To Prove D&D Exists for Echolon

OOC: Will admit, I'm mildly amused by the idea of dragging the evil stump in here and being all "Eat this, maaan! It's good for you...!"

OOC: Ohh yeah, I had forgotten about the stump. It’s probably a mimic, we could capture that for them. ***** can kiss Toots’ grits for the stack of gold though. I mean, we could afford to pay her 37 times over if we wanted to (literally), but ***** be shady AF. And she wants to eat my character.

Tommary the Unworthy Seer of What You're Doing There <whispers to the huddle> "I might not have been paying attention but do Waywatchers have a Prime Directive or does that just apply to the folks Cliffside provides to the larger Seafleet?  In the Vaults of the Above Mountain there was a huge pile of reels about this sort of fraternity of ships that traveled the stars, and while they did cause a lot of explosions and kill other folks with these controlled rays of radiance, they had these rules that cause a lot of internal debate in the operation of the star farers.  I don't know if we have rules like this, but if we were to take the froggy people and give them to the spider people, or at least considered it, that would be a classic the set up for one of them reels, the dilemma of if we should or should not.  They didn't really have coins in that world except on the fringes, I guess, so maybe it's not a good example after all."

[mutter]"We ain't feedin' th' folks that answered our questions and were straight with us t' th' folks who're doin' everything they can to muck with us."[/mutter]

"I don't know if you're speaking from the red shirt of authoritative command or the red shirt of cannon fodder, but I'm just saying the frog people stank and webworld here is sorta cool in a Paul Oakenfold* way. Just saying there's a clear conflict there the Prime Directive would want us to stay clear of, but violating the Prime Directive and taking a side in this conflict would be an ends justifying the means sort of thing, there are almost literally endless boards of text debating these sorts of issues a sort of commentary exegesis produced alongside these star faring reels, presumably produced by the audience, though later editions of the reels seem to be consumed by folks angry about other issues in their world and simply using the reels as a scapegoat against their culture's evolution."

*[OOC] Paul Oakenfold was a well known artificer affiliated with a Wreathe (like teathe but with a wr in place of the t) scene that was adjacent and frequent after party to the Totally Real Undergound Fighting Circuit.  He was most known for innovative use of thaumaturgy and dancing lights to produce webs of sound and light that would often send partiers on "journeys" even if they hadn't ingested some of the monkey dust or spider venom (hey....) available from folks once it was clear you weren't a narc.

[muttering]”The only thing I’ma feed her is a song from my lute….”[/muttering]

A scowl of disgust crosses her features at the mention of trail rations.

"I see you have doubts. You say you are looking for a blade, a hammer, and a trident of mystic powers? I know where one of those can be found." 

“Oh yeah? Prove it.”

 "As a show of good faith," she makes a come along gesture "This way." The woman spider leads you down a web shrouded stone passage that ends in a small room, In the center there is a glowing pool of water. From a pouch she draws a pungent smelling powder and sprinkles it into the water, making it swirl and smoke. 

"Show me the trident..." the mist clears and within the pool there is an image of a trident in a dark place with flickering light, with the points imbedded in rocks.

You can see the image for about a minute before it fades.

"Now how about a downpayment?"

“Well, I’ll have to talk to the others, but I can’t promise anything yet. Among us we might be able to scrounge up the cash… maybe, but we’ll feed no one to you. You’ll eat none of us or ours.”

OOC: Well crew, do we wanna pay up, negotiate for a lower price, offer more cash in lieu of food, offer to capture an animal for them, or some other option?

OOC: Elyona is definitely not willing to feed them anything sentient. Might be willing to hunt something non sentient, although that feels like doing their work for them. She’s not driven by money, so willing to pay for info. 

OOC: Tommary likes money and shiny things, but isn't in it for the money and shiny things, so he'd probably part with coins and expensive baubles in the interest of achieving the greater cool, or the greater awesome.  I mean he's a Rodan cultist, so proximity to destructive forces is part of his drive.

OOC: Rei? What’s your opinion?

OOC: Sorry.  Money's fine, if we have it.  Ilyara doesn't like being broke, but she's been broke for worse reasons.  People, absolutely not.  Evil monsters maybe, but Ilyara will make her own determination on 'evil'.

“Alright, we’re willing to give you the 1,000 gp cash, and have it at our disposal, but the food is another matter entirely. At best we’ll go find you a monster or something to eat and bring it back for you. That’s our best offer. However, in addition to giving us the location of the trident, we’ll want any assistance you could provide by means of either a guide or an introduction to the right people if necessary to gain access to it. Deal?” 

"Agreed. I will provide a guide to where the weapon can be found, and you will return with something for us to...snack upon." She smiles in a way that gives you a chill.

"Bumper! lead the way for these folk to the trident!" the spider with the rock attached, comes forward. It sways side to side patiently.

Then spider woman holds out a small pouch expectantly.

“We’ll alright then.” Toot pulls out 1,000 gold in assorted gold and deposits it into the pouch. “Perhaps you could provide us a length of chain for us to best capture your ‘snack.’”

She puts a finger to her lips and ponders for a second before reaching between her legs. A minute later she pulls forth a ball of webbing which is placed in your hand. It is as expected, sticky, but with a yeast-like odor. "Try that." and gives you a shooing motion.

“Eww. Alright then.” Toots sticks it in her purse.