Latest / Hedgerows & Hatchlings / Ep 2: The Owlbear Necessities
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- Ep 2 The Owlbear Necessities: As you jump over the stream, breathing sharply among the wildflowers, all the while disturbing the bird song, you know. With sudden clarity, the companion running alongside you is now nowhere to be seen. I would like to welcome Rohan's character to the reserve. You are alone among the trees, breathless and spattered with mud. Wet leaves cling to your clothes. How would you like to start your visit? panicking Reggie is is kind of grasping at anything he can to keep himself moving forwards. He's gonna try and sniff out or or to see where his companion has gotten to, and upon no signs of them being there, he will press on with as much haste as he can summon. As you press on and try to make sense of what happened to separate you and your companion, you start to hear a large disturbance ahead of you. Through the trees comes a deep persistent vibration, a sort of The ground seems to tremble beneath your feet. Considering the nature of your character, I would like you to make a survival check to identify the source of the sound. Sure. That's a steady thick seven. Beautiful. That is magical. You follow the sound beneath a canopy of golden and yellow leaves. Breaking through the undergrowth, you stumble onto a path trailing between two tall lime trees. Just beyond that archway, you see it. An enormous horse chestnut tree standing in the center of the clearing. And beneath it kneels a metal figure. Its armor is stained green with age and moss. Its heavy, gauntleted hands are spread across the ground. for it, sending low vibrations into the earth. You've certainly identified the source of the noise, but with that seven It has identified you first. A red light flickers across its face. A high-pitched tone cuts through the clearing. You are stood before it fully exposed. What would you like to do? Reggie bursts through the underbrush. He's he crying out, Lucy! Lucy! sees this giant figure kneeling on the ground. goes to pull an arrow from his quiver, his bows in his left hand, and he's just waiting. He's got it not And he will not loose until it is evident that he is in danger. He's just kind of like, Lucy! Who are you? The figure's jaw drops. Its head tips backwards almost quite dramatically to the very back of its neck, and a voice booms out across the clearing, so loud it sends birds scattering. Hello and welcome to the reserve. We hope you enjoy your time here. Please be respectful to the animals and plants you find here, but have a good time. If you need any help, please find a sentinel that can help you around. yeah, he kind of Upon hearing that, the arrow is removed from the bowstring, goes back into the quiver, he drops his bow and he says, Yeah, I do need help. How much do you know about owlbears? I'm afraid I am unable to answer your request right now. You'll have to owl bear with me. Natural plenty presents. I hope that's Episode 2 The Owlbear Necessities A week has passed since water returned to the pond and the little hydra found its new home. Margi Marzi has also been settling into a new home, though less energetically, as she has spent the best part of the week recovering from the Gaspor poison, meaning she has been mostly hammock-bound in the living lodge. This, of course, has been a somewhat unwelcome development for Moth, who I'd like to check in with. So, Moth, how have you been spending the morning before this new visitor arrives? probably at the lake doing morning tarot before kind of Checking the stream on the way back, just taking time, doing a bit of a loop, just enjoying the peace and quiet. That's a perfect irony. because very shortly you will hear Roost's voice calling out and almost bringing attention to a a visitor who has just arrived. And I would imagine having been lying there in the hammock, Margie, this voice outside would alert you. So how would the voice find you? I have gotten kind of surcrazy and I've been looking for an excuse to get out, so I think when I hear the voice, I sit bolt upright. I look around to see if anyone's there that I can gossip to about this. And you would see through gaps in the living lodge the now familiar robot to you, Marji, is on his hands and knees, and his head is cranked all the way back, and he is Welcoming the arrival of someone just in front of Roost who seems to be wielding a bow but is slowly lowering it. I'm going to jump up and bound over and I stand in front of this figure. I'm very short. I'm th I'm only three apples tall. I'm three feet tall. I'm wearing all orange. I go, you, who are you? my god, who are you? Ugh Hi, I'm I'm I'm Reggie. I do you how much do you know about Albert and before you you see this five foot eight studded leather armour, like woolen breeches, shoes that are kind of so many laces and just bandoliers of pockets and little containers that are filled with all manner of things, kind of foresty green cloaks slung about his back. quiver and bow and at his side is a rapier. I'm I'm I'm Reggie, who who who are you? What is what is that? He points at the robot. And the robot's head clicks back into place. Both of its hands return to what looks like a dark, bowl shaped piece of cast iron protruding from the ground, and the vibration begins again as he meticulously seems to be working it loose. And at this point, Moth, you would probably arrive at the clearing to find Margie confronting the stranger. And Rohan, you would see a small Sater with long ridged horns. And holding how tall is Moth? Did we say like four foot something? Yeah, like four's three or something. Like a little bit over four foot. I'm probably gonna keep watching a little bit, because I'm kind of like, my god, there's two of them. Kinda wanna see how this plays out. Like, is he gonna shoot the orange one? Margie's gonna go, that's wrist, who are you? What's an all bear? Who are you? What are you do why is there an arrow? What are you doing? That it's this is a this is a lot at once. I just You said a lot at once to me! I asked only one question. I didn't I I w do y You asked many questions. Okay, let me ask one more. Can you help me, please? Yeah, sure. What do you want? I was Running through the woods through through through the reserve this morning with with my companion and and we were accosted or set upon by some owlbears and we we we I we started to run and I realized that she wasn't by my side anymore and I ended up in this clearing whatever this I I need her back. I really I need Lucy back, please. Are you in love? Am I in love? Margie Marzi and be like, Yeah, we can help. There's nothing but confusion on Reggie's face. Fine. Yes, we can help. Thank you. yeah, yeah, it was it was it's this way. I I can take you to where they were taken. It's it's this way, please follow me. Albers. As Reggie sort of guides you back the way you came, and for the audience Benji isn't here this session, that's why Roost is staying behind to do very important work. which Moth, I am gonna say you ha you have a little bit of an insight into because just yesterday you s you stubbed your toe on this protrusion coming out of the ground. So it's my fault. Well, Roos made it his duty to make sure that no visitor ever stubbed their toe ever again anywhere on the reserve and began sort of excavating this, but doing it so gently and carefully that he wouldn't disturb any worms. So that's what Reese is doing this episode. Reggie, as you lead Margie and Moth to Where you seem to remember last being with Lucy. You walk back through the undergrowth and try and trace your steps. I am gonna ask you to me a survival check to see if you can retrace your steps and try and find the point where you were last together before you were set upon by the Albears. Can I give guidance on that if I know that he's trying to lead us back somewhere after being stressed out? I love that. firstly, how would Reggie be tracking? what would that look like for Moth ha to have the insight to give you guidance? He like we'll walk along the forest and then lean down and like we'll pick up a twig and try and see if it's broken in the way that he was running and kind of do that kind of a path. So he's trying to track quite literally Nice. It'll be very apparent to Moth who can give you a bit of guidance. thank you for the guidance. Appreciate it. That's a nineteen on the dice, bringing me to twenty-three with the guidance, that's twenty-four. Woo! The vapors! That's our highest role on this show so far. Honestly. Just just putting it out there, there hasn't been a natural twenty yet, so that's Yet. It's gonna happen this episode. I've called it. Yeah. So as you're tracking, not only do you reach the point where you last remember being with Lucy, you actually find where at a certain point that you and Lucy were running away from these owlbears and there were three owlbears that pursued you. At a certain point it became clear that you couldn't outrun them. So the two of you instinctively dived into a large thicket and hid amongst the thorns and brambles, hoping that you could keep yourselves small and that they would pass. And you're back at this bush where you can even see the the opening where you climbed in. And it was at this moment that one of the owlbears came close to investigate this bramble bush. And you can see its large prints in the ground where it came close, and you had to keep ever so still and quiet. And then all of a sudden, there was some sort of movement. Maybe from beyond, maybe you were lucky that a pheasant jumped