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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
The Risen Goddess (Updated 3.10.08)
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Explorer
Thanks, folks. I appreciate the comments and encouragement!
I like the juxtoposition of Epic plots and meta-plotting with gritty low-fantasy detail at the session-to-session level. It's just cool to me when Taran wakes up with a hangover or sore sword-arm in the dungeon where he's trying to return the very constellation of his Goddess back to the heavens.
So the story is epic, but the characters haven't figured out how important they really are yet. They don't know they are (insert fanfare) capital-H heroes.
Except for Indy.
There is always a fanfare playing for Indy in his own mind. His romantic worldview is comedic relief, and makes him a clown, but in the end-- he'll be right! His worldview will be the one with the most truth to it, because it will stand the test of time!
Thelbar is kind of inscrutable, but I believe that he is primarily a problem-solver and really quite humble. He understands that his life is not like the lives of others, and his reluctance to form emotional bonds with non-adventurers stems from his past-life memories (our 2nd edition campaign, to be specific), rather than (as it would appear) elitism.
Taran, on the other hand, is extremely self-entitled (or sword-entitled!) and violent. He's a man that would be in prison in our real world, but in a world with four-armed giant carnivorous apes and even worse monsters, he's your favorite guy to have around. ("Hey, welcome to Sherrybrook. Glad you're here and please don't kill anybody!") But Taran's nature is present-focused. His emotional and mental scope does not really reach beyond the moment, which makes him a deadly combatant, and a lousy king. (Again-- that is a remnant of these character's 2e past-lives emerging.)
Kyreel is a holy woman, and well-suited for an epic story, but she subsumes herself within her faith and devotion. Kyreel doesn't realize that it really is about her.
Indy is the only one who gets that fundamental truth, despite the fact (or maybe because!) he is the clown.
Play on, playa.
I like the juxtoposition of Epic plots and meta-plotting with gritty low-fantasy detail at the session-to-session level. It's just cool to me when Taran wakes up with a hangover or sore sword-arm in the dungeon where he's trying to return the very constellation of his Goddess back to the heavens.
So the story is epic, but the characters haven't figured out how important they really are yet. They don't know they are (insert fanfare) capital-H heroes.
Except for Indy.
There is always a fanfare playing for Indy in his own mind. His romantic worldview is comedic relief, and makes him a clown, but in the end-- he'll be right! His worldview will be the one with the most truth to it, because it will stand the test of time!
Thelbar is kind of inscrutable, but I believe that he is primarily a problem-solver and really quite humble. He understands that his life is not like the lives of others, and his reluctance to form emotional bonds with non-adventurers stems from his past-life memories (our 2nd edition campaign, to be specific), rather than (as it would appear) elitism.
Taran, on the other hand, is extremely self-entitled (or sword-entitled!) and violent. He's a man that would be in prison in our real world, but in a world with four-armed giant carnivorous apes and even worse monsters, he's your favorite guy to have around. ("Hey, welcome to Sherrybrook. Glad you're here and please don't kill anybody!") But Taran's nature is present-focused. His emotional and mental scope does not really reach beyond the moment, which makes him a deadly combatant, and a lousy king. (Again-- that is a remnant of these character's 2e past-lives emerging.)
Kyreel is a holy woman, and well-suited for an epic story, but she subsumes herself within her faith and devotion. Kyreel doesn't realize that it really is about her.
Indy is the only one who gets that fundamental truth, despite the fact (or maybe because!) he is the clown.
Play on, playa.
(contact)
Explorer
37—Feasting is for the Good Guys, Villains just hatch plots over brunch.
For the first time in their young adventuring careers (and hopefully not the last), Kyreel and Indy receive invitations to a party to be held in their honor by the Mercantile Council of Marner. Unfortunately, Lady Evaliegh is unable to attend, but she sends her younger sister Sherrill in her stead, and the evening is spent lauding the heroes efforts to keep Marner a Safe and Prosperous place, despite the workings of rat-men and this bizarre cult. Several of the merchants that were rescued from the deprivations of the wererats give speeches, and re-tell the story of the marketplace fight.
At the climax of the genial feast, the Lady Sherrill presents both Indy and Kyreel with amethyst stones set into gold chains, with the inscription “For Services Rendered to Marner and All Her Citizens, the Gratitude of Ratik”.
As the older folk return to their warm homes, and the younger folk begin the serious drinking, Indy and Kyreel excuse themselves, and start back toward their rented abode, hoping to get an early start on deciphering the Red Wizard’s spellbook in the morning.
