Belym looks at Roshan's charred and battered form. She says nothing, but holds out a small leather pouch with three vials in it, and offers a sympathetic look.
Belym was beginning to relax as Ishvar advanced on Einora, but is immediately tense when Ron makes his reappearance.
Tom does not raise arms against IShvar, but will preserve Ron's life if he must.
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The templar eyes Ron's actions with wordless distaste.
"You are a truely good person, Belym. It has been an honor." With a curt bow of the head, Roshan rushes to Cassandra's side, ready to dispense potions.
"You should take one of those yourself, madame templar. How are you even standing?" Francis shoulders his bow.
Roshan grunts, fumbling with one of the vials. "More than hate... for once. Save me, but but I need this one to live." Giving up with her hands, she bites the stopper out and spits it on the ground.
"You can't make someone-"
"That's not what this is anymore, Francis. I told her she would be safe. If she dies here- without a soul and without a patron..." It takes concentration for Roshan to keep her hand steady as she pours the potion into the former cultist's mouth. "I won't have the strength to get her back from where she'd go then."
The templar gives Cassandra's cheek a pat. "Hey, hey... I still haven't asked your name, initiate. Can you tell me?"
Ron
Ishvar reaches for the golden mass, until you drive the blade through his chest. Blood drips from his mouth,a nd he rasps Well...Played before slumping down off your blade. the godly power is wavering, though you yourself feel a bit of it enter you.
what do you do?
Roshan
when the potion passes her lips, her breathing stabilises, and the cuts heal. in your arms, you can feel her bones set themselves. her bb]urns, however, do not heal. It is a rare magic indeed that can heal godfire.
The girl wakes, brown eyes staring into yours,a nd she whispers Cassandra. My name is Cassandra, my Lady, she seems ready to slump back into unconsciousness, what do you do?
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Ron rushes to Larune's side and lifts the small woman. Her body is ashen, and she barely breathes. She is conscious but she is dying in agony. As he carries her towards the site of Einora's death, he speaks. Ye are a good woman Larune. Honorable. I am sorry for what I must do. Ye see, I can't let ye die. I just can't. I hope ye will understand.
As they near the font of divine power, he smiles. I don't know what ye will face, but please remember what ye were. Please be better than she was.
He places Larune in the divine font and withdraws. As she is enveloped in golden light, he whispers beneath his breath, as if trying to convince himself. No gods but men.
Roshan blacks out, holding Cassandra. Even unconcious, her body refuses to yield again to the ground.
"Not sure she could die if she wanted to... but I'm not willing to take the chance." Francis applies a second potion to Roshan, at least enough to ease the unearthly tension in her muscles.
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I watch as Larune ascends to god hood. I scratch my chin, rest my hand on Ron's shoulder and say "Alright. You won."
Tom says, I truly hope this is the blessing on the world on for Larune you wish it is Ron. Godhood is a burden, and an eternal one - however, the greatest of Gods are thrust into it and never make the choice to be one.
Tom works to gather Einora's head, viscera, and what remains of her now mundane equipment. Same for Ishvar. After working a bit he cleans up and packs the things.
Stretching he says, I made a promise to gather Jeslei if she aided overthrowing Einora, and I plan to fulfill that promise. Then I must must travel the main temple of Iisac to deliver these specimens, and I must return this shield to its rightful place with the main temple to and tell the head priest the unwritten story of Anselm. I know we must find the golden altar of Einora to ensure it's destruction, and that still takes precedent, but I cannot avoid that pilgrimage for long.
Tom
Ron slaps Conwall on the back and smiles. But when he looks to Remorse, for a moment his face contorts into a grimace. No, I don't believe I did.
Belym watches as Ron passes the divine power to Larune, and nods somewhat at Tom's comments. "There are precious few dwarves who would ever claim to know one of your deities. I guess I'm one now, though not in the usual meaning of the phrase. I hope she does not find her role too burdensome."
As the party regroups, Belym keeps an eye out for anything to show Einora's threats/boasts about her clan were more than empty words.
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In the square
The golden light flares up as You place Larune within it. when the light disappears, Larune stands there, burns healed, wearing an emerald dress. her bow on her back is golden now, and her mandolin made of fine Ebony. she opens her eyes, to reveal green orbs, and nods to ou, ignoring anything you say as she disappears.
