Telmarni holds the scimitar up for Kavalina to examine it, but she receives the same deep, calm voice as before. Hey! I am not just some magical trinket. Please don't treat me as one! Reeling from the revelation, she nearly drops the blade. She shouts out in surprise. "Its intelligent! But...? How? Why?" And Telmarni looks somewhat confused about it.
Cassandra figured if anyone was going to freak out a day later from a curse it'd be Carinna. She was the one covered in shaman's blood. Even now, all she could do was watch. Intelligent sword? What did that mean? Could it think? Speak? What? She didn't hear a voice. She didn't smell anything different.
There's a small amount of abdominal distress after the kobolds' victory meal, though eventually everyone gets some sleep. (Hatch moans for several hours after dark while out behind a hillside next to a ditch that he dug for this purpose.)
Chief Sootscale tells you that if you wish to make new terms at some future date, you will be welcome to come back and if needed he will send a representative to speak with your people.
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The morning feels a bit... odd. Gray clouds have moved in from the east, slowly making their way toward the forests in the west. The morning sunlight is muted.
You use some of your precious water to clean up a bit - Carinna, in particular, getting rid of the bloody mess from the shaman.
Vance watches suspiciously as Telmarni tries to figure out what is going awry with her scimitar, but he does not come close or offer any advice. Hatch, looking a bit worried, says, "Is it... bad? I mean, could it hurt you, Telmarni?"
The blade speaks. It seems to vibrate noticeably as it does so, shimmering slightly, like the metal itself is flexing and creating the odd humming that turns into recognizable but inhumanoid speech.
There is work to be done and I require a steady hand to do it. The fire of your spirit has ignited my awareness.
Our people linger in bondage. They must be freed.
Feeling the vibrations from the sword as it speaks, Telmarni can't only look on. Giving Hatch a quick glance, she shakes her head side to side. "I don't think so... I never heard of weapons becoming like this."
Looking back down at the blade, she listens to it. She shakes her head again from side to side. She speaks meekly to it. "Work? I... I don't know. I acted in rage and fear earlier towards that shaman. Nothing righteous." Listening to the blade continue, she lowers it and closes her eyes and turn her head away from it when it speaks of bondage and freedom. "I doubt I could do that either. I have... I am scarred from my..." She looks towards everyone gathered with sadden eyes.
She quickly sheathes the scimitar and goes to sit down at the remains of the campfire. Telmarni looks rather trouble by the events of last night and today.
"Incredible. My master told me stories of such a thing but never did I thought they were actually true, nor that I would see such in person. Amazing," Oranna smiles, trying to get closer to in order to inspect it, "Hello sword, do you have a name?"
"I am not afraid of the sword." Telmarni mumbles. Looking down at the remains of the fire, her face becomes a bit pensive. "But... The shaman brought about fears from my past."
She stands and turns away from Korinne and begins begins removing her armor. Once that is done, she folds her wings in front of her and she unlaces her shirt and pulls it up, revealing her back. Between the base of her neck, above the center of her back, and between her wings where they attach to her, is a symbol, burned into her and scarred. The scarring forms a Crest of a country of the inner sea region. And within it another symbol, possibly a family crest.
She stands there quietly, but before long, Telmarni looks over her shoulder. "This is what I received when I was young, for just being different. A prize for who caught me, and kept me as a trophy." After a few seconds, she pulls her shirt back down and covers herself.
Sheathed in its scabbard, the blade is silent. Sleeping, perhaps.
Hatch shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other while Vance simply runs his thumb over the end of his bow.
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Carinna faces the whole thing with Telmarni's sword with a mix of curiosity and jealousy, close enough so she can hear all about it but yet not that close to let her jealousy transpire. Why? I don't get it... What am I doing wrong? Tel never told me about anything special with her sword yet it is now alive AND talking... and what have I achieved so far? I had clear proof that my sword was magical and yet despite my efforts it remains as dead as a piece of wood!
