The Temple of Ryvenna

[Andreas the Wise]

In the centuries of abandonment a vast forest grew up around the Temple of Ryvenna, a vast forest of pines, said to have sprung up from the original three pine trees contained within the temple. The forest was larger than could ever be envisioned, and those who spent any time in it claimed to see strange shapes and colours floating by. Others, under the influence of heavy drink, got further in, and claimed to see beautiful maidens hidden in trees, and other mythical creatures that others would never admit to existing. But these would only come out at night, under the light of the moon, and at other times the forest seemed dark and forbidding. But as The Little House lost patronage, so too the stream of drunken wanderers dried up, and the sightings ceased. Without people visiting, the forest grew dark and forbidding, and at all times it seemed like night, though those watching from the lighthouse in Port Halluci say that the moonlight still shines strongly on the centre of the forest. But the new Baron has shown interest in mounting an expedition to reclaim the temple from the forest, perhaps befriending the Dryads which he suspects serve as Vestigial Virgins, tending the Temple, the Three Pines, and, of course, the Boomist Stone, which, if ever removed, the Temple is supposed to explode with the power of five suns, an explosion large enough to destroy half of Micras. Sufficient to say, don't touch it.

[Prodigy Almighty]

This, of course, merits my attention. I can't let an opportunity like this pass me by!

Would anyone object if I bring my two Chelkran generals with me? There will be no despoiling of forests unless absolutely necessary...

[Andreas the Wise]

As Baron, I have no troubles. Just remember people here aren't quite used to expeditions as we think of them ... though it could be a good experience for them

[Kaiser Mors V]

*funds an expedition into the forest*

[Ari Rahikkala]

A stuttering voice, speaking way too fast for its own good, speaks up behind Andreas.

"Eeerr, My Lord Baron Wi-Wise, is it? Thank Ifni I found you, errr, greetings, My Lord Ba-Ba-Ba-Baron, I heard about the the-the expedition, I nee- I would like to join in if there's any way you can ac-accommodate me..."

The bespectacled man, maybe 30 or so, looks like he's spent the last five years suppressing coughs at the dustiest libraries you could find in all of Shireroth. His baggy clothes look like they were meant for someone half a meter taller, the bottoms of his trouser legs are wet and muddy. An enormous, poorly packed backpack full of what seems to be camping equipment towers far above his head. He extends his hand in greeting.

"Te-te-terribly so-sorry, I forgot to introduce myself... Ishmael Zermelo, nephew of the Duke of Straylight. Pleased to meet you, si-sir..."

[Andreas the Wise]

"Straylightian lad, eh," Andreas said with a smile. "Delighted to have you on board. That gives us two Chelkrans, a robot, an old man, and a young man ... gosh, next a woman will be turning up ..."
He then sat smiling, confident that with that line the Baroness of Lumina's Light would soon turn up ...

[hypatias mom]

Yes, I do believe I would enjoy joining your expedition, if only to see if the High Priestess' temple is still in good repair. I have not heard from her or from her dryads in far too long, and wish to see if things are still going well there.

[Andreas the Wise]

Andreas smiled his little smile. Everything was going according to plan. An interesting bunch of travellers. A lost temple. Beautiful dryads. What more fun could someone ask for?

"We leave in the morning," he said.

[Ari Rahikkala]

After a certain amount of confusion and commotion, and several attempts to be "polite" and sleep in a tent outside, Ishmael settles down in quarters quickly arranged by the Baron. Wondering where Baron Wise is taking them, and what he will discover by himself, he drifts off to fitful sleep, and into dreams that are unfortunately quite inappropriate to be published on a decent, moral forum like this.

[Andreas the Wise]

In the bright morning light, the forest didn't look quite as foreboding. Andreas bravely led them in, striding ahead. Five steps in, he'd already tripped on a root, it was pitch black, and he'd swear the trees were laughing at him ...

