Chapter 1: Prologue

Private Investigator Nikotynievich Jr Brooks paid no mind to the fact that his contracted adventuring party returned from their missions with two new party members. In fact, he said their help would prove “most useful” with their final mission.

And the mission? The briefing that our heroes were so eagerly awaiting all this time?

The big scheme?

An infiltration of a government official’s residence – but not just any government official’s, mind you.

The president’s manor.

Private Eye Brooks revealed that, with the help of his informants, he had finally connected the dots together. It just so happened that the lines connecting the dots formed a trail that has led his detective agency to one, grand conclusion:

The president of the Free Colony of St. Hilmone is performing illegal, highly dangerous experiments with strigosis, sourcing prisoners from Fort Hope as test subjects in a vain attempt at harnessing the disease.

Because of the unplanned outbreak of strigosis in Fort Hope, however, experiments had to be moved to the mainland, where test subjects would be experimented on in laboratories hidden deep inside Bay City’s sewer system.

Brook’s agency already has substantial evidence that experiments with strigosis are taking place, but no definitive way to prove that the president is involved.

So then why him?

Because all scientists involved in this highly classified project were directly on the president’s payroll. Scouted by him, chosen by him, and hired by him. Personally.

The only thing preventing Brook’s agency from making a case against the Colony’s president is the fact they cannot definitively prove that he approved of, or even was aware of his scientists’ research.

Every interrogated collaborant so far had attested that the president is aware of the project, but their testimonies would mean nothing without substantial evidence presented alongside them to back their words.

This is where Ornella’s party comes in.

According to Brooks, if her party could find proof that the president is the one behind the whole project…

The one who ordered his top scientists to conduct strigosis experiments…

The one who lended an entire guildhouse to Seneriphus, the Shadow Wizard…

And the one who ordered the construction of hidden laboratories inside the sewer system with taxpayer money…

Then President Victor Igor Brahms could finally be brought to justice.

As for the kenku necromancer who besieged Fort Hope, no links were found that would connect him to the investigation.

The necromancer is a loose cannon.

Chapter 2: Calm Before the Storm

Private Investigator Nikotynievich Jr Brooks paid no mind to the fact that his contracted adventuring party returned from their missions with two new party members. In fact, he said their help would prove “most useful” with their final mission.

The plan was to wait for six days until the freedom parade, where the president would be busy touring the city.

During those days, the party laid low, trying not to gather much attention around themselves – then again, they still had to make a living.

Days 1-3

After Ornella told her teammates that they should try to blend in by doing regular work, Sylphie forgot about the “make a living” aspect of the plan, and instead volunteered as a caretaker in an all-girls orphanage, getting all sorts of nostalgic for the days of her youth.

At the orphanage, however, she was met with a disturbing reality. All the girls living there were being taught to sing the president’s praises. The caretakers even wore badges with his face on them, giving off the feeling that there’s a dangerous cult of personality brewing around this allegedly democratically-elected leader.

Sylphie tried to pay the situation no mind, though after three days, she quit the job prematurely. She knew of the president’s secrets, and couldn’t bear having to lie to innocent children all the time. Sylfira bid the orphanage farewell and dedicated the rest of her downtime to sidequests, though still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that, were Brooks’s grand plan to incriminate the president fail, she and her friends would wind up making things even worse.

Meanwhile, Ornella and Macy spent their downtime doing trivial sidequests so they could focus on their strigosis research. They ran enough errands to have money for daily living expenses and additional research equipment, but nothing beyond that. During their research, however, they stumbled upon an interesting phenomenon.

While examining Sienna’s condition, they discovered that it was progressing in spite of her partial immunity, though the progression itself wasn’t ordinary. Instead of slowly turning into a feral monstrosity, Sienna was supposedly developing an “alternate personality” – or at least that was the leading theory until she disproved it by claiming she was “aware of her shift in character at nighttime”. 

This revelation led Ornella and Macy to conclude that the elven hero’s condition was only tangentially related to strigosis and mostly psychological, chalking it up to mood swings and hallucinations caused by some variation of sundowner’s syndrome.

“I would not be so certain.” the knight said. “I am very well aware of whatever it is that I am doing in this… state…”

“My pupils, they…” she continued. “They shift in hue to a color I have never seen them look like before…”

“And I feel strangely… calm about this.” Sienna added. “At least when I’m in that state…”

“C-Could you ela-a-aborate on this, Miss Picarello?” Macy stammered.

“Certainly.” Sienna said. “It is almost as if…”

“I lost all of my inhibitions…”

“I act not by animalistic instinct, but not by my rigidly-defined values either…”

“When I am in this state, I am… A dark reflection of what I could have been.”

“A version of myself previously only known to me from nightmares…”

“Nightmares that show me turning into the same kind of person that Lady Chloe was…”

“Lady who?” Ornella inquired. “Wait, did I miss some backstory?”

“That is not the thing you should be focusing on right now…” Sienna replied. “The problem here is the fact that my nightmares are turning into reality…”

“I am becoming… a different person.” she sighed. “Slowly, but surely, my mind is being overwritten…”

“Don’t be so dramatic – it can’t be that bad, can it?” Ornella said. “Besides, isn’t feeling a little odd MUCH better than going feral?”

“I…” Sienna tried saying, before being interrupted by a sharp pain in her throat that would promptly turn into a coughing fit.

“Hey, y’alright?” Ornella tried to get her friend back on her feet, but the knight swatted her away with a swift move of the hand.

