"Who dares enter the realm of The Oak Father?"
It's amazing what trouble you can get into in so little time. To think, that this all started out as a fun trip to the woods. It's just Tobias, Geoff, and me in the middle of this huge beautiful forest, and no clue how we got here. Maybe its best if I just start from the beginning.
PrologueWe all work at the same place. We work at an outdoor recreational department store. Somehow, we all got the job around the same time. Since I loved camping, I decided this was the perfect place to work so that way I could get some discounts on the merchandise. Apparently, so did my friends. Once we saved up some money we all started making regular trips out in the woods. After a while we were bored with the usual hiking trails and national forests that were offered. So, we decided to go out on our own and just live in the forest for a few days at a time like people did a hundred years ago. Living off the land and such.
On one trip, we found something that we couldn't describe. It was a huge cavern with some weird carvings on the walls. We wouldn't have seen it at all if Tobias didn't chase our dinner in the direction. The whole cavern entrance was covered with some vine like plant that we didn't recognize. We decided to make that our next adventure seeing how we had to go back to work the next day, which in turn also gave us time to find out that the cavern hasn't been explored by anyone (or at least they didn't tell anybody about it). We also took the opportunity to buy some spelunking equipment.
That following weekend we went back up to our newly found cavern and camped outside the cave so we could start exploring fresh the next day. The night started with us setting up camp, only to find it still light out when we finished, so we decided to take this time to study the markings on the cavern walls. After staring at them, we decided to give up when it started to get dark and we couldn't discern anything about them.
The next morning we set out in our adventure. We only took what we thought we would need in case there were some places where we need to squeeze through. After a while the cavern only got bigger. Just when we were thinking it could get no bigger the entire tunnel we were in just entered into a huge cavern. So big that our torches could not give out enough light to see the top.
"You guys think we should shoot up a flare?" I asked
"Why waste a flare, it will only just prove that there's a ceiling up there"
"Think about it Tobias, if there's something up there besides just rock it would be interesting to know exactly what"
"Well Xavier, I think that if there's nothing up there all we did was waste a flare to find out that there's only rock up there. What do you think Geoff?"
"I think that I would like to take a guitar and amp in here and jam. This place sounds like it should have some good acoustics." Even before he answered I figured he would say something like that. Geoff is always talking about music, some way or another. Obviously Tobias was just hoping he would say something different because his face was showing signs of defeat.
"Well Tobias, that didn't solve anything. I could have told you he would say something like that."
"Actually you two, by hooking up my guitar in here, using the acoustics I could at least figure out how big it is. As of right now, in case you haven't noticed, these walls haven't been producing a largo echo, so therefore I'm assuming that we are just entering a huge cavern that was meant to center some kind of noise at the other end of this cavern. I might be wrong of course"
"HAH! What do you have to say to that Xavier? I knew it was a good idea to ask him."
"I would say, that HE, not you, makes a good point. There's no way you knew he would say something like that. You're face expression proves my point right. Since his idea makes sense, lets go break camp and bring it in here, it's obvious that it is big enough to hold our stuff, and judging from the wall, it doesn't flood here either."
After going back to camp, we quickly packed all our stuff so that we could still carry it and easily set it back up. We went back to the cavern and dropped off our stuff then we all went back to the place where we parked our truck and brought the big self-powered lights.
"Ok guys, let's get Geoff's guitar and amp at the other end of this cavern and see how well the acoustics are."
"Gee, thanks for letting us know what we were going to do Tobias. I had no idea that we were bringing Geoff's guitar in here for that reason"
"Well, I think that you should just….just…."
"hehe, you can't even think up a good comeback. I can't take you anywhere"
"Ok girls, settle down. I'm about to jam, so sit back and enjoy." So we did just that. Just like every other time Geoff brings out his guitar and starts to play, we sit back and enjoy. If he didn't put himself down so much, he could become an excellent guitarist. Needless to say, Geoff was right, this cavern did have great acoustics. We didn't even know why, but we didn't care we were all having fun watch Geoff play his guitar and singing alone with lyrics we made up on the spot. In fact we were so into having fun that we didn't notice that the cavern walls were getting bright. It wasn't until it was very hard to see that we noticed, but by then it was to late. The light just kept on getting brighter and brighter till it hurt to even have our eyes open. Then all the sudden it was dark. I don't know what Geoff and Tobias were thinking, but I suddenly panicked and thought I went blind. It wasn't until I opened my eyes to find that I was in the middle of a forest.
