In the Tomb of Elesh
Party awakens in an underground chamber with a large floating orb made of stone in the middle. Eve is nowhere to be seen.
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.
Meeting the healer
Faylin shows animosity towards She'Medah and accuses him of killing his friend. She'Medah says that he can't remember anything of the past 6 months and wishes to know what happened. The party asks him to tell them what he does remember.
She'Medahs tells the party that as he was treating those wounded in the monster attack, he realized that his patients along with himself and Zophiel had begun to regenerate lost flesh as if they had been treated by powerful healing magic. With his mind filled with questions and unable to focus on treating the wounded, he went behind into the garden behind the keep to pray for guidance from Ardia. The last thing he remembers about Caelumnis is being approached in the garden by Roland.
She'Medah then woke up in the forbidden region of Cen surrounded by guards, with no memory of the past 6 months.
Instead of being executed on the spot, the guards recognized him as a Luxan envoy by his clothes and brought him to the prison, where he met Vil-Seilen.
Vil-Seilen says that She'Medah appeared one week before the party did. The party and She'Medah are the only people in recorded history who've been able to teleport into the area. She is currently investigating this phenomenon, and the meeting between all those people is the experiment that's currently taking place.
Vil-Seilen tells the party that she tested She'Medah's abilities by having him heal some poor kids that had lost limbs. She'Medah healed all of them. She'Medah does not seem too happy about using voidtouched magic to heal.
She'Medah remembers having telekinetic powers as a street urchin, but does not have them anymore. Vil-Seilen confirms this.
She'Medah is still in prison, because he remains guilty of trespassing in the forbidden region. Instead of being executed, he will be exiled to Lux Sanctus. Someone from Micah Sellic retinue is supposed to arrive and take him to Sellic's airship.
Hasae uses magic to show him what he did in the underground ruins. She'Medah apologizes to the party and tells them that the person wasn't him.
She'Medah says that he would not follow Farah or Roland, as he is not with them anymore, having dropped out of a training program for Saint's Guard members. She'Medah seems to have animosity towards Farah, and doesn't trust Roland, who never shows his face.
Faylin attempts to share her emotions with She'Medah to show exactly what he did to his friend, but Xiong Li stops her, worried that She'Medah might learn that the soul of Faylin's cultist mother is trapped inside her.
She'Medah tells the party that according to what the Luxans are teaching, those who are cured by the saint can never become voidtouched again. However, this impossibility seems to have now happened in She'Medah's case.
He believes there are only two explanations: either the holy saint chosen by Ardia Himself is not powerful enough to save a person from the voidtouched curse, or that he never was voidtouched until the monster attack on the castle.
He says that Zophiel started having headaches after meeting Ricky on the ship. It seemed like she had two different pasts fighting for dominance over her mind.
She'Medah gets emotional and tells the party that taking everything into account, he is now worried that he may have been implanted with false memories. He may have never even met with the saint, meaning that the moment that forever changed the person he is, may be manufactured.
Faylin seems to have found the power to let go of her anger and forgive She'Medah. Vil-Seilen seems happy with how her experiment turned out.
Chaos erupts
As everyone says their goodbyes, the magical lights suddenly go out and the inmates begin to laugh, shout and scream. Shortly after they hear rumbling and the sound of rocks falling. Parts of the high-security ward have begun to cave in.
Arista and Faylin see Farah (?) appear inside She'Medah's cell, who immediately attacks him.
Arista looks around and informs the party that some inmates are now out of their cells and wandering the hallways in total darkness, along with monstrous zombified inmates. Horrible screams and sounds of fighting echo in the hallways all around them.
Vil-Seilen lights the area with her amulet to witness the final moments of She'Medah. With the cell door still locked, the party is unable to save the man. Farah executes She'Medah inside his cell and then disappears into the shadows.
With the entire high-security ward descending into chaos and collapsing, the party readies themselves to fight their way out.