“D-Do not. Touch me…” Sienna croaked. “This is… This is why I cannot go back to Randwynn… To my people…”

“I am unstable…” she murmured.

“Do you understand?” Sienna said in a raspy, brooding voice.

Ornella couldn’t muster a response, and Macy turned ghastly pale.

Sienna didn’t realize what made those two so quiet, up until she realized:

It was getting dark, and as such, it would be best for her to leave.

Days 4-6

Sienna didn’t return “home” to her newfound friends for over two days straight. When she did, Ornella breathed a sigh of relief, claiming she almost thought the knight ghosted them for good.

Burdened with guilt, the elven hero explained that she had to “go for a hunt” to keep her mind sane, but got tangled up in a sidequest along the way. Luckily, her random errand proved to be profitable enough to warrant the other team members taking two days off from any work that they’ve been doing.

Ornella, Macy, and Sylphie thus went sightseeing before noon, and strolled around the city’s most well-lit streets once it was dark. They repeated this routine for days 5 and 6, mostly relaxing and gathering strength for their upcoming mission.

Hulrik was constantly cooking meals for the entire party, preparing something new for each of the six days they spent on downtime. On the night of day 6 however, a good 8 hours before their mission would commence, he spotted Enix staring longingly into the night from his room’s balcony instead of sleeping.

“What are you doing up so late?” he asked the tiefling.

“Oh, hi Mr Gufrisson.” Enix replied. “I-I was just-”

“If you can’t sleep, I can lend you a potion if you want.” the dwarf interjected. “Though I feel like that wouldn’t solve the issue at hand, would it now?”

Enix gave him a puzzled look.

“Eh?”

“Well,” the dwarf said. “What good would sleep do if you still haven’t processed whatever that thing you’re thinking about is?”

“You’d have a long, terrible night full of restless sleep,” he continued. “And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”

“I guess not…” Enix sighed.

The dwarf approached the balcony and stood beside the young tiefling.

“So tell me, boy.” Hulrik said, putting his hand on the young paladin’s shoulder. “What ails you, at this hour?”

Enix continued staring into the distant darkness beyond the city’s walls, but mustered enough courage for an honest reply:

“Lately, I just…” he murmured. “I can’t stop thinking about that day…”

“When I saw Master Andreus…” he added. “For the last time.”

Enix lowered his head in a pathetic manner, almost resembling a sad puppy.

“Without him, I-” he stammered, unable to finish his train of thought.

“Go on, I’m listening.” the dwarf encouraged him.

But Enix couldn’t finish. He couldn’t articulate his feelings without bursting into tears, and since he didn’t want to appear weak before Hulrik, the burly fighter of the group, he remained silent.

“Whatever you feel, Enix, will pass with time.” the dwarf said somberly. “The harsh truth of life is that, no matter how much we love certain people, there is no guarantee they will stay with us till the end.”

Hearing this, Enix shed a single tear.

“So if you feel broken, hollow, or purposeless without Master Andreus,” he continued. “Just remember that…”

“You are allowed to feel this way.” Hulrik said. “Just don’t get caught up in that feeling for too long.”

“I mean, look at me.” he chuckled. “For the first twenty-or-so years after my wife cast me out, I couldn’t think of anything but how much I wanted to see my children again.”

“I still miss them, from time to time – but imagine how they would feel?” he continued. “Imagine how Master Andreus would feel, seeing you in this state?”

Enix sniffled.

“I didn’t get the chance to meet him, so bear with me here, but something tells me he wouldn’t want to see you like this.” Hulrik suggested. “No, you know what I think?”

Enix raised his eyes from the ground, staring intently at the dwarf.

“I think he’d rather see you move on,” the dwarf continued. “See you carry his legacy instead of mourning his loss.”

“Because sure, everyone gets a lil’ teary-eyed every now and again, but we can’t let that define us, Enix.” he said. “Our lowest moments shouldn’t define us.”

“It is precisely for the sake of our lost loved ones…”

“That we should aspire to live…”

Enix gave the dwarf a faint smile, before leaning on the balcony again.

“Maybe you’re right, Mr Gufrisson…” the tiefling said. “Maybe I should… keep going.”

“If not for my sake, then… For Master Andreus’s sake.” he added.

“It’s… what he would’ve wanted.” Enix said with a weak smile.

“Attaboy.” the dwarf cheered. “Now, don’t stay up too late, alright?”

“We have a big day ahead of us.” he added. “You should get some rest.”

Once the dwarf started stumbling back to his room, Enix stopped him for a moment.

“Mr Gufrisson…?” he said.

“Yes, son?” Hulrik replied.

“Thank you.” the tiefling said.

The dwarf smiled, then went back to his room.

Soon enough, Enix went to sleep with newfound optimism in his heart.

“My story doesn’t end here.” he thought to himself in his sleep. “I will keep fighting, no matter what…”

Chapter 3: The Investigation

Eleventh of Maleficum, year 1700 PS. Early Morning of Terday.

(New Soloastrian Calendar: Twenty-first of Mellowgreen, year 1700 PS. Morning of Soc Sinnis)

The rising sun was partially obscured by rainclouds that unexpectedly swept in from the south. Thankfully – in spite of this inconvenience – it was still bright outside, so the freedom parade would commence without issues, giving our heroes the opportunity to do their investigating.

A little while later, the president left his residence to depart for the freedom parade.

Our heroes then swiftly moved into position – that being, of course, the back of the president’s manor, surrounded by forests and dense foliage.

