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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greybar" data-source="post: 1098391" data-attributes="member: 4938">Haraivan Ghost Story(this is a bit disconnected since it was half-written in full form. My apologies -john)As night falls, thunder and lightning begin to play through the heavens. The tense smell of ozone fills the air. The sky is heavy, but no rain comes to release the tension. The colors of the thunderous display are wrong - not the crisp white levinbolts and grey clouds, but creeping with tinges of red and green. A bolt of greenish lightning crashes through the sky, smiting a tree near the party. Around the far side of a tree, a flash of lightning illuminates a body impaled on a broken branch about 15 feet off the ground. The body is humanoid, but with a dog-like head and feet. It wears armor, and an axe lies at its feet. It looks to have suffered no obvious blows other than the tree-impaling, though it appears to be a couple days dead and other evidence may be gone. Insects and birds have worked at the body. The forward-scouts of the party come upon a small homestead, in a more traditional Haraivan style than Freehill Town was. A central building is surrounded by a low stone wall (mimicing the stone wall of a City. Outside of this wall is a fenced in area for animals, a long large building (looking more like a modern barn), and fields. But the long large building is a burnt out husk, blackened timbers around a large stone hearth that still stands. Much of the central building is burnt out as well, exposing an inner courtyard that backs up to a stone-walled area that is blackened, but standing. In the courtyard is a small pool.  At the head of the pool is a statue of a woman, her arms out and palms up.  Investigation finds the three teardrops of Abanta on the statue, much as Arlissa suspected.  The heroes settle into what shelter remains as the storm increases in fury.In the middle of the night the storm abates, and Balius hears the sounds of children playing.  Ghostly children who flee when they see him.  As the other are roused, the ghost of a teenage girl becomes violent - throwing Samus across the small compound by telekinesis.  She possesses Balius briefly and threatens to make him cut his own throat.  In a well-timed pounce, Karrinkas leaps upon Balius and grapples him.  Arlissa forces the girl-spirit from Balius through Llassa's holy light and the conflict is quickly ended.The heroes learn the tale of what happened from a less hostile ghost of a boy named Darien.  These strange dog-headed creatures sacked the village, killing many and driving off others into slavery.  The heroes pledge to help his spirit rest by persuing the beasts and freeing the slaves.</blockquote>

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