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Both the Bard and her cousin
Claude nod appreciably at the Tavern Keeper's words about the splendid
tavern they are staying in. Ascellina says "I
could not wish a better judgement than your approval." She turns to
her cousin and says, "Let's clear this with Aunty Mom and
buy a few things." She turns back to Jarlosh and says "We'll come back towards dark and see who is sitting around
looking for something to do."
The two cousins quickly found their
common relative and obtained limited permission to pursue their interest in
herbology. *IF* Jarlosh approved their guide they could go, but
only a horse and *NOT* the wagon, two horses if the guide is riding, too.
The cousins thought themselves
lucky, thanked "Aunty Mom" and went off of buy and gather supplies for the
excursion.
They quickly purchased some travel
rations, srout cord and a dozen bags. Once they were back in their
room, they quickly packed the supplies into their backpacks and readied things
for a hopeful early start the next morning.
Lina confides to Claude her hope that she
will find some plants she can transplant and reminds him of her teacher's
harvesting policy that one should not take ALL of one kind of plant from an area
- "to leave plants to grow to seed the next year's
crop."
The sun is edging it's way to the rim of
the earth when Ascellina and Claude again find themselves by the bar
waiting for the tables to fill and Ascellina to announce their need for a
guide. About half are filled, and the dusk is deepening when Lina gestures
to Jarlosh and asks him about 3 or 4 likely-looking individuals in the
bar.
OOC - Do you want me to follow Tessa's
example and ask for volunteers?
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OOC - Why am I getting 2 and 3 "Daily
Digests" done at different times of the day? I'm gonna hafta check my
settings again! SIGH!
Riddik's words
opened Lina's eyes - she DOES have access to any or all herbs she could
want! Which can only be validated by bringing in some herb
plant-lings. Too bad she had to come all this way to learn that what she
wanted was in her own back-yard. [OOC - strings optional . .
] This information strengthened her desire to bring in some rare and
precious plants from the valley. But she also felt that some additional
samples of the healing herbs would not be useless.
As she laid down her bedroll, she
looked over to the reclining Riddik and said, "If you wake
me about dawn, I'll make breakfast. And we can be on our way inside of an
hour." Returning her instruments, one to her pack and one to
infinity, took only moments. Sleep came soon after to the cousins, and the
bull-man was left to guard the sleep-filled camp.
Dawn's kiss had just wakened the sleeping
mist when a massive hoof nudged the sleeping Bard. She sat up and rubbed
the sleep away and, nodding to the guarding minautor, she leaned over and
nudged her cousin. Claude also rose quickly and began to
attend to the horses. Lina prepared a quick but substantial breakfast
including onions, mushrooms, ham and eggs with toasted bread on the side.
Remembering the sailor-bull's appetite from the day before, she increased
the amount prepared and fixed an ample plate for Riddik, as well as adequate
ones for herself and Claude. They ate quickly, with little conversation, in
an effort to maximize their time in the Valley
Wrapping the leftovers into mid-day lunches
took no more time than striking their camp to finish the journey. Lina did
not over-estimate the time required to be back on the
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The mornings journey the rest of the way to the valley, was a short one. Within an hour of traveling, Riddik comes to a stop and spreads his arms wide. The view is spectacular. For miles a lush green jungle spread out before them , lining the base of a valley bowl. A flock of tropical birds gingerly fly overhead the green canopy in random formations of yellow and white. Even from a short distance the trees and plantlife looked thick and large, making travel through it slow and tiring. However a single overgrown trail leads down into the jungle a few feet away. Riddik already descends down it waving for the others to follow. "Follow me, and dont leave the trail."  They travel for another hour into the morning, following the grassy pathway deeper into the valley. Several specimins of large flowers, and huge venus flytraps decorate the edges. Sounds of distant bird calls, and monkey hoots echo through the thick jungle brush around them. The surrounding brush looked thick, and prickly with thorns and vines everywhere. Even above, the thick trees and leaves block most light... making it darker under the canopy. Passage through it would be very difficult. Riddik continues leading them on ahead, with sword drawn and senses on alert. He occasionally stops to sniff the air, and with a great snort.. he continues on. Before long the path opens up to a small clearing, he motions for them to stop and then walks out into the clearing alone. After a brief walk around the edges, he returns to the others and nods.. "Ok. Heres a good spot for you to look around in. Seems pretty safe around here, and were surrounded by some pretty cool plants. I'll keep watch." With that said he continues to patroll the edges of the clearing, watching the shadows carefully. As Lina and Claude look around, they see several berry bushes, herbal plantlife, and rare flowers scattered through out the clearing. The sunlight that seems to be more abundant here has allowed a variety of plants to grow here free of the jungles undergrowth. However even at the darker edges of the clearing, fungus and briar bushes can be found. Along with the plantlife, a large variety of insects fly and crawl around... a lot of which are rather large and look very strange. Even a few find the travelers tasty, Lina and Claude often have to swat away pesky blood suckers. |
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The cousins quickly and quietly followed
the lead of the bull-man, anxious to see for themselves the wonders of the
"Valley Jungle".