It was up to Ornella, Hulrik, Aureus, Reverwyn, Enix, and Sylphie – the original team – to infiltrate the building, while Nelamon and Bardette would be waiting for them outside to receive the gathered info and deliver it to Mr Brooks, who’s waiting with Sienna and Macy.

“That’s it, I’m tired of waiting around.” Ornella said. “We’re going in!”

“Are you absolutely, positively sure that the president is far enough away?” Aureus stopped her at the last second.

The elf looked the dragonborn dead in the eyes then nodded affirmatively.

“Alright, you’re the boss.” Aureus replied.

Enix turned to the party leader with a burning question:

“Ok, we’re going in, but…” he started. “Where to, exactly?”

“You mean, like, the entrance?” Ornella said.

“Yeah.” Enix replied. “Where is it?”

“Is there even a backdoor in here?” he inquired.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make one.” Ornella said with a smug expression.

The druid took a few steps back, then shapeshifted into a rat.

In her rat form, Ornella snuck into the building through a sewage pipe at the back, having to transform into a fish in the middle of it in order to not drown in waste.

Once she was out of the pipes and in the bathroom, she reverted to her regular form, then took a good look at herself in the bathroom mirror.

“Thank Gods dirt doesn’t carry over from Wild Shapes.” she thought. “I would be covered in shit by now.”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot!” she continued her train of thought. “I gotta let the others in!”

Thanks to the spell Pass Without a Trace, Ornella managed to stealthily make her way towards the second floor of the building, where she entered a servant’s bedroom that would prove essential in their plan.

“Bingo!” she thought, grabbing every single sheet and curtain available and tying them together into a makeshift rope.

Thanks to the rope, the other party members made it safely inside the building, and now their entire adventuring party has found itself in a second floor bedroom of some poor, unsuspecting servant.

“My spell is still up.” Ornella said. “As long as you guys stay close to me, nobody will hear you.”

“Got it.” Hulrik said. “Lead the way.”

“If anything goes south, though…” he added, pulling out some kind of contraption from his backpack.

“Mr Brooks entrusted me with this device in case…” he started. “In case we were to be captured, and… experimented upon.”

“What’s that?” Enix asked.

“It’s a gnomish runepowder bomb.” the dwarf explained. “Strong enough to leave a crater the size of a lower class home.”

“By the Shining One, why would you have this?!” Sylfira exclaimed.

“Like I said, that was Mr Brooks’s idea.” Hulrik said. “He told me to-”

“No, I get it.” Ornella added. “If the president really IS responsible for strigosis experiments, then…”

“Believe me…”

“If we get caught, death is very much preferable.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Aureus interjected. “For now – grim scenarios aside – we should focus on digging for evidence first.”

“Right, let’s go.” Ornella declared.

And so, the adventurers began exploring the president’s residence, thoroughly scouring each and every room for clues until finally, they struck gold:

“No way, is that…” Aureus murmured.

“The president’s office?!” Enix exclaimed.

“Aye.” Hulrik said. “Must be where he keeps his documents, too.”

“Too bad it is locked…” Reverwyn added.

Ornella turned to the drow rogue:

“Can you lockpick that door?”

“Can dragons fly?” Reverwyn replied.

“Well, that depends-” Ornella tried explaining.

“Shut up and let me focus.” the drow rogue muttered, approaching the door’s lock.

Using her thieves’ tools, Rev successfully accessed the president’s home office, only to find everything inside frantically scattered.

Notes, letters, books, copies of legal documents – all strewn across the floor in a chaotic manner, almost as if a whirlwind had passed through the room.

“What… What is all this?” the drow said.

“Evidence!” Ornella exclaimed. “Let’s get to work, lads!”

Ornella and her friends found themselves digging through piles of scattered documents in the president’s office, finding nothing of note, until…

“Guys…?” Enix waved a thin folder around. “You’re gonna wanna see this.”

“Gimme that.” Ornella said, grabbing the file. “Hmm…”

“Oh!” the druid exclaimed. “OH!”

“That’s it, that’s our evidence!” she said enthusiastically. “This file right here, and this entire folder, come to think of it…”

“What’s in there, Nella?” Sylphie inquired.

“Well…” Ornella smiled.

“A whole dossier on classified strigosis research!” she exclaimed. “Specifically, research that is privately funded by the president from tax money!”

“That’s absolutely ALL the evidence we would ever need!” the elf added.

“Great, now let’s get out of here before we’re caught.” Aureus said worriedly.

“Right, I’ll lead the way.” Ornella replied. “I still have my spell rea-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a flash of lightning outside illuminated the room through an elaborately-designed stained glass window. The lightning revealed the shadow of a winged person.

“So… about that spell?” Aureus inquired.

“Uh huh?” Ornella muttered, shaking.

“Does it… make us invisible if we stay still?” the wizard said. “Or, at least, harder to detect?”

“It’s just the s-sounds that are muffled.” Ornella stammered. “Maybe if we… back out of the room slowly…”

Another flash of lightning struck a tree next to the residence, yet again revealing a winged silhouette floating on the other side of the stained glass, just outside the room.

“H-Hulrik?” the elf said.

“Yes…?” the dwarf replied.

“On a scale of 1 to 10…” Ornella continued. “How fucked are we right about now?”

“If by cursing you mean ‘how much’, then…” Hulrik replied.

“Around 11.”

