Eberron campaign log

June 14

Message delivered by House Orien courier, inviting us to Myriad Tower - headquarters of the King's Dark Lanters, a group who are part of the Citadel, Breland's intelligence agency.
Handed message to the 'beggar' hidden by the gate. Entered, climbed to top, emerged into a large greenhouse at top of tower. Old man - Viorr Maelak - challenged us to defeat the wild apee.

The briefing

"I represent an element of the King's Citadel known as the Dark Lanterns," he says. "We perform certain intelligence-related duties for King Boranel. We need adventurers of skill and action who can bring a rogue agent back to us - alive, if possible. If you're willing to swear to keep secret what you're about to hear, I'll tell you more."

"Good," Viorr says. "One of our best agents, Lucan Stellos, disappeared two days ago. Yesterday, a high-security vault we maintain here in Sharn was compromised, and a powerful magical sword was stolen. Shorlty before dawn this morning, Lucan was spotted leaving Sharn by the east road. We want you to catch him and bring him and the sword back."

"We'll pay you two thousand gold each to return Lucan alive, plus another five hundred each if you recover the sword. If Lucan dies, we'll pay you a thousand gold each for proof of his passing. Either way, we need Lucan back here - or dead so that he can't betray us. The price is nonnegotiable. Let's just pretend that we haggled, you won, and these are the terms we arrived at."

"Oh, and there's one other complication. Based on eyewitness accounts and the condition of the bodies left near the vault, Lucan appears to have gained powers he never had before. Still interested?"

"We aren't sure about the extent of them [the powers]. He's a master of disguise, but that's a trained ability. He was able to command an otherwise-loyal agent into opening the vault. He shrugged off attacks that should have brought down a normal man. He walked down the side of a tower just as you or I would walk across this room. Could be the sword, but he displayed some of these powers before he got his hands on it."

Viorr starts pulling papers out of the satchel. "I'm going to go through this quickly, so pay attention.

Here's a picture of Lucan, done by one of the King's artists. Lucan is a male human, well-trained in both combat and espionage."

"Here's a picture of the black coach he was seen traveling in as he passed through the east gate."

"Here are traveling papers that identify you as working for the King of Breland. Through House Vadalis, we've arranged to have magebred horses waiting for you in a stable near the east gate. Consider them an additional payment; we'll settle with House Vadalis later."

"Here's a letter of credit. If you run into unanticipated expenses, present it at any House Kindarak bank and you'll receive a cash advance. A friendly warning: King Boranel doesn't like to see his gold spent frivolously, so save the letter of credit until you really need it."

"The sword is called the soul blade, and it has a bug ruby in the pommel. Our mages say it radiates evil, so be careful with it."

"We don't know what Lucan's intentions are, but we do have a clue based on a search of his living quarters. Based on some notes he made - notes he thought he destroyed - we know he's going to Trolanport in Zilargo. The only other word we were able to salvage from the notes was 'krell'. We have no idea who or what a krell is."

"Good. I wish I could send help with you, but I don't know if Lucan has any allies within the Citadel, so I can't take that chance."

June 21

Hurried toward Zilargo. Trolanport about 15 days out. Town of Zilspar lies along the road.
A few days out, encountered pair of large silver-black wolves. They look like ordinary wolves but obviously aren't. One growled 'For the Master' during the battle; it escaped. Lesta thinks they were worgs.
Passed through town, learned that we're only hours behind Lucan. Carriage being driven by human woman (though we don't know for sure whether it's him in disguise.
Second evening out, finally spot carriage in twilight. We followed it. It didn't use any lights despite the darkness.

June 28

Got fireballed. A pack of ordinary wolves attacks.

July 5

Defeated wolves.
Only two horses (Lesta's and Dorius's) survived.
Lesta causes bright light to coat Lucan's carriage, blinding the horses and throwing the carriage off the road. No sign of a glowing driver in the wreckage.
Went to join Lesta. Found shattered remains of a coffin within. Speculate that Lucan's a vampire.
Apparently, Lucan's sister is also missing and wasn't found when the intelligence corps searched for her. (Neut claimed I'd forgotten this... but in fact it wasn't in the initial briefing! Hah.) So she might have been the woman spotted in the carriage earlier.
We proceed and, two days later, reach Trolanport, capital of Zilargo and a city crossed with canals instead of streets, though also with some conventional streets. The easiest means of travel is by gondola.

