Staff of Shadow, Goddess of Blades

Second Ptolus Campaign Journal, #44

Session LXXXIV -- Still the 4th of Newyear

We're battling frantically at the top of the Shade Tower: Charnoth and I facing off against the shadow dragon Nostromac (with Calista backing us up with her healing power) and Diethan and Archinemus battling Lord Sadar and his shadowstaff and the shadow demon he called with it. Meanwhile, Barbatos is whispering something foul into the ear of the giant statue of Maleskari. I'm not sure, but the statue's head appears to be turning toward Barbatos...

Diethan deals the demon a grievous wound with a cask of liquid light from the Temple of Gaen, which rallies our spirits somewhat after a devastating blow by the shadow dragon's breath. Seeing the success of that maneuver, Archinemus lobs his cask of liquid light at the shadow dragon's face. It shrieks and writhes, and seems unable to breathe shadow or bite any longer, but its wings and claws are still fearsome.

The statue reaches out to Barbatos with a stony arm. "Come to me!" it calls in the Darkspeech. Meanwhile, Lord Sadar strikes out with a lightning bolt at Archinemus and Krondar. He seems fairly put off that we should attempt to attack him with a bear. (Krondar's having some good luck against him.)

Diethan manages to put the shadow demon to rest and sends his wolf Lunes to attack the affronted (and injured) Lord Sadar. Sadar apologizes to the dragon, and walks off the roof, murmuring "restlare." Coward! Archinemus and Barbatos follow him out of the shadow realm and launch desperate, vile attacks (well, of the two, Barbatos is really the vile one). To our surprise, the statue of Maleskari vanishes.

I continue to batter at the shadow dragon, and it continues to batter at me. I curse it in the name of my ancestors, and it curses me in the name of its own. I can see that Calista is staggered by the amount of damage she has removed from me onto herself. The moment of truth is at hand: And the power of the Hu-Charad must be guiding my sword, for I deal it a critical blow that renders it to ribbons of shadow that twist away into nothing.

Archinemus reappears to tell us that Barbatos has laid Lord Sadar low but needs our help. We race over and find Maleskari's statue looming over our wizard friend. The victorious Barbatos holds the shadowstaff. "I've got it!" he crows. The statue of the god holds out its hand and tells him, "Give me the shadowstaff." But the wizard fights off the compulsion and in frustration the statue lashes out at Calista, knocking her to the ground.

"Where can you hide that I cannot find you, little mortal?" the god calls out. "You are making your short life even shorter if you do not do as I say."

When I arrive to see Calista downed, I try to demolish the crumbling statue. Quick action from Archinemus saves her, and the rest of our group arrives back in the real world. It is raining. Lord Sadar's cries reach us from the lower levels of the tower, where he fell to a foul spell of Barbatos'. Ignoring the rest of us, the statue sighs as it seats itself once again in its throne here on the roof and returns to immobility.

Shadowstaff in hand, Barbatos flies to the Temple of Gaen. He places the artifact in a rope trick and dives down to find Melior, one of the high priests. In gasping breaths, he tries to make himself understood. "Come quick! We need protection from evil, I have the shadowstaff. Hurry! It's from Lord Sadar -- we fought Maleskari!"

A passing priest on the street turns to Barbatos and asks, "How long does protection from evil last, Barbatos?" "Not long enough!" the wizard replies, then does a double-take as he realizes he doesn't know this guy. But the priest seems to shake it off and walks away, which weirds out the wizard even more. Is one of those soul riders following him?

Meanwhile, Diethan mercifully puts an end to Lord Sadar -- or the shell that he was inhabiting. We grab up the body and head over to the Temple of Gaen also.

Believe it or not Barbatos manages to convince Melior, although the priest seems a bit suspicious of all this. Together they enter the rope trick (after Barbatos used magic missiles to kill a bird with that flew a little too close) and he tells Melior the whole story. "The shadowstaff is a very powerful artifact," he tells Barbatos. "We must deal with this immediately."

