"The Altar of the Great Shepherd is one to be heavily guarded, heavily researched, but it's presence never acknowledged. See to it that it stays that way until we have a way of sending it back to the creator. May the Frozen Dawn slay us first if it disappears into the wrong hands." - Feyjin Eldarhearth
Description
This 8ftx3ftx3ft eerie, elegantly carved mass of black marble and gold acts as a way to both commune with and strengthen the god attached to it. Created by the Cult Eldars of the Shepherds of the Lost (A splinter sect of the Cult of Att-Annalo) through instructions given to them through dreams and visions, this Altar is large enough to hold a person laying flat, with groves carved in the top deep enough to hold liquid that would flow into the cuts. The image on top resembles a large rune that scholars and educated types would recognise as the rune for "gateway". The altar's edges are engraved with gold words that look to be in Espurar - an elvish writing system used for documenting Deep Speech. It is caked in dried blood and gore, as it looks like it hasn't been used in quite a while - but the stone remembers. Though no one currently has heard or seen anything from it - an aspect of the Great Shepherd slumbers in it's blackened coffin. Should one get too comfortable or careless around this carved religious item... who knows what could slip out.
Powers and Abilities
Should a victim enter it's area of effect, the altar will begin to try and coerce the individual to touch the stone - anything to make a connection. It will appear in dreams and visions, even going as far as to show it's destruction under the individual's hands. Once it makes contact long enough through flesh, blood, or mental bonding; It will start going to work - depriving the individual of sleep and plaguing them with nightmares until it's will is completely broken. Under the guise of offering a way out of the suffering, the entity will then tempt the person to break the stone, to mutter the words on it's prison's walls, dispelling the magic that chains it there... anything to set it free. As it grows in influence over the individual, it will have the victim go through a purification ritual that could span from days to months - ultimately creating a perfect host body. If the individual is not saved from the influence of this entity once the ritual is over... they will eventually take their last breath upon the altar - and something else will take their skin... now finally released into the mortal plane.
O nehel, ar enna sillen aza inorum tel’ stacia's nelluon, bren altar nha a fhaor nae resoshi thas teague tel’ arkhol nae receive hiine will. Tel’ faen alushfaen ath hiine yth ili ya for hiine flesh har aestar. Hiine u becomes their joy. Teu eshaal tel’ ki. Join hiine hosts aul tel’ land ath mortals. (Deep Speech/ Espurar)
O you, Great One that lives within the star's concealment, this altar is a gift to bestow those upon this great stone to receive your will. The life blood of your people gives way for your flesh to join together. Your mind becomes their joy. Tear through the void. Join your hosts in the land of mortals. (Elvish to Common)
