The Madness of Men in a World of Monsters (D&D 5e IC)

**Riggdgames** · 2022-01-27, 05:59 AM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 30/41 (30/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:

The river of reinforcements turns to a flood as ghoul after ghoul drops from above and surges forward, a tsnumai of undeath. The slavering mass are met with steel, but they are many, and those holding them back are few. Even as its brains and rotting flesh coat the glaive, a ghoul tears at the weapon so that its allies might strike freely. There's barely time to free it before the wave crashes.

Images flash in the chaos. Claws. Teeth. Vargath covered in ghouls, his axe rising and falling mercilessly. Mido's spear finding purchase before a ghast can drop Set. A ghoul's jaw clamped around the man's arm. An arrow, silver and spectral, slicing through the same ghoul's head, its jaws opening in surprise for the last time. A hammer following just behind the arrow, helping plant the ghoul in muck. A beam colder than ice crashing into the mass, pushing back a ghast. Crimson blood trickling down bronze skin, both Set and Midos.

Swing, shove, strike. Set's mind is quiet with the rhythm of battle, but for one nagging thought. Mido. Set punches a claw aside, tearing his weapon free. Mido's place is here, with Set, but this is not his time. There is much they have yet to do. Another ghoul tears a grunt from Set as he shoulders it back, its teeth scrape his scale mail.

"<Ainsahab!> Back, Mido! Hold next to the wizard!" Set tries to shield Mido's escape before focusing on the two ghasts, their sharpened claws already red with blood.

Spoiler: ooc

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Move: None.

Action:
Attack: (1d20+6)[19] plus (1d4)[1] bless
Damage: (1d10+3)[13] slashing

Bonus Action:
Polearm Mastery BA Attack: (1d20+6)[18] plus (1d4)[1] bless
Damage: (1d4+3)[7] bludgeoning

Pre-emptive Reaction: Priority goes to attacking those that try to pass by. If a ghoul leaves Set's 10 foot radius or approaches from outside 10 feet, he'll strike.
Polearm Mastery Attack: (1d20+6)[10] plus (1d4)[2] bless
Damage: (1d10+3)[9] slashing

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-01-31, 09:38 AM (ISO 8601)

Under the Bleachers

Selissa's arrow saves Mido another bite as the ghoul that has latched onto him flies backwards with the force of her arrow. Vargath and Set are hewing undead left and right, trying to stem off a seemingly endless tide. Mal's frost completely freezes the limb of a ghast, who drags it's leg forward at reduced speed. The dark wizard simply shakes it's head at Esai. "The wards are unique. Any wrong move would set them off. Give me just a moment..." Mido, shaking like a leaf, follows Set's order and falls back to the rear to cover the wizard.

The hoard surges.

In their riotous assault, some ghouls seem to throw themselves at weapons and shields to drag them down and leave openings for others. To Vargath's left, one of the prism copies of himself interposes and intercepts a ghast's claws, popping out of existence. His armor and shield withstand the assault coming his way. Set is not as lucky, with a claw grazing his neck, but both his clones remain to distract the hoard. The monsters continue to ignore Esai, but that leaves him free to swing at the undead seeking to pass by him. However, soon even his stone body is swarmed with unliving flesh, limiting his swings.

The line is circumvented by ghouls, who leap forward to assault Mal, Selissa, and the wizard. It starts with a trickle who have moved with supernatural speed. One throws a clawed attack at Selissa that bites flesh and threatens to seize up her muscles. Another leaps bodily at Mal, but he nimbly moves aside. Yet another dashes at the wizard, but it's assault only elicits an illusionary clone to pop out of existence.

There is no end to this. "Just a little while longer!" Says the wizard, intent on his work.

Spoiler: OOC

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Some ghouls provide advantage on attacks with the help action, some attack. One of Vargath's clones pops, but he is untouched. A ghoul bypasses Set's clones and claws him for 7 damage, requiring a DC 10 save. Funnily enough, same for Selissa. Mal is missed, Esai misses an OA, and one of the wizard's clones gets popped.

**Amnestic** · 2022-01-31, 10:47 AM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy), Bless
Concentrating: --

There was naught Vargath could do but keep swinging...and ready himself for when the time came to strike back against the mage. Focusing on whatever was closest and weakest, he keeps lashing out, trying to leave a none-too-obvious gap to the wizard, just wide enough that he can close it if needs be.

Spoiler

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Move: None.
Action: Attack: (1d20+7)[9] + (1d4)[1] (Bless)+1 (from discord) Bardic Inspiration. Just really not a lucky roll. Damage: (1d8+6)[10]
Extra Attack: (1d20+7)[19] + (1d4)[3] (Bless) Damage: (1d8+6)[12]
Bonus Action: None.

**Theophilus** · 2022-01-31, 01:16 PM (ISO 8601)

Mal
Levistus Tiefling Bard 5
AC: 14 HP: 41/41 (48/48) THP: 10/10
PP: 11 PIv: 13 PIs: 11
Spell Slots: 1st - 3/4 2nd - 0/3 3rd - 1/2
Fey Touched: 1st - 0/1 2nd - 0/1
Masquerade Tattoo: 1st - 1/1
Levistus Legacy: Armor of Agathys - 0/1 Darkness - 1/1
Bardic Inspiration: 0/4
Healer's Kit: 20/20
Mal Conditions: Comprehend Languages. Disguise Self. Praised into Health (43). Immune to poison frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Loki's Bane. Aid. Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fastidious about his appearance to a distracting, unhealthy degree.
Mal Concentrating: Bless.

Esai
Ancient Companion: Warrior
Companion HP: 30/30 (32/32)
Companion AC: 16
Companion PP: 18 PIv: 12 PIs: 12
~~Sage's Counsel: While within 15 feet of the companion, you and your allies gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom checks~~. Warrior’s Protection (Warrior Only). When a creature within 5 feet of the companion makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, the companion imposes itself between the creature and the danger. The creature can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw.
Praised into Health. Immune to frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage

The sage militant scowled at the encroaching ghoul. He did not enjoy this proximity at all. The scholar loosed a pulse of thunderous energy, seeking to destroy the closest few. Esai sought to blockade as best he could, but the fury of the famished proved inexorable. He smashed a ghast with his arcane maul, seeking to splinter it with the potent force. Yet, the astute warrior could feel the tide turning. He glanced through the horde toward the bard, his eyes full of omen. If the mage did not unseal the hatch, the master-at-arms considered the odds the fleshly remained whole dwindled and withered.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mal Thunderclap: 5 thunder to the few nearest him. DC 14 Con, rolled an 8 and a 16 for the two ghouls respectively. (Discord)
BA Esai attack: 25 to hit, 12 force damage. (discord).
Esai: Preemptive reaction to OA: 24 to hit, 8 force damage.
Mal: OA if someone seeks to pass him (unlikely) or flee (unlikier)

Spoiler: Mal's Notes

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Spoiler: Cast and Crew

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Set: ~~outcast~~ exiled princeling of Abydos. Two princess sisters (Sisi and Sythpen Al-Sayyid). Romantic connection for Moira?
Selissa: Blighted or reconstructed wood elf? Purported Scout.
Vargath: Afflicted Lycanthrope seeking to suspend his curse. A Bloodwolf?
Mandaras: Rival to Dr. Fixer.
Dr. Fixer: Moira's lieutenant and cultivates relations with the locals of Vale.
Elder Maus: Seeks to kill Moira. Hired mercenaries who betrayed him.
--Healed to his full 9ft height.
--Disbelieves Moira's insights; seeks to end her directly or indirectly.
--Seeks us to verify the truths of Moira's claims--or stop her by any means necessary.
Maulei: Successor to Elder Maus as elder of Dam'ess.
Uluthando Mikoso "Ulu:" Paladin? of Order. From beyond the Vale. Reacts by gripping her dagger and declaring Tieflings are treated differently...Lawful (N/E?) Order? Calls Mal 'Mdala Ohlonishwayo.' Professes to serve no god, but spirits whose reach may be weaker in the Vale than elsewhere.
Nomcebo: Ulu's handler. Ink skinned tiefling with prehensile tail and an obvious allure.
Kagiso: Ulu's slave and carriage driver.

Spoiler: Dream of Leng

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Spoiler: In Full

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Mal has had this dream before. He finds himself in the legendary Library of Leng, an ancient home of virtually all worldly and mystical knowledge that burned when the city it was located in was razed nearly nine hundred years ago, half the world away. Still, in his dreams it still existed, and these dreams always played out the same. Hours of dutiful research, referencing and cross referencing sources from multiple tomes, carefully reconstructing ancient languages, until EUREKA! Some devastating and profound arcane truth became evident to him, and the sense of accomplisment and relief normally carried with him for several hours after waking up, even if he could never actually remember anything he learned. But this time is different. Mal is well versed enough in the arcane and divine arts to know that sometimes dreams carry real meaning. And as he stares down at what he has been working on, he instinctively knows this bears some significance. Where normally he would have arcane formulas and theorems, he sees only "The One Who Stalks Behind" scrawled over and over again in his own hand, though the words are manic and look like they were written in distress. He searches the paper for any further omen, and down at the bottom of the page, in the smallest script he could possibly manage, it says Behind you!. Just as he is about to turn, a claw as strong as iron grips the side of his head, snaps his neck to the side, and ends all feeling in the bard's body. But he can still hear the deep throated growls, along with the wet noises of whatever killed him beginning to eat him alive. But he never gets to see it before the dream ends.

The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. RIGHT BEHIND YOU! The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind.

Spoiler: Bence's Secrets

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Spoiler: Bence's Journal

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...is a backwards plane, so far removed from the Prime Material that it has not seen an angel or the work of a god in a millennia. I hear that far to the west they do not even worship the gods. Proper savages, but I must remain vigilant, as their knowledge of the ways of this world is far more educated than most. But it is ripe for my conquest. While my Master was tasked with corrupting Avendor, my home plane, a bastion of good and law, my chore is simply to tip the rat into the bucket of the Abyss as it prowls the rim looking for cheese. This plane is already so flooded with the energies of the Abyss that demons spontaneously emerge, monsters manifest in the dark, and their weak leaders bargain with forces they would be wiser to repulse. It will be child's play to nudge it the last few inches into anarchy and destruction, mostly due to the efforts of Pale Night herself. For thousands of years she has been grasping and clawing at this realm, dragging it further from the light and closer to her realm day by day, inch by inch, soul by soul. While my home plane was beyond my ability to destroy, this place will be my masterpiece. With my death at the hands of the forces of good, a symphony of destruction will play the anthem to my ascension to demonhood. The Pale Mother has promised me that each death will bring me closer to my true form, and each rebirth will increase my power, just as our pact promised. I can't wait to die. When will the heroes arrive? I've been planting and tending the seed of the idea in the old giant's mind for weeks now. When will it bear fruit? When can my dark rise to power begin? (The rest is a combination of burned and Abyssal that becomes impossible to read)

Dam'ess- Mass Quasit Summoning. Magic Mouth to Levy Commands re: Retrieve Mirror of Leng, Scepter of Rulership, And Aniot's Cube. Disperse to Appropriate Parties Per The Plan. Burn The Cabin.

Harumburg- Sending to Lord of Bone re: Portal to the 113th. (Indecipherable Due to Burns) In Accordance with Their Great Alliance.

Falluneer- Sending to Lord of Flesh re: (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Ebon Spear.

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)light: Sending to Lord of Blood re: Assassination of (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Yukkot, Recovery of Blood (More Burns).

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)odge- Sending to Cult of Pale (More Burns) re: Initiate Divining Ritual Sacrifices. FIND THE DAMN ZIGGURAT.

Garrunrow- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Kill the Last Bloodwolf. Recover (More Burns) Key.

Mountain of Smoke- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) crypt. Seize the Ebon (More Burns).

Sussoon- Ensure the Prophecy (Indecipherable Due to Burns)... Pay the Bounty Hunters to Find the Abydossian and the Princesses. re: Sacrifices of The Old Blood

(There is more, but seemingly out of paranoia Bence switched to Abyssal. It is impossible to tell how many lines there are, as the last half of the paper is fully burned away)

Spoiler: Arcane Lore concerning Bence's Notes

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The magic of Contingency is a nearly mythical bit of spell work that was said to be lost when the Library of Leng burned down. It allows a caster to prepare spells in advance for a predetermined event, in this case John Bence's own death, and the spells will automatically cast when the event happens. If Bence is capable of such sorcery, he is likely far more powerful than his flashy death at the party's hands would indicate.

The Mirror of Leng is a artifact of the Library of Leng, said to contain a frozen moment of time where the library was at it's height that a person can temporarily step in to, giving access to the greatest magical library this world has ever seen. Supposedly several mirrors were made, though some are confirmed destroyed after their use led to come calamity of forbidden magics long lost to time. The Scepter of Rulership is said to be an even more powerful version of a Rod of Rulership, a magic item that allows for mass mind manipulation of people to believe that the holder of the Scepter is their rightful ruler. The last time the Scepter was confirmed in play it toppled an entire nation.

Though numbering and organizing the layers of the Abyss is a fool's errand, there are some realms that are constant enough to designate. The one hundred and thirteenth layer is Thanatos, layer of Orcus, the Lord of Death. It is a lifeless frozen landscape where life is snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives, either by the untold legions of undead denizens, the magical aura of the layer itself, or, in the worst cases, by Orcus himself, using his fearsome Wand.

Spoiler: John Bence's Wall Art

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There are no invisible objects in the room, but the entire back wall of the cabin is plastered with profane runes and abyssal scribblings. Where there was nothing to the naked eye, there is an extensive patchwork of spell work, seemingly scribed in the rusted red of blood. More disturbing is the fragments of souls that have been bound to the wall. Faces of people rise and seethe from the wood like a strange and rippling tide, mouths open in anguish. There are not many of them left, presumably due to whatever spell was used here absorbing so much energy, but there is a fine layer of ectoplasm that would indicate that once there were dozens of soul fragments powering this spell. The sight turns Mal's stomach, as the chaotic, destructive magic of the Abyss is written as plainly as news script, but as subtly as any devil could manage.

