Sunday, April 27, 2014
You Are Champions
Beginning the generation, characters will be level 5. You are already considered accomplished heroes, champions, agents, or whatever you like. I do require that each of your characters have at least one defining moment in the region to start, something you are known for or very good at- maybe you defeated some slaver's ring and freed a string of towns, or you are the only survivor ever to have emerged from some deathtrap dungeon, or you've negotiated impossible terms with giant clans and orc hordes and they now serve as mercenary allies instead of perennial invaders. Whatever it might be, it's one of the driving reasons why you're presence was requested or required in Edmark at the start of the game. Even if your defining moment made you more celebrity than functional diplomat, the more important people in Edmark the better as far as Avencia is concerned. It deters extremes.
Prologue II: Twenty-One Years Later...
In the Year 70 After Shalraza
The Emperor is dead. At the age of 96, Endymion Norson perished of natural causes after refusing to seek and employ the potentially life-extending technologies once at his disposal. It remains to be seen how history will remember him, as if Endymion were two drastically different people in one life time: a merciless despot in his youth and a wise patriarch in his twilight years. Whatever might be said of the Emperor, the world endured beyond the Emperor's War and the Legacy Event in part through his efforts. Sadly, the fate of his empire is less assured.
It was intended Prince Deucalion Norson, biological son of the Emperor, would succeed him, however in Norsland's eastern empire of Soveros a contender rose. Bela Norson, daughter of the crown prince of the Nors Kingdom which predated the empire, appealed to the families that once served the line of kings ending with her late father Frederick Norson. The elf-touched empress succeeded in rallying the east and splitting the empire. Unofficially supported by the elves of The Corellon Dynasty across the sea and the venerable Kaylan Gloriandel, Prophet of Kalia and Bela's own mother, armies were raised and The War of the Crown began.
Considered a civil war by the rest of Othyr, the other nations have worked tirelessly to remain neutral in the affair, but with the self-destruction of any super power, the political whirlpool inevitably pulled neighbors into the conflict. The young nation of Avencia, Loranna's first and only democratic republic, has shouldered increasing pressures to choose a side. Despite its independence, Avencians still share many blood and cultural ties with Norsland's halves. However, the Third Avencian Congress and the majority of Avencia are adamant about staying out of the ordeal.
With battles raging along the eastern borders of Norsland and the emergent Eastern Kingdom of Belarion, envoys of the emperor and empress have descended upon Avencia's capital of Edmark to secure, or perhaps force, alliance. And on the third day of their visits, the generation begins...
The Emperor is dead. At the age of 96, Endymion Norson perished of natural causes after refusing to seek and employ the potentially life-extending technologies once at his disposal. It remains to be seen how history will remember him, as if Endymion were two drastically different people in one life time: a merciless despot in his youth and a wise patriarch in his twilight years. Whatever might be said of the Emperor, the world endured beyond the Emperor's War and the Legacy Event in part through his efforts. Sadly, the fate of his empire is less assured.
It was intended Prince Deucalion Norson, biological son of the Emperor, would succeed him, however in Norsland's eastern empire of Soveros a contender rose. Bela Norson, daughter of the crown prince of the Nors Kingdom which predated the empire, appealed to the families that once served the line of kings ending with her late father Frederick Norson. The elf-touched empress succeeded in rallying the east and splitting the empire. Unofficially supported by the elves of The Corellon Dynasty across the sea and the venerable Kaylan Gloriandel, Prophet of Kalia and Bela's own mother, armies were raised and The War of the Crown began.
Considered a civil war by the rest of Othyr, the other nations have worked tirelessly to remain neutral in the affair, but with the self-destruction of any super power, the political whirlpool inevitably pulled neighbors into the conflict. The young nation of Avencia, Loranna's first and only democratic republic, has shouldered increasing pressures to choose a side. Despite its independence, Avencians still share many blood and cultural ties with Norsland's halves. However, the Third Avencian Congress and the majority of Avencia are adamant about staying out of the ordeal.
With battles raging along the eastern borders of Norsland and the emergent Eastern Kingdom of Belarion, envoys of the emperor and empress have descended upon Avencia's capital of Edmark to secure, or perhaps force, alliance. And on the third day of their visits, the generation begins...
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Chapter 13: The Radiant Revenge of the Sun Hag!
Gent 21st (evening), 49 AS
Synopsis
You win!