Of course, you don’t need three levels of Expert and six ranks in Knowledge (Meteorology) to know that a sudden ice storm can really kill your buzz.
Fortunately, it never ices over during Ratik’s brief summer.
Unfortunately, an ice storm spell still gets the job done.
Indy and Kyreel are walking home, lost in their own thoughts when they are pelted with a withering cone of ice shards and frozen air, emanating from a dark alleyway to their right.
“This sucks!” Indy astutely yelps, as he tumbles free of the frozen hail.
“Indy, to arms!” Kyreel says, proving that she also, has a gift for stating the obvious.
The two adventurers charge into the alleyway, just in time to spot a large, blue skinned giant fleeing deeper into the alley. A few missile attacks and a partial charge later, they are set upon by a trio of rogues leaping out from the shadows.
“Ambush!” Kyreel yells as she summons the Holy Might of Ishlok into her form.
“Death wish!” Indy clarifies, as he slips behind one of the rogues and ends the wretch’s villainous career at the point of his spear.
A vile cloud of clinging malaise manifests around the heroes, threatening to choke the life from the halfling as a cleric bearing the unholy symbol of Hextor appears at the end of an alleyway.
“Really good ambush!” Kyreel yells, and charges the cleric.
Indy sticks close to Kyreel’s side, and uses his slippers of spider climbing and acrobatic skill to flank first one, then another of their shadowy foes. Kyreel does her part, Smiting the cleric several times before he falls, the name of his wicked God on his lips.
The blue-skinned giant proves more than able to match Kyreel blow-for-blow, but cannot match her capability for healing magic, and the would-be ambush turns into a rout.
“This simply will not do,” Kyreel states. “We have apparently been targeted for murder, and we don’t need a diviner to figure out that there is more wickedness plaguing Marner than we thought. Let us rest, and we can investigate further in the morning.”
----------
Morning arrives, as it tends to do, but this morning is greeted with a herald’s cry—the citizens of Marner are to attend the Lady Evaliegh at high-sun for an announcement.
Indy and Kyreel are able to make their way through the gathered crowd in time to hear the Lady of Ratik deliver this pronouncement:
“Good people of Marner”, Evaliegh begins, her words slurred and wooden. “I address you with a heavy heart, standing amid the chaos that plagues our home. Fortunately, we are not without recourse. I have called upon certain allies that can help us restore order to Marner.”
Standing just behind her this whole time is a hooded man, remaining completely still while the Lady drones her way through her speech. If the creature’s hood bulges in places where no man has limbs, no one in the crowd takes notice, so shocked are they by Evaliegh’s words.
“The street fair is over,” the Lady of Ratik continues. “The gates to the city will be closed. No traffic is to enter or leave our city, upon punishment of death.”
“Who has an ‘overactive imagination’ now?” Indy thinks to himself, as he is already plotting a stirring new revolutionary tract.
The Lady Evaliegh continues. “The carrying of weapons is banned, upon punishment of death. A sundown curfew is in effect, upon punishment of death. All these edicts are to take effect immediately.”
As the final words are spoken, a strange figure appears atop the Keep—a humanoid, easily larger than any man, emaciated and skeletal with fiery red eyes, and a scorpion’s stinger protruding from its backside! The creature seethes with malice, and seems to dim the sun’s light around itself. A fiend to be sure.
“There’s a fiend on the tower!” Indy yelps.
“Not for long,” Kyreel says, as the duo leap into action.
Kyreel swiftly casts a series of protective spells over herself and her companion, warding them against Evil in the name of Ishlok. Indy spider climbs up the wall, and Kyreel sips a potion of the same name, recently taken from one of the failed ambushers.
Within seconds, the adventurers are upon the osyluth, and Kyreel Smites the fiend, while Indy delivers a telling sneak attack. The osyluth screeches once in frustration, and lashes out. It discovers that its foes are swift—its stinger fails to reach its target. Indy and Kyreel do not give it a second chance, and dispatch the thing, flinging its body from the tower, in front of the assembled crowd.
Kyreel addresses the gathered townsfolk, who are staring mouths agape at the unimaginable scene unfolding before their eyes.
“People of Marner,” she begins. “Dark winds are blowing, but we will not be cowed! Entities of Evil are working among us—do not submit to their tyranny! If we stand together we cannot fail! Return to your homes, and protect your loved ones. In the name of Ishlok the Guardian, I will not permit this wickedness to prosper!”
