With the help of some very intuitive Fey Creatures ( A faerie dragon named Perlivash and his consort Tygn-Titter-Tut) our heroes were finally able to piece together the mystery surrounding Erastils lost shrine.
Using Natural Sunlight Marshal and company discovered etchings inside the shrine that described a particular tale of the shrines downfall, aswell as a Prophecy from Erastil himself.
The story described an aging high priest that once watched over this place. In the failing days of the Taldan colonization of The Stolen Lands (Some Thousand or so years ago) the High Priest beseeched Erastil to save the people from the terrors the Wilds had brought upon the settlers. When the settlers continued to be pushed back by the untamed Wilds the High Priest lost faith in his Lord and began to seek help from other, darker powers. The high priest began to sacrifice helpless animals at the Shrine of Erastil, trying to entice these dark powers for their aid. What he received was far from aid, as the wrath of the Lord of the Hunt fell upon him with a fury.
Erastil cursed the man to live forever as one of the animals he had sacrificed ( A grizzly bear). Erastils curse would never allow the man to leave the shrine but keep him alive through the ages to suffer for his crimes.
Unbeknownst to the cursed High Priest, Erastil decreed that he would serve another purpose... one far greater than any could ever know.
The prophecies for told that a great evil would one day fall across these lands and threaten to drag all life to oblivion. In these times Erastil predicted that worthy champions would reveal themselves. These champions would be the only light against the tide of darkness engulfing the Stolen Lands like a rogue Sea.
As such, the cursed priest in his bear form became the immortal guardian of this shrine, and the shrine was hidden away from mortal eyes. It would remain hidden until such a day that those worthy stumbled upon it and defeated it's immortal guardian. Simply defeating the cursed bear would never be enough of a test though, so Erastil decreed that after its death it would rise again every seventh day with new found power to hunt its killers until it ultimately destroyed them or the Worthy proved themselves and finally found a way to put the creature to its final rest.
After solving the Mystery of the immortal guardian and Receiving the Blessings of Erastil from his alter of Pilgrimage. Our heroes stood one final time against the shrines guardian as slew him once and for all.
After the battle the heroes found themselves flooded with some of the creatures Strange power. Each was given a strange vision of a fortress to the South on top of which stood a man wearing a strange helm stylised in the likeness of a stag...
Our heroes have seemingly stepped into a world greater than themselves, and find that destiny is calling them to do remarkable things... apparently a darkness comes, and with these new found Mythical abilities Uldon, Marshal, Yosser, and Flynn have become the light that will either shine through it or be snuffed out in its fury...
Who knows why these people have been chosen, and only the gods can say what further aid they may receive in the form of new Allies... Though our hero's do not fully understand why they have been chosen they do know one thing, the next piece of the puzzle lies somewhere in the south, at the home of a man that can only be the mysterious Bandit King named ... THE STAG LORD.
This guy kills a bunch of animals, so Erastil decides to give him super-strong bear form and a endless drive for murder until someone else is able to kill him? Way to pass the buck, God of Nature.
ReplyDeleteAlso remember that he was cursed to never be able to leave the shrine UNTIL someone came along that could defeat him. At that point he was able to leave the shrine but only to hunt those that had slain him in order to test their true resolve to see wether or not they were worthy to bear the mantle of Mythic Heroes 😉
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