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14 Oltaran
Though it might've been 15 Oltaran; who knows exactly what time it was. The battle with the kupar was over, and thanks to May's ministrations I revived, to find Jack tugging at my sleeve, and holding Duraglen's arm. Just his arm. It had been cut off. I'm glad I'm now able to fix that, but I wish it hadn't been necessary.
Duraglen came back from examining the dead kupar, and I asked May to help me take the bandages off his stump and line the arm up properly, so I could use the blessing. Jack brought him some kind of booze, that turned out to be extremely potent; he was dead drunk with one shot. Which made it easier on him, at least. There was light, and healing, and I'm so glad it worked. Not that I was doubting the Healer, but the first time reattaching a limb...
I asked Duraglen if he had other injuries, but he said he was fine. I also asked why there wasn't a lot more blood, and he said he could control his blood flow, which is amazing. I'd love to learn how to do that. I wonder if knowing how to do that to myself could help me in healing others? (At some point, I healed Cor as much as I could from his battle injuries, too.)
Duraglen tottered out again. Then May and I started packing up; I knew we wouldn't be staying there. Cor went out to see whether anything was coming our way. And Duraglen went to investigate the kupar further, especially since these were white ones, not mottled gray; do they change skin color with the seasons? He decided to see what they eat, other than people. And apparently when he cut into the dead kupar, the guts that came out were much more shiny than they should be, sparkly even. Duraglen got some on his hands, and fell into a nowhere place, which later had oily rainbowy puddles. I came out when he yelled, and he told us what had happened. We knew that those rainbow things weren't just in olden times, but this was a bit scary. I had thought of them more as independent creatures, and this was more like a visible infection, or enhancement, I suppose. Hard to say.
In any case, Duraglen was very shocked by it all. He went over to sit by the fire, trembling rather, and I went over to calm him down, if I could. Touch helped him calm down, but he was still under too much stress. I want to keep an eye on him, if I can.
15 Oltaran
We figured out a plan. Jack, Duraglen, and I would ride two horses and bring the mules heading slowly south to the circle. Cor and May would lay a false trail from the battle site heading west, then more towards Suth. They'd double-back, covering their tracks, to our campsite, then follow us and cover our tracks as they came. This all worked, though we three had to wait for the others a bit.
I checked the weather, and it was odd, extremely odd. There was a storm coming, but it wasn't a normal storm. Instead of one big swirl of a weather system, there were many little swirls. And the wind and the clouds were wrong, too, with some cloud formations I've never seen before. Eerie, and creepy. I told the others, both about the storm and the oddness of it. At least a storm is good for covering our tracks. We had breakfast, and I checked us all for disease; there didn't seem to be any (those puffs are doing an excellent job!).
We continued south, with Jack scouting ahead, until we got close to the circle. There was a noise, of rushing wind. And then things turned more strange: the circle was clearly delineated, both on the ground, which was completely free of snow, and in the air, where the sky was clear above it. There were little circles of storm close to the circle, but not over it. Jack had found lots of kupar tracks, going in every direction but one. Duraglen also saw them, though it was hard for Cor to see them as more than snow rippled under the wind. We decided to go in the direction none of the kupar had taken, to avoid them as long as possible (especially since we don't know if the kupar last night were a scouting party, a raiding party, or just travelers).
We went that way, and there was a boulder with things around it in two concentric circles, near but not touching the big circle. Jack went down to check it out, Duraglen behind him, and when they came back, it turned out to be a horrible thing, and shrine to the god of death. The boulder in the middle is carved to look like bones, and the things around it are skulls, every one different, of all the different kinds of people in the world. *shiver*
It's creepy, and I would love to undo its being, but we were here for the spear, and I don't doubt that destroying a shrine would garner us far too much godly attention just now. If on the way out there a chance to, though, I'll take it. And if not, at least I'll be able to tell the temple in Darthow about it, and they can do something about it.
However. There are still a lot of questions. The kupar obviously don't come here. Duraglen confirmed that they all worship the Mighty. Who made this shrine, and why? It's at the edge of the circle, as if it can't be farther in, or is it to keep things from coming out, or expanding? Are there others around the circumference? No way to know, and there isn't time to find out, either. We talked more about the shrine, but got nowhere. It looks maintained, which means that there's likely someone who's come sometimes to make sure it's in working order. I warned the others that servants of the death god are likely to immediately rise as undead when killed, sometimes stronger than before, and are the kind of undead that explode and take others out when finally laid to rest.