out or something that alerted the owlbear and it darted off into the other direction. And the two other owlbears followed it and they ran away. And then you and Lucy, again, without communicating, you instinctively leapt out of the bush and started running in a different direction. But it was during that run that when you looked down. Lucy was no longer there. And all of this to say that with that high survival check, the tracks that should have been there with Lucy by your side coming out of the bush are not visible. And in this moment, as you're tracking in front of the bush, you do see prints that are very reminiscent of Lucy actually going towards the owlbear and going in the direction that the owlbears chased them, almost as if that motion that you saw might have been Lucy. Reggie is knelt down, places one hand into the paw print on the ground, very quietly to himself. Lucy, what were you what were you doing? and will look up and address Moth and Margie and kind of be like, I I thought I thought perhaps she was with me whilst we were in the bushes, but these prints they leave In the direction that the Albears were running away to. This is no no no no no. No, this is bad. So we n need to find the Albear, no? So she ran with the Albus? She led the Albus? Maybe p potentially, I don't know, maybe she was just trying to keep me safe or or or keep them away from from me, from harming me, but she's gone in that direction. I can't he just begins to very quietly Freak out. Cool. Yeah. Is Lucy Moss is trying so hard to think of something not super rude. Do you love her? That is not where Moss is going. very earnestly, he's like, Yes, I love her. She's very important to me. If you love her, we should find her. I think we should find her because you want to find her. I do want to find her and I do love her. These are weird questions. Wha what does what does what does Lucy look like? she's Like how will we recognize her? she's gorgeous. She's jet black, adolescent, she's got a purple tint to her fur. Gorgeous eyes feet. And and you look down, you see that moths like goat legs are like a black purple tinted fur. Yes, yes, exactly exactly like that. Wow, that is Okay. Uncannily Yeah, yeah, it's it's exactly like that. Look for that. Okay, yep. Cool. Does she have horns? No, no no no, tails. multiple tails. Yeah, yeah, yeah, two of Should should we not just go find the Albears and go see if she's been taken. Yeah, sure, yeah. I elbow Margie Marzi, like you can't say taken. Like this dude's already so stressed. We can go and see where the elbows are, I guess. Do you would you think that like maybe she's she has been taken? But she's like good should be alive though, right? Margie does not answer. Margie is just gonna go look for the Albear Prince and start walking. Okay. She'll be alive though, right? Yeah, of course she'll be alive. Well by now This little gnome is just guiding the search just as Reggie has stood there. Just I love that. Margie, do you wanna give me a investigation check? Yeah I do, James. To see if you can make any sense of the tracks and the direction in which the Albears might have gone. I rolled a nineteen! So rolling a 19, you do start to latch onto a bit of a trail, but less so because of footprints, but more so because of things that have dropped along the path. A smattering of dried fruit and roasted nuts and seeds in a sort of glazing, almost like a trail mix that has been scattered all along the ground, and it's so significant to you. That you end up being able to follow it very keenly. And even when you can't see it, you can smell it because it's strong in scent. And you can literally follow to where these Albears might be. I am just gonna keep following that trail. And if I see that people are not following me, I'm gonna turn around, walk backwards a few steps, and just be like, I know what I'm doing. Why are you standing there? And then keep going. Cool, cool. How stressed out does Reggie look? once Reggie starts to follow Margie and kind of sees what it is that they're picking up on, he starts to relax a little bit, knowing that there is a direction we're heading and that there is an option he can take. and so he will look to to you, Moth kind of be like Sorry, I I no I was a little bit anxious back there. It's just she's very important to me. I don't think I actually introduced myself to you. I'm I'm Reggie, by the way. I'm moth by lights. Like by lights is like a title or your second name or Yep. okay, just because I g there was like an option of nice to meet you. I'm Reg Reggie Frisco. Frisco cool Rot me a history check, moth. no. I got a 13. Okay, I'm just gonna say, and this is probably appropriate for Moth, that based on Moth's background, there may have been a few occasions where someone in your old company might have been excited at the family name Frisco. okay. And with a thirteen, I'm not gonna say too much more than that. However, given how Reggie presents himself and the way he looks and what he has on him, you do think that there is maybe some sort of connection between the Frisco name and esteemed rangers. No, but the companion thing probably makes more sense now, because I imagine Moth would have been more interested. at that point. Did did Margie continue or has Margie stood waiting for anyone? No, she doesn't wait for anyone. She continues, regardless of whether they keep going or not. Amazing. So then in that case, I'm going to actually then pick up with Margie, having followed this very distinct trail, all the way through the trees. we're kind of going into dense woodland to the west side of the lodge. But eventually you do come out into an opening and all around you you see this vast open meadow, which like everything else right now in the reserve is very overgrown. There's a lot of wild flowers, but they kind of more prominently is tall grass. So it looks like a huge field. And it's probably the first time since you've been here, you've been out in the open space and not constantly surrounded by trees. But as you're following this this trail, you do come to a little mound. Where the trail starts to go between a series of discarded and broken wooden structures. Very clearly, you are now walking through broken beehives that w once stood on this mound, and now the wood is rotted but also shredded into pieces. And around these broken beehives, you do see. Some tall plants which again are just overgrown by weeds. But you see following that trail mix, it seems to go in towards the broken hives and sort of go in circles around it. Almost it's lingered here more than any of this journey so far. And then it stops. Can I roll for like how much do I know about elbears? Yeah, 100%. You can roll me. I'm trying to decide if you should roll nature check or a history. I rolled a three, so it's not gonna help me that much. Yeah, unfortunately with a three, that there is a big blank in Margie's knowledge where she has never experienced or seen an owl bear, other than being able to place the two images in her head and combine them. So you imagine like you're looking up in the sky thinking, where's that flying bear? So it's like a bear that's the size of an owl with wings. Pretty cute actually. similar to something else you've helped, which is a small creature with wings. That's what you're kind of thinking of. Yes. Okay. While we catch up with Moth and Reggie, I want the two of you to narrate how you get there because I'm gonna quickly text V something based on that 24 investigation. You are not the doppelganger. never know. Reggie's not making heavy discussion with Moth. He's just walking and trying to focus on the trail mix that he's seeing. and as he does, he'll kind of reach into one of his pouches and pull out like a small bit of like wrapped wrapped goods from like a a shop or something like that. And he goes, it's the trail. that there you there was a a pouch around Lucy's neck. She she loved. Marzipan trail mix, so I I I always kind of carried a bag of it with me and this I I don't know, maybe this'll help. Maybe if she can smell it on you or something like that, she might be able to to track. I think the more of us have it, th the better. Is there any marzipan in the trail mix? Zero. There's none. But it's Okay. With no Marzipan. So how did you how did you come to be here in the reserve then? yeah, well I'm I'm on my ranger year. l long story short, we all have to go out in the world and and apply the skills that we've learned. train for a year when we turn twenty one. I I I halfway through mine more or less, well, kind of coming towards the end of it, and I recently you see he gets quite like shy. there's part of him that doesn't want to openly discuss this, but you are so earnestly and you are helping him. So I recently saved kind of a a flock of hippogriff. they were kind of being hunted by these poachers and I I managed to save about five or six of them and I was looking for somewhere that perhaps maybe they could call home where they would be safe and I s saw this place. I didn't know it was called the reserve. I found that out from the the robe with the The guy yeah. So I brought them here hoping that maybe they could find peace. a and well, as it was coming towards the end of my year I thought I would maybe just stay here for a while, make sure they were settled properly and and do some training so I would kind of do not Combat drills, but we would do obstacle course runs through the through the forest in the morning, Lucy and I, to make sure that we were both agile and and and and fit and healthy and Is Lucy a hippogriff? No, no, no. That's