Epilogue
Notable Locations
Skyfire Shrine
Notable NPCs
Finduilas Oranar, the Sun Hag and Benefactor whose most ardent wish was to reunite with her divine daughter or be utterly destroyed (in custody)
The Emissary, perhaps the REAL Benefactor
Camlyn, a young phoenix descendant of Sinida the Flamebearer and protector of Skyfire Shrine
Kar'kkul, Frenzy Demon (banished)
Syphio and Chlamy, Despoiler Demons (banished)
Uduvok, Fir-Annuk, and Ralut, Apprentices of the Sun Hag (dead)
Zago, Yol, and Bruun, Half-Bugbear Thugs (dead)
Gathus, Temmel, and Hergin, Roosters (mercenaries, 1 dead)
Koro-Hail, ice genasi and agent of Haven
Lemin Vincze, mind-controlled ex-adventurer used for her bond with the Speaker and her fighting abilities
Gunther Weiss (dead), powder guild master with issues
Agent Velekova, Izoldan spy and operative working to maintain the peace during the summit
Kari-Ula, air genasi 'wind witch' and former member of the Tower of the Peryton
Xymoxx, Nel's shadow demon nanny
Treasures
A number of oils, potions, and runes...
Synopsis
You win!
Epilogue
Notable Locations
Skyfire Shrine
Notable NPCs
Finduilas Oranar, the Sun Hag and Benefactor whose most ardent wish was to reunite with her divine daughter or be utterly destroyed (in custody)
The Emissary, perhaps the REAL Benefactor
Camlyn, a young phoenix descendant of Sinida the Flamebearer and protector of Skyfire Shrine
Kar'kkul, Frenzy Demon (banished)
Syphio and Chlamy, Despoiler Demons (banished)
Uduvok, Fir-Annuk, and Ralut, Apprentices of the Sun Hag (dead)
Zago, Yol, and Bruun, Half-Bugbear Thugs (dead)
Gathus, Temmel, and Hergin, Roosters (mercenaries, 1 dead)
Koro-Hail, ice genasi and agent of Haven
Lemin Vincze, mind-controlled ex-adventurer used for her bond with the Speaker and her fighting abilities
Gunther Weiss (dead), powder guild master with issues
Agent Velekova, Izoldan spy and operative working to maintain the peace during the summit
Kari-Ula, air genasi 'wind witch' and former member of the Tower of the Peryton
Xymoxx, Nel's shadow demon nanny
Treasures
A number of oils, potions, and runes...
Friday, April 11, 2014
Chapter 12: The Holy City
Gent 20th - 21st (early afternoon)
Synopsis
Notable NPCs
Amiable Paladin Guardsmen (unnamed)- Sentries of Pax Exaltea and the cloud-swept bridge between Jovar and Celestia, were the peace summit continues in the monolithic Temple of Celestia.
Ex-Priestess Finduilas Oranar (mentioned)- Former High Priestess of Kalinda and leader of the Etherian Council a generation ago, before the advent of Kalia. Believing the divine daughter she had bore was dead, slain and usurped by Kalia, rather than accepting Kalia as an evolved form of the same divinity, she fled the Holy City and hasn't been heard from in years.
Rava (mentioned)- Daughter of Raziel (archangel) and Ex-Priestess Finduilas Oranar; Marshal of Mertion and loudest dissenter of High Priest Oranar's pacifist approach to the Izoldan Crisis
Raziel, the Lord of Righteous Wrath (mentioned)- General of Heaven's Armies; Known by many titles, including Rage of Heaven, Fist of the Hebdomad, and the Fiery Avenger; Among the archangels in Heaven, barred, as are the Archdevils below, from directly influencing the mortal planes by decree of The King of Eternity, Asmodeus.
Notable Locations
Etherias, The Holy City, The City of Seven Peaks (metropolis)
Solania, Mertion, Jovar, and Celestia (four of the seven mountains)
Synopsis
Notable NPCs
Amiable Paladin Guardsmen (unnamed)- Sentries of Pax Exaltea and the cloud-swept bridge between Jovar and Celestia, were the peace summit continues in the monolithic Temple of Celestia.
Ex-Priestess Finduilas Oranar (mentioned)- Former High Priestess of Kalinda and leader of the Etherian Council a generation ago, before the advent of Kalia. Believing the divine daughter she had bore was dead, slain and usurped by Kalia, rather than accepting Kalia as an evolved form of the same divinity, she fled the Holy City and hasn't been heard from in years.
