Session 14: A Party Knitted and a City of Trees
General Summary
When our story resumes, the party finds themselves once more at a campfire for a respite, although this one is mercifully unvisited by ill dreams or omens. It is not without incident, however.
On their watch shift, ALEK51 and Wynnie Bishop take note of the smell of non-campfire scents in the distance, prompting concern for a wildfire or other danger. Wynnie goes to investigate, a polite yet uncomfortable mage uncertain of what to expect.
What Wynnie finds is a young Tiefling woman named Lokeil setting small fires to the brush around her with no disguised amount of glee. Wynnie ever-so-politely asks her to stop, only to be told that the woman is a Deputy Forest Ranger of the Grove of the Cat, specifically for the Fire Control Division. Considering Amanita Guttata last session had passed a check to remember there was no park ranger out here to their knowledge, this sounded fishy, although the woman had paperwork--a laminated badge not unlike the AHARRG Guild Membership Card each of our party members carry.
At this point, the rest of the party is waking up and Alek elects to come check out the document, being adept in studying texts and artifacts for forgery. The card checks out as legit, though, leaving the party to realize that maybe the area around The Endeavour changes more than they could have expected in just the few years since Amanita last visited.
The young woman is perhaps a bit immature and petulant but she insists what she's doing (setting small fires) is in fact helping the forest, clearing out the underbrush to prevent a stray spark from catching and igniting into something much worse later. This stirs something in Wynnie's memory and she relaxes, acknowledging that this is something she's heard of before after all.
(It does nothing to soothe L0L4 , who rolled a Nat 1 for Nature and is absolutely convinced that this maniac is trying to cause a forest fire and they're all going to die from it.)
The party ends up leaving Lokeil to her work eventually, but only after pestering her for some time to speak to a manager, demanding to know how old she is, and dumping water on her at least once. (Amanita Guttata receives singed feathers from an instinctual Hellish Rebuke for that.)
The next morning, the party departs, heading yet further into the spooky trees on the established-but-did-I-mention-kinda-spooky road to The Endeavour. The only real thing of note is that Num Erik Al cleans off an altar they find by the roadside of some long-forgotten travel ritual, leaving a handmade wicker basket to put all of the other offerings in, granting him Advantage on his next 3 Saving Throws.
At midday, they stop to make some lunch at Kitanya Evermoon's insistence, which is when a new voice floats through the trees, nervous but tinged with excitement: Khashayar Entezami, their newest party member, has found them on the trail.
Khashayar, or Zami as xe introduce xemselves, has been waiting at The Endeavour for the last day or more, pacing and anxious, rethinking and overthinking and worrying over their decision to join this group while also worrying said group got eaten or hopelessly lost on the way to xem. Xe end up leaving the city, tracking along the same road in the opposite direction to meet/greet/find/rescue the group.
The party greets this stranger, a lanky tall lagomorph called an Alqurun (a very rare variant of Harrengon) sporting several piercings, a druidic circlet, wide antlers, and a shy but eager demeanour.
Zami is not quite forthcoming about where they are from or xer past yet, which is pretty par for the course for like half of this group honestly so they'll fit right in, but xe do seem excited to meet the party. The rabbitfolk is also extremely curious and slightly naive, opting to taste half the things handed to them (including some incredibly yucky bogberries) and asking questions about everything from whether or not the Warforged pair are alive and if Carl of The ABC Crew is yet another type of dog they've not seen. (Since, you know, dogs can look very different! It's a normal question!)
Amanita spends a fair amount of time hinting none-too-subtly that owlfolk like eating rabbits, which is probably the final straw for a flustered mother hen Num Erik Al who has decided Zami is Babby and everyone needs to Stop Messing With Babby. L0L4 and Alek catch this stern talking to without actually trying to razz the rabbit, having not realized that jokes go over xer head in a different way than, say, Alek but still are fodder for miscommunication. (Where Alek doesn't tend to process subtext in that charming robotic way of its, Zami simply is new to many concepts and just doesn't know what things are and takes people's flippant answers at face value.)
We also get a sneak peek into Alek's backstory--which is to say there's not much of one he can remember. (L0L4 pays attention to this with distinct interest.) The party starts to allude more or less to their different classes/roles in the party, but doesn't really divulge much for Zami to go off of; there's time, right?
