Heeding Becky’s warning, the party moved slowly toward the location of the flower patch, which was still well out of sight. The elevation had trended upward for the last day and a half of their journey, but now it became proper mountain terrain, the group moving across steep slopes coated in rocks and boulders that rolled down the mountain eons ago.

As the party climbed, the forest grew less dense. The rocky soil prevented all but the hardiest of plants from growing, thinning the woods to a few lean, scrubby trees and patches of coarse, tough grass.

Gnolls had the intelligence of feral children. They weren’t capable of complex strategies, but their pack tactics were organized enough to understand the advantage of higher ground. If the gnolls attacked now, they would use the terrain against the party. Sharp claws and teeth were a given, but if gnolls happened upon a weapon like a sword or club, they were happy to use it.

Becky stayed in the lead, and Hans took the rear. Olza traveled alongside Becki in the middle. The warthog’s size and girth acted as a moving wall, providing near complete protection to the alchemist on one side. If the battle went poorly, Olza would hop on Becki’s back and flee. Becki disliked that plan most of all, because it meant abandoning her master, but the Druid insisted it was their smartest option. When the beast continued to protest, Becky whispered assurances into Becki’s ear, promising that she would stay safe without her familiar by her side.

The party advanced cautiously until the Druid whispered, “We’re here.”

In his mind, Hans had pictured the purple flowers growing in the middle of a meadow surrounded by trees, like a fairy circle or a dryad’s garden lit by golden sun. When Becky pointed to where the flowers grew, Hans saw only rock and the occasional weed. If the druid had not joined them as a guide, he never would have thought that this was the origin of the mysterious blossoms.

Olza waited with Becki while the two adventurers circled the perimeter. The gnolls had been here, their footprints and refuse obvious to Hans. If he had somehow overlooked those signs, he wouldn’t have missed the potent ammonia of animal urine. Gnolls were highly territorial, after all.

When the party regrouped, Becky’s face wrinkled in thought. “They’re gone. These tracks are all a few days old.”

“What’s bothering you then?” Hans asked.

“They left in a hurry. The whole pack bolted in the same direction together, like they were running from something.”

“What made them run?”

“Beats me, boss. But we’re alone here if Miss Olza wants to begin her work.”

The alchemist nodded, following Becky to where she first found the strange flowers.

Becky described a dense patch of purple flowers growing through the mountain rocks, and she defined the outer edge by memory. The flowers weren’t here now, but Becky’s recollection seemed reliable anytime it involved nature.

While Becky and Olza scoured the rocks for anything noteworthy, Hans measured the flower patch with his steps. If the druid’s memory was accurate, the flower patch had been about ten feet wide and thirty feet deep, the length climbing up the mountain slope like a road or path.

When Becky and Olza neared the far end of the patch up the slope, they called Hans over. The pair crouched around a pile of rocks when he arrived.

“What is it?”

Olza pointed to a stem holding a small, dried blossom, like it had withered rapidly in place. Nestled in the rocks, the flower wasn’t visible unless he stood directly over it. When Becki arrived to inspect the small flower, the warthog alerted, squealing and hopping on its front legs.

“Where?” Becky asked her familiar.

Becky knelt back down near the flower and ran a finger over one of the rocks. When she held it up, a faint light gray powder covered her fingertips. The dwarf sniffed it and then investigated around where she found the powder.

“These are gnoll ashes,” she said finally. “Just a sprinkling. A full grown gnoll leaves behind more ash than this.”

When Hans adjusted his eyes, tracing the outline that Becky indicated, he saw that it crudely matched a gnoll’s size and body shape.

“Why would someone scatter gnoll ashes like this?” Becky asked. “What do you think, Hans?”

Hans rubbed the ash between his fingers and sniffed. He frowned and studied the ground again. He sat down, staring at the blank patch of stone.

“Boss?”

“I know how this sounds, but I’m just saying what I see. This looks like the remains of a Disintegration spell.”

Becky and Olza gasped.

“That can’t be right,” the dwarf said. “Nothing anywhere near Gomi can do that.”

Hans added, “Nothing in the kingdom, for that matter.”

“But you’ve seen residue like this? In person?” Olza asked.

“Devon–Devontes cleared a lich cabal deep in the frontier. One of his party tripped a trap. This was what was left.”

“You fought liches?” Becky asked with wonder.

Laughing, Hans answered, “No. Devontes and his party of Platinums did. I was part of the team that searched and cataloged the site when they were done. The outline was easier to see on a flat dungeon floor, but it was like this.”

“Sh-should we be worried?” Olza asked, color draining from her face.

