Crystal Caves Campaign: Penny's Adventure: Many Paths: Only One Traveled

A branching path lie coated in the crystal snow undisturbed by the chaos of upturned earth and broken prisms around it. It bended and twisted into many offshoots; some of which were cut off by the wreakage left by the Crystal Wyrm. There was a lack of wildlife as far as the eye could see. It was clear that the animals scuttled off when they felt the danger, as they should have. The Crystal Wyrm carved a trail of destruction in its path and made both friend and foe suffer in its indiscriminating rage. Now the mountain that once sang its natural chorus could only whistle the occasional dissonant chord with its broken crystal pipes. The wild yet still stunning nature was not the only thing to be harmed by the Crystal Wyrm, but the other victims were not willing to leave. People tend to stay still during a disaster, and whether that was because of the confines of habit, the grip of stuborness, or the genuine love a person feels for their home was of no concern for one particular individual; one that should have left long ago. This punny wanderer who almost never looked for adventure was walking forward with crunching steps straining four of her six eyes for a path up the demolished mountain instead of finding safety somewhere else.

Penny spotted a promising looking path and moved forward. Many of the other paths were blocked with large crystals which detered her, even though she could remove those obstacles with her magic. The feat did not seem worth the effort to her. Pressing forward she marched up the steep path. Moving quickly and nigh effortlessly she was confident that she would arrive at the Crystal Caves soon. Ever the curious spirit she took a brief detour to satisfy a spontaneous urge. A crystal pipe stood out of the ground at just the right hight for her to take a deep breath and blow right over its top. A beautiful crystalline note rang through the quiet mountain range. She smiled and quipped to herself about how good it was to have a high note in her day. After the attack yesterday a good moment to smile about was appreciated. The Crystal Wyrm's rampage was disasterous yet brief, but the drama was far from over. The surviving people showed a wide array of emotions once the crystal dust had settled, and the most prominent emotions was anger. Blame was thrown like stones. Now this wanderer was not one to point fingers; tragedies happen and are often not anyone's fault, but she couldn't help being intrigued at the things people said.

"He's the only one who could benefit from this," one would cry. "How could he possibly convice a literal Wyrm to do this?" another would retort. "His forge is the only thing untouched and just look at all the gems lying around? Just make the Wyrm angry and then you get a bunch o' rare gems dug up for you for free," one would reason. "He's not the kind of person to do that" another would defend. One name came up over and over again: Leslie Everlake.

Not wanting to be in the way and having no personal connection, Penny stayed out of the conflict, but like everyone else she did want to know what was going on. Some people called out for Leslie to answer to their accusations but he was nowhere to be found. Leslie's abscence was what made Penny suspicious. She knew she wanted to be there when he answered the people's demands but waiting was getting tiresome. Seeing no better way to occupy her time, everything she had traveled to Lyra to see was destroyed by the wyrm, she decided to seek him out and figure out what was going on. After a failed first attemp she followed her only lead to the Crystal Caves.

That lead turned out to be unexpectedly relable as she saw a certain person on the path in front of her, but her focus quickly snapped to the sword on his back. It did not take long for Penny to realize this was Leslie Everlake, and she wasn't expecting to run into him already. Her mind rushed back to earlier that day when she encountered his friends. She had asked them to tell her where Leslie was so he could answer all the towns questions, but they made it very clear that her presence was not wanted. In hindsight this made sense. Of course they would be defensive when their friend was called for questioning, but she had the feeling that if she had stayed then a fight would have broken out. She did not make it this long in the world by starting fights and she knew it was better to pick fights she felt were worth fighting. Not to mention the fact that she did not consider herself to be a capable fighter. Leaving with an eye roll and a mental "whatever" she climbed the mountain. Now she had found the person she was looking for, but he seemed to be in his own mental world as he stood there staring down a large and deep crystal. Not wanting to startle a person with a sword who had a reason to be defensive, Penny took a few steps back and carefully planned what she was going to say.

"Leslie Everlake," Penny started and Leslie jumped as she expected. His hand started to reach for his sword but he quickly snatched it back before reaching the hilt. The motion did not go unnoticed but Penny did not say anything about it. Now she had his attention, but Leslie chose to lead the conversation with a friendly smile. He warned Penny about the dangerous path ahead and that she should turn back. He did not know why she was there.

"I'm here to help," Penny lied. "We have to find out why the Wyrm attacked." The second part was not a lie, but she was not referring to Leslie with that "we". However it became clear that he did not interpret it the way she had intended, likely due to how intentionally vauge she was being. Grateful for the offer of help he made off in a direction Penny had yet to travel, talking as he went. "What's your element?" he asked.

"Earth," Penny responded as she considered how Leslie reacted to her statement. It would be a lie if she had said that she wasn't suspicious of him, but it would also be a lie if she said that she thought he was responsible for what happened. Guilt was not her concern; she just wanted to know why the Crystal Wyrm had ruined her perfectly good day and she thought Leslie had some answers. Apparently she was going to find the answers with him.

Leslie went on to explain how perilous the unstable caves were before asking if this was Penny's first adventure. When she told him that it was and that she did not consider herself an adventurer he halted in his tracks and gave her a concerned expression.

"What?" she asked. "Just 'cause I see no point in adventuring doesn't mean I'm going to be a burden. This may be my first adventure but I am very capable and I have a lot of experience with the unexpected."
"I'm sure you do," was his response as they walked on a path covered in crystal snow. Penny hoped this path would lead to the answers she craved, but she worried. There was always the chance that this was a detour.