Lotus van Kasteel
Information
Name	Lotus van Kasteel
Gender	Cis female, she/her
Age	35
Birthday	27 Kythorn
Sexuality	Lesbian
Race	Water genasi
Class	Druid
Alignment	Neutral Good
Homeland	Kheldell, Westwood, Sword Coast Spires
System	Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition
Campaign	Princes of the Apocalypse

Personality

Lotus is a 35-year-old circle of the moon druid who in her spare time worships Eldath, a lake spirit and a goddess of serenity, comfort, and healing. She is a water genasi with a neutral good alignment.

The duality of Lotus’ character, is that she is essentially a noble who left the comfort of the castle she was raised in to become a druid living in a forest instead. That being said, her title is still important to her and she still has an air of importance around her.

Appearance

Lotus’ elemental heritage is immediately apparent when looking at her. She has long green hair, green eyes and dewy blue skin. Leaves and branches often get caught in her hair while going for a swim. She will only remove the leaves and branches from her hair when she visits her parents and is expected to look presentable.

While travelling she wears a simple green dress to which she pins seasonal flowers. When picking flowers she makes sure to imbue the plant with magic, so the flower will grow back immediately. The only time she will change out of her green dress is when she is visiting her parents and is expected to wear a formal one.

Story

The story of her birth is an unusual one. She has two mothers; Lilith van Kasteel (or mother), a human of nobility and Isiane the Bold (or mom), a water elemental with a taste for forbidden fruits. What started as Lilith trying to make peace with the powerful water elemental who had made home in her family’s lake, ended with a fairytale-like love blossoming between the two women.

Lotus was born as a result of that love. She spent her childhood days happily inside her mother’s castle walls, but as she hit her teenager years she “moved in” with her mom. During those years spent in and around the lake, Lotus learnt what it means to be connected to water and by extension to everything which is allowed to grow because of it. It was also during this time that she learnt how to draw power from nature and became a druid.

She was twenty years old when she felt she had learnt everything her mothers had to teach her, so after many hugs and kisses, she left to find a lake (and possibly a castle) of her own. After months of travelling, she found a lake to call home in The Westwood. There she quickly became something of a local legend and was dubbed the Lady of the Lake.

Spotting the Lady of the Lake floating peacefully in her waters on her back was seen as a good omen while seeing her float face down was seen as an incredibly bad one. Little did the small neighbouring villages know Lotus simply likes to change her sleeping positions from time to time. Many would come to her lake with offerings in the hopes of getting a good harvest or sunshine on a wedding day. Although these things weren’t in Lotus’ power, she would instead keep the villages and the surrounding woods safe.

It was through her efforts to keep The Westwood safe that she got noticed by The Emerald Enclave, a widespread group of wilderness survivalists who try to preserve the natural order while rooting out unnatural threats. Lotus was asked to help dispose of dangers in The Westwood here and there, but most members of The Emerald Enclave would come to see her for her knowledge of the woods. If there was a disturbance in The Westwood, Lotus would know of it.

Recently, something strange has been happening in The Westwood. Lotus first noticed something was amiss when her waters turned murky and the plants surrounding her lake lost their vibrant colours. Alarmed, Lotus searched for the cause of the sudden imbalance of the surrounding nature. Despite her efforts, all she found was death. Dying plants with rotting roots, decaying half-eaten carcasses, recently dug earth without any memorial for the departed; death was everywhere.

At the height of all this death, the nearby villagers took up their pitchforks and burning torches to drive out Lotus from her home. They thought her to be responsible for everything, and Lotus couldn’t even say she blamed them. It was her price to pay for taking credit for their small miracles, even if this hadn’t been her intention.

Having no were else to go, Lotus headed for Red Larch. Last she spoke with Haeleeya Hanadroum, one of The Emerald Enclave members, she was told she would be able to find her there if needed. Lotus needs help to restore balance to nature, and hopefully, clear her name, so she can return as the Lady of the Lake.

Princes of the Apocalypse

Warning! There will be spoilers for the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign beyond this point.

Upon arriving in Red Larch Lotus met with two other adventures: Lucifer Ashworth, a drunken human monk, and Tzatziki, an aarakocra cleric of Lathander. At first, Lotus didn’t concern herself with the two, but she quickly realized that they too were looking for information. By speaking with some of the locals they learnt that strange things had been happening in the village.

The rumours in Red Larch ranged from figures wearing stone makes coming out at night and stalking the locals to something being amiss at Lance Rock. Although concerning, these rumours didn’t especially pique Lotus’ interest. It was only when she heard about rapidly changing and extreme weather conditions, that she considered staying in Red Larch to find out more.

Finding strength in numbers, Lotus decided to stick with the other two adventures. They took care of some of the problems the locals were having such as a ghost in an old tomb and a necromancer at Lance Rock causing havoc, but were caught off guard when a sinkhole suddenly appeared in Red Larch.

Finding the sudden appearance of a sinkhole rather curious, they ventured into it and found a stone cult of sorts. They cleared out the tunnels underneath Red Larch and the cultists were either dealt with immediately or taken into custody. They would later learn that this was their first encounter with the Cult of the Black Earth.

It was also around this time that they first heard about the disappearance of the delegation of Mirabar. Members of said delegation had close ties with the cities Waterdeep and Mirabar, which is the reason why tension rose between the two cities. War was sure to break out between Waterdeep and Mirabar if the delegation wouldn’t be found, which would leave not just Red Larch but all of the Dessarin Valley in ruin.

The delegation had last been seen at Beliard, which led Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki to set off to that village. While on their way there they saw a tower in the distance and they decided to check it out. They received a warm welcome from the Feathergale Knights, an elite club for affluent men and women.

Lotus, being of noble descent, stood out to them and she was asked to join them. She politely declined because clearing her name was still her top priority, which led to her and her allies being attacked in the dead of night. They were overwhelmed by the sheer number of knights and ultimately all of them were captured. Tzatziki was the only one who regained consciousness quickly after, but all he could do was watch as Lucifer and Lotus were pushed off the tower.

This would have been the end of Lotus’ story if it hadn’t been for the aarakocras in the area who had saved both her and Lucifer’s life. Together they thought of a plan to save Tzatziki and to destroy the Feathergale knights. The knights got a taste of their own medicine as Lucifer, Lotus and the aarakocras killed them in their sleep. This was their first encounter with the Cult of the Howling Hatred.

After their successful saving attempt, they said their goodbyes to the aarakocras and continued on their journey to Beliard. They arrived there safe and sound and began to ask around. They heard rumours of some suspicious people that were seen in and near the town, specifically of a monk wearing a golden mask. South from Beliard they finally found the remains of what they had been looking for: the delegation of Mirabar.