After surveying their surroundings, Hans replied, “We should be cautious. That spell is beyond most Platinum mages even. The trap Devontes’ party found was the most complex piece of engineering I’ve ever seen. Far beyond me, and it only had one charge. It’s hard to imagine something capable of that out here.”

“Yet…” Olza said, looking at the faint outline of what used to be a gnoll.

New Quest: Study the purple flower without disintegrating.

“Becky and I will do another perimeter search, a bit wider this time,” Hans said. “Are you okay here with Becki?”

Olza nodded.

When they returned, spending the better part of an hour and finding nothing more than the tracks of fleeing gnolls, they found the alchemist sitting on a large stone, sketching in her notebook. “I found something weird,” Olza said when she saw Becky and Hans approaching.

“Fits the theme of the day,” Hans said.

“I haven’t touched or moved the flower, but look closely at the stem.”

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Becky and Hans took turns lying on the ground, putting their eyes as close to the stem as they could without disturbing the dry flower. The stem of the flower had small indents on opposite sides.

Before Hans could ask what they might be, Becky said, “Teeth marks.”

“That was my guess too,” Olza said excitedly. “And look at how the ash lines up with it.” She showed them her notebook. The outline of the gnoll aligned with the flower in such a way that the gnoll’s snout appeared to touch the flower.

Hans checked the drawing against the ash outline. She was right. It wasn’t obvious when the lines were faint, but the snout seemed to end at the flower.

“Are you guys saying the gnoll bit the flower and disintegrated?”

Nodding, Olza said, “Yes, before it could bite through.”

“Makes me nervous to be picking them again,” Becky said, holding her hands behind her back.

None of them had an explanation for how Becky could safely pick the flowers but a gnoll attempting to eat a blossom triggered a disintegration spell. They were, however, more sure of what made the pack flee in such a frenzy. If one of Hans’ friends suddenly dissolved out of existence before his eyes, he would run too.

“Olza,” Hans began. “This is your job, so it’s up to you what we do next. We didn’t find any signs of immediate danger, except for the flower, of course. Do you want to stay or do you want to head back?”

“Stay,” she answered without hesitation.

“I’ll get camp going,” Becky offered, hiking back down the mountain to find a flatter, and with some luck, softer surface to settle on. At first, Hans was impressed by Becky’s eagerness, but then he realized that making camp took the dwarf well away from the flower. He didn’t fault her for wanting some distance between her and instant death.

While Olza drew the dried flower from multiple angles, careful not to disturb it, Hans searched the patch again, looking for any flowers hidden as well as the first. He found none, and when he looked beyond the perimeter Becky had defined, the results were the same. This appeared to be the last flower of what Becky described as a “blanket of purple.”

The sun was nearly set when he finished. Olza wanted to continue, but she couldn’t without light, so she followed Hans to the camp below.

Too tired to cook, they shared jerky and conjured bread courtesy of Hans. The dwarf Druid seemed distracted, her face long and her eyes distant as she paced. She hardly spoke, and when she finally sat, she seemed hypnotized by the fire. Her only movements were the slow chewing of her jerky.

“You okay, Becky?” Hans asked.

She sighed. “That spell, it isn’t fair.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said it killed a Platinum, right? Instantly. All of that training, all of that power… it didn’t matter. Something will put me down someday, but I better get the chance to fight it. Whatever kills me should have to earn it.”

Hans nodded to show his understanding. He didn’t have any words to comfort her.

He allowed Becky several quiet minutes to continue speaking. When she didn’t, he turned his attention to Olza and asked her plans for tomorrow.

“I can run a few tests without touching it but not many,” the alchemist answered. “Then we have to decide if we try picking it or not.”

“Bad idea,” Becky grunted.

“You picked plenty of them before. You’re still here.”

“Yeah, and I want to keep on being here. I’m just as much meat as that gnoll, so whatever luck saved me but killed it… Well, I don’t see the point of pushing it.”

“I know,” Olza said with understanding. “I’m still thinking about it.”

Hans added wood to the fire after a few hours of quiet reflection. The moon had been overhead for some time now, but no one in the group seemed interested in sleeping. Except for Becki. The warthog snored, waking up only when her farts were loud enough.

As he settled again, Becky asked, “You really fought liches in the frontier? I can't get my head around it.”

Hans shook his head. “Platinums and Diamonds did the fighting. Us Golds were just very durable squires at that point. Our only job was to support the upper ranks.”

“Why go so far outside the kingdom to hunt?”

“My Guild Master convinced the royal family that the cabal could build an army and invade.”

