SESSION 47B: CHILDREN OF MRATHRACH

December 26th, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Mahdoth rotated towards them. “I’m going to release you now.”

And he did.

The artificial high of ebullient friendship fled from them, but not the memory of what they had experienced.

Mahdoth asked for their assistance in mounting a defense against whatever was coming. “Since I seem to find myself rather short-handed this evening.”

They readily agreed. Elestra was still extremely paranoid (trying to figure out some way that Urak could think he had been suborned while Mahdoth was actually still calling the shots), but the others were quick to point out that he had released Agnarr, Tee, Tor, and Ranthir… even though he didn’t need to do that.

It turned out that the unused door Tee had spotted at the far end of the western cells actually led to the caverns. Mahdoth explained that an expansion of the asylum had broken into a section of the natural caverns beneath Ptolus. The caverns had never been properly explored, but when they became a perpetual source of random dangers, Mahdoth simply had them sealed off.

Mahdoth proposed that he would wait for the cultists upstairs while they kept a watch on the door down here. They thought that was a grand idea (particularly Elestra), and their only concern was the lack of any means of proper communication. To solve this problem, Ranthir went upstairs with Mahdoth to cast an alarm spell that Mahdoth could enter if he needed their help. Conversely, if they needed Mahdoth’s help it would be trivial for Elestra to send her homunculus up through the floor to fetch him.

Before they parted, Mahdoth grabbed the amulet that Urak had worn and gave it to Ranthir. It would allow him to punch through the suppression field with his spells.

UPSTAIRS WITH MAHDOTH

The minutes ticked past with tense expectation. They were drawing near the midnight hour—

Mahdoth floated through the door, carrying with him a statue depicting one of the goat-headed demons they had met in Pythoness House. They quickly realized that this was the only remnant of the battle that had been fought upstairs.

Mahdoth quickly related what had happened: When the knock came at the upper door, the beholder had opened it to discover the demon, two ratbrutes, and a dozen or so ratlings amassed outside. Leveling one of his eyestalks, he had instantly turned the demon into a statue. In the same moment, he had put one of the ratbrutes to sleep and disintegrated the other.

At the sight, the other ratlings had panicked and fled. He killed the ratbrute, plucked from its body a letter, and then dusted it. Then he grabbed the demon-statue and brought it downstairs.

Tor, upon hearing the story, bowed his head. “I apologize. We had absolutely no business trying to come in here and kill you.

“Yes,” Mahdoth said. “Quite.”

ILLADRAS’ PROMISSORY NOTE

Salcabot—

Your information regarding Silion’s last communion with the Black Voice is, indeed, most valuable. And your mercenary spirit in exploiting it is most commendable in the eyes of Wuntad.

To ensure that no disruption of this most important trade is to be suffered due to the recent and shameful disgraces of the Blooded Knife, Nalfarassik shall accompany you. He shall command the respect of the Children of Mrathrach.

But fear not. I witness the will of Wuntad, and this note shall serve as promissory to such effect, that if your information proves true and the trade continues unabated due to your efforts, we of the Tolling Bell shall support your claims to leadership among the Brothers of the Blooded Knife.

                                                                                Illadras

As Tee finished reading the letter aloud, they took some private joy in learning that the Blooded Knife had been shamed. Then they turned their attention to the second fight that they knew was fast approaching the far side of the locked door before them.

Mahdoth offered them a final briefing: The cells in this block were laced with antimagic. Three of them were currently occupied. None of them should be disturbed.

“What about that passage?” Tee asked, pointing at the narrow way she had noticed before.

“Don’t go down there.”

THE CHILDREN OF MRATHRACH

A chaotic and seemingly senseless knock came at the door.

The spellcasters turned Tee invisible. Ranthir conjured an illusion of the demon answering the door, carefully choreographing it to match Mahdoth’s telekinetic opening of the same.

In the cavern beyond the door they saw a procession of serpent people. Eight of them bore four crates, four more stood guard upon them, and leading them was a larger creature of red eyes and black scales.

