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Fantasy Cursed Island

"I'm alright," Jerry smiled and went to shrink Asta down to wee-size. "I hear Adran's been being an asshole?"

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The big hut was apparently the goblins' house. The ceiling was short enough that Shuffle's horns scraped the rafters. The main room just had some tables, with some playing cards scattered about on one of them, apparently of two different sets from the backing. There was a potted plant on one of the tables, bearing bright red, swollen berries the size of Shuffle's thumb. There were a couple similar pots nearby, that felt magical upon inspection, but not much else.
 
Asta huffed. “He’s been running his mouth, nothing more.” He paused. “...I smell blood.”

—————

Shuffle sniffed about the hut, distracted first by the cards. Her only experience with cards was the deck of furniture, so of course she started trying to unfold these cards.
 
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Jerry briefly panicked, "The goblin got a lucky stab in, that's it," Jerry waved it off, "I'm fine. He's tied up and his granddaughter's scared of me." Considering the strength of the smell, a 'lucky stab' didn't sound accurate at all, but she wasn't obviously bleeding, and she was still pale from Niudisa's blood removal, so it didn't look like she'd lost any significant amount of blood that she hadn't already.

----------------

The card Shuffle got her hands on unfolded into a case that, when opened, turned out to be a case of lanterns. Considering the last deck they'd played with had huge tents, it probably wasn't a good idea to go opening more cards in this hut.
 
“Mm.... As long as you’re alright...”

—————

“Ooh.” Shuffle folded the lantern case back, with some effort, before scooping the cards together into a messy pile. She would try to remember those for later and moved on. She found the berry bush next and, without hesitation, bit one of the berries right off the branch.
 
"I'll have Veo take a look when we get back, I promise," Jerry smiled and opened the sling for Asta to sit in while she climbed back up into the huts. "In the meantime, we've got some looting to do." Jerry's favorite thing to do down here. The shack atop that ladder was clearly Lyak's workshop. It wasn't very organized, but it had a more feminine feel than Yidi's. "What do you think those are?", Jerry pointed at a shelf with five large jars on it, each filled with what looked like some kind of bean. One looked like a fleshy version of a wheat kernel with a red shell and a grey center, another looked like a chitinous purpleish grey thing, another looked like a small orange stone, and another like a icy blue spiked pill. The fifth jar was full of yellow balls, all with black markings on them.

"I don't know," Adran peered closely at the jars, "They feel alive."

---------------

For anyone else, eating strange berries would have probably been a bad idea. The first thing apparent to Shuffle was that the second she swallowed it, was that she suddenly felt perfectly full, like she'd eaten the exact amount of food she needed for the day. No traces of hunger whatsoever. The berry was sweet, but the taste was hard to nail down.
 
Asta climbed into and settled in his sling, calming down now that he could see Jerry again. “Could they perhaps be eggs?”

—————

Shuffle blinked in surprise at the effect of the berry. Part of her was tempted to eat another, but she was too full to do so. Instead she moved on to the magic pots, sniffing at them curiously.
 
"I don't know," Adran opened one of the jars and pulled out one of the yellow and black spheres. It was the size of a small marble, they all seemed to be about that size. Examining it, the bean started to wiggle in his hand, growing rapidly. "Oh, shit." It grew little legs, curling up and pupating in Adran's hand, and then a short while later it popped out of its chrysalis as a fully formed, giant wasp. If it laid down on Adran's arm, it would go from his elbow to the middle of his palm. The air was charged with electricity as the wasp fluttered out of Adran's hand and buzzed curiously.

Adran did the stupid thing, snatching a book off the shelf to smash it with. There was a blast, a blinding flash, and Asta, Adran, and Poli could all taste metal as Adran went flying out the window making a splash down below. Somehow Jerry wasn't affected by the blast, but her and Asta's hair and mane was standing on end with static. Now buzzing angrily, the massive wasp flitted back and forth in front of Jerry's face, trying to decide whether to sting. Another blast of electicity and now the book was on fire, which Jerry hastily smacked out, flipping it over to find a huge wasp flattened and gooey on the other side.

"I think I know where that dragonfly came from," Jerry whispered, making sure all the jars were sealed.

---------------------

The other pots definitely felt magic, like with the one that held the plant, but they were empty.

---------------------

At the sound of small thunderclaps sounding through the swamp at Adran's misadventure with the wasp, Lyak really freaked out, chattering at Fia in a language Fia didn't speak, and the one that did was with the one that just had the misadventure.
 
Asta was about ready to fight, but the situation dissolved before he could get out of the sling. “Let’s not mess with those...”

—————

Shuffle glanced around and saw nothing else of interest, so she gathered up the cards and shoved them into her satchel. She headed out and looked to the other huts before heading to the one with the ladder. She stopped and looked around at the sound of a thunderclap. She waited for anything else before heading on. She thought she smelled something from this hut, and it had her curious.

