Crimson and green

Thirsty vines sup deeply on spilled blood; hungry flames devour and consume and still are left unsated.

Tendrils of Green

Roused by the fell magics of the Druj, the Tharunind vallorn is awake, furiously extending questing green tendrils across the territory. Before the Autumn Equinox, its terrible energies were expended in Peakedge Song against the Wolves of War and the Golden Sun. Nearly two thousand Imperial soldiers paid the ultimate price to keep it at bay. After the Equinox, however, both armies withdrew, battered and bruised, the Sun to Astolat and the Wolves to Bastion. It seemed that nothing could prevent the irresistible tide of wood and flesh drowning the region, leaving a very real and present threat to High Chalcis and the northern regions of Morrow.

Indeed, as the Equinox fades the vallorn's miasma continues to spread... but without warning, the attention of Tharunind slips away. The vallornspawn, the abominations, the ettercap legions ebb and flow, the tide of consumption faltering and receding. The few remaining steadings in western Therunin have endured the viridian storm, blinking uncertainly in the light of a new dawn.

For a day, then a week, then a month, the threat of the vallorn lessens. It is as if that awesome force fuelled by Spring magic has lost all interest in smothering Therunin. Word reaches Therunin that during the Autumn Equinox the Imperial Apothecaries Guild, the Vallornguard and the Keeper of the Last Battle travelled via Sentinel Gate to Sweetglades to learn more about, and to weaken, the ettercap swarms that have arisen with the vallorn. Their efforts were mostly successful; a poison identified that burns through ettercap nests and deployed against them. While they did not meet with complete victory, the poison has reportedly spread to other nests; perhaps this is the reason the vallorn has not been active in the west?

But then news seeps across the lines from the east, where it is a very different story.

Counting Rings

As its abominable spawn are pulled back into the vallornheart, there is a beat in which it seems Tharunind is falling back into uneasy slumber again. Then, with the inevitability of the shoot pushing up through the heavy earth, or the bud ripening on the tree, it pulses outward again. A pseudopod of writhing power smashes into East Ring. All the horror that faced the Empire in Peakedge Song is now turned against the Druj.

This is not chance, not the random whim of the vallorn's inscrutable spirit (such as it is). During the Equinox, the Voice of the Quiet Forest wove a ward in Therunin, using the power of Spring magic to bring forge a succulent barrier of protective magic across Eastring. In theory, this ward would protect the Druj - for all that the founder of the fortress the Prince with a Thousand Foes despises the Druj more even than it does the Empire - the ritual does what it does, and the eternal cannot refuse the call. As long as the assurance bound into the ritual is not transgressed, Thorn of the Ancestors must at least ward the region where the enchantment is woven. And in this case, perhaps, the Shacklebreaker relishes his power being drawn to the lands of the Druj.

Pulsing with Spring magic the enchantment catches the attention of the vallornspawn. Just as the vallorn sought out the uncorrupted life of the Imperial armies last season, it is drawn to fortifications of all kinds - and a fortress woven of Spring magic seems irresistible to Tharunind.

The Druj have not been idle in Eastring of course. There have been reports that they were preparing their own defences against the vallorn, their own traps for Imperial armies if they should venture that far east. They have established armed camps, barricaded with thorns and spikes, garrisoned by hardened warbands of cruel Druj champions. While the focus of the Druj armies is elsewhere, these defenders stand ready to hold the region against any invader.

Before the might of Tharunind, however, their preparations are like twigs in the hurricane. The traps they have so carefully laid mean nothing to the vallornspawn, who turn the very forest itself against them. The full story will likely never be heard, but the waves of the vallorn wash over Eastring in the same way the waves of high tide sweep away a sandcastle. The warriors are utterly overwhelmed, devoured by misshapen horrors, smothered by the miasma, strangled by vines and roots.

The magical ward provides them some protection, even as Papa Otec wriggles in the chains of obligation, but it is nowhere near enough. Indeed, as the region falls to Tharunind, as the miasma settles, as the twisting chaos of the vallorn begins to set down roots, the power of the ward is subsumed, drained, drunk down by the vallorn. Taken to pieces and the lingering magic of the enchantment incorporated into the body of the beast.

As it becomes clear their position is untenable, some try to escape eastward into Sarangrave. They run straight into the welcoming arms of the Nesustak Forest rebels and their preternatural allies. Few survive the experience.

In the end, news of what has happened in Eastring comes not from scouts - for there are few enough of them left in Therunin now. Rather, they come from survivors of the vallorn's rampage. The Druj are cruel slavemasters, and the Prince with a Thousand Foes utterly despises those who torment the weak, who dominate and chain. While the orcs of the Mallum are fighting a desperate retreat against the vallorn, a small number of Irra Harah's children take advantage of the calling of the ward to rescue as many Druj subjects as they can.

In the end, they are able to save only a fraction of the enslaved labourers the Druj held in Therunin, but that includes nearly a hundred former Imperial citizens - many of them Navarr captured during the recent attack on the territory. They are spirited west to those few steadings still standing. More - an undisclosed number of humans and orcs - are liberated and able to reach Sarangrave. It is through these survivors, and the grim sentinels of Thorn of the Ancestors, that the stories of what has happened in Eastring become known.

Sacrifice

The vallorn has claimed Eastring, fractured Druj dominance of the territory, but at a dreadful price. The Thimble - a proud weirwood grove that the Navarr have nurtured for centuries - was defiled by the Druj but at least there was the hope it might be reclaimed. The vallorn cannot harm it - everything points to the wholesome energies of free-growing weirwood being inimical to its corruption - but that is scant reassurance. It persists, now, as an island in a sea of malignancy. Until the vallorn is cleared from Eastring, the Thimble is lost. And, with the vallorn settling its roots in the region, the only way that it will be removed any time soon is through war with the vallorn - the linking of the hearts and all that comes with it.

