The Guardinal Hunt of Ascension
By A'kin the Arcanoloth, the Friendly Fiend
"Greetings! I'm glad you've come! I have the information you wanted. No, no payment is necessary, I'm happy to do it. One thing I have in common with my arcanoloth cousins is the love of learning. Don't look so uncomfortable; I don't deny what my people are, or their many faults. Unlike my relations, I serve the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be.
"The guardinals are the race born of the peace and perfect harmony between accord and discord of Elysium. You know I love harmony. When I say they're born of Elysium, I actually mean they have many means of generation; forgive me, but I can't be less than exact when it comes to knowledge. It's a little quirk of mine.
"The Hunt of Ascension is the guardinal ceremony of transformation. I have some contacts in Elysium who told me this story; they owed me a favor.
"First, the guardinal must truly be ready. It must understand all of the lessons of Good that its form can teach it. Eventually, the creature will contain more Goodness than its current form can hold. At that point, it will either go to the older guardinals and ask that a Hunt be staged, or the elders, in their wisdom, will come to it.
"The Hunt begins at either dawn or dusk: a time of transition. A band of elders sniffs out the scent of Good spilling out of one of their fellows whose time is ripe. They utter cries of warning. The ascendant, aroused by instincts older than sentient intelligence, will flee. The elders pursue.
"The chase carries hunter and prey across the face of Elysium, and possibly beyond. Shoppers in Sigil's Market Ward have been stunned more than once by the sight of guardinals sprinting between gates, and well-intentioned members of the Harmonium have received minor injuries from trying to help them catch the 'fugitive.'
"The exact length of the Hunt is not important, though it may go on for days or even months. The ritual's purpose is to exhaust the ascendant's body completely; to use up the old form so that a new one can be born; to weaken the bonds holding it to its former self enough for the future to break free. Elder guardinals generally have more resources to draw on than their juniors, but if necessary they can and will bring in fresh Hunters to replace those injured or incapacitated.
"If the ascendant quits too soon, it cannot ascend, and it will sicken. If it cannot complete the ritual soon, it will become a twisted and pitiful thing, unable to do much more than shuffle along. Suicide is common among these creatures.
"When and if the guardinal does finally finish the Hunt, only one more act is required by the Hunters; the ascendant must be quickly and (ideally) humanely slain and skinned. Out of the old skin will emerge the guardinal in its next incarnation, fresh and new. If the new form is to be much larger than the old, it will complete its growth within the next few days. Then it is ready to serve.
"The new form will vary according to need and desire. With guardinals, these two requirements are ideally one: a guardinal desires nothing so much as serving Good the best way it can. It's thought that moon dogs, balaenas, and even sunflies are actually forms that guardinals occasionally find useful. They are secretive on these matters.
"Well, friend. That's the Hunt of Ascension. Now, I have a favor to ask you, one friend to another. When you do meet your target, tell him A'kin the Friendly Fiend sent you. He'll be delighted to hear from an old friend."
