#if you see dragon quest stuff here than it means i have been infected with brainrot

[more-than-a-ghosti]

i finally got dragon quest XI echoes of an elusive age s definitive edition and knuckles

[tabletopjourneys]

Session 35 Notes

The Silver Scale Pack get to know various members of Rana's immediate family, get woken by draconic-speaking rodents, find out more about their quest, and hit a few stores on their way back through Longview, headed for one of the local taverns.

@gher-bear @aradow @telurin @epimetala

On this day we have a nice visit with Rana's mother, Romy, stay over and find out Anesh, for as long as anyone can remember, has a population of tiny animals that speak draconic. They all speak draconic and have infected our rats with the same! It's totally normal guys! And no, Diem, it is not because one of the town's people is secretly a dragon. We'd know. For sure.

The next day we move on to meet Rana's brother, sister-in-law, niece, and niephew. We find out a little more about Haldric and Phi's daggers, which she hides in her pack and displays her common daggers in their place instead. Ixayl'anu gets her platinum ring made, Diem gives the kids their putty vivis as a gift. On our way toward the tavern, we hit a general supply store and maaaybe one other??? Dried fruits and granola were purchased along Phi's medical supplies at any rate.

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Session 35 Notes

Notes!

(Chillin’ with Rana’s mom)

When we go in Rana’s home, Phi becomes a wandering cat who helps herself to exploration, comes back and says “There’s a hot tub!”

Mom: You’re welcome to borrow it.

Phi: Is this where you grew up?

Rana: Yep! (pulls out duck sauce, honey, apple jam etc. - giving it to her mom).

Phi sees this and pulls out her very expired mixed fruit to hand over, along with her gummy owlbears.

Mom: Oh no dear, that’s fine, you don’t have to start pulling supplies out of your pack.

Phi drops the gummy owlbears into the pile anyway.

Rana: Really sorry to barge in like this, but we just needed a couple of days, we’ve run into some situations and I’m looking for someone in Bouldergap - wanted to see if Stell knew anything about them.

Romy tells us we’re welcome anyway, stresses that this is still Rana’s home too and says something about friends that I missed for note-taking.

Rana pulls out the silver scale and letter from Retin and talks about him, says she’s pretty sure the guy Retin is sending us to is a dwarf. We were told he might be helpful, but we weren’t told where he was. She figured Bouldergap was the place to look and knows it’s a long shot her mom or brother would know him but we also needed a place to stay on the way, so thought she thought she might as well ask.

Romy: I can’t be sure but I feel like Stell has mentioned a Haldric in passing but I certainly don’t have a whole lot of communication with anybody of that name.

Rana: No ironbands as customers then?

Romy: No

Rana: It’s a weird thing, handed us this dragon scale gave us that name and sent us this way.

We’ve noticed Romy has a bone of contention with Rana over the news about shadowood travelling.

With prompting Diem remembers they’re the story teller and should tell it, 13 performance, gets smoother as they go on. However, to their friends, who have heard Diem tell this particular story among others many times, they definitely seem off their game a little.

When we get to fighting the dragon, Romy is worried, Diem insists healers were on standby so nobody died

Rana: We almost had him.

Diem: Well I mean technically one of us did get him later that night…

Phi cracks up laughing

After stories Rana says something about the meteor

Mom says something I missed for note-taking, GM is telling us about blacksmiths/nosy customers (so maybe something about that?).

Through conversation we gather that Grismor is innkeeper/tavern keeper of The Smiling Dragon - one of 2 inns who trades in gossip. Smiling Dragon is better for gossip, better drink, does his own ale, seasonal brews, jolly little dwarf who is as tall as he is round. Square dwarf.

Rana tells us about her messages to her brother which provided a nice distraction about meteor news for Longview.

Rana offers her mother the camels then belated asks us if that’s alright.

Diem says that they can’t obviously take the camels everywhere they go after this anyway.

There’s some talk about whether they’re needed for the trip further North.

Romy: Lets see how they do with the sheep

Rana: Elk’s in with the sheep and they’re doing fine (I think we ended up deciding ooc that it’s in a separate paddock though).

Rana is playing with the silver dragon scale while making small talk which eventually includes Farford gossip too - specifically the mention of a firecat.

Romy: Yeah someone was talking about seeing one here too.

Rana: No one saw the person it was with so I’m thinking it’s just a stray

Romy: We do have a lot of flame point cats in the area so it’s possible I suppose.

Ixayl’anu: Is it the same type of cat?

Conversation about them being wild cats vs tame, a specific species, etc continues.

Rana: No like flame point siamese not actual fire

DM: these are not just cats they are more akin to avatars of The Candace

We find out the entire town is talking about firecats too

Rana: How’s Stell (Stellan) doing? I picked up a few things for the kids, so hopefully they’ll like it.

Romy: Good

Rana: Nothing alive

Romy: I’m sure Stell will appreciate that.

Diem asks about the kids so we find out Rana has a niece and niephio (I have no idea on the spelling for this and a google search turned up only nibling as a suggestion for enby niece/nephew). Diem grins further to learn of the niephio in particular.

Rana (upon mention of the niece): She big enough to help with the forge yet?

Romy: She’s big enough to do the bellows and help out

Rana: We will hunt them down tomorrow

Phi: Yay!

At some point Phi would say “So your brother only has two kids?”

Rana: Yeah just two kids

Phi: Oh, so they’re just starting?

Rana: No I get the impression they might be done

Phi: Interesting...

Rana: At least he doesn’t (something I missed)

Phi: Well, that’s why you have more, so they can be together.

Rana: I’ll mention it to him...better yet you could mention it to him

Phi: This is the starter pack right?

Romy is extremely amused by this conversation.

(Dinner prep and additional conversations)

There are dress mannequins and clothes everywhere, fabrics everywhere.

Diem and Romy eventually start talking about the tailoring and different fabrics and fashions etc.

As they talk about that, Rana wanders off to make food for everyone.

Phi goes to help cook.

Diem wanders off with Romy to talk about fabrics and fashion some more (Rana will throw them out the second story window if they do more than that lol).

Rana was half sorting her bag and still has her rocks and stuff spread out on the rug even as she’s making dinner now.

Romy gifts Diem an outfit by the end of their conversation, still so happy this is the first time Rana’s brought anyone home. As she’s got Diem pulled aside though, she asks for more details about everything that happened, worried and just making sure everything’s truly good, and how is Rana really doing?

Diem spins it well about how capable Rana is.

Her mom def agrees and looks worried, but noticeably less so.

While waiting for dinner we all talk more, telling Romy about how we saved Perfection. She does not look ready to come to terms that her daughter is an adventurer now, but accepts it.

Part 16 of Rana rumors according to the other townsfolk who saw us all: “Yeah we knew something like this was gonna happen eventually”

Rana brings up the thunderbird and we talk about that.

Food got delivered, rats were introduced, how Rana and Phi have been training them to spy, rat race story from the Harvest festival gets told as well.

