With their combined onslaught, the mushroom monster goes down in short order. Gareth reconsiders taking a trophy from the monster though, eyeing the other mushrooms. Even if they aren't monsters lurking in disguise, the other mushrooms could have all number of effects on the body or mind. Shrugging, the ranger instead tries to join Rasziel by climbing the embankment, but he quickly loses his grip and falls back down on his arse.

"That could've gone better," he mutters, climbing back to this feet. Resigned to staying below for the moment, he calls up to the gnomes. "You need help with other monsters, you said?" 

Athletics - Nat 1 lol

Meira steps closer to the river's edge, looking across to the island where the monster had been.  "It was a taller green mushroom right?" She tries to see if there are more tall green mushrooms. (Perception: 14)

"Do you know how many of these 'monsters' there are?" she calls out towards the Gnomes. "We can help. But I imagine you don't want all those mushrooms destroyed? They're your food?"

Alisande sighs with relief at the realisation that the oddly bulbous wand didn't lead to more unexpected results, but then finds herself puffing out her cheeks in irritation at losing her dear companion. The knowledge that he is perfectly content applies a salve to the burn - but it is plainly evident that it pained the noblewoman to witness Ozymandias experience even momentary distress. She glides over beside Rasziel and Dabbledob as she strives to inject a measure of her equanimity back into her bearing.

"Alas, my schooling on the culture and customs of Gnomengarde is not as extensive as I would like, but if the travelogues of Volothamp Geddarm are correct, your people enjoy a particular proclivity for fungiculture." She watches as Rasziel generously offers his rations and nods in approval, appreciative of his generosity when she herself is not the recipient. "Are you able to subsist on such fare?"

As Gareth and Meira enquire after the monsters, she adds a query of her own. "From where and when did these monsters first emerge? Were there any notable events that precipitated the infestation?"

Dabbledob listens to Rasziel as Gareth attempts the climb up the ridge. As the ranger falls backwards and tumbles back down the cliffside, he takes 5 bludgeoning damage as he hits his head on a particularly sharp rock. All the gnomes begin to laugh at the sight, but a moment later, Rasziel provides some rations to the group of hungry rock gnomes. They greedily tear through the packaging and begin devouring the dried meats and nuts. 

Fibblestib says, "Here..." He hands one of the gnomes two of the five rations given to the group. "Hand these out to the others." The gnome dutifully takes to the task.

Dabbledob responds to Rasziel with a mouthful of nuts, "Mhm... well... not exactly..." he swallows, "The monsters can look like anything. I saw a chair eat Warryn." He takes a bite of the dried meat. "Unnatural it is... Can't even trust yer own eyes."

Fibblestib interjects as Meira asks the follow up question about the number of monsters present. "We're not entirely sure. Gnomes started coming up missing about two tenday ago. We realized pretty quick that whenever one o' us went to the eastern caves, they didn't come back. So that's when we started goen in groups o' two. Dabbledob was grouped with Warryn and saw the chair monster attack. Then I saw Orryn get eaten by that mushroom monster. Since then, we haven't been able to eat and we've been scared to leave this side of Gnomengarde."

Fibblestib turns his attention to the witch on her broomstick. "Of course we can..." He turns to Rasziel, "Thank you by the way for the food." Turning back to Alisande he continues, "Aye, it's true the mushrooms sustain our existence here and we've mastered the cultivation of them. We use the red ones as fuel for our lanterns, the green ones we mill into flour for bread, and the purple ones we ferment into a mushroom wine. Everything we need to survive. That is until these... things showed up. No clue where they came from, but they seem to be multiplying the more gnomes they eat. I sure am glad you all showed up when you did. Things were looking pretty dire."

Dabbledob nods his agreement. "Yeah, sorry for the rude greeting. When your family is being attacked by weird monsters that can look like anything, you tend to be on edge. If ya want to help, you can clear out the eastern cave from those nasty buggers, but be careful. I'd imagine they can eat tall folk too if you're not careful. If you help us we'll gladly reward you."