Spoiler: Monsters

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Barlgura: Demon loosed by summoning ritual on the road to Dam'ess. Slain with its summoned partner by team. (Bless helped with accuracy issues due to invisibility. In the future, layer mind sliver to aid with saves.)
Brazen Hart: Spirit of the wild wood around Dam'ess. Seeks to test the party's mettle by forcing an open fight with the Barlgura.
Horror of Yurl: Shapeshifting kind of monster. Severs limbs, creates euphoria, and slays by consuming the liver. The newest variant flies...
Tree-house horror: elven make. Demon infested. Extremely rare creation.

The presence of the so-called "evolved" ghouls is troublesome. Said to be the chosen of Doresain the Ghoul King, Darakhuls are more motivated, more intelligent, and leagues more dangerous than their lesser kin. They have a subterranean empire on the other side of the continent, and their attempts to bring their Imperium to the surface have only narrowly been thwarted by the actions of great heroes and dedicated rulers. If Darakhuls have come to Harumvale, then the eyes of the Ghoul King have turned in this direction, and things truly are worse than imagined. Darakhul have a mystical connection to lesser ghouls and ghasts that enhances their intelligence and discipline when the evolved ghouls are present, turning them from hungry predators to a military unit.

Unknown Egg. Vargath has an egg that might be a moon drake, recovered from an oven in the Iron Ghoul territory of the sewers of Harumvale.

Imperium has a unicorn sourced for arena consumption.

Spoiler: Bence's After Shadow

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Confirmation that the ritual and journal at Bence's Cabin had merit: "Meanwhile, the remains of the prisoners are dragged away by the victors, no doubt for a victory meal. A magically amplified voice begins speaking in the language of the ghoul empire, which Mal's magic translates precisely. "Ghouls, ghasts, darakhul, and mortal guests, we have the honor of hosting Pale Night's emissaries! Servants of the illustrious planar mage John Bence, they come to us with the Moonlit Lady's contribution to our great goal, and a full day ahead of schedule! That means the portal is one day closer to completion! Soon, very soon, the Death Prince's armies will come marching into this world from the 113th layer, and the world will become our larder! To honor them, we have a special bout lined up tonight! A feast that all may partake in! For it is rare that such a luscious, sweet treat becomes available to us! I present to you an embodiment of everything that is pure and good! I'm sure it will taste delicious when our champions are done with it!"

A number of ghouls lead a equine form with chains around it's legs and a hood over it's head into the arena. The creature bucks and kicks, but mighty though it is it cannot shrug off the chains, which looked spiked and painful. The form is pure white except for the grime of the sewer, but even besmirched there is a gravity about the creature that causes the crowd to go silent in awe. "No worries, folks, those chains stop the beast from escaping, either physically or mystically. As long as they hold our dinner is bound. But not quite helpless! Do we have any volunteer chefs who will prepare the meal for all of us hungry, hungry folk?" It is at this point that a ghoul roughly removes the bag from the creature's head, revealing a pearlescent horn that emanates an internal light. These creatures intend to maim, kill, and butcher a unicorn, then serve it up like a spitted pig."

Spoiler: Instrument of the Bards

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Mal needs a translator, the spells, and woodcrafter to create a new relic.

Spoiler: Full Description

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Still, tucked among the primers and amateur books he finds a book that deals with the blending of magic and music. Specifically, it holds the instructions and rituals for a new version of the famed artifacts known as the instruments of the bards. Unfortunately, about a third of the book is in a language Mal does not understand or recognize, including most of the rites and rituals to imbue it with magic. Still, with a translator, appropriate magics, some study, and someone skilled in wood craft, he may be able to produce one of these relics for himself.

Spoiler: Half Troden Bardic Instrument Key

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Arcana- High Docent Half Toden directs Mal to a specific scroll on a specific shelf in a specific wing when pressed on this subject. He seems... oddly insistent... actually. It turns out to be a book of songs, actually, and one of them is penned by none other than High Docent Half Toden.

Lo, behold the works of the Maker of Things,
Wands, staves, instruments, wonders, and rings,
His traveling cart rolls from town to town
And trades mystical wonders for enough coins to drown
Sometimes human, sometimes dwarf, sometimes gnome,
He claims fate calls him, binds him, and keeps him from home
He forged Harum's hammer that split the Eternal Rock
Tinkered Trelmari's picks which defeat any Lock
He defies time and age, but one note rings true
Find one of Harum's adamant coins and he will find you.

Spoiler: Harumburg Library Lore

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Religion- There has been a near constant history of undead in and around the capital of Harumsvale. It seems like every three to five decades or so some priest or paladin of Harum organizes a purge that "purifies" a coven of vampire spawn, a hidden necromancer, or a ghoul nest. But it seems to Mal (and to High Docent Toden) that this always treats the outward symptoms without handling the cause. Vampire spawn are rooted out, but rarely is a true vampire found. Students at the university are found to be dabbling in the forbidden arts, but no one ever catches the teacher who revealed such secrets to them. And each time a nest of ghouls is rooted out there is often a new infection there within a century. Half gives Mal an anecdote about one building in the industrial district being raided three times within his lifetime.

History- Docent Toden cannot corroborate much in this area of research, but Mal does find several portraits that bear an astounding resemblance to Grand Arbiter Myrus Malkaav, each of them depicting some variety of civil servant or noble position with roughly eighty years between them. When Post Master Geller Rell passes away from a wasting disease, eight decades or so later Chief Accountant Daedren Gastaf, who has the same severe eyes, hooked nose, and pale skin but a different haircut, takes his position a serves with merited distinction. There is a general trend in these dopplegangers to rise in the ranks of the government over the centuries, and Mal finds records dating back nearly a thousand years.

Report daily updates to Mistress Moira at last light.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-01, 06:03 AM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 30/41 (30/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:

Each swing takes more effort. Each strike is hampered by the enemy. For every ghoul that falls, three more seem to take its place. Set tries to focus, prying the blade from clawed fingers and bringing it to bear again and again. But Set's focus flutters, his awareness open to them. He can feel their numbers swelling without end. The shadows surge over each other, a deadly undertow prepared to pull him back with the tide of undead. There are too many ghouls to fight with steel. Too many shadows to enslave them all.

Power over death. Could he bind the fallen instead of their shadows? The glaive vibrates in his hand with the ferocity of battle, and for a moment Set remembers the power he'd witnessed earlier. What if his allies could grow in number as well? Could they hold the line pitting death against death? Could every fallen ghoul become one of theirs?

A claw snakes through, raking Set's neck as he gives vent to a curse. Set's focus is split, but the needs of the moment quickly overwhelm any attempt to think of a solution or watch out for his allies. Block, smash, strike. Would he buckle first? The line can't hold. He can feel ghouls scurrying past, bound for Mido and Mal, for Selissa and the mage. A voice floats up behind him.

"Just a little while longer!"

Set curses again, intent on doing what's necessary.

Spoiler: ooc

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Move: None.

Action:
Attack: (1d20+6)[7] plus (1d4)[4] bless
Damage: (1d10+3)[11] slashing

Bonus Action:
Polearm Mastery BA Attack: (1d20+6)[21] plus (1d4)[4] bless
Damage: (1d4+3)[4] bludgeoning

Pre-emptive Reaction: Set will focus his reaction solely on ghoul's getting past now. If a ghoul leaves Set's 10 foot radius, he'll strike.
Polearm Mastery Attack: (1d20+6)[17] plus (1d4)[1] bless
Damage: (1d10+3)[8] slashing

**Awful** · 2022-02-02, 07:12 PM (ISO 8601)

Selissa Betula
Wood Elf Scout Rogue
AC: 16 HP: 38/38->41/45
PP: 17
Conditions: heroic encouragement, Aid
Concentrating: no

A toe-to-toe melee rush was very much not the wheelhouse of deepwoods scouts, and Selissa dodged in time to only have claws leave a grazing scrape across her flesh. The gleaming summoned sabre of the Student's Bow flicked out, and neatly parted the offending ghoul's pestilental head from its withered shoulders.

As it toppled, she brought it up in a guard, already swiveling to see where the next attack was coming from.

Spoiler: OOC

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Last turn reaction uncanny dodge to half the damage taken from the ghoul.
25 to hit, 25 magical slash damage to the ghoul that's attacking Selissa

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-02, 10:18 PM (ISO 8601)

Filthy Undead Riot

Maus, surrounded by ghouls, reaches out with his faith again, and again finds the undead resistant to his protestations. Still, some do fall away, as Maus dashes through the growing wave of undead to investigate the runes himself. The shrunken giant takes two wounds while moving through the wave of necrotic filth. "Move aside! I also know runes and wards. We are being overwhelmed!" Maus gestures with his staff at the hatch, which responds by popping open with a hiss. "Inside! All of you!" Says the dark wizard, who immediately climbs inside and makes his way down. Maus holds the hatch open and gestures towards the others, urging them in.

More undead fill the area. They aren't a fighting force. They are a riot of undeath, targeting each other with bites and claws and cruel savagery. If anything that spares you all the worst of which was possible. No matter how weak the blows, the weight of bodies begins to overwhelm your defenses. Nips and scratches are common, but the party's skill and solid armor prevent any mortal wounds. Nor do any of you suffer the freezing sickness of the ghouls. Some of the most dangerous looking of the hoard look to be recent converts- the other foul members of the living who populated the arena, fighting with their old equipment and renewed vigor despite ghastly wounds.

The Hunger Fever surrounds and envelops you. It embraces you. It fights and bites, kicks and punches, and nearly drags you all down. In the distance, back in the direction that the party came in, a massive explosion cracks the sewer in two and begins to collapse the tunnel, which makes the entire world seem to jump two feet to the left. The riot stumbles. A moments respite to move to safety.

Spoiler: OOC

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Everyone takes 7 damage from the riot. To move through the riot requires an athletics check or acrobatics check of 15. Anyone who fails is embroiled in combat and unable to move. Anyone who succeeds is... safe to move further into the city of the dead. Or move to save one of your allies. I suggest rolling your save in the discord to determine if you're getting out or going to help someone. I rolled for paralysis and this round you all passed. There are now just short of triple digit undead rampaging in this scene. If you wish to stay and fight them you may do so, but I wouldn't recommend it, as Selissa's surprise just started a chain reaction that is gonna collapse this level of the sewer.

And yes, I forgot about Maus... again...

**Theophilus** · 2022-02-04, 09:48 AM (ISO 8601)

Mal
Levistus Tiefling Bard 5
AC: 14 HP: 41/41 (48/48) THP: 3/10
PP: 11 PIv: 13 PIs: 11
Spell Slots: 1st - 3/4 2nd - 0/3 3rd - 0/2
Fey Touched: 1st - 0/1 2nd - 0/1
Masquerade Tattoo: 1st - 0/1
Levistus Legacy: Armor of Agathys - 0/1 Darkness - 1/1
Bardic Inspiration: 0/4
Healer's Kit: 20/20
Mal Conditions: Comprehend Languages. Disguise Self. Praised into Health (43). Immune to poison frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Loki's Bane. Aid. Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fastidious about his appearance to a distracting, unhealthy degree.
Mal Concentrating: Bless.

Esai
Ancient Companion: Warrior
Companion HP: 30/30 (32/32)
Companion AC: 16
Companion PP: 18 PIv: 12 PIs: 12
~~Sage's Counsel: While within 15 feet of the companion, you and your allies gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom checks~~. Warrior’s Protection (Warrior Only). When a creature within 5 feet of the companion makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, the companion imposes itself between the creature and the danger. The creature can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw.
Praised into Health. Immune to frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage

The world caved in on Maledictus, and a filthy, rotting world at that. He could not move for the press of stench-laden, bile-coated, piss-soaked vermin who had the indignity to not stay dead. He felt their nails gouge into his upper arm and calves. He felt their spittle on his cheek. He heard the roar of the treat Sel and he had concocted. Death would come for them all. The scholar desired not to join them in this last crushing embrace.

The arcanist loosed a pulse of thunder, which felt too feeble to dislodge even the frailest of the foes. Glancing to the hatch where Maus bore the brunt of the vile villains, the scholar spent the greatest reserve of his own power to flee through the gaps between worlds. He reformed in a blissful cloak of frost, sinking through the hole as the mundane reasserted its claim upon his person.

As he did, Mal stole a glance to Esai. The powerful warrior had his fill of undead to slaughter. The stone statue heaped them, smashed them, and remained engrossed in buying the living a chance to draw another breath. The master-at-arms gave a shallow nod of salute to his ward, perhaps for the last time in this form. Then the warrior went back to his duty of death and destruction. Then he vanished from view as the sill of the passage between undeath and the abyss slipped over Mal's head.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mal Thunderclap: 3 thunder to the few nearest him. DC 14 Con. Shan't roll. It's a meager amount of damage they can shrug off either way. (Discord)
BA: Misty Step through the hatch.
Movement to GTHO.
Esai: He's lodged in the thick of it. Failed his athletics check (discord).
Esai: Preemptive reaction to OA: Against the multitude, it would be a drop of blood.
Mal: OA if someone seeks to pass him beyond the porthole (unlikely) or flee (unlikier)

Spoiler: Mal's Notes

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Spoiler: Cast and Crew

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Set: ~~outcast~~ exiled princeling of Abydos. Two princess sisters (Sisi and Sythpen Al-Sayyid). Romantic connection for Moira?
Selissa: Blighted or reconstructed wood elf? Purported Scout.
Vargath: Afflicted Lycanthrope seeking to suspend his curse. A Bloodwolf?
Mandaras: Rival to Dr. Fixer.
Dr. Fixer: Moira's lieutenant and cultivates relations with the locals of Vale.
Elder Maus: Seeks to kill Moira. Hired mercenaries who betrayed him.
--Healed to his full 9ft height.
--Disbelieves Moira's insights; seeks to end her directly or indirectly.
--Seeks us to verify the truths of Moira's claims--or stop her by any means necessary.
Maulei: Successor to Elder Maus as elder of Dam'ess.
Uluthando Mikoso "Ulu:" Paladin? of Order. From beyond the Vale. Reacts by gripping her dagger and declaring Tieflings are treated differently...Lawful (N/E?) Order? Calls Mal 'Mdala Ohlonishwayo.' Professes to serve no god, but spirits whose reach may be weaker in the Vale than elsewhere.
Nomcebo: Ulu's handler. Ink skinned tiefling with prehensile tail and an obvious allure.
Kagiso: Ulu's slave and carriage driver.

