Drispeera managed to calm the cheetah successfully (not that it could run away anywhere).
"No worries. I can take care of his injuries with Erastil's blessings"
Lay on hands
"Hopefully together this creature will be ready for what next awaits them" Ionnia says with a warm smile as she pets the creature.
"the cheetah needs to rest, its been through a lot Drispeera, but if you really want him we will have to stay here and let it finish healing naturally, you'll have to tend to, it feed, it walk it, I think he'll even get to love you" She says with a smile as she looks to Drispeera and smiles as she pulls out some of her ration and pulls a chuck off and offers it to the cheetah.
"Such a good kitty, Does the kitty wanna come with Dris, so she can wash you, and feed you, and pick up after you" she says smiling as she looks to Dris and than to the Cheetah.
The cheetah seems to have no issue with the party, and responds to Drispeera's handling quite well.
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MINE!!!
After the cheetah is healed, Dris is at the end of her patience with other people interacting with HER kitty. She will put the cheetah on her lap and rudely shoulder block anyone else who tries to pet it or feed it.
She will feed it herself with more Deaodon jerky, and coo to it in baby talk. Who's the cutest kitty in the whole world? You are! Yes, you are the cutest! Much cuter than that mean old displacer B.. Er, yes, much cuter.
And she will prestidigitate its fur clean, and then turn it blue with white spots. Are you feeling blue? Just a little? Don't worry, cutie pie, you look fabulous in blue!
(This is Dris' version of putting silly sweaters on her pet. She will let the blue fade after about an hour.)
Drispeera is so enthralled with the cheetah she doesn't pay much attention as the party searches the cave.
"Congratulations Drispeera, you have a cute cheetah cub as a pet! What are you gonna name it?" She asks as she smiles at the color and stands over the cheetah making sure it is doing fine.
" Dris, I'll. Check again on him in later to make sure he is doing okay, if it looks like something is wrong with him still don't be afraid to call me over, I would hate any creature to suffer when I can use my goddesses divine power to aid them" she than giggles and turns to Dris
" Ooo Dris I just revised you could so make him match whatever out fit you were wearing at the time, Infact I have a sister I can send in Oppara at the temple who is an amazing seamstress, her clothes are known to set the trend of Talfan society, if you want I can send a letter to her next time we are at Oleg's and get a custom out for you" she says as she than turns to the entrance and looks about the once vine choked lands as she prays softly in Celestial.
Mornaura rummages through the remains in the lair, collects the old coins in the belt pouch and tries to estimate how many humanoids have died here.
"Oh please, by the restless spirits of these lands... Girls, it's a cheetah, not a fashion doll. Give it some rest. And if anyone wants to hear what it might have to say about all this, I'm here. Now, do we want to bury these remains...?"
" Sorry Mornaura, i know... but Its soo cute" she says with girlish glee, than looks to all the remains and shakes her head.
" I would say to be safe here we should either burn them, AS burying all of them will be hard to do with so many remains" she looks about trying to see any where that might be a place to bury them but than sighs
"Or we could get a message to that lovely Cleric of Erastil at Olegs and see what he wants to do with the place and the remains here' she says as she looks saddened at all the remains here.
"Alright, let's head out and leave this task to Jhod and Kresten's guys. Do you have means to contact them?"
Looking at Faron, who is perched on top of the staff as usual, she decides to answer a possible question before it occurs: "Just to get that straight, I'm not sending Faron back to Oleg's."
She wanders out of the bear's lair and back to the horses, letting her familar fly around a bit and feeding him while the others are still busy with the cheetah.
"So this bear was just eating whoever came to the temple? That's not natural. I wonder who cursed it." Seeing the cooing over the cheetah, he rolls his eyes a bit. Women and cute animals. Sheesh!
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When Drispeera finally looks up from dangling a string in front of the purring cheetah cub long enough to notice the rest of the party, she says Ew gross, he ate other animals, even other predators-- thats not natural. That must have been one nasty curse. Well, that fanatical Jhod guy will be totally happy we found his temple, even if it does need a lot of cleaning. So are we going to go back and tell him now? Or are we gonna keep exploring?
