When last we left Ruby and her friends, she was resting from being poisoned by the bite of a giant horse-sized spider in the ruins of an abandoned wood elf tree house village.
The next morning a strange warrior comes to the trees and shouts up at them for help. He is a rough looking woodsmen type armed with a battleaxe who introduces himself as Burgis. He says he is a friend of a dryad named Khloris who lives nearby. Her grove of oak trees is being cut down by a band of orc raiders and she needs their help immediately. Ruby mounts Windcarrier and flies over to the grove to check on Burgis’ story. On the way she casts her routine Endure Elements spell to protect herself from the freezing temperatures and windchill, but also casts Mage Armor and Protection from Arrows in case there is trouble. Flying over the tree tops she sees an orc riding a giant bat just ahead of her. The bat-rider also sees her and flies back below the trees, but instead of giving chase Ruby flies back to her patrol to warn her friends that there are indeed orcs in the forest.
I figured that if the elves can have aerial reconnaissance, then I'll give the orcs their own version.
When the patrol gets to the grove they discover that all the oaks have been cut down and a huge bonfire started. The remains of what looks like a party with empty flasks and kegs and trash are strewn about. They quickly put out the fire that is still burning and in danger of starting a forest fire. Hidden in the nearby foliage is the dying dryad whose oak tree was felled and burned. She tells the party that it was the orc raiders who are now rushing back to some nearby caves to hide from the dawn and any who might hunt them. Ruby asks the dryad if she can make a home in another oak tree, but Khloric sadly tells Ruby that each dryad is born as the spirit of a single tree, and if that tree is dies the dryad will soon die as well. She bids them farewell and then merges into a nearby tree to travel through the roots of the trees to see her dryad sisters before she inevitably withers away. Ruby wonders why such sad things have to happen and makes a determination to find the orcs who did it. Their trail is all too easy to find as the orcs left obvious tracks in the fresh snow, in addition to all the hacking and slashing of the trees and bushes and other trash left behind in their wake. They finally find the entrance to an abandoned mine set in the forested hills.
So, the orcs aren't just cutting down trees - they're murdering them! I have to admit that maybe I did go too far in villainizing indiscriminate logging of old growth forests - but this right out Lord of the Rings (well with dryads instead of ents). Also, I had to have the orcs do something that was clearly villainous or else they wouldn't be - well - villains. In addition, when I first told Julie that orcs were rampaging in the forest cutting down trees her initial reaction was to shrug her shoulders and say, "Well, maybe they need firewood." So clearly I had to up the stakes. But she did say to me, "Why did you have to make this story so sad?"
After that her reactions to the orcs became much more rutheless. This is going to have to be corrected down the line I think. I have succeeded in demonizing the enemy, and that's not something I really approve of anymore - even in a fantasy game. I think in a future story I will present the orcs in a different light and see if I can get Julie to see that maybe they are brainwashed victims of their evil gods and primitive idealogies and not just inherently evil beings who should be slaughtered without thought. Yeah, yeah, I know - orcs are supposed to be inherently evil - that's the fun of having them around as hapless cannon fodder for the heroes to cut down in large numbers. But I really want to make this less of a violent video game and something that is more thoughtful. But that will have to be for a future story.
Alion, one of Ruby’s sergeants, uses his magic to cover the entrance to the mines with a mist that will cover them. Then Ruby tries to sneak with the mist and her Cloak of Elvenkind to cover her, but she stumbles on a rock and the orcs fire their crossbow bolts at the sound, but fortunately none hit her. She then casts a Light spell on the tip of her wand and illuminates the mines first chamber so she can see the many orcs there. She follows this with a Color Spray from her wand which causes a couple of them to fall to the ground dizzy and blind from the overwhelming swirl of colored lights. At that time, Blain, Nyra, and Alion rush in through the mist firing arrows at the orcs as the orcs fire back with their crossbows. Burgis, meanwhile, strips of his armor and clothes and transforms into a raging manlike wild boar, he then charges in with his battleaxe. In a few moments four orcs are felled by Blain and Alion’s arrows, four others run off in different directions deeper into the mine, and the two that fell to Ruby’s Color Spray are taken prisoner. The first chamber of the mines is secured.