Meira nods as she listens to the gnomes explain about their predicament. "We can certainly help," she says. She looks to Alisande a moment as she hovers on her broom. "Anything you could do that would help us identify these things. Sounds like getting surprised by them would be pretty easy." Her eyes then shift to Rasziel too. "I would think there must be a magic of some sort to help us out?"  It's clear the woman though really doesn't know if it could help or not. 

It's at that point she glances over at Lyra a moment, then speaks up again to the group. "You know, I'm rather stealthy," Meira begins. "I could go into this eastern cave to scout it out without being seen. Maybe that would give me a chance to spot some of them before we all move in?"  She shrugs. "Unless you can just magic us a solution." 

"That sounds quite dangerous if you don't mind me saying so Meira, after all, these things could probably look like the ceiling above you or anything else you need to come close to in order to scout. I suggest we simply move in formation with many eyes peeled, ready to strike down the creatures as soon as they reveal themselves. As for the magic part I can certainly create an image of a flying kitten for instance that might make the ravenous aberrations reveal themselves before we get too close." Rasziel calmly suggests to the others.

"I can certainly reproduce the ritual I conducted in Axeholm which unmasks aberrant patterns in the Weave. Yet if our friends Dabbledob and Fibblestib speak true - and I must pause to commend their parents for selecting such marvellous names - it may be that the beasts have developed an adaptation that renders them preternaturally adept at camouflage."

When Rasziel mentions the consumption of flying kittens, Alisande winces at the recollection. An involuntary sigh escapes her lips, before she continues, "Should you be inclined to launch yourself fearlessly into peril, Meira, I would gladly bestow an enchantment to facilitate your passage unseen, but it would be at the expense of my capacity to sense the aforementioned magical auras."

The noblewoman regally inclines her head towards Dabbledob. "Lead us to the eastern cave, if you would, sir."

History/Nature: 8 or 6
((OOC: Does Alisande recognise what these creatures are?))

Meira replies to Alisande, "Oh, I would not need your magic. I am sure I would be up to the task of equaling the effectiveness of your enchantment." She can't help but look over at Lyra again, a grin coming to her face as she does. 

For a moment she seems to be wrestling with some thought in her head. Finally she gives a bit of a resigned sigh. "This could have made for some awsome pranks, but..." Meira vanishes. 

And just an instant later, she reappeared. "So, I found a ring back in Axeholm." She is clearly wearing a plain gold ring now on her right hand.  (It wasn't there before, though not sure if anyone would have noticed that!) "It lets me turn invisible. Just, whenever!"

(OOC - "It is my own. I found it. It came to me," she might add... although I think that's a different story!)

Zephyros recalls his trident to his hand and uses the running stream water to wash the Mushroom goo off of the weapon. While he does he listens intently to the conversation taking place. The warrior strides over to Gareth as the ranger falls down the cliffside in a similar manner as he had. Holding out a hand to help his companion back to his feet Zephyros says, "Seems that cliffside is a formidable adversary."

The bearded warrior hears Rasziel disperse his rations to the hungry gnomes and thinks, 'Well done, good sir.' He takes a moment to look through the eyes of his familiar, Felagi. His eyes go distant as the battle hardened veteran believes the gnomes will be busy eating.

Felagi perception: 6

As he comes back from his trance, Zephyros adds his own thoughts to the discussion. "If I may interject. I agree with Rasziel. While you may be able to sneak through the caverns, there's no guarantee you'll be able to identify a monster that can look like anything it chooses." Turning to Alisande, the warrior asks, "Are you certain these creatures can be identified with your magic?"

