In the few hours of darkness when neither of the Forge's two suns bathe the world with illumination, a new celestial object is visible against the starry background. Few notice at first, but those who do note that it shines with an odd green light. They also notice that with each passing night it grows larger and brighter as seen in the brief hours of the night's clear view.
Three newcomers to the lands of Wildwood, seeds as they are called on the world of the Forge, followed a raven through the primeval forest.
Gravan, a short, plain, unassuming young man dressed in a simple monk's garb. Initiated as a druid and sworn to the causes of Emmantiensien the treant sage of the fey Court. He had long been been a druid of the green path learning the lore of (and from) forest plants. When he arrived on Wildwood in the realm of the treant Tuor Felagund he found a mentor in guardianship of the woods.
Rooth, a tanned woman used to living a life in the wilds. She came from a tribe of shifters, the lycanthrope touched. When she attained adulthood and left her tribe to explore the nearby cities and lands she expected to return every three years to share what she learned, but then the ravens descended and brought her from her world to Wildwood. She respected the treant's role as caretaker of the forest and serves to aid him where she can.
Syfer, one of the tiger men chiao with a scar across his feline visaged face. He bore the full orange and black striped fur upon his humanoid frame proudly. A disciple of the military upbringing of his people he is comfortable with jungle warfare. Chafing at the restrictions of his clan he traveled to a city outside the jungle where he gained his scar and fled back to the woods after committing murder in response. He dreamed of ravens and awoke that night in Felagund's realm.
The treant made them welcome so long as they respected his law of the woods harming not the forest with blade or fire. He taught them of the land and its harsh laws of predator and prey, the abundant life of Wildwood enhanced by the power of the Forge. He taught them the language of the dover, the nearest territory populated with a sentient race and the native tongue of one of his fellow druids.
One day Tuor Felagund summoned the three and told them of a great need, a fellow druid had swift need of champions, champions willing to keep the secrets of the druids. The three agreed and followed this druid's message bearer, a raven that led the way through the forest. It had borne a crescent amulet that would be needed to enter the druid's secret realm.
The raven led through the Wildwood forests leading the three deeper and deeper, long past the treant's territory borders. It would fly forward, alight upon a tree branch and wait for the trio to catch up before taking flight again to the edge of sight.
Eventually they reached a stream and the one bearing the amulet could see a second world across the stream that the others could not view. Knowing this to be the barrier of the secret realm the three linked arms and the raven alighted upon the shoulder of the lead druid agent. He walked out upon stepping stones and crossed into the misty realm of a bamboo forest on the other side that had not been there moments before.
The raven took flight again and shot out of sight, and they could here answering caws from other ravens before they spotted it again. It lead them on through dense reed tree jungle growth, slow going as it was, and ignored paths that led off invitingly in other directions.
Some time later there is a rustling among the bamboo trees ahead of the trio as if a great wind were stirring the trees to bend back and forth. The gale seems to be approaching though the sky does not change. The bamboo trees around the trio bend and then actually part to the side revealing a broad easy to traverse path in the direction the trio were heading.
Rooth snifs the air glances at the others and walks down the newdiscovered path. 'Well seems we are at the end of a path and at the beggining of another' she passes her fingers trough her hair and walks on senses sharpened.
To Rooth's shapened senses the very air of this reed tree forest is different from that of the Wildwood they came through. The buzz of insects has new tones here, the sound of the breeze rustling through the bamboo, the tone of the sunlight dappling through the leaves. She spies the occasional small six legged lizard among the branches of the trees, creatures previously unfamiliar to her. Only the cawing of the ravens and the breathing of her comrades is exactly the same as they were from the Wildwood.
Eventually the trio comes to an opening in the forest and hears the cries of numerous birds. Four beings stand out in the clearing.
The first is a being that looks like vines woven into the rough semblance of a man bearing a vine woven staff. The second is a man in leather armor while the third a woman with blue glowing runes emanating from just under her skin. The last is a towering muddy and dented metal construct of a humanoid shaped being holding an uprooted tree. It turns its visored visage towards the trio.
The newcomers spy burned out areas in the clearing with savaged animal corpses. A quartet of odd deer with straight backed sharp antler horns lie in a burn radius, their fur scorched and it looks like large predators have been at their meat. Some of the deer seem to sport elongated sabre teeth. Another set of larger six legged lizards lie nearby, similarly burned and savaged. Crows and vultures circle overhead and are making feast on the remains when they settle down from the sky. A few rats are making meals as well.
