Complication

Of course, a complication occurs as they prepare for a journey.  The canyon, and then, likely beyond to Sanzi.. the two are in roughly the same direction, the Deluzion Break is just an extended detour.

Since the passage of the Chaos Storm, shipping has returned, the strait which the Guesthouse overlooks has frequent ships, as it is the channel between Momokawahe and the mainland.  But as previously noted, the large ones generally don’t stop here.  Today there is an exception.

The Wishing Star is a big four masted ship that crosses the sea and brings commerce and colonists, but not to here.  To the more populous ports to the south.  But they’ve stopped here, to offload a passenger.

Or… not exactly a passenger.

Arcto discusses the situation with one of the ship’s officers, in a niche off the Guesthouse’s common room that can be closed off for the occasional “private dining”… or meeting such as this.

“Does this look like the kind of place you can simply drop off a stowaway?” he asks.  “We’re a guest house, and not a well populated one at the moment, and there aren’t many work opportunities here in the Breaks.  You could drop her off in a town, couldn’t you?”

“But this one’s… well… they say you were…are… are?... someone interested in the unusual and unworldly.  That’s’ what we’ve got here.  Dropping her off somewhere else may… may not be right.”

Arcto translated “may not be right” as “Could possibly cause trouble, and that would be bad if it was connected to our ship.”  Reputations!

“So she is a mage, and potentially wild…”

“I didn’t say a mage,” the officer said.  “Wouldn’t doubt it.”

“Then what is it?”

“She’s red.”

“Red?”

“Red.  Odd looking.”

Arcto gave a sour look.  His world was full of Fairies, Dwarves, Llamas, and now there was even a Dragonborn hanging around.  Odd Looking meant nothing.  But yes, there were many places in which the unusual was treated with suspicion.  What if this red stowaway ended up in Ushalka?

The wizard interviews the red newcomer.  It was mostly for show, he had already made up his mind, but he wanted to give the impression that it was strictly a provisional thing.

Suspecting a stowaway would be short of funds, he told his new guest the price of board here could be covered if… well maybe she could assist the courageous group of explorers about to investigate the nearby canyon?   Arcto seems to suspect already that she has some useful talents.  He doesn't have to.. all the years he has been here, he's learned a few things.  At the very least, stowing away on a trans oceanic ship and surviving for so long at sea was something taking skill.

He suggests to his new guest that she introduce herself to the party of explorers, and explain that Arcto thinks she could be helpful.

Leysa chuckled as the fairies discussed proper exploring attire. "The device will be quite good for climbing or maybe whacking pesky flies? Best stick close to me, little one." Leysa wasn't overly fond of chaos, but the Fey were things she knew and adored at certain levels. Her patron, after all, was a lord of the Fey.

Adjusting her pack and thumping the ground with her own "walking stick" she grinned at the wild ones. Granted, her stick was tipped with sharp metal and some might call it a spear, but those were details.

The complication chose then to arise and Leysa groaned. She, afterall, didn't like chaos and the unpredictable. Still, being an odd color wasn't something she was prepared to criticize, nor being odd-looking. She'd gotten that pretty constantly since she left her home territories.

Despair wasn't having a very good day. After dealing with the officers of The Wishing Star and being kicked off the ship, she wasn't in the best of moods. She gave Actro no problems however, she answered all of his questions truthfully... Eh... Semi-truthfully. Then she was told to help out some explorers if she was going to earn her keshep. Only just got here and s was already being forced to do something.

Despair walks over to the group. They would see a skrawny looking girl heading towards them, wearing a rather old ill-fitting clothes. She is, in fact, a deep red color, but that was not the only odd thing about her. Among her dark long unkempt hair, on the side of her head, is a pair of curly goat horns, and behind her a long tail. No wonder the crew of the Wishing Star didn't want to be seen at port with her.

Slouched, and relaxed, Despair nonchalantly strolls over to the group of explorers. "Heard you needed help... I can lend my skills as a great adventurer." That doesn't seem true at all. The young red girl barerly even looks armed. She maybe hiding a small weapon, like a dagger or something, under the shaggy old coat, that is defiantly too big for her. Or maybe something in the pack she carries. The only thing that can be seen sticking out of her pack is a pretty nice looking viol. But she is not wielding any sword or significant weapon.

Feel free, my young companion, to free yourself of dread,
Should we encounter bad guys here, just bonk them on the head.

Daladain greeted their new companion with a grin. "Welcome. You look like you don't fit in, so it'll be good to have you along. We could do with some great adventurers!"

He looked at their motley crew. A muscular dragonborn, a poet, a... well a red girl with horns, and himself. Goodness, am I the normal one? He chuckled quietly. This could be interesting!

The Motley Crew also includes a pair of adventurous fairies.  Sure, they are only about a foot tall, and the most ferocious wild beast they'd be a match for in melee is a squirrel, but Firefern and Petunia have...

