Prologue: The Barony of Harkenwold

Carlos stands there with a dumb look on his face a good long while. At times, he blinks- Then he looks dumb again. After a moment he finally asks - "So you guys have golf?"

Kathryn listens attentively to Illyana's explanation and nods in understanding. It all makes sense now. The knight crosses her arms and closes her eyes.

Eni:

Kat:

On the subject of multiple universes she gets a mischievous look and says, "I overheard two of my professors talking to a visiting archmage about his trip to a place called Toril. I had never heard of it before so I did some research. And when I didn't find anything in the common section, I decided to take a look at the...rarer tomes."

Zoe smirks and says, "You mean the forbidden ones right?"

"WHAT NO, I'D NEVER DO THAT!" she lies most poorly.

"Uh-huh." Zoe makes it perfectly clear she doesn't believe her.

"Look, we are getting sidetracked here. The important part is that Toril is a different universe entirely. It has it's own gods, it's own geography, and has almost no connection to our worlds at all. As far as I know it's only possible to get there for archmages using spells both secret and powerful, way out of my league. So I kept digging and found a treatise on a parallel world, most like my own, where everyone is the opposite. So if you are evil in my world, you are a paragon of good in that one and vice versa. It's called Uerth and you cross to it through the Plane of Mirrors. So I kept digging and it turns out my Oerth, is thought to be part of a constellation of parallel universes, supposedly five.

So I thought maybe I could find a safer and easier way to travel between universes, using my area of expertise, alchemy and artifice. Hence my experiments!"

To Carlos she says, "I have no idea what golf is. Please explain in great detail!"

Carlos blinks again, before explaining - "You swing a stick at a ball really fast and see where it lands! If it's a hole, you win."

"Oh, that took much less time than I thought it would! Are there explosions and can you throw things at other players?"

"Not yet, but i'll be sure to try it next time i play! I mean, we got bombs now."

Hunter flicks his tail impatiently. "We can explain that on the way there. Do you need any help rigging your explosive?"

Kathryn giggles when she gets Eni's message, and makes a mental note that she should listen to the rest of it once she has more time. For now, she focuses on the conversation at hand.

Rolling Nature:

Nature Check:

"It shouldn't take long. I just need time to work on it. Why don't you guys go have some tea while I do my thing? It should....oh newt nuggets, we left the kettle going!"

"That's okay, we can finish brewing the tea while you set us up the bomb," Hunter smirks.

The silver-haired knight steps forward and asks the young alchemist, "Illyana? I was wondering... Using your strange liquids, could you make some sort of timer, so your bomb would explode only after we set a time for it?"

"Someone go and make sure my kitchen isn't burning down! Shoo, shoo!"

Zoe rolls her eyes and says, "Where is your kitchen?"

"It's at the end of the hall on the left. Cross the calculation room and you'll be right in the kitchen. Hurry please and thank you!"

Zoe steps out to do just that. A relieved Ilyanna finally answers Kat, "That's what I'm planning to do. I'm going to use this special paper I have to create a partition between the liquid crap and liquid junk. When liquid crap eats away at the paper, it will drop into liquid junk, mix, and then explode! Yay! No more bullywug cave!"

"How about a timer that would end after a few days. Oh, even better! How about a trap, like a mine or something. Can you also do that?"

Hunter raises an eyebrow at his friend. "A 'mine'? What do you want to do?"

"I wanna hear if it's possible before I explain."

Ilyanna thinks about this. "I'm honestly not sure I can. I'd have to design and fabricate several different parts from scratch. It would be much easier to just rig a normal elemental mine. How much time do I have?"

Kathryn sighs. "Not long enough. We have to take care of the bullywugs today. You said you could rig an elemental mine? How long would that take?"

"I'm gonna check on Zoe. We'll have that tea done when you are."

Hunter leaves to join Zoe (and the rest of the group?), and will search for sugar to add to the tea.

Ilyanna shrugs. "Maybe an hour or two. Depends on how much I have to make myself."

Hunter finds Zoe, Jo, and John in the kitchen. Zoe is finishing up the tea while the two men are sitting at the table talking. They all greet Hunter and ask how things are going. The ranger finds the sugar on Ilyanna's counter inside a tub helpfully labeled Sugar.

___

"Kat's asking Ilyanna about her bomb. She wants to make a mine for some idea she has, but she won't say what it is unless it'll work."

He grabs an empty cup and puts a spoonful of sugar in it, and starts to stir and sift it absently.

Kathryn sighs. "We can't take too much time. Pleaes, just make a bomb powerful enough to cause a cave in... I'll go wait with the others. Unless you'd like some help?"

If Illyana needs to do this alone, Kat will leave and rejoin her companions.

Having been listening, Carlos pipes up - "Oy Kat, planning on caving the Bullfrogs along with the cave?"

"We should do that if we can," she says, "but no, that's not what I was planning. Come on, let's go see the others."

"Yeah, just give me some time. I work faster alone." She starts digging through a nearby cabinet, quietly muttering her plans to herself while interspersing them with a strange whistling tune while she thinks.

Leaving her to it, Kat and Carlos join the others in the kitchen for tea. The break is welcome and anyone who is injured can spend hit dice to heal up. Hit dice represent your character's stamina, the ability to continue on past the point where normal people would be dead. They give heroes a small pool of healing they can call on throughout their adventuring day. The only requirement is that you take a short rest. You get them back every time you take an extended [8 hour] rest.

With the exception of John, you should all have three hit die of whatever your class is. So for example, Carlos and John are both Fighters and therefore have d10 hit die. Since Carlos is level 3, he can roll the d10 up to three times, healing the amount rolled each time. As a less experienced ally, John is level 2 and therefore can roll the d10 up to two times. Since John is down by 6 hit points, I roll a hit die and get 9 hit points. So now he's at full hp again and down 1 hit die use until he takes an extended rest. K, you should really do this now since Carlos is down by 10 hit points.

After twenty minutes of tinkering, Ilyanna walks into the kitchen holding a crossbow and wearing a backpack and alchemist's satchel. "Bomb's ready. It's a bit more touchy than I thought it would be so I'll have to go too. That way only the things that should blow up, will!"