With the mountains stretched out in front of her, Penny Stricks heads out for another day of adventuring. The days have been long and arduous, but she is experienced now, and has the support of the Botanical Guild of Chicago and countless more, including her trusty companion Dalia, behind her. Many would balk at these wild forests and rural grasslands, but she’s here on a mission: to collect seeds from crucial native plants so they can be used for conservation and revegetation. She understands the importance of her goals, and will do anything to fulfill them.

Travel through the mountains is easy [20**]; Penny is more than familiar with mountainous terrains, and has her trusty carriage to help her move more quickly. But when the roads become too rough, she abandons her carriage and sets out on foot. Dalia heads off in a different direction so they can cover more ground, but they can always contact each other with their sending stones.

As Penny moves along, getting closer to the area she hopes the plant she wants to find, Chamerion angustifolium, is (based on the guidance of the closest town’s apothecary owner), she sees what may be another species she’s interested in, Erigeron speciosus [10]. But, as she reaches down to check on it further, it comes alive. Rather than being the aspen fleabane she was hoping it would be, it’s E. glabel, a notoriously similar looking, but dangerous and animated plant. Penny is startled, but not surprised or unprepared; this sort of thing happens a lot, especially with the more difficult to distinguish plants (don’t ask her how many times she’s been attacked by something she thought was slender wheatgrass). Her preparation and familiarity means that she gets to attack this dangerous plant first [7 vs. 1], and she’s able to take it down with one fell swoop of her sickle [17].

Penny recovers quickly, and keeps on her way. After walking for a ways more, with occasional stops to check out more cool plants or as her swarm of bumblebees pollinate some flowers, she believes she’s approaching her desired location [17], so casts Locate Animals or Plants. The spell easily leads her to the large patch of fireweed, ready to be collected from (though whatever isn’t can easily be readied with a use of druidcraft).

With the help of her bag of holding and a little bit of mage hand, Penny makes quick work of collecting from the population, and makes plans to meet back up with Dalia to rest and recuperate by the fire after a long day of adventuring. There’s plenty more to be done in these mountains, though; many more plants to see and seeds to collect, and Penny can’t wait.

[**numbers is square brackets are actual rolls I made that dictated Penny’s adventures; for example, the first roll was to get through the mountains, I rolled a survival check with advantage because she was traveling on her favored terrain and she rolled a 14 and then added 6]

*DND Terms (much like science, the DND space is full of jargon, let me decode some things for you):

• Proficiency: there are various things you can be proficient in, and it basically means you get to add your proficiency bonus to whatever rolls you make to use those things, the bonus is determined by your level (how experienced you are)
• Ability Checks: roll a 20 sided die and add (or subtract) the number found in the skills box for whichever skill you’re rolling
• Advantage: roll 2 dice instead of 1
• Difficult Terrain: rough land that halves your speed as you travel over it
• Druidic: a druid is a nature magic themed character
• Spell slot: you get a certain number of allowed casts of each spell level (determined by power/difficulty) determined by your level, they reset after every “long rest” (8 hours of sleeping); cantrips are lower powered spells that can be cast without using a spell slot