Chapter Five

The day starts with Seirixori waking in a bed on the second floor of the Cracked Cask. She'd chosen one of the large beds in a private room because nobody was there to stop her. She readies herself for the day, not knowing what lies ahead. Needing a little comfort of home and not wanting to travel too far off, she heads towards the citrus orchard. And while she knows these trees are not like the ones back home, it still helps.

Ravaphine, on the other hand, decided to take her resting trance just inside the borders of the large citrus orchard just north of the town. The trees were all lined up neatly in rows, a little odd for an elf looking for nature, but better than the Cask itself.

She inhales deeply to savor the fresh air and is surprised she found herself in the same place as earlier, not having been teleported back to her travels.

The citrus grove is a well-maintained orchard that must employ a large portion of the town of Bellbury. It stretches as far as they can see in every direction besides going south into town.

"Good morning my friend!" Ravaphine says as she waves at the familiar face approaching. She picks a citrus fruit off the tree and hands it to the tiefling.

Seirixori pauses at the greeting, and is only slightly relieved at who it is, she had hoped for a little more alone time, as she's not quite used to having people pay her much positive attention. "Morning..." she hesitantly takes the fruit and holds it in her hands. Moving it around but not eating it. "Were you out here all night?"

"You can throw it at the other tiefling later. Anyways, I was resting out here trying to think of ways to get back home. Bellbury is a lot larger than I had anticipated. Don't know why I've never heard of it before. Should we explore more of the town before heading back to save Lin's husband guy person?" Ravaphine asks.

Seirixori grins, "I fear that would be a waste of, hopefully, good food." She continues to play with the citrus, picking at it every so often. "Gunnloda seemed to be preparing breakfast if you'd like first. Lin is there as well. I might stay out here for a bit, I'm not used to… so many people."

"Me too, I like the quiet. Well, I'll leave you to it then. I'll head back to the Tavern and feel free to come join us when you're ready," Ravaphine says.

Moving a little deeper into the orchard, Seirixori closes her eyes and lets her hand trail on the trees as she walks by and breathes in the air around her. She stops not too long later relaxing herself and trying to not think of the possible missed opportunity she missed before being teleported back here a second time. "It's been ages, what's a little more time, I guess."

Seirixori somehow manages to peel the citrus through her fidgeting and eats it while heading towards the tavern. However in noticing that Ravaphine is not inside she opts to sit at the fountain instead, running her hand through the water.

Bored and curious, Seirixori heads for the mansion, peeking her head inside. “So this is where you went.”

~\*~\*~

Ravaphine heads out of the orchard, intent on heading to the tavern, but her eyes linger on the mansion and she changes course and heads inside it.

She glances around, everything appearing to be the same as they had left it, this time however Ravaphine notices an odd item on the desk. There’s a hooded lantern with an eye etched into the top of it. Curious as there are plenty of other light sources in the room.

"Why is this person afraid of the dark… probably Poni's fault" Ravaphine says before looking at the stack of papers, looking for anything of importance. She rifles through the papers, noting correspondence of what she assumes is normal for a town’s ruler, and business owner, it seems; Baroness Eloise Moonstream, clear owner of the orchard and in charge of Bellbury.

“Hmm, normal correspondence,” Ravaphine muses.

“So this is where you went.”

“Oh hey, you found me." Ravaphine continues rifling through the desk and soon finds, tucked away inside one of the drawer are three bottles. One contains an orange, flickering liquid and smoke fills the top part of the container. The other two contain a red liquid that glimmers when she touches it.

"I did, do you always go through people's things?" Seirixori steps forward near the desk.

"Nosy force of habit. Plus, it doesn't hurt to learn a thing or two. What in the world are these?" Ravaphine asks while holding one of the bottles and lightly swishing it in her fingers.

"It's not like anyone is really here anyway, I suppose. It is our only way of figuring out where we are and what not." Seirixori pokes one of the bottles Ravaphine is holding up. "...bottles of liquid?"

Ravaphine hands one of the red flasks to Seirixori, who takes it and swirls it a bit before cautiously taking a small sip, a familiar invigorating feeling courses through her.

Ravaphine takes the orange one and does the same, she sighs and smoke comes out of her nose. "I've blown off my eyebrows before, but never my nose hairs!"

"Right... have fun with that." Seirixori extends her hand with the healing potion, "This one might help you, if you decide to play with fire more. It's a potion of greater healing."

“Keep that, it might come in handy." Ravaphine tastes the other red flask to check to see if it is the same potion and coughs, “That...that is the opposite of healing. Potion of poison here too."

"How about you keep that so we don't get them confused, if you don't mind."

