"The goddess willing, that's not the case - I believe we have to assume some chance of success, Ari. But I agree that a certain amount of healthy paranoia is needed," Sasha replies with a smile and gentle laugh to soften her rebuttal.
"If healthy paranioa is needed then I'm contributing" Rutilux chimes in with a faux chipper tone.
"I-- I think I could help hide the totem," Kiley suggests after a moment. "Ari has a point; we don't know who we can trust. As for what to do next, I want to find out what happened to the priestess that came before us. I hope she's alright, but I don't think we'll be having a happy ending there." Kiley's ears droop as she admits some of her fears. She starts hiding her ears and tail as she waits to hear what the others think.
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While the group debates their course of action, Ari tunes out to take a closer look at the dagger they have found. Rutilux had assured her that it was magical but, naturally curious, she wanted to check it out for herself. Although it is undoubtedly a fine piece of craftsmanship, it looks somewhat different to the numerous knives she invariably has secured on her person.
The blade itself is a touch shorter than her other daggers and, while well-made, is devoid of any distinguishing marks. It is unclear how long it has been in the worg’s possession but the edge doesn’t look in need of a whetstone. Ari briefly considers running a finger along it to test this theory but thinks better of it. The handle is made of what appears to be a single piece of hardy suth wood; it isn’t wholly symmetrical and has subtle grooves to hold it. A squat cylinder of bone that tapers into a dome makes up the pommel. Inscribed on the end is the outline of a cloud and the words ‘Herald-of-Thunder’ are written in elven script around the cylinder. A name? Or a command word, perhaps? she wonders. The tiefling then smiles, piecing the information together: Rutilux told her that the blade could unleash a jolt of electricity, and what usually precedes thunder? Lightning, of course! So it seems to be an explanation of its magical property and, as far as Ari is concerned, a fitting name for her new dagger too.
She weighs the blade in her palm before resting it on a finger; it is light and feels well-balanced. The tiefling tosses it lightly from left hand to right and then back again, before casually throwing it up towards the cave’s roof. The blade rotates two, three, four times before she plucks it out of the air with her tail. Taking it back into her hand she runs a finger around the pommel, tracing the writing.
As she does so, Ari is suddenly assaulted by half a dozen images each lasting no more than a couple of seconds.
She is a young girl, sitting cross-legged in a treehouse. She listens raptly as a man with a stern voice proclaims ”Nature is bountiful but not generous; it can also be cruel. Take nothing you do not need and repay what you take threefold.”
The scene shifts to a flash of a lightning-struck tree, blackened and smoking in a dark forest. Branches surround this once-mighty giant, now toppled and no longer intertwined with its neighbours.
Then she gets a look at a rangy young woman with long sun-browned limbs, clad in skins and furs. Pointed ears are visible through a tangle of wild brown hair woven with sprigs of mistletoe, the pearly white berries gleaming in the sunshine that is breaking through the tree cover.
Now she is a bird of prey, riding the currents in a cloudless sky. Trees as far the eye can see in every direction indicate that she is above one of Faerûn’s mighty forests.
Ari is jolted into movement. She is running hard. Fleet and light of foot she moves through the woods but her breathing is ragged as if there has been a long chase. Whatever is pursuing her is persistent and she feels the hairs on her arms stand on end. There is a sharp metallic tang in the roof of her mouth and she recognises the sensation as the taste of fear.
Finally, the bird again. This time she sees it, circling cautiously around a fallen figure in a forest clearing. It looses a mournful keening cry and suddenly Ari is back in the cave once more.
It takes a moment to register but given the conversation is exactly where she left it, she realises that the visions - memories, she instinctively knows, of a former wielder of the dagger - only lasted a matter of seconds. Still, the intensity was such that her heart is beating faster than it did in the fight with the worg. She wipes the back of her hand on her forehead and exhales quietly, before lifting the dagger up in front of her face. It does not look discernibly different to how it did before. With a mental shrug, she cautiously takes a finger and traces the inscription once more.
Nothing. It would appear that the enchanted blade has imparted as much of its history as it is capable of. It leaves Ari with fragments of a story, albeit one that doesn’t require too much embellishment to come together into a coherent narrative.
She sheathes the dagger and looks up, turning her full focus back to the discussion.
