Day 18 of Broadleaf.
The end of the Great Pine Wood is reached. Open ground stretches forward, and steads can be seen dotting the countryside. Ailsa can feel the spirits of the dead lingering in each destroyed home. Travel is slow, as Ailsa blesses, calls the Dead, and opens Balder’s Gate at each burned farmhouse. The Order of the Rose has burned all the steads, but fell things still linger in each of the homes between the wood and Sturm’s Gate. All of the farms here are deserted and destroyed. The joy and peacefulness of the midsummer’s festival seems far, far away as Ailsa hears the repeated screams of the dying with each opened Gate.
By nightfall, the crossroads at the base of the long hill into Sturm’s Gate is reached. A strange small man sits on a rock beside the road. His torn, white robes glow with sunlight, although the sun itself has moved below the mountain. His skin is dark, the color of Keth tea, with only a bit of goatsmilk to lighten it. His bald head is encircled with a tattooed blue crown. The top of his head is decorated with a sun made of yellow and orange swirls. His eyes are closed.
Ailsa approaches with Corval and Hazy. “Are you Orion?” Ailsa asks, remembering the talk at the Summer’s Festival.
The man’s eyes open. He lifts his hand, and a small ball of light forms in it. A voice comes from the light, “I am sorry. I was not prepared. Please say again.”
“Are you Orion?” Ailsa says again. Corval ‘looks’ closely at the magic. The entity is intrigued with this new magic.
“Yes, I am Orion. But, I do not know you.”
The group introduces itself. Conversation is stilted. Orion waits until everyone is finished talking, and then answers all questions in the order asked. He does not interrupt.
“I serve Helios, the God of the Sun. I come from Navarre, the Land where the Sun was Born. I am waiting for the sun to set, for the Gatherer to come. I have seen him flying in the night sky. I will pierce him with the light of the sun.”
Ailsa turns to look. To see if she can see the Harvester, or Gatherer, flying above the steads. Orion still has not moved from his rock. Hazy, moving forward to look, and maybe touch, the ball of light, notices blood seeping through the robes on Orion’s side.
“Ailsa, he’s hurt.” Hazy says.
Ailsa turns back to Orion and looks at him more closely. “May I help you?” she asks. She knows some clerics do not welcome the influence from other Gods, and she does not wish to offend this strange, quiet man.
He tilts his head slightly, considering. “Yes.” he says simply.
Ailsa casts a healing spell upon him. The healing struggles, as if his body is resistant. The effort reopens some of Ailsa’s own wounds. She stops and reexamines the man. Now she can feel the contamination in his body. He has tried to burn out the cursed taint of the Flesh Eaters, but the corruption is still there. Eventually, he would have turned. “This may hurt, a little.” Ailsa says, as she casts first the shield, and then the Smite upon the cursed wounds.
Orion straightens, his eyes widen as he looks at Ailsa in wonder, and then he begins to slump to the side. Corval catches him before he falls to the ground. The evil is gone, and Ailsa sets to healing the underlying wounds. This time there is no struggle, and Ailsa takes no more damage.
After the healing, Orion’s eyes open again. He pulls open his robes to reveal scarred burns across his torso. He smiles, and begins to speak in a strange language. Stopping, and gathering his wits. Orion recasts his translation spell and begins anew.
“You. The rays of you flow within me. The evil is gone. I would have died, or become something else, in two days, but now. Now I will not.” He looks with wonder at Ailsa, and then he begins to glow. “Helios gives you a gift. When the last of the sun rays are dark, you will have one hour where time moves only for you. This will be broken if you make contact anyone. Good journeys.”
With this, dusk comes, and Helios freezes. Everything, except for the party stops its movement. Gear is gathered, and the group continues its journey up the hillside toward Sturm’s Gate.
After one hour’s good travel, when the group has just reached the large stone where Ailsa first met Corval, and Hazy, there is a strange ‘pop’ feeling and time restarts.
Screams pour down on Ailsa. The dead tear around her, pulling at her clothes and hair. Cries, curses, pleadings for help, blast into her. Thousands and thousands of souls cry out to her. Corval too can hear the cries, and his is unable to focus his power against the onslaught. Ven and Hazy cannot hear the sounds, but they can feel the unnatural winds buffet them, pulling at hair and clothes. Ailsa manages to open a small shield around the party. In this shelter she opens a Gate for the spirits. The force of the souls trying to force their way into the Gate pushes Ailsa backward. These are the people who died fleeing Sturm’s Gate, who were torn down by Flesh Eaters and eaten alive. Ailsa looses her focus. The shield fails. The Gate of Balder remains open, but the souls begin to pull at Ailsa. She begins to float upward toward the open Gate above her. The spirits who seek comfort and the safety of the afterlife, want to take her with them. Ven grabs Ailsa and pulls her downward. Shadowmist appears and bites into her pant leg. Corval uses his magic to try and strengthen the Gate, so the souls will leave more quickly.
Hazy tears open Ailsa’s pack, and begins to search through her belongings. “Where is that luminous!” she cries. Her search for the Blessed luminous is unsuccessful, so climbs up Ailsa’s legs and begins to pull pouches from Ailsa’s belt. Ailsa’s feet now float 6” above the ground. Shadowmist lets go of Ailsa’s leg, and begins to lunge at the spirits pulling her. The magical Wolf’s glowing green teeth bite into the ghosts. Locked in the experiences of hundreds of deaths, Ailsa is unable to do anything. With eyes closed, she sees the demise of men, women, and children.
Hazy finds the luminous. Its light pushes back the spirits, and Ailsa slowly drifts back to the ground. The screams recede. Ailsa’s eyes open, and she is finally able to reopen her own shields and opens a second Gate. Corval supports one Gate, and Ailsa the other, until almost dawn when the last spirit leaves. Almost two thousand souls have gone through to Balder. Ailsa and Corval are exhausted. As Ailsa sinks down onto her bedroll, she notices all of her belongings spread about the ground. Hazy comes up, looking annoyed. “I lost Infernous. Something came in the dark and took it!” Confused, but unable to care, Ailsa goes to sleep. Hazy uses the early morning light to collect Ailsa’s things, and look for her lost ring.
