All This Because of a Cat

Second Ptolus Campaign Journal, #51

Session XCVII -- Still the 10th of Birth

Just as we're about to venture after the vampire(s) that Calista senses, Sir Feruch arrives at the house to join us. Barbatos opens a magically sealed door to a large room where we see two cages, one containing two writhing, tormented, emaciated vampires and the other containing two underfed, poorly treated teens. While I release the children, Feruch uses his undead bane sword, Final Peace, to put an end to the vampiric creatures; his strikes reduce then to tormented mist. Prevented as they are from reaching their sanctums, surely they will die soon.

While Barbatos monitors the two clouds of mist (and peruses the journals of Chellaster that he finds in the room with them), Feruch, Diethan, and Calista search the house. Meanwhile, I find something for the human captives to eat. The two teens, brother and sister, tell me they are from Pharis, a fishing village north of here. They were taken from their homes by "bad men" and brought to a cave filled with monsters where they were sold to a "metal man with the old man head." They arrived here only a couple days ago. Cave with monsters? Sounds like a slaving center. They said they were taken from their village on a boat and removed from the boat at night. They remember some cliffs and being brought down some streets past buildings and into another building that backed up against a big cave. I tell them how brave they are as I make a mental note to check around for this cave.

On their search, Feruch, Diethan, and Calista locate a book called Blood of the Vampire hidden away in a niche behind a wardrobe. (Apparently this book includes instructions on transforming a person into the sort of dual creature Chellaster was.) Diethan picks up some additional loot along the way including a pair of mummified hands (hung over the front door -- they look like they might be one of the wards we came here for).

A knock at the door interrupts us. It's the City Watch! We explain that we are with the Keepers of the Veil here to suss out some vampires, adding that came upon two captive youngsters destined to be dinner for the undead. We ask them to take care of the two kids and make sure they get home (we give them some gold from a sack we found in the house to see their way back).

The guards take a final sweep of the house, then agree to let us wrap up our investigation. "We'll defer to your order on these matters. As usual, if you'll just have your people make a final report to us..." We agree readily and they leave, promising again to take the children home. Wow, Keepers get a lot more respect than members of the Delver's Guild. We could get used to this!

The journals tell us Chellaster hates vampires and uses them cruelly to sustain his long life. They also refer to his activities selling children as slaves to the Ennin. He mentions the Ennin's "Pactlord masters" -- wonder what that means. It seems that he has many contacts within the Ennin including a woman (or an it"?) named Annagias, the one who traded some slaves for that Blood of the Vampire book we found elsewhere in the house).

And we learn from the journals that we can't destroy Medre permanently while her cat familiar remains alive. Oh, no! We didn't even see her cat, Aryla. Now we have to go back down there! Chellaster adds that Hadrien Runihan (whose magical Sword of Ptolus, Deceit, allows him to remain hidden from divination while in the city) and Koban the litorian are back in the Covenant. Other members are the wizard Tabares Sorsen (friend to Maystra Balacazar), the Harrow elf Ka-Ree (dead already, thanks to us!), and the dark elf Zachean (whom Doeradian Mythlord hates and who once was a foe of the Covenant). He says the number of vampires in the city is growing.

The journals refer to the Shuul as being powerful, though blind to true ambition. Chellaster used Shuul agents infested with devil-parasites to build him his new mechanical body. (Cravish Nathed, the Balacazar crime boss of the Nobles' Quarter, hooked him up with the devils.) He later learned that the Shuul created a mechanical head for his body and seemed quite upset about it.

In closing, Chellaster wrote that he had to trade Illistar, the greatest of his wards, to the Ennin for more slaves. One more reason for us to find those slavers and destroy them!

Using spells of magical detection, we locate quite a few items and wards here at the house. Gathering them up, we head out to our carriage and make our way back to Pythoness House. (Barbatos also insists on taking a harpsichord from Chellaster's place, presumably to provide some Pythoness House with some class.) We hang the mummy hands over our front door, and it seems to help.

Afterward, we retire to the shop to ask Taeval to identify some of the materials we gathered from Chellaster's place. Archinemus uses his magical helm to ask Zavere for more details on Aryla, Medre's familiar. "It's a fiendish white cat, I always hated it," comes the mental reply. "It's got a collar of invisibility." (He sounded like he might have been in the middle of a fight or something when we "called." Ulp.) Feruch heads back to update the Keepers' leadership at the Siege Tower.

Much as I'd like to go and bust up some slavers, we need to go find a certain cat, pronto.