We wrap the session with the party on the road, new member included, as the first buildings on the outskirts of the sprawling Endeavour come into view, strains of music and the sounds of creative industry drifting on the breeze.
On their watch shift, ALEK51 and Wynnie Bishop take note of the smell of non-campfire scents in the distance, prompting concern for a wildfire or other danger. Wynnie goes to investigate, a polite yet uncomfortable mage uncertain of what to expect.
What Wynnie finds is a young Tiefling woman named Lokeil setting small fires to the brush around her with no disguised amount of glee. Wynnie ever-so-politely asks her to stop, only to be told that the woman is a Deputy Forest Ranger of the Grove of the Cat, specifically for the Fire Control Division. Considering Amanita Guttata last session had passed a check to remember there was no park ranger out here to their knowledge, this sounded fishy, although the woman had paperwork--a laminated badge not unlike the AHARRG Guild Membership Card each of our party members carry.
At this point, the rest of the party is waking up and Alek elects to come check out the document, being adept in studying texts and artifacts for forgery. The card checks out as legit, though, leaving the party to realize that maybe the area around The Endeavour changes more than they could have expected in just the few years since Amanita last visited.
The young woman is perhaps a bit immature and petulant but she insists what she's doing (setting small fires) is in fact helping the forest, clearing out the underbrush to prevent a stray spark from catching and igniting into something much worse later. This stirs something in Wynnie's memory and she relaxes, acknowledging that this is something she's heard of before after all.
(It does nothing to soothe L0L4 , who rolled a Nat 1 for Nature and is absolutely convinced that this maniac is trying to cause a forest fire and they're all going to die from it.)
The party ends up leaving Lokeil to her work eventually, but only after pestering her for some time to speak to a manager, demanding to know how old she is, and dumping water on her at least once. (Amanita Guttata receives singed feathers from an instinctual Hellish Rebuke for that.)
The next morning, the party departs, heading yet further into the spooky trees on the established-but-did-I-mention-kinda-spooky road to The Endeavour. The only real thing of note is that Num Erik Al cleans off an altar they find by the roadside of some long-forgotten travel ritual, leaving a handmade wicker basket to put all of the other offerings in, granting him Advantage on his next 3 Saving Throws.
At midday, they stop to make some lunch at Kitanya Evermoon's insistence, which is when a new voice floats through the trees, nervous but tinged with excitement: Khashayar Entezami, their newest party member, has found them on the trail.
Khashayar, or Zami as xe introduce xemselves, has been waiting at The Endeavour for the last day or more, pacing and anxious, rethinking and overthinking and worrying over their decision to join this group while also worrying said group got eaten or hopelessly lost on the way to xem. Xe end up leaving the city, tracking along the same road in the opposite direction to meet/greet/find/rescue the group.
The party greets this stranger, a lanky tall lagomorph called an Alqurun (a very rare variant of Harrengon) sporting several piercings, a druidic circlet, wide antlers, and a shy but eager demeanour.
Zami is not quite forthcoming about where they are from or xer past yet, which is pretty par for the course for like half of this group honestly so they'll fit right in, but xe do seem excited to meet the party. The rabbitfolk is also extremely curious and slightly naive, opting to taste half the things handed to them (including some incredibly yucky bogberries) and asking questions about everything from whether or not the Warforged pair are alive and if Carl of The ABC Crew is yet another type of dog they've not seen. (Since, you know, dogs can look very different! It's a normal question!)
Amanita spends a fair amount of time hinting none-too-subtly that owlfolk like eating rabbits, which is probably the final straw for a flustered mother hen Num Erik Al who has decided Zami is Babby and everyone needs to Stop Messing With Babby. L0L4 and Alek catch this stern talking to without actually trying to razz the rabbit, having not realized that jokes go over xer head in a different way than, say, Alek but still are fodder for miscommunication. (Where Alek doesn't tend to process subtext in that charming robotic way of its, Zami simply is new to many concepts and just doesn't know what things are and takes people's flippant answers at face value.)
We also get a sneak peek into Alek's backstory--which is to say there's not much of one he can remember. (L0L4 pays attention to this with distinct interest.) The party starts to allude more or less to their different classes/roles in the party, but doesn't really divulge much for Zami to go off of; there's time, right?
