Rise of the Runelords
Pyrus pouts and hides behind Mittens.
Ameiko expounds:
The primary villain of “Burnt Offerings” is a bitter aasimar woman
named Nualia. A foundling raised by Sandpoint’s previous religious
leader, a man named Ezakien Tobyn, Nualia’s childhood was lonely
and sad. Her unearthly beauty made the other children either
jealous or shy, and many of them took to playing cruel jokes on her.
The adults in town weren’t much better—many of the superstitious
Varisians viewed Nualia as blessed by Desna, a sort of “reverse
deformity.” Rumors that her touch or proximity could cure warts
and rashes, that locks of her hair brewed into tea could increase
fertility, and that her voice could drive out evil spirits led to endless
awkward and humiliating requests over the years. Poor Nualia felt
more like a freak than a young girl by the time she came of age, so
when Delek Viskanta, a local Varisian youth, began to court her,
she practically fell into his arms in gratitdue.
Knowing that her father wouldn’t approve of a relationship
with a Varisian (he wanted her to remain pure so that she could
join one of the prestigious Windsong Abbey convents), they kept
the affair secret. They met many times in hidden places, a favorite
being an abandoned smuggler’s tunnel under town that Delek
had discovered as a child. Before long, Nualia realized she was
pregnant. When she told Delek, he revealed his true colors and,
after calling her a slut and a harlot, fled Sandpoint rather than
face her father’s wrath. Nualia’s shock quickly turned to rage, yet
she had nowhere to vent her anger. She bottled it up, and when
her father discovered her delicate condition, his reaction to her
indescretions only furthered her shame and anger. He forbade
her to leave the church, lectured her nightly, and made her pray
to Desna for forigeness. In so doing, he unknowingly nurtured
her growing hate.
When the runewell in the Catacombs of Wrath flared to life,
Nualia’s own anger was a magnet to its magic. Seven months pregnant, the wrathful energies suffused her mind and she flew into
a frenzy. She miscarried her child later that night, a child whose
monstrously deformed shape she only glimpsed before blanching
midwives stole it away to burn it in secret. As the child had been
concieved in the smuggler’s tunnels below town, in close proximity
to a hidden shrine to Lamashtu (the goddess of monstrous births),
the child itself was deformed and horrific. The double shock of
losing a child and the realization she had been carrying a fiend in
her belly for seven months was too much. Nualia fell into a coma.
As Nualia slept, she dreamed unhealthy dreams. Fueled by the
wrath from below and the taint of Lamashtu, Nualia became further
obsessed with the cruel demon goddess and the conviction that her
wretched life was inflicted on her by those around her. She came
to see her angelic heritage as a curse, and the demon-sent dreams
showed her how to expunge this taint from her body and soul,
replacing it with chaos and cruelty. When she finally woke, Nualia
was someone new, someone who didn’t flinch at what Lamashtu
asked of her. She jammed her father’s door shut as he slept, lit the
church on fire, and fled Sandpoint.
The locals assumed Nualia had burned in the fire, a tragedy made
all the worse by the death of Father Tobyn as well. Yet Nualia lived.
She fled to Magnimar, where she enlisted the aid of a group of killers
known as the Skinsaw Men. With their aid, she tracked down Delek
and murdered him. Yet his death did not fill her need for revenge.
Sandpoint and its hated citizens still lived.
Seeing a kindred spirit in the tortured woman, the mysterious
leader of the Skinsaw Men gave Nualia a medallion bearing a carving of a seven-pointed star called a “Sihedron medallion.” Nualia
learned that she had a larger role to play, and that her dreams were
a map to her destiny. Taking the advice to heart, Nualia returned to
Sandpoint, and found herself drawn to the brick wall in the smuggler’s tunnels where she and Delek had conceived her deformed
child. Nualia bashed down the wall, and in so doing, discovered
the Catacombs of Wrath and the quasit Erylium, also a follower
of Lamashtu. For many months, Nualia studied under Erylium’s
tutelage. During this time, Nualia received another vision from
Lamashtu—a vision of a monstrous goblin wolf imprisoned in a tiny
room. In Nualia’s dreams, she learned that this creature, a barghest
named Malfeshnekor, was also one of Lamashtu’s chosen. If she
could find him and free him, he would not only help her achieve her
vengeance against the town of Sandpoint, but he would be the key
in cleansing her body of what she had come to see as her “celestial
taint.” Nualia wanted to be one of Lamashtu’s children now. She
wanted to become a monster herself.
(The following infodump never happened because we bypassed getting the quest to find Ameiko)
Tsuto was something of a scandal when he
was born 21 years ago, since he’s a half-elf. Bethana sagely notes,
with big eyes, that neither of Ameiko’s parents are elves. It was
obvious that old Lonjiku wasn’t the boy’s father, and his rage at
the discovery of his wife’s indiscretion was the talk of the town for
months. Lonjiku’s wife Atsuii never revealed who the father was,
and it’s a testament to Lonjiku’s stubbornness that they remained
married. Tsuto was handed over to the Turandarok Academy to
be raised outside of the Kaijitsu family, ignored by his father and
forbidden visits from his mother. His older sister Ameiko visited
him in secret a few times a month to keep him company, bring him
some food, and promise him that someday things would get all
sorted out. That all changed six years ago, when they had a terrible
argument in which Tsuto struck Ameiko. Bethana doesn’t know
what the argument was about, but whatever it was is what sent
Ameiko away from Sandpoint for a year, during which time she
made a living as an adventurer. She returned to Sandpoint five years
ago to attend her mother’s funeral. Tsuto was quite public in his
opinions that his father had pushed Atsuii off the cliff to her death,
and during the funeral there was a confrontation. Lonjiku nearly
broke Tsuto’s jaw with his cane, after which Tsuto cursed him and
left Sandpoint. Ameiko’s tried to reestablish contact with him ever
since, but was never able to track him down.
When Tsuto Kaijitsu joined Nualia’s
group in Magnimar a year ago, he was already in love with her.
He’d seen her on the streets of Sandpoint many times, but never
had the courage to approach the mysterious beauty. So when she
approached him with an offer of a job, he felt as if fate had finally
dealt him a good hand. When he learned that her plans involved
burning his hometown as an offering to her goddess, Lamashtu,
Tsuto was even more thrilled—not at the opportunity to serve the
goddess of monsters (Tsuto doesn’t have much interest in religion)
but as an opportunity to get revenge on the town he blamed for his
bitter and joyless childhood.
Tsuto’s primary job was to serve as the link between Sandpoint and Thistletop, since not only did he know the town the
best, but he had links to one of its most important citizens—his
father. After blackmailing Lonjiku into aiding the preparation
of Sandpoint for the goblin raid, Tsuto had his father right
where he wanted him. A few days after the raid, he sent his
father a note demanding a payment of 2,000 gp or Tsuto would
reveal his role in the raid. Infuriated, Lonjiku decided it was
time to take care of his son. He agreed to the payment, and
when he arrived at the Glassworks late one night several days
after the raid, he attempted to murder Tsuto. Unfortunately for
Lonjiku, Tsuto had come up with the same plan. Before Lonjiku
arrived, the goblins killed all of the workers who lived on site.
Tsuto and a half-dozen goblins ambushed Lonjiku as he entered
the Glassworks, murdered him, and put his body on display
in area A17.
Nathan looks serious faced. "We need to destroy this Lamashtu shrine."
"That's what I was going to talk to you about in private," Shalelu sighs, "I found the tunnel."
"Gives us something to do while we wait for the troops to arrive," Mits comments.
Ameiko looks a little surprised and embarrassed. "Oh... I thought you already knew all this. Sorry."