"Bebop, let's do this!" Joy climbs aboard the particularly derpy tortoise excitedly, calling upon her memories of riding into battle with Milton.
Animal Handling 1: 16
Animal Handling 2: 16
Animal Handling 3: 6
Lucky Dex save: 14
The large beast is surprisingly fast, nearly causing the Hexblood to go flying, but she feels a faint pulse of Lathander's grace strengthen her grip and balance at the last moment.
Vazo'yn walks quietly over to Pasture, his light steps barely disturbing the grass as he passes. He approaches the horizonback from the front, knowing that if he tried to go from the rear he might startle the beast and that would be the last thing he would need.
He offers out a hand towards Pasture.
"Hello, Pasture," he says quietly and lets the creature get his scent. Once he is comfortable they're well acquainted, he moves to the side and hauls himself up onto Pasture's back. It's hardly like riding a horse, which Vazo'yn is used to, but it's close enough that he makes do. He waits patiently for the contest to start.
Once it does, he calmly urges Pasture into motion with a gentle flick of the reins. Somehow it comes to him intuitively as Pasture soon follows his directions, meandering forward to their goal without so much as a bump in their journey, rider and mount curiously in sync. Perhaps Vazo'yn had been a horizonback herder like Adan in a former life. He glances toward the orc and gives him a nod, glad that he had not embarrassed himself.
As Riven mounted, Doc shifted under his weight. The heavy horizonback turned their head slightly, one dark eye rolling back to catch a glimpse of their rider. The way they blinked was a thoughtful acknowledgment. As Riven took the reins, he didn't yank on them, or bark commands. He moved with Doc, with a shared purpose and goal.
When the starting shout came, Doc didn’t lurch forward, slow at first, power unfolding into steady gait. Doc plodded with intent, each step of turn of her massive legs sent ripples through the earth, dust kicking up behind her. And Riven sat poised in the saddle, silent maintaining his balance, silently determined to take the lead.
“Good,” Riven murmured, almost to himself. His fingers curled into the thick straps of the bridle to maintain his rhythm with his mount. “You’re smarter than the lot of them, aren’t you?”
Doc, lumbering along turned momentarily to look at their rider answered not with a roar or snap, but with a push of her weight forward, gaining more momentum.
The race wasn’t over yet, but between the two of them, something more important had already happened. They had formed a partnership with a shared goal, cross the finish line ahead of the rest.
Randa had a rough time with Half-Pint at first but they soon found their groove and moved as one through the streets with very little collateral damage....
Berk lets out a gasp when he first see's the animals. "They are giant! This is going to be incredible."
He gladly accepts Rocksteady, "That's a powerful name my friend, I am Berk Thunderpeak. Rocksteady and Thunderpeak, a perfect combination!"
Berk climbs onto the animal, and casts mage hand ... in case he needs a third hand for any reason. He will then ask for assistance and joins the migration.
handling: 13
handling: 22 (nat 20)
handling: 22 (nat 20)
Berk quickly gets use to how the Tortoise moves, a large smile on his face.
Adan leads the way, marching ahead with his own horizonback behemoth. The 14 would-be herders move along behind. One tortoise begins to wander away and the rider, a male tiefling, yanks hard to get it back on course. However, the tortoise responds to this hard pull on the bridle very negatively and deliberately pulls in the opposite direction. The tiefling is thrown from his seat and as he lands with a thud, the tortoise raises a pillar-like foot to bear down on him. He shrieks long and hard, cracking glass windows nearby, then cowers into a fetal position. The horizonback holds back as herders rush toward the tiefling. It rethinks its next course of action and begins to wander away instead, seemingly disappointed with its rider.
Others struggle to various degrees, but this herd of horizonbacks seems to be fairly well-behaved despite their complete absence of training. Even the one that had wandered off was quickly pulled back in line when one of the herders hopped into the seat to steer it back. Everyone in the Fellowship follows Adan with unmatched skill, sticking to the front of the pack. The party passes the official Dynasty outpost. A towering wood and stone structure which the Fellowship has heard referred to by non-Kryn locals as the “Helter-Skelter” due to the chaos the place is often in.