Right then and there, a beam of light shattered the window, sending its shards directly at our heroes. The laser that also coincidentally melted the door behind them was a Sunbeam spell fired off by none other than…

“M-Mister President!” Sylphie gasped.

“How is he ALREADY here?!” Ornella thought to herself.

The aasimar floating before them on his resplendent wings brought a sending stone closer to his ear, listening in on some sort of message.

“No need. I will handle them myself.” he whispered into the sending stone with a gravely voice before charging up another sunbeam.

“Everybody run!” Hulrik yelled.

And run they did.

Meanwhile, hearing explosions and seeing the residence slowly crumble, Nelamon and Bardette got tired of waiting and decided to rush in, hoping the rest of the party was alright.

“Ornella?!” Bardette exclaimed. “Sylphie?!”

“Is anyone there?!” she added.

Since the stairs to the upper floors were blown up by the rampaging president, the two adventurers had to first scour the ground floor. While going from room to room and looking for any of their friends, they realized the party was probably still upstairs, trying to escape the president’s wrath.

“We have to get up there somehow…” Nelamon murmured.

“ENIX?” Bardette continued shouting. “REV, AUREUS – ANYONE IN THERE?”

“Hey, look,” Nelamon interjected, pointing to somewhere in the living room. “There’s an unused fireplace here.”

“Unused?” the bard inquired. “Like, untouched?”

“Yeah, squeaky clean.” the ranger replied. “I bet we could climb upstairs through the chimney.”

“Must be our lucky day then!” Bardette exclaimed. “Alright, I’ll go first!”

“…”

“…”

“…Nelly?”

“What is it?” the ranger said.

“There’s no chimney, but…” the bard started. “There’s a crawlspace here.”

“I’ll go check it out – just in case.” she added.

“Wait, Bardette, don’t go in there!” Nelamon exclaimed. 

But she could no longer hear him.

“The building is unstable right now!” he kept shouting, but to no avail.

As Bardette was descending down into some sort of basement, a strong smell of meat began assaulting her nostrils.

Suddenly, she found herself in front of an iron door. The keys were hung on a ring next to it. She could open it if she wanted to. But did she?

“I… I wonder what’s behind this door…” she thought to herself.

“Maybe it’s a bunker?” she continued her train of thought. “Or an escape tunnel?”

“That would come in handy!”

“Alright, let’s see…”

“…”

“…”

“Huh…” Bardette murmured. “It’s darker here than my darkvision allows me to see.”

“I know!” she thought. “I still have a torch on me!”

“Let me just…”

“…”

“There we go!” she said. “Alright, the lights are on – time to…”

“Wait a sec…” she muttered. “W-What…”

“Is… Is that… a corpse?”

“W-Why… Why is it…”

The body of a pale, young woman crawled out of an ornate tomb, slowly crawling towards Bardette with a heavy breath.

Frozen with fear, she couldn’t do anything but watch as the corpse shambled closer and closer towards her.

Then, suddenly, the body collapsed, falling unconscious once more.

“Unconscious?” Bardette thought to herself. “M-Maybe it’s just someone unconscious?”

“No, surely – that looks like a CORPSE.”

“But, then again…”

“…”

“Screw it!” she thought. “I’ll… I’ll go check before I make any assumptions.”

Chapter 4: The Escalation

The woman was as pale as a ghost, and generally looked rather sickly. One would be forgiven to mistake her for a corpse, but alas, she was alive – “she had a pulse, and all that jazz”, as Bardette would put it. Nonetheless, Bardette hurriedly prodded the body, attempting to wake the figure up. To her surprise, she succeeded.

The pale woman opened her eyes – eyes so red they glowed in the dingy darkness of her confinement cell. Free at last, the woman painstakingly raised her head and started to look around.

“Hnngh…” she murmured. “Is it over yet?”

Bardette was stunned, but not stunned enough to be unable to speak. Mustering the courage to ask, Bardette spoke:

“Who…”

“Who are you, girl?” the bard said with newfound sympathy.

“You okay?” she added.

The mysterious captive began stretching and yawning, as if she was entirely unconcerned with her predicament, simply treating her imprisonment as one long nap she had just awakened from. While that was happening, Bardette realized something she hadn’t noticed before: during her stretches, the pale woman unfolded her wings – wings that resembled not those of an aasimar, but of a bat.

“Did… did my dad send you?” the woman said. “Can I go now?”

“I promise I won’t cause trouble.” she added in an unconvincing tone of voice.

The woman was still visibly woozy and light-headed, struggling to stand up on her own without spinning and falling over.

“Ah, sorry.” she murmured. “I uhh… I can’t feel my legs.”

Bardette heard her friends calling for her, as well as the sounds of city alarms blaring in the distance. She acted on her feet and decided to grab the woman and run. Having lifted the pale stranger in her arms, the bard carried her out of the crawlspace, finding Nelamon and Ornella waiting for her outside, in the living room.

“I found the others!” the ranger exclaimed. “We gotta hurry, Bardette!”

“Y-Yeah, we REALLY gotta hurry – they already got the fucking PRESIDENT himself, and we’re next on the menu!”

“They? Menu?” Bardette thought. “What is she talking about?”

“How… How long was I in that basement?” she thought.

“Don’t just stand there – MOVE!” Nelamon ordered. “And what’s with that blanket you’re holding?”

“Oh, umm… I wrapped some t-treasures in it!” Bardette stammered.

“Right, enough chit-chat, we’ll talk on our way outta here!” Ornella exclaimed.

