"Just when I opted for the greatsword!" Norton mutters dropping the long blade in favor of the shorter that magical Longsword.
Furiel speaks.
"Hold spirit!!! Why are you here brother bear!!"
Dolgrym casts Haste on the group, just to be on the safe side.
The bear-shaped miasma of blood ignores the attacks, and launches off the broken top step to the ground below. It moves through the standing stone in its path, and leaves a splat of blood where its form passes through.
No response or reaction from Furiel calling out to it, but moves directly toward both Furiel and Jhod.
The disembodied growl rises in volume and pitch as it moves.
Furiel looks to Jhod, unable to attack the bear.
Furiel can see the bear is focused on Jhod rather than himself, and is able to sidestep.
Jhod fires an arrow, then backs away - making his way around the pool.
"Grrr...come on!"
The Green Man hurries forward, and then he releases a burst of life energy aimed at helping put the spirit down before it has a chance to harm Jhod.
The red ghostly bear falters slightly as it's struck by the divine power emanating from Green.
While Norton and Dolgrym are still near the old bloodied man, they see him grow older before their eyes... he speaks weak-voiced "Once rage has worn down your spirit.. it will consume you." His eyes then fix on nothingness, and he then withers to skeleton.
The Green Man's eyes narrow, wondering if this message was meant for him or Jhod?
Or perhaps it was just an old man's lamentation upon his deathbed.
"Are we done? Is that the last enemy blocking our progress here?"
The creature turns toward Green before dissipating.
There is an energy in the air.. the moments before a violent storm - though the skies do not threaten so.. merely overcast.
Jhod approaches with cautious steps "The divine power drove it off. It could return. This temple must be cleansed to truly be rid of manifestation. I am beginning to make sense of what I felt in the dreams."
"May we see what lies inside?"
At the top of the first set of crumbling stairs, there is a carving on the wall separating the next set. It is of a rising flock of birds - colored with varied faded pigments. Below the birds is a copse of gnarl-branched trees, and the head of a stag... the portion of the wall where its body should be has broken off. Dark splatter-stains cover the entire panel.
Jhod glances at the corpse. "Druid's robes... a follower of the Green Faith."
The second set of stairs lead into the cave.
When Jhod mentions The Green Faith, The Green Man touches the birthmark on his forehead, shaped like the holy symbol of the faith.
"So...a temple to one of the gods of The Green Faith is allowed to fall in disrepair, and the rage of the druid tending it manifest itself as a spirit of wrath which possesses him?
Such a sad fate..."
Hefting his weapon, just in case, The Green Man begins begins to follow the stairs.
Sonechka the bird alighted on the stairs and grew back into the pale skinned, raven haired woman in her black, feathered cloak. "Or perhaps it was his task to guard this place, and his rage was for failing in his duty." She shakes her head. "Regardless, he is dead now and our task seems to be reconsecrating this holy place."
She glances skeptically at the recently recovered Jhod. "Are you up to the task, Father?"
"This was a temple of the Elk. These carvings representing the factions of the Green Faith are newer... the Accord, I suppose."
He nods to Sonechka "I am."
You step inside and see an eighty foot wide chamber with five alcoves. The area is so littered with bone, you cannot see the floor.
In the center of the chamber is an eight foot tall statue of Erastil. A humanoid skeleton is pinned to the ceiling above it by the splintered end of a wood beam.. the other end is wedged into the floor among the other skeletal debris.
The stag-headed statue directly below is stained with blood.
Jhod's face darkens at the sight.
"Everything within a fair distance of this shrine must have fed the rage of it's former guardian.
This place needs to be cleansed and consecrated anew, before the spirit of wrath reforms and targets someone else."
"Consecration is definitely called for. This is a vile and evil act."
"We should probably start with taking that down," Sonechka says as she points at the skeleton pinned to the ceiling.
"Hmmm...we are already dealing with spirits...perhaps..."
Before approaching the skeleton, The Green Man sends a burst of positive energy into the room, geared to harm any unquiet dead in there.
There is no visible effect from Green's channeled energy.
Sonechka detects no auras with her arcane sight.
"Hmmm, it probably wouldn't be TOO hard to push the floor end of the beam away, but it might smash the statue..."
The Green Man begins to examine if it's possible to move the statue out of the way while they clear out the worst of the debris.
Jhod moves debris away from the base of the statue. It is seamlessly connected to the stone floor.
"Hmmm, not too heavy, we could move it with not too much difficulty."
The Green Man takes a deep breath, and allow the focused rage in his spirit to come to the fore for a moment.
"Feel free to help me here..."
Sonya nods and walks over to Green. She looks at the beam for a moment before pointing at a spot. "Try there, my lord." This, of course, is her helping, though perhaps not exactly what Green had meant.
Aid another Strength check
Green and Dolgrym easily dislodge the wedged beam (the impaled skeleton drops as they bring it level) and lower the beam to the ground without disturbing the statue.
As Jhod continues clearing debris away from the Elkfather, you begin to see writing in the blood stains around it.
