For More Than Glory

[firehorse]

Valdir reluctantly retreats from the weather under the tarp of the makeshift shelter, finding the trees too rotted to support his weight. Accepting the occasional wedge of cheese, he seems lost in his own thoughts, mostly focused on his own sylvan homeland.

After catching snippets of the mud discussion, Valdir just shakes his head and grins, muttering "non-elves....." as he munches slowly on the cheese.

He also takes notice of Rolf's attempt to glean some information out of the bird, although keeping a respectable distance so as not to disturb him or the bird.

 

[Memnus]

The bird seems skittish and nervous, but eventually opens up to Rolf's welcome. This lake has been the center of all the storms; moreover, a small rise in the middle has remained unsubmerged. There is a way for landwalkers to get there, but only one has used it - only one of whom, or what, though, the bird is entirely unhelpful on. The bird then digresses into how the bugs in the area have been getting fatter, but tasting more sour than they used to.

 

[crystorix]

After making sure to get directions towards the land jetty, Rolf thanks the bird for its aid. Though he has no bugs, Rolf offers some seeds from his trail rations in thanks.

After the bird has left, Rolf returns to the group and tells what he has learned.

 

[Emiricol]

RECAP

The party snuck across the lake to the island by way of the "land bridge", which turned out to be merely some rotting plywood. Once on the wooded island, the party quickly realized that the trees were an illusion - there were no trees! Only ceremonial standing stones in a circle.

Well, the stones and at least three hags, chanting and invisible. One grew large, and was protected by a force cage of some sort! Fortunately, a Suggestion spell quickly put the enlarged monstrous hag curled up on the ground. Her two companions fled into the swamp cackling, after destroying the bridge, and the enlarged one was quickly slain.

The party now must decide - brave the water? Stay on the island? Pursue the hags that escaped into the swamp? Let it be someone else's problem?

Much has yet to be decided.

 

[crystorix]

Two more hags attacked the party later in the day and were slain, and a quiet night passed - the first rainless night this forest had seen in a long while.

In the morning, Rolf prays for different blessings than usual. He then digs up some juicy looking bugs and seeks out a bird - possibly even the one he talked to on the night before last. He casts animal messenger on it and has it take the message he had written to the dryad's tree.

(Is the lake the low point for the entire region, or are is it generally slightly hilly with a lot of little vales, and this particular one filled up because it was where the rain was centered? If the former, there's nothing for it, but if the latter...) Rolf then uses two Dig blessings (from the T13K setting book) to create some channels to divert some of the lake's water into other vales if possible.

Rolf will then spend the rest of the day amongst the stones.

 

[Emiricol]

Meier searches every inch of every one of the standing stones, and every other feature he can see of the island, with extreme patience, until nightfall. He sleeps the sleep of the dead and (hopefully) recovers a little bit of his lost strength. Time permitting, he continues his thorough search of the island in the morning.

 

[Memnus]

Further searches of the island turn up nothing, except a small hollow half-filled with grisly and slimy spell components, useless to anyone not practicing the hags' particular foul spells.

Over the next few days, the weather begins to clear and settle into a more normal pattern of summer storms. The ground, at least that which has not been entirely submerged, slowly begins to dry out; much of what there was is dead, but the earth makes good use even of the dead, and the dead matter will only help new plants to grow. After five days, Rolf's avian messenger returns, bearing a parcel - two scrolls of Move Earth, and a small package of seeds.

 

[Emiricol]

Meier spends that five days being mostly useless, and trying desperately not to whine about it. Still, he stands sentry a lot - nothing else to do after all - freeing others up for more time on whatever tasks are at hand.

 

[crystorix]

Rolf shrugs mentally, then uses the scrolls and seeds to the best effect that he knows how. Afterward, he doesn't know if there is anything else to do, so is ready to leave the next day.

At camp on one of the nights, he has a question for everyone else. "So, what do people know about this island my family is at?"

 

[Emiricol]

((Which island?))