Beldroth and the Ghostmoor soldiers arrive in the clearing, three are lacerated, all are burned, and Beldroth is using his sword as a cane. Captain, is the threat neutralized? What happened to Larune? he asks, tearing apart his tunic to bandage one of the soldiers who took an axe to the arm during the assault. What do you do?
Roshan
Merrick is behind you, you don't know how long he has been, but the look on his face says long enough. he chuckles a little. You know, she's gonna have those scars forever. not just the burns, the servitude, whatever the cult made her do. If you take her with you, you'll have to accept that, that she might never be fully okay. she says, kneeling down and pouring some liquid down her throat. the setting sun reflects off his shield, letting you see the full extent of her wounds... poor girl.
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Roshan nods. She's not ready to stand, but the grip of battle has loosened, and the charred skin is flaking away to reveal pink flesh marred by lines of grey scar tissue. "That would make two of us. Our histories write us, but as long as we draw breath there is more to write. I may wake to a knife to the back, but I cannot leave her to her fate knowing there is even one path left to her. I never knew Danyal's past, but I think I understand now what drove her to foster me. It is a next step in my own path... maybe not to salvation, but to peace."
Her eyes unfocus, looking past Merrick to the sky. "I never understood before now... why a God would seek death."
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Roshan
Be careful the mercenary says, taking out a flask. You seem like you're starting to go hollow.
I've seen it more than a few times, something happens, or a lot of somethings... or sometimes nothing, it just starts. and you start losing feeling. not like can't feel your legs, but you don't feel happy, or excited, or much of anything. You start going into a spiral, doing anything to get some feeling. it can get dangerous. He says, offering the drink to her.
Celica got like than, in the months before the end. she was with someone new every night, sometimes more than one. She hid her pain, tried to drown it out with trysts. Then one day, She wasn;t there when I woke to take the watch... he trails off, before drawing in breath I don't want to watch that happen again. Watch yourself. and If you ever need to talk.
In the square
The golden light flares up as You place Larune within it. when the light disappears, Larune stands there, burns healed, wearing an emerald dress. her bow on her back is golden now, and her mandolin made of fine Ebony. she opens her eyes, to reveal green orbs, and nods to ou, ignoring anything you say as she disappears.
Beldroth and the Ghostmoor soldiers arrive in the clearing, three are lacerated, all are burned, and Beldroth is using his sword as a cane. Captain, is the threat neutralized? What happened to Larune? he asks, tearing apart his tunic to bandage one of the soldiers who took an axe to the arm during the assault. What do you do?
Ron nods to Larune in return, and turns to face the soldiers as they arrive. Brace yerselves. Einora is no more, and I slew the Lord of Treason before he could retake his mantle. But ...
He pauses for a moment. Larune was dying. Einora struck her with some foul magic. Do ye remember how Tom explained that for every god that falls, another must rise? Larune has taken Einora's place in the pantheon. I couldn't let her die, not after all she did for us. He looks upwards. She's up there now. Spread the word. The Emerald Lady smiles upon us.
Tend to yer wounds and set up camp at the bronze gate. Tom can see to yer wounds once we've had a chance to rest.
As the soldiers move to comply, Ron begins searching the area, beginning with the corpse of the Quetzal demon, seeking anything of use.
Roshan's features harden, though notably less so than usual, and her lips press to a fine line. "I will pray over the matter. Thank you... for your concern."
Yet another line to toe... The muscles in the templar's jaw work. Without a secod thought, or much evidence of the burden, Roshan stands, holding Cassandra.
"Francis, I will need your help collecting my equipment. I have been careless." Then, I must make amends with Eleth and Belym... for similar reasons.
I smile warmly as Ron tells the story. Now I know two gods personally.
Do you think she'll be the goddess of treachery like her predecessors?
Ron speaks with Conwall as they search the ruins together. I hope not. I confess I don't know how all this works. Tom might have an idea. Ye saw her though? Didn't look much like a Goddess of Treachery to me. Might be she'll become the Goddess of Archery and Music or some something.
The two warriors search the ruined square, digging through ash and rubble.
We actually did it Conwall. Godslayers, like the legends. He glances towards Roshan in the distance. But at what cost?
