Cold Blood

Back to Main Page

ARC 5: LADY OF MIRRORS

In which our heroes look for the Lady.

Episode 28: Family Things
Episode 29: The Search for Tulio
Episode 30: The Temple of the Abyss
Episode 31: The Demonweb Pits
Interlude: Crowded House by Darth Krzysztof
Episode 32: Joris Reclamation Project
Interlude: Complications & Opportunities by zero
Interlude: The Lake of Fire by Darth Krzysztof
Episode 33: Big Blue Diplomacy
Interlude: Cold Blood by Darth Krzysztof
Episode 34: The Unkindness

Here’s what happened in the downtime.

• Lord Cerellis died. There was a small ceremony, and Catriona took his ashes to the Court of Stars. The lord’s lawyer, Sly Nye, began working through the Lord’s will.

• Hexla moved in with Talan at the house on Smith Street. She’s told him that she loves him, and she’s told him about her research. (And now she has his ring.)

• Talan thinks the house is haunted.

• Mal told Talan about Greenheart.

• Mal learned a bit about the Eye of the Dawn, met Mantragor, joined the Society of the Luminiferous Aether, and encountered Firil Starwing, who told him where to find the Lady of Mirrors.

• Joris is building his congregation and educating Kalisa. Afraid that the succubus might run off again, he’s about to move into the house. If Firil wants to move back into the Circle, that might speed things up.

And here’s what’s happening when we rejoin.

• Mal has been told that the Lady dwells in Selwyn’s Grove, a secluded valley on a backwater Prime world known as Thazia. However, Firil does not know of any portals to Thazia. He wants to go after her.

• Surely somebody will remember that Tulio said he came from Thazia. If Haden got the chance to look for Tulio, he didn’t find him.

• They might also try Lissandra (who’s not at Vander’s this time, but is looking for a portal in the Hive), who’s never heard of Thazia, and is very interested in finding new portals. (If they find it but don’t figure out the key, she can divine it with analyze portal.)

• Tulio’s in a spot of trouble. Seems he went to Chirper’s, as Haden suggested, and got hisself smitten with Thea. But he barely had any jink, felt bad about it, and didn’t stay very long.

• The next time Thea saw Tulio, he was flush with jink, but paranoid, sure that someone was after him. He didn’t want to talk about it, and Thea was okay with that. He was gone in the morning, but left in a big hurry, leaving most of his stuff (and jink) behind.

• The dark of the matter is that Tulio agreed to steal a diadem from Alantavra, a drow, on the behalf of another drow, Jhaelefein (the diadem being a gift from Alantavra’s matron, in Jhaelefein’s bid to shame Alantavra). Tulio did, and got paid for it, but Alantavra tracked him down and apprehended him, hoping to get the diadem back.

• There are a number of ways in which the PCs can go about finding Tulio. The jink is drow coinage, and very distinctive; the drow are very, very rare in Sigil. The gloves of object reading could also provide the necessary clue – pursuing the coins leads to Jhaelefein, and asking around about the drow points to Alantavra.

• Jhaelefein is at the Hooded Lantern (L20, In the Cage p. 59). If the party goes to him first, he can tell them where to find Alantavra…

• Alantavra is hiding in the Demonweb Pits, which is accessible through the Temple of the Abyss. A couple of things ought to happen in the temple before the PCs figure this out:

• A graven image of Malcanthet (above the entrance) has a startling likeness to Kalisa.

• Noxana knows about the drow and the portal, the key not so much. She also knows that Faodhagan is not dead, but is being held in the Abyss. What price does she ask? Something unreasonable… she should be warded against all the thought-detecting. (They may want to come back to this after dealing with the drow)

• If they don’t deal with Noxana and wait long enough, a drow assassin emerges from the portal – the door next to the pulpit. (The key is a pale blue crystal cube.) The PCs may have to chase him, but shouldn’t have any problem overpowering him. Use Xillian, XDW 140.

THE DEMONWEB PITS

• The PCs explore the Demonweb before reaching the Crystal Tower of the yochlols, where Alantavra, a yochlol, and one of Lolth’s Furies are interrogating Tulio. The PCs can negotiate for his release (which requires getting the diadem back from Jhaelefein), or kill ‘em all (which is actually worse for Jhaelefein than the shaming, but oh well).

BACK IN SIGIL

• The PCs return to Sigil and head for the house on Smith Street. If they crash and don’t interrogate Tulio right away, Mal does so as soon as he’s had his 2 hours of rest. Tulio reveals that the portal to Thazia is inside the Shattered Temple, L38. The key is to think about your mother.