Spoiler: Dream of Leng

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Spoiler: In Full

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Mal has had this dream before. He finds himself in the legendary Library of Leng, an ancient home of virtually all worldly and mystical knowledge that burned when the city it was located in was razed nearly nine hundred years ago, half the world away. Still, in his dreams it still existed, and these dreams always played out the same. Hours of dutiful research, referencing and cross referencing sources from multiple tomes, carefully reconstructing ancient languages, until EUREKA! Some devastating and profound arcane truth became evident to him, and the sense of accomplisment and relief normally carried with him for several hours after waking up, even if he could never actually remember anything he learned. But this time is different. Mal is well versed enough in the arcane and divine arts to know that sometimes dreams carry real meaning. And as he stares down at what he has been working on, he instinctively knows this bears some significance. Where normally he would have arcane formulas and theorems, he sees only "The One Who Stalks Behind" scrawled over and over again in his own hand, though the words are manic and look like they were written in distress. He searches the paper for any further omen, and down at the bottom of the page, in the smallest script he could possibly manage, it says Behind you!. Just as he is about to turn, a claw as strong as iron grips the side of his head, snaps his neck to the side, and ends all feeling in the bard's body. But he can still hear the deep throated growls, along with the wet noises of whatever killed him beginning to eat him alive. But he never gets to see it before the dream ends.

The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. RIGHT BEHIND YOU! The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind.

Spoiler: Bence's Secrets

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Spoiler: Bence's Journal

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...is a backwards plane, so far removed from the Prime Material that it has not seen an angel or the work of a god in a millennia. I hear that far to the west they do not even worship the gods. Proper savages, but I must remain vigilant, as their knowledge of the ways of this world is far more educated than most. But it is ripe for my conquest. While my Master was tasked with corrupting Avendor, my home plane, a bastion of good and law, my chore is simply to tip the rat into the bucket of the Abyss as it prowls the rim looking for cheese. This plane is already so flooded with the energies of the Abyss that demons spontaneously emerge, monsters manifest in the dark, and their weak leaders bargain with forces they would be wiser to repulse. It will be child's play to nudge it the last few inches into anarchy and destruction, mostly due to the efforts of Pale Night herself. For thousands of years she has been grasping and clawing at this realm, dragging it further from the light and closer to her realm day by day, inch by inch, soul by soul. While my home plane was beyond my ability to destroy, this place will be my masterpiece. With my death at the hands of the forces of good, a symphony of destruction will play the anthem to my ascension to demonhood. The Pale Mother has promised me that each death will bring me closer to my true form, and each rebirth will increase my power, just as our pact promised. I can't wait to die. When will the heroes arrive? I've been planting and tending the seed of the idea in the old giant's mind for weeks now. When will it bear fruit? When can my dark rise to power begin? (The rest is a combination of burned and Abyssal that becomes impossible to read)

Dam'ess- Mass Quasit Summoning. Magic Mouth to Levy Commands re: Retrieve Mirror of Leng, Scepter of Rulership, And Aniot's Cube. Disperse to Appropriate Parties Per The Plan. Burn The Cabin.

Harumburg- Sending to Lord of Bone re: Portal to the 113th. (Indecipherable Due to Burns) In Accordance with Their Great Alliance.

Falluneer- Sending to Lord of Flesh re: (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Ebon Spear.

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)light: Sending to Lord of Blood re: Assassination of (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Yukkot, Recovery of Blood (More Burns).

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)odge- Sending to Cult of Pale (More Burns) re: Initiate Divining Ritual Sacrifices. FIND THE DAMN ZIGGURAT.

Garrunrow- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Kill the Last Bloodwolf. Recover (More Burns) Key.

Mountain of Smoke- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) crypt. Seize the Ebon (More Burns).

Sussoon- Ensure the Prophecy (Indecipherable Due to Burns)... Pay the Bounty Hunters to Find the Abydossian and the Princesses. re: Sacrifices of The Old Blood

(There is more, but seemingly out of paranoia Bence switched to Abyssal. It is impossible to tell how many lines there are, as the last half of the paper is fully burned away)

Spoiler: Arcane Lore concerning Bence's Notes

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The magic of Contingency is a nearly mythical bit of spell work that was said to be lost when the Library of Leng burned down. It allows a caster to prepare spells in advance for a predetermined event, in this case John Bence's own death, and the spells will automatically cast when the event happens. If Bence is capable of such sorcery, he is likely far more powerful than his flashy death at the party's hands would indicate.

The Mirror of Leng is a artifact of the Library of Leng, said to contain a frozen moment of time where the library was at it's height that a person can temporarily step in to, giving access to the greatest magical library this world has ever seen. Supposedly several mirrors were made, though some are confirmed destroyed after their use led to come calamity of forbidden magics long lost to time. The Scepter of Rulership is said to be an even more powerful version of a Rod of Rulership, a magic item that allows for mass mind manipulation of people to believe that the holder of the Scepter is their rightful ruler. The last time the Scepter was confirmed in play it toppled an entire nation.

Though numbering and organizing the layers of the Abyss is a fool's errand, there are some realms that are constant enough to designate. The one hundred and thirteenth layer is Thanatos, layer of Orcus, the Lord of Death. It is a lifeless frozen landscape where life is snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives, either by the untold legions of undead denizens, the magical aura of the layer itself, or, in the worst cases, by Orcus himself, using his fearsome Wand.

Spoiler: John Bence's Wall Art

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There are no invisible objects in the room, but the entire back wall of the cabin is plastered with profane runes and abyssal scribblings. Where there was nothing to the naked eye, there is an extensive patchwork of spell work, seemingly scribed in the rusted red of blood. More disturbing is the fragments of souls that have been bound to the wall. Faces of people rise and seethe from the wood like a strange and rippling tide, mouths open in anguish. There are not many of them left, presumably due to whatever spell was used here absorbing so much energy, but there is a fine layer of ectoplasm that would indicate that once there were dozens of soul fragments powering this spell. The sight turns Mal's stomach, as the chaotic, destructive magic of the Abyss is written as plainly as news script, but as subtly as any devil could manage.

Spoiler: Monsters

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Barlgura: Demon loosed by summoning ritual on the road to Dam'ess. Slain with its summoned partner by team. (Bless helped with accuracy issues due to invisibility. In the future, layer mind sliver to aid with saves.)
Brazen Hart: Spirit of the wild wood around Dam'ess. Seeks to test the party's mettle by forcing an open fight with the Barlgura.
Horror of Yurl: Shapeshifting kind of monster. Severs limbs, creates euphoria, and slays by consuming the liver. The newest variant flies...
Tree-house horror: elven make. Demon infested. Extremely rare creation.

The presence of the so-called "evolved" ghouls is troublesome. Said to be the chosen of Doresain the Ghoul King, Darakhuls are more motivated, more intelligent, and leagues more dangerous than their lesser kin. They have a subterranean empire on the other side of the continent, and their attempts to bring their Imperium to the surface have only narrowly been thwarted by the actions of great heroes and dedicated rulers. If Darakhuls have come to Harumvale, then the eyes of the Ghoul King have turned in this direction, and things truly are worse than imagined. Darakhul have a mystical connection to lesser ghouls and ghasts that enhances their intelligence and discipline when the evolved ghouls are present, turning them from hungry predators to a military unit.

Unknown Egg. Vargath has an egg that might be a moon drake, recovered from an oven in the Iron Ghoul territory of the sewers of Harumvale.

Imperium has a unicorn sourced for arena consumption.

Spoiler: Bence's After Shadow

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Confirmation that the ritual and journal at Bence's Cabin had merit: "Meanwhile, the remains of the prisoners are dragged away by the victors, no doubt for a victory meal. A magically amplified voice begins speaking in the language of the ghoul empire, which Mal's magic translates precisely. "Ghouls, ghasts, darakhul, and mortal guests, we have the honor of hosting Pale Night's emissaries! Servants of the illustrious planar mage John Bence, they come to us with the Moonlit Lady's contribution to our great goal, and a full day ahead of schedule! That means the portal is one day closer to completion! Soon, very soon, the Death Prince's armies will come marching into this world from the 113th layer, and the world will become our larder! To honor them, we have a special bout lined up tonight! A feast that all may partake in! For it is rare that such a luscious, sweet treat becomes available to us! I present to you an embodiment of everything that is pure and good! I'm sure it will taste delicious when our champions are done with it!"

A number of ghouls lead a equine form with chains around it's legs and a hood over it's head into the arena. The creature bucks and kicks, but mighty though it is it cannot shrug off the chains, which looked spiked and painful. The form is pure white except for the grime of the sewer, but even besmirched there is a gravity about the creature that causes the crowd to go silent in awe. "No worries, folks, those chains stop the beast from escaping, either physically or mystically. As long as they hold our dinner is bound. But not quite helpless! Do we have any volunteer chefs who will prepare the meal for all of us hungry, hungry folk?" It is at this point that a ghoul roughly removes the bag from the creature's head, revealing a pearlescent horn that emanates an internal light. These creatures intend to maim, kill, and butcher a unicorn, then serve it up like a spitted pig."

Spoiler: Instrument of the Bards

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Mal needs a translator, the spells, and woodcrafter to create a new relic.

Spoiler: Full Description

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Still, tucked among the primers and amateur books he finds a book that deals with the blending of magic and music. Specifically, it holds the instructions and rituals for a new version of the famed artifacts known as the instruments of the bards. Unfortunately, about a third of the book is in a language Mal does not understand or recognize, including most of the rites and rituals to imbue it with magic. Still, with a translator, appropriate magics, some study, and someone skilled in wood craft, he may be able to produce one of these relics for himself.

Spoiler: Half Troden Bardic Instrument Key

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Arcana- High Docent Half Toden directs Mal to a specific scroll on a specific shelf in a specific wing when pressed on this subject. He seems... oddly insistent... actually. It turns out to be a book of songs, actually, and one of them is penned by none other than High Docent Half Toden.

Lo, behold the works of the Maker of Things,
Wands, staves, instruments, wonders, and rings,
His traveling cart rolls from town to town
And trades mystical wonders for enough coins to drown
Sometimes human, sometimes dwarf, sometimes gnome,
He claims fate calls him, binds him, and keeps him from home
He forged Harum's hammer that split the Eternal Rock
Tinkered Trelmari's picks which defeat any Lock
He defies time and age, but one note rings true
Find one of Harum's adamant coins and he will find you.

Spoiler: Harumburg Library Lore

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Religion- There has been a near constant history of undead in and around the capital of Harumsvale. It seems like every three to five decades or so some priest or paladin of Harum organizes a purge that "purifies" a coven of vampire spawn, a hidden necromancer, or a ghoul nest. But it seems to Mal (and to High Docent Toden) that this always treats the outward symptoms without handling the cause. Vampire spawn are rooted out, but rarely is a true vampire found. Students at the university are found to be dabbling in the forbidden arts, but no one ever catches the teacher who revealed such secrets to them. And each time a nest of ghouls is rooted out there is often a new infection there within a century. Half gives Mal an anecdote about one building in the industrial district being raided three times within his lifetime.

History- Docent Toden cannot corroborate much in this area of research, but Mal does find several portraits that bear an astounding resemblance to Grand Arbiter Myrus Malkaav, each of them depicting some variety of civil servant or noble position with roughly eighty years between them. When Post Master Geller Rell passes away from a wasting disease, eight decades or so later Chief Accountant Daedren Gastaf, who has the same severe eyes, hooked nose, and pale skin but a different haircut, takes his position a serves with merited distinction. There is a general trend in these dopplegangers to rise in the ranks of the government over the centuries, and Mal finds records dating back nearly a thousand years.

Report daily updates to Mistress Moira at last light.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-04, 09:58 PM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 23/41 (23/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:

The setting sun paints the sky gold and orange as it drops out of the sky, wishing Set farewell until tomorrow. A warm breeze stirs, tickling his face with a few grains of sand. The smell of spices carries with it, the promise of good food and good company near at hand. Rising, Set brushes the sand from his robes as the sky starts bleeding red, giving ground slowly to the darkness. He starts for the caravan, turning his back on the last light of day.

Balat was the final oasis before they would be back in Abydos, their trek through the desert almost done. Sirus had charged him with paying homage to the hunters of the deep desert, the Windwalkers. Sythpen followed in what had become her usual fashion. She'd snuck out in the night, abandoning her own duties and navigating alone in the days that followed. She'd intercepted the caravan before they'd even raised Balat on their way out. Now they were back, nearly home free. Sirus would've been angry, no doubt, but he could hardly stay mad for two months, particularly when they brought home such good tidings. A deal of trade between their peoples, won more by Sythpen's mettle than Set's words.

Smiling, Set waves as he catches her eye down by the cookfires, an emerald head scarf standing out among the white and grey. One false step is all it takes. In the blink of an eye he's gone. Swallowed by a sinkhole, sand crushing in all around him. There's no light in this place. No air. No hope. There's only suffocating darkness here.

***

The crush overwhelms Set, threatening to swallow him whole. The stench of sewers and the stink of undead rob him of breath. There's no light in this place. No air. No hope. Only suffocating darkness. Only death.

Spoiler: ooc

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Acrobatics of 11 and 22 in Discord with Selissa's help. Set will take the full round to gtfo once his *** gets saved.