Behind the four lie the remains of a large structure. It is partially collapsed, and the large wooden living plant doors hang awkwardly open. Near the entrance lie a half dozen bodies of dead beasts, as well as two bodies of goblins dressed in black and red leather armor. The bodies of animals and goblins alike show numerous small cuts and scratches. Outside of the structure five large standing stones can be seen forming a ring pattern. Runes are visible on the surfaces of the two boulders on this side of the structure, though they are obscured by growths of vines that cover them.
The raven the trio had been following, larger than the resident crows, flies over to land on the vine being's shoulder.
He lifts his staff and says "Hail and welcome, I am the Bloodthorne Guardian. I see you are here on behalf of Tuor Felagund. Thank you for answering my call. My grove has been violated by goblin raiders and they have made off with a dangerous prize. I will have need of champions to join in the quest to recover the Eye of Night. I bid you welcome to my grove."
Gravan seems completely oblivious to the guardian's welcome as he rushes into the clearing."Oh no," He glances downward, then back towards the carnage scattered across the ground, and paces about nervously. "What went on here? Looks like somebody made a lot of mulch. And with fire, no less!" He peers back and forth, gingerly trotting towards the collapsed plant structure, before laying a hand on it. "And what happened to you? Oh dear. This will simply not do." Gravan squats down, pensive, before his head suddenly darts back as he realizes there are people in the grove. "AH!"
...
"Uh, hello. I didn't see you. Wait, I did! I did! I don't mean you aren't noticable. I noticed! I was just distracted, you see. But... uh, how long have you been here?" Gravan smiles awkwardly and gives a stiff bow.
The druid answers him "Welcome Gravan apprentice of Tuor, disciple and caretaker of the Green." He turns to the woman "Welcome Rooth Farwanderer, the eyes of Tuor." He turns to the tiger man chiao "Welcome Syfer, the claws of Tuor, strength of the forest shadows."
"You have answered my call for assistance, the need is great. My grove has been invaded, its wards pierced, and the relic from beyond the stars that I have secretly guarded in this eternal garden realm, the Eye of Night, was reaved from its immortal vault. Goblins, wargs, and rats raided, led by a potent master they called Bone Shanks. He wielded potent fire magics, carved his way straight to the relic, and tore down my magics before burning me to a husk to gain the charge I safeguarded. The Eye of Night can tap into the power of dark realms beyond the stars unleashing various fell forces depending upon the current celestial alignments. I underwent the ritual of evergreen transformation ages ago to be bound eternally in this realm as its master so I could safeguard it here. Bone Shanks' fires could not stop my regrowing and so he used the Eye of Night to empower the goblin wererat Bloodwhisker Gannu with fell powers from dark planes to guard over my body. These three," he gestures at the woman, man, and construct "Inamar, Weylan, and Ennar Forzion, arrived to offer aid and overcame Gannu to free me. They have agreed to quest to reclaim the Eye of Night, to learn more of Bone Shanks and his minions on my behalf. The evergreen ritual has given me life unending in this fey realm but I am bound to it and cannot pursue Bone Shanks and his followers into the vastness of Wildwood to reclaim the stolen prize."
He holds up his viny staff "Inamar has agreed to become my champion and bond to my staff to use its powers to recover the Eye of Night. We will perform a ritual to transfer it to her and bond its magic to her own. The ritual will be empowered by participants who likewise swear to the quest and the secrets of the Grove. Those who participate will be bound by Geasa to their oaths but will be more empowered by magics cast through the staff. Even the living will of Ennar will be part of the ritual though his memories of the realm and the Eye here will be made manifest and kept safe here. We will begin the ritual soon. It requires willing participants, will you three join in the ritual? Will you answer the call of the quest?"
Inamar, a pretty young woman most likely in her late teens to early twenties, gives the newcomers a self-conscious wave and smile. Though her clothes most likely originally came from offworld by their style and material, she's slashed the shirt's bottom half off and turned the loose breeches into a much shorter pair of loose breeches; ending well above her knees. Neither article of clothing's original color is still discernable, being so stained with mud and leaf and grass. Her hair is brown and cut quite short...perhaps to leave parasites no hiding places. Most visually arresting about her though are her peculiar violet eyes, which are quite literally purple in hue, and the moving blue tattoos that move slowly over her exposed skin.
