[Uh oh, Wisdom checks AKA my dump stat. Lucky I picked up the Stone Of Good Luck to get at least some sort of benefit. Insight: 11 ]

(OOC: spent all day at the airport and lost track of the responses, sorry guys)

As soon as the trap door was revealed, Rova makes her way down with Goggles to see what they can find in the basement.

When Goggles points to a cheese wheel, Rova nods and helps pick it up with ease. "What's wrong with the other ones?" She asks.

Quote from Shiverquill >>

[Uh oh, Wisdom checks AKA my dump stat. Lucky I picked up the Stone Of Good Luck to get at least some sort of benefit. Insight: 17 ]

 As you consider the interpretation of the almanac and the cheese you see on the shelves, it occurs to you that the cheese grows from the inside out. You might want to consult the Almanac again with this information.

“Thank you, Ignis, Queen of the Fire Giants. Now, tell me, who is Invido? So that we can protect you and your babies if they arrive. Are they a giant or a beast?”

Lucy’s voice is calm, but Rose sees the fire in the Elf's eyes—the same intensity that lights up a shark’s eyes when it smells blood from miles away.

Ignis answers, still warm and slow, but with a hint of fear perhaps:

“ So he is a Fire Giant. A usurper and traitor. That's important.” Lucy murmurs. “ Tell me, his appearance and how many followers he has? I don't want to accidentally kill your friends.”  

Quote from detectivelora >>

(OOC: spent all day at the airport and lost track of the responses, sorry guys)

As soon as the trap door was revealed, Rova makes her way down with Goggles to see what they can find in the basement.

When Goggles points to a cheese wheel, Rova nods and helps pick it up with ease. "What's wrong with the other ones?" She asks.

 Goggles thinks and says 'I'm not...really sure to be fair. I'm having second thoughts on which one is the correct one.' He hands the almanac to Rova and says 'Can you have a look in here and see if you get a different result to me? I'm just doubting myself about the way this cheese has developed and what that means.'

Dangar leaves the heavy lifting to the heavy lifters. Those adventurers were horrible horrible people. Taking perfectly good cheese and hiding it to rot! 

He returns to the main cottage space to overhear a conversation he doesn't understand a word of.

Quote from Gnomesftw >>

The Almanac isn't hard to read or figure out, thankfully.

---

The almanac is in Arthur’s handwriting and contains a record of the weather over the last two years, a chart with the results of Arthur’s experiments, and his notes.

Seasonal Weather Log

I’ve observed that seasonal weather conditions greatly affect the cheese aging process. Recording the weather each season is a key part of these experiments to understand how and why our Holrow cheese is unusual.

---

Summer. Dry heat makes for hard work out in the fields. Makes one wish he didn’t have to work alone.

Fall. Snowfall came early and often. A nice blanket of snow every few days that melted quickly but kept the ground from hardening.

Winter. Beautiful snow caps on Illefarn. Wish Mom and Dad were here to see it.

Spring. Unusually warm spring. The thaw came fast. The rivers are full.

---

Summer. Very hot summer but not too dry thanks to the spring rains.

Fall. Crisp and cool. Excellent cheese weather. Too bad the mice got in. Had to cover my samples until hibernation.

Winter. Great heaps of snow but a warmer ground made it melt fast. Slushy conditions were good for puddle jumping.

Spring. Finally, nice, dry, and warm.

Guide to Cheese Conditioning

It is important to rotate samples to the next shelf space every season to keep track of their age. Each season, I make a control sample from ordinary curds, an experimental sample not safe for consumption until further tests are conducted, and a salable sample from curds perfectly enhanced for peak flavor. To identify the effects of a season’s conditions on each kind of sample, refer to the Cheese Sample Observations chart.

Cheese Sample Observations

Conditions	Control	Experimental	Salable
Season was mostly wet	Cheese develops holes	No change	Rind turns pink
Season was mostly dry	Rind turns pink	Doubles in size	Rind turns green
Sample was covered at any time during aging	No change	Rind turns green	Holes develop
Weather was hotter than expected for longer than one season	Doubles in size	No change	Doubles in size

 OOC: I hope I'm smarter than Dangar but this doesn't make sense to me. We are in summer but which season is the one that the chart is based on? Is it the first season? The final season? No matter how you count the seasons the cheese had to be covered because of mice. How does covering and temperature interact?

