Before you could rescue Ari, before you could do anything, you needed to find your way past this barrier.

>Have Priat burn a hole through
>Travel the length of the river looking for an entry
>Use the Nymph's Wood cutting
>Coerce the wooden golem to try and open the way.
>Other? (write-in)

Previous Threads:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

Where things are said: https://twitter.com/Riz_QM
Where things are asked: http://ask.fm/RizQM

Assorted Supplemental:
Current Abilities - http://pastebin.com/PchcdWpw
A List of Forgotten Things - http://pastebin.com/kPEscJ3h
Irue's Memoires - http://pastebin.com/sWnicrK7

Write-ups:
Kara's Day Out - http://pastebin.com/8ZbiSKLs
Adventures with Asche - http://pastebin.com/RNviCBJu
The Reclaimed Doll - http://pastebin.com/n6miP1qT
In Your Shadow - http://pastebin.com/EfeeHFAE
Friends Forever - http://pastebin.com/Yn0QaTVB

ANNOUNCEMENT
This will be the last Valen thread for a while, as I need more time during the week to devote to work and some other things. Also evidently no one is sure if /qst/ will continue to survive? idk where we'll end up going if this board burns as well.

You guys have my twitter for future announcements, and the Ask.FM for specific questions in the interim.

Misc notes:You might want to make sure your memos are up to date for after the break.

Memo:
1. Ask Priat if he saw Nymph's wood in Teranford and about the terraforming in general
2. Invite Marchovic on adventures next time there's a chance.
3. Mim said "When are you going to tell her?" Tell what to whom?

>>657201
>Travel the length of the river looking for an entry

>>657201
>>Use the Nymph's Wood cutting

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>657283
1. Walking!

>>657294
2. Nymph's Wood!

RNGesus guide us.

While you doubted that your recent foray into the Fae Forest constituted a lockout that stretched the entirety of the forest's parameter, you had no way of knowing just how much of the immediate area was going to be walled off. Worst case scenario, you could be walking the river's length for days before finding a way through... And during the time, you'd undoubtedly be forced to contend with more of those watchful apparitions.

On the other hand, you had seen the way that the apparition shied away from the Nymph's Wood affected roots. They had served as an effective ward against it, even during its fury... And if the Fae were truly connected to these apparitions, then you were willing to stake a bet that these roots would be liable to react in a similar manner. It only took you a few minutes to find your way back across the river, retracing your steps from your time before as you approached the imposingly solid wall.

No sooner had you fished out the little cutting you had retrieved, the creaking of wooden branches echoed through the forest. A gentle green glow served as both a key and a barrier to you, sending the tightly packed wall of wooden limbs retreating as if the soft light were a blasphemous epithet that threatened to sear itself into the foliage. You stared as an entrance was formed, and felt the wall shudder in trepidation and rejection as it broke apart, revealing the entry to the forest of blackness hidden beyond.

"Once we cross this line, we're inside their territory." You turn back to Priat with a nod, taking idle note of the way that the wooden golem you had pacified still chose to shy away nervously from you while the Nymph's Wood remained brandished. "It's possible the forest will object to us being here, so watch your step."

"When you say the forest, you mean the Fae, or more of them?" Priat motioned vaguely towards the golem, and you stared obligingly towards it for a moment, considering the way it shifted back and forth in an unsettled manner. "I mean the entire forest." You finally answer, "But I wouldn't rule out more wooden golems, either."

"...You can't mean to treat the woods as if it were completely alive. Even for the Mana, their awareness of their element is passive at best; Salamander is not completely aware of every tongue of flame in the realm." Priat hesitates in your wake, watching you step through the breach only to have your body illuminated against the pitch darkness further in as you turned back to look at him. "What you're leading me into... Is this an Atelier?"

>Shrug, remind him to watch his step.
>Agree, it's a simple enough explanation.
>Correct him; You walk in the shadow of Mana.
>Other? (write-in)

Also:

>Keep clipping out
>Stow it

>>657616
>Shrug, remind him to watch his step.
Although, I am in the mood for puzzles.
>Keep clipping out

>>657641
Writing!

You shrug, leaving Priat's questioning hanging as you march on; A silence bridged the widening gap between you, broken by the shuffling of the wooden golem as it fell in behind you. "It is, isn't it?" And shortly there after, Priat's hurried steps. "That's why there's a wall here, and the wooden golems, they're relics, right? Or caused by one?" You leave him to his questions and walk on, until either he realizes you're not actually going to answer him, or he runs out of questions. Regardless, it's by the soft light of the Nymph's Wood that you make your way further into the darkness, with your small company in tow not far behind.

The breach in the foliage that Kara had made when she toppled a tree to 'knock' on your previous visit nearly sealed itself shut, the gaping wound to the skycover having been effectively scarred shut to the point that only a few nascent pinpricks could still be caught casting slim rays onto the uprooted trunk. This was where you had announced your presence so loudly before, and the response received back then had been... More than you were prepared to handle. Glancing back towards your wooden golem, you could just barely make out its shifting form and half-illuminated facial features trudging after you in the dark; In its reluctance to approach the Nymph's Wood, it had instead chosen to follow about at a distance that made it seem for all intents and purposes to just be a floating face just out of sight.

You would be lying if you said this wasn't creepy, but as long as you kept the clipping out, it would hopefully have a similar effect on any of the other wooden golems in these woods; The fact it helped you navigate was just a perk.

Still, you kept the Nymph's Wood close to you as you walked; The price of seeing where you were going was that you weren't the only thing which didn't have any problems seeing anymore. With your sight extending only to the edge of the ward of light softly shed by the clipping, you were effectively blind beyond this parameter. Another unfortunate failing of your natural senses... But one you had lived with until now.

You don't know that you felt all that comfortable losing any time trying to weave a web while within this pitch black wood.

But that aside, your steps gradually lost their purpose. Confident strides grew to hesitate, and you felt indecision and uncertainty beginning to wrap itself about your legs like restrictive chains. The forest was large, immensely so, and you had no idea where Ari was inside of it... Nor, honestly, where you were. Seconds turned to minutes, and it felt as if minutes were bleeding into hours when your entire world consisted of this tiny orb of light, revealing the same majestic tree trunks and thickly wrought roots with every step. You had no way of knowing how far in you'd truly walked, or even if your path had started to curve.

You had come expecting nature, but this almost felt like you were being toyed with by a Shade apparition.... If only it were that easy. The fact of the matter is that you were lost, with nothing but darkness to welcome your silent intrusion. Should you risk announcing yourself again, you had very little hope of actually finding your way back out of these woods a second time; In other words, a gamble that whatever had surged to greet you the first time would be feeling more magnanimous today. Or, perhaps more hopefully, that something else entirely would answer your call.

>Split up with priat to cover more ground.
>Announce yourself. (how?)
>'A Spider's Web'.
>Have Priat construct makeshift torches to mark your path as you go.
>Other? (write-in)

>>657834
>>Announce yourself. (Same way one would get announced at royal dance or something)

>>657834
>Announce yourself. (how?)
"Hello! Is anybody home?! I need help finding my testament."
Never underestimate the value of just asking.

Actually, maybe the okenrue following us might know where to go. Can we... ask her?

>>657866
>>657872
Announcing ourselves!

>>657866
Though specifically speaking, someone else would announce you at a royal event. There's always Priat.

Writing.

>>657223
>ANNOUNCEMENT
So how long is the hiatus going to be approximately?

The brief thought of splitting up crossed your mind. It was enough to bring you to a stop as you turned to look back at Priat, and that action was enough to give him pause. No, why would you split up for anything in this forest? That was asking for trouble; You never split up in a dark forest.

Just because you weren't splitting up didn't mean you weren't still wandering aimlessly. The forest was large, and if you wanted to find a single person inside of it, then you needed more than determination... But announcing yourself was a risky proposition. Risky, but increasingly seeming to be your best option - Perhaps, with a slight caveat. The way you had introduced yourself last time was... Crude. Violent. You don't fault Kara for it, she did have something of a track record for disasterous first impressions; It made a sort of depressing sense in retrospect.

No, what you needed was a proper introduction. One whose voice would reach the right ears.

The wooden golem seemed to perk up as it felt your intentions, shifting from side to side quickly as the rustling of its ivy-esque hair solitarily in the silent forest. You didn't need to verbalize your request for this much, and you simply had to trust that it understood your goals well enough through the vague link which bound the two of you together. If it didn't... Well, it wasn't as if saying it out loud would have helped it understand any better.

You stood expectantly, senses held keen as you subconsciously brushed your hand against the dual ringed bracelet in preparation for a repeat performance. Muscles knit together tightly, even as an electric shock tingled along your spine. While you had wanted it to announce your presence, the golem had withdrawn from the light and left you acutely aware of the rustling leaves left in its wake. The faint undertone of your own warbling laughter contained within. The way it moved the air, and echoed around you; A chorusing cry returned by the distant tree tops and the fallen refuse that slithered and hissed a rising song.

