The party travels on, taking a path into the dark spaces under the lofty trees. The fairy fiddlers play a merry tune as they hop ahead.
These trees look different from those growing on the daylight side of the Fairy Ring; just as tall, if not taller, but more symmetrical. Here and there, golden and silver leaves glint amid the darker foliage. Ferns flourish in the trail edges and in miniature clearings created by fallen trees. The ground orchid you know as lady's slipper grows here as on the other side but in greater abundance and to unusual proportions, some plants standing as high as Eric's waist.
The air is humid and warm, like a summer's night after rainfall. But you see no pools of rainwater and hear no drops falling through the branches overhead. A sweet perfume, faint at first, grows stronger the deeper you go into the forest.
As you hike along, guided by the musical cricket-men and Shayne's conjured lights, the fairy music seems to lighten your steps. Indeed, you all feel as if you could dance...
(Saving throw, wisdom, DC 13 everybody. If you fail, you fall under a spell that makes you dance, trailing after the musicians...)
The music was absolutely charming but surroundings were too fascinating to just dance by them. She hummed to the tune but absentmindedly and continued to look around.
Eric's feet begin to move in rhythm to the music. Before he can even tell what's going on he is dancing beside Shayne. The were-crickets may be hideous, but they certainly can hold a tune.
((Why'd I have to play a less than wise Ranger? It's not like Wis is a class feature or anything. ;) ))
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Xylys looks at everybody dancing as if they were a bit round the bend. “I’ve heard that these are the creatures that steal babies and turn them into slaves.”
Arcana. 5 History. 17
He wracks his brain trying to recall anything he has heard about fairies.
”I mean, the Miller has been stolen, well sort of. This place gives me the creepy crawlies.”
that putting on his clothes on backwards might help him against fairy magic. So might rubbing or carrying a bit of cold iron. And he should avoid accepting food and drink, lest he fall under an enchantment. But he must also avoid giving offense. Speaking ill of the Fair Folk where they can overhear it isunwise.
He has read of a man who entered Faerie, remained for what seemed a month or so, and returned home to discover that decades had passed in his absence. Whether the tale be true, he knows not.
The cricket-fairies hop ahead with longer bounds, and Eric and Shayne reel and wheel after them, dancing at a quick trot. Alyna has to hike up her skirts to keep pace. Xylys, recalling what Shayne said about the lights going out if the distance between summoner and orbs grows too wide, lengthens his stride to avoid being left behind in the dark.
The fiddlers lead the party into a clearing and then vanish. Their chirping notes fall silent.
Shayne's conjured lights wink out.
(He may cast the cantrip again, if he likes.)
Eric and Shayne stagger about a moment before recovering their senses and their breath.
Given the unusually symmetrical appearance of the trees, it's hard to say for sure if this place correlates with anyplace on the dayside of the ring. You see no landmarks. And no obvious marks left by Eric or another trailblazer.
A brief walk back down the trail you came in by shows that it now dead ends in a tangle of rotten wood and briars. That obstacle was notsomething you crossed through on the madcap rush here! But it feels quite real to the touch.
Back in the glade, Eric realizes he has no clear sense of direction. His companions fare no better at telling east from west, north from south. The new moon appears to have moved back toward moonrise while you rushed along the trail under the trees. Or is that toward moonset? The stars have shifted in the heavens, all out of place.
Two other, unexplored trails lead out of the small, grassy clearing, both on the far side from the way you came in.
Shayne draws his flute and begins trying to replicate the enchanting tune. A true bard hoards songs and stories even more than gold and to be able to hear and possibly replicate the melody of true fae kind? Priceless!
Repeating it as best he can several times, he’ll do so yet again to try to burn it into memory, but he’ll also look about to see if his companions have a plan for what to do now.
"Did not know you can dance so well," said Alyna to Eric with an honest admiration. "But I see now why you do not do it more often - we seemed to lose direction. Is this the same glade?"
