Tales of potions with phenomenal powers have long been in the lore and
ancient wisdom of healers and shamans of Sapience. One such tale reached
Ilubeth, the Gnoll healer from Manara who, in her struggle to ease the
suffering of the sick and injured of her own kind, began her own quest
for discovery. After many vigorous, failed experiments, Ilubeth grew
close to giving up her search for a miracle cure. It wasn't until
reports of large ships sailing the oceans and visiting distant,
forgotten lands reached her ears that she set off to investigate the
nearest harbour, carefully perusing the wares imported from the far
isles.

Months passed before Ilubeth discovered a dark, tattered tome filled
with information about plants and herbs she had never encountered,
except in ancient tales. Slowly, the healer learned to decipher the
contents of the text and began, at long last, to apply her work.

~ ~ ~

It was the end of Glacian in the year 462 when a strange Gnoll woman was
spotted slinking within the shadows throughout the streets of Shallam.
Her identity hidden in the cowl of a deep black cloak, she evaded
citizens after being briefly cornered by Shuman Ta'sa.

When the clouds churning above Shallam darkened considerably over the
Chrysalis Basilica, the citizens were quick to investigate, with Opalene
Homura and Tsunami Gautama arriving just moments after Sultan Silas
Aodh'Maynard. In response to their plain concern, the choirmaster Handel
revealed that he had noticed a stranger lingering near the orphan choir
a short while earlier.

Eager to assuage Handel's concern for the safety of the orphans not
within his protection, Silas gathered votive candles from the chest in
the Chamber of Celestial Harmony and set out to find those that still
wandered the city. His surprise was complete when, upon handing one of
the candles to an orphan, an act he had repeated countless times before,
the child vanished in a flash of sudden darkness. It was a quick
decision that no more orphans were to be enrolled at that time.

Back at the Basilica, Avto Del-Amroth examined the interior of the chest
for clues, discovering a ball of strange, dark energy tainting the
contents. Unable to remove the mass from the chest, a party set out for
Manara in search of the mysterious Gnoll. Little was gleaned from this
endeavour, only the knowledge that their healer had gone missing some
time ago, after weeks of peculiar behaviour and total absorption in what
she would only refer to as 'her work'.

Silas, Shuman, and Kreemuv next approached the reclusive wizard
Hycanthus for help. Hycanthus reluctantly agreed, advising the
Shallamese group that he knew a spell to assist them, but first they
must locate something that possessed a link to the missing orphan boy.

Once again the Shallamese set out in search of information. Spreading
through the city, they scoured the streets for any orphan children who
might have been friends with the missing boy. Finally, Avto came upon an
orphan girl who confided that the boy had recently slept within Ishtar
Park. Swiftly the citizens hastened to the park, accompanied by
Hycanthus, who proclaimed that the boy's recent presence would be
sufficient for his spell to work. Gathering a variety of components both
mundane and arcane, including a torch lit by the sacred flame of
Shala-Khulia, the Shallamese made their preparations.

Summoning a ball of white, crackling energy, with great effort Hycanthus
restrained it from motion and instructed those gathered on its use. It
would lead them to the child, Hycanthus claimed, like a bloodhound on
the scent of its prey, but they had to move quickly so as not to lose
sight of its progress. With a flick of the wizard's aged wrist, the orb
was set free, and the race begun.

Following the bobbing orb through the streets of Shallam and into the
village of Jaru, the party soon found themselves in a dark basement. A
secret passageway led them further, leaving the search party horrified
at what they discovered. Suspended from the ceiling and bound in
tendrils of dark, writhing energy, they found the missing boy screaming
in abject agony while his essence drained into the bindings holding him.

Hunched in a far corner of the room was a Gnoll woman, wrapped in the
shadows of a deep black cloak, who demanded the intruders depart. After
a brief but useless attempt at interrogation, the angry citizens brought
their blades mercilessly upon her, slaughtering her within seconds. As
Ilubeth's corpse fell lifeless to the floor, the orphan boy was released
from his bonds, badly injured and horribly shaken. Elsewhere in the
city, within the sturdy chest at Handel's feet, the dark ball of chaotic
energy miraculously diffused into nothingness.

Relieved but lacking answers, the Shallamese delegation returned the boy
to Shallam, placing him in Handel's care. To this day, he sings happily
in the choir of the Jewel of the East, his existence overshadowed by the
darkness still surrounding the circumstances of his abduction, and his
abductor.

Penned by my hand on the 1st of Glacian, in the year 463 AF.