A Blooming Blessing - 22/03/2023 - Archie’s Extracts
Mar 25, 2023 22:23:14 GMT
Michael and Wik like this
Post by Andy D on Mar 25, 2023 22:23:14 GMT
On Support for Neighbouring Community Farms
I had responded to an adventuring note requesting aid to escort a druid to Maydaisy Farm. Along with me were a past acquaintance, Cechec; a Golden Dragonborn swordmaster, and a person I was familiar with in reputation, Seraphina; a Horned Aasimar cleric of the Temple of Selune.
Farmers are self-sufficient and should not need magical assistance. However, in the case of an emergency, such as; a drastically reduced crop or theft, where this can be terrible for the community a farmer feeds, I would hope, magical assistance would be on the ready. Accelerated crop growth via magical intervention is ideal in these circumstances. My friend Mendal informed me of a time where he saw a druid colleague of ours restore the entire pumpkin field of a farm in a matter of mere minutes.
Similarly, I would wish for all communities to have access to magical remedies for the amelioration of longevity and good health - this of course is my area of interest, and where I wish to discover improvements.
On Awakened Vegetation
Juniper, my dear Awakened shrub has made for a fantastic wizard assistant. In addition, it is pleasing to see her enjoy tending to the local plant life in our home district, the Dwarven Quarter. From time to time, she comes to chat with River, an Awakened Tree, who resides outside the Three Headed Dragon.
I worry for Juniper, when she wishes to walk the streets unaccompanied. She is only small, and rather fragile in comparison to the little ruffians that might cause her harm. I worry not for River, however, for he towers above even my Goliath friend Kavel who stands at a colossus 7 '4". Harming River is not easily done, whereas, one suspects, that if River wished to do harm to the city, it would be terribly easy for him to accomplish. Fortunately for the city and us all, River has a very pleasant nature. When I last encountered him, he was talking to, and petting the horse that was tied to him.
On Country Folk
Friar Plume, the Cockerel Aarakocra druid we were escorting, was accompanied by a young Harengon girl who titled herself, ‘The Crimson Vixen.’ Vixen wore a wooden vixen mask, and a crimson hooded. The young Harengon’s attire suggested that she wished to be considered an adventurer and conceal her identity. Vixen was rather mistrustful of ‘cobblewalkers,’ her term for city folk. But, she recognised she needed help escorting Friar Plume back to her village by Maydaisy Farm. A trust between Vixen and Seraphina began to emerge when Seraphina saw to Vixen’s sprained wrist. The injury had occurred when Vixen fell out of River, which is to say, she was resting on one of his tall branches, until she wasn’t, and found herself prone on the cobblestoned ground.
Friar Plume is friends with farmer Jyles, who runs Maydaisy farm. The Friar is a pleasant, friendly chap who operates on a less hurried schedule to the one assigned. As evidence though to his pleasant nature, he had purchased poppy seed rolls for everyone on the journey.
On Journeying to Maydaisy Farm
Cechec took the reins beside Friar Plume, as Vixen was not able to steer the cart and Phoenix (the horse) on account of her healing wrist.
I enquired about the opportunistic theft attempt from the day before; a small hobgoblin had tried to steal Phoenix. River dealt with the potential thief, who turned into a duck when caught by - to him - a very unexpectedly alive tree. River picked up and hurled the then duck over the Three Headed Dragon. Vixen was not familiar with the assailant. Given the magical nature of the assailant, one wonders if this merits its own investigation?
Cechec’s cart steering skills at the time of our outbound journey seemed to be lacking in what one might call proficiency. Vixen’s mask fell off during the rocky bump that Cechec blamed on Phoenix stepping on a stone. Vixen was angry, and upset with her mask falling off. Seraphina conversed with her and learnt that Vixen has had rude and hurtful experiences with city folk on account of the way she looks, which explained, in part, her reason to conceal her face. While the pair conversed, I felt my presence was inadvertently intrusive. So, I opened my spellbook and pretended to work. My scriber magic is perfect for such a pretence, as I can use magical ink to write with, and later magically erase it, so as not to waste a page in my spellbook.