Korinne's words only helped her delicate state to sink even more. "She is right... Tel is impressive, perhaps that is the reason..." She knew about Telmarni's brands and wounds and knew her 'sister' needed some comfort at this moment but somehow her own desire to awake her own sword was keeping herself from helping her. Enough!
She moves towards Telmarni and hugs her tightly. "And the shaman is dead now and now you are even stronger than before. Fear not your past anymore, Tel, for you are no longer that frightened girl." She releases her and steps back, decided to not mourn about her own lack of success towards her sword anymore.
At the sound of the new voice, Cassandra is up and tense like a deer in the woods. She crouches low to make herself a smaller target on instinct and has one hand on her bow. She was used to knowing people by more than just sight and sound. To her, scent was just as unique as either of those. But the sword gave no scent she recognized. So she was the last to finally turn to look at it. But identifying the voice still answered nothing. Telmarni's blade could talk. What?
Cassandra is surprised by Telmarni's scares but really, she shouldn't be. Cassandra had already forgotten Telmarni was a strix. That her kind were almost universally hated. She was just Telmarni to her. But being different, usually it meant people would only see the differences. For a moment, she wished Telmarni had been found by a villager from her home. Then she would have known true acceptance. But as Carinna hugged her friend, Cassandra knew that wasn't right. Telmarni already knew true acceptance thanks to their family.
As they have their moment, Cassandra can't help but miss her home and her friends. Some of them were out there somewhere, doing what she was doing. Making inroads of peace with others and proving their value and kindness. She hoped they were alright and doing as well as she was. Maybe she could visit once the land here was explored thoroughly.
Gathering your resolve and your belongings, you set out to the northwest(-ish) again, adding to Hatch's maps.
You follow the river to a confluence, where the Thorn River empties into the Shrike. There's an area of shallows near the merging and the Thorn River gets down to a depth of about 3 feet -- a ford that you can easily wade across.
As you approach the ford, your horses become skittish and Cassandra picks up wolf-scent again... though slightly different from before. You raise your guard and spot, about 30' from the ford, concealed in a thicket, a very large wolf, well-concealed in the brush. Obviously it uses this area as a hunting ground, since creatures probably come here for water and to cross the river.
The enormous wolf is lying in the brush, barely visible, staring at you with red eyes. Cassie recognizes the scent as a rogue wolf, one that has no pack.
Kavalina watched Telmarni remove her shirt, showing the Terrible branding that had been forever burned on her skin. The unbearable pain the Strix women must have endured horrified the Half-Orc cleric.
"Do not be afraid of your mark Miss Telmarni. It is a testament to your will and what you have gone through. You are stronger now, much stronger. Never let what has happened in the past control whom you are."
"Do you we anything Miss Cassandra?" Kava inquires.
Cassandra hears and smells the river long before they crest the hill that hides it. She jogs the last few steps up the hill to be the first to see it. She stops at the top of the hill to take in the sight and breathes deeply of the fresh air. The slopping land comes to an abrupt end a the edge of the river which cut its way through the earth. It was low at this time of the season. And dense patches of brush clung along is borders. Here and there were patches of trees, none too big because of poor soil. Cassandra heads down the plains and up to the waters edge. She reaches a hand into the cool waters and takes a drink. Fresh. She fills her canteen to the top. She then takes off her boots and dips them in the water, reveling in the feel it flowing across her sore feet. "This would be a nice place to live."
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At the shallows, Cassandra turns to yell back at the others, "Carinna. Looks like we can cross the river to explore. Hold on." Cassandra's form switches from relaxed to tense as a stray scent floats through the air. Her eyes follow her nose and together they pinpoint the source, a wolf lying in the shade of the brush by the shallows. "Maybe we shouldn't cross," she says pointing him out.He is enormous for a wolf. Warg maybe? And why alone? Normally one that big would have a large pack.
The tremendous wolf simply stares back at Cassandra. It does not seem afraid of her, the way most animals are.
