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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruined" data-source="post: 1303963" data-attributes="member: 113">13th of Chardot, yr. 150 A.V., continued Gerad and Liam dragged Blackwater’s limp form from the stables into the wine fields. Gerad spotted workers in the fields that nodded their heads at his passing. Luckily Blackwater’s body was obscured by the rows of vines. They eventually stopped at a place far enough away from any stray workers. “I’d prefer to have it so he doesn’t see my face,” Liam said as he bound the unconscious man’s wrists. Gerad nodded. A few light kicks from Gerad’s boot brought Blackwater awake. He started once he realized that he lay in a field. “Wait… wha, what happened?” Gerad reached down and cuffed the man. It shocked him awake and set the pace for the questioning. “I have questions and you will answer. If you lie to me or scream out for help, I will kill you.” Gerad looked from Blackwater’s eyes down to his own sword. The man’s eyes could not help but follow. “What do you know about me and my visit here to Oakdale? “You do remember me and my lady friends?” The frightened man nodded. “Yes, you came into town with some lovelies.” “Forget them. Forget about us. Anyone comes asking about us, you tell them nothing. We were never here,” Gerad said, leveling the blade at his throat. “If you speak of us, I’ll paint those stables with your blood.” Blackwater paled considerably at the threat, then nodded anxiously. Gerad was satisfied, but Liam spoke after a moment. “He’s already told someone.” Blackwater tried to scramble around at the voice, not realizing that Liam was nearby. “How do you know?” Gerad asked, looking at the halfling. “A gut feeling. Somehow, he found someone to sell your information to.” As Liam talked, Blackwater’s face dropped in shock and protest. “Is this true?” Gerad demanded, returning the sword to Blackwater’s throat. “Well, I…” “Answer me!” “Yes, yes. There’s a bounty hunter called Thrain — A big Albadian. He paid well, and he was real convincing, much like yourself.” Blackwater managed a feeble smile.“What did you tell him?” “He had asked for you before you came to town. I let him know you were here and where you were staying. That’s all, I swear by Hedrada’s law!” “Damn!” Gerad paced around, trying to decide what to do with Blackwater. If he was afraid of this bounty hunter, then he would likely speak of this conversation when pressed. The man was a liability, and he had already caused problems for Gerad and his companions. Perhaps he should just kill him. Liam must have sensed this. “Send him away, out of town,” he said in a low voice, moving where Blackwater could better see him. “We could just kill him and be done with it,” Gerad said, quickly playing along with Liam’s idea. “No, no, sirs. I can keep my silence, not a problem,” Blackwater said, trying to squirm away from Gerad’s sword. “You’ve caused us nothing but problems, Blackwater. We can’t trust you here.” “I do like the man,” Liam said, offering a smile to Blackwater. “If you could exact a promise from him and send him out of town, that might work.” Blackwater’s face brightened. “Oh yes sir! I can leave straight away, and never a word about you or your ladies.” Gerad knelt down before the man with his sword still at the ready. “I have you on your promise: not a word. If my friends or I ever see you again, remember my words.” Blackwater nodded slowly. Gerad lowered the blade and cut the bonds at his hands, then his feet. Without another word, Blackwater was off across the vineyard. “So did Marus teach you to be so brutal?” Liam asked as they watched the man run across the field. “No,” Gerad answered. “It was Calastia.”***The elven druid’s name was Solenus. He led Surielle and Tréan back to a small clearing deeper within the forest. A trio of trees dominated one end of the clearing, reaching together to form a crude canopy the druid used for shelter. Surielle noted that the life here was healthier than what they had seen elsewhere. “You tend her forests well here,” she said. “It is not nearly enough,” Solenus replied. “I have carved out a small place on the fringes of the Broadreach. Years have been spent to achieve this, and it is nothing compared to the taint which must be cleansed.” “Take heart,” Surielle said. “The burden is not yours to bear alone.” The elf looked at the women before him and sighed. “It is an easy thing to say, but I was there when the titaness fell…” Tréan and Surielle stopped and looked at Solenus