Nanny Pu'Pu
Withered, ancient, and helpless... this blind old woman sits in front of her simple hut on the outskirts of M'Bala, a city left in ruins, sustaining herself on dried nuts and the fruits that the flying monkeys that gather around drop. Nanny is a harmless, if strange, old woman, living her final years in seclusion, dreaming of happier years.
In actuality, Nanny is an evil old Hag, more than capable of defending herself, and bewitching others. Nanny has lived here for many years, and is somehow responsible for the population of M'Bala being wiped out, now using the seclusion to work her dark magic.
Nanny practises magics she's learned from around the world, particularly secrets revealed from the worship of the Death God Myrkul, Nanny has unlocked the power to perform rites of stolen life, returning a semblance of a soul to a corpse, given the right sacrifices.
She places great importance on the cost of things, sacrifice and tribute must be paid for the gain of knowledge, talent or power.
Pleading to stop further death, as one by one the adventurers found themselves trapped within Nanny's shadowrealm, Tarlok agreed to Nanny's terms. He would sacrifice an eye, and she would perform her ritual to bring Noland back from death.
In the Shadowrealm, the adventurers bested her three trials, "Sacrifice", "Hurt" and "You Can't Save Them", with Tarlok's aid after nanny had taken his eye and told him elements of his past she was keenly and uniquely aware of, the source of his weird powers coming from an entity called Peggy Deadbells, a member of a Hag Coven that Nanny is intimately aware of..
Before the ritual could be started for Noland, The Sexiles had inadvertently halted the curse that was placed upon Eku. In a rage, Nanny attacked once again but had lost much of her strength in the first fight, The party ran for their escape. Nanny proved unable to defend herself against the now fully restored Eku, who arrived that evening, and slew the hag by decapitation.
Death in M'Bala
A group of adventurers, The Sexiles, originally led by Eku, encountered Nanny at her hut, and their curiosity and distrust lead them to push too far into nanny's affairs. One among their number, Tarlok, was of great interest to her, but a fight broke out when they attempted to sneak into her home. In the ensuing battle, Noland was caged within the thorax of Nanny's Bone Golem, and thrown down her well, where the hag followed and gutted him.The Diary
Found in the cellar of Nanny's hut, was a diary, which Jark translated for the others. The first part was written in Sylvan, language of the Fey.“It’s so nice here! I love all the trees, and the rivers too! I’m so glad I came, I hope I can stay, I want to stay here forever! These strange beasts are so wonderful too, the gentle ones you can ride on! If you go to the edge you can see the whole land all around for miles and miles and miles! I love it!” “The elders say I’m special! I thought everyone could talk to the beasts like I can, but no, I have a special gift! Isn’t that wonderful? They say when I’m older I might be able to do all sorts of things! They say it’s because of where I’ve come from. But I don’t want to be from anywhere else than right here!” “I’ve started learning more with the elders, when I talk with the beasts now I can almost understand them back! Isn’t it amazing? I can tell when they’re hungry or frightened. And I can make the flowers bloom if I want to, just for a little bit!” “Some of the other children are jealous of me, they call me nasty names, but its ok because I have my animal friends. They laughed at my writing today, they said my words weren’t right and looked funny but this is how I’ve always written and I don’t want to stop writing because it makes me so happy to see all my memories of this wonderful place!” “Today I cried for the first time ever. The other children pushed me in the dirt and laughed. Why are they so mean? That one girl was the worst. When the others left she stayed and told me how useless I am.” “Today the elders told the children off, and they leave me alone now. I don’t have friends anymore but I’m ok, I have the animals, they’re funny! They told me that girl smells like an old woman!” “The girl spoke to me today, she said she was very sorry about what she did and that she needed my help tonight. She lost her necklace down the well at the edge of the city and her mother will be so angry if she found out! She said because I was special I could breathe underwater like a fish! She said if I helped her we could be friends, and maybe I could teach her how to speak to the beasts as well, and maybe we could both live forever and ever!”The second, and largest, part of the diary seemed to be taken over by a different, more malevolent author, and detailed the fall of M'Bala, Nanny's work with death magic and the "Rite of Stolen Life", the coming of Eku and the curse laid upon her, and Nanny's apparent first death. Though the language was still Sylvan, it was written in what appeared to be Abyssal letters. Jark's description of these contents:
It becomes clear that this is a new author writing, there’s mention of “the idiot fey child, so innocent, so pure, so full of delicious new vitality, such a pitiful little fish”. The following section details a lot of nasty words about the people of the city (must be M’Bala), jealousies, secrets, hopes and fears of many of the people, all with the authors scalding, racist and vile comments. It documents proudly the way the author turned people against one another, or turned their happiness to misery in countless horrible yet secret ways, appearing only as a kind if strange old woman. Misery gives her power. There’s a lot of mention of the god Myrkul, a god of Death, and how her work is his work. Lots of scratched symbols in the diary are skulls within a triangle, the symbol of Myrkul. The author’s dark arts gain in power the more people she turns to misery or leads to their deaths. There’s mention of “Myrkul’s glorious work” being hampered by what her “sisters” have allied with. There’s a section of pages all dedicated to vile pictures of torment and angry skulls and screaming faces, traces of various and surprising bodily fluids being used as ink here… She leaves her 2 sisters (it doesn’t look like they were ever in M’Bala with her), they are working with an “Architect”, some great ancient power, in a work that is counter to the way of Myrkul, and interferes with her own designs and rituals with death magic. She mentions the “Soulmonger”, and talks of furthering her work in her own methods of revivification, a “rite of stolen life” that the Soulmonger shouldn’t interfere with. It’s taxing, and costly, but achievable. Many “tests” are run on more of the people of M’Bala. M’Bala is dwindling, fallen over many years to distrust, misery, despair. Some have left, more have succumbed to violence against each other, or disease. They don’t even both burying the dead anymore. Nanny’s work continues, her power grows. And then a visitor comes, she heals, aids, brings hope, eases pain and fear, making M'Bala great again. Here there are more pages of very violent imagery frenziedly scribbled. This newcomer is powerful, seemingly immune to Nanny’s talents. “Vile! Horrid! Celestial!” Suspicion falls on nanny finally, after all these years of work, because of this foul and hated newcomer, this woman who is more than human, nanny knows she’s more… she’s something too pure and sacred and hated! She’s too much… Nanny battles this woman, and loses, the woman swept nanny up in her rainbow wings, crashed her to the ground, and as a woman again drover her sword through Nanny’s heart. Next is a solid 31 pages of the foulest angriest vilest scrawling curses and threats. Death is painful, and recuperation is long, tedious… but achievable for one who is as prepared as Nanny, steeped in the work and magic of Myrkul, and thankfully her methods kept her free of the Soulmonger. Eku is gone by the time Nanny is whole again, all that remains is a single rainbow feather. Nanny begins her secret work. By the end of the year, it’s ready. 100 souls remain in M’bala, and every one of them is consumed by the ritual, as she casts a curse powerful enough to contain a creature as powerful as Eku, fuelled by blood, hatred, and spite. It was many years before Eku returned, but when she did, M’bala was a wasteland of bones and dust, fogged by Nanny’s illusions, and then Nanny’s spell took it’s insidious roots in her mind. Nanny writes here about how Eku forgot what she really was, cursed to wander without memory of who or what or why, just to constantly seek those who she could bring to Nanny, and fuel her work. The pain, and vile twisting of Eku’s sacred purpose, brought Nanny much evil laughter and joy.
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