Birch
The Journal Entry’s title
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The Journal Entry’s title
Beebop is 5% done with the portable treehouse
First day of travel
• Birch spends the day in the cart, scroungecrafting (but permanently) making a hammock to go between Beebop's antlers
Second day of travel
• We come up on a 20ft wide river, guarded by bandits
• Jesp & Birch are familiar with the pathway/bridge but not with the checkpoint
○ Birch does not recognize them, but Jesp recognizes them but doesn't know them
• Birch hops down and approaches the guards--it's 5gp/person & 10gp/cart
• As we approach them, they see Beebop's stolen sword & stand at attention, letting us pass free of charge "Sorry sir!"
• At night, Beebop gets another 5% done on the treehouse
Third day of travel
• Dream talk
• Jesp throws a rock at Beebop
• Beebop is bonked in the head, then picks it up and eats it
• Jesp & Roach start a book about what they've thrown at Beebop to "cure" him
We enter into the biggest tree canopy, it blocks out all light almost, and it is dimly lit
• Jesp & Roach grew up here, Birch has not been back since he left prison, Caoimhe & Beebop have never been here
• Eliza heads to the Wieldway Gate, which is on the western side of the city
• Jesp & Roach head up with Eliza, Caiomhe & Birch are in Beebop's hammock as he sprints up a branch road
Jesp & Roach are perusing the canopy market, Beebop & co take 3hrs to arrive by branch road
• Canopy Market (nice), Trunk Market (practical stuff), Rootbraid (black market)
• Eliza's Emporium is just off the main road of the Canopy Market
• The boys are in the Canopy Market shopping for fabric for camouflage
○ They go to Roach's favorite store (JoeAnn)
○ They each spend 200gp on magical fabric to make gilly suits
○ Functionally, they will make cloaks of elvenkind, which will take 40hrs each to make
○ Scrallas-- most famous dish in Alderheart, mashed grubs served over worms
Beebop & co arrive to Eliza's Emporium
• She has adventuring essentials & one-of-a-kind items & treasures
○ e.g., deed to a house in Brackenmill (500gp), magical wooden eye, scroll of major image, small clockwork squirrel made of bronze, token with a rams head on it (5gp), assortment of old spellbooks, boots of elvenkind, bracers of archery, completed cloak of elvenkind, efficient quiver, birdfeather token, treefeather token, silver raven figurine of wondrous power, ring of feather falling, robe of useful items, staff of the pythons
§ Birdfeather token is reusable
• Eliza gives Beebop a healer's kit which he gives to Birch
Leaving Eliza's
• Beebop sees NORMAN WITH A PARCEL ON HIS BACK
○ He has a bag of holding with a note on it
○ It has the potions (1 animal friendship, 2 greater healings) and a rock (Sending Stone) (Susan has the other one)
○ AND WE CAN KEEP THE BAG OF HOLDING
○ Caiomhe writes Susan a long letter which Norman can take away
We all reunite in the Canopy Market
• Roach offers Beebop a bowl of Scrallas, he eats the whole bowl, then spits out the bowl
• Jesp is working on amping up his blowgun
Session 5
Short rest to all
We return to Susan and wait & watch while she performs the ritual
• Beebop dances with Norman
• Jesp & Roach are outside stealthing, but Susan closes the curtains
• The room is dimly lit--the only light is a green glow from the cauldron & the firelight
• Beebop moves inside and continues to dance
• Beebop and Norman clap to a beat together
• Susan does an incantation, the cauldron explodes up, and a crevice opens from the ground. Fizban appears
○ Fizban is upset about unions
○ Re: the fire, Fizban tells us about "Team Fiesta" in his home nation, apparently they're a crime organization
§ Fizban also suggests we look into the unionizers. He thinks if we bust the union, we'll get rid of the fires.
○ She's confused why he's still here, usually the demons disappear. He is not a demon.
• Susan re-does the incantation and a demon crawls out of the crack in the floor
○ She explains the fire vision, and he says "The chaos of undeath brings the fires AHHH"
○ Before battle, we learn that Roach's full name is Cockroach (probably)
○ Demon casts "Darkness" on itself
○ Beebop tackles beebop out the window
○ Susan gets the kill
• She offers to brew potions for us (e.g., Healing, Greater Healing, Animal Friendship, Feather Fall, Resistance, Oil of Stickiness, Oil of Slipperiness) when we pass through
Level 3!