Rana notes that she is actually showing us off to her mom <3

Rana prompts us to talk about ourselves to her mom.

Phi happily tells her whole life story, or at least all the things she’s said to us as a group.

Ixyal’anu talks a little about herself as well.

Diem hangs back and doesn’t say much during this portion as they already talked pretty extensively with Romy already.

Rana: And Ixayl'anu’s on a task for her god but she doesn’t have a fire cat, she has vague dreams.

Romy asks about Ixayl’anu’s deity, pleasant ‘mom questions.’

As things wind down, Diem remembers the find familiar spell and asks if they have a moment, whether it would be alright to summon them while they’re here - noting it would listen to their directions and not make a mess or break anything. They get permission, but never end up doing the spell before bed.

Phi takes her hot tub bath, Diem takes one after.

After Rana gets us settled to bed in the guest room, she goes out and takes a point of exhaustion spending 8 hours to cast enriching the land again since she’s been gone a few years and it only lasts a year, then she goes and sits with the sheep, all of the sheep bed down next to her in a sea of white around her and she leans back against the nearest sheep for a nap/meditation during the spell. They remember her and know she’s the source of the good food.

(Mice vs. Rats: Draconic edition)

During the night, in the wee hours of the morning Ixayl’anu wakes up hearing some very high squeaky voices arguing “This is our territory”

“No, we were invited,” back and forth half awake-half asleep and thinking “what is this? Oh...this is real, this is something that is happening here.”

Very tiny angry voices continue.

Investigation check for more details 15: It’s dark in the room, she can kinda see in the shadows, she doesn’t see anyone. At the foot of Ixayl'anu’s bed is Horatio, four little house mice are around him being territorial against him, and the strange thing is they are all speaking draconic, including Horatio.

Ixayl'anu: What...what?

When Phi wakes up she doesn’t understand her rat any more, but she does hear the rat and mice speaking draconic.

Ixayl’anu: What?

The four mice squeak in a mousy scream

Horatio: Yeah you better run (turns to Ixayl'anu): Thanks!

Ixayl’anu: What? Why? Why are you speaking draconic?

Horatio: Is that what this is? I don’t know I was just suddenly able to and these mice were speaking a weird dialect and I found I could speak back in it as well.

Ixayl’anu: What...okay...and you’re still speaking it, who were they what were you fighting about?

Horatio: They live here and were being territorial and I was telling them I was an invited guest ‘cause I’m with you all.

(I am dead to the world as Phi wakes up)

Phi: Why are you talking to yourself?

Ixayl’anu gestures at the rat

Phi: Have you been teaching my rat that...?

Ixayl’anu: No…. Do you think that’s just something you can teach a rat?

Phi to Horatio: How are you doing that?

Horatio: I don’t know it just happened!

Phi: You’re still doing it…

There is conversation back and forth as its established among the three characters that Horatio still understands Phi, but since he is no longer speaking rat, she can’t understand him, but now Ixayl’anu can both understand and speak with him through draconic.

Ixayl’anu says something I missed.

Phi: what are you saying to my rat?

Ixayl’anu says something else I missed.

Horatio: You all can just decide what language to speak in? That’s weird.

Ixayl’anu: Yeah it is weird

Horatio: It’s a weird dialect and apparently it’s infectious.

Hamlet is mentioned in the back and forth and Phi, recognizing the name, wonders aloud if Hamlet is like this now as well. She tells Horatio he’s changed and she hopes it’s not permanent

Ixayl’anu tries to stop her to ask about that back and forth but Phi slips out of the guest room.

Phi 25 stealths through the house looking for Rana. From a window she sees an odd clump of sheep in the field. She goes out outside and climbs the fence.

Rana is deep in meditation.

Phi: Hamlet, wake up Hamlet…

Rat wakes up and cleans his face but says something back in draconic that she can’t understand.

Phi in common: Oh my god.

Phi uses her stone to let Ixayl'anu know not only this, but what she can see out here around Rana (visible plant growth around her - she’s decided to sleep on her sheep in the field which is weirdly moving and Hamlet’s doing the same thing, Rana’s not moving, I feel like I’m dreaming I don’t know about you…)

In squeakish Phi tells Hamlet that she can’t understand him but she knows he can understand her so “If you want to find out what’s going on you have to talk to Ixayl'anu about it because she’ll understand you. So I’m going to go now.”

Hamlet is irritated and goes back to sleep. All the sheep watch her. One sheep baas at her, then they all start baaing for food, none of them were speaking draconic.

Ixayl’anu to horatio while Phi’s gone: They just walked up to you and started talking to you and that was it?

Horatio: They tried to fight me!

Ixayl’anu: like biting and scratching?

Horatio: Yeah, look at this wet spot! And I’m an invited guest!

Ixayl’anu: That’s rude!

Horatio: That’s very rude, yeah! I’m an invited guest *stamps tiny rat feet*!

Together Ixayl’anu and Horatio determine they probably live in the roof or something, not pets.

Ixayl’anu casts detect magic. She sees the faintest little glow around Horatio. So faint you may think it’s not there and the only reason she sees it is because the lights are off, a wisp of power with the vaguest sense of magic. The source of it is nowhere nearby and the magic itself is so barely there she can’t even see the mice in the walls like she should have if they were properly bespelled in some way. It’s not any specific school for it. Mostly all she really sees is the glow of our various magic items.

At this point Phi returns

(Diem’s perception rolls were 2, 3, and now 0 lol. It is at this point we determine Diem is actually being held in sleep by their patron, catching up, talking about the familiar, and the follower and the spells and just having tea and a lovely bonding time. Probably when they were Tarma out in the desert, they did less communicating)

I missed some back and forth between Ixayl’anu, Phi, and Horatio.

Phi: They were being aggressive and picking on him?

Ixayl’anu to Horatio: Would you be willing to see where these mice have gone?

Horatio: You want me to bring one back to you? Yeah I can do that.

Ixayl’anu: You don’t have to but it’d be nice, I can give you food for it, *looks at her supplies*

Horatio: What kind of treat do I get, what’s in it for me?

Ixayl’anu: Nope no that’s not food I have nope that’s not food. *pauses in her rummaging* Well, what do you want, I suppose we can find something for you?

*thinks on it* A gummy owlbear?

Ixayl’anu: Oh I have some of those. Sure. *finds her little package of them*.

Horatio: Okay! *scurries off and disappears*

About two minutes later she hears furious squeak yelling, Horatio reappears holding a mouse by the scruff of its neck in his mouth “I found one!”

Ixayl’anu: Where’s the cage you keep the rats from? To put the mouse in?

Phi: We sold the cages, the carrier is Horatio’s home...there’s this box?

Ixayl’anu: Yeah that’ll do.

They find a box of rocks to gently empty real quick and put the mouse in it/close the lid (15 animal handling check).

As soon as Horatio had dropped the mouse: “Gummy owlbear please.”

Phi: He knows fetch now!

Ixayl’anu: All that training you’ve been doing with him is paying off! *taps box* Hello?