"It betrayed us?" Priat's hand flexed warily, sparks of flame already flickering into existence around him. The man new little of what was going on around him, and lacked the inclination to place faith into something that had spent the night trying to hunt him down in a single minded rage. It was your inaction which kept his hand stilled, and your raised hand which reluctantly kept the embers sparking around him from becoming true flame.

"I asked for an introduction." You explained tightly, watching motes of yellowish-emerald gently come to life just beyond the ward of the Nymph's Wood. Floating aimlessly, seeking curiously, testing warily. From the blackened sky came stars; Hundreds upon thousands of tiny lights, only a few of which would deign to fall. From the void came lights, formless and minute. "... And it obliged."

These were not the Forest which had greeted you the first time. They lacked the awe inspiring presence; Lacked the soul crushing weight of having the gaze of the World upon you. They spun bobbed almost carelessly through the air, ever careful to avoid the light shed by the Nymph's Wood clipping.

The wooden golem had no such ward against their presence, and so it was that you felt its connection to begin to unravel tenuously as more and more of the firefly like lights came to find a perch upon its form, illuminating the form of its splayed arms and upturned smiling face as they nestled into its spread hair and burrowed into through its wooden arms. It was faint now, but veins of the fireflys' light had already begun to take root through out its body, blossoming into trails of tendrils that split its skin and seemed almost eager to consume the tentative connection you had forged with the golem.

Form what it was worth, it didn't feel like it was panicking or resisting.
...Perhaps more concerningly, it didn't feel at all. You felt as if the sense you had used to touch the Golem's mind was submerged in an anasthetic.

>Let it happen.
>Throw Nymph's Wood towards the golem.
>Loose Priat on the lights.
>Attempt to wrench the connection back with the Bracelet
>Other? (write-in)

>>657922
I expect a month or two, minimum. Hopefully not longer, but we'll see. Hopefully there'll still be a place to write when I'm all finished with this job.

>>657962
>>Attempt to wrench the connection back with the Bracelet

>>657962
>Let it happen.

>>657962
>Let it happen.

>>657967
No, that's MY golem!

>>657969
>>657976
I wasn't really attached to it, anyway.

Writing.

You had reflexively started to try and wrench the connection back, only to hesitate as second thoughts caught up with you. There was no way of honestly knowing what was happening at this point, or what those lights really were. While on one hand they certainly didn't look dangerous, you knew with a cold certainty that the appearance of an apparition ultimately meant nothing in the face of its danger.

On the other hand, you had wanted an introduction. An announcement of your presence. This was exactly what you had hoped would happen, and having something besides the immediately crushing attention of the Forest itself upon you was even better than you had anticipated. Whatever was happening here, the cost of interfering and potentially setting off a volatile reaction from the newly arrived fireflies was too high. As the final strands of the connection binding you to the Golem frayed, you let out a breath and accepted the simple resolve that if you had wanted to save it, then it was far too late to try now.

While the general form which stood just beyond the Nymph's Wood ward remained the same, the golem which had followed you here was no more. The unique instance which developed from its birth was washed away, overwritten and replaced by the warm glow of amber veins that pulsed along its body like lines of slowly oozing blood. They thrummed with a gentle heartbeat, an amber scar gradually coalescing upon its left wrist a familiar emulation of your own bracelet. It looked up at you with eyes that gleamed in the darkness, wooden sockets overrun with a vibrant sheen of rippling sap that stared unblinkingly towards you, and let its ivy-like hair flair out behind it in an enchantingly firefly lit veil.

'You came back.'
'Our dear child.'
'Wayward gift.'
'Prodigal ward.'
'Beloved friend.'
'Shy attendant.'

The smile on its face struck a nerve through your body that left you unsettled, as the recognizable expression took on a myriad of emotions that swam through the colors engrained unto its unchanging face as quickly as they would come.

'You came back.'
'With unwanted company.'
'A foul scent.'
'This lost shell.'
'Memories tamed?'
'ulterior motives.'

You felt your body starting to retch upon itself as the warm smile seemed to tinge with disappointment.

'You came back.'
'It is not safe.'
'She is weak.'
'Why did you bring that here?'
'Without your Guardian.'
'We are hurt.'

>?

>>658018
"I'm sorry."

Then let them speak, I guess.

>>658023
Oh, and promise that it won't happen again.

>>658028
You want to promise that it won't happen again?

>>658018
Apologize and don't promise anything.

>>658032
Uh, yeah. Unless there's a way of seriously enforcing the promise.

>>658036
Which I guess we don't know, so never mind.

>>658036
Nothing will force or compel Irue to uphold the promise.

>>658038
Oh, well then I'm fine with it.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>658023
>>658035
Apologies.