As Meira blinks out of existence and then back in, the warrior's eyebrows raise slightly. "That is a fine magic trick, turning invisible on demand is a fine thing. There are many magic rings in the world Ms. Meira Dheran, and none of them should be used lightly." His finger instinctively begins fidgeting with the ring on his own finger. "I don't think we need an escort to the eastern caverns. Let's be done with this. You saw how fast that mushroom monster died. I will make this simple for us. I'll lead the way and poke everything with my trident. If it attacks me, we kill it. Hooah?"

Without additional debate, Ironheart wades across the stream and begins making his way up the pathway on the eastern side of Gnomengarde. However, he does wait for the rest of the group to join him before heading into the cave system.

 Athletics: 14

Meira,

Lyra shares your glances and smiles, snickering to herself. However, after your big reveal, she gives you an overly pronounced bu bu lip as if disappointed. But, her playful smiles returns right away.

The gnomes seem quite interested in the ring you show off to the group. Dabbledob slides down the embankment with a practiced ease and grabs at your hand to get a closer look. "Amazing! A ring that allows the wearer to turn invisible on demand. Amazing! Tell me what, if any, side effects it creates? Do you feel dizzy, nauseated, or have overly aggressive thoughts you never had before?" If allowed, he manipulates your hand in multiple directions to get a look at the ring from all angles. "Would you by chance allow us to run some scans on your ring?"

 Alisande,

Zephyros,

You step into the freezing-cold stream. The water is deeper than you expected, coming up to your chest in the middle. However, you easily traverse the slick sides of the stream and emerge on the other side. You carefully follow the tiny pathway up to the entrance of the eastern cave and wait for your group to follow. 

Meira Is a bit overwhelmed by all gnomes' intetest. She'd been hoping to keep an eye on how Zephyros had fared crossing before she attempted it. 

Instead, she answers questions. "Well, no side effects that I know. Um, nothing of the sort you mentioned. Things just look... well, they're... hmm, I think foggy? Like ghostly a little?"

She isn't entriely sure she's answered that clearly, but moves on. "I'll have to think about scanning. Not surewhat that is exactly." For a moment she looks to Allll hoping maybe she knows. "Maybe later."

Feeling a little frustrated that she hasn't been a tiny bit more discrete about the ring, she decides to go back to the topic she'd been concerned about. "I was wondering about crossing the river. Is there a good way across without getting all wet like that old man over there just did."

Dabbledob looks up at Meira from her ring to answer, "Hmm... interesting, ghostly, huh. Very interesting. Let me know, let me know. A quick scan is all I want. Well we do have the rope bridge over there..." He gestures to it. "...but it still gets pretty wet from the waterfall."

Fibblestib Interupts, "I know! I have just the thing!" He excitedly shuffles off back inside the cave.

"There are no guarantees that this ability emanates an arcane signature. I confess myself quite at a loss as to what these monsters that masquerade as morels may be." The wizard replies to Zephyros, frustration writ large upon her aristocratic face.

The mage blinks in surprise as Meira winks out of sight and back again. A sudden temptation to reach out and touch the ring upon Meira's finger seizes her, before she snatches her own hand back from the brink at the last second. "How very... precious."

Should the party find traversing the stream overly challenging, a reiteration to aid the party in navigating the icy current follows. Shortly thereafter, Alisande begins gliding over in the direction of the cave mouth. 

The young dark-haired purple-robed man with the sinister-looking scar merely raises an eyebrow as it is revealed that a magical ring that can turn the wearer invisible was also found in Axeholm. "Precious indeed." He says quietly to himself. Once the others are ready to move over to the eastern caves he will float along with his accounant still peeking out of his purple robes, both of them having their eyes peeled for shapechanging monstrosities.

Perception with help from Azazel if relevant: 17

Fibblestib comes back two minutes later with a small metal box in his hands. He slides down the cliffside with a similar agility as Dabbledob and waddles over to the edge of the stream. "I call it the personal compact anti-gravity conveyance platform, or pcagcp for short." He pushes a little button on the side of the box and it begins to transform into a thin gnome sized platform. It unfolds and tiny gears and hydraulics push and pull various plates of overlapping metal into place and seemingly from nowhere, four propellers appear at all four corners and begin to whirl. Fibblestib tosses it into the air and the pcagcp begins to float five to six inches from the ground. He confidently steps onto the platform. which falls an inch with his weight before returning to its previous position.

