Gnomecalypse [5e solo hexcrawl]

[Smilex]

The group continues past the crude wall. After a few minutes of walking you observe another hill in the distance. A large tree stands in it's center. Then you see that there's another stone wall that's been built to a height just above the waist. It's quality is not that impressive. You reckon someone a little stronger than you could just topple parts of it by pushing.

Behind the wall there's tents. They're not many. You would guess their number to be fifteen or so. They're made of leather. The area is quiet. No fires are burning. Somewhere between the branches of the tree there's a light spell going so not everything is dark.

When you get closer you start noticing details. There's some pit traps outside the wall. You can see piles of dead grasses in the are on the outside of the wall. The ground inside is mostly burnt. All plant life except the tree itself has been removed. This looks to be the only aspect that this community has been careful about. At one point outside the wall there's what looks like sixlegged turnip that had been trying to climb the wall until it was hacked in two with an axe.

The younger satyrs start laughing and rejoicing they've reached home. They run to the wall and toss their bundles of firewood over it. They proceed to climb over and dance spontaneously.

Headroom smiles and turns to you.
-I present to you the court of Queen Mead!

[WindStruck]

A bit of wonder and curiosity marks Hushedfly's face as she gazes about the encampment. For a "court" perhaps she was expecting something a bit more... just how far had the Fae fallen? She was almost certain that more could be found in or near her home.

Well, she didn't want to be rude. She nodded and smiled gingerly at Haedroom as she walked inside, still awkwardly carrying her little bundle of sticks.

"Thank you for bringing me..." is all she said as she continued to look around.

[Smilex]

The satyrs are not nighttime creatures naturally. The young ones in particular start doing preparations to go to sleep.

Headroom shows you around a bit. He starts by showing you a well they've dug. Next to it are a number of clay jugs they store water in. Then he points to you an are they use as a refuse heap/latrine. He shows some racks for drying materials. Their construction seems very familiar. There's a small crude kiln and an area scattered with stoneworking tools. All the construction seems exceedingly crude when you compare it to what the rock gnomes regularly achieve.

He continues to show you an earth cellar they've dug to store things and another cellar that he calls a catacomb.

From everything you see, you suspect Notagem is at least six times larger a community than this court.

Finally he take you to the tree. He makes a hushing gesture with his hands and whispers
-We don't want to wake anyone up, certainly not the queen.
The tree's trunk is maybe three meters in diameter. It's trunk is covered by beehives that further increase it's bulkiness. You can hear a slow buzzing noise from them. The tree goes as high as you can see with dark vision. Despite it being very early in the spring, the tree has small leaves and even blossoms. Far up in the branches are a small number of lights of differing colours. They remain mostly stationary though they seem to pulse a little and they are variably obscured by the swaying of the branches.

-Our queen shelters us even in her sleep. She keeps her leaves long into the winter and she brings them out again to help us early in the spring. He bows and goes to one knee in front of the tree.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly looks at the other uncertainly. She eventually, slowly follows suit to, lowering herself to a knee.

But she looks over and whispers, "Your queen is.. this tree?"

[Smilex]

Headroom gives you a look as if you'd asked whether the horns on his head belong to him. Then he seems to interpret your question as if you were asking whether this tree in particular was their queen.
He whispers.
Yes, she's a noble oak. She stands alone apart of the puny striplings that shelter the spider queen. There's no tree like her. There is only one and she is the queen.

He stands up and looks at the tree for a moment.

-Magnificent, isn't she?

A small branch grows out of the side of the tree. It sprouts a berry.

Headroom seems overjoyed.
-Thank you, your higness. Your loyal Headroom thanks you.

He takes the berry and eats it. It looks familiar. You've seen a druid create goodberries and this one is similar. You're not sure if oaks have berries.

The branch speaks in sylvan.

-You've pleased me and this is your reward. You, new girl. I require you to introduce yourself.

[WindStruck]

Magnificent, isn't she?

Hushedfly looks back toward the giant tree, bewildered. She had no answer. Just.. usually her people were not comfortable around trees?

A branch and a berry grow, which does not alleviate her confusion even as the satyr begins thanking the tree.

Then it speaks to her. She whirls her attention back to the tree in surprise. "Oh! I.. I am Hushedfly... from Notagem."

[Smilex]

There's a pause. The branch shrinks away. Then the branch comes back.

Hushedfly, envoy of Notagem. It pleases me to receive you. Witness my power!

