By this time Pemberil is wondering just how long Lysander can rhyme.

"I'd take everyone through the citrus grove," the Halfling says, but then he might hunger for an orange, and be in trouble.

He turns to Tamara.  "I know there are more but I don't venture out that far, and when I do it's along the beach.  It's pretty easy to get lost in the forests.  Some of the people here go out there, for hunting and other things.  And, it's not my place to lead you out of the village.  If anything happens... oh, I'll have a lot to answer for!  Little Kahuna, WHAT did you do with our guests?  Out THERE?  With CROCODILES and BANDICOOTS and... well to be honest a Bandicoot's not that much of a threat, but they look a lot larger when you're a lot smaller."

He looks back towards the village.  "Yes, that's for other people.  We should go back, I think.  There was all that music going on, we left before the Chief and his wife showed up to listen.

He leads the little troop back to the village.

"Oh, a few cultural things I should mention," he says.  "Our Chief is Teleki.  If the Chief gives you something, it's not a payment, no reciprocity is expected.  It's the mana thing, generosity is power and all, he's expected to make a public show of it.  The more you give, the greater you are, it's Honoan culture.  Shell strings are money.  Not a lot of money, I think the going trade is a string is about a copper piece. But then, considering you can just pick the shells off any good beach you can't expect much currency value out of them, can you?   Also, the real person with power here is the Chief's wife.  The Honoans believe that woman carry the bloodline, not the men, which I guess makes sense since women can be a lot more certain about who their children are.  She is a magic user, and the one who helped your boat in.  They call her a Wave Tamer, most of her magic is water related.  Her mother is our healer, so maybe there's truth to the bloodline thing.  It's like a troupe of musicians back home, the guy in front may be doing all the talking and smiling but he's not the one really doing the thinking."

"A citrus grove would be mighty fine, if you think we have the time,
We could maybe get and orange, or a grapefruit, or a lime."

Lysander gives a wry grin.

Mary tries to keep notes of these cultural things in her mind,"Wait, so the chief would give us a reward even if we singed horribly. Maybe if we do our best we could be rewarded with all the shells we could want, or maybe they could give us a giant fish, mmh."

Here, we skip a little bit of time.

By late afternoon, the party has toured, talked, and gotten a pretty good idea of what life is like in this little village.

It's not that isolated a place.  It's part of the Honoan Federation, so named because it has no "supreme chief", just eight (or nine, depending on how they count) major chiefdoms that settle things out in slow and awkward meetings.  It's only a 12 hour sail to the nearest significant town, Palau, which means the people here travel back and forth frequently- for socializing and trading, generally.  It's also two days to the Elven port of Lighttree, and sometimes they travel their as well.

They travel over the sea with far greater confidence and speed than over land.  In fact, they don't even bother going into the forest interior of their island.  The prime real estate for settling and living has always been the waterfront.  They know every inch of beach, but there are broad gaps in the knowledge of inland.

Partly because the party is here, the Chief, Kaleke, has announced a "festive dinner" for them.  This is a lot like a normal dinner, but with more food, better food, and music- the Chief has expressed a desire to hear the music of the visitors.  This small village frequently has group meals, as its just easier that way, and much more efficient.  But this has an air of specialness about it, and it even draws in people from the smaller settlement along the beach a few miles to the north.

It's not nearly so bland as breakfast.  There is fish, more fish, fruit of many kinds, rice, and of course, coconut in several forms, including dessert.

The party has been warned to expect a show of generosity.  In addition to seeing that the guests have lots to eat, the chief has the younger members of his family present the guests with shell necklaces and flower garlands.  Everyone gets a rope as well- except the ropes are not just ropes, they apparently serve a decorative function, as they have bright shell beads strung through them.

Between the end of the tour and the beginning of the festival, Lysander will take some time to teach Leysa a couple of songs, inviting Gunnar to join on the drums on the faster one.  He writes out the words to a slower song, about love and loss and asks Mary to try singing them.  There is magic in the words that will cause anyone who listens to work hard not to shed a tear.  This is why you follow up with an uptune.  Play the emotions, and you can control the reaction.

Mary appreciates Lysander's help in everyone's performance. Even though she's not used to the more romantic songs, she memorized them well and does enough practice to match the rhythm of it. When their performance is up, she matches everyone's beats and even helps out those that are having problems in their role.

10:09, Today: Mary Strawburn rolled 24 using 1d20+5+6.  Performance Check.
Editor's Note: Lysander gave me inspiration, so my check has been increased.

This message was last edited by the player at 03:00, Thu 13 Aug 2020.

Leysa shows little interest in the romance of the song or manipulating the emotions attached to the feeling, but she does pay rapt attention to the harmonics and tone. Still, she seems unable to align herself with a tone of romanticism. Simply put, she doesn't connect to the song. The more energetic tunes fit her temperament much better and she bounces and sings them easily.

Still, she cries with glee and hugs Mary when the other woman sings the slower tune.

10:18, Today: Leysa the Emerald rolled 21 using 1d20+3.  performance.

