Olarune 12-Olarune 15, 998 YK

Our party arrives at Amberdune books.

There’s a guy out front that looks friendly, but a lady in back does not look friendly.

Dalavash makes the mistake of making eye contact with the book seller out front, who offers them whatever they want.

Elros asks about The Dark Hunger. The seller says he’s the second person who has asked. The unfriendly lady tells them they sold their one copy to a merchant, who wanted to sell them for a profit in Sharn. But the party asks too much, and the unfriendly lady—Helga—starts to close up the shop to end the conversation.

Our heroes go around back, with Ziago disguising as Helga. He uses his thieves’ tools to try to pick the back door lock, but it’s a tricky one. The party risks a sound and breaks the lock to break into the bookstore. They check a ledger they find, but it doesn’t contain any customer details. It lists the transactions, but it’s written crudely.

Dalavash tries to find magic books and comes up empty. Alorin casts detect magic and finds a whole shelf of books giving off a magical aura. Could they be more gingwatzim?

The party also sees a much larger transaction recorded around the day that Mage Freyot would have purchased the book that transformed and attacked them in the lightning rail locker. They also see that about a year back, the transactions look like a normal ledger. But they are unable to find any other clues.

Alorin decides to open one of the glowing books, the smallest one. Nothing happens. The Extinct and Rare Plant Species of Eberron. The team deliberates in the bookshop. They decide to go get lunch and try to find information. Dalavash offers to stay back on his own and is dragged away by his wiser teammates, who know that Dalavash has almost dying problems, and that you never split up ever.

The party stops at the One-Eyed Wyvern, a divey-looking tavern, for lunch. Ziago turns into Sal with an eyepatch to fit into this dive better. They order lunch. Elros casually inquires about the poor customer service at Amberdune books. They learn that the shop was sold to Helga about a year ago, right after the death of the previous owner. The waitress heard a rumor that Helga was an acolyte of a lamia, a half woman, half lion monster. She and a group of companions would go back and forth between the wilderness and their hideout in town. After a piece of silver from Elros, they get a map to the hideout. The waitress also tells them that about a year ago, Helga became sad and began asking about resurrection spells.

The party goes to the hideout in the afternoon to watch and wait. Dalavash hunts down some lizards on sticks while Ziago disguises as a beggar and Elros argues with him, trying to fit in. The other two use Ziago’s disguise kit to disguise as beggars. Two cloaked figures approach. One of them takes their hood down, and Ziago notices a woman with razor sharp teeth. The newcomers take some time to unlock the door, then go inside.

Ziago picks the lock, takes Helga’s appearance, and comes inside. He steps on a large rug that suddenly tries to grapple him–a rug of smothering. The party attacks. Ziago deals some damage, but when Dalavash’s sacred flame misses the rug, the rug absorbs the magic and regains most of its hit points. Nice one, Dalavash. A jackalwere comes out and pulls the fake “Helga” to safety, asking who these beggars are. Ziago, er, Helga, tells the jackalwere they’re good Samaritans, coming to help. The jackalwere asks why “Helga” was attacked, as the rug only attacks enemies. The rug grapples Elros, trying to smother him. Alorin gets a critical hit with his book flail. Ziago pins it to the wall, dead, and tells the jackalwere to feel free to attack the beggars, keeping up his ruse as Helga. The jackalwere, however, smells Ziago and realizes it’s not Helga. Dalavash uses command to halt the jackalwere, and the companions tie it up in the rug to look like the rug had attacked someone else. Ziago then becomes the jackalwere. Ziago teaches Dalavash something new about healing Elros, then peeks in the next room to find a kitchen.

Ziago peeks through the other door to see a row of six beds with two jackalweres. Cautious of their sense of smell, Ziago applies some garlic to mask his non-Helga scent and hopes that they like garlic. Jackal-Ziago asks how things are going in that other room they haven’t been in yet. Once the jackalweres get over his garlic smell, they say that Helga is probably in there counting her money. As Jackal-Ziago tries to draw out one of the jackalweres, the jackalwere says that they will be able to make things right now that they know what Gingwatzim do. They’re trying to resurrect Nadalia, selling the Gingwatzim as books, but they didn’t realize that the Gingwatzim would get hungry and attack people, draining their energy. They’re conflicted now–should they continue selling these books to be able to resurrect Nadalia? Or stop? The jackalwere says Helga is trying to find a different path to get 150 gold pieces to buy that diamond for resurrection and then the spell services. As Ziago runs messages back to the party, the jackalwere also shares that Helga could probably sell the original books to get that 150 gold pieces. Jackal-Ziago asks if the books have been moved yet, trying to determine their location. The jackalwere says the books are still in the storage room in back. Ziago peeks inside the back room. There is a storage room. The walls are lined with half-empty bookshelves. Lots of new, non-magical books, and two trunks. Ziago puts both trunks into his bag of holding. Leaving the first jackalwere wrapped up in the dead rug, the party scampers off to find an inn and open the trunks.

