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Chapter 12

Cleansing the Temple

Or, The Big Squish

9:29 Dragon, 8th day of Haring -- early Winter

     In the ancient elven temple of Mythal, high atop Moon Peak:

• Bran

• Landon

• Daniella

• Eornan

• Jayce -- a female Gray Warden in her early to mid twenties, from Gwaren

• Verell, Daniella's brother, a spirit mage in a coma
  

     Our Heroes had entered the temple, and were engaged with the spidery inhabitants. Some of the arachnids fled before us; soon we had cleared about the rear quarter of the temple. But, just as our hopes were highest, a thrashing and roaring mass of scales, legs, chitin and claws fell from the top of the room! Crash, roar, shriek, boom! A mighty drake, locked in combat with an enormous queen spider!

Harry, the Spider Queen

    The fall of these beasts tore down much of the webbing, and produced a flood of panicked spiders of all sizes, from egg-sized to dog-sized, fleeing for the exits. Our Heroes initially fell back through the door; Bran closed half of the portal. But, as the spider queen and the drake were locked in their tussle (which seemed to be favoring the spider), Bran and Eornan sprinted back into the temple, across the floor and up the spiral stairs. Daniella began firing a steady barrage of arrows into the spider. Landon moved out into the temple, away from the safety of the doors, to get within range of his arcane lance.  Soon, however, the spider's venom did its deadly work on the drake, and the arachnid moved over to the door, where Landon became its target. Jayce charged out and Eornan sprinted down the stairs to defend their friend.  Eornan's sword-strokes and Daniella's arrows drove it back into the room, where flames had begun licking at the webs near the ceiling -- some sort of dragonkind were burning the spider nest.

     The spider queen hissed and roared, seeking its foes, looming high over Eornan to destroy him.  From high on the stair (~80 feet up), Bran leapt into the air, placing his axe blade beneath his feet to add his weight to the impact, and landed on the beast, plunging entirely out of sight within its cracked abdomen. With a scream the beast reared up, ran partly up a wall and perished, falling onto its back. A human hand poked out of a wound, struggling to get free. Eornan helped Bran out of the sticky entrails, and they left the temple as the fire spread.

     The fire burned for at least half-an-hour, while Bran took off his armor. Eventually, Our Heroes re-entered the now-quiet temple, black with soot from burnt cobwebs. The dead drake was un-scorched, but the spider queen and her offspring had all been reduced to burnt-out husks.

     Near the altar, there were a number of transparent caskets:   memorials to long-dead elves, including our past selves. Bran found a halla-saddle, and Landon an iron mortar and pestle. The heart lay, undamaged, on the altar; locked within the altar were three scrolls, magically preserved, with the text of three treaties on them. Fortunately, Eornan was able to read the scrolls.

     Each of the treaties was with a different elven clan; at least one of those clans is now part of the Dalish. The clans agreed, in the treaties, to each provide one"volunteer" each year to become laidir, and three other volunteers to act as helping hands for a period of 3 years, in return for protection.

     As the cold night began, Our Heroes discussed what to do -- whether to destroy or ignore the Heart, dooming Verell to lycanthropy and all the laidir to a bestial existence; or, using the Heart, to save Verell, and to lift the cloud of irrational pain and rage from the minds of all the werewolves. We decided to use the Heart, overriding Bran's objection that this would only serve Fen'Harel.

     Eornan and Bran climbed to the top of Moon Peak, there were many ancient trees, and the impressive Home Tree. The peak was obviously a ceremonial area; no dragon-kind were present. We did what we could to clean Mythal's temple; the stream of blessed water had been unblocked by the removal of the spider nest, and it began to fill the pool and rush down the stairwell once again. Some trophies were pried off of the dead drake and spider queen.

     At midnight, we laid Verell on the altar, and Daniella placed the Heart on his chest. It glowed, and seemed to melt into him; then he glowed, and seemed to lose some of his lycanthropic appearance (but not all) and glowed very brightly. With a sudden flash, the transformation was complete; Verell now had a similar appearance to Daeglan, and quite a commanding presence (and resonant voice).

