Lyserod Halcyon

### Relatives

Dione (Adoptive mother, actual mother?) (deceased)Rollo (Caregiver in Dione's death)

## Before the Adventure Began

Lyserod's past was one of loss. Raised in Aldenor by a Paladin of the Church of Hroth named Dione as an orphan, he grew up as a man of values, always doing his best to emulate her, seeing her as a sterling example of what one should be and do in the world to make it a better place. As a result, he grew to be compassionate, but also with a strong sense of justice, and right and wrong. However, this life was not to last. In his teens, she succumbed slowly to a mysterious illness, leaving Lyserod to the care of the church, and a Half-Orc Blacksmith named Rollo, who took him on to teach the young Aasimar his trade. Such humble beginnings would soon give way to much more extraordinary events, however.

## Meeting the Party

Lyserod met the party soon after the events of the Great Hunt. Literally Press Ganged by Torvo with one of his coins dropped into his drink, Lyserod was tormented by a ringing akin to the pounding of metal from it. The sound continued for a couple days until he noted it intensifying as he neared a group, stopping when he finally approached them. Once the origin of the coin was explained to him, he took the divine signal as his push to go out into the greater world, and assist the band of adventurers as best he could. With a farewell to Rollo, and one final visit to Dione's grave, he left to explore Cirine, and see what fate had in store for him.

## Events As they unfold

Soon after leaving Aldenor to the Elvish Capital, Il'thray, Lyserod quickly had the opportunity to prove his worth, helping fend off some rather disturbing clown-like bandits, attempting to hold them up. More distressing, however, were a band of cultists holding a tiefling named Arandos hostage in a cave. After the battle it was determined that the people were infected by Illithids, and possibly under their control. Once given a proper burial, Lyserod and the party proceeded to Alari, to meet up with a contact of Niko's.

In the town, things became apparent that things were definitely amiss. The party was informed that there is a strict curfew, due to a rash of disappearances, but they settled into the Hare's Hearth to begin the search for Lyco. A few items of his were found in his former room, but not much of immediate value, save for a journal seemingly coded in Thieves' Cant. In a visit to Rosehall, the party discovering a mage named Gershom selling unusual wares, as well as his familiar, an imp named Kril. In return for help determining the contents of the journal, Lyserod, along with the rest of the party, purchased one of his unusual wares. In Lys' case, it was an enchanted blade of grass which will summon creatures when used as a whistle. The journal is revealed to have been an account of Lyco's smuggling efforts, mostly as a ledger, but eventually lead to an account of the occurrences around town giving possible leads at the orphanage and alchemist's shop, but stopping before more could be revealed. With potential leads in hand they struck out to determine the nature of the mystery.

The Alchemy shop turned up few leads, and the party then broke into the General Store, whose proprietor was one of the disappearances. A few claw marks gave hints to what might have taken him, but the party soon encountered Hugo, brother of Laisen, who runs the Hare's Hearth. In sharing information gathered, Hugo eventually accepts our help, and shares notes on how we might be able to evade the guards and enter the woods of the Change Wild to help locate the missing townsfolk.

Navigating the woods proved tricky, due to it's magical nature, the rather unwelcoming denizens, as well as the ever shifting elements. Eventually, however they found a spring, protected by Adamaris, and a small group of sirens, who gave them safety and pleasurable company for the night. Empowered with their magics in the morning, the party continues their search. After getting off track in a crypt, and purging it, they found the cavern hiding the Meenlocks. Thanks to a Daylight spell, they were relatively easily dispatched, saving Lyco and the General Store owner from a gruesome fate. However, in it's final moments, the lead Meenlock revealed that all is not as it seemed back in town, and that the Meenlocks were not the driving force behind the disappearances.

Back in town the group set out to get better information from the Orphanage, with Lyserod posing as a cleric looking to give assistance to the children in the name of the Church of Hroth. After speaking with the Children and their Teacher, they arranged to sit in on a lesson, with Lyserod attending the class to keep the matron, teacher and children occupied and under watch. Through the lesson, Lyserod learned the basics of potion brewing, learning a recipe for healing potions, before the party's machinations were discovered. In a burst, the Matron rendered the children unconscious, before attacking the group exploring the orphanage. Once downstairs, they uncovered the secret: the Matron was a shapeshifter who had killed and reanimated the Matron as a golem, and they were working with the Cult of the Fathers to harvest the children's fear for their ends, moving to sacrifice them in short order, had they not intervened. The children and the Teacher's memories had been repeatedly altered, with the Teacher's modifications being undone to give the breadth of the plot. Hugo was informed of the events as well as the children's need for a new Matron, when Laisen was asked to take on the role, as well as the group determining that the children are best served to have their memories remain altered until they are of an age to cope and process them more effectively. In this time, Lyserod took it on himself to be there to assist the children as best he could, taking particular affinity to Bertrand, an avid fan of the Manus Populi.

Going forward, the party continued to Il'thray in an attempt to rescue Garrett, a Chimera the group had met that was being hunted by the Cult. In town, it was revealed that he was held prisoner and was on trial for a fight that erupted, resulting in the deaths of several guards as well as cult members infiltrating the royal crypts. After meeting up with Paleus, he offers to give the party an in to the trial of Garrett to speak in his defense. After some tense negotiations, the party agrees to help scour the cultists from the crypts for Garrett's freedom.