The black-scaled serpent hissed something in a sibilant tongue that none of them could understand. Everyone froze for a moment (except for Tee, who slipped quietly through the door).

When the demon failed to respond, it was clear that the serpents were becoming suspicious. Ranthir, realizing that the jig was already up, dropped a fireball into the midst of the serpent’s procession. Tee, who had worked her way into their midst, hit the deck and was narrowly missed by the flames rushing over her head. The serpent people around her, however, were not so lucky. The scent of burning flesh filled the air.

The black-scaled serpent turned to flee, but Mahdoth floated into view and blasted it repeatedly with a coruscating array of beams – the last of which caused it to explode in a fine mist of blood as it collapsed at the far end of the cavern.

As Mahdoth’s rays dropped away, Tor dashed through the door and finished off the rest of the serpent people still trying to reel away from the charcoaled remains of their brethren. Tee had scarcely had a chance to regain her feet and the fight was already over.

Amid the bodies they found a scroll of black parchment. Strange, twisted characters were written upon it in silver ink. Elestra reached out through the ancient knowledge held quiescent within the Spirit of the City and translated the script. And then she cried out in dismay.

BLACK PARCHMENT

Know that the barren serpent savages of the Teeth are not unknown unto the Children of Mrathrach.

Know that we will not deign to meet their kin.

Know that they are no kin to us.

Know that we disdain their foulness.

Know that we scorn the questioning of this “Wulvera” as to such a purpose.

Know that we act only by action of the Voice of All Chaos.

Know that the blood of the slave races must be paid.

Know that we do not forget our labor.

Know that we do not forget the great labor to be done.

The four crates, for better or for worse, remained largely undamaged by Ranthir’s fireball. At Tee’s direction, Agnarr began wrenching them open:

The first contained some sort of strange, semi-organic foam – as if some terrible living entity had grown to fill the box like a swollen tumor.

The second had a suit of plate armor that was heavily insulated with a silvery fabric. The exterior of the armor was filigreed with copper and a number of iron antennae – some large and some small – jutted out from it at odd, almost disturbing angles; jagging this way and that in a chaotic fashion.

The third contained several items – two pairs of manacles made of intricately etched brass attached to a similarly-etched oblong device by a long, rubbery cord; a cocoon-like container of silvery-black metal containing six small, oblong spheres of similar metal; and a large iron collar with five oblong nodules extruding from it in equidistant points along its circumference.

The fourth held sixteen canopic-like jars containing some sort of thick fluid; twelve fluted vials containing a thick, pinkish liquid; and four three-pronged syringes containing a bluish-silver liquid.

The contents were almost certainly chaositech and uniformly disturbing, and it was only at Tee’s great insistence that Agnarr peeled back the semi-organic foam in the first crate to reveal its true contents: A two-foot-long brain trailing a pair of long, spindly, tentacle-like arms ending in complex, grasping clamps. Once freed from the foam, the brain slowly floated up into the air before it was vigorously shoved back into its crate by the barbarian.

Tee turned from watching Agnarr trying to wrestle the brain back into its crate. To Mahdoth she said, “We know where we can dispose of these items safely.”

“Fine,” Mahdoth said. “Take them. I intend to seal this door and use better discretion in finding new help.”

He escorted them back up the stairs. “Two final points,” he said. “First, lock the door behind you. Second… if you are to cross paths with the Pactlords, be wary. They are larger and more dangerous than they appear. And now, good night. Apparently I must arise early to single-handedly attend to all the affairs of this asylum.”

“Well, if you’re in the market for new assistants…” Tee offered.

“The pay is 5 gold a week.”

“Or perhaps not.”

Running the Campaign: Fighting With Monsters – Campaign Journal: Session 47C
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 47A: The Master of Two Servants

Tee babbled something about a letter and the shipment that Wuntad was delivering to Mahdoth. “And since Wuntad is a bad man, we just assumed that you must be—“

“Who the devil is Wuntad?”

