Branwen

1. Branwen’s Awakening

• I woke in a land of charcoal and grey shadow, and a great swirling sky filled with a storm of darkness.  I lay in a bower of black vines with flowers of purple and blue and lavender which glowed in the darkness.  Nearby I heard the crackling of a fire, and saw that instead of red and orange flame, the flames were made of the same flicking of blue and purple and utter darkness like the flowers and the sky.  I heard voices, and footsteps around and behind me, but whenever I turned to look, I saw nothing, and the voices and footsteps immediately hushed.  I was afraid, and I knew not where I was, or who I was, or how I got there.*

• I looked down at my naked chest, and saw black coagulated blood run down my body.*

• Then I heard the music of a flute coming from the fire, and I recognized a tune - though I knew not from whence I knew it.  I approached the fire, and feeling no heat from it, I stepped into the flame, and was consumed and all went black.  And I felt that I rose up into the sky in a swirling tumult, and suddenly felt my feet on the ground, and felt my eyes and opened them, and found myself standing here amongst you.*

  1. Rhiannon’s Gale

Image: Gale.png

Branwen meditated on the sword carried by Mannix, pleading with her Mistress to grant her knowledge of the weapon…

You sit in a quiet field outside of Sibrwd at the top of a knoll.  You hold the sword and look up at the stars which wheel about in the sky above you, and suddenly, you are falling into the sky and between the stars you see another clearing, all shadow grasses, and trumpet shaped purple flowers growing at the edges of a pool of water.  You land in the pool with a splash and are enveloped by its cool embrace.  Breaking the surface into the air, you tread water, and see that standing amidst the flowers at the pool’s edge is a figure dressed in flowing black shadows.  A single pale hand reaches out from a fold in the cloaks, and draws a vertical line in the air, glowing mauve, and lavender.  A wave of the hand transforms the glowing line into the sword Gale - though the sword looks new here and full of power in a way that the sword you were holding on the high knoll did not, ancient as it was.  A voice comes from the shadows saying, “take it if you desire, but know a powerful weapon requires a powerful bearer.  A great part of his will went into the creation of this.  Skill comes from the father, but when a maker wants power, he must gather older things, and stronger.”  You look at the sword hanging in front of you in the air, and realize that the shape behind it has disappeared like the ashes of burned leaves on the wind.  You grasp the grip of the sword, and find yourself back in the field beneath the stars.  And Gale looks strong to you, and old.  And you know that she contains more secrets than you have yet discovered.

1. A Vision From the Raven Queen One night you lay awake, looking into the sky, listening as these strange companions toss and turn on the hard ground.  You ask this black-clad woman “What is it that I do?”, and the stars swirl, and the sky reaches down for you, and you again, fall into the pool surrounded by lavender flowers.

• Once, there was a boy, she says from within her dark hood, and this boy lost his family to flame.  And for years and years he searched to replace them, without knowing that he did so.  And then he found someone who understood that the only way for one thing to gain, is for another to lose.  And sometimes those two things are one and the same.  And he was - shall we say - softened.  And these about you took him with them - and another, who is lost.  But this boy pledged himself to me, and submitted to the circle, and from him, I created you to be my eyes and ears - though remember, while eyes and ears speak to a person’s being, the person’s being seldom speaks back.*

• I was granted power long ago through no wish of my own.  Power is always granted from without.  Perhaps I was made from it.  Those that wish power must use force, but I have no such desire, and so no such need.  But the Dead are forgotten at the risk of greater harm, and when feared, well, let us say they have their revenge - a revenge they never sought.*

• So, my child, I am everywhere, and nowhere.  And it is up to you to see for me, and to take no more than is given.  I am the oldest of old, and younger than any.  I am all powerful, and no more than the humblest of bees.  The old battle with human arrogance is unending, and my time in hiding will run its course soon enough.  They always defeat themselves, but they need not cause such misery.  I am in the air, and the earth, and the flowing water, indifferent as they are.  I cannot be defeated.  It is up to the living to find the endlessly flowing wisdom of the Dead.*

• Remember that everything that lives was pruned as a bush can be into fantastic shapes, but the gardener’s hand was invisible to most.  Wind, rock, and snow prune as well as any shears.  Perhaps you will see the hand while others in their hubris believe themselves masters of their own identities.*

With that, she turns away, and vanishes in the swirl of dark grasses and leaves.  Do you still see me? she asks from everywhere.  Your task is no more than to bring the tangled garden to bloom.

1. Leech Craft + Healing When you use a healer’s kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point.

You can expend one use of a healer’s kit to either:

• Tend to Wounds: restore 1d6 + 4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature’s maximum number of Hit Dice.   A creature can only be healed this way once per day.

• Purge the Shadow: roll a Medicine (INT) check against a DC 20.  If successful, expend a spell slot and 10 Lay on Hands points to remove a shadow point from the target.  You can only attempt to Purge the Shadow once per day.  This is a ritual that requires an hour in peaceful, natural surroundings.

  1. Branwen’s First Flight On the forested island where we encountered centaurs and the 3 women, we returned to our ship, made camp and…

As you begin to hum, you lift the cape over your arms into the shape of a bird’s wings, and smile to yourself.  And begin to hear a sound on the wind - almost as though the wind is singing with you.  As if the song is almost a property of moving air.  Your fingers sprout into feathers, and something - the wind or the song, you aren’t sure - lifts you up and you’re suddenly flowing above the world, riotously flocking with ethereal companions, mounting higher and higher into the night sky.  You see the shadow of the huge tree, but your mind has changed, and things take on different meanings, meanings that make sense in bird-shape, but will you know them when you return to the ground?  The flock tumbles and swirls through the tree’s branches, and you have an overwhelming feeling of freedom and the joy of playing without thought of consequence.  You think, maybe, that you could follow the tree’s branches, and think of worlds like leaves adorning its reaching fingers.  You see so many pathways through the air - ways that were not there when you were earth bound, and with simple human eyes.  Looking down as you wheel over the island you see lavender paths, branching and branching through the forest below, always more than seems possible in the space, and multiplying outward and onward, you swoop and tumble toward your companions on the ground, enthralled with the idea of telling them what you have seen…