Ashes of Avatar 02: Enter the Forest

Guo, excited to capitalize on this coincidence of powerhouses in his little village, asks the adventurers to hunt some meat from the forest and bring it back to town. Skunk-Otter meat might be harvestable with the right butcher (or even chemist) but their stink glands will ruin any meat with one wrong slash. Guo would go himself, if there was anyone else to guard the town, but there isn't.

Setting out for boar, our hunters set up a blind by a watering hole. The creek bends at a shallow spot with a sort of sandbar (mudbar, more likely). While there are some wild Moo-Pigs lapping up a drink, there is also a Brown Bear that might pose more trouble.

But our adventurers were stronger than even sixteen hundred pounds of angry mammal. Bo devastated the pigs by Exploding the Earth beneath them, but left himself open to Bites and Slashes from the Bear. Ayami and Phi managed to tear it off him and bandage up his wounds. That and the question of how much of this meat to carry back to camp distracted the hunters long enough that Squirrel-Bunnies approached the Bear kill. Perhaps these problems will solve each other

They tear up bear flesh, which Bo was able to maneuver into an offering to the forest creatures, hoping this bear would satisfy them into leaving the village alone. With the thanks from the Squirrel-Bunnies, the hunters return to the village victorious carrying their three other kills- Securing the thanks and blessings of the villagers.

But enjoyable as the festivities may have been, they were spoiled by an incursion of Fire Nation soldiers. The village already has heroes, however, and the soldiers were diplomatically asked to kick rocks. Thankfully, they did- Never to be heard from again.

Part of the village's warm greeting was the last of Binh Hao's Mushroom of Greater Healing- A delicious morsel with a crispy fried exterior protecting a moist and savory interior. He restocks from a village a few days travel from here, but the Fire Nation has been hassling supply routes. He doesn't trust that this chest of money will get to them unless a strapping group of adventurers is there to protect it.

Bo declined the chest (fearing Fire Nation reprisal and dispossession), but the two did manage to reach an agreement to restock the Dumpling House on credit. Early the next morning: A fire nation camp, littered with mangled and gnawed bodies surrounding a headless bear. Suspicions that it was the very same bear were confirmed by a message in druidic left under its heft: "My offering is better than yours".

I really wanted a Papa Rellena, so I put one in the game. The Mushroom of Greater Healing heals you by eating it, but the cultivators haven't been shipping them out- Perhaps due to some difficulty in growing them. Hopefully our party will figure out where they come from and how to ensure there will be more.