A Bundle of Shrines

1 - The Wandering Temple
Long ago, this shrine had its riches taken from it by silken hands swathed in shadow. Now the temple walks the lands, pulped thieves dripping from its halls and chambers, and its treasures reclaimed. It has yet to settle down.
1 - One thief yet escapes it. Perhaps it would offer gifts to those who aid it in its quest.
2 - It is on some great justice-pilgrimage, bringing ruin to all thieves.
3 - Now awoken, only an angel of its god could lure it back to slumber.
4 - Slowly, the stone crumbles and the vestments fade, one day it will collapse entirely.

2 - The Hanging Shrine
A great tree, carved and built upon into a great temple hung on the branches. It is infested with insects now. It is hung with the gnawed bones of old worshipers, red and raw in the wind.
1 - This was their design, to be reincarnated as true disciples of the Insect Goddess-Queen
2 - The invading insects slowly digest the old meat and bones, slowly growing their numbers.
3 - The Insect's Queen has been gulping down the temple's relics to absorb their divine strength.
4 - The Insect Plague was a righteous punishment sent by the slighted deity of the temple.

3 - The Desecrated Space
Corruption pours off this shrine. At its heart is a desecrated relic, pouring forth dark and evil sludge. Demons shift half-formed in the murk.
1 - The dark liquid is a viscous portal to the demon realm, one day they will pierce through it...
2 - The demons are fragile and soft, but will defend the relic until it is totally darkened, and they can walk the world fully formed.
3 - Once, a powerful diabolist was sacrificed on the altar, and it is their evil that corrupts to shrine.
4 - The slime is merely an illusion to keep potential thieves away from the relic.

4 - The View of the Heavens
This shrine bears observatories for watching the stars. With the right knowledge, the shrine could be recalibrated for astral and extra-planar navigation.
1 - Dark and yet shining celestial wanderers dwell in the shrine, having fallen down the observatories magnifications into our world.
2 - Madmen remain in the observatories, driven insane by the glories they have witness with their delicate, mortal eyes.
3 - To calibrate the delicate mechanisms and enchantments, first you must consort with the Silvered Calibration golem, whose programming has not fared well over the uncounted years.
4 - A group of Star-Worshipers have moved into their new sacred space, close to their gods as they are.

5 - A DEEP RED AND CRIMSON SHRINE
This shrine is merely an altar, a bowl, and a knife. The bowl and knife are stained a copper red.
1 - Perform the crimson rites, give of yourself til nothing remains, and be uncreated as you give of and give of and give of and give of and give of.
2 - There is blood in the bowl. Drink, let it course down your throat, over your lips, flow off you jaw and splash down your chest to the floor and keep drinking until you are bloated and drowning in it.
3 - Behind the altar is an empty void of nothing. It beckons to you. Do not look at it, pretend it isn't there. Do not give it notice, give it nothing. It had all it was taken from it, and it was right and just.
4 - The old dry spirits of those slain here demand justice, they wish you to take the bowl in your hands and break it on your knee, rebuke the blade and cast it into the river, strike the altar with your staff and cast it down into the dirt.

6 - The Spire of the Sun
A shrine to a long lost sun-god. A tall tower covered in prisms upon which a great diamond rests.
1 - Gargoyle-men with glinting ruby feathers roost in the nooks, and will defend their god's home from thieves and blasphemers.
2 - The whole pinnacle is one long needle of sandstone, it crumbles slowly in the wind and rain.
3 - The light reflected is blinding, and thus hides the secret chambers within, where dwells the true treasures...
4 - The light forms an insubstantial prison, perfectly forged to contain a great evil within the spire. The jewel that crowns it all is the final key to the jail.

7 - The Pit of Smoke
An inverse-Ziggurat pit shrine. At its nadir is a vent spewing noisome gases. An old, old World-Spirit dwells within.
1 - The World-Spirit is corrupted, instead of flame, out spews smoke. It will not last long, to the doom of all near it.
2 - The World-Spirit is poisoned, and its stone is slowly rotting away into black glass-dust.
3 - The World-Spirit cannot abide the passing by of man, leave now and you may yet keep your lives.
4 - Whisper into the vents, if you can withstand the fumes, and the World-Spirit will whisper back.

