Songs of Pain and Sorrow

This adventure will start on Alusia but will move off plane.

Summary

Adventure: Songs of Pain and Sorrow
GM: Jim Arona
Session: Summer 809 wk
Night: Monday
Location Remuera
Level: High

Party:

Turf (Scribe) played by Terry
Naden played by Michael Young
Keshah played by Mike Haycock

Others may put in guest appearances:

Lysander played by Avette,
Endgame played by James Hennings.

This is a casual game and is to be played as and when people have the time and inclination.

Employer:
Leander Gentle, Healer.

Mission:
To investigate the mystery of a young man by the name of Leander Gentle. He is a healer of middling skill who has been known to help out at the Guild infirmary. In these few weeks before the Guild Meeting, he was found in a compromisingly horizontal position in the House of Gilded Youth.

Which is to say, dead.

Indeed, the careless young fellow seems to have misplaced his skin.

Out of consideration for his charity in bringing physic to these unfortunates, Master Gentle has been resurrected and his skin regenerated. He has expressed some little sadness that he will have to wait for some time until an understanding miracle worker can be found. For, in the parlous situation in which he finds himself, it appears more than just his skin has been lost. He has expressed a hope for a "big, thtwong one" if possible, but really, any Healer capable of regenerating vital organs would be fine.

Pay:
Master Gentle has offered to lay hands on any afflicted part that needs the attendance of soft hands and an understanding heart on a scale of pay inversely proportionate to the manliness of the subject. For others, the offer is a 10% reduction to the cost of any Healer service less than a miracle, i.e. not including Rank 8 or higher level abilities.

Briefing and Knowledge

Considering the forensic nature of this adventure, those seeking masterwork Ranks in Alchemy or Herbalism may find gainful employment here. Much of the evidence points to denizens of Lameth, a realm of the Seven Kingdoms hegemony on the plane of Tanuel.

Standard Pre-cast Spells & Effects

Turf

Long term counterspells
Full regeneration (if ITN known)
Namer investments
Cross plane summoning (if ITN known)
Ablative spell protection (if ITN known)

Scribe Notes

Beginnings

Leander, a guild healer, was found dead – his skin stripped form his body and pieces eaten and cut off. A divination of him discovered his Aura completely wiped. Naden and Turf agree to investigate this heinous crime.
Endgame, an Immortal provided information regarding the killing. He believes the murderer to be Blackrod. Endgame was traveling from the plane of Reich and encountered Blackrod in the Abyss riding a carriage driven by a homunculus called Waxbite. The carriage has spell anchors that allow spells to be centered upon it. They rode for a week and eventually arrived in a forest in Alusia, eventually making their way to Slippery Rock and parted ways.
Blackrod killed and sacrificed Leander Gentle, skinning him, ate some of his brain and cut off his genitals. He impersonated Leander for some time, at most 3 Â½ hours. We spent most of this time in the guild, performing Leander's duties. We surmise he was stealing nail clippings, hair samples to use in a Rune ritual.
Sold some herbalist preparations to the brothel, one to increase the beauty of whatever the drinker observes, another that provides vivid flashback of events. We pay the owner what he paid BLACKROD, 5,000sp and confiscated them from him.
Blackrod also visited Slippery Rock and purchased all the restoratives they had for sale, 120 in all. He paid with coin that was minted in the city of Jiroth on the plane of Tanuel.
Talking to the town guard also reveals that there is a new drug in town 'Decoction of the Soul Poppy', highly addictive and suspends the connection between the soul and spirit. Its sufficient is taken it would permanently sever this connection. We surmise they could then be stolen, or another soul inserted into the body. This drug apparently is distributed from Caulder. I talk to Villa and he put us in touch with a contact that, after a few days, informs us it is distributed by a group called the 'Black Hand'.
We visit Caulder and track down the gang which turns out to be a collection of beggars that Blackrod assembled and trained to sell the drug. The operation was amateur leading us to suspect his motivations were not for the money. We confiscate their stock, 1000 doses and destroy 800, keeping the rest for experimentation. Naden spends the week experimenting and we discover the drugs is highly addictive, most people will be addicted on the first taste.

