The Vengeful Notes 2026-08-16

Summary

Leaving Kurtis Settlement

Sapphire woke after only a few hours of rest but felt recovered from the previous night’s injuries. Andrew was less fortunate and began the morning with a headache.
The party suspected that Reformist forces might be advancing toward both Maiden’s Field and Rannekford, including Castle Rannek.
- Scouts found no reinforcements searching for Pablito Escobar, Torkin, or the other captured Reformist operatives.
- With the captives’ parasites removed, their allies may believe them dead, although a later investigation or retaliation remains possible.
The Band of the Ladle and local mercenaries were briefed and remained available to protect the settlement.
- Arika was told to seek aid from Rannekford if trouble returned.
- Her mother still intended to present the evidence against the mayor to the town council.
Andrew and Sapphire adopted a Taminok Brewery cover.
- Andrew wore his brewery uniform.
- Sapphire received a fitted golden-yellow dress bearing the family seal, apparently sent by Satoria.
- The dress did not fully conceal the outline of Sapphire’s severed wings, so she kept her cloak over it.
Sapphire introduced herself to Arika by her true name and apologized for previously relying on aliases.
- She explained that attempting to lie causes an unexplained internal jolt.
Arika’s family provided breakfast and waived payment for the party’s stay in gratitude for her rescue.
The party found a box of provisions in its carriage, including preserves, jerky, marmalade, jams, pickled plums, pickled eggs, and sunset-beet soup.
Sapphire invited Arika to a Taminok Brewery festival featuring wrestling and free beer; Andrew agreed with the invitation.
- The beer could become free-flowing if the organizers bought enough copies of the from Jessica.
The party continued directly toward Maiden’s Field rather than detouring to investigate an unverified Reformist preacher at a nearby homestead.
- The abandoned homestead lead could be passed to other authorities.
- The travelers hoped to reach shelter before an approaching storm.

Families, trade, and Feywild goods

Sapphire recalled learning knots and shipboard language from her former crew.
- Dom was patient while she learned.
- She also spoke of Aza, Caedus, Mai, and Wilhelm Köhler.
- Mai willingly left with Wilhelm, who reportedly became a better person because of her.
Sapphire once worked as a barmaid at her mother’s brothel, Hell’s Kitchen.
- Her mother’s daughters could propose improvements while retaining the right not to participate.
Inspired by Feywild media sprites, Sapphire suggested hiring bards or skalds to advertise Taminok Brewery.
- These sprites carry commercial songs between towns using domestic magic popularized by the Autumn Court.
Andrew remained uneasy about his influential merchant family.
- They possess wealth and connections but no noble title.
- His father once tried unsuccessfully to remove him from military service after he had reached adulthood; the rest of the family was not implicated in that attempt.
The travelers discussed several Feywild delicacies.
- Sunset beets and berries grow in lands of perpetual sunset.
- Sunrise beets also exist but are tougher.
- Pumpkin Town produces Golden Nectar from golden pumpkins.
Hellion’s magical quartermaster’s notebook automatically tracks supplies as they are removed.
- He spent a week cataloguing Feywild goods and jokingly called the notebook his romance book.

