The Tavern is deserted at this early hour. The previous week everyone went to celebrate the annual festival of the dead and they have yet to return. The innkeeper has the fire stoked up to ward off the chill as he waits for his first customers.

Umbrial wanders back into the tavern looking perplexed. She flops down at a chair next to a table and frowns.

Soot enters the inn shortly after Umbrial with a look of relief and annoyance on his face. He makes his way to the bar and orders an ale and a fruit juice. He pays and takes the drinks to the table occupied by Umbrial.

"Well I feel better having checked there is nothing wrong with The Life Stone. But we still have to find out what those idiots actually have done."

Walks in as Soot is sitting down.


"Hm... It would be nice to know, definitely..."

What they have done is fairly irrelevant, what is important is that the undead have been massively weakened during the period before they could bolster their troops with the ritual...to hold the line against the T'cra they will of drawn from all there reserves including the forces that were attacking the tree of life itself....If we are to ever have a chance to reach the tree and salvage what we can of it we must do it now before they reinforce their number from the T'cra fallen.

Umbrial starts from her malaise: "The Tree? What's happened to the tree? Has this something to do with the Thaurmaturgical rip? Please, I need to know...."

Soot turns to Trelaine

"I disagree. I think what they have done must be investigated. You are more than likely correct about the Tree of life however. I have to admit I know very little about it. I have only read one scroll describing it. Unfortunately that did not include a location."

He takes a gulp of his ale.

Unfortunately the location of the tree is unknown to myself however I have sent word to some people who may know of it asking for aid.

I would much rather follow this line up as the undead ritual may prove far more unbalancing than anything our good friends book and Ky could posibly do....As far as we know it has mearly balanced them against the tcra...who is to know if it did more and has shifted the balance now back in the undeads favour. If this is correct we may have a few days, weeks months at most until we are back at the position we were before the T'cra originally arrived.

If that occurs any chance to reach the tree may be lost and any chance to restore or protect it's powers also gone.

I will contact the Lord Aimn and see if he can provide an insight on both subjects.

Morgrim enters the inn , and sits in the corner in obvious pain muttering to himself " when i find out what they did......and when i find out why i have a huge gash on my neck.... ALE!!! " :angry:

Soot gets up and goes to the bar. He orders an ogre sized ale, pays and delivers it to Morgrim.

"The gash on your neck was from an over zealous Tellos. We had to remind him that if the ritual had worked you wouldn't be rising anyway."

Soot returns to his seat.

do you require a balm...or prehaps a bandage? I'm sure i have the odd one still tucked away here somewhere...*starts checking his drawstring bag for a vaguely clean bandage*

Morgrim gets out a small leather bound book and scribbles a name into it before putting the item away in one of a many pocket " i dont even have to ask why he did this , even i , the supposed dumb ogre knows that when that much energy is drained from one place it has to be channeled elsewhere . and as i was the only person in the immediate vicinity with a dark soul item was that conduit ,hence the major fried ogre."
Morgrim takes a glug on his ale "so who do i have the pleasure of thanking for stopping private Tellos?"

Hm....

hmm? what in nine hells does hmm mean?

"Mmm, oh, sorry, just a passing thought, it is of no matter..."

fine , can i take that offer of the bandage now? this wound is starting to tingle a tad

Vola enters the inn and heads to the bar and gets a jug of ale, looking round the room he takes in the mood of all there

Vola Walks over to soot’s table and sits down “ looking at you lot who dead then?”

Morgrim looks at the troll puzzled "could have done with your help there vola, seems that certain members are to set to cut me up rather than the enemy "

*having located a semi clean bandage Trelaien does his healing thang*

There...alll done.....a big ogre like yourself should survive a little scrape like that.

"I'm surprised you're up and blabbing already ta' tell the the truth." Kiran says as she enters the tavern.

"Make sure ya bandage be nice an' tight there, don' wan' ya ale to escape thru tha' there ol' in ya neck!"

Wanders over to Umbrial and soot

If your looking for info on a tree I remember reading about a tree in Alcadia in a Everlasting forest.
Its fruit was said to have magical powers of life and the elves tended to it.
Maybe they could help you find it. Its in some city some where I think.

Mmm anyone want a beer ?

