A Masque of Life

A Masque of Life is the third chapter of Citadel of the Unseen Sun, which took place over three sessions. The story followed the Olvidados de la Luz. which included the following characters:

**Mateo Delgado**: A young philosophy student from the Academy of Nueva Ostrolla, Mateo is a student of Old Ostrolla, and is devoted to uncovering it's ancient past, even at the cost of his own health. Now dead, and in an afterlife unlike what he has known through the stories and the legends, Mateo seeks clarity, and also a chance to jump on the secrets lost to time. Yet, the secrets and the temptations of Cazamir have become tempting to him. After all, shouldn't Ostrolla be returned to it's glory...?

**Hannibal DeCastro:** One of two twins born to the elite DeCastro family, Hannibal has done everything in the shadow of his sister Elissa. Having disappeared, it is Hannibal's desire to ensure her safety, or survival. Tied at the hip to this stranger, Sorin Markov, and enchanted by promises of a City above, Hannibal must remember his past, lest it become his doom. Yet, with revelations over his past and reasonings for coming to the Lochs and finding himself amongst the land of the dead, Hannibal must reconcile his past and his future...

**Rowan Blackthorn:** A hunter of spirits, demons and monsters with a shrouded past, Rowan is willing to do anything for a job. But what happens when the sins of his past catch up with him? Having grown closer to the Dretchers and the Sorcerer Coragnir, Rowan finds himself trapped in a land where the monsters around him where the faces of those whom he has sworn to protect. Yet, now his love has forsaken him for another person, leaving Rowan alone, alone and hurt...

**Azima**: A simple warrior who is dedicated to protecting her younger sister, Azima has led an uncomplicated and relatively untroubled life. Yet, that seems to change, as more and more of her ancestry comes into focus. With Gilly by her side, Azima struggles with what path they must go down now, and how that path will get the still living Gilly back home to fufill her life. Yet now the champion of one of the Sultans of the Lochs, will Azima be the champion of Abras, or the people of Ostrolla?

**Gilly:** A child born with an innate ability to sense and feel the emotions of others; Gilly was spirited away from her home and trained in the art of the Feywild by her benefactor, Baba Yaga. Though she doesn't know it, Gilly has an important destiny. After reuniting with Babushka, Gilly sees the suffering in the face of the vampire Sorin Markov? Will she be able to heal his broken heart? Or lose innocence in the darkness of Innistrad?

**Aster:** The last of his people, Aster's home in the Grove of Rest has been afflicted by a being known as Vetra, sapping their strength and minds slowly but surely. Having set out to find a cure or solution, will Aster be able to reconcile the fate of the many, or the few. Now knowing what has befallen his village, and those who tried to stop it, Aster must take a destiny that was never supposed to be his, lest it be the end of all those who step into the Stillborn Forest.

## Chapter Summary

On the black rivers, heading for the city of the Lochs, the Olvidados find themselves a break from the unrest and the chaos that has followed them since their escape from the Lochs. With Yejin and Lemnor now under the spell of Octavian Dreamwalker, all that remains of the original Dretchers is Abradus, Coragnir and Secher. During their break, Hannibal gets the idea in order to uncover his lost memories. Using the Dream masks that were given to them by Octavian, the party could enter Hannibal's dreams and see what they could find lost within the depths of his soul. Using the Dream Masks; Aster, Gilly, Azima, Mateo and Rowan all ented the dream of Hannibal, of which they found themselves in a ballroom of pure and exquisite gold, in the middle of a Dance of a crowd of masked figures. Amongst the masquerade, Aster ran into Hannibal, though not their Hannibal, but the Hannibal that was native to this dream landscape.