On the Maydaisy Farm and Aurochs
We passed an impressively large oak tree, followed a track down a valley, rode past fields of wheat, and came upon a farmstead with; a windmill, penned animals and plenty of fields, with, unfortunately, ravaged crops. We had arrived at Maydaisy farm.
We met the owner, farmer Jyles, whilst he was tangled up dealing with one of his animals. The animal in question was special, I recognised it from my reading. Farmer Jyles was attempting to regain control over an auroch. The huge, large-horned bull had gone wild. The auroch had been spooked by something in the field it was tending to. Auroch’s are famous for being challenging to control, and have a powerful charge. Why had Farmer Jyles bought an auroch to plough his fields given the temperament of the beast? I guessed the economic trade-off was key here; it takes but one auroch to pull a plough, whereas it takes two cows to do the same.
Seraphina suggested we try to wrestle control of the auroch by lassoing the beast with rope from our adventuring gear. I had read about branding steer; you do not brand a steer without first controlling it. Lassos from either side of the beast was a recommended strategy. But the auroch was a powerful and large creature, and neither Seraphina or I were Goliaths. So, I took it upon myself to enhance our strength with the Enhance Ability Spell, specifically the Bull Strength enhancement - a rather aptly named spell for the task at hand.
By the time we were ready to rescue farmer Jyles, who had been thrown off of the auroch, the auroch had smashed the side of the barn. If it had continued, I’m not sure the economic trade-off of one auroch for two cows would persist if we factored barn repairs into the overall running costs of owning an auroch.
We had successfully lassoed the auroch from either side, and were managing to hold it in place. Seraphina had good aim with her rope’s hoop. I used my telekinesis to make sure I hit the bullseye, so to speak, with my lasso. It was Cechec, however, who calmed down the auroch once we had control of its movement. There was no mention in my reading about the technique Cechec used to calm down the angry beast. Nevertheless, poppy seed rolls seem to be very effective at calming spooked aurochs.
Friar Plume had attempted to use his druidic magic to calm the auroch. However, he was unable to do so. This was, in retrospect, prescient of things to come, when it came to the Friar’s application of his druidic magic.
On Druidic Magic and an Interfering Mysterious Source of Magic
Farmer Jyles fed us a lovely, rustic lunch, and we were able to clean up, and get a little rest before agreeing to help Friar Plume, in whatever way we could to magically re-increase the crop yield.
Farmer Jyles had finished planting new seeds into the field he had ploughed with his auroch, with a little assistance from us adventurers. It was then up to Friar Plume to work his druidic magic.
The druidic magic worked a treat, albeit for a few side effects. Firstly, from the cabbage patch in the neighbouring eastern field, a Plant Dog was awakened, and bound right up to Seraphina. The dog was indeed a pleasant little side effect. Since I had casted the Detect Magic spell to better understand Friar Plume’s magic, I was able to observe that Plant Dog’s are native to the Feywild.
Whilst the plant dog was not an unwelcome side effect of the Friar’s magic, the Shambling Mound and two fellow plant monstrosities, were.
I had cast the Detect Magic spell to see if there was a magical reason for why the auroch was spooked when we arrived. Jyles said the creature was spooked by something in a divot they had ploughed. Unfortunately, the investigation had to cease, as we had more pressing matters to attend to, as the Shambling Mound had engulfed Jyles into its Mound of rotten vegetation, and was slowly suffocating him. The Mound itself was much larger than Shambling Mounds are reported to be.
On New Spells in the Field: Bigby’s Hand, and Combat
Bigby’s Hand is extremely versatile. I was, however, unable to extract Jyles from the horrible Mound with my giant magical hand. Perhaps the task was too delicate for the spell. Bigby’s Hand, however, was very successful at bashing the plant monsters. In addition, I was able to slap one of the large plant creatures away from a badly hurt Phoenix towards Cechec and his lethal rapier skills. This made for a terrific cooperative assault.
My Dragonborn ally is impressively swift on his feet in how he evades danger and delivers lethal piercing thrusts to our opposition. His sword skills against the Shambling Mound, not only wounded the creature, but aided Jyles in escaping its restricting vines. When Jyles was safe from the Mound’s clutches, Cechec delivered the final blow to the Mound.
