The Essence Thief
You hear the yammering howl of the coyote. It is the call of Grandfather Coyote, the Trickster. He says, “Hear me! This is my descendant, my heir, a child of the water. In their blood courses my blood, the water of life.”
After Tolankar’s
revelation, the murmurs of fear and suspicion in the Council Chamber grew to a
deafening roar. Tolankar the Water Priest had proved that demon-get were hidden
amongst the citizenry of Stonehaven. For centuries, the town’s wall of mystical
rocks had safeguarded the settlement from ravaging bands of gnolls, but now its
ruling council had learned that gnollish spies and demonic impersonators worked
and lived within the barrier of sacred stones. The Gray Council voted
unanimously to promote Tolankar to the position of Grand Inquisitor of
Stonehaven. He and his newly arrived Order of the Grail were given marshal
powers to seek out, interrogate and if need be destroy the demon-spawn hidden
amongst the citizenry of Stonehaven.
Their first “demon-get” was the town ferryman, and then a well-digger, then a
brewer, next were a potter, a vintner, an alchemist, a visiting sailor and then
an entire family of fisherfolk. One by one, they were apprehended, questioned
and, even after each one professed his or her innocence, after they denied they
were possessed, in league with or kindred to demons, they were tortured. Despite
their denials, their torment ended the same: their chromatic essence was drawn
from their writhing bodies into the Bloodwine Goblet. Sometimes only a trickle
of essence would dribble from those strapped to the “Altar of Purification” into
the holy cup. These with little essence extracted Tolankar would pronounce as
cases of minor demonic possession and after their “purification” they would be
released physically unmarred, but their psyche remained forever altered. For the
remainder of their days, these “exorcized” citizens had become listless,
slow-witted, and often overly placid or fearful.
Other times, Tolankar Greywind’s inquisitions would conclude with a torrent of
essence pouring from the accused into the Blood Grail, yet no matter how much
poured out, it would never overflow the rim of the mystical chalice. These
victims Tolankar would label as arch-fiends who had assumed human form. Once
drained of their vast stores of essence these victims were often left catatonic
and often died shortly after their inquisition. Inevitably the family members of
the inquisitions victims were also brought in for questioning and almost all of
them had to varying degrees “demon essence” in their blood.
Tolankar Greywind was a man of ambition, whose life, and consequently the lives
of hundreds of his victims, was forever altered the day he discovered an ancient
arcanic artifact known as the Bloodwine Goblet. The arcani had existed since
times unknown and had granted its bearer the powers of vision and prophecy, but
Tolankar had discovered that it also allowed the bearer to siphon off the
essence of those who share the same bloodline. He had used the grail’s
divinatory powers to scrye for potential allies and found the Brotherhood of the
Iron Ring, a long forgotten order of monks who protected the Grail Temple where
the Bloodwine Goblet had once been housed and the monks believed would be
returned to their charge someday.
Tolankar was not only a gifted hydromancer but also a talented orator. He
divined and then used the credos of the Iron Ring to convince the aged monks
that the Blood Grail was actually sentient and that it showed Tolankar, its
‘high priest’ visions of what it wished to occur. His first lie was to tell the
monks that the cup had chosen Tolankar to return it to the brotherhood and lead
them to a great destiny. In truth, through years of study Tolankar controlled
the sights that arose in the waters of the Bloodwine Goblet and had carefully
orchestrated these mystical scenes to further his own ends.
Each monk was instructed to recruit 10 acolytes to become Grail Knights thus
changing the brotherhood to a small army to protect the temple. Tolankar then
divined that he would need political power to garner his mystical might and the
cup showed him the hamlet of Stonehaven where he would have the abundant
resources that he needed victims and pawns. Using the powers of the chalice as
well as the hidden caches of the Brotherhood of the Iron Ring, Tolankar opened a
portal that transported the Grail Temple into the heart of Stonehaven.
At first the townsfolk and its ruling council were outraged but Tolankar was
prepared for this and defused their ire by insisting he and the brotherhood had
come to save Stonehaven from demonic infiltration and inevitable invasion. From
the moment of his arrival Tolankar set out to prove to the citizens of
Stonehaven that the threat he foresaw was real. He succeeded.
