- The woman that appears in Silas’ dreams In Silas’ dreams this woman is described as “matronly, and covered in thick woolen clothing, made of burgundy, purple, and dark brown yarn, as well as a thick forest-green cape”, having “kindly eyes” that holds “a deep forest green in her irises.”
Wondering if this is perhaps a vision of Tewlder’s wife?
Could she perhaps be the other twin?
- The Elder Lands Upon leaving Silas’ dream at The Abbot’s hut, she says “They’ll wish to return to the Elder Lands even if they don’t know, and if you look, he’s there too. And perhaps that’s where you are, as well.”
I didn’t pick up on this until now (1/4/24), otherwise I would have been asking around about these Elder Lands.
The Elder Lands could be referring to:
- my homeland in the far north
- the land around the Eye of Night where the woman had initially directed me
- maybe where we’re headed after making the choice from The Oracle, into the “mountains amongst the stars”
- this parallel plane where the black lake exists
- someplace else An answer from Nathaniel to the question “What are the Elder Lands?” after a poor old lore roll from Branwen (9):
“You’d have heard vaguely of Elder lands, sort of like we’d think of the place where fairy tales take place.”
While we were in Nyth, Seren told us that we were in the Elder Lands, but we never really adequately “search” for the bear there.
- The sleeping Bear
- NEED TO UPDATE THIS SECTION WITH NEW ISLAND HAPPENINGS***
I can see two possibilities:
- Only Silas has the power to wake this bear (in that case, where is it?)
- Silas IS the bear, and has to awaken it in himself (in that case, how?) As Cricket notes, the minions of the Sun King (who seem to worship Mons) seem to react especially negatively toward Silas (called Arthyden, “bear-born”; and the Bear’s followers would oppose what Mons represents, that being the power and superiority of man.)
At the well in Celliwig, S asks how he can wake the great bear. The women reply: > Women: Are you looking for the child?
Balthazar: We are. Who is this child?
Women: We brought the two of them forth long ago, they have disappeared form my sight long ago, but we still hear them.
B: Who is them?
Women: Our son and daughter.
B: Is the bear the son and the missing child is the daughter?
Women: <They won’t clarify.>About the sleeping bear, the Oracle said: > “He sleeps and some hear him. And you are marked by him.”How does one wake the bear?> First you may need to find him.Silas sees the Great Bear and the bear cub Constellations in the sky with a dragon “curling between them.” (see next section) Might this mean that to wake the sleeping bear, Silas may need Balthazar’s help?
The origins of the sleeping bear (and the woman in the tree), or at least the interpretation of them according to the Silas’ druid circle, are told in the oral traditional story Gwedhen.
1. Ruminations from a walkthrough of bear occurrences in Phases 1 & 2 (pre-waterfall jump)
- In the Abbot’s Hut dream, she said: “…it is hard to tell if [the bear’s] sleep is troubled.” It seems likely that it is (or was), because in Silas’ Ancient Tree vision, he soothes the bear who is restless in his sleep.
- Was the bear banished or went to sleep? The dream woman and the bear people (Logan also) talk as though he went somewhere and slept, but the ancient turtle talks about the bear being banished by his children.
- In the well in the tree fort, the three women talk about the child and the bear as their children. This smacks of the turtle talking about the bear’s father, and no one knowing who he is. Apparently the bear also has children, according to the turtle.
- When we had asked about the bear to the women at the tree fort well, they deflected and asked us if we’re looking for the child (which child? The missing one? The girl in the tree?.) Perhaps this child is key somehow to finding the bear (As of 8/18/25, we left the missing one at the farm with Seren.)
- In the bear village, they talk of a hill site outside of the village, visible from the village, where they have buried two old bears that had died. This might be worth revisiting.
- Silas seems to have failed to ask the village Elders specifically anything more about the Great Bear in his talk with them. This seems like a missed opportunity.
- Twin Talk
- The Boatman suggested that a girl and the bear are “twins”. We’ve heard/seen/felt imagery of both a girl and a bear separately being in the roots of a tree.
- The Boatman also suggests that Silas is the bear and not Arthen.
- The festival folk at the fountain asked us: “You bring the other twin to the festival?”
- Logan: “the mother tree, the bees and the great bear are all part of one thing.”
- Old woman’s homestead in Nyth: [Regarding the twins, she nods over in Silas and Arthen’s direction.] “There’s one.” And she looks over to a tree to the north of the plot [a derwen], and says, “There’s another.”
- Black Willem refers to Silas as a “great bear”
- We speculated early on that the “hearty friend” from Balz’s message could be the bear, especially if it’s deep within the earth. But what is the gateway? A gateway to Nyth? We’ve been through one, but not the way Musk came. He came through a cave. Perhaps that’s worth checking out on the other side.
