The Martyr's Light

Kipilu, Dina, and Imora began their second day in Tapatlan, investigating the many traces of corruption that riddled the town. What they didn't know is just how far this would go...

Clues, Clues, Clues

First thing was first: recuperate, check over notes, and stay vigilant for new leads. And new leads always have a way of showing up in Tapatlan - the priest at the Waystation was casually talking a wayward sorcerer into talking to the acolytes at the temple, and encouraged them to say a few choice phrases. Kipilu and co. followed that sorcerer to the temple and, through cat magic, was able to listen in on a covert conversation in the monastic cells. This really was a fringe religious movement. Imora wanted to just turn them in and call it quits and was afraid that they would be a murder-cult, but Dina identified them as Asuna Heretics which she considered harmless. The two left Imora to keep an eye on the temple while they investigated the Armory again.
After a chat with a local stray who lived in the armory roof (who revealed that outsiders around the market were getting kidnapped at night), Kipilu dissolved into cats to sneak in while Dina magically disguised herself to enter after. The two of them were able to find the underground tunnels the cultists were using, and discovered an offshoot to the sketchy Gated District that was occupied by strangely outfitted prisms. Kipilu was able to magically charm past them and explored a bit into the office beyond, which was sketchy but locked up enough that they would need to return with tools and thumbs to really get the good stuff. The pair retreated and found another tunnel leading out of town, which they were told off from exploring. 
Thwarted but not caught, Dina and Kipilu met up with Imora and headed off as a full group to the opium den. The den turned out to be just enjoying the total collapse of society in relative peace; the owner just worked out of a basement under the Little Eccentricities pawn shop and wanted to sell merchandise. Dina and Kipilu thought this was hilarious, and proceeded to purchase these shirts and otherwise leave the den alone.

The Game is Up

Then the group went to investigate Grima's Medicinals, the snake oil shop that seemed integral to the local money-making operations. Via cat espionage, Kipilu discovered that a customer had been apprehended and stuck in the side office waiting to be "picked up". Kipilu and Imora left Dina to keep an eye on this situation while they left to check out the Northside Tavern. The tavern was a large ritsy establishment with gambling and a lovely courtyard, close to the Gated District and clearly tied to it. Kipilu and Imora discovered that people were going to this tavern to get loans for medicine, and Kipilu decided to hedge his bets to get close and figure out what was going on. He discovered that these loans were tied to "work contracts" that would force people into indentured servitude; and that, since Gem Plague requires constant medicine to suppress, those with early Gem Plague would be essentially trapped for life in debt slavery. The kidnappings, the people being marched into the mountains, it was all tied to this operation. 

Kipilu and Imora were caught snooping by the local criminal enforcer, a sorcerer by the name of Rosdiq and his two goons. Rosdiq opened by charming Imora and trying to talk information out of her, and Kipilu had to charm her a second time to disorient her enough to get her out. The two fled from the tavern and stumbled into Dina, who was coming to alert them that the person at the apothecary was being taken by some goon. The trio immediately went to confront this minion, and Dina distracted him by shoving and yelling at him while Kipilu and Imora got the captive free. The henchman ended up hitting Dina with a mace, knocking her out and breaking her arm. Kipilu, seeing Dina pinned and possibly about to get killed, responded by pulling out his Keeper pistol and shooting the guy. It was a critical hit that instantly killed the guy, an execution in the public square. The crowd who had gathered to watch this henchman and do-gooder brawl scattered at the execution and gunshot. Dina was up now, at least, and could drag herself along behind Kipilu as they fled the crime scene. The trio, rescued captive in tow, fled to the Waystation. A mysterious voice offered Kipilu free healing for Dina, and Kipilu allowed them in. Dina stumbled into the washroom and weird magic stuff immediately set in. The washing basin was pouring out sunlight and a little blood, Dina was fully healed, and nine cats burst from the sunlight to follow Dina around. The cats spoke as one and seemed pretty ominous. Dina was panicking and seemed to have a lot that she wanted to explain, but the local guards burst in. Kipilu turned into cats and comingled with the weird light cats, and the guards were absolutely flummoxed. They just picked up everyone and dragged them to the cells before calling in the sorcerer and the priest for answers. 

