The Soulmonger was an immensely powerful magic artifact constructed by the demilich Acererak. It was able to drain the life of any living individual on Toril who had been resurrected at some point in the past, and furthermore to capture the souls of creatures as they died anywhere on Toril.[1]
The activation of the Soulmonger in the late 15th century DR started a worldwide emergency known as the death curse.[1][note 1]
Description[]
The Soulmonger was an upright crystalline cylinder that was 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter and 20 feet (6.1 meters) tall. Through the crystal could be glimpsed the forms of the spirits trapped inside, and their otherworldly screams echoed around the artifact.[3] To protect itself, four 30‑foot-long (9.1‑meter) tentacles protruded from the top of the device, and would lash out and throw around any who attempted to damage it.[3][2] The primary purpose of the Soulmonger was to feed souls to an atropal,[1] which floated alongside it and was connected to the cylinder via its umbilical cord.[3]
The device was located on the very lowest level of the Tomb of the Nine Gods behind a great stone gate adorned with skeletal carvings that required multiple special keys in order to open.[3][4] The Soulmonger was suspended 30 feet (9.1 meters) above a large, triangular pool of lava by three adamantine struts which connected to an adamantine ring around the middle of the cylinder. These struts were each wide and sturdy enough to walk across but not strong enough to support the weight of the Soulmonger without the other two.[3]
The Soulmonger itself was an intensely evil device that radiated intense necromantic magic.[2] The inner-workings of the Soulmonger were based on soul bags,[4] which were objects crafted by night hags to store souls.[5] If destroyed, the countless souls trapped within the cylinder would escape as motes of light that swirled together like a tornado before vanishing to the afterlife in a bright flash.[2]
History[]
The Soulmonger was originally constructed by Acererak and a coven of night hag witches known as the Sewn Sisters,[6] whom he recruited for their expertise in crafting soul bags.[4] The intent was for the device to harvest souls from all over Toril and then feed them to an atropal which Acererak had found in the Negative Energy plane, ultimately transforming the atropal into a god of death that could ravage the Prime Material plane. To protect the atropal and the Soulmonger, the two were placed on the lowest level of the Tomb of the Nine Gods, a dungeon in Chult originally constructed to kill adventurers for Acererak's phylactery.[1] Once the Soulmonger was activated and began inflicting the death curse across the world, it was watched over by the Sewn Sisters with Acererak keeping an eye on it from afar.[6]
The Soulmonger was ultimately destroyed and shattered into pieces when a group of adventurers made their way through the tomb and defeated Acererak. However, shards of it spread across Chult, and came to be coveted for dark purposes by the Red Wizards of Thay, the demon prince Orcus, and yuan-ti cultists of Dendar the Night Serpent.[7][8] The lich Rhaugilath also crafted an imitation of the Soulmonger—albeit one that operated on a much more limited scale—known as the Death of the Sun.[9]
Ultimately, Szass Tam would succeed in having his agents—including multiple zulkirs—absorb the power of the shards of the Soulmonger into special opal pendants,[8][10][11] and then attempted to use the artifact's power to release Dendar from her prison beneath Chult. Tam had been fooled into believing that Dendar had visited him and his servants in their dreams, and that she had promised that if they released her, she would fulfill her purpose to end all life on Toril but then leave the Red Wizards as rulers over an undead world. In truth, this was a ruse devised by Rhaugilath, who sought to claim the power of the Soulmonger for himself in order to break free of his servitude to the Shadow King Larloch.[11][12] Rhaugilathhad been manipulating Thay, the yuan-ti, and a group of adventurers from Port Nyanzaru even since before the destruction of the Soulmonger in order to get his hands on the device's power.[7][13] When Tam put the final stages of his plan into motion by sending the zulkir Ethra Dralas to the Maze of Ubtao, Rhaugilath set in motion his plan to trick the Thayans and a party of adventurers into clashing, which they did just as Dendar's prison was about to open thanks to the power of the Soulmonger in the opal pendants.[12][14]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Canon material does not provide a year for the events described in Tomb of Annihilation, however it is understood to take place sometime between 1488 DR and 1492 DR. The earlier date is based on the fact that Port Nyanzaru is stated to have gained independence from Amn nine years prior to the start of the adventure (p 15), which would be 1488 DR at the earliest given the city was firmly under Amnian control as of 1479 DR (as described in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, p 102). The later date is based on the presence of Volothamp Geddarm, who is promoting the in-universe Volo's Guide to Monsters during the adventure (p 24) but is stated to have concluded his promotional tour and begun a new book as of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (see pp 5, 24), which is understood to be set in 1492 DR. Unless a canon source states otherwise, this wiki will use this range for events related to this sourcebook. The adventure is also assumed to take place concurrently with or slightly after the events of Storm King's Thunder based on the subplot involving frost giants in the service of Jarl Storvald (p 13).
Appearances[]
Adventures
Video Games
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
Unusual Opposition • Fathomless Pits of Ill Intent • The Broken Chain Series (Streams of Crimson, Pools of Cerulean, Turn Back the Endless Night) • Drums of the Dead
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 185. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 178–179. ISBN 978-0786965614.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 125. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Iam Pace, William Murakami-Brundage (2018). Streams of Crimson (DDAL07-15) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 3.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Alexander Lindsay (2018). Pools of Cerulean (DDAL07-16) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 3.
- ↑ Eric Menge (2018). Fathomless Pits of Ill Intent (DDAL07-14) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 6.
- ↑ Alexander Lindsay (2018). Pools of Cerulean (DDAL07-16) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 4.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Greg Marks (2018). Turn Back the Endless Night (DDAL07-18) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 3.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Greg Marks (2018). Turn Back the Endless Night (DDAL07-18) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 5–6.
- ↑ Travis Woodall (2017). Whispers in the Dark (DDAL07-05) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 3.
- ↑ Greg Marks (2018). Turn Back the Endless Night (DDAL07-18) (PDF). D&D Adventurers League: Tomb of Annihilation (Wizards of the Coast), p. 19.