Against the Cult: the next direction (1.4)

Having said their preparations and goodbyes, the seven Dungeon Busters adventurers - Xana the gnome Warlock, Theran the elven Druid, Ogbar the human Barbarian, Kragga the half-elven Wizard, Joseph the halfling Rogue, Albertus the human Paladin, and Aanbo the dwarven Monk - head out down the East Road.

The way is familiar to Aanbo, Ogbar, and Xana, and the party makes good time. They arrive at the place where they leave the road to go to Abel Jarl's farm - obvious because the covered wagon that Rufus loaned the party still sits, empty, at the side of the road to mark the spot. Heading into the gloomy woods as twilight falls, the narrow path is brightened by many, many fireflies, igniting their glow like a huge glowing blanket rising around the party and spread out to welcome them. You hail the house as you approach, somewhat relieved to see the warm glow of light in the windows. Abel opens the door cautiously, then throws it open wide and welcomes you all in.

It is a small kitchen/dining/living room, but the family - Abel, Elista, Abella, Emiless, Torren, and even little Wenderly - make room as best they can for the heroes and all of their equipment. The fire is roaring, there is more stew bubbling in the pot, and the family eagerly greets each of the heroes they have not met before now. Then, the introductions complete, the family looks at you expectantly, wondering what news you have of Devek.

At first the children are alarmed at so many people filling their home...especially because so many of them are so LARGE. But as Xana and Aanbo take turns relating what has happened to Devek in town (with Ogbar occasionally humming, nodding, or harrumphing for emphasis), Kragga creates small sparks which he makes jump from hand to hand. The kids are delighted (even Abella, who tries so hard to seem mature, smiles in delight) when the sparks start his sleeve to smoulder, and he demonstrates the power of slapstick inadvertently as he smacks at the embers with hands that are still sparking, causing more areas to scorch. Thinking it was all intentional, the children applaud Kragga when he finally extinguishes all the little smouldering bits, and Aanbo looks around quizzically, wondering what in his account of Devek's plight had them so entertained.

Abel nods as Elista, who had immediately started cutting more vegetables and adding water to the pot as soon as the party had arrived, begins to ladle out stew into bowls that Abella and Emiless bring to each person in the room. Wenderly clings to his mother's skirts, watching everyone with wide eyes. There is a simple table in the middle of the room with eight chairs of differing heights; Abel sits in one, and each of the party members sits in another. Xana and Joseph find that two of the chairs are the right size for them to sit and use the table comfortably, as they are about the same size as Torren and Wenderly. Excited to help, Torren rushes around, bring each person a wooden spoon, back and forth across the room in a haphazard pattern. When everyone has been provided with food and a utensil, the children and their mother settle down on various pieces of furniture, Wenderly in Abel's lap. Abella smiles shyly at Albertus. Elista says a quick prayer of thanks to Merikka for the bounty, pausing for a moment to allow anyone else to add devotions to another deity, then Abel announces in his Keolish lilt: "Let's eat!"

After a few minutes of companionable munching, Abel puts down his spoon and turns to his daughter Abella. "So, Abella, I know you followed Devek to that ruin at least once." Abella gives a start, but Abel shakes his head. "I told you, you're not in trouble, dear, but Devek needs the help of these heroes. Would you tell them how to get to the ruin?" Abella is a little tongue-tied at first, then she finds herself more at ease directing her narrative to Joseph. Abel translates her Keolish to Imperial for the sake of any heroes who don't speak the local language.

"I didn't go all the way there; I was a little s-uh...hesitant to go there, because you told me not go too far from home, daddy. But, one time, I did ask Devek where he'd gone. I thought he went off to visit Jonquil - he's got a crush on Jonquil - and I saw them holding hands once." Abel and Elista exchange questioning glances here; it's clear they had little idea that their boy had any romantic aspirations. "But he said, no. He said he'd gone northeast until he hit a stream, then followed the stream north. He said that he found an old ruined building made of stone. I didn't believe him, and I teased him about Jonquil. He told me that the next time he went, he'd show me that he wasn't lying. That's when he brought the stone back."

As Abella is relating this account, Abel reaches up onto a shelf and pulls down what appears to be a pottery shard. But as he hands it to Aanbo to pass it around the table, you all realize that it's a fragment of an ancient, crumbling bit of masoned stone, marked with a faint, circular symbol. As the stone is passed around, Abel continues the narrative where Abella stopped. "He brought that back with him the last time he went, and fell down dead right after he gave it to Abella...or so we thought. That's when I went to look for help. Abella...well, she was scared to reveal her part in this, and didn't say anything about the stone until after it was clear that Devek wasn't dead. It was only after you rescued my family from that madman and took Devek to the temple that she got up the nerve to tell me."

