Returning from the Lizardfolk Temple, having slain the Balrog polluting the waters, Flint negociates with the just-starting-to-recover Beaver Army, who agree that fighting with the water supply should be considered a war crime, and that moving forward our two factions will trade supplies for Agates, rather than blackmail. Once back in town, the returning water level encourages the city to celebrate with festivals that waste more of the now-plentiful water than should be believable.

A travelling wise woman, with a wagon full of oddities, has been whispering prophesies to folks, trying to entice adventurers to take up a simple task for her, in exchange for the answer to any 3 questions we might have. She merely wants us to gather for her a vial of special water, from a nearby spring, but warns we’ll need to go soon before the spring… stops being there.

Our troop sets out:

• Flint, eager to recover lost memories of his past
• Ken, seeking where to find the ultimate herb
• Geoff, with many of his own secret questions… having made an additional deal that if he should perish in the quest, the right to ask said questions could be willed on to another.

unburdoned by a fleet of support asses, as the directions we were given were only a few hours out of town.

Whats the ass-to-ass ratio? - Ragu, pondering how many asses it would take to carry 100 bear asses, were we given such a petty fetch quest.

After awhile, we’re alerted by incoming screams in Common, and see a man get tackled by a feathery, shiny raptor – who then both blink out of existence with a Pop! As we try to find the other screams, the same pair burst out of different bushes, but when Geoff hurls a ‘dart’ at it, the raptor rears back and blinks out without the injured man. The party splits, with half trying to protect the injured, but when too many raptors down Geoff and Ragu, Flint decides to… bury the dude alive with Mold Earth, to hide him from the raptors, and run after his mates.

An odd battle ensues, including a friendly bear spirit, a shadowy tempest of freezing cold darkness, Ragu cooking up a rolling ball of fire, and a whole lot of blinking about. When the darkness blew away, the last of the raptors fled deeper into the jungle, and three terrified hunters survived to tell the town our tale.

The way forward then became clear, as the pair of trees making up the arch we were told to navigate by comes into view. Walking through, the jungle seemed to shift a little into a stronger, higher saturation form of itself… as Ken experienced one of his best trips.

---

Ken pokes one of the shiniest, prettiest blooming foliage, and giggles - as the flower giggles back at him. The druid proceeds to… speak at the greenary, and seems to glean from it that the pool is not much farther, but that there is and isn’t a danger near it. A white rabbit hops into the clearing, and tries to greet Ragu, but he rudely dismisses it and its nonsense. It tries engaging Ken instead, who is amuch more enthusiastic chatting partner. The Rabbit asks Ken if he wants to trade names, while offering a glowing leaf. Accepting and introducing eachother, Cottontail then takes the leaf and places it in his hair, as Ken waves goodbye and hops into the jungle.

ominous keywords: minotaur, maze, garden

As we leave the hedge maze towards the top of the hill, we spot an impressive pool, and a more impressive, tripled-unicorn-horned triceratops - The mighty Triceracorn. When he denies us entry to the pool, we politely request he fill our bucket with some pool water, but he mutters that we’re too unclean. When pressed for how we might get re-cleaned, we’re told we’re too rabbit (Cottontail), demonic & corrupted (Flint), and lizard (Ragu) to play. Geoff presumably was guilty merely by association.

Seeing no other choice, Cottontail runs for the pool and we engage in combat - Ragu lights it aflame, Geoff does his regular ordinary fighter attacks, Flint raises a pocketwatch and tries to Slow the beast, but the beast’s eyes flared red, causing the watch glass to crack. Flint tried to instead Haste Cottontail – and poofs into a gaseous cloud with a little pilot light flame again. Ahh wizards. Cottontail fills a bucket and runs, getting gored twice by its giant horn – though with his new bracers, it didn’t slow him down a tick. Geoff tried filling the vial we got from the old woman, but the vial started sucking up the entire pool and zoomed out of his hands. This greatly angered the Triceracorn, who gored Geoff. Looking to give him an out, Flint returned to human form and raised the pocketwatch again, this time remembering to open its glass cover, and Hasted Geoff. Everyone fled back into the hedge maze, and as the Triceracorn struck Geoff, it somehow suddenly exploded in flames.

Thus Ragu got to harvest Triceracorn prosciutto, and Flint got two unicorn horns, before the grass started to become a lot less green, and we returned to the Minotaur’s garden. Cottontail caught Ken, and convinced him to trade back names provided we improved his standing with the minotaur by restoring his flower garden with the bucket water. With that resolved, we Polymorphed the Minotaur into a Great Eagle so he could escape the maze, and together we flew back through the archway and into the calm, relaxing, Chultian jungles.

The Minotaur then decided to join Greenstone, as a gardener.

Previous Chapter: Brownwater

Next Chapter: Adamantine Chef

Dramatis Personae

• B - Flint Stone, amnesiac wizard, Wizard/Monk School Headmaster and Head Mayor of Greenstone
• T - Anea, Druid
• N - Ragu, sage Lizard Chef
• M - Ken “Cottontail” Leaves, the down-to-earth Furbolg Cleric Druid
• G - Geoffery Armstrong, Human Fighter with a heart of gold? definitely has a heart there, yep.