They found a battlefield where a massacre had taken place. If any members of the delegation had been left alive then they were nowhere to be seen. In between the humanoid corpses were also some bugbears. Hidden underneath some stones were bodies wearing golden masks. The coffin the delegation had been travelling with had been left behind. Inside was the body of a fallen knight who is important to the Knights of Samular.

Wanting to do some good, they took the coffin with them to Summit Hall which the Knights of Samular occupied. The knights were grateful for their troubles and Ushien Stormbanner, their leader, discussed the disappearance of the delegation of Mirabar with them. They had been heading for Summit Hall but never arrived. The golden masks were also mentioned, which led Ushien to speculate that the monks of the Sacred Stone order could be involved.

Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki set their sights on the monastery of the Sacred Stone, but before they left the fort they were approached by Nala, a dragonborn, who asked them for help. She had been robbed by bandits and wanted her triangle back. Not being in a particular hurry, they decided to help her.

They made quick work of dealing with the bandits, but two stood out to them because they had a particular tattoo and wielded swords with shark teeth. One of the bandits was happy to tell them about them if they left him alive. He explained that tattooed ones were part of the Rivergard Keep and that a man named Jolliver Grimjaw is their leader. Those men were a part of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. After they were done questioning the bandit, they let him go.

Nala was grateful to them for helping her get her triangle back and began sharing her past unprompted. She explained that she was looking for a person with scaly skin and snakes for hair who supposedly was called Marlos Unrayle. He could turn people into stone and she was trying to find him to get her vengeance. After promising Nala that they would keep an eye out for Marlos they parted ways.

Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki arrived at the Sacred Stone Monastery without much of a plan. They tried to talk their way into the monastery. Naturally, that didn’t work, which led to Tzatziki bluffing his way into wanting to be a part of the Cult of the Black Earth. Tzatziki mentioning the cult was enough for them to be let inside, but their leader Qarbo saw right through them.

They got trapped in the basement and learnt that there was a whole cave system underneath the monastery. While exploring these tunnels they found a secret way out and some prisoners, one of whom turned out to be Bruldenthar, a dwarf and member of the delegation of Mirabar. They escaped together with the prisoners through the secret tunnel and headed for Red Larch for they knew they would be safe there.

While on their way to Red Larch, they asked Bruldenthar to explain what had happened to the delegation. He recalled how they had been attacked by magicians who split the ground and bugbears. Anyone who tried to escape was attacked by people flying on birds. From this information, they concluded that Deseyna Majarra, a noble from Waterdeep and a member of the delegation, had been captured by the Cult of the Howling Hatred.

They also questioned the other prisoners about their imprisonment and gathered that they came from local towns and had been kidnapped to be put to work in the mines underneath the monastery. Bruldenthar told the group that he would be contacting Mirabar and Waterdeep as quickly as possible to explain what had happened to the delegation. This would stop a war from breaking out between the two cities.

With that disaster avoided, Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki started heading back to the Summit Hall, taking the route south this time to get there. They went through Womford where they had an encounter with pirates. Shoalar Quanderil, the leader of the group, was quite taken with Lotus as they were both water genasi. Despite this, the crew attacked them after they revealed their involvement with the delegation.

The pirates were defeated and the group found a map with the location of Rivergard Keep in the back of their ship. They also had a serious talk about how the conversation with the pirates had escalated and came to the conclusion that from now on they should consider their words carefully and think ahead before jumping into a situation.

The remaining part of the journey to Summit Hall was uneventful. They explained everything which had happened to Ushien. Although she wanted to help, she claimed she needed every knight to prepare for a war with trolls. That is until Lucifer mentioned the tomb they had found underneath the monastery with an empty sarcophagus with the name Samular Caradoon engraved into it.

Ushien told them that Samular Caradoon was the founder of the Knights of Samular and that he fought together with his brother Renwick Caradoon in the Troll War. Samular’s resting place was at Summit Hall, which is why Ushien found it so curious there would be an empty sarcophagus for him underneath the monastery. She changed her mind and lent them two of her knights; Mevig and Murum.

There would be another unsuccessful attempt to infiltrate the Sacred Stone Monastery before they managed to put down all the cultists there with the help of their two knights. While clearing out the monastery they met with a lich. The knights recognised the lich as Renwick Caradoon. During the second Troll War, Samular didn’t want his brother to die and gave him something that turned into a lich.

Renwick wasn’t particularly interested in them and just wanted to get back to work. They did question him about the sarcophagus with Samular’s name engraved into it. Renwick explained that one day he would lay his brother to rest there.

During their sweep through the monastery, they also found a book written by and about Marlos Unrayle. The book spoke about Marlos being the founder of the Sacred Stone Monastery and mentioned the Fane of the Eye.

To their surprise, they also found a staircase leading even further down underneath the monastery, but they quickly concluded that the scum at the lowest levels was still too powerful for them to face off against. Lotus asked Renwick to inform them if cultists would start appearing on the ground floor of the monastery again before they headed back to Summit Hall.

Back at Summit Hall they told Ushien about everything which had happened. Ushien also had something to share with them. She had received an animal messenger with a letter from the Emerald Enclave saying that Haeleeya would like to speak with Lotus at Red Larch.

On their way back to Red Larch they stopped at Bargewright Inn. There they met up with a contact person from Zhentarim, one of the factions, who had been able to gather some information on the strange happenings in the Dessarin Valley. He shared with them that the tower of the Feathergale Knights was just one of many that can be found in the valley. Originally these towers had been built by dwarfs of Besilmer.

He also shared with them that a small town east from Westbridge had been burned down, which caused Lucifer and Tzatziki to reveal their reasons for wanting to stop the cults. Lucifer’s monastery and Tzatziki’s village had been attacked by the Cult of the Eternal Flame. Both of them were looking for someone as well in the hopes that they had escaped the destruction and were still alive. Lucifer was looking for his master and Tzatziki for his little brother. They asked Lotus if perhaps she had a similar reason for wanting to stop the cults, but not wanting to reveal her failures yet she simply dismissed the notion and didn’t elaborate.

Once Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki arrived at Red Larch they met up with Haeleeya inside her bathhouse. She had overheard her guests talking about the Rite of the Wicker Giant. According to some druids, the rite was needed to heal nature. Naturally, this was something Lotus would like to participate in, so after getting some directions they set off to somewhere within the Sumber Hills where the rite would take place.

The place in question turned out to be a tower on top of a hill. Different camps of druids and other walks of life had been set up around the hill, so they took their time introducing themselves to every camp. At the last camp, they found none other than Sorris, Lucifer’s master. He explained that he had been looking into the different cults and was able to tell them each of their names. Additionally, he shared that one of the most important people within the Cult of the Eternal Flame is called Lyzzie Calderos.

