Askr the Yggite captain was drawn by dreams to the monastery; he was the “weak one”.
Watcher Nomai knew something was up, from all the documents he read, but misunderstood (or read incorrect old documents, really) about the Perindens. He died unfulfilled, but also strong enough to not have been “corrupted”/absorbed. If you’d Influenced a monk more nicely, you might have learned that they are Monks of the Cryptic Library; the new Order that is used to weed out heretical sorceries and knowledge, via deep scholarly investigations of hard evidence. It is allied to the Inquisitorial School, which is more about spiritual impurities. They seek purity of Rokarism to aid the “Danmalastan Project”; to bring back the Land of Logic of the Godtime/Zzabur. This is the big goal of the High Ecclesiarch Theoblanc the Pure. Most Rokari “in the know” have become aware of this plan. [But your PCs are not so aware; this is just teasing you until you find out more] [Boamund failed his Literacy roll later in the monks’ room so he missed these items in his rush:
It was indeed an old Aldrya tree; once noble and full of Life, now so overwhelmed with fury that it could not tell the Giver from Taker, but used its power of Giver to fill others so full of life that they almost burst. Now what? Well….
Fraud sees the goat-chicken-THING emerge and skitter, half-crawling on the floor, half sticking with its wood-tendrils to any other surface, up to the monk who is holding his staff defensively in front of the other two living monks (who cower, praying in horror), and Fraud witnesses, in just a few seconds, the monk get torn to bloody pieces. Yikes! He runs downstairs, hearing the shrieks of dying monks as he goes. The monastery begins shaking, more and more, and worsening at certain times when you mess with things.
Downstairs, Shrett investigates Captain Askr and indeed he is very much alive. The Yggites whisper still, and grow ever more tree-like, but their language is unclear. However, soon enough Shrett realises that there is at first a feeling, and then actual words, of Aldryami here in the monastery, coming from whatever this presence is.
Bog smacks the cracked back (West) wall of the crypt and the stone quickly falls away from a thin layer. He soon reveals a gnarled and notched wooden wall, and see movements in time with muffled, rhythmic thumping. Later, he checks if it is “weird” but sees nothing awry; it is not black or twisted like in the tapestry above. He uses his axe to cut a little bit, and it does bleed sap as he thought; but then it grows shut.
You recall, and later see, some things up in the main hall of the monastery:
You venture upstairs and are assaulted by five transformed “tree-man” monks, risen from the dead and horribly pieced back together. Watcher Nomai is the only one not so risen. But also, the goat-chicken-thing, which had been lightly pecking and sniffing at the north door to the monks’ shack, comes galloping-fluttering in.
A frantic combat begins. You try acting defensively, hoping to avoid upsetting this tree-presence here, and shield-bash or trip the monks away from you. Shrett leads the way in, and bashes the first monk, who holds the spear that killed him in one hand and tries to hold the door open with the other. This opens space for you to rush in through the door. Soon it is clear that you will be overwhelmed and gradually wiped out if you don’t take the fight to them, so you do. Boamund desperately tries to keep the frenzy of pecks and claws and kicks and branch-lashes from the goat-chicken thing away but it keeps smacking him around, although the wounds are not yet crippling. He is being worn down. Shrett faces two monks, one with quarterstaff, and is getting beaten but runs back to a corner, soon just facing a spear-wielding monk. He calls for Bog’s help and Bog comes running to help Boamund against the GCT. This works, as together they slowly take two of its three heads out, reducing its barrage of attacks. Fraud trips and slashes his way deftly through two monks, bringing them down. You’re still cornered and fighting for your lives, but the battle turns in your favour. Shrett however gets impaled in his leg by a spear [I forgot about this!] and is not looking good. Yet he has been trying, so far in vain, to communicate to this tree-thing, and at last it reaches out to him.
Battle stops; the monks freeze as if trees, and the GCT fidgets furiously, then wanders back to that shack-door and continues its investigations. Shrett speaks more to the presence, and it praises its power, how full of the Giver it is, and that none can stop it, and that it will Give you all the gift of becoming one with it, as the others have. In further discussion, it changes its tune slightly and offers you that one of you may leave as its prophet, but that is all; its power of Giving must be fed so it can Grow. Shrett replies that it would be better if he can become prophet but everyone leaves. It refuses.
The monks remain still.
