Real Life with Ryuei

Ruby enters the Enchanted/Dark Forest

When last we left Ruby, she was about to lead a patrol of elves into the Vesve Forest to sweep it clean of the barbarous orcs who were on a rampage there - clearcutting the old growth forest and setting fires with no thought to environmental impact - as though they were employees of a California logging company under the directive of a corporate raider from Texas or perhaps the board of trustees at UC Berkeley trying to pave the way for a new sports training center. Ruby and her cohort of environmental guerilla warriors were read to take them out - by any means necessary. Oh, no, wait. This is a fantasy story about goblinesque creatures sent by a demonic evil overlord to cause havoc in a once enchanted forest, and the good elves are setting out to scare them away. Heh, heh.

Anyway, here is the story in italics with my comments in regular font:

Equipped for winter, Ruby set out with a band of 20 elven archers led by two sergeants - a female elf named Nyra and a male elf named Alion. They crossed the Velverdyva River on a ferryboat and then moved on towards the forest. For the duration of their travels, Ruby casts a spell on herself in the morning so that she feels warm even though she does not wear any armor or winter coat.

I was paging through the spell lists for the D&D game the other day and I realized that the overwhelming majority of the spells are combat oriented. Wizards in D&D are actually referred to sometimes as the "artillery specialists" for a group of adventurers. The clerics (the priests and healers of the game) are basically "medics", the rogues (formerly known as "thieves") are scouts or perhaps "forward observers", and the fighters are, well, the frontline guys, the point men. Y'know, sometimes I have to wonder if D&D, a creation of the mid-70s, isn't really just an adult fantasy of winning the Vietnam War with a thinly veiled gloss of J.R.R. Tolkien and Monty Python. In any case, no one younger than me who hasn't seen Forest Gump even remembers that there is a place called Vietnam (let alone that we once had a war there) , though I suppose this kind of seek and destroy commando style gaming that D&D seems to be primarily set up for would resonate with our attempts to find Osama bin Laden in the caves of Afghanistan - but that doesn't even make it onto the news much and no one's made any movies about that. This style of gaming is also what a lot of video games seem to be about - bug hunts.

Anyway, the reason I got into all that is because I want to point out how neat it is that there are spells in the game that are basically quality of life spells - spells to clean up your room with only a magic word and a waggling of your fingers, spells to stay warm in winter or cool in summer. This is the kind of thing that I can appreciate more now. I don't usually sit around fantasizing about being a Navy Seal or an Army Ranger hunting for terrorists, and I'll bet my daughter doesn't either. But sometimes I do wish I could cast a spell to stop the damn air conditioning duct over my head at work from blowing cold air on me all day. Or at least I could cast a spell so that I would be warm no matter what and wouldn't have to wear a jacket inside all day - even when its too warm to wear one outside. But I digress... Anyway, its just nice that there is a wishful thinking element to D&D magic, and not just "artillery" spells.

The first place they come to is a small village of Tallfellow halflings living in small tree houses guarded by dogs at the edge of the forest. The halflings make their living collecting herbs and preparing medicines. Their leader is Roylkin, a kindly and wise old priest of Yondalla, the patron goddess of the halflings. Roylkin is only 4’ tall, with startling blue eyes but hair long gone from blonde to snowy white. He gladly invites the patrol to stay with the halflings in their feast hall (or burrow) for the night. He even gives them all potions blessed by Yondalla to cure their wounds in time of need. Ruby listens to the halflings tales and poems after dinner but is too shy to speak to them and keeps to herself. The halflings say many complimentary things about Dame Ellyth, an elven lady who is a member of the Knights of the High Forest, who lives only a day away. Farther down the trail is a hunting lodge belonging to human rangers, foresters whose families live in villages on the edge of the forest who spend part of the year hunting for food and driving out evil creatures from the Empire of Iuz.

