The Immolation of White Feather

A Horrific Fantasia for the AD&D game

by Eric R. Evans

Adventure Background

im·mo·late (¹m"…-l³t") tr.v. im·mo·lat·ed, im·mo·lat·ing, im·mo·lates. 1. To kill as a sacrifice. 2. To kill (oneself) by fire. 3. To destroy. [Latin immol³re, immol³t-, to sacrifice, sprinkle with sacrificial meal : in-, on; see IN-2 + mola, meal, millstone] --im"mo·la"tion n. --im"mo·la"tor n.

In the Immolation of White Feather (IWF), player characters (PCs) play the role of forest elves of Darkwood, who are members of an elite squad of King Sparrowhawk's foresters named the Winter Wolves. The Winter Wolves have already completed many dangerous adventures. They have captured bands of thieves, killed orcs, kobolds and goblins, defended The Treehouses and Circles of the Forest Elves from encroaching evil, and vanquished the undead, lycanthropes and other hideous monsters. The Winter Wolves have also thwarted several assassination attempts on the king and his family in their role as the king's spies. Each member of the Winter Wolves is married and has an extended family. The Winter Wolves are based in High House, the capital of the Wood -- the kingdom of the forest elves in Darkwood. The Winter Wolves are held in the highest esteem by most Forest Elves. The Universal Church and the small number of political insurgents in the Wood hate the Winter Wolves.

The forest elves live either in Treehouses or in Circles. Treehouses are huge forest-elf cities that are built high in the branches of the primeval redwood trees that live in the center of Darkwood. The elves use their own druidic and pagan nature lore to mold the living redwood trees into living city structures. Treehouses are normally built several hundred feet up in the branches of the Great Redwoods and are entered though spiral staircases in hollowed out portal trees, which will open to allow forest elves passage. Opening a redwood portal tree requires that the tree recognize the thought patterns of beings that are authorized to enter the Treehouse or Circle that it guards. If a portal tree does not recognize a being's though patterns, then it will not open to allow the being access to the forest elf community beyond. The Forest Elves post lookouts on most of the support and portal trees to ensure that they are not burned or climbed by attackers. Forest fire is the greatest threat to a forest elf Treehouse. Hollowed out river trees provide the elves in a Treehouse with water, and hollowed out latrine trees provide the Elves with a place to process and clean personal waste. The Treehouse is open to the sky above. If a Treehouse is under attack, the Great Redwoods that surround the Treehouse can close together over the Treehouse creating a vegetation shield.

Circles are ground structures similar to their Treehouse cousins, which are built in thick stands of conifers. The forest elves use their magic and a psychic link that they possess with all trees to weave the branches of the conifer trees into a living city. Portal trees allow forest elves and other authorized beings passage into and out of a Circle by means of a psychic signature. If a portal tree know the psychic signature of the being that desires entry or exit, then the portal tree will open. If a portal tree does not recognize the psychic signature of a being that desires entry, then the portal tree will not open. In times of trouble, the taller trees in the circle can be enlisted to form a vegetation shield over the Circle, otherwise the Circle is open to the forest canopy above.

Elves do not travel the ground of the forest, unless they are fighting evil or the armies of the great outer civilizations. Some elves travel The Ground, as they call it, in search of treasure for the king or adventure for themselves. Many of these brave, foolish, elves never return from the caressing arms of Darkwood. Instead, the elves most often use higher modes of transportation. They travel narrow plank bridges of wood and rope and vine to move from House to House or Circle to Circle. Some elves, mostly the rich and noble, travel on the backs of the Giant Hawks and Falcons of the Wood. These elves are few, however, being rich or noble. There are no roads on The Ground, save the Rock Road made of brick that the humans built a millennium ago. Most attacks from the outside come from the Rock Road because it affords an army easier travel than the undergrowth of the Wood. The elves do not maintain or control traffic on the road, but they do guard it, having built two Treehouses on the north shoulder of the road and a Treehouse and a Circle in the south. All the bridges on the Rock Road have since fallen in to the rivers or streams that they crossed, making fording the only method of traverse. The bricks of the road have been made uneven from the wicked frosts of winter, making a cart ride along the Rock Road a bone-jarring massage.

Forest Elves generally worship Nature and her four aspects: Acorn the Oak (earth), Spark the Inferno (fire), Raindrop the Storm (water), and Wing the Eagle (air). They do not worship in the Universal Church, as the centaurs, dryads, dwarves, gribblets and humans do. The Plains Elves and the Alpine Elves also worship in the Universal Church, although many of their number clandestinely maintain their "infidel" and "pagan" beliefs. Forest Elves are fierce lovers of freedom, and they defend their right to worship as they please with pugnacious tenacity. Forest Elves believe in freedom of religion and they allow other religious beliefs to coexist with their pagan worship of Nature. Some Forest Elves of the Treehouses and the Circles even worship the saints and the God of the Universal Church. The Forest Elves have been to war many times against vicious, raping and pillaging Holy Crusaders from the outer civilizations (or the Outer Darkness, as the forest elves have named all that lies beyond the borders of Darkwood) that follow the teachings of the Church. Each time, the Forest Elves have retreated deeper into the Heart of Darkwood, and they have been victorious in their prudent retreats. Lately under the militaristic rule of Sparrowhawk II, the Forest Elves have resisted their enemies, and they have resoundingly prevailed, pushing closer to the borders of the Great Forest once again.