Sorris had a bad feeling about the Rite of the Wicker Giant, and they shared that feeling. They asked around the different camps and learnt that the people who had participated in the rite were never seen again.

Knowing they had to do something, they climbed the hill and started asking questions to the people praying around the wicker man. Lucifer noticed their robes were similar to that of the Cult of the Eternal Flame and lost his composure. They cleared the hill as well as the tower from cultists and even defeated the fire elemental that had been the wicker man, but were still left with a lot of questions.

After the battle was over they went to each camp that hadn’t involved themselves in the fight and explained to them that they had been lied to and that the Rite of the Wicker Giant was a hoax. They did twist their retelling of the events a little bit to make it seem like they had been attacked by the cultists first.

One of the more strange people from these camps was Sauriki. He had approached them before because he had been curious about Lotus and kept making a symbol with his hands which they had seen before when the Cult of the Crushing Wave had been involved. Sauriki questioned them some more about what had happened but bought into their lies. When they shared that they would be “returning” to Rivergard Keep soon he shared with them that they should come in from the waterside and not the front gate.

The group’s next stop was the burned down village south of Westbridge, but when visiting that place gave them no new leads they decided to travel onwards to Westbridge. When asking around they learnt that a group had attacked one of the warehouses containing hay and that during that distraction two siblings called Oric and Lathna had been kidnapped.

Having few other options left, they decided that infiltrating Rivergard Keep should be their next step. Lucifer and Tzatziki rode on Lotus who had wild shaped into a Hunter Shark through River Dessarin and into the waterside of Rivergard Keep. They were welcomed by Sauriki and even received an audience with Jolliver Grimjaw himself. When Jolliver questioned them about their involvement with the cult, Lotus lied that Shoalar, the water genasi pirate they had recently killed, had been giving them assignments and that they were here for a new one.

Jolliver bought into enough of their lies for them to be allowed to stay. They immediately got put to work. Lotus had to work in the kitchen, while Lucifer and Tzatziki were on cleaning duty elsewhere in the keep. Lotus was on kitchen duty together with Oric, Lathna and some other servants who had been kidnapped. This worked out for her, as she was able to tell them in private that she was on their side and she would get them out of here.

After a few uneventful days, rumours began to spread about Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki needing to partake in a ritual. During dinner, they were drugged which caused Lotus and Lucifer to fall asleep. Tzatziki seemed to be immune to the drug but willingly walked along to the chapel. There the ritual could begin proper.

One of the cultists began speaking about how they would see if they, being as insignificant as water droplets, would be accepted by the sea. For the ritual itself, the cultist would use shape water to engulf their heads in holy water. Lucifer failed the initiation and fell unconscious. Tzatziki cast a healing spell on him in secret, which would turn out to be one of the best decisions he could have made.

Tzatziki and Lotus did succeed the initiation and both of them had seen a vision of sorts of them being underwater in the sea and seeing a creature made of waves move underneath them. They would later learn that they had seen something the cultists refer to as the Crushing Wave and the prince Olhydra.

After the ritual, Lucifer, who was still pretending to be unconscious at the time, was carried out of the chapel. Lotus asked the cultist who had led the ritual what happens to those who are deemed unworthy, but she didn’t get a straight answer, just that they wouldn’t be seeing their friend again. The moment Lucifer was put into a boat he took a potion of Underwater Breathing and escaped the keep by swimming out of there.

The next day Lotus and Tzatziki looked for Lucifer, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Tzatziki also sent him a message using Sending a few times but received no reply. Not wanting to assume the worst, Lotus also sent an animal messenger to look for Lucifer near where they had left their horse prior. They were relieved the receive a message back from the bird in question which simply read that Lucifer was alive.

Having become a part of the Cult of the Crushing Wave proper, Lotus and Tzatziki spent their time in Rivergard Keep exploring the keep and mapping out the whole place in their heads. One of their more interesting findings was the hidden door in the library which led directly into Jolliver’s chamber.

Something happened right around the time they started to consider making an escape plan of sorts. They were woken up in the middle of the night and were informed that there was an intruder. They used the commotion to their advantage and managed to escape with the servants. They hoped they would be able to find their horse and wagon where they had left them and were happy to find not just those but also Lucifer waiting for them.

Red Larch seemed like the safest location to bring the people they had freed, so they didn’t waste any time in getting there. On the way there Lucifer explained that he had killed one of the guards on the wall of Rivergard Keep, which let some of the other guards to go outside the keep’s walls and give chase. Once they were far enough from the keep, Lucifer had killed all of them but one. The dire situation combined with some gold made the last one more than willing to talk. Lucifer made him draw a detailed map of the keep before letting him go.

After dropping off the servants at Red Larch they had planned to return to Rivergard Keep and finish what they had started, but along the way there they ran into the same aarakocras who had saved their lives before. They had been looking for them.

Apparently, Greg, the cleric of the group who also worshipped Lathander, had had a vision. In the vision he was being carried by a metal man with glowing eyes in the Black Maw Bog. There had been another man as well who Greg saw turn around before turning into stone. The aarakocras suggested that it could be useful to check out the Black Maw Bog, which the group agreed to.

Tzatziki asked Greg if he might have any ideas why Lucifer couldn’t receive his messages via Sending. Greg had no specific ideas, which led to Tzatziki casting Detect Magic on Lucifer and finding a symbol on the nape of his neck. This turned out to be the symbol of Ao, a deity that stood even above other deities.

The journey through the Black Maw Bog treacherous, but after avoiding danger enough times they found the metal man Greg had seen in his vision. Rust had taken over most of the metal man’s body as he sat unmovingly. Lucifer accidentally touched him as he tried to take his sword, which caused a bolt of electricity to go through the metal man after which a message started playing.

The message was from Lucifer’s biological father to Lucifer. Lucifer’s father spoke about a “new world” and how much it saddened him to not be able to hear Lucifer’s first thoughts. He also mentioned he had been following the Elder Elemental Eye and that had broken ties with the princes. Through this recording as well as the disappearance of the metal man into black fog when his cloak with the symbol of Ao was removed, they gathered that Lucifer wasn’t from this realm and that the symbol on his nape somehow kept him anchored here.

Among the belongings of the metal man, they also found a Stone of Farspeech. Lucifer couldn’t use it, but Lotus’ message went through. She was surprised to hear Sorris, Lucifer’s master, on the other end. They agreed to meet in an abandoned cave in the Sumber Hills.