Birch gets an ingredient list from Susan for each of the potions she makes
Fizban antagonizes Susan, Beebop throws Fizban through the freshly rebuilt wall. Beebop rebuilds the wall.
Susan gives Caiomhe 2 potions of greater healing in thanks
• She pockets one and gives one to Beebop
Jesp & Roach head off to town with Fizban to fetch Eliza while Caoimhe, Beebop, & Birch are staying back with Susan to forage & have a picnic
• Of note: Beebop hucked Jesp & Roach in the direction of town
• Jesp attempts to pin Fizban to a tree with daggers
• Jesp puts 100gp in his mouth from Fizban, then adds it to his bag
• Fizban dumps the rest of his 1000gp in the river, the boys recover 800gp of it (for a total of 900gp)
Beebop begins working on a portable treehouse for the boys
• 3% progress from every day he works on it
Fizban, Roach, and Jesp arrive at the tavern & see Eliza
• Sneak vortex, Fizban casts "invisibility"
Foraging:
• Birch finds ingredients for 1 animal friendship potion that will take susan 1 wk
• We find bullrush root & violet fungus cap, and we see a crocodile
• Birch kills a crocodile & Beebop harvests the eyes
• We give Susan all the ingredients--in a week, she will have a potion of animal friendship & a potion of greater healing for us
• Caoimhe has picked a bunch of flowers
• Beebop has felled a tree and made planks, and then has nailed planks to a tree for steps
Midafternoon, we all reunite on the main road
• It's an uneventful journey to the big tree
• Next: we arrive to Alderheart
Session 4
Wake up in the Marshtoe Tavern
Jesp & Roach are headed to the general store
• They're at joann's fabrics
Caoimhe is at the stationary store
Beebop & Birch are photosynthesizing and then follow Caoimhe
• Beebop buys a book on surgery except the vibe is grey's anatomy
Jesp is looking for things to feed to Beebop
• He finds a metal acorn, a purple beetle, and a handful of grass
Birch buys an herbalism kit & intro to herbalism book
• It's for processing herbs, making potions, etc
• Birch is not proficient in herbalism
Jesp, Roach, & Beebop are vibing in the streets
Caoimhe & Birch go to the Magistrate's
• He locks the door and there's a bunch of locks and bolts and stuff that close it
• There's a swamp witch who dabbles in evil magic--he wants it dealt with discreetly, so as to not worry his constituents
• She's somewhat recently moved into the swamp
• Sources say she has a pretty distinctive amulet--Magistrate wants us to bring it back as proof
Beebop has been staring directly into the sun and is now blind for an hour
• Birch finds an eye tincture in their book
• Jesp touches Beebop's eye ball to no effect
• Jesp hands Beebop the test food items. Beebop consumes lead.
• Beebop has the poisoned condition until he passes the lead acorn.
• We loiter for an hour
Birch determines where the witch is and knows they can walk there and back before dark
• They get there in a couple of hours
• Jesp & Roach have sneaky time
• The group sees a hut ahead
• Smoke is rising from the hut, we smell a pleasant but strange smell
• We see a woman through the window, throwing stuff into a cauldron
• Large beetle skittering around on the floor, gathering ingredients for her
• We can tell that the beetle was summoned with Find Familiar
Beebop screams really loudly to lure the witch out, she sounds adorable and pokes her head out
• Roach does detect magic, finds conjuration magic & general alchemy
• Caoimhe gets pretty good vibes from this lady as Beebop asks her for an eye salve
• She also gives him an emetic and starts vomiting into the swamp for 10min
She and NORMAN relocated to the swamp to do alchemy and do summonings to get potion ingredients, and moved to the swamp so she wouldn't bother people
• She wants to summon an entity to help her interpret her divination
• Her amulet is just an old snail horn, and it's a lil kazoo from music school
• We warn her to lay low
• "I saw this great blaze consuming the woods, near the scorched grove. There were these figures, these large lumbering burning things…very large and imposing thing of burning something."
