Eleasias 19

Eleasias 19, 1369:

    The morning (and early afternoon) was spent hoisting the cart (and
    the horses?) up the cliff while Maanamere and the bear went the
    long way around.  Darius attempted to cast Detect Magic on the
    treasure, but failed twice.  Nobody's sure what happened the first
    time, but he had colored bubbles coming out of his mouth for 10
    minutes after the second time.

    Once everybody was together, the party headed east to investigate
    the mark on the map in the Shar stash.  They got as far as the
    location of the tree icon on the shaman's wall map.  Here they
    found a large clearing on one side of which stood a strange
    willow-like tree surrounded by javelins.  The trunk was dark gray
    w/black mottling.  The leaves had brownish-red veins fading
    through yellow to pale green away from the veins.  Just beyond the
    branches, the tree was surrounded by a circle of javelins stuck
    into the ground.  There were thousands of javelins, each
    individually decorated with feathers, beads, fur, animal teeth and
    the like.  When they got closer, the party could see a large pile
    of bones, as well as some rusty weapons and an occasional coin or
    small gem, around the base of the tree.

    They questioned Freegz and learned that this was where young
    kobolds from his village where taken to prove their manhood.  Each
    young kobold had to craft a personalized javelin and prove his
    bravery by sticking in the ground as close to the tree as he
    dared.  They questioned Freegz about his own coming of age and
    learned that more than 8 young kobolds where brought there that
    day and the tree grabbed and ate two of them.

    The party didn't want to sleep there but it was getting late.
    They continued along the trail for another half hour, but found no
    other likely campsights.  So they reluctantly returned to the
    clearing and slept on the far side from the tree.