Back outside
Party succeeds in fighting their way out together with a surviving inmate (Heartbane). Vil-Seilen stealthily hands over her light-giving amulet to Arista before leading the party outside. Vil-Seilen accounces the survivors to the guards outside. Some of the lightly armored guards look exhausted.
Heartbane looks like she's not ready to give away her newfound freedom, but Walter physically persuades her not to start any trouble.
Vil-Seilen takes the party to Vol-Zorya who slaps her cousin and without saying a word to her, proceeds to escort the party back to the guest house.
On the other side of the bridge, the party sees Meti-Saori, Debbie, their bodyguards, Micah Sellic and his bodyguards. Some of Meti-Saori's bodyguards look exhausted. Debbie is crying into the lap of her adoptive mother, but springs up to greet the party. While Meti-Saori's not allowed to speak with the party yet, she asks Vol-Zorya to inform her cousin to let her know the next time she finds a miracle healer from the jungle, as she's not too fond of sitting in a wheelchair.
Micah Sellic, after patiently waiting for his turn, then approaches Vol-Zorya and asks why the prisoner was disturbed despite his request, and how this person with Luxan envoy documents and uniform managed to perish inside a high-security ward. Vol-Zorya promises to Sellic find out how the misunderstanding happened. Sellic then repeats his offer to Ricky to have dinner aboard his airship, this time extending the invitation to the entire party.
If the party were to accept this invitation, Sellic requests that they avoid the topic of war, but also implies that Xinguang is using chemical weapons on their own soil.
On the way back to the guest house, Vol-Zorya purchases a 4-day-old Chevellan newspaper from a street urchin boy that she knows (Harit). Vol-Zorya gives the newspaper to the party.
At the guest house
Party tells Vol-Zorya what happened and mention that a Luxan person was the one who assassinated She'Medah. Vol-Zorya asks the party to give this information to the other advisors tomorrow. She then leaves.
Arista reveals that she was given an amulet by Vil-Seilen. They study the amulet and find that it's enchanted to emit light when touched and given a mental command.
In the middle of the night, Xiong Li and Walter wake up to the sound of a faint explosion coming from the north. Ricky wakes up soon after. The three head outside to witness smoke coming from the same direction, on a lower tier of buildings. Xiong Li persuades the royal guards to reveal that the explosion and fire are coming from one of Vil-Seilen's laboratories.
Unable to leave from the guest house, the three head off back to sleep.
Next morning
Party discusses the explosion and has breakfast.
Around noon, Vol-Zorya arrives to collect them, but she looks disturbed by something. She tells the party that there was an explosion at Vil-Seilen's laboratory and the woman is now missing. Party reveals that Vil-Seilen handed over an amulet to Arista, but the amulet provides no clues as to what happened to Vil-Seilen.
Vol-Zorya regrets that her final act towards her cousin was to hurt her. She takes the amulet, as the party is not supposed to bring it to the palace, and tells the party that she's going to have it checked just in case.
Vol-Zorya mentions that Faylin has received a sealed letter without markings, but she cannot hand it over before the party is given their freedom.
At the royal palace
Vol-Zorya takes to the waiting room, where they are called by Rez-Khar about one hour later. The queen's golem and naturally Vil-Seilen are both absent.
The party is interrogated by Kal-Rezan about what happened in the underground ruins beneath Caelumnis, but the questions are mostly aimed at Ricky.
Ricky successfully navigates through the minefield of questions, satisfying the curiousity of the advisors, without revealing dangerous information, namely:
- That some party members are carrying shards of Versa within them
- That the soul of Faylin's mother, a cultist leader, is trapped inside her daughter
- Any mention of Void and their cult
- Farah (or someone looking like them) murdering She'Medah inside his cell
Kal-Rezan then announces that they are happy with the answers given to them and they have no reason to doubt that the party entered the forbidden region without. He tells the queen that the advisors are finished with the questioning. The queen ends the proceedings with a hand gesture and the party is escorted to a waiting room by Vol-Zorya.