"Halflings" are basically "hobbits" but copyright laws and the Tolkien estate prevent the D&D game from coming out and saying so. This is actually a good thing I think - because "hobbits" in D&D took the premise of half-sized humans who are unassuming, stealthy, and who enjoy sitting around eating all day in a direction that probably would have shocked Tolkien - though its his own fault really. Think about the original story, The Hobbit. Bilbo is basically talked into being a "burglar" or "expert treasure hunter" for a group of greedy dwarves. In the course of the story, Bilbo uses his tiny size and stealthiness to pick the pockets of some trolls (unsuccesfully), to steal a magic ring (inadvertently) from a fellow hobbit who had himself murdered his best friend to get it in the first place (though this is told in Lord of the Rings), to sneak past orc sentries, to perpetrate a jailbreak, to find a way to break into the dragon Smaug's lair using a secret door, to invisibly rob said dragon right under the dragon's nose, and later to rob the dwarves he was contracted to of a precious artifact in order to give their enemies a bargaining chip to sue for peace. The hobbits in Lord of the Rings aren't quite as larcenous, but they do spend the whole tale sneaking around, keeping their heads low, and using various subterfuges to undermine the bad guys. So of course the one class that hobbits, er halflings, are good for is the Thief or Rogue class. And in early versions of D&D one could not play a Thief and have a Lawful alignment. This meant that all hobbits in D&D came to be profiled as a bunch of larcenous thieves up to no good - culminating in the Hobbit Thieves Guild of the Fineous Fingers cartoons in Dragon magazine many years ago. Hobbits just had a bad rep - even though most of them were supposed to be simple country farmers. The new write up on them in D&D makes them out to be a bunch of larcenous vagrants, though some attempts are made to portray them as a gentle pastoral folk. I opted for that take in Ruby's first real meeting with them (though in earlier adventures one of her companions was a hobbit thief named Bungo).

The next evening, they come to the forest estate of Dame Ellyth. Dame Ellyth and her family live in a small castle on a hill in the forest. A band of high elven retainers and a giant eagle guard the castle. Dame Ellyth, like most high elves, is very fair, and has dark hair and green eyes. She is regal and elegant, but good-hearted. She treats Ruby and her patrol with great hospitality, inviting them to stay at her manor for a few days of feasting and song. During their stay, she tells Ruby what is going on in the forest. She shows her maps that indicate which regions are under the control of Iuz, which are under the control of High Folk and its allies and which areas are contested. Ellyth and her family also know the forest rangers the halflings talked about and are on very good terms with them. Deeper into the forest is a wood elf village, dryad groves, villages abandoned because of the orc raids, and a centaur trading post. She warns them that the wood elves wish to be left in peace, though they might talk to a patrol of high elves. Beyond all of that, Ellyth believes, is an orc raider outpost and invaders from the Empire of Iuz under the command of Panshazek the Vile in the town of Izlen. Ruby asks if there are any pegasi living in the forest. Ellyth tells here that there are, or were, but she has not seen any in a long time and worries about what may have happened to them. Ruby does not see any pegasi, but during their two-day stay she does see a unicorn on the edge of the forest clearing around the manor. She learns that it is named “Raeritae” and that it is actually Ellyth’s companion and steed. Uknown to Ruby and the others, Ellyth bids Raeritae follow them into the forest to help them in time of need.

Yes, Dame Ellyth is a female elvish knight - whose horse is a unicorn. The whole thing about unicorns - a one horned horse that will only permit virgin maidens to ride them - was totally lost on me when I was growing up. Now I recognize how Freudian all that is. Still, whatever it may stand for, its a classical fantasy trope and in the D&D game going back to the 80s or maybe 70s its been said that the elves have an all-female cavalry mounted on unicorns. Anyway, it's charming and Julie like unicorns too. She can puzzle about the other stuff during or after adolescence - though I'm not sure I want to know about it when she does. So for now - this is just an innocen fantasy trope.

Oh, and the whole thing about female knights. That's one of the nice things about a fantasy setting like this. All the neat things about medieval times without the nastiness. You can have the music, the costumes, the castles, the cuisine - but without the racism, sexism, squalor, inquisitions, and injustice. Elves, particularly, can be used to represent an ideal egalitarian society.

One other thing, my version of the Vesve Forest (from the Greyhawk setting originally created by D&D creator Gary Gygax) is divided into three zones that kind of overlap. The first zone is a charming enchanted forest - rustic hobbits, noble elvish knights, unicorns, and other friendly happy creatures. The second zone is a little more gritty - human warriors and rumors of war among the gentle forest creatures. The third zone is the actual war zone where the monsters are and atrocities are happening or in the making. As Ruby leaves the home of Dame Ellyth she also leaves the first zone.