Phi: Ask if it if it talks like that if it knows it’s doing it or ask if it knows any dragons? I don’t know?

Ixayl’anu: Right?

Mouse is bouncing around in the box trying to get out.

Rana head canoned the rats as 400-550 grams

Horatio is gaming the system a little bit and only found a wine gummy to eat, never officially given one (Phi bought fancy rat treats for him)

(More things I missed and wrote down as “Talking to mouse ah 2”)

The mouse is screaming obscenities at Ixayl’anu.

Horatio is on his back in 7th heaven and suggests she should also give the mouse a gummy owlbear, maybe it’ll talk then.

Ixayl’anu sneaks in a smaller portion and it takes awhile for it to calm down and then it’s quiet for a little bit after until... “This doesn’t make us friends!”

Ixayl’anu: You want more? I’ve got more.

Mouse: I mean...yes

Ixayl’anu: I’m not planning on keeping you here I just want to ask a few questions

Mouse: More first

Ixayl’anu: Okay *puts in other half of gummy*

Mouse is very very quiet

Ixayl’anu taps the box: Hello?

Mouse (slurred): What do you want?

Ixayl’anu: Where’d you learn to talk like that

Mouse: I always talk like this this is how mice talk

Some similar back and forth about this.

Mouse (when asked about dragonborn/people like Ixayl’anu): People like you don’t come around here.

Ixayl’anu: Really? Oh… (to Phi in common now) I don’t this is how they talk, this is weird.

Phi: I think they just don’t know, they don’t know that they’re weird, you know

Ixayl’anu: But horatio thinks it’s a weird dialect

Phi: Did you ask if it if they saw any dragonborn? Or dragons?

Ixayl’anu: Well they haven’t seen anything like me (then to the mouse in draconic) Have you seen anything big with wings?

Mouse: Yeah outside but I live in this house I don’t have to worry about that

Ixayl’anu: Are there any mice that you can’t talk to?

Mouse: Everybody kinda talks like this around here

Ixayl’anu: Kind of or they do?

Mouse: They do?

Ixayl’anu: They all speak this...they all...speak this...I’m really confused.

They decide to try and wake Diem up for a third opinion, and it takes awhile before Diem’s patron allows it, letting Diem know that their friends need them for a moment, so they will have to continue catching up later.

Ixayl’anu as Diem finally starts waking up out of sorts: Weird things are happening

Diem continues to be out of it enough for a bit until eventually Phi catches them up - including the detail about Rana meditating in a cloud of sheep.

Phi (to Diem about the mouse in the box: It’s drunk

Diem: Are you guys sure you’re not drunk?

Phi: I’m not sure we’re not dreaming

Ixayl’anu: This isn’t dreaming not even close.

(I didn’t tag these two responses so the first might be Ixayl’anu and the 2nd Phi)

Too tired to bother with ritual magic, Diem uses a slot to cast comprehend languages.

Mouse asks if we’ve got more of those treats, which Horatio hears and says “Yeah! I’ll eat another!” *perks up*

Diem translates for phi who turns sharply to Horatio to talk about how many he’s already eaten and how he got one in the first place to ask Ixayl’anu for another, etc.

Horatio looks sheepish: Weeeellll sometimes you don’t secure your bag very good and I was hungry and they smelled good.

Phi smirks and retrieves Ixayl’anu’s package of owl gummies, then gives half to Horatio, and half to the mouse.

Horatio: YES! (helping her), I want this one I want the bigger section ‘cause I’m bigger and I get the big one (little grabby rat hands)

Diem does a history check on any stories they might have heard about talking animals like this (21). There are plenty of fairy tales with talking animals, sometimes it’s afey kind of thing - playing a prank on people. They’ve heard of similar events happening before, pretty disparate not tied to one physical location. Sometimes they’ve heard stories of animals in an area like within a mile circle will be able to speak draconic or sometimes other languages, not really a pattern to it. Sometimes it’s little towns, other times it’s connected to a whole city. Might be a natural phenomena. Specifically tiny beasts/birds/lizards are usually the type able to speak.

They also know various fae and wish spells can make this happen, but still they’re just random.

Diem shares this with Phi and Ixayl’anu.

(Insert missed conversation here)

Horatio or the mouse (not sure which): Yeah sure sometimes you say words that are funny and I don’t really understand what they are and they kinda sound like that and I don’t know what they are.

?: All the fangs or one specific thing? (I have no idea who said this or where fangs come into play)

We discover the mouse once met a gopher, stuck his nose in its burrow and it yelled at him back in draconic.

Diem to Ixayl’anu: Ask the mouse if it knows any fae in the area

Mouse makes an intelligence check when she asks, but does not know what she is talking about.

We confirm the mouse has always spoken draconic

Diem tells a quick rendition of cinderella as an example of fae meddling with small creatures where dress making is also involved (theorizing that perhaps Rana’s mother gets help from the mice as well)

We’re fairly certain it’s a normal mouse though and it’s now snoring softly so we’re not getting any more info.

Horatio by now is sprawled out on the bed, Phi cuddled around him while Diem gives him scritches. At a loss, we all go back to sleep for now, planning to ask Rana more in the morning.

(Good Morning!)

In the morning Phi will figure out the coffee situation and make some for everyone.

Romy (waking up to this): This is such a nice change of pace, somebody making the coffee for a change, and friends Rana brings in not destroying the house by the time I get up.

Phi: It’s no problem, I was just watching Rana from the window and figured she’d really like some, she’s gonna be tired so I can make sure coffee is waiting for her. We do have quite a story to tell her though.

Romy shows Phi where the biscotti is and such.

Rana is just now getting up and plucks Hamlet up.

Elk: something happened something happened something happened

Rana is feeding the sheep and clearly thinks the elk just wants some too

Elk: Oh is it breakfast? I’d like breakfast too!

Diem, after sleeping on it, performs a new arcana check on what sort of spells and effects cause draconic-speaking critters (21 again). They know now it can be caused by fae, wish spells, high level wizarding things will happen, and that similar strange effects happen around ancient dragon lairs (a little nugget buried in all their Miova dragon research they’d forgotten about), and that sometimes it’s just random without no discernible cause.

Rana comes in covered in sheep wool, hay, butt and legs wet, but she’s happy. Everything outside is noticeably green and lush.

Phi: We made coffee

Rana is super grateful and makes a beeline to grab a cup.

Rana: I took care of the plants and the animals

Ixayl’anu comes down around this time with the mouse in the box.

Romy: Your friend made coffee and something happened last night they were just about to tell me about.

Rana statues over her mother’s words with an ‘oh no what kind of things?’ sort of reaction.

Phi we’ll explain: Where’s Hamlet? Is he in your bag? Wait I’ll go get Horatio (who is snuggling Diem upstairs still)

Rana scritches Hamlet who asks “Oh is it breakfast time?” (in draconic) She’s tired enough she just hands it the biscotti without thinking.

