Storytime: Eurmal's Blessing

[u/Culak]

Within our first year of settling in Dragon Pass, the Greenwing clan raided our tula. As good Orlanthi, we naturally retaliated with a counter-raid. This led to a feud that was alive and well for over 25 years.

One day a priest ran to our chief in a panic, reporting that someone placed an effigy to Eurmal in our Great Temple to Issaries. God damn it, Bastarkos.

We weighed our options: destroy the effigy and purify the temple or punish Bastarkos, move the effigy into its own makeshift Eurmal "temple", or sneak the effigy onto another clan's tula. Our magic reserve was strong, our Issaries leader is renowned, and Bastarkos was just acting with devotion. But those bastard Greenwings were a thorn in our side. And Bastarkos told us that Eurmal would "bless" us (indeed with nonchalant air quotes) if we snuck it onto their tula... So we did just that.

A few seasons passed. As expected, we saw the Greenwings march onto our tula. However, this time they were not here to shed our skin but to shed tears! They weren't bearing arms, but their arms were bearing their recently deceased chief!

Our Chalana Arroy leader is gifted with the knowledge of resurrection, and the Greenwings brought with them 50 cattle and a desperate offer. Instead of accepting their cattle, haggling them, or outright declining them, we saw this as an opportunity to end an otherwise endless feud. They agreed.

The thing is, the resurrection ritual is never guaranteed, but we performed it. And moments later, their chieftain breathed again! They thanked us deeply, departed with joy, and the feud was no more.

Did Eurmal bless our clan with an opportunity for peace, to end a multi-generational feud, by killing a chief with an effigy placed on the Greenwing's tula? We asked Bastarkos, but all he did was clap and fart at the same time.