S01E07 - The Temple Of Shallya
Introduction
Day: 2
Time of day: Mid afternoon
Weather: Warm & Cloudy
Characters: Hadley, Tasha, Elena
Location: The Old Shrine Road, northwest of Kethryn
Questions
I’m hoping there are no more delays - the party arrives at the shrine after a couple more hours of walking to meet the clerics and find out more about the lady of the willow tree.
Scene test: Travel Challenge / Weather
Ok - does the weather take a turn for the worse? 50/50 - 17 - Yes
They walk on, following the road as it winds steadily into the hills. The shrine lies somewhere ahead - Hadley has given up asking where. Each time he does, Tasha assures him it is close, and Elena tries to hide a laugh behind a cough.
The weather has been worsening since noon. A bank of dark cloud rolls down from the north, swallowing the blue of the summer sky and turning the distant hills grey. The wind strengthens with it, stirring the trees and sending the long grass rippling across the slopes.
The first drops are fat and widely spaced. Before long they settle into a steady drizzle, soft but relentless, darkening cloaks and running from hair and faces. Hadley pulls his hood forward. “Lucky it’s summer,” he mutters.
Questions
Given the events of the last episode I think the shrine is going to be rather dilapidated and poorly maintained. That fits with the general air of neglect that’s been growing for a while.
At last they crest a long rise and the valley opens below them. Through the curtain of rain, roofs emerge among the trees: low, dark shapes clustered around a larger building. Tasha stops in the road, water dripping from the edge of her hood. “That’s it,” she says, but there is little triumph in her voice.
She stares down at the temple. Even at this distance its neglect is obvious.
“I don’t understand. The road, the bridge… now this.” She shakes her head. “This is one of the places of the Pilgrimage. There should be pilgrims here. Priests. Money enough to maintain it.”
Hadley looks back towards the broken road behind them. “Doesn’t look like there’s been much of any of those for a while.”
Elena says nothing, but surveys the buildings below with a thoughtful frown.
They begin the descent and the storm finally breaks. The drizzle thickens into hammering rain, drumming against their cloaks and turning the road beneath their boots to running mud. By the time they reach the bottom of the valley they are soaked through, heads bowed against the downpour.
The temple wall rises ahead, long and low, its whitewash peeling away in great patches to expose the stone beneath. At its centre stands a pair of heavy wooden gates, once painted a deep, rich red. Now the colour is faded and flaking, bare timber showing through. Hadley wipes rain from his face and looks at Tasha.
“You sure they’re expecting pilgrims?”
Questions
I wonder if there’s anyone visible? 50/50 - 3 - No
Beyond the wall, the temple rises above the surrounding buildings. Rough stone forms its lower walls, but the upper structure is timber, with broad eaves and heavy beams darkened by age. Once it must have been beautiful. Elaborate carvings run along the brackets beneath the roof and curl around the ends of the beams: flowers, birds and flowing patterns worn soft by decades of wind and rain.
“Someone put a great deal of work into this place once,” Elena says, peering through the downpour.
Tasha barely seems to hear her. She approaches the double gate and tries the iron ring. Nothing moves. She pulls harder, then gives the timber a frustrated shove. “It’s barred.”
She pounds a fist against the peeling red wood. The sound carries dully through to the other side. They wait in the pouring rain.
Questions
Is there any sign of the lady’s cottage or willow trees? Very Unlikely - 3 - No
So - does anyone answer Tasha’s knocking? Likely - 18 - Yes
It’s presumably one of the clerics? Very Likely - 20 - Extreme Yes!
Sounds like it’s a full fledged cleric and definitely not an acoloyte!
Tasha raises the iron ring and knocks again, harder this time. For a while there is nothing but the steady drumming of the rain. Then comes the scrape of a bolt from within, followed by another, and one of the great gates creaks reluctantly inward.
An elderly man peers out at them. He is thin and stooped, dressed in a plain robe that hangs loosely from his shoulders. His eyes move over the three bedraggled travellers before settling on Tasha.
“Shallya’s peace be with you,” Tasha says, stepping forward. She draws the pewter dove pendant of the goddess from beneath her sodden cloak and holds it where he can see. “We’ve come to visit the shrine.”
Questions
Does the old man greet them warmly? Likely - 18 - Yes
The old man’s face brightens at once. “Then you are most welcome, sister. Most welcome indeed.” He pulls the gate wider and waves them urgently through. “Come in, all of you. Quickly, before you drown.” They follow him gratefully into the shelter of the gatehouse as he heaves the gate shut against the storm.
