It was Oakey who was the one who let Loral and I catch up with him. He told us in a foreboding tone of what Jäger discovered ahead. It looked as if it was once a shrine but no longer. The look of sadness on Loral's face was enough to make me prepare for the worst.
It is funny how life works out. Just a few moments ago Loral was telling me the story of Torag. Her spirits lifted, you could visibly see her stance relax and almost a skip in her step. She did not worship Torag herself but it was obvious she and her people respected Torag all the same so seeing the shrine as we found it was hard for me but more so for her. All four of us entered to find the shrine had been wrecked many years ago. It was desecrated when it it's prime and not after it was abandoned. This was an act of spite and hatred. Loral and I were too busy dealing with our grief to notice what my strong willed friend Jäger noticed. He stopped us before we entered to far and blundered into what would have been not only an embarrassing situation but possibly even fatal. With a single glance up into the rafters we were able to spot what had been hiding above us. It was organic and looked animalistic but held itself perfectly still as if it were ceiling furniture. It's shape resembled that of a stalactite, that was until Jäger took a shot. The arrow hit and the creature swooped down from the roof. It unfurled as it attacked to look like what I can only explain as a bat-squid. As ridiculous as the creature sounds, it proved a difficult beast to slay. With only slight wounds of our bodies (except for Oaky who unfortunately took the brunt from a vicious attack from a tentacle wing), the beast was no more. Fortunately, Loral was able to heal Oakey's wounds before we continued to search the room. Amongst the ruins I was able to discover an old book covered in Drawvern runes. Loral informed me as she flicked through the pages that it was an old hymn book full of hymns of Torag's exploits. I remember my next words very well.
"At least some good has come from this. Loral, please take this book as a gift from me to give to a good home. This way Torag's name will reach out ever further."
It looked as though Loral wanted to speak but she was rendered shy by my gift. I soft thank you followed by a warm smile was enough to strengthen my resolve to continue our quest and bring an end to the Black Scour.
Corridor after corridor, empty ruined room after empty ruined room left us unprepared for what we soon discovered. Oakey spots a familiar looking wolf at the bottom of a corridor. It darts into one of the room we had yet to explore.
"That wolf, I have seen it before. I was attacked by a pack not long before I found you three. I managed to kill most of them but that one fled. I did not pursue it as it ran but I am sure that's the very same wolf."
It seemed odd that the wolf had followed us here and also managed to get ahead of us so we all decided to follow where this wolf was trying to hide.
No comments:
Post a Comment