A short ways away in The Cracked Cask, Brimeia stretches and cracks her neck, back, and several other joints as she rolls out of one of the beds. A good night's sleep was just what she needed after the day they'd had. Those plant things had been stronger than they looked. Shouldering her weapon and pack, she heads down to find the others.

When Brimeia wanders downstairs, she sees a handful of commoners listening to Lin tell the story of how she and Vardalon fell in love. Gunnloda's shuffling back and forth between them and the kitchen, bringing out platters of meats and porridge in her full armor.

"Mmm. That smells mighty fine," Brimeia announces with a hearty breath. She scarfs down a quick meal before asking about the others and heads in their direction.

When she sees Ravaphine and a Seirixori, they’re currently squabbling over a couple glass vials. Ravaphine is scrunchy-faced like she just ate something sour.

"Hello fair maidens! Have you found some drink?" Brimeia flashes a friendly smile.

"NO don't. Don't drink that. It's....poison. Not sure why they kept it the same color as the healing potion..."

"Ah well, some would say spirits are a type of poison too!" Brimeia laughs. "Have you ladies found anything else of interest?"

Ravaphine shakes her head. "There's a locked chest but I'm not sure if we should open it,"

"Why not?"

"There's a lot of strange happenings here, but if you would like to open it, be my guest. I don't have the means to open it, but I can try to help."

Seirixori sighs and steps back a bit, putting the potion in her bag, noticing Poni. "oh right you, well..." She shuts her bag, pretending to not have seen him.

"Can't we just smash it open?"

"If we break the lock, I can mend it back together." Ravaphine examines the lock on the chest.

Brimeia picks up the chest and turns it about for a moment before setting it down.

"If the other contents of this desk play a part in what's in the box, we should be careful." Ravaphine says while gently shaking the box, hearing jingling as the contents shift.

Brimeia hefts her greataxe and aims for the lock as she swings.  Her greataxe cleaves straight through the lock and breaks it open. A large pile of coins is visible inside.

"I guess you're useful for some things." Seirixori mutters.

"Why, you're welcome. I'm sure you have many talents to offer as well," Brimeia answers good-naturedly. Brimeia scoops up a handful of coins and tosses them up to watch them tumble back in with a laugh.

"Nice aim," Ravaphine looks at the box with wide eyes, 500 copper and 20 silver pieces sit inside. "I wonder how much for a wagon ticket back home. I wonder why the coins were locked up" Ravaphine says while playing with the coins.

Seirixori looks at Ravaphine, perplexed, "Do you not lock up your money as a safe keeping?"

Ravaphine shrugs, "Usually at the till or in my pocket. I don't have much but I don't keep it in the house.” She glances back down at the coin in her hand and Brimeia’s, "This seems important if it was locked up. We should put it back into the box. Wouldn't want them to come back and find out they have no money to feed their family. Unless they're saving this to pay somebody off..."

"A family lives here? If this really is someone's house, I doubt they'd miss a few coins."

"Either way... if we were in a bandit camp I'd tell you to take everything. However, this is definitely not the case. I agree with putting it back." Seirixori says, while slowly walking around the room, taking everything in.

Ravaphine nods, collects all the coins to put back into the box before mending the lock back together.

"No one's even here to know," Brimeia grumbles.

"We're here and we know, leave it be." Seirixori returns.

"We should head back, see if everyone else is awake." Seirixori turns to leave, a knock at the door stopping her.

There Gunnloda stands in full armor with Lin who is dressed in leather armor with a short sword at her side, her eyes rimmed with red. "Good morning, dearies. I was wondering if you were planning on finding Master Vardalon soon. Miss Lin here is awfully anxious to get started."

Seirixori clears her throat, shaking herself out of a brief shock, "This will also work. I would like to get started as well."

"Good morning Gunnloda. Good morning Lin.” Ravaphine says cheerily, “You two are looking ready to go. We promised to help find Vardalon, and we will keep that promise."

Lin nods gratefully. "I... went back to the... the portal? Last night, when I couldn't sleep, but it wasn't showing anything. I don't know how to control it."

"We need our tour guide to help us get there," Ravaphine says before stepping out of the mansion and motioning back to Poni's house. "Shall we head back?"

Gunnloda follows and Lin half-trots to catch up. "I'll try not to be so loud this time. I'm sorry."

"That would be appreciated." Serixori trails behind, while still in a hurry, not wanting to be right up in the group.

Brimeia strolls along, not so eager for more foul magic, but eager to do something again besides stand around and stare at things.

Seirixori rummages through her bag as they walk into the basement, "I suppose I need to take you out of here now," she says as she pulls Poni out.

Poni gasps dramatically. "You tried to suffocate me!"

"You bet." she agrees.

"Poni, you have no lungs. We need to get back to Vardalon. Can you take us there?" Ravaphine asks.