cool. They sound cool. geah, she is. She is the coolest. How did you find Lucy? much the same as the the hippogriffs. she was being kind of picked off the the rest of her litter had been taken in by these poachers and they were taking them somewhere I don't know where, but it was clear that they weren't gonna be doing anything good, and so I used the skills I acquired, well placed shot with my bow a a and some tactics to scare. I usually try and avoid a fight, if I'm honest, I'm not really built to fight. I managed to scare them off and I managed to free Lucy a and the rest of her litter, but yeah. She decided to stick with me. what what a gets very shy. What what a what are you doing here? well, I used to be part of the circus and then we found a magic stone and they dropped me here. At that moment, I want V to roll me a perception check, please. Me Yep Okay. Wow. Very high pitched and sounds actually very minuscule, but Margie's little gnome ears just pick up this frequency of a tiny buzzing bee, which is very clearly in distress. And with that high perception, you also hear running water, and you see that around this bank that you're on with the broken beehives and the plants around. You do see that there is a stream running downhill, and it brings to mind the reinstalled well system that you established last week. You see this f freshly running stream and you just pinpoint rushing through the current of the stream like a piece of bark with a cushion of moss on it, and within that moss is a little hole. You just zoom in almost on this tiny bumblebee. That is trying to make its way out as the current is taking it away, but there's some water already coming up through the bark and clearly getting wet on its wings and it's frantically trying to buzz its wings. And I would like to jump into the stream with no thoughts whatsoever. Because I have experience at this old reserve with water. So I just jump in and I reach for the stick! And hopefully the current doesn't take me away, but who knows? Okay, I love that. for Moth and Reggie, you do hear some mighty splash, which is fairly close by because you have been walking, talking and following. And if you were to come up over into this wild meadow, you would see the little gnome with bright orange hair just splashing in the water. So Y you you okay there, mm-hmm? Bee! Margie B, you okay? Bee! No! B come look, bee! Okay. She got poisoned last week. We're not entirely sure. Maybe her brain. Okay, that explains so much. Yeah. Reggie kind of pulls some rope from his bag. Can she swim? She can swim, right? Un unclear. Honestly, I don't know. Very quickly begins to fasten and make like a classic Ranger's loop. a lasso type thing. And it's like, okay, yeah, fair enough. Is is there any sign of Lucy near the water? Margie, is that is that why you're in there? No, no, no, I'm saying bee. I found a bee. I'm saving a bee. Can't you say I'm saving a bee? We're not looking for bees. But I found one, I've saved it! And I hold up the stick with the bee in it. I say, look, I've saved the bee! As as you lift up the stick with the bee on it, you do realize that the currents just suddenly picked up around you. And the little stream is developing into a larger river, and you have the the stick with the distressed bee in your palm of your hand, but the current is starting to take you, and with the hand above your head, you're unable to confidently lift yourself up and pick yourself up and get to the edge. So your small gnome legs are being lifted by the rise in the water, and you're essentially being swept away down the stream. Great, that sounds great, James. That sounds great. Perfect. Bye. Reggie's gonna run up to the edge of the stream. seeing the hand above, can you now see the struggling bee trying to get out? I think so. I think it'll be quite clear that Margie lifting this sort of wet clump moss and bark and this bee is trying to get above and and it hasn't quite got it in its wings to fly away. okay, I'm gonna hand the rope to Moth and kinda be like, you save Margie, I'll Believe saying this, I'll get the bee. and he's gonna use elementalism and he's gonna beckon air, create a breeze strong enough to ripple cloth, stir, dust, rustle leaves, close open doors and shutters, and he's just gonna use elementalism to gently lift the bee from the moss, kind of give it like a an extra little boost so it can free itself from the rising water and fly away. I love it. I'm I I love it so much. I am gonna put it to a dice roll. no. Yeah, huge. It's a huge moment. And if I fail, I'll just blow Margie deeper into the stream. that's horrible. That's in that one. Love it. I love it here. okay, so the quandary that I have as a dungeon master is that I like to put things to dice rolls, but I also love bees. So what I'm gonna say is there's a really unfortunate bit of timing here. As you're starting this quite intricate elementalism with this beckon air, and you need it to be just so that it lifts the bee up, which usually with Lucy by your side, you feel her presence mingle with yours, and together you can make unthinkable things happen. But without that crutch, this is taking so much more energy and focus. And your focus is completely snatched away from you as at that moment a blur of orangey red flashes in front of you, a little robin flies in front of your face, pecks at some of the trail mix, flies away, and where you started casting this spell, it just deposits a little dropping in the palm of your hand, and it completely takes you out of it, and you lose your footing and start falling into the stream. Tchau. So now there's Reggie falling into the water, which I'm gonna say Reggie's in the water, he's not being swept away by the current because Reggie is what, five foot something? Yeah, yeah, Reggie's tall. He's five eight. I have a look does he just stand up and it's at his waist. He like sees Margie really struggling. He just stands up and he's like, What? Yeah. Yeah. Margie's being swept down down river. now Moth's got the rope. Is there anything you want to do? Moth is gonna th try and throw the rope to Margimazi and be like. If I say you can stay longer than it takes for you to get dry, will you stop jumping in water? You got yourself a deal, she grabs on. Cool. I don't have to roll for it, you just get it. No, you have to roll for it. I I like the commitment, but you've gotta roll This is No, come on, James, they're fine. Right away they're gonna find Holden roll, I roll. Which one of us rolls? I think Holden should roll a like a dexterity throw or something. Cool, yeah. I'm also, I'm gonna think of my mentor and all the times he was like, without an audience, there would be no circus. Love that. I rolled a 10, and then I think my dex is only what plus two. Okay. Margie, if you're able to match that with a dexterity roll to try and grab it. I rolled a 17. Amazing. So as Mm moth gets the right part of the way. You're able to lunge further, still keeping the bee above water, and grab on and pull yourself towards moth. Reggie stands up with the water kind of flowing around his waist, realizes he could have just walked in from the beginning, will turn bright red with embarrassment, and will walk towards wherever Margie is and try to regain some form of like composure as he just picks her up and he's like, yeah, don't worry, I'll get you to say I'm I'm usually way better at that than my sorry. Just kind of return. And things seem to settle down, the water continues rushing past. the bee is still in the palm of Margie's hand, in amongst this it looks like some sort of winter refuge that it's built itself, like a little hollow in the bark and the w and with the moss is padding, but it has got very drenched by the water. But Margie being absolutely drenched in water yet again. Reggie waist deep water, not even that to be honest, but you know, coming out. As Reggie is carrying me, Margie goes, the trail mix, the trail mix ended. It ended over there. I can show you it ended. And and I think, and I think if and I think if I think yeah yeah. You think? I do, I do think. That's the end of that sentence? I think that it will help us. Maybe we should dig or maybe we should go upwards. I don't know, but I found where the end of the trail mix is, and that is where I think either I don't know what happened. But that is it I Okay. Can we go can we go to wherever Margie's showing us? I'm gonna point. I'm gonna gently place you on the ground. While she's showing them where this trail mix has dropped, she kind of sets the log down. But since it's not in the water, hopefully it can dry off now. Maybe. Yes, absolutely. The the the bee on the little hollow is basically where the broken beehives are, which is nicely above ground away from the running stream. Maybe it looks like three or four broken beehives. and clearly a cluster of trail mix all scattered around where these beehives are broken. Reggie hands another bag of trail mix to Margie. I'm gonna interject that. Because it's narratively important, that as you go to reach for another trail mix, you look down and realize pretty much they're all missing. You have got one on you, maybe, that you've already been sharing, distributing a bit out to moth, but when you go to get spares, which are usually all around, they're gone. No, no, no, no, my trail mix. My snacks! We can get more snacks, probably. No, no, that was that was all I had for my year. Reggie, Reggie, Reggie, calm down. Okay, she's gonna James, I need your permission, but she's gonna she can reach into her pocket and pull out not a bag or a bandolier, but a small box of one of these same trail mixes. And hand it to Reggie. So you know of the Mozzie Pandlas trail mix too. I don't wanna talk about it, Ma. Where did you get this? I don't wanna talk about it. You need food, I give you food. Food. Take. Okay. This is a really aggressive way to help. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. we'll wipe a tear. all of your role perception checks, please. that is a dirty 20. Lovely right hand. Closest we've had to a natty. I got an 18. Ooh. I'm gonna roll, but I don't know what you're making us roll for, but I wanna see if there's a logo on the box or anything like that for this weird Marzi Panlas trail mix which they both have and he got very excited about that. I'm gonna offer before you roll then because I because it's a what did you get, sorry? then never mind. I was gonna be really kind to you then. I was gonna be like, you know what? As like Reggie and Margie are noticing something really important, I'm happy for you to spend your role on focusing on on this box. Yeah. I mean have a plus five, but like it's still. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me you rolled a two and you have plus five? Yeah. Is that what you're telling me? Yeah, so I got sev seven slots. It's our magic number of the session. So with that seven everyone. I briefly explain to the audience because it came up last session we referred to number four as our magic number. We do a little warm-up game at the beginning of this to get ourselves zoned in and we have to count numbers. Last session it was four. This session it was seven. So lucky number seven for moth right now. If you're focusing your efforts at looking at this box, you do see heavily branded the word marzipan. You also see in small text like As featured on the massive Marzipan meltdown. Yeah. In terms of what Margie and Reggie have just seen with their high perception checks, as the box is exchanging hands, a twig snap, and close by in the overgrown meadow, you see a set of BD amber eyes on a large owl-like face. On this enormous Bear-sized creature staring at you, and this enormous owlbear in the meadow with owl-like feathers coating its entire bear-sized body has taken one step towards you, noticed that you've noticed it, and has hesitated, but clearly its eyes, with those high perception checks from both of you, are more interested in the box of trail mix than it is of you. Do an animal handling check to take a bit a handful out of the box and offer it to the owlbear and hope that I don't get murdered. So you're gonna sort of approach it with the ha the trail mix in hand? Yes, and I'm gonna say nothing to anyone else. I'm just gonna take a handful of it though. Okay, so I've rolled a 15. Can I ask a narrative question? Is the rope still tied around Margin? yeah. I think that makes sense. I actually think yes. Yeah. because the moment he sees her start to walk towards the owl bear at her size with this creature, before like I think she gets close enough to complete her action, you rolled high enough, I don't want interrupt that. But Reggie has like one hand on that rope and is ready to yeet like to yank you back if there's any danger. so he has a prepared action to be like emergency evacuation pod, yank you out of harm's way. I love that so much. Okay. Knowing that you have that security, or maybe Margie doesn't know, just walking forward with this loose rope, bringing the trail mix towards the owlbear, what does it look like for you to be in a a state where you are comfortable enough as a three foot gnome to be approaching a bear sized owl? That is looking at you with these beady eyes and these enormous paws with sharp claws. I think Margie knows for reasons that large animals want to be approached calmly and steadily. And so she's taking A deep breath. She's like aligning her posture. She's been very flighty this whole time, but she's like walking very steadily, shoulders back, neck straight. She's just holding this palm out and making like eye contact, but blinking very slowly and measuredly, almost like she's doing it on a count. So that this owl bear knows that she is not a threat, but also not. And it just stares at the trail mix in your hand. And as you get close, it sort of lifts its head up towards you and its beak comes very close, but it its beak is almost the size of Margie's whole being. So like your hand would just disappear if it went for a I think she's going to toss the trail mix just up and see what happens. Because I think that in a way it's an experiment of if this is what it can do, then we know we will know more about maybe what happened to Lucy. Okay, okay. As you toss it up, the owl bear sort of jumps back alert. It looks down at the trail mix, recognizes it's quite a large quantity, it very gently lowers its head to the trail mix, produces a very long tongue, and seems to collect up the trail mix in such a way That it appears it's not eating the trail mix, but gathering it in its mouth. And then it turns its head and walks away from you. Margie is gonna grimace. She's gonna go, That's so weird, that's so weird, that's so weird, that's so weird, that's so weird, and then she's gonna turn to the others and be like, We have to follow it. Ugh. I'm right. I mean, okay. You know I'm right. Yeah, Reggie's just gonna understand the vibes, trust the the mania of this soaking wet, slightly tied up animal expert, and kind of step forward shrugging at moth and kind of be like Well it's the best we've got, I suppose. I mean yeah. Yeah. She's not gonna wait, she's just gonna start walking. Okay. So as you carefully follow the owlbear. And it's walking away from the meadow, but instead of going back towards the woods, you actually see it go towards a sort of very rocky area where there does seem to be a very prominent cave mouth. The owlbear starts walking towards the cave mouth, and another owlbear comes out to greet it, and the owlbear that you've been watching goes in. The darkness of the cave, but the second Albear lingers at the entrance. Reggie, are they are they like sentient? Like can they talk to us? Like, will they listen to reason? Or do you think they're like crazy and they'll kill us? I can I can talk to them. part of my training is is kind of that I can communicate with animals to to some degree. It takes time and lasts for maybe Ten minutes, I guess. My focus can last maybe ten minutes while I'm doing it. But it's difficult. It's not easy. That's fine. I think that we should talk to them. What are you gonna ask them? Where's Lucy? I'm gonna ask them where is Lucy? Do you have a better question to ask them? I mean, asking them where's Lucy comes with several like caveats. They'd have to know what a Lucy is. they'd have to know I mean could I'd Describe it to them of he's just waffling and thinking out loud. Did you tell us what a Lucy is? What is a Lucy? I described what Lucy looked like. y you no no one asked what she was. You asked specifically if she was a hypocrite. Yes, and is she a hypocrite? We know she's not a hypocrite. Yeah, I love it. Reggie what kind of if you had to say like a species that Lucy was, what kind what kind do you think she would be Well when I found her, she had been displaced, so I've just been calling her a displacer beast. Cool. That's great. Okay. Well could you like explain to them that they might have kidnapped your companion and be like, can you give her back? Or else or else just stop. I think it's yeah. Okay. Well what were he like here's the The advice of go in, talk to the animals, ask for what they took from you back and threaten them. That if they don't, it's g it's not gonna end well. And he's like sees the size of them and goes, Yeah. moth, do you have anything? Y Yeah, yeah. just a little maybe. We ask for Lucy back, if you can talk Albert. And also maybe we look around and see if we think Lucy's been here before we assume they have her? yeah, maybe we should like okay so yeah. That sounds good. Yeah, let's let's look for the po she kinda like goes through what the paw print sizes would be, and kind of runs them through any signs of what they would look like if Lucy had been here. and he'll run like a investigation check maybe I guess. Yep, investigation or survival because i I do remember that survival covers tracking. So It's up to if Reg if Reggie wants to do survival and the others want to do investigation, so that Reggie is looking for tracks and Moth and Margie are looking for what they have been informed they should be looking out for rather than instinctively tracking. Yeah. I got a ten. Okay. With Margie's ten, I think there is too much in the ground that could be Albear prints, that could be other prints. It's there's definitely a lot of traffic. Going towards this cave coming in and out. So for Margie, it's very hard to tell. I got a seven on the die. Seven on the die? beautiful. Do you feel like you're getting very close to identifying some paw prints when you suddenly find you've accidentally got a bit too close to the cave and the owlbear that's guarding the front just sort of like pads its heavy paws forward? Yep, sorry, my bad. My bad on that. And Marjorie's like, Moth, you're saying I'm rockin' with a juicy twenty-one. P.S. Just as Moth is caught and I think frozen, because I think somewhere in the back of Moth's brain is the knowledge that you should never run from a bear. Yeah. So with that twenty-one, you do see one paw print, two paw print, three paw print, four, and you start to think Maybe Lucy? Then five pawprint, six pawprint. Six distinct pawprints as one motion confirms