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Description

In the swamps of Louisiana, The Shadowpact, a team of mystically-attuned protectors, teleported in from their school in Salem, MS. Led by the school’s new headmaster Todd Rice, the magic heroes Zatanna Zatara, Dan Cassidy, Eve Helstrom, and Etrigan traveled to a chronological anomaly that was occurring in the mire. There were vicious, zombie-like constructs, being formed from the dead animals and plants by the aura and the Shadowpact was there to keep the creatures from spreading to civilization as Todd undid the anomaly. As the Shadowpact did battle with the creatures, Todd performed a ritual with a mystical item called The Key of Manitou. A powerful magic item on its own, the Key of Manitou was able to 'lock up' the anomaly and disperse it for good with the ritual. With the aura gone, the construct zombies crumbled and fell apart. With a job well done, the team teleported back to Salem and returned to The Kent Nelson Institution for Higher Learning. Exhausted from the ritual, Todd entrusted Dan and Eve to return the Key of Manitou to the storage facilities beneath the school designated for mystical items and relics. Meanwhile, Todd would simply take a nap and then continue reading the recently-found journals of John Constantine, former headmaster and leader of the Shadowpact who used to go by the alias Doctor Fate. As he and Eve approached the door to the storage rooms, Dan’s curiosity got the better of him about the Key of Manitou and he took it and used it on a potted plant. “Unlocking” it, the item split the plant in half as if it were a completely solid item (with no soil spilling out and all that). They then used the item (it will be called “the item” in places instead of “the key” from now on, for reasons to be made obvious, soon) to “lock (it) back up” and reattach the two halves of the potted plant. Dan and Eve saw the potential of the item to… ‘have some stupid fun’. They used the item to pull stupid magic pranks on their fellow students and on faculty of the school, such as attaching two items together that can’t be pulled apart, locking doors to the fridge or the bathroom, splitting portraits of old headmasters apart and attaching them to each other, stuff like that. Eventually, Zatanna caught onto Dan and Eve and demanded they hand the item over to her to place back in storage. Meanwhile, Todd was still looking over Constantine’s journals when he came across the story of the Key of Manitou:
In the 1960s, in Albuquerque, NM, a couple living in an old house they just purchased were experiencing horrifying supernatural phenomena. About a week prior, they discovered a rustic-style key in the basement of their home, and that is when the occurrences started. They turned to supernatural experts for console, starting with a local Native American shamaness named Manitou Dawn. Dawn agreed to help and looked into the past of the house to start. She discovered that the former owners of the house, the Bodins, were parents who abused their young son Paul Bodin. According to Constantine’s speculation of this story, Paul was possibly bipolar and with a learning disability, like ADHD, and his parents didn’t know how to deal with him. They chained him up and locked poor Paul in his room with no chance to escape. They tried “training him”, like a dog, and they struck him with every sign of defiance he shows. Soon, he discovered that he’s a Homo magi, a human capable of mystic abilities. Able to manipulate reality through drawing, carving, and shaping key-like sigils and objects (the key representing his desire to be free), Paul killed his parents in revenge, but died from malnutrition soon after. His spirit haunted the house he died in, contained within the key, and tormented all who attempted to reside there. Manitou Dawn discovered this and trapped the malevolent spirit inside the magic key, which we now known as the Key of Manitou. Constantine, during his training in mysticism, met the dying Manitou Dawn years later, who told him this story and many others. She gave him the Key of Manitou, which he kept in the bowels of the school he trained in and would later become the headmaster of.
When Zatanna seized the item from Dan and Eve, her hand split open on a hinge, like a door! The item then laughed evilly and flew off! Through constant use of the key’s magic, the evil ghost of the item, Paul Bodin, now simply called The Key, is freed and the Key of Manitou is now inside him. Drawing more sigils across the walls of the school in ectoplasmic blood, The Key began warping the reality of the building. The battle was long and arduous as the Shadowpact fought to defend the other students from The Key. Todd and Eve combined their shadow magics against The Key. With no solid surfaces to draw a sigil on and no ability to escape the shadow-sphere, The Key was vulnerable to the next attack, which had Etrigan rip the magic item out of The Key’s stomach. The ghost dissipated and all of his trickery was undone. With the Key of Manitou back to (relative) normal, Todd encased the Key of Manitou in stone with magic and he tossed it into a river through a portal. The crisis was over, but don’t rest easy, everyone. Years from now, the stone will erode away, and The Key will be found again…
Notes:
* Todd Rice still has the Golden Helm of Foresight in his possession, but he has yet to wear it.
* Todd knew of the powers of the Key of Manitou, but not the origins… or the threat… behind it.
** He’s very disappointed in Dan and Eve for messing around with it for their pranks, let alone unleashing a vicious phantom upon their home.
* I went with Manitou Dawn instead of her husband Manitou Raven to avoid confusion with the Titan known as Raven.
* The name “Paul Bodin” is from an old DC villain called "The Human Key".

