Shrett negotiates with the Aldryami warrior Frowns at Meatpuppets. The elf probes how trustworthy you are; what threat(s) you might pose to the elves. You try to give as little info as possible and soon start pushing back, that it has no authority on this Road; you’re not truly in the Tarinwood (off the Road; mainly west) Bog gives abundant input, while Boamund hopes that this leads to his Truestone being blessed again; and Fraud just tries not to get noticed. The elf asks about who you are and your intentions, what your iron is for, what Bog is all about and why you travel with a Zorak Zorani, what your dealings with Aldryami-kind have been like before (especially bad ones), and such. Shrett tries to steer conversation into fighting mutual enemies such as Chaos/Western sorcerors, and focusing on alliance or helping, not treating each other as threats. He does very well; Frowns at Meatpuppets less so. The elf does get in some insults to Bog, which nearly send Bog into violence, but Shrett rebuts that this is racist nonsense.

Soon “Frowns” starts losing enthusiasm for his inquiry (he’s gained very little information, and doesn’t appear like too much is deemed threatening to his kind), and after 15+ minutes of back-and-forth, he takes a step back, un-nocking his arrow, and other Aldryami there do similarly. Shrett speaks up, saying that you’d like to be friends, and speaking of peace, and Frowns takes a step toward Shrett again.

The masked warrior-elf reaches into into leaves on its back, its arm bending freakishly, and procures a round brown nut which has a Harmony and a Plant rune inscribed on it. When handing over, it brushes Shrett’s palm and forearm repeatedly. Very awkward. [The nut can be invoked to give 1 grade easier social interactions with Plant-rune beings for a scene.] The elves warily back off into the Tarinwood, fading into the vegetation.

Later that day; early afternoon; you are crossing through some dry uplands of Pralorela with scragglier forest to your right/east but still the dense Tarinwood to the west. Suddenly Shrett is poked bluntly in the back; not hard; by something. He turns to see a small pale woman in simple hide clothing who has poked him with the butt of her javelin. She is smiling as she climbs from the bush she was hiding in, into the dry branches of a dead tree nearby. You can now see obvious Beast and Spirit runes adorning this one, who looks female. She says in broken Tradetalk: “Greet to travelling. Didelfi we. Clan of Silver Tree Circle. Tell of you, do?” Shrett figures she is a Hykimi/Hsunchen/animal-person, so he tries Beastspeech and she is relieved to be able to speak in that easier tongue. Her name is Carefully Sways; a young shaman in training of the opossum people of these forests. Indeed, a greyish rat-like mammal she calls an opossum climbs around her. Shrett has never seen such a beast, or heard of it.

Soon you notice six other funny-looking small, pale people with short brown hair and wearing only simple hides for clothing, carrying a few crude hunting-type missile weapons. They are watching from within the Tarinwood. All of them are climbing rather than on the ground. The individuals are hard to tell apart, complicated by the fact that they keep moving around.

Carefully Sways tells you a little of the Didelfi. They have been here since the Dawn, but before then they lived in “the Land of Plenty” across the ocean, yet when fires fell from the sky they fled, through the “Yellow Peril” (some sort of mean elf forests?) then across the sea, with Mama Possum carrying her babies in her pouch, then to Genertela where they met the Toothed Ones, who bit her and wounded her and she died; but was only playing dead and showed a new power as she arose again, but as Papa Possum. The Didelfi seldom leave the forests, are elf-friends and hunter-gatherers, and have a tense relationship with the Pralori. Only female Pralori may hunt the opossums (babies are a delicacy), and if they kill one they must wait a Season to do so again, especially if a Didelfi offers a baby to them. This arrangement seems to prevent worse hostility. Anyway, the shaman is very friendly toward you.

She motions into the forest, roughly westwards. “This way. Guests. Much of the Giver; Great Green Woman.” Fraud really doesn’t like that; Bog is deeply suspicious; but you go.

She happily shares information as you go into the forest. The Didelfi are a matriarchy, who make many children, are Great Green Woman allies (Earth/land goddess ~ Ernalda/Slonta/Ralia), and fear the First Eater = lion/Basmol; they want to return south to Caratan etc., but it is not safe to. They act as Givers, and like other Hykimi do not farm, but go further than that and do not allow anyone to “scar the earth” (dig); which makes it tough for them to get anywhere near civilizations. They carry bows, slings, javelins, blowguns, and bolas and no armour per se; these are not a warrior people.

