A short rest and the journey continues
Lars, the pantry yields nothing of interest asides from desiccated bundles of food and dried-up waterskins.
"Well," Torrent says, "that settles it then, the majority want to check out the village and shrine. Your skins are filled, so drink up and lets share a meal before we turn in."
You all spend the rest of your waking hours eating rations, drinking and laying around on your bedrolls. The ambient light of the forest fire reduces somewhat after a few hours, giving you some hint that it may be dusk or full evening. With the thoughts of the day still fresh in your mind and the strange feeling of an alien energy coursing through your body, you all drift off to sleep in the tower. Watches are kept and thankfully no disturbances occur when you awake in the morning. Prayers are spoken, spell books studied and muscles loosened before a quick breaking of the morning's fast. Torrent once again magically fills your skins.
[sblock="for Lars"]Lars, for the first time in a long while, you do not have a frightening dream that leaves you sweat soaked in the morning. Instead, you awake confused, as if your mind is filled with cobwebs. Your dream was short, but powerful and filled with strange messages that your brain struggles to decipher when you awake. You remember standing, waist deep in a body of water. Flaming trees surround you and the heat is intense. Somewhere, on the edge of your vision, stands a cloaked figure. It beckons to you with its hand while it calls you "cousin." You step forward through the water, slowed by its drag on your hips and legs. You try to get closer to see its face, but it always hovers just out of range. "Cousin" it says again, "Release us."[/sblock]
Once packs are filled and possession stowed, you all head down out of the tower and back into the blazing winds and ash-strewn ground of the fire forest. Pondering on whether you will escape this inferno today, you continue over the bridge and walk into the wide open and largely flame-free clearing where the village is located.
The village is perhaps a quarter of a mile across and consists of a ring shaped clearing with the outer edge dominated by former homes and shops. The buildings are either carved from the trunks of large trees, or made from soot-stained stone that was sculpted to resemble trees. Flames cover many of the buildings, but some of the stone structures could likely be entered and searched. In the centre of the ring, atop a low earthen mound is the Shrine of Anyariel. It was likely once a beautiful fountain in the shape of a grand willow tree with drooping branches, which once rained soothing water upon a wide, shimmering pool surrounded by a ring of seventeen old oak trees which now burn brightly. A walkway of stepping stones leads to a small island in front of the willow, where townsfolk would probably have offered prayers and thanks to Innenotdar's hero. Now the water has boiled away, and only the trees remain, occasionally raining fiery debris. The stone willow tree is covered with ash which falls in small clumps like depressing snow.