“You don’t know who he is?” Tee, in her charmed state, was honestly befuddled. But those in their right wits were beginning to figure it out.

“Let me see this letter,” Mahdoth demanded.

Tee dug it out of her bag of holding. Mahdoth grabbed it with his telekinetic eyestalk and perused it with half a dozen eyes at once.

“Where is that traitorous halfling?”

When the PCs intercepted plans indicating that Mahdoth’s Asylum was being used to smuggle goods for the chaos cultists, they jumped to a conclusion: Mahdoth must be involved!

The assumption was reinforced by what seemed to be corroborating evidence: Mahdoth had been rude and secretive when they met him previously. More importantly, he was wearing a Pactlords’ ring, and they knew that the Pactlords were bad guys. This, in turn, caused even more conclusions to come spilling out: If Mahdoth was one of the Pactlords and he was helping the chaos cultists, then there must be a connection between the Pactlords and the chaos cultists. Maybe that double agent of the Pactlords they’d found embedded among the chaos cultists of the Old City hadn’t been a double agent after all; or maybe she’d just been scouting out the cultists for a potential alliance!

As we’ve now seen, none of this is actually true: The smuggling at Mahdoth’s was being coordinated by his corrupt staff members and has nothing to do with Mahdoth being a former member of the Pactlords. (Mahdoth is actually completely reformed and no longer has any contact with the Pactlords.)

When the PCs went haring off along this false trail, I remember being gobsmacked. It had not occurred to me that they would jump to the conclusion that Mahdoth was responsible, nor double and triple down on a course of action that would see them going toe-to-toe with a beholder.

(When I talk about not needing to prep red herrings for adventures, this is what I’m talking about.)

I also kept expecting them to course correct. (For example, by questioning Zairic or some of the other cultists involved.) In fact, the players had almost talked themselves out of precipitous action by the end of Session 46, but by the time we’d reconvened for Session 47, they’d worked their way back to, “Mahdoth must die!”

At no point, however, did I feel the need to correct the players in their mistake or somehow “fix” what was going on. This is because nothing was broken.

As long as the PCs are moving forward and with purpose, it doesn’t matter if they’re doing so due to a misapprehension: I had prepped a situation (in which chaos cultists pick up shipments of chaositech from Children of Mrathrach at Mahdoth’s Asylum) and the PCs’ actions were driving them to engage more and more deeply with that situation. Was that engagement different than I’d expected? Sure, and if I’d prepped a plot that might have been a problem.

THE REVERSAL

When running a situation-based scenario, in fact, these kinds of false assumptions are often desirable. They provide a completely organic, but dramatically satisfying reversal when the truth comes out.

A reversal, you see, is that moment when everything you think you know about a story is suddenly turned on its head: The private detective has been framed by the dame who hired him. The “CIA agent” who recruited the PCs was actually working for the bad guys. You thought you came to assassinate a beholder, but it turns out you’re actually here to help the beholder layoff some troublesome staff members.

There are techniques you can use to prep reversals, but they can be tricky to pull off in a satisfying way. Even when you do pull it off, the players will know you pulled a fast one on them, even if they appreciate the moment. But when the players know that they duped themselves? When they completely own the false assumptions?

That’s pure gold.

That’s a dramatic beat that lands and lands hard.

Or, alternatively, if the PCs finish the scenario without ever figuring out their mistake, it will likely generate all kinds of delightful complications and blowback for them to deal with later: Imagine if they had killed Mahodth and left the asylum completely unsupervised! What might the consequences have been?

Campaign Journal: Session 47B – Running the Campaign: Fighting With Monsters
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 47A: THE MASTER OF TWO SERVANTS

December 26th, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

There were still a couple of hours before the shipment was due to arrive. Having found a place to conceal themselves while watching Mahdoth’s front door, they continued their discussion. It wasn’t long before they had once again talked themselves out of waiting: They would obviously have an easier time of it if they tackled Mahdoth and the cultists separately (rather than all at once as the transfer was made), and in re-reading the letters they weren’t even sure that their doubts about Mahdoth being the ultimate source of the suppressive fields in the asylum were well-founded.

