- People sleeping beneath the boughs of Maranthede are blessed by an astonishingly restful night, and wake up feeling invigorated with primal strength, gaining 5 Temporary Hit Points. These last until dawn the next morning.
Maranthede is a sentient, talking tree found in the Millennium Forest. It's been a while since it had a proper name, but the latest locals called it Maranthede, a Sylvan name which translates to "Eldest Bough".
Slow and ponderous (sometimes taking up to half a minute to merely blink), it considers most other, "quick" creatures as belonging to "the quicker lands". Maranthede is also wise and bafflingly ancient (having sprouted hundreds of years ago), though its memory is failing.
Before the Adventurers of the Guild discovered it, it stood alone without any visits for 20-30 years. Before that, the Fey from Willow Creek used to visit and talk to it. Maranthede does enjoy the company of the "quick ones", and welcomes anyone who checks up on it.
As the party ventures forth under the shade of a thousand leaves, the darkness encloses them. Yet they push onward, illuminated by their torch, and the faint moonlight beaming from the sky above. Following the voice, they eventually come upon a strange clearing, barren from trees, save for one. In the middle of this vast glade stands an oak, larger than most anyone has seen before. It looms high into the night sky, sheltering a veritable army of small animals in its boughs... ...then wood groans and leaves rustle as a face appears to form in the knotted wood. Gnarled and scored by age, its wooden features twisting into a smile; with great effort, as it seems. “Hail, friends. It is good to see your faces now. It has been far to long since those of the quicker lands have paid me any heed.” It speaks with a voice weathered by the winds of time, worn down by scurrying feet into something smooth and deep, yet also ponderously coarse, each sylable like the shattering of some ancient icy bough. |
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