Search the temple together

"No more Goblins. No Goddess. We all fight well, including tiny elf" Swigrod spoke first with a smile, having relished the chaos he caused

"That we're not immediately being struck down doesn't mean we're not in trouble Swigrod, but I think you're right for the moment." James said as he looked around. The temple was deceptively big for how it looked on the outside. Having been built with care, dedication, and elven craftsmanship, none of the structure has collapsed or fallen into ruin. "With the worst behind us, I think we should each take a path and try to find this relic"

"We're not in any kind of rush, we can afford to take our time. You guys said so yourself, we don't even know what its supposed to look like. Could walk right past it and not even know." You add as a counter

"Besides, your pockets are too deep to be left alone, James. We go together" Kraig seconded your position.

Torches are lit as you move through the temple, taking a greater look at it than you could while fighting for you lives. While covered in dust and grime, the temple is in surprisingly good state. The temple was forgotten about and abandoned, rather than destroyed or ransacked, so destruction wasn't nearly as severe as it could be. Curiously, although the Goblins certainly made a mess of the place, their worst affront to the temple was littering. It would be too hard to remove the marbled busts and little point in destroying the art on the walls.

Your eyes tended to gravitate there, at the various depictions of the Goddess. She was nude in all paintings, which wasn't especially strange. A lot of Elvish and high-minded Humans would do portraits in this fashion, thinking it showed off the skill of the artist to accurately capture the form of the subject, and there was at least some truth to that. What was interesting is how little there is in common from one depiction to the next. She was always shown as having a heavenly glow, and breasts that were disproportionately large and unrealistically perky, but nothing else was constant. Her complexion, her hair, her eyes, always changed. Even in a few cases, she didn't necessarily appear as looking Elvish, but rather like a human.

Your face starts to feel warm as a series of the paintings show her in a passionate embrace with mortals; both men and women. This would all be considered taboo in the Bronzebark Forests back home, and you don't think of your clan as having been especially prudish in comparison to other elves. Silence filled the space as you looked around, but you slowly got the feeling that each of your companions started to stare at you.

The five you rounded a corner, through a difficult door, and entered a small antechamber. Three large statues stood on pedestals next to each other, reaching to the domed ceiling. The first showed the Goddess sitting on a throne provocatively , with a leg on the arm of the chair, one hand holding her breast and the other spreading the folds of her pussy. The second showed her standing straight with a shield and javelin, surrounded in flame. The third statue depicted the Goddess her sitting on her knees, cradling a newborn in her arms, feeding it with her immense bosom.

Bruce spoke up first, understatedly "This sure is an interesting place", to which the other humans nodded in agreement. Swigrod, though illiterate, had noticed writing on the statues and pointed to it "Elf, read this. Please"

Bending at the waist, you read each of the plaques affixed to the pedestal "the first says 'Veserae, Goddess of love and passion. All who know desire in their hearts know the Goddess, and desire her touch, though they know it not'"

Kraig responds sarcastically "Sounds like the Goddess of the whores", to which he received a warning jab in the chest from Bruce.

You continue onward "The second reads 'Veserae, Goddess of the defenders. Any who dies a martyrs ****, so another may live will earn her eternal favor. Any who sacrifice a loved one for their own gain will know her eternal wrath.'" The humans remained quiet as they contemplated, thinking on the unexpected nature of this Goddess.

The third proved to be more familiar 'Veserae, Goddess of fertility and motherhood. Just as Mother is the name of a God in the hearts of all children, so to is the Goddess Veserae the mother of all living things, and all that is good in the world"

Just as you looked to stand up completely, you noticed Swigrod standing immediately behind you, with the other three next to him. Your mind started to wander, imagining your hands on the pedestal, your legs spread wide, inviting all of them inside you. You pushed the thought out as quickly as it came. There's work to do....hard work.

You approach another heavy door, again finding yourself surrounded by the humans before it's pushed open. More thoughts return, of being helpless as eight hands roam every inch of your naked body. You stumble as you move into the next room. You nervously keep your gaze away from their eyes, but looking down, you began to guess that they were feeling much the same, based on the bulges each of them showed.

The next room held an altar above a small area where people would pray on the ground. Laying in the center is the remains of one dead elf, dressed in robes similar to that of a priest. Upon inspection, there is a scroll, and a pendant on a silver chain in his hands. Possibly the last priest to the Goddess Veserae, you took the items, believing it to be the priests last statement.

"Fiana, come over here" You hear Bruce call for you, and you hurriedly moved to the altar. On it is a large circular glass case, with an immaculate, hand-sized relic of the Goddess inside. It's shape and size matches that of the pendant you now hold in your pocket. It seems locked somehow, by spiritual or magical means, as there's no obvious mechanical way to lift the case up.

"Do you see anyway to open it?" Kraig asked. You nodded in response "Sort of, there's an inscription here at the base. It says simply 'prove your love'"