“Although,” Tee said, reminding them again, “Whether the suppression fields drop or not, we’re still leaving an asylum full of inmates with no one to watch them.”

“Well… we can always just tell the city watch what happened,” Elestra said.

“Except they might not be happy with us killing everybody inside,” Nasira pointed out.

“Mahdoth is wearing a bone ring,” Elestra countered. “That means he’s a cultist. And we’ve been deputized to take care of the cultist problem.”

Whatever the ultimate solution to the “madhouse full of unwatched inmates” problem proved to be, they headed back into Mahdoth’s with murder on their mind.

THE WESTERN CELLS

Nothing seemed to have been disturbed and it was clear no alarm had been raised. They headed back to the office they had left perhaps a quarter of an hour before and then headed through the next door.

This brought them to a T-intersection. To the west a flight of stairs dropped away. To the east, the hall ended abruptly in a door of solid-looking iron.

Tee, who was habitually taking the lead, briefly debated with herself about which way she should go. She had just decided to check out the door when she heard a soft, light-hearted humming coming from somewhere down the stairs. Turning aside from the door, she headed down the stairs.

The stairs were stark and steep. After a couple dozen feet they bottomed out into a cell block lined with close-set doors, each barred with a heavy slat of iron. A swarthy-looking man was lounging against the wall near the far end of the cell block, humming the guileless tune that had attracted Tee’s attention while spinning a ring of keys on his finger.

The ring of keys made the decision easy for Tee. She planted three arrows in the man before he had a chance to stop humming. He dropped with a soft, almost noiseless gurgle.

Tee quickly scouted the room. There were no other threats. She noted that the door at the opposite end of the cell block was considerably less used than the similar doors lining each wall. There was also a small passage winding away from the cell block.

Tee, suspecting that this was the “western cell block” Zairic’s corpse had told them about, was tempted to explore the passageway. She suspected it might lead to Mahdoth’s quarters.

But instead she went back upstairs and got the others. While talking their options over, they decided to go the opposite direction instead and make sure the locked door at the top of the stairs wasn’t perilous.

“If those are the western cells down there—“

“And they are the western-most cells we’ve seen.”

“—then whatever’s behind that door is pretty close to the western cells, too. It might be Mahdoth.”

MAHDOTH

Tor was something of an incorrigible noise-maker in his clanking armor, and the suppression fields prevented them from creating a zone of magical silence to cover for him. Therefore, in an effort to maintain the element of their surprise, they positioned themselves in such a way that Tee could open the door; Agnarr could see her opening the door; and the others could see Agnarr (but not Tee). This kept Tor’s clanking as far as possible from the scene of stealth.

Tee unlocked the door and swung it open. Beyond was a large, roughly-spherical room of angular depressions and vaulting roofs. Strange, yet comfortable-looking cushions and pieces of furniture were scattered across the chamber at multiple levels.

And rising from one of these was the bulbous body of Mahdoth.

“Zairic! What is all of that racket out—“

Tee shot an arrow at him, but it went wide. Mahdoth’s eyestalks swung around and beams of energy lanced out – Tee was knocked unconscious and then levitated into the air. She was slowly being tugged through the door and wholly into Mahdoth’s chamber.

Agnarr, seeing her go, roared in rage and rushed forward. As he came through the door he was struck by another beam of energy… and suddenly thought of Mahdoth as his best friend in the entire world.

“Why don’t we all calm down, my friend?” Mahdoth said with a smile. Agnarr felt his rage oozing away.

The others were caught slightly off-guard by Agnarr’s precipitous (and unexplained) charge. Tor was the first to rush forward. Entering the room he saw Agnarr smiling up at Mahdoth while Tee’s limp body was slowly lowered into a divan with an oddly-shaped divot in the middle of it.