Just how tight should a neck bandage actually be? Should an ogres head actually be turning blue Trelaine? Perhaps it could be loosened slightly....

Glad to hear that news of your death were greatly exagerated Morgrim!

Bah ! it takes more than an over zealous private to kill me !! i just wanna know if the ritual indeed worked ? anyone any the wiser than i?

*snickers at overzealous privates*
"Alcadia? hmm, never heard of it...."

Hello Vola. I have to agree that you would have been a great help in our latest adventure.

As for the tree. I remember something about the forest and the elves tending it, but not a specific location. The scroll was vague.

"Reilley told me of a tree once, he 'ad to look after it with the rest o' the nobodies while others did a spell or somethin'... Is that not the same great tree?"

Kiran gets a drink for both her and Morgrim, handing the bigger of the tankards to her Ogre friend,

"Tha' should heal ya better than any bandage!"

sorry I couldnt be of more help, The only other thing it said was that the elves tended to the Tree in a grand city made of marble one crystal in a place where there is eternal summer ?
Perhaps if we asked at one of the elven towns they would know more ?

Morgrim sees the huge tankard of frothing ale and feels somewhat better "ah the evil tree , took all the nobodies to fell that , but that tree was destroyed , but who knows how deep its roots lie ..." Morgrim pats Keiran on the head for the ale , and stokes the fire .

As the others turn talking to one another, they notice Avian sitting at the table.

"I don't know much about trees but I'm more worried about the rib in the magical curtain, and it was me as well as a few others that told Talos not to behead you"

I would suspect the tree is more likely in a graveyard now in eternal night than day. THe only elves that would hold the location on record are most likely the knowledge keepers. If possible I would prefer to avoid contacting them unless we have no other alternative, if i have a group willing to join me in the search for the tree I have contacts that I would prefer to ask first. This dosen't give us a clue as to what we can do for the tree but I feel we must take this chance to at least examine the tree to see what corruption holds it and what is causing it, only then we can act against it.

As for the supposed rip in the curtain of magic, I have no noticed any ill effects to my soul powers since the ritual so the web has been unaffected by whatever inbalance has been caused. If find it unlikely that our good friends Book and Ky could be responsible for the problem though as they are in no way powerful enough to invoke major rituals.

The undead ritual however may be to blame, it was designed to balance the undead and t'cra's armies. If in some way they have weakened the lifestones magic in order to add our number to their ranks it would indeed balance the two forces and at the same time the magical disruption could be causing the problems you elementalists are suffering.

"Maybe so, but to power Rituals of the size they tried, I beleive that they would have needed to drain some power from the elemental planes. Does anyone remember them contacting any of the Elemental Lords to ask to do this, If not then that could be some of the problem... As for this Tree! If you need poeple to travel with you. I will aid you"

"aye il help you Trelaine , as for the ritual , sounds to me likes its gone pear shaped , i think miko could be the only one too properly tell us how the ritual was done , after Book and Ky of course,"

"I don't think Miko has much of a clue! she's not a mage and wouldn't have known what they were doing. I think we will have to question Book and Ky on what they did. Then check it out to see if it would have worked and to see if it was done right"

Avian closes his eyes for a moment to regain his balance.

"And the quicker we find out the better, these dizzy spells are doing my head in"

Vola looks over at Trelaine "I come with you i got time to kill and there might be some thing to fight"

with a wry grin takes a deep swig of ale then belches loudly ;)

thats if we can do it again at all , all i can think is there must have been one step out of place or the focus was on one particular thing, and the next question is why was i fried?

"Maybe only you have an answer to that one, I might have been if I was still a Dhampr"

Well a few is more than i could of asked for, I will leave now to see if my contact can aid in the search for the tree location...I will try to return here soon as I can with news good or bad...We can plan our next move from there.

<Trelaine hurredly gathers his things and head out the inn>

avion , i can see what you mean as i was carrying a dark soul weapon when the ritual went off , so maybe the power being dragged out of the undead was channeled through my sword , this is the only reason i can think of , unless anyone else has anything better?

Avian thinks for a moment

"I think maybe your right, you'll have to be more careful about such things in the future. The last thing we need is your head blowing up just cause you were carrying your sword"