Rava (mentioned)- Daughter of Raziel (archangel) and Ex-Priestess Finduilas Oranar; Marshal of Mertion and loudest dissenter of High Priest Oranar's pacifist approach to the Izoldan Crisis
Raziel, the Lord of Righteous Wrath (mentioned)- General of Heaven's Armies; Known by many titles, including Rage of Heaven, Fist of the Hebdomad, and the Fiery Avenger; Among the archangels in Heaven, barred, as are the Archdevils below, from directly influencing the mortal planes by decree of The King of Eternity, Asmodeus.
Notable Locations
Etherias, The Holy City, The City of Seven Peaks (metropolis)
Solania, Mertion, Jovar, and Celestia (four of the seven mountains)
Monday, April 7, 2014
Chapter 11: The Battle of Magemound
Gent 19th - 20th
LEVEL UP 4!
TREASURE
Cask of the Rabble Rouser (Roza, Prince of Murder Cask, 6)
Ancient magic infuses every fiber of wood, band of iron, and etched rune on this small, darkwood cask fit for the collar of a hound or the hand of a dwarf in need of a hearty swig. Its contents inspired insurrection, rebellion, and the eventual collapse of the corrupt Queen Moraig of Citadel. It destroyed a proud dwarf in the process and led to his exile in the hinterlands of the Ultus Mountains. While wrestling a wayward monk for proper spirits, the Rabble Rouser lost his cask in the whitewater of the Thandar Rapids and with it a great majority of his power. But those who recovered it, washed down into the south, have reaped the benefits of magical bravado, fortitude, and belly fire (for as long as they live, anyway).
+2 PD
Barrel Roll (Recharge 11+): The cask enlarges and you steamroll up to your level worth of enemies, disengaging them from other allies (without oa) if necessary. You transport them to a "nearby" point in the battlefield and are considered engaged with each of them.
Belly Fire (Recharge 11+): You take a deep swig and spew fiery spirits, burning engaged and nearby characters (allies and enemies) for your level x d6 fire damage. You must make a basic ranged attack on each first.
Drunken Rage (once per battle, pending refills): You empty the cask and lose yourself in a drunken fury, scoring critical hits on rolls of 10-20, but also being critically hit on enemy rolls of 10-20. While you distinguish friend from foe, you won't stop until knocked unconscious, slain, or until you eat an abundance of greasy foods and sleep it off.
Quirk: Gragas is seeking it. All his thought is bent on it, and the Cask yearns above all else to return to the hand of its Guzzler. They are one, the Cask and the Dwarf Lord.
-
Death Cape (Nel, Mercy Cape, 6)
A death cape is a rare (1%) drop off the Grim Reaper in the Void. It looks as if Kiro-Sulos died once before and through the slimmest of dimensional miscalculations found his soul in the endless dark of the Void instead of standing before The Gate. He then defeated a servant of Death who arrived to collect his soul. This menacing cape, looking like two black dragon wings and a deep hood, was his reward. Only those who should have died may wear one.
+2 AC and PD
You may spend recoveries and add the rolls to attack or damage
Drain Life (Recharge 11+): On a successful attack, regain hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Enervate (Recharge 11+): On a successful attack, restore an ally's hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Angel of Death (Sustain 16+): You transform into a true angel of death, if only until the start of your next turn, and find yourself capable of teleporting anywhere on the battlefield (nearby or far away) as a move action. More importantly, while an angel of death you cannot be killed or forced to make death saves.
Quirk: You cannot escape Death a second time, no matter the icon dice or your affiliations.
-
The Girdle of Leshy Strength (Aiden, Bringer of Balance Girdle, 5)
Mightiest of the forest giants, this splendid girdle of old bark banded with thick pine-needle cords and petrified cones as buckles provides the wearer with all the strength and fortitude of the woodwoses who protect the wilderness.
+2 PD
+1d12 damage with melee attacks
Roll Strength-based skill checks twice and take the better result
Quirk: You instantly grow a robust, full beard that cannot be tamed by normal means
-
Calemuadan's Jig-Kicking Sprigs (Cassie, Circle of Ten Boots, 5)
Though an infamous leprechaun gambler and drunk, Calemuadan often used his mischievous nature for good in defense of the wilds and the free folk. He joined the Circle after losing a bet, then spent ten years trying to get out of his obligations. There's quite a funny string of poems on the subject, many featuring Tyvis Waylan as the embodiment of Calemuadan's comeuppance. These pointed, forest-green boots with buckles that never need polishing seem to have soaked in some of Calemuadan's mischief...