The other interesting part is that the kupar avoid this place. So they don't worship the death god. Not only that, but shrines are mostly problematic for blessed of other deities (why neither May nor I went to see it), which implies that the kupar are blessed in some way by the Mighty, as they say. The kupar who fought us seemed strong, but didn't use a blessing in any way I understand it, so perhaps the rainbowy things are something like a blessing of the Mighty, a touch of his favor, at least? Though the rainbow things on the kupar leg May found was making it dissolve, and the Mighty is for living at any cost. Hm. Unless the dissolving of no-longer-alive kupar make it easier for the Mighty to help make other kupar, or make others stronger, or something? Or is it that after they're dead, they're no longer of use, and it's better that no one else find any of them?
All kinds of questions. No answers. That storm that's coming: is some of why it's eddying oddly because of the circle breaking its normal pattern, or is the circle influencing it in some more subtle way?
It seems clear that there should be something we should figure out from the shrine, but we don't know what. So we continue on.
Jack leads us into the circle, and as I get close, I hear a whirling sound. I pass into the circle, and it's like going through a curtain; the sound is stopped by it. An uncomfortable curtain, though: going through it somehow managed to crush the Healer sense into a small bit of me, with a rope of it going out my back, heading off into the void. It was rather like what I'd seen happen to Cor that time, and it's not a comfortable thing. I wasn't surprised to see that May had the same thing happen. As did Cor, his rope leading to Death stronger than it had been before, larger than either of ours. I fear for him, that even if we find the Spear it will be too late, with so much death energy in him.
It was very odd having such a small space for the Healer. May, too, didn't like it. She tried a blessing, and it was very hard, like she was still learning, nothing working as it ought.
We decided to leave the horses (and mules) near the death shrine, since no kupar went there. It bothered me, leaving them there, but there didn't seem to be any better options. Even finding a tunnel they could go down wouldn't guarrantee we could keep them with us the whole way, and otherwise we'd have to split the party. I'm still not happy about it, though.
As we waited for Duraglen and Jack to come back from covering and feeding the horses, we heard high, whistly sounds, that May recognized as voices, rainbow-made sounds. Which is rather creepy.
So. How can this area have a damper on blessings? How can it be so distinct in land and sky? I wonder if magic would be similarly affected. Cor had raised the question of who we're getting the Spear for, and it's confusing, since we've gotten visions of going to get it, and it seemed to me that we need to get it for the Mother, and the bionlear, both, not to mention to heal Cor, though if it's the god of Death managing it somehow, it might just be that getting the Spear is just the last thing Cor does.
It seems like we're within the radius of the center of the cataclysm that caused the featureless plains in the first place. Is it a place changed by the forces of that destruction, or was this the center because it was already a nexus of some type?
Though it might've been 15 Oltaran; who knows exactly what time it was. The battle with the kupar was over, and thanks to May's ministrations I revived, to find Jack tugging at my sleeve, and holding Duraglen's arm. Just his arm. It had been cut off. I'm glad I'm now able to fix that, but I wish it hadn't been necessary.
Duraglen came back from examining the dead kupar, and I asked May to help me take the bandages off his stump and line the arm up properly, so I could use the blessing. Jack brought him some kind of booze, that turned out to be extremely potent; he was dead drunk with one shot. Which made it easier on him, at least. There was light, and healing, and I'm so glad it worked. Not that I was doubting the Healer, but the first time reattaching a limb...
I asked Duraglen if he had other injuries, but he said he was fine. I also asked why there wasn't a lot more blood, and he said he could control his blood flow, which is amazing. I'd love to learn how to do that. I wonder if knowing how to do that to myself could help me in healing others? (At some point, I healed Cor as much as I could from his battle injuries, too.)
Duraglen tottered out again. Then May and I started packing up; I knew we wouldn't be staying there. Cor went out to see whether anything was coming our way. And Duraglen went to investigate the kupar further, especially since these were white ones, not mottled gray; do they change skin color with the seasons? He decided to see what they eat, other than people. And apparently when he cut into the dead kupar, the guts that came out were much more shiny than they should be, sparkly even. Duraglen got some on his hands, and fell into a nowhere place, which later had oily rainbowy puddles. I came out when he yelled, and he told us what had happened. We knew that those rainbow things weren't just in olden times, but this was a bit scary. I had thought of them more as independent creatures, and this was more like a visible infection, or enhancement, I suppose. Hard to say.
In any case, Duraglen was very shocked by it all. He went over to sit by the fire, trembling rather, and I went over to calm him down, if I could. Touch helped him calm down, but he was still under too much stress. I want to keep an eye on him, if I can.
15 Oltaran
We figured out a plan. Jack, Duraglen, and I would ride two horses and bring the mules heading slowly south to the circle. Cor and May would lay a false trail from the battle site heading west, then more towards Suth. They'd double-back, covering their tracks, to our campsite, then follow us and cover our tracks as they came. This all worked, though we three had to wait for the others a bit.