Adan leads the group along, passing fixed houses and festival-goers. Some of the unsupervised children use the passing horizonbacks as impromptu challenges, daring each other into running across the tortoises paths. Half-Pint brooks none of this silliness and when they get too close to him, he plows some of the hard packed dirt road and flings it at the children, causing Randa to struggle for a moment. She quickly reigns Half-Pint in, though not quite fast enough to save the children from being covered from head to toe in highly unsanitary road dirt. Childlike whimsy quickly turns to disgusted moans and Randa could swear that Half-Pint beams a smile at her before he allows her to lead him without further issue.
Both Joy and Ylis have a mostly easy time with Bebop and Zip. Zip seems eager and prefers to occupy the lead after Adan's mighty beast, while Bebop seems content to simply be led by Joy, who obviously knows where they are going. However, as Joy catches up with Ylis, Zip gets a bit testy and snaps at Bebop, which causes Bebop to recoil in confusion. This aggression and shock cause a sudden lurch in their rides, nearly throwing both from their seats. However, both riders are talented in their own ways and maintain their seats with little trouble.
Speaking of little trouble, Riven has a masterful level of control of his horizonback. Though it is difficult to tell if this is caused by his own natural skill or the contemplative nature of Doc. He rides comfortably in the middle and barely experiences any bumps at all. Beck and Vazo'yn also have a similar experience, riding comfortably at the back of the Fellowship, though far far ahead of the other participants, whose uncertainty with the horizonbacks slow them down some, even with the mostly docile nature of the herd.
Eventually, everyone pulls into the open rice fields on the west side of Jigow, were trainers are waiting to receive them. Adan leaps into the rice fields with a splash of water and claps for all the riders who successfully brought their tortoises to the next stage of their lives. He tosses each one of you a medal. No two are the same, as they are made from pieces of horizonback shell.
DM: You all have the Medal of the Horzonback in your inventory. This is not a repeatable challenge. You may pursue the challenge here, go to one of the other challenges, or end your participation of challenges for the day. What do you want to do?
Joy lets out a delighted whoop as Bebop lumbers into the rice field with a heavy, splashing thoom, water cascading around her legs. She slips down from his broad back with a practiced swing, landing in the shallow water with a satisfying splash of her own. Her sun-dappled armor glints in the light, already speckled with flecks of mud, but she doesn’t seem to care. She looks up at Bebop with pride radiating from her face.
“You did so well, boy,” she says, resisting the very real temptation to throw her arms around the massive tortoise’s neck. “Even if you did get grumpy with Zip back there. Horizonbacks will be horizonbacks.” She laughs and gives his plated side a fond pat instead, careful to avoid any particularly sensitive areas.
As Adan approaches with the medals, Joy catches hers mid-air and turns it over in her hands, admiring the unique patterning of the horizonback shell. “This is beautiful,” she murmurs, then looks up with a wide grin. “Thank you for letting us help, truly. This was amazing.”
Her expression softens a bit as her eyes sweep the field. “The tiefling rider from before—he’s alright, isn’t he?” she asks Adan and the others nearby, concern laced in her voice.
"Thank for the ride buddy!" Ylis claps Zip on the neck in a friendly manner. She very much enjoyed riding from so far off the ground. "YAY so much fun!" she shouts before jumping off into a splash.
"Aw man! I'm stuck!!"
.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Berk catches the medal and immediately puts it around his neck. He pats the giant tortoise, "Rocksteady and Thunderpeak. We make a good team. I would love to take you home, ride right into the my people's camp on your back. I would be a legend back home! Perhaps another day, another time" he says and slides off of Rocksteady. He immediately looks around at the others thinking "Giles was right, I like this group!" and then asks excitedly "Whats next? Rice Challenge? Maze?"
