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Cor and I were in the shrine, and we knew from Thymelixsen that the room had the altar, the blessed, and a holy symbol. Cor asked if I could sense him. I tried, and first I got the sense of being on holy ground, not unholy or opposed or anything. Then I sensed the blessed, but he was oddly diffuse, not in one place like Thymelixsen had sensed him.
The room was filled with human bones, many more than the bones of Thorfold and the fourteen outside (though I suspected that those still had at least some of their own bones). The holy symbol was across the room from us, under some bones. We started around, shaking off the worms that kept trying to crawl up our shoes. We heard thrig sqeaks from underneath, in the three to four feet of bones atop the ooze (and likely in the ooze as well).
We could see that the shrine was getting worse, closer to letting off what the glacier had shown me. I ran over to it, pushed bones to make a path through the ooze to the well of the shrine.
Cor dug down to the holy symbol, finding a stone on a leather cord that was still in good shape. He took it. When he did, the light going in stopped for a moment, then slowly started again, but at a slower rate.
Light cones flashed into the dome from four directions, and a figure formed in the air in the middle of the room, a spectre of a Taalish man in armor, his helmet on but the visor up, wearing a hammer.
I asked "Thorfold?"
He looked dead and serene at first, then smiled in a scary way. He said that he was involved in a huge making, a weaving of things. He had come to clean but there were greater things. That this would be a purging through the land, that this would brin gout the poison in the land, that is older than the gods. After that there would be purification through feeding.
None of this sounded good to me. Cor engaged Thorfold in conversation while I worked my way closer to the shrine, jumping onto the grey thing atop the well of ooze. It was surprisingly dry and spongy. I knew that Touch of Purity would not work here, but perhaps driving out spirits would; I started on Purity Within.
Thorfold paused a moment, then called the thrigs up. They started massing against Cor, and I resisted an attack by the shrine. Cor jumped to the shrine as well, putting the holy symbol around my neck, figuring that another holy symbol would be good. Until he jumped back and realized that the thrigs were going for whoever had the holy symbol, not him particularly. So he jumped back and took the holy symbol back.
The shrine kept attacking, and I resisted, though it took much psyche to resist.
Cor lead the thrigs in a merry chase around the bones of the periphery, keeping them away from me. He yelled to me, asking first whether it was possible to break a holy symbol, and whether he should. It's possible, of course, but I didn't think that was a good thing, destroying a permanently blessed holy symbol of the Healer, so I turned my tial down (I had to keep both hands on the shrine to do the blessing, and head movements didn't seem enough for this).
Thorfold didn't look at all concerned, and the lines of light going into the shrine continued unabated. I realized that there wouldn't be time enough for me to complete this blessing, and Thorfold would have looked more concerned had what I been attempting been an actual threat. I thought, and realized that this energy from the blessing was too much of what the other kind was, too much life energy that would help the shrine finish faster.
The only option was to use the holy symbol somehow, since none of the blessings I knew would help. Pushing energy at the shrine would be useless for me, since it would feed it. Thorfold was channeling the energy into the shrine, but he had no body, however armored he looked hovering around... but he had manifested from the four compass points of the room. And I realized that there had to be some of his bones in this, and they were how he clung to this not-life.
I leaped off the shrine, trying to time it so it was just after Cor lead the thrig-pack past. I went to where Cor had dug out the holy symbol, figuring that the bone there would be easier to get to. And it was. I found an arm bone, and brushed the spirit still clinging to it on, letting it finally go.
And then I went as quickly as I could to the next one. Cor had seen me move, so he detoured in his next loop to go over to the shrine, keeping the thrigs from me as much as possible. Thorfeld tried another spiritual attack, but again, with psyche, I was able to resist. A second bone was found and the spirit sent on.
On to the third bone, the one near the door we'd come in. Thorfold attacked, and I was unable to resist. I could see the energy I lost he fed directly to the shrine. I had to hurry!
I let the third bone go. Cor was still decimating thrigs by the shrine. I got to the fourth bone, and heard Thorfold say he couldn't allow it to happen. I ignored him; this sounded like something he'd said before, and it was more important to focus on the one bone that was left.
Cor still had the holy symbol, and it pulsed with light. I heard a noise on the bones, and Thorfold was there, in his body, attacking me with his hammer. It was a mighty blow, and I was lucky to avoid the second one, which would have killed me. Cor leaped off the shrine, coming between Thorfold and me. We were both hurt, and I managed to cast Touch of Purity faster than I ever have before, splitting the healing between the two of us. Both of us were compeletely healed. And then Cor lifted the holy symbol, holding it against the wall, and smashed it with the hilt of his sword. I could feel something like a cut inside me when that happened, as the holy symbol fell into two pieces. Thorfold fell into nothing in the bones. The thrigs stood around, not doing much other than nosing things, regular thrig things to do.
I looked over at the shrine, and the light had stopped, then started again, slowly. I found the last bone, the skull, and let it go. The light stopped, and faded out. Whew. It's stopped. I don't know how to deal with the rest of it, all the energy it's built up, but others can help us with that (Hab? the foci? the glacier?).