Chapter 1"So, that was how you entered my sanctuary. I find it weird that the most powerful druids in the world cannot find my sanctuary, yet you three just pop out of nowhere saying you got here by playing a lute."
"Well, actually it's a…."
"Guitar I know. You call it what you are used to and I'll call it what I want to. I'm a god, I'm allowed to."
"Wait, you're a god. That would explain this whole speaking really loudly in my head thing then right? I'm not going crazy?"
"Of course you're going crazy Tobias. We all are. One minute we were having fun listening to Geoff play guitar, then the next we're in the middle of a god's playground…"
"Sanctuary"
"Whatever. What do you have to say about this Geoff?"
"I think I want to play guitar some more. Maybe if I'm lucky we can get back to reality, our dimension, or planet, whatever." The next thing we hear is a loud sigh, yet we didn't hear it with our ears, it was the god's usually mind speak or whatever.
"OUCH! Geez god, or Oak Father or whatever your name is. Could you stop with the mind speak please, you're louder than you realize"
"Well you aren't exactly quiet either. Always yelling at me thinking I can't hear you very well. Just because I can speak in your minds, doesn't mean I'm deaf. By the way, please call me Silvanus." We all jumped at the sound of the voice because it came from behind us. As we turn around we see an older man dressed in various leather clothing and has a giant hammer on his back. "Hmm, Geoff, you would make a fine bard seeing how you only talk about music and such."
"Wait, you are going to make me a bard?"
"Well technically I can't make you per se, but I can forcefully suggest. You see, even though I'm one of the gods, I know there must be a balance. Therefore to force you to do something I would be more evil, and there is plenty of that running around. So what I am going to do is first give you these." He reaches into his pocket and pulled out 3 necklaces. At the end of each necklace is a delicately carved leaf of some sort. "Before I give these to you, you must pledge you allegiance to me. Usually only my clerics are able to wear these necklaces but I think I'll make an exception for you three. Only after you pledge yourselves to me will I tell you all that these necklaces can do. I can help you in your travels around this world. As of right now I know not how to get you home, but that will probably change over time."
"We pledge ourselves to you, Silvanus, The Oak Father." We said together.
"Good, now to let you know, one thing I put my followers to acknowledge first, is balance. There needs to be a balance in all things. To help achieve this balance you need to be able to communicate to peoples you know nothing about. So, one thing these necklaces can do is help you speak any language. There are also a few other not as important things that they can do, but you'll be able to figure them out later, but as for right now, I am going to send you to a small village to help you survive in this world. Obviously you can't take everything here, so take what you can then go through this portal." He then started to mumble something intelligible, and the next thing we knew he was gone and a big multicolored doorway was where he was standing. We were so much in shock that we don't remember putting on the necklaces and start packing. In fact, the next thing I knew, I was standing near the end of a forest. Beyond the forest was the beginning of a mesa. I figured there was a village towards the cliff, but what made me worry were all the shapes above the village. They looked like birds, but I couldn't tell what kind. From this distance they could be carrion birds and I wouldn't even know it. "Hey guys, do you think Silvanus would put us near a village where everyone is already dead?"
"What makes you ask that Xavier?"
"Well, for one, there doesn't seem to be any guards. You would think that a small village would have some kind of people on guard. Second, those birds flying all around the village could be some kind of carrion bird. I don't really think that Silvanus seems like the type of god who would do that, but he did mention he wants us to be trained to survive in this world and maybe his way of teaching us is to throw us into battle right away. I guess what I'm trying to say is be on your guard. Did you guys remember to get your knives?"
"Yeah, but I doubt they will be very effective seeing how we don't really know how to use them in a fight. Well, maybe Tobias does"
"Hehe, well from the look of his smile I would say you were right Geoff. Hmm, what else could we use just in case?" After looking around for a little bit I found a nice makeshift staff. I grab my staff and head back to where I left Tobias and Geoff. "Ok guys, let's go. Since I have a staff now, Tobias you can use my knife." When I took out my knife to hand it to him, he just smiled and took the knife out of my hand and gave it to Geoff. He turned around and grabbed a thick branch from a tree and then took off the twigs that were still attached.
"I'm more of a club man than a knife man." He said with a grin.
"Well I guess that works, you ok with that Geoff?"
"As long as my guitar survives I'm ok with anything." We got about ten steps closer towards the town when I thought I heard something. I quietly motioned Geoff and Tobias to stop moving so I could hear a little better. After a few moments I was beginning to think I was imagining things. As soon as I was about to get walking again, I thought the sound came back. I motioned Geoff and Tobias to get our backs together so we could defend ourselves easier. As soon as we put our weapons up to defend ourselves from whatever was near us, we heard a loud laugh from the bushes.