"Maybe a different approach," he said, and raised a strange looking staff, which, with a word, let forth a gentle glow from the end. They went on cautiously.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Ishmael still keeps stumbling on every root. Try as he might, he doesn't seem to manage to see by Andreas' magic's light at all, though the other party members don't seem to be having any problems. After a little while, he asks the party to stop, possibly apologising for slowing them down though nobody can really tell as his speech is too far gone to be intelligible. While it takes him several minutes of groping around inside his backpack, he eventually manages to produce a largish flashlight.

The trees and branches form webs of shadows as Ishmael points the flashlight at different directions in the forest, and Ishmael is jumping at every one of the shadows. Some of the shadows make the whole party jump, but no matter what they think they saw, when the flashlight points there there's nothing but trees around...

[Prodigy Almighty]

Prodigy smiled at the stumbling, fumbling man.

"Here, I can help if you'd like," he says in a soft voice, so as not to scare the poor, frail man.

"Oh, th-th-thank--" he gulped mid-senhis two hulking friends.

Pressing a few buttons on him arm, Prodigy's suit produced two small floodlights, one in front and one in back, producing a kind of lantern effect around him.

"If you would like," Korstokk rumbled, 2 meters above him, "I could carry you so you do not stumble so much."

Kale smiled up at his friend, only a meter and a half above him. "Do not frighten the poor man, Korstokk, I think he's the first Shirithian to ever meet a Chelkran in person."

Indeed, Ishmael could barely contain his fright at the size of these two traveling companions.

"If you're quite through scaring our friend," Andreas cut in, "then perhaps we can continue walking?"

[Andreas the Wise]

Andreas took another step forward, and then there was a definite shadow darting right in front of them. Andreas whipped round to follow it when he was held up short by a hand grabbing his shoulder and a booming voice. "Who dares disturb our forests?" came the booming voice. Andreas looked up to see a huge tree with it's hand on his shoulder. A few dryads flitted out of the trees - Andreas was rather interested - he'd never seen dryads before. These, however, were holding long yew bows, armed, and aimed on the group. It was time for a snappy response. "He of the Crystal Tree," Andreas said, and waited.

[hypatias mom]

Psst!! I think you might change genders here, sir.

[Andreas the Wise]

"Psst, I think you might change genders here, sir," whispered the Baroness. Andreas coughed, and waved his hand. "She, sorry," he said, in a passable girl voice. The others looked again at him and he seemed to be a girl ... and so did all of them! (except for the Baroness, who already was one and remained unchanged).

"Your illusions do not fool us, mortal," the tree replied. "I, from the seed of Malarbor and the mighty Ents of the north. But the name you spoke is not unknown in our lands, though it was born by one far more ancient than you could be. For her sake, I shall not slay you immediately. But answer, what are you doing here?"
"Well, if you must know, we've come to have a look at the temple ..." Andreas began, when suddenly ...

[Ari Rahikkala]

Ishmael had been rummaging around his backpack again, throwing items out like dirty clothes. He'd managed to produce a camp lighter, and was holding it like a handgun against the ent.

"Let us pass or I wwi-will set this whole forest on fi-fire!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, interrupting Andreas' diplomacy

The tree daemon laughed, until there suddenly was a strange glimmer in its red eyes. "You?" it said, with a tone of surprise, and repeated its word louder: "YOU..."

The ent's hand grasped Andreas' throat with surprising speed. Its other hand, several meters long, reached for Ishmael...

[Prodigy Almighty]

"KORSTOKK! KALE! GET ANDREAS!" Prodigy barked.

He dove towards Ishmael and caught him just before the daemon tree did, pulling him to the ground with a thud that made Ishmael shudder.

"Who are you and why is this tree suddenly trying to kill us?" he growled, raising his right arm. The arm whirred, moved, and danced, changing from a metal hand to an eight-barreled rocket launcher.

Korstokk pried the daemon tree's fingers off Andreas with help from Kale. Between them, they put forth a strong effort to get Andreas out of its grasp, which surprised the two large men as much as the tree was surprised it lost its grip.

They grabbed Andreas and fell back 10 feet to where Prodigy knelt with Ishmael. They produced XM-25 OICW assault rifles and pointed at the tree alongside Prodigy.

"We don't want to use these," Kale said diplomatically.

