Midnight RPG - Chapter 41.283

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Please keep all this PRIVATE. I want to get your feedback soon as we can to plan for game this next Saturday.

Here's the story (you need to know) for helping me update things.

Long story short...

• When jumping from the Path's of Dal Colia, though he didn't know it at the time, Durgaz found himself in a forest (which YOU know better from your childhood as: Tir Amrasa Edior, meaning “land of the emerald tears” in the language of the elves)
• Durgaz encountered several things, among them he met and briefly spoke with ... YOU and Valendil as young boys (age 34, looking about 10-12 years old)!!
• You had been captured by an orc patrol, chained and thrown over their Darken mounts (they planned to eat you for dinner)... This was an addition I added to your background. Nothing crazy/surprising, Eranon probably forgot about most of it - who knows how many times he and Val were captured or had near misses as kids.
• But this time (and you'd remember it if Durgaz mentions it) you were carried into the Tir Amrasa Edior (which was scary even then!) and escaped as these orcs turned on one another!! One of them (without tribe markings) talked to you briefly. It was weird but not that memorable for the most part...

Here's the thing... this REALLY happened!

• That orc was Durgaz! (although you didn't know it at the time) He had been thrown back in time for some reason while in this Trollskarl forest! He encountered you and mentioned a few things before you and Val escaped.
• You can make it up (from your child-like point of view) as much as you like. But if you'd like call me and we can talk it out more.
• The basics were: you and Val were captured and in chains by about 24 orc, half of them on Darkin mounts. They found a weird looking orc (Durgaz) that had fell from the trees and chained him up dragging him behind them because they didn't know who/what he was since he looked a little different. This orc fought the others to escape, as he was almost killed the forest came ALIVE and you heard elven singing... it was the legendary Druid Gwyrlael!! She sung to her beasts and had the "tree-trolls" rise up and run the orc off. Protecting you and Val. The Orc (Durgaz) then told you that "one day you'll have a great choice to make, you'll have the choice to let a dragon die or live in shadow... Let it DIE..." he told you before running off to the North.
• You and Valendil then rushed out of the woods, probably had a few more adventures with the Trolls (they're SCARY!!) and that's all she wrote.

So...

As you can see Durgaz created a "Paradox" of sorts.

Meeting Durgaz isn't so bad. You were a kid, so there's good reason you just wouldn't have remembered meeting/knowing this "other" orc in the Trollskarl when you were a kid... (remember that was 101 years ago). But it COULD be a reason why you and Valendil ended up being "familiar" with Durgaz enough to befriend him when you met him for the "second" time only a year or so ago. So it might make sense you forgot. But if Durgaz mentions that time, you CAN remember all of this as you like...

The second part is a little more tricky...

The part about him telling YOU to let the dragon die...

Here's what I'd like to do... YOU get to decide AGAIN - would you let Varzon die? Now that you HAVE the information from the memory as a kid that this orc told you 101 years ago?? (you also have the out-of-character info on what's happened since to consider, which is cool to use)

So... if you decide that NO, you let it happen AS IT "DID" and Varzon makes the deal with the devil. Nothing (major) will change.

If you decide that YES, you WILL let Varzon die, then I'll make adjustments to what has happened since. We'll likely need to chat on the phone quickly about this option.

I love EITHER choice.

It WILL NOT hurt the story at all if you choose to take that decision back. It WILL change some things. But that waits to be seen!! You won't know how/what's changed until next session if you go with letting the dragon DIE.

But, once again this is YOUR choice.

Please let me know as soon as you can on this, I only have a few days to plan this week.

Here's a reminder on the info/details YOU have on the forest men call the Trollskarl.

So now we "know" that Eranon has been in it as least once. And it was scary as a kid, you probably didn't go back in since...

TIR AMRASA EDIOR

In the Last Battle, the Shadow’s forces teemed with countless orcs, terrifying fire-breathing dragons, foul demons, raging giant-kin, and other monstrous horrors out of the wild places of the world. One of the abominations put to devastating use against the human cities and elven woods were trolls bred in the vile pits north of the Highhorn mountains. These creatures, twisted by malice and hate, were often in the front of the Shadow’s onslaughts and bore the brunt of the defenders’ wrath. It was therefore not surprising when, in the aftermath of the war, a number of trolls fled their orcish masters and hid themselves in the wilds of Erenland. A large group escaped into the woods now known to man as Trollskarl.

