Prelude - The Sleeping Giant

"Gather here children!", Chief Elysia hollers up into the trees, "We have a special visitor today!". The canopy suddenly becomes lively with the excited clamoring of a dozen children jumping down from branch to branch to see who can find out who this surprise is first. "Elysia!" calls out one of the young girls running up to the Chief with her arms outstretched. Elysia takes her into her arms and then hoists her up into the air, "It is good to see you too little one, you always have been the lithest of foot haven't you?". The young girl for a moment catches a glimpse of a figure behind Elysia, a stout elderly man adorned with a necklace of bear teeth, a thick bearskin cloak, and a gentle smile that betrays the fierce tattoos upon his face. He spreads his arms apart, revealing the miscellaneous trinkets and sacks made fox fur that are stowed under his cloak, and with each motion of his arms causing the trinkets to jingle softly. The children immediately recognize by his aura that he is a Shaman, how special! It is not common to find Shamans that are willing to cross into Sleeping Giants Ridge and to face the perils of the steep cliffs and deep chasms that this region is synonymous with just to greet this small tribe of theirs.
In a powerful and enthusiastic voice he begins to speak, "How pleasant it is to see all your youthful faces. I am Ursus, and by the will of the forest, I come with tales of old and the present". As Ursus begins to seat himself on top of a rock overlooking the children, Chief Elysia moves and seats herself with the children. "I recant to you now a tale as old as these mountains themselves, a tale where we recognize the shoulders of the giant we stand upon, a tale and kindness and heroism in the face of peril. Let me tell you...of Dante".