"A relic was taken from the church's crypt eleven days prior," Zedro Diringer stated.

"What relic!?" Lord Maximilian Carr sprang up and inquired with a yell.

"Lord Carr!" The Lord Speaker said in a very firm tone to remind everyone of their manners.

Then he let Priest Diringer continue

"It is a necklace or an amulet, which belongs to the goddess Alexandra herself. It was thought to have been given to humanity thousands of years ago and to have the power to call the goddess to the mortal plane itself. We did our utmost to protect the church's vaults, but that day, it was gone, stolen by the Black Order of Urien."

"Who is this order, exactly?" the Lord Speaker inquired.

"As in their name, they worship Urien, the deity of death. They have been a pain in the church's side for a few decades, as the majority of you are well aware. While they sometimes caused trouble or vandalized other houses of worship, they were mostly harmless, thus stopping them was never given any thought. Though the day the relic was stolen, the goddess's visage on the walls of the vault was defaced, carved into it with heavy scratches. As the most revered figure in Deira, they frequently attack churches dedicated to Alexandra. Aebshem, a somewhat renowned individual, is the cult's leader."

Lord Carr asked another question, this time to his other lords, in a civilized manner, "And what do we know about this Aebshem person?"

"The fact that we don't know anything about that individual is quite unfortunate. He is a phantasm that sprung up alongside the cult," Archbishop Grant said.

Diringer went on to say, "I took action to get it back as soon as I discovered it had been taken and who was responsible. I went straight to the Adventurers' Guild to assign them this crucial duty. I personally chose the people who would be going."

"And these chosen people are..." The Lord Speaker picked up a piece of paper and read from it, "Ex-General Mine Glory, A Platinum Dwarf named Thakin Forgebreath, a War-Orc named Yam Thousand-Hoods, a goblin called Vethra Nox, and a dark elf called Asha... Asharisralo...," the Lord Speaker coughed once to clear his throat and with one breath he pronounced the name of the drow-elf, "Asharisralorentanithilgenkian. Is that right?"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Yes. Days later, I learned of Miss Burell, an elderly wise woman who had recently arrived beyond the walls of Aloshir.

I do not know what her first name was. I was inspired to share my problems and hear her guidance when a young churchgoer spoke to me about the knowledge and counsel she has shared with others.

She was an old woman, human; I think. She could have possessed some additional halfling ancestry, such as dwarven. Not only that, but she seemed... strange is the best word to describe my interaction with her.

She talked about a lot of odd things even though the conversation we had was very brief and at the end of it she set out herself to, what she said was, save them."

"And who is 'them', Mister Diringer?" The Lord Speaker asked.

"The adventurers who had set out a few days prior to retrieving the relic. A few days before their return, a light earthquake hit Deira, but I didn't think much of it at the time because it happens occasionally. I don't know what transpired while they were gone, but when they returned, it was evident that whatever had occurred had left them badly shaken."

"Was this Burell individual present when the adventurers returned?"

"No. When she set out to 'save' them, that was the last time I had seen her, but there was one additional person they had brought back that wasn't with them when they set out. It was Aebshem. He was bound and wore a slave collar to inhibit his abilities, yet there was something peculiar about him.

While it's true that he was an unusual person, stories about him frequently describe his courage and unwavering demeanor as if he doesn't fear death.

But the person they brought was more like a child in a man's body, trembling with fear and panic.

All five of them swore he was nobody else, which made it no less difficult for me to accept that he was Aebshem. They gave me an unbelievable account of how they called forth the goddess herself, who then vanquished Aebshem with the aid of Miss Burell, and that the cult has been entirely wiped out.

And then... Following that, I could not bring myself to turn over Aebshem to the authorities. That man-child they had brought is the one who had run a death cult for many years, and I couldn't believe it. I brought him inside the church, where I maintained a watch over him. And for the relic, much to my dismay, is in the possession of Vertha Nox, the goblin adventurer. She refused to give it back when I requested it, claiming that the goddess had given it to her. Even Mine Glory attested to the validity of her claim."

With these words, Zedro Diringer had finished and the Lords of the house fell into a discussion with one another.