Magic, scholarship, and the Feywild courts

James criticized General Strandiz’s influential argument that divination is little more than unreliable guesswork.
- Sapphire offered fairy weather magic and Druidcraft as practical counterexamples.
- Strandiz’s thesis was only recently approved in Senera.
- Wartime Apgarian manuscripts have also begun entering the country, sometimes illegally through its ports.
- Democratic writings are reportedly still burned by the military.
Necromancy remains prohibited in Senera and condemned by the Church.
- A theory associated with the University of Thrantorbury claims the Church suppresses necromantic scholarship to preserve control over healing and resurrection.
- The discussion considered Revivify, Spare the Dying, Resurrection, and True Resurrection as part of the disputed boundary between healing and necromancy.
- “Rebirth” referred to the Feywild cycle of death and rebirth associated with the Tree of Life, not a distinct spell.
Minfilia is a Death Domain cleric who practices necromancy and possesses a used by Scholomance in Murkendraw to teach lichdom.
- Her faith is directed toward death itself rather than a deity or creed.
- She cannot use the libram’s magic because it requires a wizard.
Creating a lich requires rare materials, a soul-separating potion, the removal of part of the subject’s soul, and a sufficiently powerful vessel.
- A phylactery often possesses legendary or sentimental importance, but neither quality is an absolute requirement.
- Destroying a phylactery makes recovery of the separated soul fragment difficult.
The party discussed several Feywild magical institutions.
- Megima, in the Summer Court, teaches Evocation.
- Golaroxy teaches Transmutation.
- Ionguale, located in a desert, contains a dedicated school of Abjuration.
- Avium is a general academy rather than a dedicated Divination school.
Focused institutional study can unlock greater capabilities within a practitioner’s magical vocation.
Secrets can serve as currency or create binding relationships in the Feywild.
- Named archfey included the Keeper of Secrets, the Cobbler, and Queen Arcadia of the Ashes and the Scorched Forest.
The principal courts were described as Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Day, Night, and Dawn.
- The former Dusk Court was overthrown and became Midnight in the Feydark.
- Lesser courts include Coral, Crimson, Iron, Crystal, Time, Star, and Dream.
Captain Hedwig resembles Queen Arcadia, while Minfilia strongly resembles Lady Verenestra.
- Similar resemblances among Hedwig’s crew prompted speculation about their Feywild connections.
The group believed Senera’s Dragonheart royal family had concealed the presence of elves from most of the nobility, perhaps to protect the elves or because of an earlier agreement with them.
- They considered the Dragonhearts the people most likely to know the purpose of the secrecy.

Stacy and Crispin Mallow’s victims

Stacy survived Crispin Mallow’s alterations and continued recovering under Sister Pira’s care.
- Her organs had been rearranged and unnaturally connected.
- Parts incorporated into her body came from Auraxx’s manifested gold-dragon anatomy.
Mallow appears to leave his victims conscious of their alterations so that survivors and witnesses will be horrified.
A distressed painter attempted another portrait of Branrum, but memories of Stacy intruded upon the work.
- The resulting painting combined Branrum with unnatural anatomy and Stacy-like golden scales.
- The painter took the portrait into the garden to reflect and seek another emotional outlet.
Stacy’s recovery offered hope that other victims made into modified composite monstrosities by Mallow might also be restored.

Castle Rannek’s security crisis

Angel’s mother assumed duties normally handled by Uther while Castle Rannek responded to the disappearance of dozens of personnel.
A guard involved in the previous day’s fire was confirmed as a genuine castle guard rather than an impersonator.
- His legs had been switched before he set himself and a building ablaze.
- Angel’s mother believed the perpetrator was weaponizing missing personnel to terrorize their families and burden survivors with guilt.
Castle personnel adopted more invasive identity examinations in response to the Face-Stealer threat.
Trajan remained at the castle while wearing Hellion’s face.
- Hellion had asked him to keep Angel at the castle, but Trajan accepted that she would leave after learning Uther was alive.
- He remained to protect Maria and Gwyniviere because Hellion suspected the enemy was trying to divide their defenders.
Gwyniviere stayed behind to support her mother and confront the distress caused by what she had witnessed.
- She and Angel embraced before parting.
- Gwyniviere told Angel she was proud of her and hoped they could paint together again after the rescue.
Hellion advised Angel to support Gwyniviere through quiet presence rather than attempting to resolve her inner struggle for her.

The Lord’s Judgment

Marchioness Maria Rannek sent Angel to investigate the Lord’s Judgment, a registered mercenary guild operating from a weapon-decorated tavern.
Sir Hilis Brastok, Trajan—publicly appearing as Hellion—and Castle Rannek soldiers accompanied her.
Rumors of Angel’s capture had already spread through Maiden’s Field, and patrons recognized her when she entered.
Bertram Dorand, the guild’s leader and a notary, verified the party’s authority and granted access to the premises.
Angel ordered that nobody leave while soldiers secured the exits and counted the occupants.
- The patrons were unusually subdued, but Detect Magic found no enchantment influencing them.
Magic led the investigators to a locked basement filled with supplies, trophies, gifts, and snow globes.
- Brastok opened the door using Bertram’s key and retained the key.
- Angel found a black-purple Orb of Enhancement, a type of Orb of Power, hidden among the stored objects.
- Opening the basement released magic resembling that associated with the earlier parasites or “worms.”

