Skull of Kol-Trak

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Skull of Kol-Trak

The Skull of Kol-Trak was a powerful legendary artefact capable of consuming a person's soul and raising their corpse into mindless servitude. It's most known owner was the undead Dunepirate LeChuck in the Badlands of early BR Pteris.

Appearance

On its own, the artifact would appear like any other sun bleached elf skull in the desert. However, once the dark magics held within were activated, a sickly tropical kiwi green light would burst from deep within. Plumes of smoke would emanate from the skull and envelope the victim.  

History

Kol-Trak

Kol-Trak was originally an Elven explorer going by the name Telvin Paedris. She and her husband Kuran travelled across Pteris, delving into the ancient tombs buried beneath the sands; their white whale being the ancient elven city of Ta-Shedet. Unfortunately, Kuran would fall prey to one of the deadly traps defending the Tomb of Al-Wistret, and Telvin would lose their life partner. Despite her pleas to Anubis, his soul was taken on and she was left alone.

Driven mad by anger and grief Telvin turned to the dark art of Necromancy - not to bring back her lover, but to spite Anubis and deny the dead their afterlife. As her powers grew, her sense of identity slipped further and further away along with the years, until even their own name was lost to them. The people of the badlands referred to the powerful entity only as Kol-Trak, after a legend of an evil spirit that would steal the souls of desert nomads.

In death, all they had left was their unyielding hatred. Thoughts of reuniting with Kuran long since gone from their mind, their last act was to curse their own soul to be bound to their remains, never to experience an afterlife.

LeChuck

The skull was discovered in 93 BR by a young human adventurer named Adelius LeChuck deep within one of the Pterran badlands' many tombs. The whispers of the skull called forth to LeChuck as he picked it up, beseeching him to use the dark power held within. When the cloud of vile smoke finally dispersed LeChuck stood surrounded by the shambling husks that once belonged to his adventuring companions.

The dreaded Dunepirate LeChuck soon became the scourge of the Badlands, using the Skull of Kol-Trak to create his enslaved crew of undead sailors; leading them as they pillaged and antagonised the people of Pteris from his fortress-like ship: The Sanguine Ark. During the early 170s he often clashed with the crew of The Gilded Tusk, a ship of swashbuckling adventurers who had a tendency of disrupting his nefarious schemes.

After his grand defeat in 174 at the hands of Kallus Dinn, his ship was destroyed and his crew was swallowed by the sands. It was assumed that LeChuck -and subsequently the artefact- too disappeared into the shifting sands of their showdown, however rumours of a pirate-lord and his undead dwarven officer continued to persist in the region for some years.

Rumours regarding the Skull of Kol-Trak would circulate for much longer. Power-hungry treasure hunters would flock to the area in search of the font of dark magic, merchants would hawk bones as the supposed item, private collectors offering rewards for information on its location. It is uncertain where it eventually ended up, but such powerful objects often hold a desire to be found.