"I said tried, not that it would work.” he grumbles, “I've told you, all you have to do is put a personal item to my sensor and I can focus on him... or close enough anyway. The archway contains the magic, so without, it's less precise."

Lin holds Vardalon's necklace out and Seirixori grabs it and places it under the Poni stick, "Well, let's get this over with, shall we?"

“Yes, please. I'm tired of this. We need to find components and fix the envirochronic destabilization. Target, push the button, put me through. WITHOUT throwing me this time."

"Eh, you were asking for it."

"No promises," Seirixori mumbles, pressing the button.

The portal flickers to life, focusing on Vardalon. He looks a bit paler this time, the area a bit dimmer as though the sun were setting somewhere on the other side of all the greenery. He's currently giving the green elf-like dryad a shoulder rub.

Ravaphine glances at Lin "I know it may look like what it looks like, but he's under her spell. Shall we?" Ravaphine asks with her hand outstretched and takes Lin's hand. Lin nods and grits her teeth.

Seirixori walks through the portal after everyone is ready and their surroundings change once more, shifting from the basement to the jungle. There aren’t any visible moldy bodies, the magic seemingly teleported them to a different spot in the jungle.

"We'll work on your trajectory," Ravaphine jokes.

Seirixori sighs, "Let's try and be quiet this time. And maybe see if we can tell if there are any tracks to follow."

Brimeia is too distracted by the many women around her. "Quiet? Why bother?"

"Brimeia, please, we don't need everyone to fall unconscious again."

"Not everyone. Only one.. or two."

Ravaphine notices a shimmer to the northwest, "I see something over there, that may be a component!" and she heads towards it.

Seirixori walks slowly behind Ravaphine, "Hey how about we try to do this a little more quieter than last time?"

"Don't be suspicious," Ravaphine sing-songs as she slows down.

Seirixori notices a weird brownish fuzz on the tree to the north and pauses to whisper to the group, "There's something on the tree to the North, we should avoid that."

Gunnloda hums as she see it, "I wonder if that would go well in a stew."

Seirixori chuckles, "It might kill people instead of tasting good. It’s definitely what we ran into yesterday,” she says as she gets a better look at it.

Ravaphine inches closer to the tree, whispering “Everyone stay close,” however she gets too close and the spores erupt in her face. Ravaphine groans as a wave of sickness rolls over her, and she coughs, but nothing more.

"Are you ok, love?"

Seirixori groans, "AVOID the tree, not walk next to it."

"Curiosity is going to get the best of me..."

"Wouldn't want to fight you quite like that." Brimeia muses.

Seirixori starts heading southwest, "I feel like this place is full of those spore things, but I don't know where we need to go for this Dryad."

“Why are you walking TOWARDS the movement," Ravaphine questions. Annoyed because Seirixori just told her not to go near things.

"I don't think we have much a choice until we can figure out what direction this Dryad is."

"Alright, southwest we go. Stay close and I promise not to touch those trees."

"We could always yell again," Brimeia chuckles.

"If you want to, but go do it far, far away from us." Seirixori says, annoyed.

"Oh but you are all so lovely, why should I wish to part?"

Focused on their surroundings, Seirixori doesn’t respond. However she notices a vegepygmy duck behind a tree to the south, covered in the brown fuzzy mold, "There's another one to the south.”

"I hate those damn things. Let's try to avoid it," Ravaphine says.

Bored of the quiet and the sneaking, Brimeia starts chatting,  "Hey, Seirixori, did you know that the others thought we were related? Ha."

"That is very...unsettling and rude." Seirixori says to Brimeia.

Gunnloda interrupts, “I think I see someone up ahead.” She and Lin draw their weapons, "Should we walk right up to them or no?"

"Well we gotta see who it is. Only one way to find out!" Brimeia cheerfully pulls her axe off her back.

Ravaphine follows the others while Seirixori sighs, "Do we want to be threatening right away or do we maybe want to talk our way out of this?"

As Brimeia pushes past the huge fronts of greenery in the way, the forest opens into a slight clearing. There they see the dryad, mid-massage, snap her head up towards them.

“Greetings fair dryad. If you don't mind we'll just be taking this man back home."

She stands taller, her voice melodical, but clearly angry from the disturbance, but no one seems to understand her.

She stands taller and says something in a musical language none of you understand, clearly angry at being disturbed. Vardalon dazedly stands, looking at the dryad with a faint smile.

Brimeia walks toward the pair, looking rather unconcerned. "Come now, friend." She reaches for the man, but he doesn’t move.

The dryad tenses and says something emphatically in the musical language. Despite not understanding the words, the meaning is clear, *GET OUT*.

Lin steps forward. "Vardalon? Sweetheart?"