8 - The Tomb of the Mighty
A mausoleum structure, within lies a dead god and its treasures and relics. Even in death it is more than capable of defending itself.
1 - The many statues of the Old God at the zenith of its Glory will step down from the daises ready to strike down the defilers.
2 - The Divine Corpse will rise from its grave in the fullness of time to crush the skulls of the family of those it seeks retribution against.
3 - The Deity will curse the words of those who defile its tomb; those who speak the names of the grave-disturbers will be stuck down by disease and pestilence.
4 - The God instantly turns the intruders into sentient undead. It has killed them, that's good enough. The fact they are still self-actualising and locomoting is just a little wrinkle.

9 - It is inscribed: AND THIS IS EDEN
A walled-garden, tended by an ancient spirit-god. It is be-decked in finery, and offers knowledge to those who eat the deadly fruits of the grove.
1 - Each fruit contains a Word Of God, the (somewhat irresponsible) deity will let you take it even, should you survive the terrible poisons of the fruit (which it is sure you won't).
2 - The fruits are themselves alive, and the legions of plant-beasts are very capable of looking after themselves thank you very much.
3 - The Knowledge that the fruits contain is the knowledge of the Spirit-God. As each fruit is eaten, it diminishes a little more, until finally it will waste away completely. It desperately desires this.
4 - The Poison of the fruit is more insidious than you might think. It is the poison of Blasphemy.

10 - From where Floweth the Tears of Gods for the Plight of Men
An elaborate water-feature, three stories high. Water-Elementals guard the highest levels, whose waters have healing properties.
1 - The water flows from a bound and chained Spirit-God of Water. It desperate hates humans, but perhaps would soften for those that freed it.
2 - The water is cursed, those who bathe in it inflict their wounds on those who tend the source of the waters, deep below the earth. They do not understand why.
3 - The water is the blood of a dead Spirit-God, those who bathe in it are healed, but also slowly become possessed by the old God.
4 - The Elementals are in fact, angered Nymphs, if some sort of quest is done for them, they would retake their gentler forms and perhaps even allow you to bathe with them.

11 - The Warning-Stone
A tower carved in an ancient and forgotten prophecy.
1 - It warns of the eventual rise of the sunken city of which it is the uttermost peak.
2 - It points to some far off place, a shining city of golden domes and silvered pagodas, where the race of "Beautiful People" dwell who will one day return to conquer all the world.
3 - It describes how you will know the signs of the sickness that will ravage all the lands clean.
4 - It forewarns of the return of the grand Elk, whose mountain-hooves will trample cities into dust and return the wild to the rule of the world.

12 - The Place of Death
An amphitheater, for the witnessing of executions. The angry spirits of the dead still haunt the browned blood-stains. Doubtless the tool of execution remains here too...
1 - A great Cleaver-Sword remains embedded in a yellow-stone altar deep beneath, the resonance of death it has collected calling undead to it.
2 - A mighty axe seems to drag a pool of semi-congealed blood behind it by some invisible force. A ghost inhabits it, bound to serve the wielder of the axe.
3 - The Gladiator-Golem that ritually dueled prisoners to death stands old and rusting, endlessly fending off the vengeful ghosts that demand rest that it cannot give. Even with its destruction, they would find no peace, only endlessly undirected anger.
4 - Much of the blood used to be collected a the pit in the centre of the stage, which the prisoner was hung above. Now the blood is host to a demon of muddied thoughts and unsure purpose.

13 - Lost to Darkness
A metal demon with a burning swords guards this charred and scorched shrine. Almost nothing remains.
1 - It guards the way down to the unbreachable (for demons at least) vaults of the Shrine, to ensure that no agents of the old god can ever retrieve the relics sequestered within.
2 - The demon was left behind when the shrine was destroyed long ago. It has no purpose now, and it waits, ever-hopeful for a rescue that will never come.
3 - The demon is trapped by a final ward placed by fleeing priests, it is forever a prisoner of the Shrine it destroyed.
4 - The demon is in fact an esoteric Angel, keeping all from claiming the flaming rites of a rival deity.

14 - Shrine of Shell and Slime
An almighty shell is carved into an abbey. The floors run smooth with the fluids of its snail-congregation.
1 - The Snail-men manufacture mire-pearls for their molluscan goddess-queen from the skulls of men they ambush and kill.
2 - They grow their numbers over the years, hoping one day to raise their voices in a great chorus to lure their lost god back out of the ocean it is lost in.
3 - They tend the Crab-Leviathan that has crawled deep with the extra-dimensional depths of the shell, paving the way for its eventual return.
4 - Sacrifices are kept fresh in the slime that coats some chambers inches thick. Eventually they will be offered to the Swarm-Deity the priesthood venerate here.

