06 - 7/31/25 : Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

 

"I'll tell you this: Sarkoris isn't a country - Sarkoris is a whole world. Just imagine... a lynx standing at the edge of snowy woods in the north. Perch splashing in the Sellen in the east. Furry bumblebees buzzing over the blooming hills of the south. And everywhere you look, there are people, the likes of which you won't find anywhere else in the world. They are the bravest in battle and the fleetest in dance. Hundreds of tribes, each with its own legends, songs, heroes, gods, and spirits. Now, you tell me; could a land like that really have perished because of a few oglin grasshoppers? I won't believe it! Ever!"  

Ulbrig Olesk

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  The party got some well deserved rest after their ordeal at Tacitus Manor. Upon waking up, Elseth was approached by Joran Vhane, who asked to see her lance Radiance. He recognized it as one of his own masterworks; Radiance was a shapeshifting weapon that adapted its form to the wielder, and had originally been forged as a longsword for Joran's friend Yaniel, a famous paladin of the fourth crusade who had gone missing in the Worldwound shortly after the crusade's end. As Yaniel had taken her blade with her at the time, Joran had assumed it was lost, but seeing it in Elseth's hands proved otherwise.   Joran was glad to see Radiance in good hands, and offered to make Elseth a fine strap for the weapon to replace the blade's original, lost scabbard. Elseth thanked him for the offer, and he promised to have it ready once the danger had passed.   The group reported to Irabeth about what had transpired, and Satomi informed her that Tacitus had been cavorting with the demons and had possibly gotten them into the city in the first place. Irabeth, remembering that Tacitus was a talented enchanter, came to realize that her superior officer and the previous commander of the Eagle Watch had been acting strangely leading up to the Armasse festival. She surmised that he might have been charmed by Tacitus to weaken the Wardstone under Prelate Hulrun's nose - or worse, had simply been convinced to join the demons' side like so many traitorous cultists before him.   Satomi made no secret that Tacitus had been dealt with, much to Irabeth's disappointment. Even if Tacitus were guilty, Irabeth did not like superseding the law and passing judgement without due process. She declined to escalate the concern further given the situation they found themselves in, but sternly asked Satomi to avoid such actions in the future.   Together with Seelah, the party left the Defender's Heart to venture out once again to the demon-infested streets of Kenabres. They made their way towards the Blackwing Library, where a rogue crusader was said to lurk.   As the group approached the library, they found it to be mostly destroyed, despite the surrounding buildings being relatively intact. They surmised that this was likely a deliberate, targeted attack by the demons, since the Blackwing Library had once been one of the largest repositories of works concerning demons and the ways in which they could be slain. Within the remaining wing, the party heard shouting from behind the door to the outside; someone within was viciously yelling at someone else, demanding them to stack books.   The party burst into the scene and came face-to-face with Chaleb Sazomal, a crusader that had gone mad and had taken several Blackwing librarians hostage, tying four of them up to a post and forcing a fifth to stack books around them to use as kindling for a makeshift execution pyre. No words were exchanged as the party immediately leapt to the defense of the captured librarians, facing off against Chaleb and the like-minded minions he had amassed.   As battle ensued, Satomi once again felt that strange power rising in her chest that had first appeared after killing Lord Tacitus. Seized with the realization that she could somehow enforce her will on the world around her, she laid eyes upon a stone griffon statue standing in the back of the library wing, and willed it to shed its stony skin and become a real griffon.   Surely enough, this simple thought was followed by the statue animating and breaking free of its base, becoming a true flesh-and-blood griffon. The bandits and traitorous crusaders serving Chaleb started to attack the beast, giving the party an advantage as the odds were evened.   The lone unbound librarian, a gnome named Fenna Fiddlefern, scrambled away behind the party as they clashed against Chaleb's force. Between the party's might and the griffin's ferocity, the battle ended quickly. Once all was quiet, the griffon took off, tearing a hole through the crumbling roof of the library as it took to the sky. With the coast clear, the party set to unbinding the librarians. As they did so, Satomi attempted to call upon the power once again to simply will their bounds undone, but saw no success; it seemed she was not able to perform strange miracles on demand. Freeing the librarians by normal means, the party gave them directions to the Defender's Heart, where they would be somewhat safer.   Knowing that the Reman wine cellar , a locale subject to dark rumors alleging hauntings or worse, was near, the group decided to investigate and eliminate any potential demonic presence.   Once on the premises, Seelah was able to sense the presence of undead with her divine sense. The door to the cellar had to be broken down, and within the party found a grisly scene; a small room full of mostly destroyed potion bottles, marred by a gruesome blood smear leading into a hole in the floor. The party braced themselves and proceeded down into the cellar basement, finding it to be little more than a dimly lit cave strewn with bones and suffused with a foul, deathly odor.   The silence of the cave was broken when a horrifying undead monstrosity emerged from the darkness within; a monstrous creature composed of innumerable corpses sewn together into a writhing, humanoid-shaped abomination.   The Thing in the Basement exuded a horrific, pallorous aura that ate away at those too close to it. Elseth and Seelah braved this miasma to engage their enemy in close confrontation while the others supported from beyond the Thing's immediate vicinity.   Being a paladin capable of abjuring undead and fiends alike, Seelah called upon Muir's fury in an attempt to turn the undead horror. This attempt succeeded, albeit almost too well; as the monster writhed away and latched onto a nearby wall, Hilda's own fiendish blood boiled in the face of Seelah's aura, and was compelled to flee as well.   While Elseth and Seelah pressed the advantage and as Satomi went to Hilda's aid, Alanis found herself enthralled by the Thing before her; as a scholar of necromancy, she perceived the Thing not with revulsion, but fascination. She pondered to herself about how such a creation was possible, but the din of combat snapped her out of it before she could come to a conclusion.   Satomi was able to snap Hilda out of being turned, and the two rejoined the fight. The Thing put up fierce resistance, badly injuring Elseth and nearly killing Seelah, but was eventually felled by one of Satomi's starry wisps, disintegrating into dust in the face of radiant energy. Seelah was stabilized by Alanis and the group exited the cave to catch their breath.   After a short rest, the group elected to press on to the nearby shop known as Topaz Solutions. Since it was an apothecary, the party hoped that there might be some supplies or potions to be found.   As they walked towards Topaz Solutions, the party heard the screech of the griffon Satomi had freed back in the Blackwing Library as it descended onto the street before them. To their surprise, the griffon began to transform, morphing into the shape of a muscular human man with the bearing of a tribal chieftain.   The man introduced himself as Ulbrig Olesk and demanded to know what was going on, wondering where he was and why a bunch of 'oglins' were rampaging around. Ulbrig claimed to be a Sarkorian, and reacted with utter disbelief when the party told him that he was in Kenabres - which he had remembered as a small, insignificant fishing village. The group soon realized that Ulbrig had been trapped as a griffin statue since a time where Sarkoris still existed as a thriving land; over two-hundred years ago.   Ulbrig was unwilling to believe the party's claim that he had been trapped for such a long time, refusing to accept that Sarkoris had fallen, that so much time had passed, or that he could have abandoned his people in such a way. He did, however, accept that the 'oglins' had to be dealt with. When asked about this word that kept using, Ulbrig explained - with some incredulousness - that it was a Sarkorian term that referred to any and all extraplanar creatures, be they fey, fiend, or angel; all outsiders and equally despicable in Ulbrig's eyes.   The party told Ulbrig about the resistance being mustered at the Defender's Heart tavern. Happy to have a place to find beer, Ulbrig promised to bring his talents as a barbarian and a druid to the party's aid whenever they might require it, and then transformed back into a griffon before taking to the skies to find the tavern. With a new ally in their corner, the party pressed on to Topaz Solutions.   Topaz Solutions was mostly undamaged and seemed to be abandoned, but upon entering the building, the party discovered exactly why as they were attacked by a small plantlike creature known as a mandragora. Despite its size, the mandragora proved to be a fierce and deadly opponent, managing to stun most of the party with its unbearably piercing wails.   Sensing the creature to be a deceptively powerful foe, Satomi retrieved her puzzle cube and recited an appeal to her ancestors and her inheritance, revealing the name 'Sanada' to have been a moniker masking her true heritage; that of clan Sakane, a lineage of kitsune known to have a knack for somehow involving themselves in major events throughout Lloegyr.  

