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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 2975228" data-attributes="member: 11">part 2 of 3Session #94 (part ii)“As I said before, I trust your instincts in this,” Martin the Green told the Bastite.  “If you feel you should go, then go…”“You should do what you feel is right, of course,” Bastian said in his quiet way.“We should wake Ratchis and tell him of this,” Kazrack said.  “You would do well to get his sound advice before going.”“Let him sleep,” Roland replied.  “He would only argue with me and I find it best to simply do what I think is best with out asking.  It is my typical method.”“Very well,” Kazrack replied, shaking his head.  “Just remember that the last time you went off on your own, I had to take you out of captivity.” (1)“Oh, I would have gotten out of there eventually anyway,” Roland laughed and then covering his mouth coughed and continued.  “Not that I did not appreciate your timely aid.  It is just that even though that plan did not work out as I initially intended, my short stay with those dwarves taught be something about the political situation regarding Gothanius regardless of not having arrived ahead of you.”“I don’t know what you’re talking about anymore,” Kazrack said, still shaking his head.“I love it when you play dumb to get me to shut up,” Roland laughed again. “You’re cute in a dwarfly sort of way.”“Okay, then go…” Kazrack grunted, obviously uncomfortable.  He waved his hand towards the statue of Bast in a dismissive gesture.Martin cast mage armor and greater invisibility on the Bastite to protect him on his way, and in hopes that invisibly he could slip past the tentacled monster that came through the wall by the portal to the Beastlands.Roland of Bast pawed silently and invisibly around the screen behind the statue of Bast, taking a moment to look up cautiously to where the wall still occasionally shimmered back and forth.  Behind the screen was a wooden frame of excellent craftsmanship nearly six feet across and over nine feet high.  It was artfully carved to look like two trees bound together by vines and flowers, and the bottom portion was decorated with wooden reliefs of a rat, a weasel, a jackal, a wolf and a mountain lion, all looking up with open mouths.  Within the frame itself was the shimmering and glimmering image of verdant hill upon which was a tree so great that the top of it was not visible in the screen.  There was a clump of brush in the foreground, and the slightest winding hint of a river on the right.With a quick prayer to Bast, Roland leapt into the image expecting to sail through, but instead he slammed against the frame, bouncing back and crumpling.  He looked back to see the frame still rocking back and forth a bit.“I can’t get through it!” Roland whined to others. “Passage seems barred.”“Some portals require a price or offering, or some other requisite exists in regards to who or what it might allow through,” Martin called back.  “Describe it to me in detail.”Roland did so.“It must be the mouths,” Martin the  Green speculated.  “The Beastlands are the land of life and of the hunt.  It seems to me that blood would likely do the trick.”“Blood? How much do you think?” Roland asked.“As much as would be a sacrifice, or at least I would guess…”Roland shrugged in his lithe feline body and bit down hard on one of his paws.  He held the paw over the open mouth of the wooden mountain lion, letting most of the blood drip in there, but putting a few drops in the other mouths just in case. (2)Another quick prayer and he leapt through the shimmering image and a moment later he was gasping as he surfaced in small murky pond in a copse of trees.  Roland paddled over to the edge of the pond and dragged himself out of the water, shaking his body to send water and fur in all directions.The day was growing long here in the Beastlands.  Roland crawled out of the brush to see the great grassy hill upon which was rooted Chochokpi. The tree was many times larger than the talking tree the Keepers of the Gate had met in Topaline (3), but there was no doubt that this was the same.  The area beneath the tree was already nearly as dark as night.The air was clean here, tasting better than fresh water, and the sun, though a distant yellow ghost on the horizon, was warm.  Roland felt invigorated and overcome with the pleasure of being.  He rolled and lolled in the grass, occasionally giving off happy growls and yelps that he could not help.  Suddenly, a breeze brought a scent to his feline nostrils.  Prey.Roland leapt to his four feet and took off towards the river.  When he reached a patch of woods along the shore, he crept in the shadow of the edge of it and moved downwind of the group of antelope he had caught scent of.  He peeked his head above the brush as he came around and saw a small herd of less than a score of the noble beasts, their antlers tall tight whorls that were nothing like the mountain goats and rams Roland was used to back in Aquerra. (4)  They had muscular humps over their front shoulders from which their brown and white heads emerged, and they were nearly seven feet at shoulder.  