7 Busts of Terrasquestone

Appearance:

Overall, each bust is a stone sculpture of a person's head, with the plinth shaped from the neck and part of the shoulders. Each is a specific person, known by name, and made of a different material. They are life-sized, and mass between thirty and fifty pounds in weight. They are not easy to move.

Usage:

A magic bust is a magical device. A user needs only channel magic into the object, and once a sufficient amount of power has been gathered the bust will cast the spell. This is no different from any other such magical item other than the fact that the busts require massive amounts of power to activate. The best course of action is a circle of magi linking and using amplification devices to increase the power they can feed a bust. Thus, a circle could charge a magic head in the course of a few hours. A sole magic-user might have to spend weeks to fully charge a bust. Each head had a different magical power, and they are all epic scale.

Origin:

The Busts were created as powerful magical tools to preserve the wisdom and power of the High Lords of Terrasquestone. The lords of the city realized that having a strong connection to the past was a powerful tool, and none were more wise than the procession of men and women who bore the sword, staff, and mantle of Terrasquestone.

Status:

The 7 Busts of Terrasquestone are held in the Sanctum Supreme of the Castle, where they can be easily activated and have their power flow from the core of the castle, out through the walls, and cover anywhere in the city itself.

Busts

1. High Lord Vardes Hauduos

Vardes Hauduos was the ninth High Lord of Terrasquestone, and her reign was notable for the long peace, large harvests, and great prosperity the city enjoyed. She is also popular in art and sculpture in the city, given her statuesque appearance, fair face, and propensity to deliver her addresses to the council and the people with her left breast exposed, as a sign of honesty and sincerity among her original clan.

When her bust is charged with 100 spell levels it can used to deliver The Blessing of the Great Hare, summoning large numbers of rabbits and hares to the city. This is a delight for children and people who love the small animals, and it is a boon for hungry people, as there are so many of the creatures, they can fill the cookpots and butcher blocks, as well as provide large amounts of rabbit fur. This is the lesser component of the spell, and the greater effect is that about nine months after the blessing of the hares, there tends to be a surge in children being born. Such is the blessing of the Great Hare. The Bust of Hauduos is typically charged and used once a year, generally near the vernal equinox, and is celebrated as a holy day in the city, Hare's Day.

2. High Lord Vixen 'Stormy' Hoganis

The third High Lord of Terrasquestone, Vixen Hoganis was old when she took the vestments of office. This was immediately after a desolating war that threatened the gates of the city, and saw the previous High Lord laid low, his heart giving out once the battle was over, leaving Hoganis as the highest ranked magic user and Lord at the time. She unwillingly took the staff and mantle, refusing the sword. Her tenure as High Lord was much longer than expected, and she had a single area of magical attunement, weather sight. With the power of the citadel and the staff, this went from foretelling the weather to controlling the weather.

When charged, the bust of wizened 'Stormy' Hoganis, the weather can be changed. Small changes require 25 spell level charges, such as ending or starting rain, cooling a hot day, or easing a cold snap. Large effects require 50 charges, such as completely blowing a storm out, ending a drought, turning a blizzard into a mild winter day, and so forth. For a hundred spell charges, the weather can be radically changed, such as a blizzard in summer, a monsoon, or even calling violent thunderstorms and tornados. This is usually used to keep weather mild enough for good crops, but when threatened, an attacking army might find themselves bogged down in torrential rain, or shivering in bone breaking cold, or watch in horror as a twister rips through their camp.

3. High Lord Tuxider Creststream

The thirteenth High Lord, Creststream was an aquiline man with a clean shaven face, lordly demeanor, and fierce devotion and loyalty to Terrasquestone and all the land. He ruled with the sword and the staff, and ensured a long and lasting peace after laying Doomguard low, smashing camps across Lichelight, and destroying a dozen great and terrible beasts. He also was the High Lord who called up the Forbidden One from the depths of Terrasquestone and sent it against the enemies of the city. Despite the first decade of his rule being almost exclusively violent and traumatic wars, including sending the Terrasque to rampage across a furious Stormfort, the next century was considered a golden age for the city.

High Lord Creststream's bust requires three hundred spell level charges to activate, and it summons the Forbidden One, the Terrasque, to rise from the citadel and head towards whatever destination is commanded.