House of Pain

We summon Endgame and he takes us to the forest in which he and Blackrod appeared. Their portal point is now occupied by the House of Many Rooms. Endgame explains this is a cross planar house that we can use to get to Tanuel, however the house is incredibly dangerous and many that enter never leave. If you are separated in the house you will never find each other again. Given the apparent danger that Endgame warns us off and we try another way. I attempt to plane shift him to Tanuel, he appears a day later explaining he appeared in a huge flat sandy area that contained 72 gigantic rolling wheels that have eyes. They crushed him a number of times as well as afflicting him with a sort of durational Whitefire called 'Fires of Ophanim'.
I regenerate his broken bones and we try again, he appears two days later with hideous wounds explaining he appeared in the same place. We believe that the Plane Shift is bound to that point until we can obtain additional information about the place.
We decide the House is the only option and enter with concern. The Hellfire cannons at the entrance scorch us but we gain entry, Endgame is stronger than a giant and tears the door from its hinges. The floor of the foyer is black and white tiles and there are many possible exits, but Endgame leads us to the the door under the sweeping staircase. Naden grabs an umbrella from the cane stand. A small triffid plant is situated in a pot plant beside this door. The stairs leading down past a dresser. Endgame picks some brown powder from the small stand placing this in the silver tray on the dresser, then places the tray under the painting.
A small pantry door is our next route however, to some puzzlement, Endgame can't budge them with his huge strength so I cast an opening. They buckle and implode inward, to be followed by a giant tentacle. There are three creatures from beyond time that are shaped like kraken(GTN: Entropic Chthonians). They change the side of the room and space around us. They shift space to direct Endgame's lightning bolt back to us and we are significantly singed. His arm is 'stretched' as he tries to pick up the tentacle.
Never use a magical attack on them more than once, if they know its coming they will shift it.
It's a close fight and we avoid death eventually and overcome them. The pantry turns into an pentagonal room with a number of windows. We see space, water, mists, sandy waste and a glade. We decide its time for additional aid and we summon Lysander to help with our perilous quest.
We pass though the door on the other side and it's a long corridor with black walls and floor, and a white ceiling. Naden can see spirits and there are black paintings on the wall, the paint made from spirits. Endgame walks us to the end of the corridor and we find a large ballroom with large mirrors around the edge we cannot see to the end of the room because it is so far away and so dark.

New friends

The mirrors (GTN: Dark Reflection) suck in your soul if you looking directly into them. We encounter a number of figures in the room, all wearing white robes with black faces (GTN mostly human). They attack us with wands, but we overpower them and form a truce. They are a team of explorers from Assyuria that are trapped in the House and have been here some time for some time and their numbers have dwindled from 30 to 6.
The explorers explain the next room is shrouded in darkness and anyone that enters is never seen again. We moved the stacked furniture and examine the 'room', none of our vision can penetrate the 'Veil of Darkness' and after lengthy discussion Endgame pluck out his eye and pushes his eye through a Leaf from a Pythagoras Tree. This is excruciatingly painful, but this in conjunction with an Opening spell on his Amulet of Seeing allows him to penetrate the Veil. I see his true form while casting the magic and after all my years of adventuring am surprised to find myself revolted.