- Gwedhen and the bear: This was a story told by Silas’ druid folk and passed down. The brother in the story is potentially the patriarch of the druid folk, and speaks of bear riding and having respect for the beasts like bear village folk.
- Bears, bees, battlestar galactica (and mother trees)
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At the tree in Nyth, we ruminate on the “two times” or man, that of physicality and that of consciousness. In these ideas, the bear is the keeper of man’s experiences and thoughts that the bees collect and keep in honeycombs. This seems to support what Logan said about the tree, the bear and the bees are all part of one thing.
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This seems related to Silas’ runic message: “A bear knows where honey lives for both mind and body.”
- Constellations. (GoogleDoc) Our choice from the oracle mentioned heading to “the mountains among the stars”, so the stars themselves may be of some import.
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When sleeping under the stars one night, Silas took in many shapes in the stars, some of which seem directly referencing party members. They also reflect constellations IRL.
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You can see that all these things are of a piece. That they are ancient, and alive, but you don’t know the whole story. You see that they are living their own existences, and that they are not concerned with you, but that each is trying to complete a task of their own. You sense that - perhaps - you are there among them, and part of their story, but you are not yet sure. You wonder if perhaps time will lead you further into their tales.*
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You see a Great Bear, and a Bear Cub with a dragon curling between them
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You see a kingfisher with a red eye flying next to a phoenix - wings spread, and both flying through a great river of light
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You see two brothers very different, but walking hand in hand.
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You see an Old Man sitting and smoking a pipe, watching things from afar with a two-horned crown lying behind him. | Osgog constellations | Possible Osgog representations | IRL constellations | | | | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Great bear, bear cub, dragon | Silas, Arthen & Balthazar | or | | The slumbering bear, Silas and Blathazar | Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Draco | | Kingfisher and phoenix | Krambler and Storr | Crane (Grus)? and the Phoenix (I couldn’t find a real constellation for a kingfisher, aside from the star Alcyone) -Note from Nathaniel: This isn’t really story related, but it’s worth noting that these, too, are real constellations, though I am (admittedly) renaming them. I’m thinking that Aquila
looks a bit like a kingfisher preparing to plunge and that Cygnu s can b e reinterpreted as a phoenix. The “great river of light” is then the Milky Way. | | | | | Two Brothers | | - Tewlder and Musk (probably not if they’re ancient) | - The brothers from Old Brother, though there was also a sister in the story. | - One of the statues in the tower is referenced as “brother” in the campaign log | The Twins (Gemini) | | Old man and the crown | | - The Abbot | - The Boatman | Boötes (the Herdsman) and the Corona Borealis | | - The Tower, the Watcher and the Prisoner (the poet) During the fight with the shadow at the tower, Silas becomes possessed by the shadow. > Cricket puts on his cloak…He sees in the space of Silas a pale figure being buffetted and swirled around in this darkness. He doesn’t necessarily look thrilled to be where he is. The shdaow is possessing him. Silas, a shadow, and a man, all layered over him. Silas is on the outside, the shadow, and then the man on the inside.
Cricket attempts to reach out to the man under the shadow. The shadow leaps off of Silas. Silas is aware of himself again… The shadow moves next to Cricket; no one else can see it. He tells Koweth to attack the space next to him. Cricket sees Koweth’s beak lodge into the shadow INTENSELY (like 3 crits in a row intensely) and the shadow dissipates.
[Cricket tries to talk to the man, now released.]
The man tells Cricket: “I was a watcher under in the tower and I left long ago but part of me was wrapped in this shadow, but the burden has been lifted.” And he evaporates. Afterward, we swirl Gale in the well water (the inscription around the bowl led us to think of Gale) and a quill pen appears.
The statue in the village of Prydyh is of a man holding a quill. Elowen told us this was of a great poet who left long ago and never returned. We deduced after some assistance that this statue is of the prisoner from the tower that had been trapped in the shadow.
Hint from Nathaniel:> OK, I’ll give you a hint, with the caveat that not all of this will ever be entirely clear. There was an incident long ago. You heard about part of it in the Bear Village. You heard about part of it in the Tower. You heard about part of it in the writings in the tower, part of it in stories, part of it from the forest sentinels.
There are a bunch of arrows pointing to something happening, but you’ve yet to really hypothesize that something happened.
I do think that your characters would be more likely to see some of the things that you’ve heard about are related, so I’m wiling to give you that - that and the fact that you’re showing a fair level of effort and engagement.The poet is also a male.
