Rylwaequarth the Holy of Faith, Anathema to the Empire

Role

Chapter 6

As Rylwaequarth's nimble fingers flipped quickly through bundled parchments, a
sigh composed equally of weariness and frustration escaped from his thin lips.
"There's nothing new in here I don't already know," he grumbled lowly to the
dust-covered crates that were stacked high in the Galadon registry's storage
area. "How is it that somebody as well-known as my father could just ...
vanish from the public eye? Did she kill him?" Rylwaequarth put the now neatly
stacked batch of records he had been exploring back where they belonged as he
pondered this riddle.

It had been easier for him to put together a timeline concerning his mother,
as she had been a diplomat and was much better represented in the various
records he had accessed. He'd only very recently learned that she'd been
recalled to the Underside very shortly after the dissolution of their family.
He then immediately dispatched an imperial spy to the spider city to learn
what he could, but that had been only days ago. As Rylwaequarth left the
registry and walked briskly back to his guild, he was disappointed but
undeterred. He would keep looking until he found what he was after.

Rylwaequarth was so absorbed in his thoughts that he initially didn't notice
the well-dressed drow awaiting him at the temple. He had half a moment to
laugh to himself that this surprise had surely been intentional before the
imposing man stepped towards him. Rylwaequarth readied himself for a coming
attack, but the messenger simply handed him an unmarked envelope, whispered
"Burn this!" and disappeared into the temple crowd. As he retired to his
guild to examine the vellum inside his eyes found a shocking message:

***
My child-

I've watched you closely all these years, and what I've seen has made me
proud. The favor of the Great Witch, a place in the Empire, these are glorious
feats. You are destined for so much more! Stay your course, and I will tell
you what you need to know when the time is right. However, DO NOT make any
more attempts to seek me out, for I need no unwanted attention. I allowed the
man you sent this time to live, out of courtesy, but if you send another he
will not return to the Topside.

Your dear mother,
Chessantra
***

===Days before===
Chessantra sits at an ornate desk as she finishes a note with a flourish of
her quill. "Send this to him immediately," she commands a waiting handmaiden.
"You didn't tell him the truth, did you?" the attendant asked with curious
amusement. "Of course not," Chessantra laughed lightly, "I told him only
enough to keep him focused. He knows nothing of his father. Or of Zurcon," she
added, as her smile hardened.

Role

Chapter 5

Being of a singular focus regarding his unraveling of this conspiracy, it took
only a couple of days to quietly dispatch Jomved's allies. Still, though,
there was a missing piece of the puzzle that only Jomved himself could now
fill in. Ryl had to know the answer, he could not rest without it. Jomved
would tell him, one way or another. That night, when he snuck to the basement
to look for his partners, Rylwaequarth was waiting.

Once he had ambushed and drugged Jomved, it was simple enough to drag him into
one of the newly vacant cages in the anti-library. More difficult had been
convincing the former occupants that now was their chance to escape to
Galadon, but Ryl also managed this. To his credit, Jomved resisted Ryl's
questioning through the first night and refused to give him any new
information. But the self-indulgent fool had been too eager to break his fast
after a day without food. Within an hour, Jomved could feel the poison racing
through his body. This loosened his tongue considerably, and he spent the
parts of the day he wasn't retching in a corner of his cage trying to answer
Ryl's questions.

By nightfall, it was clear that Jomved had answered everything he was able to
(and even signed a written confession), except for what God he served, and who
his outside man was. These secrets he still guarded dearly, much to Ryl's
displeasure. Tomorrow, when he returned from his monastic duties, he would
increase the severity of the inquisition, he explained to Jomved, until his
curiosity was sated. Rylwaequarth would stop at nothing. He HAD TO KNOW.

Ryl was awoken later that night by monks shouting about a fire in the
basement! His heart sank as he immediately knew where the source of the fire
would be found. When the fire was doused and the smoke cleared, it became
obvious that someone had gone down, brutally finished off Jomved, gathered up
any icons or valuable texts, and burned everything else. The fire had been
found and extinguished before it had fully burned out, so enough remained that
it was obvious that some sort of demon worshiping cult had been using kids
down there. Whoever had done this had made certain that Ryl's involvement was
obvious to the elder monks. Luckily he had kept Jomved's confession, which
exonerated him, on his person.