"Oh, these are
wonderful!" Lina said - "Marvelous!" Claude
added. They simply sat and admired the foliage for a
few moments. Slowly they scanned the area, evaluating and comparing
the plants - trying to determine the best examples to be selected for harvesting
and transplanting to Elmshade. Within a short order, they identified
several plants that had various values and purposes.
As one, the cousins first turned to a patch
of Garden Flax; the deep blue flowers were
unmistakable. Lina knew the pain-killing power of the herb may be very valuable
and they quickly dug up a score of plants and secured them in the
panniers. Claude agreed "Pain killing herbs
are something every healer wishes to have in their cache of
supplies."
In another place, the cousins fund a stand
of Deadly-Nightshade. They considered all
aspects of the plant, and decided that it's benefits outweighed other
aspects. They prepared a dozen and a half plants to be moved the Elmshade
gardens. As Lina said "Sometimes a deep sleep is what is
best for a patient's recovery."
Then the cousins split their efforts and
chose separate plants for further harvesting. Lina chose an area full of
Saffron and dug up sixteen plants to transplant and
bagged a score of blossoms. "Not, strictly speaking, of
use in healing - but can be useful and profitable."
Claude chose Whitecandle and dug up twelve plants. "Another pain-killer for the healer's art."
The sun was close to reaching it's daily
climax and the cousins took a short rest in the shade, Lina looked over
the colorful floral display again and found herself attracted to two small
but especially aromatic members of the orchid family. The blue-violet
version had a blossom a scant inch across. The rose variety's bloom
was the span of two hands. She said, as she pointed them out to her
companions, "That's what I'd like to use for my
perfume. That plant must be 10 feet away and it could easily be in your
hand. And the other, although not nearly as strong, has an intriguing
scent. We'll need to pick up some of them - but we will be through here
shortly. Is there some other place you would like to look over,
Riddik?"
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Riddik continued to patrol the field while the others went about gathering plant samples. He grinned as he watched their faces light up at the large variety preasant in this very field alone. He knew they would like this spot. And before they left, he would have to introduce them to one of the coolest plants he's ever seen... Bertha. Later that afternoon, Riddik had prepared a light meal and gathered everyone around for a rest from their harvesting. This gave the group a chance to show off the different species they had found during the day and take a breather while getting a bite to eat. Riddik apparently salt preserved some of the meat from last nights dinner. It made excellent sandwiches with the bead he had as well. He listened to their stories and excited tones while keeping a casual eye on their surroundings. He nodded to Linas question... "Yep... we got one more stop before we head back. We'll camp outside the jungle edges tonight, but not before we stop and pay a visit to Bertha. If you guys liked this field so much, your gonna love whats next." He then gave her a wink and large grinn before taking a large drink from his wineskin. |
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Lina and Claude appreciated
the break and the cooking skills of their bovine guard. Time had passed
quickly and they were surprised to find out how late it was becoming. They
listened to Riddik's schedule for the rest of the day and Lina said "Whatever you think is best. We can have everything done here
in an hour or two max. Will you give us a hint as to
'Bertha'?"
The cousins hurried with care
to finish their harvesting and make ready to follow their guide. One of the
last things Lina did was to prepare a nosegay of flowers to remind her of the
glade and fasten it to the panniers. "Ready,
Captain!" she called to the Bull-man.
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Riddik only smiled as he was asked about who Bertha was... "You'll see." After they were ready, he led them deeper into the jungle basin for another hour’s hike. The path had started to disappear to a point where the minotaur guide had to stop occasionally and have a look around at their surroundings to get his bearings. The air also became much more humid and the foliage was thick... soaking up most of the light before it even came close to reaching them below. Pesky insects also followed them, dive bombing in swarms and taking what meal they could from the travelers exposed skin. Then suddenly, Riddik turned around to face them all, and put a finger up to his lips... "Were almost there. Keep it quiet, or she'll hear you." Without any explanation he walked out into a dark clearing hidden under the thick canopy. All around were several pitcher plant flowers, each the size of a full-grown man and also partially filled with a clear liquid. A sweet smell permeated the air around them as Riddik tiptoed over tree trunk thick roots, and moss covered vines. He then crouched down low, and pointed out into the middle of the clearing. There standing over thirty feet tall was the largest flowered tree any of them had ever seen. It had several long vines growing through its branches... each one covered in blue violet buds and flowers. The trunk itself looked to be made of a mass of twisted turning roots that spread across the ground in all directions and connected to the hundreds of large pitcher plants that dotted the clearing around them. The top of the tree was one large yellow and orange petaled flower. Each petal looked to be over 5 feet in diameter, and hundreds of them rotated around each other to disappear in a spiral of gold and red near the center. Riddik looked back to his companions and smiled... "This, is Bertha. Isn’t she beautiful?" He looked back to the flower tree and shook his head... "Man... looks like she did a lot of growing since I was last here. She was only half this size a year ago."
