Nola 3rd (9 campaign days)
Notable NPCs
Canglraeth (dead)
Sekare (presumed dead)
Darkpaw Gnoll Clan (defeated)
Mage-Gnoll/Elven Mage (in Theros' custody)
Ithaqua/Howler-in-the-Winds (banished)
Gnoll Refugees (in Maia's care)
Six Sacrifices (dead)
Treasure
Cannibalism (you know who you are)
The Scroll of Eternal Slumber [Vivianna, claimed from the elven ruins during the escape] (consumable): Copied from the golden grimoire of the Highking himself, first and greatest of all wizards, the true Archmage, comes a spell that has become immortal legend in the fairytales and bedtime stories of Othyr: sleep, far-reaching and everlasting, the kind that casts whole castles or cities into hibernation.
With an eloquent reciting of the scroll, an area no smaller than 1 x 1 miles and no greater than 10 x 10 miles is immediately and irrevocably cast into deep, dreaming sleep. Animate and inanimate things enter their versions of unconsciousness, during which they are impervious to the ravages of aging (though everything gets a somber coloring and dusting of cobwebs via the magic).
At the time of casting, the caster must designate the stipulation for waking using only three words, for example "true love's kiss", "the king returns", "the sword pulled". Fate will take care of the rest, understanding that even with the word "eternal" in the spell name, nothing truly lasts forever...
And no, you simply lack the skill (and level) to copy this spell into your spell book.
The Cauldron of Dead Men [Donatella, rolled out of Canglraeth's nest]: Centuries of soot and congealed meat juices have blacked the exterior of this large iron pot, and made the magical runes on it almost impossible to read. The power of the cauldron, though, is well known from story and song as a legacy creation from The Lich Queen Victoria Il'spana. You couldn't just leave it...
Put a dead body in the cauldron, add water, and boil it up. Soon, the dead body will come to life and climb out of the cauldron. The stories are mostly accurate. You may use the cauldron during a full heal-up to restore life to one recently-killed corpse. The resurrected individual looks ghastly – it’s a walking corpse that’s been scalded all over by boiling water – but is otherwise unaffected. This restoration is only temporary, though – the person you resurrected dies again at the start of the next full heal-up, unless you stick them back in the cauldron for another hot bath.
So, you can use the cauldron to keep one slain player character semi-alive, as long as you keep resurrecting them with each full healup. It may still be worthwhile seeking out a more permanent source of resurrection, but the cauldron’s a gory stop-gap. You can also use it to bring back other characters on a temporary basis, as a source of information or to perform one last task.
Quirk: Loves to cook.
Your Most Humble Servant, Wilhelm Scream [Donatella, received the next night on the surface via giant centipede]: You receive a curious letter sealed in red wax with the symbol of a hunchback with a shovel pressed firmly in the paper. Inside, the following:
Dearest Mistress-Reaper,
I am not fit to lick the night soils from your boots! And yet I dare to write, hoping that in my meager existence I might somehow serve you. I am Wilhelm Scream, a worthless performer of odd-jobs who has, in the past, been employed by the likes of both your Great Sire and Void-tossed grandmother.
I write with immeasurable shame that, for the last seventy odd years, your mother has not seen fit to make use of my services, now forcing me to look to the next generation of the imperial Il'spana line. Please, mistress, I beg you make use of me. I am the ears behind the gravestones, the eyes in the alleys, the bloodhound, the arson, the fixer of problems (and should you demand it the creator!), the spider, the worm, and the mule!
I am forever and ever at your disposal. In you, I sense a kindred spirit I have not felt in near a century. You need only scrawl your directions to me in black dirt where bugs do crawl and I will receive them in good time. Word travels faster than you'd believe between the creepy-crawlies!
My payment is your satisfaction. And the respect of my great shyness, which prevents ever looking upon your macabre glory with my own eyes.
Your Most Humble Servant,
Wilhelm Scream
The Ebon Staff of Orlanc the Apprentice [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive](recharge 16+): One of the only known half-orc/half-elves to survive beyond infancy, Orlanc was abandoned early and survived childhood through theft, lies, sabotage, and the use of his innate sorcery. He grew into adulthood in the time of elven dominance more devious than a drow and more formidable than a mountain giant.
Combining the greatest aspects of elf and orc, a paragon of magical and physical prowess, his insidious cunning was his most fearsome trait. Seven times he avoided extermination by the Highking Gloriandel, a series of infamous tales set across centuries in Othyr that no elf would suffer hearing titled The Seven Offenses of the Ebon Prince.
Orlanc was eventually cornered by the Highking by design, in the center of a spell-sapping dungeon of the half-breeds own making, one so heinous the elves have all but erased lore of it from history. Gloriandel narrowly won, but it was said Orlanc stole something very precious to the Highking.
This is a +3 staff belonging to Orlanc during his tutelage underneath the great wizards, witches, demons, and necromancers of his day. It allows its wielder to memorize 2 extra spells, reflecting the voracious appetite for power Orlanc himself possessed.
It's rumored reuniting the seven staves will create a beacon to the spell-sapping dungeon, inside of which are hidden Gloriandel's seven most powerful spells.
