In the Tomb of Elesh
Party awakens in an underground chamber with a large floating orb made of stone in the middle.
They discuss what happened and why Faylin betrayed the party. Faylin explains that she was not in control; instead, she was possessed by the soul of her mother, whose soul is somehow trapped within her body.
Party investigates the immediate surroundings to see if they can find a way out. The large double stone doors facing the orb do not budge, but have a strange reaction to Walter.
The party investigates the rest of the area and finds no exit. Instead they find evidence of the place being the Tomb of Elesh, a burial ground for the royal family of Cen and a sacrosanct location.
As they finish investigating the area, they hear heavy footsteps approaching from somewhere above. They hide and listen as something massive enters the room and has some interaction with the stone orb.
They hear the voice of a young girl who walks over to the graves of her parents and speaks to them. Hasae is able to understand their language and informs the party that the girl is the current ruler of Cen.
As the girl and her golem are about to leave, the party reveals themselves to queen Rem-Leneth. They convince her that they are not a threat and that they were teleported to the tomb against their will.
During their exchange, Rem-Leneth's golem points at Walter, but the meaning of the gesture is unclear to everyone else.
The queen demands the party to follow her and her golem out of the tomb and to the capital city of Cen'Ith, where they can discuss what happened. The party complies and follows her.
On the way to the exit, the party sees a strange statue of a knight with a shield showing an incomplete symbol of Ardia.
Journey to Cen'Ith
As the party exits, they meet the queen's retinue of 50 Cenith royal guards and her advisor Vol-Zorya. The queen orders her advisor and part of her retinue to escort the party to the capital.
Everyone travels almost wordlessly through the jungle for hours until they reach a large body of water that opens into an enormous lake. The royal guards summon a giant turtle from the depths of the water to ferry everyone except the queen and her golem to Cen'Ith. The queen stays on her golem, which is capable of walking on water.
At Cen'Ith
The party arrives to the capital late in the evening. They are split from the queen and most of the royal guards, who continue on to the royal palace on top of a giant hill. The party is escorted by Vol-Zorya and the remaining guards not to the royal palace, but a lavish guest house sharing the same hill as the palace.
On the way to the guest house, the party sees a white and gold airship moored near the royal park. There is a person watching the party over the railing of the main deck of the airship.
Before the party enters the guest house, Vol-Zorya reminds them that causing any damage to royal property is high treason and, when the party is summoned to have an audience with the queen, lying to the queen is grounds for death penalty.
Another noble-looking woman runs over towards the party, but they are stopped by Vol-Zorya, who seems to know them.
At guest house
The party bathes in the open-air bath behind the house and relax after their long ordeal that started after they were imprisoned aboard SS Chosen. Walter relaxes on a couch by reading a book.
They make tentative plans about how they will proceed after they are let go by the queen.
Everyone goes to bed and falls asleep.
The party finds themselves in a strange dream with everyone from the party present. Saki is overjoyed when she realizes that she can hear the voices of the party.
After briefly investigating the surroundings, a tall person clad in a dark cloak materializes in the room. They are revealed to be Charna Lacrimosa, the mother of Faylin, who claims they were also pulled into the shared dream.
Charna makes the party an offer of truce: as long as the party makes no attempt to compromise the Grandmaster's plans, she will aid the party if Faylin loses control of her body. However, if the party goes against them, she will turn on them and kill them, starting with Saki. She then dissolves away, leaving Faylin in state of distress.
The party starts hearing footsteps approaching the door from the outside. When this happens, the papers on the floor begin to display a strange symbol. As the door opens, the party wakes up.
Next morning
The living room of the guest house is filled with Cenith servants who are playing experimental modern Cenith music (it sounds terrible). The person is charge of the servants introduces himself as Che-Kuyuki. He claims that Vol-Zorya said that the party's wish was to be woken up my modern music (it wasn't). When offered the chance, the party picks the traditional Cenith breakfast over the modern, experimental one.
When the party is woken up, he orders some of the musicians to leave and some of them to begin cleaning the apartment and prepare breakfast. While the party awaits their breakfast, Che-Kuyuki collects the party's basic information in preparation for the audience with the queen.
| Name | Country of origin | Occupation | Voidtouched? | Magical items | Closest relatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky | Chevell | Unemployed | ✔️ | - | Theresia, Frederic |
| Walter Therowich | Chevell | Travelling medical doctor | - | - | |
| Arista Halseth | Jotunheim | Fisher | Seashell | Haley Halseth, Walter Halseth | |
| Dr Faylin Lacrimosa | Chevell | Assistant Director of the Department of Containment and Study of Voidbeasts and Shapeshifters in Neuhäuser University of Metaphysics | ✔️ | - | Lady Aurora Freyr
Dr Vaylen Vask |
| Saki | Eigo | Housekeeper | ✔️ | - | - |
| Xiong Li | Xinguang | - | Yang Li | ||
| Hasae Selawn | Heretic Mountains
(answered in Cenith) |
Travelling doctoral student from Eversley Institute | ✔️ | - | Eve Voloshyna |
The party has breakfast, after which the old servant informs the party of the protocol they need to follow for the audience. Importantly, casting any magic without prior approval will be handled with extreme prejudice by the royal guards.