Shaggar frowns and says more than he is inclined. "Trust is expensive. We cannot afford it. We take the totem, hide it in the woods, and don’t speak of it. Then we tell the townsfolks the strict truth. We have slain a beast that was preying on their cows and killed Amos. Unless the cage has magically opened… we still have more work to do to save the town. They will want to visit Amos’ house and some with tracking skills may find this cave. If the townsfolk find the cave and begin talking about it, we should listen closely for any mention of the totem… which only the enemy should know about. They probably won’t be that stupid, but we can hope. We will need to watch the woods to see if someone tries to find it... assuming the totem is important to them. Then we may be able to put faces on hidden enemies."
"You should hawk wares, my furry friend. And you're right, of course These folks need something to believe in, but until we have the riddle solved, best not show all we know yet."
”It is said that knowledge is power… but controlling knowledge is just as powerful. That can be a costly truth to learn.” He shakes off the rumination. ”With luck, we get closer to this ’Lady Moonshade’.”
"In my experience, most truths come with a price," Ari says.
She scratches her head, thinking a bit. "Sasha," she asks, "you're probably best placed to answer, but doesn't the name Moonshade sound slightly, well, ominous? Like, not a Selûnite. 'Moonglory', yes, or 'Brightmoon', but 'Moonshade'? Sure, we don't choose our own names," - she glibly ignores the fact that her own unrevealed family name is entirely of her own devising - "and maybe I'm reading too much into nothing, but I'd say that as a name at least it bodes ill."
"But to the point, I like that as a plan, Shaggar. Let's stash the totem and then go and see the Councilman. We should check in with Lysandra too. In fact," she changes her mind slightly, "let's see if we can find her first. She may have leads for us or have picked up on anyone she regards as suspicious so we can keep an eye on them too when we tell our heroic tale." Ari bounces on the balls of her feet like an eager puppy, the visions from the dagger pushed aside for now. "Let's go."
Rutilux has about as much muscle as one might expect from a halfling but helps stash the totem as best they can.
Making your way out of the cave and into the forest to hang the totem safely away in a tree, Shaggar does a fantastic job at hiding your tracks so that no one will find where you hid it.
That done, you head back into the village proper with the worg's head, causing every villager you pass to stare incredulously at both it and you. A few call out victory cries, congratulating or thanking you on slaying the beast.
You make it back to the inn without being accosted too much, but a small crowd has gathered around the building by the time you arrive. Seems like you have begun to gather some fame with this first accomplishment.
"Is that the beast? Are we safe now?" one calls out. "Are we free to leave the village now?" another asks. Finally, Lysandra emerges from the inn to greet you.
"What's going on out here, what's this?" she says, pointing to the head you're carrying.
"Bitter sweet news, good folk." Rutilux tells them... the truth, as Shaggar advised, in small amounts "More more than cows were lost to this Beast that prayed upon them. Amos' was slain as well. But he was avenged, thanks to my brave and tall companions. I suspect, lest the gate be opened, there is more for us to do. "
Kiley stays close to Shaggar, taking comfort from her large friend's presence as they arrive at the inn. She listens as Rutilux takes the lead and thinks the halfling mage hits the right note.
Shaggar drops the head and adds, "We have killed one beast and have seen no signs of another. But we do not know for certain. As for the uh, 'wall'... We don't know if it is down until we try it. But if the moon is still high, I fear the wall is still up. So, as Rutilux said, more work remains. We would be pleased to safeguard your people as we go to recover Amos' body."
Sasha doesn't look happy with the party's decision on how (little) open and honest they want to be, but doesn't have either a strong argument based in evidence or the majority on her side. She nods and helps, answering Ari's question with a shrug. "Names are funny things, full of either power in some cases and serendipity in others. I don't know the history of Moonshade, but I could see it being indicative of something unfriendly to our goddess," she says noncommittally.
As one of the weakest, physically, PCs, Sasha isn't able to carry the worg head. Instead she tries to watch reactions and asks the assembled crowd "Will someone tell those at the chapel? And is the wandering priestess around?"
Luckily it seems as if the crowd takes it extremely well, seeing the beast defeated and its head right in front of them makes the crowd extremely happy. The news of Amos' death mutes the mood a slight bit, but the fact that they aren't under threat from the monster in the woods alleviates their fear. A few of them volunteer to go recover his body on their own once you tell them where he can be found.
"I'll head over there right now!" someone exclaims, before the crowd falls somewhat silent. "The outsider priest, you mean? We haven't seen her in a few days, the wolf must have gotten her." the voice says, sadly.
