Velduran now lives in Eilan Nam Ailur, the Silver Isle, as a Tree of Life in the Sisters' Glade. She appears as a vast oak tree with silver bark and branches stretching many hundreds of feet high. She retains her sentience, but her consciousness differs radically from that of most elves and humans, so that even with magical aid, most beings can attain only rudimentary communication with her. Nonetheless, she is aware of her surroundings, and appears to react with happiness when her sisters are nearby. Always calm, patient, and touched with insight beyond her years, she has grown even wiser following her transformation. Her current powers are detailed below.
When Velduran yielded up her life to become what she is now, she bestowed her elfrune, her place within the Vigil, and her hawk friends Adun and Nadyn upon the elf child Uladriel. It is unknown how much of her old memories she retains. Velduran's sisters suspect that the two elf spirit guardians of the Silver Isle can communicate successfully with Velduran, but the spirits have refused to confirm or deny this supposition.
The Mother Tree of Eilan Nam Ailur draws magical power directly from the life forces of the island itself, channeling this power to help protect and sustain the island. Though much of its power is subtle and impossible to quantify, the following is a list of those powers which are known:
The Mother Tree turns all undead who seek entry onto the island as a 20th level cleric with a 20 Charisma. In addition, because of her direct opposition to Entropy, she turns all of the Dark God's creatures as undead of equal hit dice. Those undead which survive the effect can function on the island at a -2 sacred penalty to all die rolls, and are subject to another turning attempt at each following dawn.
The Mother Tree can cast any druid spell at will as a 20th level caster with a 20 Wisdom. Use of her abilities is minimally taxing, and the Mother Tree's power does not wane like those of a Daughter Tree. Most commonly, she uses her powers to control the weather over the island and to hold back the terrible storms that brew in the wastes of the Blacklands.
The Mother Tree can empower one of her acorns with the magic to produce a Daughter Tree of Life. It remains unknown how draining this process is, or how frequently the Mother Tree can do this.
The Mother Tree can give of herself - leaves, sap, wood, and bark, to aid the elves in enchanting potent magical items for defense of the island. She does this rarely, however, and only grants her gifts to truly deserving petitioners.
The Daughter Trees draw their magical power directly from the life forces of the regions they inhabit, channeling this power to help protect and sustain the land. Because their power is so directly linked to their surroundings, Daughter Trees cannot exist within a fifty miles of each other. Though much of their power is subtle and impossible to quantify, it is known that they act to extend the influence of their Mother Tree. The Daughter Trees also have the following additional known powers:
The Trees turn all undead who attempt to enter their protected area as 14th level clerics with 16 Charismas. In addition, because of their direct opposition to Entropy, they turn all of the Dark God's creatures as undead of equal hit dice. Those undead which survive the effect can function in the Daughter Tree's protected area at a -2 sacred penalty to all die rolls, and are subject to another turning attempt at each following dawn.
The Trees can cast any druid spell at will as 14th level casters with 16 Wisdoms. However, their power is strictly limited. A Daughter Tree's radius of effect and awareness (for turning and other subtle protections) shrinks by 2 feet for every spell level activated by the Daughter Tree. The Tree regains radius at the rate of 2d4 feet per day.
The base radius of a Daughter Tree's protection varies with the location it protects. For example, the Tree which guards Caer Trildane has a radius which extends up through the castle's tree- walls and not beyond. Such living boundaries are common edges to a Daughter Tree's area. Exactly how large Velduran's Daughter Trees' areas can be is unknown, though several hundred yards is likely the extreme limit possible in ideal conditions.
The Daughter Trees can give of themselves - their leaves, their sap and their wood, to aid elves in enchanting potent magical items. A Daughter Tree slowly grows enough material to provide magic items. In one week, a Tree can provide enough magical wood and materials to allow the construction of 1000 GP worth of elven magical items (without expenditure of wealth or XP). The Tree can only be growing enough material for one magic item at a time, and expert elven craftsmen must transform the raw material into a final product, so the crafting of these items is a slow process.
Each Daughter Tree of Life contains the soul of an elf who merged with the acorn produced by Velduran to become the Daughter Tree. These Trees are like their Mother Tree in that magical communication is unable to fully access their consciousness. Instead, each Tree has a Tree Speaker, a chosen elf who can commune with the Tree. It is the Tree Speaker who asks the Tree for its magical aid, and it is the Tree Speaker who brings the Tree's wisdom to his or her tribe. However, while the Tree Speaker is the Tree's translator, nothing prevents the Tree from acting on its own. It is even possible for a Daughter Tree to animate itself as a huge treant in extreme circumstances. This rarely occurs, however, because the Tree often does not survive the experience, and even if it does, the Tree is severely weakened for years afterwards.