Jyles, for his part, joined the battle when freed, along with Plume and Vixen, too, it should be said.
My telekinesis continues to prove extremely versatile. I was able to safely free myself from a melee engagement with one of the plant horrors and reach a safe tactical distance. The smaller hand of telekinesis combined with the larger Bigby’s Hand, I feel, is a good pairing. Whatever attacker my telekinesis couldn’t help me disengage from, Bigby’s Hand could interpose itself between me and them. I was unharmed during the combat. My allies, including the Friar and the civilians; Jyles Vixen, the Plant Dog and Phoenix were not so fortunate.
My colleague, Seraphina, cast a cleric spell called Spirit Guardians. Two statuesque angels with swords encircled her and dealt considerable radiant damage to the plant monstrosities with every swing of their swords. Seraphina also casted the Mass Healing Word spell to address some of the worrying wounds people had received during the combat, showing an effective propensity for magical healing during combat.
I interlaced the lighting potential from my Glyph of Warding spell with my Scorching Rays spell, to produce the original Lightning Rays spell. I shot my four lightning rays at the Shambling Mound’s allies, but not the Mound itself. I had remembered from my extensive reading that lightning against Shambling Mounds would be a tactical disaster, as Shambling Mounds can heal from lightning.
Together with my allies, we finished off our enemies. Cechec’s well aimed rapier thrust saw to the Shambling Mound, while Seraphina casted a surprisingly dark spell for a cleric, called Inflict Wounds and ended the last of the Mound’s allies.
In addition to a few injuries, Cechec had been sprayed with tomatoes during the fighting. The cause, unfortunately, was my Bigby’s Hand spell. As with the attempt to extract the farmer from the Mound’s grasp, Bigby’s Hand was an indelicate tool. In the process of moving around the field and bashing the Mound and its allies, Bigby’s Hand had managed to amass some of the tomatoes that had grown in the field thanks to the Friar’s magic. And, in the process of bashing monsters with a large fist full of tomatoes; there were tomato juice casualties.
On Druidic Magic’s Effect on Crop Yield
Despite the damage to the field caused by the plant monstrosities, the surrounding, untarnished part of the fields had positively been affected by Friar Plume’s druid spells. The tomato patches, for example, which Bigby’s Hand had unintentionally harvested, were enormous and extremely tasty. Whatever was lost in crop yield quantity was made up for by sheer crop yield mass.
We were paid 100gp each for our assistance, 20gp more than agreed. We were also gifted with some of the large vegetables we had helped accelerate from seed to plant.
Friar Plume had some gifts for us too. Cechec took the Potion of Growth, I the Staff of Bird Calls, and Seraphina the Pot of Awakening - an item of which Juniper and I are very familiar with!
When we returned to Daring Heights and the Three Headed Dragon, Juniper was chatting to River whilst awaiting my return. Mendal had messaged me with the Sending spell, to inform me Juniper wanted to visit her friend River. I agreed with Mendal that it would be splendid if he took Juniper, in my absence, to the Dragon, so she could chat with her friend. I would then be able to pick her up when I returned to the Dragon. In addition, it meant Seraphina would meet Juniper and get an impression of what could await her if she planted a shrub in the Awakened Pot.
Vixen had a little gift for all of us too. After our time together, it was pleasing to see she had warmed up to some ‘cobble walkers’.
The journey back to the city had some unintended excitement to it. We had experienced more than enough excitement for the day, but somewhere along the line, a suggestion for Cechec to drive the cart back, attached not to Phoenix, but to the auroch, was approved!
Cechec had had some advice from the Friar on how to control a cart on our journey to the farm, after the rocky road incident. However, I was not put at ease by the steering lessons Cechec had received, nor the man’s apparent control over the auroch by way of offering the beast a poppyseed roll. In order to put myself at ease, I casted the Enhance Ability spell, Owl’s Wisdom variant on Cechec, which he admittedly gladly received. I was then put at ease, but the Watch members on the Swamp Gate when we returned to the city were not - the auroch almost charged the gate. Cechec’s defence against the Watch’s consternation was merely to say, “this is the way.” My ally’s sangfroid way of speaking took the Watch members’ breath away. They said nothing in response, as we rode off to the Dragon.
