The future selves

1. The child of Methos
The Oracle has called you in. she is dying. “Beloved, oh my beloved. I am not long for this world. I will not live to see your Enemy arrive, if I live to see another day. But I have a gift for you. A gift none of your kind may ever hold. It is our child… it is our son… Ooodubranairanon."

2. The war lords

Gerry heaves, and heaves… first there is a crack, then a small fissure appears in one end. It slowly begins to re-heal, and Gerry heaves again. And again. Suddenly, with a crack like thunder, the meteorite is broken!

3. The future selves

When the Enemy came… it was not the straight forward honest fight I think we all expected. We fought hard, we fought long, and eventually we began to push his forces back on the northern flank. The Sultans forces were responsible for this. We were almost to his flag ship, an enormous squid like thing surrounded by an aura of shadow, a ‘terror nimbus’. We were about to mount an offensive against him personally.

Then, it was the strangest thing, it was as if it had never happened. There was a blinding flash of black light from the terror nimbus, greatly draining it, yet time changed. It was as if the Enemy had gone back in time and changed history without us. He knew our tactics, he knew which inspired leaders to target. And the only ones who knew it had happened were those with power stones. We had no chance, we were outstretched and outclassed. Lauresia fell within the hour, the Sultancy was next. He sent a great fleet to destroy the Tris but they closed their portal just in time, leaving us to our fate.

We continued to fight; horrible, terrifying guerrilla warfare. Living in trenches, each new day brought news of new atrocities happening to loved ones. We don’t know when this happened to us… but it did… and now we are sure he knows everything we know…

(Now, what where your three suggestions of what to do about that again?)

The God Who Remained - part 2

He looks at you his eyes such endless pools of darkness you fear they may draw you in and you would be lost forever. Then, for the first time his eyes are filled with a light of hope. “Yes… what I did, I had to do, though it was not pleasant. I broke no law, though perhaps I was a little harsh... I will forgive myself. I will move on. I am no longer a slave to my past!!”

With a tremendous roar, The God Who Remained stands up, ribbons of glory as living flame burst from the air to envelope him. All around you, the stone crumbles and dissolves to leave a glorious landscape paved in pure gold, pillars of resplendent Lapis Lazuli reaching up into the depths of a star scaped heaven.

The God Who Remained breathes once more, and it is the deep breath of a man returning from the dead. His voice is full, complete, and inspiring. “I am free. You have helped set me free!” The light about him grows and gathers till it is too bright to imagine, and you are forced to look away or be blinded.

Then, with a clap of thunder, he is gone, and you are back on ground, outside the temple. All around you, millions of Logarmayon souls are waiting, looking intently at you. You sense they are grateful - Completely and enraptured with gratitude. Slowly, they begin to fade, and the Gods voice speaks to your mind.

“I am grateful. These may now move on, and be completed. I am grateful…”

(included treasure, a +4 large keen scythe of slaying, a gem for Lukat, and a large sized treasure chest - about two by one meters - full of charged Orizon crystals...)

The God Who Remained, part 1

Legends long forgotten speak of an ancient race of powerful beings. A race who built the Great Sphere, a race whose broken world now makes up the millions of islands of the Eversea. Legends that, if they are to be believed, speak of weapons of immense power, weapons that could slay a God, weapons that could shatter a world. Those same legends also speak of a forgotten deity who might offer knowledge of such weapons. A single God, a God known only as “The God Who Remained…”



… The constructs waited.

They had waited for a million years. Unmoving, uncaring. They waited. Theirs was eternity to own. They had no passion, they felt no boredom. They knew only one thought: At any cost - Do not let any take the crystal from the stone circle.

They heard the intruders long before the intruders knew they existed. They read their thoughts even before they’d found the eternally warring spirits of the Logarmayon. But the intruders were not trying to take the crystal from the stone circle, so the constructs waited.

They watched passionless as the intruders circumvented the warring spirits to enter the hall of learning. There the intruders repaired the Encyclopaedia, and there they learnt about the destruction of the Logarmayon; how they’d offended their god, and plotted their own divinity at any cost.

But they did not try to move the crystal, so the constructs waited.

They watched without feeling as the intruders went to the people’s tower. There they set free the five rebellious leaders of the people, whose greed and lust for personal power had turned the citizens against each other. The constructs listened as the intruders wondered why the God who Remained had done nothing to prevent this tragedy. They listened without sorrow as the intruders learnt that it was the God himself who had done this. The God who had slain his own people rather than wait for them to destroy themselves. The God who now would not forgive himself, and who had torn off a part of his soul rather than risk allowing himself to receive his own compassion.

Still they waited, for none tried to remove their crystal from the stone circle. And they would wait for ever for…

…suddenly it was gone.

A pair of stone arms had risen from the floor, enveloped the crystal which had been the focus of the growing divinity which the people had coveted, and it was gone. Only one had managed to unleash her lightening, but had missed.

And in less than a moment, the crystal was gone.