Receiving a hug from Carinna, Telmarni lets out a slight sniffle. "Thank you." She runs a hand over her own face to wipe a few tears. "Thank you. Coming from that place... Cheliax. It was hard." She stands and then returns the hug to Corinna.
Turning to the rest of the group, her face red from tearful eyes, Telmarni looks somewhat more relieved then when the sword spoke. "Sorry about that... When the sword spoke" She lightly taps the pommel of the scimitar and continues. "It brought back, bad memories of the past." She lets out a few more sniffles and wipes her face again with the back of her wrist. "Right. Lets get ready and continue our explorations." She smiles slightly.
Looking towards where the lone wolf was pointed out, she wonders about the situation. Red eyes? Isn't that a bit unusual?
Guess not... But I only heard of stories of wolves from father. He'd like to embellish those though. She sighs at the revelation. "I don't know. If it is so big, the others might have been afraid of it." Looking along the river's edge, she begins to wonder. "Hey... Maybe I can scout out another place to cross? It might be helpful."
Vance hunkers down and says quietly, "'tisn't no wolf - that's a warg. Nasty. Mean. Probably just waitin' t'see what we do, decide whether to run along or mebbe get hisself some tender people-meat. If'n we're too strong it'll leave. If'n it thinks we're afraid it might attack. Or mebbe talk. I hear they can talk, sometimes."
"A warg!?" Telmarni exclaims. "Wait... That thing can't be a warg, a warg is those hairless rat dogs that goblins ride, right?" She wonders out loud. She recalls in a story told to her that goblins often ride hairless dogs, and some wargs would allow the goblins to ride them.
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Even if Cassandra's previous success regarding the other wolves before, Carinna drew her sword just in case. With the news about this being a warg, she then gripped it even harder. "Cass, is this really a warg? If so it is quite dangerous to be left unchecked..." Carinna gave a tentative look towards Cassandra, not knowing how she would react to the notion of killing a wolf-like creature.
"I...don't know," Cassandra hesitates to admit. They were pretty close and it seemed not to be afraid or her, which most animals were. That alone made the thing more menacing. "I've never seen one. I think we should follow Vance's advice. Show no fear and move on. Just walk away without looking at it. I'll bring up the rear."
"I don't think so. He doesn't look hungry. And they are evil but not aggressively so. They can speak but they're very simple. If we don't bother him he shouldn't bother us. Not if we stick together. An easier meal will probably come by."
"And that's actually a goblin dog Tel. Ironic since they hate dogs but they are like giant hairless rats." Cassandra waits until the others are past it before following. She Doesn't look back but keeps her ears and nose focused on any sound coming from behind.
You move cautiously, always keeping two people watching the warg. It seems to grin, its tongue lolling out slightly, then suddenly it turns away and runs off through the bushes.
You suspect that if you return to this river crossing, it might be something you'd meet again.
You spend the next two days heading north along the river. About twelve miles up from the ford you find an ancient, rickety bridge that looks about on the verge of collapse. You quickly realize that you can only go single file across it; it is so weak and old that putting too much weight on it would cause it to collapse.
Eventually you finish exploring that otherwise unremarkable area and you follow the river again the next day toward the bandit camp. As you're following the river, you notice humanoid tracks going both directions. When you arrive at the camp the tracks loop about the area. Clearly, someone went upriver, visited the camp, then left and went back down -- the same route you've been following, but you only recently stumbled across their path. It's likely that the tracks diverged at some point further south.
Vance looks about the encampment with an odd expression - wistfulness? Regret? Resignation? - hard to tell. Of the tracks he says, "Prolly someone sent to check up an' see why there's been no communication. Likely gone back to whoever's runnin' stuff. Somewhere south - hard 't say. Could mebbe follow the tracks there, but it's been a few days, prolly lose the path in another day or so."
Hatch says, "Well, Cassie said we should head west into the forest. But if you want to go back I guess we can. Eventually we'll explore all of these places, right?"
"What do you all think? I'm not one of the original scouts to this land so it is up to you all."
