"Dammit Greenberg, will you just show us the pages with the map?" This was the 4th time Monger had asked the ranger if he could look at the map he was making.

Greenberg's refusal, and the ensuing arguments had been been annoying to everyone.

As it became apparent the area wasn't very dangerous, the two women had headed back to the tavern leaving Manwar, Greenberg, and Monger to carry on with the mapping.

Greenberg had stopped and was sketching again in his large journal.

"I told you, you can see it when it's done and I can copy my pages to a larger format.

I'm not just letting you look at my journal." Monger continued to argue with him.

Manwar scouted ahead a bit.

After he was out of sight he circled back silently.

He came up behind Greenberg and peered over his shoulder.

Scowling, Manwar yelled at him, "That's a Deer! Why the hell are you drawing a Deer? You're supposed to be drawing a detailed map of the area!!""Eeep! Do not startle me that way when I'm drawing.

I hate erasing things!!"Monger grabbed the book away from him.

The first few pages seemed to be an attempt to map the areas they had been to.

Then it got confusing.

Arrows would point to both sides of the page with 'North?' written next to both of them.

The drawings became more and more confused.

Finally, a page said only, "Screw it." The following page had a drawing of a deer.

Followed by another page with a drawing of a deer.

In fact, the next fifteen pages had drawings of deer.

Very nice deer.

But not a map.

Neither of his companions were happy.

Greenberg ignored them and began eating a lemon.

Manwar finally looked at the elf and said "Ok, I'll admit they are nice pictures of deer.

You really captured their images.

But could you maybe explain why you quit mapping?""Oh, that's easy.

It didn't make any sense; we kept changing direction.

I tried to tell you, but you just kept telling me to draw the map and you knew where you were going.

I was getting dizzy trying to map things and argue with you about what path was north.

So I gave up and drew deer."Manwar and Monger just stared at Greenberg.

Thinking back, they did remember him arguing, but it had always seemed obvious to them which way to go.

Some trails led in the right direction, and others didn't.

Which seemed really strange when they thought about it.

Manwar looked at the elf enjoying his snack.

"Let me guess, you're immune to it because you eat lemons." "Well, I was thinking it was my 6 WIS, Perception skill at 3, Tracking at 2, and innate Elven ability to resist mental attacks.

But you're right, it must be the lemons." And with that he took out another lemon and bit into it.

Manwar looked at Monger and asked "So, what direction haven't we been in?" Monger thought a bit and pointed.

Manwar looked at Greenberg, "Lead us in the opposite direction.

If we start acting weird, just sit down and draw a deer." Many deer drawings later, another picture was starting to appear.

There was an area where, as Monger put it, "Shit just gets weird." The two humans felt a compulsion to go the other way.

Greenberg seemed immune at first, but at a certain point, even he stopped.

"I can't go any further, and it's hard to look at that rock." The other two couldn't even turn their heads in that direction.

"What rock, Greenberg? Describe it.""It's about two foot high, square at the bottom, maybe a foot across.

The top has a flattened point.

I think I can see writing on it, but it's hard to see with the vegetation.

Hmm....and I can see a similar looking rock to the west of it about 20 feet, and one the other direction.

Some sort of magic stones?"Manwar's head was pounding.

"Try to lead us along a path that parallels the stones.

Monger, see if you can keep track of direction and distance.

Plot it on a grid.

Let's find out how big this area is."

You have died!But you did it heroically! Saving a poor girl from a horrible death in the jaws of some mutant bug! Well done! You receive a bonus of +1 to a stat.

Choose well, the chosen stat also influences your heritage.