Chapter 1.5: The Path on the Other Side

You have both received a separate message, delivered by a courier in monk robes, asking for your assistance in looking into a missing person. The courier will only say your tales have spread enough to be worthwhile asking before pointing you in the direction of your could be employer and disappearing.

In our travels you have seen many abbeys, churches, places of religion. This is none of those. It's a house. That's it, an ordinary house that you could not pick out of the others around it. As you enter, the door unlocked, almost everything is bare, except for the necessities. Going through the entrance hall and into the main room as the letter dictated you see a man dressed in robes, wearing a mask. As each of you enter he nods his head and gestures to a piece of parchment in front of him.

'Hello Friends,
I apologise if all seems weird. My order, we do not speak. However we have need of help, outside of our small orders capability. We are not fighters, we are historians, writers, those who archive what everyone else forgets. Some of us are missing and I fear sending more after them will just lead to more causalities. You however, and the others I have asked to come, you know how to fight monsters, how to protect yourselves. I am asking in your help to look into our missing members.'

As you finish reading he moves to pick up a pen, ready to answer any questions you may have.

'For you to speak is fine. It is only members of my order who are porhibited.'

'I am happy to pay coin for even knowledge of my lost friend. She was investigating a lead in old writing she had found in the Stolen Lands, a place to the north of here, now for its fey and bandits. It is likely one of those two who have claimed her, but I wish to be sure, and even better a body to be buried if it can be found.' His writing is fast than neat, his experience in this method of communication clear.

The monk pauses as Friedl enters, nodding and passing the original message before continuing to write. Payment will be 1000gp per person for info, and an extra 500 each for the body, if you agree. There may be others I will send after you, but it may be they just chose not to answer the call, which I cannot fault.

'We all wear the same robes, and we do not speak. We also each carry a token.' As he finishes writing he pulls out a coin. 'They hold minor enchants so we do not stray from our focus.

He then pull out a map. 'They said they were heading to this area, had reason to believe there were non-Taldan ruins there.

Together you both begin to plan your journey. While the trek through the stolen lands is not the easiest, with just two of you it is fast. Occasionally a bandit or wild animal decides to take you on, only to realise their mistake as they are dealt with, or sent running.

Eventually you are near the area the missing monk said she was scouting. For a couple of days you wand, trying to find even a sign of what she was hunting for, before you stumble on a ruin. Well a part of a ruin. All that is left of what you imagine used to be part of a watch tower,. Their are just enough stones to make out the circular shape, and around where you assume the entrance used to be.

even as you close on the ruin and start to look, you are both aware of something. What you don't know. Good or bad, you have no idea. The air is charged. It's subtle, but there is something in this area that you haven't encountered n the rest of the stolen lands. Even as you noticed the sensations and try and find the source you feel a tug, just a tickle at the back or your mind, to what is left of the doorway.

Destulapep as you peer through the environment in front of you changes, ever as you feel and energetic warmth rush over your body. Gone are the ruins and instead you seem to be inside a complete tower. Another door way in front of you opens out onto not a forest but a field, beyond which is a small castle. You cannot see an entrance, it is likely the watchtower you are in is around the back of the larger structure. After a moment of taking in the sudden change of scenery you think to look down, and see a body its skin dry and taut over it's skeleton. It seems to have been stripped of it's overclothes, or was never wearing any.

Friedl for a moment you miss it, but then you start to see signs of a disruption in the undergrowth, though it was a long enough time ago the plants have began to grow back and hide the evidence. As you poke in further you see some bramble underneath snapped and broken like something fell and rolled around. Possibly two things lock in a fight. Then you spy a a black object half buried. You dig an it to reveal a small book, likely a journal.

There is no name in the book, but on a quick flick it seems to belong to someone who hunts down and researchs lost civilizations. A large chunk seems to detail travels in the stolen lands where the pair currently are. It will take a while to read in full, but you spy a couple of mentions of monks, and the order.

Putting the book away you bother enter the portal properly.