[coronatiger]

Thoughts on November 7th

Following Lady Karita’s clue, we turned slightly to the right, leaving the road. I stood on the saddle, picking the forest out of my once-fine rope. Lady Karita reprimanded me, warning me to sit down and pay attention to the surroundings, at least as long as we were traveling through blob-land. I ended up sitting still all day, even though I itched to move, but the occasional blob reminded me of the danger.

Lady Karita has had some progress learning Ilzo’s language, and was finally able to ask why he was following us. She translated for the rest of us that someone named Animamea had told him to go with us. When prompted, Ilzo explained that Animamea was a large muscle. Something got lost in the translation, obviously. Eventually, we concluded that Animamea must be Ilzo’s god. So, he’s on a holy quest as well.


Thoughts on November 8th

Staying on the northwesterly course, we were moving higher in the terrain, and now Lady Karita asked us to look for certain land marks, a hill next to a lake. Because of the threat of the blobs, Va’lyndra and I climbed trees together, and eventually spotted what might be the right lake, but we didn’t get all the way there. We’ll get there tomorrow.

Lady Karita discovered that orcs are nocturnal, and now that she’s able to speak with him, she seems to trust him more, so we could agree on a new watch routine. Va’lyndra would take the first watch, Ilzo the second, and Olivia and I would take the morning watch, when it started getting lighter.


Thoughts on November 9th

We reached the lake mid-morning, and climbed the hill next to it. Va’lyndra found an overgrown path; someone had carved steps where the hill was steepest. On the flat top, the sight of a once grand temple greeted us. Lady Karita’s comment when she saw it was that we were going to search it thoroughly.

The temple was a rectangular formation of columns, fifty meters wide and twice as long, and in the center stood a statuette on a pedestal behind an altar. Va’lyndra didn’t see anything with her mage sight spell, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. We’ve encountered religious magic before, and some of her spells, like mage sight, don’t work on it.

The statuette portrayed the flying eye god, and I recalled that we’d seen one like it before, in the temple where we had the prophetic dream visions. As we were now on the lookout for such relics, I said to the others it was too bad we hadn’t brought the other one with us. Lady Karita explained that we had indeed taken it back to town, but they hadn’t told me because they didn’t trust me not to reveal it when I reported to Alfrey Kansh, the leatherworker. I was upset when Lady Karita confessed this, but to be fair, Alfrey had managed to trick me into believing that he was one of the good guys. I know now he works for the Church, who murders innocent people simply because they live in the same village as suspected heretics. Of course, I’ve never revealed anything dire when I report to him since learning of his affiliation, but to put it in the words of Lady Karita: You can’t reveal what you don’t know.

We moved towards the altar, but Va’lyndra, in front, told us to stop. A god was present, talking to her inside her head. She listened for a while, then walked over to the altar and picked up the knife that lay there. She muttered “I think this will work” before stabbing herself in the palm, bleeding onto the altar. Then she laughed and came back to the rest of us, explaining that the god was hungry, and seemed satisfied with the offering.

Lady Karita moved up to the altar, Va’lyndra on her heels. Ilzo and I hurried to catch up, but Olivia remained outside with the animals. Lady Karita studied the altar, then she picked up the statuette from the pedestal. A horrible scream reverberated inside my skull. The others must have heard it, too: Lady Karita let go of the statuette, and I saw the Ilzo and Va’lyndra flinch as well.

In each of the four corners of the temple, the ground seemed to shimmer and writhe, and four temple guardians emerged, two flying eyes like the one we’d seen before, and two masses of tentacles.

The size of the temple gave me time to aim and shoot at one of the eyes before it could close the distance. My first arrow missed, but the second flew true, and the eye dissolved into green goo. I turned around to see one of the tentacle masses lash out and grab Lady Karita. I fired at it, and Ilzo slammed into the writhing tentacles while Va’lyndra occupied the other floating eye. The last tentacle mass moved slowly towards us, and I learned later that Ilzo had tossed a small boulder into it, reducing its capacity for speed.

The tentacles squeezed Lady Karita, who fought back with her knife until she lost consciousness. I kept firing arrows into the mass, but without much effect. Finally, Ilzo, now grappled too, made an all-out attack and dissolved the tentacles, releasing the both of them. Meanwhile, Va’lyndra had taken care of the other eye and tentacles.

I pulled my first aid kit out of the backpack and set to work on Lady Karita, calling for Olivia to bring healing potions. Administering liquids to an unconscious patient isn’t something I’m willing to try unless I must. Va’lyndra beat Olivia to it.

Lady Karita came around shortly, but wasn’t up for another fight, so she and Olivia left the temple. Va’lyndra picked up the statuette and the knife, but no more guardians appeared. We made camp down by the lake.