Kal-Rezan approaches the party inside the waiting room and tells them that while their story is filled with holes, they don't want all the information they have going into official records.
Freedom
Kal-Rezan tells the party that they don't want the information about them being teleported to the forbidden region to escape the palace walls. He wants the party to commit to memory the following story:
- The party was staying in Calladia (how they arrived there is the party's own business), where they were approached by staff members of Cenith embassy and asked to do paid security consultancy to the royal advisors in Cen'Ith
- The party took a train from Calladia to Moxha, from where they took a riverboat (Venashan), which took the party up the river to Cen'Ith in 3 days
- They arrived to Cen'Ith 4 days ago
He then hands the party the following items:
- Paid tickets for their return journey
- 2 100 gold as consultancy fee
- A silver ring with emblem of Cen
Kal-Rezan says that the ring is a "secret handshake". If it's shown to a royal guard, they will know to arrange a meeting with Kal-Rezan, who is usually a difficult man to get in touch with.
Hasae asks Kal-Rezan to use his contact network to locate his missing thesis supervisor Eve Voloshyna. Kal-Rezan agrees and asks Hasae to ask about the progress after a few weeks.
Kal-Rezan warns the party that if they accept Sellic's dinner invitation and board his airship, they will be under Luxan jurisdiction, as the airship is legally considered to be a floating embassy. If something goes wrong, the party will be entirely on their own. Vol-Zorya says that the dinner is an obvious trap and advises the party not to go there.
Kal-Rezan wishes the party safe travels and leaves. Vol-Zorya hands over the sealed letter to Faylin and leaves to investigate her cousin's disappearance.
Shopping
Party heads off to the guest house to read Faylin's letter. Xiong Li takes the ring given by Kal-Rezan and places it in a separate room for the duration of reading the letter. The letter appears to be a request written by Shtah to meet him at Dakha in 10 days. They decide to go and meet Shtah together, but also to accompany Ricky to the dinner with Sellic.
Party goes to do some quick shopping before the dinner.
Dinner aboard the Viator
Party is greeted at the ramp leading to the Viator by Sellic and the ship's captain Amelia Regilla, who wanted to be present to personally shake hands with "Mr. Reinhardt". One of the nuns present who smells of tobacco says that there's an uninvited guest and that she smells a "rat that goes by the name Rezan", after which Sellic demands that the item (ring) given by Rezan be placed in a leaden box for the duration of the dinner. Sellic then escorts the party to the dining cabin.
The dining cabin of the Viator is extravagant with its tables filled with luxurious foods. Sellic says he's prepared most of it himself, having long since been disappointed with the warrior nuns' cooking and thus choosing to learn the culinary arts over the last 40 years.
Sellic makes some small talk but quickly turns his attention towards Ricky (whom he continues to call Reinhardt) and his disappearance from Caelumnis. Ricky asks why Sellic calls him Reinhardt, after which Sellic reveals that he's taken a great interest in him, and has managed to uncover some things about his past.
Reinhardt's past
Sellic tells Ricky that he's the scion of the noble von Albrecht family and that his full name is Reinhardt von Albrecht. He's the only known survivor of a tragic fire that claimed the lives of the other von Albrecht family members during a family gathering at their manor near Calladia 9 months ago.
Sellic says that he hasn't managed to figure out why Ricky traveled to Eigo of all places, so soon after the tragedy.
Disappearance from Caelumnis
Sellic says that after Ricky and Farah emerged from the underground ruins with a mysterious artifact, they used its power to awaken the comatose saint, after which all three banished the fog surrounding Caelumnis, prompting a celebratory feast. Ricky, however, mysteriously disappeared during his own celebration. When asked about it by Sellic, Ricky claims that he left because he was weary of constant praise.
Sellic asks Ricky about how he ended up in Caelumnis with his current party, but Ricky keeps his answers vague. Sellic is gathering that Ricky and the party were hired by the Cenith leaders to do some kind of job for them.