Once they were out of the Black Maw Bog Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki promised the aarakocras they would be in touch and that they would appreciate their help with infiltrating Rivergard Keep when the time would come. They met up with Sorris after that, who told them more about how he had found Lucifer in the arms of that metal man in Black Maw Bog.

Sorris also revealed to them that he had asked a person who was capable of casting Planar Anchor to tie Lucifer to this plane of existence and that Lucifer had been able to read other people’s thoughts from a young age. Around the time Lucifer hit his teenage years the mindreading got a bit too much for him, which is why one day Sorris gave him a strong drink in the hopes of stopping his mindreading abilities. This solution worked a little bit too well, and Lucifer has been an alcoholic ever since.

After most of Lucifer’s questions were answered, Sorris also told them about the things he had learnt since their last meeting. He told them that years ago the dwarfs of Besilmer lived in the Slumber Hills. They had a stronghold underground and towers above ground. These towers all had an entrance into the stronghold, which meant that not just the Sacred Stone Monastery but every cult invested settlement they had run into thus far had secret ways into the stronghold.

Armed with this information, they made a stop at Red Larch to prepare for returning to Rivergard Keep. During this time, Lotus had pins made of the infinity symbol for herself and her companions. She shared with the others that in ancient philosophy, there used to be a fifth immaterial element: ether. This supposed fifth element was responsible for the movement of celestial bodies. Furthermore, ether was superior to air, water, earth and fire, and would be necessary as a constant because the four material elements were subject to change.

Lotus asked Tzatziki and Lucifer if together they could form the Eternal Ether; a superior group to stop the efforts of the elemental cults. To Lotus’ delight, they agreed to her proposal. The infinity symbol became their sign and she gifted the pins as a physical representation of their group.

After their initiation, they returned to Rivergard Keep and were able to defeat Jolliver Grimjaw. Underneath his working desk, they discovered an entrance to underground tunnels, most of which were partially underwater. Over the next few days, they explored those tunnels, trying to eliminate as many cultists and monsters as possible. The most notable cultists they defeated were Gar Shatterkeel, the leader of the cult of the Crushing Wave, and Thuluna Maah and Morbeoth, two cultists of which either could have taken Gar’s place if left alone.

By keeping one of the water cultists alive and casting Charm Person on her, Lotus was able to ask her questions about the stronghold and the cult. The most important takeaway was that the water cult priests had closed off the entrance to the temple of the Eye and that they would need four different rods to open it. Having already acquired one water-themed rod, they made the assumption they would need to look for the other three rods at the earth, fire and wind temples.

Another thing the water cultist revealed is that the elemental cults were responsible for the unbalance in nature and the strange storms that had been randomly appearing in the region. She explained that this was a side effect of the different elemental cults trying to take over nature and fighting each other’s elemental power to come out on top. Despite being deeply disturbed by this, Lotus let the water cultist go as promised.

Having been underground for days, Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki were happy to finally exit the tunnels underneath Rivergard Keep. Lotus took some time to perform a ritual to restore nature in and around Rivergard Keep before they took their leave and started heading for Bargewright Inn. They celebrated Lucifer’s birthday on the road, which was wholesome and sweet, but they would soon learn this was going to be the last time they would be able to enjoy themselves for a while.

Once they arrived at Bargewright Inn, Lucifer got in contact again with Nalaskur Thaelond, his contact person from Zhentarim. Sorris, Lucifer’s master, was also present, and together they told Lucifer that Beliard had been destroyed by a giant storm. Three people seemed responsible for this destruction. One of the three had had blue skin, and another had had wings and other birdlike features. This had happened during the time Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki had been in the tunnels underneath Rivergard Keep, so while they knew they weren’t responsible for Beliard’s destruction, it would be hard to prove their innocence.

Nalaskur, however, believed them to be innocent and made use of the favour they owed him for information about the cults he had given to them prior. He explained that he needed them to be at Yartar in two weeks to buy a weapon that should be put up for sale then, but he kept the why and how of the request to himself.

Upon being shown the water-themed rod they had found in the tunnels, Nalaskur explained that two of the people from the Mirabar delegation had been tasked with bringing four small objects to Waterdeep. He assumed that the rod was just one of the four they had been carrying before they had been attacked by the different cults.

Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki considered their next move well. Coming near Beliard would be out of the question. They had no way of knowing how far the news about Beliard had already spread, and if they would still be welcomed in other cities and towns in the region. They erred on the side of caution and decided to avoid any city or town, except for Yartar, for the time being.

Lotus tried not to let it show too much, but having her good name ruined not once, but twice now because of the actions of the different elemental cults fuelled her rage and her need for revenge. Before, she simply wanted to clear her name and restore the balance of nature; now things were personal.

After some consideration, Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki decided to return to the Sighing Valley and see if they could find the entrance to the tunnels where, presumably, they would find the Cult of the Howling Hatred. Looking through one of the telescopes on top of the Feathergale Spire, they found a guarded entrance on the east cliffside of the valley.

By using stealth and stealing the clothes of the wind cultists they had expected to find there, they were able to infiltrate the underground city. One of their more interesting finds was a dijnni named Ahtayir who had been given the task to work on the dungeon. Because this task is never finished, he had been stuck working on the place for hundreds of years.

The dijnni explained to them that the high priestess Aerisi Kalinoth was keeping a horn by her throne. Every hundred years this horn can be blown to give the dijnni a new task. They quickly realized they could help each other and thus Lucifer found this horn and blew on it, giving the dijnni the task to get them out of the dungeon safely. The dijnni gained his freedom by helping them out and was able to answer a few of their questions. Among other things, he shared with them that the prince the wind cult worships is named Yan-C-Bin.

Unfortunately, the high priestess Aerisi Kalinoth hadn’t been present during their first delve into the underground city, but they couldn’t stick around any longer to wait for her return. Instead, they had to make their way to Yartar to still be on time to buy the weapon Nalaskur spoke off.

Once they arrived in Yartar they were greeted by a tiefling. He introduced himself as Ebris and a member of the Zhentarim. In privacy, he told them that the seller of the weapon Nalaskur wants is named Nareen Dhest and that he had arranged for a meeting between them to happen. The weapon in question turned out to be a chest with unstable earth magic inside.

After coming to an agreement with Nareen, they went to a graveyard within Yartar to retrieve the chest. Lotus felt uncomfortable handing this chest over to the Zhentarim, but Ebris convinced her that the Zhentarim wasn’t actually interested in owning the chest with the unstable earth magic. Instead, the Zhentarim simply wanted to know more about it and the only way to acquire more knowledge about it would be to open the chest and see what’s inside.

Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki had a bad feeling about opening the chest, so they travelled out of Yartar and far into the Badlands with it before opening it. This turned out to be the right call because as soon as the unstable earth magic was released, it triggered an earthquake that drastically reshaped the landscape. Additionally, Lotus felt that after the earth magic had fizzled out, part of the energy of nature had been restored.

Ebris had been with them during the opening of the chest and told them that he would be getting into contact with Nalaskur to share the new knowledge he had gained. This meant that Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki had fulfilled their part of the deal and that they could return to stopping the elemental cults.

Their next destination was the settlement of the Eternal Flame within the Sumber Hills. Lotus turned thirty-six during their journey which they celebrated together. They hadn’t planned to go through Red Larch on their way to the Eternal Flame, but Lotus had had a very bad feeling the night before.

They quickly made their way to Red Larch and found cultists of the Black Earth terrorizing the locals. The cultists carried a familiar looking chest with them and they opened it before Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki were able to get to it. Fortunately, Tzatziki was successful in casting Dispel Magic on the orb inside the chest, which dispelled the unstable earth magic right before Red Larch would have been wiped from the map.

Although the biggest threat had been dealt with, a few of the locals still had died before Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki were able to defeat all the cultists. On account of being in Red Larch already, Lotus decided to pay Haeleeya a visit. The two women talked in private. Lotus gave a summary of the events which had transpired since they last spoke, while Haeleeya revealed concerning news to Lotus.

According to Haeleeya the Goldenfields had been flooded. Those fields were one of the very few places people could still grow their crops since most of the lands in the Dessarin Valley were infertile. This together with the fact that the roads had gotten too dangerous for traders to take the journey to any settlement, meant that soon the people living in the valley would be without food.

Haeleeya, however, offered a glimmer of hope. She explained that Teresiel, the elf travelling with the delegation of Mirabar, had been carrying seeds of abundance with her. Planting one of these seeds in the Goldenfields would be enough to undo the damage that had been done to them. If they found Teresiel and the seeds, they could save the people from starvation.

Lotus considered what was at stake but ultimately decided together with Lucifer and Tzatziki that stopping the fire cult took priority over finding Teresiel. She told Haeleeya to keep looking out for herself before leaving for the fire cult hideout again. During the journey there Tzatziki cast Scrying to find his little brother, Tkemali. Tzatziki saw Tkemali wearing fire cultist robes and praying before an altar from which he spoke to a tiefling woman through fire.

Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki went into the tower the Eternal Flame cult had infiltrated before, and they were able to find an entrance to tunnels leading underneath it. They were disguised as fire cultists and were successful in convincing the hobgoblins guarding the entrance that they were part of the cult.

They were being led to someone called the Phoenix to meet with them when other cultists saw through their façade. An intense battle ensued, but ultimately Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki all fell unconscious because they were outnumbered.

When Lotus woke up she was tied up to Tzatziki and hanging above a fire. Bastian Thermandar, the leader of the northern part of the fire cult, spoke with them and made them an offer. In exchange for their lives and that of Lucifer, he would see Vanifer, the leader of the southern part of the fire cult, destroyed. Bastian also mentioned that Vanifer wasn’t right the serve Imix, which led Lotus to the conclusion that Imix is the name of the fire prince.

Making a deal with Bastian didn’t sit right with Lotus, but their predicament didn’t leave them any other choice. They took him up on the offer but felt lost without Lucifer by their side. Bastian left them with a lock of Lucifer’s hair and a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

Just when Lotus and Tzatziki had been discussing how to get out of this mess, a man suddenly appeared from a hidden entrance and entangled them in a magical web. He was an artificer named Julian Smithson with a red panda-shaped steal defender named Trash who had come to capture them.

Julian began questioning them about where they had been about two weeks ago. They had been in the Sighing Valley at the time, fighting Howling Hatred cultists, but around that same time, cultists wearing their faces had been seen in Beliard destroying the city. Lotus put one and one together and asked if Julian suspected them to be the cause for Beliard’s destruction.

Julian explained that, yes, he thought them to be guilty of that crime and that he had come to take them and judge them. He, however, wouldn’t be going anywhere until Lucifer had been accounted for as well, as he was currently missing from the party. Lotus began to explain they hadn’t been the ones to destroy Beliard, but Julian wouldn’t hear it and slapped her in the face.

Lotus told him to never touch her again and stayed up to keep an eye on him as Tzatziki rested. Although Julian seemed like a dangerous nutcase, Lotus knew they couldn’t possibly face the dangers of the fire cult with just the two of them and begrudgingly allowed him to stay with them.

While exploring the tunnels and eliminating cultists, they found Tzatziki’s little brother wearing fire cultists robes and using a whip to put slaves to work. They fought Tkemali and Tzatziki was able to free his brother from the ethereal fire energy that had controlled him using the Dispel Evil and Good spell.

Tkemali, no longer possessed, thanked them for getting him out of the Eternal Fire cult and saving his life. After the touching reunion of the two aarakocra brothers had concluded, Lotus wild shaped into a giant eagle and flew Tkemali to Greg and the other aarakocras in the Sighing Valley to keep him safe.

Knowing they had no time to waste, Lotus, Julian and Tzatziki ventured into the temple of the Eternal Fire again. There, they faced off against a formattable foe, Lyzandra Calderos. The sudden appearance of a chimera during their fight turned things for the worse. With Julian blinking in and out of the material plane and Tzatziki being invisible, things looked especially dire for Lotus who was the only possible target for the attacks of their foes. She was barely holding onto her Wild Shape form as she started considering what to her seemed like the only way out: getting into contact with the water prince Olhydra and asking them for some of their power. She felt this was the end for her and she needed to get out of this fight alive by any means necessary.

Something unexpected happened, however, when Julian called out to her and asked her to return to her normal form so they could fly away on his flying broom. Lotus asked herself if she wanted to trust someone who had called her a murderer just two days prior but ultimately decided to let that grudge go because she realized Julian was just another victim of the elemental cults.

She joined him on his broom and they got some distance between them and their foes, but they weren’t out of the woods just yet. Then, Tzatziki succeeded in casting a spell that turned the tides for them. He had cast Banishment on the chimera, which levelled the playing field for them. With the chimera temporally out of the picture, they no longer needed to run for their lives and they took that opportunity to put an end to Lyzandra. As soon as she had breathed her last breath, they fled from the temple.

Once outside and out of danger, Lotus had to come to terms with the dark thought she had had about contacting the water prince Olhydra. It frustrated her to no end that the elemental cults had ruined her good name twice now and that she was powerless to do something about it. She felt that with Lucifer missing and them experiencing a near-death experience for a second time, Tzatziki deserved to know why she had come with him on this journey in the first place.