Pain

We enter the room, a large cavern with dry creek bed. Our rangers determine north is the Abyss, south the Veil, east is Black and west White – all very odd. We are leapt upon by a giant lizard-like creature (well that what Endgame tells us) and most of us fight in the darkness. Its is as strong as a dragon and come close to pulling apart the bodies of Lysander and Endgame, both fortunate to escape. During the fight we discover if you touch the walls you suffer a grievous injury. We overcome the beast (GTN: Fractal Wyrm) and spend some time healing up the wounds we have suffered. We track out way to its lair and discover treasure, presumable taken from other hapless explorers. With much hesitation I finally decide to suffer the excoriating pain of one of these Leaves and divine a magical shadow on the wall, amongst other stuff, none of it sharp or edged.
With the challenges ahead we decide another sturdy hand is required so we send Endgame retrieves Keshah from the guild to assist our group. Being a true adventurer he shows no concern when appearing in the darkness that his magic cannot penetrate. While continuing to rest, heal and divinate we notice we neither hunger or need to sleep – most mysterious. We make ourselves, eat even though we have no urge. Who know what will happen otherwise?
We slowly follow the riverbed downhill for what seems like an entire day and the Veil of Darkness eventually dissipates. I welcome this, unable to see any danger makes for a tense march. What is finally revealed is just as curious as the darkness – we stand upon the edge of a two mile long drop, beyond us lies a flat black with white chequer board plane a hundred miles long. The left and right of the planes are darkness and the close corner on the left hand side of the plane destroyed, showing only the blackness. On the left hand ditch is a ditch that leads away and at the far end of the plane a large three storied building that is unnaturally clear from this distance.

More strangeness

We ponder for some time discussing hope to reach the Plains and decide it would be possible to slide down. It's a drop of some distance but the wall slowly curves and we should arrive at the bottom safely. I attempt first, falling initially but then sliding down, arriving safely some miles later with well polished armour. Lysander gracefully flies down while the others use the less elegant method of sliding.
Much closer to the checkerboard we see the black spaces are missing, articulated black tentacles writhing from the space below. We slowly make our way to the building with Lysander flying Keshah and us Rune Portaling across. The air occasionally disappears and Keshah almost becomes tentacle food when Lysander loses height. They observe a strange woman working her way across the tiles, walking on the black and brachiating across the white tiles on two short rods that she carries.
Two days later the later the party have travelled to and are rested up on a tile adjacent to the building and approach. The structure is enormous, with large 20ft tall doors. Endgame mentions hideous monsters that live inside so we decide to have Lysander fly us to the roof and follow an aqueduct that runs there, the liquid 'Ã†ther' flows in a perpendicular direction to the aqueduct, it is most unusual. The Assyurians elect to enter the building, and we separate from them at this point. We follow this until we again observe the strange woman working her way adjacent to the building and through a portcullis. Still unobserved by her we follow and find ourselves in a large anteroom with an unmanned giant sized crossbow pointed at the door. We take the only exit and we find ourselves in the long corridor with murder holes in the ceiling, we have Endgame walk us to the end of the corridor upon hearing the heaving thudding of many feet about us.

Allies?

The corridor opens to a large courtyard that is inhabited by ghosts of giants ('Fomorians'). We learn of Keshah's curse as they approach him with menace is their dead eyes. Lysander flies him to safety and they follow - like cats watching a mouse they wait for him to descend. We also observe the stranger fighting her way across the courtyard and we enter the fray to assist. We learn her name is Jocasta and we are fighting our way through the keep at the end of the world (but still in the house)
Fighting our way across the courtyard and though a door we stop to rest and talk. She is on an embassy to House Kerberoth. Her arm is shatter with bone sticking through the skin, but she seems unconcerned as she splints the arm. Lysander cannot heal the arm as she is aligned with the dark. She is fascinated by our magical and healing abilities and enquires on the ability to learn this, and whether the student requires legs and could be pinned to a board with bronze spikes. Keshah seems unfazed and talks at length. We learn Blackrod runs an Emporium in the city of Jiroth, the capital of Lameth, in the Seven kingdoms. Strangely she recognises my name, that of a Chaos Lord.

