Subject: Back to Base Camp

[ODM: This is going to be brief. I got bogged down with work yesterday and today.]

Following Kubalc, the party winds its way down to those waiting in the clearing. A gasp runs through the crowd at the sight of Kayla, but the shaman assures them that she is not some demonic evil of the grasses, just a small humanoid. Still, mothers shield their children's eyes and men give her a wide berth.

Kubalc tries to set the party's camp at the center of their own, but the shaman pulls him aside and speaks with him privately. The chieftain returns and suggests a camp off to the side of the tribe, not excluded but also not surrounded. Holn notes that they are on the side closest to the break in the grass where he guesses the weasel emerged. It does little to settle his nerves.

Kayla, carefully watching the people, notice that many of them are doing their best to whisper secretly to one another, and the looks she has gotten have given her chills. Ordinarily halflings are overlooked, or at worst mistrusted - this fear and subconscious hatred is foreign to her, and she can't quite get used to it. She imagines this is what a half-orc might feel like among elves.

[Okay. Feel free to roleplay a bit before bedtime. I'll answer any questions directed to Kubalc or the shaman, or any of the other tribesmen, as I receive them. Ideally we can be done with the night and move on toward the Tall Grass itself next week - just in time to break for the holidays. The new year can usher in a new world.]