Lotus explained to Tzatziki that she used to live in a lake in The Westwood and that she became a local legend there. The people from nearby villages dubbed her the Lady of the Lake and worshipped her. She was seen as a lake goddess who could grand miracles, but the things the locals wished for weren’t in Lotus’ power to provide. She did, however, make sure to keep The Westwood safe because she felt that that was her responsibility and the very least she could do as thanks for the offers she received from the locals.

She lived happily like this for a while, until one day her perfect world shattered. She first noticed there was something amiss when her waters turned murky and the plants surrounding her lake lost their vibrant colours. Soon after, nature, animals and even people started dying. She was desperately searching for the case of all this death, but it was only much later that she would learn that the imbalance in nature was a side effect of the elemental cults fighting for power.

The locals blamed the Lady of the Lake for all the misfortune that had befallen them, much like they had credited their instances of luck and good fortune to her before. They took up their pitchforks and burning torches to drive her out of her home and she has been searching for a way to clear her name ever since.

Tzatziki empathized with Lotus after hearing her story and told her: “The Lady of the Lake is Lotus, but Lotus is more than just the Lady of the Lake.” Lotus promised to tell her story to Lucifer as well as soon as they had saved him because he deserved to know about her reason for wanting to stop the elemental cults too. Julian seemed uncomfortable having heard Lotus’ story, but Lotus had high hopes that he would be less suspicious of her and her motives now that he knew more about her.

That evening Tzatziki tried scrying on Lucifer to find out his whereabouts. He was bound and being taken somewhere, but his hilly surroundings where too generic for Tzatziki to figure out his exact location. Having seen that Lucifer was no longer within the walls of the Eternal Fire cult temple, Tzatziki and Lotus became a lot less keen on keeping their promise to Bastion as he no longer seemed to have any control over if Lucifer would live or die.

The next day they set out with the goal to find and defeat Bastion. During their fight with Bastion, Tzatziki’s bracelet activated and from it a ghostly version of Tkemali sprung forth. Tkemali was able to fight with them and together they defeated Bastion. They also searched for Vanifer and while they did find her secret personal chambers, they were unable to locate her.

Realising they didn’t have any leads for finding out Lucifer’s whereabouts, Tzatziki decided to scry on him again. This time the scrying revealed to Tzatziki that Lucifer was underground somewhere and that he was missing one foot. Additionally, Lucifer said “The Eye” before the time on the scrying spell ran out.

Their next destination was the temple of the Cult of the Black Earth. There they found a few prisoners. Among them was a guard of the cult named Orna. From questioning her they learnt that the prince of the Black Earth is called Ogrémoch and that the temple of The Eye is seen as neutral ground. They let Orna go in exchange for this information and got the other prisoners to safety.

A few more days of “cleaning up” the temple elapsed before Tzatziki dared to scry on Lucifer again, but when he finally did manage to find the courage he saw something awful. It felt like it took him days of flight before the scrying spell was able to locate Lucifer. Their friend was being dragged off somewhere very far away. Lucifer seemed to be aware of Tzatziki’s presence and he reached out to him before his arm fell limply beside him.

Tzatziki and Lotus feared they had lost Lucifer, but Tzatziki noticed how the lock of Lucifer’s hair they had received from Bastian hadn’t vanished. If Lucifer was dead his hair should have turned into black smoke, much like the metal man in the Black Maw Bog, because he wasn’t originally from this plane. Tzatziki and Lotus were unsure about what this meant but were left no other choice than to continue fighting the elemental cults.

After some more confrontations with earth cultists and other evil creatures, they were able to reach the levels of The Eye underneath the temple of the Black Earth. There they had their long-awaited confrontation with Marlos who praised their strength and told them the Black Earth could use that strength. They refused his offer to join him, which he found disappointing. He could not allow them to not join him either, so he threw off the mask he had been wearing to reveal the snakes on his head and his petrifying gaze. They fought him and the other cultists in the room and defeated them.

Marlos' magical war pick and weapon was the key they needed to reveal a map of sorts. When placing the war pick on an altar in the temple of the Elder Elemental Eye, the symbols of the elemental cults magically appeared on the ceiling. They recognised some of the other lines on the ceiling as the rivers that flow through the Dessarin Valley and thus were able to use the markings as points of interest on their map of the region. It wouldn’t be until later that they would learn these places were hotspots for potent elemental energy and the locations of more elemental temples.

Tzatziki received a vision from Aerisi Kalinoth, the leader of the Cult of the Howling Hatred, of cloaked figures carrying a chest to a village next to a castle. When the chest opened, a big firestorm destroyed both the village and the castle. These events unfolded under the moon in a waxing gibbous phase. When Tzatziki described what he had seen, Lotus immediately realized that he had been shown her hometown, Kheldell.

Taking Aerisi’s vision in good faith, they travelled to Kheldell as fast as possible. Lotus introduced her travelling companions to her parents, Lilith and Isaine, and told them about Tzatziki’s vision. They anxiously kept watch every night until the moon was waxing gibbous and the fire cultists approached Kheldell with their chest. Tzatziki used his exceptional description skills to convince the cultists he was part of the Cult of the Eternal Flame as well and that they should entrust the chest to him. Not taking any chances, Julian cast Arcane Lock on the chest and they asked Isaine to keep the chest safe at the bottom of Kheldell’s lake.

Although the most direct threat to Kheldell had been dealt with, Lotus, Julian and Tzatziki didn’t feel comfortable leaving just yet. One of the villagers named Hendrik had ventured into the Westwood and had returned two weeks later as a half-human half-beast monstrosity. Lotus cast Detect Thoughts on him to get some insight into what happened to him, but was only able to learn that while in the Westwood he had gotten lost as the trees had seemed to move, he had felt scared and feral and that something had been watching him from the trees.

After speaking to some more villagers and learning that the Westwood hadn’t been “right” for some time, they ventured into the Westwood to investigate. They immediately got lost, despite Lotus having lived in these woods for many years. She tried to use Transfer via Plants to get them out, but they just ended up somewhere else within the woods.

They learnt that they had somehow ended up in a demiplane. A fey with a deer skull for a head and tree trunks for limbs attacked them. Things weren’t looking good for them when suddenly a Moonbeam appeared. The deer fey creature seemed intrigued by it and leaned in closer before the Moonbeam exploded. After the explosion, the deer fey creature was nowhere to be seen and they were left to lick their wounds.

The confrontation with the deer fey creature did quite a number on Lotus, who after the fight couldn’t stop bleeding from her eyes and ears. The blood caused her to see Tzatziki as a skeleton, Julian as a dark huge version of himself and Trash, Julian’s red panda-shaped steal defender, as a little girl. Thinking the steal defender to be a poor imitation of a real red panda, Lotus had been treating Trash coldly until then. Lotus didn’t know if she could trust what she saw but decided to treat Trash with kindness from then on, much to the surprise of her travelling companions.