The first trunk turned out to be a happy and satiated mimic, finishing a snack of rabbits. Ziago decides to keep it as a pet and puts it back in the bag of holding. The other trunk contains several old books:

  • Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions – the real book that Mage Freyot seems to have been trying to get (containing instructions on using a khyber dragon shard to bind an extraplanar entity, and warnings of the danger of this)
  • Fallen Tethyamar
  • The Dark Hunger
  • Castanamir’s Guide to Gingwatzims (describing what they are but not how to create them)
  • Wanderings of a Humble Aasimar (a treatise on the Outer Planes)
  • Daughters of Graz’zt (about the origins of lamias)

Here was the full text of the relevant excerpt of interest from Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions.

Chapter VII: On the Binding of the Planar with the Terrene – The Use of Khyber Shards

In the shadowed depths of Khyber, where light fears to tread and the echoes of the ancient war still reverberate, lie the fragments of creation itself – the Dragon Shards. Of these, the Khyber Dragon Shards hold a power most formidable, their ebony depths swirling with the captured essence of the plane’s malevolent inhabitants.

To bind an extraplanar entity, a practitioner must first understand the paradox of control and freedom. The Shard, a prison and a conduit, becomes the focal point of this paradox. Within its crystalline boundaries, the Shard embodies Khyber’s dark essence, offering a resonance with the entity you wish to bind.

Invoke the Shard by inscribing it with sigils that resonate with the desired entity’s nature. This act of inscription is not merely a physical endeavor but a negotiation of wills, a dance with the entity’s essence across the veil. The sigil’s design should reflect the entity’s true name, its planar origin, and its fundamental nature, creating a sympathetic link between the Shard and the entity.

Upon completion of the inscription, conduct the Rite of Binding at a site of planar convergence or during a celestial event that weakens the boundaries between worlds. This rite involves incantations that call forth the entity, supplemented by the Shard’s power. The entity, drawn to the resonance of its own essence within the Shard, will find itself ensnared, its will entangled with the inscribed sigils.

Herein lies the crux of the process: control through the Shard is not absolute. The practitioner must maintain a constant balance of power, for the entity will ceaselessly seek to exploit any weakness to break free. This delicate equilibrium demands a mastery of arcane knowledge and a strength of will, lest the binder becomes the bound. One mage of extraordinary skill might have this control, but two powerful mages working in concert would more likely be successful.

While the Khyber Dragon Shard offers a formidable tool in controlling extraplanar entities, it also presents a perilous path, fraught with both arcane complexity and moral ambiguity. The wise would tread this path with caution, for in the depths of Khyber, one’s greatest conquest can swiftly become one’s most dire defeat.

The next morning, the party goes back to the bookstore to take the remaining gingwatzim before they can be used for evil again. They find the door unlocked and take the false books. Dalavash leaves a note: “Nadalia is displeased. Let me rest in peace.” Then he uses mending to fix the door, and Ziago locks it up again.

With a very touchy bag of holding, full of a mimic and twelve bound gingwatzim in book form, the party decides to head back to Sharn. But first, Elros insists on destroying the gingwatzim. He reads Castanamir’s Guide to Gingwatzim’s to see if there’s a way to destroy them. The book tells them that any small thing can be a Gingwatzim. The book also says to destroy them, you have to deal damage to it like a living creature, and they have the strength of 3 common men. The book says there is a legend that they can eat. Alorin, with scintillating insight, realizes that there’s a way to feed these gingwatzim, just like you could keep a mimic fed.

The party decides to take the gingwatzim back to Sage Matreous to get his advice. They arrive at the lightning rail. They see a father, possibly a daughter, and a boy and three girls crying as the father leaves. Ziago thinks these may be Sarlonians, where he grew up. Dalavash inquires and finds they don’t have enough tickets to Sharn. Dalavash offers to hawk his first class ticket to try to buy three steerage class tickets. Ziago is inspired to change course and help liberate his people. He tells the party he will send a replacement, but he needs to go help this family and help his people. He travels with the family to Sharn and sets out to start an underground movement to help Sarlonians move to Sharn to start a new life there.