We wrap the session with the party on the road, new member included, as the first buildings on the outskirts of the sprawling Endeavour come into view, strains of music and the sounds of creative industry drifting on the breeze.
Created Content
Because Amanita rolled Nat 20 on their Nature check to see what they knew of Alqurun, the stat block is included here as Amanita would have known much of this lore and potentially passed it on. Hopefully discretely, so Zami didn't feel like they were being talked about like a science experiment right in front of xem, but who knows.
Homebrew
Alqurun
The Alqurun (al-COO-rune, "horned hare" in Dwarvish) are an extremely rare evolutionary change from the more common Harengon species found in many areas of Ostelliach. As uncommon as to be a myth to many, the Alqurun are found natively in only two places: the lightning plains of Burazaich, and the insular southern isle of Pascal's Omen. An Alqurun is actually the offspring of Harengon created (usually accidentally) through accident: the exposure of the mother to a lightning strike that does not kill her. The occurence of such creatures in Pascal's Omen, then, is especially curious as the island is known for its serene weather, a far cry from the lightning storms of Burazaich. (An Alqurun can produce more Alqurun without the calamitous intervention of lightning, though the chance is very low unless mating with one of their own kind and almost impossible if the other partner is not at least a Harengon).
ability score increase:
+2 to either Wisdom, Dexterity, or +1 to each
age:
Up to 150 years
alignment:
Fae ancestry and a trickster bent tend to lead toward Chaotic alignments.
Size:
Medium
speed:
35 ft.
Languages:
Common, Sylvan
race features:
- Proficiencies. Acrobatics, Nature, Perception.
- Hare-Trigger. You can add your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls.
- Jumping Fool. When you fail an Acrobatics check, you can use your Reaction to reroll the check. You must use the new roll.
- Ability increase. Decide either +2 in Dexterity, +1 in Wisdom and +1 in Dexterity, or +2 in Wisdom.
- Antler Charge. At a minimum distance of 10ft you can use your head and antlers to make an unarmed attack by rushing in a straight path at your target. On hit, deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. You are proficient with your antlers and they are considered a natural weapon. This damage increases as your character levels up, signifying maturation and larger/sharper horns over time: Lvl 4 (2d6), Lvl 7 (3d6), Lvl 10 (4d6), Lvl 13 (5d6), Lvl 16 (6d6), and Lvl 20 (6d8).
- Lucky Foot. Your fae ancestry lends you a bit of luck. Once per short rest, reroll a 1 on an attack, ability check, or saving throw.
- Skittish. You have disadvantage on saving throws against Fear.
- Lightning Aligned. You have resistance to Lightning damage. However, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws against Lightning damage.
- Mimic. You can mimic natural sounds you've heard, such as animal calls, thunder, or the creak of a branch. You have advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks when using this ability.
Alqurun resemble traditional Harrengon in most ways, aside from the very noticeable antler-like horns growing from their heads. These horns start small, often emerging around toddler or young child age as tiny nubs (meaning a family doesn't usually know they have an Alqurun in their brood at birth) and grow throughout the life of the Alqurun. Thus, the oldest of the sub-species are easily recognizable by resplendent antlers sprawling out and often adorned with jewelry or decor.
Alqurun have the same lifespan as a Harrengon or slightly longer owing to the Fae-touched nature of their magical origins. They are known as something of a lightningrod, being more likely to be struck by lightning but also more resistant to the effects. (Most Alqurun have been struck by lightning at least a few times by the time they reach maturity.) They are also known for an ability to mimic sounds, usually attributed again to a Fae-like nature of instinctual trickery.
In Harrengon society, Alqurun may be seen as an omen or portent, a spiritual advisor, a sign of good or bad luck, depending on how rare the sub-species is to the specific community. (In Pascal's Omen and around Burazaich, they are more common and thus are akin to your slightly odd neighbor, whereas in wider Ostelliach many people may have never heard of an Alqurun, let alone seen one.) There's no real data to prove or disprove this, but it's general Harrengon folklore that an Alqurun is going to be more flighty, unpredictable, strange, and magically-inclined.
Report Date
03 Jul 2024
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