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- Note of the Librarian
- This is an excerpt of Lylanea Vicciona's Diary. The "Bard of the Four Lands" kindly provided a copy of her notes about the investigations that followed Erin Mac'Arlann's exhumation of a map out of Orphie Dradius' archives. The expedition took place on Holeth, Fallenor 18, 3rd AC 2609.[1]
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The assembly of those that followed the Rangers creed took place in the Ranger camp, on the small densely forested plateau called Almati Wood. The Ranger archivist Erin Mac'Cartlann had called for it, after the Tryker had discovered an old document, in the Archives of the order. She had asked the Homins that had taken up the mantle of protecting Atys and the Four Lands against the Kitin thread to help her make sense of it and see what they could come up with interpreting the old drawing.
Soon most agreed that it was very probably a kind of map and some clever homins had tried overlaying it upon existing maps of the New Lands, but only to marginal success as they weren't able to make out true reference points. After a few moments of discussion, an older Ranger woman stepped up. She introduced herself as Picatis Pleros, of Fyros birth and as a “keeper of records and solver of mysteries”, which drew some amused smirks from the crowd. Her mind proved less feeble than her body though because she had identified some of the cryptic markings on the map as references to the waypoints of Pyr and Yrkanis, capitals of the Fyros empire, respectively the Matis Kingdom as well as a one of the vortexes that led to the prime roots. She asked the assembled homins to help her prove a theory she had developed, regarding the strange colorful lines and swirls on the circular map.
As it turned out the only place where these waypoints worked out in the Four Lands was in the region known as the “Knoll of Dissent” in the Matis Kingdom. Picatis Pleros asked them to follow as fast as her old legs could carry and the small expedition made its way through the forest, right into the heart of the region, to its most dreaded feature.
The elderly Fyros led them to the outskirts of a high rise in the land. Consulting the map, she excitedly exclaimed that her theory was correct. The lines on the map were pointers, that led to dark tunnels, which burrowed into Atys’ bark and that were inhabited by Kitin. It was a detailed map of the dreadful hive known as the “Tunnel Of Woe”. So the small force of brave homins went inside to find out more.
Soon after, the assembled Homins that followed the Ranger Code stood amidst the cooling carcasses of several huge Kitin. They had fought hard and had eventually battled their way through the dark tunnels of the hive to this very point.
Here their united force of homins from the whole New Lands had annihilated the Swarm-Queen, a hideous Kizarak and many of its horrible minions. Its grotesque corpse now lay in a heap of twisted limbs in the middle of the cave they had found the beast in.
As others still searched the cave and talked amongst themselves about the mystery that had led them here, I noticed an unusual heap of broken wood and dirt that seemed to have formed recently on one side of the irregular space. I walked over to it to closely examine the small landslide.
Several large pieces of bark had broken from a wall and the floor had partially caved in, everything was covered in dirt and dry sawdust. As I knelt down to examine the depression I noticed that a few loose strands of my hair were being blown upwards by a slight draft coming from the small hole in the ground. Scooting closer, I prodded the pile of dirt with my sword. Suddenly some large chunks of wood and clots of earth tumbled down from where they had been wedged together in precarious equilibrium before. The ground moved and slid beneath my feet, it opened up and I tumbled headfirst into the darkness.
I yelped and drew my limbs as close to my body as I could. My sword went flying and luckily did not hit me. Within a few seconds, I had fully lost my bearings, as I slid and tumbled down a narrow chute in the bark. Its slope just level enough to slightly slow down myfall, but not to stop it. After about thirty seconds of painfully bumping around this involuntary slide-ride, I suddenly came to a stop. Upside down in another heap of dirt, roots, bark, and broken wood. My mouth full of dust and fibers, I coughed and spit. My body hurt all over, though my armor had luckily taken the brunt of the fall. Groaning, I twisted myself upright. Then swaying a little and breathing deeply, started to take in my surroundings. My eyes widened in surprise.
