Averlorn Campaign: Hope Blighter

Recap from 1/9/2011 - Part 1 of 3

We started out the session in the early spring following our winter break of much rest and relaxation. It was the year of the Lion and the month of the Frog and the winter’s cold was still in the air. We had a bit of unfinished business to deal with before setting out on our next adventure. Lucias had purchased a very powerful magical sword from the Emporium in Ptoleph from the owner of the place a while back.  Argus Norviadras, a retired adventurer and the proprietor of the establishment said he found Hope Blighter while adventuring in a "ruined keep with burial crypts" south of Demeteros.

Aside from having a powerful enchantment (+3) the sword is notable for the demonic runes inscribed upon the blade and the fact that it has both a tiger’s eye and an onyx gem on pommel. Upon further inspection it appears that the onyx gem may not be the original jewel. Our elvish companions informed us that tiger eye gems are typically used in binding rituals for otherworldly entities, which, coupled with the demonic runes made it a very intriguing blade.

Several sessions back while on the hill across from Limus Town, we asked the grey ladies who lived there about the sword and if they could help us to discern its magical properties. They told us that Obberon Remik in Medea’s Gate, a great warrior, former adventurer and renowned demon hunter, may be able to help us to identify the nature of the mystical blade. He said the sword may have been something a demon general would have used but he didn’t know much more about it. Lucias asked him if he knew a sage that might be able to tell us more and he recommended that we contact Ornaskar the Intrepid as someone we could trust. He said to go to the prominent Inn in Demeteros and ask for Ornaskar the Intrepid and tell him that we are friends of Obberon and that he sent us. He also said if he questioned us further about Obberon to tell him that he was “Ornaskar the thirsty”. Obberon said that if Ornaskar didn’t know anything about the sword that he would know someone who did.

So Lucias sought out Ornaskar in his wizard’s tower on the outskirts of the small town of Demeteros which is not very far from Medea’s Gate on the main trade route. He took with him both Teth-en-Aire and Cyrcla the elves since they both knew the demonic language and have wizardly abilities. When we arrived in Demeteros, we were surprised to learn that Ornaskar was not just any wizard or sage but more than likely, the most powerful wizard in all of the lands of the Anvil being of named level. There may be others that are more obscure, or practice their arts in secret off the beaten track, but Ornaskar was most certainly the best known of such wizards in the whole of the Lykaedian plateau.

After researching the matter for a week or so, he told us that in ages past, a powerful demon prince, whose name we don’t dare utter (Obetuk’ue), made his way into our world somewhere in the Gorgon’s Trench far to the south. This dark demon prince of hell was actively waging war on the barbaric men of the trench and had undoubtedly been summoned forth from the pit by some black and powerful sorcerer to serve him. The demon was known for great evil and wickedness and his minions were responsible for sacking and razing entire villages and putting their residents to the sword or the torch. His army was eventually defeated by a king of the trench and the demon’s head and skull were brought back on a staff. This occurred in the lands of Thonaxos in the kingdom of Kasopid, a very boggy land far to the south with a capital which is only about the size of Chapois (very small). The demon was banished to his home plane for 100 years or so before it could be summoned once again to the prime material plane. According to Ornaskar, this occurred anywhere from ten to twenty years ago or as many as sixty years ago, so Lucias wouldn’t have to worry about the demon returning for his blade until the later years of his life if he lived that long.

He went on to say that if one was to journey to the land of the dead in Tartaras, harvest and bring back a tiger’s eye gem of the right size and have it mounted to the sword with the appropriate ritual, it would be possible to reactivate some minor abilities of the blade which were deactivated when the gem was removed. This would have to be done by an elven smith of great ability (named level). He did warn us, however, that the gem was probably removed for a reason. The blade more than likely has an innate intelligence and will and has a very chaotic and evil bearing. If one was to reactivate the blade, more than likely, it would try to bend its possessor to its will and that of its master the demon prince. The only way to sever the weapon’s link with its former owner, he said, was to destroy the demon’s skull since it is the only link between the weapon and its former master on the prime material plane. He also told us some information on the nature of the Maw of Torment which I will elaborate on in a future post.

Upon hearing this, Lucias remarked to Ornaskar, "Tartarus - isn't that where the Titans are imprisoned?" to which Ornaskar replied "Well if you go there, don't let them out!"...