Very soon on the road they begin to see signposts with
bounty notices looking for four travelers meeting their description. The group
is wanted for the murder of one cultist, and the abduction of another. It is
signed by the Bailiff Tomandy and Father Thelbain of Morgansfort. Conspicuously
absent is Baronet Halden Rathwynn’s name. The group pull the notices and
destroy them as they go. Mel cuts her into a choppy shag to hide her ears,
Nyphus shaves his beard, Pater and Renic do what they can to look unobtrusive.
Karnoff, however, still looks like a cultist.
Nyphus takes off his gear and pretends to beg for food
and clothes at a nearby farm. The clothes are for the cultist, to disguise him
as well. Nyphus is taken in by a farmer who asks her grown son to take him
upstairs to get some of his older brothers’ old clothes. The son quietly
complies while the woman fixes some bread and cheese for Nyphus, who hides a
gold piece near a window to pay them for the debt. Nyphus gives the clothes to
Karnoff for disguise.
A few nights later the group are camped in the woods off
the eastern side of the road. During the middle of the night, while Renic is on
watch, noises outside the group’s clearing are heard. Sounds of shuffling feet in
the brush. More tellingly, a rank smell of fecal death permeates the camp. The
group wake up and quickly arm themselves. Figures appear on the edge of the
campfire’s light. They are human, naked and smeared with dried blood, dirt, and
human waste. They are moaning and one of them is holding his prolapsed bowels
below him in his hands. Renic leaves the light to circle around the intruders
to find out where they came from. He tracks their trail back to a filthy hole
of a cave where the smell of excrement and sickness is more pungent. Back at
camp, Mel tries to communicate with them. The figures make motions to stay away
from them, but make imploring motions. The group interpret the pantomime to
indicate that they are asking for aid. The group gather some of their food and
place it outside the circle. The emaciated diseased take the offering and
shuffle off.
A few nights later the group is again awoken in the early
morning by the emergence of dancing lights moving toward them in the forest. As
they come closer they reveal themselves to be otherworldly Will-o-the-Wisps.
They get the group to follow them further east, away from the road. Twenty
minutes later the eerie lights lead them to a clearing, built like a natural
amphitheater with a horseshoe-shaped marble temple at the bottom. Lifelike
statues dot the courtyard. Pater scouts ahead and enters the temple building
starting with the room on the right, which he finds to be an artist’s studio,
smelling of turpentine and stretched canvas.
While Pater examines the left room the group finds a
gallery of work in the room on the building’s right. Before entering the middle
archway, or the crest of the horseshoe of the temple structure, a cloaked and
hooded figure walks out. A female voice asks them who they are and what they
are doing here. When she sees the Will o’ the Wisps she makes some snarky
comment to them. The figure and Mel exchange introductions. The woman is Calista. She removes her hood to reveal a burlap mask covering her head, the
top of which riles with movement. She explains she has lived in this shrine for
a millennium, cursed by the elven goddess to remain here for her crimes. Once a
rich and beautiful noble woman, Calista was transformed into a medusa for by
the goddess after she burned a dryad wood. She came to the shrine and
exacted vengeance on the elves there turning them to stone. The goddess
imprisoned her in the shrine, doomed to recreate the lost beauty in art form.
No one may leave the shrine without permission of the goddess below.
The party explain their mission of rooting out the cult
of the Green Mark. The medusa tells the party the Wisps brought them for a
reason and they will need to speak to the goddess. Small figures, wood golems
the medusa has created through dead dryads. The child-like beings mutely lead
the party into the shrine, through underground tunnels to a lower chamber where
a door in the wall stands. The door opens and they are presented with avatar of
the goddess. All by Mel are paralyzed with fear. The goddess communicates to
Mel telepathically telling her she will let the party lead and even aid them in
their quest by conferring gifts upon them.
For Mel, a Root Crown which gives her the ability to
awaken one tree a day per level (achieve sentience, take on human
characteristics, and uproot themselves to become mobile). For Nyphus, an
Bridging Arrow (single use, creates a bridge over a chasm, river, etc. –
fist-sized stone sphere tip). For Pater, a Lantern of Concealment (a steel
construction adorned with moons and suns, that renders the bearer + 1 invisible
as long as the lantern is lit) and one canister of expensive oil. For Renic, a
bundle (6) of Witchfinder’s Candles (detect magical enchantment, spells, conjured
spirits, or creatures).
The group leave, taking the terrified cultist with them. They
decided to hit the road early. A few days later, a wagon can be heard coming
over the hill. The group hide in the roadside forest, waiting for them to pass.
The wagon is being driven by two black-robed individuals and out front, two men
in leather masks and harnesses clamber ahead on all fours. The group decides to
let the strangers pass, but Karnoff runs out into the road, saying, “Brothers!
Brothers! Help!” The maniacal leather berserkers rip him to shreds before the
cultists on the wagon can stop them. Four more cultists pile out of the back of
the wagon (six total) and inspect the corpse of Karnoff. The group launch a
missile attack taking out a cultist and hitting the berserkers. The berserkers
and five of the cultists are dispatched quickly. Renic is hit by friendly fire
from Pater. They take one of the cultists hostage, a terrified, callow youth.
They plan to make for nearby Slateholm (only a couple of days away) to catch a
ship to Ravenstone, home of the Green Mark.
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