Session 10

The group finishes talking to Arissa and have her mark their map for where the location of the Tundra Joy are. The group heads out, making a successful check to make sure they don’t get lost throughout the woods. Upon arriving, Curio makes sure to check the surroundings for anything that might seek to harm them. He is not going to be as gullible as last time, guys. Continuing forward, the group is enveloped in some fog that makes eyesight difficult, but don’t hear any threats. They approach the flower, but then Elswyth has a bright idea to have her baby drake go over and pick the flowers, since it is immune to fire damage. As BD approaches, it stops, cocking its head to the side just short of the flowers. It projects images into Elswyth’s mind of Curio and Silene bickering, which confuses her. She carefully approaches, looking in the spot that BD is looking. Elswyth sees tiny people, no more than a few inches tall, currently fighting with each other. Elswyth sinks to her knees and interrupts their fighting, asking them who they are and what’s going on.

They tell her they are the Thumbstall and Deadrose clans respectively, and that they are fighting over who this portion of the Murkmire Pines belongs to. They each want the Tundra Joy. She calls Ensley over to try and talk to them, which Ensley does. She talks to them about where they come from and who they are. They tell her they’ve always fought so long as they can remember, and that each side wants the Tundra Joy for its explosive properties. They can’t let one side have it if the other doesn’t, because that would be an unfair advantage. She then, at the behest of Elswyth, attempts to intimidate them into letting the group pick the flowers and taking them all, to which they respond to in a very cute voice which makes it incredibly tough to be a hardcore bluffer.

Eventually, Ensley asks them if she could send a letter to each of their leaders detailing how they could work together to use the Tundra Joy as a source of energy, rather than harm. She succeeds in persuading them to try it and she writes out a letter to each faction respectively. Who knows if it will succeed long term, but for now, the two groups are out of the way of the party. Thus, the party begins its attempt at harvesting the plant. Unfortunately, it proves trickier to do than previously imagined. Curio gets blown up a couple of times, and eventually Elswyth pulls out a fire arrow. Before she can shoot, a Thumbstall tells her not to do it, then shows her how to pick one of the flowers properly. The party attempts again, but John’s dice hate him, and he goes down because he stubbornly refuses to accept he can’t get the method down correctly. Silene heals him and then berates him for his actions. Elswyth picks five flowers, and the party heads back to the Trading Post. This seems to stress Silene out, but she shakes it off successfully. The party pulls in and it’s dark out at this point. Everyone has stopped selling wares and most everyone is celebrating at Jana’s Traveling Pub. The party finds Arissa and she accepts the Tundra Joy happily, giving the party a Potion of Healing and her recipe for a Tundra Potion of Healing. Ensley finds Perry and buys him a wine as Jana comes around to take orders. She scrutinizes the party to make sure everyone is of age, but really, there’s no authority making her do this. She just… is a tough ass about this. Everyone orders drinks. Ensley brings Perry the wine she bought him, and he gladly accepts. She overhears that there aren’t many fish to be had because of a monster plaguing the Meridian Basin that is drowning fishermen.

Curio gets another vodka refill, and overhears that bandits are plaguing the land particularly between here and the Forest of Tears. He talks to a man named Otto, who says his friend from The Forest of Tears might be willing to give a monetary reward if the group deals with the bandits. Elswyth goes off to talk to various people about trading with Illynfall.