The Hunter and the Reaver
A distant horn resonated through the boughs of Serenwilde, catching the attention of Wobou and Kay at the Moonhart Mother. As they alerted their commune and discussions began to form, a giant crack was heard from the hills of Northern Serenwilde, followed by waves of psionic energy. A tree once made by the Horned One for the Silver Goddess was found in the early stages of petrification, leaking an unknown black smoke. Depression and fear began to spread through the commune as the waves of psionic energy began to ramp up, and the members of the commune began to ramp up their search for questions.
Saran, Torgaddon, Selenity, and several others began to seek answers wherever they might, first seeking out the caretaker Abeytu due to his connection to the tree. Abeytu followed them to the tree, offering only a grave diagnosis before returning to his greenhouse. A second opinion was sought from a few denizens of the forest, Miakoda and Ridien amongst them. Some of the monks tried meditating at the tree, finding their minds violated by a mysterious psionic presence, probing through their memories. Finally, with a few new voices in the fray and many in tow, an idea was had.
With Tamsin and Aramel in the lead, the now massive group sought the wisdom of the spirits, seeking out one Chuchip for a prophecy. After many, many failed attempts, blunders, and bouts of forgetfulness, the group managed to attain a cryptic prophecy from the spirit: “The horn heralds he who knows not what he does, lost from his home to steal that of another. A web tangled unspools, and tokens of love rot and shatter as the reaver sings his forsaken song. Only with the spear shattered will we be spared the horrors of its unfathomable longing.”
Confused by the meaning of this prophesy, Tamsin, Saran, and Eamane made their way to the White Hart who could not tell them much beyond the existence of a mysterious presence in the forest who did not belong. They received the instruction to wait for the presence to show itself, to become bold. And so they waited, psionic pulses echoing throughout the Serenwilde.
After some time, cracks once more began to form within the petrifying tree, stone growing up its park suddenly. The tree spewed even more gas, and the White Hart appeared at the tree to instruct those of the commune to fortify the tree, to delay the escape of whatever lived inside. The essence to fortify the tree came steadily and in massive numbers while a few members sat by the tree. Tamsin, Selenity, Torgaddon, Saran, and some others began to inhale the mist from the tree as it mixed with the silvery essence which had interesting effects on their psyche.
Despite the best efforts to keep the tree fortified, eventually the being escaped, revealing a tall alien figure who had earned the name Xarriv, the Reaver. His appearance was short-lived, for he disappeared near instantly. Throughout the next month, the being kept appearing to members of the Serenwilde, a party of seemingly interested individuals following his every move. Each time he appeared, he took a life and visions began to appear to those he killed, strong emotions filling the minds of those who died to his touch along with visions of the being’s memories and seemed to take some of his victims’ into his own mind.
It was shortly revealed through these visions, confirmed when he touched the Moonhart Mother and all of Serenwilde saw a shared vision, that this being was a maddened half-formed tossed into the void when its creche was attacked by one of the Soulless, back in or before the days of the Elder Wars. It was driven mad by the emptiness and loneliness of the Void, left to its own devices to wander. But how it got to the First World remained a mystery until Sarrasri appeared before it.
As Sarrasri stepped before the tree, the being immediately focused on her, seeming to recognise her much to the confusion of everybody present. As Sarrasri fell, she granted a vision which she later relayed of a fight in the void between the alien being and Charune, ending with Charune being wounded. Charune’s memories of the First World begin to flood into her mind momentarily. She relayed this, mentioning remembering the tree specifically.
Future deaths and realisations gave the revelation that this being, in its maddened state, psionically absorbed some of Charune’s memories and felt the Serenwilde was its home, but its paranoid madness led it to see all the inhabitants as intruders, meant to be destroyed lest they cause it more suffering.
Finally, the being appeared before the petrified tree once more, a vortex of psionic energy appearing above the Serenwilde forest. As the destruction unfolded, a horn sounded and a rift appeared from the sky from the Void from whence Charune, Lord of the Hunt returned to the First World. A battle ensued in the Serenwilde forest before Charune threw a spear into the half-formed, banishing it to the Void once more and shattering the tree it entered from.