More Hate

We are next to travel through a long carpeted corridor with hideous creature that attack from the walls, these are so hideous we must take the tinctures to make the world look more beautiful to avoid losing our sanity. Jocasta warns that we may meet 'Hate', a horror that at times inhabits the corridor. A black insectoid creature over 6ft tall with seven arms and blood of acid. It is almost immune to weapons that do not crush and Jocasta provides a mace of magical power to assist. Endgame is able to move us 8 miles along the corridor and we avoid hours of walking. Jocasta suggest walking on the same colour in the carpet but this doesn't stop us encountering Hate whom pulls himself out of the carpet. A perilous fight ensures, with both Lysander and Nadin lying near death on the ground. It proved a taxing fight as Hate having the vitality of 30 healthy people and so many vicious attacks, but it is defeated. Eventually we made our way to the end of the corridor and faced two doors, a True Seeing from Keshah revealed we were actually inside the intestine of some creature, the right door doors lead to the stomach and the left an exit.
We find ourselves in a room with a stand and a box that is has the aura of wishes. Dracasta grabs this and descends through another door and down a long winding staircase inside a large silo. Hands occasionally emerge from the walls and attempt to push people off the stairs to fall some hundred feet to the ground. We have a few near misses but make it to the bottom unscathed. We race through an enormous rune engraved arch representing the exit from the House.
Jocasta opens the box and shows us how to use it to bestow wishes upon each other.

Abysmal escape

Finding ourselves in the Abyss where we are faced by a carriage containing three immortals: the Lady of Souls, the Lady of the Lake and Lady of the Abyss (normally insane but apparently sane at the moment) They bring a message from the Valar (the gods that the elves revere) to assist us and bestow upon us gifts. They would also like us to locate Mark, Death's Champion, who is missing. Jocasta slinks off quickly.
The Ladies grant us four questions to ask that they will answer, we ponder and discuss what to ask...

Startling Information

Pondering our four questions we ask For our purposes what is BlackRods greatest weakness: Iophiel. Researching the name we learn Iophiel is of the Ophanim whose sphere is beauty, but is currently missing and Metatron has charged a flight of Fire Angels to locate him. Given this information we next ask For our purposes where is Iophiel: In Blackrod's Emporium. We are provided a clear destination, so use the next two question to learn the ITN and previous wielder of the mace.
I learn Iophiel's name and attempt to summon him, with no response. Clearly he is unable to respond. The Lady of the Lake offers a sword to Keshah on the conditions it is never returned to the Known Realms. The Lady of Souls provides each of us with a Pentecost potion what will allow us speak to all sentients for some time, however this boon is accompanied by a flame mark on the forehead. Talking to the Lady of the Abyss we learn the House manifested unusually in Alusia and whatever called it was diabolic in nature. More alarmingly, she suggests Blackrod is using Soul Poppy to collest souls to trade to demonic forces for more power.
We travel for the next three weeks to the entry to Tanuel and bid the Lady of the Abyss goodbye before she goes mad.

Portal to Tanuel

We are faced with a large mountain rising up from the Abyss, upon which is perched the fortification of House Kerberoth. The magic of an arch at the entrance allows more than six people to gather without attracting a horde of demons. They grant us entry to the fortress and we pass though an internal gate that leads to the edges of Tanuel. Navigation into the plane is by landmark, we follow the path to the left and find the Crimson Spires, the next day and another nine hours later we find at the Scented Jungle. Some experimentation reveals you travel by intent and it always takes the same duration to reach the Landmark, regardless of your 'distance' from this. Another day and eight hours later we find the Sapphire Pools, the last landmark.
Entering the plane proper we work our way through a gully on the Heights of Chaos and off the mountain. We are pestered by a flock of hungry griffins but chase them away. Lydander flies Keshah off the mountain and we runeportal down. We spend the next two days walking to the city of Jiroth.

