The Morning After
General Summary
We wake up for the first time for weeks in beds! Well, I was mostly in a bed. They weren't exactly a comfortable size but it still counts! Rissa hears a ruckus outside while we eat, a lady down the street is yelling and making some commotion. We shove our food into our faces and both me and Tilly cough and choke as we stagger out the door.
Down the street a blonde elven woman with a short bouffant hairstyle is freaking out at Eli. She's waving her finger in his face and is clearly upset about something happening on her propery. As we get nearer we can see Eli is quietly responding and waving his hands in surrender.
"Those nasty witches have been casting spells on my husband, and being all kinds of nasty. It's our forest, it's our land, and I demand you get rid of them!" as she sees us approach, she starts to try telling Eli that he needs to get us to remove the witches from her land.
Solumnly Eli turns to us apologetically. "Sorry if our conversation was disturbing you. This is Karenalia Aurelian, one of our land owners in region two, south east of here. Apparently she's having trouble with trespassers. We'd like to pay you to do the job, since it would take quite some time to gather the locals and route them out."
Tilly responds "We don't have anything better to do. Sure."
Eli says "It will only take a minute for me to fill out the proper documentation. Please don't leave until I return."
Karenalia turns to Rissa, trying to intimidate her. "Well? What are you waiting for? You need to go right now!" Rissa tells her to back off and that we were waiting for Eli and Karenalia backs off a little and decides to threaten us with legal action before storming into Sapphires shop. The rebranded sign swinging as she slams the door and begins to vent to Sapphire about the whole thing.
Eli returns a short while later with contracts for us that will legally allow us to use violence against the trespassing witches. I ask Tilly and Rissa for an explaination of the documents and neither of them really know but they question Eli about the 'witches'. Eli recounts that the 'witches' destroyed two axes and three cart wheels, and are restricting Karenalia's access to her own land. Three women in ragged clothes with a light green skin, moving trees, and supposedly trying to seduce her husband. Eli doubts that her husband was unfaithful but this needs to be handled.
The entire party accepts the contract under legal authority of the Mayor and Novis Terram. The contract is for 100gp per person for assisting, or a plot of land, as Eli is trying to encourage folks to settle down nearby. I suggest we go finish our breakfast and gather our gear before heading out.
Heading east toward 'region 2' of the Whitney land. Rissa and Tilly talk about the regions, and that region 1 & 2 are each about an eighth of the total land occupied by the Hero City title. Karenalia's husband owns the land, and inherited the only forested land in the region. They're leveling it to develop the town.
The rough road and grassy plains lead us towards a vast forest with a small wagon trail with a modest house being rennovated. The 'witches' are supposedly in the forest to the east and the group debates speaking with Karenalia and her husband. As we approach we can see him hauling a recently repaired wagon. He politely greets us and lets us know he's aware of why we're here. His main issue is that they aren't paying property taxes and are occupying their land - his tone doesn't seem nearly as upset as Karenalia, although I guess nobody I've ever met seemed that upset before, and I've mortally wounded others before.
I introduce myself and he's really polite. His name is Soren, and he seems to really like the forest witches and can't quite keep his story straight - the forest is special, is apparently all he heard from them when he asked them to leave. Resigned, we continue towards the forest to investigate.
We enter the forested area and find the 'melted' wagon wheels and the crazy warped axes. I made a joke about penises but nobody really liked it. Thankfully we're distracted by a naked green-skinned woman splashing in the water in the shade of the trees. She stands up and begins to run towards a tree - I thought she was going to bump right into in, but instead she vanished inside it!
I suggest Tilly should try it, but she seems reluctant. Instead she decides to inspect the tree and digs around in the roots with no helpful result. Rissa, however, calls out to the green lady and gets charmed. Of course I didn't know that back then, but Rissa explained it later. I mean, I didn't really notice anything was wrong but at least nothing bad happened. Rissa keeps trying to talk with the woman, but she keeps running away leaving bursts of green sparkles and verdant leaves everywhere she goes.
As soon as Tilly gives up digging another green woman springs from the hole (I kept calling it a vagina but nobody thought it was funny) and quickly swims across the pond and vanishes into another tree quite a distance away.
Just as I'm turning around, I see one of the green women saunter towards Freyja, swaying hips and speaking in a language (I assume) I don't know. Bork seems to know it though and tells Freyja the woman thinks she's pretty. Then the woman grabs a branch and warps it into a heart! She gives it to Freyja and giggles, giving off sparkling green pollen as she grins.
Finally Bork realizes that these aren't witches! They're Dryads! and generally pretty nice! Samguise seems to quickly build a rapor with them. Once a dialogue opens the dryad explains that their lifeforce is tied to the trees here and they can't be moved. I sit down to appear a little smaller and start eating the little yellow flowers while the others chat. Tilly gets to know exactly where the trees are located so we can get enough land for them to survive.
Thankful, they invite us to stay with them and 'party' by the pond. Only Freyja & Bork stay behind to make sure they're going to be okay while we straighten out the situation back in town. I think Freyja might want some sexy time with them and I hope Bork doesn't interfere. After how much time Freyja spent in the bath last night I think she needs this.
The rest of us return to town and find Eli sitting outside his home enjoying a biscuit and the cool breeze. "Did you manage to 'take care' of the witches in the tree?"
Tilly explains to him that they're not witches, but rather dryads and mean no harm to anybody nearby. Instead of our choice of land, Eli agrees 'give' the land to the dryads instead of us and the issue will be completely resolved!
We deliver the good news to the Aurelians but Soren shoo's us away before he tells his wife. As we leave we can hear Karenalia screaming in outrage. Then we return to the dryad grove and celebrate with them throughout the night.
End of Act 1
Downtime Activities!
Major: Relations - Tilly wants to help relocate the squirrelfolk to Hero City and establish them as entrepeneurs. Squirrelfolk are not 'citizens' and must purchase their 'citizenship'. Minor: Samguise
Major: Musical Career Minor: Building the inn because he became homeless Freyja
Major: Minor: Rissa
Major: Focused on her family Minor: Bork Borque
Major: Animal sanctuary Minor: Romanced dryads Brick
Major: Work manual labor to earn gold Minor:
Rewards Granted
Eli grants us the land where the dryads are living!
Character(s) interacted with
Graham McGowan
Eli Whitney
Karenalia Aurelian
Soren Aurelian
Dryads
Eli Whitney
Karenalia Aurelian
Soren Aurelian
Dryads
Notes
Eli Whitney - Noble Fighter
Graham McGowan - Cleric
Giver McGowan - Fighter/Barbarian, talented blacksmith
Sapphire - Sorcerer, lisenced in Novis Terram
Graham McGowan - Cleric
Giver McGowan - Fighter/Barbarian, talented blacksmith
Sapphire - Sorcerer, lisenced in Novis Terram
Report Date
07 Jul 2021
Cast:
Brick
Freyja Rahezura
Risa
Samguise Bushgrub
Tilly Flitmoss
Bork Boruq - DMPC
NPCs:
Eli Whitney
Graham McGowan
Karenalia & Earl
Unnamed Dryads
