Amber-bound flesh globule pendant

This item was a prize from the Hunt for History.

Item

an amber-bound flesh globule pendant

Show

Contained within the golden shard of amber is a lump of material that appears to be flesh, perfectly preserved inside the petrified sap casing.  Three tiny hairs and a shard of bone characterize the tissue, and a sliver of unmarred skin at the front looks unlike anything animal.  Aside from the macabre filling, the pendant is crude and unremarkable in its antiquity, though a sensation of great magic seems to emanate from within.

Details

No other details are known.

Loresong

As your song pulses through the amber pendant your vision warps and then reforms into an unusual hallucination.

Around you the vision takes shape, of thousands of crude bottles and bubbling tubes on every surface inside a massive cave-like alchemy laboratory. A wizened T'Kirem Bear Clan shaman, absentmindedly stirring something in a hollowed-out mountain gremlin skull, is scrying into a jagged crystal shard on a stand. The vision within the vision shows a battle between human armored soldiers and Baloran tribe giantkin in a rocky mountain pass. The fighting is cautious in the morning light, but lusty and heralding great bloodshed to come.

The aged giantman severs the magic controlling the crystal and sits back heavily, frowning.

You follow his eyes as he scans a primitive calendar painted on the wall, looking at a date decades in the future. Your unknowing host sighs, which elicits a great honking spasm of coughs before he can control it, and rubs at his wrinkled face.

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.

Your eyelids become leaden and you allow them to slowly close.

Your surroundings shift, and the dark alchemy cave clears around you once more. As though you were crouching, you are gazing across the surface of a table, and you see two heads on the other side with their chins on the tabletop as well. The larger head belongs to the shaman, and beside him is a tiny oval-eyed kobold head, and they both peer down at a brilliant green and gold scarab slowly crawling on top of the table. The massive arm of the giantman reaches out, holding a cracked vial of a yellowish powder, and taps a sprinkle over the wandering insect. As the powder hits the scarab, a tiny flash of light and puff of angry red smoke erupts around it, and passes to reveal the bug encased in a hard amber shell.

The kobold assistant grins and nods wildly at the shaman, who flicks him in the forehead and points back to the tabletop.

As the assistant watches closely, the giantman taps another substance over the amber, and the scarab strolls out of the tiny green cloud of smoke, alive again. The kobold claps wildly and the pitter of his little hands, and subsequent smack on his head from the giant, fades as the vision breaks apart.

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.

Your eyelids become leaden and you allow them to slowly close. Colors swirl and a vision forms around you.

Inside the shamans cave there is a wide open space now cleared. Any illusion of actual cleanliness is abolished by an errant turn of head toward the half of the room piled with the broken tables and refuse that were in the way. Standing on a legless tabletop, the aged giantman is wearing the simplest of robes and is taking deep, controlled breaths. He turns a piercing glare on the kobold assistant, who quickly bounds to the calendar wall and begins jabbing a finger at a large circled day, far in advance. Nodding grimly, the shaman taps one green vial on a ledge until the kobold nods again reverently, and then speaks, his words wavering and echoing in your ears:

My dying power be preserved to aid the kin once more in my life.

With that, the giantman takes up the yellow bottle from the ledge, raises it above his head, and breaks it open. A cloud of static-charged yellow mist swirls around the shamans body, and when it clears, he stands frozen as a statue inside the honey-colored sap cocoon. Beaming, the little kobold assistant applauds and hoots wildly, then cringes as if expecting a slap! Glancing at his amber-encased master, he grins stupidly and claps his hands again.

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.

Your eyelids become leaden and you allow them to slowly close.

Visually changing like the seasons, the spacious cave now is in a bland autumn beneath a layer of dust. The kobold assistant, visibly older and sporting a slight wispy beard of grey hair on his chin, is preparing to release his master from the amber. Hesitantly he reaches for the green bottle covered in decades of dust and cobwebs, seizing it and wiping it off roughly with his hand. With a deep breath the spindly little henchman steps up to the frozen giantman and raises the bottle over his head.

The kobolds eyes narrow thoughtfully.

Even stretching on the tips of his toes, the kobolds upraised arm is barely reaching above the shamans navel. Screaming in frustration and fear, the assistant begins scrambling around the cave, gathering a pile of garbage and piling it at the statues feet. He drags a final plank over and clambers on top, yet still cannot quite reach above the towering shaman. Closing his eyes tightly, the shaggy creature prays in a whimpering mutter, and then hurls the powder as high as he can!

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.

Your eyelids become leaden and you allow them to slowly close. Colors swirl and a vision forms around you.

Shapelessness coalesces into a familiar cave and the shamans magic is running its course. Green smoke charged with energy begins to disperse, and the amber wavers and disappears from around the giantmans form. Grinning like a drunken child before the sickness hits, the kobold waves away the smoke and peers up at his master expectantly.

A massive forefinger thumps the kobolds forehead!

Still encased in golden amber the giantmans entire head reflects no emotion, but his body speaks volumes. He lurches and begins to flail around the lab, the assistant being knocked aside but bouncing right back up, gibbering. Futilely attempting to sprinkle the remaining powder on his careening master, the kobold bounds around wildly after. As the shaman trips over a rusted cauldron and falls to the floor, his amber-covered head hits the ground and shatters.

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.

Your eyelids become leaden and you allow them to slowly close.

Returning to the previous moment without prelude, the body of the headless shaman falls still. The assistant is aghast, taking quick jerky breaths and touching his lips with quivering hands. Falling to his knees beside the body, the kobold carefully piles up the magical amber shards, each containing a small bit of his preserved master.

Images slowly superimpose over each other, showing the kobold traveling great distances, and occasionally escaping ignoble toothy death. All the while he is clutching a roughly-cut hide sack against his chest.

The light fades as the scene becomes early pre-dawn, stars still visible overhead. The kobold is standing in a mountain pass, much like if not exactly like the one seen in the shamans crystal so many years ago. Gazing around sadly, the diminutive figure crouches and places the sack on the ground, and holds it a moment before removing his hands.

The power flowing through the pendant goes still and you open your eyes.