1. Promise it won't happen again.
2. Make no promises.

hmmm.

>>658042
if it's not too late I'd vote for making no promises

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1.9 MB GIF

>Apologize, and promise that it won't happen again.
___

My appointment draws near, so I'm going to leave us here for now. I'll pick back up here with the update either later tonight, or tuesday.

>>658028
>>658046

Anon.
Anon, what have you done?
We will have to break this promise, and then what?
This is a force of Nature we're talking to.

>>658046
Can I vote for not making promises as well? Pretty please?

>>658028
Why? Why would you do this? Promise something to a force of nature? Nothing forcing Rue to uphold the promise doesn't mean something won't punish her if it isn't upheld.

I just had to be late on a day like this.
Oh God, it's Shadowrue all over again.

>>658046
I know it's way too late, but I'll vote anyway
>Please, for the love of God, do NOT promise anything


More practically, if the QM asks "are you sure?", think real hard before you decide to go through with it.

>>658372
I know, right? I wish the voting periods were longer. Even when I'm monitoring an active thread, I always miss the voting by like 10 min.

It wasn't just Ari that was kidnapped, right? Unless I'm misremembering they scooped up a few of our knights too.

>>658620
Maybe, but it was implied that the knights were no more.

>>658042
Jesus fucking Christ do not make casual promises to fucking Fae oh my god what have you done.

>>658042
>>658046
Can we NOT promise? You started at fucking 1 AM, not fair to those of us who have to sleep to keep a schedule that one fucker fucks us over by being a careless idiot.

>>658041
I hope you get an infected sick and it rots off.

>>658335
>>658366
>>658684
>>658671
Well if were not promising to avoid doing it again then we might as well not apologize. Not promising implies that we plan to offend the Fea again, and would be interpreted as an insincere apology.

I probably won't be able to participate later, so here was my alternative write-in if anyone needs it:
"Listen here. If you don't give me back my testament right this second I'm unfriending you, leaving, and NEVER coming back."

I changed this to just apologizing because I thought the rest of you would want to play it safe. If you want we could start it of with a "I'm sorry, but..." Of course, we are not actually apologizing.

>>659402
Y-you too?

>>659976
Apologizing is fine, and we will legit apologize, but NEVER promises something to a element unless you are ready and willing to back it up to the hilt. DO you KNOW what fey do to oath breakers? Fairy tales, the original ones were fucking terrifying because pissing off a fey was tantamount to pissing off a dragon, they would inflict harsh, cruel, malicious punishments so disproportionate as to be insane to any non fae. Like trespassing? You're forced to dance until you die, you limbs fall apart your body bleeds and you die of dehydration and starvation, and that's if they want it to be quick.

>>660004
This.

>>659976
For one thing, an instinctual, "I promise I won't do that again" won't hold a lot of weight with a lot of people; It sounds weak, or like a deflection.

> Not promising implies that we plan to offend the Fey again
Apologizing is an acknowledgment that you did something wrong, and typically implies you won't do it again (or at least not get caught). If you are apologizing for the same things over and over, the apology becomes worthless and no promises will fix that, short of a significant effort to clean up your act.

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>>658028
What have you done? What have you done? You've killed her, she's dying now.

>>660072

Shut the fuck up. Never fucking promise the Fae shit.

> For one thing, an instinctual, "I promise I won't do that again" won't hold a lot of weight with a lot of people; It sounds weak, or like a deflection

Not to the Fae it doesn't. Words have weight with them they don't with others.

Promises are either just as worthless as the words you use to apologize, or else your apology is as good as a promise.

Unless you're saying you WANT some sort of magical horrible fucking consequence for breaking the promise by necessity or having one faggot voting late at night and ruining it for everyone again.

In which case you're an asshole, because nobody could be that stupid without intent.

>>661065
I suppose I should have clarified that was for normal folks, not Fae. I was assuming my previous posts would have made my stance clear, but that what I get for assuming I guess.

>>661188
Oh. Well yeah, but normal people don't make Annie Wilkes look like a model of how to have a healthy relationship.

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53 KB JPG

>>658036
I just realized that you specifically made this promise BECAUSE it could be broken.

To the Fae.

What in the ever loving fuck do you have in the space between your ears where a brain is supposed to be?

"I... Didn't mean to?" You wince under the multifold reprimanding. Understanding the entity before you was like standing in a rainstorm and trying to notice every raindrop before it could hit you. When it spoke, it wasn't with words so much as a raucous litany of dissonant whispers that assailed your mind all at once; A breeze through the trees, with rustling leaves and creaking wood, which held too many meanings wrapped into a single moment. "If I can help it, I swear it won't happen again."