As he begins describing how to pilot the platform, one of the propellers begins to wobble and whine until it completely disconnects, sending the tiny blades whirling right past Meira's face. "Wuoh.. no.. Ahhh!" losing one blade causes the platform to tilt and Fibblestib's weight to shift. He lands face first into the stream along with his invention that breaks apart into a thousand different pieces that quickly sink into the stream bed. The soaked gnome crawls back out of the stream, embarrassed. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Well, you can always swim across. Or ride your friend's fancy broom instead."

Rasziel is still quite impressed with the ingenuity of the pcagcp and makes a mental note of the need to speak more to the gnomes about their inventions and the possibility to manufacture them on a larger scale for distrubtion where he would offer his own business to humbly assist in that endeavour. "Do not let a small setback affect you Fibblestib, I see much potential in your invention and I'm sure the world would want to see it once it is sufficiently safe and stable." He says with an encouraging smile as he hovers over to help the soaked gnome back onto terra firma.

Persuasion if relevant to build on relationship with coming business talks in mind: 18

Gareth wipes a drop of blood from a small nick in his forehead where he hit the rock. With a long-suffering sigh, he nods at the grizzled veteran. "I've faced down all sorts of monsters, and yet I'm taken down by a cliffside," he remarks, his voice laden with irony. 

He is soon distracted by his own embarrassment by Meira's fancy new ring, followed shortly by the gnomes attempting to show off one of their inventions, which ends up going haywire in a very chaotic fashion, leaving Fibblestib drenched in the stream. Gareth shakes his head and purses his lips to keep from chuckling like the gnomes above had done when he'd gone ass over teakettle. 

"I'll take my chances with the stream," the ranger says, following Zephyros' path and wading through the water. 

Alisande winces as the ring-bearer almost suffers a grievous injury when the contraption goes haywire. She breathes a sigh of relief on Meira's behalf, yet the instant the peril has passed, the mage finds herself practically gushing with praise for the aerodynamically driven platform. Sweeping over on her fancy broom, the wizard turns to Fibblestib with an expression of unalloyed admiration. 

"Why in Gond's glorious name do you look so abashed, sir? That was... that was... positively transcendent! It goes without saying that I am acquainted with enchantments capable of flight, but never have I witnessed such a marvel constructed entirely without arcane augmentation. Just imagine the emancipatory potential this invention might possess for the common folk... Why, even a potato-tending peasant might one day fly all the to Kara-Tur if she so desired."

The mission to purge the cave of camouflaging monsters seems, for the moment, long forgotten. With a flick of her wand, Alisande desiccates every drop of moisture from the gnome inventor's sodden clothing, even as her mind continues to whir with the possibilities. "The gadget was driven by those propellors, was it? Have you ever considered attaching one to a cap?"

Meira watches the blades fortunately sail past her face. But she laughs it off. "Valiant attempt Fibblestib! I'm not sure a gnome-sized device would have worked for me anyway." She then turns to Alisande. "I'll take that broom ride across now though." 

Zephyros watches on with a mixture of amusement and impatience as the group interacts with the gnomes. His wet clothes not helping his mood, and yet he maintains a friendly demeanor, keeping a smile on and even laughing as Fibblestib's invention sends him careening into the stream. 

As the group gathers outside the cave entrance, Zephyros turns all business. He readies his trident and proceeds into the mouth of the cave, looking for anything that looks out of place and meticulously poking everything. It's slow going, but the armored warrior is intent on ensuring they are not ambushed by these shape-changing monsters. 

Perception: 5

Investigation: 8