Big Blue Feud Adventure

This will be the game play thread.
Dialog will be in italics.
New/important information (names, places, objects) will be in bold.

It's late. You're tired. It's been a long day and nothing sounds more appealing than finally climbing under some warm blankets, lying your head down on a soft pillow, and sawing logs! As your eyes blink lazily, slower and slower, you smile at the rectangle of soft, blue moonlight projecting against the wall. The shadows of tree branches swayed back and forth across the wall, dancing in the pale light. As you close your eyes for the last time, some small awareness in the back of your brain notices something different about the shadows. The branches have been joined by a familiar shape, balanced along the bottom of the rectangle. It's your companion... and it's carrying a message. Your brain urges your eyes to open again and confirm that you're just "seeing things". You aren't.

Your companion leaps from the window sill onto the foot of your bed. You sit up and notice that it's carrying a note. You take the note and realize that, tonight, you won't be sleeping. You're needed in Storia.

Elmlode the Leafbrarian has invited you to his forest, The Ancient Forest to recount some details from your last adventure in Storia. He has it in his mind that Roxin and Luna single-handedly defeated a gang of Soggy Bottom Froads, but then he heard some whisperings on the wind that maybe Emma and Violet were there too, and he wants to know what really happened.

To get to the Big Blue Forest, you'll need to follow your companions through the magical portal behind the bookcase in your room. When you arrive in Storia, you should stop in at the Hero Shack if you need any supplies, then follow the Way Back trail northwest, past Croaking Castle and beyond to the Ancient Forest.

The Hero Shack (or The Shack of Heroes as it says on the shingle hanging above the entrance) sits along side the Way Back Path, across from a small fishing pond. Gnomsky, the proprietor, is a short-bodied gnome, with great long legs and arms, and looks a bit like a grasshopper wearing a felt suit. He greets everyone with a smile, welcoming you in to his shop with his long arms spread wide.

"Well, well, what have we here!? This is quite a crew! How can I be of service to you my good friends?" says Gnomsky, pleasantly surprised by his inadvertent rhyme of crew & you.

His shop is packed to the rafters with dusty odds and ends, as well as items that look as if they were made yesterday. In the center of his shop is a glass case containing all sorts of small vials, jars, pots, tubes, and flasks made from clay, wood, leather, and blown glass. He has a twinkle in his eye, and he very clearly seems to have been expecting you.

"It seems like a Hero Pack might be just what the doctor ordered. The cost is 3 coins, but if it meant selling four today, I'd let them go for 2 each." He gestures to the wall where four hero packs were hung with care.

"These are strange times indeed for Storia. Curious things are afoot in the North." Gnomsky says as he polishes, probably for the 100th time today, the top of the glass display case.

"My life is going fine, for the most part. Thanks for asking! I did get a disturbing message from one of my pigeons this morning: someone found some odd prints in the mud up by Croaking Castle, like someone or someones was walking around on their hands like a crazy person. No footprints, just handprints. Imagine that!… Now, about those packs."

Gnomsky retrieves the backpacks from the wall and sets them on top of the shop counter. Busying himself with a quick peak into each pack to make sure it is complete, he talks aloud to himself as he confirms the contents in each pack:

"Yes, hmm, okay, let's see here;
20 feet of paracord,
oiled tin cloth,
bandaids (hope you don't need these),
matches,
multi-tool (what'll they think of next!),
compass and map (no sense being somewhere where you don't know where where is),
water flask,
mirror (t'ain't for looking pretty, 'tis for signalin', though no one wants to be walking around with jelly on their cheeks),
fishing hooks and some steel gossamer,
...aaaaand some fruit leather... (mmm, is it lunch time yet?)
Alright my friends, that's four complete packs."

Gnomsky clasps the top buckle as he finishes looking through the last pack. Then, he looks up at the group of travelers, and gets a keen look on his face.
"Now," pointing at Luna, "You asked about a sale and it just so happens that this very morning, I received a new shipment that I haven't had a chance to open yet."

