2025/10/31: Halloween Special
General Summary
Ruby, Et-Kehri, Ba'alzamon, Bael, Zen, Trinity, Malakai
Scattered across Renedge, a group of adventurers found themselves in darkness, felt a call, felt themselves rise into the air, and then were suddenly together on a hilltop overlooking a great ritual. The ritual was being conducted by four very different wizards, most of them in black.
The closest wizard, roughly six feet tall, was the one maintaining the summoning circle where the party appeared. He wore an almost vantablack robe with some barely visible grey designs on it. He was wearing gloves. The other wizards:One also wearing black, his cowl down, with fancier hair. Relatively pale. He was apparently shocked that the party had shown up.
Two wizards in dark robes that looked somewhat beat up. One wasn't all that tall and very skinny, the other was very rotund and short.
The sky was a peculiar shade of yellow, with flashes of blue.
New (or long absent) party members:Trinity of Edgewood. Halfling woman with honey-gold hair in a big high ponytail and lots of braids. Mischievous look in brown eyes. Very armored, studded leather of etherealness. Lots of gear all over the body. High-quality shortswords. Accompanied by little weasels roaming over her body. Manically excited to meet all the new friends.
Ruby has double-ended khakkhara or crozier. She has fanged teeth to go with her cheerful smile.
Zen Harloth. 5'8" human. Rather gaunt. Bone-white hair, eyes are green and skull-shaped pupils. Robes of the Netherworld, with moving grey runes. Cloak of Absolute Darkness. Daggers on belt, staff in hand. Staff of necromancy. Very skull-related fashion sense.
Bael. 5'7". Elf. Pasty white to corpselike skin. Green, armored cloak. Armor of the Dark Paladin. A couple of very nasty-looking necromantic rings. Really big bag of holding rucksack on back. Weapon is a double-bladed swordstaff with fire on one end and ice on the other. He is also a fungus zombie.
The party took in the area. Most immediately, there was the necromantic ritual of raising souls that the party was currently standing in the middle of. There was another necromantic circle outside that doing something else. There are two more ritual circles none of the party recognized intertwined with each other and the others. Then another two rituals involving fairly large amounts of life magic. Those last were drawing in huge amounts of power and transforming it and feeding it into the rest. Or rather, they were drawing in anti-life energy, because this was the Isle of Necromancy.
The spellcaster in front of the party was massively empowered. Ba'alzamon detected he was something like caster level 500.
Trinity, agent of chaos that she is, went right past that spellcaster and tried to get the attention of one of the other mages. She stabbed him when he ignored her and tried to maintain concentration, and Ruby tried to pull her away. The sky started changing colors and the temperature painfully dropped as the man's focus faltered. Something to do with soul-ice.
The wizard was crying as he wrestled the spell back under control. Ruby healed him. Trinity threw a potion at him, which Ruby intercepted.
With things settling down again, the adventurers observed that they were on a rocky coastline. To the north, ocean. Hilly, rocky beach extending out to the east. Even hillier to the west. Behind them, to the south, more slalom-like hills, and some mountains. Ba'alzamon recognized that there was supposed to be a glacier here made of solid soul-ice. There was not.
Ba'alzamon was confident that this was the northeastern coast of the Isle of Necromancy. This was a place he used to go to hang out because no one could bother him. Because it was a giant glacier of soul-ice.
When asked why the party was there, the summoner of the party simply said "Retrieve the orb."
As further exploration progressed, several party members realized the iceberg actually was there, and they were inside it somehow. There were distortions in the light far above that were consistent with filtering through the ice's surface.
The party followed a strangely single-piece road. They headed toward Xyanmitache, a city here that was supposed to be buried under the ice. It was located about a half mile down the road. As they walked, it seemed to be getting colder.
Then Ba'alzamon got out of the magic disruption area caused by the ritual and cast find the path, which pointed the group directly back in the other direction, so they turned around. About two miles back down the road, they found a lighthouse on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It had a compound of buildings around it, forming almost a square around it. Almost crouching behind the tower was what looked like a churchtower, with a violet or black bell. Light grey tower, all other buildings very dark grey or nearly black.
With Ba'alzamon knowing nothing about the place, Et-Kehri paused and cast whispered secrets, focusing on the little complex. The response was overwhelming, a flood of whispers, calls, and shrieks, but a few pieces of information were gleaned: 1. Black Compound was owned by Marqius Evonius Black 2. Countless souls were sacrificed here to his research on controlling souls 3. It served as a base of operations for the immortal Mr Black for 300 years before the fall of xiyanmitage 4. Some of the souls are resentfully trapped there to this day
The lighthouse was active, but not pointing at the party.
