Nearly 20 years ago, Junia Dacilane was the otherwise unremarkable 11-year-old daughter of a prominent Absalom family. The only child of Lady Miranda Dacilane, a noblewoman of Chelish descent, Junia lived in a large manor home in the exclusive Ivy District, and attended an elite academy in the cliffside neighborhood of Beldrin’s Bluff. Junia, who was not overly interested in her studies, preferred spending time with her older classmates Grishan Maldris and Cassiel Marlinchen. The three loved exploring the spooky necropolis Grishan had discovered beneath their school, the Tri-Towers Yard, and wearing the jewelry and other finery they found amidst the burial goods. Her friend Grishan’s story was a bit more complicated. Grishan grew up in the shadow of his older brother Colson Maldris. Grishan idolized his brother, and wanted more than anything to become an Eagle Knight just like him. Both Grishan and Junia’s childhood came to an end when a massive earthquake struck Absalom in 4698 ar. The calamity caused serious damage to every district of the city, but no neighborhood was hit harder than Beldrin’s Bluff. Whole streets broke off and tumbled into the ocean, wiping out entire centuries-old family lines in an instant. Even though the Tri-Towers Yard avoided this watery fate, most of its buildings collapsed or sunk into the ground, crushing or trapping the students, staff, and teachers within. Junia, Grishan, and Cassiel had been playing in the necropolis when the earthquake struck. Even though its sturdy construction saved them from being immediately crushed to death, the tremors collapsed their only exit, trapping them without access to food or fresh water. After a few days of calling for help, they came to the conclusion that they would not be rescued. Junia soon realized that unlike Grishan or Cassiel, she seemed to not be suffering from hunger or thirst, but did not connect her good fortune to the ruby salamander ring she had found in the dark. The ancient bauble was actually a magical ring of sustenance that kept her healthy while her friends quickly began to suffer the effects of severe dehydration. Cassiel died first, afraid and angry at the unfairness of her fate. Grishan hung on a few days longer, wracked with guilt for having led his friends into the necropolis to die. Now all alone, Junia crawled into an empty sarcophagus and awaited death. An allip drifted into the necropolis to feed on Junia’s suffering, but found that she was not alone. Grishan’s spirit, unable to find rest in the afterlife, had returned as a phantom to protect his friend. Knowing he was no match against the allip, Grishan instead hid Junia’s still living soul deep in the Ethereal Plane. Without the spark of life within her, Junia fell into a catatonic state between life and death, while the ruby salamander ring kept her body alive. Grishan guarded his friend’s soul in this manner for the next 10 years. In 4708 ar, a group of Pathfinders explored the necropolis beneath the Tri-Towers Yard. To their amazement, they found the comatose Junia still within her sarcophagus and returned her to her mother, Lady Dacilane. Sensing that she had been rescued, Grishan reunited Junia’s soul with her body and caused her to finally wake. Junia has recently begun to be troubled by survivor’s guilt, the feeling that she is somehow at fault for having survived when most of her teachers and classmates did not. She has attempted numerous times to sneak out of her house to visit the Drownyard (as the Tri-Towers Yard is now known) and somehow make peace with her past. Her mother has stopped each of these attempts, but has become tired of keeping her daughter a prisoner. Lady Dacilane feels that with her daughter’s eighteenth birthday now behind her, it is past time for Junia to join Absalom high society. She has enlisted the help of an old ally, the Pathfinder Society, to escort Junia to the Drownyard and finally exorcise whatever demons she is still carrying.