Gnomsky reaches up high behind his head and pulls a package down from the top shelf. Quick as a whip, he draws a pair of scissors from his apron, severes a twine binding the package, and whisks the scissors back into his apron pocket, from whence they came. Then, carefully, like he was handling a new-born baby, he unfolds the wrapped canvas and pulls out a stone tablet.

"Hmm, I haven't seen one of these in a dog's age," he says, holding the stone tablet for all to see. "It's a tablet made of Thinkem Stone… leastways that’s what I call it. " He holds the stone out in front of his chest, and then looks up as if he's trying to see through the roof of his shack. He points the tablet towards one corner of the room. "If you point the Thinkem Stone towards the West, which is where it comes from, you can ask it a question, and the answer gets etched right here onto the face of the tablet." He looks at the stone for a minute, then adds, "each stone has a certain kind of information, so the first question you ask it is Whatcha thinkin'?, I think."

As soon as he finishes asking the question, the surface of the tablet rearranges itself so that the words Gristleback's Compendium of Storia’s Natural Flora & Fauna etch themselves in to the surface. "Ah, so this is a com-pen-dee-um of plants and animals. Could be useful..." Gnomsky sets the tablet on the counter.

Next, he reaches in to the wrap and pulls out two crimp-top vials, each stoppered with cork and slung in a leather koozie. The first vial's contents looks clear as water, but moves like thick, syruppy honey. The other holds a deep purple liquid that looks more like fine sand.

Gnomsky places the clear vial on the tabletop, saying, "Ah, Kittle Salve, or as I call it, Tickle Lotion. If you're too ticklish, this is the cure for you!" Then, Gnomsky places the purple vial next to it, "And this one is called Anti-Apis, or an-tee-bee-sting." Gnomsky shivers, clearly thinking about bee stings. "I got stung by a bee once, right on my eye ball...couldn't see anything but the color yellow for a month out of that eye!" he says with a wink.

Gnomsky breaks his reverie, and reaches back in to the wrap once again, pulling out yet another tablet, this time made of a thin plane of wood, curved like one side of a cylinder. It has 5 holes in it: one big hole at the top, two small holes in the middle close to each other, and two larger holes below those and a little further apart. It almost looks like someone had bit holes in to it, like a tortilla, making a simple, upside-down face.

"Hmmm" Gnomsky says scratching his head. "I haven't seen this before... 'cept maybe round the dinner table!" and laughs to himself, as he drops it on to the counter. "I’d be willing to give these up for 3 coins apiece. Any takers?"

Gnomsky squints his eyes as he looks up and away, thinking about the offer.
"Hmm, that's how much I paid for it... but..." his scrunched up face breaks in to a wide grin. "Tell you what, if you can pay me three, I'll throw in something special for Emily, and then everybody's happy!"

Gnomsky lifts the thick, clear vial off the counter. "I call it Tickle Lotion. Basically, you put a drop of this on your head and you're immune to tickle-attacks. It lasts about an hour... or so I'm told."

He puts the vial down in front of Bill. Then he lifts up the curvy, wooden tablet.

"Hmm... I wonder. I'll be right back." Gnomsky looks curiously at the piece of wood in his hands. Then, he turns and crab-walks out of the room, his knees nearly scraping against the top of the door jamb.

A few minutes pass. Bill places his coins on the table and takes the clear vial of Tickle Lotion. Then, Gnomsky, from the back room, exclaims triumphantly "Aha! Just what I thought!" A minute later, and he teeters back in on his folded legs, a huge smile on his face.

"And to think I was going to throw this on the fire. I should charge more for it... but, I said three coins, so I'll let it go for three, but nothing less." He places the wood tablet back in the wrap and quietly moves it below the counter, out of sight. At the same time, he scoops up Bill's coins and then rests his hands on the table top.

"Well? Anything else I can help you with?"