From our interaction with the stone sisters in the dungeon:> We recall the poem written on the wall of the tower that ended in “The Foundling”, where we met the man enshrouded in shadow. He was “the watcher under in the tower”
Silas: Does Seren know the watcher under in the towers?
Child: “They should have left him under our charge, but humans are arrogant and self absorbed.”
Storr: What did this watcher do to be put in a dungeon?
Crone: His crime was to forget those who came before.
Storr: Was the watcher a human when he was in prison?
Crone: We have no interest in the watcher, only in the one that escaped. (“the one that escaped” could be whatever the watcher set loose)
Perhaps there were three present in that episode: Silas, the man, but thirdly, the shadow itself.
Silas: Can you tell us more about this one who escaped? We saw him only as a shadow.
Child: The sun husband turned to black.Questions pertaining to all of this;
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Why was the watcher trapped by a shadow? What the heck happened to that guy?
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Was his release from the tower…consequential?
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Trapped by whom?
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Watching for what?
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What is the incident mentioned in the Bear Village, in the Tower, in the tower writings, and from the forest sentinels that is also mention in stories?
- The incident Branwen has some good analysis here.
Also from the bear village: “The Tower is related to the darkness that comes at night. It was used in some capacity that was overstepping the bounds of nature… in a bad way. They drove too deep and greedily. Offensive to nature - like science gone too far… It’s not inherently evil but used for those purposes.”
1. The identity of the watcher
Again, good analysis from Branwen.
That bit from the bear village calls to my mind Musk; perhaps he is involved as well. He also seems to have delved into something powerful. Though these references to the incident point to something happening long ago, all things are circles, especially time, and we don’t quite understand how time flows.
1. "Sun husband turned to black" (or "son")
That was the answer the Triumverate (Branwen’s name for the three stone sisters, which I love) gave to our question: “Can you tell us more about this one who escaped? We saw him only as a shadow.”
“The one who escaped” being the thing that the watcher was supposed to watch and keep contained, but failed.
We’ve seen “sun” and “husband” in various contexts:
- Sun
- most obviously The Sun King
- Honey Woman represents warmth
- Gorgomog befriended the sun as king (but the sun wasn’t inherent to his identity)
- Husband
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Again, Gorgomog, he had a wife, Morianoth
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Icebeard (but his wife was more identified with the sun, not himself)
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The Red Blade’s father
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Mogg (whom we’ve speculagted is also be Gorgomog from The God King)
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An idea from 2024:
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I posit that the thing that this watcher was trying to keep contained is a dark side of Mog. Mog was also living on the sunny, fruitful, joyful side of Raven Island, while the other half of it was covered in fog and shadow. We’ve posited that perhaps Mog was missing something of his identity, has been sort of neutered in a way, especially if he was once the God King Gorgomog (maybe this evil side is called “Gorgo?“) Perhaps his powerful, darker side was somehow separated from him and held captive beneath the Black Lake.
1. # An update from 2025:
We have reason to believe that the thing trapped under the lake is The Moon King, who seems to be some iteration of Gorgomogg (See log entry of 8/14/25) that is feared by those of the bear village and the village of Trevas (goose fat party.)
Another thought is that this darkness is Mons. “Sun husband” may be “son husband”, and in that case Gorgomogg wouldn’t make sense.
From a Hoppsy text:> The stories say mons left. Mons bias stories, anyway, right? What if that’s sugar coating that he was defeated and locked away, being watched and such? An aspect or part or all of someone escaped that tower. “His crime was to forget those that came before.” ⇒ The Dead
Son husband turned black ⇒ Mons.
Anyway. Maybe Mons lost to the dragon, this beast of death, and Mons didn’t leave on his own, but is the one being “watched”.Maybe Mons’ crime of “forgetting those who came before” then is his act of defeating death, as interpreted by his zealots.
- New tower ramblings, because we still haven’t addressed it
- More coaxing from Nathaniel
Guys, a couple of notes/proddings. You’re avoiding the most pressing questions, and falling back into old grooves.
Where/Who are “Foundlings”? Why “nameless family name”? These are things you’ve already seen and commented on. Check Foamflower.> WHO SENT YOU THE RUNIC MESSAGES? You have the answer.> What happened at the Tower long ago? What is the deal with “The Foundling”?> GO READ THE TOWER POEMS, AND CREATE A NARRATIVE. What the F was the shadow in the Tower? You have seen nothing like it. (But you’ve heard pieces in the Bear Village, Gwrydh, and the Guardians.
1. Foundlings
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n. an infant that has been abandoned by its parents and is discovered and cared for by others.*
1. # The Abbot
The foundling?? Well, lots in stories, but if you talk about THE foundling, there;s one that came from royal lineage that left to go set a watch. This young prince walks off and then comes back and declare something, I don’t know.
