Sarah puts out her candle, and stows it (with her flint and steel) in her pack.

"Probally bugs," she says.

Now safely outside, Eoni inspected her arm where she'd felt the prick.  Something had definitely struck her and it was still quite painful.

 Once outside, Marklin  leaned upon his spear and regarded the others.

" Well, that was not very well done of us. We go blundering into there, like mice after cheese. Right, we need at least two torches lit,when we go back in there. The Lad can hold one of them,I don't care who the other one be. The Dwarf and I will take the van guard, you lot follow us, but stay close. We sweep the entire area afore anyone starts collecting weeds,or whatever it be."


 The Warrior regarded the group with a serious expression upon his features.

Once outside, Valthur shrugs out of his backpack and detaches his rope, which hung in a coil from its side. "This blasted rope weighs more than Moradin's anvil," he grumbles, tossing it to the ground. "If you want it, take it."

Once reconfigured, he stares back into the rotten stump, "Whoever they are, they seem pleased with themselves, but they'd be better off letting us pick our mushrooms and go home."

[Private to DM Pawn: 1) Encumbrance is now down to 73lbs, so can move a little better. 2) Dwarves in the basic rules understand goblin, gnome, and kobold - did Valthur by chance recognize any of the chirping as one of those?]

 The Warrior followed the Dwarfs example, and dropped his pack."Aye, but I think their victory celebration,might be a bit premature."

The chirping and chittering within the hollow tree continues for perhaps a minute or so, eventually subsiding to periodic chirps. Whatever language, if such chatter can be considered language, is entirely foreign to all the adventurers' ears.

There is a certain lyrical quality to it though. If only it wasn't connected to sharp, tiny needles.

Speaking of which, now that the excitement has abated, Eoni has an opportunity to inspect her wound. The cleric retrieves a small arrow, about 4 inches long but similar in all other respects to a standard sized arrow. Small, but painful nonetheless.

Eoni held up the tiny arrow for the others to see as she pressed her other hand to the wound.

"It's an arrow," she said in consternation.  "They must be very small.

"Liamm," she asked the boy.  "The creatures you saw before that barked.  They couldn't use something this small, could they?"

The apprentice shakes his head in the negative. "No, they weren't that small. About the size of gnomes." He holds his hand up to a height of about 3 feet. "Except dog-faced and mean looking."

"Not that I got a good long look at them."

[Private to Valthur Ironhelm: Liamm's description of dog-faced gnomes sounds like he is referring to Kobolds, based on Valthur's knowledge.]

  "Let's just go back into the thing and do what we have to do,already. I think my plan has the best chance of success." Said the Warrior.

Sarah says nothing, but waits for the others to re-enter.

While she waits she peers back in, hoping the torchlight enables to see more within.

Yhus shifts his pack on his shoulders and nods his agreement to Marklin’s plan.

“I’ll follow you,” he says to the man “and Pelor’s blessing on us all…”

"Dog faced gnomes sounds like kobolds to me. Nasty little buggars. But that chirping in there isn't kobold. At least not what I've heard." He gives his gear one final adjustment and heads for the entrance. "All right, let's get this over with."

Eoni put the tiny arrow into her pocket and reluctantly prepared to follow the others in.

"Liam," she told the boy, "stay with me in the back.  If Valthur and Marklin can distract them, we'll collect the mushrooms we need."

Trusting in Marklin's judgement, Aldara steps into line, so to speak, behind the soldier and Dwarf.  Her selected dagger is ready to be thrown just in case, but she also takes into account what she's heard of these strange beings the others have encountered.  If she could just see one, and try to put a charm on it...well, things might go better than expected!  Of course, her charm only worked on certain creatures, and if they were as small as she suspected given the size of the shaft Eoni plucked out of her skin, well, manipulations might not work after all.

 "Hold,Master Dwarf. The rest of us do not see in the dark as well as ye"

 Marklin took a brace of torches out of his pack and handed both of them to the boy. He took his flint and steel and started to create sparks near one of the torches,attempting to ignite it. Once that was done, he would have the lad light the second torch with the first.

Eoni wondered why Marklin hadn't just lit his torches from the one Yhus was holding.  Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate that he could light a torch with his flint?

In any case, there would be plenty of light now that he, Liamm, and Yhus had torches.

Now armed with lit torches, the party re-enters the tree's hollow in an attempt to get a better look inside. Valthur leads the way, the tree's interior bathed in flickering light.

Standing just within the entrance, the party observes the following:

No activity is seen within the large mound of mushrooms at the center of the tree and all chirping and chittering comes to an abrupt halt as torchlit pushes away the darkness. Some of the larger mushrooms within the mound are easily 3 feet tall but most are considerably smaller.

At the tree's far northeastern corner is the rope ladder. The knotted rope appears slightly frayed and ragged, but is in fair shape. The wooden slats are covered with mildew and patches of grey moss. The iron spikes set every several feet are pitted and rusty. From this vantage, the party can see that the crude ladder follows the slope of the trunk to a wooden shelf 30 feet overhead. It’s too difficult to tell if the shelf is a separate structure, or the remains of wood not yet rotted away from the interior of the great tree.

In the southwest corner of the tree, a large shelf of fungus stretches 15 feet wide and fills in the entire edge where the dirt floor and wooden wall meet, crawling 10 feet up the wall at the shelf’s highest point. The shelf appears thick and wood-like, with dozens of broad, wrinkled, buckler-sized caps dotting its surface. There’s a strong earthy smell in this section of the hollow, like freshly tilled dirt. The wrinkled surface appears flush and crimson, as if blushing, and stretches ever-so-slightly as if the great broad caps were breathing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:19, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

Valthur proceeds cautiously toward the mushrooms with shield and sword ready. "Keep an eye on that fungus to the left. Something tells me it's dangerous."

Nodding at the Dwarf's statement, Aldara turns her head to the mushroom.  She sets her jaw, mouth still shut, so that her ear canal opens just a little more, and she can hear just a little more... In particular, she is listening for the chattering devil-things.

05:19, Today: Aldara rolled 16 using 1d20 ((16)).

I don't know if anybody else does that to hear things better...

Sarah waits for those ahead of her to move, as they are blocking her.  In the meantime, she looks about, a look of unease plain on her face.

When she is able to progress, however, she does not follow the group; she moves on a more northerly direction.

[Private to DM Pawn:
OOC: No more than 3 boxes straight up from the entrance, if you please.]

 Marklin moved in locked step with Valthur, his shield held before him,spear posed to strike or be thrown. They would move towards the Mushrooms.

As Valthur and others move toward the mushrooms, a tinny voice calls out from the mound, each syllable punctuated by an insect-like crick, chitter or chirp:

"Stay *crick* back! *chirp* We're *chitter* warn *crick* ing *chitter* you! *chirp*"

"Go *chirp* Away *chitter* now! *chitter*"

Nobody sees anything unusual within the mushroom mound. It's as though the mushrooms are doing the talking, but clearly that can't be the case. That is, unless one accepts the fact mushrooms shoot tiny arrow-like projectiles. Anything is possible in the Witchwood, but still.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:25, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

 Amalric was slightly taken aback, he had not been expecting communication. " We just want to pick some of your Mushrooms and such. If you do not attempt to harm us, we will do the same."

"Yes, all we want is a couple of mushrooms," Aldara adds.  "They'll grow back..."

The young girl looks at Marklin and Aldara as they each speak in turn.  Here eyes grow big with alarm as she slowly shakes her head from side to side and she silently mouths the word "no."