The End of Innocence

Bandits defeated, Arzet and friends returned to Adov as heroes. The town was hungry for good news, and a band of plucky teens rescuing hostages from vicious outlaws was just what it needed. But beneath this victory lay unanswered questions: what was this spooky eye amulet, where were these bandits taking people, and what was going on with the gathering cultists?

Coming of Age

First thing was first, to lay Arika Coppersmith to rest. Arzet loaded the body onto a boat in Adov and rowed over to the town of Hodov, where Arika had been a local smith and where her family waited for her. Her wife Nilabel and her niece Kosha received the body for burial, and hosted Arzet as an honored guest. When Arzet brought up the amulet, they didn't have any awareness of what it was but did call in the town sorcerer to investigate it. Hodov's sorcerer, Evenett, was a tall starspawn with a gruff attitude who had been traveling around the lake fighting off bandits and monsters. She recognized the symbol as Kivish , common in the gathering cult that was gathering forces in the wasteland. Arzet and Evenett agreed to work together to fight off these cultists and protect their homes.
Arzet kept the amulet wrapped and stowed away as he went back to training with Rekala. Over the next months, Arzet finalized his mastery of Conjuration and was able to summon a new vestige, a hype-Kobold named Kiji. Kiji was supportive of Arzet's knowledge-journey and pledged to support him as long as he pursued knowledge whenever possible. Rekala noticed the jump in Arzet's skills and decided to give Arzet more freedom of movement - but did request that Arzet bring her a new apprentice to take care of chores around the tower. Eventually, the Frelden Festival - the Uvaran New Year celebrating spring and the rebirth of Ustav - meant that it was time to return to Adov. The Frelden Festival is also the coming of age ceremony for much of the Uvaran world, and Arzet was officially of age this year to participate in the ceremonies.
Arzet's mothers dressed him in a robe of flowers and colorful fabrics and escorted him with lit candles from their house to the Temple. He and the other teens of the village gathered, and were ritually counted in song. They dressed a pig in the colors and symbols of the passing year and slaughtered it on the steps of the temple, then cooked its meat. Cuts were given to the teens, and the rest was taken to be eaten by the rest of the village. The teens met up at the festival grounds with the other village's teens - Adov was hosting this year, and all the other lake towns sent their kids-turned-adults to celebrate together. The teens mingled, pairing up for the upcoming dance, as the rest of their villages feasted and sang together. Arzet decided to network, and sought out a promising candidate to be the new novice for Rekala. They found such a candidate in a starspawn named Horkmar from the village of Gurbek - a lonely boy with a hunger for learning. The symbols of the old year were set on fire, and memorial effigies to those who died that year were fed to it. The symbols of the new year were displayed, and the teens leapt through the fire, reborn as adults. The newly-minted adults danced among the maypoles as the village cheered and sang and drank. The ritual was over, the party was on!
The party continued into the night, until a series of lights were spotted on the lake. The crowd assumed they were festival lights, but they soon proved to be a mass of riverboats approaching from the East. Arzet and Kipilu (the merchant) fired a firework at them to test for a response; a blood-red magical flare fired back. Magically enhanced, a voice from the boats called for alarm and asked for help. Arzet and the teen squad hurried to get in a boat to head their way, to investigate before the boats arrived. The boats were led by Evenett, the sorcerer of Hodov, and were filled with refugees and wounded people. The village of Gurbek to the East, distracted with the festival, had been fallen under attack by cultists and monsters. The village called for aid, and the other villages hurriedly met to discuss what to do. If they were going to save the remaining people of Gurbek, they needed to send everything they could immediately. Some wanted to focus on defense until things settled, some wanted to save Gurbek, and others wanted to send to Rolkirk (the governing castle of the lake) for aid. Evenett and Arzet discussed what to do aside from everything, and Arzet decided to go for Rolkirk - they needed a long term solution to this. As the son of the woman who had gone to Rolkirk last time a village fell under attack several years ago, Arzet was the perfect volunteer and was immediately accepted by the villages to go. Arzet asked Evenett and his mother, Itko, to join him, as well as the teen squad. With Evenett going with Arzet, the villages elected to focus on themselves and Rolkirk and left the last of the village of Gurbek to fall alone.