Once again, Ruby's spells incapitate rather than kill. This was not at all by any plan of mine - just the way she designed her character. But this is when the ethical dilemma comes in once again:
Further in, Ruby spots the giant bat hanging asleep from the ceiling. They decide to leave it in peace. Now they have to decide what to do with the prisoners. Burgis argues for killing them immediately. Nyra and Alion explain that the high elves do not kill helpless prisoners, it would make them as bad as the orcs. Usually they break their weapons and make them swear on pain of death to never enter the Vesve Forest again before letting them run back home. The elves know the orcs will lie, but they also know that the helpless orcs are often killed later by less merciful inhabitants of the forest and even if they make it home their fellow orcs often kill them for being so weak that they were captured and chased out of the forest by elves. Blain asks Ruby what she wants to do with them. Ruby seriously considers killing them, worried that they might attack later if they are let go – even if the elves do make sure they run away weaponless. Burgis offers to take them outside to behead them himself. Ruby also considers this, but Blain tells her that it would still be her responsibility, even if she lets someone else do the dirty work. He reminds her that the pegasi she is looking for will not allow anyone with the taint of evil to approach them. Reluctantly, Ruby agrees to let Nyra and Alion chase the orcs away, but not until after they browbeat them into talking about the mines and what to expect in them.
Ok, for days before playing out this story with Julie I knew this might happen - some orcs might be taken prisoner. What should be done with them? The sane thing to do with enemy combatants that one cannot take prisoner is to just kill them (as anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan knows). On the other hand, killing helpless prisoners is despicable no matter who does it (as anyone who watched Letters from Iwo Jima knows). So what to do? I was also haunted by the amazon.com review of the book Lone Survivor, about the trials and travails of a Navy Seal in Afghanistan. Here is what happened to him according the amazon book description:
On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive. This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers.
That sounds like a D&D adventure - even down to the four man team and the search for a shadowy evil hidden in a mountain fortress (probably a series of caves). The D&D game is designed for an optimum of four players and a game master. But this was real life - and thus really horrific. But the most horrible thing is what the Washington Post editorial review just above the book description revealed about those events:
In June of 2005, Luttrell led a four-man team of Navy SEALs into the mountains of Afghanistan on a mission to kill a Taliban leader thought to be allied with Osama bin Laden. On foot, the team encountered two adult men and a teenage boy. A debate broke out as to whether the SEALs should summarily execute the trio to keep them from alerting the Taliban. Luttrell himself was called upon to make the decision. He was torn between considerations of morality and his survival instinct, and he points out that "any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing's fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed."
Luttrell opted to spare the Afghanis' lives. About an hour later, the Taliban launched an attack that claimed nearly a hundred of their own men but also the lives of all the SEALs except Luttrell, who was left wounded.
Not long after that, the Taliban shot down an American rescue helicopter, killing all 16 men on board. Luttrell is sure that the three Afghanis he let go turned around and betrayed the SEALs.
But if nothing is fair in war, neither is anything foreordained. Luttrell was found by other Afghanis, one of whom claimed to be his village's doctor. Once again, Luttrell had to rely on his instincts. "There was something about him," Luttrell writes. "By now I'd seen a whole lot of Taliban warriors, and he looked nothing like any of them. There was no arrogance, no hatred in his eyes." Luttrell trusted the man and his colleagues, who took him back to their village, where the law of hospitality -- "strictly nonnegotiable" -- took hold. "They were committed to defend me against the Taliban," Luttrell writes, "until there was no one left alive."
The law held, and Luttrell survived, returned home and received the Navy Cross for combat heroism from President Bush.
Should Luttrell have executed two men and a teenage boy in order to protect the lives of his fire team? They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do our troops have the right to murder people for that? But at the same time, letting them go was clearly the wrong thing to do, and they had no way of keeping them prisoner. Let's not even get into whether our troops should be hunting Al Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan in the first place (I am not going to argue about this - but I think we should and I think Al Qaida are as evil as any fantasy orc or demon). The reasonable thing to do in the real world is to just murder people who will endanger one's fire team. That's just the breaks. But what happens to your soul if you do things like that? What happens to the soul of a nation that does things like that? It may be reasonable and maybe even rational to kill someone who might betray you to your death and the death of people you are responsible for - but I believe it is still an evil act to kill helpless prisoners or hapless bystanders.
Now getting back to the game, I thought about all the possible in-game solutions to prisoners. One could enslave them (that was often the historical solution when ancient tribes or civilizations went to war). But elves keeping orc slaves is just not something I want in my game - and elves in D&D are creatues who believe in liberty and freedom above all else. They would never keep slaves. But since elves are good creatures they would also not torture or kill prisoners - or let anyone else do it for them (something our own country actually has debates about in real life). So what could they possibly do with orc prisoners. After awhile I decided the only thing they would do is break the orcs weapons, strip them of magic items, and chase them out of the forest with a token promise from the orcs to never come back. This was stupid of course - the orcs would just rearm themselves and come back (if they survived the trip home and their fellow orcs didn't kill them in disgust). But it is what I figure these idealized nearly immortal forest hippy type people would do.
