Episode 6: The Call of the Pyreflies Report

General Summary

The party gathered in the village square along with the villagers to watch Elle's Pyrefly Dance. As she began to dance, wisps of light began to take form amongst the crowd and flow toward her. These pyreflies grew in number and began swirling around Elle as she danced, until finally collapsing in on her in a flash of light as she concluded her dance. A mind-wrenching scream filled the air, and as the blinding light faded, the crowd saw a massive feminine Esper summoned through Elle's body.    The Esper called herself Amara, the Curator of Souls and beckoned the gathered multitudes to lay down their worldly worries and join her in the realm beyond. With a surge of aether, many in the crowd began to fall under the Esper's tempering influence, and the party leapt into action to battle the aetheric construct. Several of the villagers were unable to resist the tempering call of the Esper and fell completely under its sway during the battle, including Elle's father, but eventually the heroes prevailed, discorporating the Esper's aether, freeing Elle, and banishing it back to the aetherial sea from whence its essence was formed.    After the fight, a mysterious masked mage calling himself Pashtarot, the preserver of discipline and order, appeared and commended the party on their success. Impressed that his search for worthy heroes succeeded as well as it did, he called them Warriors of Darkness, harbingers of calamitous change. He singled out Sigr in particular as a Chosen of Zodiark, entrusted with a crystal which he suddenly held in his hands after the battle with Amara. After some villainous banter, and cryptic threats, the red-masked mage vanished, leaving the party to deal with the aftermath of his machinations.