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Stepping up beside Riddik, Ascellina
drank in the beauty of the plant and it's environs. The colour! then, stooping,
she saw the being in it's entirity. Gasping with awe, but keeping as quiet as
her guide, she examined the tree [?] from her hidden vantage point. She turned and gestured Claude to also take a look-see.
Not taking her eyes from the near
spell-binding tree, she asked "What happens if she hears
you?"
[OOC - like a giant mum?
Wow.]
[OOC - do you wanna take a little side
trip? Lina would be game.]
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Riddik turned from admiring the giant plant to respond to Lina, however he only got his mouth open before he was jerked off his feet by a great force. In a bursting cloud of flying debris and dust, the minotaur went skidding off across the ground and through the bush at an incredible speed. His sack and sword each flipped off into the nearby bushes and scattering under the brush and disappearing from sight. He was dragged over nearby the large flower plant by thick tenticlelike vines intertwined and braided together to make one large strong limb. It easily whipped the bovine man into the air, snapping him back and forth around 40 feet up. Claude is alerted to the other vines slowly creeping up all around he and Lina while she watched in horror at Riddiks current predicament. Each moving vine looked powerful and strong. They would bore in and out of the ground as they moved along, constantly writhing and twisting within and around itself with fluid movement. As Lian finally collected herself and looked around, she too noticed the silent danger slinking along tward them. There were many, and the only direction currently available to escape them on foot... was up the surrounding pitcher pod plants that also inhabited the area. They looked to be thick and strong as well, able to hold gallons of a watery liquid inside them. |
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The peaceful joy of plant watching has now
turned to a horror.
Thinking quickly and hoping for the best,
Lina said to Claude "Get between and one of those pitchers
and Riddik, draw your knife and wait." Lina drew her sword and
followed her own advice, getting as close to the bull-man turned rag doll as she
could. Quickly composing herself and caressing her bracelet for luck, she choose
a time when Riddik was temporarily close to her and stabbed one of the pitcher
plants. Being careful to not get any fluid or ichor on herself, she wiped the
blade on the end of the twisted-vine-arm holding her companion and guide.
Waiting for any response, she again prayed she was right.
If this worked, Claude could do the same,
she hoped, and pit one ferocious flower against another.
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Lina stabbed the side of the pitcher plant and like bursting a bubble, the weight of the fluids inside did the rest. The clear liquid sprayed out the side of the bulbouse plant, ripping the hole bigger and bigger as the liquid began to spread out across the ground below. Lina and Claude managed to avoid getting much of the liquid on them, except for a little on Linas hand as she cut the plant. She could feel her skin going numb quickly, wherever the liquid touched. Also... as the liquid escapes the pitcher plant, its main bulk begins to sag twards the ground slowly as more and more of its contents spill out. Several of the tenticles were sprayed, including the base of the large one whipping Riddik around in the air. At first nothing happens, but then each one starts moving slowly... and loosening its grip on their surroundings. Each one slowly sinks back to the ground twitching. However on the other side of the spill, there were still four tenticles snaking their way closer to Claude and Lina. One reaches Claude first, just as he slashes a slit into the pitcher plant he climbed up. It avoids the numbing liquid, and whips around to grab Claude by the left thigh. Its writhing grip quickly entangles itself around his leg. Linas drooping pitcher plant lowers her down closer to the ground where two tenticles whip out at her. One misses and grapples the pitcher plant she crouches on, the other one wraps around her dagger and hand. However this is only part of what gets both their attention. The large flower tree moves, arching its flowery top tward the trio. The reddish center suddenly opens wide in a circular serated mouth rowed with thousands of large teeth that spiral down the violet and blue veined throat of the creature. It lets out a large burst of air... sending a cloud of pink pollen bursting out across the area. Riddik manages to get to his feet nearby Claude where he was dropped roughly by the large tenticle now writhing on the ground in a pool of clear liquid. He holds his breath and motions for the others to do the same, then leaps off into the bushes tearing out undergrowth ... apparently looking for his sword. |
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With sheer force of will which would
eventually leave her very weary Lina kept her dagger. In great concern she saw a
continued attack upon herself from the tenticles - but she feared the attack she
saw waged on her cousin more. She was happy to see Riddik freed from his
plant-shaking-prison. She wondered at
Riddik's gestured instruction - but obeyed. Seeing the pink cloud of what had to
be a poison, she hoped that Claude also had understood the hurried instruction.
