08 - An Egg-cellent Escape

General Summary

Cyrus has tasked the cartographers with collecting different meats and foods in preparation for a celebratory feast being thrown in the honor the the guild heads Orobash & Amyra's return from their year long expedition. He has asked for this food items to be collected:

Grassy Plains Musk Ox beef

King Quipper steaks

Great Pidgeon Eggs

Dire Rabbit Haunches

Giant Ladybug Meat

Boison Berries

The cartographers know that Great Pigeons roost at the foot of Spine Breaker Ridge on the northeastern side of Lake Ostenward, so that's where our two new cartographers, Felix & Pitter-Patter sets off towards.

Encounters

Marmotant Manor

On the way around the lake, the two cartographers noticed a strange grouping of earthy lumps in the distance and moved to investigate. What they found was was appeared to be a small overgrown castle, maybe that of a lesser lord in the before times. The walked around the area looking around to see if anything was hidden here. And that is when a creature erupted from the earth and began to claw, screech, and bite at the cartographers. They identified the creature as a Marmotant, pictured HERE

. They slayed the beast and Pitter-Patter very carefully crawled into the creatures tunnel system it had made underneath the ground around this keep. After some nimble-footed exploration, Pitter-Patter found the Marmotant's hoard...a massive collection of nuts. Pitter-Patter filled his bag and deftly escaped from the tunnels without disturbing them at all. Any other creature would have found themselves entombed there, but not Pitter-Patter. Felix & Pitter-Patter make a note of this location and name it "Marmotant Manor" before moving on their way, laden down with 30 pounds of nuts.

Plucky Pigeons

The pair of cartographers continued on their way towards the base of the Spinebreakers, where the forest began to become increasingly rocky. They had caught eye of a large looking pigeon flying above some trees and they started their hunt. Felix believed he spotted a nest up on a rocky outcropping and began climbing up to investigate while Pitter-Patter climbed up a tree and took up overwatch. Felix gets to the top of the stone pillar and finds a nest with three large eggs in it. He thoughtfully only takes 2 of the 3 eggs, knowing they are an endangered creature and not wanting to cause any more undue harm to the species. He tucks one egg into his sack and holds the other to his chest as he begins to climb down. That is when he hears it, and Pitter-Patter sees them, two angry Great Pigeons, pictured HERE.

Pitter-Patter thinks quickly and throws some of the nuts he found on the ground, attempting to distract the pigeons from chasing Felix. He successfully distracts the larger and apparent father pigeon, but the mother continued to chase and harass Felix, desperately trying to get her eggs back. Felix focuses on running home with the two eggs while fending off the mothers attacks. After some distance the mother noticed the father wasn't going to help save their eggs and she herself gives up and returns to the one remaining egg in her nest. During Felix's escape, Pitter-Patter had been distracting the father pigeon by feeding him the nuts he found from the Marmotant. The pigeon ate 15 lbs. of nuts before it passed out, asleep amid a mound of shells. Pitter-Patter and Felix met back up and made their way back to the guild, 15 lbs. of nuts and 2 large eggs richer.