Sabishii
2013-02-01, 10:39 AM
Adventure Background
Adventure Background: From Whence
This Darkness
The Kingdom of Talingarde (pronounced Talonguard)
is perhaps the noblest, most virtuous and peaceful
nation yet founded. The royalty of this dominion has
rescued a dispirited people from the brink of despair and
darkness. They dealt with their enemies honorably and
their allies faithfully. Talingarde is a paragon of the age,
a bright shining city upon a hill. Yet the nation faces now
its greatest test. That test is you. It is the ambition of our
protagonists to do nothing less than destroy Talingarde
utterly.
Why must this be done? Not for the sake of simple
malice. This is a holy purpose. Once the people of Talingarde
(the Talireans as they are known) worshipped a
great pantheon of deities deemed worthy of respect. That
pantheon included Asmodeus, the Lord of Nessus, the
devil god and master of hell. Asmodeus was not necessarily
loved, but he was rightly feared and respected. The
new royalty, the House of Darius, are devout worshippers
of the sun god Mitra, arch-enemy of Asmodeus. They
have elevated the Shining Lord to the head of the pantheon.
Further, their regime has outlawed the worship
of Asmodeus and purged the cults of the Prince of Devils
from their island. No doubt this has made Talingarde a
better place.
Alas, they missed one.
This plot against Talingarde was born in the mind of
that one surviving high priest. Samuel of Havelyn always
stood in the shadow of his brother Thomas. Born into a
noble house, Samuel was the second son of Lord Richard
Havelyn and at an early age was given to the clergy of
the great god Mitra. He showed amazing promise and
proved a brilliant scholar. In time, he would become a
great man of the church and was elevated to the rank of
High Priest at an usually young age.
None of these sedentary deeds impressed his father.
Lord Richard always viewed his second son as a layabout,
inferior to the knight and commander that his first son
Thomas had become. Samuel resented the old man but
took solace in his scholarly pursuits and his firm faith.
Samuel’s life seemed destined for quiet contemplation
and distance from his family. Then Samuel met Bronwyn.
Bronwyn of Balentyne was perhaps the greatest beauty
of her generation. Samuel fell deeply in love almost instantly
and, using all his wit and charm, befriended her.
His hope was that with time he could turn friendship into
love. And who can say -- perhaps, he might have. But
fate would not have it so.
Instead, the High Priest Samuel brought Bronwyn to a
family gathering to introduce her to his kin. There Bronwyn
met the handsome knight Thomas and love had its
way. Their love was fast, deep, true -- the stuff of fairy tale
and legend. Samuel was unable to feel happiness for his
brother and instead burned with fury and jealousy. This
was a personal betrayal of the highest order. Thomas had
stolen Samuel’s beloved!
When Samuel confronted his father and demanded
that Lord Richard speak to Thomas, the old man only
laughed. “What would you have me do, boy?” the old
man rasped. “Tell Tom to avoid the most beautiful girl
who ever loved him?” Samuel was devastated. As he
watched the love between Thomas and Bronwyn blossom,
devastation festered into hatred and rage.
Upon Thomas and Bronwyn’s wedding night, Samuel
called upon Asmodeus for the first time. He invoked the
powers of the inferno to curse the young newlyweds. The
curse would claim the life of Bronwyn, causing her to die
in child birth. Still her child survived and was named for
his grandfather, who had died the year he was born --
Richard Thomasson of Havelyn. This young boy would
grow to be a great paladin and will become our band of
villains’ greatest nemesis.
As for Samuel, his first use of infernal power would
not be his last. He diligently pursued the study of the
infernal to increase his personal might. He collected a
great library of banned and blasphemous books. Even
as he did this, he rose to become one of the princes of the
Mitran faith -- a Cardinal. But in time he was discovered
for what he truly had become -- a cultist of the Lord
of Hell. During the Asmodean purges, he was captured,
tried, condemned, branded and burned at the stake with
his library heaped at his feet. His name was forever
stricken from the roles of the church and his family. For
any normal man, this burning would have been fatal.
But Samuel, thanks to infernal pacts and the resistance to
fire they granted, survived the pyre.
Barely alive, this once great man of the cloth crawled
naked and scarred from an unmarked pauper’s grave into
a sacred mausoleum. Cold and alone, the burned husk
invoked a great and terrible prayer to the Prince of Hell.