After a while Lotus’ bleeding stopped by itself, but they weren’t out of the woods just yet. Being a druid, Lotus was used to changing into animals. What she wasn’t used to, however, was her water genasi from being taken over by a beast, which was exactly what was slowly happening to her.

They explored more of the demiplane and met a man called Vincen who had also been partially changed into a beast. Upon seeing Lotus, he asked her if she is the Lady of the Lake. She explained that she hasn’t worn that title for a while now, not since she left the Westwood. Vincen told them that another being who is called the Lady of the Lake had lost her home. She is cursed and people who enter the Westwood and feel alone and lost only strengthen the curse.

Lotus was offended that someone else was using her title but understood that if they wanted to get out of here, preferably before changing into beats completely, they would have to find the Lady and rid her of the curse. Staying in this cursed part of the demiplane was beginning to permanently affect Lotus negatively. She became obsessed with eating paper, which made reading books very difficult.

One night during Lotus’ watch, she tried to communicate with the little girl she had seen receding in Trash. She found out that the little girl’s name starts with the letter L, but wasn’t able to figure out much else about her.

Having wandered through the demiplane for days, they finally arrived at a river Lotus recognized. The fact that the water was murky concerned her. They followed the river until they reached the lake Lotus used to call home. The lake was filled with filth as well. Knowing they had to get the lake cleaned somehow, they combined their efforts and spells to purify it.

As soon as they succeeded in purifying the lake, night suddenly came. Lotus decided to cast Moonbeam in the middle of the lake to generate light and attract a certain someone to see the result of their hard work. The deer fey creature, the Lady of the Lake, revealed herself, attracted by the Moonbeam as she had been before. She transformed into a woman made out of wood and with deer antlers, after which she introduced herself as the Lady of the Moon.

As thanks for reaching the lake and purifying it, the Lady granted Lotus the title of Lady of the Lunar Lake. She also gave her the Boon of the Moon, which allowed Lotus to tap into the Lady’s wild magic. By using it Lotus and anyone in the wild aura would partially change into a beast and gain different boons to their physical or mental abilities depending on the phase of the moon.

The Lady asked Lotus to stop the elemental cults from summoning any of their elemental princes. Lotus fell into the lake and received a vision of herself swimming in the lake, following a current and finding an underwater canyon that leads into another part of the water cult’s temple.

After their confrontation with the Lady, they found themselves back on the Material Plane again. The Lady’s curse had been lifted which meant anyone who had been turned into a half-beast could be turned back to normal with a Remove Curse spell, but Lotus’ obsession with eating paper was permanent. Lotus secretly felt bad for having accidentally stolen the Lady’s title in the past, as the Lady had been keeping the woods safe long before Lotus’ arrival. Stopping the cults would be the only right way to make it up to her.

The activities of the Cult of the Crushing Wave had caused the curse and by extension were the reason Lotus had been chased out of her home. Together, they explored the tunnels of the water temple and they used Gar Shatterkeel's magical trident to destroy a water portal, also destroying the weapon itself in the process. The Crushing Wave would no longer be able to summon their prince Olhydra this way. The cult was no more.

Remembering what Haeleeya of the Emerald Enclave had told them about the state of the Goldenfields, they decided to travel there next. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much they could do about the flooded state of the fields unless they found one of the seeds of abundance Teresiel, the elf travelling with the delegation of Mirabar, allegedly had been carrying with her.

While there they met up with Lucifer’s master Sorris. He shared what he knew about Deseyna, another member of the delegation of Mirabar, having ended up in Vortuin, a village in the Forlorn Hills. He also specifically asked to see Marlos’ magical war pick, which Lotus showed him without giving it a second thought.

They followed up on their lead about Deseyna and travelled to Vortuin. They discovered Aerisi Kalinoth and the Cult of the Howling Hatred were based there. Suspiciously, the locals seemed to love Aerisi.  They found Deseyna, but she seemed to be under some kind of spell which made her speak of Aerisi in high regard.

Tzatziki decided to scry on Aerisi. She spoke about being close to completing the ritual, which forced them to take action immediately. It was obvious to them that they were walking into a trap, but they didn’t have any other choice. They stormed the castle next to Vortuin Aerisi had made her home in. She dominated them when they walked into her throne room and they were thrown into the cells underneath the castle.

While unconscious in the prison cells, Lotus, Julian and Tzatziki all had visions. Lotus found herself reliving the memories of Luna, Julian’s daughter. Through Luna’s eyes, she saw that the child got bit by a goblin and got incredibly sick afterwards. Julian was working day and night on Trash, his red panda-shaped steal defender, when Luna died. Julian and his wife, Robin, fought about this, which confused the spirit of Luna. Then, the storm that destroyed Beliard claimed Robin and knocked Julian unconscious. Luna wanted to help her father and took control of Trash to keep him safe.

To Lotus’ surprise, she saw Aerisi in Luna’s memories. After their home had been destroyed, Aerisi found Julian, still unconscious, and gave him false memories. He believed that Luna had also been taken by the storm, while in reality she had died before then from the goblin bite. Lotus also saw Aerisi taking on her shape and making two of her cultists take the shape of Lucifer and Tzatziki so that they could be blamed for Beliard’s destruction.

Once Lotus and her travelling companions awaked from their visions, Lotus decided she would tell the truth about Luna’s passing and continued existence as a part of Trash after they had taken out the Cult of the Howling Hatred. As far as they could tell they still had all their personal belongings in prison, but there was one item missing: Marlos’ magical war pick. They broke out of their cells and gave anyone else being kept in the cells food and water to survive until they had dealt with Aerisi and her followers.

They defeated Aerisi in secret. They took her magical spear and destroyed both the weapon and the air portal. Not wanting to tell the hard truth to all the villagers of Vortuin who so adamantly believed in Aerisi’s greatness still, Tzatziki magically disguised himself as Aerisi and told all the cultists they had misinterpreted the wishes of Yan-C-Bin. The only way they could repent for this grave mistake was to do good and do everything in their power to undo the damage they had done. The cultists were confused but disbanded the Cult of the Howling Hatred peacefully.

As for Vortuin, Tzatziki told them as Aerisi that she had to go explore the world. “Aerisi” explained that she couldn’t leave Vortuin behind without finding a suitable replacement for her first. They successfully turned Vortuin into a democracy and Deseyna was chosen as the next leader for having the most votes. After the greatest performance of Tzatziki’s life, they secretly helped the prisoners escape to Red Larch.

