The elf frowns at the droplet's unwillingness to obey gravity, but figures it made sense, since the liquid seemed to hang in the air doing just that. She looked around to find a fallen twig, picked it up gingerly and used it to poke a different drop to see its reaction.

Esmerelda creates water to make a light rain fall on one of the individual droplets…

Lilliane finds that the droplet she pokes, appears to cling to the stick for a moment or two, before jumping free.  Droplets on either side  of the poked droplet bounce in time with it.

Esmeralda's light rain does not appear to have any effect at all.

A young couple come bursting into the orchard, hand in hand and giggling.  As soon as they see you, they drop hands and the girl blushes.  "Err, sorry miladies" The boy says bashfully, and the pair start to withdraw.

"Hold on dearies.   It seems we are intruding on your spot.  Tell me have you noticed this here before?"

She points to the droplets of rainbow hue as they dance in the air...

"We just came to collect a few pears." the Boy says hastily, although the girl adds, "They were there last week when we came." Although she then blushes and looks downs towards  the floor.

Thank you, there are plenty of pears, dearies, but might be best to stay clear until we get to the bottom of this colorful mystery.  Check in with me at roots, brews and remedies for the all clear.”

Lilianne was stumped. Distracted enough to not notice the two lovebirds immediately. "Oh... hello." she greeted them.

She heard the answer of the girl and was wondering why this phenomenon had not been noticed earlier. It was either non-hazardous or dormant until the activating conditions were met.

"Say, have you touched any of these droplets? Did you come in contact with them?" the elf asked while wrecking her brain if she had ever heard of something similar in one of the books she had read or perhaps a bard's storytelling...

ooc: Lore check 37.

"No, I was laying down under one of the trees ...  err ... I slipped over ...  and I noticed them up there among the branches.  I thought they looked pretty, but then I was distracted and forgot about them ...  err ... because we needed to pick some pears." she finishes lamely.

"I have other spells that might be useful to investigate, but do not have them prepared.  Perhaps we can place a warning to keep people away and continue to research the phenomena at the library, and return to see what other things we may try?"

Lilianne made a mental note of the statements but her mind was already tinkering with another approach. "Same here, Miss Najeet, but there is something this reminds me of..." she told her partner in investigations, trailing off at the end, starting a simple conjuration. When the incantation finished, a handful of giant beetles appeared, which the elven woman directed to fly towards the rainbow, touching the tiny droplets in all their pretty colours...

"Hmmm... let's see if my theory is correct..." the mage said, begging for patience for a moment.

ooc: Cast Summon Monster III, summoning giant fire beetles.

The large beetles struggle to get through the branches and thorns to reach the pale coloured droplets above, although when they manage to collide with  the droplets the surrounding droplets all shudder,  then bounce and ripple in time with each other.  The same thing happens, when the beatles are directed to fly back downwards, almost as if the sticky drops were all pulling away from the beetle's back at the same time.

However, as the beetles come back down to land, and start foraging  among some fallen pears, you can see a few droplets stuck to their back ripped from the strange rainbow in the tree branches.  The droplets all seem to have a very thin, silky filament attached to them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:09, Sun 14 Nov 2021.

PM

Lilianne nodded at what happened to the beetles, wary of the possibilities. "Better safe than sorry is the human expression, correct?" she said to the couple who only wanted to... pluck a few pears. "At this point we cannot say if this phenomenon could prove harmful and I insist you evacuate the area. Once we have a thorough examination and are sure there are no harmful side-effects, this place will be open to public access again. - Thank you for your understanding." the mage toold the two, then made a shooing motion.

She waited a few heartbeats for the couple to move away before addressing Esmeralda again. "I have the hunch the two were not coming hear to find some pears, the young man was more likely intent on plucking a different fruit, would you not agree Miss Najeet?" Lilianne remarked in a consirational tone and a smirk.

"But back to business." she told herself more than the gnome at her side. "Did you notice how the droplets stuck to the beetles and how there went a ripple through the rainbow effect? Now, look at the drops on their carapaces, they have some filaments still attached." the elf pointed out, letting Esmeralda catch up to her own observations before going on "So, this altogether reminds me of a spider's web. The way the droplets are sticky and interconnected. But I am not sure what kind of prey the creator of this web is hunting." she mused.

Allowing the other academician to share her opinion, Lilianne brought the vial and the stick back into her hands before scraping some of the droplets stuck to the beetle's backs also into the recepticle.

ooc: She is using the stick of course, not bare hands ;)

Esmerelda looks thoughtful…

“Lure, trap, life force connection?  I know not, but such a web could be a hostile takeover of the realm a violation of the boundaries of our world…..,,”


Or perhaps the two of them are already compromised….perhaps it best your beetles not remain to spread what is already here…”

It only takes a moment or two to harvest the droplets from the beetles' backs, and by the time you look back, the young couple have disappeared -  presumably back towards the hub.  Or maybe to find a different secluded area ...

The elf watched the animals feed upon the fallen fruit, which always had a bit of a soothing effect on her. Taking a deep breath she nodded at Esmeralda's concerns and with a gesture of her hand the insects vanished back to where they came from.

"Do you have means to determine any of your suspicions?" she asked the short person next to her curiously.

“Maybe stories of the fall of the dark elves they were seduced by the spider queen and became fully evil, how they were tempted or called is a mystery that time forgot.  Unfortunately no evidence but without suspicion we would simply report we have seen no proof of harm.  I intend to research in the library for perhaps some threads that will lead to answers…”

How do you want to continue?  We can keep playing (once you have decided a course of action) or we can wait until the visiting PCs leave.

The elf's features hardened for a moment when the brewer brought up the separation of her people, it was a wound that was inhereted and would likely pass on to every generation that would follow. Something that Esmeralda probably did not know about.

Lilianne inhaled softly then answered the short woman "I will look at the droplets in my laboratory. Perhaps I can find some alchemical clue to point us in the right direction." she said, closing the vial and carefully stowing it away.

ooc: Lilianne will go back to her lab to do a complete alchemical analysis.

"I will go to the library and start the research to see what might come of it, and perhaps there is something that cross references well.....  Then maybe prepare more spells and return?  Perhaps also get scouting parties sent out to make sure this is an isolated instance..."

It doesn't take long to get to your destinations, and before long Esmerelda is in the Library and Lilianne is in her workshop.

Esmerelda will start her search for history of the appearance of mysterious colors, rainbows, or lights.......

Esmerelda finds a number of interesting examples of unusual and colourful effects

• The Eternal Rainbow on the prime material plane known as Old Arth, that appeared along the length of a waterfall and has been there ever since.
• A tale of long filaments used to fish for souls in the River of Souls.
• A tale of a dungeon chamber, lit by a permanent illusion of a snooker table - where all the balls glowed.
• Strange green light covering the sky at the north and south poles of an unnamed  material plane.
• A detailed description of how colour changes in the River Hangawara can be used to judge the mood of The Great Spirit of the mountain.

"Interesting.....perhaps I should look into what planes are currently adjacent to ours, and specifically adjacent to the location of the stepping stones.......or was at the time of the happening."


Researching the comology of the planes......

Esmerelda discovers that Netherworld is a 'pocket plane' set entirely in within the Astral Plane.