that the six legs of Lucy have run in this direction towards the cave, with heavy footfalls behind, as though the owlbears chased Lucy towards the cave. He d he doesn't say anything, he sees moth at the entrance, and in A move of absolute terror, overwhelming terror that is being pushed to the side by attempted bravery. He walks forward to stand side by side with moth, and then continues into the entrance of the cave, or goes to like walk directly up to the owl bear, trying to mimic the same thing that Margi Marzi did in his demeanor, in that like not threatening, but not terrified. I'm not prey, I'm not a predator. Keep me back, my friend. Yeah, he just kind of like walks. I would like, I think it makes sense then for you to do exactly what Majimazi did and roll me an animal handling check to show that in your demeanour and in your approach you don't mean this thing harm. You just have to get through into that cave. Can I try and give the help action in a bit of a roundabout way? Yes, i absolutely. What would moth do to help? Reggie's safe approach. So Moth would hold out their hand to Reggie to be like, yeah, come stand next to me, that's fine. And then we'd be thinking back to doing the tarot this morning, and one of the tarot cards which came up was heroism. I so I rolled for my spells, by the way. Side note. I didn't pick them, I rolled for them. So one which came up is heroism. And Moth is thinking about the card and how You can only really be brave if you're frightened already, and this guy is clearly terrified. So when he gets within like touching distance, moth is gonna touch him, or like poke him maybe, and cast heroism, which doesn't necessarily help, but he's now immune to the frightened condition and gains temporary hit points on each like round. I think that's the most Clear that any player has ever justified giving another player advantage in a role that has to do with facing his fears to approach an owlbear and seek passage to get past to save his beloved beast companion. So 100% for What incredible flavour. truly delicious stuff. that's a 17. 17. Okay. So what happens is taking on some of the embodiment that you saw. demonstrated by Marji, feeling yourself stand up straighter as the nudge from moth makes you feel fearless. Makes you feel for a second maybe you can recognize what your brothers convey when you see them face enormous creatures. This owlbear approaches you, it sniffs a few times, and it does seem to go towards that one bandolier of trail mix and its beak goes right towards it. And as you stand stock still, the tongue just comes out and curls around some trail mix and puts it in its mouth and turns around and enters the cave. And almost allowing you to follow behind, you are able to walk behind the owlbear and into this dark cavern. And you can smell in here this musk of feathers and beast and this den of owlbears. You see three are sort of padding around and the fourth is on the ground. One that was sort of pacing around the circle of this cave actually comes towards you, it sniffs you again. And now that you're stood here, Reggie, with this second owlbear sniffing you, is there anything you'd like to do? He would cast speak with animals. Okay. I'm gonna put it to a dice roll because I'm gonna be technical that speak with animals usually works with beasts. Yeah. And technically an owlbear is a large monstrosity. Okay. However in this World and within this reserve? I think monstrosity is a bit harsh. I'm gonna put it to a dice roll. We can do another animal handling, so. And I'm gonna say that moth and Margia outside the cave, so any assistance at this time is not possible. Just to be clear on this moment. Yeah, no, that's fine. Now the heroism lasts for a minute, if that's any help. Would you let me cast guidance on myself this during this? Or is it because I'm casting A spell already, you're like, let's just do the one spell. I think you can cast guidance on yourself, but I'm gonna say it's because you're feeling extra heroic. Great, thank you. Thank you, Moth. great. That is a ten without guidance. Okay. With guidance that's a fourteen. Double sevens you could say. Numerology. You are able to speak to the Albear. What do you say? There's this kind of bluster and this energy of proud Frisco oozing off of him and then the animal tongue kicks in and it's very strange sorry, excuse me. My name is Reggie Frisco. I I I am looking for my animal companion. She is about yay high, and he gestures to a reasonable height for a displacer beast. You you may have accidentally n not on purpose by any means, accidentally ch chased her into this this beautiful home that you have here, and I was wondering if per per perhaps you you might be able to tell me where she is, please? It looks at you with two piercing eyes and just says she Yes. Aiding us. by like actually like doing things or like becoming a food source or or like ha like aiding She has brought us what we need. And as it says that it goes again and goes to where the bandolier on on your chest is. Is what we need. You you need my bandolair? And it reaches out its tongue to try and see if there's anything in there left over, but it seems you're our trail mix. you She brought us what we need. We chased you because you had it. She lured us away with it. And now it is ours. Okay, so you you guys you guys want some trail mix? What is that? And it looks on your shoulder. Correct me if I'm wrong, Reggie has a bow and arrow? He does, yeah, he has a quiver on his back and a bow slung across it. This Thanks for joining us at the reserve. We hope you're enjoying your stay so far. I just wanted to share a little bit about why we're making hedgerows and hatchlings. Next year, I'll be running the London Marathon to raise money for the Motor Neuron Disease Association, a cause very close to my family. More than 5,000 adults across the UK are living with MND. The association supports people with the disease and their families through an incredibly difficult and uncertain time. Through natural plenty, We wanted to bring a little bit of joy to my fundraising, an adventure each week, a bit of escapism, and a community coming together to help others. If you're enjoying the show and can spare a donation, my Just Giving page is linked in the show notes. Whatever you're able to give would be hugely appreciated. And if you'd like an invite to our Natural Plenty Discord, please choose to share your email address with me when you donate. Thank you for spending some of your time with us and for supporting what we're doing. Right then, time to get back in that Albear's den. No no no no. I I I I I I didn't do anything. I I I I was I I'm sorry, did did what? Please he's trying like concise words, ten minutes. now I want persuasion, just on that. great. Let's hope Reggie can scream real loud. Cause he is a minus one to this. That's a nineteen on the dice, eighteen. Woo! Okay. Okay. Managing to though you feel yourself feeling the pressure of getting your words straight, you manage to convey the truthfulness that that any harm done was not caused by your arrow. But you do see over, it sort of looks behind it, and you can now see as it sort of opens a clean view of the Albear on the ground, there does seem to be An arrow embedded in the leg of the owl bear. Whether or not it was you, ones that are like you intruders. And it shunts its head towards you and starts stepping towards you. Another one that had been laying close to the one on the ground stands up and starts sort of backing up this owlbear as it starts pushing you back down the tunnel of the cave. Reggie screams in Albear for moth and Margy, and then realizes he has to switch back to English and shouts, shouts out, moth, Margy, Moth, Margie. To try and get some form of backup as he switches back to Albert and goes, No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. But please, Lucy is is is helping you. I'm not I'm not like the others. I'm not like the intruders. If you need help, I will do that. I I I I I do that all the time. It's what I've been doing in this past year. I help all kinds of creatures. Marth! Margie! I help all kinds of Margie isn't listening to anything. Marth is saying she hears. This scream and runs toward the cave. Okay. As you run into the cave, you are quickly met by Reggie, who is backing up, now being sort of sh pushed out by two, and then a third Albear, and your arrival just aggravates them more, and the Albear in speech says loudly, It is like last time. Intruders! And they start to stand up more now onto their hind legs and display their full height as they seem fully aggravated by this arrival of Margie. That's fat. Margie is gonna freeze and pull two more boxes of trail links out of her pockets. She has large pockets. Really large pockets. I'm gonna challenge that. Okay. The instinct comes to you to pull out two more. Boxes of trail mix. And then you recognize that you don't have more on you. But you know where you have a large supply of them. As you come down here, Margie, you do recognize a very strong scent in the air. It's sweet and it smells like the trail mix. But it smells like the sort of the coating of the trail mix is wafting through the cave. And Reggie, you hear A call come through the cave and it starts like a purr and goes into a almost like a screech. But it's not a distressed screech, it's just a call to you that you have heard before, and it is strange to you that usually you can understand Lucy perfectly clearly, but even in this brief time you have been separated. She sounds distant from you, even though physically