Greymalkin's Runes

This page is largely for the reference of Dann Fuller, player of an online-PC Greymalkin of Faftior in the campaign. He began his wonderings into the Unlit Forests of the Elderlands in search of former companion Julian Veer, or at least to discover why it seemed his name was attached to so many of the events of late.

While wandering Greymalkin comes across huge crop-circle-like runes set in the ground, the first of which etched into the forest via clearcutting. As he traveled onward, more runes "drawn" in different means became apparent...

The first: Drawn in clearcut forest on forest, located several days east of Elderland Hill in the Unlit Forest.

The second: Drawn in amber grasses on green grasses, location unknown (info says a few hours earlier than rune 1, large plains)

The third: Drawn in tide pools on surf stone, location unknown (info says an hour or so later than rune 1, on an eastern seashore)

The fourth: Drawn in trenched and icy soil on dry tundra soil, location unknown (info says several hours earlier than rune 1, on a northern tundra)

All the runes have some common elements in how they are drawn. The graphs above only give the overall shape. The size and common elements are described in these snippets from item 7 of the Summer '98 incarnation of the "Games" Confer at U of M:

"The lines are thicker near the center and taper to points at the ends, but Matlab can't do that, so the gif shows the layout only."

"The diameter of the overall pattern is large: the main circle at the center is perhaps 50 yards wide or so."

"Also, should you wander near the center, you'll find an area where the grass looks odd. Right near the center is a circular area some 7 yards in diameter within which the grass looks beat up, and the ground a bit uneven, as if it were disturbed much more recently than the rest of the grassy area where the arcs intersect."

Of course, the "disturbed" section in the middle depends on the terrain of the rune, but these were included to give an overall feel for how things look.