The Gallovian lands told of a storm brewing as Revna, Natharia, and Astrid approached the shoreline. Not thirty minutes later their feet hit the shore and they're pelted with the rain promised to them. A typical start, Natharia had mentioned. Rain was a common occurrence this far up in the map - even more than what the city of Regalia experienced already. Thankfully the three were well-seasoned enough in all their respects to endure it. Natharia and her familiarity for the climate, Revna for her durable Urlan hide, and Astrid simply by resolution.
Overhead, Natharia's familiar, a loyal bird, scopes out the treeline while the three below trek by foot. Everyone had some means of navigating: Natharia trusted her familiar to be her eyes far ahead while she checked for tracks and prints, Revna kept to the center of the group keeping a calm gait and leaving prints herself, and Astrid stayed near Revna. It was, in fairness, a calm trek in the beginning.
But that calm couldn't stay forever. For most of the group were in alien territory. The only person among them who had the faintest idea about this tucked away, dangerous part of Gallovia was the Countess Natharia, and even she hadn't come this far in towards the territory. She'd heard stories of the risks, of the beasts that took children in the night, swallowed livestock and left no remains, and tore down camps. Their journey was an innocent one: Locate the largest temple dedicated for the Aesir God, Othal. Unfortunately, the path towards that destination only spoke of danger. Astrid had spoken with the two fervently, eager to accomplish this great task to honor her Aesir patron. And, she had told herself, find a piece of her destiny.
Finally the chance had come. Away from Fairbanks, Cultists, Vampires, and the noise of the city far too large the real journey started. In the pouring rain, under an abysmally grey sky. Finally, Astrid thought. At long last, the promise of revealing her fate would be that much closer.
Hours later, the three found themselves in a twisting embrace of countless trees and tall grass. The path, if there ever really was much of one to follow, had thinned. They were walking the same steps that deer did; their narrow, skinny legs left the faintest of markers to go by. Everyone had their heads sticking out or craning trying to decipher what came next. A left, a right, or stay straight and true? Revna and Natharia, as excellent at navigating as they are, hadn't ever found themselves out this far in. The only thing they knew is that they were for a fact in Talahm Gall.
As much as they hoped for Othal's temple to stick high above the trees or reside on the side of an obvious mountain, neither of these signs came to be. Astrid stepped out of the cluster they had made to pace through the grass and scratch her chin. Natharia and Revna turned to each other, almost arguing about directions and paths not yet taken, when the bird familiar cawed above them. Natharia was the first to turn her head to answer her familiar's call.
But Revna had smelled them first. The fading, iron smell of blood. The woody, earthy scents of dirt and thriving plants. And the undeniable scent of people on top of it all. The brush suddenly came to life. All around them arrived various Ailor. Most of them were drenched from the rain in various stages, but all of them dressed like the rugged mountain people Natharia had heard warnings of in her youth. Tattered, pelts, silver at most for their fineries. These were people who lived off the land.
One stepped out more than the others, soon accompanied by a second. Two men, middle-aged, one balding more than the other. The one with less hair on his head keeps to the forefront. His younger compatriot remains close by, like some kind of right-hand man. Revna, Natharia, and Astrid felt all the eyes of the circle on them, but especially lingering on Astrid. This fixation provided conflicted feelings for the initial trio. A sign of hope even if the people who emerged from the woods were odd.
"Welcome," the balding one greeted in use of more proper Common. He held his arms out wide to gesture to the woods, as though it were a part of his abode. "I see you've made it far into Talahm Gall. But we... We don't normally have visitors. What brings you curious people out this way?" The circle of his pagan people had already started to speak among each other, some hushed and some not caring to lower their voices. Their language was a dialect of the Gallovian's often found in the mountains and countryside, used less by the rich and otherwise commonfolk people.
"We've come in search of a temple," Natharia answered, stepping forward with a slight hobble on one leg. "We didn't come here to bother anyone or hurt anyone."
This draws a raucous laugh among the pagans. An uproar they were comfortable making in the heart of the wilds. The birds fell silent and fly away from the branches. A few off-handed remarks were passed between a few especially humored pagans. One of them rudely pointed to Natharia and appeared to ask an accusing question, which she and Astrid could decipher was actually a remark against Natharia's more obvious richer appearance and manner of speaking. Another grew so bold as to step out of the circle to start venturing to Natharia, but Revna stepped in their path. The pagan gave Revna a thrilled look, a smile which curved on their face before they receded a few steps back.
The balding one utters some calm over the rest of his cluster. "Now, now. You came all this way for a temple? You'll have to tell us all a bit more so we understand," he said, gesturing to the one pagan who'd seemingly asked something.
Natharia looked back to Astrid who had already started to draw closer to her and Revna alike. "Othal's," she answered. "We heard his temple is out here, somewhere."
