Labresu (approximate spelling) is a demonic, extraplanar creature to which Valerius Utrecht made a wish, or a pact, in Ardis Vala. In exchange it gave him an acid-bleeding companion sword and the key to the Midnight Circuit, opening the breach through which Ardis Vala fell to Ravenloft.
| Type | Entity (demon) |
| Also spelled | Lasher, Lashesu |
| Pact with | Valerius Utrecht |
| Gifts | Acid-bleeding companion sword; key to the Midnight Circuit |
| Spanish entry | Labresu |
The pact
The archive records: “the sharp sword, bleeding acid, that he had obtained with a wish or request to a labresu, the paladin so much in doubt over his failings of dark powers and his ethics, who allowed it to enter this world. Or rather, that this world fell to Ravenloft through Caladan, someone he trusted, who ended up being the devastation of this whole town with the white fever.”
- Valerius made a wish to Labresu.
- Labresu offered two artifacts:
- the sharp companion sword, bleeding acid, which would carry Graz’zt as Ardipithecus hidden inside;
- the key to the Midnight Circuit (Obsidian Gates and Midnight Road).
- Valerius accepted, whether out of tactical need or ethical breach.
- Consequences:
- the paladin’s failings of dark powers and growing ethical conflict;
- blind trust in Caladan (vampirized, future lord of the domain);
- the fall of Ardis Vala to Ravenloft through Caladan;
- the white fever devastating the town.
Nature
Labresu is a wish-granting demonic entity, inclined to pacts with paladins in their hour of weakness, offering exactly what the fallen believe they need.
Graz’zt and the sword
The sword carried Graz’zt inside as a guardian, hidden as a clone of Arian plus a greater entity. Hence:
- Labresu acted as messenger or intermediary of greater abyssal forces (Graz’zt).
- The wish was a trap: Valerius received items of power in exchange for opening a way to the abyss.
- Graz’zt slept in the sword until his awakening on the return after the Hiatus (Ardipithecus emerging from the incident with Valerius’s sword).
Role
Labresu is the lesser demon of a larger cosmological trap. His deal set off Valerius’s tragic arc, from upright paladin to paladin in doubt with darkened powers. Together with the delivery of the bomb egg by the Seekers of Ardis Vala, it is the “original sin” of the return after the Hiatus. The resulting domain is Valakhan of the Mist.
Conflicting accounts
- The demon that, on the return after the Hiatus, offered “the sword and the key to the Midnight Circuit” in an invocation circle may be Labresu himself or his messenger.
- That circle is placed in the Palace of the Prism in one passage and in the Sunless Citadel in another.
Open questions
- The spelling “Labresu” is unconfirmed.