The evening after leaving Dame Ellyth’s manor they come to the forester’s lodge. A dozen human warriors and two sergeants led by a ranger of some local renown named Blain. They invite the elvish patrol to their feast as they celebrate a successful raid against Iuz’s minions in the northeast. Most are preparing to visit their home villages. The leader, Blain, is a young human man of olive complexion, coal black hair, and amber eyes. He wears a magical chainmail shirt and over that a white tunic and cloak with dark lines and patches so as to blend in against the winter forest landscape. His armaments include a longsword and longbow made by master craftsmen. Blain is a man of honor, but also a relentless guerilla warrior against the forces of Iuz. In response to questions about the pegasi, Blain tells Ruby that the orcs and evil humans are coming into the forest to hunt them down, though they have learned that Iuz’s minions are also searching for the rare black pegasi to capture them, esp. the foals, so they can raise them to be flying mounts for his spies and the commanders of his armies. Blain also knows about the woold elves who live deeper into the forest. He avoids antagonizing them by staying strictly on the trails when in their territory, and he does not know the exact location of their village. He also knows of the dryads, abandoned villages, and the centaur outpost. Blain is impressed with Ruby and agrees to come along as tracker and guide.

Anyone who knows the D&D game will know that Blain is a ranger. Rangers are a class of fighters with special abilities tied in to their woodland environment. They are a cross between forest rangers, Robin Hood, and the rangers in the Lord of the Rings. The photo I used for Blain to show Julie what he looks like was actually taken from the current BBC Robin Hood series. And when I learn how to display photos here maybe I'll put it up.

The next day they set forth with Blain down the trails. Ruby rides ahead on Windcarrier. Windcarrier sees some of the wood elves hiding in the trees watching the trail for intruders – any who would leave the trail to look for their village. She flies back and warns her patrol. They pass by the wood elves in silence. That night they stay in temporary tents slung up high in the banches of the trees. Around midnight a wolf comes prowling around the trees, Ruby shoots at one but it doesn’t at all seem harmed by the arrow and its eyes flash redly as it howls and tries to leap up at them. Then it heads off into the shadows. Blain tells Ruby that most wolves are harmless. They will not attack people unless they are in a pack and starving. But this one was supernatural, perhaps a werewolf sent by Iuz to spy on them.

Here is more of that gritty middle zone stuff. The elves are no longer friendly but more like xenophobic tribespeople - who of course have very good reasons for being xenophobic though they've lost the ability to distinguish friend from foe but just count everyone as potential foe. They are also rutheless "shoot first ask questions later" types, whereas the high elves like Ruby and her patrol are more of a "give peace a chance - or else" types.

I was actually disappointed that Ruby/Julie shot at the wolf even before discovering that it was a supernatural threat. We actually talked about this after the game, and I read her a book (from her Scholastic series of books about animals) about real life wolves and how they are not usually a threat to people - and lots of pictures of cute wolf puppies! I am not sure I convinced Julie that wolves are "good" but at least I think she understood that they are not "bad." Just be careful of them, respect them and keep your distance. Actually, Ruby's long term goal has been to visit her family in the Land of the Wolf Nomads and Julie has constantly expressed concern about Ruby meeting up with wolves there. It's funny how she has this aversion to wolves - it's not like she's growing up on a farm in Montana. She is wary of big dogs, and I guess she sees wolves as a particularly dangerous variety of large wild dog - that and the bad rep they get in children's stories.

The next day they come to a grove of oak trees. These trees are inhabited by drayds, the feminine spirits of the trees. The dryads step out of the trees, looking like slender women carved of wood with leaves for hair. They warn Ruby about orc raiders and beseech her to check on the other dryads farther into the forest, in the area where Highfolk and Iuz engage in constant battle for control of the Vesve Forest.

I found some great pictures of dryads. Again, I'll have to insert pictures here later.

