Oleg and Svetlana greet you with great relief, and especial thanks for the moon radishes that Snow remembered to collect on the way back. They give you 250 gold pieces and the best bowl of soup you've ever eaten! Oleg is happy to purchase any good you don't want and even offers to send messages north to Restov for any custom or more exotic items that you want.
Setting out for the east you journey easily across wide grasslands and eventually come across a small dell, in which sits a hut made of wattle, daub and tree branches. An old man is mixing something sweet smelling in a cauldron outside and as you approach he looks up.
"So, have you brought the flanseeds I asked for?" He calls. "I ordered them weeks ago, you've been very slow!"
Summer looks over at Snow with confusion.
"Excuse me Sir, but I do not believe that we have ever met? Did you perhaps order these items from the Trading post? They have been besieged by bandits recently, but that has cleared up. Perhaps they will deliver your order shortly."
Summer walks up closer and offers her hand. This is how they greet each other is it not?
"Do you live here alone?"
"We're new around here." Snow adds pleasantly. "My name is Snow, and this is Summer. Oooo, are those elderberries? They smell wonderful!"
The hermit looks rather confused, but Snow breaks the ice and he soon introduces himself as Bokken. It turns out that he is a potion maker who often sells his wares to Oleg. As time goes on his mood seems to turn sour and he holds up one hand, missing his smallest finger. "Had a brother once. Bastard cut that offa me the last time he hit my mother, Desna rest her soul. But he took off right after to live in a hollow tree down south rather than face the guards, so I guess it all worked out well enough. Still wouldn't mind paying the bastard back though. If you ever see 'im, give 'im a good hiding and tell him that Bokken sent ya!" He grins, a wide expression missing a number of teeth. "I'll brew something special for ya, in exchange!"
The next two days involve more riding. The weather is still cold, but more crisp than freezing these days and the lack of clouds means that Summer can ride and luxuriate in the life-giving sun at the same time. Apart from a small herd of wild horses in the distance there is almost no sign of life.
Summer's confusion at the man's ramblings is evidence and she allows Snow to deal with the man.
---
Summer spends much of the time riding with her eyes closed and face pointed towards the sky with a blissful look upon her face, regularly having to be corrected in direction by Snow in the midst of her babbling.
The next day in enlivened by an encounter with a nasty ambush predator - a spider! It leaps out from beneath a tree stump and nearly kills Snow's horse before Summer is able to crush it. Investigating the tree stump reveals a shaft into the earth and there are a number of bodies at the bottom. One is a dead bandit, still dressed in leather armor and carrying
a short sword and 10 gp. He also wears about his neck a silver Stag Lord amulet worth 20 gp. Hidden in his left boot is a folded piece of paper that bears a simple drawing of a claw-shaped dead tree atop an otherwise barren hill, with an “X” in blood beneath it. A treasure map perhaps...
The next few days remain uneventful. Summer and Snow journey past Oleg's and enter the outskirts of the great forest that gives this region its name. The first days travel is safe enough but on the second day Summer puts her foot in a concealed bear trap! Thankfully it doesn't do too much damage but examination of the area reveals a large number of them - carefully hidden to make it difficult for humans as well as animals to find them. Someone has a very mean streak...
"Yargh!" Summer, standing on the bear trap yells out in pain as it clamps around her leg. "Why exactly would someone lay all these out here. How many animals do they want to trap? This is ridiculous. We should get rid of them." Summer concludes, prodding a stick into each one of the traps, passing another to Snow to help out.
"We should keep our eyes out just in case the hunters are still around and decide that we look like a tasty treat ourselves." Summer states, as if someone eating her is not all that an unusual idea.
Heading south, the pair find that justice has apparently been served. A trapper lies dead on the ground, half buried in logs from what looks like a deadfall trap. He must have made a mistake and been hit by his own falling trap. A masterwork handaxe is lodged in a tree stump near the body.
The next few days are quiet, Summer and Snow emerge from the western side of the forest and track their way across another expanse of grasslands. On the third day Summer's sharp eyes spot a hidden cairn, largely overgrow by blackberries. Digging beneath the cairn takes some hours but Summer finds that sort of work quite theraputic and it gives Snow a chance to pick blackberries. The body still wears tattered and rotted remnants of hide armor, and the skull still displays the
crushed-in side that spelled this barbarian’s doom. Of all the barbarian’s gear, only a strange ring made of green wood on one finger seems of interest—the ring depicts an eel and a frog locked in a tangle. This is a ring of swimming, and its unique appearance makes it quite recognizable.
The next two days reveal only more grasslands, although a soaring animal overhead shows that the grasslands are not devoid of life. Heading back into the forest you soon find that the air reeks of sulphur and another hour or so's investigation locates a spring, probably the source of one of the rivers in the forest that bubbles up from a sulphurous hot spring. A pair of giant frogs are bathing in the spring and don't seem pleased to be disturbed.
Picking out the ring after unceremoniously searching the body, Summer holds it up in the light. "You know Snow. If I wear this, it might be we can go swimming together? I think that you would like that? Next time we come across a river, we should try sometime. I haven't really done much swimming myself."