Rolkirk Dreams

The expedition to Rolkirk left the next day by boat. Itko already knew the baron there, Inek; Evenett had the firepower to get them out if things went badly. When they arrived at Rolkirk, the castle and surrounding town were larger than they were supposed to be. A large realistic statue of Inek looked over the docks, and the people at the docks were strange. The dockmaster treated them as honored guests and seemed particularly interested in Arzet. They were told that they had been invited by Inek and were expected inside. They were escorted to the castle, which was strangely luxurious and grand on the inside like a royal palace. Inek and his knights waited with tea in the ballroom, and seemed to treat the whole crisis like a matter of conversation. Arzet tried to probe Inek for information, but struggled to get anywhere useful. The baron kept exploring tangents and musings, refusing to take anything seriously. After what may have been hours, Arzet finally started to make progress - it was implied that Inek was buying slaves from the cultists and supposedly freeing them, and that he didn't even know when the castle had gotten this big.
Before Arzet could finally get Inek to accept that this was a crisis, there was a knock at the door. Guests arrived, led by a Lady Rula, some aristocrat of ambiguous origins who seemed half-kobold and half-human. She whipped the event into an all-out ball and began monopolizing baron Inek's time. Arzet sent his familiar, Ratticus, to spy on their conversation, and overheard that there was some effort to send packages of some sort into the Kingdom of Hain. Inek was failing to do his job, whatever that was. Arzet confronted Rula, and the two danced. They had the strangest conversation about dreams and whether the world was a dream. Another knock at the door, another guest: Rula's husband, Lord Aru - half kobold again, but with the parts swapped. Aru was a weird combination of mean and awkward, and Inek seemed to be avoid him. Rula went to go take her luggage to her room and get settled in the castle, and Arzet followed. He snatched a journal from Rula, containing hand-drawn pictures of him that she got defensive about. The two went to her room to talk, and almost shared a kiss.
Meanwhile, Ratticus followed Lord Aru, the husband. While Arzet was distracted, Aru was rummaging through Arzet and the party's rooms and bags. He then crept to the exact location Arzet was but a floor down, and look up at Arzet through the floor. Interrupting it all was another knock at the door; Arzet ran. The new guest was a Chorical priest from Nafena named the Cosmic Isada, who entered with a retinue of builders and a cart of supplies to repair and expand the castle (which was not visible in need of repairs). Arzet used this distraction as an opportunity to investigate his room; he found that his spare clothes had been stolen and that ritual drawings showing an obelisk and eyes were painted onto the wood beneath Arzet's bed. Arzet disfigured the drawings with his dagger and did the same for the other beds (everyone else had an item missing and ritual scrawlings). Rula and Aru appeared in the hallway nearby as Arzet finished, and Arzet fled down back to the party. Arzet then went to go talk to Inek to try and shake the baron back to reality. Inek was happy with his dream-life's luxury but was exhausted by it as well. Arzet was starting to make Inek's unhappiness more visible to himself when the door knocked again. This time it was Aslo, Arzet's brother, with an invitation. Other villagers were with him. At first Arzet panicked and thought his brother had barreled in against all caution, but a little probing led to Aslo trying to gaslight him. Arzet decided that this wasn't actually his brother and fled back into the party.
Meanwhile, Ratticus was watching the priest, who was repairing a wall in the wine cellar and then was getting ready to wall up the door to the cellar entirely. Ratticus began searching the cellar, but was spotted by Lady Rula, who grabbed him. Arzet dismissed the familiar before he could be devoured, and went to go investigate the cellar personally. He and the priest had a strange conversation about the evils of hanging onto the past, and Arzet found a secret passageway in the cellar that included boxes of old personal items stored away and with all names destroyed. As Arzet poked around the tunnel, party guests swarmed into the cellar and demanded that he leave. Arzet scurried down the tunnel as the guests crawled after him, and the tunnel led to a large underground vault with many stone tables carrying cloth-covered bundles, all around a great obelisk.