By the time she has finished with her speech, Indy has located the trap door leading into the castle itself. The duo race inside, and are confronted on the second floor by a half-dozen hobgoblins, led by a particularly foul-looking half-orc. After an initial flurry of blows drops three of the mercenaries, the survivors flee through a stairwell, with Indy and Kyreel hot on their heels.
In the main antechamber off of the balcony the Lady was speaking from, the hobgoblins have retreated into the arms of their reinforcements: a wicked looking human warrior holds the leashes of several fiendish-looking great cats, and the shadowy figure attending the lady pulls back its hood, revealing a face full of squirming tentacles.
As the duo assess their foes, they are suddenly fixated by the hypnotically waving tentacles. A mind-numbing wave of will washes over them, commanding them to submit to the new order. The mental command emanates from the squid-faced figure, and only the grace of Ishlok grants the adventurers the meager comfort of their own determination.
Indy races up a side wall, around the charging hobgoblins, and attacks them from their rear. Kyreel, for her part, lays into her foes, slowly grinding them down, but as the hobgoblins prove unable to face the adventurers in melee, the fiendish predators leap forward, cutting through the cleric’s armor, and rending the rogue.
Indy and Kyreel are forced back, and manage to take shelter in a doorway, forcing their foes to enter a killing zone as they bottleneck before the opening. Their enemies hang back, and that provides an opportunity to slam and bar the door, as Kyreel invokes Ishlok’s Seven Holy Names to cure the duo’s wounds.
While she is curing, her enemies smash at the door, shattering its bar and reducing it to splinters. But all their efforts have only brought them face-to-face with an unwounded pair of determined heroes, who wade back into the fray with deadly efficiency. By now, Indy and Kyreel have learned to fight as a team, with Kyreel’s muscle setting up their foes for Indy’s oblique attacks.
In a matter of seconds, the tide has turned, the fiendish cats are dead, and the shadowy figure has fled the scene, leaving the Lady Evaliegh slumped on the ground, comatose.
But the heroes of Marner are not willing to count their victory won just yet, and they pursue the horrific creature up a second set of stairs, and out onto another tower-top.
The mind-flayer is nowhere to be seen, however, and the pursuit stops cold.
“Where the,” Indy begins but he is cut off by a terrifying wave of sheer malice that tears through his mind, and worms its way into the heart of him, suppressing his courage and readying his will.
The duo turn to find the mind-flayer hovering in mid-air ten feet from the edge of the tower, out over the assembled crowd. A chill laughter resonates through the minds of the heroes as they regard the levitating beast.
“You will die here, know this much.” The thing seethes into their thoughts. “I am as patient as a stream cutting through a mountain, and I will prevail. Grovel before you die, you flesh-bound thought cattle.”
Kyreel makes a small noise in the base of her throat that rises in volume to become a hoarse scream. She charges the edge of the tower, and launches herself into space, directly at the mind-flayer. She seizes hold of the abomination’s waist, and her weight is too much for it to bear. The tentacled abomination and holy warrior plummet together toward the ground.
For the first time in their young adventuring careers (and hopefully not the last), Kyreel and Indy receive invitations to a party to be held in their honor by the Mercantile Council of Marner. Unfortunately, Lady Evaliegh is unable to attend, but she sends her younger sister Sherrill in her stead, and the evening is spent lauding the heroes efforts to keep Marner a Safe and Prosperous place, despite the workings of rat-men and this bizarre cult. Several of the merchants that were rescued from the deprivations of the wererats give speeches, and re-tell the story of the marketplace fight.
At the climax of the genial feast, the Lady Sherrill presents both Indy and Kyreel with amethyst stones set into gold chains, with the inscription “For Services Rendered to Marner and All Her Citizens, the Gratitude of Ratik”.
As the older folk return to their warm homes, and the younger folk begin the serious drinking, Indy and Kyreel excuse themselves, and start back toward their rented abode, hoping to get an early start on deciphering the Red Wizard’s spellbook in the morning.
Of course, you don’t need three levels of Expert and six ranks in Knowledge (Meteorology) to know that a sudden ice storm can really kill your buzz.
Fortunately, it never ices over during Ratik’s brief summer.
Unfortunately, an ice storm spell still gets the job done.
Indy and Kyreel are walking home, lost in their own thoughts when they are pelted with a withering cone of ice shards and frozen air, emanating from a dark alleyway to their right.
“This sucks!” Indy astutely yelps, as he tumbles free of the frozen hail.
“Indy, to arms!” Kyreel says, proving that she also, has a gift for stating the obvious.