Kragga recognizes the symbol as a sort of religious symbolism, clearly representing the sun. Probably some symbol of a sun-worshipping faith.
Aanbo sees that the symbol is similar to that of Pelor, the sun god, but the disc of the sun is enclosed with two very faint etchings: swooping lines as of outstretched arms or eyelids, though one of them ends in a curlicue. As with any faith, there have been many offshoots and sects of the worship of Pelor across history; this is likely to be one of them. Parl was one, Pae another. The stone is clearly a worked piece of some sort of sedimentary rock, very old, and likely the corner of a large block probably four hands' width on a side.
Albertus recognizes the symbol as that of Pae, an ancient avatar or aspect of Pelor whose symbol was the disc of the sun with the body of serpent coiled around it like eyelids: an ancient god of light, life, growth, and regeneration which hasn't been worshipped openly in Keoland for centuries.

The meal finished, the family cleans up the bowls and scrub out the cauldron. Enlisting the help of Albertus, Kragga, and Ogbar, Abel moves all the chairs upstairs, and Elista, Abella, Emiless, and Torren carry down hides and blankets to lay out for the guests to use as bedding. There's the usual jockeying for space for a while before Elista recognizes that there isn't really room for all seven adventurers and all their gear in the one room, so they move Torren and Wenderly out of the boys' room upstairs so that three of the adventurers can stretch out up there (on two beds and a fair bit of floor space) and not have to lie on the dining table.
As the group swaps stories, the younger children gradually fall asleep and their parents carry them upstairs, until it's only Abella, Elista, and Abel staying up as the fire has burned down to a soft glow of red coals. Abel announces that he and Abella will show the party the way to the stream in the morning, and they thank everyone for the stories, as well as for all the help they are giving their family, and they head upstairs to sleep.

The next morning dawns slowly, with the sunlight diminished by the trees of the Dim Forest and diffused by the fog typical of these areas close to the Rushmoors. Elista and Abel rise with the dawn, tiptoeing around the supine adventurers as she starts a fire in the hearth and he takes the cauldron to fill it from a rain barrel outside. Once the fire is blazing and the cauldron is starting to steam, they get the kids to help with the rest. Abella collects several eggs, and Abel reaches up for the jar on the high shelf they reserve for special occasions: the remains of the last sack of oats they had bought from Hale Arneson, the miller in Hochoch. Emiless and Torren go out to milk the goats and gather morels and miner's lettuce, respectively.

Thus it is that, as the party rises and brings the chairs back downstairs, the Jarl family has a hot breakfast of omelette and porridge for everyone, with a bit of watered down mead (Abel apologizes; they're at the bottom of their last cask) to wash it down.

As soon as the pots and pans have been emptied of every last trace of food, Abel rises and says "Well, we'll be going now." Recognizing the signal, Abella dons an old, slightly-too-large cloak from the peg and hands an equally shabby one to her father. They lead the way outside. Abel takes up a stripped and oiled old branch that he uses as a staff and heads off into the woods towards the morning light, as best as anyone can see through the very light drizzle that quickly forms beads of moisture on clothing, hair, and packs.

The crofter and his family have cleared the underbrush near their homestead, and travel is quick on the thick layer of leaves that line the forest floor. Condensation drips from every leaf and branch, making a intermittent pattering to accompany your footfalls. Within ten minutes or so, you reach a small spring, which feeds into a tiny pool. Several small birds flutter up from the water's edge as you approach. A little rivulet of water drains from the pool down a channel to the northeast; Abel and Abella lead you down alongside this channel. Soon the way gets more difficult, as fallen branches and wiry shrubs show that you've reached the edges of the area that the Jarl family has cleared, and the party is forced to walk single file. At one point, the path narrows into a ravine as the little trickle of water spills down a stepped waterfall; with care each party member is able to descend the mossy rocks without slipping or catching any of their gear on an obstacle.

After another twenty minutes, the land levels out again, and Abel stops the group, somberly pointing to a fallen tree trunk. "This is as far as we go, Abella. Tell them the rest, and we'll head back." Abella nods and steps forward. She smiles at the group and points along the direction of the water's flow. "If you follow the stream here, in a mile or so it flows into a larger brook. That's as far as I ever went. But Devek told me that, when you cross the brook, you turn left on the other side and follow it for a couple of miles. It forks there, where two streams meet. Follow the right stream and in a few minutes more you'll see the ruin amongst the trees. If you get to the...he said that if you got to the beech trees, you've gone too far."

The father and daughter bid you gods speed and good fortune, and they had back to their home. The girl's directions are fairly straightforward, compared to other directions you've each received in the past. Probably the only thing that has kept this ruin from being well-known are the rumors of man-eating beasts and monsters that inhabit the Dim, which discourage wider settlement and exploration.As you proceed through the Dim Forest, how fast do you want to go: slow, moderate, or fast? The faster you go, the more noise you will make, which is more likely to attract the attention of anything in the woods, but the fewer chances you'll have to run into something. Slower travel means it'll take longer to reach the ruin, more care, less noise, but more time to possibly run into things in the woods.