Elemental Keys and the Ebonbane

[DeepShadow of FoS]

In my new campaign, the PC's were pulled into Ravenloft by the cursed van Richten's Guide from the BoSecrets, and since one of them was hunting a fiend, their entire airship got stuck in the wall around Shadowborn Manor. Now the PC's have to brave the manor, find the four elemental keys and strengthen his chains so that the wall will release the ship and they can escape. Except...none of them has the means to generate magical fire.

DOH!

Actually, I personally found this component to be lamest of all the keys. Breath of the dead, I get it. Roots of the house, gotcha. Holy water from the font makes the most sense of all. But then...just cast fireball on it all? Burning hands? Trick the Ebonbane into using flame strike, or lighting it with the sword like in the BoShadows framing fic?

I thought this was supposed to be the four elements Kateri used in making her holy avenger? Did she really have a wizard friend cast fireball to light her forge? What do you think? Where else in the manor is a good place to put the fire key?

[tomokaicho]

Just let them notice that there is a flaming torch somewhere there that never seems to go out. Continual flame spell.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Just let them notice that there is a flaming torch somewhere there that never seems to go out. Continual flame spell.

Okay, but a normal CF doesn't actually ignite anything or provide heat. Are you suggesting Kateri used an unusual everburning flame to light her forge?

[Suvie]

I never really cared for BotS. Ebonbane has a power called "Reality Control" where he can control the sun and moon, rewind time, rip the second floor right off the manor on a whim, and otherwise control whatever he wants to toy with the PC's with godlike powers...but can't actually stop them from getting the keys together and breaking the sword...but he wouldn't want to because that actually sets him free...but it's still considered a win for them because WHY AGAIN?

[The Lesser Evil]

You could have a domovoi or other house spirit needed to operate a magical forge in the workshop (area 25) to activate the flame key, but the house spirit has been frightened into cowardice. Starting up the forge requires the house spirit to feel a "burning courage" or some such other allusion once again, which may involve inspiring the house spirit to stand up to its fears. And inspiring it may first involve finding it, which could involve a mobile game of hide and seek throughout the house. Of course, Ebonbane may have bullied the spirit into luring would-be heroes to their dooms.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Methinks this is one of those things the dm will agonize over and the players will never notice. Magical fire fits because of the whole 4 elements thing. Heck, I'd probably let regular fire even work. It's just a symbol.

[Five]

First-off, I'm largely ignorant of Ebonebane, Shadowborn Manor, and the like. Just never really stuck out I guess. Regardless, I love a good thought so I did a quick read of Dark Lords and here is my angle:

1. The elemental keys are said to be magical components symbolic of the process from which Ebonbane was created.

2. The key of fire, specifically, represents the evil flames that forged its body.

So, in this instance (fire key) we are looking for something symbolic of the magic fire ("evil flames") that was used by the group of evil priests who worshipped the Unspeakable One.

They did set "dark runes" upon the blade. Could there be evidence of an older, doomed, investigation that hint at these runes scattered throughout the manor? This way takes away from PC accomplishment on the face of it, but story-wise it may be a joint investigation that leads to the freeing of many, many trapped (restless etc.) souls. And this rune, that represents the "evil flames" used by the priests, could very well be an item blessed by the Unspeakable, or a symbol of power, an unholy icon, etc. Here, the "evil flames" represent the magical/unholy power of the Unspeakable one; fire being the key or source element for the forging of the sword, and the source of that source would be the Unspoken One.

Possible symbol of the Unspoken One: a ring with the mark of "Silence" on it (from the finger of the puppet monk who first brought Ebonebane to Lady Shadowborn). Perhaps his body/remains lies somewhere in the manor...?

Also, instead of ring you could use a brooch/pin, or anything in-between. Something not obvious until it becomes so.

Weak point here is that the PCs will need to connect so much of Ebonebane's history together to get to the point of looking for this symbol, so, moldy journal(s)? If the PCs are careless the pages could disintegrate and be lost for eternity...to add pressure to your PCs/players. Intelligence checks to remember symbols/information? You could even do the old "cop exam" by flashing the player (singular) the right symbol, visualising its "accidental" destruction, then creating several variations of that symbol later on in the adventure and see if they remember and choose the right one... haha



SIDETRACK:

What I am left with is: once the ingredients are drawn out of the blade, or whatever else may be the result of its destruction, what happens then? The symbol (ring) representing the evil flames, using my very own line of reasoning above, would then be charged with Evil (of the Unspoken One). And the other elements/keys, depending on how you interpret them, they would still be in existence for a potential reformation of Ebonbane, would they not? Alien metal is not necessarily Evil, I get that, but still. The ingredients, unless somehow destroyed separately, would be corrupted in some form or another I would imagine (is the alien metal Ebonbane?). Again, depending on how you destroy the blade. Big explosion, not so much. Deconstruction, or, the removal of each "element"...that's a temporary solution at best, as I see it.



