29th of Growth
Archinemus is gone! His note said that he didn’t want to draw all of us into his own personal quest in the temple of Destor. Shim and Nos are awake now and say that he left six hours ago. They’re very appreciative and want to repay us for rescuing them, but first we have to catch poor compelled Archinemus — but that won’t be easy, because he took the map with him! As we contemplate shortcuts, we receive a summons to Castle Shard for later today. It seems Barbatos wrote them yesterday to tell them we were back and to seek aid in ending Archinemus’ compulsion.
My dad helps me research a shortcut to the temple of Destor in the Delver’s Guild Library (it helps when your father is the head librarian!), but we conclude that the river route is risky due to underwater rapids and likely longer than the way we went before. I tell him what little we discovered about the “Elder Titans” and he promises to see what he can find out about them.
Meanwhile, Barbatos visits a temple of Inurath (goddess of war) and gets a priestess named Shendra Dir to help him speak with dead Doctor Feegus’ head. He learns that Cephalyx is “an outsider focused on human brains and the mind.” The head adds that no one else can continue the Prajdall project now that it (Feegus) and Nerlene are dead. It didn’t know (or doesn’t remember) the dark elf Shilukar. It says Terris Brunchart is a Shuul merchant in the city who helped them buy the litorians. And finally, it says Xilaranatak is an “elder brain” from deep below the city with whom Cephalyx was allied from ages past.
And then, out of nowhere, the head finishes, “Evil Titans…”. Wow. Before yesterday I didn’t even know of the Titans, and now I discover they were evil!? My people?
Anyhow, Shendra said that if she’d had the whole corpse she could have gotten complete sentences. Barbatos promises to bring the entire body next time. This aspect of the adventuring life I can do without.
We all meet up at Castle Shard, still worried about our obviously mind-controlled sibeccai friend. We bring Lord Zavere up to date on our visit to the Shuul and Destor’s temple. We ask Lady Rill for help in getting to Archinemus. She can scry him because he’s wearing his Castle Shard friendship ring. She can tell that he’s unharmed, but walking in complete darkness. He’s already at the passage that leads to the beginning of the bridge where we met the grell. (It took us almost two days to get to that point! How’d he do it so fast?) She allows us to watch his progress.
Archinemus continues to move carefully but very fast through the maze of chambers we passed through not even a week ago. He enters a room whose floor is covered in bones. He’s very cautious here. He reaches a big iron door, which he unlocks with his lockpicks and reaches another door with some levers, which he starts pulling. When nothing happens, he starts talking to his magical lightning rod, to no avail, apparently. It seems there’s a riddle to the order in which you’re supposed to pull the levers, but it’s too much for him. He finds another path instead. He encounters a number of traps and takes a leg wound from some spikes that jut out from the floor. He swipes some heavy platinum idols from a chamber he passes through and some jewelry from another chamber.
He finally makes it into the room he sought: in it, hanging from a chain dangling from the ceiling is a small building. It looks like a tiny temple. He has to pile some tables up on top of each other and climb them to reach this temple. He knocks at its little door and says something. It opens, and we can see a tiny figure who resembles the statue of the god he passed in another room. This tiny figure is a bit paunchy, not too handsome, Could it be Destor? “Appearances can be deceiving,” Rill says. The guy and Archinemus converse for a while, gesturing at the rod a bit. With a flash, the little guy leaps from the tiny temple and transforms himself to a fifteen-foot height! He takes the rod from Archinemus, points it at him, and a lightning bolt strikes him. Our friend vanishes!
Lady Rill casts another spell, and we see Archinemus again — he’s just appeared in Delver’s Square amid what appears to be a shower of rose petals! We thank our friends from Castle Shard and race back to our store. Out of the corner of my eye as we depart I spy Shilukar watching us leave.
Our carriage driver explains that there’s a party in Delver’s Square today to celebrate some adventurers who saved the city from being sucked into hell through a gate in the lair of some gnolls. Aha! Shilukar’s old lair! Wow, we had no idea there was such danger from the Children of Ravvan.
When we arrive, we see someone dropping rose petals down from a hot-air balloon floating above. There’s a big wagon parked in the square. On it we see an elf woman dressed in leather waving to the crowd. Next to her is a serene woman carrying a staff and a guy in green. A man in plate armor is accepting a basket of flowers from some children. Some gnoll heads are stuck on spikes on the wagon, too.
At the shop, there’s Archinemus waiting for us, all safe and sound. And he talked to a god! Seanus and I are very impressed. Of course, he tells us that Destor was a greatly diminished demigod sort of fellow, but still! Apparently Destor wanted him to become his high priest and rebuild his church here in Ptolus. In return, our friend would get the rod back. Archinemus said he’d think it over for a week and then return. He thinks it might be interesting to be able to set the direction for a new church, but we’re all very wary. Calista doesn’t trust gods that compel your presence at their dollhouse-temples.
Barbatos and I venture back to Castle Shard to deliver the head of Dr. Feegus and collect our reward. Shilukar claims not to be familiar with the doctor’s outsider backers. He is very interested in Feegus’ notes and wants to hear more of the Shuul’s various energy sources. He rubs the whole Ravvan thing in our face a bit. “I do hope that those adventurers really took care of things,” he says. “One can never be sure, can one?”
