Some time ago, Langren had moved out to the town of Synevir. Either he just so happened to move at exactly the right time for the town to encounter all manner of trouble, or perhaps he is simply quite good at finding trouble, but it seems they have been dealing with a lot lately. Hopefully with this latest trip out that way, they may be able to enjoy some peace for a while. It seems that they were having some trouble with spirits again, due to the depredations of a corrupted Shaman who had recently been in the area, seeking to "complete the work of the scourge" or some such nonsense. I am ashamed to learn that one of my Discipline could be so deluded.
His previous efforts had been dealt with by Langren with another group, I don't have all the details but I am sure Langren has included it in his journal. This time it seems that there was some troubling Spirit activity to the south-west of Synevir, and Langren had made the trip to Throal looking for additional adventurers to help him. I was, of course, glad to join a fellow Shaman in helping the Spirits, and in addition to myself and Howler, we were joined by Jael and Selina, Tulaany Egch and her rider Temur, and Moe. The journey along the road towards Sosanopa was peaceful, it seems the locals (both Namegivers and wildlife) have learned that it is unwise to assault a traveling band of armed adepts accompanied by several large, dangerous beasts. Moe made extensive use of his ability to enchant carpets (or similar objects) to fly, although I will note they were insufficient to lift Howler. Still, a handy contrivance to have at your disposal.
A day or two out from Sosanopa, we departed the road, and entered the plains to the north of the Servos. Unsurprisingly, there were signs that others had journeyed the same path towards Synevir, although there are still no roads out that way... perhaps some efforts should be made to extend the network of roads around Throal, or at least to establish some sort of simple docks with a waystation on the Serpent to the north of the town. In any event, on or about the third day off the road, in the evening, we encountered a couple in a wagon that had broken down ownly a few hours outside of Synevir. We must have been catching up the entire time, considering that we had relatively unburdened mounts for the journey, sped up with Quicken Pace, so it was fortunate for them that we did not pass them before their cart broke a wheel on a jagged rock hidden below the grass and were able to help them.
We did not have any tools or training to replace their wheel, but since it was close to evening we offered to spend the night with Abraham and Mary, and then they could complete their trip back to Synevir the next morning with us at their side. It seems they were nervous about dangerous creatures they had heard about in the region, and that turned out to be justified... a group of 4 skeorx attacked us in the night. They were no match for us adepts, but a couple of regular folk would have almost certainly been eaten without laying so much as a scratch on them.
We drove off a couple of them, although the others did not run before suffering killing wounds, and I am happy to say that Howler enjoys Skeorx meat because in my opinion they aren't particularly tasty and I would hate for them to go entirely to waste (although of course the birds and other scavengers would never really allow that much meat to go uneaten). Temur suffered some unpleasant injuries when they attacked him in his sleep, but we were otherwise almost entirely unscathed, wearied a little from the battle but nothing more. Temur had indicated earlier in the journey that he felt unlucky, but it seems most of that must have happened in that battle, for he acquitted himself much better later on, although he did not seem to be recovering as quickly as usual; perhaps it is the blight upon the land that we have heard about? I hope not; I remember coming up this way to protect a herd of horses for a week, and that was positively awful when our nights were troubled constantly and we could not rest properly.
The next morning, the couple gathered their possessions and joined us on our trip. They seemed much less worried after seeing how capable we had been that night (illuminated by my Moonglow spell), with Jael, Selina, and Howler having done most of the work (supported by a few spells from yours truly), which must have left them to wonder just how much we might have done if we had more than a couple of us awake. We brought them to Synevir, where I imagine they obtained a replacement wheel and went back for their cart during the day (we did not accompany them on that part, we had work to do in an entirely different direction). We learned again that the source of the town's most recent troubles seemed to be to the southwest, and after some investigation in the town I was able to locate a line of energy that seemed bound to the centre of the town and extending off in that direction. As we went, we also found tracks that seemed to belong to stone lions, further evidence that we were headed in the right direction.
In due course of time we arrived at a pond where we could see three stone lions, which made me worry for a moment that the fourth one that we had heard about was going to ambush us, but fortunately we spotted it coming along with the others, followed by a Stone Lion Spirit that was going through some sort of internal struggle, crying out for assistance and alternately ordering the lions to attack us. The Spirit indicated that the lions were in some way binding it to torment the nearby regions on behalf of the corrupt shaman, and that slaying them would free it. Were the fallen shaman not already dead, he would have their deaths to answer for as well. Thankfully, the Spirit was indeed freed from it's binding once the lions were dealt with, and in gratitude for our assistance it pledged to protect the surrounding region and offered each of us a lion from its pride to watch over and be watched over by in turn. I shall have to think on what to Name it; a gift from the Spirits should not be treated lightly.Statistics:Posted by Sharkforce — Wed Jul 22, 2020 5:10 am
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