“That wasn’t true?” Becky asked, catching the stiffness of Hans’ voice.

“I mean, it could have been true. We spent more time discussing treasure than we did defending the kingdom, though. The Platinums had a line on an artifact, and the Guild Master wanted it for the Guild collection.”

“Did they find it?”

A memory flickered to life in his mind. He saw himself standing in Devontes’ tent after the dungeon run. They argued about whether or not the artifact should be brought back to the kingdom, but Devontes wouldn’t tell Hans exactly what they recovered or what the Guild planned to do with it. When Hans insisted that they discuss it, Devontes told him to leave.

“This is Platinum business. You’re excused.”

When the memory passed, he answered Becky: “Above my paygrade.”

***

For the next two days, Olza conducted every test she could that did not disturb the flower. She took soil samples at various points where Becky said the flowers had grown. She collected rock samples. She gathered samples of the weeds growing in the vicinity. And she scraped up what little of the gnoll ash lingered before the wind dispersed it completely.

Hans played the part of assistant while Becky and Becki ranged around the campsite. Though her supplies were limited, Olza’s work was extensive and exhaustive. The testing process was long and laborious and yielded nothing remarkable. Nor did the Becks’ scouting.

On the morning of the third day, Olza said, “I think this is our last day. We can head back tomorrow.”

The alchemist went on to explain that she wanted to try harvesting the flower. The two adventurers discouraged it, but Olza insisted. She had been studying the flower from the day Becky dropped the first batch at her shop months ago, and in that time she had learned little. She knew that it had properties in common with rose silk and that combining it with quartz produced a strange reaction. And she had just recently learned the flower may have a disintegration ability.

Despite those developments, her understanding of the flower hadn’t progressed beyond her handful of disjointed observations. She knew what she had seen, but she couldn’t explain the how or the why of the reactions. She needed more data.

“If there’s a flower growing in our woods with a disintegration ability, we need to know,” Olza argued. “If they are anywhere else near Gomi, one of the kids could stumble on it.”

Becky’s interest in bothering the flower hadn’t changed, but she admitted Olza had a point. The more they understood the potential danger, the better their chances of protecting Gomi from it.

New Quest: Successfully harvest the purple flower.

The adventurers watched from a distance as Olza put her plan in action. Starting near the flower, she unraveled a 100 yard spool of string, keeping it as straight as she could as she went deeper into the forest. When all of the string was free of the spool, she returned to the flower and threaded a simple loop at that end. With the loop wide and loose, she carefully set it down around the flower, surrounding the plant with string without touching it.

Hans found a vantage point farther up the mountain where he could safely observe the flower while Becky and Olza walked to the other end of the string. A few minutes later, the string shifted across the ground, beginning to tense. The ripple flowed slowly down the line until it gently cinched the loop around the stem of the flower.

The string pulled softly. The flower’s roots resisted at first but not for long. Hans watched as the flower emerged from the dirt, and then it was gone. Its body transformed into a puff of smoke, as faint as a spark finding its place on kindling, and was no more.

The empty string pulled across the ground until Becky and Olza heard Hans yelling to stop.

The party inspected the area where the flower had been, finding nothing new or noteworthy. The flower left no residue or trail, and its movement from where it grew didn’t have any visible effect on anything nearby.

Quest Failed: Successfully harvest the purple flower.

Quest Complete: Study the purple flower without disintegrating.

Disheartened, they set to breaking down the campsite, preparing to leave at first light the following morning. Before joining Hans and Olza, Becky hung a few animal skulls from stakes she drove into the ground. She hoped hunter superstitions would keep people away from this area until they knew more.

When they had packed what they could, Hans pushed together a pile of kindling while Becky went to get more firewood. When the dwarf returned, a sparrow landed on her shoulder as she dropped the fuel. The sparrow hopped about on Becky’s shoulder, chirping and flicking its wings, its head twisting side to side with each motion.

The sparrow flew away. Becky turned a concerned face to Hans and Olza. “Mayor says three adventurers are in Gomi. One’s a Diamond.”

New Quest: Learn the identities of the visiting adventurers as well as their intentions.

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift with Devon.

Complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Pick up the guild provisions from the caravan after next.

Identify the unknown purple flower from Olza.

Prepare a booklist for Mayor Charlie.

Grow the Gomi chapter without attracting outside attention.

Prepare for winter, and don’t forget the beer.

Brainstorm ideas for safe approaches to training on uneven terrain.

Design a winter curriculum.

Acquire winter adventuring gear.

Learn the identities and intentions of the visiting adventurers.