"hehe, Silvanus said you guys needed big time help, but at least you got some sense in you. That will help the cármanca." I think our look of surprise must have been really obvious cause we heard him laugh again. The next thing I know, there's a weird looking man in front of me. He vaguely reminded me of me of Silvanus, but that was only in his clothing. The only thing that made me realize that it wasn't Silvanus was the look in his eye. He didn't give off that, weird godly look. He was kind of raggedly looking, and to be honest, reminded me of a bum. Yet when I looked at him, he seemed to emanate power despite the fact that he looked like a bum. To be honest, I wanted to laugh, but my fear had more a hold of me than my laughter. "I am Elyrvan, elven druid of Silvanus." The look of stupidity must have been obvious too because he started laughing again. "Now my friends meet my animal companion, Billy and his friends." Still to stunned to speak, we barely even noticed the big shadows as they passed over us. By the time I had enough nerve to look up, nothing was there. When I looked back towards the area where Elyrvan was standing, I noticed he wasn't alone. There was now some kind of monsters standing around him. They must be some weird breed of horses, because it had a horse body but it also had wings, claws, and an avian head. "Oh yes, I should have told you beforehand, Billy and his friends are hippogriffs" he said with a cheery smile.
Chapter 2Hippogriffs, that creature's name seemed to ring a bell. I think I heard about them somewhere. Oh yeah, I heard about them in a fantasy book once, I heard they were very proud creatures that if they will choose to let someone ride them on their backs, they need to decide who that person is and if they are worthy to ride them. I carefully put down my staff, and decided to see if this was true, for all I knew this was still just a really weird dream. I also took off my backpack to make sure I didn't look to intimidating, even though it could probably take me out right now if it wanted to. I started to walk towards the one I thought was Billy, he was standing next to Elyrvan and was the biggest hippogriff in this group. After about 5 steps he looked at me with fierce eyes. Turns out, all three of us must have realized, or at least Geoff and me realized what they were and Tobias was following our lead. I motioned them to stop and took one more step, to find out that Billy took one more towards us also. I bravely took one more step, and he seemed to mirror me. I took three more steps and then I was about 15 feet away from Billy, and then decided it best to let him decide if I was worthy. I stood still with my arms slightly out and called him and complimented him. To sooth him just in case he decided to think it insulting that I stopped coming near him, seeing how I don't fully understand the minds of hippogriffs. I dropped my head in a slight bow to acknowledge him as a superior, who I truly thought him to be, and in return I received a loud screech. I stole a quick glance towards the elf's place of standing and saw a small frown start to form. My next thought in my head was I was about to die. I decided to take my defeat with my head bowed with my eyes closed, and then I feel something begin to lift my head up. I open my eyes and find Billy there, lift my head to look him in the eye with his beak. I was so stunned I didn't move, and then he takes a step forward and snuggles his head on my shoulder.
"Well, Silvanus was more off than he realized. I thought when the kid here started to walk towards Billy here, that Billy would eat him alive. Guess I couldn't be so lucky." I almost jumped at the sound of this new voice, and I probably would have if I still weren't afraid of Billy biting my head off with one snip. I heard Geoff and Tobias stumble around a bit trying to figure out where it came from. "The name is Gabu, and you are only looking around on one dimension. Look up you stupid morons", the last sentence he muttered quietly but Billy heard it because he squawked at the voice. "Ok Billy I get it. I'm up here you two", then the next thing I heard was a big thump, like something big falling from a high distance. "Well I was up there. For a second there, you three almost showed a whole lot of promise there, well at least the one who befriended Billy so quickly. Hey Elyrvan, didn't that take you many years before he decided to be your friend?" he said with a huge grin.
"I think that Billy still dislikes remembering those years where you tried to befriend him quite unsuccessfully, and you Gabu for trying to feed it something it didn't like." This was a new voice. By now I was almost expecting 20 different guy to jump out of the forest, seeing how these other two already did, but only one person came out. "The name is Iauba. I would like to assume that the guy over there with the lute on his back would be Geoff, am I correct?"
"Well, if you seem to talk to Silvanus as it seems like your friend Elyrvan does, then there shouldn't be a doubt that I am in fact Geoff, but I'll let it slide this time." I wanted to give Geoff a good hearty pat on the back, and I would have except Billy once again screeched really loud. It wasn't very pleasant because he was still right next to me.
"In case you guy have been either to polite or just ignorant, my friends Gabu and Iauba are not normal looking. That is because Gabu is a half-orc and Iauba is a half-elf."