Over the last century, the trolls’ numbers have increased and the forest has become infested with them. A large group of shadowed trolls escaped into the woods that were then called Tir Amrasa Edior. Now called the "Trollskarl", this domain of the immensely tall and giantlike Maudrial Tree forest is lies outside the Erethor just 75-100 miles beyond the easternmost remnant of the Erethor below Baden's Bluff. Over the last century, the trolls’ numbers have increased and the forest, hence Tir Amrasa Edior is now referred to as the Trollskarl (mostly by men), for it has become infested with troll.

Quite apart from the trolls, which orcish hunting parties sometimes attempt to capture, there is a palpable menace in the Trollskarl that is said to arise from a great spirit that haunts the dark center of the woods. The trolls are said to serve this entity, going as far as calling her queen. She was in fact a powerful Caransil druidic sorceress called Gwyrlael, a former High General of the elven people who was commander of Tir Amrasa Edior at the end of the Third Age. Gwyrlael was by all accounts a friend and protégé of Queen Aradil herself. Into her capable hands was given the safe-keeping of these sacred woods and the mysterious Emerald Tears, a series of power nexuses that lay at their center where she was to study, create and amass great arms and cavalry for her people if needed in a last stand...

With her forest being as an "island" out and apart from the main Erethor by a few day's ride... rather than fighting the hordes that assaulted Erethor, however, Gwyrlael chose to deceive them with powerful enchantments. Though she was ultimately successful at hiding the nexuses from the attention of the Shadow and luring hundreds of enemy troops inside her woods to their doom, her mind is said to have become strained and stressed.

That was in the Year 897 of the 3rd Age, the last year of the 3rd Age - 101 years ago. Eranon was 34 years old, just a boy (looking about 10-12 years old). It is told that she was sent for (by a special agent to the queen, a protégé-Eye of Aradil called Sergeloth) to rally to the Last Battle (that ended the 3rd Age) but like others (Verlathis the dragon) she didnot heed the call.

It is told that her strained mind had been pushed and she fell into great dispair after hearing that the last human High King Hedrig of the Middlemen had already perished at the battle, leaving no heir... It is told that she was led to believe - by a minion of shadow, an orc known only to elves as Fainu-hostar ("the Tribeless" - having no tribe markings) or Estanesse Mirima ("the First of the Free" which he referred to himself as) that Aradil herself WOULD fall, that the resistance would fail in this battle.

With this it is told that she would choose NOT rush to the battlefront, she would instead make her way as the last surviving elf within this "shadow-walled" nexus of the Emerald Tears within Tir Amrasa Edior. And although her magic was great, having been the creator of the only two places on Aryth that is "mirima e'mordo" ("free from shadow" or "where Shadow cannot come", ie. ShadowWall's Tree and this place of "Emerald Tears"), although she hoped to remain an elf alive - the last scion of her race... It is told that years ago she passed on into the Shadow Havens willingly with so much grief and sadness... Leaving only a spirit husk to haunt the Trollskarl forever...

Before passing it is told that, strangely she accepted the intrusion of the trolls as a boon, and dramatically altered their forms to resemble the gnarled and twisted trees that grow in the darkest parts of the wood. It is told that Aradil knows of her friend’s plight, but for reasons unknown has thus far done nothing to intervene. For their part, the greater world, the elves, and the Night Kings other than Ardherin (prior to his fall) are largely unaware of Gwyrlael’s existance (prior or since) and know nothing of the Emerald Tears. Sunulael has occasionally wondered what lies within the Trollskarl’s depths, but whenever his cadaverous gaze turns its way, the Shadow’s Sorcerer somehow manages to learn of his interest and distracts him before the Shadow’s Priest peers too closely.

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LINKS

PORTAL | DURGAZ | ERANON | KYUAD | ZAL'KAZZIR