Mara told the Witch, "You look like you need some rejuvenation!", and reached out to deliver some positive energy.
With Mara and Dervak working concert the Lich is scattered to dust.
Dervak raises Teralindar's Honor high.
He holds the sword against his forehead and tries to connect with the spirit. "We have done it, Upianshe."
If his prayer to Gorum didn't wake up Theo, then Dervak will go over and nudge him.
Dervak then says a quiet prayer to Pharasma for fair judgement of those lost along the way, especially Kat and Allegra.
And those that left for other journeys - such as Rowan and Pocky - he offers a quiet prayer to Desna that their travels may be as they wish them to be.
He gathers up the remains of Cerise and takes the Cauldron of Resurrection from his haversack.
"This will bring her back without the corruption, right Mara?"
There is concern in his voice, but also hope.
By defeating Ariadnah and Xhamen-dor you have prevented Carcosa from drawing in Thrushmoor and feeding The King in Yellow’s ascent to become an Outer God. With great effort you have saved Thrushmoor and its citizens from certain doom.
Mara replied to Dervak, "Yes, I think it should."
She helped set up the cauldron, and prayed to fill it up with pure water. She examined Ci Ci, being careful not to get infected herself, and then started the ritual.
Resurrection restores Ci Ci to her former self if her soul is willing to return.
Ci Ci opens her eyes and looks around.
She sits up and looks at her companions.
"I am so sorry," she says emphatically. "That evil moss-stuff got into my mind, and that Thing Was Lowls whispered to me over and over, and I...I felt like a prisoner in my own body. I was doing all those horrible things, even while watching myself do them. I...I thank you for bringing me back. I'll understand if you want me to go."
Mara gave Ci Ci a hug, "Welcome back!"
She turned to everyone, "Let's get off of this tower, and I'll conjure up another entrance to the twilight meadow. I could use a good rest, and a soothing mud bath!"
Dervak looks at Cerise.
"I once had a bad thing in my head also. My friends helped me get rid of it.
And in my case, I had sometimes chosen to give in to it and do what it said, which only made it stronger. Even so, they kept me around.
This wasn't your fault.
I'm glad you are back."
Theophilus slept in! The Mad Hatter wakes up, looking about for ugly and mean witch liches, mushroom Lowls and poor Seeded CiCi! Seeing the White Rabbit casually grooming himself (he is wearing a barber's outfit), the Witch's fearful blue eyes become a bit less fearful.
Theo smiles at White Rabbit.
Looks like you missed a hellava light show!
The White Rabbit shakes his head at Theo, but he smiles at the results!
Theo stands up, dusts himself off and smiles, bows, tips his grand hat at Dervak, Mara, and CiCi.
This was a wonderful ride! We should try to do this again....
"When you grabbed hold of me, I was trying to flee. I had already begun to formulate a long-term plan to do what Lowls did, to repeat the cycle and this time succeed. Not letting me escape...and...well...killing me was the best thing you could have done. Even if I couldn't have brought back, and that corrupted body's destruction meant my soul was damned to the deepest pits of the Abyss, it still would have been the right thing."
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When you return to Golarion you find that the citizens of that ill-fated town in Ustalav are blissfully unaware of the danger and your hand in saving them. But the people at the Sleepless Detective agency believe your tale if told.
While you are safe, your dreams are plagued with disturbing nightmares about your experiences for years. Mercifully the memories age and tarnish and your mind settles. Xhamen-dor was not truly defeated in Neruzavin and surely not in Carcosa either, and you know with time the Great Old One will rise again to infect another world and draw it into Carcosa just as it sought to do with Golarion. So long as anyone knows of its existence it remains a threat, at least it is not your threat.
Without ever locating the Briarstone Witch’s phylactery, she reforms back on Carcosa, you hope she is trapped there forever.
Mara managed to extract the dream entity known as Sara from Loic's consciousness. Curing the man of his ills and setting Sara free upon the world. The strange child, a dream of Loic’s dead sister made life, went on to do great deeds herself. Which is another story entirely.
Occasionally throughout Mara’s long life she sees wisps of smoke coming out of the angles around her, and on one fateful night late in her life she disappears without a trace. The family and friends she had built around her swear they heard blood curdling howls that night.
Theophilus returned to his sister, Theophania. Together they feuded as siblings do, only they feuded with demon summonings, bringing untold horrors to this plane in the process. To all that beheld it and survived, they reported that it was a great time, and would do it again. He and his sister later ate a gooseberry pie together.
Ci Ci’s life was plagued by her obsession with and subsequent revulsion of mold and fungi. A number of raging fires were accidentally started when her antipathy took root. She was driven out of a number of towns, the people not understanding her plight.
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Eventually he decided to settle down. He married a Brevoyan woman, rebuilt the temple to Sarenrae where Mulgar had raised him, and purchased a minor noble title to claim that land and protect that place.
Given his vast wealth, he hoped he could spare his children the life he had. His daughter, Kat, wished to be an artist. His son, Mulgar, wished to raise racehorses. Dervak was fine with that, and used his fortune to support them. It seemed they would have a peaceful life.
It was not to be.
---
Eldritch flames crackled and cast distorted shadows on the wall. Dervak's face was lined, his hair was grey, and he had lost a step. But he was still a warrior of tremendous power, and the Dark Whisper was no match for him.
