Second Ptolus Campaign Journal, #32
22nd of Harvest
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.
We relate our recent adventures to Lord Zavere who, surprisingly, knows of Lanasal, the person who is supposed to offer me instructions when the clarion of the Charad titans calls to me. Zavere says that Lanasal somehow detached himself from time and seems able to go backward and forward as he wishes. Zavere also has heard of a group called the Chosen Dusk, whom my mother said I was supposed to find. He says they are a secret cabal interested in antiquities.
He tells us that the Perfect Ones came to Ptolus once to hold discussions with House Vladaam. They carry weapons called hungerswords. Apparently, Iristul Vladdam seeks the hungerswords because he has come upon a means to make them even more powerful than their crafters intended — the results are what we saw in the fight with the Perfect Ones: evil swords that absorb the life and souls from those they strike. If House Vladaam is involved in all this, we know it must be dark dealings indeed.
Zavere has not been able to learn much about Nicodemus, beyond offhanded references to some kind of influential individual north of Ptolus along the coast. The only way for this person to get the Shard is to take the entire castle — perhaps from within. But he has questioned his guests and castle residents, and none of them know anyone named Nicodemus.
If someone were to misuse the Shard, it could have dire consequences for this world and all those that touch it, Zavere stresses. “It is a relic of the Creator,” is all he will say on the matter.
But he does add that a woman named Zalisartaram at Finelle’s Pleasant Diversions in Rivergate can teach Barbatos how to play competition-level Gold Dragonscales. (Seanus was only able to get him so far.) He tells us that she’s almost as good as some elf from up north… That would be the elf that Barbatos has wagered to beat.
Back at the shop, Archinemus has about wrapped up the accounts. Inventory is up but cash on hand is down — the store has actually lost money. I hope my dungeoneering lecture series will help garner us more customers. Sadly, though, at the Delver’s Guild office my sign-up sheet for speakers to come to our shop for the lecture series has been covered over by other flyers. I remedy that problem.
A man named Zart Skoyter comes by the shop. He’s been here a number of times while we were away wishing to discuss “a matter of some privacy.” He says he’s heard that we liberated some items from beneath Pythoness House. He seems to think we are followers of chaos and wants us to use the weapons to help him crush the oppressive hand of law in the city. He tells us that the Shuul have a means to find and root out the followers of chaos and have captured some of his colleagues. But when he lets slip that he reveres the Galchutt, Calista orders him to leave. When he doesn’t, Tharn clubs him.
When Zart comes to, he’s in the carriage with Diethan and Barbatos. He says he and his colleagues want to launch an attack on the temple of Teun, Mother of Machines (Great Kint!), and they want to borrow the weapons for it. Well known but disreputable warriors are involved in the effort. He thinks that the Shuul are so busy with their plans to attack the Balacazars that they won’t be ready for it. He hopes to ally with some of the Forsaken as well, including Shigmaa Sepak. Zart says they seek a charismatic leader to pull together the disparate factions of the chaos followers. Right now their leader is Ellis of the Vaporous Hand, a nefarious woman spellcaster of some odd type. In an attempt to pump him for information, my two friends offer advice as to how best to attack the temple (my temple!) and to target the forces of Killraven. Naturally, when they come back they don’t breathe a word of this to us. (I only learn of it much later.)
As if that weren’t enough excitement for one day, next we have a meeting with the Sisterhood of Silence. The Mother Superior requires us to discover what the Legacy of Cordaris is, recover it if possible, and return the Legacy to her. Currently bands of orcs (Ornu-Nom orcs from the southlands plus the evil Toruk-Rul) pursue the Legacy, and she has ordained that if it falls into orcs’ hands, it will mean peril.
Clever Archinemus asks if the Sisters can help us gain the combination to the Legacy (oh, right, Velator Timerian died without telling us what he changed it to). Alas, they pass the buck back to us. Time is of the essence, we’re told. So . . . I guess we leave tomorrow. One does not argue with the Sisters of Silence.
