Quest Time! Shrubbery Shenanigans : The Hedgerow Headache!

[thequestgiver]

Up high on the top most turret of the castle is a somewhat strange sight for those who care to look up; a 10 foot tall dragon perched on one of the ledges, much like a gargoyle, seeming to be having a conversation with the air. Those of impossibly good eyesight might be able to spot the dragon’s companion; a 3 foot tall pixie with nut brown skin and silver-green leaf like hair, who’s lounging lazily on top of the dragon’s head, idly tracing lines around his scales. (But really. No one has eyesight that good. No, not even you, Harold.)

“If we keep waiting for there to be more of them, we’re going to be here forever, you know.”

There was a snort and a bit of a pout from the dragon, who reached up and idly started twirling his mustache. “Well, then, I suppose we can get things started earlier than planned.”

A similar snort answered his own. “As if you ever plan anything,” the pixie returned with amused admonishment. “Just admit it, you’re as bored as I am.”

“Well, maybe,” the dragon allowed. “It’s been so very quiet lately, hasn’t it? Even that load of etchings I brought to town didn’t stir up much of a fuss.”

“You didn’t hardly give them to anyone who’d cause a fuss,” the pixie countered. “The neutral types don’t really cause any sort of ripples in the fabric of things any more.”

The dragon pouts a bit. “It’s such a shame, really. Makes things far less lively. We need a little more life in here.”

“No argument here,” came the reply, the pixie stretching before getting carefully to her feet. “So, what do you think? Something for them to chase after? Or something more cryptic?”

Sven clapped his claws. “Ooh, let’s go cryptic, it’s been so long since we’ve done cryptic...maybe a maze? Something requiring wits? The foresight to bring along some breadcrumbs or string?”

The pixie debated as she carefully balanced on one foot on the top of one of Sven’s scales. “A test to see how alive they are?” she reflected thoughtfully as she stretched. “That might work, for a starting point.”

“And I’ve got an outstanding prize for them I can put in the middle of the maze!” Sven grinned with far too many teeth. “Something really valuable, and how they react to it will let us know how they handle things!”

Joan leaned down, to raise an eyebrow at her companion. “Something valuable. From you?” she repeated with a faint snort.

“All of my stuff valuable,” Sven said innocently. Too innocently. “Super duper valuable.”

Another, louder snort answered that. “Valuable to who, ” she returned, leaning an arm down to balance her weight on her companions snout.

“You say that like I care about any opinions other than my own,” came the airy reply.

With a small laugh, Joan somersaulted down Sven’s snout, fluttering in the air in front of him. “My mistake,” she allowed with amusement as she began to fly off towards the city walls.

Sven stretched his own wings and started off after her.

The next morning the gossip of the moment was all about the large thorne maze that had shown up overnight, not far from the Two-Faced Forest, with rumors that a fabulous treasure lay in the center, guarded by a vicious dragon! … or was it a troll? Myrtle said it must be a dragon, because dragons were the type to guard treasures like that, but almost everyone else said it was a troll, or worse, a goblin -- you know, the type that never brushed its teeth and always smelled of cabbage? No, not Uncle Westmere, though that is a good description of him most days--

But yes, anyway, the maze! A really big one, almost as big as the capital itself! Any hero who has the ill luck to encounter the townsfolk will find themselves pested to go check it out and see what all this talk of treasure really is about!

Not long after the rumors begin, a small group of trumpeters emerge from the castle, their horns somehow loud enough to be heard through the din of gossipers. … though it does take a few tries before said din finally dies down enough that the caller can finally bellow out his message (while the trumpeters quickly cover their ears):

“Let it be KNOOOOWN! The King does now SUMMON all the HEROES of the land to INVESTIGATE this disturbance that has ARRISIN just outside our city’s BORDERS and to then REPORT BACK their findings as to what TREASURE they hath found!”

He pauses to take a deep breath before continuing. “THAT IS AAAAALL!”

With one last tweddley twee of the horns, the bellower and the trumpeters retreat back into the castle.