The tattoos appear to be drawn in sky blue lines, each one is a discrete rune or symbol...some recognizable to those with arcane knowledge, many more are not. They move in clusters and groups...occasionally trading symbols with neighbors, occasionally fracturing entirely and redistributing themselves. Most of their motion is slow and even rhythmic, as if they were borne on invisible waves. Every so often though, a brief flurry of frantic activity ensues. There's no visible reason why, nor does Inamar appear to even notice when it happens.
"Hi," she says, almost guiltily. "I'm Inamar, by the way. Just...thanks. If, you know, if you do it." She shrugs.
"I am Syfer, maam" says the tiger-man. He lifts his hand in a start of a salute before stopping and just extending it toward Inamar "a Chiao "soldier" from the other world."
"Though I think my word would suffice, I will undertake the geas in order to defend my new home."
Inamar gingerly shakes hands with the paw and says, "I don't think it's really about your word...the ritual that he does with the staff also puts the geese on you. It's all part of the same thing."
She frowns a little and asks curiously, "Aren't you hot with all that hair?"
Gravan's face furrows as if in deep concentration, as he looks back and forth between Inamar and the fellow druid. "I guess I have a couple of questions if that's okay. About this Eye of Night."
"Where did it come from? I mean, you were guarding it. But where was it from before that? Um. Who does it belong to? It doesn't sound like a very good thing to have around at all, frankly, and I can't say I like the sound of it. I think Tuor would agree that if this thing is getting stolen by goblins and this Bone Shanks fellow, we should find a way to rid the world of it entirely. If we can. Because Emmantiensien knows what could happen later on down the line, I mean, do you really want to stay here forever to look after it?"
Gravan sits down heavily on a grassy hillock and scratches the back of his head. "And this Bone Shanks. You saw Bone Shanks, and he came here with, ah, fire. Hmmm. That's bad news. I can't say I'm not worried. Sir, you've been tied into the realm and granted power, life eternal! Uh. Just to guard the Eye, and yet Bone Shanks defeated you. So obviously we can't really hope to beat him in a fight. We need to tap into some wisdom. Where can we learn about him?"
"And, ah, miss Inamur. Inamar? Inamar. ...Sorry, bad with names. Miss Inamar. Now, you're a young girl. I mean, I don't know what brings you out to the woods here. Uh. And with the tattoos and all, you look like some kind of arcanist. Or you've had something done to you. Sorry. I mean sorry if it's something bad and I just brought it up. I..."
"Anyway miss Inamer, I look at you and what I see is a young lady, not really someone who should be galavanting across the world with Iron warriors and tiger men. I mean, look at your clothes, the forest has chewed you up! I don't know, maybe that's the style these days and I've been in the woods too long."
"...Not to say you don't look nice! Oh my I've put my foot in it."
The viny druid's wooden eyes bore into the awkward young druid. "Gravan, you must learn to see more truly and listen more carefully, Inamar is becoming my champion. My staff bearer."
He turns to all three newcomers and bids all six to make yourselves comfortable as he begins to explain "I have told this tale to Inamar, Weylan, and NR4ZN, but it bears retelling. In an earlier age of the world, a warband of the wood giants overcame the green dragon Estaraloth. One of the heroes of that band brought a great gem from the dragon's hoard, a large smooth topaz the size of a closed fist, and presented it to their tribe's druid Aran Hieuli as thanks for the healing that had saved him from the ravages of disease as a youth. The druid could tell that it held potent focusing magics but he knew not its purpose and brought it to his Circle for further examination. A hag among the circle, Ventrelle Cadori, was known for her powers of divination and she discerned that the gem was a summoning focus, tied to astromancy and fell realms beyond the stars. It could not be used alone, but combined with the proper other tools a skilled master could use it to draw on various other realms and powers, binding alien energies and fell beings to his will. Depending on the sacrifices performed and the current alignment of heavens at the time it was used different celestial alignments would provide access to different realms, many of them powerful and inimical to all life as we know it. Uncontrolled, such beings could be dangerous individual hazards, while some of the energies could potentially warp or scour all life from Wildwood entirely. Cadori named the gem the Eye of Night.
"The Circle decided the artefact was too dangeous and should be destroyed, but it proved resistant to shattering, lightning strikes, dragon acid, cursing, magical destruction and numerous other methods that were attempted. Cadori determined that it could be destroyed but the specific method was unknown and might require the direct power of a divinity. The Circle therefore decided to safeguard the Eye of Night, lest it fall into the hands of one who might unwittingly unleash disaster upon the Wildwood as they sought to bind personal power to themselves. Knowledge of the Eye of Night was kept a closely guarded secret of the Circle, lest those who lusted after power at any cost would not be tempted to seek it out.