When Phi returns she gets down on her knees in front of hamlet with horatio

Phi: What about today? What are you speaking today?

Speaking to her around his mouth of biscotti “I dunno what am I speaking today?”

This pings for Rana like hey…

Diem comes down as Ixayl'anu is talking about what happened.

Rana healing words the mouse. 7 pts healing. He immediately wakes up and feels great.

Mouse while cleaning his face: I feel really great?!

Ixayl'anu: You want some biscotti?

Mouse (very distrusting): Yes...

She sets the biscotti down. After awhile she’s half grinning and looking at her mom now.

Rana to the group: They just do that around here, always have.

Romy: That’s why the rumor mill here is so lively.

Diem: Why draconic?

(missed conversation)

Rana: Most people understand at least a few words.

Diem: What’s the local lore on it all? I mean...there’s gotta be stories involved?

Romy: The local lore - I did ask around since I’m not from here, it was very strange at the beginning but the townspeople didn’t seem to be bothered, the general consensus is that it’s a blessing of Vkandis.

Diem gets us all talking about maybe the silver scale dragon living nearby as they also share what they remembered about such events after they woke up.

Rana insists she would’ve seen it

Romy thinks you would know though, Diem mentions that they slept with one and didn’t know until the next day though so...

Romy: Rana you did see those kites though (a local cryptid)…?

Rana: That was definitely not a dragon.

Ixayl’anu: Birds? What?

Rana: They almost look like a roc but they’re definitely not rocs (some people write them off as rocs or pterodactyls but the markings are different they are an air cryptid - Ropen from New Guinea).

We get enough from context to realize this is an unusual sighting, but we are not outright told it’s a local cryptid, like spotting bigfoot.

We are told to watch what we say because the bakers bribe the birds and the whole town will end up knowing.

Rana: That thing is def not a dragon though.

Romy admits she’s never even seen a dragon before.

Rana: Diem rode it

Diem (laughing): In more ways than one

Phi laughs too

Rana still insists she would know if one of the townspeople were a dragon though while Diem insists you really couldn’t know that for sure, what if they just enjoyed a simple life and to avoid discovery they just chose a form that aged with the town, no one the wiser. Rana still insists it’s not possible.

Diem: So sure you’d know? We’ve traveled a month together on the road practically living together. How do you actually know I’m not a dragon?

Rana: I don’t.

Prepared for a similar pushback, this admission clearly surprises Diem. “And yet you’re this sure about people you haven’t spent every waking moment with?”

Rana says she thinks if you are not living time people need to know they need to know they will find out what you are doing.

Ixayl'anu: It could just be sleeping somewhere.

Rana: Either way this is just a normal thing

Ixayl’anu: Sure not really but sure.

Diem: Could be the innkeeper and has always been an innkeeper because they enjoy it. Everybody needs a hobby.

Ixayl'anu wants to know if V’kandis has anything to do with dragons.

(It is at this point we are informed that we’ve seen Romy has a shrine to V’kandis in the house as we’ve ignored this fact in favor of being like oh no, it’s not ‘cause a god blessed your town, it’s because of a secret dragon!).

Ixayl'anu scoots the mouse on his way and turns the topic of discussion toward our reasons for being in Longview and Anesh: So we’re looking for this dwarf?

Rana: No we’re looking for my brother

Ixayl’anu: Does he know where he is?

Rana: Maybe.

Phi: How old is he?

Rana: Older than I am

Phi: Oh, so definitely should’ve had more kids by now

Diem: Wait, Phi how many kids do you have then?

Phi (mishearing): Ooooh lemme get back to you on that...between 80 and 50.

Diem: You have at least 50 kids?

Phi: Oh no I have 0 kids, I don’t have that kind of life.

Rana herds us out the door, she leaves most of her heavier stuff at home.

(To Stellan’s house we go)

For some reason we established Diem definitely gets changed under an illusion of Ixayl'anu ever since using her image as a changing screen back in Budelia. Ixayl’anu has no problem with that, but they’ve all probably seen flashes of Diem’s side and leg tattoos anyway over the month we’ve been together.

Before we leave the house Diem casts comprehend languages as ritual. The birds quiet as we approach, but then the chattering starts up and we catch names and normal gossip presumably about people around town.

Ixayl’anu and Diem have a bit of a side chat about this in the RP text snippets section.

We have an uneventful walk over.

We walk in without knocking - Stell is clearly working on a sword or piece of armor.

Amira (the little girl def notices our presence, specifically Rana’s)

Rana quietly holds out her arms for a hug and Amira runs over squealing with excitement.

Diem: That is so adorable.

Rana scoops her up and has her on her hip now.

Amira looks at us and her eyes get really big - like who are you all? With continued excitement.

Stellan takes notice, surprised Rana brought friends, but still busy hammering out the sword.

Rana: Did you get your pigeons?

Stellan (withering look at his sister): I got THREE pigeons, yes.

Rana grins even bigger at his tone and expression.

Stellan is still working on whatever he’s hammering into during this exchange.

Rana: I was worried they wouldn’t get through so I had to send 3 of them.

Stellan: Well they all got here - first one was very surprising, after 3 though...

Phi: What was the message again Rana?

Rana: Oh, I sent him pigeons telling him about the meteorites and that we knew they were going to hit Anesh but we didn’t know where.

Stellan lets us know the meteors have been diverted and are scheduled to hit somewhere in the desert where there are no people.

Rana nods

Diem: Did they use magic to divert them?

Stell: You’re not from around here are you? Must suck to be from a place without a god that cares what happens to you.

He is a BIG guy. He stops hammering to shake our hands

Phi shakes with both hands to see how much she can get them around one of his (she can’t, there’s a gap between her fingertips).

He is very amused to have Phi forcibly shaking his hand with both of hers.

Meanwhile, Hamlet pokes out and gets on Rana’s shoulder to investigate the new passenger on Rana’s hip.

Amira: You have a new pet?

Rana: Yes, but this one is coming with me - you can still play with him for a bit.

Hamlet: What?

Amira in draconic: Wanna be my friend and play?

Hamlet: Okay!

Diem said some things during the exchange I forgot to note (probably a few cool stories about auntie Rana idk, asking about her speaking draconic?) that resulted in Amira excitedly adopting them for a tour of the house/playing with Hamlet. They follow Amira’s excited lead to do just that, but not before stopping near the next doorway for introductions to Adri, her mother.

Diem to Adri: She’s very adorable

Amira (talking about Aunt Rana): Look! She has a pet rat can we have a pet rat too?

Rana: I could probably get them a pet rat?

Adri: I could probably also get them one, if they’re responsible enough and can prove they’re ready to take care of it.

Some possible missed conversation before Adri, Amira, Diem, and Hamlet head deeper into the house while Rana continues talking to her brother.

Rana asks about the dwarf and shows him both the letter and silver scale, which he looks at while listening to the story about the wizard in the shadowoods

Stell: Are you sure it was Haldric that they wanted?