Vazo'yn carefully slips off Pasture's shell and lands with a small splash amongst the rice paddies. He wades through the water around to Pasture's head and gives the horizonback a firm rub under the jaw.
"Well done," he says to the beast, leaning forward to place his forehead against Pasture's. "Thank you for the ride."
He turns just in time for Adan to throw him his medal, which he catches deftly. A small, proud smile curls his lips as he looks down at the unique reward and follows with a brief glance back to Adan.
"If I remember rightly, this is a team contest, and will help the community get through the winter. I think we should participate," he says.
Noticing little Ylis stuck in the mud, he traipses over to offer her his hand and a muted grin.
Jacaranda slides gently down the slope of the tortoise shell and into the shallow water of the rice fields, she nods thanks to Adan and chuckles at Ylis. She cocks her head as Vazo'yn moves over to help Ylis and then considers the mentioned rice challenge.
" Agreed, lets all pitch in."
She slips the medal into her pocket with a crooked smile.
Ylis grabs hold of Vazo's hand and giggles while trying to free herself from the mud. "Thanks for the hand Mr. Vazo'yn!" Stumbling and sloshing through the waist high water, and with Vazo'yn's help, Ylis makes it to the dry walkway.
Looking at the mud all over her boots, leggings, and robes, she makes tsk sound. "Booo. I need to get this cleaned off sometime." she mutters. She sees her friends getting ready to do some kind of rice competition and brightens up immediately.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Adan smiles warmly at Joy. “You earned it.” He says gesturing lazily at the medal. “And I assure you that these medals were taken from a horizonback who died of natural causes.” He shifts his weight to a relaxed state, placing his hands on his hips as he squints back into town. His view of the tiefling blocked by a dozen homes or so, but the thousand yard stare does look rather picturesque.
“Aside from being humiliated in front of what is likely several friends, I’m sure he’s fine. These are untrained horizonbacks, but I raised a good lot. Being bitten or stomped on is no fun when they are this size, but once it saw that its rider was no threat, it lost interest.” He looks to her with understanding in his eyes. “We try to keep the games fun and a good way to end the festivities is to have someone mashed into goo.” He pats her on the shoulder reassuringly and moves on to hand out medals to others making their way to the finish line by this time. The tiefling had given up his seat and a goblin herder now rides the tortoise to the finish. As a staff member, Adan skips handing the goblin a medal.
Joy chuckles softly at Adan’s words, brushing a stray bit of wet hair from her brow as she turns her medal over in her hand once more. “Glad to hear it,” she says, clearly relieved.
She turns back toward the others, sloshing through the shallow water with ease. “Oh, a team game! This'll be great!"
The Fellowship leaves the horizonbacks behind for the next portion of their journey. The animals bid you a farewell with a nod of their heads or pawing into the shallow water. The Fellowship doesn’t have far to go however. Small docks rise upward from the flooded fields, which sit at a lower elevation from road they had just traveled on their giant tortoises. These docks run alongside wooden shacks built on stilts, casting crooked shadows over the wetlands below. Some areas of the wetlands have been cordoned off to create rice paddies, which are now ready for harvest.
Blue and green banners wave over one end of the docks, where two elderly goblin farmers preside over the contest. “You know how it goes!” one hollers out in a reedy voice. “First team to harvest the rice from their section wins!”
The second goblin beckons the Fellowship to them. “We don’t have many participants today. It seems that most would rather drink than harvest this year, the lazy lot!” he turns to direct the cutting words back at the townsfolk who definitely cannot hear the little goblin over their own celebrations. He turns back to the Fellowship. “I’m Zag, this is Beetle, my spouse. The way this works is you will pair up into teams of two. If you don’t have a partner, we can try to find one for you. You need one cutter to chop down the stalks and one gatherer to… well, gather them up and prepare the rice for drying.”
