While that spell was nice I didn't see myself using it much. Looking around I couldn't help but agree with Haskill's description of the Mania side of the isles. Everything was brightly colored and seemed positively thrumming with life. The flora was almost entirely different from the Fringe as it was all brightly colored and some even glowed. It was pretty obvious that the Fringe was probably more aligned with the Dementia side of the isles with this comparison now available to me. Naturally I just HAD to go and collect some of this unique plantlife.-
The path further into the isles was worn down from the many feet that had trampled it over the ages and was nestled in a stone valley between two hills. I didn't get far before I came across another of the isles beasts, a Gnarl. If Spriggans were basically Tamriel's version of dryads than Gnarls were Ents. Appearance wise they looked like rough snapped off tree stumps with three roots at the bottom and two branch arms coming from the trunk. At the top there was wooden heads with faces on them that had twisted branches coming off of the top and sides and dim green or blue mushroom "eyes".-
These creatures were just like Spriggans in the fact they were immediately hostile if you came across them in the wild. The one I found that had brown rough bark and greens eyes was no different. The things didn't move very fast so they tended to rely on magic at range. I threw up a ward as this one sent a blob of angry red magic at me. The spell struck my ward and sizzled violently on it's surface before dissipating. I dashed forward as the handle of my blade began to rise from the surface of my chest. -
I dropped my ward and drew out my blade as I moved and swung the blade vertically as I pushed my will into it's edge and ONLY it's edge. The white prismatic glow of she` hai radiated on a hair thin line as my blade made it's arc. The Gnarl raised it's wooden arms to block but not even a whisper of a sound arose as my blade made contact and like wind around a reed moved through with no trouble. I stepped past the Gnarl as a wooden groan came from the beast before the ends of it's arms smoothly fell off followed by it's head.-
I pushed my blades tip into my chest and returned it to my soul. I turned and began my looting. Gnarl were much like Spriggans in that they had both alchemical and craft uses. Spriggans had taproot hearts that were a key alchemical ingredient and green sap that also fit that description. Their wood however was mostly used as fertilizer or carved into amulets of Kyne as the goddess shared a close connection to them.-
Gnarl on the other hand had bark that was alchemically valuable and wood that made top tier staves. Perhaps not the sort of staves that might become legends all their own but a step below that was perfectly possible if the wood was carved and enchanted by masters. Because of this my looting of the body was less taking it apart and more lifting the whole thing before stuffing it into the portal to my storage plane. As for the arms that had been cut off? I just tossed those in as well since even if they weren't long enough to become staves they were still good magical wood that might be carved into something of use.-
I followed the path forward without any haste at all. I didn't feel like rushing to New Sheoth and seeing what sort of strange party the Madgod was throwing. I set out to experience life and adventure so I was going to do that. Besides I doubted I'd be able to reach the capital of the isles in a day to begin with. The isles held most of the maddened souls that had ever walked Tamriel, save those that had other claimants or had been permanently killed here.-
The isles were a bit odd in that it was a place that allowed permanent soul death if you died through battle or disease or some other way than suicide. If you DID kill yourself here though it was to the Hill of suicides with you. There you were effectively stuck in eternal agony, unable to speak, unable to end until someone managed to find your remains that had been scattered across the isles and return them to you. Yes, you didn't just get buried but your body was scattered in pieces across the isles. -
It was a pretty damned good deterrent too as the number of people who kill themselves in the isles is astonishingly low. Anyways the fact was that the isles were incredibly vast in order to hold all these souls. Granted most of them were on different islands so the individual islands weren't continent sized but the sizes were still pretty good sized. The best example to give proper size comparisons would be that the average island here was about the size of a Hawaiian island from back on Earth. As for the total number of these islands, no one really knew. That was sort of the problem with islands that traveled, you could never be sure if you didn't count the same island multiple times or not at all.-
This one was known to be thrice the size of any of the other islands though as the "center" of the Shivering Isles. What that meant was that with New Sheoth being in the center of this land mass I would need at least two days to reach the city even with nonstop travel. It was four days in a straight line from one side to the other after all.-
The path I was following meandered seemingly without more than a general direction in mind. It passed under mushroom trees, over small wooden bridges and even up one of the small mountains. The view from that high point was breathtaking though. If I was a painter I know I'd have been sorely tempted to stop there and put the image to canvas. -
"Ah, just can't beat the view am I right dearest nephew? So much color, vibrant, juicy and with a slight afternote of tears." A familiar voice said as I felt a weight on my shoulder.