As we sit down to camp, following the events of the journey to this point, I have to bring up some matters of concern especially in light of the current situation. Granted, I am aware that it is likely these reports will not get back to Athlin to be seen by anyone. Even if they do get back, it is likely that the ramifications may have already been suffered.
First of all, I would like to note that the dwarven barkeep has apparently withdrawn from his participation in this quest, but instead we have been joined by a half-orc women of a rather curious dialect of the common tongue. A number of the words are unfamiliar to me. For example, I have never heard either of the terms "bros" or "broettes" before. I think they are some manner of honorific and seem to have a friendly implication so for now I will take them as a term of respect. In any case, the half-orc is apparently a paladin of Tymora, so we have some formidable martial talent on our side now.
Now on to other issues, the matter of the various lover's rendezvous spots should be addressed. We had a brief encounter with a young couple that came away from a tryst to find that their clothes had been spirited away. After some investigation I found no signs of anything, fortunately, Miss Crest's tracking skills are superior to my own and she traced the theft of the clothes to a tree which she climbed up to retrieve.
On climbing back down, she reported hearing voices speaking in an unknown language and thought that they might be fae. Given my proficiency in the Sylvan language, I made the effort to climb up and speak to these invisible voices. I proved significantly less capable of climbing the tree than Miss Crest, however. There were sounds which I believe to be repressed laughter mixed with general snickering as I made my attempt. I am sure it would be impolite to theorize as to whom was unconcerned with concealing their humor.
In any case, the activity attracted the attention of a small, monkey-like fey creature known as a duende. I did not get a name. They expressed some pique that we had ruined their prank by recovering the clothes and I made the suggestion that they should use pranks that less potentially harmful such as by changing the colors and patterns of the clothes to something embarrassing like a paisley or something fluorescent. For my trouble the duende decided to alter my shape and spent the next hour stuck in the form of one of these creatures.
The point of the matter is that this young man and woman could easily have run afoul of something much more dangerous than a fey prankster. Especially when we know that undead, weaponized undead deployed by our neighbors across the mountains, are encroaching upon our borders, we should be encouraging the people to avoid such lonely places.
After I had recovered my natural form and we had traveled some distance the light started to fade and we decided to seek out a campsite. By some luck, we found one already in use by a satyr who claimed to be the master of the forest. I had not heard of such an entity before, but I must admit that I have not spent much time looking into local history. I shall have to attend to this lack eventually, it is proving detrimental to my position as an investigator.
I would like to note that from what I can tell, the popular reputation of satyrs as rapacious and lustful manipulators does not seem to be very well-earned. Upon discovering the satyr, I had become concerned that we would be charmed or enchanted into some sort of fey orgy. But it turned out that we had to do more to try to keep that tiefling and the bard from playing havoc with our host. Well, to be honest, most of us simply sat to the side and expressed disapproval while the other two did what they could to confuse and terrify the satyr.
This lasted until the satyr was able to knock that tiefling unconscious and the rest of us settled in for the night. We were interrupted in the middle of the night by a faun being chased by wolves. There were two of the wolves and they did not hesitate to attack us when we were between them and their original prey. Lady TJ was heavily injured to start and both wolves were significantly resilient to attack. Eventually they fell to the bard's magics after weathering several blows and surges of power from the rest of us.
This left the strange matter of the faun. It talked, I asked Miss Crest if such talking animals were common and some attempt was made at talking to the deer as well. Though it was spooked as we started to crowd around it. To be honest, however, I think that that tiefling was looking to make a meal out of the faun so it was probably justified in running.
Note to self: Talk with Hellenae about alternate picnic locations.
No comments:
Post a Comment