Kalamite Chestplate of the Rising Sun¶
"When you touch it it shifts in form to perfectly fit your left forearm." — Sancturi campaign notes (S182)
Contested
This page is named in the open question Form and count of the Mithis Heartstone: older Fifth Age documents make Kalar's share of the Heartstone a stone split in two, or a meteorite fragment called the Elysium Star, rather than this breastplate.
The Kalamite Chestplate of the Rising Sun is the piece of the Mithis Heartstone made for Kalar. It is a breastplate that becomes a vambrace, and the one part that can find all the others. It lies in a vault in Alghert, which the witches of the royal house are trying to break open.
Description¶
"A breastplate that is a masterwork of art, inlaid with reddish gold filigree and scrollwork surrounding a prominent symbol over the center of the chest. The symbol is of a red-rising sun. The base metal is a shiny dark grey metal that reflects with a purple tint in the light. The breastplate itself is exceptionally light and strong" (S182). That metal is Kalamite. At a touch it reshapes itself to the left forearm, and the notes call it as often "a single bracer/vambrace" as a chestplate (S182).
It "is unbreakable and unbendable. Weapons will break themselves over it" (S182).
Powers¶
Until it is attuned, which needs someone able to cast Mithis magic, the vambrace only drinks magic: it "absorbs all Mithis magic that it comes into contact with, completely consuming the energy regardless of form" (S182).
Attuned, it does far more (S182):
- it finds the other parts of the Heartstone, the axe, spear, orb, helm and three rings listed on the Heartstone page;
- it blocks, absorbs, controls or takes "dominion over all Mithis magic" around the wearer, the reach growing with the wearer's skill;
- it "grants access to unlimited uncorrupted Mithis energy", the clean magic lost in the Hollowing;
- it "grants access to the Mithis Astral Shard", which the notes mark "dangerous as Asmodeus has access via Helm and Ring".
The shard is a world with its own law. "The only viable magic in the shard is that granted by the shard itself. Each shard is its own plane of existence. Shards do sometimes overlap, but not the Mithis shard. To gain control of a shard, you must defeat/banish its current owner … or you may slowly capture it by occupying the shard (if it is abandoned)" (S182). The Astral Shards and the Mithis Plane are described on their own pages.
The Alghert vault¶
"Alghert holds a secret: part of the Mithis Heartstone" (S181). It lies in a vault, and "the heartstone is located in another hollow (an asmodean one)" (S181). The forces of Bhaal are working to reach it: King Baellin Tugard and Princess Ewe Tugard, who head a coven of witches in the service of the fungal demonlord Adramycos, are "moving mithis object to create/expand the hollow around the vault" (S181). They "have accumulated enough mithis to create a very powerful hollow around the vault, which should allow them to penetrate its defenses and get to the heartstone" (S182). The Hollow covers most of southern Alghert and is ruining its people, though the capital is largely spared.
The vault has a guardian. Selaphiel, The Watcher, of "Protection, Prayer & Penance", is "a weakened ascendant of Kalar. He has been awoken by the hollow and is using it to negate it, thwarting Bhaal's minions" (S182). By the same notes Adramycos "has reached the end of his capabilities, has died repeatedly & weakened the hollow".
Malo of the Keepers of Abaddon "knows about the Heartstone, but not the details … he is trying to figure out what he can from the King" (S181).
Gap
The sources do not say where in Alghert the vault lies, who built it, how the chestplate came there, or whether anyone has yet taken it.
Earlier accounts¶
In the older world-plot notes Kalar's share of the Heartstone was a stone, not armour: he "gave his to the Valnyr to help contain the archdemons (His was split into two. Asmodeus has one of these. The other was hidden)" (S142). The oldest notes have the clerics of Kalar keeping their piece of the meteorite Worldstone Heart as the Elysium Star (S132). Both are set out on the Heartstone page.
In Play¶
The party's part in the Alghert sessions is told in the Sancturi Campaign chronicle.