Oriel led us to a large, underground chamber, so heavily warded that I could literally feel it when we crossed the threshold. When I turned to ask about that, she laughed before I could even open my mouth, and said, “There are several places like this in the city. ‘Law’ and ‘Good’ are not always on the same page, after all, so, over the years, different groups have created spaces like this so that they can plot, and plan.” Looking back over the chamber, she smiled. “Of course, they believe these places to be secret. But they are only secrets from the other houses.”
“And the nobles in those houses just forgot that the underclasses they used to build the things existed, right?”
Oriel shrugged. “It is the same on every plane, or so I’ve heard. My wizard associate often lamented the state of Thedra’s leadership, and how they ignored the problems underfoot. That is probably why the houses were able to send people over, and establish the portal. Those who had nothing to lose looked the other way.”
I nodded slowly. “So, you mentioned three houses ‘disappeared’ in the night? I know you mentioned going after House Runeglide, but what of these others?”
“Ah, well, when we went to collect the ‘volunteers’ for the ritual, we saw House Trueblood and House Holybow making preparations for one of their ‘cleansings’. The people I had with me agreed that a bit of preemptive action would be helpful. So, we captured them, as well. I’ll admit, they didn’t have any outstanding debts with me, but they did have debts with others, and I earned a favor or two by extracting payment for those.”
“Hah!” I laughed, as we made our way towards where several magic circles were being drawn out on the floor in chalk. “As well you should. So, what does this ritual entail?”
“Well, obviously the main circle is where the sacrifice takes place. That’s the power source for the ritual. The two circles attached to it? The one on the right is the ‘source’ circle, and to the left is the ‘destination’ circle. Put the item you want to sacrifice in the source, and the one you want to enhance in the destination, and the ritual will combine the strengths of the two items. Actually, it doesn’t have to be just items.”
“Oh? Did you find something new?”
“Yes, as I was reviewing the wizard’s notes on the ritual, it became clear that, while not recommended, you could use living creatures, instead of items, as either the source or destination.”
I winced when I thought of the possible ways that could go wrong. “That is not something that I would try on a whim. Having a living creature as the destination sounds like a great way to get chimeric creatures, or someone with a blade for an arm, or worse. And having them as the source? Intelligent weapons are a pain to deal with, especially if they are still upset at you having killed their mortal body to shove their soul into a sword!”
“Yes, but people are often willing to overlook such things, in return for power. If we still have material components left by the time you’re done, I have a few people who actually are eager for the chance to get some new abilities, even if they know they’d have to leave the city immediately. They’ll head through the portal, and take their chances on the Material Plane. Of course, since they’ll have newfound power, a new start is all the better, right?”
“And it keeps them from drawing trouble down upon those who remain in the city, yes.” I took a breath, and looked back at the ritual circles. “You know, this reminds me of one of the cursed artifacts we found in the Repository.”
“You found the Notebook of the Mad Alchemist, detailing the Machine? Yes, I’m aware of that item. The wizard I spoke of once had possession of the artifact.”
“So, he created the ritual based on what he found in the notebook, instead of creating the machine?”
“Yes, he was concerned about some of the workings of the Machine, especially with how there was so much potential power building up, but that the changes did not use all that power. He theorized that the excess power went somewhere, and might draw unwanted attention to him, so he set about a simpler ritual, using sacrifice to fuel a lesser version of what the Machine could do, without alerting unseen powers.”
“Right, so how do we go about doing this?”
“Well, fortunately, the ritual is fairly short. You’ll need to use a blade to carve the symbol of your chosen deity into the volunteer’s forehead. This will mark any excess power to go to your deity, than to an unknown source. Then, whilst speaking the words of the rite, you need to carve them open, while making sure not to kill them too quickly, until you can reach their heart. Rip it from their body and eat at least a bite of the heart, and the ritual will be complete.”
“Sounds simple enough. You mentioned a possibility that the ritual would mark the one conducting it with evil?”
“Yes, but there was nothing in the wizard’s notes about how you would be marked, or in what way the mark might be hidden, if need be.”
I took a breath, and said, “Then, in that case, it is best we do the rituals without any disguises, just in case.” I looked around the cavern, where it looked like seventy-five people, ranging in age from children to the very old, were kept bound, gagged, and kneeling in a makeshift enclosure, naked as the day they were born, while at least that many stood watch over them. It did not escape my eye that it was the ordinals who were kneeling, while the half-breeds and others were standing over them. “Do you want your people here for this?”
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“Yes,” Oriel nodded. “They are already condemned for raising their hands to the nobles. The lords of the city would kill them if they were to confess. Seeing this ritual will only further bind them, as the inquisitors would torture them for months, if not years, before they would finally be allowed to die, as ‘penance’.”
“All right, then. Let us begin.”
At a signal from Oriel, five of the nobles were brought forward, and led to the sacrificial circles. They tried to resist, of course, but soon they were each bound in place, ready for the ritual. As we undid our disguises, Oriel stepped forward, looking her people in the eye.
“This is the turning point, my friends! For too long, the nobles and the ordinals have looked down upon us, calling us ‘Impure’, simply because of how we were born! Even though many of us are more closely related to their vaunted ‘divinity’, direct descendants of angels and archons, they look down on us as lesser beings! They hunt us, ‘cleansing’ us for their own amusement! All of you have suffered. We have all suffered under their torments!
“But NO MORE! This is the day, and this is the hour! With this act, we mark the beginning of our rebellion! We will bring down all the noble houses, and the archons, leaving this realm a shattered wasteland, full of nothing but ash and the tormented screams of the dead! But, to do this, we must first get the power to rival a god. And that path leads across planes!
“Now, let the first blood be spilled, as these warriors from across the planes empower themselves to fight the forces arrayed against them, and fulfill their parts in the prophecies!”
