09 - Musk Ox Wrangling

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

He also shared that he knows a goblin that lives outside the walls and herds Giant Musk Ox. Being springtime he guessed that this goblin known as Grommulus would have his herd at the base of Spine Breaker Ridge, grazing on the fresh grass. He suggested that the party go and try and get one from him, if they could find him it would probably be easier than finding a wild one. The cartographers also decided to attempt to bait and capture some Giant Ladybug on their way as they would be more active after the recent storm. They brought some grasshopper steaks to attract the ladybugs and and a few nets to trap them with and were off on their way.

Encounters

Luck be a Lady(bug)

The party found a nice spot on the trail with a few felled trees from the recent storm, which worked perfect to hide amongst the leaves after they laid their bait. After sometime they heard the tell-tale buzzing sound of a large winged insect, shortly after they see a Giant Ladybug land and begin munching on the bait. They rush out to throw their nets at the creature, luckily they were all armed as it dodged the first two, but the third net successfully hit and wrapped around the creature, keeping it from flying away. They started wailing on it together when they heard the sound of another potential ladybug flying in. They rushed to collect their nets, lay another set of bait, and hide before the ladybug appeared. The first ladybug appeared dead under the net, or at least unconscious so the party left it while they awaited the next ladybug. The second ladybug took the bait and again the party rushed it with nets, failing to trap this one but continued to engage it. Gnaa noticed that the first ladybug had now woken up or at least started to move, and he rushed over to ensure they didn't lose their prize. The ladybug was indeed still alive and attempting to escape the net, Gnaa let out a ferocious Flurry of Blows

Flurry of Blows

2nd-level Monk feature

Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.

and finished the ladybug off. While Gnaa re-engaged the first ladybug, Felix and Pitter-Patter attempted to take down the new ladybug but were unsuccessful and it was able to fly away. They harvested the meat they could from the slain ladybug and loaded it onto Fred the Level 2 Donkey before heading out.

How Unbearable

The party continues on and believes they are getting closer to the base of the Spine Breaker Ridge as the fresh snowmelt streams have been becoming increasingly frequent. They follow one of the streams and soon start to hear what sounds like a high pitched screaming, but more prominently they hear an ear piercing screech. Before them they see a goblin standing atop a cliff, throwing small objects at a creature down below, identified by Gnaa as an Owlbear.

Owlbear

Behind the goblin stands a tall hairy humanoid known as a bugbear, it appeared to be wrangling an upset pack of Giant Musk Ox.

Giant Musk Ox

The party carefully made their way up the cliff to the west, trying to not draw any attention of the owlbear. They reach the goblin and see him pull a potato out of his pack and lob it down at the screeching owlbear scratching at the cliffs. He introduces himself as Grommulus

Grommulus

and his hairy friend as Bobo the Bugbear

Bobo

who grunts slightly in response as he struggles to reign in the 3 musk ox infront of him. Grommulus throws another potato and explains that this owlbear spooked his musk ox and some ran away, but he has been busy keeping the owlbear at bay and Bobo has been busy making sure no other musk ox escape. He asks for them to help round up the escaped musk ox while hit hits the owlbear with another potato. The owlbear snarls and starts to sniff the cliff to the east.

"No, not over there! Don't let it climb up here!"

Grommulus yells with a slight jump. Felix and Pitter-Patter go to collect one of the musk ox while Gnaa leaps across the clifftop waterfall to move and engage the owlbear which had begun climbing up the rocks to the east. Felix and Pitter-Patter calm down one of the escaped musk ox and bring it back to Grommulus who excitedly yells,

"Oh yay! You found Bobolina."

They can also see that Gnaa may have overestimated himself in taking on this Owlbear and rush to aid him. Together they are able to take down the frightening beast and go wrangle up the last missing musk ox. Grommulus very gratefully thanks the party for saving their two musk ox and taking down the Owlbear. Bobo was finally able to calm down the musk ox without the Owlbear screeching and riling them up. While Bobo begins to tend to the beasts, Grommulus lights a cookfire and invites the party to sit, share a meal, and share the story of why they are out in the wilds to which they accept. They explain that they are members of The Cartographers Guild and that Cyrus tasked them with collecting foods for a feast. While they are speaking, Grommulus is peeling potatoes and tossing them in the boiling pot, and upon hearing Cyrus's name he gets noticeably excited.

"Oh you know Cyrus?! Him and I go way back. Before I started traveling with ole' Bobo, I herded my ox all by my little ole' self! But every springtime when taking the herd down the mountains to graze I would always run into Cyrus sometime or another, and oh boy could he cook. I've never seen someone kill, clean, and cook a beast faster than that genasi.

While Grommulus is sharing this story he pulls out a brown paper package tied with twine. He carefully unties and unwraps it while speaking, pausing to reveal a beautiful marbled cut of meat.

"This come from old Meatilda,^{(Like Matilda, but pronounced Meat-Tilda)} only fitting to have a fine meal with fine new friends, right Bobo?"

Grommulus says with a smile, to which Bobo unenthusiastically grunts. They all share a meal and Grommulus agrees to give his saviors and old friend Cyrus one of his herd.

"You can have Bobolina, she's a bitch."

he says. The party say their farewells and move on to harvesting what they can from the Owlbear before heading back to the guild, one Giant Musk Ox in tow.

Rewards Granted

Image	Item & Description	Quantity
	Giant Ladybug Steak Flakey, buttery ladybug steaks.	15 rations
	Owlbear Ribs Smokey owlbear ribs.	9 rations
	Owlbear Beak A finely harvested beak of an owlbear. Joined together it could make for a deadly end of a pike or spear, separate they could be turned into a small pair of sister daggers.	1 beak
	Bobolina A musk ox destined to be slaughted for a feast.	1 ox
	Guild Payment Sweet, sweet money.	7gp, 5 sp each