+4 Initiative
You can take three movements a turn, in effect moving from far way to engaged in a single turn.
Quirk: Whenever you hear music, make an easy save (6+). When failed, you -must- begin a jovial jig until the music stops. Your feet seem to gain minds of their own during this time, but you are otherwise cognizant. All skill checks and attack rolls receive -4 during this jigging and you cannot control where you move.
-
Freedom's Ring (Ilshana, Eilessa Ring, 5)
Affable Benjim Firnlank, one of the Founding Few of Avencia, was a skilled alchemist, artificer, scholar, businessman, and diplomat whose wit and wisdom helped forge the southern democracy. He was also an insufferable satirist. This ring, shaped with leftover metal of the famed Libertas Bell, ensured his rivals and opposition would never be able to silence him.
+2 MD
Resist Lightning (12+)
No matter the circumstance, your voice is always heard and your point always made eventually. So long as you wear this ring, you will have your say. The effects are left up to your natural talents (skill checks and icon dice) and the delivery may be varied (congressional-style oration, print, rumor, etc).
Quirk: You will make enemies with each use.
LEVEL UP 4!
TREASURE
Cask of the Rabble Rouser (Roza, Prince of Murder Cask, 6)
Ancient magic infuses every fiber of wood, band of iron, and etched rune on this small, darkwood cask fit for the collar of a hound or the hand of a dwarf in need of a hearty swig. Its contents inspired insurrection, rebellion, and the eventual collapse of the corrupt Queen Moraig of Citadel. It destroyed a proud dwarf in the process and led to his exile in the hinterlands of the Ultus Mountains. While wrestling a wayward monk for proper spirits, the Rabble Rouser lost his cask in the whitewater of the Thandar Rapids and with it a great majority of his power. But those who recovered it, washed down into the south, have reaped the benefits of magical bravado, fortitude, and belly fire (for as long as they live, anyway).
+2 PD
Barrel Roll (Recharge 11+): The cask enlarges and you steamroll up to your level worth of enemies, disengaging them from other allies (without oa) if necessary. You transport them to a "nearby" point in the battlefield and are considered engaged with each of them.
Belly Fire (Recharge 11+): You take a deep swig and spew fiery spirits, burning engaged and nearby characters (allies and enemies) for your level x d6 fire damage. You must make a basic ranged attack on each first.
Drunken Rage (once per battle, pending refills): You empty the cask and lose yourself in a drunken fury, scoring critical hits on rolls of 10-20, but also being critically hit on enemy rolls of 10-20. While you distinguish friend from foe, you won't stop until knocked unconscious, slain, or until you eat an abundance of greasy foods and sleep it off.
Quirk: Gragas is seeking it. All his thought is bent on it, and the Cask yearns above all else to return to the hand of its Guzzler. They are one, the Cask and the Dwarf Lord.
-
Death Cape (Nel, Mercy Cape, 6)
A death cape is a rare (1%) drop off the Grim Reaper in the Void. It looks as if Kiro-Sulos died once before and through the slimmest of dimensional miscalculations found his soul in the endless dark of the Void instead of standing before The Gate. He then defeated a servant of Death who arrived to collect his soul. This menacing cape, looking like two black dragon wings and a deep hood, was his reward. Only those who should have died may wear one.
+2 AC and PD
You may spend recoveries and add the rolls to attack or damage
Drain Life (Recharge 11+): On a successful attack, regain hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Enervate (Recharge 11+): On a successful attack, restore an ally's hit points equal to the damage dealt.
Angel of Death (Sustain 16+): You transform into a true angel of death, if only until the start of your next turn, and find yourself capable of teleporting anywhere on the battlefield (nearby or far away) as a move action. More importantly, while an angel of death you cannot be killed or forced to make death saves.
Quirk: You cannot escape Death a second time, no matter the icon dice or your affiliations.
-
The Girdle of Leshy Strength (Aiden, Bringer of Balance Girdle, 5)
Mightiest of the forest giants, this splendid girdle of old bark banded with thick pine-needle cords and petrified cones as buckles provides the wearer with all the strength and fortitude of the woodwoses who protect the wilderness.
