=== STRANGER STRANGERS ===

It was a quiet summer day in Avechary, 471, when strange happenings
began in the City of Freedom, one of those insufferably hot days where
all you want to do is curl up in a corner and nurse your hangover with a
cold bottle of the next hangover. Dancers weren't dancing. Thinkers
weren't thinking. Brawlers weren't brawling. Even the whores weren't
whoring. Perhaps this opened the door to those sneaky up-to-no-gooders,
providing them the perfect opportunity to nose about. As Letarne may
tell you, they certainly looked as though they thought they could go
about unnoticed, snooping and scribbling, scribbling and snooping. When
a reveller cried out that someone had stolen from her, he came to
investigate, soon finding a mysterious figure tiptoeing out between
shadowed buildings - looking QUITE suspicious. Determined to find
answers, Letarne hounded the sneak, trying all manner of persuasion on
him in order to suss out what he was up to. Much to his chagrin, no
offer of drinks or dancers - nor threats or friendly banter, yielded
anything from the tight-lipped fellow. Each time the figure was cornered
he'd slip out of Letarne's grasp, leaving a very frustrated Minstrel
indeed.

An unwelcome guest is one thing, but an infestation of unwanted guests
is an entirely different matter, and this is what the few who roused
found themselves with. Figures darting about and scribbling notes as
they went, their subtle differences only noticed by those who cornered
them long enough to get in a word or two. Eventually some of the
citizens grew sore enough to start swinging, others trying a subtler
approach of influence by weakening these figures' seemingly united
resolve. Both methods proved somewhat effective, halting the intruders
for a time, though their mission was still a mystery. Scraps of paper
were found on occasion, falling from their pockets as they fled or fell,
each piece leaving more questions than answers. This frustrating
situation had speculation flying everywhere as to the figures' origin.
The clues received leaned heavily towards Hallifax as the main culprit,
but was that too obvious and easy an answer??? While many awaited these
figures' return in order to puzzle more together, their patience was for
naught... they never returned, or grew far better at concealing their
shady activities.

=== BUTTERFLY ...KISSES ===

Some months later an ear-splitting explosion rocked the top of the Great
Pyramid, followed quickly by the enraged roar of the Guardian Drachou as
he voiced his alarm. Before anyone had gathered their bearings, millions
of ethereal shapes dotted out the sky, flitting through the streets to
circle the Pyramid in a swarm of fluttering wings - butterflies, chaotic
ones to be precise. Soon Drachou's confused roars transformed into
frustrated bellows as the swarm descended upon him. Depraved in their
pheromone-addled state, the insects had but one goal, and unfortunately
for Drachou he was it. Citizens were quick on their feet, slaying the
would-be ravishers quite easily, though it quickly became apparently
that what they lacked in power the butterfly swarm had in sheer numbers.
Unable to perform his duty, Drachou hunkered down, swatting out and
snarling in rage and irritation, his perplexed face occasionally
glimpsed between fiery, feverishly fluctuating appendages.

Would his defilement end? Why didn't they at least buy him a drink
first? How did these tiny creatures think they were going to satisfy a
dragon? All these questions and more burned in the minds of Drachou's
rescuers as they took down butterfly after butterfly, and soon the apex
of the pyramid was naught but a sea of twitching bodies and broken
wings. It was the Most Venerable Shimotabi Xiim who suggested the
corpses be tossed into the Eternal Flame. Whatever chaotic energy
writhed within them, he ascertained, was only reborn after a time should
they be disposed of in any other manner. This theory proved correct as
the corpses were tossed in, one by one, and those that were failed to
return to plague a much traumatized Drachou. Any relief was short-lived,
however, as a string of explosions shook Gaudiguch to its very core.

=== THE END OF WHAT WAS ====

Looking on in horror, Gaudiguch could only stare, stunned, as plumes of
black smoke and dust stained the sky - as screams of terror and sobs of
pain echoed through the streets, utter chaos reigning while the Pyramid
of the Templars fell. An eerie silence stole through the city, a
pregnant pause that screamed as loudly as the residual ring now hanging
in the air like a noose around the throat of Freedom. Suddenly, an
explosion much like the last, closer, louder, ripped the silence
violently from being. Screams echoed from the theatre as hungry tendrils
of smoke rose, curling through the sky. As another muffled explosion
shook the city time seemed to slow, acidic wafts of effluvium sweeping
through Gaudiguch on a merciless updraft of desert wind. The air was
still ringing when several more blasts erupted, their source the Pyramid
of the Pyromancers, which crumbled in a deluge of still-burning debris
and chemical smoke. Several phoenixes rose from the destruction, their
sharp cries echoing through the air in a panicked carillon.