The human, the elf, and the marionette pushed forward towards the exit, which was blown open by the president’s final attack.

“Wait, what happened to the president?!” Bardette exclaimed.

“The strigoi… they got to him.” Nelamon explained.

“The WHAT?” the bard exclaimed again.

“Gods dang it, we don’t have time for exposition now…” Ornella shouted. “But fine – see… while you were down there, alarms started blaring in the city.”

“We, uhh… We tried fighting the president, but someone got to him first.” Ornella continued

“Yeah, another flying wizard… Great day we’re having today, aren’t we?” Nelamon interjected.

“I’ve actually seen him before.” Ornella added. “It’s that… Kenku, from Fort Hope.”

“I honestly thought he was dead, but here we are!”

While the three of them were running out of the manor, the blanket Bardette was carrying accidentally unwrapped, revealing the body of the pale young woman that the bard escorted out of the basement earlier.

“By Salazar and the other eight deities, what in the hells are you doing with that corpse?!” the ranger erupted.

“She’s…” Bardette said, panting from exhaustion. “She’s still alive, dummy!”

“We have… to get her… out of here.” she added, breathing heavily.

The so-called “corpse” opened her scarlet eyes once more, turning her piercing gaze towards Nelamon. The ranger felt a shiver run down his spine.

“Fuck, Bardette… You’re risking your life for a stranger – get a grip!” Nelamon replied.

“Hey, asshole: that’s… exactly why we’re here… in the first place!” Bardette exclaimed.

“No, this is BUSINESS.” Nelamon stated, just as exhausted as the other two. “We agreed to this… because… that’s what the Old Fart pays us for!”

Sylphie ran up to the two.

“Bardette is right.” the cleric said. “Whoever that girl she’s carrying is, we can still heal her.”

“You, however – you’re not being honest with yourself.” she told Nelamon. “Don’t act like we’re not friends by now.”

“Sylphie?!” Ornella inquired. “What are you doing here?”

“The others told me to come back for you.” the cleric explained.

“How…” Ornella said, starting to breathe heavily from exhaustion as well. “How much further till we’re in the clear?”

“We have to get to the port district a few streets from here.” the fire genasi added. “When that necromancer… with the president… you know… he, uhh…”

“He flew across the city, so…” she continued. “We have just enough time to leave!”

“What’s his endgame?” Ornella thought to herself. “Is he… systematically taking out government officials right now?”

“But the strigoi army…” she continued thinking. “This isn’t just a takeover, he’s zombifying the entire city!”

Approaching the port district, the party was almost ready to escape. On their way there, still running, Nelamon attempted to make sense of all this:

“Bardette, this… This must be the president’s kid, right?” he said, changing the subject. “Or some other relative.”

“She sure looks the part.” Bardette said, also still running. 

“Yeah – her dad’s face was plastered on posters all over the city,” Nelamon added “Uncanny resemblance, actually.”

“But why is she so… pale?” he said. “Don’t tell me she’s infected, too.”

“Look, I don’t know, okay?!” Bardette exclaimed. “She was locked up in a dingy cell and under some sort of deep sleep spell.”

“I just…” she murmured. “I just felt like helping her was right.”

“It absolutely was, and I’m proud of you for that, sweetheart,” Sylphie said. “But if we don’t hurry, we’re going to miss the boat!”

“What boat?” Bardette asked.

Nelamon pointed at the docks in the distance.

“The Old Fart found us a rescue boat – he told us to sail to Marinell and meet up with his daughter.” the ranger explained.

“He said she’s going to help us get accustomed to the place – getting us a place to stay, and such.” he continued.

“And what about him?” Bardette inquired. “What’s Mr Brooks going to do?”

“He already left on his own boat!” a voice yelled from a distance. “And if you don’t hurry, we won’t be as lucky!”

“Hulrik!” Nelamon, Bardette, and Sylphie shouted in unison.

“Hop on the boat, me and Ornella will hold off the horde!” the dwarf exclaimed.

“H-Horde…?” Bardette whimpered.

“Look, it’s him!” Sylfira interjected. “The necromancer!”

Waves upon waves of strigoi flooded Bay City under the command of Milvus. The kenku necromancer was unstoppable, and the city was bound to fall – the only question remaining was: would our heroes make it out alive?

It seemed improbable, as their ship still wasn’t ready to set sail while hordes of undead were steadily closing in.

Several smaller waves of undead later, the ship was almost ready for voyage, but the strigoi continued pouring into the docks in larger and larger numbers.

The president was dead, the government had fallen, and there was no-one to come and save our heroes. They were left for dead, and had to fend for themselves.

“Get in, everyone!” Enix called out to his teammates. “The boat’s almost ready, just gotta raise the anchor!”

Hulrik and Ornella found themselves surrounded by the undead – they were utterly outnumbered, and on the brink of being overwhelmed.

In a moment of desperation, the dwarf pushed Ornella out of the way and sent her tumbling down the stairs to the lower docks.

“Oi, what are you doing?!” she exclaimed. “You have a death wish or something?!”

“Run for it, Ornella!” the dwarf yelled. “Get to the boat while I hold them off!”

With all his might, the fighter chucked his signature handaxe at the ship. The weapon’s edge landed right on the rope holding the ship’s anchor, severing it instantly and sending the hunk of steel down the ocean.

The handaxe was now lodged firmly in the ship, and so it couldn’t boomerang back to its owner like it usually did. Hulrik was thus left unarmed.

