I. The Stolen Lands : 1.5 About Jhod the itinerant priest and the lost Temple of Erastil

Pilgrim Jhod

Jhod Kakven

Johd Kakven arrived at the outpost on a beautiful morning. He presented himself as a hunter and a priest of Erastil. Although the newcomer looked a bit weird, not to say disturbed, the Heroes were quite happy to meet a representer of their religion in such a remote place. While enjoying the fort's hospitality, Jhod told his quite bizarre story. He was searching for an lost temple of the one eyed god that was supposed to be somewhere in the Green Belt. Built by Taldan settlers hundreds of years ago the mysterious place was now abandoned and needed to be rediscovered, in the name of Erastil. When the Heroes revealed who they were and their mission in the Stolen Lands, the priest got extremely agitated and enthusiastic. He mentioned that Erastil was sending him very striking dreams about the temple for several weeks. It all started when he found a dying traveler in a ditch. The very old man just had time to tell him about the temple and as a released his last breath, put a small a small stone buck head in his hand. Yegor and Magda asked to have a look at the item and they found that there was some magic embedded into the nicely scultpted piece of rock.

During the night and the following nights, the two Heroes had very strange dreams just like Jhod.

- First night : a luxurious orchard tended by men in rustic robes. The day is sunny. Afar, above the forest, a column of black smoke. An overwhelming impression of fear and panic. A bell is rung frantically.

- Second night : soldiers in a disorderly retreat pass through a beautiful Temple's yard. An officer in utter panic begs the priests to leave with them. The barbarian invaders have ravaged the settlements up North and are only a couple of miles away. They've inflicted insanely cruel treatments to people.

- Third night : the last vision showed terribly scared and desperate priests gathered in the sacred spring bassin of the Temple. They were sacrificing Erastil's holy fawn* "to whom will respond and prevent them to die". A feminine creature lurking in the shadow claimed the deer's head and cursed the priests in return with a cruel grin holding the horned bloody skull ...

* In the Taldan cult Erastil, a holy enclosure protected a sacred animal, a fawn generally, which was raised until he'd lost its first antlers. He was then immolated to the glory of Erastil and consumed by the community.

The Lost Temple of Erastil and the whispering lady's black vine

It appeared to the Heroes that the dreams were clear indications about the lost Temple of Erastil, so they decided to travel to the Great Forest and meet up with the woodcutters living there. The men warmly greeted the adventurers and offered them the hospitality. When asked about a stone temple in the woods, the men were unable to locate the place. On the other hand, an old orchard rang a bell in Ezra's head. He remembered having found a spot down South with all sorts of domestic fruit trees probably gone wild due to years of abandonment. He still had a thick branch of pear tree he had cut to make a handle to his cutlass.

Somewhere nearby the lost Temple in the Great Forest 

While searching the woods by foot (they had left their mounts at the camp) in the direction mentioned by the woodsman, the Heroes found the remains of a troglodyte temple in ruins. It was artistically carved in a limestone promontory. It was probably originally surrounded by an old orchard because they found many fruit trees species concentrated on half a square mile. They were all wrapped by a black parasitic vine, which gave small poisonous grapes without juice. The sacred basin, from which  a spring used to flow was full of stagnant water, the source being clogged and seeping all around in a huge spongy mound of venomous moss, intricate thorny grasses and dark unhealthy mold. Corpses of birds and rotting animals were spread all around.

The receding sun finished to hide behind the foliage when the Heroes penetrated into the Temples yard. They had the unpleasant surprise of seeing the priests of their dreams coming out of the mound and profane curses against them in old Taldan dialect with their dead and gravely voices. Their greyish and skeletal bodies were all strangled and devoured by the black vines.

[Technically, they retained their powers as L1 priests but were treated as undead.

Their contact is poisoned. They fell into mud when they were killed.]

The Heroes finally prevailed in this nevertheless terrifying battle and the bodies of the priests felt apart into what looked like disgusting pools of sludge.

Several weeks of hard work would be necessary to clear the pond and the temple and probably months if not years to reestablish the original orchard.

While cleaning the bassin, the Heroes found the remaining of a young stag's skeleton surprisingly well preserved in the silt was found but without his head.

They also found out that among the numerous sculptures of the fountain, there was a tiny low relief representing a dear or an elk and that time or vandalism had decapitated. When Jhod put out his small sculpted stone head, it fitted perfectly.

The dreams were gone and Erastil's modest but tenacious faithful were again able to claim the Temple. The water got progressively clearer and in the end it was revealed that it had wonderful healing and restoring proprieties. 

Somewhere down South, a tall muscular man with a violent character and a troubled mind put on his dreadful horned helm made out of an antique stag skull... his Lady whispering to his hears.

Next : I. The Stolen Lands : 1.6 Wandering in the Green Belt & Various encounters