This convinced Feristle that Rylwaequarth hadn't been a part of the cult, but
Feristle was still wise enough to discern what he had done, especially as one
of the other corpses had also been found. Most in the monastery knew Ryl had
been involved, but not how. Many presumed him a victim in some way. While
Feristle bore Ryl no ill will, it was obvious to them both that the peaceful
path of the monks was not to be his path. Thus, Feristle put in a word with
the Galadon shaman's guild, and Ryl returned to Galadon to join the academy
and the guild, and to see what they would teach him.

Role

Chapter 4

minutes later, carefully closing the heavy door behind him and silently making
his way back out into the night. As he approached the door, Ryl could hear his
heart beating loudly in his ears as he could barely contain the excitement of
discovering the secret that had captured his focus.

Sliding the door open, Rylwaequarth's breath caught in his chest as the fetid
stench of the room met his perception just as his eyes adjusted to its
darkness. Whatever he had thought to find behind the door had not prepared him
for the knowledge that now crashed over him like a tsunami. He was standing in
what had clearly been intended to be a library before it had been forgotten.
Bookshelves lined the walls, and a number of desks had been pushed up against
the walls to make room for the ghastly scene before him. No longer a library,
though, this room was now clearly being used as a temple to some terrible dark
Lord, although Ryl didn't recognize any of the symbols or the language he saw
on the varied texts strewn about or the heavy, dark curtains that lined the
stone walls. What he did recognize, though, in the instant before his focus
was drawn to the main feature of the room, was undeniable evidence of ritual
human sacrifice. All of this Ryl perceived in the instant before his eyes came
to rest on a set of large cages and a rickety cot placed at the back of the
deep room, and four sets of eyes gazing back at him.

Three young children were sitting on piles of clothes in the cages looking at
him fearfully, while a fourth boy, not so far from Ryl's own age, sat on the
cot staring back with the incurious eyes of one who has long since retreated
from reality. For a moment, Ryl was a child again, feeling the pain of losing
a happy family, and remembering the suffering that came after that pain. He
tried in vain to comfort the small children but was unable. As he listened to
their soft whimpers, his mind was already making plans to let these children
at least know justice, if he couldn't help them to find peace.

Now that Ryl understood his enemy, though, his plan was easy enough to put
into motion. It had been a few years since he had lived on the street, but he
hadn't lost the hardness that experience had forged into him, and the men he
now hunted were soft, and stupid, and he knew their weakness. Having deduced
there were five men in the monastery in this hidden cult (Jomved and four
others), and one contact outside the walls, he set to work enacting his plan.
The men needed to travel alone, but they were all too eager to have young
Rylwaequarth accompany them on these secret jaunts when he implied wanting to
be alone with them. And if nobody saw the two leave, who would know to be
curious to see only one return?

Role

Chapter 3

During his time on the street in Galadon, young Rylwaequarth rather enjoyed
attending public speeches and lectures that were routinely given by visitors
to the city. He had vague memories of attending similar functions with his
mother when he had been much younger. Had she spoken, too, sometimes? One day,
a striking monk from the south had spoken on finding peace in life through a
calmed, meditative mind. The topic had inflamed Ryl's curiosity, and while
talking with the monk afterwards, he was most surprised when he was invited to
return to Moudrilar's monastery and take up the robes as an apprentice. This
was an offer Ryl was unable to refuse - he had to know what lessons could be
learned. Oh, but he would learn so much more than he bargained for.

Over the next few years, Rylwaequarth found a comfortable home in the routines
and communion of the monastic Order. Everybody there had been welcoming, if
subdued, but the monk that brought him from Galadon, Jomved, and his friends
had been especially friendly and helpful. Although he was the youngest
apprentice there, he thought nothing of it beyond thinking that he must be
wiser than most his age. (Although he was not yet wise enough to wonder why
they had robes that fit his adolescent frame.) Sometimes Jomved would slip him
a little extra food or help get him out of particularly onerous work details.
After a time, Ryl even ventured out occasionally with Jomved on his trips to
Galadon. He was also progressing in his studies quite well, and, according to
Jomved, was steadily weakening the red aura that hung about him. Did Ryl
believe this? He did not know.