—————

Fia looked over towards the thunderclap before looking at the goblin. She didn’t understand her, so she just started tweeting and whistling in response.
 
"Yeah," Jerry nodded. A soggy Adran with a boot soot mark in the center of his chest climbed back up the ladder into the room.

"I think I figured out where the dragonfly came from," Adran wheezed.

"We know." Jerry nodded, "Dry off before you handle the books." Lyak burst into the room, looking very panicked, and seeing the wasp splattered on the back of the book, just about ruptured eardrums screeching.'Oh, Shut up!'

-----------------------------

finding she got no answer from Fia, Lyak rushed out of the room towards her workshop, blasting through Nyah, who was making it her business to stay as far from the mucky water as possible while keeping both Shuffle and Fia in sight. 'Hey, that was rude!' Nyah apparently spoke goblin as well.

-----------------------------

Inside the shack were cages, all seemingly made of wood but feeling very strong, filled with various creatures. A Blight Pup was in one cage, in another a runty Saurian, a Blood Moth chrysalis was sitting in another. There were a few empty cages, one in the back had a critter that stood out amongst the others, being a bit more brightly colored.
 
Asta shook his head before putting his ears back from the screeching goblin child.

—————

Fia started to chase after Lyak before remember the bound goblin. She paused for a moment before grabbing him in her talons and attempting to carry him along.

—————

Shuffle sniffed about at the cages, identifying most of the creatures there. The one in the back, however, was unfamiliar.

The was a kobold, to anyone who knew what one was. Her scales were bright red and yellow, with a few green stripes a top her head and paler yellow for her horns. Her eyes were a brighter green than the stripes on her head, and quite large as well. She wore some old cloth wraps around her chest, and similar around her hips like a short skirt. She’d been sitting down when Shuffle entered, but she stood up now that this strange creature had noticed her.

Shuffle walked up and sniffed at the cage bars, watching curiously as this lizard thing backed up to the other side. “...friend?”

Did that thing just speak? She didn’t know what it said, but it sounded like speech.
 
"Ow, kid, will you- Þögn!" Adran cast a spell at the goblin kid's head, and suddenly no sound was coming from her. "Jeez, Jerry what does she want?"

"Something about blowing up her life's work?", Jerry shrugged. She pointed to the jars. 'Did you make these?' Lyak nodded. 'What are- Adran let her go, I'm trying to talk to her. What are these?'

'Sprites!'


"Adran, what's a Sprite?"
-----------------------------------------------
Yidi may have been old and frail, but he was nearly as large as Fia herself, carrying the goblin in flight would be incredibly hazardous to them both. Probably better to get someone's attention.
 
Fia let out a sigh as she stopped trying to lift the goblin. She hopped over to the entrance of the hut and started whistling for someone to assist.

—————

The kobold hesitated a bit before replying.

Shuffle had no clue what it was saying, but it didn’t sound like the goblin speak. She figured someone else in the group would know more, so she started looking for a way to get the cage open. Starting with brute force, of course, as she tried to pull the bars apart.
 
What is it?", Nyah had given up trying to keep Shuffle in sight, at the very least she wasn't in immediate danger, so the djinn turned her attention to Fia.

--------------
The bars resisted attempts to break them the same way the hedge had. Easily broken, but almost immediately regrowing thicker than before.

--------------
"Uh," Adran stuck his head out a window to call Niudisa, this was unfamiliar territory to him.
 
Fia pointed a wing at the goblin. “The other one ran off, but someone has to keep an eye on this one, but I can’t carry him to where the others are.”

—————

Shuffle huffed as the magic bars. She’d need Adran and Niudisa to get this open. She grabbed onto the cage again and started trying to pull it back to the hole she’d come in through.

The kobold wasn’t entirely sure what to think of this. The creature seemed to be trying to get her out, but she didn’t know if that was a good thing. Nothing could do anyway.

—————

Niudisa has been trying to organize the “loot hut,” as she called it, but she headed over to see what Adran needed when she heard his call.
 
Nyah facepalmed, that was becoming a recurring theme lately. "Fine, go get it, I'll keep watch."

--------------------
"Hey, Niudisa," Adran gestured to the jars, "We figured out where the dragonfly came from, and this one calls them 'Sprites', does that ring any bells?"
 
Fia nodded and flew off to track down the little one.

—————

Niudisa tilted her head. “Sprites..... Ah, they’re a type of elemental, I think. But instead of being harnessed, they’re born like creatures are.”

—————

Shuffle kept glancing back as she scooted her way towards the ladder. However, she wasn’t looking when she finally reached the edge, so she squealed when she stepped back and found nothing, falling through the hole. She kept her grip on the cage, her weight pulling it over onto its side before it tumbled down after her, knocking around the kobold inside. They both yelled as they fell out of the hut.