Bal: What was he watching?
It was about the time. He was going to come back when the time was right. A motif that shows up i stories, the young child that sees something, walks off into the wilderness.
Bal relates that the abbot has been referred to us as the foundling, and the abbot returned to this illusionary city and walked into a fountain and died. Celebrated as the return of the foundling. This was him returning from his watch.
Bardh recognized versions of all the stories except Foamflower.
Bardh reads Foamflower.
Bardh: This is storytelling. You seem to be taking it as verifiable truth. Motif of a seer. There are people out there that can see more than others. It seems magicalk to some, but it’s just perception.The Abbot is “The Foundling.” He was referred to as such in Trenewydh. The oracle also called him that.> C: Bryok?
O: Only rumors to me have returned to me of the Foundling.
C: Why do they call him the foundling.
O: What do you know of his origin? Only that he left long ago.
C: From where?
O: He left the city to go keep a watch.The statue in the initial Nyth village (Sibrwd) is of the poet (told to us by Elowyn), who Branwyn recognized as the prisoner from the tower.
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The Abbot is the Foundling (the Foamflower boy.) The Watcher trapped in shadow is the Poet. Are they the same person? If so, why would none of recognize the statue as the Abbot?*
1. # Other foundlings -
The missing girl is also a foundling, one of four who currently live in Twrseren. They are also nameless.*
1. Runic messages 1. Tower connections
The watcher was the village poet (quill feather connection.)
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Boatman:** He “delved deep beneath the earth” and “focused too deeply on the thing beneath the lake…it escaped into him”
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Forest sentinels:** He “created a soft spot between different places that have long been separated”
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The rift that allows us to travel between Nyth and our world.*
- Boatman:** Words can bring you too near to a thing and it can be dangerous.
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The watcher and his poems somehow unlocked the thing in the lake?*
- Bear village:** “The Tower is related to the darkness that comes at night. It was used in some capacity that was overstepping the bounds of nature… science gone too far. Not evil, but used for those purposes… They are fearful at night, the Night King of Darkness, “King of the Moon,” brought great destruction and evil…”
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But what IS the shadow?*
- Triumvirate:** “The sun husband turned to black”
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One idea: the dark side of Mogg.*
- Other thoughts
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In one of Silas’ dreams, he flies toward the The Eye of Night and lands on a “pebble strewn shore”. The Old Brother story mentions a “pebble beach”. Perhaps this shore is the same as the beach in the story? That would mean that this Lake is the same body of water The Three were sitting by
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The woman from Silas’ Tawesek and Abbot hut dreams is very likely his sister.
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In the Twr-Seren dream, Seren spoke of providing “one of two directions” to go. Wondering if they were hints just there, in the following sessions, or have yet to be revealed.
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- DM (paraphrasing): Her saying this as you leave the farm in that moment: if you’re telling her, this is where I want us to go, then she can say, “this is where I can tell you to go.” She can help in our next direction. We can also send her a note or ask a question. Storr could have told us: Storr had been following her into the woods by a pool and the tree, she does so on a regular basis, and so can receive and reply to messages via waterways fairly quickly.
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- We have a vial of the traveling water that we’ve forgotten about. This should be one of the items we keep with us after the waterfall. Asked about messaging via Derwen Trees as well. DM: “You could certainly try. Try the water first though.”
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Asking around about the bear has only gotten so far. How can Silas take a more active role in discovering these things? What can Silas actually do?
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Still grappling with the idea of identity: that there are these twins, and apparently Silas is one, but there’s also a separate bear entity that’s asleep and won’t ever wake up (according to Seren) that is also the same twin? And the other twin is the girl-derwen, and they’re all connected?
- Outstanding questions
- Phases 1 & 2
- Outstanding questions
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Why are monsters we encounter freaking out about Silas specifically?
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- Not sure we’ve gotten a great answer here yet. We’ve speculated that the elementals have been sent by the Sun King. If he represents (or is) Mons, it would track that he would want to defeat the great bear prior to his return since the bear is one of his main opponents.
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What’s up with the fountain in The Waterfall City? There was a bear at the base of a tree as part of that sculpture I believe; we didn’t get a good change to look at it.
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The festival was a celebration of the girl and the tree (according to the boatman). The festival folk got upset about there being “the other twin” present, and incredulous that we didn’t understand why that was important.
- Phase 3
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Where is the bear? How does Silas wake him, whether it’s externally or internally?
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What are these familial relationships of the bear of which we’ve been given hints?
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What’s the significance of the twins? How do the bees fit into that make up?