• Mal intends to leave, and it’ll be virtually impossible to dissuade him. This is the most insane they’ve ever seen him. The PCs will have to decide whether to let him go on his own. If not, he may have to be restrained.

• The PCs scry Joris, either on their own or with Numeledes. He’s been turned to stone, and there’s a sorcerer carting him around on a floating disc (petrified Joris weighs about 1,700 lbs). You see, Joris got dispelled back to the Evermoors in Faerun, where he ran afoul of Arviragus, a sorcerer in exile. As the heroes already know from Yolette, Joris invoked Kalisa’s truename before getting petrified; the succubus got a portal from Lissandra and ended up in Tantras, but is now headed for the Evermoors.

• If Firil learns that Mal has/will run off (while the PCs are at the Circle, for instance), she might run off with/after him.

• Arviragus offers Joris (and an angelhelm) to a trio of frost giants, explaining that he can be ransomed, in hope that he’ll be allowed to stay. They chase Arviragus away instead, and just take the helm, heading for the main camp – and their boss, Snorri Eivarrson (and Gerti Orelsdottr’s white dragon, Rynnarvyx). Note: This is about the time that Kalenthor arrives. Arviragus would have to be 17th-18th level to carry the Joris statue around, but he’s pretty cowardly.

• So now the PCs must decide whether to help Mal or Joris. I’m going with the idea that it’ll be Joris, but the other path will also be addressed.

BACK TO FAERUN

• Eldgrim lays out his request to Sheen before the party leaves Sigil, since he may not get another chance. He wants Sheen to seek out Hoskuld Flameback, one of the armorers of the dwarven redoubt, and ask him to craft a suit of plate for Eldgrim. There is apparently a bit of bad blood between the Ringhammers and Flamebacks, so he hopes that Sheen can smooth things over.

• The PCs get a portal to Faerun from Lissandra (it’s the Gate of the Clueless, with the arcane mark of a wizard of Faerun as the key), emerging in a cave at the foot of the Lost Peaks in the High Forest. After traveling 150 miles NW, they arrive in the Evermoors, find Kalenthor and Kalisa, then confront the giants.

• The frost giant boss, Rognvald, gets +16 to oppose Intimidate rolls (and a Medium PC suffers a -4). They should be regarded as unfriendly for Diplomacy purposes; if the PCs intend to score the helmet, they’ll have to move the attitude to friendly (1 DC 25 or two DC 15s).

• I don’t think any of them can reverse the petrification, so they drag him to civilization – and that probably means 130 miles E by NE to Silverymoon.

• Joris is restored, and he visits his father. Prestin is relieved that Joris is alive, but is taken aback by his son’s new confidence. Allow the PCs to determine the course of the conversation – no matter what happens, though, Prestin won’t approve when he finds out the truth about Kalisa – and the daughter she’s carrying. (Alustriel can show up for a measure of peace if things go south.)

• So they most likely end up getting tossed out of the temple. And they probably decide to head for Waterdeep. That’s three hundred miles southwest through Everlund, Yartar, Triboar, and Red Larch. Maybe they decide to seek alternate transportation. Either way, the same thing happens:

• Mal wanders into a glassblower’s shop and vanishes from sight. His familiar, Lir, is perched on a great cold iron mirror. It’s not exactly a portal, though – this is the magic of the Lady of Mirrors. Lir must be satisfied that the PCs will do no harm in her realm before he allows them to pass.

ON TO THAZIA

• On their way to the Temple, they see the same devil outside the Tenth Pit, scrapping with a number of lesser tanar’ri. Then the Lady shows up and wastes them with her shadow.

• (Some encounter in the Shattered Temple)

• It’s off to Thazia, where it’s COLD. A nearby village has recently been sacked.

• A talking lynx offers to guide the party to Selwyn’s Grove. En route, they cross a frozen lake and encounter some frost giants (same encounter as above).

• Entering Selwyn’s Grove is off-putting. Sooner or later the party attracts the attention of the Viridian, who must be persuaded that the party merits an audience with the Lady of Mirrors.

LADY OF MIRRORS

• The audience is a weird and freaky scene. I assume they deliver the Eye to her, but learn about the Tear of the Night, and where it is – the Waterdhavian elan enclave.

• So, if the PCs are in Thazia, they need to return to Sigil and find a good portal to Undermountain. Around this time Eldgrim asks Sheen to return his favor.

• If the PCs are in Faerun, they can just overland to Waterdeep.

TO BE CONTINUED IN ARC 6: TEAR OF THE NIGHT