The party camps and spends the next day exploring the rest of the area around the Broken Tower before heading south. While they find lots of beautiful untouched woods and fields and an incredible amount of signs of wildlife nothing of note bothers them as they travel.

Continuing their exploration they soon find a clearing that stands out from the others before. This one looked to have been inhabited a long time ago with a crude lean-to shelter set up near the forest's edge that was all but rotted away. The clearing had at one time been used to grow some kind of garden but years of neglect had left it horrendously overrun.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:22, Thu 01 Oct 2020.

She suddenly stops moving, turning she seemed to be looking long and hard at the shelter for several moments. "There is something very evil about that shelter." Gripping the hilt of her sword she will slowly and quietly make her way over to it.

As the day wears on the dust of the road and the rigors of the trail once again conspire to strip Ursion of that severe, authoritarian air that he had worked hard to perpetuate.

His beard was coming in once again, and his hair was mussed, his gray uniform now a sort of mottled brown from the dirt and pollen of the brush they had pushed through.

But this was the real work, not some high minded speech or toothless writ. The law required him to abandon the comforts of civilization, and so he had. Wherever these malefactors fled to, he was charged with pursuit.

He dismounted stiffly, hitched his horse to a stout scrub oak, and once again took up his shield and truncheon. His helmet strapped chaffed, but he paid it no mind as he walked with Rangonda towards the shelter.

While her bottom wasn't as sore as the previous day in the saddle, Erlin was still tired of riding, so she was ready to stop and take a break.  The old, dilapidated wooden shelter seemed a harmless old ruin, but clearly there was more than meets the eye.  She carefully dismounted and pulled out her bow, quickly notching an arrow.

"They have evil shelters now?  I mean, I've stayed in some pretty crummy places in my day, but evil?  Those guys think of everything..."

She glance around, to see if any nasty thing hiding might come out - and get an arrow in its face.

"It's not entirely off-base." Renee chimed-in response to Erlin's statement, as she floated-down off her saddle: a little worn, but otherwise in nominal condition from the long ride. Her magic had combined with the saddle leather and the previous night's cookfire to make her smell of lightly smoked apples and lavender crème. "I have read tales of evil-worshiping witches who dwell in animated huts that move-about on chicken legs."

She moved to stand just behind Ursion and Radgonda, making it clear that she took any possible threat very seriously.

As Radgonda brandishes her sword and approaches the shelter the wind seems to pick up and what seems to be the usual background whispers of leaves rustling takes on a more sinister edge to it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:19, Fri 02 Oct 2020.

"...what the...?" She froze for a moment, looking around for a second then suddenly pausing again. Another step forward, a growl, then another pause and shake of her head. "...son? I was his daughter. Now get the hell out of my HEAD!" She yelled out pointing her sword toward the shelter. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

Tosk followed the others up to the hut and as Radgonda suddenly said the place was evil Tosk wasn't sure as he didn't have a spell ready to detect evil but he saw the symbols on the hut.

"The symbols on the hut are to Gozreh, the god of Nature.   He said before the wind started up.

Falco opened his mouth to say something, and then Radgonda spoke about evil.

"Not any great knowledge about evil, but there might be something in that. Nature itself is keeping clear of this hut - that doesn't suggest any safe sanctum I don't believe." He carefully took out his sword, not to attack just yet; but to be prepared.

"What's going on", Erlin asked, confused, and seeking a target to plug, "who is she talking to?"

Radgonda shouts out but there is nothing there, only silence and emptiness and a general sense of dread in the air.

Ursion scowled and muttered something about witchcraft. If the Paladin was screaming at nothing in particular that certainly did not bode well for the rest of them.

He stopped his advance, shared a private look with Renee, and began a more circuitous route in order to inspect the shelter from a different angle.

Renee's eyes narrowed, then flashed as she opened her third eye and began to scan the area, looking for magical auras.
"Radgonda, please communicate what you're experiencing."

---

Cast Detect Magic, and here's a spellcraft and knowledge: arcana roll to try and figure out what's going on.

12:58, Today: Renee Esca rolled 23 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 15.  Knowledge: Arcana.
12:58, Today: Renee Esca rolled 9 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 1.  Spellcraft.