"Actually I wasn't either, I was still confused about what a cármanca was. I thought these necklaces were supposed to automatically translate what you say or something like that."
"Well that is a good point there Xavier. The only thing I can think of is everyone on this plane and also on Toril, knows what the elven cármanca is. So maybe the necklace didn't realize you didn't know what it was and just figured that you knew. To put it easily, our knowledge is going to be transferred to you three. The reason we will be doing it this way is because it would take many years for us to teach you all we know. First, we will have a nice night in the town over there. It's the neutral town of Marl."
"What makes it a neutral town?"
"Well you see Tobias, we are currently on the plane of Warriors Rest. Where it seems many warriors come here to do anything but rest. Here warriors get the choice to either continue on into the afterlife, or do what they like to do the most, which is commence in battle. There are two teams, red team and blue team. Marl here is the place where no battles are allowed to go to. It's here where warriors with other hobbies can do many things besides just battle, or at least a nice place to relax and get away from the battle for a short time."
"So then what happens when one side wins? Battles have to be won sooner or later"
"True, and that is a good question. From what I gather, when the other team kills one person, they then join the team that killed them at the end of the battle. For instance, when a warrior on the blue team kills a warrior on the red team, at the end of the battle the then red team warrior will now serve the blue team."
"Hmm, well I guess that sounds good and all, but how do you know they wont betray their new team so their old team can win? Also, what happens if the blue team kills everyone on the red team?"
"Well to answer your first question, what would they gain by betraying the team they currently are on? There is no actually end to these battles. The warriors are on this plane of existence because they fight for the battle not for and beliefs or lords or anything petty like on Toril. As for your second question, I have no solid answer. I believe the gods will just split the teams back into two. I am not sure though. I never really got into the whole huge battle thing. I was one of the ones who helped defend the forest fortresses with my druidic magic. I think I'm beginning to like you more and more Xavier. You remind me a lot of what I was like when I was still alive."
"Yeah, he reminds me of you too Elyrvan" Gabu commented. "Really annoying and always pestering about what and who and where." Of course this made Tobias bust out laughing seeing how we were close friends yet rivals at the same time. That's probably how we were able to get so close, being so big of rivals brought us close together. We ended the competition on who was better, but there were still times when the animosity grew between us.
After walking and exchanging a few insults, we eventually reached the neutral town of Marl. The birds I spotted from the forest were not carrion birds like I feared, but birds of prey. There were even some that I knew what they were. There were some Bald Eagles and Golden Falcons and even more than I didn't recognize that seemed so at home on this plane of existence. The whole town seemed to make me feel at ease. There wouldn't be any surprises that I could imagine. So I knew I could easy. If anything did go wrong, this town was full of energetic and obviously talented warriors. So there was no reason to worry whatsoever. It was then that the building next to me caught on fire.
Chapter 3"Uh oh, that can't be good."
"Elryvan, please say that is a normal occurrence."
"I wish I could Xavier, but unfortunately I would be lying. You see, this town is supposed to be protected by great divine magic. So if someone was to try to destroy this town they would need some even more powerful divine magic. I guess we're going to need to hurry up and get you ready for the cármanca. It's going to need to be rushed also. Let's hurry you three." The worry sounding in Elryvan's voice, made me worry more than I already was. "The room that was being set up for you is over this way". As we were running away we could hear many battle cries in the air as people were getting ready for battle. I quickly took a look back to see two figures in the air, with wings on their backs. They were just kind of hovering in one place. It also looked like both were saying something and moving their hands around like they were at a rave.
"Elyrvan, it looks like something big is happening." Right when I finished saying the last sentence, something that looked like a giant worm showed up out of nowhere. "Should we be afraid of that giant worm?"
"You should be, but we are spirits, so it can't kill us seeing how we are already dead. We will just," at that moment he finally looked back. He stopped for a minute staring at the giant worm that was killing all these warriors that were taking it easy for a while in the town of Marl. "That is not good."
"What is it?" Tobias asked.
"That my soon to be comrade, is a Fiend Worm." Gabu explained. "Not very friendly towards anyone that lives or doesn't. I heard they are very dangerous and seem to be special pets of deities that live in the abyss. Apparently, they have a permanent portal to a random layer of the abyss. If the Fiend Worm is a pet of a certain deity, I would guess that they would make the portal tied to their layer of the abyss. I think we need to rush this one Elyrvan. We shouldn't risk this getting messed up."
"I agree old friend. Let us make haste to the spell chamber. I think it is only fair to let you guys know this will be a little dangerous.