Rana: Yes (she double checks letter)

Stell: I know a Haldric Ironband but he’s a master blacksmith, but I...he...he’s never mentioned anything about wizards or honestly going anywhere so far away?

Rana: To be fair the wizard seemed to know who I was so maybe Haldric never met him either.

Stell: I don’t know this sounds like destiny hero bullshit

Phi is internally happy screaming about oh my god this actually works (it’s just as well that I never noted what actually works since the rest of us might only notice Phi’s happy scream state, rather than mind-reading the reason for it)!

Everyone but Diem learns this shorthand info I can’t entirely follow after the fact. My shorthand is awful and I’ve discovered I am unlikely to remember how to coherently type it later: Bhuxodihr for some reason you do want to mention t by the proper name he’s mostly retired, teaches to a select few, not stellan’s master. Haldric was stellan’s master’s master

Rana holds up the silver scale (again? I guess? lol) “You know what this would signify?” she hands it over to him. “Retin said we could use this, that it would give us legitimacy”

Stellan tests the hardness of it, getting higher and higher and Rana lets him and still nothing happens “Uh…(hands it back) I’m pretty sure this is the real thing.”

Rana: Real dragon scale?

Stellan: Mhm

Rana: Well that’s interesting

Stellan: Who did you say gave this to you again?

Rana: Retin, a wizard who lives in the Rethwellian Shadowoods

Stellan: I think Haldric knew someone down there but they weren’t genasi

Phi and Ixayl’anu tell him that we had a whole argument about it and deduced that Retin takes on the form of whatever will make you feel connected/more at home.

Phi or Ixayl’anu bring up how weird it is that all the animals here speak draconic.

Stellan, however, has hit his limit for weird shit, though not animals speaking draconic - that is a thing that’s completely normal.

Phi awkwardly: You should come visit us some time too, was great meeting you...or...yeah.

Ixayl’anu: Where would he meet us?

Phi: I have a home

Ixayl’anu: But you’re not really there

Phi: Well we can arrange it ahead of time.

Rana: She does have connections in Miova if you every go out that way.

Stellan says some things to Phi about all this, but as he’s talking he looks at her and she sees the moment when he notices her daggers and stops.

Stellan: Where did you get those?

Phi: They’re family heirlooms

Stellan: Nooo….where did you really get those? You can’t take those into stone roost or even bouldergap, not displayed on your hips like that.

Phi: Interesting you say that I was already thinking I should hide them because we found them on the skeleton of a dwarf in a cave in the woods

Ixayl'anu: No it was a corpse

Rana statues a little bit (which Stellan would notice)

Phi: There was a dwarf corpse, yes…

Stellan holds his hands up like ‘I don’t want to hear it’ and points at Phi: You cannot wear those, they’re only given to an elite group of dwarves and they do NOT give them to gnomes, you have to keep them hidden.

A few questions are asked about that. As far as Stellan knows, they’re assassins of some kind.

Phi: So do they have other weapons with the same characteristics?

Stellan: Sometimes they have short swords but not any arrows or large blades - just the small bladed weapons and it was a thing he wasn’t allowed to learn because he’s not a dwarf.

Phi: Do you know anybody who was in this group?

Stellan: No mostly these guys are like--

Rana (talking over him): I don’t think my brother knows any dwarvish assassins

Phi: If I were to return them to the right people, who would I talk to?

Stellan just looks at her for a few seconds: I don’t know if you just heard me but these guys don’t really advertised themselves

Ixayl’anu: Is this a group we wanna have anything to do with or just avoid them?

Stellan: If you’re really determined to get them back to someone, you might try Haldric, but I wouldn’t lead with that.

Ixayl’anu: Are they better to just be avoided?

Stellan: I wouldn’t wanna mess with them but you’re all out there dealing with meteors and who knows what else so maybe that’s what you do now, I don’t know.

Rana: This dwarf found the meteor too and turned into a mushroom

Stellan takes a deep breath.

Rana is enjoying making him uncomfortable now

They all talk about our bag of holding and hiding the weapons, Phi stashes them and pulls out her ordinary daggers to secure in their place.

Rana as they talk about possibly disguising Phi’s daggers: Oh mom has some camels now if you need one, there’re 3

Stellan: Okay I’ll take care of them for you

Rana: Do you want them to talk? I can make them talk.

Stellan (not amused): No, the pigeons are enough.

Phi: Thank you for the information

Rana: Yeah, I would like to not get killed by the people we were looking for

Phi: Yeah that would not be good

Rana: I’m gonna go corrupt tanny for a bit

Stellan: Yeah i’m gonna go back over here and...think about things

Rana: I let mom know everything so you can talk to her later.

At some point before they finish talking to Stellan, Ixayl'anu was looking for signs of jewelry in Stellan’s forge. She saw some platinum but didn’t really see any jewelry (because she needs a platinum ring). She asks him about it anyway while we’re there and it’s simple enough he melts down two platinum coins to make a simple ring for her out of it. He doesn’t even charge her for them since he already has the forge fired up.

He does have Amira help him since he rarely works with platinum and it makes a good teachable moment that takes about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Adri has been following Amira and Diem around, Diem gets introduced to Taniel, 10, who probably is working on magic homework, they got really into potion making because they fan Rana and Rana brings herbs back - real into that right now.

Taniel gets up to see Aunt Rana, but Adri warns her to wait a bit they’re talking about tense things right now.

Through conversation along the tour Diem gets that Adri speaks draconic and has been teaching her kids.

Diem makes casual conversation that includes whether or not Adri grew up here and when/why she learned draconic.

About that time Rana walks in and Taniel gives her a big hug and tells her about her new obsession

Adri answers Diem that it makes sense from a guard’s stand point so she learned it, birds are awfully helpful

Diem: Oh yeah that makes sense

Rana: Yeah, Adri is very good at her job

Diem: You look it, you are killing it in that outfit (she is amused), I’m...yeah, not surprising I wouldn’t make a good guard, I even need help when we take watches (said in good humor)

Ixayl'anu stands awkwardly in the door until Adri invites her in properly (because she’s secretly a vampire! shhh)

Rana: We’re not gonna be in town for terribly long, I was just hoping Stellan had some of the info I needed and he did.

Adri: What info?

Rana: Oh I was sent by a wizard to find someone named Haldric who might be in stone roost and I thought Stellan might know him.

Adri takes it in stride “Well, be safe.”

Rana drops in that it has to do with the meteor.

Nearing the end of the conversation and visit, Phi asks if we can run by a general store to get medical kit supplies to complete her partial kit.

When we have to leave Amira is sad about the rat having to go and starts asking for a rat again in super sad puppy fashion.

Adri tells her they’ll still have to see and Diem distracts both children by pulling out the self-animating putty to give them as a gift, telling them how they can shape their own rat or whatever they like and it moves (makes a little rat and sets it down to walk around on the table and lick a paw clean) see?

Their imaginations take off with excited chatter about making tiny dragons and more, once again happy.

(A trip to the general store)

Rana takes us to Bafor’s general store (Bafor is a dragonborn).

