We continue on and we come across a bunch of wereboars. We manage to beat them without anyone getting bitten. The rest of the day seems peaceful.
Right at campish time, the weather starts turning. We see a path down the cliff, and a cave with a fire. There are a couple people at the fire. There are a couple of horses eating at the top. They appear to be siblings and we ask if we could join them. We have goodberries and stew. They introduce themselves, Patli and Tenoch Quinteiro. The sister has a cleric symbol for Kelemvor. We have idle chit chat. It turns to my history.
She then talks about other places that a soul could go in relation to devils and such.
"The Faithful, the False and the Faithless
"There are 3 destinations for your eternal soul when you should die. Foremost there are the Faithful, those that worshiped their gods, and fed them their belief. Those go on to their patron's realms to eventually become part of those very gods.
"Lord Ao, the One Who is Hidden, decreed it himself, angered at how the gods played and preyed upon the mortals. After the Time of Troubles, the gods were now to be dependent on the very mortals they used to treat as pawns. Our belief and worship feed and sustain them, and they in turn take in our souls in the afterlife. This is why the gods retrieve their followers from the Fugue plain, using their link to their followers to find them and bring them home. Good and Evil, or neither, all worshippers find a place with their gods.
"But I said that there were 3 destinations, and for the other 2 allow me to digress.
"My own lord Kelemvor was once a mortal, just as you and I. 18 years ago, during the Times of Troubles, he was slain by Cyric the Mad, who ascended to become the God of Death, taking over for the recently slain god Myrkul. Kelemvor 's sould however was hidden from Cyric, who hunted unsuccessfully for it for 10 years. Cyric hated Kelemvor and obsessed about his retrieval, driving himself mad. Eventually Cyric crushed his own sword, releasing Kelemvor's soul, who fought Cyric and slew him. By wish of the Denizens of the Gray Wastes, Kelemvor was made the new God of Death.
"Kelemvor reshaped the Bone Castle into the Crystal Spire, to represent that Death should no longer be a frightening mystery. Seeing the fates of the False and the Faithless, he grew angry. Under Myrkul and later Cyric, the Faithless were fashioned into bricks for a Great Wall. The False were tortured endlessly. Kelemvor saw that brave and noble souls were treated with great pain and suffering and he declared that this was the end. Those he judged had led good lives under no Gods would go to heavens and paradise within his realms, and those he judged that had led poor and wicked lives would be punished. He struck down the wall and declared that all Dead would have a fair judgement before him.
"This continued for a few short years, and would be my poor Lord's undoing. The Gods tried Kelemvor and declared him Guilty of incompetence by Humanity. Lord Kelemvor's actions, though compassionate, had led to great upheaval. Wicked souls would continue to worship the Evil gods to escape Lord Kelemvor's Ire, while Good and Noble people turned from the gods, trusting his judgement. Kelemvor realized that he needed to purge himself of his humanity if he was to judge the Dead dispassionately. The Great Wall was recreated, and he judged anew all before him.
"The False were once again subjected to punishment. Good or Evil, Lawful or not, they were all judged. Those worshippers that had committed transgressions against their gods, or rejected them them, were in turn rejected by their Gods; they would not claim their souls. These False were judged and punished by Kelemvor. So now, once again mortals have reason to not reject their patrons.
"The Faithless were subjected to a fate somehow worse. Those that turned from all gods, that had no beings to Claim or Reject them, these were Seen by Kelemvor. He sought them out and added them to the Wall of the Faithless. Ground down, their souls would eventually become part of the very plain the landed on: the Fugue Plain. Faceless, bodiless, Faithless.
"Still, it's a better fate than what happened before Myrkul built the wall!"
I asked what happened what happened pre-Myrkul, and I was told that the Faithless walked the plain. They could be claimed by demons or devils to use as fuel. Patli continues that if the gods couldn't see me, then even Kelemvor couldn't see me, and therefore, judge me. Which could leave me easy pickings for demons and devils.
Patli continues:
"A 4th Destination
"Before I said that there were 3 destinations for your eternal soul when you die, but there is a 4th.
"First, while my Lord Kelemvor judges all faithless soul that come before him, some do bypass that judgement. The evilest, most self serving souls, that reject all gods could find themselves manifesting on Baator, or the Abyss. These souls would mainfest as a Soul Larva, Eventually, should they survive, they might be promoted to the lowest of Demons as Manes or Devils as Lemures. From there, if they should distinguish themselves they might find further promotion to more powerful forms.
"As well, mortals since time immortal have bartered their eternal souls for temporary power and wealth. Always, ALWAYS, these involve an actual contract, which must be freely signed by the petitioner. Once the contract is signed, their soul would be forfeited to the Devil holding that contract. Once they perished, the Devil would claim the soul; wringing it of all energy for fueling the Nine Hells, and then the wretched remains would be reborn as a Lemure.
"Such contracts could be signed on the Fugue Plain, after a mortal had perished, but before Kelemvor found them and judged them.
"Getting out of such a contract is nigh impossible. Each contract is a labyrinthine maze of clauses and sub-clauses, and sages have spent years studying them only to go mad trying to find a way to break it. But that is an easier task than trying to kill the devil itself. It can only be done on its home plane, else it will simply recover. The only other way would be to find the devil's True Name, but good luck with that!"
Vorest asks about the souls of animals. And she is told that they go to the beastlands - to part of the energy that supports the animal gods.
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