SoS: The Long and Winding Scorch

When we last left our heroes, they endured the hellish passing of a 'scorch storm'. The mush and mycelium that encompassed the majority of the keep now lay seared and ruined with erupted bodies of the mycanoids along the ground. They were able to cure the scorch sickness from Matine but Sharna was not so lucky. Realizing the effect of the scorch on the group Callay, Danja, Lola, and Emo decide that rallying more to venture forward will be necessary. Bolstered by a horse and two-week provisions, they headed west toward the Low Road. Before leaving the keep, the Shields encountered a mush infected bugbear who claimed they 'come to squish'. After that strange interaction, they acquired a cloak of elvenkind and ventured further into the Scorch.   Time grew harder to track further in the Scorch; day and night blended with a hot, dry heat. The Shields encountered a strange small cairn with a roomy interior and protection magic surrounding it. They came across a stele and Matine sorrowfully revealed her inability to read her ancestral language. Further north, the Scorch suddenly became very when with a deep humidity. Abyssal qucksand of Scorch became common obstacles for them. Sharna's condition worsened as she would not part with the alchemy jug, pouring chlorinated water into her mouth for any reprieve. Realizing her condition, Sharna refused Aesyn's remove curse knowing the result. Hope persuaded Sharna to share her time as emissary of the Jade Dragonate, devils and grilled her about the Scorch. She refused help and somewhat empathized with Zariel as the Blood War has gone on for a long time, but that fiends aren't all the same. 'Demons don't want, they just are. Devils you can at least reason with, you can't reason with this. Do you blame fire for being hot or water for being wet? Can you blame a curse for doing what it's meant to do." She revealed that Cabochon is cracking and the abyssal Scorch outside of it is getting in. The most recent ancients did something to stop the Scorch. Sharna refuses to give up determined to continue whatever those ancients did.   The Shields stumbled upon a many miles wide whirlwind plowing a ravine into the desert. Armies of demons rode scorch storms swelling around it, afraid of its power. Venturing down into this new feature, they journeyed toward the other rim. Despite everything, Matine does not succumb to the Scorch. Approaching her ancestral homeland, she recounts how she left with a fellow guard of the wall down south to Otway and that she deserves to rot. Caught stealing, she turned in her friend and became part of Otway guard due to her strength and size. She boasted that cutting off Otway's head was the best day of her life even if it meant the Xhosa dewinging and dumping her into the prison she once ran.   Consoling the beast, they scaled up the ravines rim and were greeted with absolutely blistering temperatures. The Shields released their horse from the scorch curse taking it and they followed the ravine away from the 'scorchnado'. A few hours later, they constructed camp to rest on the unscorched sand. Abyssal talking the night interrupted their slumber. Following it, a temple revealed itself within the canyon's wall...