So now the question became - what would Ruby do since she was in charge of the patrol?
It was not really my intention to have Julie make decisions like this. I don't think anyone should have to make decisions like this. But fortunately or unfortunately, when the D&D game is played with some seriousness and thoughtfulness and not just gleeful heedless bloodthirstiness (which I do not want to encourage) these things will come up. Particularly if the alignment system is taken seriously. In D&D no one is morally ambiguous - everyone is aligned with either Law or Chaos, Good or Evil or a deliberate (or perhaps apathetic) Neutrality. Everyone's moral and ethical stance is declared. It may change, but it is always right there on paper in black and white (or pencil). Ruby is marked down as Neutral Good. In order to maintain that alignment - she can't start committing evil acts - no matter how sane or rational such self-interest might be. So in this story I used Burgis (a Neutral character) to be the voice of amoral self-interest and commonplace ruthelessness. I used the elves and Blain (all good characters) to be the voice of conscience - idealistic stupidity and mercy even. I even used Julie's wish to have Ruby someday ride a pegasus as a further enticement to remaini a good character. Against her better judgement (and it would be against mine as well) Ruby allowed the orcs to be disarmed and chased away instead of executed.
Oh, and if anyone thinks a 10 year old girl is too young for this - they should think again. Julie is already learning about history and has made a class trip to Sutter's Mill where gold was first discovered. She has learned about how all the Native Americans had their land taken from them and how they were killed or driven away. The D&D game may get rutheless and gritty at times - but real life and the real life history that Julie is now learning is the real heartbreaking thing. And of course we are still involved in a war where these kind of things are coming up, and Julie and her class are reading current events already. So it probably is the right time to deal with these kinds of things. Though in-game I will present the voices of reason and the voices of conscience (which are not always the same) in the persona of the other characters in the story.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
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!
On another message board someone wrote: "No matter how hard I try to practice and believe Buddhism, reality forces me to the conclusion that the universe is run by devils."
That reminded me of a time back when I was in high school. My class was assigned to read a truly horrible novel by Thomas Hardy (late 19th century writer) named Tess of the D'urbervilles. When I went to the library to get this boring 19th century novel the librarian looked at it and shook her head saying, "Ah such a sad story, it' a shame that Tess gets hung in the end." Thanks a lot - the worst spoiler I've ever heard in my life - I didn't want to read the book in the first place, and now I knew the awful ending before I had even started it!
The book was, of course, as grim or perhaps grimmer than promised. Here is an online summary and overall comment on the novel from the following website
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/26/56/frameset.html:
"Tess of the D'Urbervilles was subtitled A Pure Woman and published in 1891. It is one of Hardy's saddest tales of rural troubles. Tess is the daughter of the poor John Durbeyfield who learn from the village parson that his family is related to ancient nobility, being the last of the family the D'Urbervilles. In trying to make use of this connection, Joan - John's wife - suggests that Tess pursue the son of the local family of Mrs D'Urberville. As it turns out the Mrs D'Urberville has merely taken the name for convenience but Tess becomes involved with her son Alec nonetheless who gives her employment but takes advantage of her and in unpleasant circumstances seduces her. They have a child together who dies early and cannot be baptised because he is illegitimate. The second stage of the novel concerns the family of the Reverend Mr Clare and his son Angel. Angel and Tess marry but when she admits the incident with Alec their relationship is torn apart leading to Angel's departure for South America and Alec's second attempt to ensnare Tess. This leads to murder, escape and superficial impurity on the part of Tess who is finally brought to "Justice". This is an exceptionally bleak novel that offers little relapse from the persistent cruelty of fate (or as the novel would have it the President of the Immortals) against Tess. At the time the novel was considered pessimistic and immoral, and Henry James though it thoroughly poorly conceived which reminds us of a certain conversation between a pot and a black kettle."
One of the final sentences in this novel is Hardy's commentary on the nature of "God" or the "President of the Immortals":
"`Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess."
Nice. An omnipotent but malevolent God who messes with us for his entertainment. Come to think of it, watch the movie "Jason and the Argonauts" and you'll see pretty much the same idea. The gods are just playing with us like a game of chess. In 1912, Hardy wrote a poem about the Titanic disaster called "The Convergence of the Twain":
I
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
II
Steel chambers, late the pyres
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.
