Role

Chapter 3

The Rods
Added Sun Apr 17 15:10:27 2016 at level 21:

By the time Hallanaphas dispatched the zombie deer and returned to his village, he was slick with a cold
sweat, pale and near complete exhaustion. Hallanaphas was able to relay his message and the story of
what befell him in the forest to his father before collapsing into unconsciousness.

The next morning while Hallanaphas was still in the throes of the illness, the guards from Evermoon
arrived to join up with the warriors from the Swift Waters Tribe and they all left to confront the loggers.
Two days later when Hallanaphas finally broke through his fever he awoke to find his Village a very
different place. And then he was called before his father and the entire Tribe of the Swift Waters.

Upon arriving Hallanaphas noticed that it was not quite the entire Tribe, but only about half of the
members. None of them looked pleased to see Hallanaphas. Confused, Hallanaphas began to ask his
father what was going on but was just ordered to be silent. His father, grim-faced, then began to tell him
how the illness he had contracted had been contagious and spread throughout the Village that first
night. Many were infected and began to get ill. Many warriors who left to confront the loggers were
infected without realizing it until they entered into battle. Most of those warriors died in that battle,
lacking the strength to fight. To add further horror, many young children and elderly people of the tribe
had also died from the illness. He had brought plague to the village and it had cost the lives of many of
his tribal people. The people who were left were angry and demanded punishment of Hallanaphas.
Some called for death, while others exile. His father, being chief had to decide.

The chief was utterly shamed over the whole situation. Had his son obeyed his instructions as he was
told none of this would have happened. Yet, he loved his son and it broke his heart to give in to the
demands of the tribe. So, he came up with a solution. Being Chief he was practiced in a divination art
called casting rods. It was customary for the Chief to resort to the rods when confronted by vexing
problems such as this, and so he declared he would cast the rods to determine the fate of his son.