Every story has a beginning.
Since my time here inside the Great Seal and the town of Sanctuary, many things have happened. Given what is happening now both inside and outside of the Seal, it is time I put my memories of my arrival here and what has transpired up to this point. This is the first of many entries I will be posting over time, given what I can remember and what I wrote down. I will try to give these entries as best of a description of people, events, and things during this past and tumultuous period.
When I was first thrown inside the Seal, the time before the Cataclysm was very different from what it is now. For those being thrown through, it was a matter of being literally hauled in front of Imperial jailers inside my home country of Cilaria, being given an opportunity to “repent” for our various crimes or sins and then being unceremoniously thrown through the Seal (I don’t know what would happen to those that repented, none of those with me did). There were gathered among at the time four other Imperials, one hailing from the capital of Dominus, and three Bassirans, warriors from the northernmost part of the Imperial holdings. Two Trumar, Aleta and her older sister Collonade. Two Dragonlords (who by tradition, were an active enemy of Imperials and their “allies”) Cereus and Kagami. A Revenant named Brother Duo, and an Effigy called Hex completed our gathered band, for lack of a better term. We were then “escorted” through the Seal, one by one.
Before I was being thrown through, an individual walked up to me and whispered if I were to push through one of the guards near the Seal as I was moved through, I would be rewarded with Soul Shards (the currency before Jade became our standard). Having nothing to lose, I agreed, and pushed said guard through as well when I traveled on (this is significant, for it will have a very distinct role to play later in these entries).
Upon “landing”, what almost immediately greeted us was the sounds of movement and hissing as a great number of ghouls, mindless undead, began to make their way towards us.
Many things happened in a very short amount of time; The first being Cereus starting to pick the locks on our manacles, while Kagami started to help get the others in a defensive position against our now-mutual opponents. The second was when we were then met by a few humanoids surrounded in plants interwoven with their armor and clothing, the Wardens had arrived. They too aided us by both guiding us out of the fighting, while helping to keep back the ghouls who were now beginning to swarm all of us. A quick and confusing combat ensued; our skills put to the test. Many of us were injured afterwards, but we survived. We were then led to a small, ruined town some distance away from the Seal.
The town itself was more of a few encampments on to rebuild what was apparently a devastating attack by some forces. It was there we met others that were more native to the Seal. A few Seraphs, some Erubi, Inanis, and a band of an assembled group of what they claimed to be pirates, a mixture of Seraph, Revenants, and even a couple Imperials, led by their own captain. Rough and untrusting introductions were made, as we were instructed to find lodgings for ourselves amongst the ruined buildings. Many of those already present had set themselves up and were apparently waiting for us to get settled in. This was Sanctuary, such as it was at the time.
As we did settle in, I moved into a cabin with Aleta and Collonade. As we did, the three of us held a very long, and unexpected conversation of our various plights in how we got here. It was one of the most honest conversations I had with anyone in quite some time, and provided a very brief relief, given the current situation.
The evening did not progress well from there, the Wardens gathered everyone up in a larger, but at least stable, building, to “explain” to us what we were required to do, now that we were here. This did not go over well with many, both newly-arrived and those that had been there awhile. There were apparently a few fights between some outside later as a result. It was also ordered that we were responsible for cleaning up the town and reclaiming some of the mandates and documents that the old mayor had left behind, in the hollowed out and webbed-over ruins of Sanctuary’s tavern. They were currently occupied by a large hive of Stoneweavers, and our main task, if we were to continue here, was to clean it out after figuring out a way to break a mystical seal that was someone placed over the tavern’s entrance, barring entrance by anyone from the outside.
This was my first night in Sanctuary.
-Aeolus