Heading toward the place, the party passed an area with some mud across the road. A cheap tin bucket appeared by the side of the road, and everyone was suddenly trapped in their current 5 ft. square. Malakai retrieved the bucket with telekinesis and inspected it. It may have once been enchanted with soul magic. Scratched into the side was the name "Sandy".
Buzz used his ability to commune with the dead. This let him spot a painfully thin little girl with light hair. A ghost, notably having a large black slave band on one arm. They spoke, and she revealed that she's been trapped for so long that she's forgotten what trapped her. She said "the mean man" did things to her. Then she was sent to fetch water, and she didn't make it.
After some problem-solving involving Trinity's everfull cups, the party discovered that the little girl's bones were buried under the mud across the road. They were tiny, possibly ritually shrunken. Last rites of Ranthael, administered by Ruby, didn't make the girl go away, just made her agitated. Also Ruby felt angry, as if Ranthael was angry about it not working.
Putting all the bones in the bucket let the person carrying the bucket move. Anyone well held onto them could also move, but there was a lot of resistance in both cases. There was still something missing. Then the group realized that the ghost was more physical than before (after the water-filling) and the shackle was physically on her soul. Trinity and Ruby combined their thieving skills and Ba'alzamon helped with fabric of reality, and they were able to slip the girl's arm out of the shackle.
Ba'alzamon asked how she was doing. She said she was "sad, but free", and she drifted toward the bucket and disappeared.
Ruby cast wrath of Ranthael on the very evil, soul-enslaving shackle and it shattered into silver shards and exploded. She felt better after that.
The group moved on to the compound. The lighthouse was powered by mirrors and a central soulflame. The party managed to rescue the soul bound to light the place, it transformed into a lantern and the party took it along on the end of Ba'alzamon's staff.
The party got ambushed by wraiths while trying to head into a tunnel. After defeating the strangely resilient wraiths the party descended to find themselves in a secret torture chamber and slave pen. The blackened soul of the torturer made an appearance as soon as the party attempted to touch the obviously cursed whip laying in the middle of the chamber. The party then left and after consulting with the lantern it was discovered that placing one of the haunted items on the stone base in the middle of the courtyard would elicit a clue.
The lantern explained how the system worked, and hinted that there were many other souls that might help reveal the secrets of the Black Estate for revenge against its master.
The bucket revealed that there was something weird about the loose flagstones in the parlor.
The party then headed inside, going up the kitchen entrance and found themselves in close quarters with a very angry ghost of a cook. Despite the party's best efforts they were lightly bludgeoned and stabbed before Malakai made the decision to retreat to the next room. The party followed, being yelled at on the way past the angry culinary specter. Trinity stole some silverware with Mr. Black's name on it on the way out.
The party then found themselves in the great hall where something dark and perilous loomed into view.
Scattered across Renedge, a group of adventurers found themselves in darkness, felt a call, felt themselves rise into the air, and then were suddenly together on a hilltop overlooking a great ritual. The ritual was being conducted by four very different wizards, most of them in black.
The closest wizard, roughly six feet tall, was the one maintaining the summoning circle where the party appeared. He wore an almost vantablack robe with some barely visible grey designs on it. He was wearing gloves. The other wizards:
The sky was a peculiar shade of yellow, with flashes of blue.
New (or long absent) party members:
The party took in the area. Most immediately, there was the necromantic ritual of raising souls that the party was currently standing in the middle of. There was another necromantic circle outside that doing something else. There are two more ritual circles none of the party recognized intertwined with each other and the others. Then another two rituals involving fairly large amounts of life magic. Those last were drawing in huge amounts of power and transforming it and feeding it into the rest. Or rather, they were drawing in anti-life energy, because this was the Isle of Necromancy.
The spellcaster in front of the party was massively empowered. Ba'alzamon detected he was something like caster level 500.
Trinity, agent of chaos that she is, went right past that spellcaster and tried to get the attention of one of the other mages. She stabbed him when he ignored her and tried to maintain concentration, and Ruby tried to pull her away. The sky started changing colors and the temperature painfully dropped as the man's focus faltered. Something to do with soul-ice.
The wizard was crying as he wrestled the spell back under control. Ruby healed him. Trinity threw a potion at him, which Ruby intercepted.
With things settling down again, the adventurers observed that they were on a rocky coastline. To the north, ocean. Hilly, rocky beach extending out to the east. Even hillier to the west. Behind them, to the south, more slalom-like hills, and some mountains. Ba'alzamon recognized that there was supposed to be a glacier here made of solid soul-ice. There was not.