Well...

Hmm....

Moxie?  Spunk?  Petunia, at least, has lots of enthusiasm.  Firefern is motivated by a sense of responsibility:  keep Petunia away from too much trouble.

Now that everyone is together the choice of route is the important next step.

You can:

1)  Descend to the base of the canyon here, where it meets the sea at the base of the cliff, then travel inland through the smoke.

2)  Travel along the canyon's edge- extremely hard terrain this way- and search for another way down.

3)  Travel along the road to Stonebell, then turn towards the canyon, and look for a way down.

Leysa smiled at the new arrival and nodded in agreement to her companions' assessments, "Well met and welcome." She then smirked at the fairies and turned to the others, "I don't mind either the idea to meander along the canyon edge or to descend here. I am not overly eager to travel to yet another city. Though dwarves do seem intriguing. I have not met one before. They can't be any worse than fairies or carnivorous corn."

She smirked again and sat down for the discussion. The chair creaked audibly under her weight, so she sifted to alleviate some of it. Her tail traced a slow circle on the floor behind the chair as she let her gaze travel between their company. An odd six indeed.

I feel it best if we descend here,
Although the air isn't so clear,
And though we might up and choke,
We might solve the mystery of the smoke.

Daladain shrugged. “Descending here sounds fine, we can get started straight away. Shall we get going, or does anyone need to do anything first?”

The cliffs facing the straight, upon which the Guesthouse is perched, stretch for many miles of coast.  Canyons cut through them.  These are the Breaks.  Deluzion Break is among the longest, and deepest, but is surprisingly narrow at the seaward entrance in relation to its height.

At its base, it is significantly warmer than it is at the top.  Fortunately it is still Spring- Summer can be hot in Montebon, especially at sea level.  Water flows through the base of the canyon- it's one of those things that would be called a stream or brook in the eastern USA, and a river in Texas or California- only a few feet deep at the deepest.  The whole base of the canyon here is paved in smooth round stones of varying hues.  Barnacles cling to some.  The water is clear... except... every now and then, there is a swirl of iridescent colors.

According to Firefern, this is Chaos in the water.  Not much left, because the storm is now a week in the past.

"Sometimes, Arcto gathers.. well not any more, he sends the others... but they collect it," Firefern says.  "He can make things with it."

Here, the canyon is only about fifty feet across.  It gets wider further in, they can see that from here.  Due to bends, though, they cannot see the source of the smoke.

Onward we press, to get to the smoke,
Hoping the hole thing just isn't a joke.

A few hours was long enough, so Leysa crouched by a pond with a swirl of color in it and studied the phenomenon for a few moments. She took the time, muttering arcane words, to cast a ritualized detect magic to further inspect the pool.

11:04, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 13 using 1d20+2.  perception.
11:03, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 21 using 1d20+2.  nature.
11:03, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 16 using 1d20.  arcana.

After her inspection, she turned to the others and spoke,  "We'd best clear this area before the high tide come in, unless you fancy swimming through the Break." Using her spear like a walking stick, she started picking her way through the path into the canyon. She tried to avoid the slippery footing in the stream.

You can tuna fish and you can tune a lute,
but a drowning bard would be quite mute.

Leysa smirked at Lysander, "is that an argument for going faster or an argument against it?" She chuckled as she continued her ascent, determined not to witness any drowning bards this day.

Walking is a little slower here than over even ground.  Round rocks slide underfoot; Leysa's big Dragonborn feet offer a little advantage, and Despair has a lighter frame than most and doesn't feel it so much... the two fairies don't feel it at all.

As they walk in, the signs of water depth on the canyon walls- barnacles, stray clumps of kelp- become lower and lower, disappearing entirely after they've walked in for about 20 minutes.  From here on in, the tidal bore doesn't fill the whole of the canyon, just the water course running down the middle of it.

The canyon twists, and widens, although the walls are still extremely steep.

They are about an hour and a half in, and the Fairies are getting tired.  Petunia hitches a ride on Lysander's pack.  She appreciates the verse.

That's when they see it.  It's flying in the canyon, still about a quarter mile ahead of them- from here, they can see that it is humanoid, wingless, and bending and twisting in ways that would suggest very alien joints, or maybe no joints at all.  With no wings at all it is flying, but in a very erratic way.  Like they described it:  a leaf blown by random gusts of wind.  It is too far to make out much detail.

It seems the mystery is flying just before our face,
But not a bird or dragon, for it lacks the grace.
I seems to get a better look we onward march the shore
And hope it won't attack us as so many things before.

