The Story Thus Far - October 2019

The story thus far~

It started with a leve. A call from a mother, whose daughter had vanished; a mother known to be a powerful healer, and seer. This last part was what complicated things, as the Whiteseer claimed she would normally be able to find her daughter anywhere, and would know if she had died. Two trails presented themselves; one to the Burning Wall so seek out "a presence both like and unlike" the daughter, and the other, to the Sylphlands, to inspect the locale where her trail disappeared.

At the Burning Wall, adventurers found themselves in competition with a rival group, Tiber's Toughs, who were reluctant to yield the prize. The prize itself turned out to be a woman, a warrior named Ilia who did not speak any known language, but whom the Echo-blessed were able to determine came from another world, one very different from this one. After seeing the adventurers' good intentions, Ilia agreed to go and meet the Whiteseer.

In the Sylphlands, meanwhile, the other adventurers crept their way deep into the heart of the forbidden wood, following the mostly-cold trail left behind. There, The found a strange thing; a floating white rectangle, no larger than a midlander's hand. Through study they were able to determine that it was the remnant of some form of portal.. and, upon further tampering, pulled it loose, claiming the imprint shard for themselves. A sylph revealed itself to them, then, telling them that a strange being had opened a doorway of light through which their quarry had vanished. 

The sylph also warned them to leave, or they would face the wrath of the newly-summoned Ramuh, wroth at the intrusions in their land... Later, a hunting party of Echo-blessed Scions would gather, and successfully take down the Primal, in no small part thanks to S'imba, who was reluctantly dragged along for the ride.

Ilia and the imprint shard were returned to the Whiteseer, who could only confirm that the other woman was from another world, and that the shard was made of primal Light element, pure and dangerous. She rewarded the adventurers for their efforts thus far, and promised she would call on them again once more could be known. Ilia, meanwhile, would set about involving herself in heroic pursuits, which she claimed was her role, as a Champion of the Sun. In doing so, she gained the attention of a scholarly tonberry, Ibes Habes, when she aided in his rescue from a mixture of ill-intentioned treasure hunters, including the mercenaries Tiber’s Toughs, who had fallen on harder times.

Then, at the behest of U’jakata, Thaumaturge Most Puissant (himself likely under pressure from his wife, who is from the same tribe as the Whiteseer) Adventurers gathered to pool ideas and attempt to breach the barrier of the worlds. With Ilia and the imprint shard on-hand, eventually Shion Miyumi had a stroke of inspiration from watching their interaction and just went for it; she enact a spell which consumed the imprint shard, and resulted in opening a portal of light through which came a pair of terrible, bone-white monsters... and Anstarra, the woman they’d been searching for, who fell unconscious to the ground. Upon defeating the monsters, Anstarra was returned to her mother, the Whiteseer and woke up, with no memory of what had happened to her. Disturbed, she departed for Ishgard, to be with her mate. 

And so for now, an impasse, though questions remain.

Where did Anstarra go, and what happened to her?

What of Ilia, still marooned in this world?

And what else, if anything, might have come through the portal?

Time will tell...