Sessions #30 and #31

The party journeyed through the hedge-walled maze. Turn left, then right, then left again. In a field of tall grass they encountered a giant red flower. 6 feet tall, with a stem seemingly too thin to support an enormous tulip-like bloom, 30 inches across. The bloom is sort of like a balloon, with some magical buoyancy. If the stem is cut, it won't fly away. But they will sort of stay afloat a few feet off the ground, sort of like a mylar balloon that's lost a lot of helium. If you give it a shove, it will drift in the air in the direction that you pushed it. Jhunter tried to puncture the liquid containing pouch at the base of the flower. It exploded like a fireball.

The party continued their journey. The reached a section of the maze blocked on one side by forrest, and on the other by a field of corn. The party split up, with Jhunter and Perra sneaking through the woods, and the others crossing through the corner of the field to a meadow beyond. Jhunter and Perra found a farmhouse in the woods, with a trail leading out to the meadow. The others found this meadow to contain a ring of flowers and a small barn.

The party was swiftly attacked by a band of Kenku. Some came from the house. Others came from the barn. In the meadow, a dire boar and a cockatrice joined the Kenku as allies. This meadow had 15 giant flowers, similar to the red one they found in the grassy field. They came in 5 colors (red, orange, purple, green, and yellow), with 5 different explosive properties (fireball, eyeburning acid, sleep, healing , and bio-luminance).

The battle quickly turned in the parties favor, though Perra found himself surrounded and took a lot of damage. The cockatrice escaped into the woods. Two of the Kenku surrendered Within the house, the party found equipment for harvesting potion from the giant flowers.

They found 2 potions of each of the 5 flower varieties. They found the following treasure:
• a rosewood walking stick; the stick has golden studs and a handle inlaid with ivory and amber (150 gp).a large, silver mirror framed with ornately-carved black walnut wood (65 gp), an ivory pipe (10 gp) with a large pouch of rare tobacco (25 gp)
• 2 potions of healing
• 2 100gp gems
• 650 GP
• A yet-to-be-identified set of magic gauntlets.

While the party explored the house and interrogated the Kenku prisoners, the house was visited by the local sheriff, a Minotaur called Tanan. Tanan’s posse consisted of an autumn nymph with an owl bear companion, and a gnome riding a giant spider. The Kenku asked the sheriff for help. But he was not interesting in helping. He said he had a history of trouble with the Kenku, and he gave the party little trouble for getting rid of them. He said the Kenku treasure was theirs to keep, in fact, and went on his way. (This reaction was in part due to a natural 20 roll by Perra with his excellent diplomacy skills.)

Tanan gave the party general directions to where they might find the Arbiter. He also told them that there is a band of goblins with an Ettin leader off to the east. One reason for his anger with the Kenku is that they have been selling these goblins potions. He’s not sure how they were sneaking through the maze to deliver the potions.

  In the Kenku’s back yard, the party found a giant tortoise. The sherriff called this creature a “Map Turtle”. Its skin pattern formed the shape of a map of the maze. The party copied a section of it down that they believe matches the section of the maze that they are currently in.

Given role-play, skill use, and the Kenku combat, the party has reached 9000 XP each.