Description

In the swamps of Louisiana, The Shadowpact, a team of mystically-attuned protectors, teleported in from their school in Salem, MS. Led by the school’s new headmaster Todd Rice, the magic heroes Zatanna Zatara, Dan Cassidy, Eve Helstrom, and Etrigan traveled to a chronological anomaly that was occurring in the mire. There were vicious, zombie-like constructs, being formed from the dead animals and plants by the aura and the Shadowpact was there to keep the creatures from spreading to civilization as Todd undid the anomaly. As the Shadowpact did battle with the creatures, Todd performed a ritual with a mystical item called The Key of Manitou. A powerful magic item on its own, the Key of Manitou was able to 'lock up' the anomaly and disperse it for good with the ritual. With the aura gone, the construct zombies crumbled and fell apart. With a job well done, the team teleported back to Salem and returned to The Kent Nelson Institution for Higher Learning. Exhausted from the ritual, Todd entrusted Dan and Eve to return the Key of Manitou to the storage facilities beneath the school designated for mystical items and relics. Meanwhile, Todd would simply take a nap and then continue reading the recently-found journals of John Constantine, former headmaster and leader of the Shadowpact who used to go by the alias Doctor Fate. As he and Eve approached the door to the storage rooms, Dan’s curiosity got the better of him about the Key of Manitou and he took it and used it on a potted plant. “Unlocking” it, the item split the plant in half as if it were a completely solid item (with no soil spilling out and all that). They then used the item (it will be called “the item” in places instead of “the key” from now on, for reasons to be made obvious, soon) to “lock (it) back up” and reattach the two halves of the potted plant. Dan and Eve saw the potential of the item to… ‘have some stupid fun’. They used the item to pull stupid magic pranks on their fellow students and on faculty of the school, such as attaching two items together that can’t be pulled apart, locking doors to the fridge or the bathroom, splitting portraits of old headmasters apart and attaching them to each other, stuff like that. Eventually, Zatanna caught onto Dan and Eve and demanded they hand the item over to her to place back in storage. Meanwhile, Todd was still looking over Constantine’s journals when he came across the story of the Key of Manitou:
In the 1960s, in Albuquerque, NM, a couple living in an old house they just purchased were experiencing horrifying supernatural phenomena. About a week prior, they discovered a rustic-style key in the basement of their home, and that is when the occurrences started. They turned to supernatural experts for console, starting with a local Native American shamaness named Manitou Dawn. Dawn agreed to help and looked into the past of the house to start. She discovered that the former owners of the house, the Bodins, were parents who abused their young son Paul Bodin. According to Constantine’s speculation of this story, Paul was possibly bipolar and with a learning disability, like ADHD, and his parents didn’t know how to deal with him. They chained him up and locked poor Paul in his room with no chance to escape. They tried “training him”, like a dog, and they struck him with every sign of defiance he shows. Soon, he discovered that he’s a Homo magi, a human capable of mystic abilities. Able to manipulate reality through drawing, carving, and shaping key-like sigils and objects (the key representing his desire to be free), Paul killed his parents in revenge, but died from malnutrition soon after. His spirit haunted the house he died in, contained within the key, and tormented all who attempted to reside there. Manitou Dawn discovered this and trapped the malevolent spirit inside the magic key, which we now known as the Key of Manitou. Constantine, during his training in mysticism, met the dying Manitou Dawn years later, who told him this story and many others. She gave him the Key of Manitou, which he kept in the bowels of the school he trained in and would later become the headmaster of.
When Zatanna seized the item from Dan and Eve, her hand split open on a hinge, like a door! The item then laughed evilly and flew off! Through constant use of the key’s magic, the evil ghost of the item, Paul Bodin, now simply called The Key, is freed and the Key of Manitou is now inside him. Drawing more sigils across the walls of the school in ectoplasmic blood, The Key began warping the reality of the building. The battle was long and arduous as the Shadowpact fought to defend the other students from The Key. Todd and Eve combined their shadow magics against The Key. With no solid surfaces to draw a sigil on and no ability to escape the shadow-sphere, The Key was vulnerable to the next attack, which had Etrigan rip the magic item out of The Key’s stomach. The ghost dissipated and all of his trickery was undone. With the Key of Manitou back to (relative) normal, Todd encased the Key of Manitou in stone with magic and he tossed it into a river through a portal. The crisis was over, but don’t rest easy, everyone. Years from now, the stone will erode away, and The Key will be found again…
Notes:
* Todd Rice still has the Golden Helm of Foresight in his possession, but he has yet to wear it.
* Todd knew of the powers of the Key of Manitou, but not the origins… or the threat… behind it.
** He’s very disappointed in Dan and Eve for messing around with it for their pranks, let alone unleashing a vicious phantom upon their home.
* I went with Manitou Dawn instead of her husband Manitou Raven to avoid confusion with the Titan known as Raven.
* The name “Paul Bodin” is from an old DC villain called "The Human Key".