Leland and Lotan

Angel used Locate Creature to pursue whoever had placed the orb.
Angel, Brastok, and several soldiers chased the moving target onto the roof.
- Hold Person stopped him before he could jump to a neighboring building.
The captive was Leland, one of Castle Rannek’s missing soldiers. His legs had been switched, and Mallow was puppeting him through ordinary thread passed through a magical needle and into his altered body.
- Recovering Leland reduced Castle Rannek’s missing-person count from forty-seven to forty-six.
Detect Magic revealed evocation magic in Leland’s chest.
- Angel dispelled it and identified the fading symbol as a Glyph of Warding.
A further magical search for the glyph’s caster led Angel, Brastok, Leland, and the guards across the river.
- They confronted a spellcaster wearing Kethbjorn’s face who defended himself with Shield.
- The party used an augmented Command—“Drop”—against him and captured him.
Telepathic examination showed that the second captive possessed neither Kethbjorn’s memories nor his affection for Angel.
- His actual name was Lotan.

Lotan’s memories

Hearing Crispin Mallow’s name triggered memories of Mallow’s abuse.
- Mallow forced Lotan into his Face-Stealer form.
- He made Lotan consume another person’s facial skin.
- He drove Lotan through more transformations than Lotan could safely withstand.
Lotan remembered Mallow as a concealed-faced man with bright golden wings.
Through Lotan’s memories, Angel saw Uther Rannek, the real Kethbjorn, Sandor, and several court wizards imprisoned in separate cages.
- Uther was badly injured and extremely weak.
- Sandor had been severely beaten.
- Their captor had not yet overcome their minds.
Mallow’s exposed flesh appeared partly golden and draconic, apparently because of his grafts.
Angel threatened Mallow through her connection with Lotan, invoking Minfilia, Oscar, Hellion, and Sapphire and promising to deliver Mallow to Minfilia alive.
- She ended the connection before learning whether Mallow could answer through Lotan.
Lotan’s memories also revealed Face-Stealers being tortured and conditioned from childhood.
- They were stripped of personal identity, trained to adopt other faces, and taught to serve the Divine Masochist.
Angel told Lotan that his body and identity belonged to him and offered to introduce him to Trajan.
Hilis gave Lotan a sleeping pill so he could be transported safely.
- Trajan accepted responsibility for him and planned to seek treatment from Sister Pira and Castle Rannek’s healing pool.

Lord’s Judgment joins Angel

Angel returned to the guild and reported that the hidden orb had led her to evidence that Mallow held her father.
She hired all twenty members of Lord’s Judgment for 1,000 gp under a two-month contract.
- She paid 100 gp upfront.
- The guild accepted on the condition that it would not participate in persecution.
- Bertram sealed the contract and placed the company under Hilis’s operational command.
Bertram revealed that he is an Eldritch Knight and one of three spellcasters in the otherwise martial company.
For the coming operation, Angel requested Bertram and his fighters while leaving the guild’s spellcasters behind.

Searching for Lance

Angel searched Lance’s room at Castle Rannek.
- She found a key marked “Rannekford Storage Company.”
- She also took one of Lance’s early wooden giraffe carvings.
Using the carving, Angel cast Locate Creature.
- The spell initially pointed toward Maiden’s Field and then abruptly lost Lance.
Angel asked Hellion to continue searching near Lance’s last detected position while she focused on Uther.
Hellion believed Lance was still alive, but acknowledged that this was intuition rather than proof.

The Malthreks arrive

Duke and Duchess Malthrek, Katalin Malthrek, and two guards arrived through Castle Rannek’s private Teleportation Circle.
Tyrion subjected the unexpected arrivals to the castle’s Face-Stealer protocol.
- Both the duke and duchess passed.
- The duke successfully recalled recently restored security codes but warned that the Reformists probably possessed them as well.
Katalin was formally introduced as the Malthreks’ daughter-in-law.
The duke and duchess apologized for the harm they had caused while compromised and promised restitution to the Ranneks.
- They intended to share their recovered memories and help repair the damage.
Repeated uses of Encode Thoughts and Greater Restoration were gradually restoring the couple’s memories.
- The duke recalled additional locations in the western Malthreks.
- His parasite had already been extracted and killed.
The Malthreks revealed that Tyrion’s superior had been replaced by an infiltrator.
- They reconstructed a tentative chronology in which the current impersonator had served for roughly eighteen months after an earlier infiltrator was punished and replaced for making a mistake.
- They described the current infiltrator as a “copy of a copy,” but the chronology remained their inference rather than established fact.
They also described attempted replacements of Rannekford magistrates and successful substitutions involving Gwyniviere, Mark Malthrek, and another family member.
- A golem duplicate of Mark remains imprisoned in the military dungeons.
- Mark lost roughly a year of memories after prolonged parasite exposure.
- Gwyniviere released him from their engagement rather than hold him to a relationship he could no longer remember.
Emily Hazeldine is expected to marry Mark and help lead the Malthrek court wizards.
Duke Ellington and Duchess Antoinette announced their abdication after helping repair the damage caused during their rule.
- Mark, rather than his elder brother Luke, would succeed Ellington as Duke of Malthrek.