Cultists pursuing Ricky
Sellic claims that he's also uncovered that a Versa cult is pursuing Ricky in order to capture him and use him for their own ends, by taking advantage of his amnesia. He implies that Ricky's current party may be aligned with this cult, or at the very least, not have Ricky's best interest in mind.
Saint's request
Sellic says that Saint Lucia has instructed all Luxan diplomats to look for Ricky and invite him to return to Lux Sanctus so that he could meet her at the Luxan capital, Sanctorum. The saint believes that Ricky is destined to embark upon a holy quest to save the world.
Walter asks what would happen if Ricky were to decline the offer. Sellic replies that her holiness would certainly be quite disappointed.
Ricky seems hesitant about this prospect, so Sellic offers to explain what Lux Sanctus is trying to achive. With help of some nuns, he gives a sock puppet presentation about the divine power balance between the warring gods, and how Saint Lucia's blessed power of being able to lift the curse of voidtouch plays a crucial role in tipping the scales in Ardia's favor.
Ricky agrees to return to Lux Sanctus
Sellic asks Ricky if he will agree to travel with him back to Lux Sanctus. Ricky agrees. Sellic is overjoyed and tries to keep all further discussion on topics of small talk.
Discussing world politics
Faylin brings up politics and raises concerns about the Luxans trying to bring about their stated goal of saving humanity by waging war against Al-Azaliyya. Sellic defends by saying that Al-Azaliyyan society is entirely built around the concept of unpaid, forced labor of the voidtouched living there. Lux Sanctus is merely trying to give the voidtouched of Al-Azaliyya the freedom to choose their own fate. As it stands, the leaders of Al-Azaliyya will never let their voidtouched leave the country, because by doing so they would be dismantling the foundation upon which their power is built. Sellic says an external force is necessary to bring about change in Al-Azaliyyan society.
Although Xiong Li does not bring about the topic of Xinguang, Sellic implies that Luxans are trying to achieve the same thing in his country.
Sellic admits that death and suffering are concepts inseparable from war, but if war is the price to pay for saving humanity, then Lux Sanctus is in a morally defensible position for starting the two wars.
At this point, Walter and Arista choose to leave the dining room.
Maintaining beautiful appearance for the masses
Hasae raises concerns about Lux Sanctus putting so much resources on maintaining luxurious appearances, despite Ardia being a pragmatic god.
Sellic defends by saying that to convince the sceptical masses that Lux Sanctus is indeed backed by Ardia's favor, they need to dazzle the public when they travel abroad.
This is also why Sellic himself looks so young; when he was going to be rewarded by the saint for his long years of service to his nation, he asked the saint to restore his youthful form.
Hasae presses more on the topic, implying that employing trickery is a questionable tactic for followers of Ardia. Xiong Li stops Hasae short of making a direct comparison to followers of Versa.
Sellic attempts to turn the attention towards Hasae's region of origin to undermine Hasae's position, but Hasae doesn't admit to originating from the Heretic Mountains. Sellic accuses Hasae of employing trickery himself by avoiding answering his questions.
Hasae thanks Sellic for the dinner and leaves to join with Walter and Arista, leaving Ricky in the dining cabin with Faylin, Xiong Li and Saki.
The impossibility of curing all voidtouched
Faylin wonders if the Luxan plan to save humanity is ultimately doomed, because they cannot hope to cure every single voidtouched in the world.
Sellic says that Lux Sanctus does not need to cure all the voidtouched. They simply need to save enough of them for Ardia to return and handle the rest.
The task ahead of them is still monumental, but Sellic says that this is no excuse to stop working, for the fate of humanity is at stake.
Internal conflict in Lux Sanctus
Faylin asks if there's some internal conflict in Lux Sanctus, as evidenced by the saint vying for peace while her nation's invading two neighboring countries.
