<strong>Eshalu - audience with the matriarch</strong><br/><br/>Following the skittering Saurian which went by the name Visha, it dawned on Eshalu that Reliyian was far more disconcerted by wood elven customs than she had previously thought. With the advent of sorcery, Reliyian's kin could doubtless afford a different relationship with the spiritual world, which they could observe and study from afar. But for Eshalu's own People it was a matter of tradition and survival. It was also the very essence of what it was to be tenders of the First Growths. Which other races could commune with dryads, invoke naiads to alter a stream's course to irrigate an orchard or couple feverishly with a nymph after a wild, sylvan chase? She badly wanted for Reliyian to understand that though their respective kin had been separated for aeons, they were still both of the People and carried a profound link with the spirits who, though they may have been forgotten, in turn never forgot.<br/><br/>Passing through walkways set amongst dense, almost impenetrable foliage, Eshalu remained astonished by how much the idea behind the configuration of the Saurian settlement mirrored her own Caern. Both her People and the Cold Ones clearly had an arboreal bent, but there was something uncanny in the common solutions both cultures seemed to find to the same challenges of living seamlessly with the forest. The vegetation, too, was remarkable and perhaps old like the First Growths of her homeland. She had no way of telling, or knowing the place better with its stories and songs and that was a pity. Had she been anywhere else, she would have sought to commune with the spirits of the land itself. But if the malignant presence was the island itself, its noxious tendrils had no doubt spread to the vegetation, corrupting any spirits within.<br/><br/>She spotted the great, feathered matriarch the moment it came into view. Her low-light vision adjusted quickly to the gloom, but it took a moment for her to establish tone and definition. It was then that the full glory of the - doubtless ancient - Saurian's plumage was revealed. It was dazzling in a way that the plumage of the rare, crested raptors of her homeland were - flying higher than the clouds, their shrieks piercing twilit skies while they searched for prey in the canopy beneath. Those of her lodge-sisters who mastered the bow prized such feathers for their arrows and amulets propitiating the Moon Huntress.<br/><br/>Eshalu stood, slightly tense, and listened to the matriarch and Aeryn speak. The only thought in her conscious mind surfacing over the unconscious rehearsal of combat reflexes should the situation suddenly go awry, was the rather trite<em>that's certainly a big lizard...</em>. Trite but true. It was, in fact, the biggest lizard she had ever seen and would make a fine story for the Loreweavers. Provided of course the big lizard did not have an equally big appetite for soft-skinned intruders.<br/><br/>There was definitely something about the place that was odd, though. Being left alone in the presence of the matriarch was puzzling and unsettling and something in Eshalu's sixth-sense had been set off. She remained composed, but her eyes darted, and her hearing focused to pick out any background anomalies.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Roll Result: Eshalu rolled: 4d6<br/>Comment: Notice check<br/>Result: 3, 6, 2, 6<br/>Net result <strong>+3</strong> (+1 dice roll and +2 Notice) a <strong>Good</strong> success</div></div>