July 12

Stabled horses. Asked gate-guards and around random taverns about Lucan, without success.
Town news:
- No news of any vampiric activity.
- Recent raids within the city by sahuagin thugs lurking in the canals; the city watch is on alert, and people have been attacked and robbed.
- One of the local artificer and alchemist shops burned down last night, apparently due to improperly-stored chemicals. 'Fanlon's Curios', on the eastern side.
- Sculpting competition going on, the judging of which is to be tomorrow; apparently the works are being contributed to decorate a major street section which is to undergo refurbishment in the next couple of weeks.
Aimi visits House Medani enclave.

House Medani information

"Krell, you say?" one of the Medani agents - an older, matronly woman with a least dragonmark of her own - replies to Aimi's inquiry. "Well, there's an Aundairian diplomat here in Trolanport, goes by the name of Neya ir'Krell. That's the only Krell that I've heard of in the city. Now that you mention it, there's to be a high-society function at the embassy tonight."

"A masquerade ball. They hold one every year, you know. Should be lots of music and dancing, and whatever else diplomats do when the sun goes down and the moons rise. Not that you'd be involved in any of that, would you my dear?"

"Neya's a her, dear. And those functions are by invitation only, naturally. Anyone who's anyone in diplomatic circles will be attending, of course, but they don't invite the general public..."

She looks Aimi up and down. "You'll need an invitation, and you'll certainly need more appropriate attire. They won't let someone all travel-stained and war-ready into a ball. There's a seamstress just up the street, specializes in costumery for these sorts of things. Why don't you give her a try?"

"The invitation..." She smiles conspiratorially. "You strike me as someone who's bold and creative. I'm sure that you can come up with something, my dear."

We generally have no clue how to proceed. (We fail at creativity!)
Eventually our plan is for Aimi to distract the guards (by trying to bluff her way in) long enough for Lesta or Dorius to Charm them into allowing us all into the party.
We obtain costumes. Lesta goes as a dragon, Neraya as a pirate with an eyepatch, Dorius as a parrot, Aimi as a witch (complete with ugly hooked-nose mask), and Abihail as an owlbear.
We depart for the embassy that evening.

July 19

Entered party; our plan worked, with both charms succeeding (luckily, since we didn't have a plan B).

The many guests were dressed in costumes slightly less silly than ours. About a third of the guests were gnomes.
There was no prospect of spotting Lucan, given his disguise skills plus the costumes.
Dorius danced with a gnome wearing a multi-hued phoenix mask, then another in a bejewelled lion mask.
Lesta and Dorius between them managed to find Neya ir'Krell and briefly sat with her; her costume, 'Ocean Sunset', is a sunburst mask and sea-surf gown. A woman in owl costume also sat at the table, but then left.
Aimi danced with a well-off businessman in an eagle-mask, and briefly chatted with a woman in dragon-mask (who went off after eagle-mask), and had a servant accidentally bump into her (she got a pastry out of the deal) but otherwise achieved nothing. Neraya sat in a chair watching; ditto.
For some reason, Lesta tricked Neya from her seat - briefly - by telling her somebody called for her. Neya sent a servant after it, then went off somewhere. Based on this, it may be a good idea that Lesta was pretending not to know Dorius.
Aimi was just being offered a second dance (this time from a man in dark suit and bandit mask, who she for some reason was beginning to worry might be Lucan, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever) when a scream came from the middle of the dance floor.

