looking for!"

The koi fish patiently, almost lazily, does little circles in the waters below you. "Little" being relative to its own size, you understand.

(Do we have to formulate all three questions at once or will he provide answers sequentially? I'm asking because the first question is here, and I figured I wait until he answers before asking more.)

(oh, top of the page, I must have missed it, notifications are still not working for me, maybe I need to do something like clear my cache?)

The koi fish changes the axis of his circling so that he does a few loop-de-loops. As he does so, more bubbles escape to the surface. The words burst out in a series of pops.

"An ancient blessing here leaves its residue. Not just the pond, but surrounding land, contains traces of enchantment. It has imbued a few of us with Wisdom. The fish and the frog, the worm and the mouse, the moth and quail, even spider and owl, though Wisdom is not synonymous with friendship." 

As if to emphasize this last point, the fish suddenly rushes to the surface, mouth up, gaping open just out of the water. It's large enough that any one of you could disappear inside it without a trace. Displaced surface water ripples away as waves and the lilypads you stand upon are minorly disturbed. Then the fish resumes its lazy circling.

The open mouth of the fish that they briefly see is frightening to Valerian. He had found himself in all sorts of danger before but somehow being swallow whole by a fish felt like the worst one possible.

"Should we ask it what would happen if one of us drank this water?" He whispers to Seraphine, speaking quickly so as to get out of the pond as quickly as possible.

Seraphine nods, acknowledging Valerian's nervousness, but maintains her composure as she quietly responds, "We'll likely try the water soon enough, but I think we need more than just its effects." She whispers further, “Wisp only mentioned one of each creature, not groups of them. It seems the enchantment touched a single representative of each type—fish, frog, worm, and so on. We’ve met the mouse, but I doubt they’re all friendly. We need to find out where the others are and if we can approach them.” 

Turning back to the koi, Seraphine speaks respectfully, “Thank you for your wisdom, Wisp. Could you tell us where we might find the other six beings you mentioned—fish, frog, worm, moth, quail, and spider—and what you know of their temperaments, that is if they are inclined to help, or if we should approach with caution?” Her tone remains calm, careful to make the question clear while seeking as much information as possible.

The great fish pauses in its circling, and you get the sense of a slow, deliberate contemplation. Eventually it sends up a great bubble.

"You ask for many words. I will rather show you what you seek."

No sooner have the words echoed out of the burst bubble than the fish has again rushed towards you, head and mouth breaking the surface, but this time it squirts out a great fountain of water which thoroughly douses the lot of you and nearly dislodges you from your lilypads. Spluttering and wiping water out of your eyes, you see the fish is back to his circling in the depths below. As you process the strange thing that has just happened, you realize you have a new sense inside of you, a knowledge that has somehow been imprinted into you. You are now aware of where to find the creatures that you asked for.

( I will now work on making a map to show you but basically it's like you have a GPS installed in your head that can lead you to each creature. You understand the fish to be this very creature that you're now talking to. The frog is not far, at the edge of the pond nearby. The mouse you knew. The worm is in the vegetable patch. The moth is in the herb patch. The quail is at the edge of the land, in the weeds. The owl is in the great oak tree. The spider is back near to the cottage. )

You also sense that the spider and the owl would not be as friendly to you as the others.

Valerian blinked rapidly, taking in all the information they had been bombarded with. He could imagine how close they were to the frog or the quail and how much further the other animals were, it was strangely fascinating.

"Thank you for the help you have provided us, Wisp." Valerian says before considering returning to the land.

Finn leans to his friends, "Was that the last question we could ask?"

"I'm curious whether the latent magic only affects creatures or also plants. This might be a risky question as Wisp simply may not know the answer but it also has the potential that we learn something new. I fear that they will know little about the habits of the bees, knowledge of which would proof useful to us if we were to break into their hive in an effort to rescue the other party, should they still need rescuing that is. Other than that I can think of little else, other than asking how their day had been."

Wisp patiently circles again beneath you, clearly expecting another question.

Valerian considers what other questions they might be able to ask and reaches the same conclusion on most of them, that Wisp likely wouldn't know the answer.

"I think asking about the pond and the water is out best bet, it's unlikely that Wisp knows about the party, we'll just ask one of the other creatures." He says.

"We could ask if there is anything around here that might help us considerably in our tasks," suggests Seraphina. "It's loosely formulated and we may or may not getting any useful information. But what we have to lose if we have no better ideas?" If the others agree, or do not demonstrate disagreement, she will ask this from Wisp, if and where there is any item around here that might prove a considerable boon for their task, like an item or object that wields magic. 

Wisp considers this question a moment, then sends up more bubbles:

"It's Connor you want. He will have what you seek. Perhaps he will find you soon."

This message being delivered, the great fish lashes its powerful tail and vanishes into the darker depths of the pool.

I nearly forgot, but it would be appropriate at this time, given what your characters have gone through to this point, to level up to level 2.

"I think we should get out of the pond before we discuss." Valerian says, carefully making his way back to solid ground. 

To Finn, he says with a smile, "I believe I won that race," 

Then he thinks about what Wisp has told them last, there was something terribly ominous about 'he will find you soon'. With all the creatures they had seen outside, Valerian wasn't sure he wanted anything to find him here.

"So Connor, where exactly do we find him?"

Seraphine watches as Wisp disappears into the depths, her mind turning over the cryptic message. "Connor will find you soon," she repeats silently, frowning. She whispers to Valerian, “Connor... I wonder who he is. Of the creatures Wisp mentioned, only the quail or the owl seem mobile enough to find us.”

Her expression tightens. “I hope Connor is the quail. If it’s the owl... we’ll need to stay sharp and keep an eye on the skies.”

With that, she follows Valerian back to the edge of the pond, stepping onto solid ground with relief. The uncertainty of what—or who—Connor is weighs on her, but for now, she’s eager to be off the water and on safer footing.

You can safely return back to solid ground without incident.

Don't forget to level up to level 2.

Let me know what the party's next move is! The campaign is quite open. Wisp's responses were entirely based on your questions to him.