The two adventurers charge into the alleyway, just in time to spot a large, blue skinned giant fleeing deeper into the alley. A few missile attacks and a partial charge later, they are set upon by a trio of rogues leaping out from the shadows.
“Ambush!” Kyreel yells as she summons the Holy Might of Ishlok into her form.
“Death wish!” Indy clarifies, as he slips behind one of the rogues and ends the wretch’s villainous career at the point of his spear.
A vile cloud of clinging malaise manifests around the heroes, threatening to choke the life from the halfling as a cleric bearing the unholy symbol of Hextor appears at the end of an alleyway.
“Really good ambush!” Kyreel yells, and charges the cleric.
Indy sticks close to Kyreel’s side, and uses his slippers of spider climbing and acrobatic skill to flank first one, then another of their shadowy foes. Kyreel does her part, Smiting the cleric several times before he falls, the name of his wicked God on his lips.
The blue-skinned giant proves more than able to match Kyreel blow-for-blow, but cannot match her capability for healing magic, and the would-be ambush turns into a rout.
“This simply will not do,” Kyreel states. “We have apparently been targeted for murder, and we don’t need a diviner to figure out that there is more wickedness plaguing Marner than we thought. Let us rest, and we can investigate further in the morning.”
----------
Morning arrives, as it tends to do, but this morning is greeted with a herald’s cry—the citizens of Marner are to attend the Lady Evaliegh at high-sun for an announcement.
Indy and Kyreel are able to make their way through the gathered crowd in time to hear the Lady of Ratik deliver this pronouncement:
“Good people of Marner”, Evaliegh begins, her words slurred and wooden. “I address you with a heavy heart, standing amid the chaos that plagues our home. Fortunately, we are not without recourse. I have called upon certain allies that can help us restore order to Marner.”
Standing just behind her this whole time is a hooded man, remaining completely still while the Lady drones her way through her speech. If the creature’s hood bulges in places where no man has limbs, no one in the crowd takes notice, so shocked are they by Evaliegh’s words.
“The street fair is over,” the Lady of Ratik continues. “The gates to the city will be closed. No traffic is to enter or leave our city, upon punishment of death.”
“Who has an ‘overactive imagination’ now?” Indy thinks to himself, as he is already plotting a stirring new revolutionary tract.
The Lady Evaliegh continues. “The carrying of weapons is banned, upon punishment of death. A sundown curfew is in effect, upon punishment of death. All these edicts are to take effect immediately.”
As the final words are spoken, a strange figure appears atop the Keep—a humanoid, easily larger than any man, emaciated and skeletal with fiery red eyes, and a scorpion’s stinger protruding from its backside! The creature seethes with malice, and seems to dim the sun’s light around itself. A fiend to be sure.
“There’s a fiend on the tower!” Indy yelps.
“Not for long,” Kyreel says, as the duo leap into action.
Kyreel swiftly casts a series of protective spells over herself and her companion, warding them against Evil in the name of Ishlok. Indy spider climbs up the wall, and Kyreel sips a potion of the same name, recently taken from one of the failed ambushers.
Within seconds, the adventurers are upon the osyluth, and Kyreel Smites the fiend, while Indy delivers a telling sneak attack. The osyluth screeches once in frustration, and lashes out. It discovers that its foes are swift—its stinger fails to reach its target. Indy and Kyreel do not give it a second chance, and dispatch the thing, flinging its body from the tower, in front of the assembled crowd.
Kyreel addresses the gathered townsfolk, who are staring mouths agape at the unimaginable scene unfolding before their eyes.
“People of Marner,” she begins. “Dark winds are blowing, but we will not be cowed! Entities of Evil are working among us—do not submit to their tyranny! If we stand together we cannot fail! Return to your homes, and protect your loved ones. In the name of Ishlok the Guardian, I will not permit this wickedness to prosper!”
By the time she has finished with her speech, Indy has located the trap door leading into the castle itself. The duo race inside, and are confronted on the second floor by a half-dozen hobgoblins, led by a particularly foul-looking half-orc. After an initial flurry of blows drops three of the mercenaries, the survivors flee through a stairwell, with Indy and Kyreel hot on their heels.
In the main antechamber off of the balcony the Lady was speaking from, the hobgoblins have retreated into the arms of their reinforcements: a wicked looking human warrior holds the leashes of several fiendish-looking great cats, and the shadowy figure attending the lady pulls back its hood, revealing a face full of squirming tentacles.