Zag wades over to a small workstation and opens a small wooden box. He pulls out a very well-used sickle. “Cutters come get your tools.” Meanwhile Beetle approaches with a map. “Each team is responsible for a 20 ft long, 5 ft wide strip of a paddy. I have each team’s lane outlined with alternating colored stakes.” They point down the rice fields. “There, there, there, there, and so on. Your gatherer will bring your harvested bundles here.” pointing to boxes on the map, and then pointing to the shacks that they correspond to. “Basically, the first team to work their way through their strip wins, but we would appreciate you finishing even if you lose. Okay, pick your partner and wait for our signal!”
Randa and Ylis, you notice that Irvan is resting on one of the docks by the road. He seems to be relaxing, but definitely is tracking the Fellowship.
DM: Partner up and designate cutters and gatherers!
Joy’s eyes light up with excitement as she squelches through the wet earth toward the start of the paddy lanes, already rolling up the sleeves of her travel-worn shirt. The smell of mud and water and fresh-growing grain fills the air—and she finds it oddly invigorating.
She turns to Ylis with a wide grin and sparkling eyes, her crown catching a glimmer of sunlight as she leans down slightly to match the harengon’s height. “Let’s show everyone how good our teamwork has gotten!” she says, voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “I cut, you gather?”
Ylis sees Irvan on the side. She waves and calls out to him, "Hey Irvan! You here to watch your friends get dirty? Me too! HawHaw. I mean look at the place, just water and mud. Whoever goes in there is gonna be filthy heeheehee."
Then she hears Joy call to her... Her shoulders slump a little after making her comment and knowing she'll get more soiled. "Aw man..."
"Yup coming!" She does her best getting to the start area with Joy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
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"Bebop, let's do this!" Joy climbs aboard the particularly derpy tortoise excitedly, calling upon her memories of riding into battle with Milton.
Animal Handling 1: 16
Animal Handling 2: 16
Animal Handling 3: 6
Lucky Dex save: 14
The large beast is surprisingly fast, nearly causing the Hexblood to go flying, but she feels a faint pulse of Lathander's grace strengthen her grip and balance at the last moment.
Vazo'yn walks quietly over to Pasture, his light steps barely disturbing the grass as he passes. He approaches the horizonback from the front, knowing that if he tried to go from the rear he might startle the beast and that would be the last thing he would need.
He offers out a hand towards Pasture.
"Hello, Pasture," he says quietly and lets the creature get his scent. Once he is comfortable they're well acquainted, he moves to the side and hauls himself up onto Pasture's back. It's hardly like riding a horse, which Vazo'yn is used to, but it's close enough that he makes do. He waits patiently for the contest to start.
Once it does, he calmly urges Pasture into motion with a gentle flick of the reins. Somehow it comes to him intuitively as Pasture soon follows his directions, meandering forward to their goal without so much as a bump in their journey, rider and mount curiously in sync. Perhaps Vazo'yn had been a horizonback herder like Adan in a former life. He glances toward the orc and gives him a nod, glad that he had not embarrassed himself.
Animal Handling: 14, 18, 18
As Riven mounted, Doc shifted under his weight. The heavy horizonback turned their head slightly, one dark eye rolling back to catch a glimpse of their rider. The way they blinked was a thoughtful acknowledgment. As Riven took the reins, he didn't yank on them, or bark commands. He moved with Doc, with a shared purpose and goal.
When the starting shout came, Doc didn’t lurch forward, slow at first, power unfolding into steady gait. Doc plodded with intent, each step of turn of her massive legs sent ripples through the earth, dust kicking up behind her. And Riven sat poised in the saddle, silent maintaining his balance, silently determined to take the lead.
“Good,” Riven murmured, almost to himself. His fingers curled into the thick straps of the bridle to maintain his rhythm with his mount. “You’re smarter than the lot of them, aren’t you?”
Doc, lumbering along turned momentarily to look at their rider answered not with a roar or snap, but with a push of her weight forward, gaining more momentum.
The race wasn’t over yet, but between the two of them, something more important had already happened. They had formed a partnership with a shared goal, cross the finish line ahead of the rest.
