Sibella Morond (Probably Spoilers)


Wrath of the Righteous

Grand Lodge

Did anyone else read the "Kenabres Before the Fall" chapter and come to the conclusion that Sibella Morond, the half-elven stonesmith who worked on the pump system and built the Kite fortress, was actually either Minagho, or Baphomet's daughter (whose name I can't recall at the moment), or maybe Areelu Vorlesh in disguise?

Sibella constructed the original stone sheathing for the elaborate pump system that brings water into Kenabres. Later, she came back to construct the fortress that held the Wardstone:

From the History of Kenabres:
"Strangely, Sibella Morond returned to Kenabres that year. She had left with her reward after the pump’s defenses were completed, and hadn’t been seen in Mendev in the 18 years since. The leaders of Kenabres asked Morond to construct a fortification to house the wardstone. She agreed, and oversaw construction of the wardstone’s fortress in the Ring District at the base of the center pump’s structure. When the construction was complete, Morond presented the city with an oversized stone shield engraved with the city’s sigil."

We know from the opening Wall of Text for Wrath of the Righteous that:
the Wardstone & The Kite exploded just before the demons attacked. The characters who describe the attack, like Quednys Orlun, blame the Storm King for destroying the Wardstone but they are unreliable narrators who aren't really in a position to know either way. The initial attack happens quite quickly, the Storm King appears in the sky almost immediately after the explosion, and the last time there was an attack on the Wardstone he's the one who physically cracked it. So it makes sense that everyone would blame him directly. But the opening discussion of what the Demons are planning to do mentions that the Storm King is pressed into service to lead an attack against the city, and that the demonic army gathered in anticipation of the Wardstone going bye bye. So that at least implies that he was otherwise engaged. Plus, he doesn't strike me as the sneaky type.

No one really expects demons to launch a coordinated attack. They all seem to be under the impression that demonic in-fighting is holding the invasion back. Irabeth (I think) mentions at the end that it almost seems like "they've been planning this since the beginning".

So it makes sense.:
After Sibella Morond took her money and left, the demons would have a target. Kill her, replace her, and when "Sibella" shows up 18 years later to build the Wardstone Fortress no one is really going to ask too many questions. They already know who she is, she has a solid reputation, her pump work has been working great. There probably wouldn't be many (surviving) people who were close to her from when she was last there, particularly after almost two decades of war. That would make bluffing a lot easier. Magic could mask her alignment.

If it was a Lilitu Demon like Minagho, then it would be a simple matter for a "temptation demon" to find and get close to Sibella after she left town the first time and turn her into a husk.

Or it could have been Baphomet's Daughter, who we know is running the extra planar mining operations. So she probably knows enough about stonework to fake it, and she's ... you know ... Baphomet's daughter. So quietly infiltrating a city shouldn't be too rough for her.

Or it could have been Areelu Vorlesh herself. She certainly has the power level, but I don't know if she'd risk the exposure. Overall, my money is on Minagho. It would also make sense as to why she was in charge of the fragment (and how she got it).

Either way, if a demonic infiltrator:
was in charge of building the castle to hold the Wardstone then it would explain how, decades later, they were able to get to it when they wanted to. Especially if, in the process, they had access to the water pump system (which "Sibella" would, without raising suspicion since she already worked on it once before). The pump system would provide covert entry to the city and bring the infiltrator out right next to the Wardstone and/or the giant stone shield she "gifted" to the city could have been a trap of some sort. It was hanging on the central pipe, right next to the Wardstone building.

Using the pump system:
to get to the wardstone is also supported by the entire opening dungeon crawl. If you line up the maps, one of the underground water reservoirs feeding the pump system could be pretty much right underneath the starting area in Old Kenabres. You know, that giant section of ground that collapses? Deskari would totally be down with infesting one of the water reservoirs with his minions, slowly, over decades. When the Wardstone blew up, the ground collapsed like a rotten piece of flooring over a termite nest and the PCs fell into it.

So "Sibella Morond" designs and builds the fortress to hold the Wardstone. In the process, she has access to the pump system so she is able to study the "wards and locks" protecting it, as well as learning the relative location of the reservoirs that feed it. From that point the demons just have to infiltrate the cave system under the city and slowly corrupt it from within. Which is pretty much demon-warfare 101. The followers of Baphomet set up down there, locate the bottom of the central pipe, and then just wait. For however many decades until they're told to make their move. When the time is ready, the infiltrator goes up the pipe to the back side of the fortress, exits through a "locked and warded" hatch right by the back entrance to the fortress, sneaks through a fortress that the demons helped design, and destroys the Wardstone which signals the Storm King's (very rapid, because teleport works again) attack.

Heck, there are even good reasons why the Storm King failed in his last attack. Deskari wasn't ready to move forward and no one told Khorramzadeh that infiltration was even an option. For all we know, his attack was just a random decision by him that wasn't even vetted by the "higher ups". They wouldn't tip their hands to support someone who is basically their rival and the destruction he causes even if he fails makes them all very happy. If he succeeds, great. If not, great.

I wonder if:
we'll find Minagho's collection of husks in a future adventure. If so, how much do you want to bet that one of them is a half-elven stone mason?


Interesting theory. One potential snag: the First People (ie, Mongrelfolk) don't speak of demonic infestations. They talk about recent cultist activity and of the one "bad" tribe, but mostly it seems the caverns are not big on the Demons' list of interests.

Also, if they'd infiltrated the reservoirs, it seems likely they'd have introduced Demon Plague just for giggles during the attack so to create greater suffering before the end-game (which was thwarted).