Lysandra seems impressed at the size of the thing, and says as much as she pulls you aside from the crowd once the celebration is done.
"Truly an impressive kill. What is this about more work, though? What other leads do you have?"
The villagers' reaction seems positive and the tension that had Ari in its grasp loosens as a result. It wouldn't have been the first time that she'd been involved in something with good intentions but the people who had been helped ultimately felt ill towards her.
She responds to Lysandra's question with one of her own. "Unless the magic keeping everyone within the village has been lifted, we still have more work to do, no? Have you discovered anything useful you can pass on?"
To the group, Ari asks in a quiet voice, "It might not be easy to tell, but I don't think we saw anything in the cave to suggest that the priestess was one of the worg's victims? Of course her body could have been hidden, left where slain, or simply unrecognisable." She wrinkles her nose in distaste. "But without any evidence, let's just say I'm inclined to be sceptical," she says, her natural suspicions coming to the fore.
Rutilux was really worried about his delivery, but fortunately the news itself was what the folks focused on.
"We're supposed to talk to the guy who saw her last, right," Kiley asks in a low voice. "I think we should all go together. I don't think splitting up is a good idea."
Have you discovered anything useful you can pass on?
We're supposed to talk to the guy who saw her last, right?
"As a matter of fact, I have. I did a little bit of investigating on the priestess that came here before us. Her name is Lucina, I have a basic description of what she looks like."
She lowers her voice before speaking the next part.
"The last person that is supposed to have seen her is the Keeper of this village, Verik. She is the only one that has been allowed inside the council chambers since he began his communion with the goddess herself."
"What this means, however, I do not know."
"Did she ever come out," Kiley asks as a sudden sinking sensation in her belly tells her she probably knows the answer.
At least it wasn't Melodi. I'd been half afraid it'd be her.
"I think we can probably assume nothing good," Ari replies to Lysandra drily. "Should we go and see if our achievements will buy us entry then?" she asks. "I agree we should stick together."
A nod at sticking together.
Shaggar agrees with Ari in several matters. "I saw nothing in the worg's den that indicated the priestess was there. And the worg didn't hide its kills. I think something else happened to her. Let's go see this town elder, and bring him a gift." He picks up the worg's head.
Kiley nods at Shaggar's suggestion and pulls her own Bisht close about her.
"After you, my fine, furry friend," she says, hoping her nerves aren't showing too badly.
The council chamber is a much more unadorned affair, a two story building with surprisingly few windows for such a place. It appears older than most of the rest of the construction you’ve seen around the village, minus maybe the chapel.
It has a large fan shaped staircase out front, and to either side are two smaller towers that appear to only be accessible from inside the building itself.
Standing in the general area in front of the door are half a dozen guards, wearing blue and silver robes and having longspears within reach. One of them, wearing a distinctive feathered helm, stands up from his post and grabs his spear before taking a few steps to the top of the stairs as you approach. Behind the helm, his eyes are stern and show moderate age.
”Halt. We have standing orders to allow no one to disturb the Keeper.”
"Let's go - hopefully we're not too late..." agrees Sasha as she gets Pheliks' attention and follows the others. The big cat pulls himself away from the unusual attention of some of the villagers who have been cautiously petting the tiger and pads after his mistress dutifully.
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Shaggar pauses at the guard’s instruction and holds up the worg’s head. He debates the best words…
Diplomacy was not his strong suit. He runs through a variety of responses from a very gnolly, ”Get out of my way or that spear will become your second spine!” to a more ‘moderate’ query of ”Do you want to test my patience after I did this?”
But he’d been watching Kiley interact with strangers for many months now and took a page from her book, playing on the guard’s doubts. His tone is infallibly polite as he holds the decapitated head higher. ”Greetings, sayyid. I think the Keeper may find us a worthy exception to this rule.”
The group doesn't seem fully convinced to abandon their orders quite yet, but the captain takes a look at the worg's head and seems to be warming up to you.
"And what business would you have with him, per chance?"
"We're trying to help free the town from this mystical prison," says Sasha with a smile. "We all serve the goddess and hope to meet with fellow faithful leaders to work together."
Well, I think Ari worships someone else, but I guess that's techinically true, Kiley thinks to herself at Sasha's response even as she admires the polish Shaggar's manners have taken on. She steps forward and bows low to the captain as she adds her own words to the scales of his judgement.