"A vision of my father, but there was...things wrong in it. In it he was strangling me, but not only that I feel as if something was strangling me out here..." It was evident something had affected her, she was breathing heavily trying to catch her breath. Recovering it more like it. "The evil is not as strong as it was, but it is still here."

Visions were tricky things - sometimes they came from the gods, to tell you things you needed to know.  More often, though, they were spells from malefactors, trying to mess with your head.  While Erlin didn't mess with that kind of magic, it seemed reasonable to her that whoever was doing this must be close by.  If their attention was on the ruined hut, perhaps the one doing this was hiding elsewhere, perhaps the woods nearby?
Especially if the evil presence is not as strong as it was initially - that implied movement.  Evil fey creatures?  They were definitely not things anyone wanted to anger.

"We should stay together, but look around, clumps of bushes and trees and the like.  Who or whatever is doing this is probably leaving tracks.  If we can't see it they might be feigr, what you Southerons call Fey."

The Old Crone from her village was actually from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, and usually called them Fej, but it was pretty much all the same.  Up there they were commonplace; Erlin herself had never encountered one, but she knew all kinds of stories and songs and poems involving them.

[Language unknown: "Nissnd tiilto u ntethiles"], she called out in her native tongue, [Language unknown: "p ti shent is ec..."]
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:21, Fri 02 Oct 2020.

Renee scans around, concentrating where Radgonda was "attacked."

Tosk's tribe had dealt with witchcraft as a few of the elders were witches and much of their magic was evil.  Perhaps that was what was happening here, he didn't know.  Tosk though kept his eyes wide and ears open to try and find anything that may be hidden.

09:32, Today: Tosk rolled 21 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 17.  perception check.

"There is a faint abjuration aura coming from inside the hut, but the area is otherwise clear of magical energy." She looked at Radgonda. "Including Dame Radgonda. I recommend we proceed forward."

Radgonda narrowed her eyes at the hut. "Let's clear this thing out." She said as she began to make her way towards the hut once more. This time her longsword staying out and ready and her senses staying more alert. "And let's all stay more alert than usual, this place is obviously foul."

[OOC: 14:46, Today: Radgonda Lebeda rolled 5 using 1d20 with rolls of 5.  Perception.]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Mon 05 Oct 2020.

Erlin moved forward cautiously with the others, keeping her eyes peeled, with her bow notched and ready to fire.

(00:17, Today: Erlin Bjorksdottir rolled 19 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 15.  Perception.)

Falco also looked around cautiously, but let the others scope it out at a closer angle.

23:40, Today: Falco Corras rolled 9 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 2.  perception.

Moving closer the party doesn't see anything moving. While there are gaps in the walls of the leanto none of them are large enough to get a clear view of the interior.

Currently the door is closed though so to fully explore the old hut someone is going to have to open the door.

Ursion paused only slightly, just long enough to not collide with anybody else also moving towards the door, and then advanced on the wicked little shack.

When he reached the door proper, he tested it with his boot to see if he could nudge it open with his foot.

Seeing Ursion move forward, he moved forward to aid support - he could use missile weapons easily enough, but he quickly summed up that most of their compatriots would prefer to hang back to offer missile support, which meant that he needed to be up front with Ursion.

With Urison and Falco moving forward, Erlin positioned herself to the best spot she could to fire an arrow at anything that attacked them; her bow string was drawn back as she paused for a target, the muscles in her arm and shoulder rippled with effort to keep the bow string taut, and her eyes narrowed to detect the slightest movement.

To Erlin, it was like being back on the long ships on a raid, ready to fire her bow at defenders while her comrades stormed the village.  Her breathing slowed, and the clarity of the moment keened her attention into sharp focus on the moment at hand: acquire target, shoot target.

(Erlin is ready to shoot whatever comes out)

Renee positioned herself not far from Erlin, keeping her magical detection powers active as she watched the scene unfold.

Tosk took a different approach than Erlin and Renee.  If there was an explosion he didn't want to be in the middle of it like the others.  More targets meant more chances to kill them all at once.  Still, though he found a spot that would give him access to shoot anything that might come out of the doorway as the others advanced.