As the duo assess their foes, they are suddenly fixated by the hypnotically waving tentacles. A mind-numbing wave of will washes over them, commanding them to submit to the new order. The mental command emanates from the squid-faced figure, and only the grace of Ishlok grants the adventurers the meager comfort of their own determination.
Indy races up a side wall, around the charging hobgoblins, and attacks them from their rear. Kyreel, for her part, lays into her foes, slowly grinding them down, but as the hobgoblins prove unable to face the adventurers in melee, the fiendish predators leap forward, cutting through the cleric’s armor, and rending the rogue.
Indy and Kyreel are forced back, and manage to take shelter in a doorway, forcing their foes to enter a killing zone as they bottleneck before the opening. Their enemies hang back, and that provides an opportunity to slam and bar the door, as Kyreel invokes Ishlok’s Seven Holy Names to cure the duo’s wounds.
While she is curing, her enemies smash at the door, shattering its bar and reducing it to splinters. But all their efforts have only brought them face-to-face with an unwounded pair of determined heroes, who wade back into the fray with deadly efficiency. By now, Indy and Kyreel have learned to fight as a team, with Kyreel’s muscle setting up their foes for Indy’s oblique attacks.
In a matter of seconds, the tide has turned, the fiendish cats are dead, and the shadowy figure has fled the scene, leaving the Lady Evaliegh slumped on the ground, comatose.
But the heroes of Marner are not willing to count their victory won just yet, and they pursue the horrific creature up a second set of stairs, and out onto another tower-top.
The mind-flayer is nowhere to be seen, however, and the pursuit stops cold.
“Where the,” Indy begins but he is cut off by a terrifying wave of sheer malice that tears through his mind, and worms its way into the heart of him, suppressing his courage and readying his will.
The duo turn to find the mind-flayer hovering in mid-air ten feet from the edge of the tower, out over the assembled crowd. A chill laughter resonates through the minds of the heroes as they regard the levitating beast.
“You will die here, know this much.” The thing seethes into their thoughts. “I am as patient as a stream cutting through a mountain, and I will prevail. Grovel before you die, you flesh-bound thought cattle.”
Kyreel makes a small noise in the base of her throat that rises in volume to become a hoarse scream. She charges the edge of the tower, and launches herself into space, directly at the mind-flayer. She seizes hold of the abomination’s waist, and her weight is too much for it to bear. The tentacled abomination and holy warrior plummet together toward the ground.
KidCthulhu
First Post
Flesh-bound thought cattle. Nice image.
(contact)
Explorer
Interlude—A Loss, a Council and a Pardon.
Indy rushes down the stairs and out into the noonday crowd, which has gathered at a cautious distance from the crumpled bodies of Kyreel and her illithid victim. For the first time in this life, Indy breathes a sincere prayer to the Goddess Ishlok—asking Her to spare the life of his companion. The fact that his prayer is primarily motivated by his selfish desire not to be left companionless in this world does not seem to deter the Mother, because as the last beseeching vowel is leaving his lips, Kyreel stirs.
“Indy,” she breathes.
“I’m here! Goddess be praised, you’re . . .” Indy finishes his sentence with a high-pitched yelp as he notices the mind-flayer’s tentacles twitch.
Kyreel rolls away from the thing as Indy drives his spear into its bulbous and pulpy head.
“I’m well enough, thank you for asking,” Kyreel says as she cures herself as best she can. “Let us see to Evaleigh.”
“Gods and Shards! My lady-love! I must fly to her side Kyreel, to be embraced as the conquering hero! Surely we can be united!”
Before Kyreel can protest, and attempt to hold Indy to his bargain, the diminutive rogue charges back into the lord’s tower, pushing thorough the crowds gathering around the door. Indy leaps over the bleeding bodies of his recent foes and dashes to Evaliegh’s side!
“Oh, Joy, thy name is Love, and Love thy name is Evaliegh,” Indy says to himself as he regards the beautiful and blank-faced Lady who slumps where she was last seen. And Evaliegh thy name is mind-wiped. Nothing Indy can do is able to attract the attention of the Lady of Ratik. She breathes and blinks and that is all.
Indy races downstairs, tears streaming from his face. “Oh, Kyreel!” he squeaks. “Whatever shall I do? My Lady has had the better part of her taken by this . . .” he motions toward the mind-flayer corpse “this fiend!”
“Raped?” Kyreel asks.
“No, worse! Her mind is gone. Whatever shall I do?”
Kyreel attempts to heal the Lady, but cannot return the spark of intelligence to her eyes. The clerics of Pelor can do no better, and despite their true status as heroes in Marner, Indy and Kyreel are downcast.
