Benfodt Incident

## Casualties and Creations

### Casualties and Losses

Many Haelwyd noble children disappeared (later returned safely to their families)

## Common Knowledge

Residents of Haelwyd might remember that a few years ago (10,018 A.B.) noble children began to go missing for a few weeks, and at night ghosts could be seen roaming the wildlands and harassing travellers. Well-connected residents of Haelwyd would know that this was resolved when the Binturians put an ancient ghost to rest with the help of the Soul Academy.

## Contributing Factors

### Asher Benfodt

A centuries-old ghost of an evil necromancer, imprisoned in a warded jar by the Soul Academy and entrusted to the Benfodt family for safekeeping. In modern times, Erika Benfodt would release Asher and become his new host. In the years spent idly watching his host’s family grow up, Asher grew more and more enraged by Erika’s choice to remain at home most of the time as it prevented him from resuming any of his work or even finding a new suitable host. To that end, Asher would abuse any amount of emotional duress to make Erika’s behaviour erratic, either to get her out of the house or get her killed.

### The Modern Benfodts

Erika Benfodt, lady of the modern Benfodt family, unwittingly released and became the new host of Asher Benfodt. It took Asher years to manipulate his new host, and in that time his presence caused Erika’s unborn child’s soul to partially split between two bodies. The details surrounding the Benfodt family’s youngest children are quite grisly, and can be found on Asher Benfodt’s page, but suffice to say that the end result was the child Lilith and her soulbound “imaginary friend” Mara.

## Binturian Involvement

The Binturians were originally hired as security for Lilith Benfodt’s birthday party, where many other noble children would be in attendance, but after Lilith’s “adventure” and the subsequent disappearances of the noble children the Binturians became more closely involved. To that end, they learned of the true nature of Lilith and Mara’s soul and Asher’s identity, banished Asher’s soul using a ritual from the Soul Academy, gave Mara a new body, and restored Ms. Benfodt’s damaged soul.

## Order of Events

### A Child’s Birthday Party

For Lilith’s ninth birthday, the Benfodt family hired the children of all Haelwyd’s other noble families and intended to throw an impressive party. Recognizing the potential danger of having the children of powerful people all in one place, the Benfodts sought out the best security that money could buy: the Binturian Party. When eventually a gaggle of bandits arrived to take the children and the Benfodts hostage, the Binturians handily dispatched them. During the chaotic fight in the Benfodt crypt, however, Lilith broke free from captivity and ran off through a small passageway into the woods to play with Mara. Though many Binturians and Benfodt guards gave chase, no one could find Lilith.

### The Search Continues

Children who had attended Lilith’s birthday party began to disappear, and the Binturians were again contracted to find Lilith and the others. During this time the Binturians noticed Erika’s mistreatment of her eldest daughter Willow, who was inexplicably blamed for Lilith running away despite her not even being at the party. Erika’s behaviour only turned more erratic as the Binturians failed to find Lilith, making claims to the effect of them not being welcome near her manor until her child was found. Around this time, Willow snuck out of her actually-boarded-up room to join the Binturians in their search.

They briefly encountered Lilith (or possible Mara), but she fled before the Binturians could speak to her or otherwise secure her. Instead, they were set upon by wild animals and ghosts.

### Haelwyd Soul Academy

With the presence and involvement of ghosts now apparent, the Binturians turn to the local authorities on ghostly and spectral matters: the Haelwyd Soul Academy. On the Benfodt’s grace, the Binturians are admitted entry and will be given a ritual that can banish powerful spirits if they can first help them test it on a few troublesome geists and spectres of their own. The Binturians agree, and through a few hard-fought battles they learn a great deal about ghosts’ fighting styles and earn the ritual of banishment they so desired. Along the way, they learned of a possible true identity of Mara: an old ghost sealed away by the Academy named Asher Benfodt.

Meanwhile, the Binturian Osyren single-handedly took on the task of finding and interrogating Ferris, a handmaid of the Benfodt family who might have had some idea what was happening. His actions angered the Benfodts’ guards, who imprisoned him briefly until he escaped to continue his mission. In his quest to learn Ferris’ secrets, he killed a few guards and became a wanted criminal. Ultimately, he did meet Ferris and learn what they had to say

### A Tea Party

Based on a lead given by Ferris, the Binturians followed Haelwyd’s craggy coastline to a cavern. There, they found Mara (who looked nearly identical to Lilith) drawing nearby ghosts to her to protect her sister and new “family”. Lilith had no idea that Mara was doing this, as she was busy recreating her favorite fairy tale family with the runaway children (who unbeknownst to her had been possessed by ghosts manipulated by Mara). A distraught Lilith fled deeper into the cave, and at its furthest recesses the Binturians found the remaining missing children playing pretend tea party as Lilith and Mara argued. Lilith was scared, didn’t want to play Mara’s games anymore, wanted to go home, missed her family, and even wanted to leave Mara here to keep playing if she wouldn’t come home with her. Mara just wanted to play heroes and tea party with her family, but the Binturians and Willow showed up to make them go home where nobody believed in her, and that she and Lilith had always been together and they’d stay that way.