Jiroth

Mana in the city flows in a network across the city. Access is gained by attending key buildings and making a ritual observance to Kiristhina once a week, the most prominent being the Ziggurat in the centre of the city. Exploring the city we learn there is a plague, this is caused by Creeping Doom we suspect planted by Blackrod to increase the demand for his 'healing herbs'.
We learn Blackrod has moved him Emporium to the residence of the priest Kreyten nel Vethra, who is the Keeper of the Singing Bees. He has an invisible rune of Compulsion (required for casting Control Entity) on his forehead. We observe a Medeanite sorceress moving through the city followed by four chained spirits; hawk, walking chalice, triffid like plant and tortoise.

Carnage

We watch the house for two days until Blackrod's carriage departs (in reality a 'miraged' sand drake) and enter the building. To our horror we discover the inhabitants slaughtered and gutted (to prevent resurrection). Clearly our investigations were discovered and Blackrod has fled the scene. We pursue while Keshah further investigates the basement, discovering a copper vat and two skulls covered in runes. Next to each skull stands a spirit, one wearing bronze scale and carrying a broken khopesh, the other wearing robes, looking old and frayed now, carrying a tome under his left arm. They realise that Keshah is not Blackrod and ask for release. Keshah takes the skulls with him to talk to them when he has more time.

Blackrod outruns us. We return to the city to deal with the dead and explain the authorities what happened. Keshah was confronted by the authorities and Runeportaled away, we wait three days for him to return, frustrated by our lack of transport magic. Investigating over that time we discover

Many of the dead spirits of the city died as a result of Creeping Doom. They had been using Tincture of the Soul Poppy, thinking they were buying healing draughts from Blackrod, in reality being separated from their souls.
200 runes of doom are left behind by Blackrod in Kreyten's manse. (traps)
A sealed letter for the Lord of Similarities.
Notes of the creation of 'Fumes of the Night'.

The city has little in the ways of magic or military prowess and appear unable to assist with our quest against Blackrod.

Clean up

We convince the authorities that Blackrod is not the saint they all believe and that he is behind the recent deaths and responsible for many others. Messengers have been sent to the king ( a boy of 12 whose name is Khaldash) to the city in the north, Sura. And they are summoning a powerful wizard to assist them. The church has begun a Ritual of Forbiddance naming Blackrod, this will stop him from re-entering the city in a particularly lethal way

Futher investigation

Keshah eventually returns a few days later and explains he took two skulls with him that had the spirits bound. We discuss this with the authorities and the true is exposed; Shireth was a Lich and powerful alchemist and helped Blackrod create a potion. It involves the use of black lead and powdered jade and will make whoever drinks it immortal. Unfortunately, it's a lethal poison for which there is no remedy. In fact, if the poison is cured (assuming such a thing was possible), the effectiveness of the elixir would be destroyed. Shireth had been trying to find a way to keep Blackrod alive long enough for the elixir to work, which will take a week or so. Hopefully, of unremitting agony. If he dies but can be resurrected after that point, he will be immortal.

Kamuel a death knight and powerful armourer advised on the construction of three sets of armour. Two were of heavy iron plate in different sizes, one for a man, one for something as tall as an elf but more heavily built. The special function of this armour is that it will increase the wearer's magical resistance and give them some magical damage reduction. To his expert eye, the AG modifier is around 8 or 9 and it must weigh 120lbs and 90lbs respectively. The other set of armour was a set of man sized scale mail. It was made from orichalcum, and had tubing running through it. He has no idea what this is for, but worries that the ophan's blood may have been exploited in some unholy way

Both Shireth and Kamuel were enemies of the city, and were in fear of the city warding against them. Both skulls explode upon Keshah's return and their souls bound to defend the city. Additionally Blackrod has found out how to bind metal. He has removed Iophiel's eyes (there are dozens of them) for some purpose. Also, his blood. LOTS of blood.

Trouble with Devils

The following day we are alerted that residents of the city are receiving Runes of Doom powerful enough to summon Named Devils; Bathin and Raum. All delivered by hapless messengers from Anthari a few hundred miles away. We round up most people and house them in a Sealed area to prevent the demons appearing. However we find two people that have already encountered their devils – strangely they're not dead but the devils are loose. More Runes of Doom are delivered again the next day and we arrange for all messages to be intercepted to prevent more people being Doomed. We have no curse removal and cannot remove the Dooms. The offering of prisoner, adults and children, to accept the Dooms is rejected by most of us. However our refusal confuses Keshah - to him its seems a waste of perfectly good children.