August 2

A fight broke out; the antagonists were the eagle-mask man, who now has 'a wicked-looking sword in hand, one which seems to pulse with a hungry power all its own', and the owl-mask woman - a spellcaster. (We presume these are Lucan and his sister.) They initially attacked the dragon-mask woman and some of the men in simple domino masks.
We floundered around in the panicked crowd, achieving nothing.
The dragon-mask woman was severely wounded by Lucan, while his sister magic-missiled (three silvery bolts) one of the men who went down. Another man tried to grapple Lucan.
Lesta cast a sparkly-light-thingy on Lucan; the light clung to him but had no effect.
Lucan then revealed his fangs and bit his grappling opponent. So we're now pretty certain he's a vampire. (This is the level of incredible deduction for which our group is justly famous.)
Dragon-mask lady ran for it. Lucan's sister cast a spell to fly.
Lesta magic-missiled Lucan; the spell worked, but he appeared to think Neya the source of the attack. He snarled at Neya as if to attack, but his sister warned that they were out of time.
Neraya valiantly attempted to grapple him, but he threw her off - then turned into a bat and followed his sister through an overhead window amid the crash of glass.
Battle over. During that fuss, Abihail had disappeared somewhere.
The group were then taken to Neya's office where they admitted being hired to find Lucan, and suspecting Neya might be a target, but not that they were in the employ of the Dark Lanterns (even when Neya accused it).
Neya said Lucan was a friend of hers and had asked her for a favour, special passage to Karrnath, which she granted despite knowing he was on the run. However, she claims not to have known of his vampiric status.
She gave him documents and a password for passage on a Lyrandar airship, the Cloud's Destiny, that's leaving tonight.
'If you're quick about it, you can get to the berth before it leaves, and perhaps negotiate passage for yourselves aboard it. I doubt you'll be able to stop it from departing, though.'

August 16

We rushed toward the airship berth. An airship was moored there though we couldn't tell if it was the right one.
Sahuagin attacked from a canal, attempting to drag Dorius into the water. After Lesta and he beat them off, we continued running.
Running up the tower and rushing through the offices, we dashed onto the docking platform to find the airship ready to depart and a few gnomes blocking our way onto it.
After a heroic battle in which we just barely succeeded at not killing any gnomes (Neraya punched one almost off the platform), not being killed ourself (Dorius collapsed from numerous wounds as he reached the gangplank), and not breaking our necks (Aimi got her leg cut while leaping a gnome and crashed into the deck), we managed to make it onto the gangplank.
There we argued with the half-elf captain who eventually, after we agreed to pay for passage and damages - with the King's letter of credit - allowed us on board. He wasn't too convinced with our warnings of a vampire, and said that there was no Lucan on the ship.
That unpleasantness over, we were shown to our cabins, where we learnt the airship's route: Starilaskur, then Flamekeep in Thrane, then Korth in Karrnath.
Since it was late at night, we turned in, ready to see if we could spot Lucan at breakfast the next day.

August 30

The four of us (except Neraya, who doesn't need food, but was there anyway) ate breakfast. Present were two of fairly high status (to judge from their clothing) who sat beside each other, chatting. They claim to have met only last night.
- A stocky dwarf male, with a thick Mror accent; Vondo d'Kundarak. He is a collector of exotic weapons, having made his fortune in banking.
- A lithe half-elf female who sounds Karrnathi; Kera d'Lyrandar. She appears to be interested in music.
"Bound for Karrnath?" Kera's attention is drawn to that. "And a him, you say? There's no one like that aboard, I'm afraid. Just the two of us, and that poor thing who lost her husband." [...] "She hasn't left her room since coming on board, I understand. The crew bring her meals, and anything else. Wealthy enough that they're willing to humor her, too."
Aimi told Kera that the 'widow' is probably the sister of the man we're looking for; Kera seemed unconvinced. "I sincerely hope that you're being facetious. But it's really none of my business."

September 6

Vondo went out on deck; Lesta asked Kera to show her around the ship.
We killed time; Lesta learned something about the ship's operations. Lunch and dinner passed uneventfully.

The Cloud's Destiny

The ship has a three-deck arrangement. Top deck is open-air, of course. The passenger lounge is in the middle area, as are the stairs down. The rear houses the wheelhouse superstructure from which the ship is guided, as well as top-deck storage. The captain and crew rotate shifts in the wheelhouse, where they command the elemental which powers the ship.

The second deck (first below) is the passenger deck, with the passenger cabins and dining towards the forequarters and the rear sections housing the galley, the ballistae, and some crew.

The bottom deck (second below) is the cargo deck, where most of the crew quarters are located, along with the cargo areas and more armaments. There are apparently two types of cargo hold on the bottom deck. Common cargo is held in the main cargo area, while secure storage holds more valuable - or dangerous - items.

There are no glass windows below; by necessity the hull is solid, save where the weapon platforms are located. The primary protection is the four-foot rail around the outside of the upper deck... and the typical caution of those flying aboard such a vessel.