Some of the Binturians tried to use the Academy’s banishment ritual on Mara, thinking that she was Asher Benfodt and invoking the ritual as such. Not only did this not banish Mara, but it curiously put Lilith through a great deal of pain as well. That plan was abandoned (with extreme prejudice), and instead the Binturians convinced both Lilith and Mara to return home with Willow. Along the way, the missing children were freed of possession and returned to their families.

### Asserting Direct Control

With Mara out of the picture, Asher began to exert more control over Erika. If he was lucky, maybe he could completely oust her soul altogether and be the primary controller of her body. Erika’s behavior became more erratic, blaming Willow for Lilith’s disappearance and locking her in her room. Willow’s subsequent escape and alliance with the Binturians only incensed her further. Asher stoked the flames of Erika’s emotions to a cool boil, hoping that she would either succumb to his influence or her behavior would get her killed and he could find a new host.

When the Binturians returned to the Benfodt manor one evening, with both Willow and Lilith in tow, Erika violently insisted that that child was not Lilith and that Willow had kidnapped her, disowned both children, and ordered her guards to escort all of them out of her home. The Binturian Maldour Forgearm tried to use violence to make his point clear, but was promptly beaten to near death by Mrs. Benfodt and fined for damages.

### Revelations and Preparations

With Erika’s outburst, the Benfodt children had no home to return to except their temporary accommodations with various Binturians (such as Caiden, Nayeli, or Osyren). The Binturians again travelled to the Soul Academy, this time with the children in tow. There they learned several things: firstly, Mara was not secretly Asher Benfodt in disguise and they could all breath a sigh of relief; secondly, since Asher’s jar was void of ashes that meant that he was still freed and they should really suck that relieved sigh back up; third, unlike how souls are supposed to work, Mara and Lilith appeared to share a soul between their two forms, but had distinctive minds (this was actually highly untenable, made even worse by one lacking a body, but ultimately nothing would be done to merge their soul); fourth, Asher’s intelligence meant that he would hide in the Shroud instead of directly confront the Binturians in battle; and fifth, the Academy had prepared a ritual that would theoretically allow them to enter the Shroud directly to fight Asher there. The Binturians tested this ritual and stepped into the Shroud, and though it was impossibly cold combat there was doable.

Shortly after this meeting, the Binturians met again with Ferris, who explained the full and sordid history of how exactly Mara reached her current state. The details are, as mentioned before, quite grisly, and can be found on Asher Benfodt’s page. Suffice to say it was graphic and traumatizing for all parties involved, and to resolve it Mr. Benfodt had the family’s memories of Mara wiped away to block out the pain and resume some level of familial normalcy. The Binturians strategized how they would finally kick Asher out of Erika and put him down for good.

### Final Confrontation

A few days later, equipped with a ritual to banish Asher Benfodt for good and save the Benfodt family, the Binturians stormed the manor, forced Asher out of Erika’s body, and entered the Shroud to engage Asher in combat and banish him. Though Asher was a resilient opponent, he succumbed to the same trappings of other undead in their vulnerability to certain magic and was ultimately banished for good.

### Mending a Broken Heart

Determined to make things right with the Benfodt family, the Binturians went back into the manor to speak with them once more. Explaining what had happened to Erika was somewhat easy, but explaining Mara was a good deal harder. Erika still seemed weak after Asher had been expelled from her body, and the Binturians still wished to rectify Mara’s condition if they could, and so they travelled to the Soul Academy with the Benfodts in tow. There, they learned that the damage Erika had suffered at Asher’s hands extended far beyond mere physical and emotional wounds. Asher’s possession had been so severe that when he was banished he took a piece of Erika’s soul with him. She would die within half a year.

Unsatisfied, the Binturians set to work. Through a ritual devised by Morgan (and Morgan-granted Nirvana willingly used by Lilith to bring her sister-friend back), Mara received a body all her own, though she could never be too far apart from Lilith. Next up was Mrs. Benfodt. Through a clever reversal of the Academy’s banishment ritual, the Binturians Malus Meridias and Rastlina infused a Soul Battery into Erika and used it to repair her soul. For restoring their family and saving Haelwyd, Lady Benfodt knighted all present Binturians and bestowed the title of Lady of the White Light to Rastlina (a moniker that would later manifest as she became the first Rune Knight of Azarath).

## Aftermath

The Benfodt family was truly reunited, Asher Benfodt’s malicious soul was finally banished from the Material Plane, the children of noble families in Haelwyd returned safely to their parents, and ghostly activity significantly dropped in the region.

## Further Information

* Asher Benfodt
* The Binturian Party
* Ghost
* Haelwyd
* Haelwyd Soul Academy