1) Animal Handling: (12+2)= 14
2) Animal Handling: (17+2)= 19
3) Animal Handling: (12+2)= 14
Randa
Animal Handling- DC 12 - 8
Animal Handling- DC 13 - 22
Animal Handling- DC 14 - 20
Dex Saving Throw- 18
Randa had a rough time with Half-Pint at first but they soon found their groove and moved as one through the streets with very little collateral damage....
Berk lets out a gasp when he first see's the animals. "They are giant! This is going to be incredible."
He gladly accepts Rocksteady, "That's a powerful name my friend, I am Berk Thunderpeak. Rocksteady and Thunderpeak, a perfect combination!"
Berk climbs onto the animal, and casts mage hand ... in case he needs a third hand for any reason. He will then ask for assistance and joins the migration.
handling: 13
handling: 22 (nat 20)
handling: 22 (nat 20)
Berk quickly gets use to how the Tortoise moves, a large smile on his face.
DM: Heroic Inspiration is awarded to Riven, Vazo'yn, and Ylis for substantial effort in their posts.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
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Adan leads the way, marching ahead with his own horizonback behemoth. The 14 would-be herders move along behind. One tortoise begins to wander away and the rider, a male tiefling, yanks hard to get it back on course. However, the tortoise responds to this hard pull on the bridle very negatively and deliberately pulls in the opposite direction. The tiefling is thrown from his seat and as he lands with a thud, the tortoise raises a pillar-like foot to bear down on him. He shrieks long and hard, cracking glass windows nearby, then cowers into a fetal position. The horizonback holds back as herders rush toward the tiefling. It rethinks its next course of action and begins to wander away instead, seemingly disappointed with its rider.
Others struggle to various degrees, but this herd of horizonbacks seems to be fairly well-behaved despite their complete absence of training. Even the one that had wandered off was quickly pulled back in line when one of the herders hopped into the seat to steer it back. Everyone in the Fellowship follows Adan with unmatched skill, sticking to the front of the pack. The party passes the official Dynasty outpost. A towering wood and stone structure which the Fellowship has heard referred to by non-Kryn locals as the “Helter-Skelter” due to the chaos the place is often in.
Adan leads the group along, passing fixed houses and festival-goers. Some of the unsupervised children use the passing horizonbacks as impromptu challenges, daring each other into running across the tortoises paths. Half-Pint brooks none of this silliness and when they get too close to him, he plows some of the hard packed dirt road and flings it at the children, causing Randa to struggle for a moment. She quickly reigns Half-Pint in, though not quite fast enough to save the children from being covered from head to toe in highly unsanitary road dirt. Childlike whimsy quickly turns to disgusted moans and Randa could swear that Half-Pint beams a smile at her before he allows her to lead him without further issue.
Both Joy and Ylis have a mostly easy time with Bebop and Zip. Zip seems eager and prefers to occupy the lead after Adan's mighty beast, while Bebop seems content to simply be led by Joy, who obviously knows where they are going. However, as Joy catches up with Ylis, Zip gets a bit testy and snaps at Bebop, which causes Bebop to recoil in confusion. This aggression and shock cause a sudden lurch in their rides, nearly throwing both from their seats. However, both riders are talented in their own ways and maintain their seats with little trouble.
Speaking of little trouble, Riven has a masterful level of control of his horizonback. Though it is difficult to tell if this is caused by his own natural skill or the contemplative nature of Doc. He rides comfortably in the middle and barely experiences any bumps at all. Beck and Vazo'yn also have a similar experience, riding comfortably at the back of the Fellowship, though far far ahead of the other participants, whose uncertainty with the horizonbacks slow them down some, even with the mostly docile nature of the herd.
Eventually, everyone pulls into the open rice fields on the west side of Jigow, were trainers are waiting to receive them. Adan leaps into the rice fields with a splash of water and claps for all the riders who successfully brought their tortoises to the next stage of their lives. He tosses each one of you a medal. No two are the same, as they are made from pieces of horizonback shell.
