The burly barbarian walking besides you stops in the mid-morning sun, wiping his brow as he looks around. He smiles at you as if to say "Its good to be hunting together" and points towards the river, which for him is rather eloquent so far. The past three days, he has said perhaps three words away from the campfire, using nods, pointing, and glances to direct your attention to various clues or items of interest. You wonder again how someone so large with a giant axe strapped to their back can move so silently through the woods.
You hear a soft rustle of him reaching into his sack of jerky for the fourth time today, and chuckle softly to yourself, for he is focused in this area as well. Yesterday he made you stop the hunt to stalk a wounded elk, which you both skinned and prepared in a matter of hours, apparently something he has done quite often, given his alacrity and skill with the skinning blade.
Nightime is a different matter. Around the fire, Ingulf likes to share tales, talk about things that happened during the day, and plan the strategy for the next day. Speaking softly in Hallit, his native tongue, he regales you with stories of winter hunts, brave fights with hug polar bears and ice wurms, as well as tales of hunts that did not fare so well. You in turn have told him about some of your monster hunting fights, watching him get excited listening to stories of ghoul hunts and brownies gone bad.
"By Crom, I still can't believe you didn't break that alchemists hand for burning your face. I would have at least given him a friendly rap on the head as a reminder to aim better!" He bashes the log he is seated on next to him, causing wood chips to fly out from the metal spikes on his gauntlet. You suspect his friendly rap would have caved in Udo's skull, but you smile at his Kellid nature coming out.
Mornings are the worst time however. Both of you seem to be plagued by nightmares, sometimes by vivid dreams of loved ones suffering horrible fates, and sometimes waking with just the vague sense that something awful has happened. Its one of the ways you can tell you are still following the right path. The Duk'kreeth as proven remarkably hard to follow, and only a few times a day do you find a small mark or hoofprint that indicates you are still on the right track.
This morning is different somehow, the air smells dirty, like a room full of soiled clothes, and the humid air hangs heavy in the grassy clearing. You have been traveling for three days through some of the heavier growth in the Narlmarches, and your leather has been marked by smashed bugs bent on sucking the life out of you, scratches from the thorny undergrowth that seems to thrive here, and no small amount of sweat. In this clearing however, there is no insect noise, no air movement to slowly stir the leaves, only silence, and a faint whiff of rotting corpses. Ingulf points to the far side of the clearing, where a low circle of stones sit, obviously too organized to be a natural formation.
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I glance back at the barbarian with a stern look upon my face and nod. I think to myself this is definitely strange, and I am filled with a mix of relief and dread all at once. Could this be another mark to show us we are going in the right direction or worse? I quietly draw my morning star and nod in the direction of the stones, so my partner will follow. Slowly and carefully I make my way toward the end of the clearing, while trying to be as alert as possible so I might see or hear any sign of an unseen foe...
Ingulf gives you a nod, and a half swivel of his head to indicate you should circle around from outside and to the left. He slips his great axe free from the bindings, and lifts if in front of him, letting his hand slide down to the hide bound handle and hefting its weight. He moves forward quietly, carefully placing his feet around stray leaves and branches on the ground. You drop down into a stalking stance and slip quietly through the knee high grass, skirting the outer ring of stones. You can see these look very old, and several are canted slightly to the side, as if the ground had shifted under them over time. Their faces seem weatherworn, but very sturdy, and you can make out some sort of irregularities in the surface of some of the sides. The outer ring is four rough hewn pillars of a vague rectangular shape, standing over ten feet tall and a 3-4 feet across each face, standing at each of the compass point.
The inner ring are sevem stones more fully carved, being a series of shorter 5' tall blocks of squared off stone, each side full of carvings or markings of some sort. In the center of the circle within the inner ring is a low flat stone, whose surface is about level with the grass, and it is to this stone that Ingulf warily approaches. His eyebrows raise in surprise and he beckons you over vigorously.
As you approach the central flat stone, you see some sort of strange inscriptions carved in its face, obviously very old, as they are mostly worn away by the elements.
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As I approach the stones I think to my self "Desna, show me the truth" as I cast detect magic.
Once I get to the stones, I study the inscriptions to see if there are any that may be familiar. In a low voice, I look up ingulf and ask what these stones and insriptions mean to him?
As he is talking I listen intently all while scanning the perimeter of the clearing to see if anyone or anything approach.