Eventually, Tolankar had run out of victims and used the Chalice of Visions to
find himself a new well-source of water-child essence. Tolankar discovered that,
like the gnolls, somehow the sprites were his kin as well. The Inquisitor cared
little for the origins of races just power. Tolankar accessed the Sprites Realm
through a deep stream that ran beneath the Landbridge near Stonehaven. Here he
used his powers to draw sprites through the portal and drain them of their
essence. Soon, the Sprite King of old discovered Tolankar’s predations. He sent
one of his legions led by his son Prince Solon bearer of the Shell Shield and
his brother Prince Thrang, keeper of the Mirror Shield to guard the Landbridge
gate. Cut off from his supply of victims, Tolankar used the Chalice in a new
manner he animated the soulless husk of one of his sprite victims and used it to
murder a venerable member of the Gray Council. The council was enraged by this
blatant aggression of the once-peaceable sprites. Tolankar held a chapel service
where from the pulpit he whipped the citizens of Stonehaven into a blood-thirsty
frenzy and sparked the Sprites-Gate War. Soon the Monks of the Iron Ring, the
Grail Knights and the members of the town’s garrison were battling with sprites
all along the stream gate. As ordered, the humans tried to take the sprites
alive and deliver them to Tolankar for ‘questioning.’ The costs in life on both
sides was very steep, but water priest’s power continued to grow. The Gray
Council and the ancient Sprite King both feared for their separate peoples.
Young Prince Solon sensed the danger that his people faced and decided to take
matter in his own hands. As the Keeper of the Shell Shield, it was his role was
to protect his people while Thrang’s was to guard the mirror gates that connect
the ordinary waters and the Sprites Realm. Solon left Thrang in charge of
defending the stream gate from the humans and went ashore to seek out his true
foe. For a week, the sprite prince spied on Tolankar and found an unexpected
ally in a woman named Scrye. She used her gifts to divine Tolankar’s true agenda
and the source of his power, the Bloodwine Chalice. With horror Solon witnessed
the torment, extraction and deaths of Tolankar’s victims many of whom were his
subjects.
With Scrye’s boon, the young prince risked his life to burst into a meeting of
the Gray Council and used the Chalice of Cleansing to cleanse all the council
members, Tolankar and himself of magic. Without magic, the council had little
choice but to listen to Solon, because, physically, the brawny young warrior was
more than a match for any of the councilors. Solon demanded to be heard. He
informed the council that he had information that would end the war, save lives
and free the citizens of Stonehaven from a tyrant. Scrye’s boon was a gem that
projected the horrors that Tolankar had perpetrated for all to see. The Gray
Council looked aghast at the fiend that they had kept in their midst and aided
in his campaign of torment against innocents, including one of their fellow
councilors.
Tolankar had lost his personal spells but the cleansing had not affected the
power of the arcani. Tolankar used the Bloodwine Chalice to attack Solon and
siphon off his essence. The Gray Council and the sprite prince were stunned.
Solon began to weaken until Scrye showed him in his minds eye how to use the
siphoning power of the chalice. The faltering prince lunged forward grabbed the
chalice. Tolankar and Solon struggled physically and mystically to overwhelm the
other. Solon’s strength returned as he drew back his essence from Tolankar but
he did not stop there. Solon began to drink in the stolen essence of hundreds of
water-children. Tolankar sensed he was losing this battle and rapidly and
completely shut down the power of the chalice. Solon reeled as he tried to
assimilate the hundreds of sensations and memories from the stolen essence. As
he recovered, Tolankar fled Stonehaven to the Harpy Cliffs where a harpy
soul-slave would fly him to safely. As the harpy flew into the air, carrying its
burden, an arrow struck the winged creature down. Tolankar, with chalice still
in hand, plummeted into the stream bed below. The water-priest’s screams of
terror briefly filled the night as Scrye walked away from the cliff shouldering
her bow and quiver.
The Essence Thief’s reign of horror ended that night and peace between the
sprites and Stonehaven was re-established. With a since arrow, the Sprites-Gate
War was finished.