Zair struggled to her feet, clutching her head in confusion. The Rigalipio seemed to return to a normal, non-haunted state, and the fog began to clear. Zair mentioned having more memories than most should, when asked if she remembered anything. She seemed to be aware of everything that happened in her prior life, as well as when she was corrupted by Doom, mentioning that the amulet was a “contingency” plan, given to her by someone else. She seemed keen on finding someone, before suddenly remembering she should be searching for Selina instead. Before she could speak further, Dieter’s ship and a third ship with dark sails and a blood-red eye sigil came into view, and the group was interrupted by a woman’s voice.
A crew of women wearing dark gowns, dresses, leathers, and various other luxury clothes seemed to be taking Dieter’s crew hostage. They all had amulets with red gems at their necks. A smaller retinue of them were now aboard The Rigalipio, excited by the fact that ten more captives had just appeared. The two women in the lead seemed to be in charge, the one speaking for the women being named Nicoletta. She had flowing dark hair, a portion of it pinned up in twin buns. Her eyes were vibrant green, but they had a ring of blood red around the perimeter. The woman at her side had short scarlet hair and an impressive muscular physique. She had a large greatsword at her back and a blood-red ring around her brown eyes.
Nicoletta explained that the Paragons were to be their supplicants from now on, and that they had drifted quite far from their heading of Illeta, revealing that they had drifted into Atrae’s waters. In the midst of the conversation, Zair had vanished without a trace. Nicoletta seemed disappointed in the loss of an extra captive but left a handful of her crew behind to deal with the Paragons. Though they were battered from the duel with Zair, the Paragons put up a fight for as long as they could. They killed one of the members of Nicoletta’s crew, but the remaining women knocked the party unconscious.
The Paragons awoke in a dimly lit prison cell. The room was lit with dim red torches. Cain was unconscious with a few other crewmembers in a nearby cell, while there was another woman by herself in the adjacent cell. She introduced herself as Wren. She had thin, shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes with the familiar blood-red ring around the irises.
Wren told the Paragons she was the former Archmage of Atrae, explaining that after Zola had censured Atrae, removed their councilor seat, and their former councilor was killed in a scuffle with the crown, Nicoletta decided to officially go against the crown. Wren did not agree to the idea, so she was imprisoned. She revealed the red-haired woman by Nicoletta’s side was Lucia, the former knight-captain.
Wren told the party she would be gone shortly, thanks to the help of “friends”, but she offered the party a deal in order to help them escape Atrae more effectively, but it required a drop of their blood. Half of the party agreed, while the other half abstained, not fully trusting Wren. When she took the four samples of blood, she retreated to a corner of her cell and performed some spell with her amulet. Once it was complete, the four that had agreed felt bonded to Wren, and their irises were completely overwritten with blood-red. Shortly thereafter, two cloaked mages sprung Wren from her cell, though Wren left behind a metal pick to help the Paragons break out.
The party reunited with Cain, though the crewmembers were all dead, seemingly drained of all the blood in their bodies. Cain seemed fine and did not have the fully red eyes like those blood-bound to Wren had. He told the Paragons they would need to find a ship to get out, but they also could attempt to save the rest of the crew that was aboard Dieter’s ship. He did not know where the main sailors, the mages, or Cassian and Leo were, but he vaguely remembered the knights being led into a building with a name containing the word “Siren”.
The party ascended the underground prison, knocking out some heavily armored guards on their way out. These guards seemed to be human men, blood-bound to Nicoletta. The party retrieved their weaponry and ventured out into the city streets.
Atrae had a strange architecture, a heavy focus on grand arches, spires, and statues of flying creatures adorning the buildings. Strangely, they spotted no windows on any of the buildings. The sunlight in Atrae seemed too dim, and the actual body in the sky had a dark red ring around it. Ravens adorned several buildings, the only sign of life. The party saw no one walking the streets.
They journeyed to the town square, finding a strange fountain with another flying creature’s statue adorning the center. The fountain seemed to be flowing with blood. Nearby, they spotted the “Siren’s Kiss”, likely the spot where the knights had been taken. The party split in two, half hiding within an empty forge while the blood-bound half ventured within the establishment.
Inside was a strange pleasure house, a red haze drifting through the building. Curtained lounges dotted nearly every alcove of the building. A younger siren, quite uninterested, sat behind a counter in the front room. Her eyes were quite glazed over, and she assumed they were the fresh husks for someone named Leah. The four went along with it and ventured deeper into the lounge, entering a curtained room, another siren with silver-blonde hair tending to her face in a vanity. Akalar kept Leah distracted with his own blood until he created an opportunity to knock Leah unconscious. Though Aurora took quite a hit from a dagger, Leah was neutralized and bound. In a nearby den, the party found the four knights, still alive. None of them appeared to be blood-bound, but they were actively being drained by another siren that seemed deep in a daze from the blood. She simply drifted into a satisfied sleep on her own. The four blood-bound Paragons guided the four semi-conscious knights back into the front room of the blood den…