Finding the Light

In jail, Dina passed out to commune with the cats and the cats were able to magic her out. The temple priest was astonished and considered the entire thing to be a case of spirit communion; the sorcerer saw it as magic espionage and wanted it dealt with harshly. The priest ultimately won and Kipilu accepted the role as enigmatic spirit. The guards escorted them off to a temple outside of town, a secret haven for Asuna heretics. In the distance, a beam of light blasted down into the nearby forest, marking some kind of big thing going on. 
At the heretic haven, the sect's leader pleaded cat-Kipilu to help their group and set him and Imora free. The pair raced to the light, and found many locals were gathering in and around the light as well. People in the light described it as pleasant and liberating, a relief from pain and discomfort; but Kipilu experienced it as damaging and overwhelming. He was able to bundle cloaks over himself and crawl in, shielded from the prying light of the alien beyond. At the heart of the light was Dina, asleep and floating in a cat moonpool. An army of cats surrounded the pool, guarding her body, and various townsfolk sat at the banks and watched her; apparently, she had taken their pain before through her horrible dreams, and they had been promised liberation through her blessing and leadership. 
Disturbing Dina caused the cats to hiss and prepare to pounce, and the light made advanced maneuvers difficult. So Kipilu lay down under the cloaks and dreamed, to commune with Starclan at their holy pool. Instead of Starclan, Kipilu dreamed of an endless plain of stained glass over a muddy river of struggling trapped souls. Huge pillars of contorted figures rose into the sky, which became stories of ancient sins if one looked at them and tried to read them. The sky was pulsing, hateful light that was flowing down into a point up ahead, into Dina's crouched figure. Dina was yelling in pain as she took the light into her body. As Kipilu raced towards her, she was finishing fabricating an eye out of the light, an eye of molten gold. Before Kipilu could stop her, Dina used the light to remove her other eye and started the process again. The light was emptying from the sky into her, but Kipilu was able to get her to put a pause on it. 

The Apocalypse Plan

Dina and Kipilu talked in that great dreaming expanse for a time. Dina explained that the Light was the end of the world, and that she was drinking in its power and assuming its role. She would be a benevolent end, a hopeful end that could blossom into new life: she would absorb every soul on the planet into herself as equals and leave the blasted ruins of the old world behind to begin a new world where everyone was equally divine and had equal voice in designing a paradise of mutual love. That way, she could fulfill the end of the world duty as a technicality while doing the most good. She could kill an apocalypse by replacing it, and transmute evil into good. The perfect solution! All she needed to do was convince as many people as possible to join her in a consensual and respectful hive mind, either drink up all life on the planet to fuel her power or use the Architects as batteries to ascend to full Godhood, erase the other apocalypses, and start the world anew. And in the process, she could hold the Architects and Immortals who ruined the world to justice in a fair trial. 
Kipilu revealed to Dina that he was The Hidden One then and there. She was heartbroken and in denial, but he produced thirty pages of pictures and song lyrics written over the course of their shared lives that he had written and re-written to one day tell her who he was. She was convinced, but pissed; he explained his thought process making the evils he did. She could not entirely trust and forgive him, especially with god-level powers, but he promised her he would give her his divinity if he could. His appeals eventually convinced her to try and give the other Architects a chance, though she remained skeptical. He also convinced her to temporarily put a pause on absorbing the other half of the apocalypse; the other half of the Light would consider wrecking the cat heavens and causing problems, but Dina put aside half her power (again, for now). 
Back to reality, the group reformed and decided to test Dina's powers. She discovered that she had nigh-infinite healing ability, as long as she killed life in equal measure, and that she could heal and take away pain easily as long as she feels the pain herself. She healed all she could from those who had come to see the light and most of them joined her "Network" (what she called the hive mind). Together, they marched through the countryside and fixed what they could, and headed back to Tapatlan to fix that horrible place. 

