Meneas looks at the dice, a soft chuckle emerging from the shadows of his hood. "I'm not the most perceptive, but if we're in danger, it feels like we should be keeping an eye out on possible dangers."
He pauses, considering. "There're any number of nasties that might be lurking in there." A gauntleted hand points at the ruined keep. "I'd rather not get caught off-guard." A sudden giggle. "But wouldn't they be surprised if they came out ready to attack and we invited them to our dice game?"
"Boards are harder to find room for on journeys into the wilds, but--" Brental reaches into the bag of holding and produces just such a checkered board and a cloth bag from which he dumps out a bundle of wooden figures. "--I would appreciate surprising an unseelie by inviting them to play a game." The druid starts to set up the board, trying to remember the rules of the game, especially the variant that Lina mentioned. "The best way to expand my mind is by multitasking. If I can focus on a game and tap into my connection with--" Brental makes an indecipherable chittering sound that might be the beetle's name, "--then I'll have a likelier chance of being prepared for something more deadly when the time comes."
After rolling the dice to get the board set up, Brental folds his hands under his chin and looks across the board at Lina. "I bet you can guess who turned me onto this over the last year."
"Hint, wasn't me." Signy quips as she half-dozes against her tree.
"No, Signy taught me other games. Mostly drinking games."
"Brental could have been a contender. It's sad to see talent go to waste."
"I can still be a contender," Brental says with a half-mocking lilt and his tongue stuck out. "We should keep our heads clear, but I wouldn't object to a pint of Cayden's best."
Meneas looks at the dice, a soft chuckle emerging from the shadows of his hood. "I'm not the most perceptive, but if we're in danger, it feels like we should be keeping an eye out on possible dangers."
He pauses, considering. "There're any number of nasties that might be lurking in there." A gauntleted hand points at the ruined keep. "I'd rather not get caught off-guard." A sudden giggle. "But wouldn't they be surprised if they came out ready to attack and we invited them to our dice game?"
“We’ll keep an eye open,” Lina promises. “I’m honestly not the best watch-woman at the best of times anyway. This way, it’s all the more believable that we’re respectable travellers taking a break to enjoy the morning. Which is what we are.”
She’s delighted as Brental breaks out a board after all.
After rolling the dice to get the board set up, Brental folds his hands under his chin and looks across the board at Lina. "I bet you can guess who turned me onto this over the last year."
“I’m sure I couldn’t imagine,” Lina says innocently, as she starts setting up her pieces.
Her glance does occasionally flicker back to the ruin. She wonders if she should start carrying more herbs and simples of the sort a wider range of people would be interested, though she looks the part quite a bit less these days. Some sort of bauble for when she needs to blend in might be a good idea, and the witch makes a mental note to think about crafting possibilities when she has a moment.
In a flash, it’s time to throw some dice and move some pieces while waiting for Brental’s beetle friend to report.
Meneas pats Veil. "Protect." He murmurs to her.
He shifts away, looking to his companions. "I was never able to get into the games of the nobility." The knight muses after a moment. "But you do make it seem appealing." There's a dry note to his voice.
Brental similarly gives Vodnykel a command to defend their encampment, and the growing mastodon (now nearly the size of Veil) begins trading paces with his equine companion. One day I should try to make it so that they can converse...
Brental looks at the layout of the board and begins maneuvering his pieces around. It doesn't take long before he secures a deadly position between one of his bishops and knights, where the king could only be protected if Lina sacrifices her queen. Note a mate yet, but Brental was feeling aggressive. "Check," he intones as he moves the bishop into position.
Might that make me the rook?
"You ought to know by now I always have to weak stuff on tap. I use it every morning. But you'll have to bring a container to me. I'm getting up to serve you a drink."
Brental draws a mental picture of the board, glancing up at Lina who appears to be deep in thought, and then gets up from his seated position. He walks over to the Vod and rifles through the mastodon's saddlebag, procuring a varnished wooden mug carved with Helikia's heraldry. This he brings to Signy with a light bow. "See? I'm contending."