Tor circled quickly but warily around Mahdoth, looking to distance himself from Agnarr (who he was afraid might turn on him under Mahdoth’s influence) while still putting himself in a position to strike.

But Mahdoth, mindful of losing his influence over Agnarr, floated between the two of them… thus blocking Agnarr’s view of him blasting Tor with a beam of energy.

Which also turned Tor into Mahdoth’s best friend.

Agnarr, meanwhile, was rushing to Tee’s side as she was lowered into the divan. He was anxious to see if she was all right. His jostling woke her up as Agnarr turned a worried eye to Mahdoth, “Is she going to be all right?”

Mahdoth seized the opportunity. “You’re right to be concerned, my friend. Give me some room to pass a healing beam over her.”

And so Mahdoth charmed Tee, too.

The others entered the room… and were befuddled by the sudden love-in.

Mahdoth recycled his “healing beam” explanation and hit Ranthir with the same effect. Ranthir resisted it, but realizing it for what it was he chose to bluff his way through it. Elestra and Nasira, meanwhile, nervously hung back by the door.

Tee, in her charmed state, felt compelled to burble out a confession to Mahdoth: She had killed Zairic! She couldn’t imagine now why she had done anything like that, but she thought he ought to know.

Mahdoth turned suddenly cold. “Why have you done this?”

Tee babbled something about a letter and the shipment that Wuntad was delivering to Mahdoth. “And since Wuntad is a bad man, we just assumed that you must be—“

“Who the devil is Wuntad?”

“You don’t know who he is?” Tee, in her charmed state, was honestly befuddled. But those in their right wits were beginning to figure it out.

“Let me see this letter,” Mahdoth demanded.

Tee dug it out of her bag of holding. Mahdoth grabbed it with his telekinetic eyestalk and perused it with half a dozen eyes at once.

“Where is that traitorous halfling?”

Sheepishly Tee pulled Zairic’s corpse out of her bag of holding. Mahdoth quickly inspected it. “You’ve cast speak with dead on it?”

At this point, Agnarr felt compelled (quite literally) to mention that Mahdoth’s second servant had also been killed.

“Urak? Excellent,” Mahdoth said. “Follow me.”

Nasira and Ranthir were, at this point, tentatively committed to coming along. (Although Ranthir made a point of “playing with his magic dagger” in Mahdoth’s anti-magic zone just to give him an excuse to get a knife close to the beholder.) Elestra was still bitterly paranoid, but in lieu of a non-suicidal option, tagged along for the moment.

On the way out of his room, Mahdoth’s telekinetic eye opened a drawer on a nearby cabinet, took out a ring, and lowered it onto another of his eyestalks.

“What’s that?” Tee asked.

“I want to have a few words with my late servant.”

“A ring of speak with dead?!” Ranthir mouthed to Nasira. He was impressed. And perhaps a little covetous.

As they headed down the stairs, Tee broached a subject within the reach of her friendly compulsion. “Can you tell us about the Pactlords of the Quaan?”

Mahdoth turned cold again. “I haven’t crossed their path in many years. It is a chapter of my life that I do not open.”

A nervous tension filled the air for a moment, but then they arrived at Urak’s corpse. Floating to the corpse’s side, Mahdoth activated his ring and Urak’s body jerked into the air as if suspended by invisible strings.

“Who suborned you?”

Urak’s voice rattled through the chamber. “Zairic. His employers pay me well.” He finished with a hideous, cackling laugh.

“What was your plan for tonight?”

“I was to watch the stairs. Zairic would bring them down to the western cells. The others would arrive from the caverns. Then Zairic would cast a scroll to breach the wall into the sewers.”

“How many are coming?”

“Usually a dozen of the cultists. I don’t know how many of the Children of Mrathrach.”

There was a final, cackling laugh and then the body collapsed in a broken heap on the floor.