The mysterious obstacle kind of proved it was not. To be fair, it was obvious from the moment they crossed the circle but one can always hope. Alyna looked at each trail. "Does it even matter which one we choose? Which one, do you think, is the south one? That has to be the one leading to the wagon, or to the place where it is on our side. And to the road, then. But ... which?"
((Though I expect Shayne cannot capture the magic or even fully the tune... but to even capture the spirit of such a song...))
Shayne's adapted tune isn't identical to the fiddlers', and has no magical effect on the listeners, but it does carry a similar jaunty feeling. With some practice, maybe a few improvements, he'll have acquired a new piece for his repertoire.
A shade of red, similar to autumn leaves, rushes across his face at Alyna's words. "I do not dance. By choice." Quickly changing the topic he replies to her question. "I'm sorry, but things are very different here. I'm afraid I'm of little help here except to keep you all safe. I don't think the rules of nature apply here as they normally do."
“The rules may be different but I’m sure they’re the same,” Shayne says, then considers what he just said for a moment.
“What I mean is, every pub and bar and such offers different foods and drinks and atmosphere, but in the end they all just want to earn some coin. So I’m thinking the stars are maybe different, and the plants and animals, but I’m sure the deep down stuff is still true,” he explains. “Things eat and breathe and sleep and such..,”
“It’s just about noticing and adjusting to the new rules. No?”
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Xylys looks around. (Does he notice anything that is remotely familiar . . . a landmark of some kind. Perception 18
"Nothing around here is very familiar, in fact, is sort of seems as though we're in a different place altogether, even though we just 'on the other side' of there, as it were."
He shakes his head, sticks a finger in his ear, "The music is off, too>"
The party travels on, taking a path into the dark spaces under the lofty trees. The fairy fiddlers play a merry tune as they hop ahead.
These trees look different from those growing on the daylight side of the Fairy Ring; just as tall, if not taller, but more symmetrical. Here and there, golden and silver leaves glint amid the darker foliage. Ferns flourish in the trail edges and in miniature clearings created by fallen trees. The ground orchid you know as lady's slipper grows here as on the other side but in greater abundance and to unusual proportions, some plants standing as high as Eric's waist.
The air is humid and warm, like a summer's night after rainfall. But you see no pools of rainwater and hear no drops falling through the branches overhead. A sweet perfume, faint at first, grows stronger the deeper you go into the forest.
As you hike along, guided by the musical cricket-men and Shayne's conjured lights, the fairy music seems to lighten your steps. Indeed, you all feel as if you could dance...
(Saving throw, wisdom, DC 13 everybody. If you fail, you fall under a spell that makes you dance, trailing after the musicians...)
Alyna Wis save: 13
The music was absolutely charming but surroundings were too fascinating to just dance by them. She hummed to the tune but absentmindedly and continued to look around.
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Shayne Wisdom Save: 5
Shayne instinctively just gives in to the music, likely pulling out his flute and joining in as he dances mindlessly behind the hideous were-crickets.
(''hideous were-crickets'' ;) )
((Seriously, a half cricket, half man is not a pretty picture!))
Wis Save 6
Eric's feet begin to move in rhythm to the music. Before he can even tell what's going on he is dancing beside Shayne. The were-crickets may be hideous, but they certainly can hold a tune.
((Why'd I have to play a less than wise Ranger? It's not like Wis is a class feature or anything. ;) ))
Xylys looks at everybody dancing as if they were a bit round the bend. “I’ve heard that these are the creatures that steal babies and turn them into slaves.”
Arcana. 5
History. 17
He wracks his brain trying to recall anything he has heard about fairies.
”I mean, the Miller has been stolen, well sort of. This place gives me the creepy crawlies.”
Panic is a mechanism that strengthens the gene pool.
(KrivoiRog, roll that Wis save when you get the chance, please.)
Xylys recalls
that putting on his clothes on backwards might help him against fairy magic. So might rubbing or carrying a bit of cold iron. And he should avoid accepting food and drink, lest he fall under an enchantment. But he must also avoid giving offense. Speaking ill of the Fair Folk where they can overhear it is unwise.