Taking Tapatlan

Back in Tapatlan, Dina set to work immediately healing every beggar, leper, and gem plague victim at the gateside slum. The eager, unorganized healing mission quickly became a riot. People fought to get healed while they could; the gate guards came to intervene and disperse the crowd; the crowd attacked the guards; the guards called for reinforcements. Chaos attracted attention, attention brought new rowdy people even less informed about what was going on, and that brought even more chaos. The Network and Kipilu worked to organize people and protect the crowd from the guards, and eventually they were able to de-escalate the guards from open warfare to tense standoff. Hours went by, Dina suffered and grew stronger, and some of the guards began to defect to the crowd as they realized what was happening. And the network expanded rapidly as people joined together - hive mind members invited in new people, and it spread virally beyond Dina's original intent even. 
Kipilu and Imora talked about all this, and Imora was horrified at Dina's ascent. Imora is cynical, skeptical, anti-social, and cares only for her inner circle; the idea of a hive mind led by Dina of all people scared her. Kipilu invited Dina over after the healing to consider giving Imora the other half of the apocalypse, but Dina refused and Imora's hypothetical plans were somehow worse than Dina's (she would make a hivemind of individuals in eternal spiritual business contracts, with herself keeping total control, so that no one would have to relate to anyone else in an intimate way and everyone could accumulate for her and themselves in a professional and clean way). Imora accused Dina of making a cult, and pointed out how the Network was already turning her into a New God; Dina said that they saw everyone as being the God together, and didn't see how that was a cult at all. 
Meanwhile, the town's Network was angry and excited; they had just absorbed much of the town guard and healed everyone, and their joined experiences and memories congealed into righteous fury at the groups that had exploited them. The Network's angry mob mobilized the fury of those who hadn't joined, and everyone marched together against the Gated District and snake oil shop. The crew decided to join in and hunt down that nasty sorcerer, Rosdiq. They also bought eight more novelty shirts from the opium den. Critical shirt mission accomplished, they snuck over the walls of the Gated District and tracked down Rosdiq and his goons trying to hole themselves up in their little bunker. A fight broke out. Rosdiq and his goons dodged the bullets and spells of the group, but was unable to strike back effectively. The team quickly ran out of spells, and it turned to swordfighting. As a Godblood sorcerer Rosdiq was a capable swordsman and had an arsenal of smite spells; when he finally hit, he hit like a truck. Out of spells herself, Dina turned to apocalypse powers: she vaporized the goons to fully heal Kipilu back from near-unconsciousness twice, and Kipilu was able to stab Rosdiq through the heart. Target destroyed; time to bounce. As they left the town, the army finally arrived to finish off the remaining criminals. The heretics were able to join the Network and escape discovery, and the army left all investigation of the strange magic to the three Keepers (the squad). Victory!

The Aftermath

What now? The crew decided to go back to their Keeper HQ to try and sort through everything, but life as it was would not be so easy to go back to. The Network dispersed to the cities of Ikatlan, to gather information, absorb new members, and begin initiatives for local good; they also quietly began calling Dina 'the Prophet'. 
Dina now wants to pursue the Architects, to find out what they are like and possibly put them on trial. She wants to right every wrong she sees now that she gets psychic updates on local patterns of suffering and has the power to fix them. She also has a lot of rage towards her parents that she wants to resolve (possibly by extracting their memories and judging them, since she wants to know who they really are and why they really did what they did). Bringing her with him to the other Gods could help personalize them and temper her plans, but she would most likely also cause a lot of problems and attack them on sight. Leaving her means leaving her to fully accept her new destiny. And will Dina even be able to forgive and accept Kipilu? There are so many unknowns left in the air as they headed back down South to Tezitkal. But no matter what happens, one thing is for sure: the final apocalypse, the Martyr, has finally been born.