**Amnestic** · 2022-02-05, 05:41 AM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy), Bless
Concentrating: --

He was encouraged that no further words needed to be exchanged, no desperate plea for a last stand against the throng. With the hatch open, and every non-living statue seemingly safe scrabbling to their feet, Vargath hovers at the exit for a moment, fending off the undead with his shield to make sure the others get through before jumping in behind them, doing what he can to close the exitway behind them when he goes. If the ghouls were smart he expects they could follow, but the tight confines would serve their purposes more than the undead, and they might just give up on their prey to slaughter each other instead.

Spoiler

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Move: Dash
Action: Dash

**Awful** · 2022-02-05, 08:54 AM (ISO 8601)

Selissa Betula
Wood Elf Scout Rogue
AC: 16 HP: max 38-> 34/45
PP: 17
Conditions: heroic encouragement, Aid
Concentrating: no

The door opened and Selissa slipped through, hacking at grasping claws that sort to drag her down. She turned to look back for the others.

Her trap went off. Louder than thunder, the shockwave raced down the tunnel, sending the horde staggering and Selissa sliding on her feet for balance. The tunnel shifted and rocks began to drip from the ceiling like dusty rain. It was going to come down.

Vargath was bashing his way through the horde, and turned to hold the doorway. Maus was there already. Mal appeared in a wintery burst of frost. Where was-

The living statue was out there, hewing with his hammer, without a care. Selissa scanned the crowd past it, looking for the living-

There, sunken into the heaving morass, was Set, trappedby the press of bodies.

"Hold the door," she snapped as she began to run.

It would be impossible to force her way right through the horde, so she didn't run through them. She ran over them. A leap carried her up and she teetered wildly, only a headlong dash keeping her upright as she stomped over heads and shoulders. Talons scraped at her shins and she jumped again, forcing a hole in the horde next to Set. She reached out with her wooden hand and snatched at him, pulling him in the way of the door. She hacked wildly with her spectral sabre with the other.

"Push!" she hissed over the maelstrom. "Go! Go!"

Evey second seemed to take an eternity, pushing through the mob, but finally they spilled out the horde past Vargath. She panted harshly, feeling raw and scraped, but turned to send an arrow back at the ghoul mass.

"Where's the other human?" she managed.

Spoiler: OOC

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rolled a 24, used my action and BA to get to Set, help him out, and back.

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-05, 11:06 AM (ISO 8601)

Safety Hatch

Each of the living party members makes their way to the hatch and climbs in. As though in response to Selissa's question, Mido makes a diving lunge to get into the hatch with a agonized screech, his arms covered in scratches and bites. With the exception of Esai, all reach the safety of the hatch promptly.

The inside of the hatch is a section of sewer pipe large enough to crouch uncomfortably to get around. It leads downward, and other than a moldering red carpet the walls and floors are bare. Maus, holding the hatch and looking at Esai, shouts to Mal. "Are we waiting for your statue master?" The dark wizard begins making his way down the pipe quickly, heading for another hatch door.

**Theophilus** · 2022-02-05, 11:37 AM (ISO 8601)

Mal
Levistus Tiefling Bard 5
AC: 14 HP: 41/41 (48/48) THP: 3/10
PP: 11 PIv: 13 PIs: 11
Spell Slots: 1st - 3/4 2nd - 0/3 3rd - 0/2
Fey Touched: 1st - 0/1 2nd - 0/1
Masquerade Tattoo: 1st - 0/1
Levistus Legacy: Armor of Agathys - 0/1 Darkness - 1/1
Bardic Inspiration: 0/4
Healer's Kit: 20/20
Mal Conditions: Comprehend Languages. Disguise Self. Praised into Health (43). Immune to poison frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Loki's Bane. Aid. Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fastidious about his appearance to a distracting, unhealthy degree.
Mal Concentrating: Bless.

Esai
Ancient Companion: Warrior
Companion HP: 30/30 (32/32)
Companion AC: 16
Companion PP: 18 PIv: 12 PIs: 12
Sage's Counsel: While within 15 feet of the companion, you and your allies gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom checks. Warrior’s Protection (Warrior Only). When a creature within 5 feet of the companion makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, the companion imposes itself between the creature and the danger. The creature can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw.
Praised into Health. Immune to frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage

Maledictus sang a shrill, cutting note in the infernal dialect--a coda to a rite more ancient than most societies. The statue spread its arms and firmed its stance in response, freezing into a final defiance against the wave of rot to slow it before the tide of destruction swept down from above. Esai departed, his spirit passing beyond the bark and bite of the unliving.

Mal simply replied, "Seal the way. The Master shall join us later in our journey."

The seeming Cambion turned to appraise where they had emerged. His mien remained frozen in disdain for the fetid holes in which these skulking creatures took refuge. He gathers up his cloak, rubbing at a conspicuous stain with his offhand's fingers while he proceeded after the wizard with his rapier readied.

Spoiler: OOC

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Mal dismisses the spirit.

Spoiler: Mal's Notes

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Spoiler: Cast and Crew

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Set: ~~outcast~~ exiled princeling of Abydos. Two princess sisters (Sisi and Sythpen Al-Sayyid). Romantic connection for Moira?
Selissa: Blighted or reconstructed wood elf? Purported Scout.
Vargath: Afflicted Lycanthrope seeking to suspend his curse. A Bloodwolf?
Mandaras: Rival to Dr. Fixer.
Dr. Fixer: Moira's lieutenant and cultivates relations with the locals of Vale.
Elder Maus: Seeks to kill Moira. Hired mercenaries who betrayed him.
--Healed to his full 9ft height.
--Disbelieves Moira's insights; seeks to end her directly or indirectly.
--Seeks us to verify the truths of Moira's claims--or stop her by any means necessary.
Maulei: Successor to Elder Maus as elder of Dam'ess.
Uluthando Mikoso "Ulu:" Paladin? of Order. From beyond the Vale. Reacts by gripping her dagger and declaring Tieflings are treated differently...Lawful (N/E?) Order? Calls Mal 'Mdala Ohlonishwayo.' Professes to serve no god, but spirits whose reach may be weaker in the Vale than elsewhere.
Nomcebo: Ulu's handler. Ink skinned tiefling with prehensile tail and an obvious allure.
Kagiso: Ulu's slave and carriage driver.

Spoiler: Dream of Leng

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Spoiler: In Full

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Mal has had this dream before. He finds himself in the legendary Library of Leng, an ancient home of virtually all worldly and mystical knowledge that burned when the city it was located in was razed nearly nine hundred years ago, half the world away. Still, in his dreams it still existed, and these dreams always played out the same. Hours of dutiful research, referencing and cross referencing sources from multiple tomes, carefully reconstructing ancient languages, until EUREKA! Some devastating and profound arcane truth became evident to him, and the sense of accomplisment and relief normally carried with him for several hours after waking up, even if he could never actually remember anything he learned. But this time is different. Mal is well versed enough in the arcane and divine arts to know that sometimes dreams carry real meaning. And as he stares down at what he has been working on, he instinctively knows this bears some significance. Where normally he would have arcane formulas and theorems, he sees only "The One Who Stalks Behind" scrawled over and over again in his own hand, though the words are manic and look like they were written in distress. He searches the paper for any further omen, and down at the bottom of the page, in the smallest script he could possibly manage, it says Behind you!. Just as he is about to turn, a claw as strong as iron grips the side of his head, snaps his neck to the side, and ends all feeling in the bard's body. But he can still hear the deep throated growls, along with the wet noises of whatever killed him beginning to eat him alive. But he never gets to see it before the dream ends.

The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. RIGHT BEHIND YOU! The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind.

Spoiler: Bence's Secrets

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Spoiler: Bence's Journal

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...is a backwards plane, so far removed from the Prime Material that it has not seen an angel or the work of a god in a millennia. I hear that far to the west they do not even worship the gods. Proper savages, but I must remain vigilant, as their knowledge of the ways of this world is far more educated than most. But it is ripe for my conquest. While my Master was tasked with corrupting Avendor, my home plane, a bastion of good and law, my chore is simply to tip the rat into the bucket of the Abyss as it prowls the rim looking for cheese. This plane is already so flooded with the energies of the Abyss that demons spontaneously emerge, monsters manifest in the dark, and their weak leaders bargain with forces they would be wiser to repulse. It will be child's play to nudge it the last few inches into anarchy and destruction, mostly due to the efforts of Pale Night herself. For thousands of years she has been grasping and clawing at this realm, dragging it further from the light and closer to her realm day by day, inch by inch, soul by soul. While my home plane was beyond my ability to destroy, this place will be my masterpiece. With my death at the hands of the forces of good, a symphony of destruction will play the anthem to my ascension to demonhood. The Pale Mother has promised me that each death will bring me closer to my true form, and each rebirth will increase my power, just as our pact promised. I can't wait to die. When will the heroes arrive? I've been planting and tending the seed of the idea in the old giant's mind for weeks now. When will it bear fruit? When can my dark rise to power begin? (The rest is a combination of burned and Abyssal that becomes impossible to read)

Dam'ess- Mass Quasit Summoning. Magic Mouth to Levy Commands re: Retrieve Mirror of Leng, Scepter of Rulership, And Aniot's Cube. Disperse to Appropriate Parties Per The Plan. Burn The Cabin.

Harumburg- Sending to Lord of Bone re: Portal to the 113th. (Indecipherable Due to Burns) In Accordance with Their Great Alliance.

Falluneer- Sending to Lord of Flesh re: (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Ebon Spear.

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)light: Sending to Lord of Blood re: Assassination of (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Yukkot, Recovery of Blood (More Burns).

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)odge- Sending to Cult of Pale (More Burns) re: Initiate Divining Ritual Sacrifices. FIND THE DAMN ZIGGURAT.

Garrunrow- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Kill the Last Bloodwolf. Recover (More Burns) Key.

Mountain of Smoke- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) crypt. Seize the Ebon (More Burns).

Sussoon- Ensure the Prophecy (Indecipherable Due to Burns)... Pay the Bounty Hunters to Find the Abydossian and the Princesses. re: Sacrifices of The Old Blood

(There is more, but seemingly out of paranoia Bence switched to Abyssal. It is impossible to tell how many lines there are, as the last half of the paper is fully burned away)

Spoiler: Arcane Lore concerning Bence's Notes

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The magic of Contingency is a nearly mythical bit of spell work that was said to be lost when the Library of Leng burned down. It allows a caster to prepare spells in advance for a predetermined event, in this case John Bence's own death, and the spells will automatically cast when the event happens. If Bence is capable of such sorcery, he is likely far more powerful than his flashy death at the party's hands would indicate.

The Mirror of Leng is a artifact of the Library of Leng, said to contain a frozen moment of time where the library was at it's height that a person can temporarily step in to, giving access to the greatest magical library this world has ever seen. Supposedly several mirrors were made, though some are confirmed destroyed after their use led to come calamity of forbidden magics long lost to time. The Scepter of Rulership is said to be an even more powerful version of a Rod of Rulership, a magic item that allows for mass mind manipulation of people to believe that the holder of the Scepter is their rightful ruler. The last time the Scepter was confirmed in play it toppled an entire nation.

Though numbering and organizing the layers of the Abyss is a fool's errand, there are some realms that are constant enough to designate. The one hundred and thirteenth layer is Thanatos, layer of Orcus, the Lord of Death. It is a lifeless frozen landscape where life is snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives, either by the untold legions of undead denizens, the magical aura of the layer itself, or, in the worst cases, by Orcus himself, using his fearsome Wand.

Spoiler: John Bence's Wall Art

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There are no invisible objects in the room, but the entire back wall of the cabin is plastered with profane runes and abyssal scribblings. Where there was nothing to the naked eye, there is an extensive patchwork of spell work, seemingly scribed in the rusted red of blood. More disturbing is the fragments of souls that have been bound to the wall. Faces of people rise and seethe from the wood like a strange and rippling tide, mouths open in anguish. There are not many of them left, presumably due to whatever spell was used here absorbing so much energy, but there is a fine layer of ectoplasm that would indicate that once there were dozens of soul fragments powering this spell. The sight turns Mal's stomach, as the chaotic, destructive magic of the Abyss is written as plainly as news script, but as subtly as any devil could manage.

Spoiler: Monsters

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Barlgura: Demon loosed by summoning ritual on the road to Dam'ess. Slain with its summoned partner by team. (Bless helped with accuracy issues due to invisibility. In the future, layer mind sliver to aid with saves.)
Brazen Hart: Spirit of the wild wood around Dam'ess. Seeks to test the party's mettle by forcing an open fight with the Barlgura.
Horror of Yurl: Shapeshifting kind of monster. Severs limbs, creates euphoria, and slays by consuming the liver. The newest variant flies...
Tree-house horror: elven make. Demon infested. Extremely rare creation.

The presence of the so-called "evolved" ghouls is troublesome. Said to be the chosen of Doresain the Ghoul King, Darakhuls are more motivated, more intelligent, and leagues more dangerous than their lesser kin. They have a subterranean empire on the other side of the continent, and their attempts to bring their Imperium to the surface have only narrowly been thwarted by the actions of great heroes and dedicated rulers. If Darakhuls have come to Harumvale, then the eyes of the Ghoul King have turned in this direction, and things truly are worse than imagined. Darakhul have a mystical connection to lesser ghouls and ghasts that enhances their intelligence and discipline when the evolved ghouls are present, turning them from hungry predators to a military unit.

Unknown Egg. Vargath has an egg that might be a moon drake, recovered from an oven in the Iron Ghoul territory of the sewers of Harumvale.

Imperium has a unicorn sourced for arena consumption.

Spoiler: Bence's After Shadow

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Confirmation that the ritual and journal at Bence's Cabin had merit: "Meanwhile, the remains of the prisoners are dragged away by the victors, no doubt for a victory meal. A magically amplified voice begins speaking in the language of the ghoul empire, which Mal's magic translates precisely. "Ghouls, ghasts, darakhul, and mortal guests, we have the honor of hosting Pale Night's emissaries! Servants of the illustrious planar mage John Bence, they come to us with the Moonlit Lady's contribution to our great goal, and a full day ahead of schedule! That means the portal is one day closer to completion! Soon, very soon, the Death Prince's armies will come marching into this world from the 113th layer, and the world will become our larder! To honor them, we have a special bout lined up tonight! A feast that all may partake in! For it is rare that such a luscious, sweet treat becomes available to us! I present to you an embodiment of everything that is pure and good! I'm sure it will taste delicious when our champions are done with it!"