The accursed sorcerers of the Tainted Basilisk used their wicked spells to rouse the vallorn in Therunin just before the Spring Equinox. It gathered its strength for a season, then erupted into Peakedge Song after the Summer Solstice. Now it has assailed East Ring, and claimed the entire region. Yet even as it does so, it is clear it's power is beginning to ebb away, to settle back into the soil and the air and the waters. Yet it is not entirely spent. It is still active, still hungry. Its thirst for wholesome life, and of corruption, has not been slaked. Not yet.

The vates, and the scholars at the Great Library of Hacynian, predict that the magic of the Druj and the wakefulness of the vallorn will run its course before the dawning of the Spring Equinox. That leaves one more season in which it will try to expand its borders. Even with its diminished strength it likely still has the power to claim more of Therunin if left alone. If it does so successfully, then Therunin will become like Brocéliande, lost to the vallorn. Even if the Doom of Tharunind settled down again after the Equinox, if it is left to expand freely then only three regions of the territory would remain. If all three were liberated, the vallorn would still control the territory.

The Druj cling tenuously to their dominance of Therunin, but it is a hollow victory. Those forces that remain - guerrillas, saboteurs, bloodthirsty murderers - are cut off from the crumbling remains of the Druj nation. They have nowhere to flee; they are surrounded by enemies who would relish the chance to avenge their losses. The only choice left to them is to hunker down and hope the Empire and the vallorn overlook them.

Songs of Fire

The sacrifice is not over, of course. As the Winter Solstice approaches, the ward of Night magic laid over Thornsong House begins to flicker and fade. It has preserved the apothecary college for a year, but now its power wanes. Where previously it was impossible to find, its shadow becomes visible as if cloaked in thick fog. It cannot be reached, still, but it is only a matter of time.

The day before the Winter Solstice dawns, the ward fails entirely. A winged messenger reaches the Thornsinger, clearly cast in the weeks leading up to the end of the magic. As predicted, there are Druj waiting patiently in hiding among the trees. Even as Eastring falls, even as the vallorn swallows up their fellow orcs, they gather their strength. The same hour that the ward collapses, they launch their attack with fire and chain. They don't seek to slaughter the folk who have sheltered in the House; they seek to chain them. Perhaps recent events have maddened them - there is no way they will be able to escape Therunin. Perhaps they do not care, seeking only to harm the pride of the Navarr with a wound that will take years to heal.

Yet even here the Druj are not wholly victorious. The apothecaries and herb masters of Thornsong House have not been idle over this last year, cut off from the world by the wards of Night. They have prepared, gathered their own strength. The moment the ward fails, they are in motion, westward bound toward the border with Reikos and the safety of High Chalcis. They are aided on their way by half a dozen blue-skinned heralds of Lord Rain who shared their durance with them. Despite their father having withdrawn from the Empire they still provide gifts of healing and strength to the fleeing herbalists, kindling the hope that they may be able to outrun the orcs of the Mallum.

Their escape does not go unnoticed. Denied their prize, the Druj pursue with bloodthirsty fury. The senseless vandalism, and the winnowing of the orc ranks by the Wolves of War and Golden Sun, buys the escaping Imperial citizens time but it may well not be enough. Thornsong House burns, a pillar of black smoke rises behind them, and the Druj nip at their heels. They will be taken by the Druj and likely face the stark choice between torment or the Gift of Kaela, unless there is someone able to intervene and turn aside the Druj pursuit.

Game Information

The vallorn has claimed Eastring; the region has gained the vallorn quality
The vallorn has begun to slow, losing some of its strength, but it will continue to try to expand for one final season
The Druj have burned Thornsong House but the apothecaries and their families have escaped westward
An opportunity exists to save the fleeing herbalists and secure their knowledge and expertise

Though it was weakened by slightly by the efforts of Imperial heroes, Eastring has been consumed by the vallorn, giving it the vallorn quality. The region can no longer be effectively attacked by Imperial forces. The trods will not render it vulnerable for at least a generation; the only way to reclaim it is to connect the vallornhearts. The Thimble has likewise been lost, surrounded by the vallorn.

The strength of the vallorn has begun to ebb. In addition to the loss of strength inflicted by Imperial heroes during the Autumn Equinox, Tharunind has begun to slip back toward uneasy quiescence. Its strength has now fallen to 19,000 but it will continue to attack in Therunin for one more season - assuming no more magic is used to rouse it again. It's not clear where it will attack; it seems likely it will be drawn to the Druj in East Ashes, who it will easily overwhelm, but it is difficult to predict where it will go. As before however it will be drawn to concentrations of life - Imperial Armies or Spring wards.

Fighting the Vallorn
Some additional information has come to light about what fighting the vallorn - were it to be fully roused - might look like. The information has been appended to the vallorn page. How and why this information has been put together in and out of character is touched on in a rules update.

The Druj still control four regions of Therunin, but their grasp is tenuous at best. The majority of their remaining forces are concentrated in East Ashes, but they are deep behind Imperial lines with no easy way to escape. There is still a Druj presence in the rest of the territory, but it is disorganised and increasingly desperate. It will offer little resistance to either Imperial armies or the vallorn.

Thornsong House has been destroyed, but the folk who had sheltered there behind the Night magic ward have not been idle. As soon as they were able, they fled west toward High Chalcis bearing with them as much of the accumulated lore held at the college of apothecary arts as they could carry. The Druj are hot on their heels however; it is likely they will be captured or slain unless Imperial heroes are able to intervene before the end of the Winter Solstice.

Crimson and green

Contents

Tendrils of Green

Counting Rings

Sacrifice

Songs of Fire

Game Information

Further Reading

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