damarisol

Ofeshia and Eevolertu went out to look at the dead meat bridge thing. Eevolertu brought Ofeshia back; she'd collapsed after connecting with Chloe, except she connected with them at another time, and she was another person, back in the past, when there were three gracknel in the valley, and where the stone shrine is now, there was a garden. It sounded confusing. Anyway, she said that there was an option for the people at the gracknel testing using the ash systems, or to use the collector to gather the dead people parts near us. I was definitely in favor of testing the ash, because that would affect the other ice people roaming the valley.

There was a shiver, then several pops, and something whistling and landing nearby. Now there was a metal disk standing out of the ground. I could taste ash in the air, and in the distance, a hissing noise.

Ofeshia was really tired. I told Marguerite I could help with the ritual for a while so Ofeshia could sleep. After some while, Ofeshia woke up and Marguerite went to sleep. When she woke up, I was finally able to sleep.

The night was flowing through the camp, and I was attacked, with one of them landing on me.
It took some moments to get it off me. I heard Eevolertu call to move over to the light, so I did, swinging torches as I went at the pieces around me. They got smaller as they neared the light.

Eevolertu ran out to attack a huge thing of lots of dead bodies and ice. It kept moving as he attacked. I ran out with some others, and attacked the night around him, keeping away from his strike zone on the thing. Oreshalore brought a container of light, and shined that inside, which looked awful.

I stayed with the people who'd been hurt in that aging way, trying to reassure them that there is something that can be done to heal them.

There was a sound over by the entrance to the valley, like rocks fell, or maybe a bit of an avalanche. Just before the crash, there was a sound of something pushing through the trees, making the trees pop and crack. Ofeshia said that it was something huge and magical, so Eevolertu sent out a pair of scouts to find out what happened.

I helped Eevolertu recover, and told him that there were some people with injuries, and one or two who were hit with withering. Despite my efforts, they were still rather worried about this.

One of the scouts Eevolertu sent out to investigate came back, and she was clearly hurt by winter; it seemed like she got a winter spirit infestation. I'm not yet able to drive them out easily, and it would take a long time, so we got her to the fire, with people not only staying nearby, but keeping her near the fire, getting her tea, and well wrapped. Despite herself, she kept trying to move from the fire, so I tied her to her fellows to make it easier to stay.

Eevolertu gathered some of us to consider what to do. Apparently there's an icy thing that's releasing walking dead. There's one scout out there, watching, and is also likely infected with a spirit as well. We talked about how we could fight it, with ashy bows and arrows, or with baskets of light.

Oreshalore said that the rest of the group seemed like they were going to lose the ritual, distracted by this news. Marguerite and Ofeshia went to help Chloe keep the ritual going. Eevolertu went solo to retrieve the scout who was still out.

I checked that our scout was drinking tea. Ofeshia suggested putting some ash in it, so I did.

When the other scout came in, he looked worse than the first, and resisted more due to the spirit in him. Same routine to get him warm and near the fire.

I used my skill with inner energies to assess each of them, to see what size spirit each had. The shadow of an energy spirit, ice spirits that are stronger than the usual disease spirit. The scouts had the same level of spirit, just different levels of exposure. To deal with either of them will be difficult, but maybe there's something in the gracknel that is warm, hot enough to dispel these spirits.

Eevolertu came back soon after, and he was unscathed. He reported back on what he'd found. He saw definitely 14 walking dead, and thought there might be up to 100. They didn't like the liquid light, but it didn't hurt them. They worked in groups, very coordinated. They seemed to be forming up.

Unclear what to do next: draw the walking dead to us? Help the other valley folk? Coordinate with the gracknel somehow? I pointed out that the gracknel has roots everywhere, so maybe it could do something to the walking dead.

