Kvelti waits for the customers to disperse back to the wagons of the caravan before prowling about the bushes across from the Wombat. "Torque Longwood? Be you here?"

Standing from her hiding place, Torque steps forward from the bushes. "Kvelti?" keeping her distance she watches the woman carefully, so as to make sure of her identity. "That you?"

"No, it's the other old barkeeper. Greetings, Torque. Let's all step back into the forest a bit, more out of sight..."

She performs a quick round of introductions, ending with Grimlock. "This one says he was looking for centuars...and keep your mind closed around him, if you can."

Torque casts a wary glance at the one Kvelti calls Grimlock "Why is there a need to close ones mind? Surely you cannot read thoughts? Though it does not surprise me, we have found that those of two legs tend to look for what is not theirs...the forest being one such thing. Tis nothing personal, just past experience. I hope this will change"

"What Thorn has told me has brought up some older memories...stories heard, things done. Things Cael here ought to have been told, but I'm sure were kept from him. Know that big desert down in Ehosia? The one that goes right over to the ocean. Didn't used to be a desert, they say. Used to be a great tropical forest, with bright colored birds and great cats and all sorts of wonders in it. Then it just started to shrivel up and die. Just like Thorn's trees."

"They say it was mages that did it. They took the lifepower out of the trees and plants. Nobody ever said that the Church of Eho had anything to do with it...but some fantastic creatures - jungle elves, they say - died along with the jungle, and no tears were shed. And of course, it's never mentioned anymore. Thank goodness for elven lorekeepers."

"They called these mages despoilers, or destroyers. It sounds like one of these has made his - or her - way into our Forest here."

"I hope I've been of help. I'm afraid I can't be of much more use to you. I'm in good shape for a human pushing sixty, but that's far too slow for the adventuring life. If this were dire straits, you could call me up. But Torque, Thorn, I think you'll get a better deal if you take these three young, strong people rather than this old one."

"I'll stay here, in the Wombat, and I'll keep an ear out for any more information coming through here. And if you send back word of your location from time to time, if any more adventurerers show up out of the...um...woodwork, I can send them your way. And I can send you any information I pick up."

Kvelti shrugs. "I don't know how these despoilers work. Maybe he needs to be in the forest, maybe he doesn't. I'd guess that he does, but that's only a guess. It's a big Forest, too...although you do seem to know where the destruction is starting." She shrugs again. "I don't know where to tell you to start...although if you have any questions, I can try to answer them."

Gwenh looks at the others in interest, "Tis not often we get to see so many of other race, I recognize the humans and I know of elves but as for the Magi you talk of? And Eho?" she shrugs, "Our clan lives a secluded life, I would not have left if this did not threaten our existence now"

Gremlock speaks to Torque, trying to allay her concerns about him. "I assure you; I have no desire for your forest. I wish for its safety nearly as much as you. I will aid you an any way possible." Turning to Kvelti, Gremlock asks, "Is that all you know of these magi?"

Kvelti grins hollowly. "I know you can kill them without too much fuss. Stick a sword in them and they go down like anyone else. Getting close enough to stick them, that can be a problem. Also, you don't have to worry about them despoiling you...well, maybe Thorn does. But it seems that they can't drain the lifeforce from animal forms of life. That's for the blood mages..." She shudders involuntarily.

Torque speaks up. "There is only so much woodland our clan may watch, beyond this is the area we hold sacred, from which Thorn came. I cannot believe that one should wish to harm our home, but I too have heard how the trees may be devastated, it saddens me to even think of what may be... but as you say, the question is, where to start?"

"Where to start..." she muses. "Well, you have a few here who know the Forest quite well, so you might begin there. Or - now, this is a bit of a leap - treat the ill rather than the symptom. I've a feeling that the trouble will trace back to Ehosia sooner or later. That's the last place there were ever a lot of despoilers, and that's where I met one once. But..." she shrugs. "You might find the root, but by then the vine may have strangled the Forest. The more I think about it, the more I believe your despoiler is in the Forest, and probably close to its center. What sort of a hunt do you prefer?"

Gwenh lisened to all this with a sad look on her face. She turned to Kvelti. "A hunt you call it...I do believe I know how to hunt..." She shakes her head. "But what do they do with the lifeforce of the trees once they steal it?" She thinks for a second. "How long ago where the jungle elves destroyed, I remember them, I've met a few, they were very interesting." She looks at the assembled group and wished that Kvelti was going. "Oh, should I get my cousin to come, she is older then me, but she may not agree, she does seem to look down upon everyone, maybe I shouldn't get her..." She looks to the ground for a second, mumbling more to herself then anyone.

Cael listens to Kvelti's tale with growing dread. He had always wondered what had created the great desert, but to learn the truth.... He shuddered. Strangely, he didn't seem to doubt her story.

"Um... going to Ehosia isn't really an option at the moment." He looked around at the others. "Grimlock would be the only one who wouldn't be immediately stopped by the priests and questioned, or worse. Once they found out about his thought stealing, however...." He left the sentence unfinished. "Besides, Kvelti's right. By the time we found something in Ehosia, if we even did, the Forest would be gone. My vote would be for stopping the one defiling the Forest first."

Kvelti cocks her head at the thunderous silence that follows Cael's words. "I take it that means no one disagrees...? Wait here for a bit, then."

She disappears back into the Wombat and returns with two bundles. The first is a homespun tunic and trousers. "For you." She hands them to Thorn. "You might not need them in the Forest, but if you leave it again, you'd best put them on."

Thorn looks at the clothes in her hands with some confusion. Where should she put them? She settles for just holding them at the moment. "So we go, back to the Forest? And there we find the killer? Why do we wait here?"

"Yes, time passes quickly and the forest is unprotected." Torque too is eager to return to her home. "Kvelti, thank you for your help, may fortune treat you well..." Stepping forward she gives Kvelti a warm hug and turns to leave. "...till we meet again." Walking forward she pauses waiting for the others. "Thorn, you know the forest past my village better than I, do you know where we may find this mage? Or does anyone?" She looks about hopefully.

Cael starts to pack up his healing supplies. "Torque, I might be able to sense where the mage is, but we'll need to be much closer than here. We'd need to be in the Forest itself." He thinks for a moment, and frowns. "But if the Forest itself can create her," he points at Thorn, "then there'll be a lot of interference. I might just sense all the natural magics from the Forest itself. Won't know until I try, though." He finishes packing, and takes up his satchel and iron-oak staff. "Ready."

"That would be of great use, I believe," Torque smiles thankfully. "Any lead to where this...'mage' may be, is a start. You must know which limb the worm inhabits before you may drive it from the tree"

Gwenh checks the sword by her side and her dagger. "No time as good as the present." She smiles and looks at those gathered. "I suppose we'll be leaving soon? I am ready." She lets her gaze rest on Thorn, wondering how the gods meant for her to help this one.

The five beings move out into the Forest, fading from sight in the darkness beneath its branches.

Kvelti watches them for a moment. "Gods go with you," she mumbles under her breath. It has been a long time since she has invoked gods in anything other than a curse.

With a heavier heart, she returns to the Wombat to re-open for business. She is especially convivial with the men from Ehosia, and is careful to ask them many questions about their home.