Leena is a well-adjusted gnome, satisfied with her work helping halfling slaves escape the clutches of Izrador, or, when required, moving orc troops wherever they need to go on her family's barge. Curious by nature, she's taught herself to read well enough that she occasionally catches sight of info she'd not be privy to if she was considered literate by Izrador's people.
A few years ago, as she was helping some elves travel from the Goil through the Great Forest of Erethor, she heard strange whispering voices, as if from the trees themselves. She had heard these voices before though not as clearly, and she had pointedly ignored them. This time, however, she became slightly worried when she realized her elven companions were looking at her askance.
She has not mentioned what she heard to anyone, but she has been drawn to the woods many times since, and finds that the voices, elven voices, have provided warnings to her about things considerable distances away, once even pointing her back to the closest tributary when she got lost on foot. She is torn between wanting to stay on the river with her people, helping fight Izrador in the typical gnomish way, and wanting to stay and listen to the trees, so she takes any opportunity that allows both.
The patrol has been out a lot longer than usual- and still no sign of Mileina Prudin since her last patrol. Strange, she knows these woods quite well; much better than I do. But then, I have the benefit of the whispers that seem to keep me safe, even when I'm traveling alone. The voices in the woods didn't mention Mileina to me.
I don't think anyone is going to find her, in spite of the doubled patrols. It isn't anything I've divined through any arcane means; there's just been a general sense of unrest here in Hope, I could even feel it before I arrived. In fact, this time it was the cause of my reappearance, as I was planning on heading back to the river for a season.
I skirted my way around Zhinji, who was near the town gate twirling a 10' pole around, oblivious (I assume) to anyone trying to walk past him. He followed me, curious to see why I was back after less than a day. We wandered over to the town elder who seemed to spend all his time near the gate since his daughter Mileina had gone missing. At least Fin didn't look disappointed every time the gate opened now.
I've never heard anyone else mention hearing voices in the woods, though I mean to ask Sergei next time I see him- he looks like he probably hears voices too. I had to tell Fin what I'd heard though, so I said I'd overheard some voices speaking in elven a mile or so outside of town and left it at that. It was one of the clearest things I've ever heard in the Great Forest, and rhymed a lot better than usual. I repeated it from memory:
Infecting those who believe in good.
Trudging through the ancient roots
Come blackened souls in chain link boots.
Zhinji suggested we go find Sergei, and we did find him, chasing a chicken around in his house. I didn't ask why. We sat and chatted with him (somehow Zhinji's 10' pole didn't smash any of Sergei's furnishings, despite the way he insists on carrying it across his shoulders). Even as close to the tree as we were, at one point I felt uneasy enough to cast a small spell to see if astirax were out hunting, but didn't divine any. Never do, actually. The chicken, no longer being chased, napped on a chair.
Eventually we got the hint and left Sergei in peace to chase his now-awake chicken around.
I am fortunate that Oren and Silvy always welcome me in their home when I stay in town; I wandered over sleepily, said good night to Zhinji (several times) and headed to my room. Even though the bed doesn't have the comforting rocking motion of a boat, I can usually sleep well in this room. Tonight however, after a few hours, thoughts of murder jolted me awake! I felt like I wanted to kill someone, so intense was the feeling of hate, but once I realized I didn't have a particular victim in mind, I was awake enough to realize it was just a dream. It felt as real as the conversations I've had in the woods though.
I walked over to the window in my room- Zhinji was still outside- I do believe he is protecting the town, though he's safely inside the gates.
I lay back down and had nearly drifted to sleep when I heard a thunk outside. Running back to the window, I saw Kelrin Dermont outside the Eleder family's house, attempting to attack Zhinji. I ran out the door as some of the town patrol also rushed over, but by then Zhinji had subdued the man with that pole by tripping him. Kelrin had a confused, even crazy, look on his face, but hitting the ground seemed to restore him to his usual docile self.
The poor guy had the same dream as I did, but failed to wake from it before he went on a hunt for a victim. We were all lucky Zhinji had decided to lurk around the town for the night! I was on my way back to my bed when I saw Silvy, a glazed look in her eyes, carrying a pot and heading towards the Asha family's house with purpose. I hurried over and gently shook her arm- luckily she recognized me before she struck out with her makeshift weapon. I walked her home while she told me she thought a dark person had told her to kill people.
Thankfully, the rest of the night passed without incident.
The next morning everyone was abuzz with the events of the night that hadn't woken up half the town. Several people were sporting minor injuries earned during the night, while others were saying the town just felt "wrong." Silvy was still shook up from her own sleepwalking episode, and very worried that she could have injured someone. I took a few berries from the breakfast she was preparing and transformed them into goodberries- two for her and Oren, and two for whatever awaited me for the day. I saw through the window that the patrol was back. Most were heading off to their own homes, but Jess was walking in a straight line, head down as if studying the ground, heading towards the town spring.
I wandered out to where the human woman stood staring intently into the water, one hand wet and a puzzled expression on her face. When I asked her what she was up to, she said she'd followed the gray line leading through town to the gray bubble in the spring, and when she picked up the bubble it said, "put me back." So she dropped it. She was the only one that noticed the line; I had to cast a spell to see it, but sure enough it was there. Sergei, chickenless, noticed us standing there and came out to see what we were up to, and I figured we should go get Zhinji- he likely would have seen what brought the "gray" to our spring, since he spent so much time the day before loitering around the center of town. We retrieved Zhinji from his home, which had boards over every broken window. Now, I suppose he could have broken them the night before while sleepwalking, but once he grabbed his 10' pole from where it lay, wiping out a rickety chair in the process, I realized he wouldn't have had the time to board up all the windows since last night anyway.