The pagans drew silent. Silent and stirring. The right-hand man to the balding one shared a look with the latter, who held his smile and stepped aside to sweep his arm in that direction. The circle stirred again and wordlessly began to drift in said direction, one by one.
"Come! You're not too far from the temple you're looking for." The request was answered in a smooth response. Soon the original three journeyers could face the backs of the pagans that 'greeted them' in the wilds. The question lingered there if it was right to follow. Revna's fur bristled, stood on end. Natharia was on edge, herself. Astrid similarly was unnerved by that sudden emergence. Was it too late to turn back now, to reconsider another way through? All their wondering was put at an end when Astrid reassured the party that it would be well worth the experience if they were able as three outsiders to Talahm Gall to go and witness the temple in its glorious state of ruin.
So the parties merged. The three from Regalia and the Talahm Gall pagans clustered together, the former of which endured all kinds of remarks in that unusual language and the rough-handed jabs and shoves the pagans did at each other, which often resulted in one of the Regalians getting it secondhand. The daylight had been scarce already. Natharia could tell by the Gallovian skyline that dusk was soon approaching and it would not be light out much longer at all. She told Revna and Astrid that she could only hope that this would be done and over with soon so they could make camp far from these people and get back to the ship by tomorrow afternoon.
It was an hour later when they arrived to the face of a stone temple in ruins. The color of rust splattered on aged steps and past the entryway on some of the more immediately visible walls. The grass outside receded mostly to dirt. Their steps collectively echoed as they entered the temple. A husk of what it was years and years ago, but also made into something not exactly like the iconography of Othal would imply. Bones, skeletons, and one large offering table at the forefront of the building reside under a tattered roof, where the moon no doubt hangs at night. Dull-red capes and banners follow a breeze from their hanging points on the walls. An old place but beautiful in the makeshift image it'd been made in by the people who'd taken to it.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" The balding man asked with a smile. He made it a point to direct this question to Astrid, who did the courtesy of agreeing with him. "Well worth the journey you and your friends took to come and see it."
"Yeah. It's beautiful. Timeless out here, like it all fits together. I don't think we've seen a place like this one before."
"Yes. You know, child of Halfvel, you could stay. You could join us here. You'd fit right in."
Astrid stopped and looked to the others of her party before she chuckled, surprised, "That's a kind offer, but no. I can't leave them behind or the people I've got at home."
The balding one's eyes shine in a way like moonlight was hitting them. Only no such light found its way into the temple yet. His smile stayed.
There wasn't much time for speculation until the Talahm Gall pagans howl so loud the three's ears ring. Fur grows as pagan bodies enlargen and snap into action. It's a blur as the temple turned into something other than a relic of time. Natharia is snatched by two pagans who don't transform into Marken. Revna is barreled into a corner, surrounded by three snarling faces, some of which slash at her hide just as she butts her horns at them. The chaos takes away the main means of escaping and exit. Astrid backs further down the aisle, tripping over a fallen bit of debris from the roof. She too is snatched up. Either arm was taken by the balding man and his right-hand man, where they drag her to the offering table.
"Funny of you, you know? Thinking you have a choice in this matter." The words of the balding pagan rattled into Astrid's ears while the noise of everything else fell to the background. He took hold of her hair and pulled Astrid's head back once they planted her before the table. She could only pull and vocalize her refusal.
Another pagan out of nowhere launches to grab something from behind the table, then loops to Astrid and the pagans holding against her thrashing. Sounds of protest filled the room. Natharia's breath trembled as she called out for the others. Revna found herself unable to go through the increasing amount of Marken who relished in tormenting the Urlan in the corner. And as Astrid struggled and fought, the cup-bearing pagan pried her mouth open to force-feed a dark, rotten ichor down.
Astrid's screams flooded the temple. She collapsed and tore at herself as the putrid god blood filled her system. The pagans let go of her right as a vibrant red aura surrounded her body. The other pagans found themselves distracted by the sight, letting Natharia and Revna witness the invasion of something fight its way in and seep through the skin. Astrid went still, until she was not, until she was not she. Her half-conscious body opened its mouth and a voice of old roared, anew.
"Heed my words.
The darkness will spread until no light can save you.
I will deliver a vengeance the centuries could not bury forever.
I am ruination."
Revna and Natharia were given passage to run free past the howling, cheering, laughing pagans so they could reclaim their fallen party member, who fell silent after that other voice spoke through her. They fled the temple as the pagans celebrated the nightfall and the bringing of a new covenant member. With no full moon to guide them the journey was long, but it became a fast-moving, numbing blur all the way back to Regalia. The darkness will spread until no light can save you.
I will deliver a vengeance the centuries could not bury forever.
I am ruination."
