Finale of Water
Unfortunately, you couldn’t all be there for the end. Sorry I overstocked Sunday’s events but here is the low down:
- The Plot: King Solon of the Sprites collapsed in the Tavern and his brother and advisor Thrang was weakened because the bottle was trapped (the liquid was just purple water not even wine or poison). Thrang was hit with a Soul Siphon Spell. This is what I wrote up if you cast Know Lore on the Soul Siphon spell:
“The Soul-Siphon spell is an exceptionally rare, ancient spell first developed long before the Great School and most was often used in the Water Wars. It drains off a victim’s soul essence and transfers it to the caster. The hex leaves the victims drained of essence and likewise drained off all vitality. The essence is conversely transferred into the caster spiritually and physically strengthening them.
The proto-spell was crafted by Lady Ardrias Greywind to draw off the essence of her hated rival Matron Cerulean. Her version of the hex weakened the matron to her death, but it did not transfer the stolen essence to Lady Greywind instead it was channeled into amphorae. During the Age of the Five Houses, the Greywind clan had joined House Riven where they further enhanced the Soul-Siphon spell in their exploration of soul magics. Tolankar Greywind later perfected his ancestor’s spell by use of the Blood Grail, the ancient water Arcani. He transformed the siphoned essence into a drinkable liquid, which infused Tolankar with stolen power. Tolankar used the Blood Grail with great relish against the sprites, but the secrets of Soul-Siphon seemingly died with Tolankar.
Later in the Birthright War, one of the warring trio of princes apparently unearthed the long lost hex and used it on his brothers. The Soul-Siphon hex has not been recorded since the Birthright War or “Princes War.” It is known that Soul-Siphon can only be cast by Water Children and can be cast against Water Children. “
[See, I was ready for every standard spell you could have thrown at me that night!]
Since it targets water children, Solon got drained, Thrang was weakened and Moon Bear’s (also a water pup) psychic defenses were dropped allowing him to be possessed by the rascally Wren the xenophobe. The trapped bottle was made by the Vintner, who (with the help of some foul beings, see Brimstone’s rune) trashed the Nexus of Water to get the power for his soul siphon spell. The Vintner gave the bottle to Myra and then bottled her all her memories about the bottle and the Vintner (she was a pawn but not possessed).
What did Wren have to do with this all? He just wanted his sigil back and was wickedly corrupted with Insanity at the time! Hey, what is a Water Adventure without a Red Herring (haha).
Why didn’t the Vintner possess Myra or Bear? Well you have to have a spirit or mind to do that and the Vintner has neither. The Vintner is a unique being. It has shreds of spirit and soul but not much. It is an Animus being. It is all drive and action, a metaphysical automaton. It is looking for its soul and spirit so it keeps bottling spirits in the hopes of finding and claiming the one spirit it needs; its own!
The Vintner’s attack on Solon is to reclaim the soul essence it lost. It travels to the Bridge of Souls and pushes Solon’s stolen essence against the Soul Gate but the essence can not pass through without a soul to contain it so it fragments into 11 Essence Vessels. The Vintner snatches up one on the vessels the one with its own soul-essence in it.
The other ten shoot off to ten people that Solon has siphoned essence from on purpose (Tolankar, Thrang via Narzynn) or by accident (Wren, Goldstar, Sunku) or inherited through his family bloodline passed from generation to generation (Scrye, Reeysha the Diviner Queen, Lady Greywind). The vessels ended up in places special to those ten beings: Tolankar’s Treasury, Sunku’s Pagoda, Goldstar’s haunting ground, the Well of Visions for the Diviner Queen, Scrye’s scrye pool, Thrang’s hall of mirrors, etc. Each vessel had some of Solon’s essence-memories as well as those of the other person. Only one was purely King Solon, the one hidden in the Vintner’s Hall of Bottled Spirits. It was buried because the Vintner had enough of a memory to recall that it hated Solon and never wanted his essence recovered but didn’t have enough brains left to do something clever like toss it into the Abyss.
So Chells and Kelloran began the efforts to purified the Nexus of Water using Candle of Water Walking. They rescued the crazed Wren and gave him his own faux-sigil.
