Nemarius's Burning Brand

Item · 500 gp · Weight 0.25

Djail Kann was an eccentric and capricious demon, indifferent to power and violence but a great lover of riddles and puzzles. It was he who captured the mysterious Collector that had been preying upon Alushinyrra's nobility and it was he who returned Ar-Mikheth's stolen golden carbuncle, but his most famous investigation is by far the case of the burning gladiators. One day, a bunch of slaves stepped onto the sand of the Battlebliss arena unbidden. They were cloaked in flames but did not scream, silently carrying the bodies of their slain jailers on the tips of their spears. Having formed a column before the demons, awestruck at the sight, they spoke in a single voice: "I have been taken from, so now I take." A moment later, they vanished in a conflagration that incinerated most of the spectators, leaving only charred words on the ashen floor of the arena: "For pain and fire." This incident was just the beginning. The killings in the arena continued, with gladiators seemingly losing their minds and attacking the guards, catching fire, and burning to ash alongside their tormentors. All that remained were the cryptic words: "For pain and fire." Shamira the Ardent Dream commanded Djail to solve the mystery of these unusual deaths. Djail took a cup of blood and on every wall of the arena, wrote the following: "I have taken from you. And I will take again." Having issued this challenge to the unknown killer, Djail waited — but not for long, because the bloody letters caught fire. Djail proclaimed he had solved the riddle and would reveal the answer to everyone on the next day. The next moment, a dozen thralls turned into pillars of flame and surrounded Djail. In a single voice, they asked: "Do you think you have exposed me, demon? What do you even know, you arrogant fiend?" "I know your name. You are Nemarius, a demigod born of the goddess Sekhmet. You and your wife-to-be were captured and forced to fight to the death in the arena. She fell, and you set yourself on fire out of grief, but were never truly gone. Your spirit is bound to this object!" Smiling, Djail presented the brand used to mark the slaves as the arena's property. "I used my sorcerous sight to watch you light up my words, and I felt where the threads of your spells converge. This brand left its mark on your skin and the skin of your beloved bride. It was also used to mark the slaves whose minds you dominate and use as the instruments of your revenge. Or am I wrong?" The burning gladiators howled in Nemarius's voice, but it was too late. Djail cast a spell on the brand that trapped the vengeful demigod, defeating and disempowering his foe. The tradition of using hot iron to mark the gladiators ceased, and the fate of Nemarius's brand remains unknown up to this very day.