"I do," Korstokk growled.

"Patience, Korstokk!" Prodigy ordered. "We need some explaining."

EDIT: With Andreas the Wise's LOA, it seems this might not do anything for a while...

[Andreas the Wise]

Blast, I was waiting for Ishmael ... I mean Ari, to explain.
Oh well, better start it up for activities sake.

"He is not the one you want," Andreas said firmly.
"How can you be sure, mortal?" the Ent asked.
"Because I am," Andreas said. The ents then grabbed all the people, crushing Korstokk's weapons as they went, and began carrying them off into the forest at a fast pace.

As they were being carried, Prodigy sent a thought to Andreas. What do they want you for?
No idea, Andreas replied. I was about to ask Ishmael - I just said it to save him. I can deal with ents. Besides, they seem to be taking us straight to the Temple - makes our job easier.
Prodigy let out an audible laugh, but quickly stifled it when an ent glared at him. You figure you can deal with a couple of ents, mate?
Oh, I know that, Andreas thought nonchalantly. I'm just wondering why they're being so hasty. And the answer, he added, as some stone columns came into view, lies there ...

Well, go on, this is a bit like Shirithian Civil-Recwar - take up the story, we decide our own losses (ie don't bother killing us unless we have a great in game reason for it), and we will eventually win ... we just have to play for the other side (the ents) too ...

[Andreas the Wise]

No one's continuing ....

[Jonas]

I haven't the time...

[Andreas the Wise]

I give up, I'll continue the story myself ...

They had reached the temple, it was clear. Two huge Ents stood at the doorway as guards, and the adventurers realised their own Ent captors could not fit inside the temple. They were dropped on the ground, and, with dryads pointing arrows at their backs, led into the temple. From the outside it appeared typical - marble columns, a short roof, and inside, it was very dark. Andreas was surprised to note absolutely no flaming torches about ... but perhaps that was unsurprising, given tree-based nature of the worship. As they went further in, though, it began to get lighter, until they found that the centre of the temple was not roofed at all, but an open courtyard, and in the centre stood the three envisioned pine trees, and in the centre, the Boomstone, held in the hands of a giant statue of Ryvenna. And around all this were a multitude of dryad priestesses, and ...
Suddenly, one of the envisioned trees began to talk. "I am Hallu, first of the Ents of this land, ancient of days, and guardian of the Temple of Ryvenna. Who are you who dares desecrate my sacred space?"
"One of them is the one ..." an accompanying dryad said.
"The one who entered before, or the One?" Hallu asked.
"Both are here," the dryad replied. "The little boy we recognise. The other tried to take his place, not knowing the propechy. He also claimed the title ... He of the Crystal Tree."
"Hrooom," said Hallu. "No mortal would dare take that title, unless ..." His branchlike arms reached down and he picked up Andreas, holding him close to his face, and gazing into his eyes. "Yes, I thought you had that look about you when first you came in. It is you with the Crystal Tree, is it not?"
Andreas merely nodded, and drew from his pocket a small crystal, one of the tree's fruit.
"Well, this is a strange time we live in, and no mistake," Hallu said, putting Andreas down. "How did you come of this title? I would not ask how you came of the tree, as I doubt you know."
"Does the name Silvartus mean aught to you?" Andreas asked.
"Silvartus ... Silvartus ... small chap, rather young, liked to travel a lot, fairly wise?" Hallu said.
"That sounds like him, though he is young no longer," Andreas said. "He's over 2000 years old, and now King of the Elves in the north."
"When you are as old as I am, two millenia is still young, mortal," Hallu said to Andreas. "But yes, he would know the lore, though perhaps he is too young to remember the original ... She of the Crystal Tree. She was far back in even my memory ..."