Ursion nudges the door open with his foot and it swings easily open.



The interior is disheveled. A couple of moldy blankets are bunched to one side. An overgrown firepit sits in the center and against the other wall of the leanto is a crude bookshelf with a few dusty tomes eaten through by bugs and with patches of lichen growing across the covers.

Erlin shivered involuntarily upon seeing the interior of the old shack; if the Crones in her village were old and sinister practitioners of magic, and Snippers of the Thread of Life, nonetheless they performed many necessary functions of society: they foretold the future to those who brought offerings, they knew about herbs and medicines, they helped children into the world, and eased the old into the next one.  But an Annis was a Crone who was nothing but destructive, a cast-out among the Crones who could not be trusted, and who only had evil, malicious intentions.  They poisoned crops, cast disease among cattle, and ate children boiled alive.  The Southerons called them Hags, among other names, and while evil they were also powerful.  Such an interior is what she imagined an Annis would live in.

Now Erlin understood what Radgonda felt, at least a little bit; she spat on the ground.

"We should just burn it..."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:34, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

Ursion flinched visibly, and then stretched out his neck, spread his shoulders and let loose a long, controlled exhalation.

There was a grimace, but it passed over the span of a few seconds

"There's something here...a ghost perhaps." he was speaking past pain, his words exact and clipped. But an Armiger of the Order of the Scourge knew pain, it's qualities, it's measure. Like an old frien that one had to hose for a time, uncomfortably.

He opened his eyes. "Keep searching"

With the door opened and no immediate danger apparent, Renee stepped forward and approached behind Ursion, intending to more closely investigate the source of the magical aura she had previously sighted. Her face was largely impassive, though her body language suggested ample caution.

She moved over to Ursion and stood there a moment. "Are you okay? I could feel the evil that was around me, centered on you just now." She would then pause, looking him over carefully making sure he was okay.

[OOC: Any visible Mark's or wounds?]

Except for some moldy tomes and rotting bed rolls the hut seems empty.



Suddenly Renee drops to her knees making a choking sound, eyes bulging out of her head and clawing at her throat.

When Renee dropped to the ground, gagging as if someone, or something, were choking her, with nothing in sight, Erlin nearly lost it.  She dropped her bow, which seemed no good to her at the moment, and knelt down beside the aggrieved three-eyed mage with one hand on her shoulder, while trying to pull out a torch from her backpack with one hand.

"Lamashtu's black, hairy quim, burn this fucking place to the ground!"

(Erlin will try to reach for a torch in her backpack, and then her tinderbox)

Renee continues to claw at her neck, scratching at it frantically before going limp. She collapses onto the ground and as the party watches big bruises in the shape of large hands appear around her neck. She doesn't appear to be waking up.

Radgonda looks around for a moment. "It's dissipated again. If anyone knows Protection From Evil, cast it now. Whatever this is, is targeting us each one at a time. It's trying to demoralize us."

Ursion watched in mute horror as Renee collapsed.

The Armiger turned, and lifting her up in his arms he made for the exit, trying to watch and feel for her breathing as he made for the horses.

Tosk took what Radgonda had said to heart and cast a protection from evil on himself.  Tosk then moved over to Ursion and had a look at Renee to see what was wrong with her.

"I can heal her in a moment."  Tosk said as he saw the bruises on her neck.

Cast Protection from Evil.

OOC: Tosk who are you casting it on?

Ursion checks and Renee is still alive. It seems once she was rendered unconscious she found her breath again.

OOC: Mechanically she is at -1 HP but is stable

(OOC: Erlin is now hell bent on setting the lean-to on fire, using whatever she has at her disposal)

"Good Tosk. Now keep your eyes open for whatever is affecting us. That should help you for a while." She said as she looked towards Renee to make sure she was being tended to. Once that was assured she began examining everything in the building very closely for something that could be the source of the evil.

Tosk made his way to the entrance and kept his eyes scanning the whole place for anything that didn't seem right.

08:48, Today: Tosk rolled 21 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 17.  perception check.

Once well clear of the hut, Ursion gently set Renee down and tried to make sure that she was still alive. He ripped off one glove and felt for a pulse at her slender neck, and watched for any hint of breath.