With a couple days of exploration under her belt, Telmarni has been feeling somewhat better since that day the sword spoke. Hesitant to draw it, she was glad to not have to fight to have to utilize the strange weapon.
But with the so called 'Warg' and now the tracks at the old camp, she wonders slightly what they may encounter next. "Hm... I think maybe we can clear up a bit of the land at the northern part of this forest? We should have enough rations to keep us well for a few more days at least, right?"
"We have enough supplies for another four or five days afore we have to get to huntin'," says Vance.
Hatch says, "According to those faeries we met, there's an old lost temple just west-northwest of here. We could try to find that, maybe."
"Or head back south 't see who was visitin' here," says Vance, "Though that's an unlikely coincidence as they could've wandered any which way, crossed the river, whatever and we could just as easily spend days tryin' ta follow tracks that lead to a dead end."
While the others discuss moving around, Cassandra takes a long hard look at the tracks. Some instinct within told her this was not a thing they could ignore. And they had enough people here to actually be able to do more than one thing. "Vance. If we give you a horse and supplies, could you look into this? See who came to check the camp? Like you said, we could lose the trail in a day or two. There was a lot of people here which means there is a lot more somewhere else if some came looking for them."
"Jhod seemed rather obsessed with that temple. It must have been something back in its day that temple for him to be so wanting to find such. Usually, they aren't that well ornate, simple lodging for simple, good people to revere Erastile. I've spent my time in a few of them back when I was traveling with my mentor," she pats the horse softly, "I wonder what is there so sought by Jhod. When we are there, I'd like to draw and sketch what is remaining of it."
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While the others discuss moving around, Cassandra takes a long hard look at the tracks. Some instinct within told her this was not a thing they could ignore. And they had enough people here to actually be able to do more than one thing. "Vance. If we give you a horse and supplies, could you look into this? See who came to check the camp? Like you said, we could lose the trail in a day or two. There was a lot of people here which means there is a lot more somewhere else if some came looking for them."
"Hum... I'm not really sure this is a good idea Cass... Those who visited the camp are for sure bandits since they knew of its location and by the number of them I fear that we might be putting Vance in too much danger." She quickly looks at Vance in an apologetic gesture. "I'm not doubting you scouting skills Vance but they will probably be in an overwhelming advantage. I know we might lose their trail but I think this will not be the last time we'll hear about them... if we indeed disrupted part of their business, they'll be looking for more trouble in the future."
Telmarni agrees with Carinna. "I agree with Cari on this. While I don't know how one would begin to track learned, or even trained woodsmen, it wouldn't be safe." She looks towards the area where the footprints were. "And if possible, who ever made those tracks are already with their own boss. Possibly long gone."
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Free from Korinne's hair, Babs circles around the group once or twice before flapping back down to perch on the arcanist's shoulder.
Staying on the pack is boring! I can see better from here.
She squeaks in a manner that almost seems like laughter.
And it's funny to watch you dance around when I get stuck.
"I think you are doubting his skills, or at least his wisdom," she says, kind of surprised they were against it. "He's smart enough to know when to pull back," she says looking at him with confidence. She turns back to make her point, "But while the trail is fresh...ish, someone should at least track their general direction. Like he said they could go any which way south. If Oleg is attacked and we have no survivors, where do we go? We're already a day south by horse and tracking from Oleg's would be almost impossible."
"I figger if I meet anyone sketchy I can spin a tale 'bout havin' escaped capt're an' lookin' fer a new crew," says Vance in his drawl.
"See," she says nodding to Vance. "Willing and more than able. Thank you Vance. We'll meet you back at Oleg's." There was more to it than that. In her opinion, this was a good opportunity for him to make a decision. To cut ties completely with the bandits he joined, help their cause in scouting the Stolenlands, or to just disappear completely. She got the feeling he wasn't used to being with a lot of people. Being alone in the forest, in his home, would be good for him. Truth be told she wanted to do it too but she had a mission, a responsibility. When things quieted down, she'd take a day two off in the wild. Really get to know this place and go wild. The thought made her happy already.