The war-room council

Maria received the unexpected Malthrek delegation and moved the gathering to the situation room at the duke’s request.
Angel reported the Lord’s Judgment investigation, Lotan’s rescue, the imprisoned Ranneks and court wizards, and the search for Lance.
Katalin identified Crispin Mallow as the current Reformist Candlebearer.
- Mallow may be an ascended Dark Archon answerable directly to Sovereign Rothschild, although this remained a theory.
- Rothschild was described as an archlich and the Reformist patriarch.
- The intelligence reportedly originated with the celestial Deathengel.
Mallow was credited with the Faltir operation that transformed salt into black powder and with constructing exceptionally precise golems.
Katalin described Mallow’s magical needle, which can use ordinary thread to control people through his fleshcrafting.
- Mallow threaded altered bodies together with the needle to turn them into puppets.
- The same control could be applied to Face-Stealers whom Mallow had unnaturally modified; it was not an inherent vulnerability of ordinary Face-Stealers.
- His experiments employ rare magical materials, including dragon bones, scales, and fragments of the Heart of the Urdefolcin.
- Sister Pira now possesses recovered material from the heart.
Mallow may be exploiting the Hicklander rebellion to pursue a vendetta against the Maidenfelds.
The council concluded that the Face-Stealers serving Mallow should be treated as captives and victims.
- The rescue force intends to disable and restrain them rather than kill them.
Angel may herself be one of Mallow’s targets.
- The council considered whether he intends to use Planar Binding on her.
- Directly teleporting to Uther was rejected as too dangerous because Mallow may have prepared wards.
Katalin refused to leave the duke and duchess despite the urgency of the rescue.
Antoinette offered healing, Greater Restoration, and teleportation support.

Auraxx and the Gold Canary

The council identified Auraxx as the gold dragon imprisoned within the Gold Canary.
- Auraxx protected Feywild elves and was cursed into canary form by an archfey.
- He is not allied with the Reformist Church.
Gwyniviere and Hilis had both seen Stacy manifest golden wings and dragon-like scales.
Angel produced a dragon scale and passed it to another member of the council.
Mallow’s access to pieces of Auraxx may explain some of his golden, draconic alterations.

Regional infiltration and forbidden magic

The Reformists appear to have infiltrated the Admiralty, Malthrek forces, Eastonton’s Paladinate, and several Hicklander movements.
- Reformist activity in Eastonton was estimated to have begun about fifteen years earlier, while the separate Malthrek operation had run for almost ten years.
- Reformist cells sometimes acted independently; the Eastonton and Malthrek operations were not coordinated with each other.
- While acting as a Reformist under parasite influence, Duke Ellington tried to coordinate as many otherwise independent operations as possible because his military judgment recognized their fragmentation as a weakness.
- His efforts did not give him authority over every cell. Some Reformists may not have recognized his command at all; Garward may have been among them.
The Malthreks reported that their northern lands contain natural mines used to manufacture Orbs of Power under Reformist control.
Lord Garward may have helped introduce Reformist influence to Eastonton.
- Lord Boyle Eastonton discovered that Garward had not been the same since the war.
Deathengel’s intelligence identifies Isana Walburton as a simulacrum.
- Tanduaria publicly executes unaffiliated arcane casters while its Church secretly preserves restricted magical knowledge, including Simulacrum.
The council compared different regional systems for controlling spellcasters.
- Tanduaria channels them through the Church.
- Poasah places them under the Thirteen and the Crown.
- Apgar distrusts them and reportedly relies on forced drafts.
- Senera remains comparatively accepting despite its own prohibitions.
Duke Malthrek connected regional fear of magic to events at the Bastion and the rise of magically empowered warlords in nearby Burtz.
Katalin warned that suspected spellcasters in the Banate of Summa, including children, were allegedly killed without inquiry.

