"Trying to return a man to his home country. This looked like the fastest safe route. What exactly is going on in those ruins?"
The nomad nods
"Home important, wise to know this. Gentle of heart, helping man back home." He looks at the structure, then back to you.
"Elder performing rites. Talking to Kr'chl. Listening to old song."He pauses for a moment, thinking.
"Can't let inside. Holy. But, want see ruins outside?"”Right then. I see. Well, I am delighted to have met you, Lady, but it seems I must travel on if I am to achieve anything in this new world. If you ever do need me, and can reach me, it would be my pleasure to serve you however I may.
I wonder, might you call upon my some kind of blessing for my travels?”
Unless any particular invite is forthcoming, I guess I will head back to the village, seek out either the woman or the blacksmith I previously spoke to (to find somewhere to sleep for the night), and ask where the soldiers who were terrorising the village when I first arrived came from. Then (again, if nothing is particularly forthcoming to suggest I do otherwise) I will get a couple of day’s food and water and head in that direction.
The lady smiles and places her hands on the side of your head, whispering some strange chant. When you close your eyes, you see a vision of yourslef on some sort of platform high in the sky above the forest. The platform shifts, pointing you to the south.
"Shaman. Born under a certain star in a land far from here. In the sands of the south, men's hearts are growing uneasy. They seek to upset the ancient balance of life itself." The platform turns, pointing you to the northeast.
"In the northeast, the selfish hearts of man have spawned something unnatural. Their selfishness may may envelop these lands." The platform then goes up, and up, above the clouds. Soon you find yourself staring into the face of a woman carved out stone, with plants growing all around it. The platform is a giant stone hand.
"The power of the gods is waning in these lands, shaman, our influence is not what it once was. Will you not help maintain the balance? Whatever you decide, walk with my blessing. As you are part of nature, so will it be part of you."You open your eyes again and the lady takes her hands from your head, smiling.
Gained perk: blessing of the earthmother: You have gained the element of earth and water for your spells.
Divine what this evil actually is.
"Why hasn't the evil corrupted the denizens of this forest?"
Divine if she is trying to mislead me (again).
"Because it is trapped within the tree. As long as it is there, it's power cannot reach our world."Divining evil: [3] It's pretty evil. Gives you the willies.
Divining the lady's intentions again, you paranoid wizard you: [1]
Someone taps your shoulder, and as you turn around Death plunges his hand into your chest. He pulls it back out, holding a bright blue spectral globe. You feel weaker, somehow.
"HOW I LOATHE WIZARDS. THEY ALWAYS STICK THEIR NOSES WHERE THEY DON'T BELONG."
He crushes the blue sphere, and what is left of your skin and flesh disintegrates as if the many years that it was preserved by the magic that turned you into a lich just caught up with it all at once. You are left as just a skeleton in a robe.
"A SUGGESTION. STOP BOTHERING THE WEAVESS. IT ANNOYS ME."
And just like that, he's gone.
Head to the nearest village and load up on supplies (food, camping equipment). Especially meat. Enough for... 2~3 months I'd say? 4 to be on the safe side. Buy a horse as well if I can. Then head north.
You spend the rest of your silver doing just that. You get up on your horse, putting the bird snugly in one of the saddlebags where it immediatly curls up and goes to sleep. With the amount of supplies you've got you don't even need to really stop in the capital. You set off onto the long road north.
~time skip because screw that noise~
Two weeks later you arrive at the northern edge of the country. The mountains seem to go on forever, their jagged peaks rising high into the sky. The signs along the road point to two directions. One is a mountain path leading up to the village of Dunblane. The second sign as a weird one. It's made out of bronze and stamped with weird symbols. A small wooden sign is placed underneath, translating it to "dwarven pass Dur'mod".