Hatch nervously wishes Vance well and he shoulders a little extra food and heads south, following the tracks. You all head west, deeper into the forest.
You explore the woods as they thicken; in a way, this is a welcome change from the hills and plains, which were mostly dry, rocky, and covered in grasses and thorny weeds. Now the forest is lush and shady, giving you cover from the sun as you travel, but it is also thick with bushes and difficult to navigate. In some places you have to push your way through underbrush or even cut away the occasional thicket.
Your exploration to the west comes upon a thick tangle of brambles, which gives way into a large clearing in the woods, its border partially defined by ruined stone pillars. The western face of the clearing is dominated by a looming, upthrust ridge of rock, nearly 300 feet across and rising to a moss-topped height of 100 feet at the center. The side of this towering boulder facing the clearing has been carved in the likeness of an immense elk, its antlers drooping down from its weathered face to frame a 50-footwide cave entrance. A flight of stone steps leads up to this cave entrance from the forest clearing—both the steps and elk face feel quite old and are thickly encrusted with layers of moss. A 50-foot-long oval pool sits in the middle of the clearing, its waters thick with algae.
Gazing around with eyes wide open, Telmarni was amazed by the sight of the rocky outcropping. It looks similar to the sides of the cliffs from home! And it really looks like an elk!" She thinks. Following Korinne along, she dismounts and walks in with her. "It might very well be! Even though it has been worn down, it is still nice to see."
Turning her gaze towards the cave entrance, Telmarni tilts her head. "Hey! There is a cave over there!" She points out the cave entrance. She starts walking towards it.
"Oh wow," Cassandra says with awe. Even with the overgrown foliage, this place, this temple to Erastil, looked exactly as it should. It was a temple to honor a god of nature, simplicity and the hunt. It should have moss along the rood and vines clinging to the walls. Cassandra races up the steps to get a better look at the statue of the elf and the long oval pool. Algae-filled as it might be, she was certain it would still be drinkable.
"Rather incredible. The craftsmanship in it, the style, of t is definitely that temple. Though, it still feels odd. A grand temple out here for the worship of Erastile?" she says in a questioning tone, trying to collect her thoughts of the worship of Erastile. She searched through her satchel for her paper and quill.
"You don't much about Erastil then," Cassandra says from a few stairs up. "This is where a temple of his should be. Out in the forest, the center of his power. He is about tradition, the simple life, farming and hunting. I imagine he is the most widely known and worshiped out here in the Stolenlands."
"Well, a temple like this isn't that simple."
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Carinna looks around, clearly in doubt about what to do. She dismounted and drew her sword just in case. "I believe it is safe to assume that no priest would ever leave a temple or shrine fall to this disuse. But the question is: is this place truly abandoned or someone, or something, is now using it? Cass, could you tell us if there are any recent tracks around this place?"
While she awaits for Cassandra's answer, Carinna admires the stone statue. "Also, Kavalina, since you are a priestess, could you tell us what is the appropriate thing to do to such a temple? it pains me to leave such beautiful temple in this state but would it be appropriate for us to clean it or should we seek a priest of Erastil first? Oh, and just by cleaning it makes it holy once more or should we make some sort of ritual?" A bit embarrassed she adds. "Sorry about all these questions but I was never a 'Gods-person'..."
"Stone steps, a statue, a pool and a cave. Probably a lot more simple than temple to Sheyln," Cassandra says defensively. It was irrational but she felt the need to point it out. This place was beautifully simplistic in her opinion. Though there was probably more than a little bias behind that.
Edit: Carinna's warning reminded Cassandra of what Jhod had said about this place. An enormous bear was supposed to be guarding it. The image of a large predator like that caused Cassandra to unconsciously shift into a form befitting defense. She grew more lithe and cat-like and course hair covered her neck and arms, providing extra protection. She spins back to face the steps and the cave, eye going unfocused to take in everything rather than one thing. She slowly slips her bow off her shoulder and draws and arrow, keeping in her off hand as she sniffs for the bear.