Day 219 - Stormhaven - Brokev & Francis

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Day 219 (19th September) – Party Staying At Broken Wing Hostelry in East Stormhaven
Regarding Joshua
Brokev: “My lord priest, if the tree is distressed by my colleagues behaviour, might it be possible for him to visit the tree and observe the impact his actions and thoughts are having?”
Francis: “Indeed sir, perhaps a shock is what is needed in order to break Joshua’s mindset out of its current self destructive path.”
Groundtall appears to ponder this, and for a very brief moment, Brokev and Francis see a glimpse of the underlying character.
Groundtall: “Unfortunately that is not an option here, the basic problem as I see it is that Joshua had inflicted upon him a relatively minor divine curse. I do not know this Coincounter character but I cannot believe that he would be a Perceval manifest…. So the curse should have faded long before now.”
Groundtall: “What I believe is happening is that his absolute refusal to see any error on his part and to continually insult and denigrate the Perceval faith is actually reinforcing the curse…. If you like, raising the stakes. In a week or so time, I would expect that I would not be allowing him access into this temple, and other religions will soon follow suit.”
Groundtall: “He either opens his eyes and lets go of some of his prejudice, and soon…. Or he will have to seek forgiveness from the Perceval church. To my eyes he is a rabid dog, in the early stages of the affliction – but getting worse. And my dear Paladin, it may fall upon you to put the animal out of its misery.”
Groundtall: “Now if you will excuse me, I have some potatoes to pull, and with the rain on the way would prefer to do it whilst the ground is still reasonably dry.”
And the hobbit moves away into the grounds, he can be heard muttering under his breath but the only word that really registers “Faithbroken”
(evening)
Brokev, Quercius and Francis attend a ceremony at the temple, it is one of a series of ceremonies over the next few days that celebrate the end of summer. The focus Is heavily on the preparations for rebirth and cycles beginning anew. The congregation is somewhere around 250, mainly human but at least 20 or 30 Dark Elves and a few Elves. Of particular interest is that one of the Elves attending is the war captain who you helped defend at Castle Urquart – you never did get his name and you don’t have the chance to enquire this evening as once the service is over the three of you are invited down to pay homage to the Tree by Groundtall.
(DM Chortle time…. Wondered if/when you would get here).
From the centre of the stone circle a set of steps leads down into the ground, near this entranceway can be seen another of the shrine stones, as first seen in Northlake.
Going down into the ground, you feel as though you have descended around 40’ when you come to a small torchlit corridor. At the end is an archway and as you approach you see it opens out into a large room supported by a huge wooden pillar it its centre, gently lit by some unknown means. The room you would guess is around 400’ by 400’ but only 10’ high and so all of you feel a strong sense of claustrophobia as you approach. Once you enter the room the view changes totally, as though you have passed through a veil, or indeed into one.
Now you are still in a 400’ square(ish) area, bounded by thick hawthorn and holly hedges. At the centre is a massive Oak Tree, whose branches spread out to almost encompass the entire sky that you can see. Through the branches can be seen the late evening sky, with early stars just becoming visible.
The leaves on the oak tree are beginning to brown and it bears a healthy crop of acorns. All in the group can sense the holiness of this place to the Wyldwood. Groundtall himself approaches the tree but about 30’ away from the trunk lies down on the ground and stares up at the branches.
For Frances, Brokev and Quercius there is no direct communication from the tree but you are aware of distant voices or images, impossible to concentrate on or pull into focus… When Groundtall gets up he signs that it is time to leave and the group of you make your way to the exit.
As you cross the threshold back into the corridor, each of you has a sudden brief vision, a picture that resolves into absolute clarity and then fades quickly away….
Francis: King Williams throne room, there are at least 30 Elven bodies lying sprawled on the ground obviously dead. By the throne you see Rasten, a female Dark Elf and another Elf you do not recognise all three are badly wounded. Sorlor is speaking “Well husband, I told you their honor was corrupt, now we have been betrayed and the Empress is dead”
Quercius: A vision of 7 trees with people moving from tree to tree, but one of the trees just somehow feels different to the others. Not wrong, just different, and you feel that somehow this is important.
Brokev: A battlefield, there is a host of Orcs of all types facing off against a large humanoid armoured in red. The humanoid is wielding a large woodsmans’ axe double handed and cutting a swathe through the Orcs. You get the sense that the Orcs are more trying to prevent the humanoid from advancing as opposed to believing they can kill or overwhelm the humanoid.
Day 220 (20th September) – Party Staying At Broken Wing Hostelry in East Stormhaven
When you surface from the chamber you realise that quite a bit of time has passed, checking quickly you find that it is mid morning of the next day. Groundtall apologises but he has some business to deal with and moves off into the grounds.
Before leaving the shrine, you quickly check out the stone. At first glance it is identical to the one seen at the Shrine of Defiance. However Querius notices that on this stone it is the Lion Headed humanoid that seems to be looking back as opposed to the Giant.
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