Then Melior adds, "You know, just before you arrived, I felt a strange sensation, as though something were seeping into me, but I managed to ward it off." Yikes! Barbatos gets even more freaked out. The priest begins to chant a prayer, speaking directly to Gaen right there in the rope trick. "And with your holy might, Gaen," he concludes, "consume this staff forevermore!" A bright light consumes the shadowstaff, and then it's gone. "It is in Gaen's keeping now," Melior assures our friend. "This staff was a blight upon the city for many years, ever since a mysterious stranger gave it to Renn Sadar. It is safe now."

But is Barbatos safe now? The wizard is worried about Maleskari fulfilling his threat and coming after him. Melior advises him to turn toward the faith of Gaen, but the seems rather nonplussed by that idea. "Did you see how I just gave you the shadowstaff? How we just erased it from the world? And so you're telling me to just pray?" The two engage in something of a theological debate as they descend to the ground once more and find the rest of us on the temple's doorstep, wondering at the etiquette of six ichor-covered and sopping wet adventurers dragging a bloody corpse into the sanctuary of Gaen.

We report to the other high priest, Barit, that we've managed to kill the shadow dragon Nostromac and fought Lord Sadar/Morund and an avatar of Maleskari. We're not sure if this was really his body or if Sadar was simply a spirit that possessed this vessel. Was Sadar's soul invested in the shadowstaff?

In gratitude, Melior offers to uphold his agreement with us and resurrect Salam the litorian, as well as help us locate Tharn. They also heal our wounds, which is very welcome. But despite the healing, I still feel like I need a little rest.

Plus I want to look up some plans for designing a music box to build one for Calista in thanks for all the times she saved my life in the fight against that damn dragon.

Barbatos looks back over his shoulder all the way back to the shop.

The Next Two Weeks

In the next two weeks, the priests of Gaen come to the store and tell us that they spoke with the spirit of Morund and learned that he seemed to know nothing. Morund does not remember his time with the Temple of Maleskari well -- it was like a hazy dream. He was an innocent used by evil, forced to do its bidding. He seemed unaware that something had been controlling him. It seems clear from his description of events that the possessing spirit of Lord Sadar vacated his body just before its death.

I finish making the music box for Calista, using schematics I find over at the Jodan Templehall with the Knights of the Chord. I silver plate it and inscribe it with images of musical notes and puffs of air. It plays a song of the Malkuth when you turn the key.

Dad was only able to find some veiled references to creatures that could somehow control the minds and souls and emotions of other creatures -- no details on the soul riders at all. However, Calista is able to speak with Aoska in the Pale Tower about it. She says the Twelve Commanders know the soul riders exist. As far as the Commanders know, some people are just born with the ability to leave their own body and their own soul and take control of the soul and body of another. It's a far deeper sort of control than even demonic possession or a domination spell. They seem able to leap back and forth from multiple people. They have total control over the ones they ride and know everything they know. The Twelve Commanders believe them to be the greatest threat to Ptolus that exists. She said the Iron Mage thinks that only children conceived in the secret month of Vallis (hmm, Shim said something about that before) could ever become soul riders. Spells that protect one against possession have some effect, and spells that rid a person of such an invader force them out. But no magic has ever been able to actually harm one. It seems likely that the people are not controlled continually, so perhaps the rider will leave Tharn in time.

Meanwhile, the priests of Gaen resurrect Salam, who retires with Charnoth to the Mane. There they plot revenge against the litorian's former slavemaster. And during this time the priests of Gaen also tell us that they have located Tharn: He is in Dwarvenhearth!

Session LXXXV -- the 23rd of Newyear

Today Barbatos receives the deed to Pythoness House (which he won through default in a Dragonscales game), so we set off with the goal of rendering the place livable for our wizard friend. There may be a ghost left in the gatehouse towers, but Barbatos said that on the occasions when he'd gone to leave food for the Cobbled Man, he never heard the voice or got shot at by skeletons, so perhaps it won't be too bad.