Shrett follows the GCT, asking it to step aside and it does (not so happily), and he spots a monk in brown robes of a Reader, clutching his staff, under a bed. Boamund and then Fraud come in to talk with the terrified young man. He explains that Nomai found a map and document suggesting that a Perindens tree grew here long ago, and he thought some of its essence might remain. This man, Reader Afrael, didn’t understand any of this tree stuff or really know of it. Nomai was odd; he refused to allow any construction outside the monastery. But there is lots of access here to interesting texts and artifacts, so the monks were content as scholars. But lately, something strange has happened as their magics (indeed, all magics here) gradually weakened over the course of several days, to the point now where they do not work at all; energies directed via their sorb simply vanish. They are very concerned. It is clear though that Afrael knows little, and this is honest. They’d been there for about a year, and Watcher Nomai had specified why everything was to be set up the way it was; it was not their place to challenge order by asking why.
But aha, Perindens!? This changes things! You discuss it. Shrett raises this point to the tree through his mind, and it roars back that this is a lie; it is not such a tree!?
As time drags on, Shrett gets more and more visions, in this order: (if you’d accepted more lost Willpower rolls, you’d have gained these faster, but it worked out OK)
The last vision comes as a sledgehammer into Shrett’s mind, knocking him senseless in a corner of the hall. He comes to and slowly explains what he saw. But he is so shaken, he can barely think. The tree has almost absorbed his mind. Boamund, too, has gained a strong connection and is comprehending what is happening here.
Putting facts together, you experiment. Many things don’t work; the stones are impervious to what assaults you can manage upon them. They must bear powerful enchantments. You discuss a plan: the tree must be trapped here, you figure, and so you can’t free it, but you could free its heart? Shrett makes an offer along these lines, saying that you can take a seed from it and plant it in another good place. It haughtily replies that it would never allow its GLORY to be so humiliated. It will GROW here where it is! He feels its unhinged rage. It is not reasonable. It is overflowing with mad power. You can all feel that.
Fraud begins pulling down the tapestries. Bog soon sets them alight. Boamund is not so cool with this, and just watches. The blaze begins to spread.
Bog, thinking over what you’ve seen and Shrett’s visions, waves his axe through the fire’s smoke and it sticks to the blade. He takes his axe to the front door and gives it a try. It cleaves in, and the monastery howls and shakes, dropping bits of masonry. Fraud comes over and, with much finesse, shifts his big shield side to side, deflecting falling rocks as they come, keeping him and Bog safe.
The fire quickly extends along every crack in the monastery; faster even than it should! The tree-monks and GCT howl pitifully and helplessly as they catch fire. And a horrible howl shakes the tree. Bog hacks the door open and you leg it out, at last! Night has come; you’ve been in here for quite some time with your investigations; and you run across the fields. Looking back as you do, hearing crashing, you see the monastery begin to collapse in a cloud of smoke and dust, backlit by flames. The tower vanishes into a heap.
The BONE-TREE (having long since forgotten what it was called) rises as a great mass of tree-like tissue, the doors and windows of the monastery now reformed as roaring mouth and empty eyes. Masses of crooked branches snap and wriggle around it, reaching like grasping hands, and in places humanoid or animal branch-things reach forth, grabbing around them. It crawls on a horde of thick curled roots, with smaller tendrils slithering out after everything. You see pieces of the beings that you saw in the monastery, and more—there must have been centuries of bodies of its foes/victims as its “roots” and “branches” and “body” underground. But you are fast. It has some fires on it. And it is very, very angry with you for setting them.
There is no choice, even though you dread it. You must pass through the wood to the bluff down to the beach. The copse of trees has thickened; branches and roots grope for everyone. But you make it through without difficulty, or even slowing much.
Fraud slides down the bluff’s muddy trail atop his shield, using Bog as a sort of steering mechanism. It’s amazing! The others run down, and cross the beach. The Bone-Tree is coming; you can see its distant light. Fraud struggles as you get the little rowboat going from the dock through the rough waves of the cove; it almost capsizes but he steadies it. He also bumps into some treacherous rocks but you all keep hold of the gunwhales and stay aboard. Finally you reach the ship. The Bone-Tree comes across the beach, stumbling in a rage, gradually burning until it reaches the sea and, charred, quenches itself, bellowing vengeance. In utter panic at what he has seen, confirming the doom of his nightmares, Tordik the steersman pilots you away as you and the slaves take to the oars, then soon you are safely sailing over the reefs, and after 2 days return at last to St Thosos. Phew! But what will become of Asparagus Isle, now that a furious, almost godlike tree-monster has awakened, and seems to hate everyone?
