Alric assumes Caden will place the flowers on the monument. He spreads his hands slowly and smiles at the intriguing little creature. He remain alert and keep his eyes out since hiding time is past and look for an effect from the flowers (if there is one) but he does not limiting his watch to the monument the thing it may trigger could be elsewhere.



Mechanical - Using an action for a Perception check after Caden places the Bouquet if he does otherwise , doing nothing.

(Caden ignores the poor kobold's gesture... )

Is it too late to respond to that? I've been out of power the last three days.

(Of course not! What would you like to do instead? And 3 days w/o power? Was there a natural disaster over there I haven't heard about? More flooding? Is everyone ok?)

Caden will take the flowers and rest them where the others are, where she is pointing.

(We had a pretty nasty storm, put some trees down and naturally took some power lines with them. about 30,000 people were in the dark state wide. Our area is just low priority so we always get power back last. We are all fine, more annoyed than anything else. In Arkansas you just sort of get used to storms and their aftermath.)

Moriah! O, Moriah!

Flower-Ear - "Close your eyes Caden!" She hurries next to you, turns to face the monument, and covers her eyes with her hands.

"Please blow my love to me,
Mariah, blow my love to me"

(I assume my active players, Caden and Alric, use their action to follow her advice. If otherwise let me know.)

(For those that don't close their eyes)

Spoiler

A refreshing strong breeze blows forth from the monument with a blast of blinding colors, like a mix of all the flowers' petals. You feel petals tenderly strike your skin, but the dazzling petal-rays completely obscure wherever those petals are coming from. A last image of the unknown woman appears within this riotous nimbus, smiling and walking away to fade into the light. Eventually the breeze wanes and petals stop hitting you, but everything is still beautiful colored light... and you can see nothing else!

(For those that do close their eyes)

Spoiler

A refreshing strong breeze blows forth from the monument. The darkness behind your closed eyes seems to brighten to a reddish orange. You feel petals tenderly strike your skin. Eventually it all dies back down.

Of course Caden closes his eyes tight and covers them with his hands.

Old Graveyard

Karnath

That singing continued... then a small furry-scaled creature runs out the bush and collects flowers?! It looks like a kobold child. You've learned of them through your travels North through the desert.

They can be fierce fighters, and are said to remain even more unpredictable than any of these uncivilized desert human people. Often the adults seem like children in their selfishness and mimicry, yet occasionally they are life savers in the desert. Though they almost never willingly come out at daylight, let alone pick flowers?!

What does this portend?

The song ends and the distant edges of a bright colorful flash are seen from the monument! ...

Almost Everyone

(for those who kept their eyes open)

Spoiler

Such beautiful colors radiating, radiating... You faintly hear the sound of rumbling, but you feel it in the ground more than you hear. Oh, so many colors... they're fading gradually now.
(You suffered from Color Spray. It only lasts a round.)
As your vision returns it is apparent that there is now a 4' high entrance inside the monument with a stairway that descends into the earth!

(for those who closed their eyes)

Spoiler

You hear the sound of rumbling, but you feel it in the ground more than you hear. If you open your eyes now you can see part of the monument, the one that has a flush seam about it, descend into the earth! You see stairs upon the descending rock, obviously an indication of its future purpose.
(Assuming everyone opens their eyes at this point when the rumbling stops.)
There is now a 4' high entrance inside the monument with a stairway that descends into the earth!

Flower-Ear says, "That is to the home of the Lady. She is good to us, a good spirit." She says that while opening her hands out, maybe a gesture of including everyone present?

"There is a crawlspace from her 'honor den' into the blessed 'warrens'. She visits and protects the other 'honored' at night." Flower-Ear continues, "When you are not wanted she sends you away.

"Sometimes there are 'touching tunnels' from the evil spirits trying to get in there. She collapses them as she can." Flower-ear implores Caden with her eyes. She has to look partially up and towards the sun to do this, and it is obvious how much of an effort it is from her visible discomfort.

"Grackto wants to save the life that saved him, so I must help you. He says, 'Don't go there, into the evil spirits' 'warrens'. She will collapse the 'touching tunnel' behind you once she finds it, for safety, and those evil spirits they will kill you. And once you are dead you will suffer even more.'"

"Grackto and I must run back home now, Caden. Please don't choose to die!" and she runs off towards the woody hedge.

Caden calls his thanks after Flower-Ear, then turns to Alric. "Well we've got some thinking to do. I don't like the looks of this and the warning was fairly clear".

(As GM, I have no other NPCs nearby to further motivate you. Well, except for my weaver and acolyte observers, but they're busy being neutral, observing. This is all about PC decisions and momentum here, I'll wait.)

(The gaping maw to the underworld awaits your willing entrance. As does the town. Ten minutes go by as the party discusses their options.)

(10 minutes more goes by.)

The acolyte turns to the weaver, "Well, it seems they have hit a limit to their bravery." She merely looks sidelong at him with a smile and raises her brow along with a shrug. He smirks and pushes his luck injecting some humor into this waiting.

"However, it was quite a coup to coax a kobold out of the woody rough and teach us how to blind ourselves." The weaver snickers, and the acolyte presses his humor, "And in the sunlight no less!" She can't hold it back and let's out a laugh, quickly trying to rein it back in.

"You're such a piece of ground squirrel shit, you know that?" she teases back. "And you think hiding yourself among the pine nuts makes you all the funnier." She nudges him with her shoulder playfully, "Quit playing mocking bird and let them get back to work."

Old Graveyard

3:05 PM

Almost Everyone
Alric, Bright Feather, Caden, Hanalee, & Karnath

After thirty minutes pass of remaining open the ground again rumbles and the visible stairs raise back up to seal the mausoleum closed. The sunny afternoon continues with its lazy insect sounds sweltering in the heat. Only the spray of wildflower petals at the party's feet gives away that anything wonderous just happened, and the infrequent breeze whisks even that away.

"I think they are overwhelmed, tired. We might as well go back and relate to the elders what has been learned," the weaver comments openly to the acolyte. The acolyte responds with a quiet nod, a sense of acknowledgment to the party, like a commiseration between those who've been tested to their limits.

"Let's get you all home and rested. We have much to talk about later this evening. Our people shall treat you to a home cooked meal and some 'strong medicine', perhaps a few rounds worth." The weaver starts to walk out of this Old Graveyard anticipating everyone else will follow. The acolyte takes a moment to close his eyes, intone something underbreath, and then look up to the sky before doing the same.

(I am assuming the party is overwhelmed and exhausted — also the players are caught up with life's tasks. Instead of killing off the campaign here, I am going to "fade to black" and transition the scene back into town. Those of you who are still active are welcome to continue your adventures within town, just let me know what you are doing once back in the boomtown.

As for everyone else, I hope you will return once things are less busy. We are next going to have a lengthy meeting with the village elders who will debrief your resulting mission, reward you, and explain as many questions as possible that you've uncovered. This will be an open interactive process, but doesn't need full active player questioning to unfold, so you are welcome to take a backseat to other player questioning. Feel free to interject as the conversation unfolds.

We'll start back in town around 5 PM dinnertime, and will expect the party's presence at the Elders' Place by 7 PM. Let me know if you choose to do anything in that interim.

You'll still have a 2nd lvl character here upon return regardless. Hope to see some absent faces return to Livonia's Lament!)