'Dear child...'
'A promise?'
'You are forgiven.'
'It is not a fault of yours.'
'You came back.'
'We worried in your absence.'

Its arms raised invitingly towards you, ever careful not to come into contact with the Nymph's Wood ward.

'You have...'
'Changed.'
'Grown.'
'Matured.'
'Been defiled.'
'Ever been welcome.'

'This is not the first time you..'
'Rejected us.'
'Abandoned us.'
'Spurned us.'
'Lied to us.'
'Hurt us.'

'Even now.'
'You make promises you will not keep.'
'Make vows you do not understand.'
'Naively seek to placate.'
'Speak before you think.'
'Your heart is too open.'

"What won't happen again?" Priat interrupts the 'conversation', if it could be called as such, as he drew your attention away from the sounds of the wood around you. It occurred to you then, under the patient gaze of the Fae before you, that you had no proper answer. You knew something wrong had been done, you knew it had hurt them, and while you had theories... You had panicked. It had been all to easy to let your lips work while your mind frayed, weaving wordservice in a desperate apology for something you didn't understand. In the end, what were you even trying to promise wouldn't happen again? How could you keep a promise you didn't even understand the content of? Feeling as if you had been caught in a lie, you felt the stirrings of another apology on the tip of your tongue-

'Stupid, stupid child.'

-Only to flinch reflexively at the warmth and long-suffering affection.

'Have you become precocious?'
'You will make mistakes.'
'It is part of life.'
'Sometimes you will hurt those you love.'
'With the best of intentions...'

"Irue?" Priat again, more insistently this time as he reached out to warily nudge your shoulder. "Are you talking to it? What are you apologizing for?" The ebb and flow of the familiar forest sounds spoke clearly to you, and their voice was the same which you had heard outside your window every night as it lulled you to sleep. This was where you had grown up, where you had lived, with the gentle wind through the branches carrying the cries of distant wildlife. It was the same sound as always, but hearing it from the Fae revealed a meaning that had gone unnoticed all these years.

But to Priat, it may as well have been silence. A man native to the desert wasteland of Teranford, he lacked the presence of mind to listen to the sounds of the forest.

He was deaf to the forest, and thus, deaf to the Fae.

>Talk to Priat (about what?)
>Ask for Ari back
>Leave the Nymph's Wood ward
>Throw Nymph's Wood at the Fae
>Other? (write-in)

>>665277
>>Ask for Ari back

>>665277
>Ask for Ari and the knights back
We're responsible for them too.

>>665284
>>665312
Asking for Ari!

Also voting closed after 40m or so, to give people some time to wander in. At 5am. I'm surprised anyone showed up.

Writing!

>>665277
This>>665312
>>664262
Well, there is still my eyes and skull to worry about.

Also,I didn't make a promise intending to break it. The reason I didn't want some magic whatevers enforcing us to do it is because it could hinder us in the future. I just thought that if ever we need to do something that would upset mama firefly, we could ask them politely to give us concessions.

Priat could be ignored for now. He was on edge, but the man wouldn't have made it to his position as a Representative if he had a hair trigger. You could trust him to hold his own hand until the situation deteriorated one way or another. In the mean time, besides the nagging feeling that you were a small child being scolded for breaking a vase, this was going remarkably... Better than you expected, actually. That only made you feel more ill at ease, however, because it was a stark reminder that you were over your head in a situation you didn't understand. There were circumstances surrounding this forest, and your family's relation to it that were at work, and you were standing ignorant as they worked.

"You took someone from me." You put all of that behind you for now, pressing forward as bluntly and simply as you can. "Several people, actually. I want them back."

'We know.'
'We listen.'
'Always attentive.'
'Constant vigil.'
'Waiting for you.'
'Alone.'

Its arms remained raised and unmoving, leaving the solid nature of wood to hold them aloft.

'They could not stay.'
'Our memories stir.'
'Their scent too foul.'
'You were in danger.'
'Accursed children.'
'Inviting tragedy.'

"...What have you done with them?"

'Saved them.'
'Cleansed the taint.'
'Corruption ran too deeply.'
'Some may never return.'
'Minds inseparable from the touch.'
'They are safe.'

"Whatever you've done with them... They're still my responsibility. Give them back to me." You didn't like the gist of what you were being told, but could you afford to lash out right now? You had already assumed your knights to have been a lost cause, but if something had happened to Ari as well, then this entire trip would have been a waste. "Why..." You struggled to find words that wouldn't set off your rising frustrations, "Why not just drive them away? Or talk to me directly?"