The turmoil consuming the city intensified as all turned their eyes to
the last pyramid standing save the Great Pyramid - the Pyramid of the
Illuminati. Made all the more beautiful by the desolation of its
sisters, it rose high and golden-bright, its pinnacle breaking the
clouds of smoke that seemed to be trying so desperately to strangle
Gaudiguch. Suddenly the entire top of the Pyramid erupted, caving in
upon itself and everything within and below. The gold so artfully
adorning its exterior liquefied beneath the intensity of the heat,
drizzling in dazzling tears down the skeletal remains. Chaos was now
absolute. Enraged, grief-stricken cries echoed through the streets of
Gaudiguch as rioters swarmed and brawls broke out, the citizens of
Freedom expressing their discontent in fiery, and for more than a few,
drunken outrage. Who was to blame? Surely someone!?!? Though overcome
with loss, quite a number of citizens immediately set out to rescue
anyone who might have survived the holocaust, and this sad, sorry state
of shock and numbed survival is where a majority remained in the many
months to come. Unsurprisingly, Gully escaped without a scratch,
sequestering himself away in the bar where he could lament and drink to
his heart's content. A very shaken Hardari Ghan, Akungi Saim and
Shimotabi Xiim were also accounted for, and like their comrade Gully,
took to the cups not terribly long after.

=== FROM THE ASHES ====

Late in Shanthin a furrikin named Ziamu traipsed into Gaudiguch looking
for the "person in charge". Upon finding out his pa had been caught in
the first explosion, and hadn't survived, he went from merely angry at
the state of things to livid. Why wasn't anyone reacting? What about
vengeance? What about justice? He wanted blood! Hell-bent on getting it,
Ziamu Firetail rallied a mob to get just that, declaring that they were
going to fight for the people when nobody else would. Shuyin and Danquik
were quick to join the cause, as were Enadonella and Breandryn, who
cleverly infiltrated Hallifax in an attempt to glean information. Many
deaths from both sides, one kidnapping and attempted interrogation on a
Luce Shevat later, the Goon Squad was formally formed, and they invited
all who would fight in the name of the People to join.

Not long after another citizen lifted her voice in an attempt to rouse
the spirit of Gaudiguch, which was flagging heavily beneath the shroud
of loss and despair. Aanisah Xeth, a long-time dancer at the Palace of
Pleasure, arrived at the flame one evening amidst the jingle of bells,
her flirtatious smile given quite freely to several who lingered there
as she rallied them to her cause. Fighting was all well and good, but
the pulse of Gaudiguch lies in the revelry, she stated, urging everyone
to remember where that spirit took root so long ago. Those of like mind,
namely Letarne Ashgleam, Eritheyl Ryseni, Kistan, and Kalas Malarious,
joined her rousing movement, determined to be the vessels of this
message of hope that the city so desperately needed, and thus the
Revelry was born.

It was during an uncharacteristic lull that a few odd looking flesh
creatures were seen carting books through the city - a tubular ribbachi,
a beautiful sludgeworm, a ground-bound spix, a melodious morrible, and
an untangled hekoskeri. While roaming flesh is the norm in Gaudiguch,
they're rarely carrying books and with such intent, thus an
investigation ensued, and these steadfast fleshies were followed by the
citizenry into the ruins of the Illuminati's pyramid. There, they were
met with the sight of a tall, slim dracnari woman engrossed in her work.
As her minions dropped off the volumes they'd gathered, she turned to
find an audience, and was quick to enlist their aid - though at first
she was met with much suspicion. Tifja Blacksand, as she introduced
herself, had been away on a mission when the catastrophe occurred.
Returning posthaste, she set upon a new, self-appointed one, to ensure
that all the knowledge of the guilds was not lost. There were many
secrets kept, she said, many things that must be protected. With swift
efficiency she banded the Seekers of Illumination together, enlisting
Vyell, Shuyin, and Steingrim, among others, to help her with her work.

Some small sense of normalcy returning, everyone set to task, seeing to
the needs of the people while steadfastly moving forward within these
newly founded factions. Gaudiguch would rise, many said, like a phoenix
from the ashes, stronger and far better than before. Such a powerful
concept as Freedom cannot die, not truly, so long as it lives on in the
hearts of those who make it their own. With its heart exposed, the City
of Freedom was rekindled, very much the same and yet very much changed.



Penned by My hand on the 17th of Tzarin, in the year 473 CE.