#seeking fame

[arcticdementor]

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Monster Hunt: The Aeromancer's Dragon

Your forecast for today: unscheduled thundershowers followed by falling debris and the destruction of city infrastructure. Be sure to watch your head, and bring an umbrella on your morning commute 

Setup: Usually charged with keeping the city’s skies clear, a squabble among a guild of weather-mages has resulted in the accidental release of a an elementally infused drake. Carrying within it the elemental energies of a once in a century storm, the creature is desperate to escape the warded wind-currants of the polis to a place where it can expand to its full and devastating potential. 

Adventure Hooks: 

While the leadership of the weather-mage guild would prefer to handle the drake’s capture internally, an up and coming member of their ranks sees this disaster as an opportunity to bolster her reputation and cast herself as the new face of her organization. To that end, she barges into the party’s lives with all the suddenness of a heartland cyclone, sweeping them up in her wake with promises of payment, commissions, and public accolades. Should the party follow this boisterous and braggadocios bravo they will find themselves engaging in some of the most dangerous ( and well spectated) stunts in order to end the beast’s rampage. 

With the drake already roaring through the sky, the party’s best bet is to ambush it at one of the spires throughout the city in which the weather-mage guild has constructed magical apparatus to regulate the local air-currents..As it is technically a weather feature, the storm-drake has an intuitive sense of where these devices are, and an understanding that if it wishes to break free, it must destroy as many as it can reach. 

Alternatively, you may wish to cast the party as member of the weather-mage guild, apprentices and hired muscle, tasked with fixing the mistakes of their superiors before it can truly damage their standing with the organization. 

Background: Of all the realm's many guilds, the Conscientious Fellowship of Aeromancers is one of the most indispensable: using their weather magic to protect ships at sea or bring rain in times of drought, with senior members of the organization sought out to charter specially tailored winds for special trade or diplomatic mission essential to the city’s further prosperity. 

Like all hierarchical organizations, the fellowship is beset by politics, old rivalries, and factionalism, and squabbles between these various groups can result in all manner of mishap. The drake itself resulted from two embittered old guild stalwarts engaging in one of their perennial duels of one-upmanship; one having tamed a rare spell-eating drake ( a prestigious conveyance and useful defense when your chief rivals are fellow mages), and the other brandishing a bottled storm of cataclysmic proportions ( testament to both their skill as a warder and a tacit threat should they wish to unleash it). Squabbles between these two were common place, but were never quite so obviously disastrous. 

Future adventures: 

Cooperating with the guild comes with many rewards, including access to their vast libraries of arcane and divinatory learning, as well as the services of chartered wind-voyages, favorable rainfall on privately held lands, and the ability to purchase lighting infused weaponry from the guild’s secret arsenal.  

An expedition is being planned out to the vast tear-green sea. While arcane infrastructure is the guild’s solution to most weather problems, they routinely need brave individuals to venture beyond their cloud-wreathed towers and head off problems before they become actual threats. This time? a hurricane gathering strength in tropical water that needs a critical amount of wind taken out of its sails before it makes landfall and does serious damage. 

The guild is hiding something. More than just regulating mundane weather phenomenon, they actively attempting to corneal the appearance of unnatural storms and other omens that may be portents of dangerous occurrences. The guild’s secret ledgers indicate these events are happening with increasing frequency, and in response the guild has dispatched a special branch of intelligence officers to suppress the discovery of this information. 

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Monster Hunt: The Brooding Tower

“You’d think getting divebombed by one of nature’s greatest predators whenever we stepped into the courtyard would be bad enough, but what REALLY gets to me is the noise. They’re chatty beasts, loud as a lion and shrill as a raptor, and it doesn’t take much more than a dropped bucket or a cock’s caw to have them circling the battlements shrieking battlecries for hours.” 

- Petrice Milberry, castle maid and mauling survivor 

Setup: The Duke’s palace has been invaded by a nesting pair of griffons, who’ve taken up residence in the northern tower and become extremely protective of their new perch. Having scared most of the castle denizens indoors and scouring the nearby countryside to feed their new chicks, the Duke is more than happy to pay the party handsomely for the removal of the beasts. 

Adventure Hooks

Freshly returned from a campaign in a neighboring province, the Duke and his warriors are too exhausted to repel the griffins with any large margin of success. Following his orders to exterminate the beasts will likely earn the party a place in his esteem, and perhaps patronage if they prove to be reliable agents for further missions.  

