(Prime treant [he/him] / LE)
[From Flat Gray recorder stone, unknown tout selling dark to unknown spellslinger, one-sided auditory only.]
Keeper
— Kiso
The spirit heart
Watcher of my secret
Lover.
“Yea, I bobbed it….not so fast, berk…jink first then the info…No, no, you don’t get the book, you get me reading you the book, that’s the deal….that’s baku-sod!.. Read your contract, you clueless ether-brain…. 20 thousand jinx for the information in her journals. That’s it, berk, the chant…take notes if you want…Thanks for the business… now…get comfortable..
…Okay…some screed about her clueless homeworld Toril…can’t even pronounce half of this sod… ah…here’s some relevant stuff…
‘Ash came to me under surprising circumstances, as my house had suddenly disappeared from its place in the Lady’s Ward to a very nasty spot in the Warrens. I’ve got some people working on that. He was quite depressed to find himself literally rooted in my heart grove, which thankfully moved with me. We spoke briefly, though he seemed preoccupied and a bit perturbed at not being able to move. He was in the Outlands, protecting his newly adopted grove from the…slaads, as he calls them, and suddenly, he appeared here.. in Sigil. He thinks he’s been demoted…it seems…’
…some more mess about some spells she’s researched regarding her grove and some other screed… That one looks pretty powerful…no..no… I don’t think you’ll be hearing that…
‘…came from Oerth…’
…jeez another clueless… some War to end all Wars mess destroyed the forest that was in his keeping…oh I see, he was one of those walking tree..things… Anyhoo, she continues:
‘He becomes very depressed when he speaks of the war, as he lost much there, his family, his forest and at the end, his world. Pushed through a portal by some roustabout adventurers who thought they were doing him a favour, he ended up on the Outlands, without a clue to where he was… ‘
…blah blah…
‘he was confused at the new surroundings, as he did not speak the “paths of water” here…’
…what kind of sod is this?… okay already…
‘”paths of water” here, but he heard the strange language and adapted to it, quite quickly for a tree spirit. He came upon a group of creatures he’d never seen before, hideous he says, not for their appearance, which was quite frog-like, though larger, but for their actions. They were spraying volatile liquid from their posteriors onto surrounding trees and lighting this liquid with torches. The forest was aflame, and he immediately moved to protect it….’
Blah blah, more screed about his adventures against the slaad…must be a powerful berk if he can take on the slaad…says here he got some help from the “land” whatever that means….Anyway, he gained the respect of the land and became one with it, or whatever….Hmmm, interesting…her list of magical toys and where she’s hid them…nah, you have no use for that berk…you paid for the tree-man story, right?…Right. Okay… here we are…some years after the above…guess he’s been rooted in Sigil for a while then… interesting… she goes on:
‘Ash is dying, as I am, from the climate no doubt and the infernal nature of this place. I cannot undergo the process again, as I’m sure it would be the end of me. The heart of the spirit must remain here. Ash must also…he is severely weakened, and losing parts of his memory daily…. Today, however, in a lucid moment, he described an elven woman, Merden..Verden…something…a native, or resident of Sigil…she undergoes a rejuvenation process that keeps her alive. He is researching it through the network of razorvine. He’s found a patch he can communicate with, and hopes to have the dark of it soon. (Listen to me, writing like a native…this place’s influence has seeped into me as much as he)…’
Well, this cutter has the dark on that as well, and is tied into some thinking razorvine…that’s worth twice what you paid for this, berk… nah…consider it a gift…this book will keep me in jink for years, in darks on what’s going on in the Warrens alone…oh yea, plenty of action there…Lady’s Warders should be a little scared though…yeah…yeah…last bit and then you get lost….hmm..okay…
‘Ash has the process, and I’ll get the supplies tonight. I’m short on jink at the moment, but I’m sure Howl will lend me some…he’s quite a dear, but I can’t tell him that I have no real feelings for him…Ash and I have exchanged water…he is, in a sense, a part of me…as I am of him… ‘
That’s disgusting…okay…no more of the relations with plants…
‘This process will keep us both alive to support the things to come. He is speaking with the razorvine now to find more darks that we can sell. A step down from shop proprietress, but I’m so happy I could burst anyway…Ash is my life now, and my grove. I’ll do what needs to be done for the rest…with the money I can continue spell research, and eventually free him from his infernal roots….’
And…I guess it worked…
‘…the process works. Ash is stronger and more lucid every day, and I feel my power returning. New insights fill me daily that I will apply to researching these spells. I feel some remorse for those that must sacrifice themselves, but they are on their death’s bed, anyway, or near it. I have bloods scouting future prospects. There is that infernal rain again…berks wandering around crying for their mommies and emptying their stomachs in the streets…one Guvner stopped by to ask if we’d been affected by it…
Ahh..now this is some bonus chant for ya. Maybe you can use this to recoup your little investment…
‘He is trading the secret of the process back to the Patch, as he calls it…our razorvine ears, it would seem…but… Ash has done something….terrible. The Patch reported to us that the Guvner, Jaghn Vernim, has determined from where this infernal rain has come…our process!…The still in which I distil the essences we need to live causes this…”Stygian rain” as Vernim coined. Today, Ash asked me to invite him in for discussions on the topic…then…its too terrible… My beloved…I fear for your soul…but we cannot stop the process, or it will be us in the dead book…’
That’s it, berk, other than where she keeps a big pile of jink, and how to get past the traps she’s laid…that’s old news though…Oh look…she also has the dark on Marchious Chou…looks like she’s going to put it on the street…that’ll bring a pretty penny with all the chant on SIGIS out there. You wouldn’t be interested in that anyway…”
[To be read in conjunction with the Cage Rattler entry for Kiso.]
See Also:
- Cage Rattlers: Kiso, Marchious Chou.
- Uncaged: Faces of Sigil: Kesto Brighteyes (p16), Patch (p78), Verden (p108), Zadara (p118).
Source: Ragboy