SE06 : EP13 - Dripping with Expectation

A group of Aspirant wait around the edge of the forest. Gavin Gracewater and Lord Daphix are here to support and escort them. Tripple, a female centaur, arrives with a book tucked under one arm. She explains very little, referring to the mysterious ways of Zenith and its surprises. She clops off with a pleasant, "And we're walking."   They are led to a deeper part of the wood. There is a massive twisting trunk that spans out over raging rapids of a wide river. From where they are, they cannot tell if it is a root or a tree. The outer skin of this plant is slick with moss and lichen. "The task is simple to retrieve the bubble from the creature. And your time begins... now." Tripple beams a smile.   @kayla and Lionel begin to negotiate the plant, finding a soft foothold in a difficult climb. Merit attempts so musical magic, but the spell backs fires, causing her to suffer a bit of hearing damage. Gavin taps her on the shoulder and healing her of her deafness.   The climbers arrive on top and shout down to the rest of the group as they start across, careful not to lose their footing. Daphix explains how the Feywild intersects with the forest and causes the megafauna they are climbing on. Merrit investigates the riverside and underside of the spanning plant.   The two teams notice something in the coursing rapids. They see a huge tree nut bob along the white caps. Kayla slides down the trunk to reach the riverside to go after it. But Daphyx is already in the water with his body magically adapted to swimming. He grabs the nut and starts back to shore. They help him up out of the river; the large nut is mundane other than its size. Daphix comments that he notices the relatively shallow waters are lined with jagged rocks along its bottom. He also noticed a clear patch of water under the plant.   Liolel proposes to use his unmovable rod as an anchor to tie off the rope and then wade out into the rapids to look under the trunk. Kayla casts light on his gloves, and with that, he dives in as he gets underneath and gets battered under the bulk of the wood. Hanging under is a big frog. It seems to be choking on something. Kayla jumps in and joins Lionel. Using her magic, she communicates with the creature allowing them to extract a drift globe from within the frog.   They get back to Sure, trying to calm the frog down with Kayla and Daphix communicating with it. Tripple enters the space, having taken notes the whole time, and suggested they move on to the next challenge. They say goodbye to Frog, the frog, and then follow the centaur.   After a few minutes of walking, they find themselves in a basin of water that lies still flooding the surrounding trees. Tripple is surprised. "Well, there was supposed to be an arcane elvish mark for you to find. But it appears the whole area has flooded. Well, I suppose Zennith will be full of surprises too. Best of luck then." and they return to their notes. The party starts looking around and accidentally stirs a water and an earth elemental into a frenzy. They battle with them for a time before slaying them. Taking a deep breath from this sudden fight, the party then sweep out to locate the arcane mark. Kayla finds it submerged in the water. Once it is touched, the water that floods the area recedes.   Tripple congratulates them and explains that she will look forward to their trial, stating they will report all this to Aoh-Gynn and Kellasin Leafstrider .