11th of Birth

Bright and early we set off from Pythoness House to search for this invisible fiendish cat. Sir Mirauch and a couple lesser knights come along from the Siege Tower, as of course does Sir Feruch (who seems to have adopted us).

Calista's locate spell detects nothing from the front door of the Dark Reliquary, so we venture down to the lower levels once more. We arrive at the horrid toothy hall, beyond which lies the chamber with the hemispheres of force that sheltered Medre's coffin and the horn of blood. No sign of the cat.

We presume that the cat may have wound up in the hands of Medre's ally, Menon Balacazar. If that's true, it may be in the manor home of the crime family located along the cliffs just north of the city. We've been below it when we sought to recover Linele almost a year ago. More recently, around the time we met the Hussar, Diethan checked the place out from the outside. Sir Mirauch knows about a weak spot in the wall behind the Reliquary, where we can exit the city on the sly and head up the coast.

We go cross-country along the top of the cliffs. As we come in sight of the large three-story house, we come face to face with a band of ruffians -- including TWO men who stand nine feet tall! After an exchange of insults between Diethan and their leader, we are pelted by an assault of arrows and crossbow bolts coming from the area beyond the ruffians. It's an ambush!

Some of the knights sustain grievous wounds, but we more than hold our own in the fight. We face many foes, but they are no match for us and the knights. Those who do not fall retreat from us in panic. As the leader goes down, he manages to call out, "Somebody alert Arkhall!" Stepping forward, Calista detects the presence of our fiendish feline quarry within the house!

Naturally we fall to bickering about what to do next -- Sir Feruch and I strongly favor retreating, regrouping, and entering the house from below through the sea caves we discovered last year. The others want to press the attack on the house, and while we argue about it, Diethan dons a magical disguise and races forward. We try to get behind some cover as we wait for him to scout the house -- at least, we hope he's just going to scout around. Those of us in heavy armor can't hope to sneak up in Diethan's wake.

As Diethan approaches the house, he manages to take down the last ruffian, only to run afoul of a vrock sentinel. It doesn't seem to see him, but the manor's front door opens, and some more guards come out, along with a warrior guy and a woman in spiky leather armor with a whip. They see the dead sentry before them and begin looking around. THEN the vrock sees him and squawks loudly. Diethan shoots one of the guards and tears off back to our position. Hot on his heels is an angry demon and a batch of the crime lord's finest. Great. I begin to mentally plan on drinking potions of levitate and water breathing and hurling myself off the cliff while the rest (hopefully) teleport away.

Session XCVIII -- Still the 11th of Birth

Diethan high-tails it over to us, followed close behind by a great big purple vulture-demon. It shrieks as it approaches -- and then we hear another shriek from behind the trees. Good Mother of All Machines: TWO of them? How will we survive?

We all gang up on this demon and get in some good licks, but then we hear two more creatures moving through the trees at us. They are enormous blue man-scorpions. The vrock goes down under an assault from my Hu-Charad sword but before we can engage the man-scorpions fully, new foes arrive: three winged stocky humanoids and another vrock along with a number of humans and half-elves, including the woman with the whip that Diethan saw up at the house. "Oh for all the gods' sakes, if you keep fighting, you'll just get killed," she says.

Not as daunted as we should be, we fight on. Diethan jumps on the back of one of the scorpion-men, hoping to get it to release Sir Feruch. Things are looking grim, but suddenly I note a strange barefoot elf covered in a leafy cape near where we're fighting. "If you want to live, do exactly as I say," he commands, as he creates a magical wall of thorny growth between Calista and her group of foes.

I don't mind taking some direction right about now, as the winged demons spew sticky bile all over me. I look up at the elf and say, "You'd better make it quick!" He tells me to gather my friends and come to him -- maybe he can teleport us all out of here! He throws up another thorny wall between us and one of the scorpion-men and the flying demons. Some of our foes begin circling around the wall at us. "This way! Follow me!" cries the elf, and he ducks through an archway of trees that he just conjured up. He disappears. One by one we follow him through.

We appear in a starkly quiet wooded area. As the last of us comes through the archway, we see the elf druid gesture at it, and it closes up again. All sound here seems quite muffled, and we can't really smell anything either. The druid regards us. "So, you were attempting a frontal assault on the Balacazars' mansion." We explain that that wasn't actually our intent and thank him for his much-needed aid.

After we tell him what we were doing at the mansion, he says, "You were led there. Divination spells don't work in there." He introduces himself as Maeshon and explains that he keeps an eye on the place (it seems that he is a member of the Imperial Eyes, a secret organization that spies for the Commissar). He adds that the Balacazars have been attracting more and new demons of late. "In fact, that may have been a sales demonstration," he says.