Grand Lodge

If I remember correctly, they talk about the cult activity in the sense that it is "more frequent" recently not "just starting" recently.

Plus, the characters only really see a small fraction of the mongrelfolk living underground, and that group isn't in the same area where you first fall into the caves (and fight vermin, btw).

As for introducing plague ... maybe they did? It's not like we've had a chance to see the long term aftereffects of the attack, and the pump system looks like it was mostly destroyed. Only one of the three pumps on the map look to be intact, and it would be feeding from a different reservoir than the one under Old Kenabres. It's entirely possible that the city would have a bout of Demon Plague a few years from now when the pump system is repaired.

Plus, this was supposed to be the last thrust. The demons didn't know the attack would be thwarted, or that the Wardstones be shut down entirely. The game changed for everyone at the end of book one. If the demons had succeeded in corrupting the Wardstone they wouldn't need the demon plague. If they failed to corrupt, but at least destroyed the Wardstone, then Kenabres would not longer be a threat and people would move away. Without the Wardstone to defend Kenabres isn't really important anymore. So in that case, the demon plague would also be unnecessary.

If both the corruption and destruction failed, then the crusaders would now be aware of the pipe problem. Which means the demon plague would be found quickly. So no matter how this played out, this isn't a good way to spread demon plague to the city.


You forget the intrinsically chaotic nature of the demons. They'd introduce the plague to cause increased suffering among the remaining populace PRIOR to their being hit by the corruption of the Wardstones. They'd not even CARE about the corruption. They want to maximize suffering prior to the corruption. Thus plague.

And there's even a rumor to that effect... which was false. Odd, that.

Grand Lodge

Timing doesn't work for a simultaneous plague. By the time the initial attack is over, most of the people in the city are dead or fled, and with the Wardstone destroyed there's no reason for the population to ever move back. Either way, the scattered survivors are not in a position to be exposed to the plague anymore. The pump system is effectively nonfunctional after the explosion, so it isn't a good delivery method anymore, and it's not like anyone is going to be making an overland trip through the ruined demon-infested city to get a drink of water from the reservoir.

By the time the PCs emerge from the underground, Areelu Vorlesh is already on her way to corrupt the stone. So it's not like there'd be a lot of time to corrupt the few scattered survivors before the final "corrupt the wardstone network" activity.

Why would the demons waste time and resources poisoning a well that no one is going to drink out of, in a ruined city that no one is going to repopulate except their own followers, using a broken pump that no one is going to repair?

Grand Lodge

Aberrant Templar wrote:
...infesting one of the water reservoirs...

Edit: Now that I'm re-reading the description, I realize that I mixed up the "reservoirs" with the source of the water for the pipes. The reservoirs are structures above-ground, in the city itself. The source is the water flowing in the caves under the city.

So ignore what I said about the reservoirs, but everything else still works. The central pump still provided direct access to the Wardstone's fortress, and the caves underneath the city still potentially provide covert access to the water source that the central pump draws from.

Liberty's Edge

I'm going to chime in one only one portion. It is stated in the opening text that The Storm King is given a Nahyndrian Crystal chisel so that he can finish the destruction of the wardstone. It also mentions he puts aside his wounded pride of being treated like a lesser minion of Deskari because he was so pleased that he would be able to finish the destruction of the wardstone.

So for him at least he is heavily implied to be the one who destroyed the wardstone before appearing very shortly after the blast to attack his nemesis. He can do that for the reason you stated of him being able to simply teleport to the cathedral

Grand Lodge

Flamehawke wrote:
So for him at least he is heavily implied to be the one who destroyed the wardstone before appearing very shortly after the blast to attack his nemesis. He can do that for the reason you stated of him being able to simply teleport to the cathedral

But he couldn't teleport to the cathedral before the wardstone was destroyed, because the wardstones prevented teleportation. He could only teleport AFTER the wardstone was destroyed.

So how did a well-known "humanoid three times the size of any man, with skin coated with in fire and lightning" manage to sneak into a guarded castle and destroy the wardstone without anyone noticing? The explosion happened first, with no apparent alarm or warning. There was no "screams and shouts of battle followed by an explosion". There was no "brief alarm cut short by an explosion". There was a sudden explosion out of nowhere followed immediately by a demonic invasion.

Also, re-read that opening text. It never says that the Storm King was given a Nahyndrian Crystal chisel. It says that Areelu offered to let him use the chisel. She convinced him to follow her plans (which would make him her follower, instead of the leader he believes himself to be) by offering him the honor of destroying the wardstone with the chisel. It also doesn't discuss the details of how that was supposed to happen, but the Storm King doesn't really strike me as the sneaky type. He was able to physically fight his way through to the wardstone once before, he just didn't have the power to break it. So between his past history and the new army he was leading, he probably would have assumed he was just going to beat his way through the armies again only this time he'd have the chisel at the end.

She could very easily have lied in order to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. He rallied an army and kept the demons in line. When the wardstone went down suddenly, he probably would have been too excited to care that he wasn't the one to crack it. Especially once Terendelev revealed herself and he had a target to focus on.

Yeah, he'd probably be pissed about it later. But Areelu and the other demonic masterminds are nothing if not manipulative, and now that the wardstone network is down he'd probably busy himself with attacking all the fresh targets he has available.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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The Storm King is indeed the one who destroyed the wardstone using the Nahyndrian chisel. He didn't teleport in. He teleported close and then flew in, fast, with the full force of his mythic might and did the deed by hand. The explosion happened with no apparent alarm or warning to the city of Kenabres for sure, but not without alarm or warning to those who were at ground zero. It happened fast enough that they didn't have time to raise an alarm, basically.

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