The group attempt to track the lycanthrope, but are forced to give up, as its trail leads away from Northwall and its head start too great. They decide to resume the journey to Whitehall so Bartholomew may claim his new estate.
They are met with a grim discovery– the manor and village are almost entirely abandoned. To their horror, the castellan jumps to his death on the cobblestones at their approach, and they discover his anatomy is no longer fully human.
They learn from his records that a sad tale has played out, one Cei has seen before in her investigations– the estate has fallen on hard times, partly due to a profligate and incompetent lord, and out of desperation, the villagers struck a deal with beings from the Black Multitude, brokered by a townswoman kidnapped by bandits, and evidently saved by said beings.
The chapel is horribly desecrated; a massive gold idol of a water demon occupies it, along with many smaller gold items, and massive piles of rotting fish.
The fell beings are aquatic in form, and the villagers’ bodies show evidence of transforming into fish-like shapes. The party is attacked by them on the lakeshore; they are defeated, but it becomes evident that more remain, and are like to return at night.
The party searches the manor and village and make more discoveries– among them, an ancient copy of the Liber Lucis, and a secret chamber containing the effects of a powerful cleric of Aëo. They conclude that the manor was the home of a powerful cleric, or series of clerics, entrusted with guarding the lake.
The magically gifted among the party sense a profound evil in the lake's strangely abyssal depths. Bart and Ren argue that perhaps the demon-twisted villagers can be reasoned with, or placated, and that slaying them is perhaps not the only solution; Cei, Abelard, and Sevara vehemently disagree, and Cei tells them of the Purifier assignment where she and Abelard met; they were horribly tortured by possessed monks who thought they, too, could bargain with demons, escaped only due to the appearance of the Thunderhead, and were forced to slay all the monks, their captive villagers, and burn the monastery– a priceless trove of ancient documents– to the ground.
They decide they must search the labyrinthine tunnels underneath the keep, accessed through several points: a secret tunnel behind the altar, and a keg in the wine cellar.
They are then accosted by Athamorne– the former kidnapped village woman– at the head of a host of mutated villagers. Athamorne asks them to treat and is answered by Sevara, who blasts them with divine power. Midway through the fight, something truly horrifying and epoch-shaking comes to pass– the demon Kanrien appears from a magic portal, the first demon ever known to have fully incarnated in the Framework since the creation of the Cauldron.
Cei, showing no fear, effortlessly summons the previously elusive Thunderhead, and attacks the demon. The other party members contemplate fleeing; it is apparent Cei is willing to die to bring it down. But the Thunderhead suddenly displays a mystical synergy with Bart’s parents' legacy, the Neverender staff; they both crackle with the same lightning, heightening each other’s power. The tide of the battle begins to turn.
Cei and Sevara are grievously wounded in the fight; Lyra’s arrow thankfully finishes it off just in time.
They now face the grim responsibility of deciding what must be done. They decide to keep Kanrien’s head and hands, and that of one of the villagers, as proof of what transpired, and destroy the rest. They conclude they must invite representatives of all relevant factions in the Framework to bear witness, so that none may control or suppress the truth. They especially decide to invite the Magi from the tower to investigate the massively powerful, ancient, and evil portal from whence the demon came.
It is decided that Abelard must guard the remnants by taking an oath of holy vigil, never speaking or leaving the cavern, for as long as it takes.
The group searches the manor again, more carefully, and make yet another epoch-shaking discovery: a scroll written by one Aretosca Simeon, who is discovered to be a former Saint in Aëo's Host, having abandoned the rank and accepted a position guarding the portal beneath the lake, to be passed to his descendants. In it, Aëo is referred to as a woman. Sevara, attempting to sense the object’s history, is struck into a coma.
Abelard and Cei do their best to heal her, but Abelard determines she must make the rest of the journey herself.
Feeling shaken by the latest of a faith-crisis-inducing series of revelations, Cei, accompanied by Abelard, leaves to consecrate the small shrine of Phanaia by the creek. At the altar, she weeps for all their losses and tragedies– from Calli and Bart’s parents, to Lyra and Cyrus's torture at Calli's hands, to Havikar and Emelius, to the tragedy of Aeo's truth suppressed for millennia. If Phanaia (who traditionally accepts offerings of symbolic tears, returned water, spoken sorrows) accepts, she gives no sign.
Abelard begins his vigil, and the party send cryptic but emphatic invitations to the relevant parties. For the next month, Bart tirelessly readies the manor; Cei stays by Sevara’s side and prays without cease. Reniel trains, cares for, and befriends Musetti, Berenice, and Jack, and brings food and water to Abelard. Lyra surveys the land, and Cyrus melts all the cultist gold into bars for the settlement’s use.
A month passes, and the distinguished guests begin to arrive: Archbishop Amherst, Jorinian Green, the three Magi from the Tower at Northwall, Sosimar Kaine and the ranking Inquisitor-General among them. The party is somewhat shocked at how effective their summons proved to be.
Predictable conflicts and tensions erupt among the attendees. The party feeds them and takes them to the chapel for prayer, then proceed to the matter at hand. Bickering over civil and Ecclesiastical matters erupts at the sight of just the portal, then Cei tears the tarp from Kanrien's head.
Mayhem ensues. The Archbishop and company are torn between despair that the Cauldron’s potency is no longer assured, and suppressing the truth to prevent mass panic. Sosimar Kaine denounces the Liber Lucis as lies and the Ecclesiastes as liars. Cei and Bartholomew somehow manage to maintain order, urging courage, and the cooperation of all factions present as necessary to face the threat.
The rallying speeches prove all too timely, as suddenly the gate flares to life, and Mother Leviathan herself appears.
