Chip

At a glance

Carver’s catlike Eldritch Cannon, a spectral feline summoned from the Shroud and formed through a ritual involving remnants of the treant-like creature and the spirit of a lost friend.

Portrait

• Primary reference: Chip Portrait
• Canonical status: Visual baseline for Chip’s wholly spectral feline appearance.

Known facts

• Created at Richten House after Carver became an Artillerist.
• Incorporates a spirit associated with one of Carver’s lost friends.
• Appears as a translucent blue-white cat spirit whose body dissolves into curling Shroud mist.
• Moves in visibly unnatural ways.
• Answered “Chip” when asked its name.
• Carver experienced an unfamiliar sensation during its creation.
• Chased mice during the party’s last cold night in Rivalis.
• Helped destroy Castle Avernus’s crowned giant with fire.
• Brought down the flesh-built abomination in the slaughterhouse with fire and force.
• Blasted a construct from Castle Avernus’s battlement and helped defeat the four elemental trials below the treasury.
• Burned the skeletal guardians in Castle Avernus’s crypts and destroyed the final bone dog during the resumed battle below.
• Fired a force ballista into the bone golem and helped Carver destroy it with flamethrower fire.
• Killed Fiona Watcher with a devastating gout from its Flamethrower during the battle in her house.
• Burned one of Fiona’s attacking cats, swept fire across skeletons buried beneath her house, and helped Carver destroy the last principal acolyte in the hidden ritual chamber.
• Burned the cultists on Watcher House’s basement stairs, then attacked the animated house with force ballista and flamethrower.
• Was swallowed with Carver and Pearl; Chip’s interior flames set the house burning and the company escaped, including Chip.
• Joined Carver upstairs during the fight against the vampires in Henrik’s shop, as Carver brought protective vitality to the company.

Nature

Chip is the narrative form of Carver’s Eldritch Cannon. Its exact configuration, magical output, duration, and reconstruction follow Carver’s class abilities unless the campaign establishes otherwise.

Open questions

• What spirit answered Carver’s creation ritual?
• How much memory or personality does Chip possess?
• What caused Carver’s strange sensation during the ritual?

Related sessions

• Session 29
• Session 8
• Session 11
• Session 12
• Session 13
• Session 14
• Session 15
• Session 16
• Session 17
• Session 25
• Session 26
• Session 27

Gallery

• Carver Portrait — Chip perches weightlessly on Carver’s shoulder, establishing their relative scale.
• Chip, It Answered — Chip takes shape from the Shroud and speaks his name.
• The First Fruits of Advancement — Chip perches on Carver’s shoulder as the party displays its new abilities.
• The Pale Lantern Will Not Burn — Chip waits with Carver outside the lounge during Rage’s attempted arson.
• One Dead, One Taken — Chip attacks as Carver restores Ignatius in the alley.
• Hundreds of Talons — Chip watches from Carver’s shoulder during the Keepers’ initiation.
• The Heckler Takes Wing — Chip remains with Carver as the street heckler transforms.
• Ride Through the Dead — Chip projects force from the side of the fleeing coach.
• Mercy Born of Fear — Chip watches while Carver treats Buddy.
• Battle Within the Shroud — Chip’s Force Ballista brings down the horned skeleton.
• The Shroud Takes Rivalis — Chip accompanies Carver as the party finds Rivalis half-consumed.
• What Rose in the Slaughterhouse — Chip pours spectral flame across the flesh-built abomination.
• Rage Loots the Treasury — Chip glows against Carver while Rage empties the treasury into the Bag of Holding.
• Chip Brings Down the Bone Golem — Chip stands beside Carver and releases the decisive Flamethrower.
• Snowmane Approaches the River Dancer — Chip perches beside Carver during Snowmane’s entrance aboard the River Dancer.
• Twig Blight Ambush — Chip races after the squirrel messenger as the party destroys the twig blights.
• Book Club was Fire — Chip’s Flamethrower kills Fiona Watcher as the battle consumes her drawing room.
• The Cats of Watcher Library — Chip’s wholly spectral form remains distinct from the ordinary cats as his Flamethrower crosses the library.
• The Rite Beneath Watcher House — Chip hovers beside Carver as the company enters Fiona’s hidden ritual chamber.
• The Stairwell Holds — Chip breathes fire down the greased basement stairs at the attacking cultists.
• Fire in the Belly of the House — After the house swallows Carver, Chip, and Pearl, the company attacks its interior. Chip’s flames set the building burning as the exit begins to give way.
• Precious Cargo — The company carries its salvaged wine toward the Blue Water Inn under Rage’s illusory horse-drawn cart.