That's So Raven

Field reports from the Lady's chosen.

That's So Raven

Field reports from the Lady's chosen.

Wiki · Character

Mythrades

Type: Nagpa — vulture-headed, robed, one of only thirteen Origin: Shadowfell (exiled long ago — long-sworn enemies of Shadar-Kai kind) Role: Auction-arc co-conspirator with The Engineer and the Heiress of Orcus; seeking forbidden magic and the destruction of worlds (the only way the Nagpas can learn anything new) Status (latest): ESCAPED — broke containment in the Yartar Shield Tower dungeon; opened a Dark Gate (ritual portal requiring the desecration of life) in his cell; killed and flayed at least 30 town guards as ritual components; drove surviving guards insane; speaking through or as something that no longer generates a fully human voice. States he needs "to be sent back to my benefactor." The party confronted him at the portal in Session 063 — portal was too powerful for Moist's Dispel Magic (DC 19, failed twice). Combat was deferred to next session. Previously: In Sir Titus's custody — handed off at the Leilon tower in session 035 after a Zone-of-Truth interrogation; marked by Ubys's khopesh. Original capture session 034. First On-Screen: Session 034 (referenced earlier in Ubys's dreams from session 031 forward; named by Ubys's plot-hooks in session 033)

Canonical Update (Greg) — The Many Forms of Mythrades

This supersedes the earlier "the two are distinct" framing below. Greg has locked the following:

  • The Architect, the Anthropologist, the Engineer, and the Nagpa "Mythrades" are all the same being. "Mythrades" is the canonical spelling for every alias (the transcripts' Mithradis / Mithraides / Mithritis etc. are mis-hearings of the one name).
  • He makes duplicates of himself. Mythrades has found a way to spin off multiple simultaneous forms — the vulture-headed Nagpa the party captured, the human-form Engineer/Architect who escaped the auction, and others. Each operates independently and gathers knowledge in the field.
  • The one true form is a lich in the Shadowfell. Every duplicate is an extension of this master form.
  • Death feeds the lich. When any duplicate is killed, all the knowledge that copy collected flows back to the one true lich form in the Shadowfell. Killing a Mythrades-form does not end him — it delivers what that form learned to the original. This reframes prior threads:
    • The session-035 line "my soul has been born hundreds of times across hundreds of bodies" is literal — the duplicate mechanic.
    • "The Shadowvar have the same knowledge I have now" fits the same loop: knowledge propagates back to the source.
    • Defeating the captured Nagpa-form (or the Yartar Dark-Gate form) does not kill Mythrades. The true target is the lich in the Shadowfell.
  • DM thread: the Dark Gate in Yartar and the demand "to be sent back to my benefactor" may be a duplicate trying to collapse back toward the lich. Greg: confirm whether destroying a form is a setback for Mythrades or merely a data-transfer to the original.
  • See also: The Engineer (a Mythrades duplicate / human form), Letherna, The Raven Queen.

Description

A robed vulture-headed figure, of the order of the Nagpa — Shadowfell-exiled, only thirteen of them in existence, powerful magic-users with a particular hunger for forbidden knowledge and destroyed worlds.

The Nagpas are long-sworn enemies of the Raven Queen and her people. Per Ubys: they betrayed the Raven Queen during her ascension by siphoning her arcane power for themselves, and that betrayal is what cast the Shadar-Kai (and the Nagpa themselves) into the Shadowfell in the first place.

What the Party Knows

  • From Ubys's pre-session-034 dreams: "the Nagpa will be at the auction." Ubys had also tracked a Nagpa from the Shadowfell to the Material Plane long before this campaign began — that tracking is how Ubys ended up on the Material Plane. Mythrades's presence at the auction confirms a Nagpa is still active here.
  • At the auction (session 034):
    • Walked with The Engineer into the ruins of the castle to confer about the Whispering Reed and the Sepulchral Lexicon.
    • Won the Whispering Reed at >150,000 GP, outbidding the Shadowvar; cut the auction off with a flash of dominance the rest of the room respected.
    • Cast the Anti-magic Shell counterspell that dispelled AC's Disguise-Self-as-Sir Gertz — exposing AC at the moment The Engineer recognized him as Crowley Bakerson.
    • Stayed and fought when the Engineer pieced out at the start of combat. Cast Cone of Cold for ~8d8 in a 60-ft cone (DC ~14 Con) — downed Lessie, Crowley / AC, and Moist in one cast (all three made death saves).
    • Misty-Stepped ~30 feet to reposition out of melee.
    • Knocked unconscious by Ubys's Sprite familiar's shortbow (1 damage, unconscious-on-failed-Con-save rider) from 40-ft elevation. Mythrades had not seen the Sprite.
  • Carried at capture: worth searching. The Whispering Reed he had just won is probably on his person or near the spot he fell (player notes do not specify recovery; Greg, flag).

Session 063 Updates

  • "I need to be sent back to my benefactor." This is new information. Mythrades is serving someone — a benefactor who presumably wants him back now that his work in custody has produced a Dark Gate. Greg, who is the benefactor? The same entity that originally tasked the Nagpa? Something connected to the Chaos Seeds? The entity behind the World Eater?
  • The voice change. His phrasing and vocabulary are intact, but the tonality is wrong — it no longer sounds like something with a human throat is producing those sounds. Whatever Mythrades is now, it's evolving. Is the Nagpa form being shed? Is something possessing the Nagpa shell?
  • The Dark Gate. A ritual portal requiring the desecration of life (guards killed as components). The same school of magic as the Temple of Filth portal that returned the party from the Abyss. Moist's Dispel Magic failed (DC 19) — twice. "My link to this world is far too powerful." This implies the portal is anchored to something, not just cast. Greg, what anchors it? The chaos seed? The mark of Mythrades on the party? Mythrades himself?
  • Next session opens in combat. Mythrades is at the portal and escalating. The party has the gray flame torch, is at partial resources (short rest only), and is in a dungeon corridor with ghost-soldiers flickering in and out.