Kyreel determines that it is time to end her charade, and reveals to Sherrill her true form. Over the next few days, Lady Sherrill takes Kyreel into her confidence, and the wise Paladin of Ishlok lovingly guides the trembling hand of the newly-made Lady of Ratik, easing her worries and pleasing her greatly.
Within a week, an announcement is made that the Ratik Five are to be given a complete pardon for all crimes known and unknown within the lands of Ratik.
Vindicated at last, Indy holds a finally tearful meeting with his cell of bardic revolutionaries, and formally disbands the revolution. He explains that he has moved on, and they should do the same.
“Now,” he thinks to himself, “there is nothing standing in between Evaliegh and I, or our hopes of marriage. Save of course, for the whole completely without a conscious mind thing”. Indy paces in the night, half-heartedly threatening female passersby with his jewel-studded cane. “But her healthy return is beyond me. Thelbar would know what to do, and if not, he could find someone who might. It’s time to go back through that portal."
Indy rushes down the stairs and out into the noonday crowd, which has gathered at a cautious distance from the crumpled bodies of Kyreel and her illithid victim. For the first time in this life, Indy breathes a sincere prayer to the Goddess Ishlok—asking Her to spare the life of his companion. The fact that his prayer is primarily motivated by his selfish desire not to be left companionless in this world does not seem to deter the Mother, because as the last beseeching vowel is leaving his lips, Kyreel stirs.
“Indy,” she breathes.
“I’m here! Goddess be praised, you’re . . .” Indy finishes his sentence with a high-pitched yelp as he notices the mind-flayer’s tentacles twitch.
Kyreel rolls away from the thing as Indy drives his spear into its bulbous and pulpy head.
“I’m well enough, thank you for asking,” Kyreel says as she cures herself as best she can. “Let us see to Evaleigh.”
“Gods and Shards! My lady-love! I must fly to her side Kyreel, to be embraced as the conquering hero! Surely we can be united!”
Before Kyreel can protest, and attempt to hold Indy to his bargain, the diminutive rogue charges back into the lord’s tower, pushing thorough the crowds gathering around the door. Indy leaps over the bleeding bodies of his recent foes and dashes to Evaliegh’s side!
“Oh, Joy, thy name is Love, and Love thy name is Evaliegh,” Indy says to himself as he regards the beautiful and blank-faced Lady who slumps where she was last seen. And Evaliegh thy name is mind-wiped. Nothing Indy can do is able to attract the attention of the Lady of Ratik. She breathes and blinks and that is all.
Indy races downstairs, tears streaming from his face. “Oh, Kyreel!” he squeaks. “Whatever shall I do? My Lady has had the better part of her taken by this . . .” he motions toward the mind-flayer corpse “this fiend!”
“Raped?” Kyreel asks.
“No, worse! Her mind is gone. Whatever shall I do?”
Kyreel attempts to heal the Lady, but cannot return the spark of intelligence to her eyes. The clerics of Pelor can do no better, and despite their true status as heroes in Marner, Indy and Kyreel are downcast.
Kyreel determines that it is time to end her charade, and reveals to Sherrill her true form. Over the next few days, Lady Sherrill takes Kyreel into her confidence, and the wise Paladin of Ishlok lovingly guides the trembling hand of the newly-made Lady of Ratik, easing her worries and pleasing her greatly.
Within a week, an announcement is made that the Ratik Five are to be given a complete pardon for all crimes known and unknown within the lands of Ratik.
Vindicated at last, Indy holds a finally tearful meeting with his cell of bardic revolutionaries, and formally disbands the revolution. He explains that he has moved on, and they should do the same.
“Now,” he thinks to himself, “there is nothing standing in between Evaliegh and I, or our hopes of marriage. Save of course, for the whole completely without a conscious mind thing”. Indy paces in the night, half-heartedly threatening female passersby with his jewel-studded cane. “But her healthy return is beyond me. Thelbar would know what to do, and if not, he could find someone who might. It’s time to go back through that portal."
(contact)
Explorer
Chapter 38
38-Forest treasures, friends and foes.
Previously: Having made contact with a High Priest of Labelas Enorath, Elven God of the Hunt, Taran and Thelbar learn about Labelas Enorath's disobedience. The Elven Hunter God kept Palatin Eremath's stars hidden when they were to be destroyed, and has also kept her last temple from the eyes of mortal and God alike, in the Star Mountains, rising from the depths of the High Forest. The duo have the Star of Palatin Eremath in their possession, won from the clutches of Undermountain, and travel to Her temple, to set her stars back into the night sky, and serve notice to the world that the Risen Goddess has returned to the affairs of mortal men.