Phi tells us that we would have noticed how Phi progressively jumped on this field medic train and as things have gotten dangerous and sketchy. Phi realized it would be handy to have some skills in healing just in case - more so ever since Phi found the medical supplies in Budelia and ever since Averni she’s been doing a little research here and there, including medical knowledge heading out into the new terrain of Anesh, like what to do for heatstroke and working on more survival skills. Over the journey she’s brought it up a few times to Rana and Edea, and Rana readily taught her some of her new feat requirements from her similar healer feat. Phi wants to eventually learn to make her own poisons too for maybe a damage over time, but also poison check and knowing what to do about poisons in order to help heal them.

Phi’s medicine check will also apply to her background skills, diagnosing a wound, how they died (starving, madness, dehydration, container recently held poison, blood spatter analysis, forensic stuff is part of her past).

Combat triage is cool and useful.

Ruled that with her medical proficiency feat she can diagnose poisons and such, but she would have to take a separate feat to make a poison and do dmg over time.

Phi walks into the store and admits she’s filling out the healer’s kit.

Rana says she has those items already and they have this conversation in the store. All along though she and Rana have talked about this over the month we’ve known each other.

Bafor: Yeah I have the little items, but you could also just buy a new healer’s kit already filled.

Phi: Yeah why don’t I just do that.

Bafor: Tell you what, you buy a whole healer’s kit and I will fill out your other one for free.

I think we hit a fruit stand or a different store where the vendor is gruff but warms up as we spend money (because that was a note for the vendor attached to all these dried fruits, but Bafor seemed pretty amenable from the start).

Phi and Diem also buy a big bag of granola for a silver each, and some dried fruits (Anesh grows pomegranate, apricots, olives)

Diem also buys a bag of mixed dried fruit, dried apricots, and a pomegranate (for a silver each)

[osmw1]

Poison-Wielding Fugitive   Chapter 21

“Hmm?”

The bulletin board area in the town square feels too calm today. It seems like there are far fewer adventurers taking up quests. For some reason, the weather’s been getting more oppressive day by day. You could say it’s even driving people out of this village. The inn’s proprietress is in a poorer state than ever and her cough getting worse.

‘Aye, certainly… there is a remarkably smaller presence of adventurers.’

Veno agrees with me. So it wasn’t just me then.

‘Moreover, there are more people coughing too.’

Hmm… maybe they’ve all gone to a faraway dungeon or something. I go check the bulletin board, but there’s still quite a few requests up. There really are fewer adventurers out and about…

The apothecary hasn’t posted anything on the board for the past few days either. When I went over to be nosy, I found Arleaf’s dad in the back of the store, making some kind of potion. Perhaps he got all the ingredients he needed from me.

I know Arleaf just got back too. Maybe her dad sent her away again to harvest herbs. If not, I would’ve liked to invite her to come adventuring with me. I wonder what she’d think of Muu.

‘I am not impressed with you showing off Muu.’

I didn’t say I was gonna show it off. I just wanted them to get along is all. I mean, I came to this fantasy world and was told that I had people after my head. Arleaf’s just a breath of fresh air. But I’ll admit, it’s every guy’s dream to see a cute girl play with their pets.

‘Honestly… I am appalled and speechless.’ “I could be worse!” “Muu?”

Well…  this village wasn’t really lively and there weren’t that many quests to begin with. Guess there are off days too, eh? Since I had the time, I replenished my poison stock and made more varieties. I even hunted for a bit before I went home and chilled. Night fell. Muu and I were tending to our weapons when there was a knock at the door.

“Yes?”

Is that the proprietress? I answer the door. There Arleaf stands with a troubled expression on her face.

“Arleaf? What’s wrong?” “Sorry for visiting so late, Yukihisa.”

I invite her in.

“Something you need to talk to me about? My room’s a bit barebones but come in if you’d like.” “Oh. Thanks.” “Mu?”

Upon seeing Arleaf, Muu nods to greet her.

“Good evening.” “Mu.” “I have heard from my father. This must be the homunculus that you have created, Yukihisa.” “Oh, uhh, yeah. Its name is Muu.”

News of Muu spread quick. Arleaf looks at Muu in the eyes, sits down in front of it, and holds her hand out.

“My name is Arleaf. I’m an acquaintance of Yukihisa’s.”

Oof. Hearing “acquaintance” hurts a little. Yeah. We’re just acquaintances. I get it. Well… it’s not like we got to know each other well. We’ve only chatted for a bit on my first day here, so we’re only at this stage.

“Arleaf, you were out trading with nearby villages, right?” “That is right. I was out delivering medicines my father had made… and I was also purchasing ingredients needed to make them too.” “What’s up then?”

Objectively, her and I are just acquaintances. I’m quite a bit older than her too. She doesn’t really have much of a reason to visit me in my room. If she had a request for me, she could tell the proprietress to pass on the message. But to visit me in person? I can’t think of any reason for her to.

“Right… the truth is that I have something I need to ask.”

Something you need to ask? What’s that?

‘Perhaps she has found out our true identities. We must take care of her and escape at once.’

You’re jumping to conclusions. Veno begins detecting presence of anyone possibly nearby. As he does that, he pings and highlights every single person close to us. Cut that out already.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a poisonous herb called Red Deathfire on you, would you? An urgent need for it arose… I have heard from my father that you venture deep into the swamplands and so I dropped by unannounced.”

Arleaf has a sullen expression on her face.

“Huh?”

Red Deathfire? Do I have any of that?

‘Aye, you do have Red Deathfire. It is the herb that you found in the dungeon, is it not?’ “I do have some, but…” “I-In that case, please sell it to me! However much money you ask for!” “Uhh… it’s a pretty dangerous plant, you know? Could you at least tell me how you’ll use it?”

In any case, it’s always the apothecary buying up and using these shady herbs. No matter how much of a good person Arleaf may seem to be, I can’t just hand over these toxic herbs over so easily. If it’s my fault that anything bad happens, we’ll be in a world of hurt.

“As you adventurers know already, the villages around here are afflicted by an epidemic and the disease is only growing.” “Huh?!”

Now that you mention it, the proprietress has been hacking her lungs up for a couple of days now. I thought it was a cold, but… I guess even the adventurers are trying to run away from it. That’s why it was so quiet today.

“We have been trying our best to make enough medicine, but we have run out of the necessary materials… and… my mother, she’s…”

Arleaf’s hands are clenched tight, trembling. She was merely putting on a brave face earlier. It sounds like her mom came down with the epidemic. Her dad is frantically compounding more medicine, but I guess he doesn’t have enough ingredients. Is that why she went out to buy and sell with the other villages? Perhaps she needed to urgently buy medicine to fight this disease.

“Even though she looked fine three days ago…” “She suddenly got worse…” “I assume the proprietress of this inn caught the same disease?”

… the proprietress did get sicker recently. It was so bad for her, she even needed Muu to help out around the inn.

“… yes. This area is usually often plagued by illnesses, but rarely is it this bad.”

