Prayer to Artura

Goddess, in my prayers today I’d like to talk about what we’ve been doing and where we’ll be going, which I think will have huge consequences for the folks of this world soon, one way or another. It seems that a lot of how that’s going to go falls on us, just a small group of people with skills that would rather not see the Dark take over the world.

Speaking of which, I had a run-in with one of those people lately, Grel, for saying “your” Goddess to me until I straightened him out to refer to you as the Goddess. I still don’t think he understands why, though. I’m aware, of course, that there are many goddesses across the heavenly planes; my objection to “your” Goddess is that it implies that you belong to me alone, when obviously you exist for the entire world, and anyone that believes in forging a better future for humanity through hard work and craftsmanship can call upon the Goddess for guidance. Ah well, Artura save the blasphemer, he just doesn’t get it.

You know by now that we have recovered the second of three parts to an artifact that we believe will come together into a weapon that we can use to destroy the Dark Ones, but what we’ve recovered is broken. I can’t thank you enough for the vision you gave me of the Wild Folk blacksmith; I believe our path is clear now, like a clean strike of the anvil without doubt or hesitation: We must go to the Wild Folk and find this blacksmith, then reforge this broken part, then find the third part of the artifact, join them together and use it to smash away the Dark Ones.

That’s our path and we’ll walk it, I just wish we didn’t have to do it alone. We spoke with a Duke, who is giving us some help, but like most nobles he seems to care more about his own affairs than anything or anyone else. There’s certainly no help to be had from the Legionnaires we ran into recently. They would be invaluable in a fight – having seen one in person now, I’ve no doubt their fearsome reputations are true – but with their lack of character and fanatical devotion to the King, I think I’m more likely to be in a scrap with them someday than to ever get their help.

I don’t know what’s waiting for us at the end of the path, I can only pray that we survive and win. I’m praying too for Heath, wherever he is out there, to free your defiled temple and restore it to glory. I hope he’s spreading the word, forging new friends, and smashing some orc heads in.

Hammer, forge, and fire eternal.