Session 111

They Elected to Take the Stairs

After traveling several flights of stairs, all the while picking the best moments to move unseen, Ember, Mack, Aydriann, and Peach finally make it to the Thal’Carvers Guild. It took them longer than it would have if they had taken the elevators, but they arrived unnoticed.
Using his goggles, Peach spotted the door marked Lirielle and pointed the way to their quarry.

Who Is Sirius?

Before proceeding to Lirielle’s office, Sirius and Peach discuss Petra. Petra was the new name Sirius had taken, but since they last spoke, Petra had become more than just a name. It had become a distinct identity, an adaptive response to trauma that served either as a struggle against or protection from his own self-destructiveness.
Petra, the one now speaking with Peach, said he thought it might be best to let Sirius go. Peach did not like that idea and told him that he and Orianna still needed their brother. Taking his brother’s words to heart, Sirius wasn’t let go.

Lirielle (LIE-air-ee-el)/laɪˈɛəriəl/

Peach knocks on Lirielle’s door, but before he can speak, she calls for him to come in. She already knows he is there and explains that she can listen to the Vitralith, which is how she sensed him.
Peach has many questions for the Night Elf. One of them is whether she had heard of a Dhampir visiting Ozdos and Arin’s place, to which Lirielle answers yes. When he asks where the Dhampir was looking, Lirielle explains that she found a secret room and tells Peach how to open it. She warns that guards patrol the area and that many of them hate the Melanthas because of Garthos. She also reveals that the place was destroyed after their deaths.

Hall of Mirrors

Garthos steps into the elevator, with Dax and Orianna following. For a few moments, they are the only ones inside. Garthos asks Dax who he is, since he is clearly not a noble. Dax replies truthfully that he is a performer, a circus entertainer and musician.
Garthos explains that he needs Dax’s help with his wife, Lilith, who is also Orianna’s mother. He says Lilith is sick and hopes that, with their help, she might be healed.
Garthos leads them to the Hall of Mirrors, where several guards are stationed both outside and inside. Operatic singing echoes from within, a voice Garthos and Orianna both recognize as Lilith’s.
When the door opens, Lilith focuses on Garthos, singing the words, “Be silent, for you know too much.” The song is a lament, ending with the chilling line.
Garthos’s head explodes under a malice spell, Death. Viscera and blood spatter Dax and Orianna as the doors slam shut.

Light and Darkness

Lilith attacks Dax and Orianna as though she does not recognize them. The blast of sound hits them hard. Shocked but still moving, Dax manages to heal himself and hide.
Lilith cries out phrases like, “The ends justify the means!” and “They all left me because I did nothing!”
Orianna turns to face her mother, hoping to reach her. In that moment, Lelune, goddess of darkness and the moon, speaks to Orianna. They agree that Edmeera must be dealt with, but that trying to reach Lilith through compassion is the best course of action. Lelune fades, and Orianna manages to convince her mother that it is truly her. Lilith stops, grief-stricken, and apologizes.
The guards, however, call for arms. They raise their blades toward Lilith, shouting that she is a monster and that the Melanth bloodline must be wiped out now that Garthos is dead.
Lilith turns her wrath on them, unleashing lethal magic on those nearby. Orianna tries to reach the door to escape but takes several hits from the guards.
Dax, using a bit of shadow play and a nearby lantern, creates an illusion of a boulder rolling downhill that crashes into the guards, causing real damage. Orianna seizes the chance to unlock the door, but it is too heavy to move before more chaos erupts.
Two strings appear around Lilith, strings similar to Edmeera’s death threads.