"I wouldn't.  They're up to nothing but mischief.  Wherever I go... well there's no mischief.  They either steer clear of me or they don't exist at all.  People like to talk about stuff what don't exist."

"They exist.  I saw some here," Glumr asserts.

"Were you drunk?"

"No sir.  Hung over."

With Adiel having recognised the Marshall, Holly stepped back from the conversationn, watching the world around her, and wondering if she could find some suitable plant or tree to communicate with about the gremlins. The place was barren enough to make it difficult, but Holly believed she could ask the Marshall where the oldest tree in the area was.

"There are several things that exist even if only few believe in it", Sunna says with a smile, "and the gremlins sounded just like one of these things. Especially since one of us saw them already." Also, Sunna begins to suspect the gremlins to be able to stay clear of trouble for themselves which would mean staying clear of any officials in the city - and maybe choose the ones to show themselves to to stay a myth.

"Perhaps they seek out vulnerable victims, to avoid danger to themselves," Adiel suggests. "If they throw rocks at a hung over man in the middle of the night, but hide from a warrior at full alert."

The Marshal nods.

"You look like a cagey bunch.  I'm sure you can outsmart a few, possibly imaginary, little troublemonsters.  Just stay out of trouble yourselves."

He gives you a stiff, but friendly wave, and slips back into the darkness.  You wait around a little longer, but there are no signs of gremlins tonight.

As the group returns to their lodgings, Adiel says, "Tomorrow is a big day for our cursed friend. I'd like to visit the Proctor as well before we go, give him a gift, and talk with him briefly. Once we leave Rankor Heights, I hoped to visit Goldenpoint--I wish to talk with the priests there--and then continue north to visit Coal in Pliffa, to discuss magic items. One of the books you found in the tower might be valuable to no one more than her."

"Too bad the gremlins didn't show up", Sunna sighs, "I would have liked to talk to them."

"Anything in particular you want to ask the priests in Goldenpoint, Adiel? Visiting Coal sounds good."

"A... strange, and possibly urgent, question of theology that I think they are best equipped to answer. It occurs to me that your heroism at the accursed shrine near there may not have truly purged the taint of the place. I believe that can only be done by a priest--or, possibly a druid, I don't know--who consecrates the place. Consecrating a location by the power of Good cancels out its desecration by the powers of Evil, creating a moral and cosmic balance in that place, where neither force has special power. I want to ensure that that happens--or find out whether it has already happened."

Realizing that may be excessively technical, he continues. "I want to make sure the dark magic is really gone, so that nobody can create monsters at the shrine of Krammishir you destroyed."

"It is true Adiel, we didn't have the chance to consecrate the location. We couldn't even spend enough time to attack the temple. We killed goblins enough, but the taint still holds there. We also might want to check out the swamp and its strange stone statues. Something that affects trade with this city, ultimately affects the Clans as a whole. So, lets go back and sleep before we hopefully save Scotthard. Then we should be moving on again. I for one want to get back to Moonlight." Holly was slightly disappointed they had not seen any gremlins, although she suspected having a large group of people would have prevented anything coming close. Taking one last look, Holly turned to go back to her bed and a new day.

Mord had to blink a few times to follow Adiel's excellence in verbiage, but after a pause of running it through his mind a few times to winnow out the meaning in the fancy, he nodded.  "I was all for cutting off the head at the temple, but someones took away my fun.  Seems to make sense the other place of evil worship could be bad likewise.  Or in kind."  The barbarian seemed extra proud of the last couple words, joining the intelligent conversation... though the effect was more than a little muted by his satisfaction evident across his features.

"Sounds like just enough time for a visit to the playground, bed, and up to go fix Scotty tomorrow after breakfast.  Looking up statues in the swamp sounds like a lot of mucking about, but I suppose there could be something to kill.  I'd rather keep pushing for the goblin temple and the real danger there, but as long as we set a time limit of an hour or two, I can deal with the much on my boots."

The mighty Mord dropped an arm around the two ladies and joined them for the return trek to fun or rest.

"The help of a priest with the temple would certainly be of great value", Sunna agrees. "If we want to get to Goldenpoint next... the swamp is on the way, if we want to take a closer look at the statue things."

She walks back with the others.