And you get more details of your “guest” status during travel into the Tarinwood– You have been invited to a Festival of the King of the Monkeys, Hrunda; a forest god; and patron of the uncommon (and annoying) bluepaw monkeys around Slontos. Several weeks ago in Fire Season, local bluepaw populations woke all of the Tarinwood with an exultant screeching. Word soon spread of the god’s great victory that night over a terrible Darkness which had threatened the Tarinwood. Since then, we animal people have watched the Road for passersby whom our spirits deem acceptable to attend a great celebration, a festival praising the god, thanking Hrunda for his steadfast bravery. Hrunda is welcoming to guests and so shall the animal people be. Sounds OK to you…

You walk for some hours from the forest’s edge, guided by the Didelfi through increasingly thick and confusing mists. First, you hear the drums, a hypnotic rhythm carried through the canopy of the Tarinwood by the dancing winds. The musty smell of ancient loam saturates every breath. As you near your destination, you notice some animals traveling in the same direction. Not far ahead, a white pillar becomes visible through the trees. The charnel remains from generations of sacrifice are piled nearly to the highest branches of the canopy. This is it, your destination, as your guides explain: the Temple of Bones of All Beasts. Powers forgotten, feral and untamed are worshiped here as well as more familiar ones; not just Hrunda. Celebrants drum in rhythm with bears beating on trees and boars stamping their hooves as Pralori choirs bray a melody. And hundreds of bluepaw monkeys chatter in the trees, watching your arrival with their large black eyes. As you behold this, you realise that the Didelfi have already scampered into the group of celebrants, leaving you behind; they clamber into a tall tree nearby.

missing paragraph

Bog rushes in and starts dancing with aplomb. Shrett uses his monkey-speaking magic and chats to the local monkeys, although they don't have a lot to say (they're just monkeys; and making fun). You start to sing and play music, but a figure approaches. An extraordinary old grey bear ambles up to you, with a spectral orange monkey head following him. In Tradetalk he says, “Welcome, guests. I speak for Koronei, great spirit of the Temple of Bones of All Beasts and of the Great Bone Altar, as High Priest Grubagen Greyhide. It is very rare indeed that we welcome your kind here, but it is a very rare time of Festival with new tidings. You may explore within the circle of the temple grounds, but wander not into the forest mists.” He doesn’t say much more, grumbling when Shrett asks what you’re supposed to do that humans are too serious and he should just go have fun; then he sleepily, grumpily watches you go.

Around the clearing, you can see the Great Bone Altar, but also: a lumpy stone, a big fruit tree full of those chattering monkeys, a bush that looks like a cloud, another lumpy stone, a tall tree, and a smooth stone like a half-buried egg. (map locations 1-7)

Bog, Boamund and Fraud go to the central Great Bone Altar. A terrifying white mound stretches to the sky, reaching the height of the forest canopy. As you draw near, you see it is built from bones—bone after bone, after bone, recording centuries of sacrifice. Spilt blood has turned the ground reddish all around this altar. White dust—remnants of the most ancient bones heaped here—billows forth occasionally on the wind. A black stone worn smooth from use lies flat on the ground. It is about 2m across. Howling laughter comes from a gang of bluepaws, and from a dark-haired woman dressed in the furs and hides of a barbarian huntress, as she chases them in circles around the Great Bone Altar. She catches one, tosses it to its companions in the canopy, and laughs with obvious enjoyment. She otherwise ignores you as you investigate.

Bog touches the Altar and grants it magic; seeing the draconic skull atop it. It reveals, in the Spirit World, a spectral wyrm that says it is Koronei; and only he sees this. It doesn’t communicate more with him, but he’s impressed. Boamund obtains a powerful vision. He sees 16 pieces of grey stone in an uneven stack; somewhere else. They are incredibly thin, much like pieces of thick wire. Slowly, gracefully they slide around, each leaving the stack and moving by as if its own accord into a position on the ground. Soon all pieces form a geometric design of a web. He does not know where it is, but it’s not here, and he knows it to be a vision granted by Arachne Solara, whose power invests this place.

