Juniper

=Juniper Path=


 * [[image:JuniperTrees.jpg width="400" height="300" align="center"]]

The Juniper Path has beautiful greenery on either side, even if the path is a little closer than some you have traveled. So, you are surprised when the Junipers seem to stop and you have come to a much wider path that forms something of a "Y" in the trail. It appears a horse and small wagon have traveled this way now and again. Surely no wagon could have come through the narrow Juniper path, so one leg, or the other, of the "Y" must connect to the outside world in some way. You take off to the right to see an old log structure. It has a stump in front and you are sure you saw someone sitting there... You decide to investigate. || ||  || ||  ||
 * "That was interesting," you think as you return to the Juniper Path where it joins the base of the "Y." And, you wonder if the old professor is in at the farmhouse, the young woman spoke about at the old corn crib.
 * Back on the path, headed back now on the base of the Y to the Festival Clearing, on the left there is hardly a break in the bushes along the trail, but you are sure you see a small tent where someone is camping. How could you have missed it earlier? Maybe the distraction of seeing the woman briefly sitting on the stump?
 * [[image:PineCones.jpg width="320" height="178" align="right"]]You barely get back on the path after visiting the tent, when pine cones start raining down on you! What on earth?

Then they come from both sides of the path. You have walked right into the middle of a pine cone war - right here on the Juniper Trail!!

Once the kids realize they have inadvertently ambushed an Adventurer, they cluster around you, each one trying to be kinder than the next one. They are picking off bits of pine cone from your clothes and brushing away pine cone dust, as a spokesman gets enough composure to speak. "You do read McGonigal," she began. You think it obvious that everyone must in this part of the Festival, so you nod slightly. "So, be sure to read pages 189-197, Kindle location 3120-3248,. It is about C2BK, or Cruel to Be Kind. We were heading down to the Festival Clearing to play... And, the pine cones,,, Yes, they were sort of a spur of the moment thing when we saw so many pine cones on both sides of the path. Sorry we didn't see you coming behind us..." she apologized.

"Oh, yes, Mom and Dad said that when we see Adventurers, if we quote McGonigal we must give a title and XP count. Just use 'C2BK' for the title and because this is a game we are talking about it can be a Quest. That is because although it is mostly reading, one has to think how this could be used in schools to teach good citizenship or something of that nature. With that level of interaction, along with the reading it can be 10 XP, when well written."

As she finished speaking, the other children finished brushing away the pine cone debris and stepped back. Without another word, they turned and started running down the path after their leader.Just before they rounded a bend, you heard some whoops and shrieks as their merriment continued. ||  || Image source: http://www.syhhw.com/Upload/htmledit/2009111185816510.jpg
 * Smiling, you follow them down the path, toward the Festival Clearing, but at a much more sedate rate. :-) Return to the Festival Mine ||  ||