"Please sir, I understand that he has been communing with our goddess. Shaggar and I," she says, nodding to the gnoll with a small warm smile she doesn't even realize she's showing, "have traveled a long way from the Anauroch Desert after the priest of the tribe that had taken us in received a grave vision of trouble brewing for Selune's faithful near the Sword Coast. I believe that we may be the answer to his prayers to Selune." She holds up the holy symbol her mother had given her so that the guards can see she too is of their faith.
"May her light and the stars guide us all."
"Huzzah to that," Rutliux adds in reverently, "We're a varied lot, Captain, shouldn't you alert the priest that there are new happenings?"
Ari lets the others take the lead, skulking in the back with her hood up and hoping the others can sweet talk their way in. She flexes her fingers, waiting for the response. Should they be met with further frustration, she sizes up whether a lie would potentially buy passage, or if Shaggar would be up for a game of 'good guard, bad guard' and a few friendly threats.
Luckily, Ari and Shaggar don't need to get involved, as the captain seems to think for a few tense moments before silently nodding and letting you pass.
The heavy stone doors of the council chamber open slowly, revealing a foyer that is more elegant than you'd expect from a council chamber. It almost seems like this place could have served as the former temple of Selûne before the other one was built. The first thing you notice beyond the decorations that clearly look to be of a religious nature is how quiet the entire place is. You can't hear a single sound, or see a single person. The second is how much dust there is: this building hasn't seen much use recently, it seems.
Checking through the council building takes you a few minutes, as you explore a bare kitchen, empty offices and private meeting rooms, and even an unoccupied guard room. Finally, you reach the main council chamber, and see a bright silver light emanating from under the large wooden double door itself. A gentle tug on the door reveals it is not locked, and will open should you wish it to.
Something about this has Kiley's hackles rising as they look through the building and find it largely disused, even the kitchens. When they find the door to the main chamber and see it is unlocked, Kiley holds up a finger to her lips before pointing at herself then the door. After making sure everyone is a safe distance back, she carefully opens the door and peeks through the crack to see what's going on inside.
Kiley looks through the crack in the door to see a massive room that must have once been the center of worship in this old temple which was then converted into a sort of main council chamber, but now looks to function as a clustered archive of sorts. It's lit both by numerous candles scattered about and moonlight filtering in from above, focused on the circle in the center of the room. Papers, documents, scrolls, and books all appear scattered throughout the room, some even sitting in piles next to the shelves they were pulled down from.
In the center of the room the floor is decorated with an elaborate silver-etched design, but Kiley can't clearly see the pattern. What she can see, however, is a wolf-like humanoid standing directly on the center of the motif. Silvery ethereal chains hang from points in midair, hanging suspended by nothing before latching onto four separate points on some sort of metal jacket on what you obviously recognize as a werewolf.
The werewolf itself is standing completely and unnaturally still, bent over as if in some great pain. It is looking away from the door, towards a large statue carved into the far wall. It's too far away for you to make out what the statue carving depicts, however.
After a few moments, Kiley carefully closes the door and turns back to the others.
"I think the councilor is a werewolf," she says. "He's chained up in the middle of some circle. There's more in there, but I couldn't make out much." She hesitates before taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves.
"I'm going to go in and take a closer look."
"Hang on! Ari gestures frantically to Kiley to stop her going into the room just yet. "How do you know it's him? Can you see anyone else? Presumably he hasn't chained himself up and if he's asked someone else to do it there must have been some pretty awkward questions about why." She slides over to the door to give it a look. "We should all go in together and be on guard. Let me give this a quick check too, we can't be too careful in here." She examines the door, looking for signs of alarms or anything else that will trigger if it is opened.
"Momma called it an informed guess," Kiley answers with a shrug. "It's either him or Lucina since they were the only two who've been in here since this started," she adds. "Besides, I think those are magic chains and that's a magic circle."
Rutliux blinks at the description of a man chained up in there, but defers to the expertise of the sneakers at the notion of getting closer.
”Many things are possible here. That may be the Keeper and he had the roving priestess contain him to prevent harm to the town. Maybe she was taken by something else or maybe she has left to explore below ground. If he is contained, he is no threat. The threat might be whatever turned him into a werewolf. The only fact is we must investigate this. So, we go in together, look for threats – him or anything else – and then we determine what is true. Agreed?” He doles out the silver quarrels, so that everyone has at least one.