Ofeshia tried to link with Darren again. She did, and it turned out that they seem to have lost the central keeper we met before, so there are difficulties with the gracknel as well. There was some talk about what to do, and somehow Darren sent a self-unfolding challenge into Ofeshia's brain that let her evaluate people for how strong they could be for the gracknel, and in holding themselves together to come back out again. She said that she, Eevolertu, and Marguerite were strongest, but Chloe and I might do. Chloe pointed out that she wouldn't fall into the All-Wood the same way an elix would, so she went.

I was back in my body, and we went back to the tree shrine while Eevolertu and another fighter went in to join Darren in the gracknel. It had been a nerve-wracking couple of hours, so I took some time to calm down and meditate a little to regain composure.

Eevolertu and the others came back looking smoky but ok, saying that the creature was dealt with. They'd set traps and threw things at it, including a wineskin, which was apparently really helpful, and Darren got it to be absorbed into the gracknel, with fire somehow. He also got a map of the gracknel in his head from Darren. Darren was unconscious, and left with a healer in the gracknel. Though she seemed distracted, although she did let them out through the teeth door.

It was almost time that Darren had said the gracknel wouldn't be able to hold off winter, so we got ready to start lights, both the fires and some of the magic lights near the tree shrine.

Not long after, the sky started being seriously odd, with parts darkening, and it starting to taste of winter. People got ready, with weapons, winter clothes.

There was a huge dark shape against the dark sky, drifting slowly, scouting, well above the caldera or our ability to shoot. A while later, there were a bunch of things coming out of it, like a lot of pieces of night. I called out "pieces of night! torches!" Ofeshia started her magic protections. We heard shouts out in the valley. The song of the gracknel went lower, and more even, maybe like it was in a better place because it had something clear to do (outside it's internal disarray).

We heard more shouts from the valley, then the first attacks came towards us. I waved a torch whenever one seemed in range, but they mostly stayed out of reach.

Then a flock or column of night pieces came up the path.

It was 4 low bells. I slept until 8 low bells. When I woke up, the ritual seemed to be maintaining well, and Eevolertu didn't have any particular tasks for me, so I joined some of the fighters who were working on their evades. Eevolertu had mentioned gathering wood before he went to sleep. I went over to our group and talked about that, saying it would also be good to have someone on watch. Oreshalore said she'd do that and trade off with me later. Woveshancor said he'd be willing to help me gather wood, so we spent a while doing that.

Once everyone had woken up and eaten, Marguerite and Ofeshia talked about introducing the tree and the rock shrine, and the plowdurg. Marguerite asked me to be there to be able to pull them out of meditative space if something happened. I watched, and everything was calm, both with those I was watching and outside. Just before they came out, something happened to me. I sweat, and felt like I had to push through exhaustion to find a second wind. It was disconcerting. And then I felt something like that again. I backed off, and Ofeshia seemed to sense magic.

I felt super anxious, but for no new reason. It didn't seem like the gracknel, and I wasn't sure if it might have been the Gray Lady. Or maybe it was Darren? It felt almost like I would feel if I could catch my breath, a physical anxiety. It was disturbing: the corridor was overgrown into a tunnel, and the door seemed covered in things, the handle overgrown in cobweb. All of which made me a different kind of anxious, like I wanted to scour the tunnel clear, since it was outside the room.

When I came out, Marguerite and Ofeshia came over and we walked farther from the shrine to talk. I described what had happened. Marguerite thought it might be the new shrine interacting with the gods and reaching out towards me.

And then the conversation felt like it was happening far away, and I tasted blood in my mouth. I came back, and described it to the others.

And then there was a huge sound from the gracknel, descending in tones, through the whole spectrum. I felt sick to my stomach, and everyone seemed disconcerted at this point.

Ofeshia activated her mental link with Darren, talking with him as he was trying to evade some tunneling thing in the gracknel. The gracknel was upset, dead people around where Darren was, halfway above ground in the gracknel, He was hurt, and when I heard this, and a lightbulb went off. The others didn't seem to notice.