Signy opens her eyes and sits up straight. After placing her own tankard beside Brental's, she casts a basic orisin and spits the created ale between the two containers.
"Anyone else while I'm up?"
Meneas pats Veil. "Protect." He murmurs to her.
He shifts away, looking to his companions. "I was never able to get into the games of the nobility." The knight muses after a moment. "But you do make it seem appealing." There's a dry note to his voice.
“That’s kind of you to say,” Lina says brightly. “Good company does make all the difference, I imagine.”
She gently demurs from Signy’s offer. “I’m a bit of a lightweight in more senses than one, and the way the dice are going this morning, wine probably wouldn’t help.”
With her queen gone, even a decent throw that lets Lina answer Brental's check without fuss leaves her on the back foot. It will take a minor miracle for her to catch up - if Brental throws pawn and rook, say, given the state of play, while she gets something more useful on her next turn.
Brental returns with his full mug and takes a good drink while he looks at Lina's move. After a moment of study, he trades a few more moves with her and ends up sacrificing a rook to avoid her renewed aggressive push for a check. He had gotten overconfident. He tries to map back a few moves to see if Lina was planning anything in particular...
Calistria, Lina thinks, must be smiling her inscrutable smile somewhere, as the dice oblige, at least for a moment, and then for a few turns things are remarkably close. The witch is clearly too impulsive for her own good, quite apart from trying to keep one eye on the ruin in the background, but she just manages to hold on long enough for a rather interesting developed board to appear.
She's a hair away from promoting a pawn to a new queen, and then it all goes to hell again, as a series of bad rolls and miscalculations in an effort to compensate decimate the rest of Lina's pieces, leaving her king exposed with little more than a knight and bishop to try to rally with.
With no other takers coming forward Signy settles back into her doze, leaving her mug untouched for later.
Brental rolls the dice, moves a piece, and strains to look over the board. Glancing up at Lina, he finally gleans a possible path to clinch the game. Through his own queen's sacrifice, he narrowly leads Lina into an inescapable trap. It is, perhaps ironically, a pawn that clinches the final checkmate. All at once, Brental breathes out an enormous sigh and relaxes his shoulders and chest with a light chuckle. "I still wouldn't call the chaos aspect my speed, but damn that was good." He raises a hand across the board to Lina. "Good game."
Splitting his attention between the game and the beetle had been challenging, but now that the game was at an end he could devote more of his focus towards its movements. The druid changes his breathing pattern and taps into the mystical connection binding him and his coleopterid spy to figure out where it is within the decaying structure and how soon it might be able to return.
The crumbling keep's presence here is strange... It isn't so far from town that it would have gone unnoticed... It's almost as though it just appeared here suddenly... though the keep is obviously very old.
------
After some time the beetle returns to Brental and waits patiently in the druid's palm awaiting questioning.
Brental thanks the beetle for returning so quickly, providing a little extra food for it and its brood, before soliciting questions from the others and asking his own.
Brental rolls the dice, moves a piece, and strains to look over the board. Glancing up at Lina, he finally gleans a possible path to clinch the game. Through his own queen's sacrifice, he narrowly leads Lina into an inescapable trap. It is, perhaps ironically, a pawn that clinches the final checkmate. All at once, Brental breathes out an enormous sigh and relaxes his shoulders and chest with a light chuckle. "I still wouldn't call the chaos aspect my speed, but damn that was good." He raises a hand across the board to Lina. "Good game."
“Thank you, it was! You play well! And fortunately, we’re on our way to find more faeries, so hopefully you’ll have more opportunity to get used to that aspect. Notwithstanding-” Lina smiles, her glance briefly sliding to Meneas and away again.
There is that. The fey that are closest to her heart are free spirits, but the witch does understand that there are some that have more of a taste for – oh, rules and such. Meneas has his moments, to be sure, but he is also very much of a knight in the way she understands humans often are, and Ng is a mystery to her. What is it about roads? Is it that they are places and yet no-places? Not quite wild, but certainly not settled? One can be, or even build, on a road, but that’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s on the road, not anywhere else. And so it’s the inn, say, between this, and that, and that’s that. Maybe?