Pythoness House is a rain-soaked, falling-down keep on the north side of Oldtown with a nice bit of land around it. When we arrive, we see a crude and hastily built front gate (more like someone has just tried to board up the entry). Squatters, we expect. We push over the barricade and head in. Our friend is already calling the place "Castle Barbatos."

As we enter into the courtyard, we're challenged by a swordsman atop the gatehouse. "What are you doing in this house?" asks Barbatos. "Go! Go from this place!" the foreign-sounding swordsman replies, then turns and calls for someone named "Vaklav." His friend Vaklav claims to have permission to be here but won't tell us who gave him permission. "We are Hussar, we do not need to tell you!" Ah, Hussar. Those are the guys rumored to work for the Balacazars because the crime family holds their goddess captive. Besides Vaklav, there is also Zdynnik.

After some amount of diplomacy and chest beating, it comes out that Shilukar (we recognize the handwriting) wrote to the Hussar and told them that Pythoness House has "recently become available." Why does the dark elf want us to clash with the Hussar? The Hussar want to conduct some sort of ritual -- is it something that will release Vaiod the Slayer in the lower level?

Barbatos and Diethan set off to get the guard (or are they going to speak to Shilukar, we wonder, too late). Meanwhile, Calista and Archinemus use their diplomatic wiles to discover that the Hussar seek to summon a powerful air elemental being in the interest of freeing their goddess, the Mistress of Blades. Well, I'm all for that! No one should be held prisoner by the crime family, especially not for as long as she has been.

On the way to Castle Shard (we should have known!), Diethan and Barbatos stop off at a wine shop and pick up some gruesome voveche dark elf wine. He drops a potion of truth in it, then disguises the magic with a spell to make it appear a normal wine bottle. When they arrive at the castle, Kadmus meets them cheerfully. "Ah, you must be the visitors Shilukar said he was expecting," he says, then shows him into a sitting room where the dark elf is already waiting to meet them.

Shilukar feigns sorrow on our behalf, claiming that he thought the Hussar would be done and out of there by now. He adds, however, that Menon Balacazar believes that he owns Pythoness House and would contest Barbatos' deed. He explains that Pythoness House has unique qualities that would help the Hussars' ritual succeed, when almost anywhere else it could not. Then he takes a few sips of his doctored wine. Diethan begins asking him pointed questions, hoping to get the truth out of Shilukar. The dark elf's evasive and we're not sure he's telling the truth at all. Diethan whips out his sword -- his Sword of Ptolus. "Is Shilukar lying to us at all?" The sword replies: "No."

"Well, that was awkward," says Barbatos.

"No more awkward than offering me poisoned wine," the dark elf replies smoothly.

The conversation goes on with both sides playing the wounded party. Shilukar offers to write the Hussar another letter urging them to leave the house once their ritual is done and to intercede with Menon Balacazar to dissuade him from his claim to Pythoness House. In addition, he knows someone who could help us destroy the rest of the Covenant of Blood and is willing to introduce us. Of course, he asks for a favor in return...

"There is a location in the South Market, a gambling establishment of some ill repute called 'The Cock Pit.' There, you will find that its owner is in possession of a device or machine. I have desire for it. If there is some way that you and your friends could go there, with your great martial prowess and magical capabilities. . . well, I know you are foes of some of the seedier elements of society. And I can assure you that the owner of this establishment is the seediest."

He explains that the owner of the Cock Pit is not affiliated with either the Balacazars or the Killraven league, but is trying to follow in the footsteps of the late independent crime lord Aggah-Shan*. When pressed, Shilukar admits that this machine is a type of chaositech device. We bring it to him, and he puts us in touch with his friend.

* Slain by the Company of the Black Lantern.

