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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 8112609" data-attributes="member: 2012">[SPOILER="Ákos's Knowledge checks"]Ákos knows a lot about the thickets of Bluffside, in general, and some specific facts about the Jade Thicket. The thickets are leftovers of old growth forests that predated Bluffside's founding. Most of these dense areas of foliage were considered inappropriate places to build houses or had weird features that made them dangerous (hidden caves, poisonous plants, quicksand, sinkholes, etc.). Most of thickets in Old City were originally fenced in to keep citizens from wandering into them, but eventually these fences became overgrown and lost in the thickets.As a result, a new guild (called the Guild of Roots) was created about 100 years ago that is responsible for cutting back new growth on the edges of the thickets. The guild's work became very profitable! The members sell off the cuttings to stables for feed and any rare plants discovered to alchemists. Every few decades, the guild has discovered a rare magical plant growing on the edge of one of the thickets and sold it to the Wizard Guild. The members of the guild (who call themselves Rootstalkers) are very protective of their trade and don't like non-guildmembers prying into their work!There are four thickets in this part of Old City: the Jade Thicket, the Somber Green, South Gate Thicket, and the Twisted Thicket. South Gate Thicket is less overgrown than the others and is treated more like a park. Young nobles (and ruffians) hiding from something often venture into it. Of the four thickets, Ákos has heard that the Twisted Thicket is the most dangerous but no real specifics as to why. The Somber Green is very dense and dark but the citizens who live on the edge of it often venture into it to pick wild berries (known as sweetberries) to make pies.(Ákos also knows that the Rosewood Gardens used to be a thicket, but was tamed 40 years ago. The Park of Angels was never a thicket.)After first hearing the tale about the Pool of Whispered Dreams, the Loremaster did more research on the Jade Thicket. He learned that the thicket is one of the least explored in Old City. It sits along both the Green Wall and the Cardinal Wall and extends roughly 100 feet in both directions from where those two walls meet. The trees of the thicket are very old but aren't the tallest trees (more stubby and prickly). Vines creep up the sides of the inner walls and the Regulars pay the Rootstalkers very well to keep the upper parts of the wall free. There aren't true paths through the thicket. All sorts of small/tiny animals and insects live in the Jade Thicket and it has a deep cave sitting somewhere near the intersection of the two walls. When the cave was first found, the area around its entrance was fenced and a stone block was placed over the entrance itself.(While doing his research, Ákos found no official references to a magical well, but there were stories about citizens going into the thicket for water during the earliest days of Bluffside's history.)There are many shops in the Jade Quarter that deal in alchemy, strange flowers, or bizarre insects and they get most of their supply from the Jade Thicket (but sometimes the Somber Green). All the buildings along the edge of the Jade Thicket are shops that have some sort of trade related to the thicket(s). The owners of the these shops don't like the Rootstalkers and wish the guild would stop cutting back the Jade Thicket and into their profits![/SPOILER][SPOILER="Tuck's Knowledge checks"]Tuck knows only the most general information about the thickets of Old City (since his checks are untrained). These overgrown areas usually sit against an inner or outer walls of the district and are full of dense brush, old trees, and creeping vines. The Guild of Roots is responsible for keeping the thickets from spreading but the guild rarely delves deep into the thickets. The members just cut away the growth at the edges and sell the castoff to stables as feed for horses.(The Guild of Roots is not responsible for the plants in the Gardens. That falls under the sway of the Tenders of the Ascetic's Temple.)Tuck doesn't know anything specific about the Jade Thicket, but he knows some of the members of the Guild of Roots (see below). They would know more about Old City's thickets (and the other district's thickets too [except the ones in Wizard District]).Knowledge Beyond Your Check:There are <a href="http://roll.coyotecode.net/lookup.php?rollid=243225" target="_blank">three</a> kobolds in the guild that Tuck has heard of: Azszi Greenblood [female around Tuck's age], Sceggon [male], and Xozzin Moonbone [very old male].) He's never met any of them but knows Xozzin is semiretired and very respected among the kobolds of Bluffside. Azszi is the daughter of an old rival of his uncle, Zenk. Tuck knows nothing about Sceggon other than his name.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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