The antelope were gathering on the far side of the river and would likely get away before Roland could reach them, except for three loitering on the closer shore, seemingly oblivious to the safety of being with the herd and its males.The black panther Bastite shot out from under the brush and made right for the smallest of the three.  It was young fawn, but it was still the size of a decent buck back in Aquerra. It turned awkwardly when it finally sensed the predator’s approach.  It had barely splashed a few feet into the river when Roland pounced upon it, snapping his jaws about its neck and whipping violently.  Two or three kicks and the antelope drooped lifelessly in the Bastite’s mouth.  The rest of the herd withdrew, the last stragglers still hurrying to catch up to them.Roland dropped the prey momentarily and roared triumphantly.  Taking it back up again, he hurried back into woods and leapt into a tree and began to devour it. He stopped only when he smelled what were undoubtedly wolves coming from the north. Taking the time to finish his kill, Roland leapt back down and crept to the edge of the wood, seeing a group of nearly twenty great gray wolves crossing the river as well.  The Bastite decided it was time to go see Chochokpi.The Bastite crept towards the tree slowly, noting how in some places the great tree’s branches touched the ground hundreds of yards from the trunk.  As he came under the cover of the tree he could smell many animals living among the branches above.  It was dark under there, but bits of sunlight dappled the many roots, leaves and vines on the uneven ground.Suddenly, a branch swung down and sideswiped the panther, knocking him off his feet to skid painfully on his side a few feet.“Hrum Hroom! Outsider!  Speak up now and be hasty about it, or be smashed!” came Chochokpi’s  voice.  It was like a great wave rushing through a great hollow log, and being drawn back into the sea, rivulets of echo, like birdsong, twitted here and there in it as well, but that made it no less filled with menace.“I am Roland of Bast,” Roland said, and he felt a momentary queasiness, that passed so quickly he had forgotten about it before he continued.“Hrrm… Well, hrm… Yes, well… that certainly is a hasty answer,” the tree replied. Roland was still to far away to see the speaking tree’s knotted face.“Oh great, Chochokpi!” Roland bowed his head and covered his snout with his forepaw for a moment, and then sat up again.  “As I said, I am Roland of Bast, member of the Keepers of the Gate, and I travel here from the mortal realms on a mission of great importance, and I am sure one of your great wisdom and knowledge can aid me in taking the correct course to get the aid I seek.”“Hmmmmm… You seek aid to get aid? All this frontways thinking never makes any… hrm… Yes, sense to me…” The tree said.  “It has been a long time since I have seen a human here, a long frontways time, at least… And yes, I know you are human… Yes… Hrm… You can’t fool a tree…You said my name, so you must know I am the Tree That Grows Backwards… So everything new to you is old to me… But still, it has been a long frontways time since an outsider has come to speak to me.”“I am not an outsider,” Roland protested.  “This is the realm that resonates in my soul.  This is where I will come when I die.…”“If you deserve it,” the Tree retorted.“I already do,” Roland replied, with cheek.“That is for Osiris to decide, not you,” Chochokpi’s voice grew deep and menacing once again.  A crow cawed among his branches.  “You are arrogant, but such is the way of mammals.”“And cats always know the truth, but as much as I would like to sit here and banter with a great and imminent tree such as yourself, I fear I must be hasty and explain to you of my mission,” Roland said.  “You do know of Hurgun of the Stone?”“Hrrm… Yes, that human is known to me,” Chochokpi replied. “Learned he is, for a human…”“And if you know of his Maze, then you know of its great power, but right now it seems that it is unattended and its power is seeping between the planes and disrupting things  I think it has to do with a time elemental he tried to bind, but it bound him instead,” Roland tried to explain.  “There are servants of Ptah, my companion Martin the Green calls them ‘modrons’… They seem to be malfunctioning someway and I think they are part of what is making the Maze not behave properly… But I am not sure… We also think that the flow of time itself might be being disrupted.  The fact that this is the second time I am meeting you, but the first time you are meeting me, might have something to do with that as well… It is all very complex and confusing…” Roland panted.“Hrrm, Hrrm, Really?  Hrrm, well…”“Have you felt any disruptions here?” Roland asked.There was a long moment, and a breeze shook Chochokpi’s branches.  Somewhere frogs began to croak, and the sun had completely set.  Darkness swept across the Beastlands like a blue-black shroud that rippled in the wind.  