DM: You all have the Medal of the Horzonback in your inventory. This is not a repeatable challenge. You may pursue the challenge here, go to one of the other challenges, or end your participation of challenges for the day. What do you want to do?
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Joy lets out a delighted whoop as Bebop lumbers into the rice field with a heavy, splashing thoom, water cascading around her legs. She slips down from his broad back with a practiced swing, landing in the shallow water with a satisfying splash of her own. Her sun-dappled armor glints in the light, already speckled with flecks of mud, but she doesn’t seem to care. She looks up at Bebop with pride radiating from her face.
“You did so well, boy,” she says, resisting the very real temptation to throw her arms around the massive tortoise’s neck. “Even if you did get grumpy with Zip back there. Horizonbacks will be horizonbacks.” She laughs and gives his plated side a fond pat instead, careful to avoid any particularly sensitive areas.
As Adan approaches with the medals, Joy catches hers mid-air and turns it over in her hands, admiring the unique patterning of the horizonback shell. “This is beautiful,” she murmurs, then looks up with a wide grin. “Thank you for letting us help, truly. This was amazing.”
Her expression softens a bit as her eyes sweep the field. “The tiefling rider from before—he’s alright, isn’t he?” she asks Adan and the others nearby, concern laced in her voice.
"Thank for the ride buddy!" Ylis claps Zip on the neck in a friendly manner. She very much enjoyed riding from so far off the ground. "YAY so much fun!" she shouts before jumping off into a splash.
"Aw man! I'm stuck!!"
.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Berk catches the medal and immediately puts it around his neck. He pats the giant tortoise, "Rocksteady and Thunderpeak. We make a good team. I would love to take you home, ride right into the my people's camp on your back. I would be a legend back home! Perhaps another day, another time" he says and slides off of Rocksteady. He immediately looks around at the others thinking "Giles was right, I like this group!" and then asks excitedly "Whats next? Rice Challenge? Maze?"
Vazo'yn carefully slips off Pasture's shell and lands with a small splash amongst the rice paddies. He wades through the water around to Pasture's head and gives the horizonback a firm rub under the jaw.
"Well done," he says to the beast, leaning forward to place his forehead against Pasture's. "Thank you for the ride."
He turns just in time for Adan to throw him his medal, which he catches deftly. A small, proud smile curls his lips as he looks down at the unique reward and follows with a brief glance back to Adan.
"If I remember rightly, this is a team contest, and will help the community get through the winter. I think we should participate," he says.
Noticing little Ylis stuck in the mud, he traipses over to offer her his hand and a muted grin.
Jacaranda slides gently down the slope of the tortoise shell and into the shallow water of the rice fields, she nods thanks to Adan and chuckles at Ylis. She cocks her head as Vazo'yn moves over to help Ylis and then considers the mentioned rice challenge.
" Agreed, lets all pitch in."
She slips the medal into her pocket with a crooked smile.
Ylis grabs hold of Vazo's hand and giggles while trying to free herself from the mud. "Thanks for the hand Mr. Vazo'yn!" Stumbling and sloshing through the waist high water, and with Vazo'yn's help, Ylis makes it to the dry walkway.
Looking at the mud all over her boots, leggings, and robes, she makes tsk sound. "Booo. I need to get this cleaned off sometime." she mutters. She sees her friends getting ready to do some kind of rice competition and brightens up immediately.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Adan smiles warmly at Joy. “You earned it.” He says gesturing lazily at the medal. “And I assure you that these medals were taken from a horizonback who died of natural causes.” He shifts his weight to a relaxed state, placing his hands on his hips as he squints back into town. His view of the tiefling blocked by a dozen homes or so, but the thousand yard stare does look rather picturesque.