Holly shivered as Mord took her and Sunna into his arms. Holly blamed the cold, and simply nuzzled into his body as much as walking would allow. That thought brought back the lovely cloaks Snow had made, and then taken back for "fixing". A trip to Goldenpoint would mean a trip home, and Holly found that an interesting and comforting thought.

A gremlin-free evening is surprisingly a disappointment.  You return to Idora's boarding house and bunk down very comfortably for a good night's rest.  You make sure to get the the temple of Pelor well in advance of noon so the priests can get everything just so for the tricky ritual.

Unlike the similar ritual that was attempted by Halfgan at Goldenpoint to remove Scottfard's curse, this ritual is a rather private affair.  There are no extra followers or candle holders to assist.  Valderanthy is conducting the ritual in a walled courtyard.  Only yourselves, the high priest, Brother Hapthorn, Scottfard, a bound man, and a row of 7 archers are in the courtyard.

The bound man is lying in the ground.  Not only is he tied with rope but his is also in shackles and chained to stakes in the ground.  There is a burlap sack over his head and he's muffled.  The eye is floating above the bound man with a thin black sheet draped completely over the eye.

High Priest Valdernathy is off to the side of the eye and the bound man, about 7 feet away from them on a white marble platform.  He's wearing white robes with gold trim and a radiant golden crown or helmet or something.  He's looking a good deal more full of vigor than he has when you've spoken to him in the past few days.  Come to think of it, he was looking quite robust at Sunna's restoration ceremony too.

The rest of you are on the other end of the small, walled courtyard.  You Triplefang and Brother Hapthorn stand behind the row of archers.

"The events of this ritual may be alarming or disturbing to you, though I know you've seen many things in your young lives," Hapthorn tells you calmly just before Valnernathy is to begin the ritual.  "It is of the utmost importance that you simply observe.  You need to stay back behind the archers even after they finish firing.  Wait until I tell you the ritual is complete.  Do not interfere or make any noise, and certainly don't cast any spells or do anything harmful or violent."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:56, Wed 16 Nov 2016.

Adiel nods solemnly. He doesn't know why the archers would need to shoot anything, but he expects he will shortly find out.

Mord's spine stiffened at the mention of not fighting, no matter what, AND remain back, AND troubling scenes... but he shrugged it off to city folk caution.  The barbarian's trust in his colleagues and their faith granted this grey-haired high priesty a bit of slack from Mord, as if his allies that he trusted trusted this one, then the trust passes along.    Trans.. trans... ah, same thing.

On the other hand, if there was some great risk here that required a handful of archers - that Mord could take in about two bites of an apple, of course - then perhaps there was a chance for a bit of fun "exercise".

---

OOC:
14:53, Today: Mord rolled 5 using 1d20.  Sense Motive .
Ah Mord.  Why yes, these ARE magic beans!

Holly remembers what was said a long time ago, and shudders a little before turning worriedly to Brother Hapthorn. "Clerics of the great gods like to works wonders for their followers Brother Hapthorn, but as you say we are not simple followers. If, as I suspect, you intend to... Well shall we say, intend to break the vessel to release what is trapped inside, then simple say so and I for one will accept it. I trust Pelor as I trust Ehlonna and Obad-Hai. If what I say is what is going to happen, then tell us straight. We will not interfere."

Although the Druidic order hid from plain view, Holly understood that sometimes it was best to simply explain things, even potentially harrowing things, up front so the intelligent people knew what was coming.

The priest answers in hushed tones, but clearly enough that you can all hear him.

"Yes, that has always been the idea.  Remove the curse and free your friend's trapped spirit.  The more difficult part comes afterwards when the spirit is not allowed to leave naturally to..."  Hapthorn gestures upwards.

"It's..." he pauses for quite a while, putting all the more weight on his next word.  "necromancy, but it needs to be done if you want your friend's curse broken and for him to still be alive afterwards."

"Valdernathy tells me that Pelor will allow it."

Holly is surprised that Pelor would deal with necromancy, but then again she has to admit there was little chance of doing the intended transfer without its influence in some way. Nodding, and turning to the others, Holly simply says, "Then I accept Pelor's help. I will not interfere, unless it goes wrong."

Sunna shivers upon seeing the setup with the archers. She's almost glad that Holly asks the question that bothers her, too.
"I admit it sounds strange. But since it's with Pelors acceptance... I'll not interfere - unless something goes wrong, of course."