Equipped with Elven trail-food and information, Taran, Thelbar, Juron and Glim take their leave of Labelas Enorath's high priest and journey north, resting for a time in Loudwater, before undertaking a wilderness trek to search for Palatin Eremath's sole remaining temple.
While in Loudwater, a frontier-town on the verge of the High Forest's untracked wilderness, they share dinner with an unlikely trio of dinner companions-elves dedicated to Corellon Larethian, wanderers like themselves, drawn to the region at the summons of their God. Taran's sword-hand sweats and twitches as the dinner progresses, but the elves don't seem to realize that the humans they are chatting with are in fact the agents they have been sent to neutralize.
The elves claim that the High Forest was once the center of a great elven empire, and at the direction of Corellon Larethian Himself is to be made into one again. They share rumors about an ancient green dragon by the name of Eelacrimalicros, the primary (in their assessment) obstacle to an elven colony in the region.
The following morning, the group obtains the services of a local guide, said to know as much of the High Forest as anyone in town. The man gives his name as Andruthar, but is quickly dubbed "Stinky" for his repugnant odor.
Stinky tells the party that many threats lie between them and their goal, hunting wyverns and manticores the least of them. A band of giants calling themselves a kingdom prowls the forest, organized under the rulership of King Kovas, the Fire Tyrant. Thelbar assures Stinky that should they encounter giants, of course the group will act with all necessary caution. Taran laughs under his breath and makes the Ishlokian gesture for Tsun-- ritual murder. Stinky understands the gist of the sign, if not its meaning, and frowns darkly.
The next morning, the band sets off, and Taran and Stinky engage in a bickering rivalry about woodscraft and trackers-lore. Juron makes an attempt at levity, asking how many rangers does it take to track a bear, but the scowl he receives for his trouble makes him drop the punch-line.
After half a day's journey, the way becomes so rough, that not even the most hardy among them have the energy for joking. It is hard going, and even with an experienced guide, the group is forced to backtrack on numerous occasions.
Two days into their slow ascent to the Star Mounts, the group encounters a centaur, who knows Stinky well, and uses his proper name (which by this time Taran has forgotten). The centaur takes the measure of the group with a few pointed questions, and liking what he hears, invites them to join him in his community.
But to the surprise of everyone, his "community" proves not to be a centaur clan, but a well-camouflaged village of dark elves, nestled within a massive old-growth grove! The party's experience with good-aligned drow in Undermountain, along with the doctrines of Palatin Eremath have prepared them well for such a strange sight, and without any sign of hostility or fear, the Champions of the Risen Goddess approach the shy elves.
The village elders receive the outsiders with open arms, feasting them in the elvish fashion, and proving that they cling more closely to ancient tradition than do even some groups of surface elves. They identify themselves as House Drelar Daergeth, and call themselves "moon elves". It is no coincidence that these elves live in this most ancient of Faerunian forests, and they claim to keep the true old ways.
In ancient times, they tell the group, there were moon elves and sun elves-night and day but not evil and good. Lolth was a goddess of the moon elves, and when she lost the war, her followers were banished along with her. But this clan did not venerate Lolth, and remained here in their ancestral home, unwelcome amongst their kin, and unseen by other races.
The elders are intrigued by Thelbar's explanation of Palatin Eremath, and tell the group that they are aware of a structure that fits the description of the Risen Goddess' former temple. They also say that terrible things live there, flying sorcerers and fiends. Worse yet (or best yet, if you're Taran), the most direct route to the valley that shelters the temple is through the home of the fire giant king Kovas.
Stinky appears terrified at this news, then simply panicked at the look in Taran's eyes. Thelbar speaks calmly, soothing the scout. "Don't worry, Andruthar," Thelbar coos. "We don't expect you to beard Kovas in his lair. Lead us to him, and we will pay you twice what was agreed. Then you will be free to go about your way."
Stinky squints at Thelbar. "And what are you going to do? March through the halls of the fire giant king? He will never grant you passage. As long as there are giants alive in there, they'll resist you."
"Yeah," Taran says, pulling his chair close to Stinky, and grinning ear to ear. "That's the plan."
38-Forest treasures, friends and foes.
