Entitas Writes

013 - The Ritual Site

While it’s not far from Olgar’s Stand, from Timberhome at least the journey isn’t exactly the safest. Solana wisely chooses to walk around a heavy marsh than try to wade the direct path through it.

At the border of the deep wilds, Solana finds ruins. What must have once been an attempt at a settlement, or at least a farm, long abandoned for one of many valid, guessable reasons. Solana wonders if there is something left to scavenge, but only finds more somber scenery, and a thorough waste of time.

Entering the Havens, Solana finds a stone monument of great majesty. It looks a though it’s trying to emulate the look of an iron pillar.

A rough thicket is thoroughly unpleasant to try and make her way through, but Solana prevails with only mild grief.

Solana was not prepared for what she would find here. An intricately constructed stone building, not large enough to be a house, with intricate symbols. The ground is cracked, browned plants struggling to keep going. An eerie stillness fills the air.

This ritual site is a mausoleum?

Okay, well, here goes… candles are laid out, rope is laid out in a pattern, a mirror shines candlelight upon it, a ring is waved, phrases are spoken…

…and there is nothing but darkness.

Olgar’s Stand, collapsing, sinking into the earth itself. Nothing remains. The Havens, once a verdant land, becomes barren. Undone? No…

The town returns. The citizens twisting, flailing, like a poorly-handled puppet, thrashing wildly in a brutal abstraction of life’s daily activities. Bodies worn, crackling, decaying, ground to dust. Why is this happening?

There are… people. Somewhere. Who are-

Solana snaps awake, seeing the sky, gasping for breath, sweating, trembling. What the hell was that? This ritual was supposed to help get a better picture of what’s happening at the Havens… or… were these glimpses of the future? More than one future? Solana sits upright and tries to get her bearings: based on the sun, it’s morning of the next day. Having completed the ritual, she could return to Mystic Gautstafr and get the information she seeks… but this vision seems too serious, too important to ignore. She has to get back to Olgar’s Stand and see if things are okay, immediately.

The trip to Olgar's Stand is a blur, but what she sees is clear enough: A large group, a lot of movement, armor and weapons and metal. What she hears is crystal clear: A very familiar screeching sound.

She's too late. They're attacking.