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OUR STORY

Arc-based summaries of our story played out over three years.

Previously...

ARC VII: HATTHEVAR

JANUARY: on the footsteps of undead creator Matthias, the party arrived in Hatthevar, former seat of mysticism, Oracles and wish granting, now turned into a citadel of ghosts. Hatthevar has been under siege from Rathakku, conqueror of Alem and warlord of the Brotherhood, and undead wind lord Anurr, unaffiliated with the coalition. Matthias, meanwhile, has been working the five local beacons and calling upon all of his power to try to bring in and revive spirits from various points in time and space — in a bid to summon and resurrect his long lost daughter, Cosette. At times, he senses her close, but she shortly disappears from the citadel. Desperate, he offered the party all of his power over the dead, in exchange for being reunited with his daughter.

Benedict, Emilia and Wrath defeated some of Anurr’s frost wyrms and Rathakku’s demonic scorpions and sand lurkers, preventing them from entering Hatthevar. Rathakku withdrew his forces, while Anurr continued to attack with his blizzards. Vanessa took over one of the beacons, guaranteeing the party an exit point. From the Hatthevar lagoon, Red recovered a substance from a cauldron typically used to eliminate memories. Along with supplying access to some of Matthias’ recollections, the liquid also enables the party to retain their memories of Akhuras upon departure. Five and Wen Kexing learned two possible locations suspected as Matthias’ hideouts.

Several party members also investigated the whereabouts and fate of the dis- and reappearing Cosette, whom Matthias described as a young blonde child. No such girl was seen wherever he sends the party. A puppet master, who worked at the bazaar when Matthias sensed Cosette was present there, says he was possessed to put on a play of a father-daughter quarrel, at the end of which the daughter ran off and was killed.

The party learned that Matthias, formerly a technological and magical scientist of Ellethia, extracted two presumably shameful or painful memories: one was of him giving permission for his team to create a fierce magical storm and recover a power source, endangering nearby ships. The second memory was of running into a young blonde woman who disdainfully said she had not admired him since she was a child.

At one point, a woman seen where Matthias felt his daughter present traded a memory in which she was on a ship in the middle of a large storm, arguing with Matthias. River suspects Cosette may not have been a child at the time of her death. If the woman is Cosette, she does not wish to return to her father.

FEBRUARY: The party pursued Matthias at the two lair locations unearthed by Five and Wen Kexing — aboard the haunted ship, the Headless Dancer, and in the Whispering House of the foremost Wish maker of Hatthevar. Aboard the Headless Dancer, the group found out that the vessel was once used by the Ellethian court of governance, which was attempting to reach a powerful artefact sunken offshore Ellethia before the institute of technology might achieve the same. Cosette was one of the representatives on board during this venture, when Matthias obliviously authorized the summoning of a deathly magical storm that was initially intended to scare away all other rivals for the artefact (later revealed to be dark water). She and her crewmates perished, Cosette told Benedict during a ghostly encounter, stressing she wanted nothing to do with her father. Wrathion meanwhile discovered a tool that the spirit of Cosette vengefully stole from her father — the knife with which he has been cutting off his limbs to make magical anchors, and one of the few instruments that can harm him.

In Hatthevar, wind master Anurr attempted to take advantage of Matthias' distraction and launched a last-resort attack, using his blizzards to corrupt several party members onto his side of the warfare. They did not open him the gates.

Faced with the dark truth of all that Matthias has done to his family, the spirits of Hatthevar and the world of the (un)dead at large — several party members lured him out with illusions and false appearances of Cosette, before Emilia dealt a final killing blow with the knife facilitated by Wrathion. With some inheriting the remains of Matthias' magic, several party members made a last use of the dark water's overwhelming power to isolate and seal Anurr in his human body, trapping him once more and preventing him from seeking to usurp what territories the Brotherhood once held.

Free of their dead, their curses, their nightmares, their wishes and long grief — the living of Akhuras may tend to their own and heal.

As the party, finally possessing strong and stable beacons, may choose to head home with or without their memories.

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INTERLUDE: STAIRS OF SIGHS

The party was smuggled out of Sa-Hareth in the caravan of the merchant Mazyar, who braved the Stairs of Sighs canyon as a shortcut to Taravast. The Stairs were curse-bound to only open for the yearly pilgrimage of Lord Arha's ghost army, which sought to rescue the sorceress Hatisse from Taravast. As characters traversed the canyon, they began to unravel the witch's curse: a haunting love song, rains of blood, and tar-winged harpies built around the remains of the army, throwing down bone. All these tricks of sorcery aimed to remind Arha of his demise and rest his spirit peacefully — an indelicate attempt to reveal his fate had led to the slaughter of another caravan's members.

Allison Hargreeves led a group into the harpies' lair, sending the creatures in a fit of violence that saw them attack an incoming horsecar and nearly kill further newcomers. The spree also opened up the cliff-burrowed temple holding multiple tombs of the ghost soldiers, allowing a team to infiltrate and cleanse Arha's bones — while, in the outside world, several characters disguised Bai Mingyu as Hatisse to distract the dead warlord and bide the tomb raiders their time. The story of Hatisse's betrayal of Lord Arha, who could not bear her scorn, surfaced. In the end, Lord Arha and his army were appeased and sent off, although Wei Wuxian and Lily Evans still seek to give final justice to the spirits of their victims. The witch's curse has dispersed. The Stairs of Sighs passage is now freely open for travel.