…

Their purpose had ended. With no instructions left to fulfil, the light in their eyes slowly dimmed as they each fell into the requisite dreamless inactivity. There, they would wait for further instructions. And they could wait forever, for theirs was eternity to own…

Peace among the natives and the Messed up present

“It’s all true!” Raining day explains to the children, “I was an enemy to the Tris. I held on to the old ways. But my friends, our true allies of Lauresia, took me back in time when the Empire of the Tris once stood. And there I learnt a painful lesson – they had once saved our people, saved them all! And we were in debt to them, a debt which must not be forgotten!


The children cheer. He continues:

“However, they had forgotten. And they took us for granted. They treated us like slaves. This broke our people and theirs apart. This is what created the debt which cannot be forgiven.”

The children gasp. He continues:

“I went back, to destroy them. But I stopped once I learnt that what I thought could not be forgiven must not be forgotten!”

Silence. Oblivious to their confusion, he continues.

“But we made a mistake. Going back in time, we moved a noble cat. Time divided against itself, and a boy who was not hurt did not prevent his mother from speaking against a cruel law. Then, when the war that approaches overtook them, we fought by their side to our deaths! It was the death of our people. We returned to the present only to find there were no Beastmen, no Sultancy, no Light in Lauresia. Their city was dark, held prisoner by an almost irresistible force of evil, compelling all to join in the battle in the war that comes. We had to go back in time and make an enemy of an ally or all our people would perish!”

One child, overtaxed by the cognitive demands, bursts into tears. He continues:

“So we went back, back to the Tris I now love. And with all the respect and gratitude I could muster, laid the smack down on that helpful Tris senator. They voted down a kind law, and now I am confident that after the war that comes our people of the past will survive! And with the mightly Empire of the Tris as our allies in the war that comes, our people of the present will survive!!”

“But sir!” A child asks.

“Yes?” Raining day replies.

“What’s a Tris…?”

The Heart of Stone

The ritual is long, and complex. Hundreds of druids participate in the month long preparations as two life forms prepare to merge into one – the first, a human druid, the second, an aincient world tree with a living emerald at its heart. Even with both participants willing, it is a terribly dangerous operation.


At its culmination Oma takes on the living embodiment a plant, permanently transmorphed into a being of wood for flesh and sap for blood. The change in irreversible. At the same time, the World tree submits to have its emerald heart transplanted into living flesh. Then, the two must become one, a hundred druids chanting in rhythm, as Oma steps into the world tree. With great care and practiced precision, his most trusted assistant Lima then removes his wodden heart and replaces it with the living emerald. There is a brilliant flash of green light, and the tree closes around his body, crushing it, permanently making it a part of its own even as his spirit is merged forever with the Tree’s. For a moment, nothing happens. Everyone waits with bated breath for one minute, then two. Then fifteen.

“This isn’t going to happen till the next full moon people.” Lima explains.

Mumbles of disappointment and confusion ensue, and the witnesses depart, upset at the lack of fireworks.

Two days later the ritual naturally completes itself, as during the first full moon of it’s new life, the now Fey Lord Oma steps silently from the World Tree, finally perceiving itself as a living and moving humanoid, finally experiencing himself as the perfect union of sentient nature as the World Tree.

It is Oma – Fey Lord of the World Tree…

The Shrine

We were those who died so that others might be free, we were those whose sacrifice you promised not forget. No greater love is there than this, than to die for those you love. This is our sacrifice, this is our legacy. Remember, Remember. Do not forget.

- Ikendri is now an epic level artifact (+3, superior cold 3d6, superior holy 3d6, cold iron intelligent greatsword with immunity to fire and the special mission of defeating evil outsiders, at another +3 and 3d6 superior bane ability. that's a +12 sword, by my calculations worth over 1 million GP. Yep.)

- You are all now level 17. You'll need to make a plan for where to go next. The enemy is approaching, and time is compressing. You had two years. You don't have that much time now. You don't know how much time there is left at all...

The Quest of the Fey Queen (pre christmas special)

The emissary from the Sultancy is elated, “you did it! Not one of a dozen diplomatic missions to the Fey Queen was able to secure her allegiance in the upcoming war! They all returned insulted, defeated, or covered in confetti. But you! You are the true hero’s. You must tell me what happened?”


A thousand thoughts no doubt run though you mind. What do you tell him? About the finding of the needle in the haystack? About the Menagerie markets and their puzzle ridden store keep? Perhaps you can tell him about your heroic defeat of the dark wizard Grugamel, thus setting free the diminutive blue gnomes of the forest (even before he could say ‘hey, did someone just stab me in the back?”) Perhaps you can explain the particular qualities of the demiplane of levity, and how it almost trapped you there forever? (Scooby seemed lively today, didn’t he?) Perhaps you should tell him of your heroic defense of the toymaker, demigod of gifts, or of your brief but tasty stay in the paraelemental plane of candy? Perhaps you can tell him how you did all this just to acquire a hairpin from the Fey Queen, so that she can use the needle in the haystack: as a hairpin!

Was it really such a waste of time? Or was there some message in the adventure that will help you unravel the mystery of the Great Enemy?

Then again, perhaps it all seemed too unreal. Perhaps you should tell him it was just a dream…