Zorac and Thorgun left the outpost in good spirits, turns out Thorgun received a quest to assist in finding the woodcutters which would improve his reputation with the Twilight Grove. As they were walking back, Thorgun explained how aspect points worked as it seems most common and uncommon races get some base knowledge that higher ranks don’t. Skills would improve on their own as you used them gaining points in the four categories based on how you used the skill. Schools gained aspect points whenever a skill ranked up so each skill could only give a school four aspect points. Schools and skills increase special modifications each time they rank up. The AI in charge of quests rarely give out AP but typically give new adventurers a few personal quests which give one AP in an attempt to determine the kind of adventurer they might be.
Zorac looked at his AP, one of which could be spent on any of his skills the other could also be used to upgrade his schools. So he decided to add one potency to his Twilight Thorns and one flexibility to his Moon-Blessed Plant school. Out of curiosity, he used the point in his precision skill as a control point. This unlocked the ability to add a modification to his precision skill, however as he did not have the critical school or any modifications which could be applied to the skill it didn’t do anything for him right then. Apparently normal races like humans and dwarves had a variety of trainers and mentors which would help new adventurers unlock skills, schools and become more acquainted with the various aspects of adventuring and combat. Zorac suspected that higher ranked races got some long term benefits that balanced their seeming lack of support structure though the War Treant did help him unlock an entire school the first time they met so he wasn’t complaining.
Eventually, the two adventurers got to the border of the Twilight Grove and reached the Twilight Forest Proper. Zorac knew they had reached it because the Grove Mother’s spirit was not within the area and the forest seemed much less friendly. A point which was emphasized by a pair of wolves who ended up with cracked skulls and punctured throats. Thanks to Thorgun’s Danger Sense skill they were able to stay well guarded against any dangers and upon reaching this part of the forest Zorac started doing testing out his camouflage skill while Thorgun tried to help him by pointing out any moments he could see Zorac. By the time they saw the Woodcutter’s camp Zorac had gained a control point and Thorgun a resiliency point in their respective skills. Zorac again bemoaned his lack of trainers that could teach him some modifications though in this case there might be some within the grove since it was a racial skill tree.
Looking over the camp Zorac could see a few parties of adventurers in what he assumed was high-quality gear, at the very least it looked awesome. “Those there be locals, I saw them come in this mornin before I headed out with Jared. They had talked to the woodcutters about a variety of creatures and a bunch of contract jargon that I didn’t really make sense of.” “Let's not try, and fight the obviously more powerful locals then, we players will ramp up quickly, but I’m not ready to tango with established warriors yet.“ “Let’s get out of here then I’d rather not be around when they get to that glowing tree they wanted.”
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Find the Woodcutters Updated
Secondary Objective Unlocked: Investigate the Glowing Tree
Zorac looked at Thorgun trying to decide between hating him and thanking him. “Well you're going to hate yourself then, I just got an update to investigate the glowing tree.” “I don’t have enough Ale for this shit Zorac. Let’s get a move on then; maybe we can take a look at it before something terrifying attacks us.”
The two started moving towards the massive glowing tree that they could see. It was a silvery colored tree with a menacing black glow. The dang thing probably stood a good two or three hundred feet, and Zorac was pretty sure a dragon could use the inside as a resting place with how wide the tree was. The absurdity of this tree reminded Zorac that he had not been paying attention to his Identify Plant skill and began rectifying this fact as they traveled towards the colossal tree.
The forest contained a wide variety of flowers, roots, berries, useful barks, and leaves which Zorac knew nothing about. His skill told him a bit about the various plants and that they were helpful but very little about what they were useful for, however, the effort did give him a resiliency point in the skill and a minor headache due to the information that kept getting thrown in his face. Thankfully killing off the odd boar and wolf was not all one has to do to stay alive in the Twilight Forest and Zorac’s plant identification let the pair avoid some dangerous plants based on their name alone. Things like Cloaked Venom and Entangling Moss were that which Zorac wanted nothing to do with, at least right now.
Getting to the tree let Zorac identify it, and this led to much of his near future problems. It also improved the potency of his Identification.
Garalath - Cursed Guardian of the Lunar Seal
His wood is perhaps some of the most valuable materials within the Twilight Grove, and his death would release ancient forces better left unknown. Recently cursed by some entity Garalath is unable to awaken.
“Thorgun I think we may have found a major event.“ “Really, your army of tree people didn’t alert you to that fact.” “Huh?” Zorac turned towards Thorgun and saw a small army of his people led by the War Treant. “Good work Seeker, I had a hunch our foes would come here.”
Locate the Woodcutters Complete: Relations with War Treant Valcoir: Friendly
Defend the Grove Updated
Quest Gained: Curiosity
Primary Objective: Discover the history of Garalath
Reward: ???