Velduran was the sharpest of the Qualtineien sisters. Though not as sneaky as Muriel, as bold as Lanalier, or as stubborn as Shailyn, she was calm, reflective, wise, and only rarely prone to rash action. She loved nature, and was torn between priesthood and Shialyn's demands to further the memory of their parents. She settled on a compromise, and though she missed the mysteries of the holy orders, she found that she loved her life as a ranger, and was happy to do her part to preserve the memory of the her parents. Even though she remembers very little of them - only Shialyn remembers them well - she feels she knows them because of all the stories she heard from both Shialyn and her old village's elders back on Krynn.
Velduran was also an explorer, and was not unhappy to be cast out into the world, even though she regretted never being able to see her home again. She did not bear the mark of the outcast with pride, but like Lanalier and Shialyn, and unlike Muriel she did not hide it. She endured it patiently until the guardians of the Silver Isle removed it.
Velduran always trusted Serathin. Trusted him a great deal, far more than she ever trusted Serathin's fellow rescuer of the elven sisters, the shifty Zakharan elf Mular. The foreign elf reminded her too much of the elf who led them into slavery, and she enjoyed putting him through iron wringers of guilt before he finally left her side. She never understood what drove Mular to help her, though she thinks it might have had something to do with an infatuation with Muriel.
Velduran was always mildly jealous of Muriel, though she hid the feeling well. Shialyn she respected and followed, though she often tired of her older sister's grim cynicism. She felt most comfortable with self-assured, strong shouldered Lanalier, whom she has adopted as an apprentice of sorts. Lanalier never had the patience and insight to follow the path of the woodwalker, but she had the love. It was a pity, and thus Velduran did what she could to share her love of nature with Lanalier until Lanalier made the great sacrifice to bring Eilan Nam Ailur into the mortal realm of Landreth.
Although Velduran is quite happy living her current existence as a tree, she still regrets the sorrow she caused her sisters. She recalls how Lanalier's death grieved them, and only accepted the responsibility of her transformation when she saw no other alternative. She still years to be with her sisters, and in a way she feels that she is closer to Lanalier than she has ever been since the warrior's death.
For further information about Velduran's background and how
she came to be a part of the Vigil, see Shialyn's history and the
story entitled Fate and Innocence, and the many tales of the
adventures of the Knights of the Sword Coast.
Special:9th Level Ranger Outcast Neutral Good Faith: Erevan Ilesere Female Kaganesti HP: 105 Str: 17 Dex: 17 Con: 18 Int: 12 Wis: 14 Cha: 10 Description: Velduran stood slightly shorter than her sisters at just under five and a half feet, and had a tawny, wiry body, a simple and friendly face, and a non-threatening demeanor. She generally wore dragonskin armor and a thistledown cloak, and occasionally painted her face when undertaking a dangerous expedition. While she had some tatoos, she had many fewer than Shialyn or Lanalier. The most patient and forgiving of the sisters, Velduran remained quiet much of the time, but spoke with great sincerity when she offered her opinion. Velduran in life
Animal Friends: Velduran had befriended a mated pair of red-tailed hawks. She called them Adun and Nadyn. They accompanied her on long journeys, helping her to scout trails and locate infestations of Blackspawn. They did not help her to fight, but they flew messages to and from various elven strongholds. She had also befriended a brown coral snake whom she called Nilyth. The snake is an excellent scout. Most of the time, Nyleth rested in a pouch on her belt. These creatures now follow Uladriel, though they sometimes visit Velduran in her Tree form in Eilam Nam Ailur. Vigilar Abilities Proficiencies: Weapon: Blades Longbow specialization Punching specialization 1 open weapon slot Non-Weapon: Disguise (Free) Survival (Free) Direction Sense Speak Kaganesti (Free) Common Lore I (Free) Kaganesti Forest Woodworking (Free) Tracking (Free) Observation Bowyer/Fletcher Animal Lore Animal Training - Hawk Set Snares Religion, Seldarine Speak Common 2 open slots Special Equipment: (These items went to Uladriel upon Velduran's transformation.) 2 Items of Protection +2 Blue Dragonscale Armor (AC -2) Long sword +3 Short sword +3 Bow of Quality, use strength bonus, ranges of +1 Horn of Good/Evil Medallion of Equus Arrows: Armor piercing - +2 to hit armored foe - d4+1/d4 Blunt - d4/d4 Forked - cuts rope - d6/d3 Leaf - +1 to hit if concealed in foliage - d8/d6 Singing, w/ holes - d2/1 - can hold flaming rag/seeds, etc...