“Go, now!” the dwarf exclaimed. “I’ll handle them!”

“WE’RE NOT LEAVING YOU OUT HERE, YOU MANIAC!” the elf screamed. “GET BACK HERE!”

But alas, it was too late for Hulrik – and had he not pushed Ornella out of the horde’s reach, she would’ve suffered the same fate.

Sylphie and Aureus dragged Ornella to the ship as she was flailing around, resisting, desperately trying to go after the dwarf.

Enix stared into the distance with abject horror, paralyzed with fear. He had already felt this way before, a mere week ago when he was forced to watch Master Andreus die.

The young paladin was overcome with a terrifying feeling of deja vu.

It was then when the humble dwarf fighter Hulrik Gufrisson, in a last ditch effort to save his friends, detonated the runepowder bomb he had in his backpack.

A thunderous boom.

A flash of light.

A deafening silence.

When the dust had finally settled, Hulrik was blown to smithereens – his remains nowhere to be seen, except for his shield, which flew high into the air and landed on the ship right next to Enix, as if it were choosing him as its next wielder.

The tens if not hundreds of strigoi that once surrounded Hulrik were gone as well.

The explosion sent Ornella, Aureus, and Sylphie flying out of the docks and tumbling into the water – or at least it would have, had Bardette not grabbed them with a Scroll of Bigby’s Hand at the last second.

“I got you!” the bard said.

Having pulled the three of them up on the ship, Bardette told the other party members to get the boat moving. Sienna and Macy got to work, and the ship finally set sail.

With a defeated look, Ornella watched as Bay City was being ravaged by hordes of undead during the rain, carefully approaching the explosion site while looking for fresh meat, only to be met with ashen ruins of what was once a pleasant waterfront district.

Unresponsive to Sylfira’s attempts at calming him down, Enix, still shellshocked, fell to his knees in despair. All he could do was crawl. Crawl towards the edge of the ship, with a completely blank expression.

While his cleric friend feared the young paladin was going to throw himself off the boat, Enix was not considering the easy way out. Instead, he instinctively dragged himself towards Hulrik’s handaxe, still lodged deep in the ship.

The tiefling pulled the weapon out of the boat’s wooden hull and stared at it intently for a moment, before whispering something to himself:

“Our… lowest moments… should not define us.” the boy murmured. “Hah…”

Tears began gently running down his cheek as he cradled the wooden shield that once belonged to the dwarf. Then, he continued staring at his handaxe with an unusual expression – an expression that simultaneously resembled both desperate panic and tears of joy:

“T-This axe…” Enix said in a shaky, raspy voice. “And this shield…”

“Your m-memory…”

“I won’t forget, but I will move on.”

“I-I’ll keep fighting, no matter what!”

“It’s… It’s what you would’ve wanted, Mr Gufrisson…”

“It’s what you w-would’ve wanted…” he said, repeating himself over and over, quieter and quieter with each repetition, until he was left mumbling to himself like a madman.

Sylphie just stood there, perplexed by the young paladin’s “sudden surge of optimism”.

“He sure bounced back quickly, didn’t he?” she cluelessly asked her dragonborn teammate.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Aureus murmured.

“Pay no mind to it, though – it’ll pass.” the wizard sighed. “He’s in an advanced state of delusion at the moment.”

“For now, it would be best to just… leave him be.” he added.

Chapter 5: Epilogue

During a long voyage to the Hessandrelian Duchy of Marinell, the party mostly sulked in silence.

A few conversations here and there tried to brighten the mood, but didn’t usually last longer than four sentences each.

The mood worsened when Aureus got into an argument with Ornella over her recklessness and where the party should go next. Before those two could finish their verbal jousting, Reverwyn threw her hat in the ring, uttering a rather hurtful remark about Ornella that had the party leader spend the rest of the cruise in silence.

Aureus and Reverwyn then held many conversations in sign language, which Bardette started picking up on. When the dragonborn wizard noticed she was trying to “listen in”, he gave her an intimidating glare that made her turn around and continue sulking in silence before approaching Ornella to warn her that “something feels off about the two today”.

Once the party had finally arrived on the West Coast of New Soloastria, Mr Brooks’s daughter was nowhere to be found, though she did send one of her friends over in her place. Her friend led our heroes to their hotel for the night. Of course, Ornella had her own residence in Marinell, but it was located in a different city, so she decided to stay the night then and there.

On the balcony of their shared hotel room, Ornella and Sylfira were both stargazing while they pondered their next move.

“So… what happens now?” the fire genasi said.

“We’ve got… a few goals.” the elf responded.

Ornella leaned on the balcony railing, letting out a long, disappointed sigh.

“…but none of them sound achievable.”

“Oh don’t be like thaaat!” Sylphie said, prodding Ornella’s shoulder. “I’m sure that, with time, we’ll come back stronger than ever!”

“Besides, there’s still soooo much stuff we haven’t finished doing, isn’t there?” she added. “Your research paper, the Librus Regalia, the uhh…”

“…the necromancer.” the cleric murmured.

“Yeah…” Ornella sighed. “The necromancer.”

“Honestly? I don’t care what he does, so long as he stays on that little island.” she added.

“The guy inadvertently saved our skin twice by now – if he wanted us dead, he would’ve already done so.”

“That’s why I won’t pursue him – it’s just asking for trouble, Sylphie.”

A worried expression washed over the cleric’s face.

“You’re just saying that because you’re frustrated.” she said.

