pneumatik's WotBS 2 - The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar

[HolyMan]

"Ewww," Shaylir says ducking her head around into the dorrway. "You sure we need to sleep in here with those." she says pointing at the bodies.

"Shouldn't we," she starts to ask with a gulp, "take them out and bury them?"

Fritz also looks apprehensive as he sniffs the air coming from inside the tower.

 

[Thanee]

Lytha

“The prospect of resting here with those bodies around doesn't exactly intrigue me, but on the other hand, I'm dead tired, too.”

 

[HolyMan]

*gulp!*

"Did... did you have to say dead?" Shaylir asks looking up at the elf.

 

[pneumatik]

Liiros' elvish gets the party into the tower safely. It is indeed cooler inside than out, but it's still hot.

After everyone's in Liiros carefully creeps upstairs. The second floor of the tower has a large wooden table. Left on the table is a holy symbol of Sehanine Moonbow. On the table next to the holy symbol is a large wooden map of the village beyond the bridge, with small carved figures placed amid miniature buildings to represent possible ways to defend the town. Also on the table is a notebook written in elvish. From the cover it's the journal of someone named Bhurisrava.

There are stairs against the wall leading up to a third floor.

 

[Thanee]

Lytha

“This might shed some light into the darkness of this place. It seems to be a journal of someone called Bhurisrava. Let me see what it contains.”

Lytha takes a closer look at the journal before picking it up carefully and opening it.

 

[Rhun]

Hollister perks up at the mention of a journal. The wizard had an unending thirst for knowledge, and read everything he could get his hands on.

 

[pneumatik]

Lytha and Hollister's curiosity overcomes their exhaustion. Their mighty intellects quickly devour the journal. The journal describes Bhurisrava's last few weeks of life in the tower interspersed with musings on the meaning of faith in a world with active deities. This priest of Sehanine Moonbow appears to have undergone a conflict of faith as he faced death, wishing to convert to a healing faith before dying, but he did not know how. He also recounts the tales of many refugees who spoke of fires that simply would not go out. The elves of Innenotdar tried to save their home, but not even magic could put out the flames.

Bhurisrava's journal mentions a village that Lytha and Hollister recognize as the village represented by the large wooden map on the table. They also think it's likely to be the same village that's the rest of the way across the bridge. Bhuisrava's notes mention one location in the village in particular, the shrine of Anyariel.

The final entry in the journal reads:

I tire of spending my days rescuing the burning bodies of survivors and tending to them to no effect. The last survivor I found was a woman who still believed that the Living Wood of Innenotdar could not be abandoned. She asked my help looking for her boyfriend. We found him in a hidden basement under the Shrine of Anyariel, where he had gone to curse the Anyariel name, along with a dozen other of the townsfolk. The fire had somehow burned in from the roots of the shrine, and they had long since been claimed. Though not dead, they are despairing, and their curses haunt me. The woman saw her beloved and fled me into the woods, seeking an impossible death.

I found myself hoping something ate her. I never learned her name.

I can do this no longer. To whatever god hears the prayers of the doubting, please give me the strength for the task ahead of me. I am going to deliver the despairing to the mouth of the White River upstream, where at least they can have some reprieve from the fire. May someone find what I have hidden. It would help bring to justice those responsible for the destruction of my beautiful homeland, for which otherwise none shall shed tears.

Torrent stays downstairs while this goes on. She closes the door as best as possible and peaks out the arrow slits.


[sblock=OOC:checks, Lytha]Lytha, Hollister, and anyone they share the journal contents with can make a bardic knowledge (which I think no one in the party can do) or Knowledge: Local check to learn more.

Thanee, please list Lytha's languages in the Rogue's Gallery. I know she speaks elven because she's a half elf, but I want to be sure it's not anything else. I think everyone else posted their languages, but if you didn't please do so now.[/sblock]

 

[Thanee]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Languages are there, right after the statblock.

Lytha speaks Common, Elven, Draconic, Giant, Orc and Sylvan.

Oh, and Lytha is a Gray Elf, not a Half-Elf. [/SBLOCK]

 

[Arkhandus]

Liiros Tivaniel

"No, we will not bury the corpses here. Sehanine likely guided their souls to their final reward already, but if they have instead lingered here in rage or anguish, we do not want to disturb their remains. At least not so long as the Fire Forest continues to burn, else we might never put their souls to rest. So leave the dead and their possessions alone. You can rest in another room of the tower if you're uncomfortable in this one," Liiros responds to Shaylir, before heading up the stairs.

Once he gets there and looks around the room, he waits for Hollister and Lytha to finish reading the journal they found. Then Liiros steps in to examine it himself. "Hmmm....."
[sblock=ooc]Knowledge (Religion) check of 15 to see if Liiros recognizes Anyariel, or Knowledge (History) of 14 if that's the right skill for it.
1d20+6=15

I don't recognize the name Anyariel myself. Liiros already knows plenty about Sehanine Moonbow, but I'm not sure if he'll recognize whoever or whatever Anyariel is. It doesn't match any of the elven deities I'm aware of in D&D, at least.

Also, got a 19 on Knowledge (History) to see if Liiros recognizes anyyhing else that the writer spoke of in her journal, or about Innenotdar and who the writer may be referring to as the responsible party for what happened to it?
1d20+5=19 [/sblock]

 

[HolyMan]

Shaylir climbs up on a stool so she can look at the wooden map of the villiage. She sits there with her chin on the table and idlely fittles with one of the miniatures.

Trilling it back and forth she looks up only as Liiros speaks. Then puts her head down and watches as the little toy person spins in her fingers across the table. Fritz curls up in a ball under the stool his own head resting on his paws.

Her mood is a somber one as she is both tired and sad. A whole villiage dead and burning forever. Friends in the end turning against one another, it was all so strange to the little wild child of the forest.

"Liiros?" she says questioningly. "What happened to the villiagers won't happen to us will it?"