The morning began with tension crackling in the air outside the tavern in the Lowward. A city guard named [[Geralt]] approached the group, drawn by the sight of [[Armara]]'s inky black tendrils and glowing eyes, as well as the unsettling presence of Kevin the ogre standing among the party. [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] stepped forward to smooth things over, claiming it was all a small misunderstanding, while [[Armara]] struggled to contain the storm of arcane energy swirling around her. As [[Madame Celestine Voss|Celestine]] slipped back into the tavern and vanished, [[Armara]]'s fury slowly ebbed, and she turned her focus on the confused knight — reaching into his mind and scattering his thoughts like leaves in the wind. By the time the spell took hold, [[Geralt]] could barely remember what he had been investigating. To further conceal the group's nature, [[Armara]] wrapped Kevin in a powerful illusion, transforming the hulking ogre into the image of a tall, distinguished gentleman with sharp features and black hair. [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] guided the disguised Kevin back toward the wagon with a steady arm, feeling the strange sensation of his true massive form beneath the elegant facade. [[Armara]], still simmering, marched back to the wagon and left [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] to handle the remaining guards. [[Geralt]], still dazed and apologetic, offered to escort [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] to the main library for Illumination Day, and the two set off together through the winding streets toward the inner circle of the city. Along the way, he mentioned the three deaths at the tavern and warned her that the Lowward was no place for a respectable traveler to lodge. While [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] made her way through the city, [[Nobuu]] drifted into something far stranger than sleep. Resting in the cool depths of the bath pool, his awareness of the water slowly dissolved, and he found himself standing in a moonlit forest glade surrounded by towering trees nearly two hundred feet tall. A dozen tiny, luminous fey creatures appeared, giggling like bells and fluttering around him with boundless curiosity. Two of them perched on his shoulders, one nibbling what appeared to be a small natural pastry, while another crawled up his neck and settled atop his head. They beckoned him forward with tiny waving hands, and [[Nobuu]], deeply uncertain but unable to resist, slithered after them into the darkening wood. The deeper they traveled, the more the forest changed. The lush undergrowth gave way to dying trees stripped bare of leaves, and a black, oily substance seeped from the ground like a wound that refused to close. The bodies of deer and other animals lay scattered across the earth, some already reduced to bone, all consumed by the spreading corruption. The fey grew tense and silent, clinging to [[Nobuu]]'s neck and shoulders as the cheerful jingling of their laughter faded entirely. At the heart of the devastation, gold and silver-veined roots fought desperately against the encroaching darkness, and enormous three-clawed footprints marked the ground — each one large enough for [[Nobuu]] himself to stand inside. An enormous wolf emerged from the shadows, and time seemed to bend around it. A vision unfolded before [[Nobuu]]'s eyes: a wicked, grinning undead figure stepping through a portal and cutting into the torso of a buried, gargantuan creature to extract a glowing fragment. A second figure appeared — skull-headed, draped in reddish robes, with piercing red points of light burning in hollow eye sockets — and the two examined the fragment in silence. The fey clung to [[Nobuu]] and the wolf in terror as the vision played out, and then the wolf turned its great eyes on [[Nobuu]] and spoke in a female voice directly into his mind. It warned him that a war was coming that would threaten all life in Solare, including [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] and every member of their group, and that the creature they faced had already begun watching them. The wolf urged [[Nobuu]] to stop relying solely on [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]], to open himself to help, and to learn to trust those beyond his small circle — for neither he nor [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] could face what was coming alone. The vision faded back to the peaceful glade, and one of the tiny fey fluttered close to [[Nobuu]]'s face and pressed a small kiss to his forehead before giggling and darting away. He felt himself dissolving back into the cold water of the pool, and when his eyes opened, he floated in the dark for a long moment, processing everything he had seen. He retrieved his scythe, examined the wooden puzzle box [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] had left as an Illumination Day gift, and — drawn by the scent of the ocean embedded in the wood — took a large bite out of it before realizing it was not food. Spitting out splinters, he set off to find [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]]. Far from the sanctuary, Thorag's night had taken a far darker turn. [[Arin Veldrak|Arin]] woke to find the dwarf