“But don’t worry, Nella.” she added. “I’m sure once you get some sleep you’ll feel better… about all of this.”

Ornella simply stared into the distance, her gaze fixed on the stars.

“Yeah… Sure.” the elf said dismissively.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Sylphie?” she asked, suddenly jolted with enthusiasm. “Didn’t Bardette have a map to the next piece of Librus Regalia?”

“That she did!” the cleric smiled.

“Okay, so we’re still in this after all.” Ornella said, turning away from the balcony.

“We just have to get back to the Old Continent, and… we can still continue,” she trailed off. “Right?”

The fire genasi placed her hand on Ornella’s shoulder. With a heartfelt smile, she said:

“Of course we can.”

The two then headed to Bardette’s room, only to find her missing.

“Strange.” Ornella said. “Check her backpack, Sylphie – the map should be in there.”

Sylfira rummaged through the bard’s backpack, but couldn’t find any maps.

“Not there.” she replied.

“Damn it, where is she?!” Ornella said, slightly agitated.

Then, a wave of realization washed over the druid:

“Was… Was her window always open?” she muttered.

“Umm… Probably not?” Sylphie replied. “She’s not in her room, and it’s on the ground floor, soooo…”

“Leaving one’s window open before leaving is probably not a good idea.” she added. “But then why did she do that?”

Ornella spotted a trail of blood on the pavement outside their hotel.

“She didn’t.” Ornella murmured in a harsh voice. “We have to go. Now.”

“Why, what’s happening?” Sylphie inquired as Ornella was dragging her along by the hand, leading the cleric to a dark, unlit alley behind the hotel.

The trail of blood from earlier suspiciously ended right on the intersection of various alleyways, almost as if it was scrubbed from the ground with a Prestidigitation cantrip.

Just then, Ornella noticed blood pouring from the dumpsters in an alley to her right.

“Oh no.” she gasped.

“No, no, no, no, no…” she thought to herself while sprinting towards the dumpster.

Upon opening it, Ornella found the body of a local night patrol officer, massacred and in pieces.

“W-What is it, Nella?” Sylphie asked from further behind.

Ornella closed the dumpster, only to see something glint in a different alleyway. When she approached the dark corridor to investigate the shining object, she realized it was light being reflected from a rapier. A silver, ornate rapier with a red handle. The very same one that Bardette tends to use.

“Where is she?!” the druid thought. “Please don’t die on me right now…”

“By Suryalus…” Sylphie whimpered from further back. “Ornella…”

“Ornella, y-you have to see this!” she yelled.

As Ornella ran towards her friend, she found Sylphie cradling a grievously injured Bardette, attempting to cure her wounds with healing magic. Riddled with multiple stab wounds as well as red-colored bruises typically left behind by the Magic Missile spell, Ornella suddenly remembered the bard’s warning, and hesitantly, she asked:

“Hey, Bardette… If you can hear me…”

“Y-Yeah, I’m… I’ll be fine, boss.” the bard replied, still coughing up blood. “Thanks Sylphie.”

“In that case, please, tell me…” Ornella interjected.

“Who did this to you?”

Bardette thought long and hard about it, as if she struggled to remember.

Then, suddenly…

Eureka:

“I-It’s… It was… It was THEM!” she said, pointing her shaking finger towards the docks. “They’re… They’re…”

“They’re getting… away!” she murmured.

Ornella raised her head.

“Sylphie…” she whispered. “Guiding Bolt?”

“Alright.” the cleric agreed, casting the spell towards the docks.

The bolt of light illuminated the entire path from their current location to the docks before eventually hitting a street sign. Upon impact, the flash of light from the radiant projectile revealed two familiar figures making their way towards a small ship.

“Bardette… Stay put.” Ornella commanded. “We’ll be back for you soon, okay?”

“What do you mean soon, she’s seriously injured!” Sylfira exclaimed.

“SYLPHIE, WE’RE BEING BETRAYED!” Ornella shouted before running after the two silhouettes in the distance.

Finally, she arrived at the docks, only to find Aureus and Reverwyn busy with someone, or rather, something else.

“Now now, let’s not be hasty – we had a deal, remember?” a fiendish apparition spoke to Aureus.

“Where are my promised artifacts, wizard?”

“I got them right…” the dragonborn started. “HERE!”

The dragonborn wizard whipped out some kind of scroll from his backpack. With a single word uttered in the Abyssal tongue, the scroll crackled with energy before summoning an orb as black as the void. The orb grew larger and larger, before eventually, it started consuming random street trash around it.

Aureus and Reverwyn were unaffected, meanwhile, Ornella and Sylphie were holding onto the dock railing for dear life.

The fiendish apparition, also unaffected, laughed in the face of the black hole in front of it.

“Ha! You thought you could outsmart me, wizard?” the devil said. “Really now, must I remind you of the consequences of-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Reverwyn sliced the apparition’s tendons with some sort of dagger that neither Ornella nor Sylphie have ever seen before.

“GAH!” the devil yelped before suddenly finding himself corporeal.

“W-What… What is this sorcery!” he exclaimed.

“No more illusions – I brought your physical form here so you could face your mortality, fiend.” Reverwyn said.

The ever-increasing orb of nothingness started swallowing the devil whole – suddenly, the void inside it turned into a nightmarish hellscape filled with twisted, contorted entities that only vaguely resembled humanoid appendages.