You see a white flash behind the tree. Immediately after you start hearing a pounding, like falling stones. There's a yelp, and a howl. And then a sound of canine animals quickly running a way barking.

Headroom nods and you and waves you to follow.
You walk towards the sounds and you can see an icestorm ravaging an area of land immediately outside the wall. Behind the wall there's the corpse of a coyote, pummelled by the blocks of ice.

You hear the voice of the tree again from a lowhanging branch.

You're welcome in my court Hushedfly. Now tell me your news of Notagem.

You hear people moving near the tents. A couple of heads poke out to see what's making noise.

[WindStruck]

Wow. Poor coyote... And quite an impressive display of power indeed.

Well.. Hushedfly begins. "It seems Notagem was thought of as only a legend? It's not."

There's some silence as she thinks of what else to say.

"Um.. where else to begin...?"

"Our current chieftain is called Almondgrape, and it seems there is still unfavorable opinion among many for the former chief, Feytricker... Um. What sorts of news are you interested in.. your highness?" She wasn't exactly sure what to call the tree, but she just sort of copied Headroom.

"I am afraid I did not come this way as an envoy."

[Smilex]

As you look at the coyote, you see worms and beetles appear in the corpse in almost seconds. Weeds and a couple of flowers push out from the body as well...

...

-Almondgrape... What a fine name. But which one are they, an almond or a grape? Getting rid of a Feytricker is good. You've done well in Notagem...

There's a moment while the queen stays silent and another berry forms on a low branch next to you.

-This is for you. It is a gift for your tale. ...

Then she continues to answer your question.
-Why... I'm interested in courtly news, royal news, important news! Tell me about the soil there. Do the rabbits plague Notagem as well?

She doesn't seem to register your claim of not being an envoy. Maybe the idea is impossible to her.

While she's talking you observe a redhaired gnome lady approach the three of you from one of the tents. She smiles a wide smile while also looking quite sleepy. She looks like a chaosgnome.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly squints. "Um.. Almondgrape is just a name. They are foods he is fond of: in particular, fermented grapes. But he is, in fact, a gnome."

When the other berry forms, Hushedfly gingerly reaches out to carefully pluck it from the branch. "Oh.. th-thank you..." She tries nibbling on it.

"Does it hurt when I .. do that?" she asks, seemingly overtaken some curiosity.

When the queen tree asks about rabbits Hushedfly responds uncertainly. "Well.. there are rabbits nearby.. and the soil is, um, rocky..."

She turns curiously to look at the red-haired gnome.

[Smilex]

-A gnome as a leader? Hmph. I assume the true leader doesn't want to reveal themselves, yes that makes sense. Maybe it's a fungus that lives in his brain?

The tree drones on until you comment on the berry. The berry itself tastes the same as the goodberries you've tried back home. It's delicious, refreshing. It removes the pain from your tired feet and gives you nourishment worth the meals of a whole day and night.

-I don't feel pain easily. My bark is strong and the berries are meant for my loyal friends. Everyone who stays under my protection gets the berries to feed them.

She creates another berry and the approaching chaosgnome picks it up, smiles and does a small curtsey. She gives a small delighted laugh at the taste of the berry.

The tree listens to your short tale of Notagem.

-Bad soil AND rabbits. Well, what can you do. You hear this, Headroom? This is the best court in the world!

Headroom nods.
-Yes your highness.

The chaosgnome looks at you, sizing you up. Then they open their arms and approach you... They grab you... and hug you for a moment. Then they withdraw and say
Thistle, nice to meet you.

Then she simply takes a step back as if nothing else needed to be said. Headroom gives her a nod and plays a small ditty with his pipes.

The tree goes:
-You may all go back to sleep safely. It was just a show of my awesome powers. The court is safe. No evil coyote will catch you in the night. Headroom, show Hushedfly of Notagem a place to sleep!

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly takes the hug uncomfortably and passively, like a giant doll simply being squeezed by a small girl. Guess she didn't really know what the other gnome was going at first.

After Thistle introduces herself, Hushedfly merely nods in return.

Well, it seemed she was being dismissed. She'll follow Headroom for now, but she wasn't sure.. would she actually be spending the night here?

[Smilex]

You, Headroom and Thistle walk towards the tents.

Headroom says:
-You see how it is... Our queen can protect this area from anything. She can produce food to sustain us through the worst winters. And she actually does these things. We can rely on her. With her there's something that we can build on. This is beyond the wild, beyond predator and prey. This is something greater we have here. There's no other place of safety, anywhere.