+2 PD
+1d12 damage with melee attacks
Roll Strength-based skill checks twice and take the better result
Quirk: You instantly grow a robust, full beard that cannot be tamed by normal means
-
Calemuadan's Jig-Kicking Sprigs (Cassie, Circle of Ten Boots, 5)
Though an infamous leprechaun gambler and drunk, Calemuadan often used his mischievous nature for good in defense of the wilds and the free folk. He joined the Circle after losing a bet, then spent ten years trying to get out of his obligations. There's quite a funny string of poems on the subject, many featuring Tyvis Waylan as the embodiment of Calemuadan's comeuppance. These pointed, forest-green boots with buckles that never need polishing seem to have soaked in some of Calemuadan's mischief...
+4 Initiative
You can take three movements a turn, in effect moving from far way to engaged in a single turn.
Quirk: Whenever you hear music, make an easy save (6+). When failed, you -must- begin a jovial jig until the music stops. Your feet seem to gain minds of their own during this time, but you are otherwise cognizant. All skill checks and attack rolls receive -4 during this jigging and you cannot control where you move.
-
Freedom's Ring (Ilshana, Eilessa Ring, 5)
Affable Benjim Firnlank, one of the Founding Few of Avencia, was a skilled alchemist, artificer, scholar, businessman, and diplomat whose wit and wisdom helped forge the southern democracy. He was also an insufferable satirist. This ring, shaped with leftover metal of the famed Libertas Bell, ensured his rivals and opposition would never be able to silence him.
+2 MD
Resist Lightning (12+)
No matter the circumstance, your voice is always heard and your point always made eventually. So long as you wear this ring, you will have your say. The effects are left up to your natural talents (skill checks and icon dice) and the delivery may be varied (congressional-style oration, print, rumor, etc).
Quirk: You will make enemies with each use.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Chapter 10: The Tower of the Peryton
Gent 19th (into dusk)
Synopsis
Accompanied by Raziel and Nathan Kirk, as well as Agent Velekova and Aiden's faithful hound Kurn, the recollected party scaled Magemound and came to the Tower of the Peryton. Doorless and windowless, they entered by way of secret hand-paintings Roza learned about after absorbing an orc's knowledge through her blood magic. However, the party's meddling and the city's fire inspired the mages to erect protective enchantments which cast the party (unbeknownst to them) across the extradimensional tower, anchor planes, and an experimental, magic-amplifying, and knowledge-gleaning dimension created by the earliest wizards called The Strange.
Ilshana, stranded in a black desert with a milky, white ocean for a sky, navigated dark dunes to an unusual, swirling boulder of weathered stone hovering several feet off the ground. She came to realize the intricate carvings, maze-like across its face, were a map to the befuddling layout of the tower itself. By concentration alone, she was able to will herself back into the tower proper and into a very unusual study contained within The Strange. Fiery motes of knowledge burned in a hearth, flanked by towering bookcases brimming with old texts fitted with blubbering lips. As the bard accessed the knowledge contained in the orbs, the books spoke in voices ranging susurrations to screams. She learned Arsei Fyodor had been overthrown, and that Kiro-Sulos was now the Lord of the Tower and master of all the powers contained therein. Absconding with a mote, she exited the room, intent on finding the others. Unfortunately, crossing the checkered halls, onyx and ivory, stretching vast distances and marked with free-floating stairwells, she found herself lost and threatened by elementally-charged tile traps. Her trap avoidance became a deadly game of hopscotch down the corridors, until she skipped by an "old" friend...
Roza and Raziel stood on one of countless glassy stairwells, wrapped in ribbons of arcane energy, and leading to thousands of shimmering archways in an endless, starry void. They might have spent lifetimes trying the various paths, only to find themselves back where they started, but Roza called on the aid of the Guiding Star, Caiphon, visible in the black. He must have owed her master a favor, for the star flickered above the way out. Once exited, the two became separated, and the sorceress began exploring a long, barren hall whose floor was made of solid fire. Whenever an elemental tile trap triggered beneath her, Roza was able to counter it with her own elemental power in such a way she walked the halls of the tower unscathed and untroubled. Along the way, she came to realize she was walking a parallel dimension, what wizards called The Strange, and that the motes of light and energy passing by her were people, mages, walking the halls in the prime material plane. If they were going to complete their mission, they would have to reenter the physical world somehow.