Maybe one day she’ll find a way to ask in a way that doesn’t sound like prying. Right now, though, Brental’s beetle is back, and she thinks about other questions as she considers the improbably old-looking ruin.
The thing is, what would she notice if she were a beetle? This is not a question that has ever really occurred to Lina. She shrugs, and splits the difference between things that kind of interest her too. “Could you ask, Brental, if there are any plants that jumped out at your little friend, or, er, really big boxes or other things to hide behind?”
Do beetles get furniture? Anyway, that sort of thing might clarify how long the place has been abandoned – or if someone’s moved in recently.
Meneas considers the game with an air of amusement, though he doesn't engage in it personally. "I prefer to keep what little dignity I have intact." He says when asked.
When the beetles return, his posture grows tense and he considers what questions he might ask. "Ask if there is anything to eat within." He suggests. "And what, if so. It might help us figure out what sorts of creatures are inside."
Signy gets up for the returning beetles. She finishes off the contents of her tankard during the question and answer session.
A ruined, circular keep looms out of the forest, surrounded by towering, ancient trees draped with hanging moss. Four circular towers sprout from the cracked walls like the trunks of great trees, at least one crumbled into rubble. Twisting vines and thick moss cover the walls in a coat of verdant green, blending the ruins almost seamlessly into the surrounding woods. The overgrown remains of a path lead to an open, arched gateway gaping in the keep’s eastern wall, its doors long since rotted away.
--------
The beetle buzzes happily in response to Brental's questioning. Seemingly quite eager to prove its worth.
"How many other creatures did you see inside?"
"Many, many more than your number."
"What were they like?"
"Huge! Most twice my size! Three were bigger, looked weird. Not seen like them before."
"Was there anything dangerous inside?"
"Human hive was crumbling. Parts had already fallen down. Could squish you like a me. Big furry things scarry."
"How many rooms were there?"
"Six. One in each side hive and two in the main hive. Back left hive already collapsed but should be able to get in there. Also big open area has collapsed on east."
"plants that jumped out at your little friend"
"Yes! One plant did jump out at me! It almost got me in back right tower. But I am quick-fast!"
"really big boxes or other things to hide behind?"
"Oh yes many many hiding places. Under rocks, under bed, inside skulls."
"anything to eat within"
"Nothing I could get to. The plant was over some tasty dead things and the big but not that big one with antenna it cleaned all the other bones already"
Meneas frowns. "Furry things and plants that jumped out at them. Bones of dead things. Something has been here long enough that the 'dead things' have rotted. And it's too close... I think that fey magic - or perhaps some other sorts of magic - to hide it from the view of our usual scouts. Or maybe to summon it entirely. That's... not good."
For the beetle's good work, Brental provides enough sustenance for it to carry back to its entire colony without being unduly weighed down. "Thank you, friend."
Turning to Meneas, Brental frowns. "No, it's not good. Fey makes sense to me as well. It's not enough detail to make solid guesses, but we're most likely not dealing with humans, elves, or lizardfolk. This could even be a spy outpost of the fey queen." The druid pauses. "We could knock. There is yet no reason for us to draw our swords and charge in."
"Being a beetle sounds terrifying!"
"Being a beetle sounds terrifying!"
Signy resolves to herself to watch out and not step on beetles whenever she can. They have enough problems already.
“Thank you, good beetle!” Lina says, offering a wave with a wiggle of her fingers (since she doesn’t have antennae) as Brental lets the insect go on its way.
Turning to her friends, she has to admit she shares their worries. “Given the state of the keep itself and how thick the overgrowth is, I’m not sure there should be a bed solid enough for our little friend to think of as a good hiding-place, unless someone’s actually looking after things. Unless, as you say, Meneas, the whole thing has been conjured up outright, which is alarming in its own way.”