The unanswered question that flitted across all their minds was simple: Who were the Children of Mrathrach?

Running the Campaign: False Assumptions – Campaign Journal: Session 47B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Back to Surveyor’s Headquarters

AREA 7 – ANTECHAMBER OF ARTIFACTS

A vault of white marble.

AREA 8 – BOOK OF INFINITE SPELLS

Scribal stalls line the long walls of this chamber to the right and left. At the far end of the room, there is a stand of bloodwood holding the Book of Arkath.

BOOK OF ARKATH: Each page of the Book of Arkath contains a random spell. Once a page is turned, it can never be flipped back – paging through the Book of Arkath is a one-way trip and, as far as anyone has been able to determine, once a spell has appeared, it does not reoccur. If the book is closed, it always opens to the page it was on before the book was closed.

Once per long rest, a reader attuned to the Book of Arkath can cast the spell to which the book is opened. If the reader is a spellcaster and the spell appears on their spell list, they can cast it up to four times per day. Each time a spell is cast, there is a 1 in 6 chance that the page of the book will automatically turn.

In addition, each time a page is turned (whether willingly or not), there is a 1 in 20 chance that the book vanishes.

The book currently displays protection from energy.

SCRIBAL STALLS: A number of freshly copied scrolls can be found among the scribal stalls.

• scroll of creation
• scroll of teleport
• scroll of control winds
• scroll of kin curse*
• scroll of call of the topaz*
• scroll of harroc adulese (hunter serpent)*

* Exotic spells, see The Spells of Arkath.

GM Background: Under Guildmaster Essetia’s guidance, arcane members of the Brotherhood copy the spell currently displayed in the Book of Arkath. The page of the book is then turned.

AREA 9 – NECROMANCER’S STONE

Upon a platform of substarrae within a bulging cylinder of transparent arenak, sits the Necromancer’s Stone.

CYLINDER: A small plaque written in Old Prustan read, “The Necromancer’s Stone, wielded by the Squirming Horde, cleaved by the vanguard of Nulara Aretari during the Ghulwar.”

• Substarrae: A purplish black metal. The secrets of its creation were lost long aeons ago, but it’s stronger than even adamantine.
• Transparent Arenak: A silvery-black metal with a hundred times the strength and durability of normal steel. It has been alchemically treated to become transparent, but retains all the properties of adamantine.

NECROMANCER’S STONE: The Necromancer’s Stone is one of the primal stones – like the alchemist’s Philosopher’s Stone, Sorcerer’s Stone, God’s Stone, Druid’s Stone, and so forth.

In game terms, the Stone has XX charges and regenerates 2d10+4 charges daily at dawn. While holding it, the wielder can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using their spell save DC + 10: animate dead, blight, command undead*, create undead, death knell*, gentle repose, halt undead*, and soul bind* (trapping the soul within the Necromancer’s Stone). For spells that can be cast with higher spell slots, the wielder chooses which “slot” to use and spends a number of charges each equal to the “slot” level.

The wielder can also cast raise dead (5 charges) – whether the normal time limit has expired or the soul resists.

The Stone can also be used to create an undead hallow (4 charges) for 24 hours. An area 60 feet around the wielder is imbued with necromantic energy, although the spell fails if the radius includes an area already under the effects of a hallow spell. Undead creatures within the area are immune to turning and non-undead creatures (other than the wielder) cannot enter the area unless they succeed at a saving throw. For each additional charge expended, the wielder can also imbue the undead hallow with one effect:

• Courage. Undead cannot be frightened while in the area.
• Darkness. Darkness fills the area. Normal light, as well as magical light created by spells of a lower than 5^th level, can’t illuminate the area.
• Energy Protection. Undead creatures have resistance to one damage type of the wielder’s choice, except for bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing.
• Fear. Non-undead creatures (other than the wielder) are frightened while in the area.
• Silence. No sound can emanate from within the area, and no sound can reach into it.