We went over to the door, which had screwed shut behind us. I remembered seeing doors of living rock in some shrines of the Healer, so I tried touching the door. I could feel the cold going out of it. I touched it again, thinking towards it that it should open, and it was already warm, and it opened.
The room was filled with human bones, many more than the bones of Thorfold and the fourteen outside (though I suspected that those still had at least some of their own bones). The holy symbol was across the room from us, under some bones. We started around, shaking off the worms that kept trying to crawl up our shoes. We heard thrig sqeaks from underneath, in the three to four feet of bones atop the ooze (and likely in the ooze as well).
We could see that the shrine was getting worse, closer to letting off what the glacier had shown me. I ran over to it, pushed bones to make a path through the ooze to the well of the shrine.
Cor dug down to the holy symbol, finding a stone on a leather cord that was still in good shape. He took it. When he did, the light going in stopped for a moment, then slowly started again, but at a slower rate.
Light cones flashed into the dome from four directions, and a figure formed in the air in the middle of the room, a spectre of a Taalish man in armor, his helmet on but the visor up, wearing a hammer.
I asked "Thorfold?"
He looked dead and serene at first, then smiled in a scary way. He said that he was involved in a huge making, a weaving of things. He had come to clean but there were greater things. That this would be a purging through the land, that this would brin gout the poison in the land, that is older than the gods. After that there would be purification through feeding.
None of this sounded good to me. Cor engaged Thorfold in conversation while I worked my way closer to the shrine, jumping onto the grey thing atop the well of ooze. It was surprisingly dry and spongy. I knew that Touch of Purity would not work here, but perhaps driving out spirits would; I started on Purity Within.
Thorfold paused a moment, then called the thrigs up. They started massing against Cor, and I resisted an attack by the shrine. Cor jumped to the shrine as well, putting the holy symbol around my neck, figuring that another holy symbol would be good. Until he jumped back and realized that the thrigs were going for whoever had the holy symbol, not him particularly. So he jumped back and took the holy symbol back.
The shrine kept attacking, and I resisted, though it took much psyche to resist.
Cor lead the thrigs in a merry chase around the bones of the periphery, keeping them away from me. He yelled to me, asking first whether it was possible to break a holy symbol, and whether he should. It's possible, of course, but I didn't think that was a good thing, destroying a permanently blessed holy symbol of the Healer, so I turned my tial down (I had to keep both hands on the shrine to do the blessing, and head movements didn't seem enough for this).
Thorfold didn't look at all concerned, and the lines of light going into the shrine continued unabated. I realized that there wouldn't be time enough for me to complete this blessing, and Thorfold would have looked more concerned had what I been attempting been an actual threat. I thought, and realized that this energy from the blessing was too much of what the other kind was, too much life energy that would help the shrine finish faster.
The only option was to use the holy symbol somehow, since none of the blessings I knew would help. Pushing energy at the shrine would be useless for me, since it would feed it. Thorfold was channeling the energy into the shrine, but he had no body, however armored he looked hovering around... but he had manifested from the four compass points of the room. And I realized that there had to be some of his bones in this, and they were how he clung to this not-life.
I leaped off the shrine, trying to time it so it was just after Cor lead the thrig-pack past. I went to where Cor had dug out the holy symbol, figuring that the bone there would be easier to get to. And it was. I found an arm bone, and brushed the spirit still clinging to it on, letting it finally go.
And then I went as quickly as I could to the next one. Cor had seen me move, so he detoured in his next loop to go over to the shrine, keeping the thrigs from me as much as possible. Thorfeld tried another spiritual attack, but again, with psyche, I was able to resist. A second bone was found and the spirit sent on.
On to the third bone, the one near the door we'd come in. Thorfold attacked, and I was unable to resist. I could see the energy I lost he fed directly to the shrine. I had to hurry!
I let the third bone go. Cor was still decimating thrigs by the shrine. I got to the fourth bone, and heard Thorfold say he couldn't allow it to happen. I ignored him; this sounded like something he'd said before, and it was more important to focus on the one bone that was left.
Cor still had the holy symbol, and it pulsed with light. I heard a noise on the bones, and Thorfold was there, in his body, attacking me with his hammer. It was a mighty blow, and I was lucky to avoid the second one, which would have killed me. Cor leaped off the shrine, coming between Thorfold and me. We were both hurt, and I managed to cast Touch of Purity faster than I ever have before, splitting the healing between the two of us. Both of us were compeletely healed. And then Cor lifted the holy symbol, holding it against the wall, and smashed it with the hilt of his sword. I could feel something like a cut inside me when that happened, as the holy symbol fell into two pieces. Thorfold fell into nothing in the bones. The thrigs stood around, not doing much other than nosing things, regular thrig things to do.
I looked over at the shrine, and the light had stopped, then started again, slowly. I found the last bone, the skull, and let it go. The light stopped, and faded out. Whew. It's stopped. I don't know how to deal with the rest of it, all the energy it's built up, but others can help us with that (Hab? the foci? the glacier?).
We went over to the door, which had screwed shut behind us. I remembered seeing doors of living rock in some shrines of the Healer, so I tried touching the door. I could feel the cold going out of it. I touched it again, thinking towards it that it should open, and it was already warm, and it opened.