Shrett goes to the monkey tree. Blue fruits the size of a man’s fist hang from this tree in clusters of three. Its bark is grey and smooth. It is a vast Hrunda tree with Blue Paw Monkeys aplenty; and a colourful wood-stump Hrunda altar next to it. The tree is festooned with plump bright blue fruits, which the monkeys eat and excrete seeds of down to the floor as offerings to the Earth/Hrunda. Shrett convinces one, who is greedy but not too greedy, to give him a fruit.

“Halt, strangers!” commands a half-naked old shaman, with a bushy beard laden with beads, shells, and other adornments which jangle when his head swivels. He looks to one side of you as he speaks, but clearly is addressing you all. Heavy white paint on his face evokes the grimace of a bluepaw monkey. “I am Alikas the Brown, Shaman of Hrunda! Name yourselves, you who tread upon our sacred ground! Pay homage, or turn back from this place!” He listens, then becomes less formal, and encourages you to boast of your deeds; while initiates with fake tails and some with real ones scurry around Alikas. You boast of the Boat Planet and such. He is visibly more impressed that there are some heroes as guests.

Alikas explains Hrunda, saying that as guests you should know: “Hrunda is an important great spirit of these lands. In the Darkness, He confronted the disease called Hunger by stealing fruit from Aldrya, for which he agreed his children would return the seeds. He became a guardian of the forests against The Taker. He faced the black breath of Nontr aya, the Undying Hunger, tricked him, bit him, and was poisoned by the bite, driving Hrunda mad, and Hrunda died. But in the Underworld, Hrunda met the Horned God, who cut Him open and removed the bad parts, eating them, whilst preserving the good parts. Hrunda returned to the world, weakened but wiser, yet always wily. He is of the Beast rune, the Illusion rune, and sometimes we find that He is of the Disorder rune too. He is hungry, but never so hungry as to Take too much, and this is what makes him so opposed to Nontraya, whose Hunger for Life cannot be sated.” And now your fears seem confirmed? Are you here as heroquest defenders against vampires that will show up any minute? Fraud, in particular, knows that Nontraya is the name outside of the West/Godlearners for Vivamort; Chaos god of Undeath (Hunger rune); who was a guardian of Death that lusted for Ernalda/local Earth/land goddess and so got corrupted by Chaos into excessive, boundless Hunger for Life (i.e., he opposes the Fertility rune).

Alikas: “Now, go play. Roam the festival and enjoy as our guests.” The celebration continues.

Order of events here is loose

Shrett goes to the odd egg-shaped stone. A stone worn smooth by age and touch. It is very black. When light reflects from its surface, the shine seems dim, like the stars. He touches it, gives magic energy, and falls into the Cosmos, toppling end over end through Infinity for a timeless voyage, before he falls back into his body, dizzy but knowing he has been TRANSFORMED. But he has no idea how! Bog and Fraud go there later; the rock only responds to Bog’s touch, but for him it reveals a vision that it is a tooth of a vast dragon, with other teeth shown in a row with it, and so he concludes that he is in the presence of a part of the Night Dragon! A cloak of shadows wraps around him as he sits down, back against the rock, awed and comforted. Once he gets up again, the cloak follows in streamers dragging behind.

Three of you (sans Shrett) go to the first lumpy stone, which looks like a bear. It is a low, slouching rock. The Beast Rune is carved into one side of it. Grubagen is half-slumbering in its shadow. You touch the stone and give it energy, and Grimfang the bear spirit appears, growling in Beastspeech, but none of you know what it says, so you leave. Shrett comes back later and it isn’t very chatty; it’s grumpy that it woke up, and finds Hrunda very annoying, and this isn’t its Festival. The place must be holy to bear-spirits as well as maybe the Odayla hunter-god.

Shrett goes to the tall tree: It is full of the Didelfi people that escorted you here. “Carefully Sways” reaches out and says, “Good guests. Keep good. Want good magic make good feelings?” You talk, and she teaches Shrett the Solace folk magic spell, via a spirit who passes into him: Solace Ranged, Special Duration This spell is cast upon a sufferer. It acts to cancel non-magical mental distress, whether from grief over the loss of a loved one, from fear of death, or whatever. The effect is to relieve stress on the victim and enable them to go about normal actions. It does not relieve pain, such as from injury or disease, but it does enable them to face the prospect of death bravely. Thus it could counteract passions etc.