Nel and Nathan stood on an ancient bridge of petrified wood, spanning a ravine that split a forested, dream-like realm into dawn and dusk. With no path back to the others, completely lost, and no doubt something dangerous and hungry lurking in the seemingly-idyllic landscape, Nel turned to her mother's constellation for guidance. It steered her in the right direction, Nathan pessimistic of their odds following a few stars in the sky in hopes of finding the way back. He wasn't so quick to judge when they arrived safely back in the tower. Relatively safely, at least, as it was only a few steps inside before they realized the tower was trapped. Balance, Nel believed, would counteract the roiling energies contained within the halls. Nathan suggested walking in tandem, but Nel agreed only on the preface the balance between man and woman would garner them trap immunity. As it turned out, she was right. They walked carefully down the hall in measured steps like a strange bridge and groom until Ilshana happened by. Sharing the mote with Nel, the death priestess uncovered some very dark and pressing truths: Not only was Arsei overthrown, but another Anubian shard had been stolen. Kiro-Sulos and his cadre had built a second device, a "time-gate" to pull something through into the present. It's arrival was imminent.
Cassandra, Aiden, Velekova, and Kurn landed in a room split down the middle, black and white, presumably the room any peryton mage would normally intend to go. One onyx and one ivory archway shimmered before them. Having seen one too many trapped archway in her day, Cassie tied a rope to an old boot and tossed it through one of the doorways. Moments later, it flew back out and kicked Aiden in the head. Not amused, he launched a marble bust through the opposite archway. To his disappointment, it did not come back and clock Cassie, rather stayed where it was. Pulling on the ropes, the two retrieves both items, suggesting either archway 'survivable'. Velekova took a chance on the bust-tossed arch and passed through. After waiting a few minutes, the siblings followed into one of the tower's elementally-trapped halls. Velekova had fallen victim, it seemed, to an ice trap, frozen solid. Before either could totally react, they noticed flickering colors on the tiles around them, threatening to burn them, freeze them, melt them, crush them, or electrocute them. The soles of Cassie's boots were melted away, and Aiden managed to undo the agent's condition by shoving her onto a red tile just beginning to flicker, before the trio booked it down the hall. With each trapped tile they hit, the three pulled a growing train of flickering, arcane tiles brimming with offensive magic. And after so many twists and turns, they passed right by the unsuspecting Roza begging her to 'magic it' away.
Roza chased after the others, now in the onslaught's direct path. Reaching one of the glassy stairwells, the sorceress turned and made her stand. She'd balanced the elements for singular tiles, but this was no less than fifty fatal charges crashing on her head like a typhoon. At last, a challenge, and against one she proved capable. Meeting power with power, redirecting it, circulating it, before finally discharging, the force rocked the foundation of the dimension and ripped a whole between The Strange and the tower. The sound drew the others, uniting the group before the rift. Bending their will, magic, and faith toward rescuing the speaker and stopping the time-gate, they harnessed the power of The Strange to get them -exactly- where they wanted.
Raziel was already there, cradling his wife beside her radiant clone Gemini. After some bubbly chitchat,
Notable NPCs
The God-King, Nor- Liberator of mankind, slayer of the elvish overlords, and founder the empire, Nor was the greatest psion of all time (eclipsing even Endymion Norson). A force for good in a time when humans were slaves, he and his saintly compatriots toppled the Gloriandelines and the Highking with them. Sadly, no one could carry the mantle with such dignity, wisdom, and authority as Nor, leading to the degeneration of the empire throughout the ages until it became the twisted Holy Nors Empire. While the Emperor seeks to make amends for oh so many imperial wrongs, perhaps the return of the God-King will hasten the healing...
"The Demonic Presence"- The entity the tower was attempting to pull through time and space and into the present, it could also be the intended target of the failed time-bomb. If so, its identity might serve as a clue to finding the master conspirator.
Kiro-Sulos- The true "Lord of the Tower" and leader of the perytons, who overthrew Arsei Fyodor even after his meeting with the speaker (as told by the ledger) looking for aid in retaking it. Aligned with the conspirators, Kiro constructed both the time-bomb and the time-gate using stolen shards of Anubian tech. In both cases, attempts were made to pull a demonic entity through space/time and into Haven. Both times, now, he's been foiled. While the possibility stands Kiro is the mastermind behind the conspiracy, there's serious doubt he could rally the Brotherhood, nor does he stand to gain in the destruction of Haven without some greater benefactor. He might be the force behind summoning/dealing with fey, however, particularly given his close nature to winter (air and cold magics).