Meanwhile, back at Castle Barbatos...

Vaklav is explaining the ritual to us, pointing out that they haven't finished it yet because it requires much diamond dust. When it's done, they explain, they will have summoned a mighty divine creature who is "little bit brother" to their Most Holy Mistress. There are only six of the Hussar left now. "The rest are dead," Vaklav says. "And they do not have even a goddess to go to -- that is the disrespect they show us!"

He goes on to say that they keep mostly to the main floor and the walls, because they hear noises all over the place but (other than the Cobbled Man) haven't seen anyone to fight. They claim that Pythoness House is like a magnet for otherworldly energy. But they agree to leave once the ritual is done if we help them,

On their way back to Pythoness House, Barbatos and Diethan stop off at the City Watchhouse and tell them the house has squatters. Despite the wizard's assurance mere minutes ago that he'd let the Hussar finish their ritual, he asks the guards to accompany him back to the house to oust the Hussar. The captain agrees to send the patrol over within the hour.

When they return, we share a confused moment or two when half the group announces we will help them and the other half says the guard is on its way. But in the end, Barbatos agrees to call off the Watch and allow the ritual. He even chips in to buy the Hussar the diamond dust they still need (not as charitable as it sounds; I told him I wouldn't carry his stupid printing press to his new abode if he didn't).

Charnoth and I join the Hussar circle and begin chanting with them in the ritual while the others watch. While the ritual is going on, a patrol of city guards arrives. Barbatos manages to convince Constable Lineth and his men that everything is fine now. They leave, dripping wet in the rain.

After three hours pass, the ritual reaches its conclusion and the participants all lend their strength to the magic going on. The diamond dust swirls in the air around a circle they've drawn in the courtyard. Coming into existence we see a cyclonelike being with arms defined by the dust. It speaks in the Hussar's tongue (but we also hear the words in our head): "Why have I been brought to this little world?" Vaklav answers, and the being replies: "What effrontery! She was captured by mortal hands!? Vengeance will be swift and complete!" With a swirl he soars up into the air and disappears.

The Hussar are all weak but they cheer as the being departs to carry out the will of their goddess. "Right now you can imagine him with his claws around their necks and crushing their eyeballs! We will know when our goddess comes to reward us!" Barbatos seems tempted to toss them out as soon as the ritual is done, but the chance of a goddess coming to his housewarming was enough to allow them a brief respite to recover.

Time passes and nothing happens. The Hussar say they think they should journey back to their homeland to their goddess' temple (a trip of many weeks) to commune with their now-freed mistress. Charnoth and I wonder if she is really free. And then we ask ourselves: What if Shilukar warned the Balacazars to expect this attack? Then they'd have been ready to repel the elemental. Oh, when will we learn to stay away from that dark elf?

Dejected, the six Hussar begin to pack up their few belongings. "We promised to leave and we always keep our word," Vaklav says. Under duress (and after extracting a promise that they will help him build a new gate) Barbatos allows them to stay a couple days. "Castle Barbatos is a place of many surprises," he says. Well, that's certainly true.

24th of Newyear

Charnoth decides to stay on the grounds of Pythoness House to keep an eye open for trouble. After midnight, he sees a carriage arrive and a single figure gets out and walks up to the house. It's a human man with dark skin. He's bald and wears long red robes. (Arkhall Vaugn, one of the Balacazars, we learn later.) The litorian uses Archinemus' magic helm to send me a mental message urging me to come and help him investigate. I head over in a hired carriage.

Charnoth challenges the intruder, who claims to have business here. In their discussion, Charnoth reveals that his friend Barbatos owns the house. Vaugn disagrees, saying that Menon Balacazar does, and that all the legal paperwork is in order. Using some handy suggestion magic, Vaugn manages to compel Charnoth to leave, instructing him to go to the Mane. The litorian's on his way when I meet him in the carriage heading up to Oldtown. After a strange conversation in which he insists he has to go to the Mane as the man in red robes instructed him, I trick him into thinking that I'm heading back to the Mane in the carriage. Instead we go to Pythoness House. I hop out and instruct the driver to stay put, but as soon as I head toward the house, the carriage takes off down the hill again (Charnoth threatened to sic his bear on the poor driver if he didn't take him to the Mane).