Che-Kuyuyki leaves with the other servants to deliver the documents to someone, saying that he will return in a few hours with differently colored cloaks that the party needs to wear in the royal palace.
After a few more hours of waiting, the party is escorted by Vol-Zorya through the Royal Park towards the Royal Palace. For some reason, Faylin asks Vol-Zorya what date it is. Vol-Zorya's answer reveals to the party that 6 months have passed without them realizing it.
Waiting for the audience to begin
Party is escorted by Vol-Zorya to a waiting room. They meet Meti-Saori, the president of the entirely state-owned Cenith golem industry, and her adoptive daughter Debbie, despite Vol-Zorya urging the party not to talk with anyone. Meti-Saori engages in a "deduction game" with Debbie, trying to get as much information as possible out of the party by just the way they look. Meti-Saori jokingly (?) concludes that the party must be elite adventurers that arrived to Cen'Ith via airship. Debbie looks starstruck after hearing this, as she seems to be big fan of books recounting the tales of adventurers.
Thaz-Malat, Micah Sellic and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. Sellic recognizes Ricky as Reinhardt, the amnesiac hero who saved the city of Caelumnis, and invites him to a dinner aboard his airship before being verbally driven off by Vol-Zorya.
Kal-Rezan, Faris Anwar and his two bodyguards walk across the waiting room. One of the bodyguards looks suspiciously like Shtah, but acts as they don't recognize the party, despite Faylin trying to get his attention. The other bodyguard (Jahat) stops in his tracks, then approaches Arista to study her at uncomfortably close range. He growls and returns to his master. Anwar speaks to his bodyguard who replies in hand signals. The three of them stare at Arista for a few uncomfortable moments, but then continue along their way.
Royal seneschal Rez-Khar eventually arrives to inform the party that they have been summoned for the audience.
Audience
Rez-Khar gives a ceremonial opening speech, announcing those present in the throne room.
Kal-Rezan and Thaz-Malat then proceed to ask the party a series of questions about how they ended up in Lux Sanctus. This leads to further questions about how the party escaped from Jinhou that was under monster invasion, how they got inside the Walled Garden, whether they know jarl Grunvald or not, and what they know about the cult that they know was behind the monster invasion. But thus far it seems like they are just confirming what they know already.
The interrogation then moves to what happened in Caelumnis. Thaz-Malat already knows about the barrier and that it was broken. Party reveals that the barrier was broken due to their ex-party member Shtah Al-Washaq acting on his own and killing saint Lucia. However, the party survived to tell the tale because Joachim, the leader of the Saint's Guard, resurrected the saint, who then reapplied the barrier. The party says they don't know where Shtah currently is.
Before Kal-Rezan has the chance to move on to asking what happened underground, queen Rem-Leneth stops the interrogation to make a request of Walter; to touch the forehead of her golem Ziggy with his left hand. Walter complies and when he makes contact with the golem, the symbol of Elesh appears at the back of his hand. Everyone sees arcane patterns forming and dissolving around the golem, before the golem curls into a ball and "shuts down". All advisors look disturbed at the sight, but don't voice their concern.
After the queen settles down, she orders Vil-Seilen and Kal-Rezan to her side and the three discuss among each other for several minutes in total silence. Kal-Rezan then orders the interrogation finished for today. He says that the party now has the permission to follow Vil-Seilen to meet with the mysterious person and that Micah Sellic will be informed that Ricky cannot attend to the dinner tonight.
On the way to the healer
Party is escorted out of the throne room. As Vil-Seilen returns to them, Vol-Zorya informs the party that they should not participate in her cousin's experiments, as Vil-Seilen has a tendency of landing herself in trouble. However, the party agrees to follow Vil-Seilen. Vol-Zorya insists on following them to their destination.
They travel through Cen'Ith to the prison island on the river.
On the prison island visitor reception office, Vil-Seilen is informed that the authority to move the prisoner ("Subject S") has been transferred to someone else, and as such, in order to meet with them, Vil-Seilen and the party need to go meet them at their cell in the high-security ward.
Vol-Zorya rages at Vil-Seilen upon hearing this and tells the party that the high-security ward is the most dangerous place in the city, as it's filled to the brim with the worst individuals in the entire nation. Vil-Seilen defends by saying that it's the perfect place to hide someone special they don't want to lose.
Vol-Zorya is ready to escort the party back to their guest house, but Vil-Seilen successfully persuades the party to go through with the experiment. She says that the party and the prisoner are the only people in the world with certain "condition" and this experiment might be the last puzzle piece she needs to understand it.
Upon descending into the underground high-security ward, Hasae is met with a flood of negative emotions emanating from the ward. With the help of Vil-Seilen's persuasion and the party members holding his hands, he is able to overcome his fear of the place enough to proceed forward.
In the high-security ward, the inmates are elated at the sight of Vil-Seilen, calling her "Devil-Seilen" and "Doctor Devil". During their walk through the ward, the party witnesses several deeply deranged individuals, reinforcing the sense that they have just descended into a world of madness only kept in check by the iron bars and magical collars.
Vil-Seilen finally stops in front of one of the cells on a corridor that looks separated from the others. The prodigal healer and prisoner is revealed to be She'Medah.