Esmerelda Caligo

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

Artur Caligo (brother),

Lance Caligo (brother)

Lady **Esmerelda Caligo** is the approximately six-year-old daughter of Lord and Lady Caligo. She fell ill, possibly to a plague of undeath, at some point prior to the fire at Ruben, and was treated by Gaius the Alchemist. However, Gaius accidentally turned her into a voidling while undead due to treating her with Source, and she has since been the cause of a significant amount of trouble.

Though thought to be dead or quarantined by the citizens of Carolia, Esmerelda was first encountered by the group after they snuck into Carolia castle, Esmerelda found staring at Glamon Desmognathus through the keyhole of the door to her room. Unnerving Glamon, Esmerelda knew Glamon's name without being introduced, and was excited about having something to "play with". Glamon left and returned with the others, only to find that Esmerelda had disappeared and a teddy bear, which sprouted into a cursed fire, had appeared in her place. After they left her room again, Ragnar returned to find that it had filled with the deathfog they had encountered on the beach. Esmerelda continued to taunt them in the castle with her giggling, mentioning that she knew Adelliah of the Axe's mother.

The Firestarters killed Lady Caligo, who after her death was clearly undead, leading Ensatina Desmognathus to realise that a very powerful force was keeping her alive and using her as a meat puppet, and so they went in search of Lord Caligo for answers.

When the four entered the castle's great hall, they found Esmerelda playing in the corner on the dais alongside her brothers and father. After Ensatina let herself and her companions be taken away to find a cure for Esmerelda, their cell started to fill with blood, forcing them to break out, Esmerelda's laughing having been heard as this happened. Later, a Blood Beast appeared from the cell to attack them. Ensatina led the others to announce to Lord Caligo that his daughter had been inhabited by a demonic influence and had to be killed, leading to a fight. After the Firestarters slew the rest of Esmerelda's family Esmerelda disappeared again.

They found notes and questioned a terrified scholar in the hall, Gilcrease, who told them that Esmerelda often went alone to a Source mine to the west of Carolia. While they resupplied in Carolia deathfog started to appear, so the others hurriedly made their way to the Source mine to face Esmerelda, cutting through the Whispering Wood where there were void-touched creatures around.

Arriving and safely traversing through the Source mine, they encountered Esmerelda at the bottom near the body and hoard of a dead black dragon and surrounded by Source. She taunted them, so Ensatina set the Frozen Troll that had joined them to eat Esmerelda, causing her to enter a Source-infused form that was red and translucent. In this form she had great powers over all the elements, and at one point petrified anything that came near. She also summoned an army of elemental incarnates to oppose the Firestarters, which occupied Adelliah's attention for most of the fight.

Ultimately, Glamon managed to kill the Source-infused form, causing the "human" form to appear, which Adelliah teleported out of the necrofire on the mine floor. This taunted them, saying that she would be able to return to her Source-infused form in minutes, and tried to escape, leading Glamon to turn her into a chicken and Adelliah to restrain her. She threatened the others that she was her death, and said that the child was still alive and very scared. Glamon eventually gave up and slit her throat, considering the real Esmerelda to be a sacrifice: she would not let her family be destroyed.

With Esmerelda's death, the plague became less virulent, but only enough blood was collected from her body to cure Timmy, albeit with side-effects. Her body was taken by Ensatina to develop the cure, and was chained and bound with as many physical and magical barriers the elder Desmognathus could employ. With the extinction of the Caligo male line, the Lordship of Epidicae passed in the female line to Ensatina.