'We listen.'
'You do not.'
'Deaf to our words.'
'Stubborn rejection.'
'Yet blood is shared.'
'You are still too young.'

'We have seen.'
'You would not listen.'
'As your home; So theirs.'
'So they must stay.'
'The past is cruel.'
'It must not be roused.'

>Insist on taking them back.
>Ask something else. (what?)
>Surprise attack!
>Other? (Write-in)

>>665454
>>Insist on taking them back.

>>665454
>Insist on taking them back.

>>665462
>>665465
Insisting!

Not sure if we're just being single minded, or if the options are bland tonight.

Writing anyway!

>>665454
>Ask something else. (what?)
It?


Also Riz if you're going to run this God awfully late you're going to drive your main audience to tears and let shitposter a and people who never actually read the quest and thus vote randomly dictate everything.

>>665492
>main audience
But I am here.

>>665492
Don't listen to him, it's noon for me here.

>>665496
Morning for me here, he still started at 4 am.

>>665495
Wow entitled much?

>>665500
I just got here. Excited to vote on how we ruin everything!

JK.

"Fine." What's done was done, but by no means were you just going to accept this. "You've had them for long enough, even if they've broken, I'm taking them back. They deserve that much."

'They are yours.'
'We will return them.'
'All but one.'
'The child's body is weak.'
'Cried for you.'
'The corruption runs deep.'

'A piece of us guards her.'
'Your blood fills its veins.'
'It has become stubborn as well.'
'Sings of selfish bonds.'
'Cradles the blighted child.'
'Begs for more time.'

'It will die.'
'Blood masks the scent.'
'Its veins will soon run dry.'
'Dedicated to its task.'
'Endures our memories alone.'
'We dare not draw their ire.'

You watched as its arms finally dropped, hanging limply at the Fae's sides, while it regarded you with a melancholic air. It was seeking; Your posture, your words, your actions, and your heart. Searching for an answer to a question it hadn't asked, and what it found only offered a taste of bitter pride.

'In the end, you are our beloved child.'
'You will protect her.'
'You won't let it hurt her.'
'You will go.'
'You will save her.'
'Because we are not so different.'

'Light protects you.'
'Wards you.'
'Blinds you.'
'Conceals you.'
'Consumes you.'
'Leads you astray.'

'It is Ignorant.'
'Pure.'
'Forsaken.'
'Lost.'
'Cast it away.'
'Please return to us.'

"..." You look down at the softly glowing clipping of Nymph's Wood in your hand, acutely feeling the gentle warmth of its light. "What is 'It'." You slip emphasis off the tip of your tongue, and no further explanation is needed to understand what you refer to. Yet even while you know the Fae understood you, it looked at you in disappointment as it stepped back and away. The Fireflies which had come to nestle upon the wood golem's form taking flight once more, leaving the color which had painted veins across the golem's body to drain away before your eyes. Its own fading light bled into the darkness, and your fist clenched frustratedly when your only answer stared you in the face until all that was left was a lifeless carving of your own ruined body, and the quiet rustling of leaves through the branches.

'It is...'
'All around you.'
'What you seek.'
'In pain.'
'Chained by regret.'
'I.'

>?

>>665539
I want to go back, get all the Nymph's wood and plant it everywhere till we find Ari.

>>665539
Shade?

>>665539
I don't fucking know what to do
>cry

>>665543
Oh no don't do this, I'd rather search for her using the spiders web than try to ruin the fey.

>>665539
What I understood from this is that the Oakenfinger guards Ari and doesn't let other Fey near her. So we have to go get her ourselves.

>Ask to lead us to Ari.

>>665550
It's gone, anon.
It told you how to get to her, though.

>>665539
>>665553

Alright fuck it I'll bite, give our clipping to Priat, tell him we're going to try trusting the Fey and that we have no goddamn idea what's going to happen.

>>665553
Weren't Oakenfinger and the golem who tasted our blood the same one?

Anyway, let's give the clipping to Priat and try to find Ari.

>>665553
Meditate on shade or use our blood?

>>665543
Plant Nymph's Wood! Everywhere!

>>665548
... Or not?

>>665544
>>665562
Time for Shade Meditation?

>>665557
>>665561
Hold my beer, Priat.

>>665547
...While I cry.

Writing!

>>665274
>'Stupid, stupid child.'

from the ask.fm
>You know that it's traditional for members of House Valen to be returned to the forest for keeping and remembrance. A very specific few are set adrift on a river to be returned directly

>At least one member of your family was set adrift on the river.