III
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
IV
Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.
V
Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?". . .
VI
Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything
VII
Prepared a sinister mate
For her -- so gaily great --
A Shape of Ice, for the time fat and dissociate.
VIII
And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
IX
Alien they seemed to be:
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history.
X
Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one August event,
XI
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.
http://www.melodylane.net/ianwhitcomb/twainpoem.html
Again, the maleveolent deity who pulls the cosmic strings in order to bring about a disaster for his own amusement. Come to think of it, I think we studied this in the same English Lit class in high school that we had to read the Tess book in. Is it any wonder that I became such a fan of Goth music? I blame it on the teachers who made me read Thomas Hardy. LOL!
Anyway, thank Buddha for Buddhism, as it kept me from succumbing to the grossly bleak outlook of Thomas Hardy. Instead of a malevolent deity, a "President of the Immortals" sporting with peasant girls (or classical Greek adventurers) or an"Immanent Will" making icebergs to smash ships, Buddhism teaches the rather more impersonal though organic law of cause and effect.
In college I used to go around glibly saying, "Karma means that everything really is your own fault." Actually, I wasn't just being glib, I was just being a smart ass - giving a kind of Hardyesque spin to thing just to tweak people. But Karma doesn't actually mean that - even in the traditional Buddhist teachings about it - though it is about our own personal responsibility in shaping the causes and conditions of our life to a great extent. In any case, better to live with the compassionate and awakening view of life from the Buddha's point of view rather than Thomas Hardy's, though I have to admit that kind of pessimism is so hyperbolically bleak as to become almost funny - a kind of self parody. That may in fact be how Hardy intended it, though I don't know enough about him to say for sure.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Ok, despite the fact that I renamed my blog "Real Life with Ryuei" I am going to continue to blog about my daughter's D&D adventures along with my thoughts about the story. I think that this time I'll put the story portion in italics.
Oh, I have to confess that I haven't been able to figure out how to put pictures in my blog. Ah well. At any rate, playing D&D now has become very multi-media because between Google Image Search and Youtube I have been able to show Julie pictures and videos in addition to bits of music to set the scenes and introduce characters. Some of the pictures have been really instructive to me as well. So for instance, I wanted pictures of elaborate fantastical treehouses. What I found were not just cartoons or pictures, but live photographs of very elaborate actual real life treehouses. Great stuff. Just do a Google Image search on treehouses and you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, back to the story.
Ruby had settled into the elven city of Highfolk at the Doubletree Inn for the fall and winter. Early on she sought out and made friends with Captain Lirolrod, the commander of the Sky Riders who patrol the skies over Highfolk on the backs of giant eagles. For a fee (thousands of gold pieces changed hands if memory serves), Capt. Lirolrod trained Ruby to be a Sky Rider as well, and trained her friend Windcarrier (the giant eagle who had befriended her during the pirate adventure) to be her mount. Once this was accomplished, Capt. Lirolrod, impressed with Ruby's ability, offers to let her to accompany a patrol (of ground troops) into the Vesve Forest. Ruby accepts, because it is her dream to someday find and fly a pegasus, and she has been told they can be found in the Vesve Forest. Her mission is to take a small band of elves deep into the forest and drive off any human or orc raiders from the Empire of Iuz. She will of course fly Windcarrier to scout ahead while her elven archers follow on the ground.
Yes, in the D&D game, this is what elves do when they are not dancing, singing, engaging in various contests of skill, holding feasts and celebrations, or making arts and crafts - they go out on seek and destroy missions in a medieval version of guerilla warfare against savage inhuman enemies.
Now again a few comments about elves and orcs in the D&D game and what they are and what they represent. They are certainly influenced by Tolkien's presentation but not entirely. They seem to be based on some very ancient and universal archetypes which I'd like to explore for just a moment.