When we ask where we are now, he says, "This place has existed alongside the world since, presumably, shortly after the Creator made my folk." He says it's both in Ptolus and outside of Ptolus. The forest here is called the Otherwood -- it appears manicured, with all the trees exactly symmetrical and uniform. Once we've walked a ways, he forms a new archway, and we follow him through to Iridithil's Home. I'm awfully embarrassed to be here smelling the way I do (I still have demonic spew all over me).

We take our leave of Sir Mirauch, who heads back to the Siege Tower to report to Phadian Gess. My friends all head back to Pythoness House while I visit the bathhouse on Tavern Row to de-bile myself. (It takes rubbing alcohol to get it off -- the whole thing is totally humiliating.)

When my friends arrive back home, it seems our wizard friend has been practicing his new harpsichord. Barbatos listens to the story with interest while finishing a donut. He thinks the woman with the whip might be a slavemaster or demonkeeper of some kind -- she's not someone high up in the Balacazar organization, as far as he could tell from her description. He tells us that from the research he's done in Chellaster's journal, the mummified hands above the door frame make it impossible for vampires to enter into the residence. He also has read in the journal that a group of evil creatures called the Pactlords of the Quaan (beholders, lamias, and so on) seem in charge of the Ennin.

So now we don't know whether the cat is really in the manor of the Balacazards or whether it was just a ruse. The journals of Chellaster made it clear that, as the most powerful vampire in the world, Medre could transfer her soul into her cat's body upon her death and, with difficulty, come back to life. (That implies that the threat is not as imminent as we had thought.) The journals also make it sound as though the cat was ordered to go immediately to Menon in the event of her mistress' death.

So we need to get back in that manor house. Unbelievably, Diethan still favors a frontal assault, but I say no way! When we know a secret underwater way in? We spend the rest of the evening debating a plan of attack. Meanwhile, Calista orders a special magic item to make me weightless in teleportation. It will be ready in four days.

Meanwhile, Diethan goes out drinking and bragging about how he was there when the Malkuth left; he starts telling the bar patrons all about Falstef and showing off the mace. As he's staggering home, he finds a note in his pocket. "I wish to speak with you and your friends at Wondrous Tattoos in the North Market tomorrow afternoon." It is signed Durant.

The 12th of Birth

We gather in the morning to discuss our plan. I am in favor of getting someone to create a distraction with a bomb in front of the manor while we enter through the sea cave area. I head over to the Smoke Shop to shop for a bomb. They have a great selection, and I wind up buying six powder bombs, three smokebombs, and a length of fuse, along with some large metalworking tools (they always come in handy).

Calista wants to find allies who can help in the assault. Meanwhile, Diethan goes over to the Watchhouse in the Nobles' Quarter to claim Chellaster's body (hoping to speak with dead on it), but it's already been disposed of. But he does bring all the mechanical parts of Chellaster home for me to tinker with.

Back at Pythoness House, Diethan tells us about the meeting with Durant, so we head over with him to the meeting place, a shop called Wondrous Tattoos. The halfling who runs the place tells Durant we're here. Durant, a troglodyte in Killraven's employ, explains that the Killravens are interested in hearing more about the future as we saw it. Diethan wants to talk only to Kevris herself, but Durant says that's not the way it works. Our friend tries to make nice by telling the troglodyte of our anti-Balacazar plans. It's definitely of interest.

Durant goes on to say that his own organization has had some "setbacks" of late. (He looks meaningfully at us.) "We are willing to let bygones be bygones if it's a mutually advantageous situation." He says the Balacazar stronghold is protected against divinations and teleportation -- but we discovered otherwise yesterday, we report. He wonders if someone has sabotaged them, or whether someone was luring us into a trap. Diethan offers information on where and when to assassinate Menon in exchange for the Killravens getting us the cat.

Before leaving, the shop's proprietor, Anagio Quigg, gives us water-breathing tattoos to use on our mission (Durant was going to make him give them to us for free but we insist upon paying). We also promise to refer customers to him from our store if they are looking for a potion we don't have. He seems delighted by the prospect, as the Killravens come down hard on him for extortion money (75 gp per month).

I remember back in the not-so-distant past when Durant was trying to drive us out of business. Who'd have thought we'd someday be doing business with him?

Related Products

Dark Tidings Dark Tidings is a short dungeon adventure for characters of 6th or 7th level. It is set in Ptolus but utilizes the feat rules, magical disciplines, and spell progression system from The Books of Experimental Might.	Secrets of the Delver's Guild At last, the Secrets of the Delver's Guild are revealed! Discover new gods, locales, NPCs, monsters, items, treasures, and more in this PDF exclusive release.
The Night of Dissolution The adventures in The Night of Dissolution cover an arc that pits PCs against the darkest foes the city of Ptolus has ever faced.	Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire Announcing the long-awaited release of Monte's super-deluxe campaign: Ptolus!