In the house, I explore, but there's no sign of Vaklav, Zdynnik, or the others. I call out, but there's no reply except a whisper around me. "All this delicious anger! All this wonderful disappointment!" I search all the rooms on the main level where the Hussar said they would stay but I find no sign of them. No sign of a fight either. The whispering returns, focused on the statue of the fat naked guy down the hall. "They're all gone now. Please bring more. I'm starting to enjoy this."

I start to lose my nerve, so I leave and head over to see Calista, who lives nearby in the Pale Tower. Of course, it's the middle of the night, and I can't rightly see disturbing the angels' sleep, so I prowl around the outside in indecision. After a few minutes, one of the Malkuth comes out and brings me in to see Calista. I spill the whole thing to her, and she immediately cottons to the fact that the reawakening of the chaos statue in the house may have been Shilukar's plan all along. One of the resident aasimars happens to overhear our discussion and comes in to tell us that some of the Malkuth will be willing to help us on a strike against the evil crime family and to free the Mistress of Blades.

"While she is not a heavenly being [she's neutral], freeing her would be a good thing. Should you ever decide to take matters into your hands, we could provide help.

When we meet for breakfast, Charnoth gives us a more detailed description of the man who enspelled him, and we're fairly certain it was Arkhall Vaugn. We discuss our next step and Diethan says he plans to do some sniffing around to find allies of Malkeen Balacazar (the former crime family heir whom we know is still alive -- but no one else knows). If we can connect with him, perhaps he can clue us in as to what's going on within the criminal organization.

For now, we don't know what to do about the poor Hussar, stolen away again by their enemies. So we guess we'll just return to Pythoness House and give some attention to reducing the power of that statue. Maybe even destroying it. That would be something.