• She always gets clearer visions from Moonfish & Starfish
• She needs a few green frogs, some swamp herbs, which can be found about an hour north of here
We head to the swamp
• Caoimhe finds plenty of swamp herbs, plus bullrush root, the shedded tail of a swamp lizard, small scale, and a feather covered in muck
• It's starting to, in some places, become a little barely dimly lit
• Beebop eats grass
• Birch nabs frog. Birch then fails several times to catch frogs. The ground rumbles with frogs.
• Beebop finds the tail of a swamp lizard
A giant toad pops out of the pond. Birch attempts to feed the toad. Succeeds. Birch tries to pet the toad on the nose. Toad does not enjoy. Tries to bite Birch's hand.
• Birch takes 2 piercing, 1 poison, and is grappled
• Birch has been swallowed, and is now blinded & restrained
• Birch takes 9 acid damage in the belly
• Birch SLICES their own way out of the toad--it's the giant version of the frogs I needed, so Birch just harvests the spleen that Susan needs. And then gives the spare frog to Susan. He chews.
Looting the toad
• Beebop takes the eyes
• Birch get one portion of magical frog potion ingredients
• Birch gets one bullrush root, Caoimhe finds swamp herbs
Session 3
Wake up in the Marshtoe Tavern
Dream talk!
Map with a red "X" on it, that Birch identifies as bandit headquarters
Tobias gave Birch a letter addressed to "Birch et al." from the magistrate asking to speak with them
Selling loot:
• Three suits of leather armor
• Three shortswords
• We receive: 50gp
Jesp wants a hand crossbow, can't afford it. Beebop offers his body. Shopkeeper offers -10gp for every pint of blood. Beebop provides 5 pints and is reduced to 2HP.
Arcandy
• Run by two pigeons, Willy and Wonky
• It's candy that looks like amulets and magic items
• Birch buys their usual, a ring pop
Magistrate's office
• Magistrate: corvum, looks ruffled
• Kenna--went to the caverns for slimes but hasn't returned
○ Researcher from the Avum; Birch knows who she is, but hasn't guided her specifically
• Two paths to caves:
○ Direct (few hours) through the swamp
○ Indirect (full day) safer
On the way to the caverns through the swamp
• Jesp has become Beebop's research assistant; he will help with testing things to eat
• Jesp & Beebop see bubbles
○ Birch IDs as a black pudding, it's 80 feet away
In the caves
• Stagnant, dank, ick, smells of rot
• Beebop tries the fluorescent mushrooms in the caverns
○ No noticeable effects, except for fluorescent poop
○ *beebop is the radium girls*
• Birch sees a path through the muck; Jesp & Roach stay at the cave entrance because they're mad at Beebop
• Birch is so focused on following this trail, that they slip on the muck and fall into the gross water, but they resist swallowing any
• After 30min we hit a 5ft wide 50ft long tunnel
○ "It's giving bad vibes of collapse"
○ Beebop's antlers cause a partial cave-in & Birch gets injured
• We come into a large cavern
○ 10-30ft ceiling, 60ft radius
○ Stalactites & stalagmites; we hear dripping water
Combat
• Two slimes drop from the ceiling & a gelatinous cube appears in front of us
• Beebop is dropped to 0 immediately
• Birch kills gelatinous cube
Beebop sprints to the top of the cave to apologize to Jesp & Roach
Gelatinous cube loot:
• Nest charm (magic item)--small sphere of intricate metal with branches interwoven to form a next; place it on the ground & speak command word--it unfolds to create a 30ft diameter platform of branches, a magical tree grows below and carries everything on the platform 50ft into the air (Caiomhe)
• 5gp
• Brass magnifying glass (Beebop)
Beebop Figgins is schizophrenic
Into the cavern further
• Hear a faint groaning, of someone who is injured
• We see (Kenna) corvum; she broke her ankle running from the slimes
Trip back to Winnowing Reach is uneventful. We take Kenna to the magistrate, and she's taken off to some healers. 10gp each.
Stay the night in Winnowing Reach. Magistrate says to come back tomorrow because he's got another task for us that "pays well".
Jesp & Roach may go to the general store tomorrow.
Session 2
Long Rest & Level up
We talk about our dreams :)
On the road:
• As we travel, the north side of the road fades to a burn area; bleak & endless; ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon
• Birch notices the cloud is coming towards us--it's moving perpendicular to the road
• There's flecks of flame in the cloud
• It's a swarm made of tiny bat-like creatures, with a flame of fire (ember bats)
Combat highlights:
• ?