She considers the ruin for a bit, and then shrugs. “It looks like we’ll have to get past it somehow, unless we want to go quite a bit out of our way. Why don’t we split the difference? Approach quietly, but unthreateningly, and if we get close enough to see what’s inside without getting noticed ourselves, so much the better.”
“And I’d love to see a new sort of carnivorous plant! I wouldn’t think this is quite the terrain for some of the ones I’ve heard about… But if we see a bloody huge crow, let’s all run screaming? I don’t want to lose anyone to another stint in who knows where, or worse.”
"If it was conjured outright, I'd say it's even more alarming. If stranger, because why summon a castle that's already ruined?" He shakes his head thoughtfully. "Veil and I aren't terribly sneaky. In the usual sense, anyways." He giggles. "But yes, let's not make any enemies without making sure they are enemies."
"Want me to go see if there are any windows or doors to peek through?"
"Hunting for bloody mandrake root?" Brental says to Lina. "I dare say that a mandragora would be a curious find. And likely a boon to your collection."
Brental nods to Signy. "Vod and I aren't particularly sneaky either, although he's working on it. If it comes to it, I can fly around. But for now, yes, I think that getting human eyes on the situation is the next step. I leave it to your discretion, Signy."
"Sure. I'll take a look around the outside first. If I don't see anything to change my mind and I can do it easily and quietly, I'll also poke around inside the entrance too."
Signy casts a couple of spells and fades from sight, then she's on her way.
“I really need to figure out how to do that,” Lina murmurs as Signy disappears, before turning to address Brental’s comment.
“It would, though they’re sinister little things, even more than the ones I gather when I can. In this, at least, I’m not too picky. So long as it’s not actively malevolent, especially if it’s something less familiar to me, I’d be interested. It doesn’t even need to be a giant moonflower, or one of those viny things that do well after forest fires – though they prefer parts more southerly. I’d be happy with a razor fern!”
Brental waves goodbye as Signy disappears. "It does seem useful," he concurs with Lina. "Druids aren't particularly known for illusion magic. But perhaps Alaïs could send you a scroll for you to transcribe into your book?"
He finishes packing up the chess board and considers what else could be waiting inside. "A shambling mound might also be useful for the Old Beldame. Most mobile plants aren't malevolent, per se, so much as they operate on survival instincts. If they kill to survive, it's usually because something has made their natural environment particularly hostile. There are much less dangerous survival strategies than violence."
"My mentor once told me that others of my order have developed unusual abilities - teleportation, various sorts of enchantments. They often displayed such things in our journeys before their death." He shrugs slightly.
"Ours will be a most unusual kingdom, it seems." He adds after a moment. "If we integrate such creatures as those into our lands." His tone is somewhat dubious, however.
I'm growing to enjoy the unusual, Meneas," Brental admits. "I suppose Lina is rubbing off on me."
Signy notices nothing unusual about the keep from the outside aside from it's sudden appearance and nothing appears to take notice of her. As the beetle suggested the western wall has completely collapsed seemingly due to the passage of time.
Brental waves goodbye as Signy disappears. "It does seem useful," he concurs with Lina. "Druids aren't particularly known for illusion magic. But perhaps Alaïs could send you a scroll for you to transcribe into your book?"
“I’ll have to consider all the usual suspects,” Lina muses happily. “Invisibility is always a popular trick.” Mustardseed might be a promising component. Or fern, to stretch a point, botanically speaking.
"My mentor once told me that others of my order have developed unusual abilities - teleportation, various sorts of enchantments. They often displayed such things in our journeys before their death." He shrugs slightly.
"Ours will be a most unusual kingdom, it seems." He adds after a moment. "If we integrate such creatures as those into our lands." His tone is somewhat dubious, however.
“Teleportation too,” she adds, following the thread of Meneas’ contribution. “I doubt I have the gift for that, though. Conjuration isn’t quite my thing. Although, speaking of binding and loosing, whether forces or otherwise, I doubt making mobile plant friends will be a problem anytime soon.”
