A Fearsome Mark
Sixth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
One might perhaps from the view of pure virtue bemoan that failing in one's self that is regret in honesty and the payments thereof in precious gold, but you have hope at least that God should not judge you too harshly for it as you regret the payment less for its own glittering self and more for what else might have been wrought thereby. It is not until after you have paid an infirmary's worth of coin for the resolution of a spectral malady which has not yet shown any ill effects that you wonder if perhaps you should have kept it for the remedy of more readily apparent ailments, or better still, such arms, armor and provisions as would ward those hurt from your company altogether.
Lost 800 gp
Done is done, you sigh inwardly as you pass under the doorway of dark stone into the temple. Alight with the tall flames of many candles you find it, each tongue of fire reflected in the mirror polished sheen of greaves and shields, breastplates and gauntlets all of bronze, yet most of all and upon each wall given pride of place the weapons by which one man might make war upon another. You see in this place swords straight and curved, spears plain and cruel barbed such as had been made more for suffering than clean killing. You see axes forged as the beaks of birds of prey and heavy maces carved all about with the signs of the heavens which cannot disguise the brutal purpose for which they had been forged.
"All trophies given onto the Master of War after battles hard fought, here kept to His glory," your guide proclaims as you pass by the panoply of arms from realms far and near, arrayed, or so it seems to you, as though waiting for a hand bold enough to grip them and bear them off to war once more.
Shaking off the odd thought you look back to Inge and to Esha, the priest had greeted the first cordially and made no mention of the second, and much to your surprise Esha herself had not objected passing the threshold of the temple. "He who dwells in this place is no more likely to be the death of me than anyone else who wanders on the field of battle," she whispers in tongue unknown to these lands, catching your eye. "There is a justice at least in the spilling of blood with an even hand."
She means it as a jest, probably... yet you do not have long to ponder the matter for your guide leads you to corridors festooned with bronze beneath the heads of two great axes set on long hafts like a spear, both gleaming red and of some metal you do not know the name of. From Esha's start you guess they are enchanted, and from the way the shield on your back shifts an inch of its own accord like the hackles on a faithful hound rising you guess that their power is particularly fearsome.
Beyond that there is the high priest, half sitting half leaning on a high bench carved into the wall just a little too narrow for comfort. You do not know what you had been expecting, a man who is all a patchwork of scars perhaps, or even one who had lost a limb or an arm in battle. Instead the priest certainly has the build of a warrior, though more lithe than broad-shouldered, but he is only about ten years your elder. The most remarkable thing about him is his armor, forged not of bronze as you had seen among lords and clan heads, not even of leather or quilted cloth as the more common-born have worn. Rather it is forged of
thousands upon thousands of plates of stone, horn and bone. How he can even move in that thing you cannot guess, yet move he does, lighter on his feet than he has any right to.
"Hail warriors from distant lands, let me see the spoils you bring and the scars you bear..."
Having already paid the price of honesty once you see no reason not to tell the tale of the fight against the pirates in full, particularly the manner in which Isele seemed to have been favored by the war god, perhaps in a manner that lingers in the flesh.
The young priest listens quietly, then in your sight he performs many strange rites; cutting his palm and mixing the blood with fragrant wax only to cast it into the flames and gaze into the smoke, pulling out a single hair from Tom's head and suspending a knucklebone from it, and finally bidding two of his underlings to bring one of the bells you had heard during the festival in honor of Olweje and bidding Tom to ring it. With one wary look at you Tom does and the priest finally nods as though with some fresh understanding.
"It is no curse of the sea that lies upon you, but of the progeny of Ikomi that was before the other Gods, of the race of wingless dragons that men call Linnorm. How the skald came to proclaim such a thing with power on his lips I know not, but rejoice for there is a mending of great glory for you! Should you slay one of these dragons in truth then you will be free of the fore-echo of its curse and its killing spite shall not harm you who are already afflicted."
Curse unveiled to be Linnorm Death Curse (Fjord)
Proposed means of removing it: Kill a Linnorm (according to the priest you will be spared its proper death curse, which instead will rid you of the curse you are suffering)
"I'm supposed to kill a bloody dragon?
Again?" Tom growls, sounding incredulous. "John, Hugh and Pete as well?"
"Tis a great boon for the slaying of a mighty foe," the priest explains.
"What if I never take it off?"
"Ware the water least you drown," the priest of Olweje says with grim finality.
The discovery that neither weapon nor horn bears any curse or malice does little to lift your spirits. Killing one dragon from ambush had been trouble enough.
Where might you even find another, much less the means to kill it?
"The spirit of fire in the north. It had the power to burn off curses while leaving the sufferer unharmed," you recall after turning the question over and over in your mind.
"You don't need to trouble yerself over me, my lord," Tom proclaims stoutly, a fact which you resolutely ignore. It is a lord's duty to worry, just as it is his privilege to command.
Do you seek remedy for the curse among the others whom you had decided to speak to these days?
[] Yes
-[] The Temple of Ikomi
-[] Anisi the Huter
[] No, you do not want to reveal such a potentially deadly weakness
OOC: You guys were actually relatively lucky with the curse saves, a lot more people could have gotten hit with it.
[/SPOILER]