The Death of Blackrod

After much discussion on the next course of action, we decide to strike at Blackrod as the stream of messages will not stop. Lysander flies Keshah north and the rest of us rune portal there to hunt for Blackrod. We avoid a trap that would remove us from existence and ambush him in his new base, a large cavern. A short, but deadly fight ensures - with Lysander and Turf barely escaping the clutches of death from powerful magics – but Blackrod is defeated. A demonic hand appears and pulls his soul down to Hell. Iophiel is blind, as all his eyes were extracted, and was countrolled by Blackrod. Iophiel is deadly in combat so we seal him in the cavern for two cays and wait for the spell to run its course.

Return to Jiroth

Upon returning to Jiroth we witness a horror that was inflicted upon the city. The devils whipped the city into a frenzy and had the inhabitants as each other throats, smoke drifts around the city and bodies litter the streets. We rescue and resurrect the dead king, then rescue the priests locked on top of the temple. They have desperate tidings - the Medeanite Sorceress, upon finding the city devastated, attacked the temple killing all that could not flee. She used entropy to run down the wards in order to defeat the Sealing on the ziggurat. This led to the release of the lich and death knight. The Lord of Similarities is believed entered the temple with her.
He separated into four versions of himself and read the document that had been left behind for Blackrod to send on to him. They appeared to confer with each other and the Medeanite Sorceress. They parted, the immortal walking back into the sea, the sorceress making her way towards Darktree Tower, apparently. Kamuel and Shireth inform us that she is making her way to their House so that she can bind their spirits.

A plan is hatched

We cut a deal with the lich and death knight, they will sacrifice their power and we will attempt to protect their tower. We arrive at the tower before the Sorceress but she overwhelms out defenses. She is accompanied by four Medeanite dancers that devastate the party, Turf is luck to escape death after a single pulse of combat with the four dancers. Barely escaping with our lives we return to the tower some days later and summon Iophiel for aid. He sets a flight of Fire Angels upon the tower, a beautiful but devastating event, and the Sorceress flees with the captures souls but is forces to abandon hopes of capturing the tower.

Our Work is over

We take possession of the house ourselves and eventually return to Alusia.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Creatures & People Encountered

Blackrod - implicated in the murder of Leander Gentle, Big Tom the Simple and possibly others. Also, known to be establishing a drug ring in Calder. A rune mage, known to be pacted to the Pale Duke (Bathin). Always carries a large black staff. A vile miscreant that should be put to death immediately, he exploits people to gain their souls that he trades to Named Devils for power. We believe he is attempting to become a Horror

Entropic Chthonians - earthbound squid-like things which seem to warp space.
Dark Reflection - only DAed, didn't get close enough to get sucked into them.
Assyurian Chymical Survey Team - six near-human survivors of an original party of thirty.
Fractal Wyrm - 25 foot long iguana-like creature. It appeared to reduce the damage of anyone in its front facing to a third. Seems to have some kind of tremor sense.

