Csilith was a powerful wizard and the third-highest ranking member of the Division of Diabolical Devices, underneath only Master Rem and Uryste. Notoriously irritable, arrogant, devious, and a skilled enchantress, she was a quintessential Diabolical.
Csilith before her poisoning incident.
During her time in the D.D.D., she worked on various poisoning projects with fellow artificer Arathis (with whom she also had a brief romantic dalliance). She also helped Rem and Valencius in creating the first Ring of Life by reverse engineering a death spell.
But most denizens of Oberin will remember her for her extended stays in Mirith and then Andris from 438 to 439 as part of her quest to gain political asylum. This was in turn part of a secret plot to infiltrate the cities, with various Diabolical artificers pretending to have left the organization in order to gain the trust of government officials. For her part, Csilith claimed to have been motivated to leave by a “crisis of conscience”.
Not long into her stay in Mirith, she made the acquaintance of a seemingly unwitting young rogue named Tiatan, who would soon become her servant. Csilith’s constant physical and verbal abuse of the rogue drew the ire of many upstanding citizens in both cities, even for those that knew he was secretly gathering critical intelligence about the movements of the D.D.D.. Indeed, many had always suspected Csilith of planning something treacherous, but there was not yet any concrete proof to make an accusation.
In Andris, Csilith appeared to be making greater headway with the Senate, and did her best to act the part of repentant and remorseful exile. Occasionally this mask would slip, and she would struggle to cover her tracks, only to be rescued by Tiatan. In one such instance, she became enraged with the wizard Shadran Mathas and challenged him to a duel. In another, she found the fighter Jedd outside the city and demanded that he relinquish all his black ferrite, and then poisoned him when he would not give in. Csilith was by all appearances going to let Jedd die until he brandished his sword, mentioning that it was a gift from Senator Muqities.
"The aggressive man in black with the sword, if you ever attack me again, I'll torture you to death. Quite painfully. *waves* Bye bye!"
At around this time, Csilith also confirmed something that had long been suspected: the Diabolicals had kidnapped the menacing Queen Spider. And then a fews later, Tiatan revealed that his mistress knew exactly where the spider was. The Senate then asked Tiatan to set up a time and place where they could meet her, in order to deal with the spider. But before this could be arranged, Tiatan came to a festive gathering in Andris and let slip a mountain of damning information while he was under the effects of Andris's famous champagne.
Firstly, Csilith was plotting to take over Andris, and she threatened to feed Tiatan to the Queen Spider if he interfered. She was also the one behind the whole Venom Priest scare gripping the city at the time. And she was still in league with Arathis, who by now had secured the protection of Mirith. And as expected, Rem and Uryste were behind it all.
What followed was a very tense situation, with Tiatan hiding from his mistress for days, and Csilith in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, the Queen Spider had somehow escaped from the clutches of the Diabolicals, and was once again terrorizing the people of Oberin. An army gathered to fight the Queen, defeating her in the Pixie Cave. But as soon as the spider had fallen, Csilith arrived, claiming credit for the victory in order to gain Andris’s trust. Unfortunately for Csilith, also on scene was the renowned wizard Istra Falvo. Istra administered one of her infamous ‘soups’ to Csilith, and the 'ex'-Diabolical promptly turned into a spider.
With Csilith’s ignominious defeat, the Diabolical infiltration plot came to an end. Reports of D.D.D. activity have all but ceased as well, though with Rem and Uryste on the loose, one can never be too sure where the webs of deceit will be woven again.
References[]
- 438 Sleeping Moon Day ~7 - Danger at the gates.
- 438 Sleeping Moon Days 156-158 - Journal: Jirel, Tiatan, and a Wizard
- 438 Sleeping Moon Day 208 - The Drunken Druid and the Wanted Wizard
- 439 Waking Moon Day ~34 - All Hail the Foolish Cleric!
- 439 Waking Moon Day ~47 - Encounter with Csilith and a Duel between Wizards (Page 3, 7th post)
- 439 Waking Moon Day 190 - Second encounter with Csilith, who also meets Ellychas (Page 4, 1st post)
- 439 Waking Moon Day ~218 - The Servant and the Senators
- 439 Growing Moon Day 107 - Escorting Tiatan to Warn Mirith
- 439 Growing Moon Day 107 - In Vino Veritas - the Truth (or part of it) at last! (Page 4, 2nd post)
- 439 Growing Moon Day ~108 - A Letter to Cassandra
- 439 Growing Moon Day 150 - Spider Queen on the loose. First battle against her subjects (Page 4, 5th post)
- 439 Growing Moon Day ~233 - A Letter to Muqities