EDIT: So I got my hands on a copy of Dungeon #31 (I don't make it a habit of asking questions to pirates and demons in dark alleys ) and things are a little bit clearer to me now after skimming through it. Also re-read Dark Lords.

"When the final dark rune was set upon the blade, an evil being from the outer planes was imprisoned in the weapon."

I read this the first time and thought Ebonbane was a demon of some sort, but got confused with "Long before its imprisonment in Ravenloft, Ebonbane was both powerful and intelligent. Infused with a cruel and cunning intelligence by its creators..."

I completely forgot of the time before Ravenloft, or, the pre-Dark Lord days. Instead I assumed that Ebonbane was a sword before its current sword form. Or at least the metal ("...alien metal that was brought to the Prime Material plane from another dimension.") that formed the basis of both swords.

Anyway, scratch my Ebonbane origins question.

Got a bad taste in my mouth with Lady Shadowborn doing the legwork of the PCs and pretty much telling them outright how to destroy Ebonbane though ("Take this, this, this, and that, and do this). Kinda...bland. To me anyway. I like hints, but not instruction from NPCs. A brief history of its construction and an assumption of magically reversing/extracting the process/elements (symbolically, whatever), sure. But pointing out where Waldo is hiding kinda defeats the purpose of looking for Waldo, doesn't it? Like I said, maybe its just me. Journals of those who've asked your questions years before you hint, NPCs not rope-a-doping PCs tell...for the most part anyway. Meh.

Still some cool vibes in "Bane of the Shadowborn" though.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

1. The elemental keys are said to be magical components symbolic of the process from which Ebonbane was created.

There may be conflicting sources, but I was reading that these components were *literally* used to forge her holy avenger.

2. The key of fire, specifically, represents the evil flames that forged its body.

Ah, but if we're talking about the flames used to forge her holy sword, they would be good rather than evil. That's consistent with the rest of the keys being good: holy water, roots of her home, breath of her ancestors.

Got a bad taste in my mouth with Lady Shadowborn doing the legwork of the PCs and pretty much telling them outright how to destroy Ebonbane though ("Take this, this, this, and that, and do this). Kinda...bland. To me anyway. I like hints, but not instruction from NPCs. A brief history of its construction and an assumption of magically reversing/extracting the process/elements (symbolically, whatever), sure. But pointing out where Waldo is hiding kinda defeats the purpose of looking for Waldo, doesn't it? Like I said, maybe its just me. Journals of those who've asked your questions years before you hint, NPCs not rope-a-doping PCs tell...for the most part anyway. Meh.

Yeah, I toned down her involvement, had a lot more hints from NPC's, but it was still tough to avoid that. Because all my keys were good rather than evil, and literally used rather than figurative symbols, I decided that as a paladin of Belenus, she would have faith in the sun as "the flame that never dies." She thus lit her forge with magnifying lenses that focused the sun's rays. There was a really cool scene where the party paladin ran back out to the wall to get the sun to rise so that the last party member could drop into the forge area where the crystal coffin was, holding the other three elemental keys, and the fourth would be lighting the forge and waiting for her when she arrived. The link is in my sig if you want to see how it all played out.

But now one of my players is asking, why do the Knights only send four people in at a time? Why not send in a whole army to subdue the place every year? I have my own answers to that, but I'd like to hear other thoughts, if anyone would like to join the discussion. Again, link is in the sig.

[The Lesser Evil]

A couple of ideas for the army issue

1) Practical reasons- the Knights of the Shadows don't have that many members, and they have to spread their numbers all over the demiplane. In addition, an army of low-level characters would be really hard to get through the Phantasmal Forest and possibly through Nidala without drawing attention. In the Phantasmal Forest, every person slain is another risen ghoul. Once inside the Manor, the more people you have, the more potential blades for Ebonbane to use.

2) Possibly a symbolic magical connection of the recurring number 4- four keys, four adventurers, 4 elements.

[Five]

I wrote a response but page froze and had to log back in to post it (after I hit "submit"). Lost the text. Pissed (such a waste of effort!). Quotes from Darklords and Dungeon #31 too. Oh well.