"Kord's name? I know not that god, O man," Aya says evenly to Ishkabar, before turning to the others. "The tale of my wood is one full of sorrow and betrayal. Hear me, O strangers, and learn from my words. I lived in isolated splendor, one with my tree, for years beyond years. But I heard tales from animals, and words carried from root to branch, that creatures were coming, slowly but certainly, into the wood. I worked and sacrificed, and gained for myself the power of magic to defend my tree and wood when the time would come. A man of nature gave to me a great puma of intelligent mind and fearsome aspect, and together we tried to drive the creatures away, but it was to no avail.
"One day a lord came to my realm, hunting my creatures. I told for him to halt and remove himself from my lands, but he dismissed by words, and cruelly told me he meant to build his keep here. In fury the puma drove herself at him but was cut down brutally by the lord's men. I strove to use my magic, but the lord's magicial set fire to my tree, and whilst I was under the most cruel of torture, did the lord extract from me the promise to never raise my hand against him and to serve him faithfully. These words I did promise, with anger in my heart and fear in my mind, and the lord extinguished the fire from my tree.
"I had magical defenses that I could have used to defend my tree, but in my fury I only wished to strike, not defend. For my folly the lord caused his keep to be built around my tree. Many a year I was cruelly employed creating magical weapons for his soldiers to subjugate the surrounding wood, and I had no recourse but to do as he bid, so low felt I. It was not until twenty summers gone before I had the courage to take my revenge.
"Lo, the lord did come to me and bid me to enchant a sword that would make him fierce in battle. Here did I see my way of revenge, and set to make the sword as he bid me. For it did make him quite fierce in battle, but in other ways it worked as well. For I set upon it a spell of passion, that quite at the most delicate times it would work a spell of love and lust within the eyes of two people near the cursed blade. The chambermaid was found with the prince, the captain of the guard with the lord's sister, and the stableboy with the lord's wife, and the lord's harmonious castle became a hotbed of discontent.
"Thusly the lord's daughter had a masquerade party during which she would pick her suitor. And here is when I wrought a more complete revenge than I knew. For amongst the guests was a scarred and wicked sorcerer that delved into the most foul secrets of necromacy. None knew of his double life, and he was invited in good faith. He was sugar and nectar with his words, and from behind his gilded mask he wooed the lord's daughter to perfection.
"As midnight drew near, the daughter made her choice, and the sword of my revenge struck again. For it caused a most unnatural love to spring up between father and daughter, and he refused to let her go. In a vile rage, the necromancer began to call upon the powers of death to take the inhabitants. Agast at what I had done, I called upon the powers of protection that I had scored so many years ago in order to protect my tree from the carnage to come. By dawn, not a soul, alive, dead, or other existed within many miles of this accursed castle.
"For long now I have set my tasks to tending the plants of my wood, and keeping out those that would claim this keep. The gnolls consider this place haunted and dangerous, and sometimes send their enemies here to die all unknowingly. I am not loathe to continue to feed their myths, if it keeps my woods free," Aya says, swaying in place as she relives her story.
