Elder Evils

CHAPTER 6
PANDORYM
82
Illus. by F. Tsai
The arcane seals are bright enough to be seen at all hours.
Teleportation becomes much riskier, and the difficulty for
divine spellcasters increases.
EL 20 (Overwhelming Sign): Obsessed with her father’s
fate, Tune Majii contacts the PCs again. She has discovered
Lucather’s location. Further, she knows he serves a being of
utter evil. She intends to halt whatever foul plans his master
have concocted and insists that the PCs help. The PCs might
have discovered that the being Lucather serves is the same
one that Obligatum VII seeks to release.
Following Tune’s lead, the PCs descend through the ruins
above the prison. Within, they discover Obligatum VII chipping
away at the crystal holding Pandorym’s consciousness.
The damage allows a mind shard of Pandorym to form. Even this
fragment is powerful enough to
present a terrible threat. The
PCs must contend with this
horror, the relentless kolyarut,
and an enraged Lucather (what
is left of him).
PANDORYM
IN EBERRON
Pandorym might be entombed
beneath the Mournland, perhaps
holding secrets to that
mysterious
devastation.
Alternatively,
the giants of
Xen’drik might
have lured and
entrapped Pandorym
during the
height of their
power thousands
of years
ago. Now its crystalline
prison is buried
under one of their many ruins
on that jungle continent.
In the first scenario, Pandorym
could be the reason for the
Day of Mourning. (Since no one
officially knows the cause of
that cataclysm, you’re free to interpret
the event in any way that
works for your campaign.) This
explanation requires you to advance the timeline of Pandorym’s
arrival in Khorvaire to only a few years before the beginning of
the campaign. In this scenario, House Cannith, in cooperation
with Cyre, brought the alien weapon to Eberron to challenge
the gods and to end the Last War for good. As a result of Cyre’s
hubris, the gods—or perhaps some other power—destroyed
the kingdom utterly, creating the Mournland.
PANDORYM IN FAERÛN
As described in the novel Darkvision, the ancient Imaskaran
Empire brought Pandorym to Faerûn to prevent the deities
from seeking vengeance for the Imaskari’s genocide. Before
they could use their weapon, though, the gods laid low
the whole empire. Pandorym remains to this day, its mind
entrapped within the Imperial Weapon Cache under the
Palace of the Purple Emperor.
PANDORYM
Pandorym exists in two distinct parts: its thought-breaking
mind and its reality-ending body. Were the two to be reunited,
Pandorym would resemble nothing from this reality.
Body: Pandorym’s physical component does not truly exist
as a body in the multiverse but is a conduit to the incomprehensible
reality of its home. It manifests as a 30-foot-diameter sphere
of annihilation (DMG 279), but no being—not even a deity—can
control it, even using a talisman of the sphere. Any attempt to control
the Gargantuan orb instead
causes it to slide 90 feet toward
the creature. Touching the entity
with a rod of cancellation destroys
the rod and causes Pandorym’s
nonbody to slide into the square
from which the rod touched it.
With the seal of binding sign
in effect, spells that force an extraplanar
creature away do not
affect Pandorym. However, a gate
spell cast on it has a 5% chance
of sending it back to its transdimensional
prison (nothing
happens otherwise).
Like a sphere of annihilation,
Pandorym’s non body destroys
everything
it touches, aside
from deities.
The ancient
wizards hid Pandorym’s
body in a
secret location in
a distant part of
the kingdom, far
from the crystalline
prison that holds its mind.
Mind: The mind of Pandorym,
even imprisoned, presents
a subtle and sinister challenge.
Even a fragment of Pandorym’s consciousness
While it is imprisoned, Pandorym’s
consciousness is defined
can fell the mightiest creature
entirely by the crystals that trap it.
The intensity of the prison’s purple glow wanes and waxes in
a rhythmic pattern. At times, the crystal seems to pull light
into itself rather than radiate it. Occasionally, when it grows
especially dark, a malevolent purple-red glow appears deep
within. At those times, the alien mind seems to be aware
and focused—if only briefly. Fortunately for the world, the
crystalline prison is exceedingly difficult to damage.
If released without a body to focus its energy, Pandorym’s
psyche spreads like a stain across reality, becoming a sphere
40 feet in diameter. Its incorporeal emptiness stretches thin,
and around its edges it resembles a wispy cloud of lightlessness.
Vaporous tendrils form and dissipate at random at
this boundary. This irregular ball has no discernible front,