User:Rafferty
This is not an official Wind of Fortune, it is a bit of fun for Dave Young's player event please treat it as such
STRANGEST THINGS
Howell yawned and leant back against the tree. He was tired, and out of sorts. His throat had been tickling and his nose running all day, and he was worried he was coming down with a cold. Or something worse. They had been traveling close by the edge of the miasma, and it did not do to breathe too much of that foul air in without protection.
Rees paused up ahead, looked back, and made a furious gesture "Catch up, lazy!"
Howell muttered something uncharitable under his breath and forced himself forward, joining the other two hunters. It would be dark soon, and without the stars it would be very dark indeed here in the deep woods.
Rees signed quickly "Leanne saw something"
Howell felt his heart start to beat faster, all thought of colds and green lung driven from his head by sudden. cold worry. Leanne had her back to him, crouched, watching the woods to the south.
"What was it?" he asked - his voice loud. Rees made sharp gestures "Quiet! Sign!"
Leanne beckoned, turned slightly, signed quickly "Something. Small. Child?"
The three hunters watched the woods. "See nothing," signed Howell. Rees agreed with a quick hand movement.
They all saw it at the same time, in the gathering gloom. A tinge in the air, something unwholesome. The stench of rotting, fecund vegetation washed over them. Miasma. A cloud of it, advancing like slow mist out of the trees.
And in the mist, shapes. One, then another, then another few. A dozen or more husks, poor dead souls inhabited by the malignant power of the vallorn. Three Navarr might be able to hold off a small group for a few minutes, if their aim was true and their spears envenomed ... but not this many. Not at night.
"We ... we better get the fuck out of here," said Howell, his voice steadier than he felt.
Rees was watching the gathering mist, oblivious. Howell grabbed his shoulder, got his attention, signed quickly.
Leanne shook her head. "What about the child?"
Rees and Howell looked at her sadly for just a moment, signing nothing. She bowed her head once in agreement, and then the three of them turned as one and began to run north through the twilight, without a backward glance.Overview
The largest steading in the Upper Tarn Valley is Return, and a few months ago, it fell silent. Old and well fortified, it kept a close watch on Sweetglades and Greenheart to the south - on the Vallorn of Therunin. Oh, there are other steadings in Therunin watching over the vallorn and protecting the lush Tarn valley and the people of Peakedge Song but Return was one of the oldest.
It would take something significant to silence such a place.
As a band of Imperial citizens gathers in Chalcis Mount and Peakedge Stead to head down into the southern valleys to investigate, further unsettling rumours begin to emerge. The vallorn miasma is blowing north out of Greenheart and Sweetglades, lapping around the nearest steadings in Upper Tarn Valley. The [[Lonely, dark, and deep|last time this happened was when the miasma spilled out into Casinea, Astolat, and Semmerholm from out of Broceliande. That time, however, there seemed to be a clear cause - a combination of Druj malfeasance and the desperate rush of the Navarr army to prevent the most powerful vallorn in the Empire from claiming Elerael. Before that? Decades at least, and each time some clear indication of meddling to explain why the miasma spreads.
This time, there seems to be nothing to indicate what has triggered this unexpected outpouring of miasma. It is definitely thickest near Return, although a striding that passed near the place a week ago said they did not think the buildings there had been engulfed. Although, with other stories claiming there are vallornspawn husks moving in the forests not far from there... it can only be a matter of time.
Sometimes the vallorn shifts in its slumbering chains. Sometimes, it rouses and reaches out and seeks to swallow what has been reclaimed from it. Perhaps this is the equivalent of a great beast rolling over, half-asleep. Perhaps it is the first sign of something rising in the heart of Therunin...
Hopefully Return holds the answer.
Significance
In addition to the reported disappearance of the people of Return, there are growing reports of vallorn activity in the area. Normally the deadly vallornspawn husks do not leave Therunin - but they often move with the miasma as it spreads - and spreading it is.
It's too early to tell if this is a major incursion, but it seems too much of a coincidence that the people of a major steading have disappeared shortly before the vallorn they watch becomes restive. Citizens travelling to Return may be in a position to head off a major incursion of the vallorn, or at least determine if there is any greater threat. Losing the Upper Tarn Valley to the vegetative menace would be a significant blow to the people of Therunin, especially with the large population of Great Forest orcs agitating for control of the Lower Tarn Valley...
OOC Note
The vallorn of Therunin occupies two of the seven regions; the empire controls the other five. If the vallorn were to expand into a third region, then the Navarr would still control the territory - but if they lost a fourth region (say, to the orcs of the Barrens, they would lose control of the territory entirely.