Kurtis intelligence reaches the council

Airur reported that Pablito Escobar and Torkin remained detained at Kurtis Settlement.
- He contacted the Admiralty offices of the Seneran Royal Navy’s Western Command rather than the Helm.
The mayor was imprisoned and facing trial for corruption, graft, and coercive misconduct involving minors.
The Band of the Ladle held evidence against him, and a protective squad was being dispatched.
Reformist recruiters had used parties, alcohol, other substances, and an inhibiting orb to target young residents.
- Authorities suspected the operatives planned to spread parasites through the wider population.
Andrew, Sapphire, Thilas, Airur, Tormil, and James remained safe and continued toward Maiden’s Field to gather intelligence.

Port Mibram and the Admiralty

Angel changed her route to visit Vice Marshal Tyrion Donmar at Port Mibram before proceeding to Maiden’s Field.
A newly established security perimeter around the Admiralty required Angel and Hilis to pass private identity examinations based on questions prepared by Maria.
Tyrion reported that Maiden’s Field had issued a 1,000 gp dead-or-alive bounty for Master Kelthyr Kulok.
Maria later promoted Tyrion to Marshal.
- She praised him for taking command of the Western Admiralty offices, opposing a compromised superior, and auditing and protecting its remaining personnel.
Tyrion reported that he was now the Western Admiralty’s only remaining marshal.
- The Marshal of the Fleet and the marshal responsible for the Malter River were missing.
- Reformist infiltration may have obstructed a coordinated Royal Navy response for roughly eighteen months.
Tyrion and the scar-faced Donmar from the Narrows were confirmed to be different men, although they may be relatives; Tyrion mentioned having family in the Narrows.

Activating the Port Mibram circle

Port Mibram possessed the largest Teleportation Circle Angel had seen.
- The circle was already fully constructed; no additional construction was needed. The facility no longer had spellcasters capable of operating it, and what had happened to those operators remained incompletely explained.
- Hellion’s Orbs of Enhancement had already been installed in its conduits, vessels that ordinarily held diamonds, but the military casters did not know how to use them.
Angel altered one corner of the sigil into a triangle.
- This changed Port Mibram’s destination sigil and therefore who could teleport directly there using knowledge of the current sigil. It did not change outbound destination options, which followed the Teleportation Circle spell rather than a fixed route list.
Although she could not cast Teleportation Circle herself, Angel channeled energy from the orbs through herself and activated the installation without using a spell slot.
She taught a military caster to direct the spell through the orbs rather than the circle itself.
- Angel had learned the technique by watching Minfilia in the Travertines.
The orbs should recharge naturally if left in place.
Angel ordered the circle guarded against unauthorized use.
- Its sigil would be shared with allies, including Hedwig and Safar.
- The circle could move reinforcements, supplies, refugees, and rescued captives whenever a capable caster was available.

Allies and preparations for Maiden’s Field

Hellion’s group remained about half a day from Maiden’s Field.
- He withheld part of his plan to protect it from possible mind readers.
- Angel accepted his caution after initially feeling hurt by his secrecy.
Hellion intended to ask Oren why the Reformist Church feared Maiden’s Field.
Angel asked him to notify Emily, Minfilia, Tiphanie, and their other allies that the Port Mibram circle was operational.
Angel planned to use Teleportation Circle to bring her rescue force to Laudine Maidenfeld’s estate outside central Maiden’s Field.
- The field party would include Angel, Gwyniviere, Hilis, Bertram, and members of Lord’s Judgment.
- Rannek’s remaining soldiers would defend Rannekford and nearby settlements.
Maria formally declared the expedition an official rescue mission.
- She feared that allowing her eleven-year-old daughter to join it made her a poor mother.
- The council argued that Angel had knowingly chosen to help Mallow’s victims, possessed extraordinary abilities, and would remain under Hilis’s protection.
The Ranneks pledged to help reclaim the Northern Malthreks once their own people and territory were secure.
Before departure, a Divine Masochist led the company in a prayer of comfort at a religious complex containing several angelic chapter houses, including the Society of the Angel of Delight.