As the party gathers this new day, the team sets out to the west on this fine morning. Kresten waves you all goodbye, and Jhod makes sure that you see him making a gesture to "keep an eye out for my temple" kinda thing. Mikmek has decided to come with you for now, loading his wolf with rations for everyone as well as the horses. There should easily be enough for 2 weeks of traveling without foraging for more food.
The party ponders where to head next...
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Do you think the little guy can make the trip by himself? And can he really be trusted?Maybe we should just run back and report real quick, before continuing on. And before we go, maybe we should explore this temple a little bit. I don't think we've examined much besides this cave.
(to Kitty)What do you think, hmm? Should we look around? Should we? Or should I just stay here and rub your belly, purry kitty? Should I? I know what your name is-- Purrrrrrrcival. What do you think about that?
" True, he is green here as an adventurer.May be we should go tell Him we found the temple, and than bring him here" she looks at Dris and smiles and than to the others
" Besides shouldn't he handy on our journey back, maybe he can aid us with a few of the other tasks we have at hand like those berries? may be he might now and teach us some wood lore too!" she says as she smiles, and than goes towards her wagon.
"I vote we make camp and I can get us some food started. and may be Keaso and Bingo can teach us some things about woods lore and animals, and our friendly kobold warrior in training can learn a little from all of us" she says all mother hen like as she steps back onto the frim stairs and heads down them towards her wagon.
"I'd say explore. I'd really like to know what caused the bear to turn murderous before we put this place behind us. As for Mikmek, I'm not sure he'd be a good messenger without us there to back him up.
Kaeso wants to scratch the cheetah behind the ears, but thinks better of offending the new mother.
Mornaura takes out her map and calculates distance and travel time, until the others have returned to the horses.
"Well, folks, if we send Mikmek around the forest, it shouldn't be that dangerous, and we could write a message that he can give to Jhod so they know everything's alright.
I'm certain he is capable of this important task, aren't you, little friend?" She looks at the kobold and smiles reassuringly.
"If you're not so confident, maybe one of us could accompany him. The trip to get there and back takes... about 4 to 6 days for Mikmek and Norn. During that time, we could explore the area southwest of here and then come back and meet them for a reunion. That's what I vote for."
Holding up the map, she shows her companions what she means.
"It takes twice as long if we all do that trip with the wagon. I don't know about you, but I'm certainly not riding around for almost two weeks only to inform Jhod that we found his temple."
She makes a pause and looks around at the others.
"Now that I'm thinking of it... Ionnia, you might not like it, but we should probably leave your wagon here at the temple anyway. The area we still have to explore consists entirely of forest. It's getting denser the further we move south, and there's also the river we're going to cross some times.
It'd be a hell of a lot of work to travel with the wagon, so really, let's just leave it here for a while... I'm sure Jhod and whoever's coming with him will take care of it."
Mikmek's ears spring up. "PSCH! Mikmek know these parts like back of hand! Kobolds live here fairly long time, much longer than big folk, right! Yes, I can take a paper to Oleg, and be back in a jiffy. Or I can wait for you there. Or bring Jhok or whatever over here too! No trouble for Mikmek. I will do friends proud! Just be careful west of river. Old serpents there!"
"I guess so, but i will need to ride with some one...I am not much a rider and Dashar here is a Wagon trained horse not a Steed" she says as she begins to cook over a simple fire.
"Hopefully you like some applejack and berry gravy as well as some coffee with rations tonight" she says as she smiles and begins to sing a simple tune in Celestial about an angel and a Chef
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Well, I suppose our... friend can be trusted with a note, if he thinks he can make it himself.and if he can't, a note and a kobold is not such a great loss.And I would prefer both Norn and Kaeso to be with us when we fight the Tatzel-whatsis.
