The Tale of Elenya (because dryads don't have tails)

I want to talk about Elenya.  Keeping in mind that my memory may be faulty, here's how I remember things.  Those who were there, feel free to correct me.

When our Ilvantar group (the original Samaritans) were starting out, one of our first missions together was to investigate why no one had heard from Bipton (a nearby town, relatively new) for a while.  Turns out that it had been raided by dog-headed fur-folk.  Chaloli, Arthur's game.  Gnolls, in traditional D&D.  Many of the settlers had been killed; the survivors had been enslaved.  

Our party consisted of Maxwell, an older human arcanist (played by Robin), Cage, a robust human archer (played by John), Somura, a sneaky felinoid (played by Kyrie), and Rosa, a gnomish bundle of energy (played by Anita).  I don't think that the kids had joined the party yet.  If I recall correctly, we had with us an NPC human male named Ames, a decent fighter and member of the Slayers Guild.

We camped in a nearby orchard to discuss our options and make plans.  Knowing that we were outnumbered, and that we were likely to run out of Power for healing, Maxwell thought that it would be a good idea to establish a regeneration point.  He centered it upon the fruit tree that we were camping under.

I may have mentioned that Robin turned out to be a bit of a power player?  Maxwell...never did anything by half measures.  He expended all his Power, and possibly some of his Will, turning this peach tree into Health Central, providing Practically Permanent Regeneration.  (If pressed for specifics, I believe that those people within the area of effect would regenerate 78 HP per round, and the effect would last for Millenia.  If you're wondering how the heck he managed that, especially at mid-lower levels, keep in mind that Arthur's game system has been in constant development/tweaking since then.)  Then Maxwell took a long rest while we planned our attack.

(We saved Bipton, captured and adopted one of the gnolls and named him Peaches Butthead Doge The First.)

Fast forward to Ilvantar, Season 2: Exploring the Basement.

The Fog has lifted, and now we can see the other floating continents...and also the land below, from which they were all ripped.  A batch of new Samaritan recruits has been granted a new airship (The Worldsaver) to explore what been called the Floor, or the Basement.  Again, my memory is a little fuzzy - I know that on this expedition, I'm playing a martial artist named Spence (hello, Leverage character ripoff), but can't swear who everyone else has.  By now the kids have joined us.

When the continents were separated from the rest of the planet...many, many trees were killed, and by direct corollary, many dryads were killed as well.  And here's a horrifying little fact about dryads (in this game, at least): if a dryad outlives her tree, if she does not die, then she becomes a Sundered

Woman - nearly unstoppable, extremely powerful, and very, very mad.

Our airship crew encountered one of those during their exploration.  

Did we panic?  Of course not!  We were Samaritans!

Okay, maybe we panicked a little bit.  She was in the eye of a storm that she had created, one of many that drifted across the barren landscape.  And we were the B-team.  We'd been fighting packs of wild dogs and the occasional wolf.  What did we have?

Well, my friends, we had a sack full of fresh Maxwell Peaches, that's what we had.

Everybody grabbed a peach, and we spread out.  Slowly, we approached the grieving ex-dryad.  Spence, in a moment of inspiration, began executing a series of calming katas.  His pet wolf, not quite tame yet, stayed by his side and whined a little.  

When the Sundered Woman caught a whiff of the peach, her madness abated somewhat.  She let us get near enough that she could grab and consume a peach.  When nothing remained but the pit, and even that had been sucked dry, she was able to converse rationally.  

We took the dryad (Elenya) in our airship back to Bipton.   Throughout the trip she nibbled peach and

stroked the wolf's fur, murmuring to herself.  When we arrived at the regeneration grove, she started in awe at the tree for just a moment...then slipped inside.

Absorbing the magic that Maxwell had imbued in that tree, Elenya's power grew to godlike proportions.  She set her sights on the other continents, and we truly believed that, given time, her branches would have reached them, and her roots would have extended to the Floor.

That's Elenya's Tree.  That's the Core.  

She sent the B-team back, with more peaches, to rescue her other bereaved sisters, and bring them back to join with her, each to eventually receive a new tree.  I wonder if we will encounter any of them again?

Even with all her newfound power, I think she felt a sense of gratitude toward the mortals who rescued her, and that's why she rescued them when the surface became unlivable, and put up with them draining her essence for a thousand years, and nearly died bringing them back to the surface.  

So, yeah, she deserved that "tree-hugging concert."

Working For A Living

(game date:  7/15/2021)

 It's official:  I am a workaholic.  

I'm not incapable of taking a break.  In fact, during the entire evening spent with Steff, we didn't discuss our work at all -- not even when we were nearly mobbed by reporters, bloggers, and photographers all trying to get some kind of story about my recent bid for Council Leader.  I hadn't expected quite so massive a reaction.  Hilda nearly had to beat them off with a stick.  Next time, we both go incognito.

But I can't seem to leave work alone for long, and my agenda is always overflowing.  It's one of the traits I inherited from my father, and will probably do more to shorten my life than any other.  

As You Wish

 I watched it in the theater,
On the day of release,
With my wife,
Who, when we met in college,
Introduced the book to all
With such enthusiasm,
And so many superlatives,
That no one believed
That such a tale as she described
Could be any good at all.

Every year since our wedding,
We read it together.
Every year since it hit the screen,
We watched it together.
And for every child, and grandchild,
When they turned ten years old,
We read to them the "good parts."

I lost her two years ago,
My own bride.
Now, I give the tome away to strangers,
Every year,
And recorded it, in my voice,

For future generations.