drenched in sweat, his body rigid and his breathing labored, clearly in the grip of something terrible. Inside the nightmare, Thorag watched his home fill with warmth and life — his wife at her chores, grandchildren running about — before a black, inky shadow crept in from the edges and swallowed them all whole. A skull-faced entity with burning red eyes materialized in the dream, claiming to be a god and demanding to know who Thorag served and what secrets [[Armara]] held. Thorag refused to speak, clenching his jaw and muttering prayers to his god Thragos as the entity set his wife and grandchildren ablaze in visions of screaming fire, pressing him harder and harder for answers. The entity lashed out with a surge of dark power, and Thorag's physical body stiffened violently as dark smoke poured from his chest. [[Arin Veldrak|Arin]], watching in horror, ran to the kitchen, filled the largest pot he could find with water, and hurled it over the dwarf. The shock of the cold water shattered the nightmare's grip, and Thorag gasped awake, heart hammering, the screams of his family still echoing in his ears. He recounted what he had seen to [[Arin Veldrak|Arin]], warning them that whatever hunted them could reach them even in sleep. Meanwhile, in the library of the sanctuary, [[Z'ul]] caught a flicker of something translucent moving at the edge of his vision and called upon [[Glyph]] to scan the room. The arcane guardian identified the intruder and pursued it, and [[Z'ul]] drove it away with a resonant burst of sound that sent the entity whining into nothing. [[Glyph]], deeply unsettled, noted that the creature had moved without detection — a feat that should have been impossible — and summoned [[Armara]] to the library at [[Z'ul]]'s request. In the garden, [[Hermes]] had already sensed something wrong. He had woken to a cold, suffocating malevolence pressing against him from no discernible direction — a feeling eerily similar to the shadows they had faced in Duskwatch, but laced with something else, something older. He called for [[Glyph]], who scanned the garden and found nothing, but the feeling did not leave. [[Armara]] arrived shortly after, visibly distressed and red-eyed from crying, and was startled to find [[Hermes]] tucked into the cozy corner of the garden. She composed herself quickly, and when [[Glyph]] reported the intruder [[Z'ul]] had dispatched in the library, [[Armara]]'s grief hardened into alarm. She and [[Hermes]] made their way to the Great Hall, where the rest of the party had gathered. Thorag relayed his nightmare to the group, and [[Nobuu]] confirmed that he too had seen the skull-faced figure in his own vision. [[Armara]], determined to understand the full scope of what had reached Thorag in his sleep, reached out with her mind and attempted to see the visions for herself. The connection snapped open — and then something on the other end struck back. A violent explosion of energy erupted from the link and hurled [[Armara]] across the Great Hall, slamming her into the far wall. She crumpled to the floor, blood pouring from her eyes, her nose, and her mouth, and lay utterly still. All of this unfolded while [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] stood in the grand, bustling library, completely unaware. [[Geralt]] had delivered her to the entrance and bid her a warm farewell, and she had stepped into a world of lively debate and intellectual energy. She found a small group of scholars — a blue-skinned Tiefling, [[Ziritha Mourne]], who scribbled furiously in a notebook, a young man named [[Benjamin Lightfoot]] of mixed human and halfling heritage, and an older grey-bearded gentleman — all deep in discussion about the role of gods in the world. [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] joined the debate with quiet confidence, arguing that gods did not hinder free will but were perhaps a byproduct of it, born from mortal desire and choice. The Tiefling nearly squealed with delight at the argument, scribbling down [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]]'s words and even her name — misspelled — for her thesis. Benjamin introduced the theory of the invisible hand of the gods, suggesting that adventurers were not truly free agents but instruments shaped by divine agendas, and the debate grew richer and more layered with every exchange. It was in the midst of this lively discussion that [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] noticed a figure draped in dark black cloaks watching her from the upper levels of the library stairs, utterly still amid the brightness and noise of the hall. Before she could act on the unease creeping up her spine, a voice whispered directly into her ear as though someone stood just beside her — though no one was there. The voice told her to seek out a specific tomb and ask for the speaker's sister, promising that the doors would be opened to her. It warned that the eyes of all evil had now fixed upon the group, that they would be tested and watched from this moment forward, and that enemies had already found their way among them. Then the voice was gone, leaving [[Ilith Ornithullin|Ilith]] standing in the middle of a cheerful philosophical debate, carrying the weight of a warning that the true test had only just begun.