“That is, while I wouldn’t want to exclude anyone just because they’re wood and leaf rather than flesh and blood, even the cleverer plants that I’ve heard of aren’t particularly talkative. I’m not sure how many would want to settle outside of the forests, and the woods aren’t going anywhere. We probably shouldn’t invite any razor ferns yet, though, if we find some, I admit. They’re really not very bright, and with children and kobolds around, it’s too much of a risk.”
It’s a rare moment of common sense from the witch, but all too soon… “Oh, we should see about building a greenhouse! That would work!”
Meneas gestures for patience. "A greenhouse isn't necessary yet." He says. "We have more practical matters to consider first, at any rate." There's resigned amusement in his tone.
Signy takes a careful look at the collapse, trying to figure out if is settled and table, or loose enough to shift under her weight.
Brental chuckles at the exchange between Meneas and Lina. "If I have half a mind to it, my grove will be a wonderfully wild place. Safe enough for welcome visitors, of course." But a deadly trap for an invader.
"The elders in my order also have some teleportation capabilities, through an extensive network developed over the millennia." Brental considers it his responsibility, in his own, to add to this network. There were many things that, if he was able to continue growing in power and influence, he would be able to accomplish, as long as a certain rogue fey queen didn't try to drag him and his compatriots unwillingly into the First World.
Meneas folds his hands thoughtfully. That might prove useful... He shifts. "How extensive is this network?"
Signy notices a few windows in the standing towers... possibly wide enough to climb through. She also notes that the windows of the northwest tower are festooned with polished human skulls... The rubble of the wall seems settled for what it's worth. As for doors... Signy sees none. Even the gate seems to have long rotted away at the entrance to the keep, of the towers... She cannot tell from the exterior of the wall if they have doors or no.
Brental thinks for a moment before answering Meneas' question. "It's worldwide. I doubt even the eldest among us individually knows the location of each one. But if a menhir has been appropriately consecrated, the Green Faith adherents can sense them and travel to and from them." He smiles for a moment, looking up into the sky. "It may even be possible to travel to other worlds, or planes, if the Green Faith has spread there."
Signy's look around, as well as her limited time to be invisible, convinces her that venturing in alone is probably not the thing to do. The bunches of skulls doesn't seem great. She does form something of a plan to suggest though.
She hurries back to the others to tell them what she's seen. Rather than dismissing her spell, she spends the the last of her time talking to her friends while moving around from one place to another so her voice comes to them from different locations, which is a total hoot.
After giving them a brief summary of the the towers layout, and what she's seen, she tells them what's she's thinking.
"If we want to stay and check it out, I think we should go in through a gap where the wall has collapsed. The gate is open but kind of obvious. It might be watched if anything concerning inside has eyes to put on it. I doubt weird, nasty plants would. But, something at some point spent some time cleaning up a bunch of skull real nice to decorate with."
"Anyway, it looks like there's an opening in the central tower that is almost directly across from the opening in the wall. We could go straight to it, while spending the least amount of time out in the open in the courtyard."
Lina’s ears perk up at the latest turn the conversation takes while waiting for Signy to come back from her scouting expedition: as much as she loves their pointiness (no harm to those who can’t help it, but round ears strike her as just uncanny), she has to admit there are disadvantages for people who get as excited as she does, if it’s not a question of a situation in which she’s going in knowing she’ll have to keep her emotions under wraps.
“We’ll have to keep an eye out,” she enthuses, before toning down the obviousness of her interest’s extent. And turnabout is fair play, she thinks to herself. I imagine it would be difficult, but it ought to be possible to modify or add a key, on the analogy of aiudara. If only… But it’s been long and long since her people’s portal network was created, back in the days when heroes like Candlaron could speak with the gods face-to-face, according to the stories, anyway, so she has no ambition of carving a gate herself to put these rocks to shame. A bit of tampering, though – well, that’s something else entirely.