So if dead Valen get returned to the forest, some directly, and the forest and their lords are one and the same... is soylent green made from actual people?

>>665583
Why did this only come up in the AskFM? It seems like a pretty fundamental info in the light of our situation.

>>665606
Because that is where it was asked.

>>665619
On has to wonder what else did we not ask that would shed light on some of the mysteries in this quest...

Left alone in the woods once more, you took a long look at the innocent little clipping held in your hand. This had warded away the apparitions, and you had counted on it to be able to serve as a last line of defense against whatever you would have to face while trying to retrieve Ari... But the same light you had hoped to shield you was what would have ensured you never found her. With this in hand, you had been all but invisible to the Lords of the Forest, only coming under scrutiny after you had specifically asked for an audience.

"Hold onto this." You hand off the Nymph's Wood in your hand with a sense of resignation. While Priat made no objection to taking hold off the clipping, he grasped hold of your wrist as you made to move past him. "I want an explanation." His grip tightened, and you heard twigs snap underfoot as he dug himself into the ground in preparation to stand his ground... But you weren't going to run. "You haven't explained a single thing about what's going on out here, and then that thing showed up for a one-sided conversation. It was saying something, wasn't it?"

"That was the Fae." You turned back to him, "I called for an audience, and it came. We talked. I learned what I needed to."

"And now what?" Priat's grip loosened, eventually letting you slip free as he heaved a sigh. "We're just leaving? After coming all this way?"

"You're leaving." You correct with a shake of your head, pointing towards the twin clippings he carried. "Those will keep you safe, so I suggest you use them to get out."

"What about you? I thought you brought me out here to help if you got into trouble, and now you're just going to fight on your own?"

"I don't plan to fight at all."

You frowned, letting your mind slip into a familiar spiral of... Depression? No, in the past you had fallen into despair like that. Muddled in Insecurity, you had made a mistake and left a Doppleganger to confront your fears for you. It had wanted to run, and you were too proud to admit that its very existence meant you had run... But it had grown, and you had grown in kind. You were two parts of a whole, and in its death, its experiences had returned to you in full. It provided you an insight into Shade you rarely chose to stare into, for the bitter memories associated with it.

Every form of meditation you had learned of Shade emphasized concentration on your own failings, and you had approached them with the belief that to be embraced by Shade was to acknowledge your own shortcomings. You had thrown yourself, time and time again, at the mercy of your own lacking virtures... But that was only the beginning. You walked a single step and presumed it the journey, thinking that repeating that step over and over would eventually reward you. Shade was a Mana ever thrilled and hopeful of those who braved its domain.

A domain you had never once step foot in.

To acknowledge your failings meant nothing if you stopped there, and you had gone so far as to let yourself be defeated once before simply by staring into their maw. If acknowledging your failings was the first step, then overcoming them would be the second. What you felt as you shifted your thoughts to better accomodate the nature of Shade wasn't a form of self-loathing, but the steadfast resolve that came with familiarity gained through painful experience.

"I don't know what will happen, but I do know where I need to go." You explained calmly, feeling a comforting cloak assauge your hesitation as the bracelet warmed against your wrist. "I'm going to trust that the Fae will lead me to where I need to be."

"You're just going to trust it?" Priat almost laughed, but it came out more as a choking noise tinged with disbelief. "After it ran your people out of the forest, attacked your house, and actively assaulted you?" When he put it like that, this sounded stupid. Never the less, you nodded an affirmation.

"Why?"

"...Because in the end, we're not so different." You turn away as you answer, and eye the warding line between the Nymph's Wood light and the rest of the blackened forest. "And it's about time that I start listening."

You raise your hand as a parting gesture, waving as you step beyond the ward and disappear into the forest.

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The former Salamander Representative stood there, now very much alone in a bubble of faint light. After a few moments he strode after Irue, intent on giving them a piece of his mind... But each step only revealed more forest. Long strides turned to rapid pacing, and eventually the bright idea to simply raise a flame in one hand and extend the umbrella of shed light. As the corona of his conjured blaze spread beyond the Nymph's Wood ward, his grip tightened reflexively around the clippings he had been gifted.

Past the forest floor illuminated under the pale green light, only an inky abyss stared back at him; Featureless and vast.
_______

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

And we are archived.

I'll lurk the thread for a bit to try and answer some questions if I can.

Apologies to all anons who participated in Valen Quest but died at their keyboards wondering when QM would finally start.

To those who did not make it to the end, or died before we began, we will never forget your sacrifice.

>>665660
When will the hiatus end?
Does it weigh on your conscience even a little to leave us at such a cliffhanger?
Will Priat be able to get out of the forest?
How hard did we fuck up this thread?
Are you kawaii?