"I do not know these words, but I'm certain their meaning furthers the desecration."
"Hmmm, I cannot read this either.
We should make a copy so we can examine it further once we return to Stagfall, lest someone has the power to translate it by knowledge or magic?"
The Green leans against the wall as he catches his breath for a moment.
"Hmmmmm...a desecrated shrine, a spirit of rage, this all reminds me of what we found beneath Stagfall.
Could we detect Urgathoa's hand in this as well?"
Dolgrym can use his arcane bond to cast Comprehend Languages, which he has in his spellbook. He takes a moment,his ring glows briefly and he looks again at the bloody language.
Jhod continues sweeping debris and detritus away... "There's quite a bit here." Once the area is cleared, Dolgrym is able to read the words spiraling around the statue.
"Dark lady of lucid dreams, She who whispers from beyond the tattered veil.. Accept my sacrifice... defenders of the Narlmarches lie cursed and dying around me, a shrine befouled to honor you. Break the one who broke me.. suffer him the pain, torment, rage.. tenfold what was done upon me. I, Elga Verniex, offer freely what you will have of me.. life, soul, service unfaltering."
Dolgrym carefully repeats the words he was able to Interpret. "Bad things have went on in this place. An evil sacrifice definitely happened."
"Dark lady of lucid dreams...that COULD be Urgathoa, but it could be someone else as well.
But we do have a name now, Elga Vernix, that could be the old man, but it sounds more like the ritual desecration of this place was meant to punish him.
Quite a mystery no?"
"We already encountered praises to this Dark Lady, beneath Stagfall, but it's not Urgathoa, we ruled that out. It seems some obscure cult."
The Green Man frowns a little.
"Dark indeed, as we did find a creature like the one we encountered beneath Stagfall working with Kinsilvi, and THAT one did sing Urgathoa's praises.
...
But why would this area be so interesting to several forces of darkness I wonder?"
Pushing himself away from the wall, The Green Man smacks a fist into his palm.
"We'll have plenty of fighting in our future yet I expect."
"I will do what I can do cleanse this temple this evening. In the morning I will be prepared to consecrate the area."
Jhod gives everyone a weary but hopeful smile, and gets back to clearing debris from the cave.
"Have you given thought to your next move from here?", he asks as he soaps up a cooking pot and fills it with his waterskin.
"Well, we need to complete our map of the lands, so while Kressle and her band are exploring the east side, we will continue to explore the west.
If you divide the area in eight sections, we are going to explore as much of the top left section as we can in a sort of zig-zag pattern, ending up back at Oleg's place.
It will be nice to see how they are getting along, and to taste Svetlana's cooking again."
Sonechka nods. "A fine plan, my lord."
Furiel nods.
"Fine plan!!"
After Jhod finishes cleaning the stains from the statue and perimeter, you can feel the anxious "pre-storm ambient energy" of the shrine passing. Jhod retires early.. the condition of the temple has already improved. The water in the pool now looks clear, and the vines have retreated and have begun to bud.
A light rain begins around midnight.. some muted rumbles in the distance.. it fades after an hour or so.
Furiel awakes the others as he summons eagles to scout.
Two large deer (a 14 point buck and doe) and their three younglings come to the edge of the shrine. The doe and fawn sniff the pool, then begin to lap water from it while the buck eyes your waking group. You now see now he has a rider.. a small man who casually waves to Furiel as he spreads his wings - which look like vines woven through branches.
"This is nice." He sweeps his spear in an arc to indicate "this" refers to the temple. "Where're you hiding that bear, guh-nome? Don't see it.. and Koab can't smell it." The small man wears a floppy cloth hat, sports a blond mustache not much wider than his nose, and a wooden breastplate. Apart from the wings (and mustache) he looks somewhat like a halfling-sized elf. He looks up at the two eagles "Morning ladies."
Sonechka takes a few steps closer to the now-clean pool, her chilly smile on her face. "Good morning to you, as well, sir. The bear has been evicted, I'm afraid. Were you good friends?"
"Ha.. no, Miss. That bear... no fun to be had here what..so..ever. Always skirted around the beastie's plot on our strollings through the woods... until today."
He strokes the buck's neck "Today... Koab went straight for it.", and hops down. He strides up to Furiel with a fierce smile, and thrusts out his hand to shake in greeting. "Hello friend! My name is Balamew. Wanna trade hats? Play a game? Where do you live? Wanna race?" He smiles big again - pushing the limits of his facial muscles.
These strange fey creatures have a symbiotic relationship with an ivy-like plant that serves as their wings. The relationship is so close, it is impossible to separate fey from plant.
Gathlains are sometimes helpful, often mischievous, and native to deep primeval forests and jungles, but are also prone to wanderlust.
Seeing no threat, Jhod returns to his prayers and consecrations.
The Green Man observes the exchange with a smirk, leaning against the wall of the entrance with his arms crossed over his chest.
This should be interesting...
Dolgrym stays back with Bregor. "Mischevious fey. Can never trust them. One minute they are fine, and the next, they are burning the whole darn forest down."