However, the peace of mind and spirit was not to last. And, as is oft the
case, the unraveling began with an innocently soft tug at a thread that
initially seemed inconsequential. One morning, Jomved offhandedly asked Ryl to
"cover" for him by saying they had been together if Feristle or Qendriko
happened to ask. Ryl agreed without a second thought, as he trusted Jomved
implicitly. But, as the day wore on, his curiosity took root in the fertile
soil of this unexpected request and grew with as much ferver as any magic
beanstalk ever had. By nightfall it had consumed him so entirely that he could
not find sleep until he resolved that he must discover why Jomved had asked
him to lie. Thus began Ryl's obsessive quest.

Every free moment was dedicated to watching, listening, or otherwise
investigating Jomved's activity. Ryl's drowish heritage made it all too easy
for him to sneak about an enclave of men who sought to turn their own focus
inward on themselves, and within a week's time he had followed another monk
and uncovered his use of a hidden door in one of the store-rooms to access a
disused basement storage area beneath the monastery. Following him further in,
Ryl watched the man slide behind a stone door, only to exit again a few
discovering the secret that had captured his focus.

Role

Chapter 2

Great and Wise Lady Ishuli, Fount of Knowledge-

May it please You, I leave this scroll with Your dutiful Keepers, confident in
their capable hands. When You graced me with an audience, You bade me to
clarify my goals and my scholarship. There was, of course, much wisdom in Your
edict, and this task has been given my whole focus, guildmasters and
rabble-rousers alike be damned.

After fervent contemplation, I have decided. The locus of my scholarship will
be the enemies of order. This is the knowledge which, once gathered and
analyzed, will be most crucial to achieving the pure peace that only a
strictly ordered society can provide to its citizens. I believe it better for
me to dedicate myself to filloing what I perceive to be a gap in the Library's
extensive knowledge, as opposed to adding depth and detail to an topic already
considered on Your shelves. My plan calls, of course, for the study to be
broken into distinct categories. This will allow me to fixate on one discreet
element at a time, both in my research and in the final presentation.

I find myself most excited by my newfound purity in purpose. Already are my
thoughts becoming more clear and my dedication more refined. I pray You find
this proposal acceptable, and that it brings you some pleasure as well, Great
Witch.

Your humble servant,
Rylwaequarth (signed in a confident, stylized but efficient script)

Role

Chapter 1

1) Rylwaequarth is, relatively speaking, not particularly Evil. Order is his
guiding ideal, as he sees it as necessary for the safety and prosperity of the
common folk of Thera. He's especially sensitive to the plight of children. But
he is willing to do, and has done in the past, things that "good" people would
find very morally questionable.

2) Rylwaequarth will be genuinely outgoing and friendly to most people, even
many known enemies, but he will also have a sharp tongue when his temper
flares. His mother was a diplomat from Teth Azeleth and his father was a
well-known Galadon artist. He spent his childhood being raised in Galadon high
society, but chaotic happenings poisoned, then destroyed, the peace of his
childhood home. Rylwaequarth spent the next few childhood years living as a
Galadon street rat, before making his way to live in a monastery full of monks
striving for both inner and outer peace. He spent a few peaceful years there,
training as an apprentice monk, until chaos once again ruined what meager
stability he had managed to create for himself.

3) Rylwaequarth blames the forces of chaos and ignorance for all the bad
things that have happened to him so far in his young life. He sees Knowledge
as the most effective protection against future tragedy, as he firmly believes
that had he known more, he could have maintained the stability he knew in the
good times. Thus, he seeks to learn as much as possible about himself, his
history, and how best to defeat the chaotic forces of the world.

Things Rylwaequarth doesn't yet know:
1) His mother's bloodline is descended from Allerya, known as the "Bringer of
Order," a drow healer who was the Imperial High Priest during the reign of
Istendil. He was taught only the basics of Drow culture, and doesn't even know
what his name means. ("Foretold Heir of Order")

2) There are many details about the ruin of his home in Galadon that he is
unaware of. One example is that his mother could have taken him with her when
she returned to Teth. She chose not to out of mercy, being of the opinion that
leaving him topside was kinder than bringing a half-breed male back to the
drow city.

3) During his time at the monastery, some of the monks told Rylwaequarth that
they could sense his red aura weakening as he progressed in study and
meditation. He doesn't know if it was true, or if he ever believed them, but
there was a part of him that wanted it to be true. If Rylwaequarth is to
succeed, he must see and accept the evil within himself in order to properly
use his talents, or he must choose to abandon the darkness and find a new
path.

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