“Surely,” she adds, keeping to a safe dimension of the subject, “even if your order’s particular way of looking at things hasn’t spread that far, there are reasonably like-minded planeswalkers and locals on every world? Wouldn’t that be something!”
Before the witch can lose herself in imagining what sorts of other worlds she might like to visit or dream of, Signy’s apparently disembodied voice brings news. As the Caydenite moves around while delivering her report – Lina wonders again about magical inks for binding present power and not just lore into scrolls and such, and laments that she doesn’t have enough energy to keep at least her camouflage spell in her head along with her usual tricks – Lina considers that Tyg and Peri would absolutely enjoy Signy’s playfulness as much as she does.
"Anyway, it looks like there's an opening in the central tower that is almost directly across from the opening in the wall. We could go straight to it, while spending the least amount of time out in the open in the courtyard."
“We trust your judgement, of course. Lead on!” the witch agrees. “Hopefully once we get inside, we can get a better look around without attracting the attention of headhunters.”
Grasping her spear easily but firmly, she follows Signy’s lead as best she can by ear.
Lina tries to move unobtrusively, and she at least moves slowly, spidering along from shadow to shadow where possible, but unfortunately that seems to mean among piles of tumbled stones, and even with careful attention to her footing, her boots, however urbane, don't play nicely with sneaking quietly over hard surfaces.
Meneas considers Brental's words, nodding thoughtfully. "That is interesting... though I doubt they'd allow us to pass through freely on a regular basis." He shakes his head, dismissing the thought as Signy returns.
"Veil and I aren't likely to be terribly stealthy." Meneas reminds them. "But I agree with Signy. Let's make this as quick as possible - I'd rather not get dragged into a fight before we meet with the dryad and her satyr."
Brental tries to keep track of Signy when she comes back, before closing his eyes to focus. Vod, however, snorts and ambles around a little on his feet, clearly discomfited by the Caydenite's antics.
"It's a sound plan, Signy," he concurs. "Shall we treat this as a plan-for-the-worst, hope-for-the-best situation? Spellcasting could draw attention, but I'd rather be prepared in case the denizens within are keen on collecting more skulls."
Brental grasps for the sprigs of holly and mistletoe dangling around his neck and begins casting a series of spells on himself and the others. A platinum ring on his left hand begins glowing purple, and a nearly identical ring pierced through Vod's ear begins glowing in resonance. Vod's tusks glow with a nigh imperceptible yellow light as runes briefly inscribe on them and then become invisible. Then Brental's skin takes on a weathered appearance not unlike that of tree bark. Finally, Brental gathers everyone around. Pulling a couple of shavings of magnesium from a leather pouch, he briefly lights it on fire with the Salamander and then murmurs a few more words before touching himself and his five companions. Everyone feels subtle changes within their lungs and behind their eyes. "If we get into a difficult spot, I will conjure fog. The spell I just cast will enable us to continue to see through it."
With his spells cast, Brental follows the lead in through crumbled wall gap. He and Vod are both stealthier than Lina, though that's admittedly not saying much.
The party advance over the rubble and into the courtyard seemingly without incident though the courtyard itself is extremely overgrown and makes for difficult walking.
A graceful tower rises out of the keep’s central courtyard, now overgrown with bushes, undergrowth, and several sizable trees. Like the outer walls, the tower is draped with vines and creepers, and several small plants have taken up residence on ledges and in cracks along its sides.
The party tracks intrepidly onward into the open main tower. This wide chamber has an impressive vaulted ceiling. Though obscured in places by earth and undergrowth, the hall’s floor is crafted of smooth stone tiles in multicolored pastel hues. The walls of the chamber are decorated with faded frescoes of sylvan life, showing scenes of beautiful nymphs engaged in crafting, feasting, dancing, singing, and a bewildering variety of other idyllic pursuits. To the west, a graceful, filigreed stone staircase, garlanded with flowering vines, climbs to the level above.
Before allowing his companions to step further into the chamber, Meneas raises a hand gesturing a halt.