An ancient inscription upon a Stele has brought Wraithvine to another monument upon the shores of a primordial lake. Here ze finds an aged icon of a long forgotten god and the pronouncement upon his pedestal which has waited all this time… -- Deathshead419
Wraithvine should have become used to finding quests in museums. People left messages for hir to unriddle long-term problems, or seers put things in hir way. Ze could never tell. Either way, they were very good at leading hir into troubles that needed fixing.
The particular stele from a forgotten empire detailed landmarks that would last. A seer had been at work for this message. They knew that Wraithvine would be some time in seeing it.
Over rocky mountain pass, through narrow valley, and in the midst of a misty swamp; Wraithvine found a half-sunken, shattered visage. The weather had taken its toll on the sneering face, but that was not the issue.
The issue was that this was the face of a fallen god. Forgotten by all but the local Fish-folk. To'a'ul, as ze recalled. Just one hamlet could have faith in something to move a mountain - even if it was a mountain on the smaller side of the definition. A city's worth of them could cause all kinds of chaos in the mortal plane.
This group was almost a town, clustered around the broken statue of Wephortiu The Vengeful.
Old gods don't exactly die, as such. They either fade to whispers in forgotten temples, or become physical things of faded power and debatable sanity. So long as something knows them, they can exist. And a town of To'a'ul could accelerate Wephortiu's power to frightening amounts.
And since Wephortiu was a vengeful deity, that was a bad idea. Too much faith given to a fallen god like that could only mean an eruption of holy wars in the region. Wraithvine remembered the followers of Wephortiu, and why the faith perished.
Wephortiu was a very tetchy god. The least little thing could get Him sending as many followers as possible to make war on any offending neighbour. In His declining years, He spent all His worshippers against all His neighbours. The god was so angry at what happened next that He spent all his powers in a futile effort.
Then the angry neighbours smashed all His statues and took all the infants too young to fight as their own.
In essence, Wephortiu effectively ended Himself. Remaining nothing more than a whisper surrounding His remaining images, until there was only one face left. That one face that the To'a'ul had built their town, and their current civilisation, around.
There were several ways to definitively kill a god. Most of them were violent, and that was not the sort of thing Wraithvine often endorsed.
The method ze preferred, was to be a better god. Ze joined with the leyflow as ze purposely walked across the surface of the water or purposely half a foot above anything above the water. Guiding the leyflow to bring forth abundance in hir wake. Fish flourished, fattened, and leaped out of the water. Food plants fattened and grew where the fish could not swim. Wraithvine sang a simple children's song about sharing and friendship as ze approached.
Ze certainly got To'a'ul attention.
Wraithvine had been deified some ages ago. Ze rarely reached for hir godlike aspect, preferring to use the magic ze knew. This was definitely an occasion for a god to fight a god.
Wraithvine of Simple Help went toe to toe against the remains of Wephortiu. And vengeance is less desirable on the other side of gaining a full stomach. Ze laid hands on the sick and injured, making them whole and hale. Ze used extravagant amounts of magic to mend anything broken, fix anything that needed improvement, and generally invested the ground with prosperity.
The To'a'ul attacked the last face of Wephortiu with any tool they had to hand. Changing its shape to something tall and vaguely Elf-shaped. To'a'ul were not particularly artistic, so the end result was lumpish and indistinct.
As the last chip of stone fell off their effort, Wephortiu perished. The power of that indistinct divinity briefly elevated Wraithvine to the Plane of Boons with the more established gods.
Ze'd been here before. Suffered the same trial before. Once handed the power of a god, did ze have the ability to let it go?
My work isn't done, Wraithvine said without voice to the other gods. Put me back, please.
Hir divine aspect gently returned Wraithvine to the mortal plane. They both cut the connection as the To'a'ul were busy worshiping their new graven idol. Wraithvine the Giver.
Ze slowly faded out of their view. Once more appearing to be an ordinary wandering Wizard.
[Photo by Leonid Filinov on Unsplash]
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