"Well...um...my mistake, sir. I lost myself for a bit. I'll take you to see master Trookshavits...if you'd like."
Sutandir smiles broadly. "Well, I guess there's no harm done ... you *were* just on your way back to the job anyway. If you could bring us to him, that would be perfect, thank you."
Ruhk does his best to hide a huge grin behind his hand as he pretends to cough discreetly.
Now HE shows promise!
He then slides over to the lumberjack, drapes a friendly arm over his shoulder and winks at him.
"No harm done old fellow, tell you what, I admire a man of principles, you were just looking out for this place weren't you?
But we’re looking out for the whole town, trying to fix a recent problem and all, IF you catch my drift?”
I don't think these are bad people, most of them probably have loved ones back in town too.
Kervos relaxed as Sutandir handled the situation admirably, letting the tension of potential conflict slip away. Glancing to his side, Kervos took notice of the look on Rakarech's face. Sidling up next to the other half-orc, Kervos tried to sound as conversational as possible while keeping his voice low enough that it wouldn't carry to the group of lumberjacks.
"You seem agitated, friend. Have you encountered these men before?"
Rakarech glances over to Kervos before speaking in a low, harsh tongue.
"No. Just men like them. I came to this land because Andoran was once covered in great forest. Now all that is left are places like this Darkmoon Wood. The peaceful places are gone. The wood is now like a cornered animal; dangerous and unpredictable. This is more lumber than any man needs. All I see is greed, and the destruction it brings. It angers me."
Kervos listened carefully, then looked back to the lumberjacks. Clearing his throat, he took his time replying in a tongue he didn't use often.
The man nods his head quickly.
"Yes, right away. Follow me."
He leads you around the camp to a larger wooden building, which he directs you to enter before hurrying off. You find yourself in a filthy office, thickly decorated with taxidermies of fierce forest animals, a large man sitting behind a desk, though he looks a bit out of place in the office setting.
"Can I help you?" the man says, somewhat impatiently and without looking up.
Rakarech stalks around the camp, nodding quietly to Kervos as he talks.
He finally makes his way into the office behind the rest of the group. He stands a good distance back and remains silent.
The young man looks around at the others, surprised that none of them have spoken up, yet. I would have expected Ruhk or Sutandir to have said something by now. No, give them a chance, yet. No reason to put my foot in my mouth.
Vaashti had her hood drawn up as they approached the lumber camp, though she had left it back most of the walk there. She smiled slyly as Sutandir bluffed his way past the first man they came to, but when they approached the foreman, she stepped forward.
"Actually, I believe you can. I assume you know of the sickness attacking the town. It looks as if you may have lost some of your men to it. We are going into the Vale to gather materials that might just lead to a cure for the plague. Laurel, the apothecary, told us that you might be able to point us on our way to the sites where these curatives are said to lie. We are hoping that you can, indeed help us find the Eldest Tree in the Vale, and Uzmila's house in the woods. Can you, sir? Can you help us help all those poor people?"
Sutandir listens as Vaasthi speaks, adding, "Laurel found some very promising references in one of her tomes. Any help you can give us could make the difference for saving the town."
Looking up only briefly, he speaks in a gruff but not unfriendly voice.
"You'll want Milon. I'll have someone go get him, but I'm quite busy. As you said, the plague has taken a toll on us as well."
Barely looking up from his papers once again, he shouts to no one in particular.
"Geoff! Find Milon for these folks, and show them to the map house."
A young-looking page runs in just in time to hear the last of the foreman's words, and squeaks, "Follow me!" before exiting the foreman's office.
"Thank you so much for your time. I am certain that Milon will be able to assit us to help all those poor people. Milani bless you in your work and life."
Vaashti gave a slight bow, and turned to follow the page to the map house.
As the group follows Geoff, Ruhk moves over to Rakarech and whispers.
"You know, contrary to what some people might believe from the way I behave, I'm not stupid.
A follower of the green faith, a bear that almost seems tame, and your reaction when you saw the lumberjack...
And while I don't know the language you used between yourselves, the fact that Kervos is from the area makes me think he was trying to calm you down.