Your ideas seem sound, Mornie, if Ionnia's ok with leaving her wagon. I'm not so great on a horse myself but Kaeso made Brick into a much more comfortable ride. And I hardly notice the stench anymore. Maybe we can repack your best stuff into that little bag Mornie found. (Presuming she told us about it.) You simply must bring your cookpots. Best eats we've had, away from Svetlana. And your shoes. Bring all your shoes. she says around an unladylike full mouth.
But before we go any further, I really think we ought to give this temple a thorough going-over. Don't you think so Purrcy? Maybe we'll find a nice giant rat for you.
'Thank you" she says as she blushes and than looks to the others
"Eat up, You all look and i can clean up and unpack what i need for the journey" she says as she walks over to Kaeso and smiles, she looks at Kaeso and smiles a wide smile
"Kaeso, could you be a dear and help me with Dashar, my horse, he was never trained for a rider... I have no saddle either so if you could help me make him a steed for me I would be so grateful" she says as she smiles softly as tries to look all helpless.
"Fascinating. An old temple to Erastil. Such a privilege to have helped heal it."
On another round of scouting, Norn finds an old journal barely buried underneath some very soft soil. Drispeera, using detect magic, notices that the journal is just an old book, but interestingly, the now-full pool of clear, clean water is now radiating magic (conjuration[healing] aura).
After spending a few minutes waiting for our cleric's tasty grub to cook, Norn approaches the group with the bear guardian's story:
"I have been reading this journal, and honestly, looks like the Stolen Lands is full of sad tales. Reminds me a little of the purple gnome we defeated a few days ago."
"First, this man's name is not in his journal, but it is clear that he was once the keeper of this temple when it was in use. The temple itself was once a small but well-tended shrine to Erastil, the 'Temple of the Elk' has stood abandoned for many years since Taldor’s last attempt to occupy this region. Unfortunately, this last keeper of the shrine went a little mad after he finally admitted to himself that the indigenous tribes of trolls, savage humanoids, and other monsters had 'won' and would drive the Taldan colonists out."
"Frustrated, the cleric lured a large bear to the temple and sacrificed it in the name of 'any who would answer the call' to aid against the humanoids. His lack of faith in Erastil proved his undoing, and the god of the hunt drove the priest mad, and stripped him of his abilities and even his humanity. The mad priest became a large grizzly bear to replace the one whose life he had sacrificed, and Erastil granted him immortality in his new form but not enough intellect to make much of it, forcing him to remain at the site as a guardian until someone worthy of Erastil could come to lift the curse. It looks like he lost his ability to read and write shortly after his transformation, and I would have to guess that his speech followed after as well."
Kaeso takes Ionnia aside and attempts to teach some basic riding: "You want to make sure to grip the horse with your legs. It'll be tricky until we get you a saddle, and I'm sorry to say you'll be sore, but you shouldn't fall off. . . ." Kaeso grins.
I'll take 10 on Handle Animal, but it takes 3 weeks to train one to bear a rider. "Perhaps we can load up Dashar with our gear, and you can ride my second horse, the one we got from the bandits. Don't try to ride Joss (my horse)--he's not too friendly."
Getting started on Handle Animal for Dashar (taking 10) 10+10 = 20.
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This is interesting. Healing Magic I think. Dris will investigate the pool more thoroughly.
After hearing the reading of the journal she will tear up a little. Poor bear guy. The gods are so cranky.
EDIT:
Norn, you'd better start practicing with that bow! I wonder what Erastil's punishment is for sucking with His Chosen Weapon?
The pool's power seems to be quite powerful and hard to identify, but you can surmise drinking any of the water would serve as a healing potion. However, the water becomes non-magical when taken outside the pool.
"'tis really strange that the very same god can be both so... vengeful, transforming someone who lost faith into a mindless guardian, and so generous, granting everyone who visits his temple access to such a powerful source of healing magic... It's a pity that it's not possible to fill up our waterskins."