Open Hooks

Determine what happened to Port Mibram’s former teleportation-circle operators. Restoring the existing circle’s operation and changing its incoming destination sigil did not answer that.
Locate and rescue Uther Rannek, Kethbjorn, Sandor, the missing court wizards, and the other Castle Rannek personnel held by Crispin Mallow.
Find Lance and determine why Locate Creature lost him after briefly pointing toward Maiden’s Field.
Learn the full capabilities, limits, and origin of Mallow’s magical needle, including how ordinary thread passed through it controls bodies such as Leland’s.
Determine how Lotan acquired Kethbjorn’s face and voice while the real Kethbjorn remains captive.
Learn how conditioning and fleshcrafting interact with the needle’s established control over unnaturally modified Face-Stealers, and determine which mechanism still affects Lotan.
Establish how Lotan, the glyph placed on Leland, and Mallow’s wider control system were connected.
Discover why the Orb of Enhancement was hidden beneath the Lord’s Judgment and how its worm-like magic connects to the parasites and recent fires.
Determine why the Lord’s Judgment patrons were so subdued despite showing no detectable enchantment.
Establish Crispin Mallow’s location, his actual rank within the Reformist Church, and whether he intends to use Planar Binding on Angel.
Learn how Mallow obtained pieces of Auraxx and what he intends to create with them.
Determine whether Reformist forces are advancing toward Maiden’s Field and Rannekford, and whether the movements are coordinated.
Learn whether the Reformists will investigate or retaliate after losing their Kurtis Settlement operation.
Identify the full extent of Reformist infiltration within the Admiralty, the Royal Navy, Eastonton, the Malthreks, and the Hicklander factions, including the actual sequence of infiltrators who replaced Tyrion’s superior.
Determine when and how the independent Eastonton operation began, whether Garward introduced it, and how his post-war change relates to his return with an aberrant presence about fifteen years earlier.
Find the missing Marshal of the Fleet, the Malter River marshal, and the Eastern Admiralty marshals, and investigate their possible connection to Bramsgate and the Lost Marshals.
Determine why the Reformist Church fears Maiden’s Field and how that fear relates to the Maidenfelds and Mallow’s vendetta.
Recover the Malthreks’ remaining memories and identify which restored security information is already compromised.
Investigate the disputed sighting of Lady Ulfa and determine whether the real Ulfa remains among Mallow’s captives.
Determine whether Isana Walburton is herself a simulacrum, a public identity used by one, or one of several copies.
Learn the source of Sapphire’s internal jolt when she attempts to lie.
Pass the abandoned-homestead preacher lead to an authority able to investigate it.
Determine whether the festival organizers can buy enough copies of the from Jessica to turn the promised free beer into a free-flowing supply.

Confirmations Needed

Ask Eevee to confirm the name and location of the forgotten dedicated Divination school.
Ask Eevee to confirm the ruler of the Dawn Court and the exact relationship between the former Dusk Court and Midnight in the Feydark.

Boundaries

Trajan and Hellion are distinct people. Trajan was deliberately wearing Hellion’s face and using his name during these events.
Leland is not a Face-Stealer. He is a genuine Castle Rannek soldier whom Mallow altered and puppeted. Lotan is a separate Face-Stealer victim who was forced to wear Kethbjorn’s face and voice.
Auraxx is the gold dragon imprisoned in the Gold Canary and is not allied with the Reformists. Katalin identified Mallow as the current Candlebearer, but that is the office he projects; his actual rank remains unresolved and may be higher.
Oscar is a revenant. Angel included an image of him in her threat to Mallow, but the scene does not establish whether she consciously knows his nature or deliberately revealed it.
The comparison between baelnorns and “archliches” was a simplified explanation, not a settled equivalence.
Locate Creature established only Lance’s last detected direction before the spell failed; it did not establish whether he died, hid underground, entered an extradimensional space, or became magically concealed.
Healing magic is dangerous to Face-Stealers transformed into monstrosities, as Stacy was. Hilis explicitly distinguished them from ordinary Face-Stealers, who are not harmed by healing magic.
Mallow’s needle can control Face-Stealers he has unnaturally modified and threaded together; this is not an inherent vulnerability of ordinary Face-Stealers.
Face-Stealers coerced by Mallow are to be treated as victims and rescued where possible, even when they are encountered as hostile operatives.
Mallow’s supposed vendetta against the Maidenfelds, Dark Archon status, and intention to bind Angel remain theories or hostile reports rather than confirmed motives.
Katalin and Gwyniviere’s council-chamber encounter was consensual, but the transcript does not reliably assign most individual actions or dialogue.