"A fey realm was established, this realm, that was cut off from the vibrant full realm of Wildwood. It required a connection to the Land and could be brought into conjunction by those with a connection into or out of the realm. I was a member of the Circle and volunteered to undergrow the Evergreen Transformation ritual sacrificing much of my druidic power and my old life to become the Bloodthorne Guardian, bound to this realm for ages to come. Once I had done so I accepted the Eye of Night, hid it within my very being, and took up the stewardship of this realm, establishing further wards and defenses should its primary one ever be pierced. As the Bloodthorne Guardian I hold dominion over this fey realm and the natural features and wildlife native to the realm. Over the ages I have maintained contact with the Circle, acting as a teacher for many druids who have come to me to learn, while only the highest members of the Circle, such as your druid Tuor, held the true secret of my guardianship should disaster ever fall and I needed outside help.
"And disaster has fallen with these invaders."
"Bloodwhisker mentioned that his band swore to the master and claimed that others would soon follow, led by the Gannus in their moonstone mines. He believed his master would favor his clan.
"He was boastful that only moonstone could harm his family and that he kept enough with him so that he would not fear them. In his boasting he did not seem to realize he was anouncing his vulnerabilities. His band had been carrying a trading mission's worth of moonstone when they came upon the master, he demonstrated his power and they agreed to serve him.
"His master empowered him somehow with fell protections, what seems a lesser form of what we fear the Eye of Night can further empower when combined with other such tools. With his master's blessing, he said, only magic moonstone such as the blade he wielded could kill him and he no longer needed to fear other Gannus or those armed with moonstone or their moonspeaker's concoctions. He ranted about how if he had gone back he would have killed his father Awrenc and taken control of the clan and their mines, but that the clan would undoubtedly bow in fealty to the master and be his first servants thanks to BloodWhisker's glorious service.
"When the master and his horde made their way to me and we fought I had prepared with potent fire wards upon myself, my badger companion, and the various animals I had summoned to combat him. He was able to suppress my ward, though I do not know how, and then burned me while I was vulnerable. While I had placed many druidic battle magics to enhance my animal guardians, they fell to his minions as I writhed in his flames.
"I gathered that empowering Bloodwhisker was apparently not a thing lightly done, even when the master had the Eye of Night back in his possession. It was only after he found that I kept regrowing after being burned to the ground and that the gnawing rats Gannu commanded could keep me cut back enough to be perpetually contained that he performed his ritual to empower Bloodwhisker. After performing the ritual with the Eye the master seemed drained. I believe it severely disturbed him that he could not kill me or destroy my druid staff with his fire and he was willing to pay dearly of himself to insure I did not rise against him again.
"We still know little about Bone Shanks, you must find out more and disrupt his plans where you can. Return to me periodically to report what you learn. Given time and more knowledge to work from I can prepare rituals to aid and empower each of you that joins in this endeavor. This realm holds strong druidic power that can be harnessed to accomplish great things over time.
"Bone Shanks is powerful. He overcame me. But even in his triumph he could not kill me. That left a thorn in his side of doubt and worry. He was willing to expend of himself using the Eye of Night to empower Bloodwhisker to guard me. Bloodwhisker believed himself and his master unbeatable, but he was blinded by his newfound power. The master seemed drained after his dark ritual. It cost him. If he does so for others he may weaken himself further. Bloodwhisker did not see such costs, only the power gained.
"The Eye is an aid, should he find something else to power such astromancy, he might be able to use more of the dark powers. Even if you cannot destroy him directly, his plans must be disrupted and we must learn more."
When the evergreen druid has finished, Inamar nods, and whispers to Gravan, "I did this to my clothes. It's too hot and humid to be running around otherwise."
She eyes Graven then, doing some mental math. The guardian was a druid...he had a druid's staff. Graven was a druid too.
Did that mean he'd want the staff?
A bit nervously, Inamar looks back at the evergreen guardian, wanting to ask, but not quite daring...lest it give him ideas.
"So! That's how it all happened," she says quickly. "Is the ritual now?"
"Gravan has agreed to the ritual. Syfer? Rooth? It is not something another can pledge you to."
If this ritual can help us in retrieving the gem of such fascinating powers i will be more then willing to participate Rooth takes some steps forward and lower her head to Bloodthorne and the others 'I salute you all'
__________________ ~With Us Three Under Water You Will See the Beauty of the World~
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