Some time passed… Roland tried addressing Chochokpi again, but there was no response.  After an hour, he heard the howls of wolves on the air, and the Bastite risked creeping closer to Chochokpi’s trunk, in hope it might provide him with some safety.Roland guessed it was over three hours before he heard Chochokpi’s voice again.“Hrm… Hroom?”“Chochokpi? You were silent for a long time.  I was worried,” Roland said.“I had to feel across the planes to where all my roots do lie and seek out the truth of your frontways words,” Chochokpi replied.  “And you are correct… Hrm… Something is wrong…”“Yes, something is very wrong,” Roland’s voice took on a tone somewhere between annoyance and pleading.  “And I didn’t get to finish telling you what else is wrong before you… uh, felt your roots or whatever it is you did… There is a fiend, a greater succubus named Ora Amira El loose in the Maze and seeking to use its power for her own evil ends.  My companions and I, the Keepers of the Gate, tried to stop her, but were forced to flee her might.  She killed one of our number, as well.”“Hrrm, well… yes,… I mean, no, no… That won’t do, not at all,” Chochokpi said.  “Hurgun would not like that… No… Control of the Maze must be gained before it breaks apart and permanently damages the veils between the planes.”“Yes, but we don’t know how to do that,” Roland replied.“Not so hasty!” Chochokpi shook all his limbs and small animals and insects all scampered among the limbs with fright.  Roland took a step back and bowed his head again.“Hrmmmmmm… Yes… yes… I know what must be done,” Chochokpi murmured.  “Yes,… in order to gain control you need to repair the malfunctioning modrons… Yes, that is it… Yes, that is what happens… What could happen frontways, I mean… At least I think so… Maybe not, however… Hrmmm… It is what should be done… Yes… You need to repair the means by which they are repaired and given their basic… uh, orders… Yes, the station…”“The Modron Station?  Yes, we heard of it and it has been damaged, but how do we repair it, and what do we do once we have?” Roland asked.“Hrrm, still hasty… But the means of repairing it are a dubious means… Necromantic means that one such as yourself might not have access to…”“The Book of Black Circles…” Roland murmured.“Hmmmm?”“I think one of my companions has the means, though the cost will be dear,” Roland replied.“Once the modrons are repaired and control is re-established, the Maze must be plunged deep into the Plane of Time,” Chochokpi said.  “Yes, this is what it would… does…will… it would be like that to your frontwards minds… the Plane of Time…”“And what then?”“Hope the Time Elemental will be drawn off and return to wherever, whenever, whatever… it came from,” Chochokpi said.  “Or find a way to defeat it… But one cannot defeat time, not even Chochokpi can do that, and I am the Tree That Grows Backwards… Hmmm, hroom! Yes, I am…”Roland was quiet for a long time contemplating what he had learned.“The wolves are coming,” Chochokpi said.“Yes, I smelled them before,” Roland replied.  He cocked his head and asked, “Tell me, do you know where I might find the servants of my mistress, Bast?  I need to ask their aid in this matter.”“Hrmmm, Hroom… Servants, hmmmm…?” the Tree gurgled, and then was silent for a time before replying.  “This is not a good part of the Beastlands for those who serve your mistress.  To see her servants you must travel to the distant realm of the Tiger-Prince, past the Realm of the Charging Beasts and through the Valley of the Suffering Hunters… And hrmmm, yes… there are also the Wolves of Law…”“How long would such a journey take?” Roland asked.Again, there was a long silence punctuated by gurgles and murmurs and the hoot of an owl up in the great tree’s branches.  “Three days as you would count them…”“Three days here, or three day in Aquerra?” “There is… Hrm, Yes… Hroom.… There is no difference… At least I do not think so… So, yes… Difficult to count frontward ways sometimes… Yes… Short bursts! So hasty… I do not like it…”“And what of these wolves?” Roland asked. “I am not at my full strength… Should I fear if I were to meet a pack of them?”“Hrmmmmm… Yes… the Wolves of Law… They prowl and patrol and enforce the will of their alpha… Yes…That is what they do… Drink of the pools of water amidst my roots… Be refreshed and restored… You may rest here and recoup your strength before you continue your journey… Yes, that you must… Yes… Hrm….”Roland hurried over to the pools and felt his wounds close as he drink deeply of them.  He found a warm spot up among the branches to loll lazily until he was relaxed enough to nod off.------------------------------------------------Notes(1)    See Session #75(2)    DM’s Note: Those would pass through the gate to the Beastlands had to feed the open mouths an amount of blood equal to 10% of their maximum hit points.(3)    See Session #84(4)    These antelope were a form of Giant Eland known to the islands in the far south of Aquerra.</blockquote>

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