The elves seem to be part of a class of spiritual beings that include the Vedic yakshas, the Celtic sidhe or of course the elves of Germanic mythology which is the primary source for D&D. Basically the elves are a form of more or less benevolent nature spirits or guardians. More importantly, though, I think they have come to embody the concept of the "Noble Savage." Wikipedia lists the following as characteristics of the "noble savage" archetype:
Living in harmony with Nature
Generosity and selflessness
Innocence
Inability to lie, fidelity
Physical health
Disdain of luxury
Moral courage
"Natural" intelligence or innate, untutored wisdom
So in D&D the elves live in harmony with nature to the pointof living in treehouses (or sometimes under the wooded hills as per the Celtic sidhe); they are Chaotic Good which means that though they spurn the laws and rigid class structures of "lawful" beings they are selfless, generous, morally courageous, faithful and so on. They may not necessarily be innocent or honest however, but probably innocent of any intentional wrongdoing and honest enough to those they like. As for "natural intelligence" and such, the D&D game credits the elves with an aptitude for wizardry. It is said that they are marvelous craftpeople and artists (including crafters of magical items and jewelry) but not greedy and not concerned with hoarding wealth. Finally, as far as physical health, these "noble savages" are supposed to live for over 700 years and never look a day over 25. The elves, then, are a romantic idealization of natural humanity in tune with nature, benevolent and wise and so on.
So much for them, how about the orcs? As the Wikipedia entry reveals, the word "orc" derives from the Old English word for "demon." It was used in the epic poem Beowulf - the English language's first Sword & Sorcery hero (though he was Danish actually) who fought a troll (Grendel), the troll's mother (whom he killed with a magic sword he found in her lair) and later became a king and died killing a dragon. Anyway, orcs are related to other monstrous humanoid types in world mythology. Beside the European ogres and trolls and goblins, there are the Japanese oni , and the Vedic rakshasa. In D&D these are all different types of monsters, but basically they are all stemming from the same archetypal fear of the bloodthirsty and perhaps cannibalistic savage - the noble savage's opposite number. The "orc" represents our fear of the "Other." In the Bible, and other world mythologies you see this played out again and again - the rival tribes who threaten the integrity and survival of your tribe are viewed as monsters with no redeeming values - whose men are brutes and whose women are seductive sirens. In Norse mythology and Vedic mythology the trolls and rakshasas are physically and morally inhuman, but the daughters of the trolls and rakshasas are beautiful and capable of being won over, but on the other hand, like the Sirens of Greek mythology, can also be treacherous. In D&D, the orc women are not presented as being beautiful or seductive - though half-orcs are available as player characters, implying either rape or seduction as the cause.
Throughout human history people have projected these archetypes upon the "Other" when they have encountered them. Either the "other" is the "noble savage" like Tonto, or is the bloodthirsty savage that the cavalry must save us from in the final reel. In D&D at least, these projections are embodied in fantastic beings who are not real and can bear the archetypes without the danger of idealizing or demonizing real people. But this will raise some other complications that I will note as the story progresses.
Oh, and needless to say, when I first played D&D back in jr. high I didn't think about any of this background or any of the implications of this. Elves were simply allies and orcs were simply monsters to kill prior to taking their stuff. But now I find that I can't approach this material with the same naivete, even when just trying to create an entertaining adventure for my daughter.
Ok, back to the set up. What is this "Empire of Iuz" and why is it sending orcs into the Vesve Forest? What follows is the simplifed version of the background from the D&D default setting and mythology as I explained it to Julie (who promptly forget it right afterwards I am sure):
The elves believe that at the dawn of time the god Corellon Larethian with the help of other good gods created the forests, flowers, grasslands, and all the animals that live there. Unfortunately, the god Gruumsh tried to destroy the forests to make room for what he liked – deserts, wastelands, and rocky hills full of caves. A terrible fight broke out between them when Corellon tried to stop Gruumsh from cutting down all the trees and burning them. In the end, according to the elves, Corellon poked out one of Gruumsh’s eyes with his sword, and Gruumsh fled. After the battle, Corellon created the elves out of the earth upon which fell his blood and the tears of the elven goddess Sehanine Moonbow who cried during the battle and whose tears gave Corellon the strength to beat Gruumsh. Corellon charged the elves to protect the forests and to create and preserve all things that are good and beautiful like music, art, crafts, and poetry. But he also trained them in magic and swordplay so that they would be able to fight back against those who would destroy them or take away their freedom. In the meantime, Gruumsh created the orcs and commanded them to take back what was theirs – which he believed was the whole world – and to help him get his revenge against Corellon who took away his eye. Ever since, there has been warfare between the elves and the orcs.
