Expedition 73: Get Off My Lawn!

### Summary

We pacify the Truewood, scaring away the giant snake and killing many magpies and yetis. We rescue four confused travelers from the last Age.

### Detailed Writeup

The party ventures into the former Bluewood, now filled with living trees of many colors. The wood is still quiet, although life does exist. We bring along Fern's crew to build a monument for a nation that has yet to truly exist, and we head for Mae'ra's Sanctum. We see no sign of the formerly petrified group.

We arrive, and Bea and Clarity look for plants for Bea to cultivate. They find some Blistering Vine, which is extremely toxic to touch, but is a useful component in healing potitions. Marzipan harvests the plant, but he suffers a painfully itchy rash (disadvantage on strength and con saves).

Uzmir investigates the aftereffects of the petrification of the wood, and learns that only the plants were petrified. He would have expected strange erosion effects similar to Tay'locer, but there seem to be no ill effects on the plants.

Nexrin keeps watch, and sees 8 Yetis bear down on the group, surprising everyone but Nexrin and Bea. They close on Bea, as Clarity casts Fireball, Yezra casts Spirit Guardians, and Nexrin uses his new armor to blast them with his breath weapon. They paralyze Yezra and Nexrin with their gaze, and Marzipan commands them to grovel. Bea finally gets her bite to hit, ripping flesh from one of the Yeti's necks. Yezra kills the last yeti with a thunderous strike from Stormpierce.

We then split the party, sending Marzipan, Clarity, and Bea to go look for the recently meatened individuals and leaving the rest to Fern's laborers as they work. They find the place where the petrified people were, and follow a series of campsites to the group - four humans, two adults and two teenagers. They wear some symbols, but we cannot place them. They call out in a language no one recognizes, so Marzipan casts Tongues on Clarity.

"We were looking for you. Welcome to the Truewood! This is Marzipan, and I am Clarity."

They seem happy to be found, but are confused by the strange names.

"I am Andy, this is Brell, my son Vincent (21), and my daughter Day (23)." Day has a purple streak in her hair, almost like a skunk. "We came from Highhall, we wanted to visit the Sanctum. Something strange happened yesterday, the trail completely changed!"

Clarity breaks the news to them that they have been petrified for hundreds of years, and tries to persuade them to return with us to Port Vrall, although they want to go back to Highhall. They are undecided, but agree to come back and see the other three they left behind.

--

Back at the worksite, Yezra spies some magpies stealing tools from the workmen. Nexrin follows them to their nest, and 200 magpies are staring us down, nearly drooling at the sight of Nexrin and Uzmir's armor. Uzmir casts speak with animals:

"Hello.. magpies?"

"HELLLO HIIII HI SHINY SHINY YOU SHINY"

"We notice you have been taking some of the tools the workers were using over there..."

"Notusingthemanymoreyourenot"

"We are willing to offer you different shiny things in exchange for those you acquired from us."

"oohshinyshinyshiny?"

Yezra offers her spare shield. "Look at this GIANT shiny thing!"

"oh... shiny... BIG... VERY BIG... Dragon will like... yes... WEWANTWEWANTYOUGIVEWHATYOUASK"

"We ask for the tools you took from the worksite."

"yeswegiveforshieldandthe*armor*andanyscalesyoumayhave"

"The armor is not something we're willing to trade. I will go ahead and throw in 50 copper pieces, though."

"100 copper pieces."

We take 25 copper pieces and break them all in quarters, and hand them to the magpies in the shield.

"Shiny thing tricky! We honor deal."

They throw all the tools back at Uzmir, causing him severe bludgeoning damage, but Uzmir hides inside a massive eggshell he summons.

--

The two groups reconvene at the worksite, the family visibly relaxing after they see some races they recognize. Bea tries to convince them that she's the one who left the bedroll, but botches the roll, and goes over for some air hugs, only reciprocated by Vincent, to the dismay of his parents.

The party hears a crashing noise coming through the forest, and spies a massive, white snake with huge, green eyes. The voice speaks telepathically to each of us (except Uzmir):

"I am the guardian of this forest."

"How did you come to be the guardian of this place?"

"Questions, questions. So rude. I came to be in this place, and so I am the guardian of this place. Why are you here?"

"We are here to keep these men safe."

"Why are they here?"

"They are here to create an edifice celebrating the new life here in Mae'ra's favorite forest."

"You talk of all this." He gestures to the colorful tree canopy. "Do you know how it came to be this way?"

"Mae'ra chose for it to be given life. She made me and my people the guardians of this place."

"What claim do you have, this land, to build upon it?"

"Is the mandate of its goddess not reason enough?" Marzipan tries Divine Intervention, and a shard of sunlight comes down from the trees, emblazoning light on the mousefolk, and his voice reverberates through the Truewood.

The snake looks amazed, and bows to Marzipan. "So you are the guardian of the place now. I will not argue with the forces above." It snakes back through the trees. "I will find a different forest."

Bea calls out, "You could protect the Felwood! Lots of giant creatures there!"

"Perhaps I will go there. Maybe for a short vacation, we will see." It slinks away.

Fern is done with his work, and are willing to head back, but Marzipan wants to make a deal with the magpies so they do not steal from the fledgling nation of Kiore.

Marzipan, who is a mousefolk, can speak with tiny creatures.

"OOOOHbackformore?Armorshields?"

"You must stop stealing from people in this forest. Else there will be consequences"

"Are you threatening us? We outnumber you five to one. The slaughter will be brief and glorious."

"Have you met the giant snake? He just ran in fear from us."

The magpies chatter. "big snake? or BIIIIG Snake? bigsnake norunfrom anything they run from you? We leave. We take one moon."

"You take Seven suns."

They negotiate down to 9 suns.

"NINESUNS NINESUNS" they chatter as they gather all of their items and begin to fly away. The giant tree they nest in shifted, as energy pulsed through it, light coming up from the base. Uzmir detects magic, but the effect is not magical. "Wont leave. Can't leave. Deal broken."

Marzipan sits down and Communes with Nature to try and investigate the tree, and he divines that the tree is an Ironwood tree. "Why won't the tree let you leave?"

"Tree is us. Only birds without tree. Tree is us. We can't pick up or move tree. Tree stay here. We stay here."

We gather that the colony of birds is a type of hive mind, and most birds are not as communicative as these birds.

"What value do you get from things you've taken?"

"From the taking and the having and the giving."

"The giving? Who do you give to?"

"Home."

At this point, we realize that the things in the nest are bones, and not small bones. We decide that these birds are going to make trouble for the new nation, and decide to murder them all.

"If you can't or won't leave, and you can't or won't stop stealing, then I can't have you in my forest."

Yezra and Marzipan cast spirit guardians, as Nexrin volleys many arrows into the flock. The remaining birds disperse into the woods. We loot the tree, finding 82gp, 95silver, 1gold, and 2 special items. (Total 1132gp-20 for identify -25 for Uzmir's copper)

We find a jeweled spyglass, as well as a spear in an upper nest whose tip is made of glowing starmetal.

On the way home, we find four Mephits, but Marzipan destroys elementals and obliterates them instantly.

On our free loot roll, we find a diamond worth 800gp, which we plan to split into one 500gp diamond for Raise dead and three 100gp diamonds for greater restoration for Tay'Locer.

### Person Loot:

Vincent 21 years old (Actually 386), human

Day, 23 years old, human

Brell, 49 years old, human

Andy, 53 years old human

They have met with the Locer's, and are staying under their wings. They are all available to talk.