The Music box of Mordalin

The Music Box:
This is an unremarkable and worn music box of wood painted dark brown. It requires a key to open and the key has been long lost. The lock is of excellent make, even if it does not look the part and is magically strengthened. Only the key or a dispel followed by lock picking can open it.

The music box is the creation of the warlock Mordalin, the fabled ruler of the lost realm. He was a practitioner of the darkest arts and his name will never be mentioned. If anyone does mention it, silence and scared whispering will surely follow, for it is taboo.
The box was found a long time ago in the heartlands of the lost realm, in the marsh of the dead. When the box was taken, the marsh dried out and became a peaceful place.

When someone opens the music box, the figurine of a lady clad in a black dress will begin to turn(2). Weird, slow music will play and slowly a thick fog will pour out of it. The music will not be stopped and the lid will not close until 10 minutes have passed. Strange marshlights / wisps will float out of the box along with the fog and after a while the surroundings will appear like a dark dream world. The box acts like a beacon to all restless spirits and roaming dead. The fog will not disperse for a day, unless the wind is strong. If left open, the area of the fog will widen until it covers tens of miles.

Purpose:
Driven to madness by his own ego, syphilis and personal failures, Mordalin fell to the basest of human follies; Chaos Worship. Under the tutelage of Futharius, the Clockwork-Master, Mordalin learnt the secrets of creation and the connection between music, speech and the Essence of Reality.

The music box is rumoured to have been his final creation, his last piece of work before insanity and Chaos claimed him at long last. While still technically existing, his is not a condition to be envied. Though created to become a nexus of his powers, the music box hastened the unravelling of his sanity.
Along with other odd musical creations and the demon infested Clockworks of Silmaroth, the music box is the legacy of Mordalin and Futharius.

Background:
Can it be said that madness and genius are but the opposite sides of the same coin? If so then Mordalin surely shone on both sides of that coin. A small town teacher, his origins are surely ordinary enough, for he taught music at the St. Mihan School in the city of Ûr-Kanesh. There his reputation grew for he was a true master of the Piano and his simple, yet masterful pieces are still played at schools and theatres even to this day. He received several invitations from large and powerful colleges in the same city, and even some from the metropolitan cities in the South, yet nothing would take him away from his home and his family, which consisted of two daughters and his lovely wife Mirala.

As his fame spread, it became increasingly difficult for him to remain in firm contact with reality, and his judgment suffered greatly, for he was tempted with all that fame can bring. It then came to be that he erred in his judgement and participated in several of the infamous orgies of the Ûr-Kanesh society of artists. Mordalin became more and more obsessed with his erotic indulgences and the rumours began to circle about his love affair with Madam Elothia Canuva a well known courtesan employed extensively by the nobility of the city.

His obsession with Madam Canuva became more and more obvious and at some point he openly admitted that some of his newer symphonies, masterpieces albeit startlingly weird, were dedicated to the frivolous courtesan. His wife Mirala could take no more, and she left him shortly thereafter, taking his beloved children with her.

At this time the rumours were circulating and they told that he had contracted syphilis and that the priests could not help a sinner such as him. Whatever the reason, Mordalin lost all contact with his children and soon thereafter with reality. His affair with Madam Canuva proved to be a short lived thing and when she was later found murdered at the riverbed by the Chapel of Fhalgharod, Mordalin was the sole suspect. His fame rescued him from the vengeful reach of the heartbroken nobles and Mordalin was committed to the Asylum of Ûr-Kanesh where he made a friendship of sorts with the Mage known as Futharius, a former associate of the Cabal of Irkic.

Some ten years later the two men escaped and the Asylum logs are the last known records of Mordalin, before his manifestation as the Ruler of the Lost Realm.

Magical Properties:

The music box doubles the strength and duration of all dark magic.

It weakens the will of the undead, making them easier to control and it helps the creation of undead.

The music box is tied to the forces of chaos and black essence and will inflict chaos wounds(1) during prolonged exposure. It will twist and bend even the restless spirits and inflict chaos wounds upon the corporeal ones. After years of exposure, everything and everyone will be horribly broken and manipulated, barely recognizable by even the closest of kin.

1) Chaos wounds are the manipulation of chaos on any matter. Skin might grow translucent, revealing the innards of the body, fangs might slowly protrude from the cheek and blood might replace chlorophyll in flowers and plants. (Or whatever fancies the GM in charge)

2)The origins of the music box remains a mystery, but some bards dramatically claim that it is the Madam Canuva and that her soul is trapped within. Other bards sing of his maddened regret, and how the figurine is similar to his wife Mirala, a true testament to the love he had lost. Whatever the origins, the music box is a potent testament to the musical magic of Mordalin.