Bat swarm flees following combat
On the road again:
• Birch is leading
• Roach is Naruto running in the woods, crying, because Beebop thought he was Jesp's mom
• Beebop has Mr. Brightside perpetually playing in his head
Forest Prowler
• Roach scolds the kitty, and it misses both attacks
• Beebop goes unconscious, Eliza heals him
• Caiomhe cries over the dead cat
Jesp & Birch remember their party can move at twice speed d/t background. Party gets to Winnowing Reach as it gets dark. They stay at the Wrangler's Rest tavern. It's pretty quiet, there's a few people having dinner in the inn. Only the innkeeper, Tobias, is working.
Long Rest
Session 1
Meadowfen start
• Trade wagons gone missing
• Beebop & caiomhe are outside
• Birch, jesp, roach in the Marshtoe tavern
○ Tavernkeeper scrappy meriweather
Marshtoe tavern
• Jesp & roach have a fight
Smoke in the sky
Beebop & caiomhe are looking for the Elder Arwin
Jesp & roach run after beebop & caiomhe. Beebop runs back to the tavern, picks up birch, and runs back to the group
Old woman is covered in blood and ash, looking for the elder. Beebop picks her up and keeps running in a dead spring. Beebop throws the old woman at the Elder's door. Caiomhe saves the woman.
Elder Ardwin: Gallus (chicken)
• Cara (old woman) says she's the last of "the people", from Ashbarrow
• She reports that the fire has escaped the scorched grove & the entire village of ashbarrow is now ash
• The fires are coming
General Lore:
• There's no four-legged livestock
• Non-veggie food is bugs, snakes, fish, etc.
• People don't keep chickens, but there are non-sentient birds out in the woods
• Gapache: mapach dish; spicy vine veggie ragu, served over long beans
Cara Stormsinger (strig villager, captain) had gone out with 20 of their militia to investigate the smoke
Jesp & Roach got matching moth tattoos
Elder:
• Caiomhe was sent to find him. He is sending her to alert the birdfolk council that the fires left the scorched grove
Caiomhe casts spare the dying on Cara
Jesp threateningly tells Birch that they met at the market--clearly does not want to have it known that he was with the bandit
Birch agrees that if Jesp & Roach will come, Birch will talk up Jesp to Roach, talk about how cool he is
----
It's about two days travel to the Alderheart
The group sets off after a grocery trip, Birch falls into the lead & scans for danger
----
On the road:
• Birch & Beebop hear a commotion up ahead, and can barely see two archers up around the bend, standing menacingly
• We see two hooded figures by a wagon, one is stuffing stuff into a sack
• Mouse, bunch of mapachs, fox
• We see a body on the ground, who Birch recognizes as Eliza, someone they've led to the Caverns before
• Fox is chilling, mapachs & mouse are looting
• We hear a whimpered "help me" from Eliza
• Fox is Fray, Birch's old captain, who they had a good relationship with
• Birch bargains with Fray to get free passage for themself, beebop, & caiomhe, because Fray doesn't see Jesp & Roach since they're far behind
• Birch tells Caiomhe & Beebop about Eliza, they all agree to go look for Jesp & Roach and decide what to do
• They're too loud in the woods, scout comes investigating, Beebop steps out of the woods and asks if scout would like to contribute to his book about things that are okay to eat
• Scout called for Fray, roll initiative
Battle highlights:
• Beebop one-hit kills the scout
• Birch one-shot kills the archer out of the tree
• Fray shouts "Thief!" at Jesp, and looks Birch in the eye, "You have used up all of your good will"
• Beebop chases Fray into the thick forest
• Beebop kills Fray "YOU CAN'T OUTRUN THE BOP"
○ Fray's Loot: suit of studded leather armor, finely crafted shortsword with rose on the pommel, bandit coalition captain sword (functions as ID card)
Birch takes Caiomhe to heal Eliza
Other loot:
• Four suits of leather armor
• Four shortswords
• 5 daggers
• Dagger bandolier
• Small coinpurse with 15gp
• Map with a red "X" on it, that Birch identifies as bandit headquarters
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