EXPLOSIONS IN THE FOREST; NINTESHA the BARD
"Did you hear the explosions last night? It's that old Elven city, deep in the woods; it's that old spire and castle. If you climb the baldspot on a clear day, you can see it from miles away.
"Now there's some sinister magic gathering. My cousin Dolar went in there two months ago, seeking treasure, and he hasn't come out yet. There is strange magic there..."
Another pipes up:
"Yeah, Including vicious explosions, rattling the grounds within a mile. I tell you, there is wicked alchemy, wicked explosives brewing. Lord only knows what will happen when the wizard decides to turn his destructive attention towards Broond. We're next, I swear..."
NIENTESHA:
The keep is called the Shivvar; its castle and its castle are overgrown and ruined, and an alchemist-wizard lives high up there, with henchmen (werebears fashioned hiimself out of victims gathered, and abberations loosed in the woods.) The castle is deep in the woods.
The site has a rich history, from when the high elves occupied.
"Yes, of old there were great and noble elves who lived among the great rooms and passages of the keep, and their prince lived at the top of the spire itself. Their culture was superior to those all around, as Elves will tend to think.
"But over an elven generation (some 500 years) it declined, and for whatever reason the elves left the site for the Lacqwood to the southwest. Nor very many left around here. After all, it's been near half a millenium.
"But... You can still see lights on in the highest fraction of the spire. Something lives there. No birdsong or butterly's flutter can be heard or seen for a mile around.
"Some say the worst of the damage is the Thalas, a rare healing herb found only in areas abandoned by Elves long ago. Rumor is that the Thalas grows profusely around the Shivvar, but that it now rapidly declines beneath whatever evil may be."
... ...
NINTESHA, regarding Fletcher's PLAYING
"Your instrument and your playing, dear Bard, reminds me of a story I've heard of an ancient instument, known as "the Quara." Stories tell of the bard Quan'dil, the great Shivvaran floutst--the very keep of which we spoke--born two thousand years in the past.
"Quan'dil played the flute expertly, but when her poeple left the Shivvar to go south to more hospitable Elven lands, she left her flute--a symbol of the old life--in the keep for all time. The legends say it's still there, buried somewhere or guarded by the keep's current occupants.
"A magical flute it is... They say it's made of a resonant metal unknown to any other group, before or since."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
In any case, the wizarding-chemist lives high in the tower, employing fliying creatures to drop his devastating bombs over the forest. His must be a pyromaniac, he loves to watch the show, with eager greedy eyes. To tell this tale, only a few have ever escaped their encounter with him or his minions.
"And now the good is slowly drained from the wood, and abberative creatures lurk in the darker corners. The evil advances."
In the fair Ursa Forest, the wizard and his assistants gather the herbal mixture for the exploding power, from the phloxaconimbus root, mixed with woods-lily blossoms. (The former being exceedingly rare.)
Woodland creatures flee the desctruction, including black bear cubs whose mothers have been lost or destroyed.
- - - - - - - - - -
Cheta Bowstring (name translated into common) sits in the back of the tavern, in a dark corner of the room, a ranger who could guide them and participate in the extermination of the evil in the tower.
The half-elf mentions her and points her out, she is taller than most, with travel-stained clothes and a deep cowl... You see her in a darker corner table. She nods and lifts her glass of wine in greeting.
"This is Cheta Bowstring. Her own mission in life is to destroy the wizard and the wizard's destruction once and for all. She says she'll hunt down every last abberation until the forests are peaceful again.
"If you're interested in helping, she's the one to talk to."
[Bowstring has the hide of some abberative monster, kept and worn in battle as a good luck charm.]
Act 1: The Four Bears Inn and Tavern
Act 3, Scene 2: The Lower Keep of Shivvara
Act 3, Scene 1: On the way to Shivvara
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