Ithaqua

Table of Contents

Story

The begining part is a letter found appearantly written by a Roannan Elf Troubador of the "Fist of the Seeker".

Even now I can hear the screams from the woods. All of my companions have fled thinking that if they run away they could escape the curse upon us. But even now as I write this I can see the whitehair growing on my arms and my hands are forming into ripping claws.

I will start this from the begining. So others might find this and not befall the same. I was once a proud member of the seekers of the heart, and it was my mission to find a cure for the ritual of thorns to free my brother elves. six months ago our leader was assassinated, and grotesquely mutilated in his sleep. We were not sure of the culprits but all of the evidence pointed to a corupt group based in Kratas known ionly as "The Hand". But our moral was low and it looked like the Seekers would soon die if it had not been for Monus Byre gaining power.

She brought us back from our lowest point and gave us back our direction and most of us had forgoten about the death of our past leader and were ready to go on. But some still wanted vengeance on the hand. and it was this vengeance that was our down fall.

One day my friend Nightlooker came to me as I was researching a legend about Shosara. He told me of a great vision that he had had while walking through the woods the other night. "The spirit of Danaan, he came to me last night. He revealed that it was the hand that slayed him, because he was to close to the answer." Nightlooker went on to say that the answer that we had been looking for for all these year was stolen by "The Hand" and that we must recover it. I saw the truth in Nightlooker's eyes and had to follow him, he was inspired, all these years of work and we might actually have an a cure for the Blood Wood!

Nightlooker gathered a choice group from the ranks of the seekers, as the spirit of Danaan had told him that "The Hand" had infiltrated the seekers and would attempt to stop us. And we all met in a small tavern in Bartertown. Nightlooker gave each of us the name and location of an item Danaan had told him about, each item once belonged to great elven heroes. Nightlooker said, "Danaan has told me that these items will give us the strength we are going to need to fight The Hand." We all broke off into groups and set off after our appointed items, with the feeling that the spirit of our great leader was watching over us.

My item a harp that once belonged to Molia Windsong was trapped in a forgotten cairn. The journey was hard and there were many obstacles for us to overcome but eventually we found our items and returned to Battertown victorious and ready to take on "The Hand". All of us had succeeded and were waiting for Nightlooker to give us the word. We were going to storm into the stronghold of the hand, find our prize and free the Blood Wood, it was going to be glorious.

That is not how it happened though. Even the great strength our weapons gave us brought us to no more than a standstill in our assault, hours of bloody fighting in the streets of Kratas ended with Nightlooker sounding the retreat.

Beaten we retreated out of Kratas and made camp to tend to our wounded and prepare for another assault the next morning. We were all down, not even my songs of inspiration could turn or dark mood, and then there was a scream from Nightlooker's tent; and from within rushed a hunched beast with long gray hair coming from all over its body and a distorted, twisted face that was once Nightlooker's. It rushed out clawing at its self with huge yellow claws at its face, ripping out tufts of hair and screaming it disappeared into the night.

It was at this time that most of us noticed that out hair was turning white or gray for some. And our skin everywhere was sprouting tufts of this grayish white fur. My friend Tonaal's teeth were elongating as I spoke to him, we were all changing into something horrible. It was at this point that most of my companions packed up and left very quickly, thinking this place was cursed, but I knew better as a veil of could fog slowly covered the camp.

This was not something we could run from because the damage had already been done. For when I reached for my new harp to play it and sooth myself; my fingers passed through it. It was a wispy form of its once beautiful self, and as insubstansial as the freezing fog that now envelopes me. Maybe the corruption is taking my mind but I think I hear a deep groaning laugh outside my tent...

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Ithaqua's Strategy

Ithaqua is an unusual horror that uses its powers to build an army of constructs that it sends out to terrorize the world. Ithaqua works in very long term and extended plans, and it is believed he has many groups like the one above formed not just around Barsaive but all over the world.

Ithaqua starts his plans by finding a victim who is power hungry, vengeful, or in a place of great authority. Ithaqua then uses Horror Thread to learn what would intice this person the most, and then shows this to the person through dream shape. Ithaqua convinces the person that he is a benevolent spirit who has intrest in the person's success, and will help the person toward those goals.

Ithaqua will comonly use the name of a pre-scourge hero that the character knows about and respects. And Ithaqua will proclaim his first victim to be his avatar. This "Avatar" will then gather followers using the name of the hero, and Ithaqua helps by projecting his Aura of Awe power through the avatar.

After the Avatar has gathered enough people, Ithaqua finds an enemy for the group (Thera, Ork Scorchers, Blood Elves, etc.) and shows this enemy's atrocities to all the group in a dream. Usually in this dream members of the group see themselves carrying something appearantly of great power. When they wake they either know where this item is or the avatar can tell them. The Avatar also tells them that this item has been chosen for them buy the spirit and will give them power against the enemy.

It is at this point that Ithaqua uses his special powerForge Item. Forge Item allows Ithaqua to create a magical item of sorts (called Ithaqua's Gift). This item has a spell defense equal to theForge Item step, Ithaqua must also spend 3 Karma points in making the item and can un-make it to get 1 karma point back

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Ithaqua's Gift

1st Rank

2nd Rank

3rd Rank

4th Rank

When all of the characters have obtained their item (usually after a challenging but not fatal quest, set up by Ithaqua) the Avatar incites an assault on the enemy. The group charges into battle, Ithaqua curses their luck forcing them to use their Karma Boost just to survive. By the end of the battle the characters have used their Karma Boost so many times they become easy prey to become Constructs.

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Ithaqua's Statistics

Attributes

Powers:

Horror Mark: 25, Horror Thread: 25, Karma Boost: 25, Elementalist Circle 7, Aura of Awe 25, Cursed Luck 25,Forge Item 25, Dream Shape 25

Legend Points:

125,000

Commentary:

Physically Ithaqua looks somewhat human except he is 12 feet tall and has a distorted human face and elongated human fingers that form bony claws. Physicaly Ithaqua has a weakness, he can not stand heat. Infact it must be below freezing for Ithaqua to maintain a physical form, when the temperature does start to rise Ithaqua usually retreats to the safety of astral space. When Ithaqua manifests physicaly though he usually uses the Drastic Temperature spell to stay comfortable. Ithaqua can cast fire based sells at all. And any fire based spells are automaticly armor defeating. Physical fire damage is also armor defeating (the fire damage not the physical, in other words Flame weapon or a torch does 1d4 armor defeating damage)

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Wedigos (Ithaqua's Constructs)

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Credits

Ithaqua was created by Mike Boaz (mash@bev.net). The idea was drawn from the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Eskimo myth.

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