Chapter 6: Calamity Caves

"Nothing sensible lives in Calamity Cave," Onak laughs. "No. We're from the valley beyond."

"A village named Lyuba," Uldu explains.

Onak nods. "We..." he pauses, seemingly thinking about how much to say. "...we had to leave. The valley is ruled by a god-caller named Ashen Swale. He banned veneration of all past god callers and the gods they summoned. Now we are forced to worship the white dragon Venexus. All shrines were destroyed, but there are shrines inside these caves. We are here to pray."

"We sent some of our group to scout ahead," Lunit says. "You haven't seen them on your way in?"

"A large following will have trouble passing," Lunit says. "He rules from a tower in the middle of the valley where they have great view in all directions."

"Any help would be welcome. But you really should talk to Eokoe. He's our leader."

The hunter looks worried towards the exit. "They really should have returned by now. I hope nothing has happened to them."

Lunit nods. "That is more than we deserve with the greeting we gave you, but we would be grateful."

"They were heading to the west to look for the shrine," Uldu adds.

You treat whatever injuries remain and climb back down and head to the west. You don't go far before the cave split into four directions.

To the south you can see that it opens into a grove filled with leafless trees with black twisted roots (1). To the north you can hear the sound of water (2) and continuing to the west you see two options. Rough limestone stairs looks to lead up to a natural bridge (3), the tunnel to the west also bends to the south underneath the bridge (4).

Moving closer Tomas can see a shape on the ground in the middle of the grove. It is the unmoving shape of a man, dressed similar to the hunters you just left.

More pressing is another hunter dangling from a tree, the branches wrapped about his neck.

He recognizes the trees as fiendish Arboreal Wardens. Arboreals are guardians of the forest and representatives of the trees. As long-lived as the woods they watch over, arboreals consider themselves parents and shepherds of trees rather than their gardeners. Arboreal wardens are the rangers of arboreal society. These have been twisted by some fiendish presence.

While only two of the trees are fiendish Arboreals, all the trees have been infested by some evil presence and they can all reach out to grab those that enters the chamber.

You can see the foot of the hanging hunter twitch. Seems he's still alive, but for how long.