Odonata

A glistening glade most still and quiet, where shallow pools of dawn-fresh fallen dew entice eager beasts to break the fallow forest’s edge; a floral shimmer of pollen and feather-seed scattered mists, where great-billed lorikeets and fork-tailed flycatchers swoop in skittering pursuit of spitting ants upon sequoia barks and mosses ethereal.

Sensing swiftly distant vibrations within the cooling air, those nervy and attentive birds erupt from hedge and bough, leaving a lone Roe deer with haunches taught and ears a-twitching, sensing now the bewitching, singular drone of the Odonata.

A sudden pull upon the air, a sharp and buzzing hum, treetops and tall grasses bend and brace as though to welcome four startlingly immense, stain-glass like wings that burst across the canopy’s whole with reflections and refractions most confounding!

The speed alone with which this beast arrives, then darts and lingers, jerks and settles, is breathtaking - or would be, were it not for the accompanying astonishment towards that which has come now to sit at rest within this glistening glade ...

a Dragonfly!

and a literal Giant of its kind!

So large, in fact, that atop its narrow form it is able to carry not 1, not 2, nor even 3 ... but

4 of the Odanata Clans.

Having awaited the settling of each spindle-tipped toe of their skyward abode to finally stand a-still, the Clans-folk depart with elation, eagerness and chattering whimsy.

First to alight are the Edders, then the Ethers before the Nadders, and last to go the Nethers, each with foreheads ruddy and cheeks all a-rose, large wicker baskets scooped upon their muck-smeared arms, a clattering of brightly painted wooden clogs clad upon their toes.

As they scurry, leap and scamper, stopping here and thither to proclaim upon a root or berry, herb or bark, a nut-shell or seed-pod, they leave behind their home; bird-spit-nests with the roofs a-jumble of tin, rusting chimneys full of sparkling smokes scented rose and mustard; of devilish decoctions and accursed distilleries, wherein the Traveller may find poultices and preparations most potent, most wonderful, most foul …

…and perched atop a world surveyed by the five watchful eyes and two-thousand lenses of the Giant Dragonfly, Odonata!

Sights, Sounds & Smells
Sights Sounds Smells
 * Shimmering, crystalline aspects of Odonata’s fore and hind-wing.
 * Pots, jars, tubes, phials, buckets, boxes, crates and more besides.
 * The whirr of Odonata
 * Clinking, grinding, scraping, and pounding as the Clans produce their wares
 * Whistling winds
 * Griping, complaining, grumbling, arguing, & laughing of the Clans-folk
 * All manner of spice, herb, root, bark & leaf
 * Cool, fresh air
 * Sack-cloth and burlap pouch
 * Tobacco

Local Economy
Whether to find by happenstance, or seek out through endeavour, it is best that the Traveller make fast associates of the Clansfolk and their many wares and offerings.

The Clans are fluent in a great many organic aspects, and often sought as much for their advice and their recipes as for their finished preparations.

The 4 Clans have little need of coin; they harvest food as they go, taking what is in season, or what they can obtain through bartering with game-keepers and poachers alike.

But a pugnacious culture of barter exists here, especially regarding trinkets and small delights.

Imports
The Clans share a childlike appetite and delight for anything “new” or extraordinary, whether that be luxurious silks fit for a Baron, or ocean-smoothed pebbles from a beach many dawns travel afar; whether these things serve any practical purpose for the Odonatans is impossible to say, but their passion and interests know no bounds, and they will offer to trade a great many things with the Traveller to depart them of their belongings!

Exports
Brewed and distilled potions, ground and pummelled powders, pots of rancid herbal pastes and hemp-bound poultices, bundles of infused field dressings - adherent and non-adherent - along with pocket-box decoctions, snuffs and course snouts, and a dizzying array of wards, charms, and natural diviners.

Lodgings & Shelter
The Clan houses resemble, in structure and materials, large swallow’s nests, as though crowbarred from some cliff-edge or mountain ridge.

Where once a simple hole provided access to its original flighted owner, now oak doors have been hung, painted in pigments derived from berries and suchlike.

They seem long stuck with much pollen and sap to the back of the Giant Dragonfly's form.

Hierarchy & Political Structure
The Clans are unquestioningly settled into age old delineations of order, duty and task, their tasks and timetables having been ingrained through study, and practice, from a very young age.

The 2 Clans responsible for maintaining and manning the port and starboard wings - The Edders & The Ethers - sit astride an endless unease as Clan neighbours; a trouble too old to unravel. They bicker often, even as they do The Nadder’s bidding.

The Nethers, ever watchful, keep out of such petty squabbles, preferring instead to study the stars and the clouds from their tail-top vantage, whilst The Nadders - their nest atop of the Giant Dragonflies’ head - see what their great beast sees, and more.

