EntQuest, the Battle for Hector.

[hectorberlioz]

Hearing Sis' chastisement, Hector gets up off the hammock, and prepares his packing for the long journey.

[Nautipus]

Nautipus rolls his eyes, "One stone, come one. Alright, how about one...um....snail shell()? Mari, I meant being turned to stone. Cant be a fun experience." Nautipus goes back to eating some spinach-artichoke dip with tortilla chips.

[Mari]

"Oh, I see, sorry." Mari laughs a bit sheepishly and looks back at Hector, waiting for an answer.
Not getting it, Mari turns back to the others. "Look, I don't know what this Qwuetzeplam is or what it does. I don't even know if that evil dwarf told me the truth, allthough I think he did, because my torture methods are pretty efficient if I may say so myself. Anyway, we must do something and for the moment I think the Qwuetzeplam is our best bet. If we keep our ears and eyes open, we might find a different way, but I say that meanwhile we should try and find this Qwuetzeplam. I don't want to be rash, but sitting here debating about it won't help us either. Sis, you seem to know about Qwuetzeplam. Could you please enlighten us?"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Sis emerges from the kitchen with a picnic hamper. "You'll need food for such a trip."she says, resignedly.

"Look. Qwuetzeplam is actually the term used for a sort of tonic, but it also refers to the main ingredient. That is an herb that only grows under very specialized conditions. It's found in a wild, mountainous area of Forl, at the tip of the Ered Luin, near the ice bay of Forochel. I believe the heat from the volcanism there permits it to grow. But at this time of the year, I'm not even sure you can travel in that direction. And the root has to be pretty fresh when you compound it, so you wouldn't have more than, maybe 2 weeks to get it back. Do you think you can do it? I could organize people around here to get the other ingredients, but we'll need a team for the big trip. We might be better off landscaping a nice spot for hector. Just think, he'd have his own public monument!"

[Mari]

Mari starts laughing. "Yeah, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. But I think I would start to feel sorry for him after a few hours. I'm sorry Sis."

[Nautipus]

"Maybe we could bring him along." says Nautipus, "I mean, Aeran is built like a tank, we could hook a wagon up to him and take him there with us, eliminateing the need to hurry back with the ingredients. Also, is it a coincedince that the plant sounds so close to Quetzalcoatl?"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

"Um", now it was Sis's turn to blush. "The problem isn't hector. Hector can travel under his own speed. It's me. I'm not sure I could explain the whole proceedure for the compounding , which involves a bunch of other herbs and specialized distilling. And I can't stand heights."

[Nautipus]

"Oh.....well, um....yeah, I got nothin. Maybe you could wait at the bottom of the mountain for us. We could leave some animals to guard you while we retrieve the plant." says Nautipus, then agian asks, "But seriously, there isnt any flying feathered serpent there, or anything, is there?"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

"Oh.....well, um....yeah, I got nothin. Maybe you could wait at the bottom of the mountain for us. We could leave some animals to guard you while we retrieve the plant." says Nautipus, then agian asks, "But seriously, there isnt any flying feathered serpent there, or anything, is there?"

"Well, there might be. As far as I know, no one is really farming or gathering this plant. That's unusual, because it's valuable. I mean, look at ginseng. So supposing it has a guardian isn't unreasonable, you know?" Sis looks worried.

[Mari]

"Well, if I keep turning him back he can walk himself, no need to wear Aeran out. And I don't think the problem was that we have to get the root to Hector in time, but that we have to bring it back here so Sis can make a potion out of it. Or did I misunderstand?"
Suddenly her head snaps towards Nautipus. "Quetzalcoatl, you mean that Mayan god or something?!"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Sis muttered quietly, "Or, we could stay home, and have a lawn gnome."

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Ah...well." said sas as he pulled a lage package from his back."Do you guys need an extra party member? I have means of defending myself." He said as he un-folded the package and a shining silver war hammer was brought out."This guy hasn't seen any action at all !"

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by The Sasquatch of Fangorn

."This guy hasn't seen any action at all !"

Sis snickers. "Lot of that going around."she comments, sotto voce

[Grey_Wolf]

*The snickering Monsterette follows Sis around mumbling "Snicker Snicker Snicker" and after her comes the Tweaking Monster mumbling "Tweak Tweak Tweak" and he does his thing as is told in the Cafe Monster Manual*

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"Well" says Sas as he lifts a large cross bow onto his back,"Where are we going?"

[The last sane person]

Sane sighed at finally being included on this lovely goose chase o'er Hector. Besides, what's one more life size lawn gnome to decorate the Teacup, more or less? At any rate, Sane got up from her spot by the fireplace and ventured over to where Naughtypus and Sis were rallying potential troops.

“If you wish to have it, my self and my Merry Bandito’s are willing to lend their arms. That and I suppose I could use a break patrolling the borders and schooling misbehaving elves.”

Leroy the Liger came up and rubbed his chin on her arm, his purr rattling the chests of all those assembled. Sane looked amused, “I suppose he is signing on as well..”

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"So" said Sas a he put three large and strangley shaped daggers into the same pack,"Nobody answered my question! Where are we going? I realy need to know so I can give my friends of the forrest some directions in case we run into more trouble than we can handle."

[hectorberlioz]

Hector, hearing Sas' request to know their future route, says, "According to my map, we're going to have to be traveling out of Fangorn, back across Rohan, through Lothlorien, and back into Moria, back out through Moria, and into Mirkwood where that darned potion/sunflower thingy is located...."

[The Sasquatch of Fangorn]

"YES!!!!" said sas, jumping in the air,"We are realy going to MORIA???!!! I love a good fight for freedom!"

[Mari]

A bit sceptic, but with a smile Mari looked at Sas. "Uhm... Sas? You DO realize it might be dangerous, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Mari turned to Hector. "You mapped out our route? Good! Does this mean we can leave soon?"