she is close. You know this is confirmation she is in the cave. And without fully understanding her message, she does seem to convey to you that she is okay and she is hard at work and she wants you to leave safely before these owlbears cause any damage to you. Because right now the owlbears need her, but you need to get out. Reggie hears this cry. Lucy! Lucy! sees the elbows coming towards him. communicates with them. okay, okay, I I understand. Alright, I understand. You want me gone, that's fine. But you need to know that I am no intruder, nor are my friends. We mean you no harm. he will take off his bow and place it on the ground in the cave. He will take off his quiver. Place it on the ground in the cave, take off his rapier, put it down, and we'll back away. I mean you no harm. If there's anything I can do to help, I will, but please I I need my friend. As you say that, the three of them facing you turn their heads and walk away from you. Reggie looks at Reggie, looks at the Albears. What just happened? Reggie slumps to the floor, feeling defeated. I I don't know. I tried to tell them we weren't going to hurt them and they just I don't think they believed me. What did they say? What else what else? What else? They said that Lucy was getting them what they need and she told me she was okay, which is good, but she won't leave with me now and Not I'm not sure what happened, but I think someone came and hurt them. Huh. But this place has been closed for a hundred years. I don't understand where's moth? Moth? Moth is like there, but just staying like in the shadows, not wanting to kind of get in the way. But yeah, I thought this place was closed until I got through the gates. So I don't How long ago did you get here? Like two weeks. So something's something's been here before us that we don't know about. We need But Reggie s you said that you have been like training or something and came here to do that. So have other people like you come here to train? Do you think it's someone something like that? I don't know. So whoever it was, they had a bow and an arrow and they used it on one of the Albert's in there and they are hurt and I'm sorry, where where did you get that trail mix? They it seems like they need it. The lodge? Then we should go back and get more. Yeah, we can go to the lodge. I have a lot of trail mix. I don't need it. You're back to where the large horse chestnut tree is with the living lodge, which is this sort of woven willow tunnel that goes around the tree. you do see that where the robot was at the beginning of this morning. Is no longer there. And moth, you would be able to identify that Roost has engaged in an early sentinel's rest that he does typically at night. And the reason he depleted his energy is that you can see where he was vibrating the ground to excavate this very small black sort of bowl coming out of the ground. There is now an enormous hole in the ground. And just to the side of it is this very large Cast iron black cauldron that now you can see it must have been upside down and buried into the ground, and the bottom of the cauldron was just sticking out just enough for someone to stub their toe on. And Rooster spent the entire day painstakingly bringing this up to the surface. Margie is going to say I'm I'm gonna go to my room. None of you follow me. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want you to look in my room. I'm just gonna get some things. Don't follow me. She goes into her room. She slams the door shut. okay, that was There's no door, right? Correct, there's actually no door. You don't have a door yet. You don't get privacy. She'll freeze in a place where a door should be. She'll turn around, she'll be like, I've s I'm slamming the door. And then walks in. he's gonna turn to look at Moth and be like, I don't y y there's no door and Reggie, you're able to take in your surroundings. You're sort of left standing on hard packed earth, surrounded by woven willow walls, and there's no furniture around, there's really no home comforts. But I would imagine for Reggie, he's less concerned about his current surroundings, and his thoughts are probably still back at the cave, still With Lucy and trying to make sense of her actions and what she conveyed to you. She was alright, she was definitely hard at work. She had what the Albears need and she wanted you safely away. You think back to the bramble bush where she separated from you. She drew them away from your hiding place towards the wildflower meadow. And you know how keen Lucy's nose is. Once she catches the scent of something worth finding, she knows exactly which way to run. And the trail lingered around those broken beehives. Yeah. H honey. Do you have any honey? Maybe. Why honey? honey has like like a a natural antiseptic properties. But if you can't get hold of anything that's usually better for healing, honey is always a a surefire way in terms of we just we walk past the the the the broken hives, the apiary. There must be Tons tons of honey near those crates, right? Was there honey? Would we would we have seen it if it was like I'm just gonna say that because Margie spent a long time there investigating and had a high investigation, the beehives were torn apart almost as though something were looking for honey. But the wood was so rotted and the the flower meadow was so overgrown that it didn't look like there was any Visible signs of active beehives. Margie, what do you in your bedroom, what are you finding and bringing out? I am bringing out several large boxes of the Marzipan trail mix without Marzipan. I stop in front of them. I can hear I've heard the end of their conversation. What are you doing? What's going on? Where did you get those? Where did you get yours? Guys, I'm assuming you got them in shops. This is all very interesting. Margie, do you have any honey? The treats are the ch the the trail mix has honey on it. There's honey on the trail mix. yeah. That makes sense. That's why they so that's why they want it. And then I shut down. I don't say anything else. We should go. We should go, let's go. we use the honey on the trail mix? I can try. It's better if I have a runny honey, but maybe if there's something I could like a I I'll I'll see what I can pick up on the way in terms of poultice material. Hear me out, hear me out. What if we put the trail mix in the cauldron, mix it round with some water to get the honey off of whatever it's stuck to in the trail mix, which is a marsapan, and then drain it from the cauldron and leave behind the nuts. And then that robin which poops in everyone's hand can have the cauldron nuts. Do you have a cauldron drainer moth? Is that something that you just have? Yeah. Yeah, I have one. Okay. We could do that. that's a great idea. Okay, game plan time. This is a wonderful idea. I'm gonna simplify this by saying you have to, the three of you, find a way to contribute to Extracting the honey from the trail mix to give you expectations, there are gonna be three dice rolls. You can tell me whatever skill that you think your character can contribute to, but it's gonna escalate depending on like how well one person does will have a knock on effect to how hard the next roll is gonna be and the next roll. Okay. I think that we should build a fire. Okay. I don't know how to build a fire. Okay. You look like a I I can I can help with that I can help with that. Cool. There you look like you can yeah do that. Yep. Marth is so judgmental. Okay Moth you you you were talking about the like using water to to kind of make like a honey ish solution what well what do you got? Well we have water right we have the well That we fixed. I also have a cauldron strainer which I I should also maybe go get because I told Margie that I have a cauldron strainer. Do you have a cauldron strainer? I thought you were just being moth about that. I do not have a cauldron strainer. I need to go find one. Okay, okay. Is your contribution creating a cauldron strainer or finding something that can work as a cauldron strainer? Yeah, my plan was moth has a lot of clothes and a lot of them are like Theatre ones, so I'm assuming I have something like mesh material. Love it. So I'm gonna disappear up a tree to my wardrobe and try and find something suitable. Okay. I'm gonna say well, we should boil it and then wait for a bit so that it doesn't burn the cloth and burn through it. Trust me, I know how to do this. Cheers baking knowledge. Just a bit. James! Of course. Yeah, 'cause what Hydra expert doesn't have baking knowledge. I'm just staring at you. I'm not gonna say anything. She's gonna mutter to herself very, very quietly, not my circus, not my monkeys, not my circus, not my monkeys. Moth is gonna disappear and be like, We didn't have monkeys in the circus anyway, and then go up the tree where all of his stuff is at the top. Amazing. So we have our clear jobs from each of you. Reggie is providing building the fire and I would say that also includes maintaining the fire to keep a consistent heat. Yeah. And probably taking orders from Margie, who is gonna be operating the cauldron, and moth is gonna provide the straining and also probably contribute with any top ups of water that's needed from the well. Can we get a stone so Margie doesn't fall in the cauldron? Valid. Excuse me? I said what I said. Helping Reggie hears Moth say this and like goes to get the largest, most capable stone he can. and in doing so will pop Pat Margie on the back and give her guidance for her check. Nice. I'm glad you said that because now you've used your guidance. You can't use