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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1606121" data-attributes="member: 1210">Benjy Peachtree’s wagon is just outside of town.  He has several clansfolk within; Sandy sneaks up next to it, so as to eavesdrop, and can make out bits of conversation within.  Benjy sounds angry.  After hearing enough to satisfy his present curiosity, Sandy sneaks back to his own clansfolk and reports in.“He said he’s going to have to take shortcuts with this batch.  There’s another contest in three weeks- he has to hurry.  And they’re leaving early tomorrow to get whatever the secret ingredient is.”Our heroes’ pulses quicken.  At last, the answer!***By the time our heroes rise in the morning, the Peachtrees have already departed; but their tracks are easy enough to follow.  Halfway through the morning, Trinia spots something and cries out, pulling her dagger.  Two dire porcupines emerge from the brush, noses quivering, and stare viciously in the party’s direction.  Then they scramble forward to the attack, and our heroes are hard pressed almost immediately!  The porcupines are hard to engage in melee; their long quills are dangerous, and lodge in the flesh of those that get too close!  Soon Mama and Trinia both have an almost porcupine-like aspect themselves, with quills bristling from bleeding holes in their flesh!However, a concentrated attack with missile fire has served Federico and Airhead Ed well.  The two keep their distance, aided by the dog pack that is growling and barking and engaging the two porcupines.  Finally, one of the porcupines goes down under the withering hail of sling and crossbow fire and the savage bites of the dogs and wolf.  Wincing, bleeding, our heroes begin pulling the quills free are carefully as they can.***Three quarters of an hour later, after all their wounds are tended as best they can be, and after a tasty snack to hearten the halflings after such an unexpected attack, the group continues following the wagon’s tracks.  Trees dot the landscape, and the ground is soft and grassy, with its fair share of mud.  When they top a hill, they see the Peachtree wagon in the valley below, and they are just in time to see Benjy Peachtree riding off alone on a garen.  He canters over to a sinkhole and dismounts, leaving his garen to graze, and enters the cave.Our heroes move a little closer to the cave, excitedly discussing what they should do.  They are trying to stay under cover for the moment.They observe nothing exciting for a few minutes, so Federico and Ed sneak up to the cave itself.  They have a short whispered debate, and then Federico creeps up to the cave entrance and peers in.  There’s no visible sign of Peachtree.  He slowly creeps inside.Ed, meanwhile, meanders over to the garen.*  “Hi,” she says to it.“Hi,” it snorts back.“What’s your name?”“Daisy.”“Is Benjy nice to you?”“The grass is good here.”“Is he a nice man?”“He rides me.”“I don’t think he’s very nice.  Do you want to come with me?  We’ll be nicer to you than he is.”“Oh, I don’t know.”“Sure!  It’ll be fun!”“All right.”From their hidden vantage, Sandy quietly asks, “Is she stealing his garen?”***Federico creeps quietly down the cave’s steep slope.  He’s looking for motion, for Peachtree, for any sign of danger.  His ears are scanning the air for anything- any sound.He stops.Scratching, something climbing up- Peachtree?  He squeezes aside and holds his breath.  In a few seconds, Benjy Peachtree climbs up past him and back out of the cave.Federico slowly, carefully, descends.***When Benjy Peachtree emerges from the cave and spots Ed leading his garen off, he cries out, “Hey!  Stop!”  And he immediately draws his sling and looses a stone.Ed drops the garen’s reins long enough to draw her bow and fire.“What is she doing!” gasps Sandy.“Ed, NO!” Mama cries, rising up.Too late.  The arrow takes Benjy Peachtree in the eye.  He collapses.“He was attacking me,” Ed wails.“You were stealing his garen,” Sandy groans, and slaps his forehead.  And then, as if the universe itself were conspiring against them, the ground suddenly shakes.  An earth tremor!***Federico creeps to the bottom of the cave, and he sees a small crawlway.  He looks at it uneasily.  It looks like it opens into a room right away- but while he was crawling through, he’d be exquisitely helpless.  If there’s anything in the room.  Shivering slightly, Federico turns to climb back out, but suddenly the ground starts to shake, and to his horror he sees rocks start to fall all around the entrance up above.  A choking cloud of dust rises up, obscuring his darkvision for a moment.  When it clears, he sees to his dismay that the exit is blocked.“Arf,” he says miserably.***Peachtree is alive, and Mama tends him quickly.  A cure light wounds brings him around, but he’s dazed and confused- and he’s lost an eye.  Pale faced and grim, he mounts his garen without a word.  Our heroes protestations fall on deaf ears as Peachtree glowers at them, glares at the collapsed entrance to the cave, and wheels his mount around and leaves.  “Crap,” moans Sandy.“Hey, where’s the dog?” asks Mama suddenly.  Everyone looks at the collapsed cave.Next Time: All right, Federico, you know where you have to go to find... the Secret Ingredient!!*Tallfellow halflings, in Cydra, can speak with equine creatures like a gnome speaks with small burrowing mammals.</blockquote>

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