At dinner Kera passed round a newspaper. We discussed the wyvern threat.
After that we decided to catch some sleep; 'while we can', Aimi added prophetically. (We are going to reach Starilaskur near dawn on the following night, so there's plenty of time left aboard.)
A few hours later we awoke to the sounds of battle in the hallway!

September 13

A clash of steel sounded in the hallway amid the shouts of at least three voices; there were faint sounds of fighting on deck; and a distant roaring similar to that of the fire elemental that powers the ship; we awoke.
Struggling out of bed, Aimi prudently donned her darkweave cloak and Dorius also took his basic equipment. Neraya (not sleeping) headed immediately to investigate, while Lesta only grabbed her spell components, not bothering to dress.
Neraya, first out, saw a crewmember falling to an attack by two armoured men in Emerald Claw livery. She and Lesta handled the initial part of the battle, Lesta making most difference by blinding our opponents. Two more arrived as Dorius and Aimi joined the fray. We finished these opponents with little damage on our side, though it took a while and quite some magic was expended.
More arrived down the stairs, causing slightly more trouble as we (read Neraya) had to take them on individually. She dealt with one more, but another remained.

September 20

Aimi noticed that each Emerald Claw soldier carried a wooden stake affixed to his belt. Were they after Lucan too?
A break in the battle gave us the opportunity to run the other way, downstairs, in search of our weapons. Lesta knew where the storage area was.
We got there to find the door locked. No problem; aided by a quick spell from Dorius, Neraya smashed it. However...

Enter the vampire. (And exit the vampire, double-quick.)

One of the lockers that line the corridor walls suddenly glows with a discharge of arcane energy. As the glow dims, the locker door swings open, revealing a large, featureless, and dark chamber beyond, far larger than could fit within the locker's physical space.

Lucan steps forth from the locker, and glances at you - and at Aimi in particular - with one mocking eyebrow raised. "Still on the chase, m'dear?" he asks even as he fades into a fine gray mist and rises up towards the ceiling, vanishing through the decking above...

Then the cavalry arrived - well, not literally cavalry, and not on our side either. A squad of Emerald Claw soldiers. One shouted 'No witnesses!'
We piled into the storage area and found - more by accident than judgement - our weapons.
The battle renewed in earnest. Aimi was seriously wounded straight away as the first two soldiers pushed in. Lesta cast her spell to blind them and a few others out in the hallway. One soldier muttered something about '...the elemental chamber. Disable...', which didn't sound good.
Neraya and Aimi worked together to down the first soldier straight away, and the second struggled blindly to get out, quickly replaced by another. But the battle was quickly over as they efficiently felled a few more soldiers, assisted by Dorius and Lesta. The last soldier appeared to be haphazardly trying to sabotage the ship by breaking the supports that held the elemental ring, but he wasn't getting very far; still less after Neraya cracked him on the head.
Tooled up, and quaffing a few healing potions, we went quickly back to the cabins. There we found Vondo and Kera dead, along with more Emerald Claw soldiers felled by fire and acid - evidence, presumably, of Lucan's sister. We hurried up to the deck, from where sounds of battle could still be heard.

Exit the vampire, part ad nauseam; and a collision course

The entire crew and the Emerald Claw soldiers who stayed atop have either slaughtered one another or been slaughtered - all but one, who meets his end under the fangs of a familiar-looking figure to one side of the main deck even as you emerge up top; the soldier's body is casually tossed over the side as the blood-faced Lucan looks at you and grins.

"Better late than never, eh?" he exclaims lightly. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got places to go, you understand. And by the looks of what's coming, so do you." He nods over your shoulder into the depths of the dark night air.

Grilsha is here too, hovering above deck. With a word, she vanishes, even as Lucan steps off the side and fades into mist, blending with the night.

It quickly becomes clear what he means, however...

There's a second airship approaching, lit only by its own lights and the faint shadows of the moons above as they pierce the clouded sky. The faint green of its trim betrays it as the vessel which must have dropped the soldiers off on your ship, but this time it's not coming to drop anyone off... it's heading prow-first for the side of the Cloud's Destiny at full speed...

Aimi ran for the wheelhouse, urging Lesta to follow. Neither of them could make head nor tail of the controls, and shouting at the elemental didn't work either.
The two ships crashed into one another, wrecked beyond repair and freeing the air and fire elementals who immediately started to fight each other (at least they didn't go for us), leaving us sprawled on the deck of the falling airship...

