After Behzad’s resurrection, the party found temporary refuge in Wolford Manor, an overbuilt estate on the outskirts of the city. Surrounded by Wolford’s rare greenery, large gardens, and decorative fountains, the manor seemed less like a lived-in home and more like a polished showpiece reserved for visiting nobles from Azmar or Charmed Cove.
Its rooms were immaculate. Its fireplaces were clean. Its furniture appeared untouched. Its library was full of books whose pages had never been cut.
Inside, the party split apart to process the horrors beneath Wolford.
In the manor office, Behzad searched frantically for any sign that Wolford’s rulers had known about the temple below the mines. Nys stayed with him and told him that she believed what he had seen. Their search uncovered an old order from Lord Sev, declaring the lower mines unstable by druidic assessment and imposing a drilling limit above the temple. Though written as a safety measure, the order suggested Sev may have known exactly what lay beneath Wolford and deliberately kept it sealed away.
In the library, Fern and Fable sat in the silence left by Vulmer’s death. Fern eventually stepped outside to trance and seek guidance from his past lives. There, he connected with Jay, one of his previous incarnations, who was immediately annoyed that Fern had never consulted him before. His irritation faded when Fern mentioned Tharizdun. Jay revealed that in his lifetime, his own sister had fallen under Tharizdun’s madness and become an abomination known as the Devourer, consumed by Gluttony. Jay warned Fern that if Behzad could not be saved from the madness now touching him, then he would have to be put down before he became the next Devourer.
Back inside, Fable confronted Behzad. She admitted that she was no longer certain he was truly himself. His choices inside the temple had not made sense to her, and his lack of empathy over Vulmer’s death disturbed her. Their conversation remained tense and unresolved.
Later, while the others withdrew, Behzad found himself in the kitchen with Parsnip, the rescued goblin companion who still believed the party to be his goblin kin. Behzad attempted to make dinner, tried to light the stove with his breath weapon, and promptly blew it up. The explosion shook the manor and knocked Fern from his trance.
The accident brought Fern and Behzad back together. Behzad spoke of his belief that Fern had killed him in the temple, and told him that he forgave him.
That night, Behzad took the master suite and found himself overwhelmed by the scale of the manor. If this was how minor lords lived in the countryside, then the noble title he once held seemed far smaller than he had ever imagined.
While the party slept, Nys awoke upon the Astral Plane. At the foot of her bed stood a great humanoid figure with raven wings. He introduced himself as Sindatari, the Angel of Death, sent by the Raven Queen after Nys prayed to her during Behzad’s resurrection.
Sindatari was arrogant, bitter, petty, and openly hostile. He complained that in the ancient days mortals prayed for him not to come, while now he had been reduced to carrying messages. Yet beneath his contempt, he brought grave revelations.
The thing the party encountered beneath Wolford was only a fragment of Tharizdun. Had they gazed upon the true form of the chained god, Sindatari said, their minds would have melted.
At the end of the Dawn War, the gods, including Sindatari’s brother, Asmodeus, sealed Tharizdun away beneath the temple. Seven of the most powerful gods imbued their divine power into seven artifacts, splitting Tharizdun’s soul and forcing him into eternal slumber.
That prison was broken by Ondor Sev, former Champion of the Raven Queen and Lord of Azmar & Wolford. Believing himself “far more important than he truly was”, Sev removed the artifacts from the temple, intending to destroy them. Sindatari warned him that doing so would doom humanity, but Sev refused to listen.
“You have no idea what I know, Angel. The power I wield will bring an era of peace to this world, with or without your help.”
After that, Sindatari stopped advising him and simply watched the dice fall.
When Sev vanished and Azmar’s fortunes collapsed, his grandchildren auctioned the artifacts from his private vault. One of them, the Scythe of Penance, sacred to the Raven Queen, eventually ended up in Charmed Cove. It was the very weapon used to kill Nys when she served as a guard there, before the Raven Queen returned her to life.
Sindatari commanded Nys to retrieve the Scythe and the other divine artifacts before another band of “cocky heroes” convinced themselves they were destined to slay Tharizdun.
The next morning, Behzad looked out across his lands with a spyglass and saw an ancient Dawn War ship arriving in Wolford’s port.
The Holy Father had arrived.