But if you really want to understand, you need to know a little of the recent history of Andoran, if you like, I can tell you some of it while we travel.
Because you see, the reason for the logging here is political in nature."
The young page boy leads you to a room with maps of the area on the walls, and a rough-looking wooden table with benches all around.
The boy rushes off, and moments later, a brawny and grizzled man enters the room, his shirt open at the top and sweat dripping from his brow.
"Greetings. My nephew told me that you're here to help with the plague, and have some questions about the Wood. His younger brother has taken ill, and so I am more than willing to help lead you in the right direction. What are you looking for?"
"Well, it would help if you could sketch us a map of the forest and mark as near as you can the location of an old Dwarven fort or monastery, the "oldest tree" in the forest, and the hut of the local witch.
I know it may be a bit vague, but that's what we have to go on right now you see."
"We're looking for some kind of root, mushroom and moss d'you see, and apperantly,t hey can be found in these places."
Sutandir steps up as the man enters, and offers his hand. "Hi, you remember me, I'm Laurel's assistant Sutandir. She's the one who has set us on this mission, so you can be sure it's legitimate, if a little odd sounding. Any information you have will be helpful."
Rakarech nods contemplatively as Ruhk speaks to him.
"I want to understand. I speak in my tongue - I do not know all the words I need in common yet. I will listen to the politics."
He quiets down as they enter the office and again remains silent near the back of the group, letting Ruhk speak.
The man looks at Sutandir skeptically.
"I have not met you before. I am sure of it. But if you are here to help with the plague, I will help you."
He grabs a loose piece of parchment from one of the table's in the room, and draws a quick map of the area.
"I know of the locations you speak. Be careful at the monastery—many dangers lurk there, though I don't know much about them. I try to avoid it. Also, keep your head down and don't cause too much trouble, and things will leave you alone. There's a lot of dangerous things in there though."
"This will help a lot, thank you most kindly.
Unless you have other advice, I guess we should be off now, time is of the essence and all that."
Sutandir smiles. "Well, it's possible I was busy in the back the times you've been around. Regardless, you have our thanks. Please, take this token of our gratitude. And if you need anything from Roots and Remedies, let Laurel know you gave us directions."
Sutandir reaches into one of his many pockets and hands the man two packets labeled "Headache Remedy", with Sutandir's name and that of the herb shop on the other side.
"I understand why my companions are so ready to go tromping off into the forest, trying to find the ingredients that Laurel needs, but . . .. The lumberjacks here, you spend a great deal of time out in the forest, right? Has there been any unusual animal activity, any goblin attacks or anything else along those lines we should prepare ourselves to deal with?"
Vaashti let the others continue the discussion with Milon as she looked at the map. It seemed as if they did indeed have some hiking to do. She grew curious, though, when Sutandir pulled out his "headache powder".
***
As soon as they were outside of the lumberjack's camp, she steeled herself and then threw her cloak completely back. She flexed her wings and tail, and the set of her jaw dared anyone to comment. Her leathery wings were a darker purple than her skin, and the prehensile tail flexed and twitched, the black tuft of hair at the end the same color as the hair on her head. Nestled among the hair on her head was the tiny set of horns common to almost every tiefling.
"I should apologize for not formally introducing myself sooner. As some of you know, my name is Vaashti C'tan and I am a devotee of the Everbloom." She turned her right arm forward a bit to show off the bloody rose tattoo on her upper arm.
"If we are to be traveling together, I thought you should at least know what to call me." She smiled, sweetly. "Or at least what to call me that won't get you slapped silly."
"I have some healing magics that my goddess provides, and some merely physical medical skills as well."
The man responds to Brother Shartol.
"I haven't noticed anything terribly unusual. The only thing I can think of," he says looking up thoughtfully, "is perhaps the wolves have been a bit more active. But not much other than that, though even a normal time in the Wood is nothing to be ignored."
"I must be going. Good luck on your journey, and please bring back a cure. We all know someone with this illness—it could crush our town if it goes much longer."
Seeing as the talk s are wrapping up, Ruhk moves over to Rakarech and pulls him a little aside.