September 27

After panicking very briefly, we took Dorius's suggestion and ran for the extradimensional space in which Lucan had been hiding. Lesta, winged, instead tried to jump off the ship before it crashed.
Aimi reached the pocket first and helped the others in - not a moment too late. The ship crashed with Neraya only just inside, and we were showered with debris through the open doorway - but the space remained safe.

Lesta's flight

Lesta, meanwhile, drifts sedately through the air, her leap having carried her clear of the descending wreckage on draconic wings.

The two ships smash themselves to pieces below her, sending a cloud of dust high aloft. It's strange, that - the night around Lesta would be serenely peaceful except for that one small detail..

Shrouded in the light of the moons, the landscape is dimly lit, showing open plains all around - the mountains left far to the south. And not far to the north are more lights - the lights of a village or two, perhaps; Lucan's destination as he stepped from the ship? Very possibly, as dawn can't be that far away, and he will need shelter from the sun...

Neraya began digging us out of the wreckage; Lesta, hearing the sounds, helped and we were free fairly quickly, though not without a few scratches.
We searched the wreckage in the pre-dawn light, seeing no sign of survivors. But we did manage to find Lesta's brooch, Aimi's armour, a few coins, a dragonshard (which Lesta kept), and the antique shortsword that had been Vondo's.
- This had a complicated system of conduits and a place where a vial of alchemical fire or frost could be attached.
- Construction from cyrite made it effective against creatures where normally a magic weapon would be necessary.
- Aimi took the weapon, until we can sell it at least.
Speculating that the town whose lights Lesta saw had been Lucan's destination too, we headed that way and hit a slight snag trying to get in; Lesta's papers had been lost. After explaining the situation to the guard, we had to give a report about the airship crash (and purchase new papers for Lesta).
At about noon, we finished with this and discovered that the town (Sterngate, a fortress-town built to protect the pass between Breland and Darguun) had a lightning rail station. A train was due to leave shortly, for Thrane - the quickest way for Lucan to reach Karrnath.
We purchased tickets (the others paying for Lesta, who had been left penniless) and tried to board. At this point, the two platform guards moved to attack us along with a swarm of bats; and the coaches began to power up, fifteen minutes early for departure!
Aimi and later Dorius reacted badly to the cloud of biting mammals, nauseated and unable to act... but a combination of Neraya's strength (carrying the incapable Aimi onto the train), Lesta's spells blinding the two guards, and acrobatics from both Lesta and Dorius saw us safely onto the train, just as it began to depart!
We slammed the door and breathed a collective sigh of relief, although all of us were still bleeding heavily from many bites.

October 4

We finally managed to catch a half day's sleep in our quarters. After that, we were due to reach Starilaskur in an hour, later stops being Vathirond and Flamekeep, near Karrnath; we expected the latter to be Lucan and Grilsha's destination.
At Starilaskur we stopped off for healing then rejoined the train. The journey continued uneventful through Vathirond and toward Araldusk. We went to our quarters to sleep, but...

Warforged assault

You see a large, cloaked figure with a longsword at the throat of a fellow passenger - anelderly human woman who appears frightened almot to the point of panic. Several more figures are rapidly approaching from further back, emerging from the rear cargo cart. And as if that wasn't enough of a shock, a fierce-looking halfling on a winged creature soars past the window outside at almost the same moment!

The lead cloaked figure spots your arrival almost immediately, and simply draws its sword across the old woman's throat, slaying her; her body slumps to the ground in a pool of blood. The figure's free hand points towards you, and you recognize it as the metallic plating of an adamantine warforged. "We have questions for you," it states, a warforged voice echoing within the hood. "You know where the schema is."

"The schema that you took from the Mournland. The Lord of Blades wants it. You will tell us where it is, or you will die." The figure is slowly approaching as it speaks, bloody blade out before it. The other four, weapons drawn, are following close behind.

We told them about the vampire and lied that Lucan had the schema; this didn't particularly help our situation as the warforged band decided to kill us anyway.
Neraya and Aimi managed to do some damage to the leader, while receiving rather more in return. Lesta blinded some of our opponents...
...and then the train came to an abrupt halt, sending us all flying.
Everyone got to their feet and the battle resumed, more damage exchanged.

