About UrumuluGREEN FAITH PATRON: Urumulu
Quote:
Urumulu only vaguely remembers the singing lady who once lived within his heartwood. She came and went, laughing and dancing, her hair always decorated with fresh wildflowers, daisies that would never wilt, nourished by her fey vitality. The angry men came, with biting axes and terrible fire, and the lady never came back. The sun felt harsh on his leaves, the wind bitter and the water tasted empty against his roots, for his heart had left with her. Then the old woman came, and she sang to him, joining him in his silent grief, until he felt his leaves fall away, shed to make room for new life, as if it were springtime already. He understood her words, and she explained to him many things in the fey tongue that he had heard, but always so distantly, as a meaningless buzzing, until now, when the words dripped with meaning and portent. She showed him how to lift his roots and shake off the soil of a century, and she led him to where she who was his heart had been buried, when the druid had discovered the body of the fallen dryad, abandoned by the men of the Consortium after their axes had finished their grim work. Urumulu, for that was the name he chose for himself, a babbling nonsense sound that reminded him of the soft thrumming of water against his roots, reached his branches to the stones that covered her, and found that fresh daisies had spring up from these barren stones. He took them and braided them into a new crown of flowers, which he wears still, as they have never wilted or faded, drawing whatever sustenance they need from himself, the way they once had from his fey lady. The old woman is long gone, and he has grown powerful and wise. The walkers who call themselves druids once regarded him as a curiosity, he sensed, but as the years became decades, he is now a respected elder, despite having not mastered their own specific arts. Urumulu takes a long view on most matters, as befits his years, and is quite concerned with matters of personal protection, keeping an assortment of defensive potions and spells at hand, tucked away within his branches, almost impossible to see from the ground. Great spears rest there, too, and he has learned to move his branches quite quickly, to ready spears for use with startling speed, and to strike with them with the brutal strength that comes of his great size and power. Encounters with both wanton shapeshifters and malicious unseelie fey have prompted him to carry defenses, and items of offense, against both of these not-uncommon dangers, and when he courts the favors of the little men, it is often to follow such despoilers into small caverns or settled areas, where he cannot pursue. He also barters for defensive items, always interested in finding some new trinket or token that might allow him to add more decades to his already long and learned life. Boons Urumulu can instruct others in wilderness lore, or assist them in locating hard to find flora or fauna, so long as these creatures are sought for reasons he finds unobjectionable. He can also craft items, and will occasionally provide amulets of natural armor made from darkwood or similar trinkets to those he favors at reduced cost. Someone who truly impresses him, particularly a beautiful woman who has some quality that reminds him of his long-lost lady, may receive the woven-flower circlet that adorns his uppermost branches, which will provide a one-time inspirational bonus to the wearer, in time of need. He has given such a circlet away at least three times, and it is not clear if he still gathers the flowers from the grave of his dryad. Quote:
Exactly why such a circlet remains usable once / day when Urumulu wears it, instead of dying, is unclear, but he regularly gives the circlet from his head to another, and then weaves himself another one later, so it is definitely a property unique to himself, and not to any particular circlet. |
