Adventure #3 - Unraveling the Past

[reefwood]

Unraveling the Past

1,041 YK (45 yrs after the Last War)

The order has worked for centuries to understand the Draconic Prophecy. In order to follow it. To get ahead of it. To prevent it. To avoid the fate that the dragons (or perhaps other powerful beings) wish to unfold. Whether it is to mold the world for their own purposes or undo creation, the order resists the transformation being thrust upon the world. This effort has provided some insights. Most of which are reserved for only the most powerful members of the order...

The Draconic Prophecy appears to be an outline. An order of steps. It is not fate itself, but threads of destiny that can be found and followed and fulfilled. It also seems to be alive in a sense. It reacts and adjusts. A single misstep, or even several, will not destroy the Prophecy because each step opens multiple paths to the next one. If one path is blocked, one must simply retrace it to its source and pick up another path to that same next step. As a result, it seems that the first steps taken in ages long ago were the most vital. At this point, the number of paths may be too great to uncover, let alone block.

However, this revelation has not deterred the order. It continues to study the Prophecy and thwart it whenever possible, but it has also been tracing the paths back through history. In search of key points in the distant past that can somehow be struck to unravel the Prophecy in its infancy.

[reefwood]

POST-SCRIPT

As the trio get back on their feet, they see that each has gained a fiendish physical feature. Razel has grown a pair of curved horns, Orpas has sprouted a scaly tail, and Kaaz's feet have turned into hooves. Also, the seeming living heart, lungs, and stomach cease to beat, breathe, and constrict. They turn stiff and crumble to dust.

Attention turns to the head that was trapped in the Khybershard as it begins to rise. It turns from side to side, and its many eyes blink as they take in their surroundings. There are fifteen eyes wrapped around the head and a larger one at the end of a stalk jutting from the top of it. As the head continues to rise, a ghostly neck forms at the base of the head and grows into a body that appears identical to the headless monstrosity that exploded only moments ago. The head has no mouth, but a voice fills the caverns. Voices. In every language imaginable and others unknown. Somehow the cacophony is perfectly intelligible:

The children of children, who tore and kept each other apart, have reunited the divided.

The children of children, who plotted against one another, have worked unified as one.

The children of children, who strayed in every direction, have taken a shared path.

The voices cease, the eyes close, and the head crumbles away. In its place is a spectral head to match the ghostly body. The entire figure begins to glow and grows brighter until it is blinding. Only for a moment. When the light fades, the trio find themselves floating in space. The universe all around them. The stars and planets are moving. Toward each other. They collide and explode in dazzling displays of destruction across the cosmos. Like fireworks of ruin. When it is all over, the universe goes dark. Another flash and fade finds the trio in space once again. The universe all around them. The stars and planets are moving. Away each other. They grow smaller and fainter for what seems an eternity. When it is all over, the universe is dark. A final reset puts the universe back in place one last time. Razel feels the power to pull the stars and planets toward her. Kaaz feels the power to push them all away. Orpas feels the power to stop their movement altogether. As they begin to take it all in, Kaaz feels his Word of Recall activate, and the trio find themselves back in the Labyrinth of the Demon Wastes...


[OOC: Kaaz, Orpas, and Razel have gained the ability to take on Fiend Form (Su) for a number of rounds per day equal to 3 +Charisma modifier. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Fiend Form
provides profane bonuses to ability scores as well as a fiend body, fiend boon, and fiend defenses. While in Fiend Form, you have an evil aura equal to that of an evil outsider of your HD, and you are considered to be evil and fiend-blooded for the purpose of spell effects, magic items, etc. Fiend Form is activated with a swift action and can be dismissed with a free action.

Additionally, Orpas now has a permanent stubby tail and Razel now has a permanent short pair of horns. Both are ineffective in their permanent form. Illusion effects cannot hide them. Polymorph effects do not change them, and in fact, if the polymorph form has a tail (Orpas) or horns (Razel), they are equally small and ineffective until Fiend Form is activated.