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Tom spends his time treated the injured, and bandaging the party even with protests of their minor injuries not needing it. He does what he can with the injured soldiers and even the human cultists.
~~~At some point~~~
Tom responds to Ron's inquiry over Larune's future, The universe has laws and structure that are unknowable, and whatever her path is the existing pantheon will adjust their structures t' harmonize with it. It was the same as Hebron's sons when they reached the age to attain their godhoods.
You need t' think about why you chose here, and you must have faith - you are her first disciple, her only representative in this plane. You have as much influence on her as she has on the world through your deeds, and your actions will have great weight and consequence now. Even if you don't consider yourself her acolyte, she will still be watching from above much like Einora kept her eye on us.. but a much friendlier companion. He grins.
Roshan
Do that... and, don't mention what I told you to anyone else. Most people think celica died fighting a manticore he says.
Ron
You... Thank the gods one of the militiamen say most of them look about ready to collapse.
We have done well Beldroth says, raising his sword
I have dibs on the next godhood. Merrick says, suddenly there, leaning against one of the remaining houses thresholds
A search of the village turns up a couple interesting items. in Jeslei's residence you find a number of relics of slain gods, an incense bowl bearing the sign of the first god of love, and a pendant Belym will recognize from the six armed serpent god. together, they weigh i load, and would probably fetch 1000 gold.
In Einora's chambers, you find several magical note, all told enough to learn Contact Other Plane, Dominate, and Shadow Walk, and her crown, an ostentatious thing, forged of platinum and rubies (worth 800 gold, if sold)
In her treasury, you find 3700 gold, in infernal currency and gems
and finnaly, in her reiquary, you find a pair of holy blade, capable of severing links to the infernal realms, which were clearly plundered from the church, 10 healing potions, a coin of remebering, and A scroll of storm of vengance.
are you guys bedding down here, or trying to go back to Ghostmoor?
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~~~~~Sometime during camp~~~~
The first time Ron sees Roshan since Einora's fall, she is heating up water by dropping heated stones into a kettle. She sees him, but doesn't ackowledge him at first.
Lectures roll off his back like water off a duck. The world's latest godslayer doesn't need criticism from a lowly templar. "Keep your wits about you, godslayer. Those stones, and perhaps that spear as well... The price for our gifts comes sooner or later, but it always comes. We can see mine, but don't imagine that weapon was borne of your wits alone." There is a pause as Roshan takes a slow breath. "Speaking of which, what do you need that sword for? You never much liked the subtlety of the blade." Her expression suggests she's not confident she's smoothed over the conversation.
Roshan
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Belym assists Tom in tending to the wounded, and then with the cleanup. After the immediate urgency fades, her stone arm means she's drawing more looks and whispers than usual from the soldiers. She's getting decent at ignoring that kind of thing, after months of practice.
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~~~At some point~~~
Tom responds to Ron's inquiry over Larune's future, The universe has laws and structure that are unknowable, and whatever her path is the existing pantheon will adjust their structures t' harmonize with it. It was the same as Hebron's sons when they reached the age to attain their godhoods.
You need t' think about why you chose here, and you must have faith - you are her first disciple, her only representative in this plane. You have as much influence on her as she has on the world through your deeds, and your actions will have great weight and consequence now. Even if you don't consider yourself her acolyte, she will still be watching from above much like Einora kept her eye on us.. but a much friendlier companion. He grins.
Disciple. I suppose I am. Did you see her eyes? Larune, the Emerald Lady. Anyway, do ye ever speak to yer god Tom? Do ye think I could ever speak with her again? I need to know she is ok, and that she understands why I did what I did.
~~~~~Sometime during camp~~~~
The first time Ron sees Roshan since Einora's fall, she is heating up water by dropping heated stones into a kettle. She sees him, but doesn't ackowledge him at first.Lectures roll off his back like water off a duck. The world's latest godslayer doesn't need criticism from a lowly templar. "Keep your wits about you, godslayer. Those stones, and perhaps that spear as well... The price for our gifts comes sooner or later, but it always comes. We can see mine, but don't imagine that weapon was borne of your wits alone." There is a pause as Roshan takes a slow breath. "Speaking of which, what do you need that sword for? You never much liked the subtlety of the blade." Her expression suggests she's not confident she's smoothed over the conversation.