Lysander is glad for the others being there, as he didn't have his best day, but the tune will not suffer for his less appealing performance.


12:44, Today: Lysander rolled 13 using 1d20+5.  Performance.

In reply to Leysa the Emerald (msg # 88):

Mary returns the hug to Leysa,"Hey, not bad for your first performance. And you had fun so that's a good job in my book." she says and gives her a thumbs up, then turns toward the chief,"Oh great chieftain, we ask in your generosity to generously regale us a tale of a dark and shapeless beast that you all know well enough."

Sorry that I'm sort of skipping you Gunnar but in my defense you haven't log in for a few days

The people of Rapatua are an "easy crowd" for musicians- they aren't critics, and they like listening to music from other places.  It's a rare opportunity for them, as they don't get many visitors aside from their fellow Honoans.

They applaud their visitors wildly, and answer with their own music, and dance, because for them the two arts are linked.

And then, at last, Mary asks about... that.

Chief Kaleke looks at "Little Kahuna" Pemberil.  The Halfling shrugs and says "I may have given them a few tidbits, they were very curious."

Then the chief sighs, and takes his place in the middle of the group.

"It is not a pleasant thing to speak of," he says.  "There is no happy ending to this tale, yet.  It begins a few years ago.  Before the arrival of Little Kahuna, after the departure of the Elf Druid Rathal from Lighttree.  We had some good seasons with the Chaos farm, we had hoped to tame ours the way the people of Montebon tamed theirs.  It brought us wealth in trade, and good times.  Rathal said it was dangerous, that we might bring plants that upset the balance here, plants that would spread across the island as invaders.  We promised him we would be alert for such things.  If the people of Montebon could manage, so would we.

"And then, something brought sickness to our crops.  All the signs of magical attack, you can see it today, the circles of death in the forest.  I searched with parties of warriors for the evil magician doing this with our best warriors but we were not able to find them.

"Every time a crop came in, it happened... yet, it was not what Rathal had warned.  It was not of the chaos farm, it was something else, coming from the deep forest, past the bamboo thickets, to attack it.  Several times we saw the shadows moving through the forest.

"It must have feared us because it used its evil conjurings to make plant-things to attack us, made out of our own crops.  These are made with magic but they are not magic, they are mortal.  We have fought them, and ordinary weapons can kill them.  But several times we have been close to the plant killing magic being.  It appears as a mass of gray, shapeless as a jellyfish on the beach, but more deadly.  If it touches you, you will weaken and tire.  It takes the life from you.  Not as fast as it does from plants, but some.  We have hit it with arrows and spears and a harpoon.  Our weapons do not harm it.  My wife has been trying to make some magic that might help, but she is a water shaper, and water magic is not strong for fighting creatures on land.

"It is a shapeless thing, but it does have substance.  When it moves, it bends and pushes the plants like a man passing through the forest, though it leaves no tracks.  Weapons can hit it, they just do not hurt it.  One day, the gods will let us have the magic we need to slay the thing, and we will hunt it down and kill it.  Until then, it kills our crops, and our village struggles even though it could be prosperous.  But I can tell you, it is not what the Elf Druid warned us of, it is not created by the Chaos Farm.  This we know!"

Leysa listened carefully. The story she heard made sense to her in many ways; it was confusing in many others. Frowning, she stroked her chin and withdrew a bit to ponder the situation.

Eventually, she looks at the chief and smiles. It's a fangy thing. "I am sure we have plenty of magic. Perhaps we can help?" Leysa did fancy herself a guardian of the natural world.

Mary chuckles quietly to herself as she listen to the chief's tale and nods toward Leysa as she spoke,"Yep, our party has a lot of magic users but if that sort won't work, you can always count on pure strength. But such a foe makes me want to prove my mettle even more, so today is your lucky day chieftain, cause the gods have sent us to handle your plant problem." she says with a lot of confidence.

Lysander looks wistfully and says,
"Though you look to solve this thing, your life is focused the seas,
But it seems this problem needs someone to look among the trees."

Mary has achieved the Honoan "Mic Drop" and suddenly has the full attention of all of them.

"Can't back out or even talk about it now," Pemberil says very quietly.  "Once you've gone and pointed to the gods, you're in it, or you'll be neck deep in bad mana for life!"

It's a point well understood by the Honoans.  A wiry looking older woman stands up- her skin is the same deep bronze as most of the others, but her hair has gone to silver, and her arms sport a variety of tattoos.  She walks towards Mary.

"I am Tiakowene," she says, "mother to the wife of the chief, I am the healer to this village.  Your taking of this burden is brave and generous, may it be granted with success.  But you do not know the land here.  No one knows it well, as we have not been here for a long time.  Chief Kaleke knows the land near the village, and though you have stated that you must do this, so too he must go as well.  For guidance, and for the fact that it is not for him to pass on this burden completely to guests."

The chief nods.

Tiakowene continues.  "I am a healer, I have magic, but I am too old for exploring through forests.  If you are hurt you must return to me here."

One of the younger men of the village raises a question:  "Where do you even begin?  The island is wilderness, the forests are deep, trackless..."

