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Episode 17 of Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, proceed at your own risk. |
The Temple to the Goddess of Mystery is a long lost temple in the Forest of the Nightmare King, about 2-3 days travel from the briar wall at the edge of the forest.
Featured Episodes[]
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Fantasy High: Sophomore Year
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Description[]
The temple was shaped by druids. It is not constructed of hewn stone or mortared together, but made of domes of boulders and smooth, flat rocks bound together by roots and trees. It is a sprawling hive of rocks and natural wood. There is a large rooted archway marking the entrance, above which is a shattered plinth, where a statue of the Goddess of Mystery used to stand.
The ground around the temple is littered with bones that are centuries old, only hints of white poking up from beneath the layers of new soil. These bones are those that belonged to three of the four tribes who lived in Sylvaire: centaurs, sprites, and wood elves. None of the trees surrounding the temple have leaves on them, as they are the corpses of treants.
There are many rooms and hallways inside. At the center is a room that can be used to pass further into the forest through a special ritual. This ritual, involving the hallucinogenic drug dusk moss, is meant to induce a state of lucid dreaming, so that the subject may protect themselves from the illusions they see, and partially control them. Stacks of tomes and texts have been left behind there.
In a chamber connected to this room is a chapel where the skeleton of the Great Unicorn lays. It is covered in cobwebs and spider egg sacks and resembles a graceful, slender horse. It is pointed towards a portrait on the wall of a woman in a black gown with flowing black hair. Where her face should be is just a white, chalky crater where it was hit with a blast of magic.
Leading up to this point in the forest, illusions were partially real, and beyond the temple, they are even more so.
Background[]
The temple used to function as a place of worship for all the beings of Sylvaire. During the aftermath of the last Sylvan war, the people destroyed the Goddess of Mystery. They tore down the statue of her in front of the temple. With the skeletons laying the way they are around the temple, it's as if they simply simply laid down there and died.
Several days before the Bad Kids arrive at the temple, four people, Arianwen, Angwyn, and Aelwyn Abernant, and Killian traveled to the temple. They performed some kind of ritual using the alchemical supplies they purchased at the Tinkerer's Hall that allowed them to move past the temple further into the woods.
History[]
The Bad Kids first come across this temple, and the concept of the Goddess of Mystery, in the Compass Points Library. Riz Gukgak and Kristen Applebees find a collection of pirate journals and maps indicating the location of the temple within the Forest of the Nightmare King.
Research done by Arianwen Abernant stolen from the vault in Calethriel Tower indicates that Arianwen was also looking for this temple.
As the Bad Kids journey further into the forest in search of the crown of the Nightmare King, they head towards the temple. When they find it, they see that it is littered with bones, and that there are three sets of footprints, a couple days old, heading into the temple. Half way to the door they are joined by a fourth set.
Riz enters the temple first by sneaking. He finds in a room at the center of the temple a brick of burnt dusk moss and many arcane writings that indicate some kind of ritual. He also observes the skeleton of a unicorn gazing at a portrait of a woman on the wall, whose face has been blasted off by magic.
The rest of the Bad Kids enter after Riz reports there's no one inside, and they split up. Adaine Abernant takes a look at the stacks of tomes left in the central room, and as a precaution against any malicious curses upon the books, Fig Faeth serenades her with a Countercharm. Riz also holds his net gun at the ready. In the books, she finds evidence of how her mother's party successfully moved through here. She cannot duplicate the spell, however she does find the true nature of the Goddess of Mystery's four trans-substantiations/curses.
Gorgug Thistlespring and Fabian Seacaster decide to stand guard. Gorgug stands in the hallway leading out of the temple, and Fabian in the hallway between the central chamber and the chapel. Kristen investigates the the chapel alone, under the watchful eye of Fabian, and observes the portrait in front of the unicorn. She hears the voice of the goddess in her head and Kristen tells her she has a lot of praise for her. The goddess hisses, and the unicorn springs forward to spear Kristen through the heart, killing her.