The Nadders are the only Clan blessed with the gift of oneness - clear communication - with their sky-blessed Host, and carry a greater weight of responsibility than perhaps their associated Clansfolk.

The Clans, themselves, together are perhaps something like a family to one another, though none would utter such a thing to another living soul - and so on they go; busy, noisy, laughing, arguing and shouting, snoring and shitting and constantly simmering with all life and prospect and the opportunity of another day aboard the Odonata.

Culture
The Odonata Clans - despite their mastery of the wind and the skies - are unequivocally bound to the studying and appreciation of all things of the earth; woodlands and tree barks, to the dark dirt and its wonders, to hedgerows and riverbank, the meadow and the moor.

Their most captivating songs, and their most powerful myths - ones of romance and daring and the cunning of their People, of the Ground and its many splendours, and a part of the Clan’s mastery of herbalism and its multitudinously related disciplines - lay in their attempts to unlock the places their Legends speak of ... Harartalla ... Vayprenda … Yinstorla ... places the Odonata Clans believe can be found again, but only through the study and application of various druidic, herbalist, terramantic-like arcana.

The Clans are expressive, albeit inelegant, in their rituals and attempts, yet believe they are closer than they have ever been before to finding The Way.

Adventure Hooks

 * One of Odanata’s Clans, Darn Ether, is missing - having fallen from Odanata a few miles from this : the nearest feasible “landing zone” to where Ether dropped. The Clans could use some extra eyes and hands to help them retrieve their Starboard Wingfolk.
 * Concerned about the threat of those two Giant Seagulls, the Party might be asked, or decide of their volition, to partake in their neutralisation.
 * The Giant Seagull’s motives may not quite be as animalistic as Odonata’s Clans have led your Party to believe, as the two duel pursuers are, in fact, attempting to retrieve something the Clans might have stolen, or be delivering ... or both!
 * Consider whether it adds anything to give the Clans strong motivational/historical links to the stories of your Player’s PCs or the overall Campaign. Perhaps having known the parents or teachers or relatives of the Party.
 * The Clans might make potential future enemies or allies of your Player’s Adventuring Party, depending on any the options you choose or your Players choose to explore.

Random Encounters

 * 1) A forest fire below causes confusion and chaos amongst the Clans.
 * 2) Variously sized arrows and spears hurtle towards Odonata from all angles, above and below.
 * 3) Enormous dandelion-like seeds fill the air, causing much turbulence as the Dragon-Fly attempts to avoid colliding with them mid-flight.
 * 4) A veritable swarm of Giant Dragon-Flies comes into view. Odonata ignores all commands from the Clansfolk.
 * 5) Odonata’s great wings have becomes tangled by some sort of secreted sticky-webbing, and it is unable to take flight.
 * 6) A flock of hungry insect-catchers give chase.

Residents of Note
consider the size of Dragonfly you want in your Campaign; it may be the first time your Players are encountering such an enormous creature. Does it set any sort of precedent, or change anything in your Lore of your World?

perhaps the Odonata Clans are a tiny race in your Game? Or 12ft tall! Do whatever seems like the most fun for you and your Players, and adjust the Dragonfly size accordingly. Straps, buckles and ropes are forever slung across Ask’s shoulders and hips, ready to sling and affix to either Odonata, Clansfolk, a lowered satchel or a bucket. Ask is allergic to cats.
 * Ask Nadder (Head)
 * The only who can control and guide the Dragonfly. Ask is the most physically capable of the Clansfolk, with a heavily scarred, balding head. Like the others, Ask dresses in practical, well broken in brown leathers, with various additional leather armour pieces, gloves, head protection, goggles and the like.
 * Mon Edder (Portside Wing)
 * The most capable aeronaut, although always the last back onto the Odonata when about to depart. Mon is the tallest of the Clansfolk, missing all of their top front teeth, with clogs and clothing always mismatched, and filthy. They are almost always in a rage or temper over one thing or another. Mon Edder is distractingly fond of honey
 * Darn Ether (Starboard Wing)
 * Is presently missing-in-action after falling from Odanata somewhere nearby. Darn is the shortest of the Clansfolk, has wild bright straw-blonde hair, eats noisily, and exhibits the most chaotic energy, by far, of the 4 Odonata Crew. Their favourite pastime is chasing frogs and roasting tadpoles over a pocket fire.
 * Tang Nether (Tail)
 * The oldest of the Clansfolk by some many years, Tang’s leathers are darker, and their movements about Odonata slower. With long beard plaited and tobacco scented, they study the stars and the scrolls, generally worrying on all matter of things. Tang is extremely pious, and extraordinarily superstitious. Particularly, at present, regarding 2 Giant Seagulls they are convinced have been in pursuit of Odonata these last several dawns.