Hadorix quickly moved with Ivory down to the throne. He was anxious to see if it would allow her to become a druid, or if she would end up as one of the beasts he had to recruit for his quest.
When they approached the throne, one of the fixtures began to glow. It was ready to accept the soul stone of Ivory. Hadorix placed her stone in the sixth druid slot.
· 6/10 Druids Recruited.
Ivory began to glow with a golden light. Hadorix patiently waited for the glow to dissipate. When it did, Ivory did not wait for him to ask any questions. She immediately shapeshifted into a human. Hadorix was rather pleased with this development. He had hoped she would gain a human form. Ivory then opted to summon her familiar. To Hadorix surprise, he did not recognize this creature. It had the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and its tail was that of the front half of a cobra, this effectively gave the beast 2 heads. It looked to be rather powerful and would be able to fly with Ivory in her beast form.
Hadorix then took Ivory back to the manikins to gather her druid armor. Her armor looked as if it had been made of elephant tusks. It had a perfect ivory hue. It was rather simple without any frill or tassels; however, it did have a winged lion emblazoned on the front of the chest piece in gold. In the hands of the manikin were a sword and shield. The shield had the same winged lion emblazoned on the front in gold. The sword was as white as the rest of the armor. Ivory thought, druid equip and immediately had the armor on. When she pulled the sword out of the sheath, it glowed with a white light. She would indeed be a wonderful addition to the ranks of the druids.
Hadorix then lead Ivory back upstairs, and he spoke to the leader of the wolves that had returned with him. Hadorix said, "As you know, I am Hadorix the Archdruid. I will soon be venturing from here alone. Before I do, I want to add your soul stone, and that of each wolf that has one to the throne. Will you allow me to do so?"
The wolf replied, "I am Leonidas. You may call me Leo. I will name this pack Cunning, we will help you to restore balance in the world, and we will protect the weak under your care. Each of us possess a soul stone. We hid this fact from Casper so that he would allow us to leave. You will have them all." He then spoke to the other wolves, they concentrated for a moment, and a soul stone appeared in front of them and flew to Hadorix hand.
Hadorix then led Leo and the wolves to the throne. When he arrived with the soul stones, a new section appeared on the throne. Now under the druids there were more fixtures, above the ones to the left appeared the words Beast Commanders. Above the fixtures to the right appeared the words humanoid commanders. The second fixture under beast commanders lit up when the soul stone of Leo was brought over. Hadorix placed his stone into the fixture. Leo began to glow with a bright light.
· 1/10 Beasts Recruited.
· Mystic Orchard, Beast Commander manikins activated. Each Beast Commander recruited will generate a manikin containing Silver grade purple artifact level equipment befitting the beast commanders form.
Another wall opened behind them. Hadorix glanced back and saw beastlike manikins. It appeared his commanders would also receive armor. He took Leo back to the manikin, Hadorix was amazed at what he saw.
The manikin was in the shape of a wolf exactly the size of Leo. But the armor itself was rather unique. It completely covered the manikin, but that was not what surprised Hadorix. Hadorix was surprised because the armor Looked like the scales of a dragon or large snake. Leo would stand out on the battlefield wearing this. Leo thought beast equip, and suddenly he wore the armor. He looked like a wolf/dragon hybrid. He was dressed to impress, Hadorix was sure that any wolves that saw him would be tempted to join his pack. Hadorix returned to the throne to place the soul stones of the other wolves. When he arrived, he noticed another change had been made? Under each commander fixture there were now 20 other fixtures. The 6 fixtures under Leo began to glow. Hadorix inserted each of them into the slots.
· 2/10 Beasts Recruited.
· 3/10 Beasts Recruited.
· 4/10 Beasts Recruited.
· 5/10 Beasts Recruited.
· 6/10 Beasts Recruited.
· 7/10 Beasts Recruited.
Hadorix now had 7/10 beast's soul stones inserted into the throne. Looking over, he noticed that Lamar's soul stone had moved under the first commander under the humanoid commanders. It appears, as the throne gained new functionalities, the stones would automatically be moved to where they needed to be. This made Hadorix rather happy. He did not desire to constantly be moving around stones.