This was an enemy that he could not so simply bludgeon into submission, and it vexed him almost as much as Renee's distress.

Renee is alive but unconscious and without healing she will likely remain so for quite some time.

Tosk looks around the hut but doesn't see anything else.

"That was disconcerting, however I no longer feel any evil in the area of the hut." Radgonda said as she sheathed her longsword. Finally she looked towards the others. "She going to be alright?"

Not seeing anything in the hut Tosk goes to Renee's side.

He can see that her breathing is shallow so he places a hand on her shoulder and says a prayer of healing.


22:38, Today: Tosk rolled 7 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 6.  Cure light wound

"That should help her some."

Whatever internal wounds Renee had suffered immediately mended with the casting Tosks spell, leaving only a minor discoloration around Renee's neck, while just as quickly the Sylph wizard's eyes fluttered open and she sat up. There was a momentary look of confusion on her features, but it was quickly washed away as she assessed the situation.
"I see." She said in response to the entire situation, nodding in acknowledgement to Tosk and Ursion, while remaining on the ground.

"I had a vision of a young human man in an argument with an older one. His father perhaps? He apparently thought I was the older man, and strangled me after complaining about my 'threats'."

"That was the same one I had." Radgonda said in thought, considering for a moment. "I wonder why the evil is gone now. Did you do something?"

"No." Renee's eyes narrowed as she slowly pulled herself back up to her feet. "I didn't do anything."

She muttered another magical incantation and examined the shack a second time. She then began to confidently stride back toward the building. "It is some kind of ghostly presence, I think. My knowledge of such things is limited, but it's likely the spirit within the building only has a limited amount of power to manifest its will on the material plane."

That said, she entered the hut and kicked a few stray bits of rubbish aside, the stern expression on her face suggesting less of her usual stoic indifference, and more defiance at the violation of her health and safety. After doing some digging, she eventually uncovered a small glass potion whose aura she had identified earlier, then exited the building and handed it to Tosk after a brief expert examination.

"A healing potion." She turned to Erlin. "I believe you wanted to burn the building? You have my support."

Tosk answered the question about if something was done, "Perhaps when I cast my spell to protect myself from evil it wouldn't let the spirit be in the same location as I am.  That is sort of how it works.. kind of."

The ranger nodded at the suggestions of burning it - might make animals more willing to come here, involve the natural order a lot more closely. A shudder though; as this reeked of faith and magic, neither of which Falco was very confident on.

OOC: Calling back to the earlier perception check now that things have settled down a bit...

As the party pokes around Tosk notices a few items on a bookshelf. Flipping through the moldy remains of the bookcase reveals two items of note:


The Druid's Journal
Only a few pages left are legible but the druid that lived here appeared to have been a prolific writer as he detailed a lot of information in very tiny script. It appeared from the pages remaining that he lived with someone whom he was disgusted by, that he was preparing for some kind of ritual and was gathering supplies for it, and he had drawn a detailed map to an abandoned temple deeper in the forest.


The Ritual
The scrolls with the ritual notes are on were preserved in a case keeping them far more intact then the journals. Age still turned the page brittle and just removing it from the case caused a bit of crumbling but Renee is able to quickly decipher the intent.

It is a ritual presumably about protection on a large scale, a way to isolate an area from the rest of the world magically. As Renee continues to decipher it she comes to a horrible realization that the way this was ultimately to be done was to wound the very fabric of nature to such a point that it created a protective magical field around itself akin to a scab over a wound. How a druid could contemplate causing such deep damage and corruption to the very land itself is difficult to comprehend but the end result should have been that the whole Greenbelt would be covered by the impenetrable fog that Renee, Ursion, and Falco had encountered to the South. Animals and those holding blessed symbols of nature would be immune to its effects letting the natural flora and fauna along with their fey and druid allies to move around unimpeded but damning anyone else to wander until they died from starvation or exposure or were lucky enough to stumble blindly out of the affected area.

Renee points out that the effect of the ritual should have encompassed this entire area, not just be focused on the South and the ritual site appears to no longer be protected by the fog. Her best guess is that after the ritual was enacted it was somehow moved to be centered closer to the Stag Lord's fortress rather than where the ritual occurred however if the "wound" was healed then the effect should be broken no matter where in the world the fog was actually located.