A bookish youth just having earned her spurs, the Duke’s daughter sees a potential for the Griffins that her father does not. The old lore speaks of knights that rode into battle on griffinback, meaning that the great predators can somehow be tamed. Though the adults are likely too far gone for such training, the noblewoman attempts to persuade the party to save the chicks and give them over into her care. 

The Duke’s mystic retainer, half mad with visions and frequently inaccurate in his predictions sees the griffins as a auspicious sign. His council is that the beasts are an omen of favor from some pagan god of victory, and that they should be left to raise their hatchlings in peace. If the castle can endure avi-feline occupation for a few months until the young griffins take flight, the castle ( and its owner) would surely receive some great blessing.  

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Villain: The Harbinger ( Wrathful Skies Adventure arc)

“Cower, Run, Scatter as Fieldmice before the Plunging Hawk. You Of Lesser Birth will rise to no greater glory than a swift death beneath our talon.” 

 Adventure Hooks: 

There’s a new face at the Duke’s court, said to have flown in out of the blue on the wings of a dragon and knelt to pledge his fealty right then and there. The rumors say that he never removes his helm, that he is invincible in battle, and that he is quickly accruing the Duke’s favor as he wins glories for his noble patron far and wide. 

The party, their noble family, or their well off allies find themselves increasingly sidelined in local politics as the duke showers honors on his new champion. More than just having the Duke’s ear, this cryptic crusader is accumulating more and more sway over the court, and seems to be reigning it towards uncertain ends. Perhaps someone should investigate this newcomer, and what exactly his true intentions might be. 

Just on the verge of completing an important quest that will earn them widespread renown, the party finds themselves ambushed by the drake riding knight and their prize wrested from their hands. While likely not able to defeat such a mighty warrior, they could steal back their due reward, (an artifact, hostage, or other important macguffin) but doing so will earn them a powerful enemy, along with the disfavor of the duke’s court. 

Setup: Behind his mask of courtly guile and obfuscating tales of chivalry, the Harbinger is a an agent of a malevolent sorcerer, who lifted him from ignominy and granted him his draconic mount and enchanted armor. The sorcerer has a grand scheme that requires the realm’s rulers turn their eyes elsewhere, and so has sent the Harbinger and several similar agents to beguile, divert, and distract important figures like the duke. 

Background: The Harbinger was once a noble in a far off land, but was exiled when his ruthless nature drew the ire of his subjects and earned him the disfavor of his peers. Wandering the world as a beggar knight, banditry and further disgrace eventually led him into the employ of his sorcerous master, who offered the Harbinger a chance to once again cloak himself in glory, if only the warrior would pledge his skill of arms and courtly graces to the mage’s ends. 

Further adventure

Opposing the Harbinger not only risks the party facing a foe who can wield sword and drakefire with deadly skill, but also the scorn of the courtiers that have fallen under the grey knight’s influence. Discovering the Harbinger’s true nature may even result in the party declared outlaws before they can bring the truth to light. 

Having made themselves enemies of the nobility, the party finds themselves pursued by an opponent who far exceeds their capabilities in combat and can track them tirelessly from the air while they tire over unsteady ground. With escape impossible, their only hope is to lay an ambush and unsaddle the knight from his deadly mount, as the two are seemingly unstoppable when fighting together.

Following the Harbinger on one of his far-ranging missions can lead the party across the realm to a grim fortress in the foothills of the mountains, seemingly eternally cloaked in storm. Drakes like the knight’s mount swarm there, attracted by some unknown purpose. 

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Dungeon: The Ashen Bastion 

Setup: It may not look it, but in a past age the broken spires and sulfurous vaults that guard this mountaintop were once the greatest fortress ever erected by mortal hands. Originally constructed by an alliance of kingdoms as the last line of defense against an army of invading giants, the fortifications of Kaelhaggar ( the last castle) played a pivotal role in many a storied battle.   

That was until the dragon showed up. Though the battlements of Kaelhaggar had tasted the scorch of dragonfire before,   Zindiiex the Skybleeder was an grand, ancient wyrm, flush with elemental power and capable of waking the stones beneath the fortress into volcanic life and choking the heavens with ash. 

Outmatched by the Wyrm, and with no reason to hold the fortress save past victories, the alliance retreated to their individual lands, marshaling their defenses for a second wave of attack that never came. Zindiiex was happy in her new lair, and though a few members of her brood come sweeping down from the mountain every few decades or so to carve out territory of their own, no one in recent memory has heard a whisper of the great wyrm. 