Related Articles

A Grand Finale Up in the Balacazar box, Aliya attacks the mage Arkhall Vaugn another six times, dealing him a nasty blow even as he was attempting to ensorcel her with a suggestion. Menon looks over at this and tut-tuts, shaking his head. Zophas seizes the opportunity to slice at the cord holding the pearl and little Destor around Balacazar's neck....	A God, a Curse, and a Wish The Sorn sorcerers complete a spell and there's a great rumbling as -- Holy Mother Teun! -- two enormous purple worms burst up through the floor of the theater. Where did they come from? Each of them seems to have been fitted with an artificial tooth. One of them is emanating a yellow glow. One hits Feruch, who just barely manages to wriggle out of its grasp.
And Now Back to Our Story... Although the Runewardens had been through a lot in their careers, the experiences in Jabel Shammar were among the most harrowing, the most trying, and -- as it turned out -- the most scarring. After exploring much of the fortress, the group confronted the Malignancy, a semi-sentient force of utter corruption growing out of the Book of Inverted Darkness, as well as some sliver of a shadow of the spirit of the Dread One himself....	To Meet With Evil Up the stairs we march to the next level, which holds many, many tall bookshelves filled with books. A 9-foot-tall winged humanoid figure approaches us, clanging as though made of metal. Its fiery sword causes awful harm to Sercian before the elf's twin brother manages to wall it off with a wall of force; then the monks take it down. But it seems we are not out of the woods yet -- two metallic creatures who exude lightning approach from the other direction....
Sanctuary The door seems to hold, so we begin exploring the rest of the chamber here in the Tower of Malice. We can find no mechanism to turn off the wheeled bladed trap, but Serai and Sercian evaluate it, proclaiming it a difficult trap to disable. We find a number of bedchambers here but not much else. While we discuss various options for disabling the wheeled and bladed trap, Sercian shoots the works with viscous globs from his brother's chaositech gun to jam it. We rush in.	Welcome to the Tower of Malice We have rested a while in a Mord's magnificent mansion at the lowest level of the Tower of the Misbegotten -- Canabulum sets it up in the crevice we found earlier. We think we hear occasional strange sounds scraping along the walls outside the mansion, but our wizard friend tells us that shouldn't be possible. Still, we think something is trying to get in.
Misbegotten Exploration It takes us a long time and quite a few terrible injuries before all our undead foes have fallen at our feet here in the Tower of Blasphemy. Coating the floor is a layer of mummy dust -- all that is left of our recent enemies. It seems that these mummies were the defenders of impiety as a concept. They are the very opposite of religious. Investigating the blues shafts of light here, we learn that they are magical rays of intense cold. We experiment in disrupting all the raylike columns, but it has no effect that we can see.	A Dire Call In the three years since we left the Runechildren, Aliya and Zophas spent some time clearing out the Dark Reliquary. Gaerioth took off on a quest for the Word That Began Creation. Serai led a team down to the Banewarrens to recover and raise the Company of the Black Lantern. Later, he and the recovered Sercian went off on a voyage in their new ship. The restored Tellian went off looking for the birthplace of Navashtrom but recently returned to protect Urlenius. Canabulum remained in the city researching more arcane secrets in his underground laboratory. Sister Mara spent a good deal of time in Dreta Phantas helping repair the Dreaming City and studying its magical nature. Now restored to its proper place in the world, north of Ptolus, it has become home to elder elves and modern elves alike. Shurrin is married to Tellith, hostess at the Ghostly Minstrel; today the happily domesticated former adventurer lives a quiet family life in Ptolus.
Bashing Heads Next to the chill room where we fought the obese ogre-mage and the ice demons lies a chamber with a big pentagram inscribed on the floor. The pentagram and a full-length mirror seem to be magic; Sir Feruch says the pentagram is evil, too. The mirror seems to have a mesmerizing effect....	Slavers, Beware! Sir Feruch drops a stone down the passage beside the Pit of Insanity. It falls into magical blackness. Then we hear a crunch emanating from the passage that sounds like something just pulverized the stone. We wonder whether there's something incredibly heavy down there that one could handle only with telekinesis and magic-impervious materials. After another test, the knight declares that there seems to be a great force at the bottom of the passage that pulls strenuously on anything that enters the passage....