Devils – powerful entities from the 7th plane. They are evil with no possibility for redemption. They represent kinds of sin.
Demons – live in the Abyss. No one is sure what they are. They're not necessarily evil but can be pernicious to life.
Angels – not necessary good. They are representatives of Order.
Immortals - *never* reveal extent and existence of healing services. They cannot reproduce this magic so are likely to kidnap and imprison you. They are not woven to fate, they instead have a destiny.
Lady of Souls - an immortal
[The Lady of the Lake] - an immortal
[The Lady of the Abyss] - an immortal
The Valar, a pantheon of gods the elves revere.
Jocasta: A 'mortal' and Medeanite Dancer. GTN human. From the plane of Nualis and she is a member of the Sisterhood of Medea. Strong magical alignment with unlight (evil?). Has mind cloak and increased strength and agility.
Tirwh: A lord of Chaos with the power to summon and shape shifting that leads House Kerberoth.
Hounds of Kerberoth - hounds the size of small ponies, who are uncertain to the third degree.
Medeanite Sorceress - Mind and Necromantic magic and seems to have enslaved four spirits. Called a flying, tentacled skull throne on leaving Jiroth. We discover later that Tlactla, the Lord of Corruption has one very like it.
Sand Drake - 3-4 hex creature with a 'mirage' ability to appear as a carriage and pair.
Kreyten nel Vethra - priest of Kiristhina and Keeper of the Singing Bees. He and his household were brutally murdered by the recreant, Blackrod.
Iophiel of the Ophanim - an eyeless angel.
Shireth of Darktree Tower - an alchemist lich. Knows blast magics and some trump magic. Specialises in circles. Now a spirit bound to the Medeanite Sorceress.
Kamuel the Cold - a death knight warrior and soulforger, he can forge iron without heating it. Knows weapon and armour-smithing. Specialises in cold. Now a spirit bound to the Medeanite Sorceress.
Grey Councillors of Sorrow - this is a free sending. Not discovered yet, but information given to us from Shireth. Free sendings have an experience factor, not a multiple. If someone finds the Halls of the Councillors of Sorrow, then they will find seven pale humanoid forms wearing black robes and dark turbans. The discoverer trades experience points, and will be able to call the Councillors in the future. The discoverer recovers 20% of the experience they spent on the occasion of each solstice or equinox that they are not called, to a maximum of 80%. The Councillors plunge whoever they are set upon into a fit of grief and black despair lasting until the next dawn. The Rank of the despair is the experience sacrificed to them, divided by their experience factor, all fractions truncated.
Anathel of Karthri - a witch.
Seranaspes the Rain Weaver - a wizard. He has a carpet made out of a seraph's feathers and a staff made out of honey coloured wood. He specialises in weaving and weather magic. He can teleport but does not have much blast magic.
Entropy Locusts - flying insects about the length of a man's finger. They are cold blue in colour. They annihilate any solid object they come in contact with. Encountered in a small swarm about one and a half metres across.
Ikon - a small (50 cm tall) creature in the form of a man or elf. They can cast illusion spells and assume the insubstantial form of a picture.

Places We Went To

The House of Many Rooms - is cursed with hunger.
The Abyss - a barren, empty, dark place. There is a crack that runs across the sky from which crimson light issues. It is the only native light to see by. No more than 6 entities can be gathered in one place in the Abyss or it attracts the demon hordes.
House Kerberoth - the court of a lord of Chaos.
The Lands of Chaos
The Crimson Spires - a landmark.
The Scented Jungle - a landmark.
The Sapphire Pools - a landmark.
The Heights of Chaos - mountains overlooking the eastern border of Lameth.
Jiroth - the capitol of Lameth, surrounded by marshlands to the north and east and sea to the south. Urban population is about 20,000 but lots more people in the surrounding countryside.
Anthari - a market town 160 miles north of Jiroth. Population is around 5,000. Cedar coppices south of it, orchards to the north east. North west, a large stone formation about half a mile high. Appears to be about 1/10th of a mile wide at the base, but this is some kind of optical illusion. The formation looks like a crossed finger.
The Tumbles - a landmark.
The Crumbling Paths - a landmark.
The Burning Rocks - a landmark.
The Bitter Sea - a landmark which is another country. A submarine city populated by saurians[GTN Serpent Folk] who worship a great snakelike entity dwell there and appear isolationist.
Darktree Tower - a lich's tower, surrounded by Blood Pines. The aerial approaches are protected by a ward that teleports flyers (and their column of air) that are near it, directly up a distance of a mile. They will accelerate into the newly evacuated volume, approaching the speed of sound on impact.