[Shackled City] Anyone wanna explain...

[El Ravager]

I have been loosely running the the Shackled City adventure path from Dungeon Mag. I ran the first three adventures and then skipped a few as events in my campaign drastically differed from those in the modules. I am now running the Secrets of the Soul Pillars and, well, I think I am missing something.

So, here is the spoiler alert. The answers to my questions will hopefully include spoilers.






What is exactly the deal with the

Spoiler

shackle born? I have missed some of the details, but I am curious about what the whole story is. I am hoping someone can briefly sum it up for me, because I don't want to re-read all the previous modules.

I know that they and the soulcages are needed to open a portal to Carcerai and that the Cagewrights want to do this. What I don't know is what is the explaination on why there are shackle born in the first place? Has this been explained?

Please, can someone shed some light on this or point me to which issues contain the answers I need?

Thanks
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El Rav

 

[Rauol_Duke]

Shackleborn

Spoilers below:



Basically, the Shackleborn are those who carry the Sign of Carceri, an invisible birthmark that looks like an eye pierced by an upward-pointing arrow. Two NPC's in the adventure path are noted as being Shackleborn: Terrem (one of the kids who were kidnapped in "Life's Bazaar") and Zenith Splintershield, the dwarven defender who went crazy after leading a crusade against the denizens of the underdark (encountered in "Zenith Trajecotry"), although there are more - and in fact 13 are needed to complete the Cagewright's evil schemes...

A good background for the Shackleborn appears in Dungeon #111 in the adventure "Lords of Oblivion", where Thifirane Rhiavadi tells that the Shakleborn are the descendants of a demodand incursion that happened more than 5 centuries ago. The demodands disguised themselves and mated with humans and other denizens. Many of the offspring were stillborn, but some survived. As generations passed, the fiendish traits became less and less until all that was left of their heritage was the invisible birthmark: the sign of Carceri.

Hope this helps.

 

[El Ravager]

Awesome, thanks. That certainly helps tie things together.

One more question though. How exactly do the Soul Pillars in SotSP fit in with all this? Its still a bit hazy to me. Is it simply that the cagewrights used them to get more info on hatching their plan?

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El Rav

 

[Rauol_Duke]

One more question though. How exactly do the Soul Pillars in SotSP fit in with all this? Its still a bit hazy to me. Is it simply that the cagewrights used them to get more info on hatching their plan?

IIRC, the Soul Pillars...were used to research the Cagewright's plans for the Ritual of Planar Junction. After they got the info they needed to proceed with the ritual, Fetor Abradius stayed behind to continue the research, thinking that he could learn much more from them...

IMO, the most important thing that the PC's need to get out of SotSP are Fetor's notes in area K16. Those notes provide them with some vital clues about the Cagewright's plans (if they can succeed at the Decipher Script check).