Sellic explains that emperor Aldis and the saint have agreed on the ultimate goal: that Lux Sanctus must take upon itself the heavy burden of saving humanity and allow voidtouched around the world to travel to Lux Sanctus to seek redemption.
However, while the saint personally wishes to achieve this state of the world by peaceful means, emperor Aldis has decided that the divine task given to them by Ardia is of such great importance, that fulfilling it warrants the use of military force.
Thus, their disagreement is not over the end goal, but rather regarding the methods with which to reach that goal.
Sellic believes that emperor Aldis has the restraint to not march any further onto foreign soil than necessary.
Attempting to leave the Viator
Hasae, Walter and Arista suspect that Sellic is up to no good, and decide on a plan on getting Ricky off the airship. Hasae sends a mental message to Faylin to ask her to ask Ricky to go back to the guest house to collect his belongings and say proper goodbyes. Sellic offers to have one of his servants travel to guest house to collect Ricky's belongings in his stead, but Ricky declines.
Ricky, Xiong Li, Faylin and Saki then thank Sellic for the dinner and leave to join with the others outside the dining cabin.
The party heads off downstairs towards the ramp leading outside, but they are stopped by a group of warrior nuns led by Leucosia, who block the way to the exit. All of them have quarterstaffs at their side in a non-threatening manner, but they also seem ready for combat.
Leucosia attempts to get Ricky to write his autograph on their sisterhood's travelogue and generally seems to be stalling for time while Hasae fends off multiple attempts by someone trying to send mental messages to Ricky.
Leucosia finally grabs Ricky by the wrist and tells him that he's in danger. The other nuns take a combat-ready stance.
Sellic descends the stairs and attempts to defuse the situation, telling the nuns that the saint had given clear instructions about how to treat Ricky. For a moment, Sellic and Leucosia seem to have a quarrel about authority on the ship, until one of Leucosia's nuns shows a strange tattoo to Sellic. Sellic then says he wasn't informed that there were other VIPs onboard, and then angrily returns upstairs.
Leucosia, still holding Ricky by the wrist tries to persuade him not to go with the party, implying that the party will brainwash him, while antagonizing Xiong Li and Faylin. The scene looks like a fight about to break out when captain Regilla descends the stairs, followed by Sellic. The captain orders the "sisters" to stand down, but they look conflicted. During the confusion, Ricky frees himself of Leucosia.
Leucosia explains to the captain that they are under direct orders to protect Reinhardt from the cult that's trying to brainwash him. The captain demands to know who this authority is. One of Leucosia's nuns shows the captain the same tattoo. The captain is taken aback upon seeing it, but then delivers her ultimatum to Leucosia: if Leucosia attempts to pull rank on the captain, she and her crew won't help the sisterhood get back to Lux Sanctus aboard the Viator. The captain makes it clear that the ship is a civilian transport on a diplomatic mission and that the Viator's crew will not be complicit in kidnapping.
Regilla asks Ricky if he wants to leave the ship. Ricky answers yes, after which the captain tells Leucosia's sisterhood that whoever lays a finger on him or his party is going to swim back home.
Leucosia reluctantly gives up and orders the nuns to stand down, clearing the way for the party to leave. She makes a threatening remark at the party (sans Ricky) as they leave the ship, telling them that they have no idea who they're messing with.
Guest house again
Party goes back to the guest house to discuss the events at the airship. With help of Hasae's mental magic, Ricky makes preparations for departing with the Luxans without clueing in Faylin's mother (who's constantly witnessing events through Faylin's eyes) as to what his real plan is.
Walter points out an inconsistency about Sellic's presentation about the spiritual war between the two gods; if the monsters are on the side of Versa, they should be targeting voidtouched more than other humans, because this would be more beneficial for Versa. However, when Walter was treating the wounded in Caelumnis after the monster attack on the castle, there were almost no voidtouched victims.
Party goes back to sleep. During the night, Ricky leaves the guest house briefly to attempt to collect information about Zophiel, but finds none.
