Eldritch Guidance

In the small town of Corpa on the border of the Agado Swamplands, there was a commotion. A man in brown dirty clothing was running through the main street carrying a small girl wrapped in white cloth. The cloth the girl was wrapped in was covered in blood.

The man made his way into the center of town to a large building. The building was once sort of like a town hall for the locals living here. It was currently being worked on by the people, fixing it up and hanging large pieces of decorative fabric on the sides. The fabric had what looked like a giant red droplet woven on white cloth, the symbol of the Red Church.

One worker noticed the man approaching and quickly approached him.

Construction worker: “David? What happened?!” he said, surprised to see him.

David: “It's my daughter! A maw frog was hiding in the mud. It jumped out and attacked my daughter,” he said, distressed and tears running down.

Construction worker: “Oh fuck! Go in right ahead. The saintess is still here.”

David ran past the worker and right inside. More people were working on the interior, walls were being torn down and furniture was being moved out. The former town hall was being converted into a temple of the Red Church.

David: “Saint Steph! Please! I need to see Saint Steph. My daughter's life is in danger!” he cried out.

Everyone working inside stopped what they were doing and turned to look at David.

A nearby door swung open and a woman walked out. The woman was beautiful and looked relatively young. She had long flowing golden hair and beautiful green eyes and wore pure white robes that looked to be those of a priest and did nothing to hide her ridiculously large chest. She had a near impossible level of beauty compared to anyone that the people of Corpa had ever seen. The locals thought she looked closer to those depictions of goddesses people used to carve out of stone. This was the “Saintess in Red and White”, Steph Kor.

Steph: “What’s going on? Does someone need me?” she asked, in a calm and pleasant voice.

David quickly ran up to the woman, holding his daughter out to the saintess.

David: “Please saintess! My daughter was attacked by a maw frog. Her leg was ripped off by it and was poisoned by the creature.” he said, distressed.

Steph: “OH NO! Someone grab me a table to lay this poor child on, NOW!” she ordered out.

Some nearby men reacted to her command and ran into another room, and they immediately came back carrying a table. They placed the table in front of David, who laid his child down on it for the saintess to examine.

A crowd began to form around Steph to watch her heal this child.

Steph carefully unwrapped the cloth wrapped around the small girl to reveal a bloody mess. David’s child was breathing heavily and was starting to turn green. The change in the little girl's complexion was a symptom of the poisonous saliva of a maw frog, which was lethal. Below the girl's waist, her left leg was missing halfway down the thigh. There was a cloth tied tightly around near where the leg had been ripped off, but was not quite tight enough. There was still a dangerous amount of blood flowing out from the wound.

Steph: “Hold still, little one,” she said, as she placed her hand on the girl.

Those who had not seen the saint heal someone before might be confused about what she was doing. When healing magic is used, it causes the healer's hands to glow a yellowish-golden light. Yet, there was no such light coming from Steph's hands. It just appeared like she was placing her hand on the girl's shoulder, without applying any healing magic.

Suddenly, and without warning, the girl's complexion rapidly started to turn back to normal. The flesh around the area of the girl's missing leg started to bubble, followed by it twisting and bending as if her flesh had turned to clay. The pinkish clay-like flesh started to expand and stretch out from the girl's wound, slowly taking the shape of a healthy leg. The texture and the skin tone of the pseudo-leg started to change to match the other leg. By the end of this process, it looked like a perfectly normal left leg of a seven year old girl.

The girl's breathing relaxed as she slept peacefully.

Steph took her hand off the child and just smiled at the sleeping girl. She then turned to the little girl's father.

Steph: “Your daughter will be fine now. I’ve restored her leg and removed the poison. She just needs some rest.”

David: “T-t-hank y-y-you.” he said, with tears running down his face from hearing his daughter would be fine.

Steph just smiled at the crying man, as she received his gratitude.

An elderly man stepped in front of the crowd and spoke up after seeing what just happened.

Elderly man: “See that! Those of you still questioning the Red Church, how can you say what you saw was anything but a miracle.”

Some people in the crowd looked away from the man awkwardly. The people looking away were the same people who originally were not sure about letting the Red Church into their community. Those people originally opposed the Red Church, but the majority of the town sided with letting them in any way.

Elderly man: “Without the Red Church, David's daughter would be dead now. Not only that, but how many of you would have gotten ill, or starved by now without the saintess here. Let this be a lesson to those naysayers. We’ve been abandoned by the Gix empire, by the Union States, by the Church of Light and the Light itself, but not by the Red Church, not by the saintess! They are the only ones who haven’t forgotten about people like us, the only ones who help us. Praise to the Red church! Praise to the Saintess!’ he yelled.

In response to what the old man said, the entire crowd followed. They all started yelling out praises to Steph.

Crowd: “Praise to the Red church! Praise to the Saintess! Praise to the Red church! Praise to the Saintess!”

The entire crowd was swept up by the fervor of fanatical praising.

Steph just stood in the center of the crowd with a warm smile, making no attempt to calm them down.

At the back of the crowd, where no one was looking, was a lone man wearing similar dirty brown clothing to the people living here. While he wore the clothing of the people living here, he was not truly from here. He quietly glared at Steph, planning something.