Chronicle (Tobin)

Let me walk you through the metaphysical bs that happened this year. It all started with the forest spirit. Now as I'm sure you know all forests have spirits, however this one was exceptionally powerful as the southern rain forest is massive. Way back before the fall, the forest was home to the civilisation of Shukukan, whose capital city was one of the most populous cities in all of Falnorian. During the fall, the entire city was wiped out, causing the forest spirit to warp into something painful, lashing out at the world and trapping many of the former inhabitants of the city as haunts under its control. A paper we recovered from these haunts later on said this about the spirit. The two different kinds of meter were in different scripts i think they are two poems mixed Heavy are the bones that were buried long ago Beneath the tangled roots and lonely trees Soundless are the cries of the fallen’s dying throes That echo neverending, ill at ease. I scream, I wail, I howl at the ceaseless Weight of death; I hear, I see, I remember endlessly Each dying breath Rotted is the earth where it once was growing green Our ruined cities claimed by vines and mast Twisted are the temples, long now gone unseen Decay crawls in to fill the empty cracks. I rip, I tear, I shred the growth That swallows all; I seek, I stalk, I hunt the one That tolled the fall Weeping are the spirits now left behind and lost Rooted in this forest, bound and chained Waiting are the souls that have not crossed And cannot while the keeper still remains. I wait, I prowl, I haunt the ground To find it’s ken; I seal, I vow, I swear it to destroy Or perish then The spirit created this disease goop that infected trees and forest creatures, creating stronger variants like zombies with defy death, wolfwers with berserk, and others. Even ents were able to be corrupted, and they were the first to seek out our party for aid. With their direction, we were able to stop their elder from being corrupted, and make contact with the captive haunts. It was at about this time that people in Tanagers Walk and other parts of southern Harmini started to have strange dreams that granted them powers, we later learned that these were coming from their past lives, which were from the city in the forest. Around this time the death cults started arriving, first the fated death, and then gradually the rest. We were able to meet Death, who told us that the forest spirit had been “wearing its (death's) face” and that it had “come to settle the score” . The people who had gained powers from their past lives began to go into trances and walk out into the forest, by removing the infected plants from the ruined towns they helped to free some of the haunts. The forest creatures attacked the town and we set out to the ruined city to fight the forest spirit. On the way we discovered that some of the colorwoods nomads had been fully possessed by their past lives. When we got to the ruins we found that Death was dueling the forest spirit. death eventually won, killing the forest spirit and allowing it to regenerate uncorrupted. There is still some corruption in the forest though.