With that as our cue, we began the process of carving each of the symbol of our gods onto the first victims. Mine was an elven man, with pure white skin, like marble. He still bled red, however, and cutting him open was no harder than it would have been any other person. As I said the words of the ritual, I opened his chest, ignoring his screams.
With one hand, I grabbed his still-beating heart, and ripped it from his chest. Before the light left his eyes, I bit into the heart, tearing at it. Consuming it.
Light surged around me, as the ritual magic burned to life. In the source circle, a blade I had stolen from the Repository became consumed in ice that surrounded it, before shattering into diamond dust. The body of the sacrifice in front of me froze and shattered as well, his dust rising to swirl about, mixing with that of the blade, before rushing past me to swirl about Soul’s Violation.
Caught up in the ritual as I was, I barely noticed that the effects were different for each of us. The sisters had a red mist that seemed to scream in pleasure as it moved. Fartooth had shadows that swirled about him like fog. And Ebonheart? The black unicorn was surrounded by liquid blood.
My eyes fell on Soul’s Violation as the diamond dust infused itself into the blade, causing it to glow with an inner light for a moment, before it returned to its normal look. Slowly, the light of the ritual began to dim down, and then faded out entirely. Where before chalk had made the lines of the ritual, now there were engraved lines, making the circles a permanent feature of this chamber. But I didn’t think about that. Instead, I picked up my blade, to see what had changed.
Soul’s Violation, Black Blade of the Queen
Type
Artifact Weapon
Weight
6 lbs
Damage
1d10
Damage Type
Slashing
Crit
19-20 / x2
+7 Enhancement to Attacks and Damage
**Shadow Energy - A shadow energy weapon has
its effective portion (blade, axe head, spearhead, etc.)
transformed into shadow. A shadow energy weapon
ignores nonliving matter. Armor bonuses provided
by physical armor (as opposed to spells) are ineffective
against weapons imbued with this quality.
Other bonuses to Armor Class (dexterity, deflection,
Dodge, natural armor, etc.) still apply. A shadow
energy weapon automatically dispels a light or continual
flame spell if touched to the object upon which
the spell was cast. A shadow energy weapon causes
no damage to targets that are not alive. Bows, crossbows,
and slings cannot be enchanted with this ability.
This does not alter the item’s weight.
**Ruinous - Each hit with the blade deals 1 CHA damage. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to the CHA damage. CHA damage is not multiplied with critical hits.
**Vampiric - Deals an extra 1d6 damage to any living creature it hits, and heals you for the same amount.
**Skillful - The wielder is considered proficient with this weapon, even if they lack the appropriate feat. The wielder's BAB for using this weapon is 3/4 their HD, or their normal BAB, whichever is higher.
**Hideaway - Can collapse to 2sizes smaller, making it easier to conceal.
**Shadowstrike - 1/day add 5ft to reach and deny target DEX to AC.
**Anarchic Power - This weapon is chaos-aligned and thus bypasses the corresponding damage reduction. When a weapon of anarchic power strikes a lawful target, this power deals +3d6 points of bonus chaotic damage to the target, and the target gains one negative level (Fortitude DC 23 to remove 24 hours later). On a successful critical hit it instead deals +6d6 points of chaotic damage and bestows two negative levels (or +9d6 and three negative levels if the critical multiplier is x3, or +12d6 and four negative levels if the critical multiplier is x4). The weapon bestows three negative levels on any lawful creature attempting to wield it. These negative levels remain as long as the weapon is in hand and disappear when the weapon is no longer wielded. These negative levels never result in actual level loss, but they cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded.
In addition to its other abilities, Soul's Violation is intrinsically connected to the Plane of Shadow. While not in areas of direct sunlight (or the area of effect of a Daylight spell) the wielder has access to the following effects:
Shadow Shield (Sp) - 3/day, create a shield of transluscent shadows. Acts as a Shield spell, negating Magic Missile attacks and providing +4 Shield bonus to AC, with a CL equal to the wielder's HD.
Shadow Walk (Sp) - 1/day, use Shadow Walk, as the spell. (CL equal to HD, DC 16+CHA Will to resist)
Dimension Door (Sp) - 3/day, use Dimension Door, as the spell (CL equal to HD, DC 14+CHA to resist).
Veil of Shadow (Sp) - 3/day, use Veil of Shadow (SC) as the spell. (CL equal to HD)
Shades (Sp) - 1/week, use Shades, as the spell. (CL equal to HD, DC 19+CHA Will to resist)
My eyes went wide as I looked at the new abilities the blade had. It would now hit harder, and was a deadly bane to any lawful creature I attacked with it. While the use of such a weapon was hit or miss on the material plane, here it would be invaluable, as most of the creatures I was going to be up against were lawful in some way.
New Bonus Feat Gained!
Evil Brand [Vile]
Forever branded as a servant of an evil power, you gain +2 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks with Evil creatures.
The skin at the small of my back to burn as though a branding iron had been placed to my skin, but I did not feel like it was actually damaging me. Looking at the others, I could see that each of them were having similar reactions. Each of them was looking at some random spot upon their bodies. Siora and Vestele had their right and left hands branded with Malcanthet’s symbol. Kurtulmak’s sigil appeared upon Fartooth’s chest. Ebonheart now sported the sign of Garagos upon his rear flank. I did not doubt that, if I were to look in a mirror, I would see Auril’s snowflake upon diamond now residing on my lower back.
I focused on my breathing, and looked up to Oriel, who had a newfound fire in her eyes. She was falling, willing to do whatever it took to avenge herself. I didn’t doubt that there would be a lot of blood spilled in the future because of our coming here. But that was hardly my problem.
“Bring forth the next sacrifice.”