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS

• Solve the problems at Tapatlan (complete)
• Find out what is going on with Starclan (complete)
• Find out what is going on with Dina (complete)
• Complete your transformation into a full-fledged Keeper of Olkum (complete) 
• Find Arzet and meet up with your squad 
• Figure out what to do with the Apocalypse

Relations

Allies

Dina: Dina is Kipilu's oldest childhood friend. They've grown up in the same barracks, hell, Dina is the first person Kipilu ever met. Dina was exiled from her birth-home, the village-estate of Zeheno, as a politically inconvenient bastard child of the local estate manager. Her parents still work there: one as a servant, the other as the managerial lord. Dina is not their biggest fan, particularly given the unequal conditions at Zeheno estate. Dina's always been an outspoken and moralistic child, driven to befriend and defend and generally play the hero and the martyr. She clashes often with her teacher Suya over perceived hypocrisy in the Sunekan system, which see seeks an ideal version of. Dina was also plagued with horrible nightmares of other people's crimes and suffering, messages from the end of the world that taught her the true depth of the Architect's crimes. Dina is a skillful wizard, mastering the art at a comparatively young age. She is also, now, the apocalypse.
Imora: Imora is a Kobold-born Chorical of foreign birth, taken as an orphan by the state after her parents abandoned her in Suneka at a young age. Imora has always been suspicious and cynical, preferring the safety of herself and those she cares about to the ideals of some broken system. Imora is a very lonely girl, distant from her fellow priests outside of Kipilu and (to a lesser extent) Dina. Imora is skilled in the areas of stealth, precision marksmanship, and general subterfuge.
Topin: Topin is a Vesper, born to wanderers and orphaned in infancy. An excited and idealistic soldier, Topin loves the Suneka and everyone in it. A fellow member of Kipilu's original barracks, Topin is excited and cheery- a fan of making others laugh. He chose to be a Guardian of Hokzin - a warrior, rather than a Fox-priest. Topin is an excellent shot and has earned the right to use a specially-modified rifled musket: an unwieldy but unusually accurate sharpshooter's weapon

Neutrals/Bystanders

Itesra and Alnira: Two prism guards who were charmed by Kipilu
Kohyo: The owner of the opium den, who is distant and seems unaware of what's fully going on. Sold matching shirts to Kipilu and crew that he hand-made to advertise his pawnshop/drug-dealing business. 
Inzinu: Head of the local Asuna Heretics, an educated and charming dryad
Pebble: A stray cat, a former pet from Calazen who was taken to Tapatlan and abandoned in a possible acciden. Was forcibly conscripted by local warrior cats. Ran away and now lives in Tapatlan, waiting for their former family.

Competitors

Rosqid: A Half Prism sorcerer from the Empire of Calazen who helps run the local criminal syndicate, which offers Kilusha to gem plague victims in exchange for binding work contracts that commit them to lives of hard labor in the mountains. This racket has essentially taken over parts of Tapatlan, and Rosdiq has enjoyed living the good life as the unrestrained master of who lives and who dies. Contract enforcement has also basically crossed the line into full-on kidnapping. Nasty dude.

Backdrops

Threats

Notes on the Martyr so far:

• Based around one childhood friend with a gun
• Passively consumes cat souls and can space in the afterlife through which it can influence cats
• Primarily grows as a "Network", a hivemind where existing hive members can invite in and attach new voluntary members
• Members of the Network can instantly share thoughts, swap bodies, and work amazingly as a team
• Members of the Network can surrender any pain, fear, or discomfort they feel to be felt by Dina, allowing them to shrug off injuries and act with unnatural courage
• Members of the Network can be revived without spell slots or components by Dina if she absorbs enough life energy
• Dina can heal any wound, disease, or injury as long as she has life energy 
• Dina can absorb energy from any living thing, killing it in the process; this includes plants and bacteria, but also can be weaponized to "zap" people
• Dina can pry into people's memories and emotions, even outside the network
• Cats???
• Who knows what happens if she gets the full apocalypse power

Plot type

QUEST

Subplots

• Chill Times with the Apocalypse

Related Locations

• Tapatlan