I went to lie down, not near the others. I knocked on the door a couple of times, and got no response, so I opened the door. It's all webby, no trace of the woody room that was, covered in pockets and such. The Gray Lady was standing vertically, a light web over her. There was a red light, that made everything spookier. She seemed to be almost statue like. I address her, and notice that she looks more like me. We talked about the current situation. Apparently, she's not interested in making the gracknel calmer as part of our previous deal; this would be a new one. Side note: apparently the room has always looked this way, she's letting me see it now. Or at least, that's what she's saying now....

I had to find out what the deal was. She said it would involve further steps after the current deal. She said that she could help with this, but thought that I had seen and heard the things I needed to help. And requested that I speak only of how reasonable she was, after.

I came out and thought about what had happened, working out that Ofeshia couldn't send fighting skills to Darren from Oreshalore, but perhaps she could from me, because I have the separate connection to Darren.

Ofeshia seemed reluctant, since it hadn't worked before, but I managed to get her to agree to try again with me.

Ofeshia decided to go pick up the lights from the Crages woman who made them. I wanted to go, but needed some sleep after all the exertion of the day before the planting. Eevolertu was doing his tuning and meditation, so I decided to follow his timing. We finished just before Ofeshia and the others came back with lights. We woke Marguerite up, and Chloe had been holding the ritual.

Ofeshia described how to use the liquid light. There are 9 gourds of liquid light. It lasts 70 hours, and radiates in whatever direction is available, up to 40 feet in radius. We can use smaller amounts than the whole gourd, too. There are stones around that have indents that could be useful. I asked whether we wanted to light up just the area where we're planting the seed, or the whole shrine area. We talked about our precise plans for the liquid light, bonfires, and how to plan for possible attacks. Ofeshia had a great idea about someone holding a gourd and aiming it at the sky when we're attacked to deal with things coming in from the air, like the pieces of night.

After we figured out our defense plans, Ofeshia described the blood visions that Thurhouse has been having, of a city where all kinds of people lived, including sakken and high eld, many years ago. There were 6 gracknel supporting a tall structure made of the mixed roots of these gracknel, and a variety of other gracknel around the city by the bay, maybe by the Black Bay. People were mixed socially, and looked different, rather like Arthentus does. There were things floating in the sky. The sakken seemed like they had no will, more like pets than people. There was a beautiful light that came through the clouds sometimes. Afterward, something bad happened, and the city fell into chaos and explosions. Due to that, the orem changed from what they had been to what they are now. Ofeshia took out a bundle of cloth, showing us a blade inside, that looked a little like a tooth; it might be poisonous, having already damaged the cloth it was wrapped in. Thurhouse found this around the roots of the gracknel, and in animals, and it was trying to do something. Marguerite thought it might be a bit like shinal. Ofeshia said something about how people are all similar. Chloe thought the music of the gracknel was a bit like the music of the orem.

We got the fires ready, and decided that we either needed to plant the seed now (12 high bells) or in 4 hours, after people had a chance to sleep. Given our light, and the possible storm coming, Marguerite decided to plant it now.

Marguerite planted it, and a crystalline singing noise came from the plowdurg. There was a scent of leaves and loam and roots. There was a pop and crack, and another, then a flash of light below in the rocks. And a little coil came up with a leaf on it, with the bowl of sun next to it.

It was midday, and we rested after doing all the physical labor moving rocks around the shrine for the plowdurg, and starting the spiritual work of the ritual. We talked about our timeline. Eevolertu and I napped to recover from the morning's work. Chloe and Ofeshia held the ritual. When I woke up, I held the ritual while others worked on how to persuade the guardians of the gracknel about our seed. This meant I was making sure people knew what to do, moving things, chanting, and so on. Sometimes I circled by the group that was talking. At one point, they were talking about how Marguerite had to be careful with the seed; one vision had her dropping it from her hands. I suggested I make a string bag to hold it in, not just her hands, that would keep it from touching the ground and being absorbed by the gracknel.