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As the words of the spell leave your lips, you detect the faint smell of burning stone .
You step up to the opposite side of the low stone and peer down at its surface. You know these sort of formations were common among ancient kellid tribes, a series of stones surrounding a sacred table or altar. Each henge was dedicated to a specific ancient god or nature spirit. The ancient ceremonies usually happened at night under the stars or a certain phase of the moon, as compared to modern Kellid ceremonies which are usually done by firelight in a crowded cave or hall, and involve chanting and dancing. Only on special rare holy days do any priests or shamans visit sacred stone circles these days.
The carvings on the stone appear to be very old, and the only reason they are still legible at all is due to how deep they were once carved in its surface. The engraving is completely unfamiliar to you, both the central design and the outer ring of glyphs. Picture
Beyond the carved glyph, a fainter, more worn series of carvings surround the outer edge of the stone, and initially appear to be Hallit, but not a dialect you know. Other than picking out a few words, like Praise, Hear, and Forest, you can't deciper it.
As you inquire of Ingulf, he raises one eyebrow and says "Forest people language. They still follow the old ways, and live among the beasts of the woods." He slowly and haltingly tries to read the inscription, hampered by its blurred lines and ancient dialect.
"Iah! Thats a cry that starts a ceremony...Iah ! great...black Goat..of ...the woods, I call...thee.......here?..forth...answer the...cry of thy servant...............................who knows power words....rise..... up...from sleep...and give birth to.....thousands more..."
As the last words leave his lips, a stiff breeze blows the trees and leaves in your clearing, all the more startling because it had been so silent and still before. You both suddenly get a skincrawl, and Ingulf drops down into combat stance, slowly limbering his axe from its bindings to join you in armed readiness. Suddenly, a large grey haired man leaps out of the undergrowth, shouting "Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, aid me in destroying the defilers!" in Hallit.
His hair is matted and unkempt, and his once white robe is now grey and stained. He appears to be wielding a rusty longsword as he races across the clearing at you both. His eyes roll wildy, darting from side to side, and he appears to be slightly unbalanced mentally.
Ingulf
Crazy Man
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The old man lunges for you right past Ingulf, who takes full advantage of the opening, slashing at the man's hip, the axe blade digging into his leg muscles. This only seems to make your attacker more intent, and he lurches past Ingulf swinging wildly at your face with his his blade. His wild flailing passes with the old blade catch your temple, jarring your head and inflicting minor damage .
He begans ranting in Hallit above the Great Watchers of the Lake and some babble about smoke dreams or smoking dreams, you can't quite make it out.
Ingulf seems irritated, and the veins in his forehead are pulsing, jaw set, and he shouts, "Enough!" as the knotted muscles in his arms bulge. He nimbly steps behind your attacker providing you with a flanked position, spinning his greataxe in his hands as he moves. He drops the side of the huge axehead down on the top of the grey-haired head, but the erratic movements of his opponent cause the heavy weight to glance off his shoulder instead. Ingulf growls in frustration and squints at his attacker.
What does Demetri do next?
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I grit my teeth as I am hit and utter Desna stop this...
(I activate my Judgement of Sacred Destruction: Granting +2 DMG Rolls)
Then I swing the morningstar with all my might...
ATK: 1d20 + 5 Atk +2 Flank -> 13 +5 +2 = 20
DMG: 1d8 + 3 Str + 2 Judgement -> 7 +3 +2 =12
I then watch to see how the blow affects him...
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You blow catches him square in the chest, knocking him back a step and staggering him, but he quickly recovers and launches a two handed overhand swing at Ingulf, wildly trying to connect.
Ingulf ducks his shoulder and slides to the outside of his crazed attacker, putting him in a flanked position between the two of you. "Old fool! Do you want to die??", he shouts between clenched teeth.
"The elder ones will protect me from defilers like you!"
Ingulf starts getting really irritated and whips his axe around in a tight circle, aiming directly for the man's chest, but the scrawny form dances nimbly aside, cackling loudly at the big man's second missed swing.
Demetri's turn...
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Your second jarring blow strikes him from behind, and you hear a crunch as your morningstar smashes into his back from behind, snapping his spine and sending him unmoving and lifeless to the ground. As his body hits the ground, his sword falls out of his hand and you notice a strange pattern on his hand.