Game Log 31

## Ginormous Problems -or- Don' tech meh cows!

Aud and Mouse tended a small vegetable and herb garden during the morning before the day became too warm for comfort. Aud looked over the plants and said, "Pick some tomatoes and cucumbers for a nice salad, dear. That should be enough for today."

"Yes'm." The little apprentice plucked a ripe tomato but hurriedly dropped it when it spoke! "Go talk to the Children of the Forest!" She stumbled back and fell on some unripe squashes which moaned and complained about the rough treatment.

"Eh?" Aud exclaimed briefly. In her travels, she had encountered many odd things and this wasn't even close to being the oddest. "What is that?"

"The Children of the Forest await! Go forth and speak to them!"

"Mmm, I see. Continue as you were, Mouse, I'll see to this."

The girl mustered her courage and continued to pluck the chatty vegetables while Aud stalked to the treeline to the east, detouring only long enough to gather Astra and Mantis. "Best not bring Mankar. This seems like Elves and he was told specifically not to talk to them. Or attack them, I imagine. Since one might lead to the other, this warning isn't without reason!"

A long and somewhat confusing then occurred between the Children of the Forest (who were, in fact, elves) and the three from the village. The gist of which was that the elves wished for help to destroy the evil around Vulture Rock (specifically the vampires, undead and the fungus elves) but that another task had to be completed first.

Mantis grimaced. "So we have to go on this quest BEFORE we go on the other quest to show we are worthy enough?"

Astra nodded. "Yes, apparently. A pre-quest quest."

"I guess we should be glad it isn't more convoluted than that!"

Meanwhile Mankar was crafting a new set of armor for himself. They had iron a-plenty and the rune he had absorbed made him immune to the magic-interfering effects of the untreated metal. Though he loathed the source of his new skill, he was quite pleased at how the metal moved under his hammer. In essence, all metals were one if viewed properly so he was forging the iron as easily as if it were tin!

Mantis and Astra arrived (shortly preceded by Mouse bearing a bowl of salad). "Here's some lunch!" The little healer watched with anticipation.

Sensing something was off, but not really caring about it, Mankar stabbed a tomato with a fork only to have it scream and gibber at him! Mouse ran off laughing as the big man contemplated the noisy vegetable. He sniffed --and not detecting any chaos taint-- proceeded to eat the salad, ignoring the noisy yells and complaints. "So, what's happening?"

"Aud is guiding the elves to pay their respects to out late leader." He filled Mankar in on the details.

"Hmm. No problems with that. She had good relations with most of the reasonable races in the area. Semi-reasonable ones, too."

Meanwhile, Astra was looking at the iron armor Mankar had finished. It was, naturally enough, massive and had a dull sheen of well-worked iron. "Do you prefer these to be steel?"

"Like those gears? Most assuredly!"

Astra smiled and, without touching them, cast a complicated spell on the armor. After a few moments, the metal acquired a polish and glowed briefly as it was transformed.

Mankar knocked on the armor and then hefted it. "Interesting! It seems as tough as before but it's lighter! Can you do that for my weapons, as well?"

"Of course!" She repeated the spell.

"I see you picked up some useful knowledge as well."

Mantis opened his eyes wider. "Ah, that's right! I can enhance animals now to make them smarter. Let me go and work on my alynx!"

Mankar stopped him before he headed out. "Do everyone's, please." Mantis turned to leave but Mankar stopped him again. "Oh, and my horse."

The shaman just stood there, waiting, until Mankar said. "That's it, don't tarry!"

Sighing, Mantis left to complete those tasks.

Mankar found Aud in the fields with a new scarecrow that looked remarkably like a much younger version of the old priestess. "Is that... is that her?"

"Yes! The elves hastened her return to the earth and made this effigy of her. It's a good likeness, I think."

"It is that, I must admit. But why a scarecrow? Is this some elf thing?"

"No, not at all. I just thought it would useful like this." Just then a stray breeze caught the hanging arms of the construct, causing it to move. If not realistically, but at least not like a stationary object.

He was about to suggest that perhaps a more dignified position would be best but then decided that this was 'women's stuff' and he shouldn't interfere.

Having managed to avoid listening to the elves, Mantis filled in Mankar on their current quest. "So we need to rescue the queen dryad bulb from the left hand of the Devil to the west of the lake."

"Seems easy enough... or at least straightforward. I'm sure you spirit friends can do the legwork and we just beat up the Devil."

"Just the hand."

Mankar looked at him. "Either way we can..."

Just then a crunching sound came from afar but a rush of air was nearby! The heroes dived for cover just in time as a huge foot passed over them and continued blithely on its way. They saw that the foot was, as expected, attached to a giant person. The creature was uglier than most and only wore a loincloth that looked like it was stitched from entire cowhides. Mankar caught a whiff of a taint of chaos from it and his eyes narrowed.

"Is that thing going toward our destination?"

Astra shook her head, "Not exactly. And don't think about doing something ELSE before we finish our quest! We have enough to do right now!"

He sighed, "I suppose you are right. Giants are a rough fight, too. Their vitals are out of reach, and they have attacks that can strike a dozen men and horses with one blow." He grinned! "However! We'll come back for him later!"

Astra just rolled her eyes.

The village they found near the caves was an odd thing. It was one step up from a shantytown and comprised almost entirely of temporary dwellings revolving around the cave itself. "Okay, split up and try to find out about these caves. I'll talk to the Humakti near the mouth. Orlanth are at least arm's-distance brothers so I should be able to get some information."

-Humakti tell of a Lunar party, Some Orlanthi(Parvis!), and a Wildling party with only 1 survivor that is probably still in town
-Astra returns with two 'maps'
-Mantis feeds ale to barbarians, Mankar has a strength contest
-Starlinda the Wildling joins up, tries to recruit for her cause
-CAVE: bones and ashes at the entrance. Astra notes that the LM brother is willing to buy interesting bones
-Signs in many languages warning people to go away
-River spirit (waters of the cave) gives gem to Aud for being so clever; it will summon a guardian while in the caves
-Find stones for an infant statue: arms, legs, head
-Find fist-sized broken tooth
-Hemisphere room with a talking snake that is very confused about the sun. It is being worshipped by human female statues
-Giant fight!