When Marguerite came back from working to see whether she could sent images to and from one of the keepers (she could!), we held the ritual together, and finished earlier than we'd thought. So we started pouring light into the framework we'd finished. Eevolertu came back from setting traps. The elders from the village came over to go to talk with the keepers of the gracknel over dinner. I made sure Marguerite had a string bag for the seed.

I stayed at the shrine to hold the rituals when the others went over.

We had to be at the plowdurg's shrine at dawn to work it. There was some talk about the plan for the morrow, then we grabbed some sleep while it was still dark. In the morning, Ofeshia told us that Darren had told her, through Ofeshia, about how the seed is sort of disconnected, and that there's an emergency plan where everyone dies, but the gracknel is released to fight the Winter's King. It would also die, but leave babies.

We talked about how many ways there are to fail here, and how difficult it is to find the narrow path to success without everyone dying, and the things we can do to help things do well.

We got to the shrine and Marguerite called to the plowdurg. She got information from the plowdurg about what we were to do to make the shrine better, and introduced people who were in charge. Chloe and I started by making rope harnesses to help with the work. And then we started, with the plowdurg helping at times. As we did the physical labor, we sang and did some of the ritual work as well. By midday, the plowdurg was very happy with all the physical progress, and we got about a quarter of the ritual done, with the rest going to be finished during the rest of the day. The people from the town who joined us worked well learning it all.

The afternoon was waning, and people were discussing how to do the ritual, once we got permission to do it. There's no one here who's affiliated with the Father, unlike the shrines in the other places, that had blessed. I figured the best use of my time would be to think about how things had included the Father in previous rituals, to see if I could remember something helpful. I managed to remember pieces, phrases said, something about dust, stone dust, regular dust, and so on. I think if I talked with others who'd been involved in the other rituals, we might be able to put more of it together.

When I came out of that, many of the others had gone to talk to other people, at the shrine, and at the gracknel with the keepers. I stayed with the rest of the group, seeing them enjoy the weather, but also concerned that they were getting too complacent, not focused on our mission.

We walked toward the gracknel to meet with its tenders. It was larger than I'd realized, so large when we were close, the air shimmering around it ask it played. We passed through a forest as we went, and it seemed carefully tended, without broken twigs or leaf litter on them. There were roots around boulders above ground. Then we saw a gracknel root, which looked like there were flute rootlets growing off the main roots. As we got closer, following a stone path, there were odd spheres growing off the sides of some large roots, with spirals around them. Sometimes there were arches of roots above us. When we were underneath, there was a rushing sort of sound, rather like water rushing. The rest of the forest had faded away. There were small kafke houses here, grown out of the gracknel.

We paused as Marguerite cast a blessing on Eevolertu, and Ofeshia looked at the magic, telling us that it was permanent magic, and there were broken frames floating around us, rather than dissolving.

Thalkalor was by the gap that was the entrance. There was a child near one of the houses, then it leapt down to head towards us. It had a huge mane of yellow-green hair, but was very young still. An adult followed, a cobalt one in light clothes, likely the child's mother. She was calling it Naan, and she retrieved her daughter before she got to us. The mother introduced herself as Swenlanee, and introduced her daughter Naan, who'd started nursing. She's the overseer of the roots, and a shaper here, of the homes. She seemed momentarily blank when seeing Chloe, then welcomed her.

Thalkalor came meandering over; he seemed in a very mellow mental state, though in his armor. Swenlanee said that Thalkalor could take us in to meet with the keepers, and warned us that they were amenable to people looking at the magic of the gracknel, but not using it. She also said that there used to be a town here, and that the gracknel used to have another purpose as well, now lost, though something to do with the pods, that are filled, and could be detached, though not openable, at least by those here. There have been explosions in the valley, that might have been these pods. They think that they used to have been sent to be part of other machines elsewhere. Outside the valley there's a place they call the valley of eggs, where they stack all the ripe ones there.