He has read of a man who entered Faerie, remained for what seemed a month or so, and returned home to discover that decades had passed in his absence. Whether the tale be true, he knows not.
WIS. 14
Panic is a mechanism that strengthens the gene pool.
The cricket-fairies hop ahead with longer bounds, and Eric and Shayne reel and wheel after them, dancing at a quick trot. Alyna has to hike up her skirts to keep pace. Xylys, recalling what Shayne said about the lights going out if the distance between summoner and orbs grows too wide, lengthens his stride to avoid being left behind in the dark.
The fiddlers lead the party into a clearing and then vanish. Their chirping notes fall silent.
Shayne's conjured lights wink out.
(He may cast the cantrip again, if he likes.)
Eric and Shayne stagger about a moment before recovering their senses and their breath.
Given the unusually symmetrical appearance of the trees, it's hard to say for sure if this place correlates with anyplace on the dayside of the ring. You see no landmarks. And no obvious marks left by Eric or another trailblazer.
A brief walk back down the trail you came in by shows that it now dead ends in a tangle of rotten wood and briars. That obstacle was not something you crossed through on the madcap rush here! But it feels quite real to the touch.
Back in the glade, Eric realizes he has no clear sense of direction. His companions fare no better at telling east from west, north from south. The new moon appears to have moved back toward moonrise while you rushed along the trail under the trees. Or is that toward moonset? The stars have shifted in the heavens, all out of place.
Two other, unexplored trails lead out of the small, grassy clearing, both on the far side from the way you came in.
Shayne draws his flute and begins trying to replicate the enchanting tune. A true bard hoards songs and stories even more than gold and to be able to hear and possibly replicate the melody of true fae kind? Priceless!
Repeating it as best he can several times, he’ll do so yet again to try to burn it into memory, but he’ll also look about to see if his companions have a plan for what to do now.
(Feel free to roll another performance skill check.)
Performance: 15
((Though I expect Shayne cannot capture the magic or even fully the tune... but to even capture the spirit of such a song...))
"Did not know you can dance so well," said Alyna to Eric with an honest admiration. "But I see now why you do not do it more often - we seemed to lose direction. Is this the same glade?"
The mysterious obstacle kind of proved it was not. To be fair, it was obvious from the moment they crossed the circle but one can always hope. Alyna looked at each trail. "Does it even matter which one we choose? Which one, do you think, is the south one? That has to be the one leading to the wagon, or to the place where it is on our side. And to the road, then. But ... which?"
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Shayne's adapted tune isn't identical to the fiddlers', and has no magical effect on the listeners, but it does carry a similar jaunty feeling. With some practice, maybe a few improvements, he'll have acquired a new piece for his repertoire.
A shade of red, similar to autumn leaves, rushes across his face at Alyna's words. "I do not dance. By choice." Quickly changing the topic he replies to her question. "I'm sorry, but things are very different here. I'm afraid I'm of little help here except to keep you all safe. I don't think the rules of nature apply here as they normally do."
“The rules may be different but I’m sure they’re the same,” Shayne says, then considers what he just said for a moment.
“What I mean is, every pub and bar and such offers different foods and drinks and atmosphere, but in the end they all just want to earn some coin. So I’m thinking the stars are maybe different, and the plants and animals, but I’m sure the deep down stuff is still true,” he explains. “Things eat and breathe and sleep and such..,”
“It’s just about noticing and adjusting to the new rules. No?”
Alyna scratched her nose contemplating Shayne's wisdom, and finally simply asked "Which way?"
Meili Liang Lvl 5 Monk
Dice
Xylys looks around. (Does he notice anything that is remotely familiar . . . a landmark of some kind. Perception 18
"Nothing around here is very familiar, in fact, is sort of seems as though we're in a different place altogether, even though we just 'on the other side' of there, as it were."
He shakes his head, sticks a finger in his ear, "The music is off, too>"
Panic is a mechanism that strengthens the gene pool.