He whispered to the darkness promises of fire, death and
retribution upon Talingarde, and the darkness heeded.
He was reborn that night merciless and immortal -- a
lich. He kept his rank calling himself a Cardinal but took
the name Adrastus Thorn. He would have his vengeance.
Cardinal Thorn’s Plan
Cardinal Thorn fled to the savage north and, guided
by his devil-god, met another follower of Asmodeus --
a great black-furred bugbear war chief named Sakkarot.
Thorn would gain Sakkarot’s allegiance by crafting him
an infernal weapon -- an axe made of hellfire. There in
exile, Cardinal Thorn conceived how to gain vengeance
and to fulfill his oath. He laughed long, loud and terrible
in his icy sanctum when he realized that his plan might
just work.
Adrastus would bring war to peaceful Talingarde. He
would unite the scattered northern bugbear tribes under
Sakkarot and weaken Talingarde’s defenses through fifth
column agents. These agents include the PCs. The shaggy
barbarians of the north had attacked Talingarde before
but had always been repulsed largely, the learned Thorn
knew, for five reasons:
• The bugbears are disorganized
• The Watch Wall guards the frontier
• The Holy Order of Saint Macarius provides
healers for army and peasant alike
• The Knights of the Alerion serve as the center of
Talingarde’s military
• The Royal House of Darius unites the realm
With Sakkarot he would overcome the first obstacle
-- uniting the bugbears. Then he would break the other
four pillars of Talingarde’s might one by one and the land
would be left defenseless against the goblinoid onslaught.
Who then in this darkest hour would ride to Talingarde’s
rescue? None other than an army recruited from
the mainland by a banished scion of the royal family that
reigned before the rise of Darius. This scion would rout
the bugbears, restore the kingdom and become the new
monarch.
And who would be this great paragon’s patron deity?
He would revere none other than the unjustly banished
Asmodeus, Lord of Order and Ambition. The people
would welcome the devil prince back into their hearts
and Talingarde would be given into the hands of the fallen.
What greater revenge than to rule over the very land
than had once turned against you?
It is an ambitious plan and there is much to be done if
it shall come to pass. In secret, Cardinal Thorn turns all
his mind, might and magic ceaselessly to this great and
wicked work.
World Map (http://www.firemountaingames.com/images/Talingarde.png)
Battle Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvX7PnVZUtR1dFc1SDREZ2dfRUM4WmljUXpwbHRGN Gc&usp=sharing)
OOC Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270022)
And So It Begins...
In the kingdom of Talingarde, many crimes may send you to Branderscar Prison, but the sentence has but one meaning. You are wicked and irredeemable. Each of you received the same greeting when you arrived. You were held down by rough hands and branded upon the arm with a runic F. The mark signifies ‘forsaken’ and the painful scar is indelible proof that each of you has betrayed the great and eternal love of Mitra and his chosen
mortal vassals.
Condemned, you face at best a life of shackles and servitude in the nearby salt mines. Others might await the “gentle” ministrations of the inquisitors so that co-conspirators may be revealed and confessions extracted. Perhaps,
some of you will be spared this ordeal. Perhaps instead you have come to Branderscar to face the final judgment. In three days, the executioner arrives and the axe falls or the pyre will be lit. Through fire or steel, your crimes
will be answered.
You have all been chained together in the same communal cell dressed
in nothing but filthy, tattered rags. Manhandled and mistreated, any finery
you once possessed is either ruined or long lost. No special treatment has been given any prisoner – male or female, commoner or noble – all of the forsaken are bound and imprisoned together. Your feet are secured by iron cuffs tethered by one long chain. Your arms are secured to the wall
above by manacles. A guard is posted right outside the cell day and night.
Little thought is given to long term accommodations. At Branderscar,
justice comes swift and sure.
Escape seems hopeless. You have all been well searched and every attempt to conceal anything on your person has failed. And if you could somehow slip your bonds and fly out of this prison, where would you go? Who from your
former life would want anything to do with the forsaken? Despised, alone and shackled – all that you can do now is await your doom.
For each of you, your old life is over. For each of you, hope is a fading memory. For each of you, justice will be fairly meted. And who can blame fair Talingarde after what each of you has done?
Introduce yourselves either through talking with the other PCs in the cell or through rumination. I will also need everyone to roll a charisma skill check (1d20+CHA Mod).
Adventure Background: From Whence
This Darkness
The Kingdom of Talingarde (pronounced Talonguard)
is perhaps the noblest, most virtuous and peaceful
nation yet founded. The royalty of this dominion has
rescued a dispirited people from the brink of despair and
darkness. They dealt with their enemies honorably and
their allies faithfully. Talingarde is a paragon of the age,
a bright shining city upon a hill. Yet the nation faces now
its greatest test. That test is you. It is the ambition of our
protagonists to do nothing less than destroy Talingarde
utterly.
Why must this be done? Not for the sake of simple
malice. This is a holy purpose. Once the people of Talingarde
(the Talireans as they are known) worshipped a
great pantheon of deities deemed worthy of respect. That
pantheon included Asmodeus, the Lord of Nessus, the
devil god and master of hell. Asmodeus was not necessarily
loved, but he was rightly feared and respected. The
new royalty, the House of Darius, are devout worshippers
of the sun god Mitra, arch-enemy of Asmodeus. They
have elevated the Shining Lord to the head of the pantheon.
Further, their regime has outlawed the worship
of Asmodeus and purged the cults of the Prince of Devils
from their island. No doubt this has made Talingarde a
better place.
Alas, they missed one.
This plot against Talingarde was born in the mind of
that one surviving high priest. Samuel of Havelyn always
stood in the shadow of his brother Thomas. Born into a
noble house, Samuel was the second son of Lord Richard
Havelyn and at an early age was given to the clergy of
the great god Mitra. He showed amazing promise and
proved a brilliant scholar. In time, he would become a
great man of the church and was elevated to the rank of
High Priest at an usually young age.
None of these sedentary deeds impressed his father.
Lord Richard always viewed his second son as a layabout,
inferior to the knight and commander that his first son
Thomas had become. Samuel resented the old man but
took solace in his scholarly pursuits and his firm faith.
Samuel’s life seemed destined for quiet contemplation
and distance from his family. Then Samuel met Bronwyn.
Bronwyn of Balentyne was perhaps the greatest beauty
of her generation. Samuel fell deeply in love almost instantly
and, using all his wit and charm, befriended her.
His hope was that with time he could turn friendship into
love. And who can say -- perhaps, he might have. But
fate would not have it so.
Instead, the High Priest Samuel brought Bronwyn to a
family gathering to introduce her to his kin. There Bronwyn
met the handsome knight Thomas and love had its
way. Their love was fast, deep, true -- the stuff of fairy tale
and legend. Samuel was unable to feel happiness for his
brother and instead burned with fury and jealousy. This
was a personal betrayal of the highest order. Thomas had
stolen Samuel’s beloved!
When Samuel confronted his father and demanded
that Lord Richard speak to Thomas, the old man only
laughed. “What would you have me do, boy?” the old
man rasped. “Tell Tom to avoid the most beautiful girl
who ever loved him?” Samuel was devastated. As he
watched the love between Thomas and Bronwyn blossom,
devastation festered into hatred and rage.
Upon Thomas and Bronwyn’s wedding night, Samuel
called upon Asmodeus for the first time. He invoked the
powers of the inferno to curse the young newlyweds. The
curse would claim the life of Bronwyn, causing her to die
in child birth. Still her child survived and was named for
his grandfather, who had died the year he was born --
Richard Thomasson of Havelyn. This young boy would
grow to be a great paladin and will become our band of
villains’ greatest nemesis.
As for Samuel, his first use of infernal power would
not be his last. He diligently pursued the study of the
infernal to increase his personal might. He collected a
great library of banned and blasphemous books. Even
as he did this, he rose to become one of the princes of the
Mitran faith -- a Cardinal. But in time he was discovered
for what he truly had become -- a cultist of the Lord
of Hell. During the Asmodean purges, he was captured,
tried, condemned, branded and burned at the stake with
his library heaped at his feet. His name was forever
stricken from the roles of the church and his family. For
any normal man, this burning would have been fatal.
But Samuel, thanks to infernal pacts and the resistance to
fire they granted, survived the pyre.
Barely alive, this once great man of the cloth crawled
naked and scarred from an unmarked pauper’s grave into
a sacred mausoleum. Cold and alone, the burned husk
invoked a great and terrible prayer to the Prince of Hell.
He whispered to the darkness promises of fire, death and
retribution upon Talingarde, and the darkness heeded.
He was reborn that night merciless and immortal -- a
lich. He kept his rank calling himself a Cardinal but took
the name Adrastus Thorn. He would have his vengeance.
Cardinal Thorn’s Plan
Cardinal Thorn fled to the savage north and, guided
by his devil-god, met another follower of Asmodeus --
a great black-furred bugbear war chief named Sakkarot.
Thorn would gain Sakkarot’s allegiance by crafting him
an infernal weapon -- an axe made of hellfire. There in
exile, Cardinal Thorn conceived how to gain vengeance
and to fulfill his oath. He laughed long, loud and terrible
in his icy sanctum when he realized that his plan might
just work.
Adrastus would bring war to peaceful Talingarde. He
would unite the scattered northern bugbear tribes under
Sakkarot and weaken Talingarde’s defenses through fifth
column agents. These agents include the PCs. The shaggy
barbarians of the north had attacked Talingarde before
but had always been repulsed largely, the learned Thorn
knew, for five reasons:
• The bugbears are disorganized
• The Watch Wall guards the frontier
• The Holy Order of Saint Macarius provides
healers for army and peasant alike
• The Knights of the Alerion serve as the center of
Talingarde’s military
• The Royal House of Darius unites the realm
With Sakkarot he would overcome the first obstacle
-- uniting the bugbears. Then he would break the other
four pillars of Talingarde’s might one by one and the land
would be left defenseless against the goblinoid onslaught.
Who then in this darkest hour would ride to Talingarde’s
rescue? None other than an army recruited from
the mainland by a banished scion of the royal family that
reigned before the rise of Darius. This scion would rout
the bugbears, restore the kingdom and become the new
monarch.
And who would be this great paragon’s patron deity?
He would revere none other than the unjustly banished
Asmodeus, Lord of Order and Ambition. The people
would welcome the devil prince back into their hearts
and Talingarde would be given into the hands of the fallen.
What greater revenge than to rule over the very land
than had once turned against you?
It is an ambitious plan and there is much to be done if
it shall come to pass. In secret, Cardinal Thorn turns all
his mind, might and magic ceaselessly to this great and
wicked work.
World Map (http://www.firemountaingames.com/images/Talingarde.png)
Battle Map (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvX7PnVZUtR1dFc1SDREZ2dfRUM4WmljUXpwbHRGN Gc&usp=sharing)
OOC Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270022)
And So It Begins...
In the kingdom of Talingarde, many crimes may send you to Branderscar Prison, but the sentence has but one meaning. You are wicked and irredeemable. Each of you received the same greeting when you arrived. You were held down by rough hands and branded upon the arm with a runic F. The mark signifies ‘forsaken’ and the painful scar is indelible proof that each of you has betrayed the great and eternal love of Mitra and his chosen
mortal vassals.
Condemned, you face at best a life of shackles and servitude in the nearby salt mines. Others might await the “gentle” ministrations of the inquisitors so that co-conspirators may be revealed and confessions extracted. Perhaps,
some of you will be spared this ordeal. Perhaps instead you have come to Branderscar to face the final judgment. In three days, the executioner arrives and the axe falls or the pyre will be lit. Through fire or steel, your crimes
will be answered.
You have all been chained together in the same communal cell dressed
in nothing but filthy, tattered rags. Manhandled and mistreated, any finery
you once possessed is either ruined or long lost. No special treatment has been given any prisoner – male or female, commoner or noble – all of the forsaken are bound and imprisoned together. Your feet are secured by iron cuffs tethered by one long chain. Your arms are secured to the wall
above by manacles. A guard is posted right outside the cell day and night.
Little thought is given to long term accommodations. At Branderscar,
justice comes swift and sure.
Escape seems hopeless. You have all been well searched and every attempt to conceal anything on your person has failed. And if you could somehow slip your bonds and fly out of this prison, where would you go? Who from your
former life would want anything to do with the forsaken? Despised, alone and shackled – all that you can do now is await your doom.
For each of you, your old life is over. For each of you, hope is a fading memory. For each of you, justice will be fairly meted. And who can blame fair Talingarde after what each of you has done?
Introduce yourselves either through talking with the other PCs in the cell or through rumination. I will also need everyone to roll a charisma skill check (1d20+CHA Mod).