One day, Mephisto was nowhere to be found. He left enough antidote behind for the city to use for several months, and the council decided to keep his disappearance a secret to prevent a panic. Those who worked for him were ordered to list the ingredients he required, and they ensured enough of these ingredients were available for his return.
Mephisto did not return however, and managed to leave the city without anyone’s knowledge. When antidote was starting to run out, the council informed the citizens of the situation. Already, panic started, which eventually led to full chaos when the first citizens fell without antidote. This event would be marked as the Pandaemonium.
Some managed to flee either on foot or by ship, using antidote they managed to scavenge or hold on to. Others simply tried to hide from the violence, barring doors and entries, hoping to outlast the ongoing skirmishes.
Eventually, the chaos died down, as those afflicted succumbed to the fog. Those who fled brought tales of the city’s demise with them, and nobody from the outside dared heading towards the city’s outskirts anymore. The giant wall of fog can be spotted from a distance, and nobody notices how it slowly grows outwards…
Inside the city, only one member of the City Council managed to keep the effects of the fog at bay. Having witnessed how his colleagues all succumbed to the fog, Benedict Baruch determined the only person capable of cleansing the fog and restoring the city, was Mephisto himself. Benedict gained an intense desire to see the master Alchemist once more, to witness him undo his greatest and most terrible creation. To do so, he gathered a few surviving Alchemists and instructed them to work on a new version of the Antidote.
The Alchemists succeeded in creating a modified version of the antidote, but this one required human blood to function properly. Initially, they used bloodletting on themselves to create the antidote. They went out looking for survivors, and handed them the new antidote as they joined the cult.
Eventually the cult grew beyond the ability to sustain itself. Members were instructed to go out and knock on the doors, demanding that the survivors either join the cult or yield their blood. This event would be remembered as the Tithe of Blood, and fully established the cults takeover of the city.
Since that day, cultists patrol the streets, looking for survivors to either recruit or abduct for blood harvest.
The war outside the city gates has ended. The victorious kingdom is issuing punishments on the losing side. Part of this process is evaluating captured mercenaries that were simply bought by the opposing faction.
The king proposes the same to each group, be executed or make your way to Grant, release it from the fog, and earn a royal pardon in doing so. Many have taken the king’s offer, only to succumb to the fog due to lack of antidote. The city outskirts are littered with the bodies of dead mercenaries.