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Hired by Lissete Gilund, venerable priestess of Muir, the party set out from Bard's Gate to determine why the Valley of the Shrines has been home to such dreadful sorrow over the years.
Chiara is hauled along in an old cart by the inexaustible Pyrite, the pair battling through a pack of skeletal wolves. Meanwhile, in the hamlet of Orolun Ascian and Sidra found the inhabitants slaughtered, hanged from the boughs of a great flourishing oak. Battling the twig blights spawned from the tree the pair gathered enough clues to suspect that the Treeslaker tribe of goblins was responisble for this crime.
Linking up, the two groups continued on their way, slaying a duplicitous band of Screecher goblins and reaching the Valley of the Shrines. The village buildings are little more than piles of rotted timbers and moss-covered stones, while the temples have been blackened by fire and covered in curses (written in mud, blood, and worse fluids) in Orcish and Abyssal.
Exploring the Shrine of Muir the expedition destroyed a quartet of skeletal undead and discovered a handful of Glyphs of Warding; three of which were detonated. Beneath the goddess' statue a secret stairway was found, with a small barracks and armory dusty and untouched for long years.
"Well, we should go check out the other Temple." Sidra says dusting off the ash on her hands, "Hopefully we'll find more than just undead and bombs."
I agree with Sidra, Chiara says, still saddened but determined. We should find out any more information about who destroyed the temple, and why.
The sun is hidden by the clouds and you feel a cool breeze from the mountains barely visible in the distance. The crumbled, overground mounds of rubble that was once the village of Shrinekeep lay still and silent as you stride past it for the next temple.
The sister temple is dedicated to mighty Tyr the Lawgiver, a transplant from the Northlands whose popularity has faded in tandem with that of Muir. It has never fared any better, it's blackened walls and filthy symbols and insults in Orcish and Abyssal. The doors are in better shape, though, and remain closed--though they appear to hang loosely on their hinges.
The temple stands silent & foreboding in its faded splendor, the damaged doors only slightly ajar and the breeze moaning through the columns.