Most recently, many tribes of orcs have begun to serve an evil emperor named Iuz, whose mother was a wicked witch and father was a demon [Note that this was also the parentage of the character Caliban in The Tempest by Shakespear]. Iuz’s followers, whether orcs, or evil humans, or hobgoblins, or other evil beings, believe that he is a god and worship him. Their armies have swept across the world killing and destroying until they were beaten back. Presently, orc and human raiders still enter the Vesve forest that is under the protection of the elves of Highfolk, the human hunters and trappers who live in the forest, and the sylvan or wood elves who live deep in the forest itself. In order to drive them out, the elves and humans send patrols into the forest to seek and destroy these raiders before they are able to harm anyone, cut down sacred groves, or start forest fires.
And so, 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 ferrboat and then sought out into the forest. I'll write more about what happened another time as this has already gotten too long.
Here is some more of the continuing adventures of Ruby (my 10 year old daughter's D&D character). I'll make some editorial comments in italics.
Highfolk is a small city of elves that is nestled between the slopes of the southern reaches of the monster infested Yatil mountain range and the Velverdyva River at the point where it widens enough to become navigable. Across the river is the edge of the Vesve Forest. The surrounding hills are the homes of the gnomes allied to Highfolk. The city itself it like a beautiful garden or park. Most of the homes are tree houses with rope ladders leading up to them and delicate rope bridges connecting them. Here and there rises a tower or hall made of marble or white stone, some of which gleam in the light, and some of which are so covered in ivy that they are barely distinguishable from the trees surrounding them. There are also some humbler cottages or burrows here and there for the humans, gnomes, halflings and others who live in the city. The docks are much like the docks of the human cities but they are very clean and covered in exquisite carvings of wild animals and heroes from ancient tales of the elves. At night, lanterns of magical light hang from the trees to light up the pathways, and there is almost always a feast and some form of revelry going on in the open spaces in nice weather, and in the halls or up in the trees in inclement weather. Flying high over the city are the giant eagles, some with riders, who keep watch over the city. Music and singing can be heard at almost all hours, though the sound of craftsmen at their forges or warriors training in sword and archery are also to be heard.
This was a bit of a challenge. Using the scant descriptions of this city in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and other D&D sourcebooks on elves (esp. Races of the Wild) I had to try to imagine and describe to my 10 year old daughter an entirely alien city - not of human but of elves. My vision is basically that D&D elves are a race of long lived, tree hugging, mostly vegetarian, granola crunching, peace and freedom loving, anarcho-syndicalists (yes, this is kind of a Monty Python joke way over the head of my daughter but I need to keep myself amused as well). Oh yeah, and if you piss them off or threaten them, the elves will unleash a huge can of magical, sword-fighting, longbow sniping guerilla warfare on your behind. This will figure into the story in a later installment. Oh, and I also threw in some happy Celtic music (the Chieftains I think) to provide the musical introduction to the elven city of Highfolk since we all know that elves spend all their time sitting around listening to Enya or dancing Irish reels.
Ruby takes a private room at the Doubletree Inn (Yes, there is a real hotel chain by this name - and I thought it would be funny in a city of elven tree houses to make the name more literal), one of the largest inns in Highfolk. As its name implies, it spans two trees and has multiple floors. There are common rooms for eating and sleeping, but also a half dozen private rooms as well. The bar is fully stocked with Aleeian Wine, Elven Mead, Moondrop, Golden Light, and Pulsch Brown Ale in addition to other more generic wines, ales, and spirits. Ruby settles in with a quality vegetarian meal and a glass of red wine (the idea here is that elves are gourmets and mostly vegetarian and that in medieval times people drank ale or wine with their meals and not Coca Cola. In any case, Julie knows that it is civilized to drink a glass of wine or beer with your dinner when you are a grown up). After speaking with Ansrolan, the innkeeper, Ruby learns that it will take 6 days to ride to the city of Schwartzenbruin, then 2 days by galley to the trading town of Ungra Balan, and then a further 5 days ride to the edge of the Burneal Forest where her family lives. This means it will take at least half a month to get there. Winter is due to begin in about a month, though it will have already begun north of the Yatil mountains. Ruby decides that it might be best to stay in Highfolk for the winter and continue on her journey in the spring. In Highfolk, one can find jobs by going to the job hall and choosing from among various tickets that show what jobs need to be done in order to earn one’s keep if one has no other employment. It is almost like a large household where people take turns picking various chores. So the next day Ruby goes to the job hall and takes the tickets for sweeping and mopping, doing dishes, and laundry, and getting food for the elderly and handicapped who are too frail to do these things on their own anymore (Elves in D&D are chaotic creatures - and so I figured that instead of holding down steady jobs the work in their communities would be shared and rotated on a volunteer basis. This also fits in with the anarcho-syndicalist granola crunching Cletic Renaissance hippies with swords kind of culture I have been envisioning. And being elves in a fantasy world I figure this kind of insane economic arrangement would actually work for longer than 5 mintues).