Ba'alzamon was confident that this was the northeastern coast of the Isle of Necromancy. This was a place he used to go to hang out because no one could bother him. Because it was a giant glacier of soul-ice.
When asked why the party was there, the summoner of the party simply said "Retrieve the orb."
As further exploration progressed, several party members realized the iceberg actually was there, and they were inside it somehow. There were distortions in the light far above that were consistent with filtering through the ice's surface.
The party followed a strangely single-piece road. They headed toward Xyanmitache, a city here that was supposed to be buried under the ice. It was located about a half mile down the road. As they walked, it seemed to be getting colder.
Then Ba'alzamon got out of the magic disruption area caused by the ritual and cast find the path, which pointed the group directly back in the other direction, so they turned around. About two miles back down the road, they found a lighthouse on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It had a compound of buildings around it, forming almost a square around it. Almost crouching behind the tower was what looked like a churchtower, with a violet or black bell. Light grey tower, all other buildings very dark grey or nearly black.
With Ba'alzamon knowing nothing about the place, Et-Kehri paused and cast whispered secrets, focusing on the little complex. The response was overwhelming, a flood of whispers, calls, and shrieks, but a few pieces of information were gleaned: 1. Black Compound was owned by Marqius Evonius Black 2. Countless souls were sacrificed here to his research on controlling souls 3. It served as a base of operations for the immortal Mr Black for 300 years before the fall of xiyanmitage 4. Some of the souls are resentfully trapped there to this day
The lighthouse was active, but not pointing at the party.
Heading toward the place, the party passed an area with some mud across the road. A cheap tin bucket appeared by the side of the road, and everyone was suddenly trapped in their current 5 ft. square. Malakai retrieved the bucket with telekinesis and inspected it. It may have once been enchanted with soul magic. Scratched into the side was the name "Sandy".
Buzz used his ability to commune with the dead. This let him spot a painfully thin little girl with light hair. A ghost, notably having a large black slave band on one arm. They spoke, and she revealed that she's been trapped for so long that she's forgotten what trapped her. She said "the mean man" did things to her. Then she was sent to fetch water, and she didn't make it.
After some problem-solving involving Trinity's everfull cups, the party discovered that the little girl's bones were buried under the mud across the road. They were tiny, possibly ritually shrunken. Last rites of Ranthael, administered by Ruby, didn't make the girl go away, just made her agitated. Also Ruby felt angry, as if Ranthael was angry about it not working.
Putting all the bones in the bucket let the person carrying the bucket move. Anyone well held onto them could also move, but there was a lot of resistance in both cases. There was still something missing. Then the group realized that the ghost was more physical than before (after the water-filling) and the shackle was physically on her soul. Trinity and Ruby combined their thieving skills and Ba'alzamon helped with fabric of reality, and they were able to slip the girl's arm out of the shackle.
Ba'alzamon asked how she was doing. She said she was "sad, but free", and she drifted toward the bucket and disappeared.
Ruby cast wrath of Ranthael on the very evil, soul-enslaving shackle and it shattered into silver shards and exploded. She felt better after that.
The group moved on to the compound. The lighthouse was powered by mirrors and a central soulflame. The party managed to rescue the soul bound to light the place, it transformed into a lantern and the party took it along on the end of Ba'alzamon's staff.
The party got ambushed by wraiths while trying to head into a tunnel. After defeating the strangely resilient wraiths the party descended to find themselves in a secret torture chamber and slave pen. The blackened soul of the torturer made an appearance as soon as the party attempted to touch the obviously cursed whip laying in the middle of the chamber. The party then left and after consulting with the lantern it was discovered that placing one of the haunted items on the stone base in the middle of the courtyard would elicit a clue.
The lantern explained how the system worked, and hinted that there were many other souls that might help reveal the secrets of the Black Estate for revenge against its master.
The bucket revealed that there was something weird about the loose flagstones in the parlor.
The party then headed inside, going up the kitchen entrance and found themselves in close quarters with a very angry ghost of a cook. Despite the party's best efforts they were lightly bludgeoned and stabbed before Malakai made the decision to retreat to the next room. The party followed, being yelled at on the way past the angry culinary specter. Trinity stole some silverware with Mr. Black's name on it on the way out.
The party then found themselves in the great hall where something dark and perilous loomed into view.
Rewards Granted
3 xp
Character(s) interacted with
wizard conclave, Sandy
Created Content
Ruby
Et-Kehri
Bael
Ba'alzamon Dreamender
Report Date
27 Oct 2025
Primary Location
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