Before we leave, we have to tie up a few loose ends. In need of a crash course in Dragonscales, Barbatos goes to find Zalisartaram at Finelle’s Pleasant Diversions. Turns out, she’s a Harrow elf! (They’re usually not very social.) She’s shocked to hear that Barbatos accepted a challenge from Naelyn Blueflight. She’s even more shocked to learn that the elf is coming back to the city for a bet of only 40,000 gp. (Only!)
At the Ghostly Minstrel, people are talking about an impending gang war between the Balacazars and Killraven. Most seem to think the Killraven side has a “secret weapon” of some kind that will allow them to win handily. One guy says he heard from someone who worked in the Foundry that the lower part of the Foundry isn’t a foundry at all, but that the Shuul there are drilling deep into the earth in the hope of bringing something up. We also hear that the chaos cultists who are left around town seem more interested in gold than ideology and are selling off all the cult’s old items of power, including disease-creating, horrible weapons of mass destruction. We also hear that the crops were not good this year, and the winter will be rough.
23rd of Harvest
First thing in the morning, Diethan decides to pay a visit to our competitors, the Emerald Eye, whose owner, Palkam Mosh, brownnoses him seriously. This is a store for the finer class of people, apparently, not the “riff-raff” that shops in Delver’s Square. Mosh doesn’t recognize Diethan as he buys some magical gauntlets (which the storekeeper hands over in a wooden case and offers to wrap — geez).
Sadly, Barbatos cannot accompany us down into Cordaris after the Legacy; he claims it’s because he needs to take Dragonscales lessons almost continually for the next three weeks, but I think it’s because he’s still got ear-seeker phobia from our first trip down there, when he became infested. Instead, accompanying us is …
Session LXII – Still the 23rd of Harvest
…Gregoran, a cleric of Asche and friend of the priest Mand Scheben. He has been studying up on the Legacy and is eager to get down to the Halls of Cordaris with us. It doesn’t take divination skills to know that a healer will surely come in handy.
On our way into Cordaris via a sewer tunnel, we come upon a dead orc — no, wait, he’s not dead! Gregoran manages to revive him and we learn that he’s Ornu-Nom. He fell in battle with the Toruk-Ruk (or Spiremen, local orcs). The Spiremen in the Halls of Cordaris have led their people to the third level. He thinks the Legacy is in the tower’s bottom level, but says the Ornu-Nom will not let us through. There are many others seeking the Legacy, as well:
- A lot of evil skulks from a faction called the keu. (We recall that they wanted to find the sword of Ptolus called Power because it could emulate the power of Zelambrast, a sword that unlocks the secret of the Legacy. The keu — who can shapechange to look like other people — want the power of the Legacy to compete with another faction of no-good skulks called the harr.) The orc said these factions are not allied with the Toruk-Rul, but they can look like them.
- Many undead and their keepers.
- Creatures with traits of both serpents and insects. They are interested in the Chaos Well down there and its chaos demon guardians. (The undead and the chaos creatures stay away from each other, says the orc.)
- Also seven or eight really tough, magic-using Sorn-Ulth orcs (whose name means “Bleeding Breath”); their race was created by Ghul a thousand years ago with skin as black as night.
- And a woman-snake, likely a naga.
The orc says his name is Krull and that all he wants to do is get out of here. Since this plains-orc from the south doesn’t know how to get about in the city, we decide to take him back up, get him some pants, and let him stay at the Mane till he’s all recovered.
We deliver him, then it’s back down into the sewers again. We make our way toward the Doors of Purification and the tower in Cordaris, not knowing exactly what we’ll find. All the wall reliefs of knights are defaced now, and the statues are smashed. We come upon a whole bunch of orcs who have barricaded the passages in our path. Their spellcasters are extremely tough compared to the rest of them, but we manage to take them down in the room where we fought the mobat. That seems like a very long time ago.