The trio go to the bushy tree nearby. Grey clouds seem to grow from the brown stems of this bush, soft and wispy like shed fur. Upon closer inspection, this is not one bush, but a cluster of cotton-like plants which have grown tangled together. The mists around the Temple emit from it. Bog casts magic energy into it and a mink spirit pokes its head out, growling in Auloring about what happened to Childebear, and urging to kill him; but then Bog explains what happened, and they bond in agreement that he should have died horribly but the humans had to make their weak-willed compromise; oh well. Bog asks if he can do anything for the mink and it ponders, saying to come back later maybe. It becomes evident that this bush is blessed by the Storm Ram of the Orlanthi (or rain god Heler?) and also the Caratan Aulorings: Buruwehaar, god of the Protecting Mist and Ustelm, mink-god.

An eerie, husky chant cuts through the hubbub of the festival crowd. A plump, bald, pale woman (you later learn her name to be the Hrunda shaman Yurvog Feastmaster) with a monkey face tattooed on her belly is perched on a stout limb in one of the temple’s sacred trees, her belly rising and falling to the song’s rhythm as she leads the chorus. One by one, those celebrants wearing an initiate’s tattoos join in, adding their voice to the haunting song. The cookpot/monkey-face tattooed on her belly seems to dance to her cyclic breathing. The chanting, echoing the moaning howl of a bluepaw, becomes overwhelming. It sends celebrants—humans and Animal People alike—into religious ecstasy. There is dancing, pounding the ground or the trunk of the sacred tree, and the howling chants grow ever shriller and louder.

As the song and its frenzy peak, Alikas and his assistants bring some animals toward the sacred tree of Hrunda. The cacophony reaches a crescendo and Alikas cuts the throat of a black-spotted heifer cow, then throws their head back and adds their voice to the howling. Spirit-powers reach from all around, welcoming energy to connect to the ceremony. You participate.

The sky opens into another realm; the Gods World; with a much greater forest. A shimmering monkey spirit climbs down from the scintillating branches of that world into the temple’s tree, and grooms itself as worshippers gaze in fervent adoration.

More sacrifices, both of objects, and of living creatures, are brought to the tree. This includes the usual cattle and pigs sacrificed among most human religions, but the Shamans also grab animals from the crowd, seemingly at random, and offer them to the gods. A monkey and opossum are slaughtered, and deer walks obediently to the now-bloodstained tree. You wonder when those vampires will show up to drink the blood. But so far, none are there…

It appears that no sentient creatures have been sacrificed (yet?), yet but wondering on this, you spot human and other races’ skulls in the ancient remains piled upon the Great Bone Altar… This really makes you uncomfortable to ponder.

The monkey spirit licks its fingers demurely, its expression benign and calm. Breathless and bloodstained from the holy work, Alikas silences the crowd by clashing his bronze knives together. Yurvog drops from her branch below the monkey spirit, and gets to work fulfilling her nickname, Feastmaster. The emotion drains from the crowd, left unsupervised while Alikas purifies himself after handling the sacrificial offerings. A great ram formed of winds and mist blows across the flames of a fire that has been built in the midst of the clearing, wafting smoke onto the sacred tree, to ascend into the Gods World. A feast is under preparation, and celebrants mill about the holy site as they wait.

You notice that, amidst the celebration, Hrunda initiates switched to near-monkey form have carried a sacrificed deer and then elk to the flat black stone by the Great Bone Altar, where they have cut the bodies open and ensured that all blood drains out, before removing the flesh to add back to the feast, and heaping the bones onto the pile with many other new ones. The blood flows down the stone onto the ground and some large but immaterial serpentine shape manifests near where it pools. It is the wyter of this temple is named Koronei, manifesting as a great wyrm whose body is formed from over ten thousand bones. You see it lapping up the blood around the altar, but it doesn’t interact with anyone.

Shrett visits another lumpy stone, about chest high. Lichen grows along one side like a cloak. He can’t discern anything about it.