---
Coming across the frogs, she looks tempted to try swimming here. "Looks like it would be a warm spot!" Summer says, hoping to encourage Snow to go for a swim. "But I we are not welcome here and who are we to invade another's home?" She turns and retreats without a second thought,picking up Snow's hand and guiding her to retreat also.
"I'd like that." Snow replies with a wide smile. "I never get to share what I enjoy with other people."
Later that night as the two of them sit under the stars Snow asks. "So, Summer. What are you exactly? You seem to think that people might want to eat you a lot... that's not normal. I mean you're pretty and blue, which is nice. But people don't want to eat me."
Exploring the woods the next day both Summer and Snow find the same track, a narrow path that leads deep into the trees. Following it leads to a large clearing in the woods, its border partially defined by ruined stone pillars. The western face of the clearing is dominated by a looming, upthrust ridge of rock, nearly 300 feet across and rising to a moss-topped height of 100 feet at the center.
The side of this towering boulder facing the clearing has been carved in the likeness of an immense elk, its antlers drooping down from its weathered face to frame a 50-footwide cave entrance. A flight of stone steps leads up to this cave entrance from the forest clearing—both the steps and elk face feel quite old and are thickly encrusted with layers of moss. A 50-foot-long oval pool sits in the middle of the clearing, its waters thick with algae.
"Wow..." Snow breathes. "This must have been here for.... centuries. I wonder why it was abandoned..." She steps forwards to examine the pool and a mighty roar rings around the clearing. A great white furred bear bounds out from the cave, clearly angry and extremely aggressive!
Summer gazes up at the stars, trying to pick out what patterns she can see. Holding her hand up in the air, finger outstretched, she picks out the Great Bear whilst thinking about how much to tell Snow. Eventually, she settles that she can trust her new companion.
"Well, I'm a Ghoran Snow. I presume you've not heard of us? There aren't too many of us really and our numbers are ever dwindling." She says, with a hint of sadness to her voice.
"Originally, we were botanical experiments by this druid to provide food in a place called Nex. There's not much fertile land there and the humans, dwarves, orcs and others instead tried to make a semi-intelligent plant that could find fertile land and keep growing to provide food." Her face remains still, but her voice is disgusted at the very idea.
"We evolved much further than they wanted us to and started to develop speech and culture which they denied us of at first, continuing to harvest from us, but eventually we were granted the same rights as other citizens. Unfortunately, that hasn't done much good and there are so many out there that would give anything to try us as we are considered a delicacy and are traded on the black market. The problem is, if they manage to capture us before we can replant our Ghorus seed, we are gone forever. I have lost many of my friends that way." Again, her voice is matter of fact, but it's hard to see how she couldn't be upset about this.
"It's why I'm wary about humans in particular - self-preservation really. It must be nice to not feel hunted all the time?"
Her finger begins tracing another constellation, one she recalls but isn't sure of its name. To her, it looks to be a hawk soaring through the night sky out to catch its prey.
--------
"Woah there your majesty." Summer says in soothing tones to the bear, hands clear and empty."We're not here to hurt you." Without changing her tone, she adds, "Back away slowly Snow. No reason for us to get hurt."
Summer can tell there's something about this bear - it seems to have a spark of something else an edge of malice and hatred that just isn't normal.
It charges towards you both! Snow, who was doing as Summer says, abandons subtlety and moves behind Summer entirely.
Giving up on her tactful approach, Summer draws her greatsword and charges in to protect Snow.
"The left, hit it on the left!" Snow calls.
With Snow's good advice Summer lands a heavy blow on the bear. It roars again and swipes at the ghoran, intent on shredding her!
It bites deep into her and tears a chunk of flesh away, chewing with a pleased expression.
"Stop this!" Summer calls fruitlessly.
"No, the left! The other left!" Snow calls, coming closer.
The bear takes another blow and roars in frustration.
This time it hits with both bite and claw, clearly intent on getting some more of the scrummyness in front of it!
Summer swings again, swaying as the bear keeps getting a good taste of her.
Summer hears Snow gabbling behind her and the bear slumps down in front of her - fast asleep.
"I'm sorry! I didn't think that would work!" Snow says breathlessly from right behind Summer.
Summer takes a step forward and cuts the bear's throat just in case before slumping to the ground. "That thing, see what I said before? Everything likes a taste of me."
As the bear dies it gives a strangely human sounding sigh of relief and the body crumbles into that of an old man for a moment before vanishing from sight all together. At this moment, the entire shrine seems to grow more vibrant and colorful. The water in the pool becomes crystal clear and Snow leans over it for a moment.
"Summer, come here. You need to drink some of this."
It's the most refreshing water the ghoran has ever tasted and the urge to drain the entire pool is hard to resist.
After a wonderful nights sleep, after which Summer awakes with her vitality fully restored the pair travel north-east, back towards Olegs.
While travelling through the woods Summer notices movement in the trees above, something small and nimble is following you. It's hard to make out exactly what though.