Originally I had Bulwark help Sona and Angelena make it back to the Central tower quickly, but that contradicts something else I'm doing, so COSMIC RETCON HAS OCCURRED. Instead, some potions of
Expeditious retreat / squad of backup / DM handwave gets them there relatively quickly. Juuussst in time to look up and see a large shadow rapidly descending towards the pair!
Wings of Cover prevents any damage from the falling dragon corpse, but the mess. The mess! It takes several
prestidigitation scourings to be physically clean. The mental stains, however, are forever.
Ascending back through the tower, Sona is handed a vial of the red Vitae. The three members who already were subjected to it aren't particularly detailed in their explanation, just that it might make her a little crazy. Puck puts her in a preemptive Full Nelson hold. Sona drinks the Vitae, promptly fails her save, and cuts loose with a Stilled-Silent (from Pact Adept)
Wings of Flurry. Which nearly kills Talvosh, as he's at dangerously low health already. Puck rattles her, Sammael stunning fist-nonlethally flurries, and Talvosh nonlethally wails on her all at once to stop that from happening again. I imagine the sound to be something like
this
Thankfully for Sona, Angelena gets there in time to scold Puck and stop him from being tempted to toss her off the side of the tower. Still working on that 'appropriate response' trick...with the group reunited, and Jezelle nowhere to be seen, they hobble back to the Church of the Flame, the party having run out of pretty much everything.
There's good news and bad news waiting as they return.
The Good: The majority of the fiends seem to have disappeared, particularly the commanding creatures. Reports are coming positive from most of the defenders as they break through the remaining creatures
The Bad: A lot of the city is still either demolished, burning, or under attack from remaining creatures. No-one has seen most of the Council members, still.
The Worse: Bulwark and a large contingent of heavily wounded Steelguard return shortly after the party, the mood somber. They were apparently fighting around the Unmarked Estates. They managed to defend at least part of the homes...but three of the Estates were razed. And while they were under assault, another group attacked an incredibly vital home.
"The Children. They killed all of them." It's Lady, the eerily quiet Forged from before. She's missing an arm, and speaking at a normal tone (which for her means she's screaming). And here is where an absolutely horrifying revelation crashes home.
The party has seen exactly one child since arriving in Artaith. One, and he was a teenager. They have seen no children of any age in Logos, none at all. As Bulwark helps Alexandria up from the despairing heap she crumpled into at this news, the Flamespeaker confirms that the Cursed are unable to have children. No-one with the Mark can have children. Numbly, Sammael and Sona go with Bulwark to examine the estate to look for clues as to who is responsible.
The Estates are all high-walled and highly defensible buildings, and all are heavily scarred with recent wounds. There's still the sound of fighting in the distance, but the building the group goes towards is eerily quiet. There's a perfect circle melted or cut through several walls and buildings in a straight line - whoever did this had a clear objective that they cut to the heart of quickly.
Inside are the absolutely shredded remains of Forged, humans, and Hobgoblins, and behind them are many small
bodies. Sammael grimly inspects the children - there is no blood. Besides being unnaturally pale, they seem untouched. Making his Spellcraft/knowledge Religion (what with him being dedicated to natural death) check though, he does discover the cause. They were slain by a manifestation of concentrated Evil, a word of Blasphemous malice (yes, I'm being subtle as a hammer). More horrifyingly, this almost guarantees that their bodies will rise as a Hollow or Undead of some sort.
While Sammael does this, I roll randomly, and Sona receives a quiet message murmured in her ear. It's Janath's voice:
"Sona - I know you won't trust me, but Jezelle is insane. She took all the children, couldn't stop her. I'm sorry."
The timing is suspicious, Sona is already stinging from when he KILLED her, and when Sammael mentions the signs of
Blasphemy being cast, she snaps a little.
"Bastard! I won't kill you. I'll mend this curse and send you to that Hell you've been running from personally!"
A little later, there's another murmur, but this one sounds different. Colder, more rasping. It's Janath, but not the same.
"I'm never going back. And gods help me.
I
Want
More."