Thistle sneers a little.
We did alright in the forests.

Headroom frowns and continues.
Yes. You survived. And you had so much fun that you chose to come here instead of staying with your tribe.

Thistle shrugs.

Headroom points at one of the tents and says.
-That's the one of us old folks. You can stay with us.

Thistle points to another tent.
-There's room in mine as well.

[WindStruck]

"Aren't the forests dangerous?" Hushedfly asks, still rather paranoid of trees that would eat her.

Now it seemed she had a choice of two places to sleep, although she wasn't tired yet...

"Um.. well.. I'm not really tired yet.. and I think, maybe I should head back..."

[Smilex]

Thistle smiles, though she seems to have an everpresent smile.Even when she shows annoyance she just wrinkles her nose.

Headroom looks maybe a little frustrated.
-Well we will not stop you. It was good to have you visit, though I'm sorry it has to be this short. The hour is late and I feel about to collapse. Thank you for telling us of Notagem. Maybe we can help each other in the future. Now I must to bed. Good night.

And he withdraws.

Thistle seems to quite full of energy, not tired at all.
-I'll walk with you. Are you a whispergnome?
She's been only wearing a leather loincloth but now grabs a furlined cloak from her tent and a knife with her.
She also puts on footwraps.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Which direction do you head towards or do you want to spend more time exploring the court?

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly merely nods to Thistle. But then she messages: 'Yes, of course.'

The message will continue. 'You seem to like it here. Were there other types of gnomes where you came from?'

As for where they walk.. well, Hushedfly wasn't sure. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to be walking in the barren darkness all alone. She'll probably just walk the perimeter of the small wall with Thistle as they talk.

[Smilex]

Thistle walks along with you and continues to smile all the time.

-It's nice here. Like he said, there's food and safety...The satyrs can be a lot of fun as well.

Her words are very nonchalant, she speaks matter of factly, as if things were self evident and as if using words was ... a strain.

-There were forestwalkers.

You move across the wall. She doesn't seem to be bothered by the choice of just talking a walk aroun the wall. She seems perfectly satisfied just walking and watching you.

-Lots of forest gnomes and us imagos. Few whispergnomes.

You walk a whole round around the wall and all the time she doesn't seem to feel any need to add anything to the conversation. Finally she asks.

-Are you fine without wrapping your feet?

Her sheer happiness at the physical activity makes you think of your mom a little, though your mom feels sneakier than Thistle.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly nodded along as they talked.

"I'm rather used to it," she said with a shrug. "I should be fine.."

A faint smile creeped upon her face as she said, ".. as long as I don't step on an actual thistle."

Ah, an actual attempt at a joke.

[Smilex]

Your joke makes the smile on Thistle's face change a little bit. It looks maybe a little more satisfied.

After your second full round around the wall Thistle asks
-Do you want to go look for rabbits?

Your body's feeling good. Looking at the moon you know it's some time after midnight but there's a lot of night left. The air remains coolish and the northern winds are kind of strong here on the plains.

[WindStruck]

"Rabbits? ..I guess you mean to hunt them and such. The queen here seems to not like them.."

Though Hushedfly realized she hadn't really answered the question. "Um. I don't know. I think I should head back..."

[Smilex]

Thistle answers a little defensively
-I don't want to hunt them. I like looking for them. Then if I find one, I like to look at it's breathing. They breathe quite fast. Sometimes I find a sleeping one and carry it around as if it was mine. Then I let it go.

When you say you're about to leave she quickly asks

I'd like to come with you. Just a little while maybe. I want to see the way towards Notagem.

While you're discussing the wind keeps rising.

[WindStruck]

"Oh... Oh. That sounds nice," Hushedfly says, nodding approvingly.

"Perhaps you can come a ways. Maybe we'll even see a rabbit."

Though she wasn't sure how many rabbits were out at night. Then again, maybe the night was safer for them as well.

[Smilex]

You start walking back towards the west. In the night's emptiness you're not entirely sure if you're taking the same angle on your path as when you were coming this way but you're definitely going west.

Thistle follows you in direction but sometimes pauses to try to show you things. She points at a bunny's burrow and goes look if there's one in or sometimes pauses to point out a pile of droppings. The largest, she claims are by rhino or buffalo.

This only happens on occasion so your overall pace isn't much slowed.