A number of ghouls lead a equine form with chains around it's legs and a hood over it's head into the arena. The creature bucks and kicks, but mighty though it is it cannot shrug off the chains, which looked spiked and painful. The form is pure white except for the grime of the sewer, but even besmirched there is a gravity about the creature that causes the crowd to go silent in awe. "No worries, folks, those chains stop the beast from escaping, either physically or mystically. As long as they hold our dinner is bound. But not quite helpless! Do we have any volunteer chefs who will prepare the meal for all of us hungry, hungry folk?" It is at this point that a ghoul roughly removes the bag from the creature's head, revealing a pearlescent horn that emanates an internal light. These creatures intend to maim, kill, and butcher a unicorn, then serve it up like a spitted pig."

Spoiler: Instrument of the Bards

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Mal needs a translator, the spells, and woodcrafter to create a new relic.

Spoiler: Full Description

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Still, tucked among the primers and amateur books he finds a book that deals with the blending of magic and music. Specifically, it holds the instructions and rituals for a new version of the famed artifacts known as the instruments of the bards. Unfortunately, about a third of the book is in a language Mal does not understand or recognize, including most of the rites and rituals to imbue it with magic. Still, with a translator, appropriate magics, some study, and someone skilled in wood craft, he may be able to produce one of these relics for himself.

Spoiler: Half Troden Bardic Instrument Key

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Arcana- High Docent Half Toden directs Mal to a specific scroll on a specific shelf in a specific wing when pressed on this subject. He seems... oddly insistent... actually. It turns out to be a book of songs, actually, and one of them is penned by none other than High Docent Half Toden.

Lo, behold the works of the Maker of Things,
Wands, staves, instruments, wonders, and rings,
His traveling cart rolls from town to town
And trades mystical wonders for enough coins to drown
Sometimes human, sometimes dwarf, sometimes gnome,
He claims fate calls him, binds him, and keeps him from home
He forged Harum's hammer that split the Eternal Rock
Tinkered Trelmari's picks which defeat any Lock
He defies time and age, but one note rings true
Find one of Harum's adamant coins and he will find you.

Spoiler: Harumburg Library Lore

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Religion- There has been a near constant history of undead in and around the capital of Harumsvale. It seems like every three to five decades or so some priest or paladin of Harum organizes a purge that "purifies" a coven of vampire spawn, a hidden necromancer, or a ghoul nest. But it seems to Mal (and to High Docent Toden) that this always treats the outward symptoms without handling the cause. Vampire spawn are rooted out, but rarely is a true vampire found. Students at the university are found to be dabbling in the forbidden arts, but no one ever catches the teacher who revealed such secrets to them. And each time a nest of ghouls is rooted out there is often a new infection there within a century. Half gives Mal an anecdote about one building in the industrial district being raided three times within his lifetime.

History- Docent Toden cannot corroborate much in this area of research, but Mal does find several portraits that bear an astounding resemblance to Grand Arbiter Myrus Malkaav, each of them depicting some variety of civil servant or noble position with roughly eighty years between them. When Post Master Geller Rell passes away from a wasting disease, eight decades or so later Chief Accountant Daedren Gastaf, who has the same severe eyes, hooked nose, and pale skin but a different haircut, takes his position a serves with merited distinction. There is a general trend in these dopplegangers to rise in the ranks of the government over the centuries, and Mal finds records dating back nearly a thousand years.

Report daily updates to Mistress Moira at last light.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-06, 07:02 AM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 27/41 (27/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:
Spell Slots: 1/2
Second Wind: 0/1
Action surge: 1/1

Time stretches out, losing all meaning in the dark. Was it fate that brought him here, or his own stupidity? The fight starts seeping out of Set, the weight of his own death crushing him as surely as his surroundings. He should have belonged to the Ankh a while longer, but the Scarab wouldn't be denied.

A hand finds him in the darkness, an impossibility made real. A middle finger to fate or the gods or stupidity and chaos. An arm, brown and solid as oak, strains to free him.

"Pull!" the muffled voice shouts over the crush. "Go! Go!"

The sand gives way slowly, reluctant to give Set back, but Sythpen wouldn't be denied. Always concerned with doing the right thing, Sythpen, regardless of the danger. Always eager to prove she could best the Scarab, exerting her power over death itself.

The minutes crawl by as a team works to free them both, but eventually Set is back among the living.

***

Set lays his glaive on the carpet, crouched low in the tunnel and catching his breath. One hand finds the other, clasping both together to still the shaking. Could he have gotten out alone? His hands seem to know better than him. After a few moments he pulls himself together, glancing up at Evergreen as Iceblood hurries after the mage.

"Thank you. <Thanks>," Set offers again in poorly accented elvish, bowing his head after meeting her eye. "I owe you." Stupid thought, that. It hardly needed saying that he probably owed his life to her a couple times over, but the words are coming hard and only getting harder. Set chews on the inside of his cheek, searching for something else to latch onto.

"You alright?" Set asks Mido, wincing at his own question given their recent ordeal. Instead of distracting from his own failures, the question only exacerbates them. How was he supposed to keep Mido whole if he couldn't protect himself? What good were either of them to his sisters if they couldn't survive?

Set picks up the glaive, trying to focus on what comes next rather than dwelling on past failures, but his failures shadow him anyway.

Spoiler: ooc

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Bonus Action: Second Wind to heal (1d10+2)[4]

**Amnestic** · 2022-02-07, 07:42 AM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy), Bless
Concentrating: --

They'd made it out of the fire, but their next destination promised to be...an even bigger fire. There was no going back to the surface now. They were in it for the long haul, and they hadn't lost the dark magician along the way. He was still with them, which posed a problem. With more hatches they could take the opportunity to cut him down here and now, overwhelm him with sheer numbers and blame the ghouls...but they were still on their heels, and spending time on a fight might get them all killed, but he still needed to keep his senses on high alert for the opportunity to whittle down the underground's numbers, even if it was one at a time.

"We made it through." Vargath says, trying to buoy spirits - his own and others. Better that they all keep their mind on what comes next than dwell on what they saw. "Best keep moving before the frenzied figure out how doors work." If they could figure out the wheelboards, they could assuredly grasp the concept of a door once they calmed, or simply brute force it.

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-07, 08:52 PM (ISO 8601)

The Down Pipe to Hell

Following after the wizard is an effort in futility, even for Selissa. He moves with supernatural speed, seeming to skate down the metal pipe like an ice dancer. He reaches the opposite hatch in a flash of movement, but he does not turn it immediately. He waits, back turned, hands on the rotating mechanism, for a few breaths as you all catch up. "If this is your first time in the undercity, I wish I could give you a better impression. It was once a place of dark solemnity. A place of academic study and magical advancement... at any price, mind you. Well... maybe not ANY price..." He sighs and begins to open the hatch. "Follow me. We're coming out in a rowdy part of town. Same rules as before. If anyone tries to stop us, give us guff, don't hesitate to exterminate them. But if you say anyone in Imperial Purple, or any darakhul, don't mess with them. This is their world now, and we're just living in it. Maybe... that could change. We could go back to the good old days. But management has changed since then." He unleashes a dramatic, drawn out sigh.

Spoiler: Insight DC 10

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This dark wizard seems like an alright chap.

Spoiler: Insight DC 15

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There might be an opportunity for survival here, but it could be VERY dangerous to proceed with. Tread Carefully.

Spoiler: Insight DC 20

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The wizard is dangling for sympathy. You are looking at a desperate and anxious man, and the only reason he is indicating that he doesn't agree with the way things are run back here is because you all might be his only way out. This guy needs you. Exploit that as you will, but this man's sense of pride could be prickly, so delicacy and negotiation will get you farther than brute threats and intimidation.

Spoiler: Insight DC 25

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He probably has more fireballs in him. If you want to take this guy, you better be serious, because he is ready for betrayal, unscathed, and would be a handful if this goes south. And you officially have 0 margin for error at this point.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-11, 05:58 AM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 27/41 (27/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:
Spell Slots: 1/2
Second Wind: 0/1
Action surge: 1/1

Set is slow to approach the next hatch. Distracted as he is, he's far too slow to ask the mage about whether there are others like him from Harumburg working for the Resistance.

"If this is your first time in the undercity, I wish I could give you a better impression. It was once a place of dark solemnity. A place of academic study and magical advancement... at any price, mind you. Well... maybe not ANY price..."

Set's stomach flips, anxiety gripping him as he second guesses his instincts. He takes a long moment to look around while the wizard continues speaking. The only people here besides him are Mal, Maus, Mido, Selissa, and Vargath. Why keep up the charade here? Set's confusion is short-lived as he reads between the lines, relief flooding him. It's not safe to speak freely, even here. The arcanist is a good man, obviously, but he clearly knows better than Set just how dangerous the path ahead is. Nodding to himself, Set looks around at the others, but no doubt they'd already gotten the message loud and clear. In fact, they were probably worried about him misreading the man. The best thing would be to reassure everyone he understands the mage is a friend.

"The world changes quickly," Set commiserates, "and not often for the better." He offers a hand to the wizard, eager to thank the man who saved them from the arena. A man of singular talent, likely the very best Harumburg has to offer. A man who must've survived countless trials in this pit to make the evil down here accept him as one of their own. A man who saw right through Mal's deception and plucked their group from harms way. "What's your name, friend?"

The cramped space is already wearing on Set, but he stays focused as everyone crowds around the hatch. "Is there a safe place for us down there?" Perhaps one where we can talk, he leaves unsaid. "A place we can seek out if any of us become separated?"

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-13, 10:24 PM (ISO 8601)

The Down Pipe to Hell

The dark wizard turns to Set and smiles weakly. "You may call me Aulstein. The closest thing to a safe place down there is my office. No one expects anything of me except to secure resources from above ground for them, and with more darakhul showing up every day, limping here to the mountains after their last failed coup, my days are numbered. But we can talk more about that when we reach somewhere more secure. I don't expect you to trust me, but know that I am at odds with the current management down here sometimes. As any living being should be. We have much to talk about." He makes sure his gear is secure one last time before turning to the hatch before you. "Are all of you prepared? If you show any weakness you will be prey." His eyes flick to Mido and Maus, both of which have their teeth grit, though one is with anxiety and one is with revulsion.

Mido, who hadn't responded to Set before, looks to him now with feverish eyes. The madness he had been fighting against was evident on his fearful features now. Maus is able to get his face to a sour looking neutral, but Mido's fear is apparent. His eyes plead for mercy that is in short supply.

**Amnestic** · 2022-02-14, 07:20 AM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy), Bless
Concentrating: --

Vargath holds back a sigh, though it would be one of more weariness than relief. He still didn't trust this man. Anyone who worked in the below was culpable, complicit, and they'd tracked with dark powers plenty enough that trusting him would likely only end poorly - but he doesn't see much alternative short of running into this...undercity axe swinging, and that seemed ill conceived. He takes a moment to check the straps on his shield and armour, to clean his blade, and to centre himself.

"I am ready." He doesn't intervene in Mido's situation - it was Set's to deal with, and unless called upon it didn't seem right to step himself into the centre of it. To do so would diminish Set in the eyes of Mido, show him as less than capable, and that was something Vargath had no desire for.

**Awful** · 2022-02-14, 06:40 PM (ISO 8601)

Selissa Betula
Wood Elf Scout Rogue
AC: 16 HP: max 38-> 34/45
PP: 17
Conditions: heroic encouragement, Aid
Concentrating: no

Selissa simply flicked out her sabre and vanished it again before stringing another ethereal arrow to her bow. She glanced at the others, then began looking around carefully, scanning for any threats.

At the evil wizards words, her mouth quirked sourly, but she said nothing.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-18, 09:34 PM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 27/41 (27/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:
Spell Slots: 1/2
Second Wind: 0/1
Action surge: 1/1

Set inclines his head as Aulstein introduces himself, certain that this man is worthy of respect. After all, it was his hand that pushed the undead back and bathed them in flame after offering their party a way out of the arena. It was his hand that tripled their front line with illusory duplicates when their backs were against the wall. It's his hand that guides them now, showing them how to act and which path leads to safety.

Following Aulstein's eyes, Set inspects Mido. The man staring back is halfway to the grave already, more ghost than man. Should they encounter anything stronger than a stiff breeze further below, Mido is as good as dead. Worse yet, his eyes hold the promise of panic at the slightest provocation. Set brushes aside the thought that he's responsible, ignoring the painful twist in his stomach.

"A moment," Set pleads, setting down his pack and rifling through it. Pulling out a jug of clear booze, Set pulls the cork free and gives it a cursory sniff before hastily taking a swig. Grimacing slightly, he passes the jug to Mido and nods for him to take it. "Courage," Set offers without ceremony, urging his compatriot to drink. It's not much, perhaps, not after what Mido's seen tonight, but the way back is closed. It always has been. Going all the way back to the coin flip and the curse, there's only been one path. Forward.

Spoiler: OOC

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Popping the ~~champagne~~ bless-booze from way back to give Mido some liquid courage. This can't possibly backfire right?

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-19, 11:55 PM (ISO 8601)

Emergence

Mido takes the magical liquor and shakily tips it back, sloshing some liquid across his lips in his eagerness to drink. His eyes flutter closed and he gasps, unready for the potency of the spirits. After a few seconds of rapid breathing, Mido's shaking stills and his nerves seem subdued. He is as ready as he will ever be.