October 11

The battle took a while but eventually we defeated the warforged assailants; most of the party's spells were used in the effort, and Aimi received grievous wounds. Outside, the figures riding flying beasts still flew high above; some who tried to flee the train were taken down by their spears. The sounds of combat and killing from the other end of the train grew closer.
Neraya found a healing potion to ease the worst of Aimi's wounds. As another squad of warforged entered the lounge, saw us, and moved to attack, Lesta opened the door to the cargo cart - to find Lucan on the other side. He taunted us, threw her aside, and leapt to the roof ladder to exit. Grilsha, meanwhile, emerged behind the warforged, blasting one of them.
As arrows from one of the newly-arrived warforged fell around us Aimi, after a moment's hesitation, ran for the ladder after Lucan. He had just killed one of the fliers. The rest of the party followed after while Grilsha killed a second warforged... and Lucan jumped from the train, shifting form into a huge wolf and escaping into the night.
Aimi caught a glimpse through the darkness of a structure in the lake toward which Lucan had ran...

October 18

We jumped or climbed from the train and chased after Lucan, though he had clearly outdistanced us already. Reaching the lakeshore without attack from the flying dinosaur things, we gained the cover of trees and set about building a raft. We hadn't seen Grilsha, but knew she could turn invisible.
Neraya remembered the Haversack she carried and we shared out some of its contents; Aimi gulped down a couple more healing potions. We then used our makeshift raft to reach the pyramid in the lake's centre.

The pyramid

You arrive at the foot of the steps to gaze up at the ancient temple now towering over you. The steps lead up to a broad doorway which opens into darkness. A figure briefly appears in that doorway - Lucan. He stares down at you from the height above, then melts back into the shadows of its depths...

Now alert, you ascend to the opening and venture within. The polished gray marble walls give way to a square room whose walls are patterned in a wavy style reminiscent of the ocean. Two rows of columns stretch towards another doorway on the far side, and each column has 8-inch-diameter discs raised along its surface, giving them a distinct resemblance to octopus tentacles.

As you take in this scene, in the light of your magical lantern, and unnerving, eerie moan begins to echo throughout the chamber, one which seems to invade your minds and set your nerves on edge more than could naturally be accounted for...

The moan turned out to belong to some bizarre creature that looked like a collection of pieces of cloth, fluttering near the ceiling. Its high-pitched moan soon caused us all to panic; we fled outside and halfway down the steps before regaining our senses. It followed and a different moan left us fighting back nausea.
After some while of fighting - difficult, because it hovered in the air, and at one point yet another moan managed to stun Lesta - we finally stuck enough arrows in the thing to scare it off. It fled into the night and we re-entered the pyramid.
We passed through the now-vacant entrance chamber, noting that a heavy atmosphere still hung over the pyramid, revealing some kind of foul nature. The passage opposite led to stairs and another similarly-sized chamber, but with no columns.

A dais with solid stone altar dominates this room. From the doorway, you can see a slot cut into the top of the altar, which rests in the room's center. Along the walls, faded frescoes of leering, red-skimmed demons face the door on the opposite side from you. Dozens of small hooks are embedded in the ceiling, and thick chains run from them to the altar's corners.

Investigating the altar revealed nothing special. It appeared to be hollow inside, the slot leading into that cavity. We left it alone, passing through the next doorway and up a second flight of stairs.
This led to another similar chamber, decorated this time with carved animal heads, many of which had emeralds for eyes. A stone table occupied the centre of the room and behind it stood a long-dead minotaur, its flesh rotting away. It lifted a great-axe and attacked.

October 25

After a long but not very deadly battle in which everyone but Aimi made a useful contribution, the minotaur zombie was finally slain. We took a rest afterwards using the last Rope Trick scroll to recover spells. That done, various enhancements were cast in anticipation of meeting the vampire.
The room had two stairs, as well as a collapsed tunnel which had once gone deeper into the pyramid. We chose the stairs up. These led to a larger chamber with many cracks in the left wall, and the scent of fresh air. Three silver circles were embossed in the floor, and the walls were covered in frescoes depicting a starry night over mountains; not like the real terrain outside.
Lesta tested one of the circles with a crossbow bolt; nothing happened, and nothing about the room seemed particularly magical. The door at one end led to another stair, which we continued up.