>>665666
1. December by the latest. It really depends on how quickly I can handle the problems and work that have come up recently. I'll still check Ask.FM occasionally, but I don't have the time to devote to threads until this is all resolved.

there will be a one week notice on twitter before Valen resumes though.

2. No.
3. Yes.
4. This gets asked every thread...
5. Don't ask me this!

>>665669
A shame

Good luck with whatever you need to sort out!

Also I'd like to ask you to clear the memo item #1, since we've already done that.

>>665673
Memo:
1.
2. Invite Marchovic on adventures next time there's a chance.
3. Mim said "When are you going to tell her?" Tell what to whom?

Memo updated!

>>665669
Riz confirmed for qt

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shit guys I missed the whole thread!

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>>665806
Did you have any great ideas we could have used?

>>665827
God I have no idea, I haven't had time to read it yet.

But it's not like great ideas would've helped THAT much... man I feel even more apprehensive of catching up than usual, thanks.

>Its arms raised invitingly towards you,
>Its arms remained raised and unmoving,
>You watched as its arms finally dropped, hanging limply at the Fae's sides, while it regarded you with a melancholic air.

Did... did it want a hug?


>Searching for an answer to a question it hadn't asked
If it wanted an answer why didn't it just /ask/?

I'm going to highlight some noteworthy lines so we can start trying to make some sense of this mess.

>'Shy attendant.'
Attendant of what?

>'She is weak.'
This doesn't feel like Ari, but maybe that's just me.

>'Without your Guardian.'
Secretary/maid? If so, I'm getting real tired of her keeping secrets. Next time we see her, we need to force the secrets issue. We can't trust her with anything but the most minor of tasks. Also, I stopped liking her when she killed ShadowRue.

>'This is not the first time you..'
'Rejected us.'
'Abandoned us.'
'Spurned us.'
'Lied to us.'
'Hurt us.'
As far as we know, we've never interacted with the Fae before.

>'Yet blood is shared.'
Either we've got Fae blood in us, or they're talking about a blood pact.

>'Stubborn rejection.'
It's not rejection if /we can't hear you!/

>'The past is cruel.'
'It must not be roused.'
?

>'The corruption runs deep.'
The bracelet? Spider's Web?

>'We dare not draw their ire.'

>'It is...'
'All around you.'
'What you seek.'
'In pain.'
'Chained by regret.'
'I.'
Thanks for the non-answer guy.


So, after all that, we learned one thing: don't use the clipping in the Fae forest. Nothing else. Oh, we got several new questions, but no answers that we couldn't have figured out on our own anyway. Fae, not even once.

>>665901
>The corruption runs deep.'
I suppose it means Ari's interest in Luna.

>>665901
>>'This is not the first time you..'
>'Rejected us.'
>'Abandoned us.'
>'Spurned us.'
>'Lied to us.'
>'Hurt us.'
>As far as we know, we've never interacted with the Fae before.


Any interaction with Luna is probably seen as a betrayal.

Also we literally came here once before with Kara and co.

>>666145
>>'Lied to us.'
This is the kicker for me. The others, yeah, you've got a point. But lying? How do you do that without interacting with someone?

I've just read the Ask.fm about town sizes and damn. Riz, you're severely underestimating population sizes. A population center of 1000 people is a large village. Big medieval cities could easily have 10k inhabitants.

Just look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_and_cities_in_England_by_historical_population#Medieval_England or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_urban_community_sizes#Middle_Ages for example.

>>666166
It was said somewhere that Fae have trouble telling apart a person from their ancestors, if they had interacted with the whole bloodline. Maybe it's related.

>>666166
>>666204
I want to believe this, but i have a different theory that is depressingly more likely.

They're telling the truth, and we've just Forgotten.

>>665956
The Fae seemed to imply that all of the kidnapped people had a similar criteria of corruption. I doubt our knights had interest in Luna, but Luna may have had varying interests in them.

>>666348
>We've just Forgotten
Goddammit, I was right. Some of the dialogue seemed familiar, so I went looking.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/41165789/
>>41177112
>You'll protect her.
>You won't let it hurt her.
>You'll come.
>You'll save her.
This was literally quoting us, and then the next post, anons voted to deny they were alike to a presence in the Shrine ruins. The "we are alike" dialogue has been repeated a few times, as well. Once during the Shrine ruins that Luna stole the memories of, and again during the end of thread 45.

And now here we are, blatantly making ourselves a liar a little over a year later.

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>>666421
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/41165789/
>Garet and his uncle