Leysa happily hums as she works her way over the rocky terrain. The added weight of a fairy hardly makes a difference but she is more careful to not unseet the woman from her pack. As she walks along, she studies the rocks, plants, and anything else she spies curiously. The area seems far less affected by the presence of the chaos storms but that could be misleading. She checks the water periodically for signs of it, but assumes the free-flowing water would have washed it all to the tidal pools by now.

At Lysander's words, she raises her eyes to strangely contorting shape and cocks her head to the side just like an overly grown but curious lizard might. Her tongue rakes over her dry lips and then she looks to her shoulder at Petunia, "And how aggressive are they? It might be best for you and Firefern to go invisible and hide near the cliff walls if the answer is 'very.'"

"Windrazors are stupid and pointless and very nasty," Petunia replies.  "Arcto says they come from another place which is all wind and caves.  If you're a fairy, the best thing is to hide in a tiny place they can't get to.  So we will."

"That won't be so easy for Leysa, or any of the others," Firefern points out.

"But it's only one of Windrazer," Petunia says.

It seems to keep it's distance, a far distance, as the group makes steady progress.

Away from the sea the canyon floor offers much steadier footing. It's not longer loose tumbled stones- here it's bare rock, with stretches of flat sandy soil between.  There are some short, scrubby looking trees with fat greyish branches.

The Fairies recognize them.

"Coldwood!"

And then, the Windrazer ducks out of sight.

Lysander will look around to see what apparently spooked the windrazor.

The way that thing lit out of hear,
You'd think it ran away in fear.
I feel we must step lively now,
Or we might end up in a row.

Leysa only nodded to Lysander's whimsy and rhyme as she scanned the sky. Things which moved so randomly-looking a that could hardly move the way it had to her mind, "Do they have any predators?" She grit her teeth and nodded at the fairies riding Lysander's pack or floating about, "Aye, hide at the first sign of trouble. We'll handle it if we can."

Leysa moved forward very carefully now, keeping her eyes on the sky and the ground as much as possible. She also watched for any caves nearby.

As the move along, Firefern explains that Coldwood is rare and valuable, probably brought in by the Chaos Storms.  They know that many magic plants exist in this wilderness (which Firefern pronounces oddly, stressing the Wild... WILDer-ness.)

"It doesn't ever come to the Chaos Farm, maybe that's because it knows it's not a farm plant.  It's a rare magical plant.  So if we want to take some wood we have to be careful and only take a little.  It's the only wood that gives off cold instead of heat when it burns.  Arcto is fascinated with it."

"I think they want to handle the Windrazer first," Petunia says.

"It's gone," Firefern replies.  "Maybe we scared it."

Moving along, the going gets easier... and they are getting closer to the source of the smoke.  It's not burning now, whatever it was.

And as the move along... there is the Windrazer again.  And how nice, it brought a friend.  Now there are two of them.  This time, they aren't just maintaining their distance.  They are headed for the party.  Still not in a straight line, still erratic, but erratic with a purpose, like a butterfly crossing a field.

Daladain kept up a good pace. Though he wasn’t used to adventuring in the wild this strange place seemed to inspire him, the chaos of it made him feel at home, more so than the city streets where he was raised. The colours in the water fascinated him, the forms swirled and changed constantly, sometimes he could detect a pattern, sometimes it just seemed random.

The strange creatures worried him. Windrazors, the fairies called them. They didn’t sound friendly, or gentle, so he did his best to keep his distance. But then there were two...

He turned to the fairies. “Are those things scared of anything? Maybe we can spook them so they leave us alone.”

Lysander asks the fairies,
"While they fly with grace and charm,
do you think the intend us harm?"

"Blast." She glanced at the fairies then at the others and shook her head. "Whatever the case, we lack the resources to be so cavalier about them. They are known to be aggressive. Perhaps, we can scare them off at distance?"

She glanced back and considered the case of the strange bush. The information the fairies had shared was interesting and she wanted to investigate the plant herself, but not with aggressive carnivores nearby. And there was no mistaking the creatures' interest in them now.

"Let's see what they think of this?" Leysa spoke a few eldritch words of power which summoned a ball of green energy to her hand. She did not yet release it, but waited for the creatures to come in range. As she waited she uttered a prayer that invoked the forces of nature to give her a glimpse into the ebb and flow of nature in the area. "You fairies may want to hide now."

Just going to get to it. If they come into 120' range still seeming to head right for them, she will blast at one. She has cast guidance upon herself anticipating combat.

18:05, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 6 using 1d10.  damage.
18:05, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 18 using 1d20+5.  attack.

Well that's done it.

They're definitely angry now.  Fortunately they weren't prepared for a "ranged fight".  The two creatures aim themselves, and with the long claws flashing at the ends of their gangly arms, begin their attack run.

The fairies seem to be up to something as well... though they are hiding behind a large bush at the edge of the canyon floor, Firefern and Petunia are excitedly chattering to each other.


 
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:55, Thu 31 Dec 2020.