4. High Lord Berglinde Shieldguard

High Lord Berglinde was best described as a tank-like woman, and her domain was long the warding of the castle and the protection of the city. To this end, she was well known for her gilt-chased minotaur helmet, and the ponderous terasceen breasts protruding from her breastplate. There was no mistaking her for anyone else when she mounted the wall with her halberd and sword. She didn't accept a lordship until she could no longer walk an entire patrol along the wall. Her armor was retired, and later considered a lost treasure of the city. When she was raised to High Lordship, she had a modest time in leadership, and the city ran like clockwork, and while there were conflicts, the Guard was always ready to quell them, or defend the city with excellence.

The bust of Berglinde shows a handsome woman with horns sticking out of her head, an homage to her legendary helm. For 25 spell charges, the entire city can have its morale improved. For fifty charges, the Guard can be magically bolstered (all receiving a healing surge, a stamina boost, and a morale boost) and for a hundred spell charges, the Vault of the Honored Dead will open and the Guard will be bolstered by the appearance of the Silent Guard, the deceased and honored Guardsmen who were laid to rest over hundreds of years.

5. High Lord Flindress Ren

High Lord Flindress Ren was the seventeenth and last High Lord to be invested with a bust. Her rule was remembered grimly, as the city was choked with refugees, the streets overflowed with filth, and the specter of disease was rampant. She herself was a gaunt woman with a puckered mouth and hollow eyes. She would go among the afflicted and heal them with her Lord's power, and struggled with managing a half-starved city weary from war and pestilence. This was exacerbated by the annual Night of the Dead, which are remembered as some of the worst in the history of the city. Many died, and many of those who were slain by the wights and ghouls themselves rose into shambling dead to harass the survivors. The Guard and the Guilds were hard-pressed to clear the streets of the walking dead the days after that unholy night.

The bust of Flindress only requires 10 spell level charges to activate and it summons the undead to stir in the Devouring Deeps and dark places of the city, bringing forth a Night of the Dead anytime it is needed. For 25 charges, an unnatural night can be summoned, lasting longer than it should and projecting a more oppressive darkness. Under this, all the dark things become more restless and active. 

6. High Lord Chomnodral

High Lord Chomnodral was the second High Lord of Terrasquestone and considered likely to be the most powerful. She is credited with forging the Holy Relics of the High Lords, including the High Lord's staves, the Lord's staves, and the rest. She wore a panoply of power, notable for its great collar that rose like a crest behind her head, a thick necklace of precious stones, and a headpiece that emulated the appearance of the Terrasque. Some considered her to be a demonic force, given her frightening appearance and the power she wielded. This was the power of the Terrasque, and the lesser power of dragons, which were hers to command as well.

The main power of Chomnodral's bust is surprisingly mild, but incredibly useful. Charging the bust with twenty spell levels allows a High Lord to summon the shade of any past Lord or High Lord who served the city, and their remains were interred in the crypts beneath the citadel. Those who died or were lost away from the city and simply gone. The more charged pumped into the bust allow for more shades to be summoned for offering advice or council. For two hundred spell charges, a deceased Lord, High Lord, champion, or other faithful servant of the city can be restored to life, albeit in a reformed and reforged body, requiring a living sacrifice.

7. High Lord Claridimor

The first High Lord of Terrasquestone, Claridimor was named when she was barely accepted as a woman and not just a girl. She was willowy, thin, with soft features and a distant stare. Her magical power was chimerical and fae, sometimes massive beyond imagination, and sometimes completely non-existent. She is spoken of with nothing but love and honor, and it is generally accepted that she is still alive, but in a deep and deathless sleep deep down in the Gygaxian Gyre and she will return when the time is right, and she is most needed.

The bust of High Lord Claridimor has a terrifying power, and all High Lords in the current era are required to activate the bust as part of their secret initiation. It has a single power, and only takes five spell charges to activate. When activated, the High Lord finds their mind placed in contact with the DungeonCore of Terrasquestone and they are made intimately aware of what the city is, of the dungeon, of the entire monstrous thing that they are now the High Lord of, and the relationship between the High Lords and the Core. This is more than just communion, the High Lord can use this power to communicate with the core, and ask it to do things for the city, and this is how wards and quarters are born, or devoured, and the power of Amnesia is invoked across the entire city and dungeon.