As the last lock unlatches, there is a moment of eerie stillness. Then, the box springs to life, violently shaking within Satomi's grip. As she holds it shut, the laughter of 1,000 voices fills the air. "Be still, my friends." The box ignores her words as it continues its frenzied rattle.   A wild grin spreads across Satomi's face, "So energetic! But this will serve us well. The time has finally come to reclaim my birthright. I don the name Sanada no longer. I am the Steward of the Night Parade and priestess of Ine Nari, Satomi Sakane!"   As her name is uttered, the box's motions immediately cease. "Good. Before our parade can commence, we must set the stage. These demonic pests would ruin our fun before we begin. So let us give them a taste of the might of the yōkai before we march through the Abyss itself! Come my friends, let us begin our revelry!"

  With a yōkai known as Seto-Taisho in her employ, Satomi was able to take the lead in dispatching the mandragora, leaving the shop quiet once more. Searching for supplies, the party found and overcame an elaborate but ineffective trap left by cultists, involving a magic mouth spell, a small toy marilith, and a bilious bottle. Satomi, after commanding Seto-Taisho to trigger the magic mouth hidden on a nearby sigil of Baphomet, was able to extract the fragile bottle from the trap, and the rest of the party opened up a chest that the trap was protecting. With supplies secured, the party stopped to consider their next move before returning to the streets of Kenabres.