Tharn asks Barris, one of the rescued litorians, to protect Charnoth when he returns to their tribe. He also asks Barris to take anyone from Slave City who wants to leave out to the Central Plains.
Shim and Nos return to the shop and offer Archinemus a gift in gratitude. It’s a tiny ebony toy horse and carriage. We gasp in wonderment as he chants a magic word “Alash” and the carriage grows into a full-sized grand black carriage with gold trim and four black horses and a driver. “To help you make your way around the city,” Shim (or is it Nos?) whispers, “in thanks for your unprecedented kindness. We are friends forever.” Then both of them, we realize, become a little bit easier for us to see. Isn’t that odd?
30th of Growth
The next day Tharn and I head off to the Slave City. We meet up with Moondros and Salsan. Karaal Kavor and I have a nice talk about the role of freedom champions in the world. Tharn finds about eight people who want to leave with the litorians, and he offers them some of our captured (forged) Imperial identity papers. We return to the city the next day.
31st of Growth
We have a grand send-off for the litorians. Tharn has provisioned them all for their long journey. Vardan gives a nice speech of thanks to us. “Stories will be told of you for generations,” he says and declares us all honorary members of the tribe. “Should you ever come south to our people, you will be welcomed as brothers and sisters.” We tearfully bid them farewell.
1st of Blessing
We divide up our most recent loot and take stock of how business is going. Myraeth’s is doing well, we’re glad to see. For the rest of this week we train and rest. I work hard to perfect my skill with the greataxe.
5th of Blessing
At lunch today, we’re shocked to see Archinemus disappear in a flash of lightning. He later tells us that he found himself in the lightning god’s presence. Destor commanded him to go to his old temple in the city, clean it up, and make it acceptable for worship. Then he was supposed to find someone to be his priest and ensure the safety of his temple. The temple must be operational by the end of the year — that’s five months. In exchange, Archinemus may use the lightning rod to further these aims. In addition, he grants our friend a wish: that the rod be joined with the form of his magical skivver as one weapon. “Do not be lax. I will be watching,” the deity warned him.
When he returns to tell us the news, Calista asks, “Isn’t the temple of Destor illegal? Isn’t that why they were forced underground?” Hmm…
Celdore of Dark Leaf comes over to join us at the Ghostly Minstrel. The Killravens were not happy that we did not care to share with them the location of the Balacazars’ secret hideout. However, after our recent foray down to Feegus’ lab, they now consider everything to be equal, with no further debts to be paid — only a favor. Kevris would like to know how we found out who to eliminate and who not to eliminate in our recent activities with the Shuul. It seems as though we have unwittingly taken out Kevris’ enemies and left her allies alone. We’re a little puzzled as to this coincidence but we simply say that we are glad to have reached this understanding.
I then ask Celdore about the Hu-Charad. Can he teach me of them, of their language and their history? (He spoke their tongue last time we met.) “You will find, my friend, that there are no better keepers of history than the elves,” he says. He advises me to go into the forest north of the city if I want to seek the elf lorekeepers. He tells us how to reach the elves of the Moonsilver Forest: Follow the roads north along the coast then inland to Faelasith village and speak with Sael Wintersong. Celdore cautions that using his name won’t help us much, except maybe with Sael himself.
Celdore can tell me a few things, though. He says the Hu-Charad stayed along the coast to the north when they came here thousands of years ago. Ptolus didn’t even exist then. When these Elder Titans came, the Natharlnac’na were asleep, but some of their servants were not. Some of the Titans who came here became corrupted by these ancient evil forces. Some think these Evil Titans still live under the Spire, Celdore says. He tells us a story that one of them allied himself with Ghul when he tried to conquer the world, and though Ghul fell, the Titan himself remained, unliving. He’d still be in Goth Gulgamel, if the story’s true. (Calista later tells us that her cousin Aliya and the Runewardens encountered a giant undead Titan in Goth Gulgamel and, in exchange for their bag of banes, he let them through and into the chamber of the Entropy Sphere. Wow.)
Celdore’s not familiar with the fortress of Ar-Nampur, but he thinks the name means “Home away from home.” We pay Celdore for his mediating service, and he says we can seek him at Iridithil’s Home if we have any more questions.
Second Week of Blessing
Calista meets with Taera, one of the heroes who destroyed the gates to the realm of Ravvan, and tries to find out how final their victory really was. She leaves still not knowing for sure. She hopes to meet with another of their group, named Neles, soon to ask more questions. These guys don’t really look any more powerful than us. How in the world did four people go down there and kill all those blue gnoll demons?
I look into Terris Brunchart, who helped Feegus buy the litorian slaves, and learn that he is a well-to-do merchant. He does a lot of work in the North Market in the “importing and exporting business.” Right. Perhaps he can lead us to our last remaining litorian slave. The group has not seen that one, Sallam, since the slave pens, we recall.
15th of Blessing
Calista learns that Neles and Taera and their demon-gnoll-slaying friends (Carter Dune and Chalderic Noramin) were killed this morning at their home. It was very grisly, apparently, as though they were torn apart by animals. I guess it’s not over.
