At the Ford of Elencia the group camped and Ichirou harassed some of the Jeweled Guard (thankfully, to no consequence). Entering the elven kingdom made the group stand out more, where people had not seen the likes of Halflings and Northmen barbarians.
The last stop before the capital city was the village of Kali. Here the group established lodgings and made friends of the people, along with a priestess of Ishtar, a girl named Jarumi. Jarumi, as the soothsayer of Southern Shingalah Forest, was weeping at the loss of the ino-ishi, the prayer stone which stood as the heart of Kali and its Nature-Guardian, a bear-like creature called Kali Lum Fan. She said that the stone had been taken by Sirrusha raiders, who took it back to the old elven fort of Shiramu, now in Sirrusha territory. Without the ino-ishi, Lum Fan would be imbalanced and prone to violence, attacking the elves she usually protected.
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| The Village if Kali |
Ardeshir led the group in discussions with the village Raji (elder), Xei Mu, and they discussed whether an incursion into Sirrusha territory would be wise. The Sirrusha were territorial, and so far had stayed to their borders, but raids might be indicative of a growing violence. Ardeshir was determined to eliminate a threat of evil, while others wanted to ease the spirit of Lum Fan. A decision was made to head to Shiramu and see what the situation was.
Travelling into the Shingalah Forest, the group found Sirrusha guarding the old fort. Elaria transformed into a lizard and scouted the layout of the fort and placement of Sirrusha guards. After an unsuccessful attempt to parley from Elaria, Anden, and Ichirou, the group battled their way past Sirrusha warriors and wu jen (priests). Along the way they discovered some Sirrusha already dead. While investigating the library, the group found the following Sirrusha notes (in Draconic).
“We have been trying to use the Spirit Stone to move
matter…. So far our efforts have only created the problematic spider. It
disappeared and has been feasting on guards. We sent a message to Belathia to
send an exorcist here.”
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| Jarumi |
“The forest has been quiet for years. The Guardian Spirit
has been shown to react to how we manipulate the Spirit Stone, which we keep in
one of the cells with the priests. A spirit is imbalanced if too much
energy—negative or positive—is focused its way, and perhaps we can use this
knowledge to retake our homeland.”
So, the Sirrusha had used the ino-ishi to play god with some native spiders and created a monster spider. The party made their way to the guard tower, discovering that this experiment also displayed some rift between factions within the Sirrusha. Taking the ino-ishi from the wu jen guarding it, the party made their escape through the fort and found the augmented spider, which could phase between the material and spirit planes, effectively teleporting. The threat was short-lived, however, as Ardeshir smote the beast with divine inspiration.
Arriving back in Kali, the party was greeted and thanked by Jarumi and Xei Mun, who lauded the heroes' efforts to protect their community. The group stayed one more night before beginning their journey to the Tahirahn capital.
RECAP:
- The Sirrusha are a lizard people, fiercely territorial. They've recently begun crossing into elven territory, although this seems to be the work of a splinter faction and not the Sirrusha as a whole.
- The elven villages are overseen by an elder, called a Raji. The Raji of Kali is named Xei Mun.
- Jarumi is a Priestess of Ishtar, the elven Goddess-Mother. She is a soothsayer of the forest.
- The party helped her recover the prayer stone (ino-ishi) for Kali, which keeps its Guardian Spirit in balance.
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