Healing the wound isn't described but given how the scrolls talk about it as an organic wound it is not too large a leap to think that the spiritual wound could be treated like a regular wound: cleansing of infection and then binding the wound shut.

She nodded to Tosk. "That's why I suggested it. I knew it was not strong enough to protect us all, but I was banking on the chance that the mere casting of it might do something."

Then she considered a moment. "Let's get anything of worth out of here, then burn the place. Then see if we can fix the land."

Tosk couldn't agree more.  Burning it down would be the best option.

Instead of just setting it on fire we should break it down and have a controlled fire.  We can take any wood with us for future fires as well.

After explaining what she had found, Renee's eyebrow tweaked upward, and she read the scroll again, focusing specifically on the ritual. "Very interesting..." She said as she wandered a bit from the hut, slowly working her way back to the horses. The trauma of her ghostly encounter and the potential burning of the hut seemingly forgotten.

By the time she'd finished studying the ritual a third or fourth time, she had already produced a fresh sheet of vellum and a pen, and quickly set herself to copying the details onto a newer and more robust medium.

Ursion remained on the periphery with Renee, more notional protection than anything, but remaining within easy shouting distance.

"Let's just burn the damn thing and get out of here." he suggested. "Probably the scene of some tortured soul, and I've not the skill nor the knowledge to treat it properly." Of course maybe some of the others did, although they had yet to speak up about it if they were inclined to help move the spirit onward to its rest.

After Ursion spoke, Renee looked up from copying the ritual. "Unfortunately, my divine studies are still limited." She noted, the tone of her voice changing just enough that she actually did sound mournful of the fact that she couldn't help. She was the type to see any gap of knowledge as a personal failing, after all.

"Ursion... actually, I'm glad you're here." She finished copying the ritual and carefully stored the original away in her scroll case, then handed the Armiger the copy she'd made. "What is your opinion on the efficacy of this ritual as a defensive measure? Pros and cons, from your point of view?"

Ursion perked up slightly at the mention of the ritual, and took the book very gently in his gloved hands as she offered it to him. By the dabbled light coming through the canopy, his blue eyes poured across the tiny script, once, and then again. As he read he seemed to grow calmer, and more centered, and it occurred to her that it hinted at the demeanor that he possessed upon coming back from his private rituals away from camp.

"I would say that the ritual itself has been effective." he eventually replied, the tone suitable for a gathering before a magistrate or an assembled court. Carefully worded, almost ceremonial. "Given the age of the book, we can imply that the ritual has been in place for some time. We have first hand knowledge of just how difficult it was to penetrate, and yet it was enacted in such a way as to allow the native wildlife to pass unhindered. Wise I think, from a logistical standpoint." he met her eyes as he spoke, as a peer, seeming to expect her own analysis and reply in due turn. "Even against the Eagles, it seemed to have remained a formidable defense, and one that obscures enemy intelligence as well. It's impressive."

He handed the book back to her carefully, a tiny bit of page crumbling away to waft down to the grass. "But the best walls are of no avail if your castle is staffed by idiots. Whoever wrote that book was so careless as to leave it unencrypted, in plain sight and left behind. The tokens used for the sentient beings to cross have fallen into the hands of bandits, and there seems to be no verification beyond that point. No passcodes, no renewal of anything like a secret signal. It would seem that while the individual that created the ritual was powerful in his craft, and intelligent, they likely had little experience with military matters, and were ill disciplined, or replied on others who were lax in turn. Impressive in scale, but with a glaring flaw."

He glanced over to see how the others were doing in the hut before he looked back to the Slyph for her own take.

Renee gently nodded as she took the old text back from Ursion, one slender finger brushed against his in the exchange, but the contact was brief and her eyes were seemingly focused elsewhere in the moment. "Agreed. As an emergency defense, it would act as a powerful deterrent for the unprepared. A sort of... nation-sized drawbridge. You are also right that in time it is inevitable that someone would realize the secret to safe passage, after which it would act as little more than an inconvenience." Her attention wandered back to him. "We should obtain several blessed holy symbols of a nature god to share among each other, to protect ourselves from the fog. Gozreh would be the obvious candidate."