An Old Friend Found It's been five days since we teleported out of the Vault of the Elder Brain, which now serves as its sepulcher. It took us three days to recover from the ordeal, and we spent the last two seeking information and tidying up loose ends....	Going Hunting for Brain Shilukar has a weapon that will kill an Elder Brain?!? "Would you mind giving it to us?" asks Diethan of our dark elf guest, "since we're going to try to kill it and all? Shilukar reminds us that this Elder Brain has become so powerful from steeping in the godsblood of a dead Galchutt deep underground. The Galchutt, though, were a paranoid lot and wanted a means to neutralize a resulting Vested. So they created a device that will divest someone of godlike aspects it has absorbed. "I happen to have that chaositech item."
The Enemy of My Enemy Is My . . . Shilukar We collect the possessions of the Cinderpriest and his warrior associate. Among them is a book praising decay, entropy, and strength through disintegration. We decide to explore further. Voices are talking down one hallway, and we run smack into a group of foes including the Balacazar mage Arkhall Vaugn and a beholder ally!	To Aid and Avenge Bright and early we go down to the rubble where the Siege Tower once stood to help out following the devastating explosion. No one has been able to locate Phadian's body, but the knights want to try to get her raised once they find her. Sir Othun is missing, too, but Sir Mirauch is alive and trying to organize the search and rescue mission.
And Things Were Going So Well... Down in the Generator Room of the Tower of Science, Barbatos, Feruch, and the Cobbledman ably disable the generators, but the small blue dragon is still all trussed up. The wizard tries to speak to him in Draconic, but all he can make out in response is a small voice that whimpers, "Mother..." Barbatos tries to teleport out again with the dragon and the others, but the spell fails. And then they hear banging at the door....	Time for Some Tactics Later in the day, we decide to pursue various threads of our investigation into the Shuul and their secret project beneath the Foundry. Diethan tries to get some info from a dwarf contact. She recommended talking to Frima Copperlace in the Foundry to get the lowdown on what's going on there.
A Trio of Ambushes Today the Killraven troglodyte Durant sends us a message. He wants to come visit us at Pythoness House tomorrow. I guess his boss really wants that information we have from our visit to the future....	All This Because of a Cat Just as we're about to venture after the vampire(s) that Calista senses, Sir Feruch arrives at the house to join us. Barbatos opens a magically sealed door to a large room where we see two cages, one containing two writhing, tormented, emaciated vampires and the other containing two underfed, poorly treated teens. While I release the children, Feruch uses his undead bane sword, Final Peace, to put an end to the vampiric creatures; his strikes reduce then to tormented mist. Prevented as they are from reaching their sanctums, surely they will die soon.
A Tale of Two Chellasters Diethan goes out to search for the location of the two Chellasters while we get to work on the house. He learns that the homeless Chellaster always wears black-and-tan armor and a helm. No one knows his face. However, after a day or so of Diethan's asking around, this Chellaster finds our friend and approaches him in a seedy area of the Guildsman District. Chellaster tells Diethan that the wealthy Chellaster is an imposter -- he is, in fact, Chellaster, bane of vampires. Diethan thinks the rogue in the Nobles' Quarter has taken this fellow's identity.	What Have We Done Now? We ascend back up out of the shaft and inspect our vampire-gotten goods. We have quite a pile of goods -plus what's in the chests! (We find lots of gold, various scrolls and vials, magical books -- and a few traps. We even locate Falstef's old mace, a beautiful gold weapon with peal inlay. What a tragedy that he was banished... Somehow, we'll find a way to get him back!)
The Most Powerful Vampire in Ptolus We recover from our ordeal a bit while waiting for the backup knights to arrive. Diethan and Lunas take our fallen cleric friend back up to the surface. Our next move is to make our way through the secret door that Archinemus' find the path spell has outlined for us. We still need to find Medre's resting place.	No Place Like Home We decide to pick up some back issues of the Imperial Gazette and we capture some images of the city (and the Killraven wanted poster) in our image crystals to show people upon our return what a horror the city has become at the hands of the Shuul. All this wonderful technology... it just goes to show, you can have too much of a good thing.
Strange New World We decide that our best course of action is to go through the Dresden Door and collect evidence that Shilukar is in fact working with Nicodemus against Castle Shard. That way, we can bring back the evidence and let Zavere and Rill take care of the traitorous dark elf. We also buy image crystals to capture the scenes we encounter in this place, as further proof of Shilukar's collusion.	Moving In Following the departure of the Hussar, we seem to have Pythoness House mostly to ourselves. There are still a few unwelcome spirits that we need to oust if anyone other than the Cobbled Man is ever going to live here.
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.