An old man's powerful voice thundered through the trees as he berated
the assembled crowd of villagers. "Do not be deceived, Eleusians! These
are people who willingly annihilated groves that it was their duty to
protect and cultivate! Do you really think such monsters could have a
place in our village?"

A murmur swept through the small crowd, and eyes shifted back and forth
uneasily between the speaker and the slender, youthful form of the
red-haired woman standing demurely at the assembly's edge. Finally, the
graceful figure of Miri, the Tea Mistress, stood and began to speak in
calm, reasonable tones. "We all bear the greatest respect for your
wisdom, Master Jahalen, but Queen Titania has been intertwined with the
forests for a very, very long time. If she says that these Sentinels are
friends of nature, I am inclined to believe her."

Heads nodded in agreement, and Jahalen's fury mounted visibly as he
realised that the majority was against him. Levelling a murderous glare
at the serene figure of the Dryad Queen, he whirled about and stormed
away from the meeting place. A handful of elderly robed men rose from
their seats to follow him, casting foul glances over their shoulders.

That day Titania revealed the village of Eleusis to the Sentinels Guild,
and they have made their home there ever since. Jahalen and his
followers disappeared, it seemed, and the Eleusians agreed among
themselves not to mention the offensive old man to their new citizens.

-------------------------

Almost two hundred years later, something strange began to happen in the
Western Ithmia. Faded runes shimmered into view upon the trunks of trees
within the elmwood, alarming forestals with their periodic bright
flashes of light and heat. Even stranger was the subsequent appearance
of a ghostly figure within the forest.

Refusing to identify himself, the newcomer begged the assembled
adventurers to destroy the runes. He managed to communicate that they
were the work of a man named Jahalen and that the Aalen druid, Thaa'lis,
would be able to undo them. Before the suspicious onlookers could
question him further, the image vanished abruptly.

When questioned, the ancient druid immediately recognised the name of
Jahalen, and it soon became clear that the two had once been fierce
rivals. He was pleased to provide the adventurers with a small charm to
counter Jahalen's runes, entrusting it to the care of Andante Vas'amaen,
a member of the Sentinels of Nature.

Andante returned to the elmwood with the group, many of whom were wary
of interfering with unknown runes. Others, infused with curiosity,
demanded that the charm be used, and after much debate, a decision was
reached. Andante dropped the small wooden charm, which vanished in a
flash of light that consumed both itself and the nearby runes when it
hit the ground. Nine more charms were obtained from Thaa'lis, and the
remaining runes were likewise systematically destroyed. As the last one
fell, lines of white energy arched across the southern section of the
forest, and previously concealed pathways opened up before the watching
crowd.

The questers soon discovered what had become of Jahalen. He and his
followers had isolated themselves in a remote section of the Ithmia,
erecting a powerful screen of concealment to shut out unwelcome
outsiders. But as the centuries passed, one of their number, Lurac,
experienced a change of heart and began to undermine the screen just
enough that the runes created to define its borders became visible. He
then projected an image of himself into the elmwood, begging passersby
to destroy those runes. When all the runes had vanished, the screen
collapsed, and the section of forest called Sparrow's Rest was once
again revealed to outsiders.

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Aeguary, in the year 453 AF.