Before me stretched an immense cavern. Its ceiling lost somewhere in the darkness above. Only a few dim beams of light shone through small, distant cracks in the bark. Most of the greenish, blueish light came from the bioluminescent moss that grew all over the deep, Prime Roots. This seemed to be a part previously unknown to Hominkind. Behind me, I heard a scratching noise and an exclamation as a young Tryker in colorful clothing came tumbling out of the rough chute in a cloud of dust and dirt. I quickly threw a healing invocation over him and he did the same to me. In quick succession, more homins came sliding down into the cave and they helped each other over the worst of the effects of their fall.
I wasn’t sure, but I thought I had spotted movement in the gloom some paces off. Behind me, she heard some Homins tell each other something about not to shout or to make any other loud noises down here, but paid them no mind. My curiosity was piqued.
As I slowly moved into the misty gloom, shapes formed from the murky depth into my range of perception. Dark green Kipee of various sizes moved busily around. Munching away at the moss and other plants on the ground and carrying bushels of plant matter to an unknown goal. I noticed that there were some very small individuals amongst the creatures. The large insects paid me no mind as I stepped around them, further into the huge cavern. My focus was almost fully on the busy bugs when I heard a sound that stopped me dead in my tracks. My heart leaped to my throat at the all too familiar, rough, coughing of a Kincher Kitin-soldier. Several paces away I spotted two of the beasts amongst the herd of their harmless brethren. They too were smaller than most I had seen on the surface of Atys, but with these bastards, one never knew. At first, I wanted to shout out a warning to the explorers behind me, but thought better of it and retraced my steps, back to the group as quickly as I could, without attracting the attention of the Kinchers.
Just as I arrived back at the chutes exit, a scream pierced the exited gaggle of the newly arrived homins. Picatis Pleros had apparently broken both her legs while tumbling down the chute as one of the last to use it. Some homins helped her up and held her while she wailed in pain. Someone hissed: “No! Shut her up! No loud noises!”, but too late. From the darkness several small spindly shapes came dashing right into the middle of the group. Barely suppressed shouts of shock and pain mingled with the sounds of sword, axe and forceful spells being cast at the attacking insects. A few moments of intense battle later, the small beasts lay dead and the homins took a collective deep breath of the fragrant deep roots air.
It was decided to see if there would be another exit, somewhere inside the cave. So, helping the severely injured Picatis Pleros hobble along, the expedition made ist slow way across the cavern floor. After a little while, the Homins had again to deal with Kinchers attacks, but managed to fend off the insects with relative ease. Interestingly the Kipee, once aggrieved by getting caught in the crossfire, were harder to dispatch than their surface-brethren, as they proved resistant to many forms of magic.
Once I had to place my hand over Picatis mouth, to keep her from screaming out loud again. As the Homins helping her along had to drop her, to fend off a kincher that had attacked them. The old Fyros bit my hand, but that was better than getting torn to shreds by Kitin. As they moved on, I absently noticed that opposite to the smallish Kitin, the flying Plun in this cave were larger than any I had encountered before.
Over the quite long march alongside the walls of the cavern, several homins, including myself, acted as scouts, after i had given Picatis over to Homins more proficient in suich things as me. The Zorai Siela bravely held off some suddenly aggressive Kipees, as I rounded a corner and froze in awe. A humongous Plun floated above a huge landslide, several of its tentacles seemingly caught in the rubble. A few smaller ones floated around the site but did nothing. I did not know what to make of it and ran back to the main group to give my report.
Picatis was still helped along by two homins, but perked up as she spotted the rubble and the enormous Plun. Several Homins started to examine the pile of rubble and after a few moments, some managed to slip through cracks and reported that there was daylight on its other side. One after the other the explorers wiggled their way through the small openings in the landslide. I had to stiffle a laugh. As Ser Nilstilar's bulky armor got stuck in the fissure. The Matis Noble had honorably stayed behind with me to guard the retreat of the others. I had to literally kick him through to the other side, to be able to follow him as the last Homin to leave this newly discovered cavern under the bark.
We eventually emerged back into the diffuse lights of the Windy Gate , close to a Kitin mound.Lylanea Vicciona, Bard of the Four Lands
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