[Oh yeah that's a good point. Surely all the cheese got covered. So then we want the cheese with the green rind and holes]

Quote from Apophis2000 >>

“ So he is a Fire Giant. A usurper and traitor. That's important.” Lucy murmurs. “ Tell me, his appearance and how many followers he has? I don't want to accidentally kill your friends.”  

Once again, Lucy expresses her gratitude to the female giant, mentioning that she needs to consult with her companions. As she turns her attention to the other adventurers, she notices that some of them are missing.

“Where did Goggles and Rova go? Anyway… I have both bad news and great news for you.”

Using *Minor Illusion* like a blackboard, Lucy projects what she has just learned for everyone to see.

“The female giant over there is Ignis. She called herself the queen of her people, but Fire Giants tend to live in small families, so don't take that at face value. Now, we have bad news and great news. The bad news,there's a usurper determined to destroy Ignis and her children at any cost. But the great news is…” Lucy makes a predatory smile, much like that of a hungry wolf. “We might get the chance to fight a group of Fire Giants!”

Once again, Lucy expresses her gratitude to the female giant, mentioning that she needs to consult with her companions. As she turns her attention to the other adventurers, she notices that some of them are missing.

“Where did Goggles and Rova go? Anyway… I have both bad news and great news for you.”

Using *Minor Illusion* like a blackboard, Lucy projects what she has just learned for everyone to see.

“The female giant over there is Ignis. She called herself the queen of her people, but Fire Giants tend to live in small families, so don't take that at face value. Now, we have bad news and great news. The bad news,there's a usurper determined to destroy Ignis and her children at any cost. But the great news is…” Lucy makes a predatory smile, much like that of a hungry wolf. “We might get the chance to fight a group of Fire Giants!”

Goggles emerges from the cellar, Rova assumedly following with the cheese wheel that has green rind and holes. He apologises and says 'Sorry, we were just fetching our final ingredient using the Almanac Arthur kept, though it was fairly confusing. We're fairly confident we've got the right one though now, what did we miss?'

@Goggles

Lucy projected her conversation with the female Fire Giant, enhancing it with a childish drawing: a big, bad giant chasing a mama giant and her babies.

Dangars brows rise as he hears the news.

"Fire giant adventurers set to kill the momma and babies?!" you can hear the growl coming from the 3 foot tall kobold, "They are dead meat! Dead! Stab them three times dead!"

"I will burn them alive!"

“Well said, Danger! That’s the spirit! Though, unfortunately, Fire Giants don’t burn. It’s a shame—I do love throwing fireballs at giants. But don’t worry, I have another plan for them.” Lucy grins, then turns to the kobold. “My cousin, a druid, can use her wild shape to summon a familiar. Can you do that?”

@DM and All

Lucy is asking about Druid Optional class feature in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Wild Companion.

 You gain the ability to summon a spirit that assumes an animal form: as an action, you can expend a use of your Wild Shape feature to cast the find familiar spell, without material components. When you cast the spell in this way, the familiar is a fey instead of a beast, and the familiar disappears after a number of hours equal to half your druid level.

(If that's part of their kit it's fine with me. But let's not meta game it into existence if they didn't prepare it. :) If they have it ready though then sure thing!)

Goggles takes in the illusory chalkboard Lucy has projected and mutters 'Oh no, uh oh, that's not good at all!' With a nervous grimace he says 'I'm not much of a fighter, more of a thief, so I might struggle, especially against such large foes!' He thinks for a second and then says slowly. 'I might be able to rig up something to defend the homestead though. How long have we got? Which direction are they arriving from?'

As you all are discussing what's going on, Ignis suddenly stops and perks up, looking around, before standing up, reaching into the greenhouse (because she's too big to walk inside) and calls for her children, taking them to the trapdoor to the basement and telling them to go down and be quiet. She then steps over to the fireplace and pulls out a long sword that's been heating there and then looks at you all. A moment later you all feel it...the ground vibrates. Something is coming.