with shock. He had been in the forest when Mormo had fallen at the hands of the gods! At Solenus’ request, the three sat on the forest floor and listened as he gave his tale. Solenus had lived in the Broadreach for many years before the coming of the Divine War. When Denev had asked for the assistance of her druidic servants, he and many others had answered the call, fighting primarily against the asaatthi that invaded on behalf of Mormo, Denev’s serpentine sister. The gods fought together against the Lady of Serpents, stopping her near the Broadreach. As she fell, she uttered a curse against her sister and her servants. Her poisonous ichor sunk deep into the grounds of the forest, blighting flora and twisting fauna. The battle for the forest, later to be called the Hornsaw, raged on for years after Mormo’s fall. Eventually the elves decided upon a course of action that would change them forever. Solenus and others enacted a ritual that transformed them into great trees so that they could bond with the land and attempt to heal it with Denev’s fading strength. In the century that he remained rooted to that spot, the druids endured much and actually helped the forest. But as Solenus has said before, it was not enough. “Your faith keeps you strong after all those years. If all of your people are as strong as you, I have no fear that the forest will be reclaimed in time,” Tréan said. Solenus managed a smile. “We hope as much, although the path is difficult.” Surielle had politely held her questions during the tale, but now she yearned for answers. “Solenus, you said you knew of my mother…” “Ah, my apologies. I have not spoken with anyone in months. Yes, I met Amara when I first took this post some sixteen years ago. You bear her resemblance greatly.” “There were a group of powerful servants of Denev that gathered here, your mother included. They had a quest deep within the heart of the Hornsaw where the foulest corruption lies. I had been asked to take the post of the previous guardian, Laremarche.” Solenus looked away from Surielle, growing silent. “And when they returned, what path did Amara take?” Solenus did not answer. She could feel the dread creep up her spine. “Solenus?” He finally turned to face Surielle. The look in his eyes told her exactly what she feared. “She did not return. In fact, only one did. I am sorry, Surielle.” Surielle was overwhelmed. The life she had pursued, in fact her entire reason for embracing the path of Denev, was an effort to find the mother she had never known. And she lay dead in the Hornsaw Forest? It was too much for her to grasp. Everything blurred, and before she could stop herself, she was sobbing in Tréan’s arms. Snowmelt, also sensing her grief, moved up and nuzzled at her side. A few minutes later, she regained her composure and asked one more question. “What of the one who survived? What did they say?” “She was wounded and terrified when she emerged from the Hornsaw. We did not speak of it, given her fragile state. I can endeavor to contact her and see if she will give you audience.” “Thank you Solenus,” Surielle said, wiping an errant tear from her cheek. “I will do what I can. Come to me on the morrow and we will speak more.”***Tréan, Surielle and Snowmelt took a different path out of the forest shown to them by Solenus. Surielle was very quiet on the trip, obviously wrestling with the choices she had made over the years. Tréan did not fault her. She too harbored a desire to know her own parents, but she had long pushed those thoughts from her mind. Would Surielle continue to travel with her and Gerad, or would she leave now that she knew of her mother’s fate? Tréan hated feeling selfish about this, but she wanted Surielle to stay. She had been a close friend and a fearless ally in their time together.As they crested a hill outside of the forest, a familiar man moved into sight, heading in their direction. Tobus Blackwater. He had a large rucksack draped over one shoulder that caused him to stagger. As he moved closer, he saw the women and flashed a smile.Then his smile cracked and he nearly dropped his rucksack. Tréan could clearly see the fear in his eyes. He turned and fled from the women, losing his footing a few yards away. Blackwater cried out as he fell, and then quickly scrambled to his feet and sprinted across the vineyards.“I wonder what that’s all about?”  Surielle asked.“I’m sure I can guess,” Tréan replied.They laughed and continued back to Kelkarrin’s tower.</blockquote>

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