Kari-Ula- Kiro's wife, a powerful wind wizard and part of the surviving genasi looking to kill the party on Magemound.
Gemini- Tabetha's lighter half, the exuberant expression of light, hope, and joy in her own magic.
Speaker Tabetha Melane-Kirk
Artificer-General Raziel Kirk
Nathan Kirk
Agent Velekova
Kurn
Notable Locations
Magemound
The Tower of the Peryton
Trapped Halls (Tower)
Chamber of the Arches (Tower)
The Spheroid / Time-Gate (Tower)
The Arcane Sanctuary (The Strange)
The Bridge of Doom and Promise (Dreamlands)
The Black Sands of Monument (Ethereal)
Monster List
Legendary Peryton
Air Genasi
Treasure
To be determined after combat with the air genasi and peryton...
Synopsis
Accompanied by Raziel and Nathan Kirk, as well as Agent Velekova and Aiden's faithful hound Kurn, the recollected party scaled Magemound and came to the Tower of the Peryton. Doorless and windowless, they entered by way of secret hand-paintings Roza learned about after absorbing an orc's knowledge through her blood magic. However, the party's meddling and the city's fire inspired the mages to erect protective enchantments which cast the party (unbeknownst to them) across the extradimensional tower, anchor planes, and an experimental, magic-amplifying, and knowledge-gleaning dimension created by the earliest wizards called The Strange.
Ilshana, stranded in a black desert with a milky, white ocean for a sky, navigated dark dunes to an unusual, swirling boulder of weathered stone hovering several feet off the ground. She came to realize the intricate carvings, maze-like across its face, were a map to the befuddling layout of the tower itself. By concentration alone, she was able to will herself back into the tower proper and into a very unusual study contained within The Strange. Fiery motes of knowledge burned in a hearth, flanked by towering bookcases brimming with old texts fitted with blubbering lips. As the bard accessed the knowledge contained in the orbs, the books spoke in voices ranging susurrations to screams. She learned Arsei Fyodor had been overthrown, and that Kiro-Sulos was now the Lord of the Tower and master of all the powers contained therein. Absconding with a mote, she exited the room, intent on finding the others. Unfortunately, crossing the checkered halls, onyx and ivory, stretching vast distances and marked with free-floating stairwells, she found herself lost and threatened by elementally-charged tile traps. Her trap avoidance became a deadly game of hopscotch down the corridors, until she skipped by an "old" friend...
Roza and Raziel stood on one of countless glassy stairwells, wrapped in ribbons of arcane energy, and leading to thousands of shimmering archways in an endless, starry void. They might have spent lifetimes trying the various paths, only to find themselves back where they started, but Roza called on the aid of the Guiding Star, Caiphon, visible in the black. He must have owed her master a favor, for the star flickered above the way out. Once exited, the two became separated, and the sorceress began exploring a long, barren hall whose floor was made of solid fire. Whenever an elemental tile trap triggered beneath her, Roza was able to counter it with her own elemental power in such a way she walked the halls of the tower unscathed and untroubled. Along the way, she came to realize she was walking a parallel dimension, what wizards called The Strange, and that the motes of light and energy passing by her were people, mages, walking the halls in the prime material plane. If they were going to complete their mission, they would have to reenter the physical world somehow.
Nel and Nathan stood on an ancient bridge of petrified wood, spanning a ravine that split a forested, dream-like realm into dawn and dusk. With no path back to the others, completely lost, and no doubt something dangerous and hungry lurking in the seemingly-idyllic landscape, Nel turned to her mother's constellation for guidance. It steered her in the right direction, Nathan pessimistic of their odds following a few stars in the sky in hopes of finding the way back. He wasn't so quick to judge when they arrived safely back in the tower. Relatively safely, at least, as it was only a few steps inside before they realized the tower was trapped. Balance, Nel believed, would counteract the roiling energies contained within the halls. Nathan suggested walking in tandem, but Nel agreed only on the preface the balance between man and woman would garner them trap immunity. As it turned out, she was right. They walked carefully down the hall in measured steps like a strange bridge and groom until Ilshana happened by. Sharing the mote with Nel, the death priestess uncovered some very dark and pressing truths: Not only was Arsei overthrown, but another Anubian shard had been stolen. Kiro-Sulos and his cadre had built a second device, a "time-gate" to pull something through into the present. It's arrival was imminent.