Fiend Form Benefits

Kaaz:
Fiend Ability: +2 Wis, +1 Con
Fiend Body: 2 hooves (1d6, primary attack)
Fiend Boon: Hooves increase base land speed by +10 ft.
Fiend Defenses: immune to poison, DR 10/silver

Orpas:
Fiend Ability: +2 Int, +1 Con
Fiend Body: Tail (1d6, primary attack)
Fiend Boon: Tail provides +2 bonus on all Str- and Dex-based skill checks.
Fiend Defenses: immune to electricity, DR 10/cold iron

Razel:
Fiend Ability: +2 Int, +1 Wis
Fiend Body: Gore (1d8, primary attack)
Fiend Boon: Horns provide +2 bonus to CMB and CMD on bull rush,
grapple, and overrun.
Fiend Defenses: immune to paralysis, DR 10/good]

[reefwood]

1,042 – 1,060 YK (46-64 yrs after the Last War)

1,044 YK – King Kaius ir'Wynarn III is revealed to be a vampire. While some citizens are pleased by the news, many more are frightened by what an undead leader may have in store for the living souls of Karrnath. The rebels channel this fear into rage, which spreads unrest across the nation. Furthermore, the revelation spurs other nations to act, and the rebels receive arms from Aundair, healers from the Talenta Plains, and calvary from Valenar warclans. Five more years of fighting concludes with a victorious overthrow, and Kaius flees into hiding.

1,047 YK – An event similar to the Day of Mourning ravages the Skyfall Peninsula of northern Xen'drik. The port city of Stormreach is destroyed, and with it, the only established route into the continent. However, unlike the oppressive gray mist shrouding the Mournland, which inhibits healing and can leave even the most seasoned traveler disoriented and weary, the purple haze of Skyfall is literally blinding and teeming with disease.

1,050 YK – Elemental rights groups, that have sprung up across civilized Khorvaire since the start of the century, rally together in Zilargo. They call for the freedom of elementals bound against their will as well as proper compensation and time limits for those willing to undergo the process. Months of demonstrations lead to official negotiations. The gnomes meet the demonstrators partway. They will not cease current operations but will provide the option – for customers willing to pay a higher price – of items bound with willing elementals. House Cannith agrees to only use willing elementals for its items moving forward, and House Lyrandar goes a step further by agreeing to retrofit its fleet over the next decade. House Merrix attends the talks but agrees to nothing.

1,053 YK – Thrane is finally cleansed of the bubonic plague, but more than half the southern population has been wiped out. Normal functions begin to resume as the months pass, but a food shortage in the winter sparks outrage. Citizens, disillusioned by the nobles who retreated to the north and the clergy who struggled to cure the plague, refuse to ship their meager harvest north, and a movement to secede emerges. Knights and templars are dispatched from Flamekeep to restore order, and martial law is enforced across the south.

1,056 YK – Flights of dragons are reported over the Dragonreach Sea between Khorvaire, Aerenal, and Argonnessen. Concerns are raised of what this could mean. Another war with the elves? Increased observance of the dragonmarked races? Or does the deep ocean hold a vital key to the Draconic Prophecy?

1,059 YK – Houses Cannith, Kundarak, and Orien unveil the latest technomagical wonder: teleport stations. A network of securely linked rooms spread over vast distances that allow teleportation between them and can be keyed to specific parameters.

[reefwood]

1,061 – 1,075 YK (65-79 yrs after the Last War)

1,061 YK – The floating towers above Arcanix, which housed the Arcane Congress, come crashing down. Witnesses from afar report a shimmering in the air as they fell. Just as quickly as the towers plummeted, debris from the wreckage floated back up to fill the sky. Official reports blame a temporary severing of the manifest zone to Syrania, but accusations are whispered that Thrane or the Twelve played a part.

1,063 YK – Years of suppression in Thrane boil over as citizens across the south take to the streets shouting, “No royals, no gods, no masters!” It is soon discovered that the masses are led by a legion of lycanthropes known as the Wildbloods.

1,064 YK – The Order of the Emerald Claw emerges from the shadows to deliver King Kaius III to the new Karrnathi government. A lengthy trial finds Kaius guilty of plotting to transform the living masses of Karrnath into undead thralls. An all-night vigil is held to pray for the souls of those already lost to his machinations, and the former king is publicly executed at dawn by the rising sun. Additionally, much fanfare and acclaim from the citizenry results in the 84-yr old ban on the Emerald Claw being lifted.

