An Old Friend Found

Second Ptolus Campaign Journal, #58

Session CXI -- The 25th of Wind

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.

Research provided no clue as to how we might deal with the divine essence now pulsing within the chaositech spike Shilukar gave us. Strangely, Feruch confirmed that the power itself was not inherently evil. In the end, the Legacy provided the help we needed by coming up with a process to release the energy harmlessly back into the world. Eventually, it said, the energy likely would be gathered subconsciously by some being worthy to ascend to godhood (as many have over the millennia).

After long, protracted arguments, we finally managed to convince Barbatos that we should release the energy rather than use it ourselves before giving it to Shilukar (not that Barbatos actually knew how to use the energy).

Shilukar came to Pythoness House to collect on his end of the bargain. When we gave him the depowered spike, he seemed a bit confused but said nothing other than "thank you." As a sign of his goodwill, he handed us a map of some caverns deep under the city where he said we could find Tharn. He wouldn't reveal where he got the information, only that he wanted to help us reunite with our friend. Then, we activated the dresden door for him, as part of our deal. He looked a bit hesitant -- like this wasn't really what he was expecting -- then stepped through. The door returned to ring form. Now we have to decide what to do with it!

Rumors are already circling about the Shuul. Some say they suffered a great catastrophe with one of their machines. Others say the group has fractured internally, due to internecine conflicts. A few speculate that the Shuul's leader, Savane, is dead. All agree that the group has suffered a setback from which it may not recover -- and, if it does, it likely will be as a very different organization.

Lastly, word has just reached Ptolus that Emperor Segaci never arrived in Ptolus (we know different!) because he was killed en route in an airship accident along with his extensive retinue of guards, attendants, and advisors. His body was recovered, and the priests of Lothian in Tarsis immediately brought him back from the dead. He has apparently decided to stay in Tarsis for the time being, to recover. Good riddance.

The map from Shilukar shows Tharn's location as near the Eternity Cave and the dwarven settlement of Kaled Del. It's also close to a door into Dwarvenhearth. We wonder why Shilukar was being so "kind" to us as to give us this map. When last we looked into the matter ourselves, Calista learned he was in Dwarvenhearth. But is our litorian friend still soul-ridden?

We spend some time this afternoon gearing up for the trip. We leave in the morning.

The 26th of Wind

Our journey following the map takes us from the sewers beneath Oldtown down into a huge rift that emerges into a series of natural passages. I can tell that creatures move through here often -- the passages are quite worn.

We spy a flickering light up ahead but we don't hear anything. We do detect magic some 50 feet ahead of us. We proceed cautiously, searching for tripwires or other traps. But nevertheless we're surprised by a couple of shadowy, floaty figures. Their moans unnerve us, and their attacks feel cool, clammy, and rubbery. They look like shadowy cloaks with many sharklike teeth. One of them manages to engulf Feruch, but he soon breaks free. It somehow renders the Cobbled Man stupefied and unmoving, but Feruch gets his revenge and tears it to flimsy strands.

The other creature flees, but before we can follow, we have to get across a deep pit. We throw our magical expanding ladder across the gap and move on. Up ahead we note a stone in the ground that is not stone at all, but a disguised piece of wood. There doesn't seem to be a trap. We're about to move on when Feruch discovers a detached human eyeball with six limbs floating around in a shallow pool here. He skewers it. To me, it looks as though it's been altered by magic -- or chaositech.

Motes of light welcome us as we enter the next cavern. We hear a creature's voice warning us to leave or be imprisoned "like the others." Before us we see a spiderlike creature with a long neck and multiple-madibled head. A horrid demon, for sure! (I later learn it is called a slassan. And, strangely, it is not evil.) It seems new to the world. And waiting in ambush for Diethan is our old cloak-shaped nemesis.

The new foe casts an energy web spell on us, catching us all except Diethan. "Wrapped nicely for the master," it gloats. Shaking free of the webs, we pounce on it, but it lobs a burst of acid at us. Sir Feruch manages to wound it with his magical sword, but in return it bites him with its poisoned beak. He slices it in half.

We search around for the "prison" the creature spoke of. No luck on that, but in the rear of this cavern we find a bag stashed behind a pair of stalagmites. It holds a bunch of scrolls and other items. The effects of chaos seem to surround us here. It reminds us of the last time we were in the Halls of Cordaris, amid its transmuted effects (there was a chaos well down there). Barbatos thinks it's from one of the Pits of Insanity (residual chaos pools in Ghul's Labyrinth). Perhaps they're the same thing.

We continue on. Amid the effects of chaos that we note upon entry into the next room, we encounter a woman. She is an elf, but she has golden hair -- an elf of old? She warns us away from this place. "We are looking for a friend," Diethan says. "We cannot leave without him." She says her name is Laethes. In case she's a soul rider, we activate our protection from evil spells.

"Wait!" comes a familiar voice. Dashing around the corner toward us we see him: It's THARN!

Session CXII: Still the 26th of Wind

Tharn, we later learn, was abandoned by his soul rider some time ago. He and the other adventurers left with him (other "ridden" people) were abandoned in the vicinity of some slaadi and their slassan masters, and so the poor confused victims were immediately captured.

These demons fashioned a prison of powerful magical walls in the vicinity of a chaos well (or Pit of Insanity) and held our friend and his companions there, hoping to see what would happen to them -- would they become horribly chaos infused? Well, yes, in fact, some of the other adventurers had been mutated from this time near the chaos well.
Fortunately, though, they managed to escape the magical prison. Their slaadi and slassan captors were in hot pursuit of them as we encountered them. Lucky for them we were showed up when we did...

During the ensuing fight with these demons around the Pit of Insanity, we discovered that spellcasting near a Pit of Insanity produces weird side effects. For instance, proximity to such magic turns Tharn's fur a bright lime green. Similar magic withers Barbatos' left arm and turns his own magic against the Cobbled Man, who just barely manages to pull through. But nevertheless, with the help of Tharn and his companions, we triumph, and at last, the final foes fall.

After the battle we sort everything out. Tharn introduces us properly to the elf named Laethes Stormwing (who has had an encounter with Shilukar, we discover -- perhaps that's how the dark elf came into the map) and the other adventurers.

We search the bodies of fallen foes (and friends) and find some loot, as well as an ancient bronze idol near the Pit of Insanity. It looks vaguely toadlike, but it clearly has been here much longer than the slaadi and the slassans. The idol slides back to reveal a passage right next to the chaos well. Inside the idol we find three scrolls of telekinesis, three marlite tongs (marlite is a magic-dead material), and three marlite canisters with screw-on lids.

Tharn doesn't really remember much about his possessed period, but he does know that the soul riders really were after an artifact called the Platinum Cestus down here in the Dwarvenhearth area. They managed to find it and kept control of the one person who carried it. That's when they released the rest of their thralls, abandoning them here at the chaos well. Interestingly, Tharn does realize that, although the soul rider knew everything he knew while he was possessed, all information about the Legacy was somehow kept hidden from it, as though it were knowledge the litorian did not possess.

There's always something new to discover about the Legacy, it seems. What next?

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.