And ye as well, Godslayer. Though I doubt ye much care, yer name will go down in legend for this day. He approaches her, inspecting her various wounds, if she will let him. It seems we both know of the price to be paid for others. But speak plainly.
As she asks about the blade, Ron's hand reflexively, and protectively falls to the hilt. It proved useful enough. Might prove useful again.
He raises Remorse to stand straight up and down. In the area of gods and demons, I am a merfolk out of water. I barely understand this ...
Remorse flashes with emerald light, but a close look reveals red lighting within. That's new. What do ye think it means?
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Roshan turns her head in a way that would normally have her hair fall over her face. Shock, followed by resignation play across her face. That guard is broken, perhaps forevermore...
"I made a show of ignoring my place in this story, but I did always care. -counting kills right with you and Conwall, though they have been few... I don't know yet if I've lost that or set it aside. That fight... it has put some things in perspective. Balances are shifting..."
Roshan regards Ron's display with an experienced eye. "It is how power is expressed in this world. Magic, miracles, whatever the source, they paint in the colors of the wielder's spirit. My craft deals heavily in manipulating this excess heat. I've had a fondness--an obsession you could say--with blood, and my aspect frequently takes on that form. As the tide of combat ebbs, something older leaks out..." Roshan seems to get lost in thought, watching the fire.
"Yours has a promising brilliance, but it too has a duality you should endeavor to control. Without a living God, my talents burn my own willpower. It would behoove you to understand the source of power that drives your talents." Roshan shakes her head and laughs gently. "I'm sorry, I am lecturing again."
Disciple. I suppose I am. Did you see her eyes? Larune, the Emerald Lady. Anyway, do ye ever speak to yer god Tom? Do ye think I could ever speak with her again? I need to know she is ok, and that she understands why I did what I did.
You may not get the conversation you want, but she will come t' you. Just stay open t' her call.
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Prologue: Troubled Sleep
Ron
As sleep washes over you, the memories of that moment of darkness on the battlefield return to you.
You stand before the shifting form of a demon lord, body composed of blood and darkness. He speaks to you, in a voice like the sightless slimefish drawing themselves through the sludge in the deep. Of course I will give you a blade, it is no issue to me... however, I require a service of you he asks you to retrieve a relic for him. What does he ask for, and what does it do?
He also commands you to take a servant with you, back to your realm. name and describe the abomination you are unleashing upon the world?
Finally, he has some way of insuring your service is rendered, do tell me what your leash is?
Belym
With the impending reunion near at hand, thoughts of your past invade your sleep. Describe your last stand in the mines for me. also, describe four of your clansdwarves, (two have survived, two haven't. I'll choose)
Tom
Late in the night, you see a pale creature framed by the moon. an air spirit, bound by a powerful mage, descends upon the camp, tunrs toward you, and lays down a scroll. whoever sent this, they were clearly very set on this letter arriving quickly.
We send you this missive expediently, hoping it finds you freely able to travel. The lands of Duchess Eloen are plagued by an apparently new and virulent strain of the Sanguine Malady. We offer you 10000 coin, if you are able to halt it's spread, and save our citizens
-Lavinia Reynes, Chatelaine to the Duchess Eloen
The sanguine blood malady is a plague that turns it's victims into monsters. Within these parameters, describe the illness, and it's (usual) source.
Roshan
Your recent brush with 0-wrath left a mark on you. You dream of your time with the orphan mother. What is the worst thing you must relive tonight.
Cassandra laying next to you has you thinking back to when you were rescued. tell me, what was it like, first encountering your avenging angel, Danyal.
Conwall
late at night, while the others sleep, Percival alights on Catastrophe, a little compartment opening on his chest. Inside is a note, addressed to you.
I hope this missive finds you well, or at least alive. unfortunately, I understand you angered some redcaps, and may well be in dire straights, if those honourless cur attack you in your sleep, or while you are otherwise disadvantaged
I wish I could tell you all was well in the forest, but alas, that would be a damnable lie. The pontiff has been granted wartime powers, with only stags-leap and silver-stream in opposition.
Ready yourself, for elvenkind is marching to war, and they may well falsley brand you a deserter, if you are found.
-Conway
Who is the pontiff? Why is his appointment so potentially calamitous?
