Magdala

Campaign: Under the Bus / Steve
Folder: Characters / NPCs
Status: Established / Cross-Campaign
Source Base: Under the Bus campaign correspondence; later Steve campaign history

Overview

Magdala was an Astral Diva and celestial being who served as a guardian in both Under the Bus and, thousands of years later, Steve.

Her history is defined by two long periods of guardianship. During Under the Bus, she protected an abandoned temple of Demmazon and the spirits of the Heroes of Aegea. After that duty was fulfilled, she voluntarily accepted a new calling: guarding the sealed remains of Cain.

That second duty lasted for more than ten thousand years.

Prolonged exposure to Cain's evil eventually distorted Magdala's physical form and affected her mind, but it did not corrupt her essential nature. She remained a celestial and continued to protect Cain's tomb until she was ultimately killed by the Steve party, who did not realize that the strange creature they knew as Crazy Maggie was the same angel the earlier party had encountered.

Under the Bus

Guardian of Demmazon's Temple

Magdala was assigned to protect a temple that had belonged to Demmazon after Demmazon abandoned it.

Her responsibility extended beyond the physical temple. She was charged with guarding the spirits of the Heroes of Aegea whose remains were associated with the temple. She explained that her duty was both to protect the spirits from others and to protect others from the spirits, since even good spirits could be unpredictable.

The Undead Invasion

A group of undead came to the temple seeking The Aegisstaff. The group originally numbered dozens, but by the time of the party's arrival only four vampires and a lich remained.

The undead used illusory disguises to approach Magdala and conceal their numbers, taking her by surprise. Once she realized what she was facing, she sealed the only entrance to the chamber containing the Heroes of Aegea, making it accessible only to someone capable of channeling positive energy—something she knew the undead could not do. She killed many of the attackers herself.

Eventually the remaining undead overwhelmed her. They captured Magdala and kept her alive while feeding on her celestial blood, which greatly empowered the vampires.

Rescue

The party encountered Magdala chained up while fighting the vampires.

Dugan Lifebrew freed her using the Chimes of Opening and gave her a healing potion. Rather than immediately joining the physical fight, Magdala knelt and prayed. Her prayers helped protect TJ from what should have been a killing attack and eventually caused the remaining vampires to flee.

Afterward, Magdala introduced herself and explained her history and responsibilities.

The End of Her First Guardianship

Magdala determined that the party had apparently fulfilled the important part of her duty. They had appeased the spirits of the Heroes of Aegea well enough that the spirits could rest, and the party had recovered equipment that otherwise would not have been accessible.

She therefore considered her guardianship of the temple complete.

Magdala told the party that she owed them a debt of gratitude for saving her life and offered to come to their aid if they called upon her in the future. In game terms, this was intended to function as a free Planar Ally relationship.

She then left the temple.

The Second Calling

Magdala's original guardianship was not the end of her service.

By the planned conclusion of Under the Bus, the party would learn that although Cain had been defeated, he could not be completely destroyed. His evil essence would instead be contained and sequestered, leaving him as a desiccated corpse sealed within a sarcophagus.

Magdala's offer of future assistance provided an elegant solution to this unresolved threat.

Having completed her duty at the temple, Magdala was seeking a new calling. Because she was a celestial being who would not die of old age, she could serve as a permanent guardian. The party would therefore be made aware that Magdala could voluntarily take responsibility for guarding Cain's tomb and preventing his return.

She was not forced into this role. Magdala chose it.

She became the guardian of Cain's tomb.

Thousands of Years of Guardianship

Magdala remained at Cain's tomb for more than ten thousand years.

Cain's corpse remained sealed and deprived of blood or any other source of nourishment or energy that could restore him. Magdala continued to guard the tomb throughout the intervening millennia.

The prolonged proximity to Cain's concentrated evil eventually had a profound effect on her physical form. The exact mechanism was never established, but the evil presence distorted her appearance until she resembled something much closer to a medusa than an angel.

Her appearance changed. Her mind was affected as well. She became somewhat unstable after millennia of isolation and exposure to Cain.

But the corruption never fundamentally changed what she was.

Magdala remained a celestial being and continued to fulfill her duty.

Steve — Crazy Maggie

The Cursed Island

More than ten thousand years after the events of Under the Bus, the Steve party encountered the island where Cain's tomb was located.

The same island was also associated with the extradimensional prison in which Filtiarn had been confined.

Those who had explored the island had come to know its strange guardian as Crazy Maggie.

The Steve party did not recognize her as Magdala from Under the Bus. The players never made the connection between the apparently monstrous woman on the island and the celestial guardian from the earlier campaign.

The Party's Need

Crazy Maggie had acquired a reputation for possessing strange, almost witch-like powers and knowledge of unusual arcane formulas.

The party sought her out because one of their companions had been turned to stone by a cockatrice. They had discovered a temporary means of reversing the condition, but needed a permanent solution before he eventually reverted to stone.

They hoped Maggie might know how to help.

The Fatal Encounter

Maggie attempted to drive the party away.

Her concern was not simply hostility toward outsiders. She was afraid that they would interfere with the tomb and potentially disturb Cain.

The party, seeing only her grotesque appearance and apparently hostile behavior, interpreted the encounter very differently.

One of the party members—remembered as either the samurai or kensai, but the exact class should remain unresolved until confirmed—attacked her.

Magdala was indeed somewhat crazy by this point, but she retained enough of her original goodness that she did not meaningfully fight back.

She was killed.

The Angel Revealed

When Magdala died, the distortion that had overtaken her physical form disappeared.

Her true celestial nature was revealed as she reverted to her original form, sprouting wings and unmistakably appearing as an angel.

Only at that moment did the Steve party learn what they had actually killed.

They did not realize that the angel was Magdala, the same celestial guardian who had appeared to the Under the Bus party thousands of years earlier.

The incident subsequently became one of the enduring jokes associated with TJ:

TJ killed an angel.

Character and Legacy

Magdala's story is unusual even among the supernatural figures encountered across the campaign history because her defining characteristic is not a particular faction, ideology, or ambition, but guardianship.

She repeatedly chose to dedicate herself to protecting places and beings that could not protect themselves:

1. She guarded Demmazon's abandoned temple.

2. She protected the spirits of the Heroes of Aegea.

3. After completing that duty, she voluntarily accepted responsibility for guarding Cain.

4. She maintained that duty for thousands of years despite the terrible effects it had on her.

5. Even after her form and mind had been distorted, she remained fundamentally good.

Her story ultimately ends in tragic irony: after spending millennia preventing Cain from escaping, she was killed by adventurers who mistook her for a dangerous monster.

The Steve party never understood that they had killed an angel they had effectively inherited as an ally from the distant past.

Known Unknowns

The following remain unresolved or unnecessary to establish without additional source material:

• Magdala's history before becoming guardian of Demmazon's temple.

• Why Demmazon assigned her specifically to that temple.

• The precise nature of the transformation caused by prolonged exposure to Cain.

• The exact mechanics of the mental effects of that exposure.

• The exact Steve class of the character who killed her.

• Whether Magdala possessed any special powers beyond those demonstrated in either campaign.

• Any events involving Magdala between the end of her first guardianship and her assumption of responsibility for Cain's tomb.