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Staff of Shadow, Goddess of Blades We're battling frantically at the top of the Shade Tower: Charnoth and I facing off against the shadow dragon Nostromac (with Calista backing us up with her healing power) and Diethan and Archinemus battling Lord Sadar and his shadowstaff and the shadow demon he called with it. Meanwhile, Barbatos is whispering something foul into the ear of the giant statue of Maleskari. I'm not sure, but the statue's head appears to be turning toward Barbatos...	The Temple of Maleskari Bright and early, we arrive at the old bell tower behind the temple to the Goddess of the Nine Holy Stars. We're here to put an end to this foul cult of Maleskari and to get back our kidnapped friend Tharn. We cast our preparatory spells and kick in the door to face a spellcasting purple-robed figure in a horned helm and several undead and Forsaken. They jeer that they knew we were coming -- ahh, the folly of the overconfident!
Angering the God of Shadows Together with our dwarf friend Thogmun, the last of our Keepers of the Veil allies, we destroy Lilith's Womb and collect any magical treasure we find. When we leave this place, it is no longer habitable for any straggling Forsaken cult members that may still be at large. That evening, we spend some time reading The Book of Days Forsaken, a history book we found in the underground temple....	Two Shigmaas We take heavy losses from the ghoul spellcasters and giant undead creature before the battle below Oldtown ends. We're only just able to catch our breath when we come face to face with a grave earth elemental -- or a spawn of hell, if you ask Sir Othun of the Keepers of the Veil. Dispatching it, we race down a hall to a large chamber with a sizable patch of freshly turned earth and a horrid-looking gaunt fellow with a scythe tilling it. "I am Sepac, eldest of all ghouls," it says. "It is time to harvest you."
Against the Forsaken Back at the house of the Tolling Bell cult, Calista and I realize that the tentacles of the creature in the well have done us some harm. Archinemus is unconscious and I have a nasty burn. We need to find out what we can about the Temple of Maleskari from these cultists, as we know they were invited to join. But we need to do it fast.	A Middle-Man, a Litorian, and the Shuul As we explore the rest of the levels beneath the orphanage, we toss the room Karee shared with Nostravant. There we find a note that says, "Contact Ged Morrowlost regarding Lilith's Womb." We previously found a letter referring to Lilith's Womb as a hangout of Forsaken. Does this imply that the Covenant of Blood is in league with them? They are undead...
Bloodthirst The devil that just appeared as we invade the false orphanage is thin and gangly yet muscular. He's seven feet tall and wields a large sword. He appears in a flash that stinks of brimstone and immediately presents himself as a formidable foe. He wears a medallion that glows red when it magically inflicts damage on us. After three such attacks, he licks his amulet and says, "This will feed the dragon well." Then he disappears before our eyes. The coward!	Vampires in the Shadows While I was off helping my Aunt Silvia and Uncle Kren put up a new barn on their farm north of the city, the rest of the group went on a mission on behalf of Celdore, in thanks for the help he gave us in finding out more about the Hu-Charad. I feel bad that I couldn't help, considering all I learned about my heritage thanks to Celdore, but there's no arguing with dad when he puts his foot down about family matters.
Print Shops and Dragonscales We have had a good month at the shop, Archinemus tells us. That's good news -- maybe we can get started on building on an addition. I'd love to have some space to use as a workshop. The more I learn about the crafting of machines, the more I enjoy tinkering on my own.	Strange Allies As we search the bodies of the fallen, we are horrified at the demonic flesh etchings of the red-cloaked wizard. He was a follower of Demogorgon, just as the letter we found mentioned. We are going to have to figure out how to divide up the loot between us and our harr "allies."
The Legacy at Last! Our foes all slain here in the Halls of Cordaris, we emerge into a broad chamber lit from below with bluish illumination. A wide ledge hugs the walls; the center of the room is a vast pit. There is a light mist swirling around a gigantic statue of a blue angel. The statue is so large, the walls of the room bump out to accommodate her outstretched wings. Surrounding the edges of the room are more orcs, siege engines, whitish humanoid forms, and the naga we were warned about. The whitish, shimmering figures are absorbing energy from the statue, gaining solidity as they do. The naga directs the other creatures against us....	The Orcs of Cordaris We notice some strange things on the bodies of the slain orcs down in the Halls of Cordaris. For instance, one fallen orc carried a coil of rope fused together with a bag, all made of glass. Another was wearing some sort of stiff blue sandpaper-pants, and a third carried a pouch filled with mysterious and smelly grey goo. Could all this be evidence of the Chaos Well at work?
Full Circle It's good to be home! While Seanus walks Archinemus through the books for the shop (and from the expression on the sibeccai's face, they're not in good shape), the rest of us head over to Castle Shard to get down to the bottom of what we learned in Ar-Nampur: that someone named Nicodemus was after the Nemesis Stone, the purple shard central to Castle Shard's power.	Compiled Ptolus Campaign Journal 2 Your narrator, Benris Hu-Charad, is a young giant woman who was found as a baby by adventurers twenty years ago, abandoned in a level of the Dungeon. Her rescuers left her with the Delver’s Guild, whose chief librarian adopted her. Giants being nonexistent in Ptolus, everyone—including Benris herself—has always considered her a human girl, though rather large boned. The only personal item found with her was a bronze brooch bearing the cryptic word “Hu-Charad.” These days she works at the Delver’s Guild and has just embarked with new friends on her own life of adventure....
Cast of Characters Get to know the player characters in my new Ptolus campaign!	Compiled Ptolus Campaign Journal 1 Ptolus is the name of a city with ancient origins and a convoluted past. It's also the name of the campaign that I have set there.