"Not trackless," Chief Kaleke says.  "We know, where this enemy passes, even when it does not use its magic, the plants are hurt by it.  One who knows the health of plants can see where it has been."

"Well that's lucky," Pemberil whispers, looking at the Druid.

"Tonight, eat and rest and make ready," the Chief says.  "Bring more food! There is no need to hold back now! Tomorrow we shall track and kill this enemy of our crops."

“Hurray!” Robyn called out trying to do his part to lift everyone’s spirits. “Feast then kill the beast! Feast then kill the beast!” Although he suspected that he would be all but useless on this quest. Weapons without magic were said to be useless, and Robyn carried no magic at all. Well, perhaps the opportunity would arise that he could help in some other way.

Tamara smiled and shook her head at the others' antics over tying them all up in a quest to kill this unknown threat to the island.  Still it was doing things to the natural life here that shouldn't be allowed to continue.  So she would go along with their plan.

"Innas lend a dag i um."

Mary was quite proud of her declaration and triumphantly eats the food. She has absolutely no magic other then her minor healing and divination abilities(Divine Senses), but her confidence is undaunted by the task at hand,"I've got your back everyone, this shapeless beast won't know what him. Hey, maybe this is a good time for me to practice on my smiting skills, I'm still working on that." she says hopefully, taking a long sip of her coconut milk.

They have a pre-quest feast with the inhabitants of Rapatua, with fish, coconut, more coconut (in pudding form), fruit, and various tropical island delicacies.

Rum begins making the rounds, and after helping himself, Pemberil offers some to "Fellow Halfling" Robyn.

"One Halfling to another," he says, "a few things... one, the rum is very good here.  If more people visited here I'd open up a little beachfront pub, combine the best of Rapatua and the Halfling life.  It'd be very popular with Halfling travelers I think.  I'd have those candlenut torches and tikis all around and open bar under a thatch roof.

"The other thing... beware of the tall folk getting us in over our heads.  Which is very easy considering the altitude of our heads.  We were never meant to be dragon slayers.   If you need some torches and things for the hunt, I've got them.  Also, it's a fair bet they're going to make you do the scouting, because we get around in some of those thick plant area better than they do.  Especially if you get into bamboo.  It's thick and strong and the big folk get exhausted pushing through it when its thick.   Still, carry a good chopper, like the kind they use to cut sugar cane and open coconuts. "

The chief makes plans to send some scouts and hunters on a "perimeter check" in the morning, to see if there are any fresh afflicted areas.  That would be a good way to start the hunt, he says.

But for the rest of the evening, it's eat and drink and listen to music and watch the dancing.

In the morning, the hunt will begin.

Robyn thanked Pembril for his advice. Fire might come in handy against the creature if only to keep it corralled so that they could find a way to bring it down. And the advice about the bamboo was welcome as well. Robyn was familiar with scouting, but one of those chopping blades could be very useful.

“Maybe you should start on that beachfront pub project.” Robyn suggested. “If we have success with chaos farming for this queen in Monteban, it could mean more people there. Which could mean more visitors here as well. And I will need a few ventures to keep me busy. Learning to make this rum sounds like a good one to start. And if I learn to do it well, I might be able to help keep your pub supplied.”

Mary strums her guitar, enjoying herself in the festivities, but when it's time to sleep she goes in deep prayer. Once morning arises, she's brimming with enthusiasm and starts singing merrily to herself,"We're going to hunt a monster down. Lob his head and throw it in a soup. That sounded pretty dark when I said it out loud."

"To hunt a monster is our goal
and it's just for heads to roll,
But putting it into the soup,
you might as well just add his poop."

Tamara makes sure to stick to the non-alcoholic drinks for the most part, but does enjoy taking part in the various foods and even dances with the locals.

Leysa tries some of the more adventurous drinks but finds them unsatisfying. She politely declines more. When pressed, she is rather insistent on it. She eats plenty of food though, enjoying the coconut immensely, and talks happily all night. In moments of silence, she feels apprehension for the coming days' adventure.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 14:00, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

Lysander will play one more song as things seem to start slowing down.  Knowing it will be an early morning, he plays a song intended to make people melancholy.

A few of the other warriors of the village offer to join in this quest, but the chief tells them not to.

"I must go.  If this fails, you will be needed here, for whatever must be done next.  You know as well as I do that the enemy is magical, a few more spears will not decide this battle."

There is protest, but Pemberil quietly explains this is a social formality at this point.  They must protest or be seen as cowardly.  And of course, they know that Chief Kaleke must deny them.

The warriors give their regrets about not accompanying the Chief on the hunt, and agree to his instructions.

The evening festivities wind down, and people drift off to their homes to go to sleep.  Almost everyone here lives right on the beach, so it's a simple thing.  A few visitors from farther north along the shore hop in their canoe and paddle away- quicker and easier than walking!

The characters spend their second night on the island.

At this point we move to a new thread, The Hunt.  I'm going to make the old threads public as we move along to the new ones, so everyone can read each other's past adventures!