Hmm…

“I understand. I’ll provide you with some Red Deathfire, but is that going to save everyone?”

Her expression doesn’t get any better after hearing my question.

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be possible. My father says people will get better when they do. The most they can do is to leave it up to the gods.”

She answers worriedly. Veno, Red Deathfire really can be made into medicine, right?

‘Ahh, it may be a dangerous herb, but if properly handled, it can be turned into potions. Nothing the girl said is wrong.’

That’s a relief. Then I have no good reason to say no to her.

“I might have other herbs you may need as well. Can I lend a hand?”

Even with everything I said about being ready to leave, I’ve made this village my base of operations for a while now. Not that I have a particular attachment to it or anything, but everybody so far has been nice to me. I hope that none of them succumb to this disease. Arleaf’s dad is able to make the medicine as long as he’s got the ingredients, so I’ll just hang around in case he needs anything else from me. Or maybe I should go out and harvest some more.

“But…” “Besides getting me a good rate for this room, you’ve helped me out lots already. Can’t I?” “… okay.”

I get up from my seat and get ready to head out.

“Right now’s a good time, right?” “Yes. Then please come with me. I’ll try asking my father.” “Mu!”

We made our way to Arleaf’s home posthaste.

It’s the same store as usual, but… it’s eerily quiet. I don’t hear the sounds of Arleaf’s dad making medicine. Taking a break maybe? Arleaf puts a frown on her face and hurries to the back of the store.

“Father?!”

I follow behind Arleaf to find her dad collapsed on the ground face-up. Various ingredients lie scattered, including the marphina I’ve brought over.

‘He was saying he would prepare himself for the sickness… I see. Certainly, marphina would serve well in this compound. It should soothe even particularly bad symptoms.’ “Father! Are you alright?!”

Arleaf rushes over to carry him up.

“Ah, ahh… that you, Arleaf? Cough, cough. I d-didn’t expect the illness to get to me. Sorry, but could you get me up? I’ve gotta hurry and mix more medicine.” “B-But…” “If the doctor goes down first, there’ll be no one to save the village. Cough…”

His wheezy breathing seems to aggravate his cough, but he returns to work with a determined look on his face. He finally notices me and looks up.

“Ahh, Cohgray.” “I might have some ingredients that would be of use to you, so I invited myself along.” “That right? Thanks for that. Arleaf’s still fine, so I’ll get her to pay you afterwards, if that’s fine with you.” “Th-That’s fine. Here, I heard you needed this.”

I brought out the Red Deathfire wrapped in cloth and handed it over to Arleaf’s dad.

“Ahh… with this, I can make the medicine. It… should be effective… on Bloodflower.” ‘… Bloodflower?’

Hearing the name, Veno responded. You know something about it?

‘All humans are susceptible to this infamous contagious disease. Once acquired, the patient will develop a flower-like bruise on their chest. The petals on the flower will disappear one by one. And when all petals go, so too shall the patient. This Blossomfall, as some may call it, has a high-mortality rate.’

Whoa, hey. Contagious? This ain’t a joke! Having been born and raised in Japan, I’ve never faced any major infectious diseases, but I know I’m in a real dangerous situation right now.

‘Aye, its infection rate is high, although it takes quite some time to succumb to Bloodflower. Only until one develop any visible symptoms is it painful and hard to treat. Some say it is a flower of blood that tells your death.’

So, it doesn’t visibly appear until the disease really gets to you.

‘This is, after all, a village near a swamp where miasma often hazes over. It is not unusual to have a few infected. With the right medicine, one can recover surprisingly quickly from it. You need not worry.’

How about dragons?

‘So what if I catch this?’

Guess you’ll be fine. Well, since you’re a Poison Dragon, this kinda stuff can’t really affect you, right?

‘It is not out of the realm of possibility for me to fall ill, but I do not acquire diseases. Truth be told, I am quite interested whether you will or not. It is a question of life or death, after all.’

Luckily, I don’t show any signs of having Bloodflower yet. Maybe I haven’t even caught it yet. Even if I do have it, I have no choice but to hope Poison Absorption to work.

‘In that case, it would not be possible for you to acquire this disease.’

…? How do you know?

‘That is because—’

As Veno was just about to explain it to me, Muu calls out in a worried tone.

“Muuu…”

This must be an urgent matter. Muu looks up towards me.

previously: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /ch014/ /ch015/ /ch016/ /ch017/ /ch018/ /ch019/ /ch020/ /ch021/ /next/ (full list of translated chapters) (discussion thread on Novel Updates) (please support me on Patreon or Paypal)

[jam2289]

Leading a Writing Group - Session 1

It's an odd story, how I came to be part of a writing group yesterday.

I went to the Muskegon Comic Con event in the spring. It was fun. I walked into the game room and was greeted by a perky woman named Holly. She convinced me to join a one-off Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. It's an activity that has always seemed fun, but I've never found the time to participate in that world.

I invited a few people and a couple of kids joined in. Yuke led our session while also managing the gaming sales table. It was a grand adventure that took us deep into a cave looking for buried treasure. Three of the five people came out alive. One girl was able to snatch some of the gold from us, but Xavier and I were able to get most of it. Xavier turned out to be Holly's son.

While talking to Holly after the game she mentioned that she runs a homeschool group that uses the Muskegon Fab Lab, where people can work with 3-D printers, laser etching, virtual reality systems, and more. I wanted to look into it because my niece Eevee and my friend's kid Oliver are both almost two and a half years old. They are getting to that stage where they can start doing more organized and constructive things.

I invited Doug, Oliver's father, to join me and check it out on a Thursday. Doug ended up having a tooth infection and had to go to the dentist. It seems like it would be kind of odd to go to a homeschool group by myself without kids, and having no kids myself, but I did it anyway. It was fun. I ended up helping Bella for a couple of hours with problem solving parts of a virtual reality game. Bella turned out to be Holly's daughter. (The virtual reality game also messed up my neck a bit because you're always looking around and moving your neck and I have neck deformities. It effected me for a few days.)

It's a bit too advanced for Eevee and Oliver, they still need a few years yet before the Fab Lab will be useful. But, since it had been fun the week before, and I was curious about the program, I decided to go the next Thursday. Then, it just became my normal routine. There are a lot of intelligent and interesting people that the group attracts so I've had a lot of engaging conversations.

Since I do writing and speaking it was brought up at some point that I might lead a writing or public speaking class. Slowly, the idea started coming together. Holly didn't want to start the group right away because her mother was coming to town and she wanted the family to spend time together. I was able to meet Holly's mother and we had some great discussions about literature and more during that time.

I also had a concern. I didn't want to start the class full of kids. Starting a class with 10, or even 5, kids on the first day is difficult. You have to explain how things are going to work, what the goals are, what your basic philosophy and approach are, how to treat each other, etc. You are essentially establishing a mini-culture. Once the culture is established it's easier to integrate people into it as compared to growing a culture from scratch.