Around this time, Lotus told Julian what he had seen in Luna’s memories. He was shocked, but also revealed to hear some part of his daughter was still close to him, protecting him. Tzatziki shared that he had relieved Lotus’ memories of being chased out of her home and Julian told them about the massacre of Tzaziki’s family by the Cult of the Eternal Flame. They decided to put an end to the fire cult next.

The next location they travelled to was Lucifer’s village. The villagers who had died during the fire cult’s attack had risen again as undead. Strangely, Lotus was grateful that Lucifer didn’t have to see the people who were formally his neighbours like this. After defeating the undead and the necromancer which they had met previously at Lance Rock, they delved deeper into the fire cult’s temple. There they found Vanifer and with her death, Tzatziki got justice for his family which she had killed.

As they had done before with the other elemental portals, they used Vanifer’s magical dagger to destroy the fire portal. Then, Lotus received a vision of the earth cult completing their ritual and summoning their prince Ogrémoch.

Teresiel had been kept a prison by Vanifer. They freed her and were relieved to hear she still carried the seeds of abundance with her. Although Lotus felt they should stop the Cult of the Black Earth from completing their ritual, they did need rest so there was no harm in going to the Goldenfields one more time to use the seeds to restore the fields. They did as such and the people from the Goldenfields thanked them for saving not just their lives, but all the lives in the valley for the fields could provide food again.

There was one more final stop, however, before they travelled to the temple of the Cult of the Black Earth to put a stop to the ritual. Julian asked to see the grave of his wife, Robin. Lotus and Tzatziki agreed to this.

On their way to the temple of the Cult of the Black Earth, they came across two knights from the Summit Hall, Brim Bornitsk and Wilhorn. The knights had been attacked by the earth cultists and wanted to save the other knights that they had left behind when they ran. Lotus gave them a chance to act on their heroism, but upon entering the earth temple it was clear they weren’t ready to face what lay beyond. She used Transfer via Plants to safely send the two knights back to Summit Hall.

Strangely, Lotus and Tzatziki heard a warning from Lucifer to turn around as they ventured deeper into the temple. Knowing that Ogrémoch could be summoned at any time, they couldn’t heed Lucifer’s advice. During their exploration of the temple, they found what they assumed to be Lucifer’s body, but he was missing his head. Some sort of magic was keeping his body in this plane, which explained why his hair hadn’t turned into black smoke.

Lotus and Tzatziki had their concerns about who would be completing the ritual to summon Ogrémoch. They had already killed Marlos Unrayle, the leader of the Cult of the Black Earth, after all. Who they found with Marlos’ weapon in hand, just a second away from summoning Ogrémoch, was Sorris, Lucifer’s master. On Sorris’ back were the symbols of the four elemental cults as well as the symbol of The Eye while Lucifer’s head rested on his chest, a robe tied around the head and resting around Sorris’ neck as a macabre necklace.

Tzatziki demanded answers but received none as Sorris completed the ritual and the earth temple began to crumble around them. They nearly escaped being buried alive and weren’t even given a second to recover as they immediately had to face both Ogrémoch and Sorris, who seemed to be wielding all four elements.

They battled on top of Ogrémoch with the prince himself, Sorris and earth elementals. When Ogrémoch and Sorris finally fell, they all had a split second to catch themselves. Lotus was on her Flying Broom and swooped in to take Lucifer’s head off of Sorris so that he could be given a proper funeral. Julian was no longer on his Flying Broom and dove towards Trash to catch his daughter before the fall. Tzatziki tried to grab a hold of Julian’s Flying Broom, which he succeeded at, but he wouldn’t be given the chance to give it back to Julian.

Both Julian and Trash disappeared into the earth portal that had been inside Ogrémoch, before Sorris's dead body with the magical war pick still in his hand fell into the portal, destroying it and closing it behind Julian and Trash.

Relationships

Julian Smithson

To say Julian and Lotus got off on the wrong foot would be an understatement. Upon their first meeting, Julian accused Lotus, Lucifer and Tzatziki of the destruction of Beliard and by extension killing his family. They started travelling together because Lucifer was missing from their group and Julian wanted to bring them all to justice, but in doing so he started to see Lotus and Tzatziki for who they are and senseless killers they are not.

Lotus didn’t think she could warm up to someone who accused her of murdering an entire city but found Julian surprisingly easy to understand after he started saying his thoughts out loud after their encounter with the cursed Lady of the Lake. She knows he is a broken man looking to make things right and is willing to give him a helping hand, would he accept it.

Lucifer Ashworth

In many ways, Lucifer presents everything Lotus’ parents warned her about. A drunk. A loudmouth. A man. Despite this, Lotus grew closer to Lucifer throughout their adventure. If nothing else, the way Lucifer could be open with his feelings and the things he was dealing with impressed Lotus. She enjoyed giving him swimming and telepathy lessons, even if she pretended to find it a bother at the time.

Lucifer’s death came as a shock to her and is still something she is trying to work out. Above all, she regrets not having shared with him what her motivation was for trying to stop the elemental cults.

Luna

Being a druid, Lotus thought she would always have a distain for Trash, the red panda-shaped steal defender of Julian. A mockery of nature and disgustingly cute, she tried to distance herself from Trash at every opportunity. This changed, however, when she found out that the soul of Luna, Julian’s daughter, had bonded to the mechanical creature. Luna is nothing but brave and strong. Lotus tries to fill a big sister kind of role in Luna’s “life” for that is the very least Lotus can do for a lost little girl trying to protect her father.

Tzatziki

At first glance, Lotus and Tzatziki are nothing alike. At a second glance, you would maybe notice the drunk monk or artificer tagging along with them, but that’s where the similarities would end. Like water and air, Lotus and Tzatziki’s worlds were apart until a storm swept up their lives and intertwined them in dance. While Lotus often finds herself wondering what is going on inside that bird-sized brain of Tzatziki, she knows his kindness and cheerful outlook on life don’t need any explaining.

Lotus is grateful to have Tzatziki as a friend. He pushed her once to reveal more about her reasons for wanting to stop the elemental cults than she was willing to share at that time but understands now that he was simply trying to make it easier to talk about how they hurt her.

Trivia

Lotus her skin is always dewy, even when she has been out of the water for a while.

Lilith is the one who birthed Lotus and Isiane conceived her. Isiane is a woman and likes to be addressed as such, but because of her nature as a water elemental she can change her sex and appearance at will.

The family portrait in Lotus’ parental-home was painted on a rather tall canvas so it could still fit Isiane next to her wife and daughter.

Despite how Lotus presents herself, her name isn't particularly well known outside the walls of the Kasteel estate. Her existence isn't a secret by any means, but her mothers just never thought it necessary to announce Lotus' birth to the world.