Description

The college quarterback pulled his final prank by holding this “prop” on high and sacrificing himself to unseen, unknowable forces. It appears to have powers over water, and through that, possibly giving life to vegetation.

After some luckless experimentation, the forest ghost revealed that the staff was not evil in and of itself. Laura had little experience with research methods, but was able to determine at the university library that the staff was called the Key of Khepmat Rak, a previously unheard of Egyptian god. Whether it’s a key from him or for him is anyone’s guess; he could well be the water demi-god unleashed from the pool house, or perhaps the first being to attempt sealing away an elder thing.

It is currently being held by Laura, who seems particularly unwilling to part with it. She has to for work, but seems cagey when asked…you’ll have to search around the White Hat HQ, where she’s currently living, to see where she hides it.

Facts:

• It’s almost assuredly a water element artifact, though there is a chance we’ve just seen the effects of the last element harnessed.

• It was instrumental in causing the “two fold” prophecy to move forward, giving it a very dark purpose indeed. But one source claims that it’s not evil in and of itself.

Speculation:

• It probably does quarterstaff bludgeon damage in non-magical situations. It seems to have a little bit of range.

• Its powers might be confined to summoning or possessing, ie follower spells.

• The water it was pouring out could have been what was causing the surrounding vegetation to grow so abundantly.

• It was surely making the infected, and causing them to succumb to lust and hedonistic pleasures. While our one attack against them with the staff missed, they didn’t seem to react to the staff’s “authority” at all; they later turned out to be immune to bludgeon damage entirely. In the following session, the staff evoked no reaction from either the char marks on the ground (God A?) nor the treants (God B?)

• It’s probably a different type of magic from Hobb’s immortality experiments; his book is for brown/earth, and the current assumption is that this is for water.

• Laura is able to use to to inscribe earth runes, without any apparent malfunction from mixed magics. In this regard it may simply be working the way that a pen would.