(Coordination post is here)

Comments

Enter Maze

[thequestgiver]

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. Well. Not really all alike, some turn one way, some turn the other, but to save you all from typing “Look Wall” every 5 steps, I’ll just tell you flat out, they all look alike; a mess of bramble and thorns twisted together to form a nasty looking hedgerow that thankfully still lets in the daylight, and does allow you to see anyone on the other side of the wall. Each pathway is about wide enough for two people to walk side by side comfortably. The third member of any party will have to walk ahead or behind, however, unless they fancy getting their arms all scratched up by the bramble.

You can go left, right, straight ahead, or just turn around and leave if you’re so inclined. What’ll it be?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone has not had any experiences with actual mazes. Maze-like tunnels and caverns, but mazes made on purpose? Okay, it's a little bit interesting, and surely his sense of smell and ability to shapeshift and climb or fly over the walls will make it easier. Besides, he'd like to meet an actual dragon, since he supposedly looks like one.

So he saunters on in, groundling formed, curious what he might find. First things first, he turns left, since that's the side his good eye is on.

[thequestgiver]

    
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The walls of the maze are very well tended, a thick wall of brush that lets in just enough light to keep everything nice and visible. It also gives a rather strong scent of greenery, as if the walls were just trimmed that morning. It doesn't overpower everything, but it does make it a bit difficult to tell much of anything past "wow, there sure is a lot of greenery in this here maze now ain't there." The openness of the mesh of the bramble allowing for the breeze to pass through isn't helping matters any either. But, there is a scent of... something up ahead...

The walls widen up into a small room, just about big enough for someone to laydown and have a nap on the floor and not hit the walls as they stretched out. Oddly enough, in the corner of the room, there's a small set of stairs, each step barely more than an inch square, carefully hewn out from the greenery. The diminutive staircase leads up to a very small cubby in the wall, where a worm wearing a red scarf is sitting.

"'Ello," it greets, voice pleasant, if slightly hard to hear for its size.

[scarsolderthanyou]

That is a very small talking thing. In Stone's experience, things that talked were usually a little bigger than that. He doesn't think this is the thing he was smelling. He does, however, crouch down next to it.

"Hello, back. Who might you be?"

[thequestgiver]

"Melvin's who I might be. Might also not, hard to say these days. But Melvin will do for now," the worm returned cheerfully. "Having a bit of a romp through the brush, are you?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Yeah. Somebody said there was a dragon at the middle." He grins, all sharp teeth. "I'm trying to find it."

[thequestgiver]

"A dragon? Oh deary me, and here I thought this was going to be a nice, safe, quiet, neighborhood..." the worm lamented. "Not with those troublemakers and their constant fighting making places unlivable. I've had to move a few times because of that sort of ruffian. Very unpleasant to wake up in the morning and see a big nasty fight out your front door."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I think a big nasty fight might be a little different from your perspective than mine," Stone points out. "What happened last time you had to move?"

[thequestgiver]

"They burnt the whole forest down, they did. Just having a bit of a tuft," the worm sighed, shaking his head. "The problem with those immortal types, you know. Always forgetting that the rest of the world isn't like them."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone pauses, then admits, "All right, that's a big nasty fight, all right, I'll give you that. Who was it that time?" Because if he's got any idea what "immortal" means, it's probably not a great thing, especially if they're causing forest fires.

[thequestgiver]

"Two of those big ole nasty ones. Hard to tell the difference between them when they're rampaging like that, you know. But all of thems the same, in the end, deary me," the worm lamented with a deep sigh. "Hope we don't have to go moving already when I've just started unpacking!"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I don't plan on starting any fights with this dragon, at least, if that helps any. Are there a lot of immortal things out there?" Best to be warned now, he figures. He might be old, but he's pretty sure he's not immortal.

[finalizes]

Saffron shoots straight ahead into the maze, with her dad barely able to follow.

A dragon! That's exciting! She's always happy to talk to other dragons. She just hopes this one is nice, once they found it.

Laughs follows at his best speed, trying to keep up despite not having wings and thus having to deal with whatever ground there is underneath his paws.

[thequestgiver]

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The ground is fairly even, packed dirt with only the edges of the path affected by the dense roots of the bramble walls.

