pc: euphausia

[sacredpath]

Comments

[trifocal]

How interesting...

Er, I don't suppose you might have died in a way where the owlbear was... taken out with you?

[sacredpath]

I did consider that.

[or rather, bas brought it up.]

But he wasn't anywhere near - he would have been back at our camp. Maybe the foolish little thing just wandered off coincidentally, and fell to the shadow curse.

[trifocal]

Oh...

... What is this shadow curse you speak of?

[sacredpath]

[she stretches out her arms on the side of the pool, taking her drink.]

The lands I was recently travelling in were inflicted with a curse. A veil of darkness, so thick no life can survive in it without succumbing. Even animals wander off into the darkness and fall, afflicted, and are raised again as malevolent shadows.

[trifocal]

What? How terrifying...

[ The thought of it might give her a chill, if not for the cozy warmth of the spring. ]

Why risk such peril?

[sacredpath]

Most fled, rather than try. Unfortunately, it was quite imperative we make our way through those lands. I was lucky to have my lady Shar's protection. The curse was less hard on me than on some.

[trifocal]

Your "lady Shar"?

[sacredpath]

The goddess I am sworn to. The Nightsinger. Darkness and the shadows are her domain.

[trifocal]

A goddess of darkness? I've not heard of such a thing before.

[ she looks uncertain for a moment, but then her expression brightens. ]

Ah! So that is why she can protect you from the shadows!

[sacredpath]

Precisely.

[also because she caused the curse. but that doesn't need to be mentioned.]

There's no need to fear the dark. Sometimes the illusion of safety in the daylight is nothing more than an illusion.

[trifocal]

I see...

I've always been interested in learning more about faiths other than my own. I've not had many opportunities before now. Yours sounds quite different from both mine and Sanctism.

[sacredpath]

I've encountered a fair few. What is yours, then?

[trifocal]

I am a priestess of the Dragon God Eht, the guardian deity of my homeland.

[sacredpath]

A dragon?

[as a god?]

That's unusual, though I have heard stories.

[trifocal]

What kind of stories?

[sacredpath]

There's an old legend about a dragon that once protected the city I'm from. But it's little more than a fairy tale.

[trifocal]

How can you be sure it is mere fairy tale?

[sacredpath]

I don't know that there was never any truth to it, but Baldur's Gate has been imperiled many times and no dragon has appeared. So if he exists, he is a bit lazy about his duties.

[trifocal]

I wonder... If he does have such a duty, then perhaps something impedes him from acting.

Something similar happened to our own protector, though we did not realize for many years...

[sacredpath]

Really? What had happened to him?

[trifocal]

Our land was afflicted with calamity after calamity, and we believed the cause was the Dragon God's own wrath. That it was displeased, and had turned to rage. But we were wrong. A malicious being had attached itself to our god like a parasite, and was controlling it.

[sacredpath]

A parasite? Well, that part feels familiar, at least.

[trifocal]

It does? How so?

[sacredpath]

I've had many dealings with parasites of late.

[trifocal]

Were any of them human?