With night almost upon us, we decide it would be best to camp after we put Arani to rest. We laid him softly on top of a bed of grass situated at the apex of the wooden pyramid. Pendry played a slow beat upon her bear-skin hand drum as I set fire to the bottom of the pyramid. We bowed our heads as the slow beat continued and silently said our goodbyes. As the pyre burned into the night, I gazed into the flames and thought about the Varou and Wenade Thicket
Read the previous session here
The fire twisted, turned and danced among the shattered pieces of Arani’s wagon. I fiercely stared into the flickering heat, past the red licks that pulsed in the night and into the coals that burned white-hot. My vision filled into a whitish blur and images began to form in my sight. First the face of Kluman and followed by Ut’Ullah and then followed by Chalia, my mother. It his here where the vision lingered, seemingly for an eternity. This was not my focus. Why was I being shown home?
I focused harder on the Varou and Wenade Thicket and yet the vision remained on my mother. I fought with all my will to pull the vision away, to the point in which I felt like my brain would split in two and then in a flash of yellow light, my sight was flown far away into the the midst of the Wenade Thicket.
I saw two varou riding two horses whilst leading a third by the reins. The unridden horse was a muscular beast with a dark tan hide and black mane. It was Arani’s horse, Zora. These had to be the Varou that murdered Arani.
The two Varou dismounted, handing the reins to a young Varou before preceding down a path that led to a structure hidden among the tree. The smaller Varou had grey fur with black tips and the hair beneath his snout was split into two braids with adorning beads. The larger female Varou had long, black fur that glistened in the moonlight. Throughout that fur was intertwined vines with golden thorns.
The path they followed twisted and turned in the dark woods before they came upon a small clearing that was surrounded in flowering brambles. At the center of this circle sat another Varou. I figured their alpha due to the massive amount of braids and beads among her long brown hair.
Unfortunately I couldn’t hear their words as all I could hear was the roaring of flames. The Varou with the golden thorns tossed a pouch to the alpha, their spoils from Arani I assumed. A young cub ran in and whispered into the alpha’s ear before handing her a rolled up parchment with a wax seal. I focused the vision to try to get a closer look at the seal. It was blue with the image of a fish and a wolf! This was the seal of Paderul!
The alpha broke the seal and unrolled the parchment. I wanted to read the message so I focused my vision closer and closer and closer still. A flash of yellow light and suddenly I was falling backwards hard onto my back. As my physical vision returned I could see the night sky and the moon.
“Are you back?!”
I turned my head to see Pendry staring down at me in worry. I quickly snapped back, “What the hell happened!”
“Is that a thanks?! Oh you’re very welcome mystic! Maybe next time I let your hallucinating ass walk into the fire!”
“I was….walking into the fire?”
“Yes! If decided to listen to you and stay home, you’d be cuddling up with Arani right now!”
I remained silent as I stood up, trying to grasp being forcefully pulled from a vision as well as what I saw there. “I’m sorry. Thank you, I mean it.”
After a slight chuckle, Pendry asked, “So what did you see in there?”
I weighed whether or not to tell her. I thought maybe she’d freak out and want to go home immediately. I didn’t know anything anyways, just some Varou got a letter from someone back home. “Nothing. It was a failed vision.”
Pendry continued to press and query me for a while but I stood my ground and reaffirmed my lie. “Perhaps we should get some rest.”
I spent the night close to the fire to stay warm as a cold drizzle fell. It was not enough to soak us but enough to chill you without heat. Although I didn’t see him, I heard Deris land in the nearby meadow and then I heard the crunch of bones. I felt the sense of happy gratitude to have protective companions, including one that could feed their self. I know Deris enjoys the freedom out here because I am forced to keep him chained up back home to ease the nerves of my people.
The beginning of the next leg of the journey was pleasant as the rain moved on. We made good time along the Hunter’s Trail and the weather cleared. Pendry played a joyful beat that kept us pace as well.
However things slowed down when we reached the fens. We were near where the River of Wrath runs into the sea and its wide delta, but the waters seep far beyond and the marshlands can stretch for miles. Usually the Hunter’s Trail will lead you directly to the river but it seemed that recent flooding had caused the trail to become part the fens. We had to double back a bit and turn north into the woods to avoid the soggy grounds.
I worried about having to travel a long distance through the forest. One because it is more exhausting than following a trail and two because I could not see Deris here with the trees blocking my view of the majority of the sky. Also, progress is hard to judge when you see nothing but trees.
My worries lifted for a bit when came upon a clearing. Free from the shade, I lifted my face towards the sun to soak in its warmth. Without a word, Pendry dropped her gear in preparation to make camp. I wanted to make a snarky comment about her being tired until I realized how exhausted I was myself.
“Pendry, me and Drogga are going to take a look around. Maybe we can find some wild sweet potatoes, I don’t want to run out of food on the return trip.”
Pendry stood at attention and saluted with her fist to her chest. “Sure thing boss!”
I gave her stale face. “Don’t call me boss.”
To be continued in the next solo session
If you are interested in seeing the character sheet and mechanics of this actual play, go here.
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