Emil has perched on one of the huts to stay away from the swamp water, but he looked over at the sound of startled yelps. That wasn’t where the main group was, so he flew over to check it out.
 
"What the-" Adran looked at the jars of sprite beans, "It was this big!" He gave a rough size of the wasp with his arms. Lyak chattered something at him as Fia found them.

"She says it got massive because you don't know how to control them. Are you gonna explain how to control them?' Lyak chattered back. 'If you and raka behave and stop trying to kill us when we try to move on with our lives, I won't kill him.' Lyak grumbled but pointed to one of the books on another shelf, which Jerry pulled out. "Gods-dammit it's in goblin."

"i thought you spoke Goblin," Adran pointed out.

"Yeah, but I gotta translate it now!"
 
Fia landed at the entrance to the hut. Seeing that the others were with the goblin, she wasn’t sure what to do from there.

Niudisa shrugged. “Then get to work. Adran, I think I found the geezer’s work hut. A bunch of that stuff could be useful, but I can’t carry it.”

—————

When Emil arrived at the hut, he found Shuffle on the ground under a wooden cage with a kobold in it. “Shuffle? What happened?”

Shuffle looked over before pushing the cage off as she sat up. “I found this thing locked up there. She can speak, but I don’t understand her. And the cage keeps regrowing when I break it, so I’m taking it to Adran.”

“I see...” Emil carefully set the cage upright again and looked at the dizzy kobold inside. “She’s a kobold.” He tilted her head as she mumbled something, but it was foreign to him. “Mm... Well, we should be able to fly over to them, if we work together. You get that side.”

Shuffle nodded and got up, taking her spot across the cage from Emil before they tried to fly off to the rest of the group.
 
"Ugh, I wish my mirror worked," Jerry groaned, 'Lyak, go back to your raka. Fia, what are you doing here?"

"Yeah, I was there, the one with Jerry's-" Adran paused before he could say 'wings', "...Kit. That one?"
 
Fia pointed a wing at the young goblin. “She ran off so I came to find her. Nyah’s keeping watch on the other one until I get back.”

Niudisa nodded. “That’s the one. I pocketed what I could, but the rest will have to go in the bag of holding or on a... Damn, how are we gonna get the cart through this place?”


It took a bit of work and some coordination practice, but Shuffle and Emil eventually manages to get the caged kobold onto the biggest island.
 
"You had one job, Fia," Jerry facepalmed with the book. "Okay, you take her back, don't let her leave, I'm gonna finish looting here, there's a few shacks we haven't been through yet. Okay?"
--------------
Adran had started on the bridge to the dissection shack and paused. "Oh, shit." How were they gonna get a card through here? "Think we could build a raft big enough for everybody?" And the Shuffle and Emil bouncing a cage down onto the garden island got his attention. "What are you two doing?"
 
“She’s fast!” Fia flapped her wings a bit before nodding. “Alright.” She whistled to the goblin and took flight again, waiting for her to follow. Picking up the last goblin didn’t work, so she figured she couldn’t pick this one up either.

—————

Niudisa shrugged. “Maybe. We have enough wood down here.” She looked over at Shuffle and Emil as well.


Emil spoke up as Shuffle looked into the cage again. “Shuffle found a trapped kobold, but the cage regenerates like the hedge. We also don’t know what she’s saying.”
 
Lyak followed once Jerry reached for a knife, leaving Jerry and Asta alone in the room. Jerry sat down at the desk, she had to flip the trapdoor down and move the stool over it to fit properly at the desk, laying down the book and going through the room. She winced again as she had to bend her back. "How do you think we're gonna get everyone through here?", she asked Asta.

------------
"Trouble's gonna be getting to it, most of it's growing out of the water." Adran peered at the cage, "Well, don't let it out! We don't know if it's safe or not!"
 
Asta shook his head. “I’m not sure. I could ferry them, a little at a time. It would take a while, but it might work.”

—————

Niudisa shook her head. “No, the wood is back in the grove. This stuff is too waterlogged.” She fluttered down to look at the kobold as well.

At the very least, the kobold didn’t look intimidating. Compared to the rest of what they found down they, she looked quite soft. She looked at them as they looked at her and said something. One of the words in that sounded almost like a word in elvish, but she butchered the pronunciation.
 
Jerry shook her head in turn, "That's a while we don't have." She canned a page and fished out a set of tweezers from one of the desk drawers, taking out one of the wasp sprite beans with it. "Apparently, you need to touch it to turn it on."

------------------------
"Grove is filled with feeders," Adran shook his head. "We'll be there to take a look in a bit, we've got some cleanup to do."
 

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