Experience:
Plot Developments
- Prophet Isabella, members of her personal coven, and ancillary Hecateans united to defeat the aged wyrm Marzonn and sustain Hecate's temple. Forces then rallied and slew the remainder of the invading forces. No sign of Demise.
- Isabella was able to question Marzonn's soul but a little, though learning quite a lot, before it was torn apart. It wasn't long after her mother sacrificed herself in defense of the Nine Worlds, revealing Gabriel may be a Far One. In the turmoil of the moment, none other than the Father of Lies appeared, Que'Nihal, looking to strike a deal: a Wish for a closely-guarded soul in Hell's deepest depths.
- Because of the temple's righting, the Ricco is being made secure via the combined strength of Widofa's forces, House Il'spana's guard, and the five hundred Cthon. It will serve as a launching point from which to counterattack the other infested wards. Similarly, the Ruins remains secure, protected by the bulk of the Solis rallied around the Observatory, and warded by two astral skiffs. Erinyes pass between the Ruins and Ricco, maintaining the airspace.
- Rain falls plentiful, defusing the exploding rat plot of the Ghost Hand (remnants of the former Hand of Doom, led, presumably, by the hobgoblin alchemist Haxlound), and leaving Saspish forces matching equally against Tenebrious forces in a fight for dominance.
- No word from Tepest, though it's assumed the smaller city in entirely under Tirbukkan control, along with the Saspish coast. Fighting commences in the Saspish Vale, the humans and native vampires working together against the invaders, with the fanatical hunters of St. Gormite killing whatever supernatural creatures come within reach.
- The Nors out of Tolerna, Liscar, and Dalmera have largely withdrawn to St. Sulpice (ground forces removing themselves to occupied town of Orvo) intent on allowing the vampires to tear themselves apart for now. The threat still looms, however
- Renato and Diana Ruiz, with the aid of Ayasha Malhotra, cleared away the enemies of the lower audience chamber (though not without a little blood and anguish) and rescued the belabored spymaster Stefano Il'spana.
- During the carnage, Diana was able to reach out to one member of the Ordo, a blood-thirsty murderess by the name of Shae Dar'am, and enable her to see the light of reason and compassion. Thus a new member of the Solis was born.
- Despite the enemies further entrenched in the balconies, galleries, and ancillary chambers, Stefano was convinced the direct approach best, for King Dante Il'spana, First of His Name, had been taken to the highest reaches by a woman who could only be a Shadow Cabinet member, a true Lord of the Dark. Strangely, she had not executed him in Stefano's presence, though she very easily could have. She's currently waiting on the highest reaches of the castle exterior, Dante bait to at long last deal with the Ordo's most pressing loose end.
Renato:
New NPCs
Zativar zo'Zarann (dead): An accomplished Vadenjadi wizard, his bravado was scattered like rain in a windstorm before a wielder of true power. Slain by Diana on the steps of the Saspish throne room.
Prince Daz'val'Dir: Skilled enough an assassin to defeat the aged Saspish spymaster, his power stemmed from a 'Dir bio-mechanical symbiote. The creature abandoned him after Diana overloaded its circuits, and it then found purchase in Renato. Currently dying on the throne room floor.
Shae Dar'am: Once a Maiden of Anguish, a particularly brutal assassin-soldier in the Ordo's ranks, driven primal and half-mad by the corrupting influence of Tenebrous, she was freed from her darkness by Diana's holy conscription. She has since joined with her aristocratic deliverer, intent on knowing more of the Solis and the strange line between light and dark they tread.
Que'Nihal: During the final days of the Demon War, the dark djinn abandoned Shalraza's cause and came to Isabella's mother with offers of aid. The 'Father of Lies' restored Victoria's humanity after years as a tormented lich and bedded her in return. The result was the new god Gabriel, his son. Now, at the end of Nightfall, he comes to Isabella with offers of seemingly unlimited aid (the use of a Wish), though his price is not a child, rather a soul plucked from the most secure confines of Hell: a place even he is unable to venture. As a show of good faith, he's promised the Prince of Bastards, Deloth DeWitt, delivered to her by sunrise.
Returning NPCs: Archmage Ayasha Malhotra (cleaning up the audience chamber of any last stragglers, then rallying the survivors in a push against the Tirbukkans upon the balconies and higher levels), Spymaster Stefano (accompanying the Dark Siblings in efforts to rescue the vampire king).
Marzonn (dead): The overwhelming power of the Hecateans in their own temple proved enough to slay even a fully matured purple dragon. Isabella wrenched his soul from Tenebrous' grasp long enough to divine some very unsettling news. Before she could question him fully, a vast power from beyond the veil of death disintegrated the dragon's soul entirely. This power was presumed to be Tenebrous, however future revelations have, perhaps, implicated Gabriel.
Queen Victoria Il'spana (dead): The legendary necromancer and dread witch fought her own battle with the invaders within the Gray Halls (Temple of Gabriel) of her divine son. Within she discovered something far more dire, a Yith plot very near fruition. The sanity-curdling nature of the event allowed Victoria a small moment of clarity, where she imparted to her daughter some sense of love and motherly protection. Then, in a show only one of the Saviors of the North could quite pull off, she sacrificed herself to foil whatever foul ritualistic climax or culminating horror was about to transpire. The entire temple, and the city block around it, were incinerated in a white flash.
Lore
- Isabella's questioning of Marzonn's soul revealed that Tenebrous is in possession of the Pyramid of Time, the ancient (Anubian) ship which can not only warp minds, but also alter, advance, and impede ages. He's using it to change wyrmlings and weaker dragons into an army of ancients loyal to him. It was how Zulthanza and Marzonn were able to go from wyrmlings to adults between encounters. The implications of such power could be apocalyptic.
- Gabriel, the new god of night, death, winter, and balance, has been implicated by Marzonn and Victoria Il'spana as a Far One, an ally of the Devourer, looking to expedite the End of All Things. Given the new gods are inheritors of old power, it's possible, as the successor of the Far One Laz, Gabriel could have been corrupt all along. If so, not only must the worlds contend with aberrant forces from without (The Devourer, Voidborn), but now also from within (Yith), and numbering a true god.
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