Temple of the False God

On the other side of the portal, Arzet emerged in a black-stone temple. Outside, he saw that he was on a crimson moon, hiding behind the two other moons. The planet gleamed blue and green below. A black-stone labyrinth continued ahead, branching in three main directions: Vault, Dungeon, and Heart. Arzet chose Heart. That path branched into several others in a great lobby, which centered around a statue of the many-armed Chimera. The Chimera statue shifted into a Kobold and turned to face Arzet. This was the face of the False Chimera, ready to meet the prodigy it had been watching through its amulet-eye.
Arzet lied with all his heart to keep this thing from knowing what he truly was - it worked, by a miracle. The False Chimera was impressed by Arzet and told him that the world was ending because the Architects had re-awakened. Only the 'Chimera' wished to continue the world, by smashing the lines between worlds and allowing all of reality to flow together in an immortal soup of evolving chaos. By siding with the Chimera early, Arzet could shape what this chaos might look like and make it more pleasant for everyone involved; the alternatives were either to watch the others end the world painfully, or watch as strangers (possibly tyrants) shape the new immortal one. The False Chimera could teach them to control Ederstone to create as they please, or to even transform normally-immune Kobolds; they could teach them to harness dreams to mold reality like clay. Arzet asked for other options, and also learned about Withering Crystals - explosive crystals that could break or reshape reality by drinking the suffering of other. Or, Arzet could innovate and harness a different set of legends to mold reality in their own way - total freedom!
Arzet said he would consider it, and was offered a special incense-based ritual to contact the False Chimera to speak again in the future. The False Chimera demanded collateral though, to make sure Arzet won't immediately betray them. They settled on all of Arzet's teen friends (Arzet was able to convince them to keep their mother and the sorcerer for appearances). The rest of the minutiae of the deal will be worked out… next time, on Arzet's World!

Relations

Protagonists

Arzet: The Chimera incarnate as a Kobold Wizard (Conjurer Wizard, Sage Background). Born in the village of Adov, Arzet has spent most of their mortal life with small scale. Arzet also has the ability to summon vestiges, ancient spirits of the dead, to aid them - a random spirit has added to the roster every level. Knows Find Familiar, Magic Missile, Grease, Sleep, Thunderwave, Identify, Catapult, and Tenser's Floating Disc

• Darana of Nefka: Darana is an ancient Vesper  Priest of Deraksa, the Bat-Seer-Goddess of the religion of Zirun . She lived in ancient Nefka , a distant city of horrors, where she opposed the violence of the ruling regime. For her outspokenness, she was chained and thrown into The Vault of Nightmares as a terrible execution. This left her with a very deep distrust of authority, as well as a kind of cynical hopefulness. Grants the ability to speak with the dead and resist fear.
• Kiji the Wanderer: A Kobold explorer born in the Kingdom of Karama in Inahng and loyal to the Empire of Calazen. A builder of bridges and maker of maps, curious and optimistic to a fault. Was a pitiful fighter, who died fighting in the Karaman civil war. Quite liked Mavara, who they briefly met. Grants the ability to jump a distance equal to the amount of movement spent in a turn (so 30 feet unless dashing, when it becomes 60 ft), also the ability to resummon thrown weapons. 
• And soon, more...

Allies

Arzet's Friends:

• Mozler, a Prism that ages slower than the rest of the group but ultimately is the 'heart' of the gang. Friendly, loving, trusting, and kind, Mozler is a friend to all the children of Adov. Was taken prisoner when walking back home from the mines a few nights ago. Trusting, friendly, and optimistic as always, though
• Wedrin, an older human about Alba's age that is friends with Alba and Arzet. He works for the local ranchers acting as a tanner and apprenticed butcher. He is somewhat aloof, very opinionated, and ultimately quite nice once he warms up to you. Was very injured in the fighting but survived
• Oglan, a Half-Prism Kobold-born boy, who is quiet but seems to revel in moments of attention - a kind of shy class clown of sorts. Enjoys building things and has been learning masonry
• Macha, a dryad farmer with a chill personality and an open mind. Persistent, loyal, and curious.

Rekala: Rekala is an old Pearl Pangolin wizard and Arzet's mentor. Rekala is an old, cynical misanthrope that once studied in The Darzan University and has little care for the problems of local people. She cares for Arzet, but sees this little venture as a potential learning experience more than a dangerous situation.
Ratticus: Arzet's Familiar in rat form. Manic, dedicated, the bravest of us. A luxury few can afford.
Arzet's Family:

