What a curious world full of fantastical life Arethil was. The sprawling diversity of its species was something that ever churned in the mind of Archon Sepia Galleus. How she yearned for the days of her youth, venturing out into the that wild frontier to see the great spectacles that the natural--and unnatural--world held. Alas, gone were those days. With her great ambition had come status, and with status came responsibility. Responsibilities that often bound her to the far more humdrum scenery of Vel Anir, and the optics that she had to maintain in order to keep hold of her status. In the times before the Anirian Revolution she was able to more easily slip away and attend to her old hobbies, but in a nation in which "morals" were something of value, that time was no more.
In her mind's eye, Sepia walked the halls of her once-glorious collection, her veritable gallery of precious babies--monsters, by any other name. Majestic beasts, one and all, some beyond the deepest fathoms of the mundane human mind. Hells, even her live menagerie was looking rather sad these days, both her physical and metaphysical stores having grown stagnant. What Sepia longed for was something new, something exotic. Arethil was a limitless wonderland of powerful and grotesque creatures, one needed only step a few meters out of the bounds of civilization. But for a woman with her schedule? For the mystique she was practically required to uphold? Bah, it was nigh impossible to do so herself.
Thankfully there was a degree of authority that came with her station, and with the great wealth she had amassed in her time as an archon and aristocrat alike. She had only asked to "borrow" a few Dreadlords. Any would do, really, so long as they had shown some degree of competence in their careers. Even the odd initiate tagalong would suffice; surely they could use the experience of a real, genuine mission on their docket! And to lead them all, a loyal hireling, one she trusted to accomplish such a task.
As those who had answered the mission's call (vague as she had made it, only stating that it was a matter of great import!) gathered within the tea room in the Galleus manor, Sepia sat in her recliner. Her lips curled upwards into a predato--er, polite smile.
"Welcome to my home, fair guests. I suppose you must be eager to know why I've invited you here..."
In her mind's eye, Sepia walked the halls of her once-glorious collection, her veritable gallery of precious babies--monsters, by any other name. Majestic beasts, one and all, some beyond the deepest fathoms of the mundane human mind. Hells, even her live menagerie was looking rather sad these days, both her physical and metaphysical stores having grown stagnant. What Sepia longed for was something new, something exotic. Arethil was a limitless wonderland of powerful and grotesque creatures, one needed only step a few meters out of the bounds of civilization. But for a woman with her schedule? For the mystique she was practically required to uphold? Bah, it was nigh impossible to do so herself.
Thankfully there was a degree of authority that came with her station, and with the great wealth she had amassed in her time as an archon and aristocrat alike. She had only asked to "borrow" a few Dreadlords. Any would do, really, so long as they had shown some degree of competence in their careers. Even the odd initiate tagalong would suffice; surely they could use the experience of a real, genuine mission on their docket! And to lead them all, a loyal hireling, one she trusted to accomplish such a task.
As those who had answered the mission's call (vague as she had made it, only stating that it was a matter of great import!) gathered within the tea room in the Galleus manor, Sepia sat in her recliner. Her lips curled upwards into a predato--er, polite smile.
"Welcome to my home, fair guests. I suppose you must be eager to know why I've invited you here..."