In the Beginning : Part 1
Arcane Convergence
General Summary
In the sleepy port town of Irvine in the Duchy of Cunningham, we zoom in on a chase in progress. A half-drow thief named Phabros Nuan runs down back alleys with three figures in pursuit, convening on his location from different directions. Hide, a goblin rogue suspected by authorities of being a Graverobber; Snotslinging Kneewalker, better known as simply Snot, a kenku firelancer hired by the Temple of Camue in Irvine as a guard for some special artifacts; and Gabrunel Zincolland (or Gabe ), a githyanki druid. Each one relieved of an item or two by the thief: Hide had a treasure map and a special divination card bearing her likeness stolen, Gabe had a curious ring that never tarnished purloined, and Snot saw the amulets he had been hired to help guard stolen from right under his beak.
Nuan, however, as an experienced Thief seemed to have the edge on his pursuers however, although Hide did manage to keep pace and squeeze off a couple of shots with her shortbow that gave him pause. Unable to open the cover to his escape route into the sewers in a dead-end alley, however, Nuan was intercepted both by Hide and a burly minotaur thug called Wysavia Watson who had been tasked with avenging a prior theft on behalf of her employer. Hide's arrow finally took Nuan in the throat, ending his life in a fountain of blood and allowing his pursuers to retrieve their stolen goods (and Wysavia to take one of his finger's as proof of a job done).
However, the items stolen by Nuan had not been without purpose, and in combination with a mysterious cube that Hide had taken from the tomb of Master Alamexios, in a crumbling graveyard near the ruin of Stone Castle, a wild magic burst appeared to build. The items collected by Nuan were attracted to the cube as it burst from Hide's pack, and a voice boomed out of a brass idol recovered from Nuan's corpse in a language nobody present could understand:
"IRISV WER SJACH. WINID WER CRASCK. HARKT WER XUUTIC."
Wysavia quickly exited the scene as the others struggled to hold on to their newly retrieved possessions. Unable to retain them, the items - Gabe's ring, Snot's amulets, a ring from one of Nuan's remaining fingers, and a green feather found among the thief's ill-gotten gains attached themselves to the cub, opening five of it's six faces and bathing the alleyway in an orange light. A concussive blast of magical energy knocked the three remaining figures in the alley unconscious.
When they awoke, they found themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Hide was hanging upside-down from a small tree. The other two sprawled on a barren, rocky landscape with the cube device lying in between them - the other items fused to five of its faces which were once again closed. On the sixth side, some words were scrawled in what appeared to be charcoal or soot that didn't so much as smudge when the cube was handled.. Next to the cube, the brass idol lay, dormant - simply a brass statue of unknown significance. Nearby, small fissures spewed sulphuric steam from the ground. In the distance, a volcano rumbled, or was it just thunder? Nearby a cliff edge plummeted down into a deep ravine.
Introducing themselves, the party realized they had little option but to group together until they could work out where they were and how to get home. Gabe and Hide knew enough of magical history and practice along with various fragments of religious knowledge to theorize that what had happened to them was the result of a divine convergence of magical energies that happened, rarely, when arcane and divine artifacts came in close proximity. Sometimes a deliberate plan on the part of one of Valine's deities, often the unintended consequence of mixing threads of divine and arcane magic. Whatever the case, Gabe was relatively sure that it was no coincidence that all of the items that fused to the mysterious cube had been stolen by, or at least in the possession of, Phabros Nuan.
Evaluating their surroundings, the party opted to head east along the cliff edge to where the ravine disappeared into some foothills. As they entered the foothills, their route was blocked by a contingent of dragonborn, mostly green dragonborn but led by a brass dragonborn. After a few moments of figuring out how to communicate, settling on a pidgin version of the Common Tongue that the brass dragonborn worked out he could use to get across basic concepts. He asked if Hide could fly (having observed her up in the tree) and if the party could "do big magic". The party tried to get across
Escorting the party to the cavern in which the tribe (all green dragonborn from what the party could see) sheltered, the brass dragonborn, that the party had learned was called Kral, sent them into a side cavern, telling them to wait until the Shaman could appear to talk to them. In the side cavern, the party discovered a number of troubling items. The first, and most obvious, was the skeleton of a young dragon lying on what appeared to be a sacrificial altar. Other bones littered the floor, the skulls appearing to be those of dragonborn. On the walls of the cavern were painted several murals. The first portrayed Gama breathing the dragons into existence and the second showed the advent of the dragonborn to serve the dragons. The third mural showed an exodus of dragonborn leaving to form their own tribes away from the dragons and the final mural portrayed ritual sacrifice on an altar looking suspiciously like the one underneath the dragon skeleton.
Finally, a number of crude shrines were stationed around the cave, although notably no shrines to Khydar the Unnatural, Enesis, Udros or Gides could be seen. As the party investigated their surroundings, the sound of stone scraping on stone alerted them that something was wrong. Darting towards the door to try and stop the boulder being rolled in front of the only exit from the sacrificial chamber, the party were not quite quick enough, and the boulder fell into place, blocking their exit and sealing them inside.
Post credits: Outside the tribal cavern, the sounds of footsteps alert us to an arrival, panning up the newly arrived figure, who is silhouetted against the setting sun, it is apparent that someone else is here who doesn't belong. What and who else was transported into this primordial landscape, and has anything else come through?
Character(s) interacted with
Related Reports
Next Session: In the Beginning: Part 2
Port City of Irvine, Duchy of Cunningham, Mithlerien by Rob Taylor
Report Date
13 Feb 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
Valinian Primordial Volcanic Landscape, The Year of Confusion by Rob Taylor
Comments