1,070 YK – A shocking discovery is made when a band of goblinoids are killed after plundering a great vault maintained by House Kundarak in Zilargo. They had manifested aberrant dragonmarks. More powerful than have been seen in over 2,500 years, according to the gnomes who fought them. House Sivis immediately calls for a second War of the Mark to purge this dire threat. Most other dragonmarked houses fall in line, but House Tharashk and House Deneith abstain. The war lasts for two years and comes to an end when reinforcements from Droaam shatter the blockade around Darguun and strike out against dragonmark house enclaves across Khorvaire. The war fails to eliminate the goblinoid dragonmarks and it unites the goblinoid factions to a degree never seen in the current age.

1,073 YK – Temperatures in the life-twisting Gloaming region of the Eldeen Reaches plummet. The sickly vegetation within is unaffected, but surrounding plants wither and die. The next year, sickly vegetation takes root where healthy plants once thrived. This cycle repeats the following year. Slowly but surely expanding the Gloaming.

1,074 YK – The draconic remains filling the Boneyard of the Talenta Plains take flight. Skeletal dragons are reported soaring over Q'barra and Valenar. Diving down to attack lizardfolk tribes and elven warclans. Sailors even claim to have seen the skeletons further south heading toward Aerenal.

[reefwood]

1,076 – 1,085 YK (80-89 yrs after the Last War)

1,076 YK – Flamekeep falls to the Wildbloods. The royal family is imprisoned, and Silver Flame leaders are put to the torch as retribution for the inquisition that nearly drove lycanthropes extinct two centuries ago. The nation is divided into a confederation of independent “weredoms” no longer bound to the Treaty of Thronehold or any other obligations agreed to by Thrane. They refuse to enter into talks with any nations but do negotiate with the dragonmarked houses and invite all lycanthropes and shifters to settle in the Wildblood Weredoms.

1,077 YK – A legion of warforged march out of the waters surrounding Thronehold - where peace talks brought an end to the Last War - and lay waste to it. All nations are shocked, and House Deneith is particularly enraged for the loss of its most elite troops. Forts in Breland, Darguun, Karrnath, Thrane, and Valenar suffer similar fates over the next two years and remove any doubt that these attacks are staged from the Mournland.

1,078 YK – Decades of conquering and unification led by the strongest drow tribes of Xen'drik has split control of the continent among three ruling clans. These new drow nations of sorts agree to cease fighting each other and shift their aim as one to Aerenal. Bolstered by Giant artifacts, the drow are able to take the jungle island of Thal Taluna within the year.

1,079 YK – All signatory nations of the Thronehold Accords agree to a formal declaration of war against the warforged raiders emerging from the Mournland. Those refused a seat at the original talks - Droaam and the Shadow Marches – decline to participate, as does House Tharashk and its monstrous mercenaries.

1,080 YK – Mourners, as they call themselves, deliver sermons on city streets across Khorvaire. Preaching of the inevitable doomsday for “soft bloods” and the coming Age of Constructs.

1,081 YK – Sabotage and terrorist attacks against nations fighting the War of Mourning result in many warforged citizens being placed in concentration camps (Breland, Aundair, Karrnath), exiled (Mror Holds, Q'Barra, Valenar), or enslaved (Darguun). However, the Shadow Marches offer refuge to all warforged willing to work the dragonshard fields.

1,082 YK – The allied nations in the War of Mourning, which focused primarily on defense and training, take the offensive and march into the gray mists. Clashes against warforged armies and twisted monsters result in stunning losses but provide vital strategic intel.

1,083 YK – The drow gain a foothold in western Aerenal and establish encampments in the Blackwood Jungle. However, they meet furious resistance in the Blackwood Peaks, which must be crossed to reach the rest of the continent.

1,083 YK – The Silver Flame is snuffed out, and a wave of fiendish energy erupts from Flamekeep. Transforming almost every person and creature into a vile monstrosity for 500 miles in every direction. Caught in this wake are the capitals of Aundair and Karrnath. Their loss is a crippling blow to the northern front in the War of Mourning.

1,084 YK – Seren tribes from Argonnessen launch raids on eastern Aerenal. Rumored to be among them in disguise are powerful dragons leading the charge, and the devastating success of these barbarians lends credence to this claim.

1,085 YK – Darguun pulls the majority of its forces off the Mournland border and invades Zilargo. Zolanberg and its jewel mines are seized. Korranberg is put to the torch and lost in the flames are its world-renown library. Simultaneously, Droaam launches an overwhelming assault against Breland, and the western third of the nation falls within weeks.