She shook her head and turned back toward the hut. "The incompetence of the ritual's makers goes deeper still. By corrupting the natural forces around them, they would very likely be inviting other dangers; both logistic, and supernatural." She tilted her head to the side. "One is reminded of the worldwound, for example. It is powerful magic, but a weapon that harms oneself in the long term is one that only a fool would wield. I wonder if the Kellid witches of Sarkoris were trying to do something similar before the corruption of the Abyss took hold?"

She looked back to the text. "But there may be something to salvage here. When next I have access to a laboratory, it would be enlightening to run some small-scale tests; if only to learn how to heal such a wound, so we could remove the fog and restore the land."

Ursion nodded in agreement. "It will certainly have to be dealt with at some point."

He could only wonder when they might next have access to a real center of learning. He feared that Renee might be waiting for some time... although she had proven resourceful.

He looked to the others to see if they would linger or just fire the hut straight away.

"I have a thought to entertain, and by the way go ahead and burn this place. Anyway, my thought, what if the book was left on purpose?" Then she held up a finger, as if to say wait. "I mean consider it. This place looks simply abandoned. Nothing really taken at all, as if they just...left. No signs really of a struggle either. Right?" She pointed out. "What if the owner just left one day...?" She stated, about what Urison stated regarding the book just being left there.

Ursion attended, and rubbed absently at the stubble on the right side of his face. "You're swaying that it could have been a deliberate plant?" he clairifed. "Left here purposefully to throw us off?" he considered it.

"Not impossible I suppose..." he cocked his head slightly as he spoke, although he seemed to think it very unlikely.

Tosk didn't know if it were a plant or if it was just left.It could also just be that the own left as you said but died somewhere before being able to do something with it?  We have it now though and if we can learn from it that is what is important.

The wind starts to blow and it whistles through the holes in the lean-to before dying down once again.

She pointed to Tosk, then pointed to her nose, indicating that she felt he was more right. "Still, there is something about the visions some of us got too. We should pay them heed." Then she looked to the others. "Alright, lets get anything we feel is salvageable from here, and purify the the building."

Tosk made one more comment before getting ready to burn the place.  "There are many Gozreh runes in the journal there.  That druid sure had a sick mind if he thought that poisoning the land would be the only way to keep civilization back."

"...if the land is poisoned you can't grow food, livestock can't feed, and the water goes sour." She said with a sour tone. "That happens, civilization cannot spread into that region to well if at all. It's like, salting the earth..."

A shrug and a nod at Radgonda.

"Yeah, twisted is correct, but it certainly achieves the goal."

Erlin uses her flint and tinder to get some kindling going but when she touches it to the structure the fire never jumps. Granted both the wood and most things inside are waterlogged from rain but even the bits of the leanto that are bone dry just never seem to catch fire.

Erlin tried to get a fire to catch, but either her fire making skills had gone to pot or something was preventing the old hut from burning.  Frustrated, she put her tools away in a frustrated huff.

"Besmara's ball sweat, I give up.  Let's just get out of here..."

She resisted the urge to take her axe to the hut...barely.  She stormed away from the clearing, her eyes burning with rage.

(OOC: leave the clearing back towards where the group came from, about 50 yards)

Tosk watched on as Erlin tried to light the hut on fire but when nothing seemed to happen and she cursed aloud.  Tosk was perplexed.  "There must be some sort of magic that isn't allowing the place to be burned down.  I guess we can just let it go for now and maybe return sometime later with a better source of fire?"

"Or a priest..." Ursion chimed in. "In any case, I think your right Tosk. There is not much we are going to be able to do here."

He gestured to the brittle time in Renee's hand. "But we found the book, for what that's worth. Let's mount up...we've plenty of daylight left."

He moved to unhitch his horse, and to stow his equipment back on his saddle.

"That's an image I could have lived without." She said with regards to Erlin's words. "Anyway, I agree. Let's get moving. Everyone, let's go." She moved to unhitch her horse, and mount up.

Renee paid no attention to the efforts to burn the hut, and instead focused her attention on the journal, face buried in the pages even as she attempted to mount her horse with one hand.