guidance on yourself or from Moth because this is now gonna happen in tandem. So that's your one use of guidance if that's the case. Absolutely fine, but Can I use elementalism to give me advantage? Explain to me how you use elementalism to help secure, build this fire, make it work nicely. Go for it. Beckon fire is one of the elementalism traits. I can create embers that can light candles, torches, or lamps in the area. and so he kind of like. builds the the the base for the fire out of twigs as he knows how to do from ranger survival techniques and then he set like uses elementalism to start and then will use his like accrued knowledge to continue the fire naturally but will try and use that spark of like magic to get the thing going at first. That's perfect. I think a hundred percent you can roll with advantage. Just to be clear on expectations, the difficulty class you have to beat for this very first roll is a thirteen. Great. It's been so fun doing this. So sorry to let you all down. And this is gonna be survival. Okay. Okay. that is going to be a twenty-one. So not only have you built a fire that only a ranger who spends a lot of time camping outside would know how to build, you're able to consistently stoke the fire and also gently enough that it's not throwing up loads of sparks and and smoke at Margie who has stood around and getting the cauldron ready with that twenty one you can successfully maintain the heat required for this fire under the cauldron. This also means that you've dropped the DC for the next roll, so the DC is now only an eleven. Great. So maybe muffs contribution of finding or fashioning the right sort of straining apparatus. Exactly that. And also being able to make sure there's enough water in the cauldron and being able to top it up. I would like you to give me what should we say to roll for this, moth, do you reckon? Maybe you'll let me do performance? Hey, do you know what? To be fair, you have blagged the straining with the best performance of your life, so maybe that's a lot of what it is. Maybe it's convincing Marji that it's a good enough strainer rather than it being a you know. I okay. So Moth is gonna head up into the tree where he usually sleeps and on some of the branches is like set out all the different outfits that he has. I'm assuming Moth has some kind of like ruffle skirt which has like a ring built into it that he can cut out the ring from and then put the mesh material from the other costume over it to create a kind of sieve thing. And then one of my cam trips that I have is mending. So sew it but also mend it into itself so that it looks like I always had it and I didn't just go up the tree and make it. Okay. Just to prove Margy wrong. Okay, so the mending is the part that makes this a usable strainer. The performance check is to convince Margie that it's always been a strainer and that you've always had it. Go for the roll. Okay, cool. I'm gonna think of my mentor and be like, never let them know you lied. I got a natural twenty. I told you it was gonna happen this episode. I said it was gonna happen. Yes, yes. Absolutely incredible work. So that's let's go moth. I love also it is important to the story, but also it's a it's a massive like, yeah, I told you I had a strainer. Let me just go get my cauldron strainer from my tree real quick. So bringing this down, Moth, you present it to Margie. Margie, you're ready to do your part. The fire is perfect. You look down at the strainer that Moth promised he had, and you see it is perfect. Perfect! amazing, thank you. Okay. Hand it over. Here you go. Margie, it is your time. How do you want to do this? I think that I should roll because I have You know for the class. expertise in a certain skill set. I know how to bake. So I would like to do an intelligence roll, please. Okay. You now only have to beat a nine because two successive successes took it down to the DC of nine. Okay, great. I rolled a f eighteen and my guidance was a one, so nineteen. Nineteen. Brilliant. Describe to me how you successfully managed to extract the runny honey from all the bits and pieces and then strain it through. Before I do anything, I fetch some jars from my chest. That is a secret that you have not seen because I have closed the jar. I I put out the fire so that the honey can not burn the strainer or me. I've boiled the coated trail mix and the honey has kind of like melted off and it's made like a nut and trail mix soup. And what I do is I just jimmy the strainer, which is perfect, thank you, moth, into the cauldron. I slowly lift it up so that the honey kind of drips down into the cauldron. I put the strainer to the side, it has all the trail mix, sands honey in it. Then I take the cauldron, I Pour it out into the jars and then I close the jars and I say, okay, honey in. That was incredible. Like how you must have done that before, right? it's not me. You guys were helpful. you're being super modest. That was that was really impressive. No, teamwork makes the dream work. It's not me. moth incredible strainer, how do you have one of those? They're super rare. I've never seen one before. Yeah, sometimes you just come across something, you just know it's gonna be useful someday, and you gotta keep it. That's a really great attitude to life. I appreciate that. I'm gonna keep that one with me. Yes. With this liter load of honey, knowing that you've successfully made it the pure honey extract, and I would say that even with this care and attention. You've even managed to drain anything that would take away from that antiseptic nature that Reggie mentioned. This is gonna be perfect to what the owlbears clearly have been looking for. You're able to head back to the cave with this jar, which is still warm, so it's still there's a a really sweet fragrance of honey. And at this moment, Margie, you even remember now when you were in the cave, you did smell something in the air. You realize now, of course, it was pure honey. Do you remember those those those the the b in the there was no honey. Yep. There was no honey in the honeycombs that we found in the beehives. Right. Yeah. Did you smell the honey in the cave? Do you think that they stole the bees? They stole the bees. I think they stole the bees, because we found a queen bee. But we didn't find the other bees. I think they stole the bees, but because they don't have the queen bee, they can't make more honey, so that's why they need honey. But if we had the queen bee and the other bees, then we could put them together and they would make honey so that they would always have honey so that we would never have to do this again. Can you just that was I heard maybe like the first ten percent of that. So I'm just gonna say yes. Okay. Do you the the okay, the bees? Need to be together. Wait, I think I've got it. I thought the bee hives, homes, whatever, were really old. I don't think they were just stolen. I think the bees weren't there. But but build a home and things will come. Or build a circus tent and people will arrive. Okay. I miss the circus. Can I stay can I stay till the bees are bees? Whoa. Moth. Let me stay till the bees are bees. Well, we already have a bee, so you can leave. And the Hydra needs to grow up. We'll talk about it later. Okay. You arrive at the entrance of the cave and the two owl bears are now prominently at the front of the cave mouth. Maltha's gonna stand behind the other two. These two have a good track record. Reggie? Yeah. Can you talk to them? Yeah, sure. Hello. it's me. you me you meant the other way. Yeah, one second. Yeah, he will he will cast Speak with Animals again as he kind of goes up, and you see like his vocal cord starts to sit deeper in his chest as he starts to kind of harness the power of grunts and growls. Mm-hmm. And you just see this exchange. I'm just gonna say that like from Margie and Moth's point of view, you just see us Albert and Reggie just exchange if you're like And then the owlbear draws its beak towards the large jar of honey. Its eyes widen. And because it can't get its mouth around the jar, it like beckons its head invitingly and goes and welcomes you into the cave. Reggie will turn around to the others and be like, Thumbs up, like Yes! I think we're in. I think we did him. I think we're in. and he'll walk into the cave, kind of pulling. Marzi along with him as she holds the jar and get to the spot where the the the most the the the the her owlbear is kind of lying. And the owlbears catch the strong scent of honey and gladly step aside, giving you room to approach their wounded companion. And there, on its far side, is Lucy. Her purple black body lies among torn packets of trail mix Six legs tucked beneath her. Her eyes are narrowed in concentration. She's trembling with effort. As you draw closer, something familiar brushes against your thoughts, faint at first, then a flicker of recognition. Images follow, brief, unsteady glimpses through Lucy's eyes. You're low beneath the brambles, looking up at your own frightened face. The owlbears are approaching. The scent of honey hangs around your bag. This is what they're after. Two tails reach for the packets, then six paws strike the earth, branches whip past, the owlbears follow, just as intended. You feel the strain of holding something far away. It's the image of herself cast running beside you. The Lucy you followed was simply her projection of her. While her real body carried the honey-sented packets in the other direction, drawing the owlbears away. Another flash. You're at the wildflower meadow, broken beehives, her nose searching amongst the