Session 14 - Sybil

This is the 14th session of the game Ashes.

Summary
The doors of the Soulkeep open up slowly in front of the party. They walk into a chamber that houses 9 glowing prismatic orbs affixed to the walls in a nonagon shaped room. At a glance, the party recalls that this is a very old church in dedication to the Nine Gods, and are each represented by a color. As they are looking at the orbs, they hear a voice echo in the chamber saying, "Raea." and notice an Aasimar woman approach the group. At this time Astraea begins to have several flashbacks to moments in her life that she shared with Sybil. The first few seemed pleasant, but as they continued they got darker and focused on the time during the Divine Tragedy. Astraea flashed back to the present, and everyone was then greeted by Sybil. She expressed who she was and inquired to the party about why they were here. The party told her about the demonic investigation they were looking into, and about the Cauldron of Fire that they passed on their way down.

Before they could get into it Sybil noticed that Themus bared a resemblance to a golden-skinned Tiefling who she had recently taken into the Soulkeep to aid in his injuries. It seemed to be the same man that the Carposi's were trying to track down. Realizing this, the party made their way to the lower floors where the bedrooms were and found the man, still feverish and unwell. His condition was soon rectified by a Lay on Hands by Emeran, and some aid from Elias, both seemed to help the man breathe easier. While he was being held by Sybil he kept saying the words, "Kali." which is the name of Themus's mother. Given everything else that had gone on the previous day, the party decided to rest for the evening and save talking on things for tomorrow. Sybil went to the library within the Soulkeep to look into destroying the Cauldron of Fire. Acaelus and Astraea also joined her.

Sybil and Astraea then had a conversation about what she had been through in the last couple of years and explained what happened from her perspective. She remembers waking up beneath the city of Kronstrad and being woken by Finny. She didn't go into detail about what happened next but the two of them lived in the city for a couple of months. During this time Sybil had run into an old friend of both her and Astraea, Strados. According to Sybil, Strados seemed unwell, almost darkened by time, and that he should not be trusted anymore. It is said that he continued northward after their exchange. Much later she was with Finny at a pub in the Riff called the Setting Sun, and when the exited she started to feel unwell. The next time she woke up she was in chains and explained her time in captivity by The Face. She was tortured, had her blood extracted, and was forced to fight demons spawned by The Hands. She explains that she escaped one night, made her way out of the sewers, and found her way back to the surface of the city. She escaped through the Jaunt, and eventually made her way to the Soulkeep.

During the remainder of the evening, Acaelus read some history books within the library of the Soulkeep. At one point Emeran and Autumn wanted to take a look through the scrolls to try and find inspiration for a song but realized that neither of them could read Celestial. Elias took some time praying beneath the Orb of the Matron. Eventually everyone found rest for the night, and Elias had a dream seeing Sybil chained up in the dungeon she was kept in, and the Face approaching her. He then saw a set of Scales come into balance.

The next morning Themus went to go check on his uncle, while everyone else waited in the hallway or in the room. Themus waited for him to wake and when he eventually did his uncle mistook Themus for his father Sirros, and was convinced he was dreaming, or in the afterlife. Themus proved to his Uncle that he was real, and that he was the son of Sirros and Kallistra. His uncle revealed that his name was Enos, and that while he wasn't a blood relative he was close enough. After Themus told Enos that he and his friends were trying to stop a cult of fire-worshippers, Enos revealed a brand put on his chest and admitted that he was one of them. Enos explained his history with Themus's parents, they were all wayward souls from Goldsand looking to find purpose. They joined this group called the Lovers of Flame, a free-love collective community where they paid worship to the goddess The Flame. Over time Sirros and Kallistra fell in love. The group eventually shifted focus into worship of the flames with several new leaders, and the collective turned into a cult. During this time Enos helped Kallistra and Sirros leave Goldsand, but in their escape, he had been captured and brought back to the high command where he had been branded and forced back into the servitude of the new cult's ideals. The new leader Dall Revok shifted the focus of the group from worship of the Flame to worship of the Ash Lord, a demon of great power who revealed himself to Revok, and in exchange for his life Revok vowed to conjure all of the body parts of the Ash Lord so that his form could exist on the material plane again, and the world could be reborn in the flames and ashes. Enos explained that The Hands is Dall, and that his unnatural demonic arms are that of the Ash Lord. It is also inferred that The Face wears the face of the Ash Lord. Enos's task before leaving Goldsand was to track down Dall Revok who had been taken by The Face. During his path to get Dall, Enos arrived in Falkswald to visit SIrros and Kallistra and learned that they had died in a fire. Enos tells Themus that he believes Dall set the fire and killed his parents.

Taking in all of the information the party headed back upstairs to discuss with Sybil what the next course of action would be. She tells the group that by dropping the heart of a greater Celestial being into the fire of the cauldron that it could be destroyed. Sybil found a record of a Couatl grave not too far from the Soulkeep, it is the grave of Eku, Mother of Singing Serpents. Sybil accounted in her report that she had been to the grave but the casket had been opened, and it appeared a necromancer had raised Eku. Judging by the trails of evidence it appeared to be Troglodytes who had taken Eku. Sybil said that if the party could kill Eku, remove the heart, and bring it back to be consecrated, that it could be used to destroy the Cauldron and ensure Sybil's safety.

The party ventured with Sybil and Enos to track and find the grave of Eku. After finding the grave itself Sybil decided to head back to the Soulkeep and let the party finish tracking. They discovered within the grave some gold pieces, and dead bodies of Troglodytes, seemingly killed by a trap that was on the grave itself. The party followed the trail into a Trog nest, and a battle took place. They killed Eku, and all but the last two Trogs who threw down their weapons after their god had been killed. Acaelus decided to use comprehend languages to speak with the priest Trog, and the two got into an argument about gods. Afterward, Acaelus vowed to never do that ever again. Astraea cut the heart from Eku and the party left the Trog Nest.