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Not everyone sees the sylph, but they certainly hear the exclaimation, TEN THOUSAND F@+#ING GOLD!?
On that note, I think that the disease spreads quietly because the first phase of the sickness is known as "submission" where the disease actually encourages the host to live a very healthy lifestyle slowly over months and months going from an overweight drunk to a trim and fit family man with a steady job. Because it plays into the hope people have for their loved ones to improve it can spread through drinking water unseen until it covers a wide region by the time it is too late.
And when is it too late? Well most don't know that sanguine blood malady is actually a parasitic ooze that slowly replaces the blood supply of the body with its own amorphous gloop. When the transition is nearing completion, the victim is noticeably either cherry-cheeked if they have a light complexion or noticeable paler if they have darker skin (again subtle enough to avoid detection) and they suddenly seek to copulate with their preferred mates to spread the disease. Their tastes become teenage again, and they start to cheat on spouses and make bad decisions in the effort. At this point survival is probably impossible - but there is a faint hope.
By the time the ooze has truly taken the entirety of a person they are a raving madman with no coherent ability to speak. It begins as a verbal tick or dazing off into the distance for seconds or minutes before snapping back like nothing happened. They behave in a depraved manor, and their intelligence drops. As the ooze eats their flesh they begin to try and spread the disease any way possible - vomiting in water supplies, spitting in people's faces, doing horrible things to sheep. Whatever they need. It's also the stage that it become noticed when dozens suddenly behave like this. These people are already dead.
The final stage is when the body gives out and the ooze spills in an explosion of viscera. The ooze is psychically connected to all the host bodies it infected and seeks to join into a mass of flesh and ooze creating a horrifying shambling mound of flesh and bone and blood-red goop. In a small town that is unprepared this ooze can eradicate every living creature in the town and become the size of a house. There are myths of these things becoming the size of mountains or hills.
The ooze seeks to grow as large as possible, but eventually it becomes coated in debris and the bodies it consumes are kept on the outside. Eventually it is too large and its skin is too stiff to move and it dies by dividing into millions and millions of amoebas that sink into the ground to be consumed. If humanity is unlucky they will make it to a river or well and spread for hundreds of miles even if only a handful will survive long enough to take a host. If humanity is lucky they die in the sea, where the salt kills the tiny oozes. When an ooze dies the smell is famous.
Large oozes are extraordinarily rare, most are caught when they have taken the host over nearly completely making the person a violent, impossibly strong and tough human, and when they take damage the ooze can com out to attack or launch psychic assaults. Even when they do form into an ooze, there is usually other oozes they compete with and it never gets larger than a horse - the average event would be a dozen oozes that never get bigger than a large dog.
Their psychic abilities are the only real danger they have besides infection or using a host to fight for them. Obviously the bigger they are the stronger they are and more elaborate their abilities become... and the harder it is to bring down.
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He asks you to retrieve a relic for him. What does he ask for, and what does it do?
Smoke of the Emerald Mountain Blossom:
Dragons and all their kind love expensive and rare things. Nothing is more decadent than burning this flower which only blooms at the storm shrouded peak of the emerald mountains during rare moments of clement weather. When the contents of this vial are added to a flame it produces a fume that most people would call pleasant. Any dragon or draconic creature that inhales the fumes will become intoxicated and generally adopt a friendly, talkative even helpful mood. Each application only lasts for a short time however and a prolonged conversation may require several uses. Roll a d6 after each use. The vial is emptied after the first roll of 1.
He also commands you to take a servant with you, back to your realm. name and describe the abomination you are unleashing upon the world?
The shapechanger who was formally in Einora's service. Took a nice trip to the underworld after our last meeting, and will be returning with me to the mortal realm. I forget his name though ... Sephiroth?
Finally, he has some way of insuring your service is rendered, do tell me what your leash is?
The demon reveals that he can control Kenan against Kenan's will, and makes it known that Natria and/or Kenan will die if Ron doesn't comply.
“wut it naym?” Rhistel perches on the crib to keep its feet out of the honey. The cold night air hurt, but the imp had never savored the numb warmth that followed the angel of mercy. Having the stuff coursing through its veins was a practical necessity at this point, but Rhistel liked to stay alert.