An entire army of arms grabbed the devil hard enough so that he wouldn’t escape. In a flash, he was swallowed into an ocean of hands, screaming his lungs out until Aureus uttered a second word in the Abyssal tongue, sealing the warp in reality forever and destroying the scroll in the process.

Suddenly, he fell to his knees in great pain. Aureus felt as if some magical force was tearing into his scales. Into his flesh, even. The dragonborn wizard’s face was marked with a strange symbol – a demonic scar, seared into his flesh – the price to pay for using a scroll of this caliber.

Just when Ornella and Sylphie got up, Reverwyn cast the Fog Cloud spell, then helped her limping friend get on the boat.

“Let us go, Aureus.” she said coldly. “We already got what we came here for.”

Once the fog had dissipated, Sylfira shouted at the ship as it was moving further and further away from the docks:

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!”

“WAIT FOR US!”

“Sylphie…” Ornella tried to say.

“HEY, COME BACK!”

“WE STILL HAVE TO STOP THE NECROMANCER!”

“AND FIND THE REMAINING REGALIA!”

With a smug expression, Aureus spilled the contents of his bag onto the ship, then hunched over to pick something up.

Before he and Reverwyn voyaged further towards the horizon, Aureus flashed a pair of gauntlets at his distant teammates, as well as having waved some sort of map scroll in a taunting manner.

“That son of a bitch…” Ornella said.

“I-I don’t… I don’t understand…” the cleric weeped, falling to her knees.

“Why was that devil there, what was that scroll, why did they-”

“It’s okay, Sylphie, quiet now.” Ornella said, comforting her friend so she doesn’t hyperventilate.

“This… This happens frequently in this line of work – in adventuring, I mean.” the elf said.

“We were doublecrossed…” she added.

“…”

“Now, we should probably get back to Bardette.”

“R-Right… I’ll… I’ll go heal her up.” Sylphie muttered. “It’s the least I can do, now that we-”

“Hey now, let’s…” Ornella interrupted her. “Let’s not think about it for now, okay?”

“We’ll have time to brood later.” the druid said.

“We’ll have all the time in the world…” the druid added.

Chapter 6: The End

It’s the end of the road.

The “Lights Out” adventuring party has disbanded. But why?

When faced with Aureus and Reverwyn’s betrayal, the party – having lost their only piece of Librus Regalia and a map to another one – made a desperate last bid to chase after their former allies.

Nelamon, Bardette, and the mysterious pale woman they’ve rescued from President Brahm’s manor have decided to go their own way. No matter how hard Sylphie and Ornella tried to persuade them against leaving, they simply didn’t sign up for what the situation had developed into, and as such, wanted no part in it.

Sylphie, Ornella, Enix, Sienna, and Macy were the last remaining party members.

Following a brief period of rest in Marinell, they departed for the Old Continent once more, embarking on a crusade to find the remaining Librus Regalia before Aureus and Reverwyn could get to them.

This game of cat and mouse went on for months, slowly chipping at what remained of each party member’s sanity. During the adventurers’ darkest hour, when Aureus was but a single relic away from assembling them all, they managed to find the last one before their rivals.

Unfortunately, the dragonborn wizard’s power had already gotten out of hand by this point. He was able to revert Reverwyn into her original form – that of a red dragon.

Together with his draconic ally, Aureus wiped the floor with his former teammates, taking the last remaining relic by force and using their combined power to…

Do something completely unexpected.

Everyone expected him to bend Old Soloastria’s darkness to his will – to take control of this ancient curse and use it to further his own goals. Instead, Aureus Erz-Saffron, the Scaled Scribe, sacrificed the regalia to gain a single use of a wish spell.

With this wish, he became a true dragon.

A majestic gold dragon with power rivalling that of an ancient one.

Satisfied with his new form, the wizard and his rogue companion – now both dragons – flew away towards the distant lands on the horizon, heralding that “soon, a new age of dragons would come”.

“And this time, humanoids shall submit to draconic will.”

With this declaration, Ornella felt a surge of optimism towards the party’s incoming grand battle against their former friend and sworn foe. Her teammates, however, did not share her enthusiasm.

Sienna argued the party had lost. Failed, even. She insinuated that maybe it would be best if they split.

Ornella tried to argue against it, just like when Nelamon and Bardette decided to leave, but she was yet again unsuccessful.

To rub salt in the wound, Enix got too attached to the elven hero by this point to let her go alone. He swore an oath of loyalty to the knight and became her dutiful squire.

Unwilling to lose another mentor figure in his life, Enix accompanied Sienna in her journey back to the New Continent, where she would undergo spiritual therapy to soothe the vampiric urges stemming from her progressing strigosis.

Ornella, Sylphie, and Macy were forced to call quits. Not everyone is cut out for adventuring, as it turned out.

Upon returning to the Duchy of Marinell, Ornella invited Macy to live with her, and the two dedicated themselves to strigosis research, keeping in touch with Sienna and Enix and harboring no harsh feelings towards the two, claiming the breakup of their adventuring party was “perhaps for the best”.

As for Sylfira Averasto, the fire genasi light cleric, she also stayed in Marinell, where she landed herself a job at the local church of Suryalus and still preaches her deity’s teachings to this day.

In spite of the adventuring party’s dissolution, Sienna Picarello and Enix would continue adventuring.

The knight and her squire will face new challenges, meet new friends, and embark on new, thrilling adventures in…

Soloastria Legends:

The illustrated novel based on a TTRPG campaign set in the world of Soloastria – chapter previews will be available in the form of blog posts on soloastria.com.

See you there!