During her time in Highfolk, Ruby makes friends with three other elves: Inirril (femal), Finemel (female), and Niremdil (male). They spend their time playing games such as archery, of which Inirril proves the best among them and Ruby a close second. They also decide to enter a rather dangerous contest sponsored by Highfolk’s Arcane Academy where the elvish wizards go to study and test their skills. The Arcane Academy is located within a hill overlooking the city. An ivory tower on top of the hill serves as the entrance. The academy itself is a complex of caverns and vaults wherein are the laboratories, treasure chambers, libraries, casting rooms, classrooms, dormitories, and living quarters of the elven wizards who live, work, teach, and train there. There are also a number of elven wizard/warriors and other stranger things within its halls acting as guards.
Within the depths of the Arcane Academy is a sealed chamber over which is the inscription: “The Halls of the Elemental Challenge. Those who would be masters of the elements of life may dare these halls, but only the true masters will return.” Ruby and her new friends decide to enter the Elemental Challenge to see if they have mastered enough magic to win its treasures.
There was a long amount of time between this and the events described below. A whole year in fact. The reason being that school and summer vacation in Japan intervened. I had almost forgotten about it, except that Julie kept bugging me, "When are you going to be done preparing the Elemental Challenge?" I was kind of happy that she was so looking forward to it. Also part of the idea of this is that I was teaching her the concept of the four classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and their assocations with the four directions (north, east, sourth, and west respectively), with the the components of our bodies (flesh, breath, metabolism, blood and other liquids) and our personalities (being grounded, flights of fancy, fiery passions, and flowing emotions), and the four suites of the Tarot deck and their symbols (disks or coins, dagger or swords, wands or branches, and cups). So the elemental challenge was designed as a kind of quiz to see how much she retained. Why bother teaching her all this? I think its a good way to contemplate all the different elements that work together to make our life possible. It is a way of introducing interdependence and the dynamic forces at work in life in simple terms. Even in Buddhism, meditation on the four classical elements is part of Mindfulness of the Body in the Mahasatipatthana Sutta. Anyway, here's how it went when we finally got around to playing it out:
The entrance chamber is sealed room with simple stone walls. They enter through a siding stone door on the east wall that slams shut behind them. A magic mouth appears on the stone door that shut behind them and announces: “Do not turn back, the contest has begun, find the hidden track, and begin your run.” Across from them on the west wall is the exit that will only slide open when they return from the test. Four magically ever-burning torches are set on either side of the entrance and exit doors to light up the room. Inirril takes one to light the way. Ruby then finds a secret door of stone in the floor that slides open, but it can only be opened by pushing in a slightly discolored slab of masonry 20’ up on the north wall. She spots this as well and casts a spell that pushes the slab in and opens the secret door. Under the secret door is a spiral staircase leading down.
Going down the stairs under the secret door they find another room with four sealed stone doors. As they walk around the room a magic mouth appears on each one. The mouth for each door asks a different question corresponding to the direction of the door.
East: If you lose it and don’t catch it again you will die. What is it?
South: It can be summoned with sticks and stone. What is it?
West: Without it you will die in days, in it you will die in moments. What is it?
North: From it all things grow and to it they return again. What is it?
Before they can answer a carrion crawler scuttles down the wall from where it had been hiding in the shadows and reaches out with its tentacles to paralyze them as they approach the western door. A carrion crawler is like a four foot long caterpillar but with fangs, and mandibles, and eight paralyzing tentacles. Before it can strike, Niremdil fires an arrow at it but misses, Finemel fires two magic missiles (balls of mystical energy) at it from her wand, Inrril also fires and hits with her arrow, and Ruby also hits it with her arrow. The carrion crawler falls dead at their feet.
Inirril stops to collect the paralyzing juice of the carrion crawler while Ruby ponders the riddles. She figures out that the east door leads to air, the south to fire, the west to water, and the north to earth. She decides they should go through the west door and try their luck against water. When the question is answered correctly the western door slides open.