Quirk: Prone to evil mastermind monologues.
Faralune's Tropic Robes [Vivianna, stolen from the elf captive] (recharge 11+): These deep purple robes with fiery, citrus colors at the hems suggest a tropical shore far from Othyr where the sun burns fiercely in the skies and passions run magically deep. Your blood is purple, thick as treacle, and hot as boiling oil. As a free action when you are staggered, you may inflict an amount of fire damage equal to your level or your current ongoing damage (whichever is greater) on all foes engaged with you.
Quirk: Passionate in the extreme.
Wendigo Fang (Aleksi, taken from the charred wendigo-made-flesh): This yellow canine acts as a +3 dagger and inflicts 20 ongoing damage on a critical hit (save 11+). If a target makes the save, you make take 20 damage by biting into your own flesh (as a free action) and negate it.
Quirk: You pocket bits of fallen enemies for reasons you dread contemplating...
Pestle and Mortar [Aleksi, found waiting in the Dancing Hut's broom-closet]: Like the mighty Baba Yaga of old, you now possess a large pestle and mortar. It seems the Hut has grown strong enough to produce one of these magical flyers or, through some unseen force which judges witches, druids, and warlocks, you have been deemed worthy.
Riding the pestle and mortar allows you, Aleksi, limitless flight at a speed comparable to a horse at full charge. While in the mortar, you are impervious to environmental hazards (you cannot drown, be melted or burned by lava, electrocuted, etc.) You can still be attacked and hit, though.
1/day, you may use the pestle and mortar to plane shift into any of the known planes (or maybe unknown, if the circumstances are right).
1/day you can shrink the pestle and mortar down to the size of a dormouse with you inside (providing +5 to AC, but permanently weakening you; a free action to return to normal). 1/day you can enlarge the pestle and mortar to the size of a full-grown oak with you inside (doubling all melee damage, but reducing AC to 10; free action to return to normal size).
Belt of Illusions [Maia, noticed strangely entangled onto your own mundane belt like a python](recharge 16+): This belt works like the wizard spell Disguise Self, altering your appearance by cloaking you in a magical disguise. Unlike the spell, though, you can disguise yourself as a specific person without penalty. There’s a trick to it, though – there’s a leather pouch attached to the belt, and the illusion’s based on whatever you put into the pouch. The more personal the item, the better.
The illusion lasts for ten minutes, and whatever item you place in the pouch is consumed when the duration expires.
Quirk: Paranoid that people aren't really who they say they are.
Symbiosis of Satayel [Maia, realized in a dream]: Before the demon lord Yeenoghu preyed on the gnoll's fear of civilization in order to conquer their souls and the dark spirits of the Eald seduced the hyena-men into erecting grisly totems in their honor, they were a tribal people harmonized with Nature. They worshiped the grass spirit Satayel then, embodiment of the sweeping oceans of green, gold, and ivory that stretched from horizon to horizon and constituted the plains, savannas, and meadows of a wide, youthful planet.
Your rescue of the helpless gnolls of the burrow awakened the last glimmer that remains of the forgotten spirit. If you accept Satayel, she will grow inside of you like a seed, fed by the good works you perform for the plains and those who live upon them. Perhaps, with your help, she might reclaim the hearts and minds of the destructive monsters of the grasslands.
At the beginning of each session, you may roll an additional Relationship Die for Satayel.
Iron-hide Shield [Theros, lifted from a black gnoll corpse] (recharge 6+): It may be nothing more than a dire weasel hide stretched over a crude wooden frame, but the primitive shamanistic markings daubed onto the face of this shield make it indestructible. When an enemy attacks you in melee combat, use the shield to inflict damage equal to the natural attack roll on the attacker as their blow smashes into the surprisingly immovable surface of this unyielding armament.
Quirk: Loves to crush things, be it bugs or walnuts or someone's dreams.
Leopard Knighthood [Theros, felt rather suddenly] (2/day): Your good works have not gone unnoticed. Tavishan, celestial lord of your kind and son of the great goddess Eilessa, has seen fit to reward you for your bravery and steadfastness. As a quick action, you may transform into a leopard twice a day (and quick action back into a tabari). All your possessions shift with you and are not lost. You retain bonuses from worn magic items. And besides obvious improvements to speed, stealth, and climbing (+2 bonuses to related background checks), you also receive an attack and aspect:
Leopard Attack (counting as +2 magical items)
Melee attack - At-Will
Attack: Strength or Dexterity + Level +2 vs. AC
Natural Even Hit: 1d10 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Natural Odd Hit: 1d6 damage per level + Strength or Dexterity damage + 2.
Miss: Repeat the attack against the same or a different target.
This second attack has no miss effect.
Leopard Aspect - Quick action - Daily
Until the end of the battle, when an enemy misses you with a melee attack and rolls a natural 1–4, you gain an additional standard action during your next turn. You can only gain one additional standard action a turn this way. Powers like elven grace or a command won’t stack with this effect.
And everyone may magically upgrade their armor to +2 if it isn't already.
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