Aulstein doesn't wait any longer than he must. He opens the hatch without further ceremony and stepped through into the gas lit undercity. Almost immediately he is confronted by a ghoul, scrabbling into his path slavering jaws open. Aulstein reaches out and smacks the ghoul with a staff before it can reach him, and the undead falls to the ground in a moaning puddle of deboned flesh, unable to move. Aulstein barks out "If any of you want the same, try me! Otherwise get the hell out of my way! I'm too busy to screw around with you ingrates today!" As the rest of you emerge from the hatch, you step out into what appears to be a cul-de-sac behind some larger buildings. Aulstein doesn't hesitate, stomping forward. And all around you are ghouls. Leaning out of windows in the surrounding buildings. Moving out of Aulstein's path like a school of fish around a shark. Ghouls crowd in doorways, and duck into nearby alleys. All of them have their eyes on you. Listening to your pulses. Thirsting for your blood and hungering for your guts. But for now, possibly due to your proximity to Aulstein and the sobbing boneless victim who first harassed him, they have decided that you are to be respected. For now.

"This way." Aulstein leads you out into the main street, and here the ghouls are even more densely packed. There are hints of the history the dark wizard spoke of, but they have been covered up with a the light of gas jets and a coat of sleeze. Mausoleums have been broken open and converted to perverse homes for the undead. An entire block of library shelves have been emptied and filled with ghastly remains of sentient creatures, each with a convenient price tag on it and a nearby shopkeep idly chewing on a severed hand. Meat is the most prominent trade, with ghouls trading, bartering, and in one case fighting over flesh in a cannibalistic display of commerce. And for the most part, you go ignored as the dark wizard leads you deeper and deeper into the gas lamp necropolis. But each and every undead you pass eyes you. weighs their chances. And seemingly decides to go about their business without harassing you. One disgusting, decayed figure wearing dirty robes with one eye missing leers at you all and takes a few steps in your direction before, seemingly from the shadow of a building, a very normal looking woman steps out and smacks him with a billy club, sending the offender sprawling with a sickening crack. The darakhul, playing the role of a constable of some sort, nods and smiles at the lot of you, waving you on congenially.

"I need to stop and pick up a package at a nearby business. I could use some back up. Nothing physical, just a stance of solidarity. Up for making some coin on our way to my office? All you have to do is stand there and look formidable." Aulstein gestures with his staff at what appears to be a hotel of some sort. There are more darakhul in this area, or maybe even more living beings just like you. It's hard to tell with darakhul, though. "If you'd rather straight to business I can do the errand later, but since it's on the way..."

**Amnestic** · 2022-02-20, 06:00 AM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy)
Concentrating: --

The city was all he had expected and worse still. He forces his features to keep set in a stoic glare, even as the revulsion churns his stomach. The beast in his blood howled hungrily, but also with anger - there was no hunt here, no challenge in the taking of meat, and so he found their feast far less palatable. What use was meat if it was not taken hot from the body of one you'd bested?

When Aulstein makes the offer he considers for a moment. Their time was limited, with each ticking second increasing their chance of discovery and the upheaval of an undercity bent on their blood, but they had come seeking information first and foremost, and an opportunity to see more from the relative 'safety' of their escort was better than skulking on their own. It was an opportunity, in other words, and one that Vargath sees little reason to turn down. He glances at his companion and gives a light nod of agreement, but keeps his expression uncommitted in case they thought better. Separating would do no one any good down here. They would stand, or fall, together, and they needed to be of one mind for that.

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-20, 09:55 PM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 27/41 (27/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:
Spell Slots: 1/2
Second Wind: 0/1
Action surge: 1/1

Set squeezes Mido's shoulder, unsure of what more he can do as he watches the other man drink. Dropping his hand, Set reaches into the pouch on his belt and grabs the coin, thumb rubbing over the ankh. Still alive, both of them. No thanks to him.

If Evergreen hadn't come back for him, Set would be dead. If Aulstein hadn't guided them here, they all would be. With the glaive held firmly in his other hand, Set rolls the coin over in his fingers, thumb brushing the scarab. Life and death, two sides of the same coin. If he can learn to hold power over one, could he preserve the other?

Set takes the jug back, trying a grim smile as Mido makes ready for the next leg of their journey. Ducking after Aulstein, he steps over the boneless, sobbing ghoul and into a whole new arena. Everywhere Set looks, eyes greet him in return. He watches a ghoul stalking along beside them, their eyes following each other as it sniffs the air. Set stares from behind his shemagh, heart thumping, but determined not to look away first. The crowd eventually swallows the creature as they move into a market.

Meat for sale. Shelf upon shelf of twisted corpses, butchered into neat shapes and sizes fit for purchase. Set coughs, looking up and away for a moment. He takes a deep breath and forces himself to look back, hoping to find only pale bodies stacked up down here.

As they pass a darakhul keen to play constable, Set ignores the decaying stranger who tried to accost them, focusing on her instead. He nods to her, eyes roaming, studying the thin boundary between undeath and life. She looks normal. Alive. Swallowing, Set turns his attention back to the front, but his mind stays behind, turning her image over and over in his mind.

Aulstein's offer almost elicits a quick response, but Set thinks better of it. We're in your hands, he thinks, swallowing the words before he can say them aloud. It wouldn't do to speak out of turn, even among friends. They're all putting on a performance down here, lest one of these darakhul discover their true nature. Instead Set looks to Mal, Pale Night's envoy and their diabolical leader in this endeavor.

"Lord?"

**Theophilus** · 2022-02-22, 10:41 AM (ISO 8601)

Mal
Levistus Tiefling Bard 5
AC: 14 HP: 41/41 (48/48) THP: 3/10
PP: 11 PIv: 13 PIs: 11
Spell Slots: 1st - 3/4 2nd - 0/3 3rd - 0/2
Fey Touched: 1st - 0/1 2nd - 0/1
Masquerade Tattoo: 1st - 0/1
Levistus Legacy: Armor of Agathys - 0/1 Darkness - 1/1
Bardic Inspiration: 0/4
Healer's Kit: 20/20
Mal Conditions: Comprehend Languages. Disguise Self. Praised into Health (43). Immune to poison frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Loki's Bane. Aid. Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fastidious about his appearance to a distracting, unhealthy degree.
Mal Concentrating: Bless.

Esai
Ancient Companion: Warrior
Companion HP: 30/30 (32/32)
Companion AC: 16
Companion PP: 18 PIv: 12 PIs: 12
Sage's Counsel: While within 15 feet of the companion, you and your allies gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom checks. Warrior’s Protection (Warrior Only). When a creature within 5 feet of the companion makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, the companion imposes itself between the creature and the danger. The creature can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw.
Praised into Health. Immune to frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage

Maledictus kept himself at the ready, though he let Set intermediary. The southern man wooed the wizard into their trust, feigning confidence with great skill. He was almost impressed with the warrior's charade.

The seeming Cambion flowed into the greasy, gory undercity with little apparent concern. His exterior, however, did not match his interior thoughts. The hewed, chewed, and lewd domain of the ghoul stung his sensibilities like an abyssal stench. Mal wished he had Aulstein's powers to hurl fireballs into the disgusting hovels of the undead. Instead, he marched with practiced precision, and continued with a sense that his back was less protected than when Esai tromped at his side.

When the human suggested a job, Mal's instinct was at first to refuse. Then, cooler judgment settled into its place. He responded, "Our business is urgent, but we can make an exception to foster solidarity."

Spoiler: OOC

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Spoiler: Mal's Notes

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Spoiler: Cast and Crew

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Set: ~~outcast~~ exiled princeling of Abydos. Two princess sisters (Sisi and Sythpen Al-Sayyid). Romantic connection for Moira?
Selissa: Blighted or reconstructed wood elf? Purported Scout.
Vargath: Afflicted Lycanthrope seeking to suspend his curse. A Bloodwolf?
Mandaras: Rival to Dr. Fixer.
Dr. Fixer: Moira's lieutenant and cultivates relations with the locals of Vale.
Elder Maus: Seeks to kill Moira. Hired mercenaries who betrayed him.
--Healed to his full 9ft height.
--Disbelieves Moira's insights; seeks to end her directly or indirectly.
--Seeks us to verify the truths of Moira's claims--or stop her by any means necessary.
Maulei: Successor to Elder Maus as elder of Dam'ess.
Uluthando Mikoso "Ulu:" Paladin? of Order. From beyond the Vale. Reacts by gripping her dagger and declaring Tieflings are treated differently...Lawful (N/E?) Order? Calls Mal 'Mdala Ohlonishwayo.' Professes to serve no god, but spirits whose reach may be weaker in the Vale than elsewhere.
Nomcebo: Ulu's handler. Ink skinned tiefling with prehensile tail and an obvious allure.
Kagiso: Ulu's slave and carriage driver.
Aulstein: Human wizard at odds with Darakhuls, but a necromancer.

Spoiler: Dream of Leng

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Spoiler: In Full

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Mal has had this dream before. He finds himself in the legendary Library of Leng, an ancient home of virtually all worldly and mystical knowledge that burned when the city it was located in was razed nearly nine hundred years ago, half the world away. Still, in his dreams it still existed, and these dreams always played out the same. Hours of dutiful research, referencing and cross referencing sources from multiple tomes, carefully reconstructing ancient languages, until EUREKA! Some devastating and profound arcane truth became evident to him, and the sense of accomplisment and relief normally carried with him for several hours after waking up, even if he could never actually remember anything he learned. But this time is different. Mal is well versed enough in the arcane and divine arts to know that sometimes dreams carry real meaning. And as he stares down at what he has been working on, he instinctively knows this bears some significance. Where normally he would have arcane formulas and theorems, he sees only "The One Who Stalks Behind" scrawled over and over again in his own hand, though the words are manic and look like they were written in distress. He searches the paper for any further omen, and down at the bottom of the page, in the smallest script he could possibly manage, it says Behind you!. Just as he is about to turn, a claw as strong as iron grips the side of his head, snaps his neck to the side, and ends all feeling in the bard's body. But he can still hear the deep throated growls, along with the wet noises of whatever killed him beginning to eat him alive. But he never gets to see it before the dream ends.

The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. RIGHT BEHIND YOU! The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind.

Spoiler: Bence's Secrets

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Spoiler: Bence's Journal

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...is a backwards plane, so far removed from the Prime Material that it has not seen an angel or the work of a god in a millennia. I hear that far to the west they do not even worship the gods. Proper savages, but I must remain vigilant, as their knowledge of the ways of this world is far more educated than most. But it is ripe for my conquest. While my Master was tasked with corrupting Avendor, my home plane, a bastion of good and law, my chore is simply to tip the rat into the bucket of the Abyss as it prowls the rim looking for cheese. This plane is already so flooded with the energies of the Abyss that demons spontaneously emerge, monsters manifest in the dark, and their weak leaders bargain with forces they would be wiser to repulse. It will be child's play to nudge it the last few inches into anarchy and destruction, mostly due to the efforts of Pale Night herself. For thousands of years she has been grasping and clawing at this realm, dragging it further from the light and closer to her realm day by day, inch by inch, soul by soul. While my home plane was beyond my ability to destroy, this place will be my masterpiece. With my death at the hands of the forces of good, a symphony of destruction will play the anthem to my ascension to demonhood. The Pale Mother has promised me that each death will bring me closer to my true form, and each rebirth will increase my power, just as our pact promised. I can't wait to die. When will the heroes arrive? I've been planting and tending the seed of the idea in the old giant's mind for weeks now. When will it bear fruit? When can my dark rise to power begin? (The rest is a combination of burned and Abyssal that becomes impossible to read)

Dam'ess- Mass Quasit Summoning. Magic Mouth to Levy Commands re: Retrieve Mirror of Leng, Scepter of Rulership, And Aniot's Cube. Disperse to Appropriate Parties Per The Plan. Burn The Cabin.

Harumburg- Sending to Lord of Bone re: Portal to the 113th. (Indecipherable Due to Burns) In Accordance with Their Great Alliance.

Falluneer- Sending to Lord of Flesh re: (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Ebon Spear.

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)light: Sending to Lord of Blood re: Assassination of (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Yukkot, Recovery of Blood (More Burns).

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)odge- Sending to Cult of Pale (More Burns) re: Initiate Divining Ritual Sacrifices. FIND THE DAMN ZIGGURAT.

Garrunrow- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Kill the Last Bloodwolf. Recover (More Burns) Key.

Mountain of Smoke- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) crypt. Seize the Ebon (More Burns).

Sussoon- Ensure the Prophecy (Indecipherable Due to Burns)... Pay the Bounty Hunters to Find the Abydossian and the Princesses. re: Sacrifices of The Old Blood

(There is more, but seemingly out of paranoia Bence switched to Abyssal. It is impossible to tell how many lines there are, as the last half of the paper is fully burned away)

Spoiler: Arcane Lore concerning Bence's Notes

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The magic of Contingency is a nearly mythical bit of spell work that was said to be lost when the Library of Leng burned down. It allows a caster to prepare spells in advance for a predetermined event, in this case John Bence's own death, and the spells will automatically cast when the event happens. If Bence is capable of such sorcery, he is likely far more powerful than his flashy death at the party's hands would indicate.

The Mirror of Leng is a artifact of the Library of Leng, said to contain a frozen moment of time where the library was at it's height that a person can temporarily step in to, giving access to the greatest magical library this world has ever seen. Supposedly several mirrors were made, though some are confirmed destroyed after their use led to come calamity of forbidden magics long lost to time. The Scepter of Rulership is said to be an even more powerful version of a Rod of Rulership, a magic item that allows for mass mind manipulation of people to believe that the holder of the Scepter is their rightful ruler. The last time the Scepter was confirmed in play it toppled an entire nation.

Though numbering and organizing the layers of the Abyss is a fool's errand, there are some realms that are constant enough to designate. The one hundred and thirteenth layer is Thanatos, layer of Orcus, the Lord of Death. It is a lifeless frozen landscape where life is snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives, either by the untold legions of undead denizens, the magical aura of the layer itself, or, in the worst cases, by Orcus himself, using his fearsome Wand.