[Andreas the Wise]

"Before the Boom Stone was first given to us, was she. Like a princess among elves, was she, fair as the summer and warm as the morning sun, but she was a mortal ... ah yes, oh so mortal ..."
They waited a while, the memory was clearly bittersweet. "She was a great magic user, tied closely to nature. And so she was not overly surprised when a tree of purest gold and growing crystals sprouted in her garden. But little was she to know what that would bring ...
Oft I would walk in that garden, in ages past, when I still walked the earth, and many times I talked with her, and she wandered at the tree - so beautiful, and yet with no apparent purpose.
Little did she know it merely lay dormant, waiting for it's time. But that tale should be told in full later. Suffice to say a great evil went over the land, and much of the ancient plants were desecrated. Then, she found, some of the fruit of the tree began to glow, and she realised that they were more than crystals to store magic - they created magic. She used their power to heal the scarred land. But the great foe that opposed her, dead though he seemed, was not quite, and struck her down before her final project was complete. She had learnt that a single fruit from each tree could become the seed of a new world, when alive with magic, and was creating a garden paradise for herself and all who wished to follow her. Desiring that power, and revenge, he struck her before she could use it. But in that instant, the crytsal released some of it's energy, unstably, and a great boom exploded, destroying him too, and leaving the crystal transformed forever ... and so it came, in time, to be presented to our temple as the Boom Stone. It's power to create a new world was gone, now the power exists only to protect and destroy - which is why it must never be removed, and I cannot have mortals wondering around willy nilly in the temple, even if some are scientists ..." he finished, glaring at Ishmael.

[Prodigy Almighty]

AGH! Oh no! I didn't know things had happened here since your return, Andreas! D:

Korstokk sighed."And here I thought I would be able to shoot something. Then they go and they break my gun..."

Kale sighed as well. "Yeah, I know... Prodigy has mentioned before the whole thing with Andreas and talking to villains... We learn a lot about ancient history this way, sure... but the only problem is, in a few months, I totally forget what I learn on these expeditions into strange new places..."

"The old one seems to be occupied telling the Tales of Yore, Remembering the Good Ol' Days, and soforth," Prodigy growled through clenched teeth. He grabbed Ishmael's arm. "You however, are not talking right now. And should be. To me. I want to know why I'm here risking my life for you when these perfectly reasonable-seeming ents hate your guts."

Kale and Korstokk closed in on either said, accusing stares on their faces as Prodigy held Ishmael by his arm, looking him in the face.

[Andreas the Wise]

There was a pause, and Ishmael had a look of terror on his face. "I'm a Straylightian scientist," Ishmael said, finally. "I snuck into the temple to try and run some tests on the Boom Stone. I didn't want to remove it or risk destroying the world, I just wanted to find out what it was."
Prodigy paused. He was a CAA member and knew the alure of knowledge. "That would have taken a lot of guts, to go into the middle of probable danger to do so, and I respect you for that. But that being said, you shouldn't have lied to us ...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Andreas and Halu were still talking. The others didn't notice, but a barrier had slowly grown around the two, hiding their conversation from the hearing of all others. Andreas suspected this was Halu's doing, and knew he could speak freely.
"I understand your concern, and give you my word that the Boom Stone will not be touched without your permission, and not removed from the Temple for as long as my reign over this Barony continues. But I must make a request of you in exchange - reopen the Temple of Ryvenna. Allow the descendants of the Halluci to come here and worship Ryvenna again - no longer close the Temple to outsiders. And if you can explain what you meant by referring to me as 'the One,' that would be nice too."
"You have heard of the prophecy 'From the North'?" Halu answered. "It is but one of a series of prophecies across the worlds. And I say worlds for a reason - I know of the Keeper of the Keys, and the union of our world with yours at the Shattering of the Mirror. In my experience, each world produces only one Crystal Tree. I know not if yours has produced one before, or whether the current one is that of the union of our worlds ... but I digress. The prophecy is but one of various, which centre on a particular individual, the descendant of famous ancestors, to whom a great and terrible task and power is given. All those who know even one of the ancient prophecies seek this individual, for hope that the power can be used to aid them as well as the overall task, which is hinted at in prophecies, but never known for certain. I believe ... I believe Silvartus may remember the book 'The Gralan Empire.' It is one such prophecy. My ents and I believe you are that One, but what your task or power is, I cannot say. Does this satisfy your curiosity?"
"For now," Andreas said. At this, Halu let out a deep and merry laugh.
"Truly it is said in the prophecies of Ryvenna that the One is never satisfied for knowledge," he said.
"And in response to my other request?" Andreas asked.
"For a long time now we have avoided the outside world ... to some degree in support of the 'From the North' prophecy," Halu said. "But perhaps now is the time ... yes, I will do as you ask. Merely ensure it doesn't become a tourist site. I couldn't stand a lot of new people at my time of life ..."
"Of course not," Andreas said, smiling. Then he looked over at Prodigy. "Oh, and do you happen to have any enemies around you'd like removed? Just, as you said, I thirst ever for knowledge, and have a tendency to chat to everyone on expeditions. Some of my friends would prefer some good old fashioned but kicking. Or burning," he added, noting what had just happened to Ishmael, and creating some water above him to put it out, before the Ents noticed.
"It does happen that there are some Daemon Trees to the north that are ... problematic," Halu said. "The One was prophecied, in our temple scrolls, to remove the threat of logging forever ..." And thenAndreas felt the barrier he had sensed dissapearing, and knew that he would not be able to talk again with Halu about his cryptic comments, at least for a while. But finally he was getting somewhere. He would have to find this 'The Gralan Empire' book. Gralus had never been an Empire, had it? But introspections aside, Halu was waiting for a response.
"I'm sure Prodigy would be delighted to ..."