On it's surface, the task seemed simple, albeit fraught with puzzles and traps to guard the depths. However tragedy awaited them before they could reach their goal, with Niko falling in battle to the Cultists near the innermost crypt. With the loss of his friend, Lyserod promised himself to never let such a thing again, steeling his resolve to stand between his friends and whatever might threaten them. Taking the final steps, they entered the final chamber, inhabited by the royal family's progenitor's corpse in repose, as well as a pair of cultists. After their actions proved to have unwanted effects, one of the cultists was killed by the animated body, and it rounded on them, as well as the other cultist, a minotaur by the name of Aeson. Offering his assistance to harm the cult, something he was also attempting to do by infiltrating it, he asked the party's assistance in stopping the zombified foe. In a tense battle, the party emerged victorious, returning the noble's body to it's repose, and earning Garrett's freedom.

In a brief pause from adventuring, the party were teleported back to Aldenor to give Niko a proper burial and funeral. Giving him a proper grave at the Il'thray's Royalty's cost, the party collaborated to give a fitting tribute to the famed "Magic Mouth" of Aldenor. They then struck out to Midacre, on the way to the Stormlands, a town told to Honesty to be a place of interest to him.

Once in town, they set about trying to unveil Honesty's past, soon finding that Honesty is an incarnation of a child taken far too young, named Caliban. Honesty was created by Imogen, his patron, as a way to preserve the child's memory. In an effort to help reunite Honesty with his fathers, Lyserod Fabricated a new facade to the old home as well as a small box bearing instructions on how to contact them.

Moving to the Stormlands, the party follows Garrett's guidance, to seek an audience with the Stormsinger, in hopes that she might provide answers on how to locate her ancestral tomb, the last known location of a Sigilian named Amos. They were told that an offering would be needed to seek her audience and favour, leading them to hunt some boars, native to the stormlands, Beasts of massive size and imbued with the power of the storms, they were no easy quarry, feasting on steel itself in the site of an ancient battle. Their power and ferocity paled in the face of their cunning, and a well laid plan landed them their quarry, as well as a few more boars that were used for food and parts to be used for gear later. The key to their audience in hand, they travelled as swiftly as they could to their destination, the Stormsinger's encampment. They were interrupted on the final push by bandits seeking to take the bounty as their own. Their efforts were in vain with most killed, but a couple taken to be given justice.

In the settlement, the Stormsigner was given the torphy of the Alpha Boar, as well as the prisoners. With an execution quickly commanded of them, Honesty and Lyserod spoke against that, convincing the Stormsinger to instead exile them from the Stormlands, with the promise of slow death should they ever return. With the prisoners handled, the matters soon turned to more direct matters: the location of the tomb. We were told that it would be granted us under three conditions; first, they shared in the bounty provided, by way of a storm charged boar's heart. Second, a party celebrating the gift. And third, a battle, pitting a demigod against us, who were chosen by the divine. So it was agreed, the heart was consumed, and the party was that evening, with both revelry and a telling of the history of the Stormlands. In the morning, the battle commenced, with a narrow victory for them, giving the Stormsinger the battle and test of strength she desired. She granted the party an ocarina that would alert the lycanthropes of the forests that they were travelling with her blessing, and as a token, Lyserod gave her a dagger formed from his abilities, made with his trademark rose gold sheen, and etched with a prayer to Hroth. He left her with a promise that should she ever require their assistance, they would be happy to help. After asking if Lyserod thought so little of her forces, she reassured him, telling him she was "just fucking with [him]."

With the way onward clear, the party traversed the Giant's Graveyard, trying to scour some of the imbued metals to trade for an item Honesty bartered for in Caershire, but ill fate befell the party, with the only source of that metal being in the hands of a hag. In bartering, some opted to trade for some ingots, however Lyserod quickly rebuffed the hag, having offered an ingot for his shadow, claiming it of no use to one as pure and of the light as he was. Once done, they rested on the edge of the mire, and in the morning met the guardians of the woods, a clan of Lycanthropic Druids who follow the god Fadarr, as well as their captive, Amos. The party took Amos into their custody and requested to escort him to the tomb to retrieve an item he was tasked to locate. Once there, they found the items...and the Valkyrian entity guarding it. With no quarter offered to them, they party fought back, and claimed the bounty of the tomb, a box that Amos sought, a helmet, a pack of cards and a tome. Upon identifying the items, the cards were revealed to be a Deck of Many Fates, a relic of the goddess Zara. Relenting as Honesty desired to draw a card from the deck, the two soon found themselves afflicted by the card Pestilence. A disease that proved too stubborn to be simply removed.

Upon returning to the surface, the Druids were warned of the affliction, and, in keeping them in safe quarantine for as long as they could, the druids and Paphos researched the disease. It was determined to be a divine affliction, requiring a divine cure. Offering a partial application of the rite the clan used to achieve lycanthropy, Lyserod and Honesty would be given a dose of divine blood. In giving the blood to the two, they were taken to a fitful slumber where they spoke to Fadarr. At Torvo's behest, Honesty requested "a truth" of him, to which he grated a vision. The vision was of the night Dione was afflicted, apparently by none other than Venric himself, the man whose machinations spurred the events in the first place. This also revealed that he, Dione, Shadow, Penance and Magni were all member of a group from Sigil, known as the Fraternity of Order...and that Dione, who Lyserod had always thought of as his adoptive mother, was in fact his true mother after all. The closing of the vision left Lyserod shaken, and wondering if their fates were truly connected by mere chance, or something more.