On Twisted Paths
Fifteenth Day of the Second Month 294 AC
The account of the cult was more detailed than Garin would have expected of a member who had only been inducted a few months ago, Garin realized. It looked like Xor had lucked out in finding someone with a natural curiosity for the madness going on around her and who had not gone utterly mad from indulging it.
Or maybe the poor woman had been trying to get out.
The cult of the Black Goat in the beginning was separated into two orders, priests of noble blood and high standing who played a role in the ruling of the city since its founding by Valyrian exiles who wished to found a city in their image, and lay brothers who did the dirty work, whether that is spilling ink over parchment or spilling entrails over cold altars. According to Ryelle, by the year of her own birth some twenty years before, most of the priests were not what you would call faithful, though they retained more of the old magics than most places in the days of waning magic... including knowledge of warding to keep the surrounding forest out.
The one they called the Green Man, the high priest of their faith, had been a lay bother, a dogsbody. He had found faith, faith in the same thing the old priests used to worship he said to his following, and Garin had no reason to doubt him in that at least.
"So they have powers over nature and green growing things...?" Garin quickly recounted some druidic magics of the sorts other sorcerers would struggle to call on. Normally that sort f thing would be anathema to the Far Realm, but if there was something he learned in more than four years of this business it was that things had a way of running together, like ink and oils. Ice fey could be summer's allies and devils could turn a true oath against Hell, and that was just the wholesome part of it.
"Yes... yes..." she sounded shy, a sort of soft whisper behind her words that made Garin suspect the heavy cloak was hiding more than the odd bit of webbed toes you saw in a few Old Deepsmen.
Wisdom Elaheh should be able to help her get all the way back to what she was, or maybe something a little better...
What she explained next put Garin's thoughts entirely off any speculations of Flesh Forging. Ryelle described a revel or rite in the forest, the sort of thing you would expect of madmen worshiping the Far Realm and that which dwelt in it, only this wasn't under cover of night in fear of the law seeing, they were the law.
It wasn't the things she described, the monsters of suppurating flesh and fungus fused to human sinew that moved with maddened will that sent a chill down Garin's spine, it was the place, paths in the deep woods that moved with a will of its own, time and space warping and reshaping to some eldritch clock
"That sounds like..." he glanced at Xor, not wanting to jump to deeply unpleasant conclusions.
"It
was the Feywild, now no more. All the fey there have been transformed, brought under the shadow of the One with a Thousand Young. Now it is a wound, a canker among the Spheres, influenced by the Far Realm and what which dwells within." The gentle spectator stopped gravely. "Not a gate, thank whatever fate and fortune were watching over this place, but it is still filled with dangerous and likely maddened beings. The fey were not meant to be exposed to the influences beyond."
"So bloody mushrooms, strangle-weeds and killer druids," Nuri interjected with a touch of what sounded to Garin's ears like forced irreverence. "Should we just burn it all down then?"
"The trouble is, I think, that the deeper places can just decide not to burn..." Xor replied, glancing at his source with two of his eyestalks. "Ryelle, you can go now."
Once the door had closed behind her the spectator explained. "She wasn't in the best of mental states when she partook in that ritual, asking her for details will just give her nightmares. I already tried memory magics, but there are some things the mortal mind does not want to remember for its own sake. I think we are going to have to find someone in the inner circle to find out what the cult wants, and I don't think being friendly about it will do it unfortunately."
What next?
[] Show up at the meting Nuri arranged
[] Try to use Xor's supposed convert status to get close to an inner circle cultist
[] Scout the Forest of Qohor looking for tainted fey or other guardians
[] Try to find the entrance of the Flesh Forge using Zherys' map
[] Write in
OOC: Sorry for being late again guys, the cold is getting better, but it's still a few days off being cleared up. 
