Mission:To Save a Soul - Souvenir

Souvenir

Madeline Casey's pendant

You've kept this ruby pendant as a reminder of your efforts:

To Save a Soul

It all began when Madeleine Casey asked you to check out a Carnival rave. You went to the party and discovered that almost everyone there had died. You were able to save only one woman, and she seemed strangely altered and apathetic.

It seemed clear that bad things were going on at these Carnival parties. Without your knowledge, Madeleine Casey went to such a party, thinking that she would uncover the Carnival's secret. When she returned, she could remember little about her evening. Also, her ruby pendant had been stolen. It was a precious heirloom, and she asked you to retrieve it.

When Madeleine put on the pendant, she began to recover her lost memories. She was horrified to recall that people had died at the party. The name of one victim stuck in her mind: Nathan Crane. She was sure that he was important. You went to Crane's office to investigate, but found a horde of carnies trying to make it off with Crane's files. You drove them off, and learned that Crane had secretly been a Midnight Squad researcher. He had been investigating the Carnival, but the most critical pages of his notes were missing.

If you were to crack Crane's murder, you needed those files. Madeleine Casey sent you to the streets, and you learned that Crane's files were being stored in a warehouse in Brickstown.

You battled your way through some carnies to recover the files, and learned that Crane had become increasingly interested in the Carnival's porcelain masks. He seemed to think they were linked to the Carnival's powers.

You ventured into the heart of a Carnival lair to retrieve a mask for analysis, coming face to face with a strange ring mistress, the Madame of Mystery. After you defeated the carnie who wore the mask, you felt a strange pull toward it. It was almost as if the mask was begging you to pick it up.

You took the mask to Cadao Kestrel, who told you that it contained fragments of human souls. A scrap of the Carnival Mistress' soul was even contained within; it was through this transference that she managed to confer her power upon her minions.

You took the mask to Penelope Yin (Freedom Phalanx), who let you communicate with the souls trapped within the masks. Many were shadows of souls, but a few were more assertive. A fragment of the Carnival Mistress' soul probed darkly at your mind. You were also lucky enough to encounter the trapped soul of Nathan Crane. He told you that just before he died, he had learned that the Carnival was interested in an ancient artifact known as the Sicilian Stone.

The soul of Nathan Crane led you to a secret Midnight Squad library, where you recovered some tomes on the Sicilian Stone. Though you had thought the Madame of Mystery was no more, you had to battle her again in order to recover the tomes.

When you took the tomes to Cadao Kestrel for study, he told you a little about the stone's history. It seemed that the stone had once been used to imprison the soul of a duke. The stone had gradually sucked in the man's soul, until there was nothing left to animate his body.

Cadao soon contacted you with an urgent message. He had learned the whereabouts of the Sicilian Stone: it had been in Madeline Casey's possession all along. The Carnival had stolen it from her at the party, and empowered it. When you recovered the stone for Madeleine, it began to slowly ingest her soul. As Madeleine's soul was drawn into the stone, it became the Carnival's to command. The Madame of Mystery was actually the psychic projection of Madeleine's soul! Cadao hatched a plan to recover her soul. At his request, you battled a horde of Devouring Earth creatures to retrieve some rare herbs that only grow on the bodies of the unburied dead.

Cadao prepared a magic draught which would give you the power to tear apart the psychic fabric of the Madame of Mystery, thus breaking the Carnival's hold on Madeleine Casey's soul. You journeyed to a Carnival's lair, where you fought the Madame again. She was far stronger than during your previous encounters, but you prevailed against her nevertheless.

Madeleine is now fully recovered from the near loss of her soul, though she is, naturally, a bit shaken. And perhaps a bit more circumspect.