“This one isn’t for keeping, darling. It will eat this one.” Seprahime lounges in a rocking chair by the window, watching the clouds. The moonlight through the gossamer window drapes plays across pale skin. This room was much like any other in the city. All of them decked with the trappings of a mercantile household. There were so many soft things to touch, the little pink thing the softest of all.
“eets? it dies? wut it do? it so pink...” Rhistel licks its cracked lips. It has questions, doubts, yet it draws back the cloth with a single ragged claw. Rhistel was a good pet. Rhistel got treats. So long as Rhistel followed commands, the pain stayed away.
“Nothing. This one is too young. This one won’t survive the others. Now eat up, darling, it will need its strength. I want to show it off tonight at court. Such a good little fetchling- it wants to see mommy’s friends, doesn’t it? It can’t cross over until it eats.”
Once in Rhistel’s arms, the pink thing yawns, stretching out to put a tiny pink hand on the imp’s sallow, grime-smeared cheek.
Finally, something vital snaps, and the meat grows still and quiet. Rhistel has never had something so fresh and sweet, but a cold, tight something weighs on its chest. The toughest bit was the skull. The other bones cracked and crunched, but after prying open the crown, there wasn’t much to do but suck and gnaw.
It was after coming up for breath, gore hanging from its face, that Rhistel spotted the girl framed by the doorway. A candle dashed on the floor at her feet. With one word she brought reality swooping down like an owl out of the night. “Toby?”
Seprahime’s voice, low and powerful, numbed the horror that crept in behind the imp’s eyes. “Sarah, go back to your room. Play with your toys and your costumes. Forget about the baby.”
The girl... Sarah, bit her lip, and stood her ground. Her courage was admirable, but she lacked the strength to voice her objections.
“Kill her too.”
“but-”
Roshan bolts upright, howling in pain and grief. The scarred side of her face stings with dual phantom pains. As the strength bleeds from her, the wail turns to a racking sob. She pulls her knees in close and rides out the panic, pain, and grief.
The first thing in her environment that Roshan senses is Cassandra’s presence. Not in the pallet next to her, but huddled in the bottom of the templar’s travel trunk, and shivering with tension. Emptied of the kettle, the tent, the pallet bag and assorted other road equipment required on a long-term pilgrimage, the trunk is perfectly sepultural for a woman of Cassandra’s size. It would no longer serve Roshan’s frame, but it had at one time.
It had been hours since the white wind excised the initiate from among her gnashing siblings. Roshan can only wonder if Danyal had screamed herself awake before gently rousing the imp from her restless sleep. Concern was the first sincere emotion Roshan ever saw. Inquisitive fear... two thoughts that had never been put side by side in all of the child’s turbulent life. Danyal had pulled her from the very same trunk, humming a tuneless melody. Something in the rhythm brought the girl from the grips of her nightmares.
Scars marked Danyal as well. Burns across the eyes. One sightless, white orb set opposite a closed lid. The white vance are the sightless blades. Each is a veteran templar who fights by the light of guilt alone.
That wasn’t the first time Roshan saw her. The imp first saw a flash of blue-grey blades in the darkness of the sewers, surrounded by the bones of long-dead kin, and the rapidly disintegrating bodies of the more recently dead kin. She was a horror of sudden, grim realities, and a beauty of cerulean feathers. Roshan saw her as none of the other templars had seen her- as the swift approach of death.
Danyal had not come to save her… it. It had information. Leads. Another piece to the eternal puzzle. Rhistel had to be broken for Roshan to be built. Was she forcing a parallel? Did she see the pattern because she wanted to? -because she needed Danyal back badly enough to retrace her steps? Roshan was not Danyal. Danyal was a daughter of Hebron. Presumably by blood. Kin to Ilsac. Practically a demigod. Roshan was as far from that as there was…
Roshan had never tried to hum before...
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I crumple the letter in my hand. Did Conway send Percival in the first place, or has he somehow figured out how to farcast messages into its body? Either way, this news bodes ill.
Pontiff Fallow's making moves. If he's seized wartime powers then either Pelnore has decreed that a holy war is in order, or Fallow has simply claimed it so.
Conway was frustratingly vague on the target of the Pontiff's crusade. Is it internal or external. It's clearly not a scouring...so what is it? What could it mean.
Does Fallow know about the demon that Ron has set loose?