"Right, I'll tell you now, and if there is something you already know, sorry about that.
The key is in the details don't you know?"
Thinking a little ahead, Ruhk makes sure to have his water skin (The one WITH water) in hand and ready to moisten his throat since politics is a very dry subject.
"I'll try to keep to the nub of the situation.
Ok, Andoran which we are in used to be the eastern part of the Cheliax empire, and THAT in turn used to be the western part of the Taldane kingdom.
This puts Andor nice and neat in-between them, and both those countries are pretty proud, warlike and avaricious.
Both also consider Andoran land theirs by right."
Warming a little to the subject, Ruhk pauses long enough to take a sip of water before continuing.
"Only two things has so far prevented one of the nations to invade in an attempt to gain more land.
One is that both nations hate each other more than they hate Andoran, and neither is willing to let the other one take it.
The other part is the Andoran army, made up mostly of volunteers."
"But Taldor, Cheliax and Andor have a large stretch of coast, and that my friend means they need a large navy as well.
Taldor and Cheliax ALREADY have a good size navy, both for protection and aggression.
Andor does not have as big a navy...yet.
See where I am going here?"
"To build a strong navy, you need the best lumber, not just any spruce will do.
Most of Andorans greatly fears being invaded by Taldor or Cheliax, so they clamor for protection.
So you see, the fear of the people translates into the government needing to allay those fears, and to do that they give a much more lenient reign to the lumber consortiums than they might otherwise do."
Taking a deep breath, another long pull of his skin, Ruhk looks up at Rakarech.
"Are you beginning to see the difficulties ahead of you? But don't you worry none. There is no such thing as a losing fight if you never lose heart."
Rakarech looks intently at Ruhk, nodding slowly as he listens.
"Hrm. So this land is between two others that want to do war. The people are scared so they demand big ships. I see. Thank you Ruhk, I will think on this."
Ruhk grins and nods.
"Nah, think nothing of it, just gave me an excuse to natter a bit.
Funny thing is, as far as I know, Taldor also uses ships made from the same wood, but I've never heard they have any problems with deforestation.
Then again, they already have a big navy, maybe they simply don't need to cut so much wood."
Saying goodbye to Milon, Sutandir considers the map he provided.
"So, where do we start?"
Rakarech refuses to discuss the route in the camp, exiting as quickly as he can. He looks to Vaashti as she reveals herself, Finally once they are surrounded by woodland again he seems to visibly relax. Placing both fingers to his mouth, he lets out a sharp whistle and his bear eventually scampers up. As Grobu arrives, Rakarech turns to watch Vaashti reveal and explain herself.
"Good, you were strange to me. Not any more. Hello Vaashti."
He plops a meaty hand on Grobu's head, scratching the little bear behind the ears as he examines the map.
"The Darkmoon river looks very big. Too big to ford. I say we go north to the big lake. There, we go around east to Taggoret River and look for ford. Witch first, then tree, then ruins. Witch may have advice if she is friendly. Tree will bring good luck. For ruins, we will need advice and good luck."
Ruhk checks the map as he listens to Rakarech explanation of the path.
"so, we're moving in a sort of circle eight path? Sounds good to me.
Not sure I know if we'll get much useful advice from the witch, I mean, she demanded a person sight in trade for a little knowledge.
You won't see me trading my orbs, neither pair, for knowledge."
As Vaashti opens up, Sutandir smiles. "Glad to see you open up, that can't have been easy, hiding yourself like that. Your appearance is unusual for this area, but in this group, 'unusual' seems to be the norm." With that he notes the two half-orcs, the Halfling, and his own mixed heritage.
"The Darkmoon river looks very big. Too big to ford. I say we go north to the big lake. There, we go around east to Taggoret River and look for ford. Witch first, then tree, then ruins. Witch may have advice if she is friendly. Tree will bring good luck. For ruins, we will need advice and good luck."
"That sounds like a good plan. Any idea what the scale is here? How long is it going to take us to reach the lake?"
