The temple is quiet, its marble floors echoing with each of your steps. Incense lingers in the air, sweet and heavy, a stark contrast to the madness you witnessed on the road. Clerics in white robes shuffle past, their faces worn with duty and fatigue. At the far end, beneath a gilded icon, a priest listens patiently as you recount the vision and the madman’s words.
He frowns, glancing to the others nearby. Their response is little more than a shrug—one mutters something about “another zealot’s ranting,” and another scoffs that no shrine worth visiting would demand a curse. Still, the priest’s eyes linger on you, searching.
“You must understand,” he says, lowering his voice, “this matter is… troublesome. Our order has long known of whispers about a hidden god. But to pursue such a path requires one to be cursed, tainted by shadow, before the gates of the shrine will open. None of our paladins or clerics will volunteer—why would they? To suffer corruption, even for the sake of knowledge, is to risk the soul. They dismiss it as rumor, as folly.”
He leans forward, his tone sharpening with urgency.
“But you—you have seen visions. That means you have already been touched by what they deny. If you are willing to walk this path, to embrace what others fear… you might succeed where they will not.”
His gaze hardens, a quiet weight behind it.
“The temple would not forget such a service. Will you take the curse upon yourself and seek the shrine?”
[Obtain the Cursed Status and enter a shrine to continue…]