24: Friend of the Forest

Previous Session | Next Session

## Summary

### Farewell, K'nafay

On a pleasantly warm late summer morning, the gang preps to depart K’nafay. With the city still sleeping off the biggest party of the year, the travelers pack their bags and make for the stables.

The party reaches the stables at the break of dawn to find Damhir and Ginger waiting for them, now dressed down. They appear to be trying to rally Muna while Gwyn watches on. When Damhir fails to tempt her with some sort of dried insect snack, he eats one instead, and offers the bag to Ginger.

Post-snack, he debriefs the party on the journey ahead: two days to the Empire Outpost in the Waste, and three (or four, he thinks, giving Mujie a once-over) from there to the Capital. But when he sees the party’s odd, stout horses (see also: donkeys), he realizes he’ll have the additional headache of finding them mounts capable of traversing the harsh Kkora sands.

### Greenglade

Led by Damhir and Ginger, the ever-growing group sets off on the North Malabar Road, and eventually, the East Road, with the Kkora Mountains now on the horizon. After a day’s travel, with the sun low and the mountains still a ways off, the party makes camp in a forest clearing to the north of the road.

Though he’s never been himself, Bran knows the area as “the No-No Forest” (see also: Greenglade), a famous setting for ghost stories told by parents in Stonetree Village. He’s not so sure how haunted it is, though, since Aster and Sheena favor the Glade for hunting trips, and they’ve never told him about any ghosts.

Meanwhile, Luca also knows of the region from his mother’s stories about the Wilds, and he passed by the Glade on his original trek to Lhoam from the Barrens. He knows it to be a mysterious place, and the source of many tall tales. It’s easy to get lost in the trees here, he’s heard, and at twilight, some say it takes on an otherworldly quality.

### The Spectral Riders

True to tale, as the sun dips below the treeline and the light filters through the canopy, the party hears a distant howl, followed by flashes in the treeline. Luca and Cat move to investigate from a distance, and Damhir decides he has absolutely no time for ghosts. As the party moves deeper into Greenglade to find the source of the commotion, they find a deer being chased by giant, ghostly hunting dogs—complete with ghostly riders. The gang dispatches the spectral riders (with the help of some big hits by Tira), and once things calm down, Luca makes a new friend: the little deer, who leads him deeper into the forest.

### The Mother Tree

The deer brings Luca to another clearing bathed in silvery moonlight. At the edge of the clearing is a giant, gnarled oak, seemingly thousands of years old. But something is wrong—some of its branches are barren, and its bark sports cracks and fissures. Luca prepares to cast Plant Growth on the tree overnight to soothe its sickness, but something unexpected happens. As the magic flows through him, he feels the tree’s lifeforce reach out and touch his own. Connected, he lets some of his own Ark flow to the tree. Time seems to slow, and a golden haze envelops them, but when Luca comes to, the tree’s bark is mending and pink flowers are blooming on her branches. He takes some samples (for science), and heads back to camp, exhausted from apparently sharing part of himself with the tree.

### Meet Sika

Back in the direction of the campsite, the party hears a woman scream in surprise, and an argument ensues. When they return, they find Damhir tangled up and restrained in a mess of thick vines, the source of which seems to be a wood nymph, staring him down. Her skin brown like smooth treebark, and her hair a neat pile of ropy branches, she berates Damhir for drawing his sword.

Easily distracted, however, she recognizes the party immediately, and introduces herself as Sika, a lesser god of the Wilds. She thanks Luca for “fixing” the Mother Tree, who watches over the region. Apparently, she was hexed centuries ago, and Sika has been stuck as a deer ever since. Before the party can ask her many questions, she sees Luca’s necklace—a gift from Bartak—and asks if he’s still sleeping. Pleased to hear he’s awake again, she resolves to get the cousins together and stage a little family reunion, but not before leaving Luca with a gift of her own: a chestnut from the mother tree.

In the dead of night, with everyone asleep but a disinterested Damhir, Cat pads off back to the Mother Tree to do some investigating. He thinks that, if she can make Sika not a deer, maybe she can make him not a cat. When he touches her bark, he feels a gentle, motherly energy wash over him, and for the first time, he begins to understand the thread that binds him to the realm, and the realm to him. The Mother Tree drops him a large chestnut, and he returns to camp to think over what to do with it.

## Quotes

### *TOO GOOD FOR BUGS, ARE YOU?:*

> “You’re getting spoiled by all this Farlander meat, huh? Well, suit yourself.”
>
>

*—Damhir, to Muna*

### *WHO'S GONNA TELL HIM?:*

> “Your horses are—… They look—… Different. Well, they won’t be able to cross the desert in any case. We’ll have to find you new mounts at the Outpost.”
>
>

*—Damhir*

### *FAMILY REUNION:*

> “Hey, is that Uncle B’s Necklace? Have you seen him?? I haven’t seen him in… Gee, centuries now. Is he still asleep? Maybe that’s why the Mother Tree was still sick, ‘cause he’s been sleeping…”
>
>

> “You know what—there’s no time like the present. I’m gonna get the cousins together and go see Uncle B. But hey, take this!! Keep it close. A token of our friendship!! When it’s the right time to use it, you’ll know.”
>
>

*—Sika*