Questions
A few things to work out here I think:
The acolytes might be off doing other things - is there any sign of them? 50/50 - 17 - Yes
How many? 1d2 - 1
Younger than the elderly cleric? Likely - 14 - Yes but…
Ok - so there’s one other person, a little younger than the first, in the gatehouse
There is another man waiting in the gatehouse, perhaps ten years younger than the first. He rises from a wooden stool as they enter, regarding the three rain-soaked travellers with quiet curiosity.
Their host pushes the bolt home and turns to them. “Forgive me. I am Father Makoto,” he says, touching a hand to his chest. “And this is Brother Kei.”
Brother Kei inclines his head.
Tasha gestures to her companions. “Hadley and Elena. I am Tasha, sister of Shallya.”
Questions
I’m going to give the three PCs a perception (wisdom) check here. It’s a bit of a general check to see if they notice anything untoward as they look around the gatehouse. I’ll work out what the results mean afterwards.
Tasha - Wis (16) - 5 - Success
Hadley - Wis (10) - 10 - Success
Elena - Wis (11) - 13 - Fail
Ok - so Tasha is the first to notice something and Hadley becomes aware of things too while Elena is more concerned with the water leaking into her boots!
Tasha shakes the worst of the water from her cloak and pushes it back from her shoulders. Despite the cold and the miserable journey, she smiles warmly at Father Makoto. She touches two fingers to the dove at her breast, then opens her hand towards him. “May the Dove shelter you beneath her wings.”
Questions
I’m assuming Makoto gives the correct response? Likely - 5 - No + event
Oh!! huh?
What’s the event? Close Threat / Protecting
What’s going on here?
Tasha is going to try to hide her surprise at his mistake.
Tasha Cha (12) - 19 - Fail
Makoto hesitates. “And… may… may her peace be upon you.”
Tasha’s eyes show momentary puzzlement - the expected response to her formal greeting does not come and for an instant her smile falters.
“Thank you, Father,” she says, recovering quickly.
Hadley doesn’t know what Makoto has done wrong, but he knows Tasha well enough to recognise the brief tightening around her eyes. Something is amiss. He steps forward before the silence can linger.
“Hadley,” he says, offering Makoto his hand. “Forgive the state of us Father. It’s been a long road.”
Makoto takes it readily. “A difficult one today, I fear.”
Outside, rain rattles against the gatehouse roof. Hadley smiles politely, but his gaze remains on the old man a moment longer than courtesy requires.
Questions
Now Hadley passed his perception check earlier so I’ll use that now. I’ll use spark tables for this I think.
What does he notice? Battle/Understand, Healing/Glory
And is it Makoto that Hadley is observing? 50/50 - 16 - Yes
As Hadley steps back, something about Makoto’s robes catches his eye. The cloth hangs strangely at the old man’s side, pushed out by something beneath it. Hadley has spent too many years around armed men not to recognise the shape. A knife, perhaps, or a short blade. Whatever it is, Father Makoto is carrying a concealed weapon. Hadley gives no sign that he has seen it. He lets his expression settle into the weary neutrality of a traveller grateful to be out of the rain.
Questions
I wonder if Elena notices the tension in her friends?
Elena Wis (11) - 8 - Success
Elena, however, is watching them now. She has missed whatever passed between Tasha and Makoto, but she knows her companions well enough to see the tension in both of them.
Makoto clasps his hands before him. “Now, what can we do for you? You have come a long way, I think.”
“A very long way,” Tasha says. Her smile returns, though some of its warmth has gone. “I’ve come to see the shrine and to spend a few days here, if I may. In contemplation and prayer.” She touches the dove at her breast. “I have wanted to journey here for many years, to follow in our lady’s footsteps.”
Questions
Makoto would presumably agree to this but given the oddness that’s going on, I’m going to give it a 50/50 chance.
Does he? 50/50 - 1 - Extreme No!
This is all wrong! Who are these two?
Makoto’s expression changes at once. “No.” The word comes quickly, with surprising force. “I’m afraid that is not possible.”
Tasha blinks. “I don’t understand.”
“The shrine is closed,” Makoto says. “No pilgrims are permitted inside. No visitors at all.”
“But I am a sister of Shallya.” Tasha touches the dove at her breast again. “I have travelled from Quabat to worship here.”
“I know, and I am sorry.” Makoto’s voice is firm, almost harsh. “The shrine is closed to everyone, sister. Shallyan or otherwise. You cannot worship here.”