Cassandra, Aiden, Velekova, and Kurn landed in a room split down the middle, black and white, presumably the room any peryton mage would normally intend to go. One onyx and one ivory archway shimmered before them. Having seen one too many trapped archway in her day, Cassie tied a rope to an old boot and tossed it through one of the doorways. Moments later, it flew back out and kicked Aiden in the head. Not amused, he launched a marble bust through the opposite archway. To his disappointment, it did not come back and clock Cassie, rather stayed where it was. Pulling on the ropes, the two retrieves both items, suggesting either archway 'survivable'. Velekova took a chance on the bust-tossed arch and passed through. After waiting a few minutes, the siblings followed into one of the tower's elementally-trapped halls. Velekova had fallen victim, it seemed, to an ice trap, frozen solid. Before either could totally react, they noticed flickering colors on the tiles around them, threatening to burn them, freeze them, melt them, crush them, or electrocute them. The soles of Cassie's boots were melted away, and Aiden managed to undo the agent's condition by shoving her onto a red tile just beginning to flicker, before the trio booked it down the hall. With each trapped tile they hit, the three pulled a growing train of flickering, arcane tiles brimming with offensive magic. And after so many twists and turns, they passed right by the unsuspecting Roza begging her to 'magic it' away.
Roza chased after the others, now in the onslaught's direct path. Reaching one of the glassy stairwells, the sorceress turned and made her stand. She'd balanced the elements for singular tiles, but this was no less than fifty fatal charges crashing on her head like a typhoon. At last, a challenge, and against one she proved capable. Meeting power with power, redirecting it, circulating it, before finally discharging, the force rocked the foundation of the dimension and ripped a whole between The Strange and the tower. The sound drew the others, uniting the group before the rift. Bending their will, magic, and faith toward rescuing the speaker and stopping the time-gate, they harnessed the power of The Strange to get them -exactly- where they wanted.
Raziel was already there, cradling his wife beside her radiant clone Gemini. After some bubbly chitchat,
Notable NPCs
The God-King, Nor- Liberator of mankind, slayer of the elvish overlords, and founder the empire, Nor was the greatest psion of all time (eclipsing even Endymion Norson). A force for good in a time when humans were slaves, he and his saintly compatriots toppled the Gloriandelines and the Highking with them. Sadly, no one could carry the mantle with such dignity, wisdom, and authority as Nor, leading to the degeneration of the empire throughout the ages until it became the twisted Holy Nors Empire. While the Emperor seeks to make amends for oh so many imperial wrongs, perhaps the return of the God-King will hasten the healing...
"The Demonic Presence"- The entity the tower was attempting to pull through time and space and into the present, it could also be the intended target of the failed time-bomb. If so, its identity might serve as a clue to finding the master conspirator.
Kiro-Sulos- The true "Lord of the Tower" and leader of the perytons, who overthrew Arsei Fyodor even after his meeting with the speaker (as told by the ledger) looking for aid in retaking it. Aligned with the conspirators, Kiro constructed both the time-bomb and the time-gate using stolen shards of Anubian tech. In both cases, attempts were made to pull a demonic entity through space/time and into Haven. Both times, now, he's been foiled. While the possibility stands Kiro is the mastermind behind the conspiracy, there's serious doubt he could rally the Brotherhood, nor does he stand to gain in the destruction of Haven without some greater benefactor. He might be the force behind summoning/dealing with fey, however, particularly given his close nature to winter (air and cold magics).
Kari-Ula- Kiro's wife, a powerful wind wizard and part of the surviving genasi looking to kill the party on Magemound.
Gemini- Tabetha's lighter half, the exuberant expression of light, hope, and joy in her own magic.
Speaker Tabetha Melane-Kirk
Artificer-General Raziel Kirk
Nathan Kirk
Agent Velekova
Kurn
Notable Locations
Magemound
The Tower of the Peryton
Trapped Halls (Tower)
Chamber of the Arches (Tower)
The Spheroid / Time-Gate (Tower)
The Arcane Sanctuary (The Strange)
The Bridge of Doom and Promise (Dreamlands)
The Black Sands of Monument (Ethereal)
Monster List
Legendary Peryton
Air Genasi
Treasure
To be determined after combat with the air genasi and peryton...
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