Next day: preparations for departure
The party has breakfast and decides to spend the day preparing for their departure to meet with Shtah (9 days remaining until deadline). They go shopping and split into two groups.
One of the groups (Walter, Arista and Faylin) is stopped by an old woman who lights a candle and prostrates herself in front of Walter, calling him "lord".
Hasae, Xiong Li, Ricky and Saki notice an Al-Azaliyyan man who seems to be running away from two other Al-Azaliyyans, a man and a woman. They follow the man into an alleyway and realize that the running man is voidtouched. The voidtouched man attacks the party and shouts at them, then runs away again. Hasae creates a distraction long enough for the pursuers to lose track of the man. The pursuers have insignia identifying them as members of the Shepherds.
Walter, Arista and Faylin continue their shopping. Faylin buys harmless books and Arista convinces her not to buy anything that might land her into trouble.
The party reunite at the guest house. After lunch, Ricky makes his move, says farewell to the party and heads toward the Viator.
From this point onwards, Ricky is not a member of the active party.
Faylin was not informed about Ricky's decision to leave and isolates herself to one of the rooms. Hasae and Saki arrive to comfort her.
Xiong Li and Hasae go back to the city to hear local news. The biggest topic of the city is the mysterious explosion (Vil-Seilen's lab) in the noble area, one tier of buildings below the royal guest house that the party is staying at. Even though the area has been cordoned off in a 200 m radius, they head to investigate. Xiong Li finds a loose brick that seems to be from the lab. They bring it back to the guest house to be studied.
The brick has lingering magic left over from a teleportation spell. A teleportation spell powerful enough to move a part of a building could only be cast as blood magic or possibly as a "slow teleport" which brought the party from Caelumnis to Cen in 6 months. Faylin looks for lingering emotions left on the brick and is shocked by something, but doesn't reveal the details to the party.
Next day: Departure towards Dakha
8 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.
The party wakes up early and heads off to the western outskirts of Cen'Ith to look for a suitable caravan. They decide to take a Masakenvel golem palake caravan, the scientifically safest and most stylish way to travel to Ma'Rukh (or so the crew claims) and haggle the price down from 10 g / person to 8 g / person.
Journey to Ma'Rukh
The caravan begins the 4-day journey towards Ma'Rukh. The first day of the journey is uneventful. The crew of the caravan set up camp for the night in a specialized camping site.
2nd day in the caravan
7 days remaining until deadline for the meeting with Shtah.
On the 2nd day, everyone hears 3 instances of screaming coming from the jungle. They ignore the screams as instructed. Hasae informs the party that there are semi-intelligent monsters that mimic the sounds of humans in distress to lure them into the jungle.
After arriving to the 2nd night's camping site, the Masakenvel crew set up camp for the night.
Uninvited visitors
During the night, the party wake up to the sound of an explosion coming from nearby, followed by screaming. They peek outside and see that the crew are panicking. Everyone except Faylin heads outside to investigate.
They see that one of the palake golems has been destroyed, and that the camping site has been surrounded by a small army wildling warriors with glowing tattoos or warpaint. Their leader, a man in skull mask, is standing in front of the camp with 8 civilian hostages held at knifepoint by other wildling warriors. He demands Mun-Masa, the manager of the golem palake to bring a man named Therovich to him, or they will execute hostages for every minute that passes.
Walter reveals himself to the man in skull mask. The man in skull mask calls Walter "Eleftherios" and mocks him for thinking that he could return to Cen "to defile this holy land" without the wildlings noticing.
Walter asks what the wildlings want from him. The man in skull mask answers: "You will come with us to the holy city. You will face our goddess, An. She will decide your fate."
The party don't seem to want to let Walter go alone with the wildlings. Walter successfully convinces the wildlings to take the rest of the (willing) party with them as captives.
The wildlings leave the camp together with Walter and the tied-up captive party. They go downhill from the camping site and see a massive bipedal creature emerge from the depths of the jungle. The man in skull mask proclaims: "My prince. We have him."