49: Son of the Wilds

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## Summary

### Infested, Imprisoned

Their magic suppressed by the God of Light’s nullifying gaze, Mujie, Cat, Luca, and Mahi find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Meanwhile, Tira and Bran try their best to do what damage they can with non-magical means. The God of Light summons tendrils of Wrath to restrain and infect Luca, who despite fighting its influence is unable to liberate himself on his own.

While Mujie and Tai try desperately to free Luca, Vallor awakens but struggles to fight the dark impulses planted in his mind by the Ichor of God. Before he can hurt himself or someone else, Cat bites the wrist of the hand he holds a ritual dagger in to snap him out of it.

### Visions

Constricted by Wrath, Luca finds his mind commandeered by visions of his mother far in the past. A scene of his pregnant mother doing needlework is followed by a scene wherein she weeps for the baby she has lost prematurely. Before the visions can continue, Mujie and Tai manage to free him, and Luca receives a message from Bartak instead.

His consciousness drifts to a beautiful, sprawling meadow, where Bartak himself tells Luca why he chose him as his champion: his willpower. With words of reassurance ringing in his mind, Luca snaps back to the present, where Bartak has left him with the gift of barkskin.

The party continues to fight the creature beneath the village, which makes sure to taunt them at every turn. The creature reveals it knows much about Balaayt’s history, and makes no secret of its feelings on Mitro and Bartak as useless gods. Meanwhile, it suggests the gods are cowardly for using mortals to do their bidding, and references its own mysterious connection to them. It taunts Tira using her parents, needles at Cat’s fascination with wrath, and even calls Bran godless. As the battle wears on, ghouls begin to enter the chamber, and Luca sees that one of them is likely his father Rhodos.

### Roots

When Luca strikes the final blow after a grueling encounter, the creature posing as the “God of Light” collapses in on itself, the wrath receding and leaving only a fragment of the Godslayer behind—the Eye of Siffir. He sees another vision: his mother making an accursed pact with the entity beneath the village, so that it would spare her unborn child in exchange for her devotion to the entity. Thick, corded roots come up through the earth and destroy the chamber, twisting and reaching upward to form a great golden ginkgo tree in the middle of the village. Nestled between its powerful branches, Luca and Vallor promise to find answers about their strange origins together.

## Quotes

#### ***FATHERLESS BEHAVIOR:***

> “Oh, ohoho, I recognize you. Your dear mother succumbed to my influence, didn’t she? Nearly two decades ago, now? Your father was a bit more stubborn, yes, but perhaps I will make him sick too, in time.”
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> “You wear those tawdry rings of Mitro, do you? What a useless, fickle god for a patron. Though Bartak isn’t much better, a pacifist through and through. But you have one of Uli’s earrings, hm? I do have some respect for her, begrudging though it may be. Now there’s a fearsome, wrathful god.”
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> “Don’t you think it cowardly, to bless mortals by shackling them that they would do the gods’ divine bidding? Why not solve problems themselves? No, they’re too comfortable up on high. I am what happens when you spend too long in the mire with all the other filth, after all.”
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> "And you! You are godless. What use are you to them?"
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*—The Eye of Siffir, taunting the party*

#### ***SPEAKING OF DADS:***

> "A dark pact was formed when you were born. But true as that may be, you are just as much a child of my domain—you are wild. There is no force in this realm that can chain you to its will. You have proven that, with the choices you’ve made. That is why I chose you, Lucarius. Do you understand?”
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*—Bartak, God of the Wilds*

#### ***WE LIVE TO MONOLOGUE ANOTHER DAY:***

> “I will return! I will always return. You cannot kill me!”
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*—The Eye of Siffir*