Ashperton
The party visit Ashperton the Ent, to tell him of the destruction of the Termite Mound and the removal of the great evil that underpinned it. Ashperton is delighted. He still persists in identifying Girindor as an elf from the distant past. Girindor tries to enlighten him but the Ent is firm in his identification of the Druid as the high elf Annaniel, who has not been seen since the Fall of Galendor 700 years ago. He is convinced that Girindor/Annaniel is fated to restore Galendor. So far everything that has occurred simply serves to confirm him in that view.
Yspadadden speculates about Girindor’s sword The Moon Under Water. It was taken from the dead hand of the orc chieftain Zargon (F21 – The Moon Under Water) after his failed assault on Dingradur. Yspadadden knows that the sword is ancient and powerful – possibly sentient. It was forged by Dionor a High Elven weaponsmith – probably the greatest who ever lived – in the Age of Legends, long, long before the Fall of Galendor.
Ashperton goes on to speak of a Tanu (an elven ghost or spirit) who haunts the glades of Galendor. She is Elwen, the wife of Annaniel. Ashperton breaks into song:
There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
But it’s whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
That the Master will call us to freedom.
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Your lady was sure all that glitters is lost
She’s been crying a stairway to heaven
But when you get there she’ll know
That the stars are all closed,
And with your word she can get what she yearns for
Ashperton confesses that the last verse is his own embellishment, but says that the first two verses are Elwen’s. He directs them to the area where she is most often seen. He seems keen that Girindor should meet her.
A Walk in the Woods
The party set off in the direction that the Ent indicated. Ranulf is once more riding his bear, Eira; the rest walk. It seems that everywhere they go they see small signs of past elven inhabitation – pieces of broken masonry with inscriptions; groves that Girindor thought were once orchards; Night Blooms – that the Girindor knew were cultivated by elves for their phosphorescence. They also spot a giant horned viper that they avoid.
They become aware of something stalking them. They lay their own ambush for it and discover a large creature that looks like a honey badger of giant proportions walking on its hind legs. It reverts to all fours and flees. They track it but soon realise that it is moving faster than they can while tracking it. The two magicians looked at each other. They cast their spells and in their stead there appear two wolves. One is tall, grey and rangy; the other darker, squatter but powerfully built. They lope off, noses to the ground, while the rest of the party set up camp to await the outcome.
The two magicians catch up with the were-honey badger in a tree-house some miles distant. They slay it by a mix of magic and assassination techniques. They loot its tree house together, and find a lot of treasure that looked like a lifetime of scavenging lost and broken eleven artefacts, along with evidence that the erstwhile denizen had been a shaman and minor sorceror with a sideline in white magic and alchemy.
Looking at its rather civilised and comfortable domestic arrangements, Yspadadden has a queasy feeling that they have just murdered something that had presented no real threat to them. It might have been friendly had they approached it in the right way. He knows that not all shape-shifters are mad beasts afflicted with the scourge of lycanthropy – he and Ubaron are a case in point. Ubaron takes a more hardline view. He lops the head off the dead creature and places it between its thighs. “Just to be sure,” he said. They return to the main party with their takings before night.
The following day they encounter a giant porcupine and a dryad, who Girindor chases in the hopes that it might be Elwen-Tanu (it isn’t). Then they stumble into an ambush by giant spiders. This might have been deadly to a group that was not armed with sharp dwarf-wrought blades and fire magics. Ubaron discovers the magic mace that he had recently bought from Yspadadden is not ideal for slicing through spider webs. It does make a most satisfying splat, though, when applied with force to a spider body. When they have cleared the field they discover a great deal of useful and valuable treasure. They also free a satyr who the spiders were clearly planning to invite to dinner sometime in the near future. His name is Rhys and he is very grateful. He knows of Elwen-Tanu and where she manifests so they co-opt him as a guide.
For several days Rhys leads them mostly east and somewhat north. After the first day they are on what appears to be an ancient paved road, now overgrown and mostly buried beneath a layer of moss. Rhys warns them against camping by the road because of some kind of Elven Wild Hunt that patrols the road at night and “devours” those that trespass upon it. Eventually he brings them to a place where they can hear a woman singing. It is a very sad song indeed and affecting to all the party, though most of all to Girindor. This is Elwen Tanu.
She and Girindor have a very difficult conversation as she identifies him as her long-lost love. It seems touch and go whether he will leave Middle-Earth and go into the West with her as she desires. In the end he resists and she starts to realise that he is not truly the lover for whom she has been waiting all these hundreds of years. What there is left of Annaniel is in the sword, Moon-under-Water. Girindor gives it to her. As the scales fall from her eyes, she seems to see the rest of the party and she is introduced to them. She then takes Girindor off into the trees and shows him something. They do not see her again.
Girindor returns. It seems that when the orcs came, 700 years ago, they cut down the Tree of Life that sustained Galendor, and stole the shard of the Sarn Tur (the One that was Broken) that in turn sustained the Tree. However, it seems that the Tree did not quite die. A shoot has sprouted from its ruined trunk. Elwen had been sustaining this sapling with her own power for all this time. It has not thrived but it is still alive. Now Elwen has left Middle Earth and gone to the West, it falls to Girindor to tend the tree in her stead. He’s going to be busy.
Elwen has also told him that the Shard was not taken far and that she can still detect it when she communes with the earth. Girindor supposes that he too will be able to sense it. In the short term he will go to the Elven Homelands to see if he can find some followers who will be able to help him maintain the sapling. However, long term it seems that the only answer, if Galendor is to be revived, is for the shard of Sarn Tur to be retrieved. That is an adventure for another day. Girindor shows them the sapling and demands oaths of them that they will tell none that which he has told them. Meanwhile Ents are gathering around Girindor and making obeisance to the new Master of Galendor.
There is a henge nearby. Trevillion is poking around – as is his wont. He discovers two artefacts: a great bronze cauldron and a harp. Girindor has been told about these too. The cauldron is a Well of Souls. Any looking into it can see stars reflected in its depths. The harp is supposed to summon the defenders of this place. Whether the defenders come from the Well or are the Wild Hunt that was spoken of Girindor seems unsure. He cannot play the harp. Yspadadden, ever willing to help, teleports back to Dingradur and returns with a dwarf called Barrond. He is one of his Yspadadden’s followers and amongst his skills, he can play the harp. With Girindor’s assent he begins to play the harp. After a while he gives a cry and stops but the harp continues to play. Barrond has been wounded by the harp.
By this time night is beginning to fall. They hear a horn sound as if from a great depths below the ground and of a sudden there are horsemen around them. The humans and dwarves decide that it is time to depart and leave the harp to it. Ubaron begins to work up his teleport. The new ruler of Galendor decides to accompany them back to Dingradur, for the night rather than spend it with his people. In the morning, Ubaron teleports him back. Girindor tends to the sapling and then sinks into the earth to commune with nature. Ubaron leaves him to it. It is some months before they see him again.
G-32
OE Date: Spring 697
Characters: Yspadadden, Ranulf, Ubaron, Trevillion, Girindor NPCs: Ashperton, Rhys
Real World: May 2014; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries