*Or everyone could just give me the plants they find and I can store them,* Auto suggested. *No shift limit for Chimerists.*
The Raid Group agreed to do just that, then shifted into various bird forms and headed inland. Being most familiar with the Crow form, Garath sprouted his black feathers and took off. The flock that the group formed, if it could even be called that, was the most eclectic grouping of birds ever flock together. They looked majestic. They looked ridiculous.
It wasn't long into the flight before they started to see bits of green in the landscape below. Together, they descended to land next to a thicket of blackberries. The Party debated splitting up in order to satisfy the thirty-species requirement more efficiently but decided against it. This was not a timed quest, and they had no way of knowing whether there were hostile creatures in the area.
Eating blackberries in Crow form was disappointing, Garath found. His sense of taste was pathetic at best, and the sweet and tart berries just felt like lumpy, tasteless marshmallows sliding down his throat.
*Garath,* Athios said over the Raid communication channel, *stop dicking around.*
Properly chided, Garath picked up another blackberry with his beak and dropped it into Auto's hand. The Chimerist placed it, along with two species of weeds they'd found nearby into his Items panel. The group poked around the blackberry thicket for a few minutes to see if they could find anything else, but came up empty. And so, once again, the eclectic flock took to the sky in search of different plant species.
It wouldn't take them long to gather thirty different types of plants, Garath didn't think, so he began to wonder what kinds of plants would thrive on the dead mountain. Remembering what he could about ecosystems from 9th grade biology, he thought he had a pretty good idea of what to look for. He also made use of the Raid communication channel to ask if anyone else had an idea of what kinds of plants would help restore the lifeless mountain to a thriving ecosystem.
*Blackberries are not a good offering, they are invasive and will dominate the landscape. Plants that attract the attention of insects would be ideal. They will help to cross-pollinate,* Alice offered over the Raid com, her current form that of a snowy owl.
*Like flowers?* Daisy asked. *Bees love flowers.*
*Bees do not love anything, they are a simple species incapable of such emotions,* Alice replied casually. *But yes, like flowers.*
*What about trees?* Auto asked as the group descended again to land in a lush meadow between two rolling hills. *Every mountain needs some trees.*
*A tree would satisfy the chest's condition, but would not necessarily assist in restoring the mountain's ecosystem,* Alice said. *If we bring plants that attract insects, the insects will attract birds and small mammals, whose feces often carry seeds that will grow into many different plant species, including trees.*
*Copy that, Alidex. Auto, wait here. Everyone else, look for flowers or anything else that catches your eye. Bring everything back here and we will go through what we’ve found in ten minutes,* Garath directed. Then he remembered that, despite the calm beauty all around them, they were still in a Dungeon. *If you run into anything unfriendly, head toward Auto and let us know on the Raid com.*
With that, the awkward flock of various birds set off in different directions within the meadow to gather some plants. They each returned to where Auto and Alice stood together, dropping off what they'd found before taking off once again, in search of new plants. Within the ten-minute period, the eight Party members collected a respectable mound of assorted plants. Garath had contributed the fewest species. He hadn't known where 'flower seeds' were on the plants, so he took the time to dig up the whole thing, a difficult feat in his current form.
Alice, back in her human form, sat in the grass on her knees with her feet splayed out on either side in a manner that Garath was sure couldn't be good for her joints. The Lore Keeper was contentedly sorting through the plants and placing them in one of three piles in front of her. One of the piles obviously held duplicate plants. The other two, Garath assumed, were the 'yes' pile and 'no' pile - though he wasn't sure which was which.
*How'd we do?* Garath asked the Lore Keeper.
"Including the three we picked up earlier, and the seven that aren't a good fit for the mountain, we have twenty-nine," Alice reported.
*Twenty-two then,* Garath said, nodding his beak up and down. *Eight more, let’s roll.*
*What's the difference, really?* Maimon asked in his seagull form. *Let's just find one more and call it good.*
*No,* Garath said firmly. *Trust me on this. This Dungeon wasn’t programmed like some game. It'll make a difference, and it won't take that long.*
Garath was right, it turned out. It didn't take long at all to find eight more species that would help the dead mountain on its way back to flourishing. The next place they stopped was near a fast-moving river, winding through an evergreen forest. They split up for another ten minutes of gathering plants and, when they all met back up near Auto and Alice, found that they had not only found the eight additional plant species needed to meet the chest's requirement, but an extra four species including a handful of different mushrooms. Alice assured them that mushrooms would not only be helpful to the dead mountain, but vital to its recovery.
With the offerings the Party gathered for the chest stored in Auto's Items panel, the flock of adventurers headed back to the brown mountain and the chest. Garath hadn't realized how far they'd flown until the return journey. The group landed, gathered around the chest, and shifted back into their natural forms, apart from Alice, who remained in the form of a snowy owl. The Lore Keeper looked terribly out of place in