You get back to business in due time; healed and slowly getting your minds together. Your feelings of connection with the Bone-Tree start to fade, as your thoughts become more your own. SHRETT: I will give you a Passion here of “Haunted by the Bone-Tree” at 50. Once in a while, it will find you in your dreams, probing you to see if it can sink a root back in there.
Days pass; life gets more normal; you have things to do. The colonists are very busy trying to get their lands in order.
SOME NEW STUFF:
Aria’s Well is assigned a new Talar by Big Ron! It is Ronalio’s old friend from St Thosos: a Hrestoli noble (Pithdaran), Sawwar Son of the Phoenix. A loyal leader, and famed in war vs. Seshnela, who has gone back and forth to the mainland and here over the years, but now has lost his lands there and is permanently resettling. He did fight well at St Thosos. You know him and think he’s a good choice. He immediately ends caste-based rule in St Thosos; although he is a “Talar” he is no Rokari, and as a Hrestoli he is not so firmly bound to his own caste traditions. People in Aria’s Well may choose if they follow caste guidelines or not.
FRAUD’s new villa remains under construction. He can stay in temporary housing there, or in town, as he pleases.
BOAMUND Humbertsville: The former Baronet Humbert’s family is freed from captivity with the Seshnelans in St Thosos. They return to Humbertsville; a new villa is being built for Boamund and Cyroosta. They are a young household (wife, 2 small children; 2 teenage sisters and disenchanted, depressed veteran uncle Silidine who keeps to himself except when entertained by children; and who likes to read poetry). The former wife Hamduna is a good Ffute player. She has 2 small children; boy Daffafah and girl Urtatim; and 2 teenage sisters—Sukaynah and Safiyyam—latter is 18 (so now very much adult); simple, and super naïve, They are good dancers and painters. The household are “Ashara Church” worshippers (Malkioni; you don’t know much else), but each also revere some other gods/saints; dabbling in what Rokari certainly would scream are heresies. They are tolerant.
The “new” Tumbledown Inn: the once-ruined tower that Seshnelans turned into a Zzaburi tower. Its former proprietor Wamni is dead. Its new one is another Manirian man from Caroman; in the Trader Princes lands. He is called Zilio Quickhands and is an extroverted young brewer who rapidly gets involved in town affairs, and reinstates the old name of the inn and provides decent ales.
A local Hsunchen healer has returned from the wilds! A Wenelian deer (Damali) shaman; Old-Jin Sixtines; a friendly, silly old man with a living, growing antler-headdress, who gets along well with non-animists and is not above taking money for healing skills and spirits.
SHRETT: Learns from the Sottogh elders and Tusynta that, while the truce with the colonists still holds, and Granno keeps the peace with the clans, and the dire enemy of the Rokari necromancers and wall-men is gone, they have no interests outside of the Giranois, and their home. It is a time for them to focus inwards, they say. Times of greater trouble will come, and they are not ready. Quick Sister lets Shrett visit now and then, and the experiences are surreal. He also finds out why the Huru clan have been so scarce of late. They have faced incursions from Good Toad Food; foul monsters. They do not talk much about it, and warn that anyone or thing that they see in their lands shall be killed on sight. The other clans’ elders take this as all the more reason to focus on strengthening themselves. Granno’s essence aids them with magics and advice to the Elders, but slowly; he is still growing in his power.
But, after these several days, something happens: At St Thosos— The Shadow (Amur piloting as usual) comes from New Arv to St Thosos, since you’re no longer at New Arv. Ahappi follows w/Pellinoresbane. And Omen comes! He cheerily says that Gumthunooreebou seeks to speak with you outside of the reefs, not far from sunken Arvonesse. You prepare and head over. Gumthun waits there with three other Ouori warrior-bulls.
Gumthunooreebou greets you: “Welcome friends. Times change, and we all bear witness. I come on behalf of the Trenchward tribe. We have seen dreadful things in the waters around our home. Demons come forth from the Fosnoir, and worse. We mourn the loss of four of our own. What became of them we have not learned, but they carried a treasure with them from our northern relatives; a shrine to Magasta, which we intended to consecrate here. It is now lost somewhere in the Fosnoir, and we ask for you heroes to aid us again. Whatever this trouble involves, we feel that it is beyond our power. You would again earn our great favour for your help. Ahappi and his fell beast would be able to find it in those black waters. We fear that the cost may be painful, as our priest sees omens of suffering. Perhaps sacrifice.”
You notice an odd glance between Gumthun and Ahappi, and Fraud discerns that their look conveys a terrible shared secret, that chills him.
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