Under the Maple, Foresta Fiveoaks

[mixafix]

While out collecting rare herbs for a balanced potion maker I chanced upon one of these so called Witches of EastCenter. Can they really be the cause of the famine - I doubt it. However while their cursed state and behaviour remains a mystery it is worthy of further work. The worshipers of Gold have one prisoner and yet they seem no nearer answers than any others. The answer may be more subtle, I will keep looking. Can one person make a difference to famine!

[mixafix]

Guardians of the path, nature's pine trees, The great balancers - a half Giant, and a shifter shaped to Dark Elf, an unlikely duo as ever to hold those titles and work in the name of Druid. But there we were silent but for a giant like grunt and a stifled whisper from a strange Dark Elven mouth. Yet we worked as good as any Rofie team in the face of overwhelming attack by bandits. We settled things, drove the excess away from farmers intent on restoring the land. Such strange servants of nature and indeed the nature of the balance does not matter I understand -just the balance.

[mixafix]

A Gargoyle sat under the shadow of the maple tree this time, the black winged creature little more than shadow itself, invisible. But the thoughts were all Druid, nature, the so called famine. When does a famine become just life, a slim bleak reality, but just an aspect of the balance now after all these years. People have learned to live now with less. Like the curse of the fire God that carves a wreck of destruction across the eastern lands, isolated destruction and wide spread chaos, adventurers follow in its wake like moths drawn close to the flame of destruction - bound to clash, all part of some greater balance perhaps. Admorin would know, he could talk away about anything.
 
 A cheetah sat under the maple tree, more visible, alert and ready to move. Time to continue the journey it seems though no conscious thought had brought the change,  just the need to move.

[mixafix]

A black domestic cat lounged in the branches of the maple tree safe from a prowling, but otherwise harmless boar below. Foresta reflected on her recent trips in the company of the doomed Dwarf, Gormangard. Doubtless his greed of ore would prove such an imbalance, in fact a draw to all manner of evil. Nonetheless while he led us to the far corner of the world the world itself returned to a balance.

The famine, the lean years, the slim pickings were just that, something of a norm, a rebalancing perhaps, and when it changed, it would draw both evil and good, like dragons and the Destroyer had so recently and things would be put to rights. So watch and wait, the cat lay back in the afternoon sun. watch and wait.

[mixafix]

A kobold mostly hidden in the shadow of the growing maple - this one planted by Foresta on her first trip north of Hilm. A strong yew grew nearby and Foresta paused to sense the balance, the silent, invisible guardian. All was quiet, hidden.

Her concern was the larger, more destructive danger, further north. Great groups of giants on the move, perhaps in retreat from the returning soldiers of Hilm to the south. The lizard like hunter left the tree to check on their progress.

Soon the wyrmling would need to fly south to Miritrix, The fiery dwarf Gorm had uncovered an unnatural place, where the undead gathered, and nature had retreated. She would see.

[mixafix]

Back in the trees north of hilm after so many years and things seem so very different through kobold eyes but the shape was useful - to see but not be seen. Trollics and giants still roam supreme in huge numbers the metal clad knights of hilm hold their own - there is a balance.

Collecting fallen loot and rare wood from the forest floor I have amassed the makings of a small market perhaps I should light a welcoming fire and recycle goods to keep change from the forest ..I wonder

[mixafix]

A manifestation of Diamond, it's very shape and presence suggesting ownership and defiance at the world,  towered over the Maple sapling. The sapling now growing well at the grove at Jesom’s Hope, where 25 young oaks grew in a circle. Foresta examined the grove in the passing on her journey. She delayed her vital task of tremor analysis long enough to ensure all was well at the grove. She had two groves now she considered her charge, Five Oak Grove at the Forest of Fog, where once the five had each planted a tree so many years ago. More recently after the battle in the swamp not so far from  Jesom’s Hope. She took responsibility for both now as a Druid. Her travels as shifter sought to undertake the greater task of helping to end the rot in the world, for she feared it's very doom now.  For now she would try and establish the fine detail of the tremors for the questors who had explored the Eye. Change was abroad, she looked from the tree line to the mountains, and south to where she perceived the sea to be.