Shrine In The Woods

With this painting I am pausing my Goblin Workshop series for a few weeks. While not technically being a workshop, it resembles a natural break in the story and gives me some time to re-evaluate where I want to take this series. I have the story already in mind, but am not totally sure how I want to progress it, as events become a bit more hectic from now on. Maybe I’ll just change the format a bit, we’ll see 😉

Ehrendil enjoyed the light chill that the rain had left behind. It didn’t rain much here in the woods, just enough to bring out the heavy forest air that he loved more than anything.

He looked around the clearing. No signs of any alien creature far and wide. By now, he knew almost every animal in a two mile radius around the shrine. Nothing could evade the small meshed network of magic traps that he had placed all around the hidden clearing.

Keeping all those magical devices powered was taking a toll on Ehrendil though. He could already feel how it weakened him, and this kind of fatigue did not only affect his magic reserves. He paid it with his life energy. But for him that was well worth it, if it meant ensuring the protection of such a mighty artefact. You could not even imagine the consequences if it would fall into the enemies hands. Sure, it was worthless without its counterpart. But who could say for sure that this thing would not come back eventually? Who could tell him right now that he could just go home and rejoin his order, living the rest of his life in the safe monestary?

The answer to that was simple. As long as he kept the artefact hidden, it just didn’t matter. And Ehrendil was dedicated to do just that for the few decades he had left.