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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 9765897" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 3Leana adjusted the shoulders of her robe, though the garment didn’t really need fixing. It was strange how even after just wearing her armor daily for two weeks, she felt almost naked without it. Her hand traveled to the sigil she wore on a thin chain around her neck, and she unconsciously shifted it so that it was centered, facing outward toward the world and anyone who might see her. The sun had come out today, which was another good sign.And, she was stalling.She took a deep breath and started toward the tall front doors of the temple. As she approached, she saw an armored man leaving around the side of the building. For some reason, he was pulling a goat on a length of rope. That odd sight distracted her for just long enough to reach the doors, where she paused again.The doors were closed, which wasn’t typical of her temple back in Valingard, but then again that had been in a city, not inside a fortress outpost in dangerous lands. They had handles both high and low, which was a good sign. That was per regulations, but she’d encountered plenty of temples that didn’t follow that stricture, as if members of the shorter races were not worth accommodating. As a halfling, barely three feet in height, she wouldn’t have been able to reach the upper handles at all.You’re stalling again, she told herself.She opened one of the doors—it was heavy, but she was stronger than she looked—and went inside. The interior was pretty standard—rows of benches, an altar, high ceiling—but the stained glass window above the altar caught her attention and drew a sigh of appreciation. It showed a sunrise that was a bit dim now, but she assumed it lit up brilliantly when the morning sun caught it.“Hello! Can I help you?”She was startled a bit by the unexpected greeting, but turned to see a human man approaching out of a small side room that she hadn’t noticed on entering. He was dressed like her, in a priest’s raiment, and on seeing her his face exploded into a broad smile that included more than a bit of relief.“Ah, wonderful! I’m so glad to see you, finally! Sister…”“Leana,” she said.“I am Fazzir,” he said, “humble Curate of this temple, but of course, you must already know that. Why don’t we go downstairs, I can show you your quarters and review the ritual schedule…”“Curate,” Leana interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I think you have a misconception about me. I don’t know anything about you, or this temple; this is my first visit to the Keep.”The man’s face fell so thoroughly that Leana felt bad for him. “You mean you’re not my new acolyte?”She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m an adventuring cleric, just arrived with a few companions, and I wanted to pay my respects.”“Of course, I’m sorry for presuming,” Fazzir said. “It’s just… well, I submitted my request months ago, and sometimes… it kind of feels like I’ve been forgotten out here.”“The work of a frontier priest is rarely as appreciated as it should be,” Leana said. “Out here, on the borderlands, we literally bring the light into the darkness.”“Well put, sister,” Fazzir said. “I don’t suppose… I have a request for a travel blessing tomorrow, and I could really use an assistant for the ceremony…”“I’m sorry, but I have obligations,” Leana said. “Perhaps, if my companions agree to spend a few more days here, I could return…”“Of course, perfectly understandable,” Fazzir said quickly. “Though… if you have just a moment? There’s something I’d like to show you.”“Certainly,” Leana said, wondering what the man had in mind.A few minutes later she was still uncertain. The local priest had taken her out to the back of the building, where a small garden was pressed in against the wall that separated the upper and lower baileys of the citadel. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at, not at first; it looked like someone had splashed some kind of graffiti on the wall of the temple in red paint. Or at least she hoped it was red paint, she amended, approaching to get a closer look. The substance was still a bit damp, and it had run in lines from the long strokes left on the stone.“When?” she asked.“Last night,” Fazzir said. “I haven’t had a chance to wash it off yet. I thought that maybe, someone might…”She drew back a couple of steps, and examined the marks. The design was quite simple, yet it resembled… “A bell?” she asked.“That’s what I think too,” he said. “Do you recognize the iconography?”She frowned at it for a few moments longer. For a brief instant there was a flicker of recognition, as if remembering something she’d read or heard, but when she tried to fan that into a full-fledged notion it fled. “No, I’m sorry,” she said. “Do you have any idea of who might have left the mark?” She thought briefly of the armored man she’d seen earlier, the one with the goat, but Fazzir had said that it had happened last night. She wasn’t surprised when he shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s just me here, and I sleep pretty soundly at night.”“Based on how sloppy the design is, whoever made it didn’t linger,” Leana said. “They could have been here and gone in less than a minute.”“Could you help me wash it off?” Fazzir said. “It… it makes my skin crawl.Leana nodded. She had the same feeling, looking at it. “That I can do,” she said.It only took a few minutes for them to wipe away the design, once Fazzir had gathered some supplies from inside the temple. When it was done, he took out a small purse and drew out a few golden coins. When he offered them to her, she said, “No, really, I should be the one offering alms, as a visitor…”“I’m just glad to have another member of the faith out here,” he told her, pressing the coins into her hand. “May you walk in the Light, Sister.”“And may the Light bless this temple, Curate,” she replied.Game Notes: Leana: Intelligence (Arcana): 4 (+4): 8 vs. DC 13 (Failure)</blockquote>

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