"Brimeia, Lin, back away! Let's see if we can communicate with it first!" Seirixori says, "We don't need to start anything if we don't have to. Do any of you understand her?"

"If you're gonna try something, do it quick. I don't see why we can't just pick him up and go."

"I unfortunately do not speak Sylvan. I was raised by a gnome." Ravaphine responds.

As the group debates on what to do, the dryad speaks and her body, rather than being the green, elf-like creature, now seems to have a layer of bark covering her body. She repeats her previous statement, this time taking a step forward.

"Let him go!" Ravaphine shouts.

"Shoulda just picked him up as soon as we saw him."

"Great, this is the opposite of what I wanted." Seirixori sighs, "She's protecting herself, ready to defend!"

The dryad picks up a fallen branch and mutters a phrase. She speaks in Elven this time. "You will not get another warning. Leave us."

Ravaphine pleads to the dryad in elven, "Please, he is our friend. Release him."

"She's pretty and all but can I just knock her out now so we can get on with this?" Brimeia, not understand the language shifts impatiently. There’s a whisper at her ear, but she ignores it.

Vardalon blinks and looks around, slightly confused.

Instead of drawing an attack, Ravaphine pleads with the dryad one more time "Please release him, we will trade you for him"

Growing angry, the dryad shouts, "Trade? What would I want from you? I have everything I need."

Brimeia, frustrated with all this nonsense, goes into a rage and steps forward and swings her great axe at the dryad. Seeing it coming, the dryad easily ducks under the swing, as she does she notices Seirixori’s familiar gestures and avoids the thorn covered vines lashing out at her.

In the distraction Lin runs over to Vardalon. "Vardalon? You need to come home with us!"

He looks at Lin, confused, "Lin? Where are we?"

Gunnloda throws a hand out at the dryad and a streak of radiant light flies towards her and the dryad takes it right to the chest. Followed by three bolts fired from Ravaphine’s hands and the dryad screeches out in pain.

She reaches out and touches the tree closest to her, disappearing from sight.

Seirixori glances around in time to see the dryad step out of a tree behind her and moves just in time to avoid the vines and brush that try to wrap around their feet. Brimeia and Ravaphine both manage to wrestle free of the vines, but Gunnloda can’t seem to wrestle herself out of it.

A vegepygmy, hearing the scream of the dryad appears and attacks Seirixori with its claws, getting her in the stomach and Seir flinches. Brimeia, annoyed that her prey is no longer in front of her stalks forward, but Seirixori shouts, stopping her.

Seirixori moves in front of the vegepygmy and shouts out, "Everyone get close and touch, we should try and get out of here!" She slams her staff down and a wave of force booms out from her, throwing the dryad back several feet and she falls, unmoving.

The vegepygmy roots its feet and doesn't move, however in her haste to blast them away Seirixori’s wave slams into her allies. Gunnloda, just as she managed to untangle herself from the vines flies several feet away, but Brimeia stands her ground, soaking up the blast.

Lin grabs Vardalon's arm and pulls him towards Seirixori, and Gunnloda pushes herself up and a sacred flame bursts forth and singes the vegepygmy, Ravaphine follows up with a bolt of fire and it falls to the ground.

Seirixori slumps slightly and mutters to herself, a small glow framing her and she breathes a sigh of relief.

"Welcome back, Vardalon" Ravaphine says, dusting herself off.

Seirixori spots something glimmering in the distance, "There's something shiny to the North, however I am not a fan of this forest, so I vote for going back."

"I think we should bring Lin and Vardalon back home," Ravaphine agrees.

“What if it's valuable?" Brimeia asks.

"What's more valuable than life?"

Seirixori sighs, wondering why she even brought it up, "Listen, let's all just hold hands or arms or something and carefully walk forward and if there's more of these damn things, I'll just push the button. how does that sound?"

"Sounds more than fair to me," Brimeia grins.

Ravaphine nods, "Alright, but stay close."

They all start moving slowly towards it, eyeing their surroundings. Gunnloda taps Ravaphine on the shoulder. "Creatures to the right, mold to the left, but there's something at the base of the tree there."

As she points it out, the others notice a body lying near the mold, the glimmering object Seirixori noticed now clearly the sun glinting off something metallic on the body.

Seirixori grunts, annoyed with herself, and not wanting to deal with anymore of these mold creatures, pushes the button on Poni.

Brimeia shakes her head at the sudden change in scenery. "HEY! I was gonna get that shiny thing!"

"Not worth possibly dying." Seirixori says.

Gunnloda moves to pick up Poni’s body and takes it upstairs.

Vardalon turns to hug Lin. "You saved me? Thank you!"

Lin turns to the others, smiling, "Thank you for helping me. Please, come by the general store later and I'll see if I can help you with anything." She takes Vardalon by the hand and they leave.

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