Previously: Having made contact with a High Priest of Labelas Enorath, Elven God of the Hunt, Taran and Thelbar learn about Labelas Enorath's disobedience. The Elven Hunter God kept Palatin Eremath's stars hidden when they were to be destroyed, and has also kept her last temple from the eyes of mortal and God alike, in the Star Mountains, rising from the depths of the High Forest. The duo have the Star of Palatin Eremath in their possession, won from the clutches of Undermountain, and travel to Her temple, to set her stars back into the night sky, and serve notice to the world that the Risen Goddess has returned to the affairs of mortal men.
Equipped with Elven trail-food and information, Taran, Thelbar, Juron and Glim take their leave of Labelas Enorath's high priest and journey north, resting for a time in Loudwater, before undertaking a wilderness trek to search for Palatin Eremath's sole remaining temple.
While in Loudwater, a frontier-town on the verge of the High Forest's untracked wilderness, they share dinner with an unlikely trio of dinner companions-elves dedicated to Corellon Larethian, wanderers like themselves, drawn to the region at the summons of their God. Taran's sword-hand sweats and twitches as the dinner progresses, but the elves don't seem to realize that the humans they are chatting with are in fact the agents they have been sent to neutralize.
The elves claim that the High Forest was once the center of a great elven empire, and at the direction of Corellon Larethian Himself is to be made into one again. They share rumors about an ancient green dragon by the name of Eelacrimalicros, the primary (in their assessment) obstacle to an elven colony in the region.
The following morning, the group obtains the services of a local guide, said to know as much of the High Forest as anyone in town. The man gives his name as Andruthar, but is quickly dubbed "Stinky" for his repugnant odor.
Stinky tells the party that many threats lie between them and their goal, hunting wyverns and manticores the least of them. A band of giants calling themselves a kingdom prowls the forest, organized under the rulership of King Kovas, the Fire Tyrant. Thelbar assures Stinky that should they encounter giants, of course the group will act with all necessary caution. Taran laughs under his breath and makes the Ishlokian gesture for Tsun-- ritual murder. Stinky understands the gist of the sign, if not its meaning, and frowns darkly.
The next morning, the band sets off, and Taran and Stinky engage in a bickering rivalry about woodscraft and trackers-lore. Juron makes an attempt at levity, asking how many rangers does it take to track a bear, but the scowl he receives for his trouble makes him drop the punch-line.
After half a day's journey, the way becomes so rough, that not even the most hardy among them have the energy for joking. It is hard going, and even with an experienced guide, the group is forced to backtrack on numerous occasions.
Two days into their slow ascent to the Star Mounts, the group encounters a centaur, who knows Stinky well, and uses his proper name (which by this time Taran has forgotten). The centaur takes the measure of the group with a few pointed questions, and liking what he hears, invites them to join him in his community.
But to the surprise of everyone, his "community" proves not to be a centaur clan, but a well-camouflaged village of dark elves, nestled within a massive old-growth grove! The party's experience with good-aligned drow in Undermountain, along with the doctrines of Palatin Eremath have prepared them well for such a strange sight, and without any sign of hostility or fear, the Champions of the Risen Goddess approach the shy elves.
The village elders receive the outsiders with open arms, feasting them in the elvish fashion, and proving that they cling more closely to ancient tradition than do even some groups of surface elves. They identify themselves as House Drelar Daergeth, and call themselves "moon elves". It is no coincidence that these elves live in this most ancient of Faerunian forests, and they claim to keep the true old ways.
In ancient times, they tell the group, there were moon elves and sun elves-night and day but not evil and good. Lolth was a goddess of the moon elves, and when she lost the war, her followers were banished along with her. But this clan did not venerate Lolth, and remained here in their ancestral home, unwelcome amongst their kin, and unseen by other races.
The elders are intrigued by Thelbar's explanation of Palatin Eremath, and tell the group that they are aware of a structure that fits the description of the Risen Goddess' former temple. They also say that terrible things live there, flying sorcerers and fiends. Worse yet (or best yet, if you're Taran), the most direct route to the valley that shelters the temple is through the home of the fire giant king Kovas.
Stinky appears terrified at this news, then simply panicked at the look in Taran's eyes. Thelbar speaks calmly, soothing the scout. "Don't worry, Andruthar," Thelbar coos. "We don't expect you to beard Kovas in his lair. Lead us to him, and we will pay you twice what was agreed. Then you will be free to go about your way."
Stinky squints at Thelbar. "And what are you going to do? March through the halls of the fire giant king? He will never grant you passage. As long as there are giants alive in there, they'll resist you."
"Yeah," Taran says, pulling his chair close to Stinky, and grinning ear to ear. "That's the plan."
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