Thuma Peun, a friend of the adventuring group who found them dead, is at the group’s house when we arrive in our magical carriage (a gift from the grateful skulks). We also meet her friend Jerrit. The heroes’ bodies are as we heard: ripped apart, as though by animals. We find strands of long animal-like hair near Chalderic’s body.
Archinemus, Tharn, and Barbatos search the bedrooms upstairs and determine that, while it doesn’t look as though anything was touched, there also appears to be nothing of value left in the rooms (no potions, gold pieces, etc.). A note in the wizard’s (Carter’s) spellbook says: “Still owe ten thousand gold for (Brother) Admar’s rescue.” We see that they are all members of the Delver’s Guild.
Calista uses magic to determine that Neles was slain by a werewolf. Further spells tell her, shockingly, that the animal-like hairs near Chalderic’s body belonged to a werewolf, and that the werewolf was Thuma, who is still there with us! With no hesitation, Calista tries to trap the deceitful friend with an eldritch web spell, and before our very eyes Thuma transforms into a half-wolf, half-human creature! With a roar, she launches herself at Tharn and stuns him, but then becomes distracted by Calista. Meanwhile, I manage to grapple Jerrit, just as he begins transforming into a half-wolf, half-human creature too. We struggle in the hall and in the melee, I find myself shackled to the Jerritwolf figure. “Let’s take him downtown,” Diethan says after applying the manacles. With friends like these…!
In desperation I try to bash the creature into the wall, but that move and all our weapons seem ineffective. Only Calista’s and Barbatos’ magical attacks seem to do any good. Frustrated at his continual (successful) bites at me, I attempt to toss Jerrit over the banister of the staircase while everyone else continues pummeling Thuma, hoping to subdue her with magic and smoke bombs. Even though Calista distracts him magically, I’m foiled when he breaks the manacles.
Meanwhile, Thuma escapes out the window and Tharn and Barbatos fly after her and bring her down with one final barrage of magic missiles. (Wow, I didn’t know either of them could fly!) Diethan’s pet wolf Lunes starts dragging the dead body back — now looking like a human woman again — up the street to the house. Some neighbors become agitated at the sight. “Call the Watch! Get the constable! A wolf has killed a woman!” Diethan urges them to get to safety. “Go back in your house, you morons!” he cries.
Finally I manage to tackle Jerrit just as he’s about to jump out the window himself. In a cloud of smoke from the smoke bomb, we all wind up piling onto him, trying in vain to subdue him. One last bite knocks me out. But Barbatos smacks the creature with a lightning bolt that unfortunately also takes out Diethan from his position at the window haranguing pedestrians. Calista revives me just in time for me to see Jerrit leap out the hole in the wall where the lightning bolt broke through. Flying, Tharn and Barbatos give chase, the wizard pelting the fleeing lupine with magic missiles from his wand. The werewolf ducks into a building as Tharn catches up. The litorian catches sight of him skulking out of the house, once again in human form. He fires an arrow at Jerrit from the air, crying, “He’s a werewolf! Murderer!” hoping to attract attention.
The rest of us take off after them (with Thuma’s body) in our carriage and finally reach them just as Jerrit ducks into a warehouse. A crowd is forming outside. “These werewolves just murdered the Saviors of Ptolus!” I cry, racing inside, only to be cut down again by the foul lycanthrope. Some well-meaning locals race in with hatchets and for a moment seem to think Archinemus is the werewolf. Jerrit cuts down Archinemus and has the gall to cry out, “I have slain the werewolf! You may all be at peace.” Not so fast… Tharn, Calista, and Barbatos harry him with blows and a last few magic missiles as Diethan and his wolf deal the final blows at him.
In the carriage later, taking the bodies back to Barbatos’ place, Diethan slugs the wizard in thanks for the lightning bolts. Calista and I stay to talk to the City Watch. How we’re supposed to explain the missing werewolf bodies I’m not sure, but I leave that up to Calista. She handles the Watch gracefully and we gratefully depart.
I make my way to the Temple of Teun to have all my wolf bites looked at, and Tharn does the same thing at the Temple of Ashe. Calista goes to inform the Order of the Fist that one of their members (Thuma) was a lycanthrope. They say that it must have happened to her only recently — they would have known, otherwise.
Barbatos takes the werewolf corpses to the temple of Inurath, Mistress of War, to speak to the bodies (good as his word, they are whole). “We must find the idol,” Thuma’s body says, “we” meaning the followers of Ravvan. “We are everywhere.” Ah, yes, the idol of Ravvan, whose effects made Barbatos want to attack me with tooth and claw when we were down in Shilukar’s lair. The body of Jerrit reveals that they did not steal any items from their house and explains that the missing Admar is the group’s priest of Lothian friend. Barbatos asks: To whom do you report? “The mountain temple of Nerugar in the land of Nar,” the corpse says, adding that he knew Shilukar because he “helped the siblings but then he betrayed them. We hate him now.”
The main lesson I take away from this whole episode is this: ALWAYS wear my new plate armor, even on social calls. I go home and collapse into bed.