Adiel watches Holly, intrigued by her reaction--trusting Pelor as Ehlonna and Obad-Hai. He wonders whether that is typical of the druids, but he doubts it. He suspects many of her order would have let Scottfard pass on, prizing the order of nature over Pelor's concept of good and evil.

Guesses about the secretive druids aside, he is grateful for Holly's leanings towards Good, and her acceptance of Ehlonna and Pelor. The Tome has destined her to be a legend, and he is glad of her tendency towards heroism.

Valdernathy conducts the ritual.  At first he speaks in clan tongue about Pelor's light and benevolence.  He goes on about Pelor leading men and gods shining enlightenment and showing the path.  Pelor does not abide the accursed wickedness of trapping a man's spirit inside the physical form of a curiosity or abomination.  Later he switches to words you do not understand.  They are beautiful words, a delight in your ears even though you can't comprehend the message.  Hapthorn taps one of the archers and he gives the commend to fire.  The high priest makes wide, sweeping gestures with his arms and hands, swishing the robes fluidly as one volley, then another flies at the covered eye 8 of the arrows strike the eye.

A mournful deflating brass noise fills your ears.  Then it is suddenly drowned out by a thunderclap and a flash, but no lightning strikes.  Your senses reel for an instant and your vision goes blue.

Then nothing.

There's a very strange disconnect in your memory as if you had passed out, but you are still standing, a bit disoriented and tipsy.  It takes a moment to regain your bearings.

The eye lays in a heap just behind the bound man, peppered with arrows and leaking fluid through the black cloth.  Valdernathy steps off the marble platform and walks towards you.

"Now what I need from you is a question.  Something I can ask the man that only your friend Scottfard would know," says Brother Hapthorn.

Holly couldn't shake the fact that time had passed, and quickly checked out the length of the candles to see if they had changed significantly. Then, when Brother Hapthorn came forward and asked about a question to ask to identify Scotthard, Holly considered for a moment and then spoke to the others.

"Perhaps we should ask who own the cottage we built. That should only be known to our little band. Or perhaps we should ask who his girlfriend is? Either will answer whether it is Scotthard I would suspect. Does anyone else have any suggestions?" Holly says, wondering if the others have a better suggestion.

Dazed, Adiel regrets not having used his song of detecting magic during the ritual, as he did when Sunna signed the Tome of Legends--who knows what he might have seen? But, then, he had been told not to do anything that might interfere, and music might have distracted the participants.

At Holly's suggestion, Adiel nods. "No one would know the name of the owner of that cottage, except for our traveling companions."

Hapthorn walks over to the bound man and kneels down near him.  Valdernathy watches over the situation.  He looks ready to act if need be.  With your party, and 7 archers there you don't think Hapthorn has anything to worry about from a bound man.  Still the priests are being very cautious.  Hapthorn pulls the sack off the man's head and unties the gag.

"Listen to me carefully and answer this question.  Who owns the cottage these people built?" he asks gesturing back towards you.

The bound man looks confused and disorient.  His eyes dart around, not focussing on anything in particular.  He squirms a little against his bonds.  What he doesn't do is offer any sort of answer.

"Please focus.  This is important," Hapthorn says.  He holds the man's head so that he's looking directly at the priest.  "Who owns the cottage?"

The bound man still does not say a word.  He squints and closes one eye completely.

Hapthorn releases his head and the man looks around slowly.  Valnernathy and Hapthorn exchanged somewhat concerned looks.  Brother Hapthorn turns and looks back at your group inquisitively for a moment and then turns back to the bound man.

"We cannot untie you until we verify your identity," he says to the man slowly and clearly.  "You need to answer the question.  Who owns the cottage these people built?"

The bound man opens his mouth as if to speak, but only sputters.  He blinks in frustration, still holding one eye shut, but says nothing.

A few more anxious moments pass with no answer.  Then suddenly there is music - a blaring fanfare of horns followed by familiar, energetic chords.  It's your group's inspirational Triplefang battle anthem!

"May I approach? Scotthard knows us, but others have heard that tune. Might I offer another chance. I am confident this is our friend, but he has not had a body for many, many years. Yet the closing of one eye would indicate this is his normal view of the world, that of a one eyed man." Holly looks closely at the man that could be Scotthard.

"Ask him to play the introduction for Favrick the Superior! No one else knows that tune but Scotthard."