The Forbidden Land of Sundara: Insurgency IC

[miinstrel]

El'gor'an and Shenra kept to the back roads as they delivered the weary bundles to their parents. The reunions were wonderful. This was hope. Hope that this was just a bad dream, the city sleeping through the darkness. It would awaken again soon and wipe the small hardened flecks of the Order that had accumulated around its eyes. These faces had similarly come to the end of their own personal nightmare. He could relate. Until only yesterday his father had been lost to him, but now he could hear him, speaking through the dream. "Wake up, son. It's time," the voice said.

He humbly refused their offerings as payment for his service. The only payment he wanted was blood upon his blade. It would take many lives to make up for the quality of the few take from him. No coin or jewelry or silken shirts could fill that hole, but it wasn't dark and empty... simply inevitable. "We have done a good thing this day," he said quietly to Shenra as the last child clung instinctively to his mother. El'gor'an angled his head only slightly toward Shenra and spoke in a reverent tone, a sense of peace in his words. "If nothing else good comes of this war, this joy is more intense than any they are likely to feel in their lifetime. How lucky are we to be the givers of such a gift." He adopted a more obvious smile and demeanor as the father came forward with a handshake and a hug.

***

It would be a few hours until the others returned from their visit to the watcher of the woods. Perhaps he had time for a personal errand that had been nagging at him since yesterday. That merchant said his father was in the green zone now. Heavily guarded that part of the city was. Still... he was quick and had a better command of the branches and vines than... well really anyone he'd ever met. He could risk a closer view. "Shenra, I have a personal matter to attend to near the green zone. You may join me if you wish, but a quickness in the trees may be needed. I will not leave if you are uncomfortable alone given yesterday's events though."

[Vertharrad]

Katria

Gathering together the information to try and present it in a concise manner she takes her time before starting. Katria looks into the great tree's eyes. "The Spirit That Walks Asunder I'm Katria and this is Branna. We seek your wisdom and guidance in a matter that concerns one of the fey. We recently found a dryad in Kiiska that was using elven children and blood magic to sustain herself after her tree had died. We found her and the tree in a cave under the undercity. Is there any way we can reinvigorate the tree and move it out of the city? If impossible is there any alternative to sustain her that wouldn't include taking the life essence from another person?"

[Plushie Arz]

KATRIA, BRANNA

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"A dryad's life is her tree and blood magic corrupts both tree and spirit. I can pass to you the knowledge to purge that corruption and grant a new life. Is that what you want, child of Nai'Tuhra?"

* * *

Grandfather passed onto Branna and Katria the knowledge of the reincarnate plant spell, a druidic ritual that would purge all ailments from a dying plant and restore the essence of the plant into a new form.

EL'GOR'AN, SHENRA

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El'gor'an and Shenra ventured to the edges of the Green Zone. Order barricades dotted the streets along the forest floor while Kiiskan guards and mages maintained vigil over the platforms. More importantly, El'gor'an saw that the Order had imposed a sixty foot wall of alabaster separating the area from the rest of the city and the air around the barrier tingled with the foreign aura of powerful abjurations.

[WebTiefling]

Branna bowed to the Grandfather Tree, her mind still swimming with new concepts and ideas.

"Grandfather, you have given me a great deal to think about. The ages pass for you, but I am limited in my time - how long ago was it that the elves and lizardmen worked together? The Order is burning their way through the world, and I am working to stop their destruction. The Lizardmen might help stop the Order and thus save much of the world around us from the Order's destruction."

Even as she was speaking, Branna wasn't sure the great tree would be able to translate the passage of time for her. For a being who had watched tens of thousands of years pass, would it be able to convey something beyond her own lifetime, but less than millennia?

Branna felt small, very, very small. She reached over and wrapped an arm around Katria's leg.

[Vertharrad]

Katria

Feeling a arm reach out and wrap around her leg Katria looks down, then reassuringly puts her hand on Brannas shoulder for a second. "Thank you wise and great Spirit. " She bows again to show her respect and waits to be dismissed.

[Plushie Arz]

EL'GOR'AN

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There were at least several dozen trees in the immediate area that overlooked the wall and El'gor'an leaped over a nearby cart and scaled the branches to gaze into the heavily fortified Green Zone.

He saw the Order forces had undertaken significant work in remodelling the area to better suit their own needs. While they have retained many of the treetop platforms, they had also demolished many of the terraces and buildings that littered the forest floor to widen the roads. The elf noticed many half-finished new buildings that were being constructed to house the human settlers, the squat, square architecture a far cry from the organic timber structures preferred by the elves.

At the centre of Green Zone, El'gor'an saw the roots and trunks of the White Monarch, a colossal Whitewood towering over the city that was once the stronghold of the Old Council. He noticed the white banners bearing the golden sun of the Order flying from parapets and platforms that surrounded the Monarch and a number of new buildings that were definitely not there a few weeks ago. He could make out what appeared to be barracks and a grey tower of adamantine that seemed to be raised from the ground itself.

BRANNA, KATRIA

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"The Children of Nai'Tuhra once slaughtered the Children of the Scale. That was when the stones were new and the elder trees young. The time of Children I cannot tell..."

With the knowledge granted by Grandfather, Branna and Katria returned to the dryad in the cave and performed the ritual. A green light coursed through the decaying trunk and the dryad vanished as the corruption was cleansed from her tree. The hard vines and bloodied sap fell apart and in the place, young oak sapling grew, pulsing with renewed life.
* * *

DM: Move to IC II