" Old Dead Eye seems capricious, I heard he is a god of the hunt and community and a converted priestess had told me he thinks women nothing more than mothers, any other role is to be second to that of child bearer and mother" she says as she continues to clean
"He also though is a benevolent deity to rural lands here, supposedly a shepherd between the land and how you use it to survive. I know I could not stomach most of his teachings in New Sveten, I'm though proud of my Goddess even though she is not for everybody, I know I chose a goddess who cares about me, and all her believers, She is Eternal, and is Uncorruptable as her own brothers' possessor tried to take her but her heart rebuked him. I would love to have a place of such beauty in these lands, but Alas it belongs to Old Dead Eye, and I am happy to have given Jhod a beautiful present to reverie his own god." She says as she cleaned her pans
"Aye, the Stag God can be harsh but so's life, sometimes," Bingo offers, as he squats by the fire.
"But Bingo your skills would be a detriment to the community and he would judge you harshly and than cast you out! He may be good, but he cares only for the whole of the community he is often seen as unkind, and uncaring. Shelyn, offers you love unconditionally. She wishes you to be happy and healthy as well as the ability to appreciate the world and all the beauty it beholds. Erastil seeks only to keep the community whole, he cares not if you love another man, or if you love the mayors daughter, he cares that you get married, father children, and preform some skill to keep the community thriving, adventuring is seen as a reckless unnecessary thing, as The communities hunters, guards and soldiers can take care of the tasks, while the rest of the community just goes about there business, and if they die they die out of obligation to the community not for the love of those with in, that is what Erastil teaches and strives its worshipers to be, Is that what you strive from your god to be a father to children, children born to a woman you might not love, and to toil your days as a simple tradesmen who if Erastil had his way barters instead of using coinage? I for one, did not got to him with open arms but I respect his ideas, and finds them lacking. With Shelyn I was embraced and encouraged to pursue my arts, my dreams, and still aid others with a kind word, and healing hand. I will let that sink into you Bingo, and than you can decide if Erastil is the right god for you" she says as she finishes her speech and than goes to packing her cooking kit and looks about her wagon seeing what she will need to take with her.
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Umm, I think we've already established that Erastil is Mr. Cranky Pants. Pardon me as I go sit over here, while you try to convert one of his followers
Keeping an eye out for stray lightning bolts from the blue, Drispeera creeps some distance from Lady Ionnia. There she composes the note for MikMek to deliver.
Dear Brother Jhod,
Good News! We have located the temple of Erastil you have been seeking. It is quite beautiful and contains a sacred pool. I think it will surpass your hopes.
There was a grizzly business with an ancient guardian, but if you can bear to wait to hear the tail, we'll explain all once you arrive. The temple is safe now.
The path is marked on this map. This kobold, Mikmek, knows the way back and can guide you.
We will continue to explore the surrounding region, and meet you back there on X date.
Regards,...
She looks up Uh guys, should we give our group a name? How about Drispeera's Dream Team? Do you all think this letter is ok? Let's send it off, and get going, eh?
Bingo listens to Lady Ionnia with his eyes wide and staring. "Ya talk real perty, lady, but life ain't perty and I hope it don't bite ya in the ass someday when yer tryin' ta pet it."
"I have seen people at there worst, and I have had my own trials as well, but Bingo I have had one thing that has kept me through the dark...love, that's all I bring to you is Love..." She smiles at you and than giggles " Besides,I guess I couldn't count hou yo join me in a song later in?"
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Drispeera spends the afternoon exploring, playing with Purrcy and then watching Kaeso train horses. Once Kaeso puts his shirt back on and the religious debate goes on, Drispeera gets bored.
-Heavy Sigh- So Mornie, which way are we going in the morning? (Mornie in the Morning! could be a radio show!) Isn't there something else that needs righteous slaying?
Ionnia walks over to her cart and secures ber stuff. She than pulls out a nicely bound time and opens it she smiles. I place my symbol on the books pages and begin to sing in Celestial The Ballad of Dou-Brahl
For some reason, Mornaura seemed rather interested in the letter and even gave Drispeera some well-intentioned advice regarding the map instead of really paying attention to the ongoing sermon.
"Maybe we should postpone the naming thing until we've brought peace to these lands. We'll come up with a good one sooner or later."
