a grove with no way out

traversing the twilight of the dense forest, Pippa comes across the aftermath of a battle. the ground is torn up, the trees show signs of heavy things thrown against them with splintered bark and broken branches everywhere. there are no signs of any people, so either it was a stalemate or the losers were taken away..

Pippa is intrigued. What could have happened here...

But as a mystery that be, it was sure violent enough... Pippa still tries to find some clues on who did fight who, looking for some broken arrows, discarded amunition...

Pippa's guess is that two humanoids with different sizes fought a melee battle here. there's no stray ammunition and the marks on the ground and trees tell of missed swings of much ****

next Pippa tries to find wich direction thoses guys took after their battle

hard to say, with the ground that torn she doesn't really have a clue. but looking around Pippa can find tracks of hooves. so it stands to reason that either one of them had a horse, explaining the height difference or one of them indeed has hooves themselves

Pippa tries to follow to hooves traces in the forest

following the tracks it gets apparent to Pippa that she is tracking a hooved creature with two legs. there are driplets of blood along the way, telling that the creature most likely is wounded. the tracks lead to a thick grove of trees, their bark bright red and kind of peeled, the foliage so dense it is hard to see what is underneath.

Pippa continue cautionly her approch, listening and looking

as Pippa steps into the grove she can feel her armor change. it shrinks until it is little more than jewelry, the plate on her torso turning into a ring around her waist and the arm piece turns into a bracelet. Regis also doesn't respond in the slightest

Pippa feels that's very odd. Something seems to be altering Regis. Something doing that would be dangerous. Pippa decides to make a pause, and to wait hidden until she could hear or see more.

Pippa cautiously hides between trees in a bush. it is not easy to get a sense of the whole grove but after a while she can see a huge creature wander in the grove. it seems to be a minotaur, a savage, feral one by the looks of it. the creature is hurt, but alert, sniffing in the wind. luckily the breeze comes from behind it and Pippa remains undetected for now. then the beast vanishes between the red trunks, walking towards the heart of the grove

after seeing the creature, Pippa feels that it's too feral, too savage; it won't be wise to try to talk to that and to hope that it could tell some clues on theses lands.

But now it would be a wise move to retreat away frome the grove.

Pippa goes back the way she came.... but she can't get back out. instead after some time that is definitely too long she can hear the minotaur grunt close by. it seems the beast hasn't noticed her yet

Pippa finds strange that she wasn't out of the grove yet. Could it be like the trees if the fairy, some sort of a trap. It wouldn't be so much a surprise in thoses lands, but still. For now as the beast is close by, Pippa tries to stay hidden, and not thinking of the size difference between them.

nothing much changes. the creature is apparently resting in the heart of the grove for now.

Pippa tried again to get away, but finds herself again at the same place...

There definitively is something strange in here

Pippa tries to think and understand

while Pippa perplexly ponders the minotaur seems to be done with resting. the creature gets up and seemingly starts to wander off

Pippa decides that checking his lair while he's gone could be useful, but also risky...

She hopes he won't come back too soon

the 'lair' is the center of the grove, a small clearing that has a pile of straw and plant matter where the creature rests upon. on the trunks of the trees lie small piles of stuff, the hoard of the Minotaur so to speak. it is abundant, with bags, clothing of all different sizes and forms and even some magical items like rods and wands that deem Pippa strange

Pippa isn't knowledgable into the magical stuff, maybe some of these items could be useful, but she couldn't know just by looking at them. But she take a wand anyway, at random. She then looks for a map od the grove, or ways to other places.

while she is still looking around near the lair she can hear the minotaur come back. he seems agitated and his grunts sound like very guttural words

it seems he mutters about not being able to leave. and about prey being around. it seems he is also speaking to the grove itself rather than himself

So Pippa wasn't the only one trapped here, and he seems to not be part of the trap. But he is still dangerous.

Pippa flees sneakily the lair with her looted wand.

And a trapped minotaur in a grove, probably wouldn't have clues that Pippa wants.

no matter how much she tries, she can't get out of the grove it seems. even climbing the trees doesn't help. but she comes across the minotaur a few times, and from what she can discern he is actually searching the grove