So you recovered the ten vessels, Chells and Kelloran cleansed and purified them with the Chalices of Purity and Cleansing. They poured the Essence into Chalice of Visions a.k.a. the Bloodwine Goblet and Thrang siphoned the stolen essence back into Solon (before he died and became a revenant or ghoul or some other horror). To complete the spell Solon needed a sacrifice from a non-water child: 1 permanent item and 500 XP. He who did so would be chosen by the king to be the Chalice Bearer in the Saga of Shadow. Kelloran and Chells debated who should or wished to do it. In a duel of humbleness, they decided Kelloran should do it. The spell was sealed and so as per Thrang’s mirror:
Thanks to your efforts the Sprite King stands restored in the Sanctuary of Water. Thrang and he thank you and their mana rains down from heaven to show their gratitude.
Said mana is:
Kelloran: gains item of Life Line – Kelloran can place 1 beacon per his level on a person and if that person dies Kelloran can cast one of his Raise Dead spells through the Life Line. This means 1) Kelloran can sense that players death 2) he can Raise Dead from remote distances. The exact distance can be up to the AM and dimensional barriers may impede the spell (so if Mathellyn dies in the Pit, Kelloran may sense Mathellyn is dead but could not Raise Mathellyn unless he too entered the Pit). Note: If Kelloran is 7th level he can cast 7 Life Lines but he only has 4 Raise Dead, he can sense when all 7 of his buddies croak but can only Raise 4 of them. *
Mathellyn – gains an item of Soul-Guard. This spell is a 5th level unique spell that protects its wearer from all types soul-corrupting (death at the hands of a demon, speaking with a corrupt or black spirit, etc.). It is potent but very specific / limited. Mathellyn can cast up to 2 charges per adventure. Recharge cost is 1 GP for 2 charges. It is currently charged. Goes off at most opportune time, works even after death, does not count as a one of your 2 combat spells. *
Chells - is given the scarf the prized possession of Scrye, the mistress of water divinations, to teach him how to cast Scrye Pool. (Scarf prop not included {but will be])
Raith – gains an item of Soul Shield. This spell is a 5th level unique spell that protects its wearer from all types of Possession (demonic, spirit, divine, etc.). It is potent but very specific / limited. Raith can cast up to 2 charges per adventure. Recharge cost is 1 GP for 2 charges. It is currently charged. Goes off at most opportune time, works even after death, does not count as a one of your 2 combat spells. *
* Chells gains this as a personal spell but the other three most decide if they want a separate item for this and what that item is or do they wish to enhance a current item, such as the Ring of Raise Dead, Soul Cutter, or Tomb Sealer.
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In the last moments, Thrang and Solon stand aghast as the Vintner appears in his Hall. With its soul-essence reclaimed they now recognize the architect of the attack on the Sprite King. It is none other than a portion of their long lost and assumed dead brother Narzynn. In the Princes War, Narzynn had been reduced to his component parts by a backlash of soul magics from the Bloodwine Goblet (see Rune of the Sprites doc). Now that the Vintner / Narzynn has its soul and animus it is driven to find its spirit-self and its body as well to become whole once more.
I whipped up a Rune of the Sprites doc as per Chells request and will polish it but the rough version is made up off results from the Essence Vessels that were Solon’s experiences.
Chellsy and Kellsy also heard a story:
-The origin of the Sprites: In the library scrolls, the water children moved from a sprinkling of Furlich’s love children to whole families, to clans made up of several related families to houses made up of dozens of families selected for the strength of the bloodline {i.e. the power of their essence / water magics}. In the Downfall of the Five Houses it explains how there was once 5 prime houses of water children (see attached doc P.S you’ll be seeing more of this plot in the future!). One of these houses was House Trident of which the Cerulean family was a member (some later Cerulean descendants become the sprite’s royal family: Solon Cerulean). Trident was militaristic and expansionist. They set up colonies all over including in the Elemental Plane of Water. During the Downfall of the 5 Houses, House Trident was destroyed as was its water gates so these Water Realm colonies got cut off from the rest of the Shadowlands. For a generation, the Trident colonists limped by ekeing a horrible existence. Their amphibious magics kept them alive but just barely. The cold, dark and damp took its toll on the survivors. It was clear that their aquatic magics alone were not enough to thrive in this hostile alien realm. Using divinatory magics taken from House Confluence, they saw that they needed to prescribe to a strict program of eugenics to breed the strongest race and to interbreed with the Nereids. The bloodline of these water-fay would allow them to be truly amphibious beings as well as gain their gifts at divining and cursing. Isolated from the Shadowlands for untold generations the ragtag survivors of House Trident evolved into a new species, the Sprites, part fay, part mortal and wholly water children.
At about 8:30 PM, as we were packing up Chells and Kelloran also hit on a HUGE truth which I will let them tell in their own fashion.
That is about it for now. See ya AW