What they are confronted with is a long hall filled with a kind of underground lake that stretches on into the darkness. On their side is a small rowboat resting on a small strip of sand. They board the boat and begin rowing into the darkness to reach the other side, which their magical torchlight soon reveals is another strip of sand in front of a blank wall. But before they are able to cross the boat is pushed back by a large wave with a kind of face on it. They realize that it is a water elemental and try to destroy it. Niremdil takes the torch while Finemel and Inirrel cast magic missiles at it, but the magical missiles are just absorbed by the water. Ruby casts a ray of frost at it but just a tiny portion turns into ice with no other effect. The water elemental then dumps them into the water, whereupon even their magical torchlight is quenched. The water elemental then turns into a whirlpool and catches them all up and dumps them back on the little beach they started from. Inirril pulls out a stone and casts a magical light on it so they can see again, but their boat is gone and they have no other magic that can help them cross the water so they decide to try another door.
They go to the north door, figuring that “earth” might be an easier challenge than “air” or “fire.” This time they are confronted by a kind of canyon filled with rocks and boulders at the bottom. They assume that an earth elemental lies in wait for them and so make preparations to sneak by it if they can. Their assumption is correct as they see a mound of boulders rise up to watch them standing on the lip of the canyon.
After a discussion as to what to do, they decide that Niremdil will use his spell of invisibility and his climbing skills to descend into the canyon, cross the rocky field, and then climb up onto the ledge on the other side while the others use the spider climb spell to simply crawl across the wall to the left over the canyon. To do this, Ruby gives a scroll with that spell that she had previously inscribed to Inirril, while Niremdil casts his spell on Finemel. Ruby had already prepared the spell and so cast it on herself. As they crawled across the wall, the elemental charged the wall and merged into it. Then like a burrowing animal it sped up the wall after the three elves. Fortunately the elves make it to the ledge on the other side before the earth elemental catches up to them. Finemel even fires magic missiles at it from her wand to distract it while Niremdil invisibly climbs up the canyon wall to the ledge. The earth elemental sees that it is has failed to prevent them from crossing the chamber and so turns around. They find another blank wall but Niremdil soon discovers a secret door that also slides open to reveal a winding stairwell down.
Going down the stairwell they find themselves in a maze. It takes them some time to find their way to the center, which makes them nervous because Inirrel’s magically lit stone will only keep its enchantment for another ten minutes before it goes out and leaves them all in the center of a darkened underground labyrinth that could be filled with monsters and traps. At the center of the maze Ruby spots a Grick hiding in the shadows. Ruby shoots an arrow at it but it just bounces off, and they realize that only magic will be able to hurt it. The Grick moves out of the shadow, striking at Ruby with its tentacles. Finemel quickly shoots it with magic missiles from his wand and the Grick is destroyed. Ruby drinks one of her healing potions to heal the wounds on her arms where the Grick struck. Finemel discovers that the Grick’s nest contained four healing potions and a vial of oil. They each take a potion, and Finemel claims the oil since he put down the Grick with his magic.
Ruby then discovers the last secret door to a hidden chamber at the center of the maze. They enter and see a room with banners representing the four elements on each side of the room and a table in the center. Laid out on the table are four gems: a transparent gem for air, a light brown gem for earth, a reddish-orange gem for fire, and a blue-green gem for water) and also a masterwork silver inlaid dagger with a golden-yellow topaz in the pommel, a silver inlaid cup, a solid gold disk like a large coin with an engraved pentacle, and a wand carved and painted like a flame. They hear a voice say to them: “Having passed through the earth, what treasure do you seek? If you answer correctly, I will see that you are paid in full.” Ruby thinks back to her training, and realizes that since they passed through the earth chamber the treasure they are entitled to is the light brown gem and the golden pentacle disk on the north side of the table which represents the earth. The voice tells her that they may take those but must not touch the others. Niremdil, however, is greedy and decides to grab for the other treasures anyway. Then an arrow pierces his chest, and they all look up and see floating above them a Janni with a bow and arrow pointed at them. A Janni is one of the weaker forms of genies, formed out of all four elements. Before he can fire again, Ruby casts a magical web on the upper part of the room. The Janni is not caught but must carefully pick his way through the webs in order not to get stuck. As he does so, the elves grab all the treasures and rush out of the room, carrying the wounded Niremdil with them. The passage back to the starting room is easier as the earth elemental has gone. As soon as they can, they take the arrow out and Niremdil drinks the healing potion he found in the Grick’s nest. The four are congratulated for meeting the challenge – and Ruby keeps the gold disk (which she sells later), and the light brown gem which she is told she can break open to summon an earth elemental to help her if she is ever in need.
In this way Ruby passed the Elemental Challenge of the Highfolk Arcane Academy. She spent some time there afterwards honing her magical skills and learning new spells.
