A change in pace will be granted after a troubling death of the party
"Here we are everyone the Temple of Woedica and the next step in working out which they are all doing down here" said TheGoliath before they all followed him down the stairs.
Down here required some cunning and persuasion to get into the main chamber to find out more information. It started with an older robed man asking about why TheGoliath had joined the order plus if he was ready, which of course he would answer yes after explaining how nothing made sense until the order came to his town.
Onto the next part which included convincing a mercenary he belonged there or else he would not have known to be there, then an initiate who was convinced to give his hood and this was enough to get into the main chamber and indicate to the shrouded woman that his name belonged to the gods and hand to their service. This was enough to gain valuable experience and move on to continue the quests currently being undertaken.
After taking out some skeletons, avoiding some traps in the Catacombs and a lot of time traveling, they reached Stormfall Gorge.
What is found there though is something unpleasant... Multiple Feral Druids and some that cast magical lightning damage which just destroys a lot of health from most of them. Even with Braminics Bear and Dombara's frenzy mode while TheGoliath casts Ray of Fire, they just get burned down and cannot heal up quick enough or do enough damage to take them out, so after a tough and deadly fight, the whole party got wiped.
One more attempt was to be done to see whether or not they could do it and beat those Feral Druids or die trying once more. Dombara tried to distract the lightning casting druids as the others focused on the other two melee attackers but it should have been the other way around since Thambelar was first to go down this time while Kana followed and so did the others but not without putting up a good fight which was a little better but still something they should be avoiding for now.
"Cannot believe I thought this would work, next time we do this it will be me focusing on distracting the big guys so you can all kill the big damage dealers" announced Dombara.
A new strategy and new allies would be necessary and it was told of many others looking for a party to join and accompany on their adventures...
First up at the south end of Stormfall Gorge was a mighty druid named Hiravias who was more than happy to join, should they all welcome him which at this stage was a good idea and they all headed off to find the next person.
There were three more allies that would be recruited, each playing a particular role and will become a big part of the group. First was Sagani a Ranger with a fox companion, located at the crossroads in Woodend Plains. Then it would be all the way back to Gilded Vale for a well worth trip to recruit the fighter named Eder who had a sense of humour and was eager to help out.
Finally and one of the most important is Pallegina the Paladin found in Ondra's Gift, Defiance Bay in front of the Vailian Trading Company. It was extra work to get her to join due to some trouble with some local rough characters, but a rival gang helped in the fight to finish off the shadiest of them all and allow Pallegina to be happy enough to join thanks to the parties hard work.
With a new and mightier party assembled and TheGoliath leveling alongside Kana, they all wanted to relax for a while after a hard day. So TheGoliath learned two new skills, Noxious Burst which is a poisonous cloud of corrosive damage and sickening victims, plus Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage to cause nearby foes to become terrified and sickened which both would be helpful. To add to it, Kana's new phrase was Lo, their Endless Host, the Harbingers Doom which cause a field of terror to frighten enemies in an area of effect.
This was part #13 for my Pillars of Eternity series.
Stay tuned for part #14 and see what happens next and what TheGoliath will get up to.
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