Vescrutia: Legacy

Gietua Goetia
Location:Heart of the Swamp
Lore:In the shadowed depths of Vaeroth Swamp, the Withering Sentinella looms—a grotesque and ancient tree, guarded by the secretive cult known as Seed. These dark devotees revere the tree not merely as a source of power but as a vessel through which they channel a corrupt and insidious essence. Their rites and sacrifices, conducted in the gloom of the swamp, are a testament to their unyielding devotion and sinister ambitions.

The Withering Sentinella stands at the heart of Goetia, a forsaken city draped in darkness and despair. Once a thriving metropolis, Goetia now endures as a haunted shadow of its former self. The streets are alive with ghostly apparitions—ghouls, specters, and demons—moving through the city as if it were still vibrant and bustling. An eternal twilight blankets the city, giving it an eerie, oppressive presence, as though the city’s very stones still whisper the echoes of its prime.

Goetia functions as a nexus to the unseen realms, a dark gateway through which communication with distant and eldritch entities is possible. Those who know how to harness its energies can reach beyond the mortal plane, seeking forbidden knowledge or making pacts with inscrutable beings from beyond. The city’s liminal nature draws mystics, necromancers, and arcane practitioners, each driven by their own dark quests: some seek lost knowledge, others crave the raw magical forces that pulse through Goetia, while some hope to forge powerful alliances with ancient, enigmatic entities. For those immersed in the dark arts, Goetia is a trove of occult lore and a gateway to formidable, forbidden power.

Yet, within Goetia, the economy of mana is a tightly controlled and perilous domain. Power is the ultimate currency, and most inhabitants view newcomers with hostility and suspicion. Only those with the strength and cunning to navigate this treacherous landscape can hope to survive and thrive. The harsh reality is that power dictates existence in Goetia’s dark, arcane world.

Seed’s influence extends globally, with countless sub-groups operating in nearly every country. Each faction operates with its own leadership and code of conduct, specializing in a range of criminal enterprises—from smuggling to assassination. Despite their local autonomy, these groups are bound together by a common uniform and an elusive shadow government, a hierarchy known only to the most ancient and elite of the cult’s members. This fragmented structure creates a murky reputation, allowing Seed’s true power and cohesion to remain underestimated by outsiders.

At the helm of the Seed operatives in Goetia stands Aldia, a woman of average height but of exceptional power and ruthless efficiency. She commands a loyal and intelligent force within the city, shaping her subordinates into a disciplined network of operatives. Aldia wields the Withering Sentinella as a tool of control, using the tree's perilous fruit to enforce her dominance. The fruit’s effects sharpen her followers' minds and fix their focus, ensuring their unwavering loyalty to her dark and ambitious plans. Through this grim manipulation, Aldia maintains an iron grip on Seed's operations in Goetia, orchestrating their global machinations with unyielding determination and chilling precision.

Name Withering Sentinella
Order:Corrupted Szlan Tree
Anthem:Fruit of Power
Vaeroth Swamp, cloaked in a suffocating gloom, is haunted by the Asphyxion Veil, an affliction that leeches the air of its precious oxygen. This sinister shroud renders each breath a laborious struggle, leaving explorers gasping for life as they push deeper into its depths.

The swamp itself is a grim landscape of hazards. Its briny waters, caustic and undrinkable, burn with a corrosive sting, while the perpetually waterlogged ground conceals treacherous quagmires that can trap the unwary in their clutches. The air is thick with noxious gases, inducing disorientation and hallucinations, and sudden eruptions of methane and sulfur pose the constant threat of explosive fury.

At the heart of this foreboding wilderness lies a forsaken city, shrouded in dread and largely unexplored due to the myriad dangers that guard its secrets. The Asphyxion Veil makes navigation perilous, and the deeper one ventures, the more daunting the threats become. Acidic water pools sporadically, capable of corroding both flesh and gear, while unpredictable acid rain showers add a capricious menace to the hostile environment.

The city’s streets are haunted by elusive, malevolent creatures whose dark and predatory nature heightens the sense of terror. Over all this looms an unmistakable aura of malevolence, a dark energy that seeps from the city’s very stones, warping reality and gnawing at the sanity of those who dare to explore its haunted remains. This pervasive evil transforms the city into more than a physical challenge; it becomes a psychological torment, its mysteries locked away behind layers of natural and supernatural peril.

Amid this grim tableau stands the Withering Sentinella, a grotesque ancient tree at the swamp’s core. It is enshrouded not only by the noxious miasma of the swamp but also by a twisted canopy of trees, their bodies entwined in a macabre dome of rotting bark. Beneath this oppressive canopy, the Withering Sentinella broods in a state of grotesque decay.

The tree’s presence is a blight upon the land, its trunk and branches exuding a fetid stench of death that pervades the area. Its roots, which sink deeply into the tainted soil, draw up the swamp’s corrupt waters, infusing the tree with a malign energy. The Withering Sentinella has become an instrument of dark rites for a malevolent cult, which feeds it sacrifices to harness its corrupted essence as an avatar for their sinister purposes.

Despite its repulsive nature, the tree possesses a remarkable, if perilous, ability. It can speak in a voice that echoes with ancient, malevolent wisdom. The fruit it bears is both extraordinary and dangerous, glowing with an eerie luminescence and imbued with powers that grant temporary enhancements to those who dare to consume them. The fruit’s taste is an indescribable blend of sweetness and decay, a perilous delicacy that often proves fatal. Those who survive the fruit’s fatal allure may gain powers that last for days, weeks, or even years, bestowing strength, agility, or other extraordinary gifts.