He takes a few moments to look for tracks in the dust in the hallway and into the room. When the group is ready, Shaggar pushes open the door and enters the room.
HP: 20 / 20 | AC:16 / T:11 / FF:15 | CMD:17/16
Arrows (20):
Arisen 2HP (1):
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP
Kiley takes the bolt and nods, though she's not sure how she'll be able to use it considering she has no crossbow. She follows Shaggar in.
Shaking her at Shaggar's proffered crossbow bolt, Ari pulls out the silver dagger she keeps sheathed in her boot by way of explanation. With her other hand she draws Herald-of-Thunder and slinks in after the others.
As the group moves into the room, the first unusual thing you notice is that the werewolf chained up in the middle is completely still: unnaturally so. As if they were frozen in place.
You don't see any other figures hiding amongst the shelves, and are able to make your way all the way up to the magic circle (Kiley was most likely right about that part) without the figure inside making even the tiniest movement.
Once you get nearly next to the circle and can see more clearly where the werewolf is looking, you see that the carved statue it's facing is in fact of Selune. Makes sense, given what you think this building might have once been. The Moonmaiden's arms are spread out in a warm gesture of apparent love, although the moonlight from above casts a dark shadow over the statue that almost gives it a sinister look. Resting on the floor of the chamber in front of said werewolf is a dusty old tome open to a page you can't quite see from here, but the book is displayed haphazardly, as if the reader dropped it on the floor suddenly.
The second unusual thing is the chains themselves; they aren't anchored to any actual point in the room, and are most certainly of magical make rather than any physical material.
Kiley winces as she hears her mother's scolding voice when she sees the book.
"Books are treasures and should be treated as such! Someone took a lot of time to make that, don't just drop it on the floor."
After seeing there's no one else around, Kiley begins to wonder where the priestess could have gone. The stature sends a chill down her spine. If she ever needed an omen to tell her something was wrong here, that would be it, she thinks. As she ponders the puzzle, her eyes are drawn back to the book, then up at the werewolf. Her eyes narrow as her brow creases in a thoughtful frown.
It looks like someone dropped that tome, but what if it wasn't our furry friend here? She walks around the circle, her curiosity engaged as she kneels to pick up the book while being very careful not to lose the page it's open on.
Ari eyes up the inanimate werewolf, clearly suspended magically. There is something slightly unnerving about the whole thing - the shadowed statue, the absolute stillness in the room other than the party. She grips her daggers tightly, watching and waiting for... something.
The halfling's eyes flicker with curiosity. No wizard, he is still a child of the Weave in his own way and that IS curious. Rutilux casts detect magic on the odd situation, and tries to make sense of it, taking it slow.
Shaggar stalks around the circle, head and eyes swinging in all directions, looking for trouble. When he gets to the book, he looks at the floor for blood or signs of a struggle.
Sasha smiles at the captain and says, "Thank you," as she and Pheliks follow the others inside the building. Once inside her smile disappears as she notes the emptiness and quiet. "This is not a place for the living...and looks to have been abandoned a long time. With so little life, the guards behind us must know that something is off..." she muses to the others before lapsing into silence as they explore.
At the sight of the werewolf, the sinister statue of her goddess, and the obviously magical restraints Sasha quips, "Communing? Oh no, this is bad...don't disturb him - werewolves are dangerous foes..."
Sasha also casts Detect Magic and concentrates on what she sees as Pheliks stays close and guards his mistress. "Selûne, what has happened to your faithful for this place to be so sick with rot?" she prays quietly as she looks around.
Kiley gets a small look at the book, which appears to be some sort of holy text of Selune. Within a few moments of picking up the book, however, a loud sizzling sound echoes around the room, coming from the magical ethereal chains.
The sizzling becomes hissing as four forms of golden light drips out of the chains, each of them bursting into flame as they emerge from the chain and drop onto the floor.
Init:
21- them
21- Sasha
17- Kiley
14- Rutilux
9- Ari
6- Shaggar
The things surprise the party and strike first, quickly searing their way across the floor of the room to attack.
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The gnoll sidesteps to flank the monster then tries to see if his axe has any bite on a creature made of flame.
HP: 20 / 20 | AC:16 / T:11 / FF:15 | CMD:17/16
Arrows (20):
Arisen 2HP (1):
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP