Adventure log for the sixteenth session in the "Legacy of the Martyr King" campaign.
Our heroes journey south and west, where they catch a ferry across to Narset. They then make their way across the mountains to Karem-Kora, the capital. The whole journey takes about three weeks.
In Karem-Kora they look around a bit, noting the temple of the God-King suspended over the river Niv. Then they head over to the High Temple of Darkness. Here they talk with a lower priest, then tell him their story. He reveals the symbol of darkness on our heroes wrists (how did they get there?) and takes our heroes to the high priest. On the way, our heroes realize that they are in the top floor of a sunken minaret - the obsidian minaret to be precise.
The High Priest tells them a story.
“In the beginning, there was the one god and the void. For many eons, the one God was happy and proud to play in the void. However, one day, The One God grew tired and lonely. He desired a companion.
"However, he could not simply make a companion. He could not share eternity with a creature of his own creation. This creature had to be new and surprising to him, or else he could not respect it.
"So he gave a small piece of his power to 6 spirits, and asked them to create a companion for him. The spirits were: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, and Dark. The One God asked these spirits to create a world, and a species, and set them in motion, such that one day an individual could appear who would be equal to his attention.
"So Fire and Water cooperated, and Water provided the basis for the terrestrial sphere, and Fire flew to the heavens and created the sun, warming the world. Earth and Air cooperated, splitting the world equally between them at the horizon. However, when the next Gods took the world in their hands, Light betrayed Dark. Instead of equally providing the basis and energy for life, Light sent Dark out into the void and created life in his own image. Dark was forced to skirt the boundaries of reality and plot his own return.
"So it went for many eons. The One True God was displeased with Light’s treachery, but protected the creatures of the earth from the one-sided pull of Light’s power. Man came to be, and, after hundreds of Generations, a woman appeared who appealed to the one God. The One True God built himself a house that would sap all his own powers and took the Woman to it and retreated from the world forever.
"However, the One True God had taken a liking to man. He knew that as soon as he left, the God of Light would begin using the power of man for his own goals. So, the one True God created weapons that could be used to kill a god. Should man ever desire to throw off the yoke of the God of Light, man should take up these weapons to defeat him. All of the Gods promised to protect these weapons. The Gods knew that the weapons would help keep the balance, should any individual God gain too much power.”
The High Priest pauses in his story. These are the weapons that the heroes need to take up. They have to destroy the God of Light with the weapons. The weapons are kept here, in the High Temple of Darkness, under the control of the weakest God, the God of Darkness. He does not know why the Heroes have been chosen, but if they defeat all 6 guardians of the weapons, then they will have proven themselves.
The High Priest of Darkness continues his story.
“However, the One True God underestimated man. When the One True God left, and the age of Eden was over, Man learned to use the powers of the Gods. They sapped the energy of the Gods through soulstones, and borrowed great portions of energies using magic.
"The God of Light was the most hurt. Because his essence was seen as the purest and most useful, his home and powers were severely weakened by Man’s Greed.
"And so, the Gods decided to end Man’s power. The Gods destroyed 15 soulstones simultaneously, breaking the boundaries between the worlds and opening dangerous and unstable gateways to their homes. Splinter Zones littered the land, and the Golden Age of Man ended in cataclysm.”
Castor realizes that he only knows of 14 shatter zones. The last shatter zone is unaccounted for.
Our heroes buy buffs, then head down into the minaret to face the guardians of the weapons.
The fire guardian deals some damage with a fire wall and scorching ray, but is ultimately dispatched (Nut is both blinded and invisible, basically sitting this one out). The water guardian, a gigantic crocodile, is one-shotted by Saffron before he can push our heroes into shark infested water. The swarms of wasps that represent the air guardian deal some damage but are overcome. The earth guardian, a gigantic shone golem, is almost one-shotted by Saffron. The guardian of darkness deals 5 strength damage to Saffron, but is overcome.
All that remains is the guardian of light!
It is now of August 16th, 2000 A.F. This session took 3 weeks. Nut got heroic favor for being blind and invisible. Our heroes played this session at level 8.
This is ANOTHER good read. Will you be publishing this as an adventure in the future?
ReplyDeleteI'm also really interested about the setting as well. Do you have resources that you are willing to share? I understand if you'd rather not!
I'm really looked forward to the next part!
I'm glad you like it! These adventure logs will come out one a day until the end of the campaign (Session 29).
DeleteI do have more materials for the setting, and I will likely put them on the blog either at the end of this "chapter" or after the last adventure log.
Publishing this as an adventure path would be a fairly large undertaking. However, if I had enough people tell me they would buy it I would be happy to produce. Crowd-funding and all that.