Ch5 - The grove

Once again my mind was transported somewhere, however, thankfully to me it was not to some outer being. It was to an exam hall, similar in structure to a lecture hall but instead of rows of chairs, they were all spaced out with their own large desks.

"Black pens only, calculators allowed, no cheating or copying allowed, no time limit. You may start" An old tired lady immediately leaves after announcing the rules to a very full exam hall.

I open the page and answer everything to the best of my abilities, I notice that the exam paper itself is split into levels. Lv1 has questions like, where is the heart?. Comparably, lv6 had, what was Glixflug's cytoplasmic volume on january 6th 1983?. Unfortunately, I know just about nothing about microbiology, so I was screwed there.

Due to my many willing volunteers I managed to do all lv1 & 2 questions but I was stuck on level 3 because I know scarcely anything about microbiology

"When you're finished please write your name and candidate number on your exam before passing it to me" I followed what she said and left the hall, only to reawaken in my aberration form in the woods.

[Exam completed! You earned:

lv1: Fingernail growth

lv2: Strong foundations

Exams will be on cooldown for 30 days]

[Fingernail growth -

Sick of your nails growing? Tell them not to!]

[Strong foundations -

Unable to be moved against your own will]

Decent winnings I guess, but completely useless because using this form will probably make everyone around me hostile, I'll put it on hold for now.

When I went back to camp I figured I'd just use the bodies for practice dismembering, get used to ligaments and joints. Though I did give them a very nice, respectful mass burial grave that I lit on fire, it smelt awful.

****

Everyone around me awoke or finished their meditations, low spirits all around, but none of them knowing of my new form kept me happy. We all dispersed into the stronghold, I went to find Dammon to see if I could watch him work. Lea'zel and Durge went to the druid's grove, Gale, Shart and Astarion went to visit people.

"Hey you're a blacksmith right?" I floated over to Dammon and asked. He looked up at me surprised for a moment and said, "Uh yes, I'd like to say a good one but for some reason druids love their wooden tools."

"Wooden tools? That just seems a bit, ridiculous. Anyway do you mind if I watch you work? Before I died I was quite interested in being a blacksmith's apprentice" It was an innocent lie, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to tell him the whole story.

He agreed and begun working on one of his orders, an ornate dagger. Apparently Aradin, a member of the party found dead at the tiefling's gates ordered it before his journey. Thankfully for me Dammon was a sweet guy and narrated his process, answering questions along the way, we were only there for 40 minutes before he finished and I gained all the knowledge of how to make an ornate dagger with a less than adequate setup.

"If you see Aradin, could you pass him this dagger for me? He was supposed to have come back by now." I was tempted to just not tell him and pocket the knife, but honesty is my weakness.

"I'm sorry to say but he's dead, goblins got him at the front gate."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear about that, not the friendliest of people but death was not deserved. Nevertheless I think it's best if you take it then, it'll serve as a memory of your first lesson" Dammon didn't seem overly bothered by the death of the human that called them all 'foulbloods' understandably.

"Oh well thank you, now then I do have to go before one of my party kills a druid. Thank you again." I floated towards the druid's grove to see Lae'zel pointing her weapon towards the druids and Durge twitching weirdly.

"Right what's happening here?" I ask Lea'zel, but she was blocked from talking by a druid. "Wait Jeorna! This is the group Kagha wanted to speak with" A half-ling spoke up.

Clearly unwilling, Jeorna pulled her spear out of the way, in tandem, the bear moved out of the way as well. I already don't want to talk to Kagha, but Lae'zel would probably get Arabella killed knowing what she's like. We walked towards the stone door, I tried to ignore the warthog praying to Halsin about finding a mate, and entered.

Immediately, we saw a snake about to pounce Upon Arabella, so I used [Horrifying Visage] to subdue the snake and make it retreat.

"How dare you?! This was her trial and her execution!" Kagha spat with venom on her tongue.

"That's enough Kagha! She was just a child, this went too far!" Rath cut her off, preventing her rant.

"Tsk weak blood should've been purged today, but I'll allow it once." Lae'zel grumbled to herself. I give her a weird look but just sigh instead.

Kagha separates and moves over towards the edge of the room, overlooking a cavernous pit with no clear end. At least to people without far reaching darkvision at least, to me the bottom is just far away.

"Kagha, you know you went too far, even for a shadow druid" I whispered the last part to her.

"You? Who are you?" She looked panicked and looked to the oddly organised rats around her. They seemed to nod at her as if telling her to find more out about me.

This time I spoke to her mind, I didn't want our conversation to be overheard after all. "I am Charles the nomad, a ghost. For you, I'm someone as equally curious about what shadow druids are as I am determined to stop the Right of Thorns." I respond to her mind.

Catching on she projects her thoughts to me, "You reveal my greatest secret to me for nothing but information? So be it, however should my secret be revealed, then I'm sure we could spare some silver to slay you with" Once she was done uselessly threatening me, she projected her knowledge of the subject to me. Teachings of Faldorn, an old shadow druid that fought against the Iron Throne and despised civilisation. Knowledge on the Right of Thorns and the general abilities of druids and their history.

I break away from the connection and smile, "That's right you should've never tried to kill that child Kagha" I pretend as if we were just finishing our conversation, fortunately she catches on.

"I will not forgive the trespassing onto my territory, I am the leader of the Emerald grove and a child will not be the one to uproot me" She responded in turn.

With that we were finished, but though I said I wouldn't directly reveal her secret, I can still do something about it. "Let's have a look around you two" I spoke to Lae'zel and Durge.

We found a chest hidden behind a wall, after breaking the lock we found Faldorn's teachings and a meeting point in the swamps. We agreed to investigate further when we had the chance to.