Questions
What is Brother Kei doing while this is going on? I’m going to roll a couple of spark words to see…
Accept / Question, Illness / Burden
Brother Kei shifts beside him. “Perhaps it is for the best. There are sick and suffering in Kethryn, sister. Surely your time would be better spent among them than shut away here in solitary prayer.”
Tasha looks at him. For a moment the anger is plain in her eyes, though when she speaks her voice is measured. “I spent most of yesterday tending the injured from a wagon accident. Some of them would not have survived without help. My attention to our mission as Shallyans is in no way lacking.”
Kei opens his mouth, but Tasha continues. “After something like that, Brother, prayer is not an indulgence. I came here to reconnect with Shallya, to remember why I chose this road in the first place, and to refresh my faith before I continue along it.”
A silence settles over the gatehouse. Hadley watches Kei carefully. Elena glances between the two clerics, her mind beginning to weigh and measure, alert for any out of place details.
Questions
Elena is now fully clued into the weirdness that’s going on here and she is actively looking for oddities.
Elena Wis (11) - 3 - Success
So she notices something. What is it? Some spark words again…
Adjacent / Past, Fiery or Haunting / Animal or Oath
Crikey! Erm… ok - I’ve got it.
As Kei shifts, something slips free of the neck of his robe. Elena catches only a glimpse: a thin black cord and, hanging from it, a small pendant shaped like a narrow black blade.
Kei’s hand closes around the pendant and pushes it quickly back beneath his robe.
Elena lowers her eyes before he can catch her looking. She says nothing. Whatever unease she senses in Hadley and Tasha, she now has a reason of her own to share it.
Questions
Does Elena recognise the pendant I wonder?
Elena Int (17) - 8 - Success
I’m going to just interpret this freely. I have an idea, so I’m just going to go for it!!
Elena knows the symbol. The narrow black blade belongs to Malal, the Outcast. His name appears only rarely in elven lore, and never without warning. Malal is a god of ruin and hatred, an enemy even to the other powers of darkness, whose followers seek purity through destruction. They offer blood in his name—sometimes their enemies’, sometimes their own—and leave little behind them but death and ashes. The presence of followers of the Outcast, here in a temple of Shallya, brings bile to her throat.
She keeps her face still, though every instinct tells her they are in danger. Beneath the folds of her cloak, her fingers begin to move, tracing small, careful patterns where neither man can see them. She reaches inward, gathering the first threads of power.
Hadley glances towards her. Elena meets his eye for no more than a heartbeat.
Questions
Elena is going to cast Sleep. However the two men are alert and wary now. She’s going to have to pass a Dexterity check to make the necessary incantation and gestures without them noticing.
Elena Dex (12) - 1 - Success!
Yes!! A very convincing success too!
Ok - Hit dice to affect? 2d8 - 3
And duration? 4d4 turns - 12
The Sleep spell affects a number of targets based on their Hit Dice - 3 HD in this case. I need to know how powerful these two chaps are, so I can see if one or both are affected. First of all, I’m curious if they’re true clerics.
Are they? 50/50 - 15 - Yes + event
The event: Distant / Absence
Now I’ll ask the oracle if they are the same power level as the party - an extreme Yes or No will mean far more / less powerful while a normal Yes or No will mean as powerful / not as powerful.
Are they as powerful as the PCs? 50/50 - 19 - Yes
Eep! Very close to an extreme result there! Lucky!! As it is, they are the same power level as our heroes - 1HD each then. So both of them are affected but we have 1 more HD to account for - either Tasha or Hadley is also hit.
Is it Hadley? 50/50 - 12 - Yes
Poor chap - Hadley always seems to get the short straw!
Elena lets her breathing slow. Her lips move almost imperceptibly, the words of the incantation no louder than the rain beating against the roof. Her fingers complete the final gesture beneath her cloak. Neither Makoto nor Kei notices a thing.
She releases the spell.
Kei crumples first, his knees simply giving way beneath him. Makoto manages a startled gasp before his eyes roll back and he collapses. Tasha recoils. “Elena! What …”
Behind her comes a heavy thud. Hadley lies sprawled on the gatehouse floor, profoundly unconscious.
Elena stares at him.
“Ah.” She face bears a guilty grimace. “That was not intentional.”
Questions
Ok - let’s also deal with the distant event. Something is missing - presumably a noise since they won’t otherwise know and I don’t want to do a remote montage.
I have an idea!
“Elena, what in Shallya’s …” Tasha begins, then stops.
Something is wrong. Something other than the three unconscious men at their feet. She listens, suddenly aware that something is missing, something she should have noticed the moment they arrived. There is only the drumming of rain on timber and stone. The Wind Flutes are silent.