Hadorix went to the manikins where Lamar had stored his armor. He could now see they had moved into rows to resemble the rows of fixtures on the throne. Where the Beast manikins would be, there now only existed a single row of 20 wolf manikins, all were empty. As Hadorix had no armor for wolves currently made, he could not equip anything to them. However, he made note that in the future all the beasts could be equipped with gear.
Hadorix then returned upstairs with Leo and the pack. He spoke to the other beasts that had accompanied them first. As he was not able to truly communicate with them, he had no idea if they had soul stones or not. This attempt failed as well. He then went to the Humanoid creatures, All the Dwarves and Trolls possessed soul stones and they gladly gave them to Hadorix. The humans had no soul stones. The ogres had been left with Brina. Once Hadorix possessed their soul stones, he went to the throne.
When he arrived, another change occurred to the throne. To the left had side, a section called craftsmen had appeared, to the right a section called gatherers had appeared. Hadorix started with the soul stones of the dwarves. When he pulled them out, two fixtures in the craftsmen section glowed. Hadorix inserted them. Nothing happened. He continued to insert the soul stones of the trolls. When he did,
· Quest Received, find a new home for your people. "The Mystic Orchard is not a city. It is meant to be a Druid Grove. In order for your newly found allies to grow and prosper they will need more room and resources than The Mystic Orchard can offer."
· Quest reward dependent on size of home claimed.
Flashed before his eyes. Hadorix was not surprised. After all this was a druid grove, not a city. He knew he would eventually have to find a home for the regular people and the beasts. Now he needed to find a work area for his craftsmen as well. He decided he should make sure the clutch of dragon eggs remained safe and then go to Junifer for advice. The dragon eggs had been moved near the spirit console in the room with the throne. As soon as Hadorix touched one he received a quest.
· Quest received, hatch the clutch of dragon eggs. "You have managed to trick Casper out of an entire clutch of 10 dragon eggs. While this is an amazing feat, it is rather useless until you manage to find a way to hatch them."
· Quest reward dependent on quantity of dragons hatched.
Hadorix then returned upstairs to speak to Junifer. Upon seeing him Junifer said, "It is about time you came to me. You still have not gotten the spirit of Oakbeard, or the spirit of the wolf that the World Tree promised to teach you how to use. Are you ready to learn?"
Hadorix had forgotten about that. He replied, "I would love to learn how to use the spirits. Can you teach the rest of the druids too?"
Junifer replied, "Of course. Bring them here and you can all learn together. In fact, bring anyone who has a soul stone."
Hadorix did as she said, every creature he had in his employ that had a soul stone and was not in the wolves' den, sat in front of Junifer.
Junifer then began to teach. The class went on for the remainder of the week. She taught them a great many things about spirits, how to use them, how to use the spirit armory, how to trade them, as well as what varieties had been discovered. She then took Hadorix down to the spirit armory and gifted him the spirit of Oakbeard and the wolf. The spirit of Oakbeard became a tattoo that granted Hadorix skin the strength the wood staff. It would be hard to harm it. The wolf became an enhancement for weapons. It would increase the sharpness of any weapons that were utilized while it was in use.
Now that all the creatures that had soul stones were able to use spirit gear, the strength of the druids would gain would be increased drastically. This would make it far easier to protect all the beings that they managed to save.
Now that Hadorix had the ability to use the spirits, he began to wonder what a spirit-binder could do. He went to the trolls to discuss it. The ability to bind the spirits to gemstones could be handy, but how could it be best used?
Hadorix spoke to the troll, "I just realize I never got your name. Can you bind any spirits to gemstones for me?"
The troll replied, "I am Yog. I would love to bind the spirits for you, but I cannot. I have no gemstones. Once Plog has a chance to grow some, I will gladly bind them."
Hadorix responded, "I understand. I will be leaving soon. You can stay down here in the room with the throne until I find you a suitable cave. I hope you manage to grow so gemstones before I return."
After their discussion, Hadorix went back upstairs. He gathered all the spirits, druids, and beasts and spoke.
Hadorix said, "I'll be leaving soon. I do not think my trip will take more than a week. If it does, I want Phynia to go to the pack and trade out positions with Brina. The rest of you continue to practice your skills. I want each of you to grow stronger while I am gone.