Chloe mentioned there being an Ovahon here. Thatkalor said that he was also a keeper. Thalkalor mentioned he'd been lost in his thoughts, that that happens a lot, like being in the All-Wood.

We went inside, a big space among the roots, with warm air blowing. Near where we went in, there were two nodes, these ripe and deep green, with spirals and three connection points, being readied to take to the valley of eggs. All around there are rooty balconies and paths, a weave of spaces. There were shiny metallic extensions with water dripping. There was a hum, that seemed to warm me inside. Chloe started to sing with the sound, and kept on and on. She didn't respond to anyone saying her name, so I went over and touched her on the shoulder, and she finally came out of it. She was surprised she'd been singing for long at all.

Thalkalor said that the keepers were working, so we'd have to go to them. We walked across the middle of the space, which looked like a starburst of pipes from the center, where they came out of what's below, a narrow space filled with water.

We continued on, and the roots we walked along had tread to help us stay on, despite the dampness. There were odd things around, with platforms, and holes, and an odd hand-thing, and pipes, and flowers. We saw Elix holding the extending hands, turning them somehow, or talking, or touching flowers. They were talking what seemed to be archaic Elixen. As we got higher, it was harder to navigate, narrower parts to walk along, not enough room to pass, and so on. It turns out that these are assistant keepers; Thalkalor was taking us to a head keeper; the group is stuctured more like a guild than a council.

There were guards around, and I asked whether they were needed. He said that they were, that there were times they needed them. Not the awful birds he'd told me about, but something else.

We saw an extremely tall elix, over 6 ft tall, with foot-long ears, in mottled yellow fur, a darker mane with gold streaks. Long colorful kelp-cloth vest. Only the most ancient elix are usually this tall, perhaps thousands of years old, though this was far after the time of the gracknel builders. She has some wand-roots. She has one hand on a hand extension, and in the other, a wooden root pressed up against a big root, and it seemed to be soft, the wand being put into the root, somehow. She seemed to be focusing on her task. She was saying words from different languages, that didn't seem to go together. She pulls the wand away, then there are ripples acros the surface, then it solidified. She moved her wrists around, then started walking away.

Thalkalor called her name, Arthentus, and slowly she came back to herself and acknowledged us.

My roots don't touch that far, she said at that point, and she seemed to realize that we weren't keepers, so she asked what we were doing here. There were orange and green glows, but we'd never seen a source of light. She asked a second time if there was a problem with the gracknel. She seemed to think that nothing was the matter with the gracknel, so there was no problem.

She has spoken to all the roots, heard all the song, and other than some slightly different temperatures, everything was fine. Once Ofeshia asked, she acknowledged that there was unusual weather, though it wasn't her area of speciality.

Ofeshia asked if Arthentus had been outside the gracknel recently. She thought she had, but Thalkalor said it was at least a season ago. Ofeshia suggested she come out to talk to us, and that was disturbing to Arthentus, who said she had much to do to keep order.
She also was a bit affronted when Marguerite asked to greet the gracknel, saying that the gracknel chose its keepers.

She suggested that Monturan (though she got the name wrong) would be able to help us.
Ofeshia asked something else that didn't work.

Thalkalor gestured us away as Arthentus went off to do her work, to bring us to Monturan.

As we were walking, Ofeshia warned us not to touch the tree. She said the tree had looked at her, like prey.

It took a while to find Monturan, skyblue fur, yellow eyes, wearing a vest and pants, with some wands, and an iron bar. He seemed to be directing some others in what they should do. He seemed surprised that we were visiting, in the winter, when no one travels. Our group started to broach our mission. It did not go well. keeping things calm is important. chloe mentioned the ovahon, and it took a moment for him to.... remember..... the ovahon. Things didn't go well about the shrine. Thalkalor had gone, so he agreed to be our guide down to see the ovahon.