• Barza, mom #1: Barza is doting, friendly, and cautious. She has always been the peacemaker in Arzet's house, and something of the unofficial breadwinner. Barza once worked as Rekala's apprentice before she fled to town to marry Itko. Ever since then, she has worked as the town's scribe and is an invaluable asset to the town elders. In her success, she has become somewhat risk-averse, and she desperately wants the family to just stick together and keep their heads down.
• Itko, mom #2: Itko is a member of the village's ranching and shepherding community, helping tend to the village's horses, cattle, sheep, and critters. She is a pretty average citizen, from an established Adovan family, with experience in the village guard and working as a scout in a brief tour of service for Rolkirk.
• Aslo, older brother: Aslo is a human in a Kobold family, and was born two years before Barza and Itko's marriage. Aslo's other mother is not Barza, but a Hainish Spring Knight that had a brief relationship with Itko during to and immediately after her time serving as a scout in Rolkirk. Aslo knows this, and has idealized his knightly mother into a heroic figure he strives to be like. He wishes to be a paladin, a hero of the wasteland who can really help people. He is bold, brash, and has more heart than brain. Currently, he works with the town guard nearly full-time.
• Alba, older sister: Alba is a child of Barza and Itko, and has a definite case of "middle child syndrome". She resents Aslo for taking all the attention, bossing her around, and for "dividing the family", and she resents Arzet for somehow overshadowing her despite being younger and getting even more attention. Alba is a quiet girl who enjoys books, reading, and storytelling. Since a young age, she has studied to replace Barza as the town scribe, though she feels quite isolated as few others in town enjoy reading (or even can read). Her isolation and resentment has festered into bitterness - but beneath all that, she loves her family above all.

Evennet: A stern and focused Starspawn sorcerer with color-changing fur and scales. The most powerful Ederstone-Sorcerer in the Luke Gutrahd village area. Based out of Hodov. Sees Arzet as a natural ally in these dark times, but frustrated that he is still a kid.

Neutrals/Bystanders

Nilabel and Kosha: The wife and niece of Arika coppersmith, the old woman who died in the bandit camp. Nilabel has lost loved ones to the wasteland before and was able to take the loss in stride. Kosha, meanwhile, was overwhelmed with grief for the woman who had raised her. 
Horkmar: A shy kid from the now-ruined village of Gudren who wanted to learn the arts of wizardry. Convinced by Arzet to seek out Rekala as a master. 
Kipilu the Fireworks Man: A Sunekan merchant stuck in Adov, who specializes in gunpowder and fireworks.

Adversaries

Inek Imolkirk: The Baron of Rolkirk and master of Lake Gutrahd, who seized power from the old corrupt Baron Heffennar several years ago. A gregarious and curious Kobold who enjoys studying philosophy and religion. Totally lost in the chaos of the False Chimera and refuses to admit anything is wrong.
Rula and Aru: A couple, half human and half kobold in appearance (presumably starspawn?) who act incredibly strange and seem much more into the False Chimera cult than Inek. They claim to be aristocrats, but don't seem to come from anywhere. 
Cosmic Isada: A Chorical priest from Nafena as well as an architect and mason. Friendly and boisterous. 
Verkohn, the False Chimera: The Adversary who shall end the world. Seeks a world of endless chaos, where the fantasies of the powerful contest each other in defining reality and where life and death are meaningless. Resides in a nightmare labyrinth pocket dimension that will eventually enter the real world as a third crimson moon if Verkohn makes enough progress. Claims to be The Chimera. 
Things known about the False Chimera:

• Is protected bodily by a nightmare labyrinth demiplane, which can be entered from any nexus of plane-weakening activity
• If the boundary between dreams and reality are sufficiently weakened, the nightmare maze will manifest in the real world as a third crimson moon
• The demiplane can be used for fast travel
• One group, operating in Stildane, use Dream Obelisks to undermine reality. Dream Obelisks feed off of sleeping hosts, who are preserved in eternal slumber and must be kept nearby, to slowly warp reality. 
• The False Chimera has some way to produce new Ederstone, and to control what Ederstone makes - also to use it on Kobolds. The Kivishta religion would surely be desperate to be in control of this technology, to prevent a religious crisis. 
• One group, operating in an unknown place, use Withering Crystals to explosively break reality. Withering Crystals are made using altered gem plague (that can affect any species), which siphons off a person's concentrated total life suffering to create a powerful weapon or unholy item. These crystals are powerful, but are consumed in use. 
• One group somewhere uses powerful magical arts of some sort.
• One group somewhere uses shape changing magic of some sort. 
• New groups can create new ways of breaking the world, if they have sufficient popular belief to draw on in how they do it
• If reality breaks, it can create a gate between two planes

Plot type

Quest

Parent Plot

Oil To Flame

Subplots

• Mages and Intrigue

Related Characters

• The Chimera

Related Organizations

• Uvara

Related Locations

• Adov
• The Deverkel Wastes