I had just watched Paul do this with the art class that he runs. Paul is an interesting guy with a wealth of experience in art, but organizing a bunch of kids at the same time on day one is like, well... herding kids. My plan was to start out with a few kids. Once that is going well then I'll add more kids to the class one or two at a time. Or, the other option, is that I can have some separate classes too. Here's part of the first email that I sent to Holly about the group.

- - - - - - -

I was thinking about writing a little blurb about the writing group. But, I don't know if you want that yet, and I'm not sure who it's for. So, in a basic sense:

In writing, one of the keys is finding a balance between following the norms that allow for shared communication, and finding your own voice. The process of melding these two things into a coherent whole has to be organic, and it has to be an exploration. For this to work you have to base the work on a foundation of interest. Once you have interest then the next ingredient is putting emphasis on effort rather than performance, as performance will be the natural end result of effort applied to an area of interest over time.

That is the basic idea, but don't use that because it's horrible. I'll write something else when we need it. If we need something detailed then I'll pull from the work of these psychologists: Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget, Harry Stack Sullivan, Carol Dweck, and Carl Rogers.

The group will be doing fiction writing. There are several reasons for that: it will transfer over to non-fiction, there is more freedom of expression, there's no need for research, etc.

Also, what I think would work best is to do lightly directed group writing activities, readings, and light feedback from the group focused on being almost exclusively positive. Then, if and when critical or more detailed work is needed that can be handled in separate one-on-one sessions.

- - - - - - -

In the end the writing group started yesterday with Holly's three children. I wanted to use an open and general story prompt idea to see what would happen. To hear what the kids were able to come up with and how they would naturally prefer to generate a story. A blue dragon egg, that was the prompt. I explained that writing like this has to spring from a place within you that no one fully understands. You have to feel your way forward. And, the point of the writing group is to make a place where we can play and fail. To try things, test things, and be surprised by our own ideas. If you make something awesome, that's great. If you make something horrible, that's fine. It's just about getting better at generating and communicating narrative structures with style.

Narrative structures are the foundation of human society and psychology.

I had no idea what to expect. I think the kids had a little hesitation at first in their writing while they tried to think about what they should write. It's a different way of thinking, making stories. After the 20 minutes were up I asked if anyone wanted to read their story first, there were no volunteers. Which I figured would probably happen. It's a scary thing sharing something that you've made. You don't know if other people are going to understand it, you don't know if other people are going to like it. I did explain that judging art is a bit like judging ice cream. I've written some philosophy articles on that idea. Here's one: http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/04/flavor-and-value.html

I'll put my story here first, then I'll talk about what the kids came up with.

- - - - - - -

Once upon a time there was an eagle. This eagle was a great eagle, an old eagle, a kind eagle.

One day the eagle was flying back to its nest after having failed to catch anything after a full day of hunting.

The eagle was tired, and lonely, and hungry.

As the eagle was flying towards the nest it saw something, it saw something odd. It looked like there was something blue in the nest.

"Probably a blue jay," thought the eagle. The eagle hated blue jays. When it got there it would hunt that blue jay down and slay him for having the gall to take someone else's nest.

But, as the eagle flew closer it could see that it wasn't a blue jay. It looked like an egg. But, it couldn't be an egg. How would an egg get into the eagle's nest?

When the eagle landed on the edge of the nest it still hadn't decided what to do with this darn egg.

It could just push it out of the nest. That's where it should be, somewhere else, anywhere else.

But, the eagle was curious what type of bird this egg was. It was larger than an eagle egg.

The eagle decided that the egg would stay. When the eagle pushed the egg to the side of the nest to lay next to it the egg was warm, maybe even hot.

Eleven days later and the eagle had still been struggling with hunting, but the nest seemed less lonely with the egg there.

When the eagle returned later that day there was a crack in the egg. Over the next two minutes the crack grew. Then the top started to break off.

The eagle was curious. What type of bird would come out?

To the eagle's horror the nose that poked out didn't have a beak. Is it a deformed bird?

No! It has teeth. The head slowly emerged and it was more like a snake or an alligator than a bird.

The eagle and the baby dragon stared at each other.

- - - - - - -

And that's 20 minutes of writing. There are so many things that could be edited and changed in that story that it kind of amazes me that it comes across as decent. There are some great things too, like when in the fifth to third last sentences I switch from past tense to present tense and it works. Stuff like that shows you how much the rules often don't matter. The goal is to communicate a good story, and any means that leads to that end is good. It's important to have shared rules so that we can communicate. It's also important to realize that the rules are there to help us communicate, and when they hinder communication they are wrong.

I was hoping that my weird story would loosen up the kids' sense of apprehension at sharing their stories. An important piece of the group is to read your story and realize that it's not horrible, to hear how people react, to have people affirm and approve of what you've done so that you can continue to press forward and develop your talents.

Xavier was the first to share. He wrote a small intro in the format of a captain's log about an expedition in Antarctica. It was pretty good and we were able to talk about epistolary stories, or stories told through writings and recordings from the fictional setting.

Lex and Bella did rock, paper, scissors to decide who would go next. There was some controversy over Bella's hand technique, but in the end I ruled that Lex had lost and she was next.

Lex had an interesting idea about a half-dragon, half-chicken that was going on a quest. It sounded a lot like a fairy tale, which I like, but it also seemed kind of like it was leading to a version of modern science fiction. It was good.

Bella was the last to go. She's still working out the technical skills of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. That's not what the group is about, it's about creating and communicating narratives. With some help she read her story and it was about a dragon prince that had been banished from his home and was now being caught up in a war. And, he didn't know he was a prince. It was a solid idea that seemed to be along great classical lines of fantasy.

After each story we said a few things that we liked and/or associated with it. Then I asked if anyone had any questions about anything. Now, everyone assumes that it has to be about what we've talked about in that session, and we mentioned a lot of things. We even hit on how frame stories are structured with stories inside of stories. But, I said "anything," and I meant it.

Kids often don't seem to believe me when I say they can ask me anything. That's common when I'm teaching Chinese kids online too. But, some of them catch on fast and realize that I do mean anything.

Bella, the eight-year-old, (of course it's the eight-year-old) asked about grand mythological narrative structures. I explained how different societies had handled the ideas of transcendence and immanence in primordial entities. At that point everyone realized that they could ask anything and we had a few more good questions. Especially when you're talking about narratives, everything is a possible subject.

I ended up hanging out afterward for quite awhile and Bella recruited me to be a model so that she could do a portrait. It came out well.

Bella and Lex wanted me to say how my story would have continued. I went into a few lines about the baby dragon breathing fire into the face of the eagle, the eagle sucking the fire into its lungs and plummeting from the nest toward the ground. They didn't like the idea of a tragic ending, and I believe it was Lex that came up with a great alternative. What if the eagle was really a phoenix? Then it falls to the ground on fire. It burns into a pile of ash, and from the small pile of ash a baby phoenix is reborn. It's a great twist.

It was an excellent first session, and I have high hopes for the future.

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You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com