Giraine Summaries

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

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)