Neither Sergei nor Zhinji could see the gray line, but they saw a rock where the gray bubble rested in the spring. Zhinji and Sergei attempted to pick it up (with the town elder unhelpfully looking on at our efforts) with pretty much the same results that Jess had originally, even when I attempted to bolster them with encouragement. I couldn't pick it up in my hands either- the compulsion to drop it again was too strong. Sergei ran off to his house to get a shovel, thinking that holding the rock at arm's length may allow us to remove it from the town. I noticed that the aura of the water, which used to be red and green, was now just red (and of course gray in the immediate vicinity of the rock). I tried dropping a goodberry in, hoping to somehow "heal" the spring, but it just lay there. Luckily carrying the rock on a shovel, secured in a piece of sackcloth Jess wrapped around it, seemed to provide us with enough immunity to the "drop me" suggestions skin contact caused. Hopefully the act of removing the rock from the spring will allow the damage it caused to eventually heal.
But now, what to do with the rock? We considered smashing it on a larger rock outside the town, but without knowing more about it, that seemed unwise. I wanted to drop it into a lead box, as that can hinder magic, but of course, we didn't have one (or any lead, for that matter). We already knew the town elder would have no suggestions, so we headed to the person the town elder would likely seek for help- Sehil.
Sehil Lunebow, an elven wildlander, doesn't number himself among the population of Hope (83 at last count). Nevertheless, he's lived in these parts longer than any of the settlers, and is always willing to lend a hand, or some wisdom, when the need arises. Thankfully he was home, and bade us come in and tell our tale. I am glad we did! At one point, as I was glossing over the "voices" I hear in the woods at times, he said it was unusual for a gnome to hear the Whisper. I was stunned to learn that I was not the only one hearing the voices, which normally only speak to elves and their kin. The fact that it was unusual for a gnome explained why I had not ever heard it mentioned by my own people.
Unfortunately, Sehil didn't have an immediate solution to ridding ourselves of the rock. He suggested that we could look to a friend of his in Druid Swamp named Egomas Nemausus. The Druid Swamp is a very long distance away, 1000 miles at least, but it occurred to me that the Elven Queen lives about 500 miles west of us in these very woods, cutting our travel distance for help by half, and she's been able to keep the woods free of much of what plagues the rest of Eredane; surely she'd have the power to nullify the effects of this little rock.
Well, I'm still not certain where we are going, but we've decided we'd take my boat whichever way we do go. My boat is moored where the Felthera River begins its journey south through the Whispering Woods- which is about a 2-day walk west of Hope. So off we went, in the general direction of west. Between Jess and I (who travels this route fairly often) it should have been simple enough. After three hours, things were not looking they way they ought to- we stopped and checked where north was. We were, sadly, heading north, not west. We kept better track of the directions from that point on, stopping at least every 90 minutes so I could cast a cantrip to find north again. For the most part, we kept on course, though I cannot explain why we occasionally veered off in the wrong direction.
We had packed some food, but goodberries are easy to create and have healing properties as well as being filling, so I have been casting spells to make them as often as I can. With the exception of the cloth-wrapped shovel that Jess is carrying the stone on, and Zhinji's 10' pole, we are traveling fairly light. Sergei didn't even bring his favorite chicken- Silvy is caring for it while he's absent from Hope.
We continued west again in the morning, and I was sure that we'd find my boat by nightfall, but we didn't. I was only mildly worried- after all, we'd been turned around a few times and were likely going to need a bit more time to reach the river.
We actually reached the river about an hour after setting out on our third day. Of course, everyone was horrified when my boat wasn't sitting right where we stood on the bank. We walked a few hundred yards upstream though, and there sat the Cut and Run, my 20' boat, right where I'd left her. We'll sail downstream for about four days, then we'll have to decide whether to keep following the river south to the Druid Swamps, or push upstream into the heart of the Caraheen to seek the elf queen's people. Perhaps the woods will give me a suggestion.
It was interesting to see how my companions adapted to life on the Felthera River. Jess didn't make a peep the entire first day, Sergei tried to hide in a crate, and Zhinji immediately wandered into my cabin to root through the footlocker, only coming back out when he found a much-too-large cloak to wear. I still made goodberries for meals from a bunch I'd picked before we reached the riverbank, but suggested that anyone that was bored could fish as well.
Thankfully, the weather stayed comfortable and we didn't meet a soul (nor did I hear anything from the trees). We continued this routine for four days, until we came to the fork where we had to decide whether to push upstream to the elves, or continue south to the druids. We decided to flip a coin and let chance determine which way we'd go. The coin indicated that we should head towards the elves. At this point, I learned that no one really understood how rivers work- once they realized that we'd be pushing against the flow of the river, we rethought things.
Zhinji suggested we let the rock (yes, the evil rock!) determine which direction we go, so Sergei threw the shovel with the rock bandaged to it into the river. Oddly, the shovel floated. This was fortunate, as it started to float downstream. I learned something else- no one else had ever swum in a river before. I quickly shed my boots and outer garments and dove in to retrieve the shovel.
We let the Cut and Run float south towards the druid swamp.
Three days of drifting downstream brought us to the Keep of the Cataracts. Sure enough, a wood elf was standing on the bank, waving to us. I'm used to picking up a guide to get through the cataracts, but my friends looked briefly alarmed. We came close enough to the bank for the elf, Amareth Greenleaf, to hop aboard. As she helped guide the boat through the rough waters, I explained why we were traveling to the druid swamp. It occurred to me that the wood elves that watch this stretch of the river would have druids amongst them as well, and Amareth agreed that we could at least bring our problem to their attention, perhaps saving ourselves from a few hundred miles of additional travel.