The wielder of the Stone is permanently under the effects of death ward and gains advantage on skill checks and saving throws related to necromantic spells or effects.

This particular Necromancer’s Stone was created during the Ghulwar and was wielded by the legions of Ghul before being captured by Nulara Aretari’s army in the Field of Moonsilver. It’s tainted and bestows two levels of exhaustion to any non-chaotic or non-evil character carrying it.

COMMAND UNDEAD
Level 3 Necromancy (Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V

You speak a one-word command to all undead creatures you can see within range. Any target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or follow the command on its next turn. The spell has no effect if the target is living, if it doesn’t understand your language, or if your command is directly harmful to it.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The range of the spell can be increased by an additional 10 feet for each additional spell slot level.

DEATH KNELL
Necromancy Cantrip (Cleric)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You draw forth the ebbing life force of a creature and use it to fuel your own power. Upon casting this spell, you touch a living creature who is currently making death saving throws. If the subject fails a Constitution saving throw, it dies and you gain 2d4+4 temporary hit points.

HALT UNDEAD
Level 3 Necromancy (Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Choose up to three undead creatures you can see within range. Each creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration of the spell. The effect on a creature is broken if it is attacked or takes damage.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can affect an additional two undead for each additional spell slot level.

SOUL BIND
Level 9 Necromancy (Cleric, Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a black sapphire gem)
Duration: Permanent

You draw the soul from a newly dead body and imprison it in a black sapphire gem worth at least 1,000 gp per level or CR of the creature whose soul is to be bound. The subject must have been dead no more than 1 minute and can attempt a Wisdom saving throw to avoid imprisonment.

The soul, once trapped in the gem, cannot be returned through raise dead, resurrection, or any similar spell or effect, not even a wish or miracle. Only by destroying the gem can one free the soul (which is then still dead).

Necromancer’s Stone is covered by the Open Game License.

AREA 10 – THE STATUE OF VLADAAM

A massive statue standing at one of this chamber depicts a hulking creature of black demon-flesh. Its skull seems to push out from the skin of its face, depicting a bone-white countenance with two flaming coals for eyes.

STATUE: The base of the statue is labeled in Old Prustan – VLADAAM, VESTED OF THE GALCHUTT.

• DC 24 Intelligence (Investigation): By pushing the V’s in both “VLADAAM” and “VESTED” simultaneously, a panel opens in the base of the statue. It contains The Ritual of Flessh (see handouts).

SEARCH – DC 18 Wisdom (Perception): To detect the secret door leading to Area 11.

GM Background: This statue depicts Vladaam, a Vested of the Galchutt and the founder of House Vladaam.

AREA 11 – DARKENING ENTRANCE

This area is affected by a darkness spell.

COMMAND PHRASE: Those speaking the command phrase (“let us hold and send forth the eye of all knowledge”), which can be found in the Oath of the Brotherhood, can perceive the room as if the darkness spell were not present.

CURSE: Anyone dispelling the darkness spell or passing through the room without speaking the command phrase must succeed on a DC 24 Wisdom saving throw or become cursed: Their shadow becomes animate. Although it remains attached to the victim, it dances wildly, causing the victim to suffer disadvantage on Hide checks unless they’re in an area of total darkness. The effect is permanent, although a remove curse spell ends the effect.

AREA 12 – CRYPTS OF THE BROTHERHOOD

Each of these crypts contain a former, high-placed member of the Brotherhood. This includes all of the guildmasters of the Red Company of Surveyors since the 7^th century.

AREA 13 – FONT OF ASCENSION

This is a natural cavern. Carved stairs at the rear of the cave lead down to Area 12. The far side of the cavern opens out onto a cliff face on the edge of Oldtown, providing a breathtaking vista across Ptolus and down to the sea.

ILLUSION: The cave entrance is masked by an illusion from the outside.