“Aside from being humiliated in front of what is likely several friends, I’m sure he’s fine. These are untrained horizonbacks, but I raised a good lot. Being bitten or stomped on is no fun when they are this size, but once it saw that its rider was no threat, it lost interest.” He looks to her with understanding in his eyes. “We try to keep the games fun and a good way to end the festivities is to have someone mashed into goo.” He pats her on the shoulder reassuringly and moves on to hand out medals to others making their way to the finish line by this time. The tiefling had given up his seat and a goblin herder now rides the tortoise to the finish. As a staff member, Adan skips handing the goblin a medal.
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
Answers: physical books, purchases, and subbing.
Check out my life-changing
Joy chuckles softly at Adan’s words, brushing a stray bit of wet hair from her brow as she turns her medal over in her hand once more. “Glad to hear it,” she says, clearly relieved.
She turns back toward the others, sloshing through the shallow water with ease. “Oh, a team game! This'll be great!"
The Fellowship leaves the horizonbacks behind for the next portion of their journey. The animals bid you a farewell with a nod of their heads or pawing into the shallow water. The Fellowship doesn’t have far to go however. Small docks rise upward from the flooded fields, which sit at a lower elevation from road they had just traveled on their giant tortoises. These docks run alongside wooden shacks built on stilts, casting crooked shadows over the wetlands below. Some areas of the wetlands have been cordoned off to create rice paddies, which are now ready for harvest.
Blue and green banners wave over one end of the docks, where two elderly goblin farmers preside over the contest. “You know how it goes!” one hollers out in a reedy voice. “First team to harvest the rice from their section wins!”
The second goblin beckons the Fellowship to them. “We don’t have many participants today. It seems that most would rather drink than harvest this year, the lazy lot!” he turns to direct the cutting words back at the townsfolk who definitely cannot hear the little goblin over their own celebrations. He turns back to the Fellowship. “I’m Zag, this is Beetle, my spouse. The way this works is you will pair up into teams of two. If you don’t have a partner, we can try to find one for you. You need one cutter to chop down the stalks and one gatherer to… well, gather them up and prepare the rice for drying.”
Zag wades over to a small workstation and opens a small wooden box. He pulls out a very well-used sickle. “Cutters come get your tools.” Meanwhile Beetle approaches with a map. “Each team is responsible for a 20 ft long, 5 ft wide strip of a paddy. I have each team’s lane outlined with alternating colored stakes.” They point down the rice fields. “There, there, there, there, and so on. Your gatherer will bring your harvested bundles here.” pointing to boxes on the map, and then pointing to the shacks that they correspond to. “Basically, the first team to work their way through their strip wins, but we would appreciate you finishing even if you lose. Okay, pick your partner and wait for our signal!”
Randa and Ylis, you notice that Irvan is resting on one of the docks by the road. He seems to be relaxing, but definitely is tracking the Fellowship.
DM: Partner up and designate cutters and gatherers!
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
EXTENDED SIGNATURE!
Doctor/Published Scholar/Science and Healthcare Advocate/Critter/Trekkie/Gandalf with a Glock
Try DDB free: Free Rules (2024), premade PCs, adventures, one shots, encounters, SC, homebrew, more
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Joy’s eyes light up with excitement as she squelches through the wet earth toward the start of the paddy lanes, already rolling up the sleeves of her travel-worn shirt. The smell of mud and water and fresh-growing grain fills the air—and she finds it oddly invigorating.
She turns to Ylis with a wide grin and sparkling eyes, her crown catching a glimmer of sunlight as she leans down slightly to match the harengon’s height. “Let’s show everyone how good our teamwork has gotten!” she says, voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “I cut, you gather?”
Ylis sees Irvan on the side. She waves and calls out to him, "Hey Irvan! You here to watch your friends get dirty? Me too! HawHaw. I mean look at the place, just water and mud. Whoever goes in there is gonna be filthy heeheehee."
Then she hears Joy call to her... Her shoulders slump a little after making her comment and knowing she'll get more soiled. "Aw man..."
"Yup coming!" She does her best getting to the start area with Joy.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale