Kingmaker: Here Comes the Cavalry! (IC)

[Tsumeken]

Fae'l stayed near the back of the group as they approached the hut. She too decided to take heed of Fermor's words and began to look about for anything that may try to impede their progress.

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taking 20 only with Perception though

(damn server error thing triple posted me... other posts deleted still though wtf)

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Shouting out towards the hut,

"Or at the very least, could you show signs that you are friendly! The mysteriously nostalgic smells worry us some, so it would be best for someone to come out or go inside!
I'll give you 10minutes to respond, and then I'll come inside!"

She then turns to the party,

"The 10minutes can also be used to check around for any other traps or signs of life. Though uncovering things is not my forte' so I'll just wait here."

Maple then walks up to the Hut, and stands 20ft away with her arms crossed.

[Lost Demiurge]

A muffled voice calls out from the hut.

"Go away! I've already paid my potion tax this month! I think. Wait, is it Arodus still? Or is that month already done with?"

The door opens a crack, and a greybearded old human face peers through. Bloodshot eyes focus on Maple. "You're awfully short for a bandit. Well, at least you're not one of those blue jabberers. What do you want? And what smells like turkey around here?"

[Tsumeken]

Fae'l let out a slight sigh of relief at seeing the occupant of the hut was just an old man. She has always been good at talking to poeple so she thought she might give it a try here too.

(Diplomacy Check)

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(1d20+11)[24]

"We're sorry to disturb you sir, we have been looking for a group of small reptilian like creatures in the area, kobolds I think they are called. We worried that you hut was either a small outpost or trap. Unfortunately I cannot answer what you are smelling though."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"By any chance do these bandits you speak of fly under the Stag Lord's flag? In particular, are the bandits that tax you lead by a Duergar? For we are the charter that has been sent to purge these lands of their villainy and have already succeeded on ending the lives of Bandit Leaders Kressel and Falgram."

Maple does her evil detection after finishing her monologue.

[Lost Demiurge]

"Ha! Trick question! Nothing smells like turkeys because those little blue guys took my turkeys!"

He picks an ear with his pinky. "I don't think they're kobolds, though. They're not scaly. Big eyes. Jabber a lot. Use tiny catapults on my walls." He points to the side of the door, and sure enough there are caltrops embedded in the walls, and a bunch of pockmarks here and there.

"Eh? What?" he frowns at Maple. "Bandits are bandits are bandits. Bunch of them come by every month and demand free potions or my turkeys get it BUT THE JOKE'S ON THEM NOW! NO MORE TURKEYS!"

Maple

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Nope, not evil.

[SamBurke]

Fermor nods quite sagely. "Aye, quite so... sorry t' hear about the loss o' your turkeys... Perhaps we could help? Clean up the lot around here who keeps trying to kill them in the first place, get everything back in order? How does that sound, ye old soul?"

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"I'm sorry to hear about the Turkeys, though we might be able to retrieve them back. Or at least find Turkey replacements along the way.
...
What were we talking about again?
...
Ah yes, maybe you can aid us. As a person who has probably lived here for some time, what can you tell us about this area and where these blue creatures might have gone."

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Diplomacy: (1d20+8)[18]

"At the very least, I'd like to introduce myself. I am Maple Leafsinger, a Mortal Sword of Sarenrae. And how may we address you good sir."

[Sithis]

Alistar

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Gah! I don't keep track of the game for a day and all sorts of stuff happens!

As always, Alistar had traveled in wolf form to attempt to sniff out trouble. And as the rest of them investigated the hut and spoke with the man inside, Alistar poked around nearby, attempting to see what he could find.

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Making Perception and Survival checks to see what he can find.

Perception
(1d20+7)[20]

Survival (+4 if this counts as far a the wolf's bonus to survival when using Scent)
(1d20+7)[25]

[Morbis Meh]

Brin sits awkwardly atop her mount, the babblings of this obviously disturbed old man were unsettling her deeply though she could understand distress at the loss of his prized turkeys. She made she to stay as far away from the shack as she could, with the recent explosion still fresh in her mind she is simply content to look out at the horizon and watch for any funny business instead of trying to talk sense into a loony old man.

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might as well scan the horizon for this blue fiendish smurfs! Thank god we have yet to run into Carebears!
perception (1d20+11)[13]

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Great, so not only are we facing a Duergar that is a cleric to some evil god hiding in a cave filled with traps. He and his gang also have several potions that can help them.
What kind of potions did you give them?

Oh, and what is your name and who is this Arodus you're talking about?
I'm Roqoan by the way."

[Lost Demiurge]

The man blinks at Fermor and Maple. "Oh, you're wandering weirdos who are gonna kill everyone who bothers me? Sure!" He lets the door open fully, and tucks a large bottle of something green and bubbling back on a table.

"So those little blue guys are new. They dug a hole out east of here. I thought it was gophers, but they've chased me around a few times and tried to kill me with darts. Really painful darts! I call them MURDER DARTS! And they stole all my turkeys a few years back! The blue guys, not the murder darts."

He picks his ear again. "The bandits have been around a while. I give them a few potions every month, they leave me alone." He glares at Roqoan. "Well, Croakin, if you don't like I gave them potions you shoulda been here to kill them! Where were you?!?! Off consorting with blue guys, making murder darts for them, I'll bet. And Arodus is the proper name for the month. Unless the month's over."

His somewhat unfocused eyes look back to Maple. "Oh. Caper Leapstinger. Okay. I'm Bokken. They call me Bokken the hermit. Say, you sound friendly. Did I ever tell you about my brother?"
BRIN

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The horizon is clear of problems. Nice day, really... Though it'll be dark in about two hours.

ALISTAR

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Well, there were definitely turkeys here a few days ago. And the old man's scent, a mix of crazy and chemicals, is all over the place. But your keen nose turns up something else...

You find small tracks, smaller even than Maple's. Not tiny, but perhaps half her size. They're around the outskirts of the property, and most of them head back in the direction of the hole. Along with some turkey scent.

The tracks smell like a mix between bugs and sweaty, fear-laden gnomes. But not gnomes. Hmm... You're willing to wager that these are fae of some sort. Now what do you recall about fae...

KNOWLEDGE: NATURE 16

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Oh, these are probably Mites. Mites are small little cowardly evil fae who live in burrows and enjoy torturing helpless things. They're nasty little vermin, and even other fae don't have problems killing them. They're a LITTLE resistant to non-iron sources of damage, but it usually doesn't matter because a strong punch will kill one. They're also overly sensitive to light, due to their freaky-large eyes.

They have been known to tame and hang out with giant bugs that are vastly more dangerous than they are, though. And occasionally use poisons that leave a victim helpless temporarily... Long enough to be bound and drug off into a burrow for a bad death that takes days...

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Brother, who might he be? Was he a man that brewed potions like you, or did he follow a different path?"

[Lost Demiurge]

"What? Potions? No. Hard as it may be to believe... My brother was CRAZY."

He grimaces. "I know, right? At least it didn't run in the family."

He shows his left hand. His ring finger's a stump. "My brother cut off my finger right after he murdered our mother! Then he ran away south to go live in a hollow tree. That's what the faeries tell me, anyway. He's a murderous jerk! Don't trust him, he's CRAZY!"

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Nice to meet you Rock-On the hermit." Roqoan says with a smile.
"How dangerous are these murder-darting blue guys? Because if we could perhaps help you with them, perhaps you could help us with some potions or other usefull things?"

[Lost Demiurge]

Roqoan

"Nice to meet you Rock-On the hermit." Roqoan says with a smile.
"How dangerous are these murder-darting blue guys? Because if we could perhaps help you with them, perhaps you could help us with some potions or other usefull things?"

"Well, they're dangerous to me! But I'm not a bunch of wandering weirdos. Heavily armed wandering weirdos. But they mainly throw darts and run after me with shanks. Aim's lousy. But I can't go out at night any more, since they're sneaky."

"Sure, if you help get my turkeys back or chase off the little blue guys I'll throw you some healing potions that didn't come out right. They work fine, I mean, healing and all, but they taste gross is all. That's what I get for not using enough fangberries. Geh, what I wouldn't give for more of those..."

[SamBurke]

Fermor thinks for a moment. "What is your brother's name? Sounds like we'll want to avoid him if we meet him. And you say you need fanberries...?" He turns to Brin and whispers, "What do you know about fangberries..? Can we get some?"

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An easy miniquest if you ask me *if* they're easy to come by.

[Sithis]

Alistar

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Finding out what I recall about Fae.

Knowledge(Nature)
(1d20+6)[10]

Edit: Apparently nothing. Sadness.

Alistar spends another moment sniffing around before lopping over to the rest of the group and changing back into a man. "There's definitely been something weird running around here recently. If I had to guess, I'd say some sort of Fae. Not sure what for certain though."

[Lost Demiurge]

"Yeah, fangberries, you get me some I'll make three potions of your choice. Not huge ones, mind."

BRIN

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Give me a gardening or plant-related skill roll if you want to find out what you know about fangberries, please.

Bokken scrunches up his face, at Fermor's inquiry. "My brother! That *****! His name is-"

Alistar spends another moment sniffing around before lopping over to the rest of the group and changing back into a man. "There's definitely been something weird running around here recently. If I had to guess, I'd say some sort of Fae. Not sure what for certain though."

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

Bokken slams the door!

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Right.....
So, i guess we're going to look for those fae you smelled, Alistar?"

[Sithis]

Alistar

Alistar is looking more than a bit embarrassed at this point. "Errrm....sorry about that. It's been a while since I've had to worry about scaring someone. But yah, the Fae were over this way, if you guys wanted to investigate it." He vaguely indicates the area he caught the scent.

[Morbis Meh]

Fangberries? Hmm let me see...

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profession gardener...?
(1d20+11)[16]
wow luckily these terrible rolls are for skill checks!

[Tsumeken]

Fae'l worried about the man, and if he would come through with his deal on potions after seeing Alistar's transformation. Seeing as they were thought to be dealing with Fae she muttered a small incantation to allow her to see and magical auras that the creatures may use.

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Casting Detect Magic

[Lost Demiurge]

BRIN

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Fangberries are wild berries that are hard as hell to cultivate. They need JUST the right mix of moisture in the air and dry soil. They're often found at the break between hills and forests.

They're called fangberries for the three-inch-long thorns that protrude from their bushes. It's difficult to harvest them without taking some serious scratches.

They're said to have some use as alchemical reagents, but you don't know much about alchemy. They're also said to be pretty delicious.

TSUMEKEN

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You see a few magic auras around some of your companions from their items/spells/effects, but nothing else at the minute.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin looks up at Fermor "Fangberries are a difficult breed of plant to grow and cultivate and even more annoying to harvest. They are said to have alchemical properties, that is not my area, and are used as an artificial sweetener. I myself have never tasted them, they are a rather ugly plant so i never bothered to grow them. I personally prefer Snozberries, a much lovelier plant with a gorgeous flower that blooms at dawn and the berries are a lovely shade of red and they don't have pits!"

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Well, whatever those fangberries may be, they're probably not going to be near this hut or else the crazy hermit would have gotten them himself. Let's just keep our eyes open for the berries while exploring.
Why don't we go see what the hole with the mites is all about first. Or should we just ignore them for the moment and keep looking for the kobolds?"

[Morbis Meh]

Roqoan

"Well, whatever those fangberries may be, they're probably not going to be near this hut or else the crazy hermit would have gotten them himself. Let's just keep our eyes open for the berries while exploring.
Why don't we go see what the hole with the mites is all about first. Or should we just ignore them for the moment and keep looking for the kobolds?"

Brin thinks for a moment "We should deal with them now, better to not have something sneaking up on us in the dark... I suggest flooding them out that is what we used to do in our fields when we had gophers."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Very well, let us head out in search. Which ever creatures we come across first, whether Murderdart or Kobold, we'll just deal with them. But remember, we want to ally with the Kobolds so they can aid us against the Bandits; for now."

She then goes to Apples and shouts out towards the hut,

"We'll be going now! Hopefully we can resolve your problems along the way! Take care!"

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"And how do you propose we flood that hole? I don't see any rivers or sources of water around. Or do you have a watering can for your garden that provides endless water?
I'm afraid we're going to have go down into the hole ourselves. I only hope that the ceiling isn't going to be on mite-heigth."

[Lost Demiurge]

And so you reach the hole.

This close to it, you can see freshly-turned piles of dirt everywhere.

Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering DC 20

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Hm, with this amount of dirt you're not looking at a huge burrow. Assuming that they did all of this themselves, or close to it, it's probably no more than a couple hundred square feet of tunnels.

There are also chunks of weird shells scattered around... Hand-sized pieces of chitin. Along with bones from all types of local critters.

Knowledge: Nature DC 15

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Those pieces of chitin are probably from giant centipedes. Nasty critters, with a poisonous bite. (The venom won't kill you, just make it harder to move.) Judging from the depth of the shed chitin, they're about as big as Maple.

Looking down into it, you don't see much. Its narrow entrance does seem to open up into a tunnel winding downward... But the ceiling of the tunnel looks to be mite-high... About three feet or so.

You can hear distant, muffled gobbling.

Sounds like... Turkeys?