Lina trys to pull the tenticle holding
her dagger hand into the pitcher plant ichor while watching the approaching
plant-maw.
Thinking of possibilites, Lina trys to
cross-draw her sword. She plans to use this second blade against the vine
holding her dagger-hand.
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Lina easily swipes the vine holding her other hand and slices through it. Green icor sprays from the severed end as the tenticle withdraws from her squirming. Claude is unable to move due to the vine around his leg, so he likewise tries to slice through it. His strike is true, but does not cut through entirely. Green icor still sprays from the cut and out across his lower body. The bushes move around violently where Riddik disappeared. The sounds of crunching vegetation and snapping limbs can be heard as he trudges through looking for his blade. The vine still around Claudes leg suddenly tenses with tremendouse strength, and easily ripps him up from the sagging pitcher plant. Just as Riddik was flung around through the air... so is Claude as he painfully crashes through branches and brush leaving a similar trail of dust and debris as he skidds acrosss the ground and up into the air. The vine brings him closer to the large flowery maw of the plant creatureand it angles its trunk lower to the ground bringing its gaping flowery maw below the dangling Claude and opening into a wide tunnel of teeth and slime. |
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Frightened for the safety of her cousin
Lena moves toward where he is being shaken but tries to keep out of the reach of
other plant-limbs. Hoping to repeat the rescue of Riddik, Lena looks for a
pitcher plant that she can pierce and spray either the arm tossing her cousin or
the trunk itself.
The tree is beautiful - but her cousin is
more valuable to her than *any* plant.
She calls out "Help!!
Riddik, Bertha has Claude!!"
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Berthas main trunk hovers too high up off the ground for Linas plant sprays to have any effect. However she does manage to slow a couple more vine tenticles comming at her by spilling the contents of another pitcher plant on the ground. The clear liquid covers a wide area around the base of the sagging plants, spilling over vine tenticles and even Berthas large roots. Lina can see these large roots spread out all around the large plant creature, and there are also liquid filled pitcher plants spaced evenly between them as well. If enough were cut open, Berthas root system would be soaked in the numbing liquid. Riddik comes bursting out of the bushes next, and runns straight tward the flowery head of Bertha. In his right hand, he holds his sword he had obviously found again, and in the other... he held the tangle roots of a large pitcher plant he had ripped up from the ground still bulging with liquid. He arches his arm back, and his huge muscles tense as he gives off a loud war cry. The muscular minotaur easily launches the pitcher pod through the air, and swish clean into the toothy mouth of Bertha below the dangling Claude. Berthas rows of razor sharp teeth easily pierce the sides of the pitcher plant, spilling its contents inside and down Berthas throat. The large plant creature immedialy lurches back and up, angling its flowery head downward to hack up the pitcher plant remains and liquid. The tenticles holding Claude, and whipping about the area, immediatly let go and writhe inside of Berthas mouth... feebly grabbing for the torn pieces of Pitcher plant. Riddik is there again, catching Claude in mid-air and continueing his jog leaping over pitcher plants and roots to get away from Bertha. Bertha lets out a terribly high pitched scream as the liquid begins to take effect on her mouth and trunk. Even its tenticles that were pulling out plant pieces were beginning to twitch and writhe on the ground. Her large bulk hits the ground with a ground vibrating thud, where her mouth closes up and her flowery head folds inward to a large yellow bud. Within a few moments, the plant stops moving... only a low vibration emits from the trunk. Riddik comes to a stop and turns around with a smile to Lina, as he gently sets Claude down to his feet... "Well? ...that was fun eh?" |
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Riddik's rush back to Bertha's clearing caught Lina almost off-guard. She felt encouraged by his return, certain he would find some way to save her cousin. Riddik's unusual parcel - so the liquid comes from the root? I wonder - Lina is overjoyed to see her cousin thrown away by the flowery female and quickly follows Riddiks to an area away from Bertha's sovereignty. "Fun?" she grinned. "Well, plant collecting is certainly more an *active* undertainking with you." Lina thought a moment - "Yea, I guess it has been fun." Claude sheathed his knife as did Lina. "Think we could take a few 'pitcher pods' back? Do you think Ms Maple would find them interesting?" OOC - oops!! Sorry bout that - 2 little letters. |
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