It doesn't take too long before those walls spread out once more to form a small room, with another path continuing forward, and another going to the right.

In the middle of this room is a small, antique looking table with an old, hand crank record player sitting atop it. A single, unlabeled record waits in the player itself, with a few others stashed under the table itself in colorful, if faded sleeves.

[finalizes]

Both knight and sidekick bypass the record player, though for very different reasons:

Laughs-at-the-Storm simply isn't interested in that kind of Weaverish contraption, and while he notices it and will return to it if it seems necessary, he'll ignore it for the moment. And, much more importantly, he's way too busy keeping up with Saffron who zooms on and into the path left of the record player.

Saffron, for her part, just wants to see the big dragon! She might care at another time, but dragon!

[thequestgiver]

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_Entrance_ 
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The path again, is short before it opens up to another, similarly sized room, with the path continuing on across the way from where they entered, and another one going off to their right.

In this room, there is a fairly obnoxious weeeewwwooooweeeeewooo sound playing faintly in the background as an obnoxious spinning disc spins around on one wall. What the disc seems to be trying to entice people to do is anyone's guess.

[finalizes]

With how obnoxious it is, it wants to make them move on, Laughs assumes, and isn't particularly sad to follow after Saffron again.

The dragonet just wants to get to the big dragon!!!! She can look at all the interesting items on the way when she gets back. Assuming the big dragon isn't mean.

They continue across, Saffron assuming that the one to the right would lead back to the entrance. And flying straight on is easier, anyway.

[thequestgiver]

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 |  Rp   ___  Disc  ___  S&L  | 
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_Entrance_ 
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The walls of this room are covered in calendar pages, all in different formats and styles, with a wide range of months and days being covered. Also, a wide range of years, oddly enough. Some are in different formats, but most seem to be the standard 4 digit years, ranging from 1920 to a few years in the 2010s, and a couple in the 5700s, oddly enough.

Exits are down, towards the entrance, and up, away from the entrance. (Going forward hits a calendar page for December, 2018, with a photo of a cute puppy on it.)

[finalizes]

Saffron heads up/left, starting to chirp excitedly. Surely they'll get to the centre soon, right? RIGHT?

Laughs, meanwhile, feels more and more uncomfortable in this place. What's with this obsession about various forms of recording things? Still, he follows his daughter.

SURPRISE

[chalicejoker]

                        _|  |_
                      _|  R   |
                      _  S&L  |
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 |  Rp   ___  Disc  ___ Dates | 
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_Entrance_ 
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And there's a familiar face in this room! He's sitting on a pedestal.

"Hello!" Ryo exclaims, waving his arms around. "Am helping! Hajime tried to punch wall and got arm stuck in it, so I have to help so he can leave!" Ryo does not seem disturbed by this development.

[finalizes]

Saffron stops when she spots Ryo, hanging mid-air for a bit before she moves towards Ryo and lands next to him.

"Where is he?"

Laughs stops as well once he's caught up, no more surprised to hear this than Saffron. Hajime got himself into trouble with some type of fighting. Fighting a wall this time, it seems. SURPRISE.

[chalicejoker]

"Not really sure," Ryo says, "got kind of lost getting to the spot I was supposed to wait!"

[finalizes]

"Were you with him when he got stuck?"

Because then he'll ask Ryo to take his wolf form and turn this into a tracking play adventure to find Hajime.

Here goes!

[peaceintheworld]

All three possible directions look the same, from here... they're just going to have to pick one, aren't they? Sayoko takes a moment to look to Tachibana to see if he has an idea, but is soon stepping forward and turning right, already unraveling some of that yarn to mark their way.

[thequestgiver]

There are plenty of branches for the yarn to be hooked onto to keep it off the packed dirt path under their feet.

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_        ___  S&T   __      
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It doesn't take took long before the path widens out again, forming a rather oddly square room, at least 8 foot wide. Along one of the walls (the one without a path in the middle of it) is a large map that... honestly looks like a Garren, Ryo or Blade might have drawn it with crayon on a very large sheet of canvas. Only it has far more words on it that any of the child-like sidekicks would have given it.