The hall of the vampire

Unlike the other chambers inside the ziggurat, flames from copper braziers mounted halfway up the walls provide light in this area. A high, vaulted ceiling stretches thirty feet up from the floor, providing enough room for a twenty-five-foot-tall statue of a bat-winged, ram-headed demon from an ancient age.

Between the statue's feet is a throne-like chair of black marble, and Lucan sits there, staring at Aimi through half-lidded eyes, a grim expression on his face. A series of low stone sarcophagi stands between her and the statue...

Initially Lucan seemed not to react to our arrival. When we began readying missile weapons, however (suspecting he might be an illusion), he noticed - and suggested that we talk, before 'ending this one way or another'.

Lucan's tale

"I never wanted to betray Breland, but fate twice forced my hand."

"Which is why we're speaking now. You're here to destroy me and to recover the blade, and if you triumph then I want the record set straight."

"I imagine that the Dark Lanterns told you what I do for them... or rather, what I did. I served the Dark Lanterns loyally in that capacity for many years... but it was my undoing in the end. In the depths of Sharn, I discovered a spy network previously unknown to the Lanterns. I investigated it, of course... but in the end, they got the better of me, and I was taken to their master. A vampire lord who resides in the depths, Calderus. Against my will, I was made a vampire myself... and bound to Calderus's will."

"Any who are so transformed are enslaved to the will of their... creator. In any case, Calderus sought the soul blade, and sent me to retrieve it. As an agent of the Dark Lanterns, this was easy enough to orchestrate."

"I knew where and how to obtain it, although Calderus was so eager to have it that I was forced to acquire it in a more... direct fashion than I would otherwise have done. That was the first betrayal that was forced upon me. But then things took a direction which neither of us expected."

"The soul blade was created in Karrnath, and was meant to serve as an instrument of Karrnathi conquest. It has a will of its own... one which overwhelmed mine and even the command of Calderus over me. And so I was sent against my will a second time, in this case, the soul blade forcing me to carry it to Karrnath, where it could be reunited with its... masters in the Emerald Claw."

"Then again, it would be happy enough in the possession of any Karrnathi warlord. Anyone who would take up the Last War anew," he adds, almost as an afterthought.

"Calderus is furious. I know that from the link which is still shared, even though the soul blade has overcome it for this last while."

"It... is only as this last day's events have come to pass that I have been able to assert myself over the control of the soul blade. But I know that won't last. It's wearing at my will even now. And even without it, Calderus would simply re-assume control of me. A classic catch-twenty two."

Lesta asked: "Other than being slaying Calderus, is there being a way to breaking that bond?"

He shakes his head, and a certain tension creeps into his posture, as if he's straining against some unseen force. "No. Or at least, not that I know of. But I'm afraid that our time is about to come to an end. You need to destroy me, and I need to defend myself... better a slave than dead."

"There is one thing which I would like to know first," he continues, and now it's clear that he's holding back only with a great effort. "Is Grilsha still alive, or did you... finish her?"

Aimi said: 'We left her fighting against the warforged on the train. She was alive when last we saw her. I had rather assumed she would prevail, but... And your summary of our purpose was in error - we're ordered to capture you, if we can. And destroy you only as a last resort.'

"I see," he says, still suppressing his rage. "Not that it does any good in the end, with Calderus in control..."

Dorius suggested a 'protection from evil' spell, and cast it with the help of his sunrod. The spell worked, apparently protecting Lucan from the demands of the sword and his undead master. But its duration was only a few minutes.

A temporary solution

"We might find a permanent solution in Breland," Dorius suggests.

'It'll take more than a few minutes to get to Breland,' Aimi points out in neutral tones.

Lucan is silent for a moment, then says quietly, "Yes... but there's a way around that."

He grits his teeth for a moment, then says slowly, "Drive a stake into me. Keep it there during the return trip. Just keep me out of sunlight and out of water. Once we're back in Breland... Viorr can arrange something. But do it quickly, before this spell ends."

"And for the love of the gods, don't handle the soul blade. It will take control of you, just like it did to me."

'Fine,' Aimi nods shortly. 'Neraya?'

Neraya moves forward, stake at the ready.

Lucan's eyes narrow as Neraya raises the stake, and he braces himself for the impact, a fierce whisper escaping his lips. "For Breland!"

And then Neraya drives the stake home.