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Now that the companions have finished the exploration of the temple area, Mornaura sits by the campfire and marks their findings on both the chalk-map and the paper copy.
"I'd say we head southwest tomorrow, Dris. We should try to head out as early as possible tomorrow, as we'll need to squeeze out some time during the next days if we want to make it back here by nightfall of the fourth."
The witch pauses and glances at Drispeera questioningly, unsure wether she's interested in the whole plan, but continues her elaboration just in case.
"Actually, I'd say we head southwest for the next two days. We can follow the river for a bit, before we cross it and make a turn to the north, and then move back to this temple through the area west of here. Can't promise you that we'll find anything deserving to be slain on that route, but we probably stand a good chance of finding living beings along the river."
Norn seems uneasy with the theological debate, and sits down at the fountain's edge. He says a quick prayer, and starts to secure his horse's gear and saddle.
"Seems we have a plan, yes? Mikmek, you are to deliver Drispeera's note up to Oleg's. You can decide with Jhod if you want to wait for us there to escort him or if he wants to come here by himself. We will go back to Oleg's through the temple so we will not miss you. We should be along in hopefully a week's time."
"Well, I'm sure Mikmek will take care of leading Jhod here in four days. If Jhod is afraid of the forest, he can ask for some of Kresten's men. But if we have to do an extra journey to escort Jhod here, which was neither part of our quest nor of our plans, he better doubles the reward," the witch adds, grumbling a bit.
Ionnia smiled and looked at the others as she walked over to Mikmek, and giggles " We have nothing to worry about our beautiful Mikmek here he is a brave warrior, who has chosen to become strong for his people. He will make it there, and when he returns with Jhod a holy man he will have nothing to fear, I Lady Ionnia Orlovsky, servant of Shelyn The Eternal Rose, Goddess of love, and the many beauties of the world annoint Mikmek, as a divine warrior of Shelyn, may you be true Mikkek, and may the goddess bless you forever more" I drop a dollop of water on the kobolds head and give Mornaura and the others a wink as I smile and than kiss the kobolds for head.
Ionnia than gives the good kobold a hug and smiles. " Be swift Mighty Mikmek, and come back to us, we can always use another blade to clean this land so all races can live here and thrive" she says as she stands and walks back over to the others all smiles.
Mikmek looks around confused. "Mikmek doesn't know anything that is happening right now, but I understand. Take paper to Oleg and bald cleric guy there. No problem, Mikmek can do."
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I dunno, Mornie. Days of Mary Sunshine over there trying to convert tightly-wound Jhod-ikins? Doesn't the entertainment alone make the extra journey worth it? She gives Mornie a tiny shudder. And then looks with her at the map again.
I think your plan is good if we're circling back to here in a few days anyway. But there are still these hexes to the west we need to get as well. (1 west and then 2 south to get the western border, right?) We'll have to circle back whichever way we start, so if you wanna go this way first, its cool. As long as Purrcy gets to pounce on something soon. Isn't that right, Boo Boo Kitty? Yes it is.
"Nah, I really don't think my head could stand listening to them debating religious topics all the way from Oleg's to this temple..."
She shakes her head to focus on the plan again.
"You're right, we're leaving out the three hexes at the border until after we met Jhod. And the plan to explore the area by the river allows us to make it back here in time."
Hearing River Ionnia walks over and smiles.
" If we go yo the river, we could fish for extra provisions and get a decent bath out of the deal as well. I ak liking this idea of your Ng to the river" she than leans in to Dris and whispers " may be Shelyn will bless us with the sight of beauty that is Kaeso" she giggles as she winks at Drispeera and than smiles at Mornaura.
" Well I am gonna pour me another tankard of applejack than hit the hay. Have to get up early to enjoy the glorious sun shone, and make some coffee, maybe some light reading while Kaeso works with the horses....before bed as well"she than leaves the two girls and heads to her wagon pouring a tankard of applejack and picking up her copy of Melodies of Inner Beauty and heads off to Kaeso to "watch" his training with horses.