Author Topic: Vallaki's Disappearing Druids:  (Read 1185 times)

Silas Rotleaf

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Vallaki's Disappearing Druids:
« on: September 02, 2017, 05:38:40 AM »
As an apprenticing one, this bothers me.
There is evidence in the landscape that at one time in what had to have been the relatively recent past (although with the mists it is hard to tell) the lands used to be much better tended.  Now, I know there is a company of rangers near Lake Zarovich, Cutter. That isn't what I'm getting at.
Have you ever been to that intentional arrangement of standing stones near the fire beetle nest? That central marker glowing at all hours of the day and night serves who knows what purpose.

Being the curious outlander I am I asked both my master I'm apprenticing under and the Inquisitor of the church of Ezra about it and here's the barmy bit. They each told me that yeah, there did used to at one point be what one might consider a proper druid circle around here.  Trouble is cutter, the land itself is cursed so what happened is they tended to go mad and set upon one another, a whole lot like or little better than wild animals.  This story plays out over and over in the wilds if you know where to look and that my friend, is rather troubling.
As my small measure of power increases, yeah I hear nasty whispers from the weather sometimes and I figure there's some sorta spirits what possess actual malevolence.

Sure, I'd heard tales of it some time back in other places but before being sent here that's the thing, I figured they were just the kind of stories cheap bards tell or which tend to be passed around by seasoned drunks who have had too much ale.  After all the near death scrapes I've been through though, aye, there'd be it seems some truth to that sort of stuff.  I do have a theory though which I shared with them both that I think the reason there is such an overrunning of werecreatures and other monsters is to do with the lands no longer being properly tended. I can feel it cutter, the land itself is upset like there's been some sort of grievous injury inflicted upon it that the wilds just refuse to get over.

Now, I try not to opinionate that out loud too much about it in front of the locals, mind ya. They don't like hearing a confirmation of what their folk warnings already know by some outsider.  I wasn't too grateful when I first got spat out by the mists and arrived here, either. And sure, the locals aren't the politest bunch but they take ya in and offer ya some work and shelter, which they don't have to do that.  That's mighty hospitable considering we fall in their laps and are eating their food.  So I think maybe we should go about trying to make a new circle.  Then again, I grew up in a world that was all city, ya know... and the thing about that is being in a place with actual forests is still pretty fantastic seeming to me.
You wouldn't encounter something like that in the City-of-Doors in a jillion lifetimes. People'd think you were barmy. Yeah I know, you probably already think I'm barmy, so eh cutter or chit, what of it? What if a guy you already suspect of bein' crazy risks going mad? That's like telling a stupid person (you know, a berk is what we'd call 'em back home) they are gonna have a hard time reading a book they pick up.

So about that circle cutter, first order would be to set some holidays to acknowledge this Ezra chit who helped make the mists a little less awful than it is said they used to be before her sacrifice, right? Then there'd be one honoring the matron and after that the elves of course, up there with the solstices on our calendar. I am a real grateful guy and when you tend to live off a combination of charity from others to supplement your own meager subsistence it kinda shapes a fella's perspective.  I don't like the idea of going mad but I like the idea of being isolated even less.  If we (the other druids and rangers) do even a little thing or two to make the roads a little safer for travelers, then I think that's how I could give back to the Barovians, properly.
After all, it isn't like any of us are going to be leaving the core any time soon, so we might as well.  There's rituals and stuff what are needed to keep stuff from getting too out of hand.

 I know it sounds hopeless but I've gotta try to do something,
-B. Sigers.