Adventure hooks: 

Many heroes lost their lives distracting Zindiiex and giving their comrades enough time to escape, one of whom was an ancient ancestor of a current partymember. Reclaiming evidence of this past glory could be just the boost needed to catipult the party into fame and glory, but doing so requires them to search the grounds of some of Kaelhaggar’s most climatic and ruinous battles. 

In need of drake flesh? The Ruins of the Ashen Bastion is lousy with it, fresh off the wing. Alchemists will pay dearly for elementally infused blood and other organs, while armorsmiths delight in the use of fire-resistant scales as pliable as leather and strong as steel. A true dragon only comes about in a brood once in a generation, so it’s not like anyone’s going to mind the party poaching a few of their feral cousins to make into a new pair of shoes, right?   

Convinced that her magic comes from a bloodline compact with the Skybleeder, a human cultleader has taken her disciples up the peak in hopes of communing with the long silent Wyrm. While most are happy to see a sect that worships fire and unchecked magic venture off to almost certain death, one of those disciples happened to be the disgraced son of a very prominent noble family who’d fallen head over heels for the emotionally volatile and romantically unavailable cult leader.  The family would very much like their pyromaniac heir back, and are willing to pay dearly to see it done quickly and quietly. 

Challenges & Complications: 

Visitors to the Ashen Bastion should be warry of their feet, as the dragon’s molten influence has begun to undermine the already battlescarred foundations. An otherwise innocuous chamber could collapse, sending the party tumbling through ruins and into smoke filled caves far below. Finding their way back out from these lower levels will require the party to face many other challenges, and really engage their exploration skills. 

Frequent Ash storms blanket the peaks, cutting visibility to nil and threatening to choke anyone caught out in them. Strange predators and still-burning spirits emerge from these storms, forcing the party to find shelter or fight a running gauntlet against foes they cannot see. 

Being an acient dragon, Zindiiex sleeps for decades at a time, leaving the drakes, kobolds, and cultists to oversee her domain and giving the outside world a little peace. As every aspiring treasure hunter knows, these naps are a PERFECT time to sneak in and swipe a few valuable items from her horde, but doing so might risk waking the dragon from her hibernation and setting her lose to desolate the countryside. Is the prize worth the risk? only the adventurers can say. 

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Adventure: Making the Cut

“Can’t have thin skin out here, landlubber, the wind’s liable to flay ye alive... if the cutthroats don’t get ye first... or the cold, or any o those sharp rocks. Honestly ye should probably stock up on bandages first or just forget the whole endeavor all together and keep that pretty face o yours unmarred.” 

-Captain Rasp

Setup: Sailors call this rocky peninsula “ The Sickle”, both for the crescent shape of the landmass on their charts and for it’s notorious reputation for cutting down ships. Everything here seems to be honed to a cold, hungry edge: the howling wind, the jagged reefs along the coast, the outcasts hiding in the hills. 

Despite it’s desolate drearyness, the Sickle was once a province of a great elvan dynasty, which was brought to ruin centuries ago in a war with an invasive force of humans who were looking to carve out a kingdom in the fertile lands the Sickle once guarded. 

Now abandoned by kingdom and dynasty alike, this miserable scrap of land at the ass-end of the world is ruled over in all but name by an elvan bandit by the name of Xoen Eskeria, a former dynastic courtier who survived the fall of his nation by selling his skills as an adviser and spymaster to their ascendant human neighbors.  Now well into his seventh century of life, Xonen has lived long enough to have his heart harden into ice, betray every person who ever considered him a friend, and watch the remains of his forsaken homeland plunge into the sea. It is only right that he faces the end of his life among the ruins of the peninsula, exiled among the ruins he helped to make

Adventure hooks:

Through the course of their usual adventuring, the party stumbles across a criminal conspiracy masterminded by Eskeria. Exiled some decades ago to the peninsula when one of his spyrings was compromised, the party risks drawing the attention of elf and his cadre of loyal outlaws should they risk exposing his plans. Alternatively, the elven ruins along the sickle have drawn explorers, sages, and treasure hunters for centuries, and that an unwitting party intent on exploring the most remote corners may stumble into Xonen’s hiding place completely by chance. 