Spoiler: John Bence's Wall Art

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There are no invisible objects in the room, but the entire back wall of the cabin is plastered with profane runes and abyssal scribblings. Where there was nothing to the naked eye, there is an extensive patchwork of spell work, seemingly scribed in the rusted red of blood. More disturbing is the fragments of souls that have been bound to the wall. Faces of people rise and seethe from the wood like a strange and rippling tide, mouths open in anguish. There are not many of them left, presumably due to whatever spell was used here absorbing so much energy, but there is a fine layer of ectoplasm that would indicate that once there were dozens of soul fragments powering this spell. The sight turns Mal's stomach, as the chaotic, destructive magic of the Abyss is written as plainly as news script, but as subtly as any devil could manage.

Spoiler: Monsters

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Barlgura: Demon loosed by summoning ritual on the road to Dam'ess. Slain with its summoned partner by team. (Bless helped with accuracy issues due to invisibility. In the future, layer mind sliver to aid with saves.)
Brazen Hart: Spirit of the wild wood around Dam'ess. Seeks to test the party's mettle by forcing an open fight with the Barlgura.
Horror of Yurl: Shapeshifting kind of monster. Severs limbs, creates euphoria, and slays by consuming the liver. The newest variant flies...
Tree-house horror: elven make. Demon infested. Extremely rare creation.

The presence of the so-called "evolved" ghouls is troublesome. Said to be the chosen of Doresain the Ghoul King, Darakhuls are more motivated, more intelligent, and leagues more dangerous than their lesser kin. They have a subterranean empire on the other side of the continent, and their attempts to bring their Imperium to the surface have only narrowly been thwarted by the actions of great heroes and dedicated rulers. If Darakhuls have come to Harumvale, then the eyes of the Ghoul King have turned in this direction, and things truly are worse than imagined. Darakhul have a mystical connection to lesser ghouls and ghasts that enhances their intelligence and discipline when the evolved ghouls are present, turning them from hungry predators to a military unit.

Unknown Egg. Vargath has an egg that might be a moon drake, recovered from an oven in the Iron Ghoul territory of the sewers of Harumvale.

Imperium has a unicorn sourced for arena consumption.

Spoiler: Bence's After Shadow

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Confirmation that the ritual and journal at Bence's Cabin had merit: "Meanwhile, the remains of the prisoners are dragged away by the victors, no doubt for a victory meal. A magically amplified voice begins speaking in the language of the ghoul empire, which Mal's magic translates precisely. "Ghouls, ghasts, darakhul, and mortal guests, we have the honor of hosting Pale Night's emissaries! Servants of the illustrious planar mage John Bence, they come to us with the Moonlit Lady's contribution to our great goal, and a full day ahead of schedule! That means the portal is one day closer to completion! Soon, very soon, the Death Prince's armies will come marching into this world from the 113th layer, and the world will become our larder! To honor them, we have a special bout lined up tonight! A feast that all may partake in! For it is rare that such a luscious, sweet treat becomes available to us! I present to you an embodiment of everything that is pure and good! I'm sure it will taste delicious when our champions are done with it!"

A number of ghouls lead a equine form with chains around it's legs and a hood over it's head into the arena. The creature bucks and kicks, but mighty though it is it cannot shrug off the chains, which looked spiked and painful. The form is pure white except for the grime of the sewer, but even besmirched there is a gravity about the creature that causes the crowd to go silent in awe. "No worries, folks, those chains stop the beast from escaping, either physically or mystically. As long as they hold our dinner is bound. But not quite helpless! Do we have any volunteer chefs who will prepare the meal for all of us hungry, hungry folk?" It is at this point that a ghoul roughly removes the bag from the creature's head, revealing a pearlescent horn that emanates an internal light. These creatures intend to maim, kill, and butcher a unicorn, then serve it up like a spitted pig."

Spoiler: Instrument of the Bards

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Mal needs a translator, the spells, and woodcrafter to create a new relic.

Spoiler: Full Description

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Still, tucked among the primers and amateur books he finds a book that deals with the blending of magic and music. Specifically, it holds the instructions and rituals for a new version of the famed artifacts known as the instruments of the bards. Unfortunately, about a third of the book is in a language Mal does not understand or recognize, including most of the rites and rituals to imbue it with magic. Still, with a translator, appropriate magics, some study, and someone skilled in wood craft, he may be able to produce one of these relics for himself.

Spoiler: Half Troden Bardic Instrument Key

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Arcana- High Docent Half Toden directs Mal to a specific scroll on a specific shelf in a specific wing when pressed on this subject. He seems... oddly insistent... actually. It turns out to be a book of songs, actually, and one of them is penned by none other than High Docent Half Toden.

Lo, behold the works of the Maker of Things,
Wands, staves, instruments, wonders, and rings,
His traveling cart rolls from town to town
And trades mystical wonders for enough coins to drown
Sometimes human, sometimes dwarf, sometimes gnome,
He claims fate calls him, binds him, and keeps him from home
He forged Harum's hammer that split the Eternal Rock
Tinkered Trelmari's picks which defeat any Lock
He defies time and age, but one note rings true
Find one of Harum's adamant coins and he will find you.

Spoiler: Harumburg Library Lore

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Religion- There has been a near constant history of undead in and around the capital of Harumsvale. It seems like every three to five decades or so some priest or paladin of Harum organizes a purge that "purifies" a coven of vampire spawn, a hidden necromancer, or a ghoul nest. But it seems to Mal (and to High Docent Toden) that this always treats the outward symptoms without handling the cause. Vampire spawn are rooted out, but rarely is a true vampire found. Students at the university are found to be dabbling in the forbidden arts, but no one ever catches the teacher who revealed such secrets to them. And each time a nest of ghouls is rooted out there is often a new infection there within a century. Half gives Mal an anecdote about one building in the industrial district being raided three times within his lifetime.

History- Docent Toden cannot corroborate much in this area of research, but Mal does find several portraits that bear an astounding resemblance to Grand Arbiter Myrus Malkaav, each of them depicting some variety of civil servant or noble position with roughly eighty years between them. When Post Master Geller Rell passes away from a wasting disease, eight decades or so later Chief Accountant Daedren Gastaf, who has the same severe eyes, hooked nose, and pale skin but a different haircut, takes his position a serves with merited distinction. There is a general trend in these dopplegangers to rise in the ranks of the government over the centuries, and Mal finds records dating back nearly a thousand years.

Report daily updates to Mistress Moira at last light.

**purepolarpanzer** · 2022-02-23, 03:24 PM (ISO 8601)

At the Alms Tree Hotel

Aulstein nods and leads the way into the hotel. It is quite busy, full of normal looking people doing normal things. A dark mockery of life. It is not readily apparent how many of these people are undead, nor does it matter. It must be assumed that you are in a city full of enemies, and there are none you should fear more than those that smile.

Aulstein approaches the front desk, standing before a woman in a smart military uniform. "I'm here for my package, Irrimelda. I believe it was brought in this morning." He attempts to look nonchalant, as though he were asking her about available rooms. The smiling woman's grin grows, and she shakes her head in a way that make her curly hair jump and bounce. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Aulstein. We haven't received any packages with your name on them today." Aulstein nodded at a passerby and smiled before muttering quietly in her direction. "I know it's here. Maybe one of your underlings is squirrelling it away somewhere. You find it. I'll wait." She gives a small laugh like a hysterical bird. "Mr. Aulstein, none of my agents would hide something from you! You command the greatest respect among our living allies! Rest assured, if your package had arrived I would see it delivered to you the moment my people secured it." Aulstein slaps the counter and laughs as well before leaning in, as though they were sharing a slightly impolite joke. "Irri, we both know that right now your agents are going through my things, and that's fine. But by now you must have realized that all the books I requested were approved by your Lord, and that the crate contains nothing else. I don't insist on privacy, but I do insist on punctuality. Give me my things, you officious corpse, and me and my friends will be on our way. Unless you want me to bring it to your Lord's attention that you are inhibiting the creation of the portal with bureaucratic nonsense. I don't think there are ranks lower than janitor in the Imperial armed forces, but I look forward to finding out."

A number of the hotel guests have stopped and have started to pay attention to the discussion. It is at this moment that your realize that though all these people are plain clothed and not wearing armor, all of them are armed. Several have stopped and are looking from Aulstein to Irrimelda questioningly.

Spoiler: Perception DC 15

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The woman in the uniform gives a series of blinks and facial twitches. It is easily disguised in her smile, but there is a look of recognition in the darakhul's eyes that shows they understand.

Spoiler: Constitution Save DC 12 For Everyone

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The military woman and the nearby guests all take on a pale pallor. Their eyes begin to flash with crimson light, and a horrific, disgusting corpse stench begins to emanate from them. It become readily apparent that they are undead monsters, not a collection of humans.

Spoiler: If You Fail

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You are poisoned, and cannot help but cough, gag, and retch at the stink.

Spoiler: If You Succeed

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You are able to withstand the terrible stench and are free to roleplay as you wish.

**Amnestic** · 2022-02-23, 05:59 PM (ISO 8601)

Vargath Hubrecht
Half-Orc Rune Knight Fighter
AC: 19 HP: 30/49
PP: 13 PIv: 12 PIs: 10
Conditions: Infected (Lycanthropy)
Concentrating: --

When the wretched stench begins to spread across the room Vargath, somehow, manages to keep his stomach where it was intended to be and not on the floor. Perhaps his sensitive nose was getting used to all the dirt, grime and death of the Undercity. An unpleasant thought - but either way he'd still very much like to not be in the vicinity anymore. He didn't seem to have much of a choice though, and the movement towards releasing the stench that hadn't been there before he could only take as an expression of desire to intimidate, leading to violence, and that he was all too willing to provide. But they hadn't drawn any weapons yet, and he didn't want to be the one to provoke a fight in the middle of the city. Whatever "Lord" and "army" were in question, all of it meant that they were a small fly in a very big fly frying pan.

Though he doesn't draw his axe, he does narrow his eyes at the onlookers. Letting out a low beastial growl that rumbles the metal strapped to his chest. "Enough posturing! Our time is limited. Either give us the package so we can go, or have your cronies draw steel so we can settle this quickly, but stop wasting our time!" Just as their eyes had flashed red, his own flash with the piercing yellow of the beast, the irises narrowing to that of a hunter ready to exterminate his prey. These ones would at least be more entertaining than the endless rampaging ghoul horde, he hoped. His fist clenches tight, the metal of his gauntlet letting out a quiet screech as it grinds against itself, threatening to distort and bend under the force of his hand.

Spoiler: Roll

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Intimidation (Strength)...maybe...(1d20+8)[25]

**Riggdgames** · 2022-02-25, 09:23 PM (ISO 8601)

Set Al-Sayyid
Changeling Fighter/Hexblade
AC: 17 HP: 27/41 (27/43) THP: 0/5
PP: 12 PIv: 13 PIs: 9
Conditions: Mal's Bless, Mal's Aid, Nome's Hero's Feast (immune to poison/frightened, Wis ST adv). Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fascinated with binding and power over death.
Concentration:
Spell Slots: 1/2
Second Wind: 0/1
Action surge: 1/1

Set listens carefully to the back and forth between Aulstein and Irri with increasing disquiet. Irrimelda's smile is too wide, her laugh too hysterical. Every motion screams 'I'm alive!' even as their guide, Aulstein, assures them all that she's nothing but a corpse. It's a lesson Set is thankful for as both the woman and her guests appear to be among the living. When Aulstein threatens her, Set reaches into his pouch, seeking out the comfort of his coin as he watches Irri's reaction.

His mouth twitches anxiously as she struggles with her own involuntary facial tics. The conversation with Aulstein seems to have set off something within her. Do the undead feel nerves? Anxiety? Pain? Set bites the inside of his cheek, reminding himself that she's only a corpse. He cannot afford to be deterred, not in the slightest. He needs to do whatever's necessary down here, and that means following Aulstein's lead.

"Enough posturing! Our time is limited. Either give us the package so we can go, or have your cronies draw steel so we can settle this quickly, but stop wasting our time!"

The Mighty's voice is like an anchor, giving Set something to hold onto as an awful stench threatens to overhwhelm him. His grip tightens around the coin, feeling the scarab digging into his palm as he looks over the assembled undead behind them. In Vargath's shadow, Set feeds off his strength.

"I thought ghouls were stupid," Set growls after the Mighty, lifting his voice just enough to be heard by all, "but at least your friends out there knew they'd be biting off more than they could chew." Set finds a pair of crimson eyes and meets them with his own, brown eyes transforming for just an instant to solid black pits. "Sure you want a taste?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Trying to help with some changeling shenanigans to give Vargath advantage on the intimidate...just in case he can pull out an even better roll.

**Awful** · 2022-02-27, 07:19 PM (ISO 8601)

Selissa Betula
Wood Elf Scout Rogue
AC: 16 HP: max 38-> 34/45
PP: 17
Conditions: heroic encouragement, Aid
Concentrating: no

The hideous nature of the guests was easily apparent. Selissa tensed, ready for violence, her wrist bending in preparation for the flick-twist that brought the Student's Sabre into existence.

Enemies all around. She'd go for the officer, first, and see how well it smirked with three feet of magical blade through the frontal lobe.

How they were going to get back, she didn't know, for this city was a den of the most darkling sort, but at least she'd take some with her. She glowered at the undead around, ready to fight, lips in a subtle sneer of hatred.

**Theophilus** · 2022-02-27, 07:46 PM (ISO 8601)

Mal
Levistus Tiefling Bard 5
AC: 14 HP: 41/41 (48/48) THP: 3/10
PP: 11 PIv: 13 PIs: 11
Spell Slots: 1st - 3/4 2nd - 0/3 3rd - 0/2
Fey Touched: 1st - 0/1 2nd - 0/1
Masquerade Tattoo: 1st - 0/1
Levistus Legacy: Armor of Agathys - 0/1 Darkness - 1/1
Bardic Inspiration: 0/4
Healer's Kit: 20/20
Mal Conditions: Comprehend Languages. Disguise Self. Praised into Health (43). Immune to poison frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage. Loki's Bane. Aid. Mad/Frightened/Quirk: Fastidious about his appearance to a distracting, unhealthy degree.
Mal Concentrating: Bless.

