Resting Lich Face¶

2023-Jul-29

• Kleb wanders around the library, nominally to find military history texts, but more importantly to find an unsupervised book return cart. He leaves the package at one of these
• Rowan peruses books about thievery, lockpicking, and general skulduggery. He bumps into an old man and knocks him down, scattering books across the floor. The man’s books similarly cover a suspicious range of subjects, including one on breaking magical contracts, which Rowan swipes for himself
• Rowan notices that the man soon returns the rest of his books to a drop-off cart. He doesn’t seem to be accomplishing much
• Rulkorf locates some tomes on cursebreaking, specifically regarding tracking charms
• Curses are tied to a person’s unique magical signature so they are difficult to remove naturally. However, there are magical means to do so a well as other options (such as potentially destroying the source)
• Rulkorf resolves to do further research into transference, rather than dissolution, of tracking curses. All he ascertains is that it’s harder than simply removin the curse, because it necessarily involves the latter but with more work added on top
• Kleb spots a monodrone in the shape of a golden sphere, and tries to give it a Lozenge Gules pamphlet. It does not accept, so he chases it and finds a group of other monodrones and tridrones. They don’t interact with him, and the original one leads him back to the entrance of the Pillars
• Eventually the Avowed tasked with fulfilling the party’s requests begin bringing them useful material, but a cadre of higher-ranked members also appear and request that the party members come with them to see the Archmage
• Having been retrieved from their separate locations, the trio are led to a teleportation circle, which Rowan and Kleb confidently misidentify as a Zone of Truth
• They, along with the 3 senior Avowed, are pulled to a new location without warning (although they are told it is still somewhere within the library)
• The party begrudgingly climbs the tall spiral staircase leading up to the office of Archmage Angela Spitter-Spark
• She is a halfling woman with silver hair, and explains that their inquiries drew some interest and raised some flags in their system
• The symbols, artifacts, and topics they want to research apparently have ties to the Lich Acererak, the recent troubles with the Death Curse, and other concerning topics
  • The Death Curse, she explains, affects those who have been revivified or resurrected. An artifact called the Soul Monger is very likely being employed to intercept souls traveling between the Material Plane and the afterlife
  • Acererak is the most powerful archlich in the entire multiverse, on par with gods. He is not just a legend made up to scare children, but apparently is real and created the Soul Monger
  • The Soul Monger was last seen in the city of Omu a few hundred years ago in the Tomb of the Nine Gods. No one knows why things would have changed recently
  • Both the Zentarum and the Red Wizards of Thay are also hunting for the Tomb and Soul Monger
• The archmage wants the party to locate and help deactivate or destroy the Soul Monger. In exchange, they receive VIP access to the Inner Sanctum and Archives of Candlekeep, a magical item, and a reserved parking spot
• They agree to terms to be teleported to Port Nyanzaru on the island of Chult, far to the south