Every Shallyan shrine has them. Tasha has heard their soft, wandering notes since childhood, stirred by the slightest breeze and sounding through temples large and small. Yet here, with a summer storm raging outside, there is nothing.
She turns from Elena and crosses quickly to the doorway leading into the courtyard before the temple. “Where are the flutes?” she whispers.
Questions
Is there another noise instead maybe? 50/50 - 6 - No but…
So there’s no other noise but there is something about the flutes…
Tasha steps out beneath the eaves. Rain pours into the courtyard, bouncing from the flagstones and streaming from the temple roofs. Through it she sees the wind flutes standing at the courtyard’s edge, six tall wooden columns raised towards the storm.
She stares at them. Each flute’s wind hole has been packed tight with some black, waxy substance, sealing it against the gale. Below, the sounding holes have been hacked and slashed, the carefully shaped openings butchered with a blade until the wood around them is splintered and scarred.
“No,” Tasha whispers.
Elena comes to the doorway behind her. Tasha barely notices. She steps into the rain, staring at the ruined instruments as water runs down her face. This is not neglect. It is desecration.
Questions
Eeshk! Is there anyone else in the courtyard I wonder? There must be others around surely? Where are the real clerics?
Anyone else in sight? Likely - 19 - Yes
How many? Expecting 2 - 2/less - 1
Is the figure approaching the gatehouse? 50/50 - 14 - Yes but…
Movement catches Tasha’s eye. There is someone in the courtyard.
A solitary figure stands some distance away with its back towards the gatehouse, its robe soaked so thoroughly that the cloth hangs black and heavy from its body. It moves slowly backwards across the flagstones, swaying from side to side in a strange, weaving motion. For a moment Tasha thinks the figure is stumbling, but there is purpose in the movement. It has a rhythm, almost like a dance.
One hand hangs before it, holding a small gourd. As the figure moves, it tips the vessel gently from side to side. A thin stream of dark reddish-black liquid spills from the small vessel, tracing a wavering line across the wet stones.
The rain strikes it and dilutes it almost at once, washing red tendrils between the cracks but more falls.
Questions
Is the rain still pouring down? Likely - 6 - No but…
And can Tasha see anything more of what the figure is doing? Perception roll…
Tasha Wis (16) - 12 - Success
The rain begins to slacken, its roar fading to a steady patter. With the courtyard no longer obscured by the downpour, Tasha can see more clearly what the figure is doing.
There are symbols carved into the paving stones beneath its feet: the dove, the open hands, the sheaf of healing herbs. Shallya’s sacred marks, worked into the courtyard so that every pilgrim who approaches the temple walks among them.
The figure is following them. Its strange backward dance traces their lines precisely, pouring the dark liquid into the shallow grooves cut into the stone. Wherever Shallya’s symbols run, the reddish-black trail follows.
Tasha’s unease hardens into horror. This is no aimless ritual. This figure is deliberately marking over the sacred signs of her goddess.
Questions
Elena is going to wake up Hadley. I don’t think she needs to roll - the spell description says that sleepers can be forcefully awakened. She’s going to wallop him!
Behind her, Elena crouches beside Hadley and gives him a sharp slap across the face.
His eyes jerk open. “What the …” He tries to sit up, blinks at her, then touches his cheek. “Did you just hit me?”
“You were asleep. Sorry.”
Hadley mutters something unkind as Elena helps him to his feet. He sways, catches himself against the wall and follows her out into the courtyard. By the time they reach Tasha, he has scooped rainwater from a puddle and splashed it across his face.
“Next time,” he says, wiping his eyes, “try to avoid your supposed friends.”
Then he sees the black-robed figure and the humour leaves him. “What in hell is that?”
“In Shallya’s name, stop!” Tasha calls across the courtyard. Her voice carries sharply now that the rain has eased. “What are you doing? How dare you silence her flutes, defile her sacred signs!”
The figure stops. For a moment it remains motionless, the gourd hanging at its side, dark liquid dripping steadily from its lip onto the stones.
Then it turns and the movement draws back its sodden cowl. Beneath is a pale face, bloodless and severe, framed by rain-plastered hair. There is no alarm at being discovered, no anger at Tasha’s challenge. The face is cold and utterly impassive.
Hadley’s hand settles on the hilt of his sword. Elena moves a little closer to Tasha.
Questions
Is this figure more powerful than the others? Likely - 17 - Yes
A level 2 cleric? Likely - 7 - No but…
A level 3 cleric of Malal then…
The man smiles. It is thin, bloodless. “Malal sees you,” he says, his voice high and cold. “He has guided your feet to this place. Be grateful.”