FOUNTAIN: A burst of water from the wall softly falls in a burbling cascade through a complicated, multi-tiered fountain of gilded, glinting gold. Each tier of the fountain contains a small, golden sculpture depicting an animal with a rune or sigil on its chest: An eagle, a stag, a bear, a cat, an owl, a wolf, a dolphin, and a hawk.

• DC 15 Intelligence (Religion): These holy animals were associated with the Elder Gods before those strange deities vanished from the world.
• DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana): To recognize the runes as being an ancient antecedent of modern dreamspeaking notation. (Advantage on this check if the character is proficient in the Dreaming Arts.)
• DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation): There’s a hidden compartment at the base of the fountain. It contains The Passing of the Jewels of Parnaith (see handouts).

GOLDEN ANIMALS: The golden statuettes can be removed. Once removed, touching the sigils will cause them to glow. If all of the sigils are activated, each statuette will transform into a cunningly wrought piece of gold. These can be joined together to form an illitor (Ptolus, p. 485).

An illitor is a complex item encompassing a golden belt, armband, and bracelet, each connected to the others by thin golden chains.

GM Background: Only someone wearing an illitor can access the pergolas which lead to the Jewels of Parnaith.

Go to Part 14D: Inner Sanctum Handouts

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 46B: Into the Asylum

Elestra reached out to the memories of Zairic’s corpse through the Spirit of the City. In a horrible, gurgling voice Zairic’s head spoke from it lay atop his corpse, attached by only a slim flap of flesh.

I love speak with dead almost as much as my players do. It’s an essential part of their toolkit whether they’re scouting a dungeon, unraveling a mystery, or probing the depths of a conspiracy. The In the Shadow of the Spire group actually keeps a “dead-icated bag” — a bag of holding for the important corpses they want to hold onto and question again after the one week waiting period has expired.

This means that I need to be prepared for all of their speak with dead antics, which is something I talk about in more detail in Random GM Tip: Speak With Dead Mysteries. (I also talk about how I keep track of the bodies in the dead-icated bag in Campaign Status Module: Trackers.)

But the fun part is figuring out all of the gruesome ways these mangled and half-rotten corpses speak under the influence of the spell.

Zairic, as seen here, is a fairly mundane example (although miming his head hanging on by a flap of skin had a pretty great effect on my players when combined with the gurgling voice), but I try to bring a little bit of flair to these, as seen with Silion back in Session 40:

“We can still ask her a few questions,” Elestra asked. “I can force her body’s memories to speak through the Spirit of the City. But we’ll only be allowed three questions, so we should choose them carefully.”

Tee nodded. “Let’s make sure we get it right.”

They debated the list of questions for the better part of half an hour and then Elestra wove her magic. Silion’s decapitated head rose into the air, its blood dripping in a sickly, coagulate gore down onto its own corpse below.

If speak with dead is a common part of your campaign, you could certainly prep a list of these to use as needed. Personally, I enjoy improvising them — taking into account the dead NPC, the circumstances of their death, their wounds, and even the surrounding scenery wherever the PCs are casting the spell.

A few things to think about in improvising your own speak with dead moments:

• How does their wound affect their voice?
• What unnatural position could the body be contorted into?
• How could the strangeness of the spell impact the surroundings (e.g., spattering blood, rattling bones, the corpse’s severed arm trying to crawl back to the torso from across the room)?
• Is there an overtly supernatural effect (e.g., the body floats into the air or an eery glow emanates from the corpse’s mouth)?

The goal is for the players to viscerally appreciate that what they’re doing is anything but natural or ordinary. (Is it evil? Morally grey? That depends on your morality. But, regardless, it shouldn’t be easy for them to feel comfortable about what they’re doing. It should feel like weird shit, and they probably wouldn’t want their mothers walking into the room while they’re doing it.)

There’s no need to overdo it, though. Just one or two key details are enough to bring the scene to vivid life. Less is more, and if you’ve got a really cool idea… well, there’s always the next corpse.

Campaign Journal: Session 47A – Running the Campaign: False Assumptions
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index