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THE PALE-TREE


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“Black skies, sunless cold teeming

 Heatless, without flame, southern shadows seeking

 Unbroken, undead, spectral fingers reaching

Long Darkness unbound, forgotten lessons teaching.”

-The Wheel-Turner

 

10th of The Grand Harvest, 33 S.A.
Somewhere in the Southern Woodlands of Almaris

 

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Dreadful gloom had fallen upon the Elvenessi peninsula, tenebrous mists obscuring sight. The moon above hangs low and pale, its visage coin-round and silvered. Fleeting moonlight shimmered sparsely across the glade clearing. Emerging through the forest’s treeline, the spear-wielding hunting party of Nevaehlen encroached upon blighted, silent lands. Nature's song had been muted here -- prelude to what would befall an otherwise unremarkable hunt.

 

The hunters' quarry: a corrupted Fae, whose ravenous hunger expanded across the southern woodlands of Almaris. Such a prized creature would be the culmination of Laedrad’s Grand Task - and a worthy opponent, at that. It was too rare a sight to pass up, for it was not often a Fae emerged from its other-land: the Fae Realm. Fewer still were those one could name who personally dealt a Fae a killing blow.

 

A dozen strode into the clearing fair, and met the scent of death.

 

The rolling mists billowed across the corpses of the woodland dwellers: deer, boar, and all things native; their corpses were sunk to the earth, mangled bodies and viscera staining the earth of the ground - rotting the forest floor with decay. What was not fresh-bled was blanketed with the evening mist. Altogether, hundreds of bodies laid here, a seedbed for blight.

 

From the corner of the clearing, movement. A goat’s haunch and cloven foot curled and rose. With it stood the beast of horrors, its face a lion’s, its body an amalgamation between goat and lion. Once it had been a noble, frightful creature of the Fae - but through unknown means had been corrupted. To the hunters of the Vale, it mattered not at the moment, and there would be no time for any druid to commune.

 

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It struck forth. Its body bore three sets of legs, each powerful and thick like tree trunks. Its gored, mangled figure wheeled across, and the afflicted woodlands bore witness to its gruesome growth. Its blackened ichor ruptured from each wound  the hunters dealt, as the beast stretched its body high - as if reaching for the moon above.

Then, wicked hands and feet beset the unlucky victim, seeking to pull Tanila Aureon into its maw. She, the partner of Laedrad, may have been spared her fate if only she had not come to hunt - for what happened next would damn her, and damn her sister, Nenar Terin.

 

Once, a hundred years and fifty prior, if not more, a pallid malady had stricken the servants and allies of the Aspects. This Palebeast sickness grew and festered, taking root in the hearts of some. The perpetrator, this violator of nature’s Balance was hunted forevermore. He would perish and be forgotten, but his teachings lived on.

 

Now, the Wheel had come full circle to this moment.

 

An instrument of the Old fed upon the Fae's blood - and the beast's shape became twisted. It became wrong, like water which ripples inwards, or a shadow facing the sun. Its shape was broken and grown anew, forging a Palebeast from the burning ichor. And as the instrument of Strife bled the Fae, it too drank of the death below. It was a sight none of the hunters could have prepared for.

 

Tanila was consumed, and from the Palebeast sprouted a Pale Tree - its wood fading to the color of bone. The woman too became pale, her eyes red. The Pale Tree broke her form, twisted her to spear through Nenar Terin, joining them together in an unsightly, sisterly embrace.

 

The treeline broke - the viscera, bone, and blight obscured beneath the shadow of what the Pale Tree had become. Its barren canopy blanketed the clearing, such that even the native redwood seemed frail in comparison as it reached towards the moon above.

 

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A dozen strode into the clearing there - but two would not come home.

-

OOC: Event hosted by @Keefy

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So wandered the men and women of Widukind, through thistle and brush did this conclave move deeper into the wilderwoods of the continent. Summoning forth beasts and unholy depths of realms far forlorn. For they held no belief in the Aspects nor any divine beings. They knew the tree was only the beginning, they knew the Old Oak was to reveal itself soon and the news of this tree was but an omen of one root which had made itself visible from the eternal web. There did they remain within the cover of the trees, ready to find those who sought to unhinge the cycle. 

 

 

[The following is not made available in Rp, any form of metagaming will be directed to the appropriate staff teams]

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So did the Viper, deemed by the Old Oak as the Blood of the Widu, Anagenimenos cultivate the flock and bring forth more and more supporting the cycle of the wheel. He knew the druii feared what they did not know, he understood their stance and their passion for peace. Yet, THEY whom cultivated the wheel understood that the real nature of the world was chaos. The Aspects of whom the Order so adored were merely hindering the true raw being of nature. They held no reign over it, as they were but idols lacking any true identity or domain, they but existed in this one. So, did the group grow their numbers and prepare for the coming days.

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Edited by _Sug
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Evar'tir regards the information of the creature upon his lands with ire. Until an idea hits him like lightning out of the blue.

 

((eviction notice 19-07-2021 contact bhased for more details

Edited by Bhased
this is a joke
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A lone elfess stumbles her way back home, hands and face burnt with the mists of pure ichor the creature had spewed, wrought by the last image of her fellow 'Ame consumed and used for the growth of ilk. Entering a barren home with stone walls frigid to the touch, the pink-haired lass sits among her many companions, all as broken in some way as she. One among them, a living doll appearing bird-like in nature, makes its cautious way forth with worry clear upon its plushy form. It reaches up, bearing a few petals of blissfoil for her wounds, and attempts to clumsily place them upon her skin. The touch causes her to glance down at the little thing, wincing, before giving the creation a weak smile that quirks her lips only as much as they can muster. "... At least we know, now..." she murmurs to the plush, allowing it to take care of her as best it can, though she'd have to redo most of its work later, out of sight. The creation looks up, eyes large behind its glasses, magnifying that which it sees from. The 'Ame peers down at her doll, giving it a reassuring but exhausted smile, aware of her random mumblings. "Its blight won't continue, I promise. The Vale will figure it out, and when it comes time to fight once more, we'll be prepared and I'll be right by their side again. No one else is gonna get eaten. Nature will be righted." She releases a small, weary sigh and leans back, resting now and taking the time to just... be. "... it's just a matter of time..."

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From the depths of the woods, buried beneath white bark and twisted wood, a woman screams....

The sound of pure, unending agony fills the clearing, and the world beyond. Nature's anguish matched the voice, rising to a crashing crescendo that would strike the mind, ears, and heart of any there.

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Amaesil looks out to the western forests from atop his keep. The sun would hang high in the sky and a breeze rakes through the treetops. It was unlikely, but the elf swore that the horizon was grim and hollow in appearance. He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

 

"... So be it."

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Leilani's mother senses screamed on the inside, sensing something was not right with two of her daughters.

Rosalia was blissfully unaware of the situation her sisters were in, telling her son of his aunts. 

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 The Fae writhed.

 

It did not know when it became blighted.

 

It simply burned and hungered. It tore a path across the land to feast.

 

It did not know why it became what it was.

 

But it could learn.

 

It had two to do so from.

 

To learn how to make it stop from.

 

 

 

It would find more.

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