     Verell needed little information from Our Heroes; once he had the treaties, his plans seemed complete with little need or desire for our advice. All of the laidir could sense him, and were being drawn to him; he wanted to travel to the nearest Dalish clan, gather the laidir, and negotiate with the elves.

     We traveled down the stairs, hearing the howls and roars of outraged and frenzied darkspawn -- the blessed water disturbed them. At the lower temple, we built a small dam across the stream, and diverted it into the darkspawn tunnels; their screams and rage grew more chilling, but rapidly receded into the distance. We camped for the night on the hillside, a short distance down from the lower temple.

9:29 Dragon, 9th day of Haring -- Winter

     With morning's light, we found that Verell had left the camp, heading off towards the Dalish. We quickly ate some cold food and set off; Verell was making no attempt to hide his tracks, which were soon joined by the tracks of scores of werewolves.

     The day was spent by Our Heroes in a punishing half-walk, half-run; Bran was not pleased, as his boots had been mostly destroyed by spider-ichor. At least the passage of the werewolves had driven off or destroyed any possible hostile creatures.

9:29 Dragon, 10th day of Haring -- Winter

     From the mountainside, through the forest to the Dalish camp took a day and a half; we arrived at the camp several hours after Verell and his party of werewolves.  The camp still consisted of:

• Kalihara, the Keeper of this clan (f)
  

• Kiera, the apprentice Keeper (f)
  

• Brendesh, the herbalist (m)

• about 40 other elves (ten or so couples, a few adult bachelor/bachelorettes, some older widows/widowers, and at least a dozen children)

• if the annual birth rate among the Dalish is 40 per thousand, this clan can expect 1.7 children per year. 1 member of the clan lost to lycanthropy every three years won't destroy the clan entirely but will certainly make avoiding other losses a priority. This all supposes elves have roughly human physiology, and that the 40 or so elves we saw at the camp are the entire clan. 
  

• some wagons and halla
  

     The shrill voice of the Keeper, and the lower, rumbling voices of laidir, could be hear half-a-mile away. As we approach, we could see that several dozen werewolves were in or around the camp; most of the elves were very ... cautious and careful about the unexpected events.

     While some of the werewolves were unhappy or angry about us, the elves, each other, or any number of things, combat seemed unlikely. In the center of the camp, Kalihara, Kiera, and some elven elders were speaking with Verell, Valerie (a werewolf, Gray Warden and Daniella's mother), and a few other of the laidir.

     Our Heroes joined the discussion, but Verell was very firm about enforcing the treaties. It wasn't clear what might happen if the elves said, "No", but certainly if a fight broke out, many elves would die.

     Landon:  "Of course, for all we know, Fen'Harel made those treaties last week, which would explain their 'untouched by time' appearance. But it doesn't matter too much, the current Dalish elves have to agree."

     With poor grace, Kalihara agreed to the treaty. Kiera and Daniella agreed to serve as the "hands" of the laidir for the first year or two. Landon promises to keep working on the cure for lycanthropy. Everyone agreed that the treaty, and any contact between the Dalish and the laidir, had to be kept very secret and hidden.

     Landon:  "Even if nobody suspects a link between the Dalish and the laidir, the wolves can't be seen as a greater threat -- the kingdom tried to exterminate them five hundred years ago. So even if they could use arms or armor, they shouldn't ..."   [The Black Age: Ferelden fought a great war against the werewolves, driving them to extinction.]

The evening meal was very somber.

9:29 Dragon, 11th day of Haring -- Winter

     Bran spent the day on garment and armor maintenance (and hair care -- Kiera and another lass helped clean out the mess). Landon discussed the lycanthropy cure with Brendesh for many hours. Verell and Our Heroes were asked about missing family members by the Dalish; a few uncomfortable reunions occurred. Verell and Valerie spoke with the shemlen werewolves, who perhaps weren't quite so dedicated to defending the Dalish.

9:29 Dragon, 12th day of Haring -- Winter

     Our Heroes continued their recuperation from the recent adventures, discussions with the Dalish, etc.

+2400 experience points

on to Glory Metal