15 - The Unmanned Shrine
This ancient temple is well maintained by its servitor-golems. No access to the high-priests chambers is tolerated.
1 - The Golems are old and weary now, and ask for either succour from the aching and creaking of their joints, or a release from their aeons old service.
2 - Deep within, lie the chambers of the Golem-God, the built Deity. It is not the time for it to reveal itself yet.
3 - The High-Priest is long since dead, they sacrificed their fluids to the Clock-work contraption that maintains the Shrine's power. The fluid levels are running low.
4 - The High-Priest is sequestered away inside, planning for the ritual that will end mortal-life as we know it and replace it with an age of manufactured-men, incapable of not praising the "correct" god.

16 - The Quiet Place of Ancestors
This ancient ring of stones surrounds a burial mound. A spear is dug into its peak. It is deathly quiet.
1 - Here, you may propitiate the spirits of the Ancient Dead. Observe the proper rituals and formalities, and they may offer their aid for a worthy cause.
2 - The Dead treasure their sacred rest, and will harass those who come by this way. The dead have never rested well here, and they treasure this small bit of quiet immensely.
3 - This place is within the liminal boundries of the spirit world, druids often come by this way on vision-quests and initiation rites. The spirits will surely be wary or maybe curious about you, since you are so different from those they usually see.
4 - The Dead here are not the dead of men. Their alien perspectives, further muddied by the murk of death lead them to pull some very strange stunts on visitors.

17 - Meat and Bone are our Offerings
An almighty ribcage hung with skins shelters a decrepit priest with and antlered cane and a meaty altar.
1 - The priest will expect you to make an offering of yourself on the altar, not deadly, but substantial. If you do, you will be potently blessed.
2 - Here, you can propitiate the Spirits of the Animal Herds and Packs, learn what they have seen, the best paths, safe spaces and worthy truce offerings.
3 - It is the grave-shrine to a slain Leviathan-Divinity. The offerings offered here ensure it will not return to life in wrath.
4 - Here, you may make sacrifices of the frailties of your flesh. You will become somewhat less than you were, but the strength you gain will be well commensurate.

18 - "Why are you here? This is not for you."
This canopied shrine is pristine. The torches still burn. The sacrifice is still warm. The blood is still fresh.
1 - The Cult that meet here will not be pleased to see witnesses to their unspeakable rites...
2 - You were just a little too late, if you hurry you may yet catch them, or escape before they return...
3 - The shrine is trapped in time, an offering perpetually offered, ensuring that the Patron will never cease to be satiated. Disturb it at all, and the enchantment will break, and the Patron will arrive in wrath for its recompense...
4 - The rite is done, and the Cultists are now no longer as lowly as humans...

19 - A Message Well-sent
This shrine has been expertly defiled. At its heart is a gruesome entrail-sigil. It calls the unwholesome.
1 - It is a sigil-circle to allow entrance and egress to the lower hells. It opens when fresh blood wets the sigil. Eventually, it will waste away.
2 - The sigil disrupts the touch of the divine, allowing the Great Work beneath to continue unwatched by Gods.
3 - It is a declaration of war, a gesture that cannot be ignored, or misinterpreted.
4 - It is a sign to some outer-being, a lure to guide some awful fate upon the world. It must be destroyed for the good of all before that which it was made to guide arrives.

20 - Death Knell of the Faithful
A grand Temple, now an overgrown and hollow shell. Soldiers died here once, long ago. Now a terrible beast dwells here among the bones and rusting weapons.
1 - The Beast is a Familiar-Spirit of the God of the Shrine, sent to ensure the eternal rest of the dead and to guard the holiness of the Shrine.
2 - The Creature once feasted on the carrion, but now it is all gone, and its hunger continues to grow.
3 - The Monster was one held in a cage below the shrine to stop it preying on the countryside. Hopefully it is the only one to have escaped...
4 - The Beast is in fact a feral druid, attempting to slowly re-incorporate the shrine back into nature. It must contend with followers of the old god of the shrine.