Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2130053" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #308a] And Sad I Could Not Travel Both...[/PLAIN]"Great Oak, could you spare a straight branch or something from yourself so that I could wield a weapon?" Feln asked. "I am pretty good with a quarterstaff and I figure what better stick to whack the chaos with then a branch of the Ol' Big Oak!" He grinned hopefully up at the branches."I do not ask you to give up your arm to aid me, Feln Twiceborn," the tree replied. "My limbs are precious to me, as yours are to you. Do not suppose that to be otherwise simply because our forms are different.""Hey! I didn't mean anything by it," Feln countered, holding up his hands on defeat. "How about any magical artifacts that could give me more life... or help me sustain more damage with out falling.""Two lives are not enough for you?" the tree spoke into their heads and they could feel its growing anger, like a hot ember glowing in a nest of tinder. "I have given you already twice what most creatures enjoy and still you ask for more?""Good work, ye great git!" Karak grunted to Feln as he shouldered his way passed the half-ogre's thigh and spoke directly to the tree. "Is it Pellham you suggest we go next to fight the taint? If so, where be the mounts you spoke of, it is time we go.""My entreaties to the Horselord have so far gone unanswered," the Great Oak replied. "It will be on the 'morrow at the earliest that your mounts will arrive. Until then, you are welcome to stay in your current quarters.""What about my gold?" the dwarf asked, his axe haft planted between his steel-shod feet."With the vault free of the Galchutt, the goblins will be able to retrieve your reward," The Great Oak said. "You shall have your gold, Karak, son of Kignar.""Well, there is one more small matter of some scattered verse," Ledare added. "Perhaps your great intellect can find sense where we have failed?""OH MY GOD!" Vade shouted, both his eyes and grin were so wide that they seemed ready to stretch right off his face. "I WANT TO TAKE OFF ALL MY CLOTHES AND ROLL AROUND NAKED IN-" He stopped and looked nervously around, realizing suddenly that he was speaking out loud."Did you say something, Vade?" Ixin called in through the ruptured side of the building. She was outside with the goblins who had been arriving steadily onto the scene. She could not see what Vade could see. She knew nothing about the open trapdoor in the floor of the damaged structure. She couldn't see the vault that was hidden below that trapdoor.And she certainly couldn't see the vast mounds of treasure that vault concealed.For a moment, Vade wavered at the edge of the opening in the floor, gazing longingly into the glittering depths below. Then a rare thing happened...He reconsidered."Hey Ixin!" he called over his shoulder. "Get a load of this!""To seal the fate of the Black Queen's doom, First free Beast's twin from Her cold prison tomb, To spill salvation from Her fruitful womb."Ledare lowered the scrap of parchment on which she had transcribed the snippet of poetry and looked up at the Great Oak expectantly. "I think this might have to do with the Grove of Renewal," she suggested. "You previously mentioned Dridana's imprisonment. And 'imprisonment' and 'cold prison tomb' are awfully close.""It seems likely," the tree sighed. "Dridana is the twin to Brogine, God of Beasts."Ledare grinned at the others, pleased that they were finally, it seemed, getting somewhere. "What can you tell us of this idea: freeing beat's twin from her cold prison tomb?" she asked. "Might it have something to do with the Grove of Renewal?""It does," Great Oak said. "Only the Guardians of the Grove - the Nature Seers - know the way to free Dridana.""Perhaps that should be our next course of action?" Ledare pressed. "If you feel we are ready."There was a pause during which the tree's epic branches groaned in the breeze. "I can put you on the path to the Grove if you wish it," Great Oak told her. "But be forewarned, it is a place of testing; only by surviving the rigors of The Purging will you learn the answers you seek. Many who travel there never leave.""Better not tell Karak," Vade chuckled as he and Ixin peered down into the vault of riches he had uncovered. "He would want to trade one of us for it." Ixin grinned at the halfling and stood up."Let's go take a look!" Vade urged and started to clamber down into the treasury."Vade, our first priority is to insure the safety and wellbeing of the goblins," Ixin said, with a disapproving shake of her head. "Let us attend to that task before we plunder any hidden riches."Vade hesitated, looking from Ixin to the vault and back again. "I really want to sneak down there and get something, but I remember what Morier said about being a team... and I'm a little  worried about there being some more frogs in there.""Quite sensible," the drakeling told him and patted his shoulder. "Once we can be satisfied that the goblins are safe and attended to, let us go together to look beyond the trap door. But remember, the items are for us to note my firend, not to take." Vade looked pained by that suggestion."I wonder whose it is?" he asked as Ixin led him reluctantly away from the trapdoor. "If it belonged to the frogs could we take it?""Stealing is a chaotic action," the mage argued. "We can not afford to put more of that into this world." The halfling's expression became even more stricken and he looked longingly back at the hole in the floor - little more than a darker square of shadow in the darkened interior now that they were moving toward the exit. "I want to ask the Great Oak..," he started to say and then laughed at himself. "I don't believe I am asking a tree if I can take treasure. I should write this one down... or, better yet, a song! Karak will love it! Wonder if Great Oak has any paper or a pen?""Perhaps it is best not to discuss paper with the Great Oak," Ixin suggested."Sir Oak, what about the wierd mixy beasts we have been encountering.," Feln spoke up, his voice dripping with humility as he addressed the ancient tree again. "We came across a machine scorpion... it was guardin' a big wizard's lab." He turned to the others and stage whispered, "That's what that was, right?" they nodded and Feln turned back to the Great Oak."Anyway, Oak sir, we was wondering if you knew who might be able to wield that kind of power or heard of anything similar happening in the realm?"The tree creaked as it pondered. "The unnatural fusing of flesh and metal is a common technique of Chaos. Many who crave power are lured to the darkness by the empty promises of chaositech," the tree told them. "But I have not heard of any such betrayals of flesh in recent memory. Still, a druid, Darig, spoke of unnatural mutations arising amidst the animal populations near the Shrouded Lake, and oftentimes the two blasphemies go hand in hand.""Has everyone been accounted for?" Ixin asked Gorguul, and the old gobliness nodded in reply."Three are dead,"she replied in gobbledy. "They were weaker and older than I. They were a drain on our resources. They will not be missed."Ixin was somewhat taken aback by Gorguul's cold demeanor, but she said nothing. She'd witnessed far more callous cruelty on Mid'Gaard. "Do you have any idea who these creatures were or what they wanted?" she asked. "Are there more of them about?""The tree warned us to stay away," the gobliness explained with a shrug. "Tree say that monsters were in hidden room. Too strong for goblins to face. Strangers would deal with monsters.""I see," Ixin replied and spoke loudly so that all the goblins gathered nearby could hear her. Thanks to her magical cutlass, she knew that they would all understand her words. "Friends of Great Oak," she called, "Chaos beings entered this sacred place. We fought and killed them. If there are more, we will kill them too. But now we must re-establish the sanctity of this place. Let us clean it, bury your dead, and tend to the wounded!""Can we check out the treasury now?" Vade asked, tugging insistently on Ixin's cloak.</blockquote>

Verification