Grubagen waddles up and says that a ritual gift-giving at the Altar would be well-received now, and points to a man that is doing so. A barbarian warrior has laid down an illustrious gift of a silver bluepaw votive statuette complete with lapis lazuli hands, and lingers nearby, observing the giftings. He watches another man; a Westerner with a spear; come to give a gift of a crude carving he just made of a smiling monkey face on bark. The Orlanthi warrior exclaims, “Some noble you are, Pelnor Lackheart! Your honour-name is well-earned! A man of true heart would give until it hurt in return for the hospitality we are receiving!” The man cringes, straining a smile and deferent bow, and slinks away, slouching a bit. You try to comfort him a little, later, and he manages a thin smile and straightens up. You present gifts: three mushroom-themed magical things, and the barbarian who comes to be known as Finstaval Shadekiller watches each gift-giving and your speech, and he warmly praises each one; he’s pleased. But also clearly a jerk. Bog confronts him. He backs off, especially when a big hand is placed on Bog’s shoulder from behind. It is a female Uzko in lead plate armour with Darkness and Harmony runes of Argan Argar; standing very still and watching what is going on, quietly, and speaking with a soft voice when she does. Two bluepaws jape in Tradetalk that she is the strangest tree they’ve seen in years. She seems uncomfortable. Her dark skin nearly blends into the mists. She and Bog quickly get along well; Bog proclaims that wealth isn’t so great, but she reminds him what greatness a big pile of bolgs can do: hiring armies, or procuring food. He asks what she has to trade and she says she has no lead shield for him, but does have exotic foodstuffs, and he’s ecstatic.

Finstaval shouts out “We shall honour our hosts with a contest! I will take any comer among their guests in a wrestling match; no magic, just muscle. Winner pins the loser!” A circle parts in the crowd as he presents himself. Shrett steps in, voicing challenge. They square off, and Shrett closes first. They wrestle for a while, with Finstaval showing good skill but outclassed in strength. He gets gripped around the throat and can’t break free. Soon, Orlanth’s breath departing, he gasps out surrender.

The Uzko Bozfani steps in, giving Shrett a pang of fear as she reminds him that this contest has not ended, and she looks tough. But she seems hesitant. However, as they face off, it is a good match. She isn’t stronger than Shrett, but is skilled (and Shrett’s talents soon repeatedly fail him), and although she gets knocked down she stands back up and flattens him with an arm-swing, then keeps him down and belly-flops onto him, crushing and holding him down with her mass and thick limbs. He is hopelessly pinned and surrenders. But the barbarian huntress who played with the monkeys at the altar has been watching the contest. She challenges Bozfani and the two women start off sizing each other up, both showing uncertainty it seems. At first it looks like Vinshana might not be so good, but this is proved to be a ruse. She’s an excellent wrestler. She isn’t quite as strong as the troll but she outclasses her and pins her and wins; jesting that Bozfani is good but Vinshana is very good. Pelnor Lackheart has been watching, cheered Shrett, but didn’t participate otherwise. He does sidle up to the rest of you as you watch, and makes conversation. Soon you realise he speaks Seshnegi. He’s from your parts. Far from home.

You have learned of some of the other guests here at the festival: Finstaval – from Ralios, East Wilds/Delela; Orlanth warrior, foe of Darkness (he and Bog are now enemies, and he’s not too fond of Shrett either; now is sulking on the edge of the circle, cursing, coughing). Typical Orlanthi, full of arrogant bluster and emotion. You now may feel nostalgia for the contrasting Aulorings! Bozfani – from Guhan in Ralios, Argan Argar. Nice Uz; uneasy, like she knows she sticks out here and doesn’t like it. She says she knows she and you are here for a reason, and wonders what that is. She has some companions elsewhere, she says, but you don’t see them. She is returning from a long journey, circling from Guhan west through Halikiv with the “Swarm” of Argan Argar, into Dragon Pass and to Dagori Inkarth where she saw the Mistress Race Uz Heroine Cragspider Firewitch—and found her very frightening indeed. Bog is wowed. He knows that Cragspider works with the Night Dragon! Vinshana Keen– from Ralios, Lankst region, Red Badger clan, an Odayla huntress. You don’t know much about her. She’s kept to herself. Pelnor Lackheart– from Nolos; Hrestoli Talar from a fallen family; an exile/refugee. He’s a Malkioni merchant and traveller. Reminiscent of the Trader Princes.

© Copyright - 2000-2024 - John Hutchinson, Tim Evans, Pete Nash, Colin Driver and Gordon Alford