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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pacio49" data-source="post: 2195296" data-attributes="member: 28472">The Lillends' Quest 2The next morning dawned bright and clear and the party set out down the banks of the River of Stars and made the Tower by shortly after nightfall. They spent the night there, and in the gray overcast April skies of the next morning, they started off downriver again, heading to where the Lillends indicated the Shocker Lizards lived.It was around noon by the time that the group found a place where the river diverted off to a smaller side branch that flowed down several granite outcroppings before collecting in a pool that slowly swirled outward to rejoin the main body of the River of Stars again.  They began to poke around the rocks and shallow rapids and managed to find several small underhangs about two feet in diameter which seemed to lead back into the earth. At the bottom of the water's descent at the level of the swirling pool they found a human-sized entry cave and were about to enter when they were met by the smell of ozone, the sound of clicking, and a circle of about twelve or thirteen shocker lizards armed with tiny spears and racing arcs of electricity jumping up and down their spines and between their upraised ears."Stop where you are," called out a raspy Shocker Lizard voice from behind where the party was grouped. They all turned to see two of the shocker lizards standing there, one wearing a necklace of bones and a skirt made of dried grasses woven together in a parody of human clothing, and the other wearing what looked to be a crudely-sewn completely soaked tunic with a belt."We mean you no harm,"  replied Arien.  "We seek the druidess Martha and were told that she lived here.""I am she, or what she has become,"  answered the skirted lizard.  "Who are you, to be seeking me in the Blasted Lands?  And more importantly," she asked, drawing herself up to her full two feet in height, "Who told you to seek us out?  Be warned, with my children behind you we can kill a human with a single blow, and if you begin to harm us more of the Lizards will come out from hiding to deal with you all. Wet as you are in the shallows here you won't make it out of a conflict with us alive. That, I promise you.""We were sent by the Lillends,"  Yovaire said."Those three? What do they want with me?" Martha asked."Why have you been Awakening the native wildlife?" Skalar asked.  "I expected more from a druid, no matter what form she takes now."Martha snorted. "You can't mean to tell me that the Lillends object to my use of the Awakening spell to bring my children to full sentience.  The spirits of nature do not refuse them, why should the Lillends? Tell them to go back to composing music and leave the tending of nature to those better equipped to do so.""But you're using it indiscriminately.  They don't object to your community you've created here. Just to the fact that the wand has been used to awaken other creatures who are then left on their own," Arien said.  "You have to admit that's pretty bad judgment, no matter how bitter your new shape leaves you.""Bitter?  Enh, I'm not bitter. Why should I be, when I'm closer to nature now?"  Martha asked."Yeah, about that," Valar said, "How exactly did you come to be a shocker lizard anyway?"Martha shrugged. "Long story. Pulverized and mingled remains thanks to Teeb and his group of giants, an inept rogue trying to use a reincarnate scroll. George and I were both brought back, but like this.  Long and short of it, we're married and here we are."  She chuckled.  "As to the Awakened creatures, that was none of my doing.  You can thank George here for that, indirectly."  She poked the tunic-wearing lizard, who gave a start and let loose a small series of sparks."Not my fault," the other lizard said.  "I was on guard --""Sleeping," Martha interjected."On guard," George glared, "when one of those pesky Petals grabbed the wand from me.  I gave chase, but --""But that just made it worse."  Martha cuffed George on the top of his head, and continued, "George should have known better than to chase the fae.  He *should* have made the proper exchange-gift offering of bread and blood and been done with it.  As it was, he chased them, and it became for them a jolly game, and they learned of the value of the wand they had stolen.  I can only guess that they figured out how to use it and thought it a jolly good sport to cavort through the woods and Awaken however many of the animals they could find.  Well, George, looks like you've gone and upset the Sisters now."Martha gave a sigh.  "I tell you what.  You retrieve the wand from the fairies, and I'll return to the Caldera Gardens and help the Lillends counsel the Awakened ones.  But without that wand back, my efforts will just be a waste of time, since the fairies won't understand what they're doing and continue to use it until the charges are all expended. And that was a fairly new wand, so there could be dozens more charges left.""That sounds fair to us," Yovaire said.  And with that, they received directions to where the fae had a glen near the woods an hour or so to the south of the pool, and off they went to retrieve the wand from the fairies who had stolen it...</blockquote>

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