Saturday, October 5, 2019

Master of Strings Ch101: The Wood Elves

Tess, Zilo, and Zairian landed near a clearing with large trees that according to the map is the location of the Wood Elf settlement. There they see a line of trees grown right next to each other to form a long wall of pure wood.

Tess removed Zilo from her back and Zatrian regained his footing after his legs had been hanging for a few hours. Zilo stirred awake as Tess smiled to him and said, "Good to see that dark fey wasn't as deadly as it looked."

Zilo sat up and flinched as he held his stomach and said, "Yeah, lucky me. Where are we?" Zatrian rubbed his chin and said, "It seems to be a defensive wall made up trees." Zatrian cupped his hands and began to speak in elven, "Thar noresh!  nha bren Tel' Rûn Ath Or Tel' Quessir!?"

A slightly deeper voice shouted back from the tops of the trees, "Sen nha vian nu!"

Zatrian spoke back, "Sal am Zatrian Ath Sel Tel' Quessir, quor lae salen menatu!"

A rope descended from the above trees and a sprightly wood elf in a leather tunic sporting a short bow and quiver rode the rope down to the ground landing in a bowing motion before saying, " Bren nha Or Enialaith."

Zatrian motions to Zilo and speaks, "Sal sehan ausa n'Quesser Ebrath."

The Wood Elf looks to Zilo and speaks again, reverting to common, "My apologize, welcome to Or Enialaith, the Home of Wood."

Zilo gives a quick bow and the Wood Elf's sharp eyes look him over and he remarks, "You wouldn't happen to know of a Human and Vanara, would you grey man?"

"I know many Humans, but only one Vanara. Is his name Jin Shi?" The Wood Elf nods and Zilo's eyes brighten before saying, "They made it! Glorious! Can you take me to them?"

The Wood Elf nods and motions for the three of them to follow, as he quickly scurries up the tree. The three may have been tired from their long journey, but the joy of finally finding the Wood Elves spurred them up, though Zatrian might have needed a bit of extra help.

Once inside the group saw the entire settlement area with a bit of curiosity. The city looked to be built into the trees around the area, with tree houses and structures formed with tree trunks as their bases, nearly untouched. the pathways were flattened between the awkwardly made buildings with very narrow walk ways, but with enough space to manage so long as you step 2 or maybe 3 people at a time.

The elves had sturdy but lithe builds with dirty blond to dark nearly black hair, and fair tanned skin with complexions of those who have spent much of their days outdoors. Wood Elf children ran quickly in the streets playing games of tag and hopping around trees, deftly stepping with the acrobatic skill of jungle cats.

The Wood Elf man who was guiding Zilo motioned for him to come to along toward a large structure built along the wall of trees that he had been defending. The structure was covered in a tarp of patchwork hides and held aloft by tree trunk held knots.

Once inside Zilo saw May tending to a splayed out Jin on a soft pile of sewn leathers and plant life. Zilo shouted, "May! Jin! You both made it!"

May turned and her eyes went wide before she broke into a smile and responded, "Zilo!" The two friends quickly moved over to each other and hugged before they both turn to Jin, who was giving a thumbs up to the bard.

May goes back to him and says, "I managed to get the King Sleep out of his system, but the damage is still bad, I think he can make it home to a cleric, but he shouldn't do much beyond that."

Zilo looks puzzled and asks, "Why not see a cleric here?"

The wood elf guard speaks, "Some of our kind might have some devotion to the gods, but not enough to cure him." May motions to the guard and says, "It's true. Best they got is a few high druids, who fix plants and animals more so than people."

Zatrian chimes in with, "Then why not speak with a shaman?"

May turns to him and asks, "shaman? I don't-"

The Wood Elf interrupts and says, "Yeah, a shaman would likely fix him." May jumps up and moves over to the guard, grabbing him by his tunic and says, "Why didn't you say so when we got here 3 days ago!? And I will smack you if you tell me 'You didn't-'."

"You didn't ask." May immediately slams her hand into the side of the guard's head and spins him in a complete circle before he crumples to the ground. She then lifted him back up and shook him awake before Zilo asked, "Now what's a shaman?"

Shaking off the recent smack "Well to put in terms you'd get, While druids pull from nature and clerics are blessed by god, shaman are like a middle ground. They commune with Spirits rather than gods, while they are not as strong as gods by any means, they are plentiful in nature. They aren't as adept at healing as a cleric, but they outclass druids since they spend less time communing with nature."

Tess speaks up as she lifts Jin off his resting space, "That sounds like just what you all need before you take off home." Zilo looked back to her and said, "You aren't coming with?"

"Zatrian is in my protection until I secure some folk here to take over, you all only got hired to get us here."

Zilo looks back to May and says, "We'd be crummy guards to just leave him with King's Sleep in his blood don't you think?" May nods and says, "Besides we don't know if some of these Wood Elves harbor ill intentions, I want to meet with Or Enialaith's leadership and make sure its safe."

"First, Dah Shamy." Said the woozy and weak Jin. The group of reunited adventurers shambled through the streets, the damage of their poisoned muscles beginning to strain in it's final leg before receiving relief of the spell. On the way, Zatrian and Tess asked to very quickly stop off at a store the elves had while Jin finally found enough strength to move on his own two feet.

Zilo took that time to tell his two friends about his adventure in the Fey lands, and his discovery about the bow Harmony being a blessing of Oberon and his new blade Scherzo being a gift from the Nymph mistress of the forest, Sayulati.

Zatrian and Tess returned and the 5 of them continued to the area they were told the city's head shaman had resided. They came to a ring of trees that had been warped inward and combined into a larger treetop that extended up.

The tree trunks grouping on the inside was not hollow and left a circular style area inside with wooden natural structures that formed into furniture that resembled pews that centered toward the middle of the room. the floor of the room was angled down to a circle where an old elf sat meditating.

The group approached the old elf, but as they did, Zilo stepped and felt a string cause tension against his shin and immediately Jin spun around and saw the two pew closest to the entryway be pulled back by a previously unseen binding that blocked off the exit with wooden debris.

May looked about, panicked before looking to the Shaman, who now fell forward with a elven dagger sticking out of his back. She took a moment before putting it all together and saying, "He knew... He knew we would find someone to fix the King Sleep, This is I' Sereg'wethrin's last chance to confirm the kill. EVERYONE WEAPONS OUT!"

The Tess, Jin, May, and Zilo readied for combat and formed up around Zatrian, as they looked around for the assassin in the building.

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