The forest elves maintain an insular culture, and they have little social or economic contact with the members of other races, although members of all the other races can be found in forest elf cities. The Cousins, as the forest elves call all non-elves, came to the Treehouses and Circles to worship freely. Some Cousins have come to escape crimes, debts, execution or bad marriages. Occasionally, a forest elf Wanderer will leave the Circles or the Treehouses of his youth to venture into the Outer Darkness. Fortunate Wanderers, who have been able to escape the dangers of the forest and the road, can be found in all the other civilizations of Third Earth.

Darkwood is a gigantic, primeval forest crawling with anything that will not grow under the sun. The Forest Elves and their goodness are the only balances to the overpowering evil, which lurks beneath this canopy of Paleolithic leaves. Daylight cannot be seen anywhere in Darkwood, save in a Forest Elf Treehouse or Circle. Black rivers flow through the forest, carrying the forest's black filth from one place to the next as a grotesque ebbing and rising tide. Massive timber wolves, werewolves, giant boars and ferocious bears inhabit Darkwood. Caves, abandoned mines, ruins of an ancient human civilizations and witch shrines litter the forest. There have been infrequent reports of wraiths floating in the mist on the Foggy Bottom forest floor. Spirits, ghosts, ghouls, ghasts and skeletons roam the forest nearly unchecked except in the center where the forest elves defend. A Mandible of Necromancers makes its home in an ancient, black keep in the mountains of the west central forest. It is said that these Death Wizards are responsible for many slain elf Wanderers, soldiers and travelers. It has also been reported that some of these dead elves have come back from beyond the grave with a hunger for the hearts and a thirst for the blood of their spouses and children. The undead sometimes moan to the portal trees for entrance to the Treehouses or the Circles of the Forest Elves. Beware the Forest! For in it, evil is thick and viscous.

King Sparrowhawk II is the reigning King of the Wood. He is an upright and a just man, but overzealous in his pursuit of moral purity. Therefore, King Sparrowhawk can sometimes be quite ruthless for the cause of good in the name of justice. He craves art, drama, gems and loot of all kinds. He is especially ravenous for the ancient parchment maps that festoon the walls of dark ruins scattered about the Wood. Many adventurers have died searching these dank holes for treasure to quench the King's infernal lust for loot. He is also quite fond of caperoot, the sweet foot of the cape tree that grows in the swamps of the central forest. He has grown fat on kasa, the syrupy wine that is fermented from this weed. Many a poor boy has died in the pursuit of this medicinal pleasure for the King. The King keeps five standing armies of 1,000 elves each, which lays a heavy burden of taxation on the backs of the common elves. He claims that the armies are necessary to protect the Wood from the forces of evil that swirl about outside the confines of the Circles and the Treehouses, but some secretly think that the king may be more interested in protecting the People of the Forest from the evil that swirls within each of them. King Sparrowhawk is not a merciful elf. He has been known to execute such a one as would question an order or speak the plain truth to his sensitive ears. There is a public scaffold in the square of the High House, and a stake and chopping block too. Miniature models of these engines of justice can be found in every House and Circle in the Wood. Public executions are frequent and attended, as a one would attend a county fair.

Queen Pinecone is a melancholy woman, given to fits of anger and depression. She is beautiful with a sharp wit and a sharper tongue. The Queen is just as rigid and unmoving as her husband. In fact, many believe that the draconian punishments that are dictated by the Crown actually emanate like a stink from her bitter heart. Queen Pinecone will play almost no part in this adventure, as she is away south in the Aspen Circle, instructing several young she-elves in proper courtly manners. She is not expected to return to the High Home for several weeks. Most elves in High Home secretly wish that she would never come back.

White Feather is the youngest daughter of Queen Pinecone I and King Sparrowhawk II. White Feather is known about the High House to be a tease and a slut. She is very fond of sex and sex-play and all the young he-elves that have desired it have entertained her at one time or another. This sex-play occurs with the consent of the king and the queen. The forest elves may be draconian toward the criminals of the land, but they are sexually free. The king, in fact, throws huge, gluttonous sex parties at the palace, which are attended by nobles and ecclesiastics from all the Houses and Circles o' the Wood. The king's gluttony and sexual practices subvert and blaspheme the teachings of the elven holy book, which the forest elves simply call Te Rheim (The Collection). Te Rheim says "thou shalt restrain thy lusts in the midst of temptation," "thou shalt be the husband of one wife and faithful unto her" and "gluttony is to be shunned." On elven holy days, the king suspends the orgies at the palace.