Appeased Among the Trees

## **Synopsis**

In Chapter 55: Appeased Among the Trees, the party waited at the shoreline while Graven used a dazzling array of healing magic to get everyone back on their feet – including the lone survivor of the caravan attack.  A fisherman by trade from Netter's Nook, the young Clemens and his friends had stumbled upon a den in the Eastern Mangroves that was home to an untouched, adult Myconid.  Believing this to be their ticket to a life of luxury, they captured the creature and planned to sell it in Tuktu – but were attacked on the final stretch by Sahuagins, who aimed to leave no survivors before we showed up at the last moment.

The Myconid was long gone and Clemens was heavily indebted due to the equipment he borrowed for the trip.  In a moment of compassion despite our knowledge of the disreputable Myconid trade within Anti-Suyu – Beezaura, Orba and Safira chipped in a sum of gold to get the boy back on his feet, with the hope that it might allow him to return home rather than spend his life looking over his shoulder.

There wasn't much to scavenge from the overturned wagons, but Beezaura was able to rustle up a couple of healing potions and a key to a box, which contained a drawing or map of some kind.  With nothing else to be gleaned from it at the moment, we steered our horses north and began following the Acqly River up toward the grove.

The first signs of intelligence were found repairing a damaged bridge – a trio of Acqly Elves whose eerie disposition was offset by their wealth of knowledge about the forest.  The settlements in the grove are all mobile ones due to what these Elves described as the "Squall Cycle", the seasonal movement of great elemental beasts known as Tempests.  Wherever the Tempests go, they bring tremendously harsh weather with them – so it's best for travelers to avoid those areas if possible.

We charted a course through the ISI region that deviated only slightly from our intended path, which had the added bonus of taking us closer to the ISI-MIL border – the only discernible landmark on the map we'd taken from the overturned supply wagon.  Thanking the Elves, we set off once more – this time keeping an eye out for a functioning crossing, as it would be necessary to swap sides of the river if we wanted to avoid wandering too close to the Tempests.

After a full day of riding it was time to make camp – a little earlier than usual with the hopes of maximizing our daylight hours the following day, a precious commodity in this increasingly dense forest.  Before drifting off, however, we heard humming and the sounds of approaching footsteps – six travelers making a pilgrimage from Nolan's Woods to the Acqly Basin.

Q'usñi, not exactly "feeling the love" from Graven and his companions, demanded that his cleric speak to them – and their leader, Elder Lodswithe, was deeply thankful that their journey would be blessed by what he called the "meddling gods", those that directly impose their will upon the world.  He confessed that the trek was normally done with a small bit of sustenance each day at sunrise, but if Q'usñi would see fit to purge their remaining rations they would complete their voyage as it was originally intended – without any food at all.

Well accustomed to picking his battles carefully, Graven incinerated their stores of bread while the young followers looked on in horror – and though a divine blessing was extended to the entire party, not all of us desired such a favor.  Orba made this known during a private moment alone while holding her spectrally-gifted flower – losing her divine inspiration but gaining peace of mind.

Finally, we settled down to sleep – but Safira found her mind wandering during her watch, and by the time she'd snapped out of it a number of sneaky vegepygmies had already started scooting away with some of our belongings.  With an accusatory yelp and quick hands that were able to snatch Grahmari's Giant Grimoire back from the creatures' leafy hands, the party sprung awake and prepared to recover our stolen items.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: three natural ones were rolled in this Chapter. 1 by Jordan, and 2 by John.