Esai
Ancient Companion: Warrior
Companion HP: 30/30 (32/32)
Companion AC: 16
Companion PP: 18 PIv: 12 PIs: 12
Sage's Counsel: While within 15 feet of the companion, you and your allies gain a +2 bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom checks. Warrior’s Protection (Warrior Only). When a creature within 5 feet of the companion makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw, the companion imposes itself between the creature and the danger. The creature can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the saving throw.
Praised into Health. Immune to frightened. Wisdom saving throws with advantage

Maledictus withdrew a kerchief and held it to his nose. The cambion's mien held a cold disdain for the fetid armor of the rotting ambulant. He stepped back a bit, moving as though to allow Vargath and Set to take the stage. He would not sully his hands with these filthy creatures. Yet, he had the apparent blessing of the Pale Night, as well as his true arts to wage fiendish war. He quipped, "I think you all are too early for a feast, but soon the portal to the Pit shall soon feed your hunger."

Spoiler: OOC

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Spoiler: Mal's Notes

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Spoiler: Cast and Crew

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Set: ~~outcast~~ exiled princeling of Abydos. Two princess sisters (Sisi and Sythpen Al-Sayyid). Romantic connection for Moira?
Selissa: Blighted or reconstructed wood elf? Purported Scout.
Vargath: Afflicted Lycanthrope seeking to suspend his curse. A Bloodwolf?
Mandaras: Rival to Dr. Fixer.
Dr. Fixer: Moira's lieutenant and cultivates relations with the locals of Vale.
Elder Maus: Seeks to kill Moira. Hired mercenaries who betrayed him.
--Healed to his full 9ft height.
--Disbelieves Moira's insights; seeks to end her directly or indirectly.
--Seeks us to verify the truths of Moira's claims--or stop her by any means necessary.
Maulei: Successor to Elder Maus as elder of Dam'ess.
Uluthando Mikoso "Ulu:" Paladin? of Order. From beyond the Vale. Reacts by gripping her dagger and declaring Tieflings are treated differently...Lawful (N/E?) Order? Calls Mal 'Mdala Ohlonishwayo.' Professes to serve no god, but spirits whose reach may be weaker in the Vale than elsewhere.
Nomcebo: Ulu's handler. Ink skinned tiefling with prehensile tail and an obvious allure.
Kagiso: Ulu's slave and carriage driver.
Aulstein: Human wizard at odds with Darakhuls, but a necromancer.

Spoiler: Dream of Leng

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Spoiler: In Full

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Mal has had this dream before. He finds himself in the legendary Library of Leng, an ancient home of virtually all worldly and mystical knowledge that burned when the city it was located in was razed nearly nine hundred years ago, half the world away. Still, in his dreams it still existed, and these dreams always played out the same. Hours of dutiful research, referencing and cross referencing sources from multiple tomes, carefully reconstructing ancient languages, until EUREKA! Some devastating and profound arcane truth became evident to him, and the sense of accomplisment and relief normally carried with him for several hours after waking up, even if he could never actually remember anything he learned. But this time is different. Mal is well versed enough in the arcane and divine arts to know that sometimes dreams carry real meaning. And as he stares down at what he has been working on, he instinctively knows this bears some significance. Where normally he would have arcane formulas and theorems, he sees only "The One Who Stalks Behind" scrawled over and over again in his own hand, though the words are manic and look like they were written in distress. He searches the paper for any further omen, and down at the bottom of the page, in the smallest script he could possibly manage, it says Behind you!. Just as he is about to turn, a claw as strong as iron grips the side of his head, snaps his neck to the side, and ends all feeling in the bard's body. But he can still hear the deep throated growls, along with the wet noises of whatever killed him beginning to eat him alive. But he never gets to see it before the dream ends.

The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. RIGHT BEHIND YOU! The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind. The One Who Stalks Behind.

Spoiler: Bence's Secrets

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Spoiler: Bence's Journal

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...is a backwards plane, so far removed from the Prime Material that it has not seen an angel or the work of a god in a millennia. I hear that far to the west they do not even worship the gods. Proper savages, but I must remain vigilant, as their knowledge of the ways of this world is far more educated than most. But it is ripe for my conquest. While my Master was tasked with corrupting Avendor, my home plane, a bastion of good and law, my chore is simply to tip the rat into the bucket of the Abyss as it prowls the rim looking for cheese. This plane is already so flooded with the energies of the Abyss that demons spontaneously emerge, monsters manifest in the dark, and their weak leaders bargain with forces they would be wiser to repulse. It will be child's play to nudge it the last few inches into anarchy and destruction, mostly due to the efforts of Pale Night herself. For thousands of years she has been grasping and clawing at this realm, dragging it further from the light and closer to her realm day by day, inch by inch, soul by soul. While my home plane was beyond my ability to destroy, this place will be my masterpiece. With my death at the hands of the forces of good, a symphony of destruction will play the anthem to my ascension to demonhood. The Pale Mother has promised me that each death will bring me closer to my true form, and each rebirth will increase my power, just as our pact promised. I can't wait to die. When will the heroes arrive? I've been planting and tending the seed of the idea in the old giant's mind for weeks now. When will it bear fruit? When can my dark rise to power begin? (The rest is a combination of burned and Abyssal that becomes impossible to read)

Dam'ess- Mass Quasit Summoning. Magic Mouth to Levy Commands re: Retrieve Mirror of Leng, Scepter of Rulership, And Aniot's Cube. Disperse to Appropriate Parties Per The Plan. Burn The Cabin.

Harumburg- Sending to Lord of Bone re: Portal to the 113th. (Indecipherable Due to Burns) In Accordance with Their Great Alliance.

Falluneer- Sending to Lord of Flesh re: (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Ebon Spear.

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)light: Sending to Lord of Blood re: Assassination of (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Yukkot, Recovery of Blood (More Burns).

(Indecipherable Due to Burns)odge- Sending to Cult of Pale (More Burns) re: Initiate Divining Ritual Sacrifices. FIND THE DAMN ZIGGURAT.

Garrunrow- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) Kill the Last Bloodwolf. Recover (More Burns) Key.

Mountain of Smoke- (Indecipherable Due to Burns) crypt. Seize the Ebon (More Burns).

Sussoon- Ensure the Prophecy (Indecipherable Due to Burns)... Pay the Bounty Hunters to Find the Abydossian and the Princesses. re: Sacrifices of The Old Blood

(There is more, but seemingly out of paranoia Bence switched to Abyssal. It is impossible to tell how many lines there are, as the last half of the paper is fully burned away)

Spoiler: Arcane Lore concerning Bence's Notes

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The magic of Contingency is a nearly mythical bit of spell work that was said to be lost when the Library of Leng burned down. It allows a caster to prepare spells in advance for a predetermined event, in this case John Bence's own death, and the spells will automatically cast when the event happens. If Bence is capable of such sorcery, he is likely far more powerful than his flashy death at the party's hands would indicate.

The Mirror of Leng is a artifact of the Library of Leng, said to contain a frozen moment of time where the library was at it's height that a person can temporarily step in to, giving access to the greatest magical library this world has ever seen. Supposedly several mirrors were made, though some are confirmed destroyed after their use led to come calamity of forbidden magics long lost to time. The Scepter of Rulership is said to be an even more powerful version of a Rod of Rulership, a magic item that allows for mass mind manipulation of people to believe that the holder of the Scepter is their rightful ruler. The last time the Scepter was confirmed in play it toppled an entire nation.

Though numbering and organizing the layers of the Abyss is a fool's errand, there are some realms that are constant enough to designate. The one hundred and thirteenth layer is Thanatos, layer of Orcus, the Lord of Death. It is a lifeless frozen landscape where life is snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives, either by the untold legions of undead denizens, the magical aura of the layer itself, or, in the worst cases, by Orcus himself, using his fearsome Wand.

Spoiler: John Bence's Wall Art

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There are no invisible objects in the room, but the entire back wall of the cabin is plastered with profane runes and abyssal scribblings. Where there was nothing to the naked eye, there is an extensive patchwork of spell work, seemingly scribed in the rusted red of blood. More disturbing is the fragments of souls that have been bound to the wall. Faces of people rise and seethe from the wood like a strange and rippling tide, mouths open in anguish. There are not many of them left, presumably due to whatever spell was used here absorbing so much energy, but there is a fine layer of ectoplasm that would indicate that once there were dozens of soul fragments powering this spell. The sight turns Mal's stomach, as the chaotic, destructive magic of the Abyss is written as plainly as news script, but as subtly as any devil could manage.

Spoiler: Monsters

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Barlgura: Demon loosed by summoning ritual on the road to Dam'ess. Slain with its summoned partner by team. (Bless helped with accuracy issues due to invisibility. In the future, layer mind sliver to aid with saves.)
Brazen Hart: Spirit of the wild wood around Dam'ess. Seeks to test the party's mettle by forcing an open fight with the Barlgura.
Horror of Yurl: Shapeshifting kind of monster. Severs limbs, creates euphoria, and slays by consuming the liver. The newest variant flies...
Tree-house horror: elven make. Demon infested. Extremely rare creation.

The presence of the so-called "evolved" ghouls is troublesome. Said to be the chosen of Doresain the Ghoul King, Darakhuls are more motivated, more intelligent, and leagues more dangerous than their lesser kin. They have a subterranean empire on the other side of the continent, and their attempts to bring their Imperium to the surface have only narrowly been thwarted by the actions of great heroes and dedicated rulers. If Darakhuls have come to Harumvale, then the eyes of the Ghoul King have turned in this direction, and things truly are worse than imagined. Darakhul have a mystical connection to lesser ghouls and ghasts that enhances their intelligence and discipline when the evolved ghouls are present, turning them from hungry predators to a military unit.

Unknown Egg. Vargath has an egg that might be a moon drake, recovered from an oven in the Iron Ghoul territory of the sewers of Harumvale.

Imperium has a unicorn sourced for arena consumption.

Spoiler: Bence's After Shadow

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Confirmation that the ritual and journal at Bence's Cabin had merit: "Meanwhile, the remains of the prisoners are dragged away by the victors, no doubt for a victory meal. A magically amplified voice begins speaking in the language of the ghoul empire, which Mal's magic translates precisely. "Ghouls, ghasts, darakhul, and mortal guests, we have the honor of hosting Pale Night's emissaries! Servants of the illustrious planar mage John Bence, they come to us with the Moonlit Lady's contribution to our great goal, and a full day ahead of schedule! That means the portal is one day closer to completion! Soon, very soon, the Death Prince's armies will come marching into this world from the 113th layer, and the world will become our larder! To honor them, we have a special bout lined up tonight! A feast that all may partake in! For it is rare that such a luscious, sweet treat becomes available to us! I present to you an embodiment of everything that is pure and good! I'm sure it will taste delicious when our champions are done with it!"

A number of ghouls lead a equine form with chains around it's legs and a hood over it's head into the arena. The creature bucks and kicks, but mighty though it is it cannot shrug off the chains, which looked spiked and painful. The form is pure white except for the grime of the sewer, but even besmirched there is a gravity about the creature that causes the crowd to go silent in awe. "No worries, folks, those chains stop the beast from escaping, either physically or mystically. As long as they hold our dinner is bound. But not quite helpless! Do we have any volunteer chefs who will prepare the meal for all of us hungry, hungry folk?" It is at this point that a ghoul roughly removes the bag from the creature's head, revealing a pearlescent horn that emanates an internal light. These creatures intend to maim, kill, and butcher a unicorn, then serve it up like a spitted pig."

Spoiler: Instrument of the Bards

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Mal needs a translator, the spells, and woodcrafter to create a new relic.

Spoiler: Full Description

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Still, tucked among the primers and amateur books he finds a book that deals with the blending of magic and music. Specifically, it holds the instructions and rituals for a new version of the famed artifacts known as the instruments of the bards. Unfortunately, about a third of the book is in a language Mal does not understand or recognize, including most of the rites and rituals to imbue it with magic. Still, with a translator, appropriate magics, some study, and someone skilled in wood craft, he may be able to produce one of these relics for himself.

Spoiler: Half Troden Bardic Instrument Key

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Arcana- High Docent Half Toden directs Mal to a specific scroll on a specific shelf in a specific wing when pressed on this subject. He seems... oddly insistent... actually. It turns out to be a book of songs, actually, and one of them is penned by none other than High Docent Half Toden.

Lo, behold the works of the Maker of Things,
Wands, staves, instruments, wonders, and rings,
His traveling cart rolls from town to town
And trades mystical wonders for enough coins to drown
Sometimes human, sometimes dwarf, sometimes gnome,
He claims fate calls him, binds him, and keeps him from home
He forged Harum's hammer that split the Eternal Rock
Tinkered Trelmari's picks which defeat any Lock
He defies time and age, but one note rings true
Find one of Harum's adamant coins and he will find you.

Spoiler: Harumburg Library Lore

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Religion- There has been a near constant history of undead in and around the capital of Harumsvale. It seems like every three to five decades or so some priest or paladin of Harum organizes a purge that "purifies" a coven of vampire spawn, a hidden necromancer, or a ghoul nest. But it seems to Mal (and to High Docent Toden) that this always treats the outward symptoms without handling the cause. Vampire spawn are rooted out, but rarely is a true vampire found. Students at the university are found to be dabbling in the forbidden arts, but no one ever catches the teacher who revealed such secrets to them. And each time a nest of ghouls is rooted out there is often a new infection there within a century. Half gives Mal an anecdote about one building in the industrial district being raided three times within his lifetime.

History- Docent Toden cannot corroborate much in this area of research, but Mal does find several portraits that bear an astounding resemblance to Grand Arbiter Myrus Malkaav, each of them depicting some variety of civil servant or noble position with roughly eighty years between them. When Post Master Geller Rell passes away from a wasting disease, eight decades or so later Chief Accountant Daedren Gastaf, who has the same severe eyes, hooked nose, and pale skin but a different haircut, takes his position a serves with merited distinction. There is a general trend in these dopplegangers to rise in the ranks of the government over the centuries, and Mal finds records dating back nearly a thousand years.

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