During the next thirty minutes, the old monk instructs you to help him clean up the place and set up a new altar to the clearing's spirit, while he himself stands at the waters edge and tries to get the spirit to show itself. As the sun sets, you light a few torches around the shrine, calling for the powers of Heaven to cleanse this place from foul corruption. Then, after spreading holy water around the new shrine to re-sanctify it and lighting three bowls of incense on top of it (one aligned to the north, south and east respectively, leaving the area to the west where the spirit has been hiding open), be beginns to chant the holy prayers of the Ancients.
You all form a half-circle around the altar, your prisoner kneeling next to the monk in silent prayer. Only the wind rustling in the branches of the trees can be heard, everything else seems to have fallen silent.
Then the wind grows stronger, the waters of the lake begin to stir and out from under the lily pads, it seems, a humanoid figure rises above the water. Dressed in fine clothingof green and blue silk, draped with small stones and leaves of different shapes and sizes, the figure has resembles a human woman with dark, shoulder-length hair, crystal-green eyes and a pale complexion of unearthly beauty. She carries an unlit lantern in her right hand and a slender blade is dangling on her belt, seemingly made out of crystal and streaks of obsidian.
the spirit seems to be angry at first, but as the monk continues his prayer, now joined by your captive who seems sincerely interested in repenting for his sins commited here, she slowly grows calmer. After offering more incense to the spirit, the monk lays the stone you found with the baoren on the altar before him. "Revered Ancestor," he says, "please forgive the sins which have been commited by those that were lost to the Ways of Heaven and accept the return of this stone as a humble offering from us to amend what has been done to you and your memory."
The silence after those words seems to strech on for minutes as the spirit is focused on the stone, having lost all interest in the world around him. then, she looks up and says "I accept your offer." Looking at all of you, even your prisoner, she continues:"You have done well. Though there is still much to do to clean this place of the stink of corruption, you have been of a great help for me. For without this stone, i would never have been strong enough to withstand the forces of the eternal Shadow pressing closser and closer upon this place. I Thank you all."