"I absolutely hate hiding who I am, but that's been pretty much the norm since I left ... where I grew up. You get used to it, I guess, but my wings ache so when I can't stretch them out." Seeing that no one was being particularly prejudicial about it, Vaashti stretched her wings wide again. They weren't large enough for actual flight, with a wingspan about the same as her arm span, but she could glide a bit.
"That plan sounds as good as any to me. I'm still not sure what I am doing here, or why I volunteered, but the Everbloom must have had a plan bringing the two of us together, Kervos."
Kervos nodded.
"I agree, Rakarech's travel plan sounds quite solid." He rolled his shoulders some, straightening his back and extending to his full height in a way he tended not to when surrounded by civilization.
"Also, Vaashti, I agree that She must have a plan. Obviously we are on the right path if she saw to bring us together with these folk for this task. It makes me confident we shall be able to bring relief to the afflicted. Now, as far as how long it will take us to do so, that is a fine question..."
Kervos leaned in by Rakarech to take a look at the map, hoping he could make some sort of estimation of their journey's scope.
Rakarech mutters a few things to Kervos in Orcish, pointing at the map here and there.
The young man shrugs at the discussed path of travel, but stands staring as Vaashti spreads her wings. "WOW. Having wings could have saved me an awful lot of effort at the monastery. Can you fly like a hawk or pheasant? Or more like a chicken or turkey, in short bursts and short distances only?"
The tiefling looked embarrassed at the attention. "Um...I can't fly at all, really. They're not strong enough. I can glide a bit, if I jump off a high enough place, but mostly, they're just...there."
"Why were you at a monastery?"
"Because I was young and stupid, and they took pity on me. When you are angry at the world, nearly get yourself dead, and a group of complete strangers bring you into their home, heal your injuries, and welcome you into their community without any open judgement or obvious blame, it can be really easy to stay there."
Rakarech stares a little longer at Vaashti before speaking.
"I do not understand what you are. Why are you purple with wings? I want to be polite and not treat people like humans treat me. But I am confused a bit."
"I was born this way, same as you were born green. The wings, the tail, the skin tone are all part of who I am. I certainly didn't ask to come into this world looking like a freak, but I'll make the most of life, nonetheless. Most of the physical attributes come from my mother's side. She was a tiefling...do you know what a tiefling is?"
Rarkarech leans down by the trail to pick a few leaves. He tucks one into his cheek to suck on it before continuing to speak in his slow, gravelly voice. "Hrm. I hear of tieflings, but you are the first I meet. I was told about evil, stealing, violence. Instead you are a religious of The Everbloom and a healer. So I learn more."
"Well, it reminds me of the old saying about books and covers.
Of course, if you ask me, then one might as well talk about ale and tankards.
Tin mug, wooden tankard, glass or otherwise.
Doesn't matter what you are served your ale in, it will taste just as sweet on a hot day."
You travel for the rest of the day through the Darkmoon Wood, and while you encounter nothing directly, the forest is clearly bursting with life. You spot many unusual creatures along the path—a small fox with large ears and wispy patches of flame-colored fur, a pair of particularly stout, small-antlered deer, and even a blue, dragon-like creature soaring low over the trees that kept the group particularly nervous for more than an hour.
You approach the lake just as the sun is slipping behind the trees, and you begin to look for a campsite nearby.
Just before it moves out from under a bush near the water, Gorbu, Br. Shartol, Kervos, and Sutandir hear the hissing sound of a large snake that looks angry and ready to defend its home.
As the snake reveals itself Grobu rises to hs hind legs in his own best threatening stance. Hearing an gruff order from Rakarech he charges in to attack!
"SNAKE!" Shartol pulls his kama, getting ready to deal with the animal, should it prove more interested in fighting than making a display.
Hearing the hissing sound, Sutandir steps back and pulls out a dagger.
As it comes out of the bush, the snake rears up and looks ready to strike. When Gorbu's teeth sink into the snake, it snaps back, biting and trying to wrap itself around the bear.
The bite enters the bear's flesh, giving the snake the opportunity to slither around Gorbu's midsection, squeezing hard.
Seeing the snake squeeze the bear tightly, Sutandir yelps in alarm. With a flick of his wrist, he sends his dagger flying toward the snake, then moves back to a safe position.