As you progress you start encountering more rocky and hill terrain than thickening brushes. You feel you must've gone a bit awry. You can't see the lake or clear landmarks. Just the vague shadow of mountains to the west.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly peers about a bit awkwardly. She'll message, to be extra quiet out in the wilderness: 'Seems I've strayed a bit. There's.. supposed to be quite a large lake. Perhaps I've gone too far north.'

Yes, Hushedfly could only assume she had gone too far north. The lake was quite big, after all, and if she had gone too far south, she'd have certainly ran into it.

She'll try to correct her course by veering more south or southwest.

[Smilex]

You start going a little bit more left and hope to see water. Instead you find a pit trap.
There's a large pit that's been dug on the natural walking path between two small hills. The bottom of the pit is about three yards below you. You don't see anyone there. The pit is oval in shape. You can't see any sharp edges anywhere to suggest a particular tool was used to dig it. The earth that has been removed is in small piles in a large area in the vicinity. You can also see signs that something has been dragged out from the pit at some point over to the opposite side. There's marks on the edge of the pit of something scraping.

Thistle whispers to you
-That looks interesting. I wonder who's hunting here.

You can see some animal tracks in the area but you're not quite sure of their type.

-I hear there's badgers in this region. Talking badgers. Headroom calls them Ryven. Maybe it's them. They can be savage if they're angry.

Everything is silent. I doesn't seem like there's anyone nearby.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly turns to Thistle and asks, "Do you, um, know what region this is? In relation to the lake I was talking about?"

"It.. can't be far off..." she mutters to herself.

[Smilex]

-Not really. I like going with others and with the satyrs we always go to the woods. In torchlight everything's different, full of shadows.

She leans over the pit's side.

-What if there's somebody there? Like a rabbit.

She turns to you and now suddenly seems serious.

We need to find a rocky spot where to spend the day. In daylight we'll see where we are. Rocky terrain won't grow plants tomorrow, not in this cold weather.

[WindStruck]

Hushedfly peers into the pit. With her darkvision, she should be able to tell if something was in there.

She nods. "I guess you're right. Maybe up on higher ground?"

[Smilex]

In the pit there's a few large rocks that block your view in small areas but everything seems quiet there. Rocky terrain, difficult to dig in.

You look for a good rocky hilltop and you find one nearby without too much trouble. You shelter behind a high rock on top of the hill. SHe offers half of her cloak to you for warmth and shows she's got four goodberries with her - enough to last you both through a couple of days without any other nourishment.

She keeps asking you for stories of Notagem. She's much less inclined to talk herself. It doesn't feel like she's being secretive she just really wants to know things about you and Notagem. Also she seems like the type of person who's more inclined to push for action. During the next hours though you end up finding quite a bit about her background.

When she does talk, she tells you about how thirty years ago she decided to leave the camp of Forestwalkers in the south. They knew about the court of queen Mead and she decided to follow a ranger who was going to visit the place.

She tells you that there's a great firebreathing beast that lives in the south. It's a fiery bird that can burn the forest monsters. They call the bird salamandergander. It doesn't hunt gnomes though it is dangerous. The forest gnomes used to live in the burnt parts of the forest and survive by following quietly in the monster's tracks, eating roots hidden in the burnt ground.

Later they learnt to remove bark from the trees in the night. This would kill the trees and allow them to survive living in the dead forest that gave better shelter than burnt grounds. Even later they've even made a truce of sorts with some woodland spirits allowing for mutual coexistence. Still, the idea of a tree that was friendly to gnomes used to be magical to her. This is why she sought out queen Mead.

When Thistle finally met the queen she wasn't impressed. She considers the queen annoying. The satyrs instead, them she loves. She's partnered with most of the satyrs in the camp at one point or another. She even has three kids with them. They all grew up to be satyrs themselves and are now already acting like adults.

Lately satyrs have started to tire her. They grow up quickly and they grow old quickly. With the wild life they live they get injured easily and die of random silly things. Headroom is someone she respects though. She's started to want more gnomish company and maybe something new in general.

[WindStruck]

Hushedly listens and talks to Thistle.

She'll explain a few things. Their tribe basically consists of six clans of different types of gnomes. And the mites. And they pretty much live underground. It had been that way for a long time, and only in the more recent years had they started going out.

She expresses a lack of connection with most everyone, except perhaps her family, and also goes on to explain the whispergnome network a bit. And how she finds it pretty bothersome. Some message are sprinkled in for added emphasis.

She started coming to the surface for the peace of quiet and tranquility in the night and maybe for the curiosity.. though perhaps it can be gleaned maybe she was hoping for something better, too.