Dungeons Are Bad Business

Like many families, the House of Maluw has humble roots. However, their tree also contains some of the greatest heroes and villains in the history of Oar’s Crest.

Originally, the Maluws made their money as merchants, and they built a vast trading network for spices, fabrics, and dyes. Their bravery, or possibly recklessness in the face of adverse weather, meant that they made more trips each year than the rest of the competitors, and earned a substantial advantage as a result. However, after losing three caravans in a single summer to vicious bandit attacks, the eighth head of the family, Remi Maluw, decided to expand into other markets. Specifically, he used the knowledge gleaned from his experience to become an (Appraiser), offering his services to the adventurers who wandered the lands in those days in search of riches and glory.

For many years, this venture was wildly successful, as records indicate that House Maluw profited and expanded even further during this period. According to recollections from citizens alive during the time, Remi integrated the family in local politics, building a reputation as a strong advocate for business interests within the city and a charming (Rainmaker) who didn’t know how to take no for an answer. Further records indicate that at some point Remi stopped leading caravans completely, citing an unknown injury that made travel difficult. The family hired outsiders and business continued largely as it had before.

Remi’s interest in the arcane and mysterious grew with every artifact that he encountered, and as the years went on he started passing down his knowledge to his son, Jacques. Ever a diligent and dutiful father, Remi taught Jacques how to properly wield a chain mace in addition to the differences between enchanted and bespelled items.

By all accounts, young Jacques excelled at both, managing to singlehandedly slay a blight troll at the age of thirteen when it attacked the caravan he was accompanying as well as making several lucrative purchases that added the equivalent of thousands of fleurs to his family’s coffers when they were sold on the open market a few years later.

Thanks to his high Passion* and Determination stats, Remi rapidly gained levels as an (Appraiser). No item was too obscure for him to look at, nor was any functionality too deeply hidden to escape his understanding. Or at least, that was what everyone believed.

As Remi’s fame grew, increasingly exotic objects found their way to Oar’s Crest. One such item was a small vial that looked as if it was designed to hold perfume. Covered in mother-of-pearl, it was delivered by a (Warlock) with a lopsided grin who claimed he’d looted it from a freshly born dungeon. Like always, Remi agreed to take a look at it, but his first examination ruled out the need for any others. There was nothing magical about the vial at all; it was simply a small trinket. It is believed that the (Appraiser) set it aside in his workshop while he (Assessed) the rest of the pieces in the (Warlock)’s haul.

No one knows why he didn’t simply dispose of the vial. The most likely explanation is that he simply forgot about it due to the high number of other artifacts demanding his attention at the time, while other thinkers claimed that there was some amount of Malignant Awareness that buttressed the vial against what could have been perceived as “harm”, but the remaining records are far from sufficient to be sure of either explanation.

However, we do know that keeping the vial around was a grave mistake.

Despite its benign appearance, the vial was a phylactery that contained the life force of Karlem, a powerful lich. Over the months that followed the (Warlock)’s visit, evil seeped into Remi through the air, whispering into his mind and corrupting him.

Recovered records – mostly journals and third-hand retellings of old stories – claim that the Maluw patriarch became paranoid, short-tempered, and vicious as the darkness contaminated and destroyed his soul. Before a year had passed, the only thing left of Remi was a withered husk that seemed to straddle the line between life and unlife. Wreathed in evil magic, “Remi” started building a tower of bones in the center of the city, killing every adventurer who tried to stop him with spells as powerful as they were horrifying.

Word of the terrifying situation spread quickly, and it ultimately reached Jacques Maluw, who’d taken to the road to see the world for himself as well as earn extra money working as a (Bodyguard). The twenty-two year old was disturbed by the stories of his father’s eldritch transformation, especially because they matched the troubling rumors he’d heard for months.

Apparently, a man with a crooked smile** had been spreading curses around the continent, and Jacques feared the worst. Abandoning his contract, Jacques returned home as quickly as his horse could carry him, and what he found was more heinous than he’d ever imagined. However, he did not despair.

An excerpt from his lone surviving journal explains the situation:

‘The gruesome tower sat in the center of the city. Built of blood and sun bleached bones, it was an abomination so awful that I vomited as soon as I saw it and several times after in quick succession. Staring at it gave me a headache, and whispers seemed to fill the air if I stood still for too long. A crimson liquid, like bloody tears, flowed down its side, and black goo covered the ground. I knew that such evil would only spread further if it was left alone, so I swore then and there that I’d destroy it by my own hands and set things right. A Maluw always sees the job through.’

Aided by a local ogre who refused to tell him her name, Jacques stormed the tower, destroying undead minions with his chain mace and a variety of other enchanted weapons he’d collected during his travels. Sadly, the specifics of these pieces of {Equipment} have been lost to time, but empty bottles retrieved from the Maluw family archives suggest Holy-attuned elixers and potions.

The battle between Jacques and the lich wearing his father’s body was something like one of brawls a reader might find in the more flowery versions of Gwalchmei’s legend. It’s said to have lasted for an entire day and an entire night, culminating in a swirling pillar of blue flames that appears to have been one of the first documented human uses of (Azure Judgment).

Unfortunately, the blaze destroyed the majority of the city as well as its intended target, leaving nothing but a crater in the earth. For the next decade, Maluw solicited funds from others and poured almost his entire fortune into burying the remains of the tower and rebuilding the city anew.

Though members of the Maluw family vehemently deny it, there are rumors that they continue to take an interest in standing against evil beings of all kinds. Fathers pass their knowledge down to their sons, mothers pass their learning down to their daughters, and each patriarch or matriarch uses their skills as [Alchemists] or [Enchanters] to ensure that Oar’s Crest and the surrounding cities never falls prey to such a dark fate ever again.

*One of the primary stats prior to the Moonfall, associated with the goddess Pippa.

**Believed to be Bartholomew Dupree, the (Servant of the Nethergrasp) slain by Auron Tidemaker during the Battle of the Black Dragon. Further details about him are available in other texts.