Tasha stares at him. “You dare speak that name here?”
“Lay down your weapons.” His gaze moves slowly across the three of them. “The Dove has died here, and Malal sends her servants willingly to our door.” The smile returns. “Your blood will finish what we have begun.”
Hadley draws his sword. His head is still thick from Elena’s spell, but training takes over where thought fails. He scans the courtyard—the temple doors, the covered walkways, the dark gaps between buildings.
Questions
Eep eep eep! Is there anyone else here? 50/50 - 2 - No
Ok good!
“You stand in a house of Shallya and speak that name?” Tasha’s anger finally breaks through. “You silence her flutes, defile her sacred signs and pour blood across stones consecrated to healing. You have no place here.”
The man gives a soft laugh. “Shallya.” He draws out the name with deliberate contempt. “Your little dove has flown, sister. She has no voice here now.”
“Where are they?” Tasha demands. “The true priests of this temple. The cleric and his acolytes. What have you done with them?”
Questions
Are the Shallyans dead? Likely - 20 - Extreme Yes
“Oh, they are here.” His pale face settles into that terrible smile again. He gestures towards the temple behind him. “They are inside the shrine, prostrate before Malal.” His eyes fix upon Tasha. “Learning to worship their new lord.”
Tasha strides past him. Her hand closes around the dove at her breast so tightly that its edges bite into her palm. Fury and horror burn openly across her face. Hadley and Elena exchange a glance. Neither has ever seen her like this.
“Tasha,” Hadley warns, but she does not stop. She crosses the courtyard towards the shrine, boots splashing through the bloody lines drawn across Shallya’s sacred symbols. The open doorway looms ahead, dark beneath the deep eaves.
Three bodies lie before the shrine, butchered and arranged upon the floor in grotesque imitation of supplication. Blood covers the stones around them. More has been smeared across the walls and altar, crude black-bladed symbols painted over the signs of Shallya. Tasha stops dead. For one terrible moment she can neither move nor breathe. Then a cry tears from her—a raw sound of rage and grief that echoes through the desecrated temple.
Questions
I wonder if Hadley and Elena would go with her? I doubt Hadley will move - he’s focussed on the cleric. I’ll ask the oracle…
Do they go with Tasha? Unlikely - 5 - No + event
Event: Landscape / Tranquil
Hmm… something to do with what should be the tranquility of this place. The tranquility has been shattered… is being shattered right now?
Fire in the temple maybe? 50/50 - 19 - Yes
“Smoke,” Elena says sharply.
It is pouring from beneath the temple eaves, thick and dark. At the same instant Hadley catches a flicker of orange behind one of the windows. Then flame bursts through the shrine doorway with impossible speed. It races across the floor, engulfing the bodies and rolling towards Tasha in a wave of unnatural heat.
The pale cleric throws back his head and laughs. “Behold!” he shrieks. “See what devotion earns! See my sacrifice to the Outcast! Stand in awe of Malal!”
“Tasha!” Hadley runs. She seems rooted before the burning shrine, horror holding her fast. He reaches her as the flames lick across the threshold, seizes her around the waist and hauls her bodily backwards. Heat washes over them as he drags her away, Tasha struggling against him, one hand still clenched desperately around the dove at her breast.
The blood-filled symbols beneath their feet begin to smoke. A sharp crack splits the courtyard as one of the paving stones fractures, then another. Heat shimmers above the carved lines, spreading outwards from them as though the stones themselves are burning.
Tasha screams, a guttural cry of helpless rage and grief. Behind her the temple is ablaze now, fire racing through the ancient timbers with unnatural hunger. The rain hisses against the flames and vanishes in clouds of steam.
“We have to go!” Hadley shouts. He drags Tasha towards the gatehouse while Elena catches her other arm. Tasha fights them for several steps, twisting to look back at the burning shrine, before the heat forces all three through the doorway.
Questions
I’m guessing that the cleric has made a swift exit - any sign of him? Unlikely - 1 - Extreme No…
He and the other two are nowhere to be seen…
The gatehouse is empty. Makoto and Kei are gone. So is the pale cleric. Hadley barely pauses to register it. With smoke rolling after them and Tasha still struggling between them, he and Elena haul her through the outer gates and away from the burning temple.
Questions
That was awful! It would have been a terrible experience for them all but especially for Tasha. I wonder what she will do now? It seems the lady of the willow tree was indeed in dire need. We’ll find out in the next episode. Stay tuned…