The Blind Watchers of the Sylvan Shard

Rae ArdGaoth · Apr 28, 2008

The rest of the night, the mood is tense. Hardly any of you catch a wink of sleep, every creaking branch sounds like a giant spider clacking its fangs together. Dawn comes mercifully, and the rains have stopped. The forest is filled with a soft green morning light that seems to dispel the fear of the night. Thallirae suggests, "Let us wait here for the morning. This route has become dangerous, apparently, and I think it wise that we be at our full strength for the days ahead."

Assuming you follow her advice, you rest until around noon, and feel a little bit stronger, both in mind and body.

[sblock=OOC: ]Still need two Fort saves from Khairi.

XP Awards:

For the month of April:
50 XP * Character's current level

For the Ettercaps:
450 XP each (except Lucien)
400 XP to Lucien

For thinking of the dryads and their trees:
25 XP to Rinya[/sblock]

Gathering your gear together, you set off for another day of travel. "Only two days left. We are almost there," your guide informs you. As before, the trail only becomes narrower, the canopy grows ever thicker, and you feel a peaceful and quiet presence around you. The trees this deep into the Silverwood are large, probably larger than any trees you've seen before. You also see some forest fauna; they seem bolder here. A small family of deer actually approaches you and rummages through your packs with their noses.

You don't find any convenient open grove to sleep in this night. Instead, you camp in the roots of a truly massive tree. It's definitely the biggest you've ever seen. Some of the roots are big enough to drape a cloth over and sleep under, and that's exactly what you do.

The first three watches are uneventful. Then, in the early morning during Lucien and Thallirae's watch, Lucien and Thallirae both hear something crashing through the undergrowth. Whatever it is, it's coming right at you, at a high velocity. Thallirae turns to Lucien, her eyebrows raised, seeming to ask him what he thinks they should do.

Dungannon · Apr 30, 2008

Lucien readies his weapons. "Prepare to wake the others, I will investigate."

With that, the ranger begins to make his way towards the noise.

Rae ArdGaoth · Apr 30, 2008

Thallirae nods and watches Lucien anxiously.

Lucien heads quickly and quietly into the woods. The crashing is getting closer. Based on sound alone, Lucien thinks he can make out at least a couple pairs of legs. He moves forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of the thing before it reaches the camp. It's almost upon him when he finally does: a wolf is chasing a deer through the forest, and their course is headed right for the camp.

Lucien is about 120' from the camp. From Lucien, the deer is 100' away, the wolf is 150' away.

Dungannon · May 1, 2008

Lucien picks up a rock (or stick if it's more convenient) and throws it at the deer, hoping to spook it into a different route so it doesn't run right through the middle of the camp.

Rae ArdGaoth · May 1, 2008

Lucien's rock lands right in front of the deer. It halts and immediately changes course. The wolf gives quick pursuit. Then suddenly, right before Lucien's eyes, the deer goes down beneath the wolf. The change of course could have had something to do with it, but then again, maybe not.

Dungannon · May 1, 2008

Lucien watches the wolf feed for a bit, making sure the creature doesn't try to go for the camp. When he's satisfied the wolf isn't a threat, he quietly makes his way back to Thallirae.

"Nothing to worry about, just nature taking its course."

Rae ArdGaoth · May 1, 2008

Thallirae is kneeling next to Rinya, just about to wake her, when Lucien returns. She stands, relieved, and resumes the watch. Beyond the deer-wolf incident, nothing happens, and dawn comes.

The next morning, you make your final trek through the woods. All around you, the giant trees grow. The more nature savvy among you recognize them as oaks, though they are rather large for their species. The canopy, as before, is thick, and no direct sunlight reaches the forest floor. The ground is surprisingly clear here. Only grass and small weeds grow, with a few patches of hardy flowers and herbs. The larger plants, you guess, do not receive enough sunlight to survive.

Around noon, you smell something funny on the trail ahead. It smells like spoiled food, or a long dead corpse. Continuing on, you half expect to find a rotting carcass near the path, but the smell only gets stronger. Two hours past noon, the stench is pretty bad. You begin to notice many patches of small, light brown and white mushrooms, growing on the forest floor, sometimes extending up along the sides of trees.

Progressing ever onward, the odoriferous presence becomes even stronger. The mushroom patches have increased in both frequency and size, and you see some pretty large caps. A little further along the trail, the caps are humongous, they look large enough to provide cover in the rain. Upon closer examination, you realize that beneath the mushroom caps, the soft fins are blackened and rotting, exuding some kind of unnatural pus. The stench from the pus is absolutely rank.

Finally, just before dusk, you reach a large "clearing". It's a clearing in the traditional sense that it is a break in the trees, but instead of a grassy meadow, it is filled with truly colossal mushrooms. And all around the mushrooms, holes like windows have been cut out, and round wooden doors are set into the sides. There are about a dozen of the capped structures.

In the center of the mushroom grove is a circle of smaller toadstools, these ones of orange and yellow colors. And within the circle, no less than seven elven men and women lay sleeping.

Throughout the grove, there are several men and women and a single male gnome in white, loose-fitting cloths, sitting cross-legged in the grass with stern looks on their faces. Each person's eyes are covered with a colored leather blindfold, but nonetheless, a woman approaches you with confident steps. She is an elf.

She looks at your group and says, "Greetings, travelers. I am Nhairi. We heard you coming. Thallirae, I recognized your voice among the others. It is good of you to visit, but we have... a dire situation." Nhairi sniffs the air and cringes. The odor here is practically unbearable.

"This is the Wyrwood Monastery. We are an order of blind monks, living in harmony with nature, studying its ways in order to perfect our bodies. Times are bad, but there is time yet. Please, I would know your names from your own voices."

Dungannon · May 2, 2008

ooc: at what point should I be declaring my spell for the day?

Heckler · May 2, 2008

"I am called Rinya Starflower," she says succinctly.

Phoenix8008 · May 2, 2008

"I...am Saithnar." the red robed Elan announces quietly to Nhairi while looking around the clearing with a wondering gaze. His right eyebrow seems to lift habitually as he murmurs to himself in quiet study of the area. "Hmmmm..."