Eskeria was named “The Three Crowns Killer” after he orchestrated the deaths of three powerful monarchs in less than eighty years. He delighted in the infamy, taking the three crowns as his sigil and inking them in bands around his left wrist. Should the party manage to slay him, their reputation will skyrocket, with folk beginning to whisper about the rise of the “Three Crowns Killers” 

Along with bandits, seamonsters and banshees, Those delving the ancient ruins should beware of the enchantments that still guard crumbling halls, having long deteriorated into chaotic new forms. Self-setting banquet halls that attract predators and won’t dare to let the party leave, paintings that capture the viewer in rapt attention, self driving carriages that won’t let you out unless you state your destination in high-elven. Collectors back on the mainland will pay top coin for some of these artifacts, once they’ve been properly diffused of course. 

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Adventure: Tyrant by Moonlight (A Plot in the Dark, part 1)

Setup:  Death stalks the land on frigid winds and grey wings. Flying low over settlements at night, A massive, slate scaled dragon has been appearing without warning and destroying clusters of buildings with blasts of it’s cryonic breath. All the while it raves in a madman’s voice, accusing unseen witnesses of treachery, and promising revenge long overdue. It seems to hate firelight, and villages across the kingdom rush to snuff any forge, lantern, candle, or hearth before the sun goes down less they become its next target. Two villages have been attacked already, and the wyrm looks to be making it’s way towards the capital.   

Panic is spreading. Life has come to a complete stop as people are affraid to use fire even in their day to day lives. Folk are fleeing into the countryside and attempting to find some kind of shelter, those dwarven and halfling settlements are swarmed with folk looking to hide underground. The crown has put out a call to all able hands, rewards are to be offered for information leading to the dragon’s lair, and any monster hunters capable of killing, even wounding the beast can expect a royal commission. 

Adnenture Hooks: 

The party lost an acquaintance or two in one of the first attacks, a family friend, a favorite contact or shopkeep that aided them earlier in their adventures. They are not alone in their grief. This beast is a treat to all and must be stopped at all costs. 

Other adventuring groups, heroes of the realm, and powerful individuals begin to reach out to to the party looking to pool their resources, split up the load of fining the creature's lair, researching possible ways to defeat it, and perhaps martial a defense in the few remaining settlements  between it and the populous capital. 

If the party has been out in the wilderness for some time, have them return home at dusk to find the town dark and the streets deserted. A friendly NPC will beckon them into shelter and explain the recent disaster, just before the wyrm begins it’s latest attack. 

Challenges and Complications: 

Tracking the dragon proves more difficult than first imagined. It’s well known that such a creature can range dozens of miles in a single night’s flight, so pinpointing it’s lair in a vast countryside will be difficult.  Whatsmore,  it disappears into the wilderness after every attack and leaves no sign of it’s passage in the process, almost as if it was never there in the first place. 

Intersession with oracles or other speakers of the divine reveal a commonality: great danger to the kingdom, but also deception, they can provide little other location other than the dragon’s next attack, as something seems to be shielding it from divination. 

Little is left of the buildings attacked by the dragon save for rubble suspended in greenish ice that is slow to thaw, producing jagged tableaus of destruction that linger for days after the tyrant’s passage. Close inspection of these sites by a well trained mind reveals a) the blast patterns all project outward from the buildings, rather than from above or at a raised angle, despite what witnesses say the attacks were like b) trace amounts of electrum shrapnel throughout the blast, along with finely ground malachite crystals, an ingredient often used in alchemy to amplify evocation reactions 

actually facing the dragon proves difficult, for even after overcoming it’s powerful aura of fear, it seems to shrug off most attacks, and focus on attacking various buildings. Should the players actually manage to strike it, they will eventually realize that their quarry is simply an illusion, a masterful trick of the mind that adapts to outside stimulus while maintaining its programmed rampage. Even if the illusion is dispersed, those buildings it was focusing on will explode in time erupting into the same jagged 

Something is desperately wrong. If the dragon was an illusion, when what was it covering? Why such a particular plan of attack? Who would be clever enough to plan such a scheme, let alone be skilled enough to pull  it off? 

[fearless-eagle]

The Good for Nothing Prophet

The Good for Nothing Prophet

I was reading this chapter and I find it so sad, not because of what happened to the prophet who disobeyed God, but because I know it is happening on a daily basis in today’s Church.  We are like the unbelievers, we want everything, we want it now and we do not want to work for it. Worse of all, we want titles at any cost. So, short of getting things from God, we go on making our own.  So,…

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