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-----Months ago-----
No one saw the signal turn on. (If something happens, smash the vial on the wall. Magic echoes up the tunnel, makes the rune glow.) Belym had her head down, discussing plans for the next portion of the shaft with the foreman. The other three were laying cart tracks. None of them looked up until minutes later, when Rundrig's feet could be heard racing up the tunnel.
Golems! Fell out of the ceiling on Durtur.
Where? How long?
Minutes away.
Years of drills kick in, and they fall back, tools abandoned. (The golems will stop to break them; leave them to gain a few seconds.) At the junction, Belym peels off to set the bait tunnel; the rest move on. The grinding sound of golem movement echoes from behind, not far.; Lungs burning, Belym races through the loop (Set the bait. They'll follow your trail. Run the loop, three times, and they'll stay in the loop.). Once around, and the grinding is resolving into individual sounds - 5, no 6 golems. Twice around - they're too close, not enough time. Three times around - she can see the tunnel, but they're there already, six dull metal-and-stone figures between her and the hold. She feints right, dashes left, past the golems, and turns into the tunnel just as Arika triggers the charge (You must blow the charges before they reach the tunnel. If they're buried, they ignore the bait, dig out and keep coming), and there's a flash, and a roar, and pain, and then nothing.
Ron awakens from sleep in a cold sweat. What have I done?
The demon lord seems vaguely familiar...
Ron walks shakily to where Conwall is meditating. Conwall, we have a problem.
He relays every detail of the dream that he remembers to Conwall. The shapeshifter is loose, and they will kill Natria and Kenan if I don't bring this flower extract. What do we do?
Sometime after waking but before heading out:
Ron studies the various items recovered from Einora's fortress. He stares at the items with concern and consternation. Remorse flashes green, with touches of faint red lightning.
On the road after leaving camp:
Ron rides Roach, deeply troubled by his conversation with Conwall.
Ron...
Larune? I'm so sorry. Are you ok? I made a choice I had no right to make. For that I pledge my life in service to you. Whatever you ask of me, I shall do. But Larune, I ... I made a terrible mistake... He relates the Demon dream. I'm lost. What can I do?
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Ron
I'm okay... well, I think I am anyway... being a goddess is confusing. a voice replies, like Larunes, but more melodic, more forceful. It's... I forgive you, you did what you had to. the voice is halting, sounds somewhat disoriented, like your connection is weak, or unstable.
Lots of new rules, for being a goddess... Can't break them, or else you start to go crazy, Like Einora did she says not allowed to manifest outside of special rituals... not allowed to directly interfere... can't even give you really clear instructions she tells you.
Well, you're my first devotee. a few people have already found out about me, not many. She says Guess that makes you archbishop... Heh, Archbishop, godslayer, commander Bucannero... you really are racking up the titles... she sounds like she's laughing.
Thinking about allying myself with one of the other gods, might join a pantheon. You probably ought to head over to meet with the archbishop of Mersiel... she's kinda in a tizzy about this whole godslaying business, not sure what to make of it. you should smooth that over. she adds
After that... This world is still in danger. You have most of the peices... I may have helped them along. She pauses, thinking I'm not allowed to tell you more, but that is my commandment... Save the world, and live to tell the story. she tells you.
The area around the marsh for meters is peppered with arrows, hundreds of them. The ground is also littered with demon corpses... it would seem Thaddeus and Scath had a good number of foes to contend with.
Gerald is glad to forge anything you want forged (anything on the equipment list, or stuff that you can reasonably stat up).
Natria is waiting at the gate with mayor Rushmantle, they both congratulate you (well, Natria calls you a bunch of suicidal madmen, but she laughs afterward)
anyone have anything they want to do here?
The entrance to the mine is surrounded by demon corpses. A good number of them have balista bolts sprouting from their corpses, the rest have suffered from pretty bad lacerations. the door has been reinforced with dwarfish iron, and outfitted with a thunderstone knocker. what do you do? Who is here?
Tom calls on Thaddeus, I have recovered something on our journey, something of great importance t' Mersiel... but I don't know that I can split my attention feasibly and want t' know if I can trust you. So the first question is, can I trust you with something critical t' your church?
Tom's next is, Can I trust you t' carry a message t' the archbishop and no one else between?