I checked the weather, and it was odd, extremely odd. There was a storm coming, but it wasn't a normal storm. Instead of one big swirl of a weather system, there were many little swirls. And the wind and the clouds were wrong, too, with some cloud formations I've never seen before. Eerie, and creepy. I told the others, both about the storm and the oddness of it. At least a storm is good for covering our tracks. We had breakfast, and I checked us all for disease; there didn't seem to be any (those puffs are doing an excellent job!).
We continued south, with Jack scouting ahead, until we got close to the circle. There was a noise, of rushing wind. And then things turned more strange: the circle was clearly delineated, both on the ground, which was completely free of snow, and in the air, where the sky was clear above it. There were little circles of storm close to the circle, but not over it. Jack had found lots of kupar tracks, going in every direction but one. Duraglen also saw them, though it was hard for Cor to see them as more than snow rippled under the wind. We decided to go in the direction none of the kupar had taken, to avoid them as long as possible (especially since we don't know if the kupar last night were a scouting party, a raiding party, or just travelers).
We went that way, and there was a boulder with things around it in two concentric circles, near but not touching the big circle. Jack went down to check it out, Duraglen behind him, and when they came back, it turned out to be a horrible thing, and shrine to the god of death. The boulder in the middle is carved to look like bones, and the things around it are skulls, every one different, of all the different kinds of people in the world. *shiver*
It's creepy, and I would love to undo its being, but we were here for the spear, and I don't doubt that destroying a shrine would garner us far too much godly attention just now. If on the way out there a chance to, though, I'll take it. And if not, at least I'll be able to tell the temple in Darthow about it, and they can do something about it.
However. There are still a lot of questions. The kupar obviously don't come here. Duraglen confirmed that they all worship the Mighty. Who made this shrine, and why? It's at the edge of the circle, as if it can't be farther in, or is it to keep things from coming out, or expanding? Are there others around the circumference? No way to know, and there isn't time to find out, either. We talked more about the shrine, but got nowhere. It looks maintained, which means that there's likely someone who's come sometimes to make sure it's in working order. I warned the others that servants of the death god are likely to immediately rise as undead when killed, sometimes stronger than before, and are the kind of undead that explode and take others out when finally laid to rest.
The other interesting part is that the kupar avoid this place. So they don't worship the death god. Not only that, but shrines are mostly problematic for blessed of other deities (why neither May nor I went to see it), which implies that the kupar are blessed in some way by the Mighty, as they say. The kupar who fought us seemed strong, but didn't use a blessing in any way I understand it, so perhaps the rainbowy things are something like a blessing of the Mighty, a touch of his favor, at least? Though the rainbow things on the kupar leg May found was making it dissolve, and the Mighty is for living at any cost. Hm. Unless the dissolving of no-longer-alive kupar make it easier for the Mighty to help make other kupar, or make others stronger, or something? Or is it that after they're dead, they're no longer of use, and it's better that no one else find any of them?
All kinds of questions. No answers. That storm that's coming: is some of why it's eddying oddly because of the circle breaking its normal pattern, or is the circle influencing it in some more subtle way?
It seems clear that there should be something we should figure out from the shrine, but we don't know what. So we continue on.
Jack leads us into the circle, and as I get close, I hear a whirling sound. I pass into the circle, and it's like going through a curtain; the sound is stopped by it. An uncomfortable curtain, though: going through it somehow managed to crush the Healer sense into a small bit of me, with a rope of it going out my back, heading off into the void. It was rather like what I'd seen happen to Cor that time, and it's not a comfortable thing. I wasn't surprised to see that May had the same thing happen. As did Cor, his rope leading to Death stronger than it had been before, larger than either of ours. I fear for him, that even if we find the Spear it will be too late, with so much death energy in him.
It was very odd having such a small space for the Healer. May, too, didn't like it. She tried a blessing, and it was very hard, like she was still learning, nothing working as it ought.
We decided to leave the horses (and mules) near the death shrine, since no kupar went there. It bothered me, leaving them there, but there didn't seem to be any better options. Even finding a tunnel they could go down wouldn't guarrantee we could keep them with us the whole way, and otherwise we'd have to split the party. I'm still not happy about it, though.
As we waited for Duraglen and Jack to come back from covering and feeding the horses, we heard high, whistly sounds, that May recognized as voices, rainbow-made sounds. Which is rather creepy.
So. How can this area have a damper on blessings? How can it be so distinct in land and sky? I wonder if magic would be similarly affected. Cor had raised the question of who we're getting the Spear for, and it's confusing, since we've gotten visions of going to get it, and it seemed to me that we need to get it for the Mother, and the bionlear, both, not to mention to heal Cor, though if it's the god of Death managing it somehow, it might just be that getting the Spear is just the last thing Cor does.
It seems like we're within the radius of the center of the cataclysm that caused the featureless plains in the first place. Is it a place changed by the forces of that destruction, or was this the center because it was already a nexus of some type?