EDIT: Timeline wise, I'm declaring that this trip occured AFTER the journey to the Etruri and The Dreaming, but before the current one. So I am a Vampire now, but we haven't heard about North's book yet.

[Prodigy Almighty]

"ABSOLUTELY!" he shouted as he whirled around, having partially forgiven Ishmael for the moment. His arm twirled and spun, until it formed what look like a cross between a sword and a chainsaw, revving the motor loudly. "Let's go cut down some Daemon Trees!"

Korstokk stepped up behind Prodigy. "I will aid you, old one, but I require some sort of armament since you destroyed my last weapon..."

Kale also stepped forward, nodding. "I as well."

Halu chuckled, making the ground shake a little. "I'll see what I can do about that..."

[Andreas the Wise]

Halu motioned at some Dryads, who quickly returned with two metallic instruments, with strange runes on them.
"We may be trees against fire in general, but we are, after all, worshipers of teh B00/\/\. These magical flamethrowers should serve you well."
"Awesome," Kale said, and with that, he and the adventurers were off, and travelling to the North. They'd suceeded their quest in opening up the temple ... now to kick some Daemon tree butt ...

[Bayen]

A loud huffing sound rose up behind them. "W... wai... wait up!" A young, disheveled man in expensive-looking clothes and a crown sitting sideways on his head rushed up behind them. A small, white squirrel was perched on his shoulder, and he held in his hand a long, white staff. The rest of his clothes were unbearably bright orange and green - the Tokian royal colors. "I hope I'm not too late for the interesting part!"

"Oh, sorry, Bayen," laughed Andreas. "We've already finished the plot device, and now we're moving through the minions before the boss fight." Prodigy chuckled at this, as did a few others who understood the workings of expeditions.

"Well, I'll be along," said Bayen, petting his little white squirrel. "Let's go, then."

[Prodigy Almighty]

"Well, now that we're ready, let's go 'kill some minions'," Prodigy chuckled. He looked at Halu. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Our dryads will lead you most of the way there," said Halu slowly. "From there, it will only be a few minutes' travel to the northeast. You will then be in Daemon Tree territory."

Kale bowed dramatically. "Thank you, old one, for use of your death toys."

Halu laughed, his ancient wood creaking. "If you do well, I might even let you keep those 'death toys' as you call them."

A few of the dryads stepped forward. "Follow us," one of them said, "and try to keep up."

With that, they headed into the woods, followed by the band of explorers.

[Andreas the Wise]

It wasn't too long before they returned - with a few more scratches and burns, but otherwise no worse for the wear.

"All done!" Prodigy said, delighted. "Any more problems?"
"Not at the moment," Halu said, laughing. "But I shall be sure to call you if we have any."
With that, they left.

Sorry, needed finishing.