splintered wood to no avail. There's no honey here. Then running onto the cave, the owlbear lying on its side, an arrow in its leg. It needs help. And the honey, still clinging to the nuts and fruit that she's brought with her. This can help. The images falter. In front of you, one of Lucy's tails rests amongst the spilled trail mix. The other touches the Albear's wound. You've seen Lucy do some incredible things in the past six months. The illusions she can cast with her tails. Her ability to displace light, to cast illusions, is now being used for something far greater. A glint of honey. vanishes from a piece of fruit on the ground. A tiny bead appears at the other tail's tip and settles against the injury. She's displacing it, drop by drop. You can feel how much each little transfer takes from her. She's been doing this for hours. Lucy lifts her eyes to yours. She's unhurt, but utterly exhausted. Through the faint connection Comes one last feeling. Relief. You're here. Reggie looks at Lucy, sees the level of exhaustion that she's at. She goes, clever girl, clever, clever girl. I've You've done so well. I'm so so proud of you. I've got it from here. and he will put one hand on Lucy. and he will it it's not something that he knows how to do. properly, but innately he will like flood Lucy with his own energy. you see like the colour starts to drain from his cheeks a little bit as he kind of pales to replace the energy she has lost. and once Lucy kind of opens her eyes and starts to comfortably kind of like look around, he will just pat her on the head and say, Don't worry, I'm fine. And he will open the jar of honey and very quickly, as ranges know how to do, create this poultice and just start to slather it on the arrow wound of the owlbear. as it kind of in pain, he'll just kind of easy, easy, he'll just start to help things along. Perfect. And as you do so, another owlbear comes and with its tongue it helps to sort of smooth the honey around, and there is a moment where it becomes clear. That the arrow needs to be removed. Reggie will concede to the others. his hands are shaking too much as he's expended energy to give back to Lucy, so he'll leave it to Moth or Margie to kind of to take the arrow out. Margie's gonna step forward. I think she's gonna nod to the owl bear and kind of like reach out a hand in offering, not in I will do this, but in more of a like, may I do this? The Albert just sighs deeply and closes an eye as as though not to look. It doesn't want to know when it's gonna happen. I'm gonna stay near the entrance, but I'm gonna send my little buddy from my shoulder in and just say to keep the light really, really low and just to help Majimazi. But not look like helping too much. And the floating lantern dutifully comes up from your shoulder, emitting a very dim light and just floats through the space of the cave. And this is the first sort of artificial light you've seen in the cave and it's at first the owl bears are somewhat suspicious, but there's been enough trust built by Reggie that they let it pass and it creates a very warm, comfortable light, just so that Margie, you can see around the arrow wound precisely where is the best place to pull this arrow from. She is gonna very slowly take both of her hands, her teeny tiny hands. She's very small compared to this owl bear. Both of her hands, one of them near the base, near where the the arrow is like piercing it, and one of them near the end, and she's just gonna give it a really, really, really firm tug. Cut to the exterior of the cave. Birds scatter as you hear this owl bear just call out the most almighty roar. A week has passed since the Albears were left with the honey to care for their wounded companion. Reggie and Lucy have also had a chance to recuperate at the reserve, and after giving so much of his own strength to Lucy, Reggie was in need of that rest too. The obstacle course can wait. Margie Marzi offered to replenish Reggie's snacks for the rest of his ranger year, although Lucy was quick to make it clear she'd had quite enough of the honey-coated trail mix, for the time being at least. And finally, Moth has managed to find a little peace and quiet back at the lodge. Yeah, I'm imagining in the week Majimazi's is off doing whatever. study Hydra or whatever it is that they're up to as an expert. and Moth is gonna take that opportunity to sneak back to the lodge and work with Roost to try and grow kind of another room. But also within that room to have a very specific little alcove with a platform on it made of newer shoots, so maybe slightly softer willow. So it's kind of got like old-style beds have like the lattice, which would get tightened of strings like that, but it'd be the willows to kind of make almost a bedroom-ish area. so that at some point in the week, moth is gonna show. Majima see this and maybe leave a blanket or something, but take back their hammock and be like, here, you can stay here. Whilst you're here, this doesn't mean you can stay forever. But whilst you're here, I kind of want my hammock back, so You want me to stay? I don't. I don't want you to stay. You want me to say I want my hammock back. You love me. You want me to say. No, this was this is a bad idea. This was a bad idea. And she like jumps around in her room. She's like, okay, now shoo, go, go do your hammock things. You want me to stay. Very specifically, there is not a door. You want me to stay? Very specifically. This doesn't mean you're staying forever. Bye! The moth is gonna take the hammock. When the day arrives when Reggie and Lucy are back to full strength and are stood before Moth and Margie with a few parting words. I think you'll look at the two of them and just very earnestly be like, thank you. I know I was a lot at the start, but you've repaid me in ways I cannot really convey into words. So here's one second. He will reach for a bit of parchment and he'll start to write on it. you ever need any help, Frisco family's in your debt. And he'll just hand over a bit of parchment that says one IOU Frisco family. yeah. You ever need help with anything in the preserve, you send an owl or a bird and I'll come running. Wow. You're so cool. Thank you. And definitely not a lot compared to some other people. Mother It's fine. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I think Lucy will just do that sort of like purring sort of and seems to be and seems to be like padding away, like stretching herself, going down one of those really deep stretches, which involves her whole spine and all six legs, and she's like looks over her shoulder to Reggie and you feel the connection again, that bond. The moment that she is ready to run, you're ready to run. Sorry, can I add one more thing? Yeah. That I've been working on across the week whilst Reggie's been staying. So I can do something called witchcraft tokens. So I'm gonna make a little bracelet of something. Probably the leftover strands from the the costume that got cut up. I'm gonna do a little bracelet and I can imbue it with a level one spell and I'm gonna put the heroism spell, like in the bracelet, so that Reggie can take it with him. That's amazing. I don't know if you can use it, but you've got it. That's like it's a sentiment, it's a thought that counts. That's amazing. Thank you. Together you leap over the stream, breathing in unison among the wildflowers, catching every harmony of the bird song, and you feel with sudden clarity the connection with the companion running alongside you, the two of you moving as one. You can almost feel the ground beneath her paws, sharing the instinct to duck beneath branches and weave between the trees. Finally, you've found the obstacle course you've been looking for. The trees begin to thin. Ahead of you, you recognize the gates where your visit to the reserve began. As you approach, something stirs at the edge of the path. You feel the hair standing up in your neck. You just feel conscious that something is watching you or you're being watched. Reggie, please roll me a perception check to see if you might be to look back at what is looking at you. that's a nine. With a nine you see A flash of orangey red, but distinctly four long black legs disappear between the trees. You're not quite sure what it was. You know it wasn't threatening. A bit of curiosity. Maybe some kind of respect. As you leave the reserve. A little better than you found it. Thank you so much. yeah, Reggie heads out to continue the rest of his arranger year. Thank you very much guys. Much appreciated. Thank you. We are so grateful for you being here. You, Rohan, and Reggie are welcome back anytime. we can't wait to have you back. Please look after this place. It's important. It's a gorgeous little home. The trees, they are singing. To the tune of a song. It is gently ringing, the bell that brings the morning. Welcome up the dawn. Hedgerows and Hatchlings is a natural plenty production edited by me, James Bradford Young, featuring Holden as Moth, Vivian Hunt as Margie Marzi, Benjamin McMahon as Roost, and a huge thank you to our wonderful guest Rohan Ned for bringing Reggie Frisco to the reserve. Foy so the robin. Call out the dough. Red leaves are falling, the barn out is calling, welcome off the dawn. Our theme song is Not Anymore by OTE, featuring Sarah Pumphrey, and our credit song is Welcome to the Dawn by Roy Williams, both licensed through epidemic sound. The trees now sing. Tune of a song. If you enjoyed your time at the reserve, please subscribe, maybe leave us a review, and tell a friend to stop by. We hope to see you again next week.