The next day while flying ahead, Ruby and Windcarrier spot a gargoyle flying just above the tree line. They assume it is another spy of Iuz. Windcarrier dives down on it to grab it, but the gargoyle lashes out with its claws and bites the giant eagle. Windcarrier breaks away from it, while Ruby uses her wand to fire off a color spray at it, but the gargoyle is unfazed and flies after them. Ruby then casts a scorching ray spell at it, which burns it a bit and it flies beneath the barren trees limbs. In any case, it could never have kept up with Windcarrier who flies off at full speed. All too soon, however, Windcarrier lands, for his wounds were severe. Just then, the unicorn, Raeritae, appears. It comes up to Windcarrier and touches its horn to his wounds, magically healing them. Then Raeritae heads back into the cover of the trees.

So here is where the enchantment and the darkness overlap. The next part is where the dark forest aspect really kicks in:

That evening they come to the remains of an abandoned wood elf tree village. The wood elves left because it was too near the battle zone. Ruby sends some of her patrol elves up into the tree houses to see if they are safe. They head up and find they are indeed empty except for one tree house. That one they scramble out of hurriedly, shouting that up near the ceiling is a spider the size of a horse. Ruby rushes up to see it for herself. Inside the parlor she sees that half the room is covered with a web that is almost invisible in the gloom. On the other side of the web lay a body fallen among a pile of coins set up to entice the unwary into walking over to investigate it and thus get caught up in the web. Looking up to the ceiling Ruby sees the spider waiting for someone to walk into its trap. Unfortunately, once she sees it, it covers the door behind her with thick sticky webbing, trapping her in alone with it as the two elf warriors outside futilely try to cut through the steel hard strands. The spider lowers itself by a web onto the floor as Ruby shoots magic missiles at it, but the spider is too large to be bothered by them. It lunges forward and bites Ruby. Ruby is poisoned and stumbles away out of the room onto a balcony. The spider can’t squeeze through the doorway onto the balcony, so it climbs out of one of the large windows and begins climbing over the treehouse to get to the balcony. Meanwhile, Blain has Windcarrier pick him up and drop him on the roof of the tree house in order to rescue Ruby. Unfortunately he lands badly and sprains his ankle. Still, he draws his sword and tries to stab the spider as it clambers onto the roof. He misses and the spider snaps at him with its mandibles. Then it lunges forward and bites Blain. Blain, overcome by his wounds and the poison passes out. The spider begins wrapping him up to eat later. Meanwhile, Ruby casts mage armor and shield on herself and moves back inside to the window in hopes of rescuing Blain. The elf warriors continue hacking away at the web to no avail. Finished with Blain, the spider comes back down after Ruby and almost bites her again, but her spells of armor and shielding protect her. Ruby stabs the spider with her rapier, but her weapon is too small and she is too weak to do anything but anger the spider. Outside, Ruby’s sergeants, Nyra and Alion come up to the door and with their spells burn the webs away. They rush in on the battle casting spells at the spider. Nyra casts a firebolt at it, while Alion uses a color spray. The spider is hurt and blinded for a moment, and in that moment Ruby pierces its heart with her rapier and finishes it. The elves then get Blain down from the roof, unwrap him from the spider’s web cocoon, and then revive him. Blain and Ruby then drink potions of healing, though both are still woozy from the spider’s poison. They check on the body behind the web, but discover that it is the dry husk of an elf that the spider had for a meal long ago. The coins are just copper coins. They give the elf a proper burial, though they also recover a blue quartz, and the dead elf’s magical leather armor to bring back to Highfolk. Clear of monsters, they rest for the night in the tree houses. As the sun sets, it gets even colder, and snows throughout the night.

For those who play D&D, Julie rolled two natural 20s in a row and so I let her do triple damage with one blow of the rapier to finish off the spider. Good thing to, as I had rolled for the spider to hit and it would have killed Ruby, but then I remembered that the spider was stunned because of the color spray used on it in the previous turn. This was actually a very close call for Ruby - and for me I guess because Julie has told me in no uncertain terms that she doesn't want to play any other character but Ruby and will just make a Ruby II if this one dies. LOL. Well, I'll just fudge the story if Ruby dies so that she doesn't. But I'm glad that in this case it didn't come to that because I tend to be a "let the dice fall where they may" kind of game master - except when it comes to my ten year old daughter's character that she's been playing since kindergarten.

Next - Orcs!

Posted by Ryuei at October 22, 2007 12:56 PM