"You will never be free of me!" shrieked the thing. It knew its doom was at hand, but it also knew it would return.
Teralindar's Honor shattered the abomination's form, while the chained ten-year-old girl screamed in terror.
Dervak lowered the sword.
"Thank you, Mara. Theophilus. Cerise."
His companions concluded the ritual, informing him that his granddaughter was free. They had come when he asked, some forty years after defeating Lowls.
---
It had been a scene of unbelievable horror. Dervak's son Mulgar and daughter-in-law Janissa murdered in their sleep, and their daughter seemingly to blame. Come get me, Dervak spelled out in blood on the walls. The young girl taunting Dervak in the Dark Whisper's voice, trying to provoke him to lose control and kill her.
While subduing her was not difficult, the next decision was. Would the Release Nightmare ritual kill the girl? Should he wait for her to be physically stronger, and try to teach her to tame the monster within in the meantime?
It wasn't his decision to make on his own. He used the Cauldron of Resurrection to revive his son and daughter-in-law.
"I carry a curse," he told them. "I purged it... mostly. It spared you, but it affects your daughter - my granddaughter. There is a cure, but it is dangerous. It nearly killed me, when I was a powerful warrior. But then, I had borne the curse longer."
He summoned his daughter Kat and her husband Brigham; although their children showed no signs yet, they could be afflicted. He contacted Mara, Theophilus, and Cerise. For two days the group discussed Dervak's curse, the ritual, and the risks to the girl, before agreeing to proceed.
After defeating the Dark Whisper, Dervak addressed his children. "Kat, this curse may affect your children too in time. And if it does, we must be alert for signs of it before it takes control; all children have nightmares, but tell me in detail about them. Even those that seem trivial.
Beyond that, there is another consideration.
One way to end this curse is to end our family line. That none of your children would have children. The entity would still be out there. But it would not have a hold on our world through our bloodline.
Now... I think I have done great good for Golarion, despite the curse. I think our family can as well. So I would suggest another path. That it become the legacy of our family to fight such things. To seek out their influence and eliminate it; to oppose their cultists; and to master this ritual to exorcise the Dark Whisper whenever it manifests.
I will not always be here to fight such things. You must learn to do so.
I am sorry. If we are to have a legacy as a family, then you cannot have peaceful lives, and neither will your children. We will have to train and study.
And I will begin by making copies of this ritual; perhaps one of you or your children will learn to make it safer."
Over time, a thick tome was compiled, incorporating rituals, clues to spot possession, insights on resisting temptation, tactics for fighting aberrations, and tributes to the fallen. Dervak's family carried on a secretive tradition of fighting the influence of the Dark Tapestry; many became Cavaliers of the Order of the Eastern Star, Expulsionist or Abolisher Inquisitors, or Oath Against Corruption paladins. They maintained cover identities as ordinary if somewhat reclusive minor nobility in Brevoy.
The Dark Whisper continued to return. Some descendants it drove to madness or suicide before they could be saved; others were freed from it. Over the generations, evidence accumulated in the book, weapons were developed, and a plan was formed and refined. There might be a way to defeat the entity forever... if they could summon Dervak from the mists of time. Some believed he was now an Azata, and a Gate spell might work. Others thought that Chronomancy held the key to bringing him out of the past. If they could find a way to summon Dervak, then the warrior's final and greatest battle might put an end to the curse once and for all.
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Mad Madame Mushroom, Cerise often came to be known in her later years. Moving (or being driven off) from one small town to another, each time she repeated the process. Once her garden of mushrooms began to bloom, she began to harvest them, sometimes cooking them, sometimes eating them raw, sometimes turning them into soup. Her favorite were the long-stemmed brown ones that made her see and feel.
At first the sights and sensations would be euphoric and pleasant, but eventually, those visions would inevitably turn. First would come the whispering voices, then the yellow spore-like mist settling among the rows of blooming fungi. Soon, one of the larger mushrooms would bear striking similarity to Count Lowls or the Briarstone Witch. The whispering would grow louder and more repetitive. Her desire for mushrooms would increase, but the flavor would change to something more akin to raw, bloody meat. Despite seeing a mushroom, she felt the sensation of biting into live flesh. She could even feel it writhing in pain as her teeth broke the skin, and she swore she could hear cries of pain with each mouthful.
It would become too much. She would go out to her garden, and see rows and rows of tortured faces. She would call upon her power to heal them, but the divine energy would only strip away the facade, revealing the twisted demonic faces beneath.
She would then unleash her fire upon the horde of demons, trying to consume them utterly in the flames.
When nothing remained of her garden or her home, she would wander away in whatever she was wearing at the time. She would find somewhere else to live, somewhere where the mushrooms weren't screaming.
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Mara adopted Sara, since the girl didn't have any family around to look after her. Mara instructed Sara in the use of magic, but refused to teach her anything remotely connected to time-travel, saying it was just too dangerous. She knew that the Hounds of Tindalos would keep looking for her, and didn't want anyone else to suffer their wrath.
Few people knew about Mara's actions resisting the mad schemes of Count Haserton Lowls IV, and it was better that way. No chronicler recounted Mara's exploits, but Sara remembered...