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CERAMIC D.M. Final Judgements In- New Champion!
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<blockquote data-quote="Mirth" data-source="post: 751411" data-attributes="member: 5242"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>mirthcard vs. NiTessine</strong></span> </p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Dead Men, a tale in shades of gray</strong></span> </p><p>An adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 4-7</p><p></p><p><strong>The Set-Up:</strong></p><p>The Church of the All-Father has been trying to "civilize" the northwestern part of the continent for several centuries now. The harsh, brutish savages that live in those cold wastes have been very resistent to the All-Father's efforts. A few months ago, the All-Father gained his first foothold there, a small church in the village of Iklastal ("Gray Water") at the foot of the Haknarok ("Land of Glass"), the natives' name for the glacier that provides the lake that in turn gives the village its name. </p><p></p><p>The new church is being led by Pater Rumalski, a kind and generous soul who has finally reached the native populace by respecting their traditions and allowing them to be practiced alongside the ceremonies of the All-Father, rather than trying to force the Church's ideals on them. While this innovative approach has helped the good Pater gain a following in Iklastal, many in the service of the All-Father feel it is sacreligeous for such "pagan" rituals to be given equal standing. A committee of Paters was sent to oversee Rumalski's operation and decide whether to let it proceed or take over control from him. That was several weeks ago, no one has heard from the committee or Pater Rumalski since.</p><p></p><p>The Church has decided to hire the party to investigate the matter (or better yet, the party may include a cleric or paladin of the All-Father). Just as the group is preparing to head out on their journey to Iklastal, a woman dressed in the garb of the savages arrives in the city with a wagon full of small boxes <strong>(Picture #2).</strong> She says nothing as she is dragged from the cart and questioned. Screams and sharp intakes of breath are heard as the boxes are opened to reveal the severed and shruken heads of all of the committee members. Conspicuously missing is the head of Pater Rumalski.</p><p></p><p><strong>What's really going on:</strong></p><p>Pater Rumalski is still alive, albeit in a very changed form. The natives of the cold wastes call themselves Posonshik ("Little Cubs") and they revere a spirit known as Shikdaiah ("Great Bear"). It is this spirit that Pater Rumalski was trying to help the people of Iklastal connect with his own god, the All-Father. He connected them only too well, unfortunately. </p><p></p><p>At the same time as the All-Father was questioning Pater Rumalski's intentions, the time of the Ulasdai ("Great Thawing") had come and Shikdaiah was coming out of hibernation. With the Great Bear's strength waxing and the All-Father's faith in the Pater waning, the priest was left in a very precarious position. Then the committee arrived. </p><p></p><p>All of the questions, demands, pronouncements and denouncements that followed from this hallowed group angered the Great Bear spirit and it overtook the gentle Pater Rumalski, using him as his agent of retribution. Now acting as the living manisfestation of Shikdaiah <strong>(Picture #1)</strong>, Rumalski has slaughtered all of the clerics and sent their heads home as a warning to leave the cold wastes alone.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Main Event:</strong></p><p>The party will only be privy to one side of the story, of course. The Posonshik woman who brought the heads to the temple will only reveal who she is (her name is Massi) or what she knows under great duress or torture. There are those in the Church of the All-Father who are fine with using the latter method to deal with savages. What the party decides is okay with them is another matter altogether.</p><p></p><p>Massi only wants to leave. If she is freed, she will not stop the party from following her home. Despite outward appearances, Massi has no ulterior motive, she is simply loyal and stoic to a fault. She should only break into conversation with the party if they engage her through the most auspicious role-playing they can muster (and even then, she will be a minimalist in every respect).</p><p></p><p>Once the party has arrived in Iklastal, they will be largely ignored. The other Posonshik, unlike Massi, will converse and even bargain with the party, but they will treat them with suspicion and will be reluctant to reveal too much about what has happened. From their perspective, Shikdaiah has protected them. They have nothing to fear from outsiders, for Shikdaiah is now walking among them (in the form of Pater Rumalski) for the first time in many seasons. However, they have no need to embrace outsiders either. </p><p></p><p>If the party searches the village, they will find the small church building empty and cold. Dried blood stains the floor, walls and pews inside and many claw marks are found there as well. It looks as though the committee priests were killed here and their bodies dragged out into the hills towards the north of the village that line the Gray Water lake. Pater Rumalski, however, is nowhere to be found. (He is, in fact, now living in the ancient cave associated with Shikdaiah, located in the self-same hills to the north. The well-picked bones of the priests are scattered about the interior of the cave.)</p><p></p><p>If the party decides to attack the villagers or to attack Shikdaiah in his cave, Shikdaiah will return their attack. This isn't the wisest choice (in fact, it's probably the worst choice). As an avatar of Shikdaiah, Pater Rumalski should prove more than a match for the party, but if help is needed, feel free to beef him up with Druid, Ranger and/or Barbarian levels as well as providing him a few Dire Bears and/or Werebears to help with matters. </p><p></p><p>If the party decides to ingratiate themselves with the locals, and they are successful at parlaying their way into the Posonshik's good graces, then they can slowly pull out details about Shikdaiah's legend and eventually be able to put 2 and 2 together to find out that Pater Rumalski and Shikdaiah are now one and the same.</p><p></p><p>One key to Shikdaiah's legend is that he can be defeated, but only with Yustal ("The Spine Bow")<strong>(Picture #3).</strong> Unfortunately, according to the legend, when the young hunter Tinook tried to kill Shikdaiah with Yustal, the Great Bear used his massive weight to break off a part of the glacier, sending Tinook plummeting down a huge precipice into a solid floor of ice, breaking the boy and the bow into pieces. Another Yustal has yet to be forged. How is it forged you ask? By using a branch from the Yusa tree ("Spine of the World"). This great tree is only visible after the time of the Ulasdai has finished. This magical tree grows perpendicular to the lake <strong>(Picture #4)</strong>, and the Posonshik believe it to be the entrance to the world of the spirits, literally it is the backbone of the world itself to them. </p><p></p><p><strong>The End?:</strong></p><p>Now the party has to decide what to do. Here's how this could end. </p><p></p><p>---They could attack Shikdaiah without Yustal. They will die.</p><p></p><p>---They could take the time to craft another Yustal and then attack Shikdaiah with it. Risky, but could very well succeed. Of course, then Pater Rumalski would be dead.</p><p></p><p>---They could try to converse with Shikdaiah instead of attacking. This could lead to some interesting outcomes. If the party agrees to leave Iklastal and the cold wastes behind, vowing never to try and convert the people here again, then the Great Bear will release his hold on Pater Rumalski. Shikdaiah may even go so far as to reconstitute the bodies of the slaughtered priests so that they may be taken home for burial and/or reincarnation. If the party does not agree or the Great Bear does not interact well with belligerent members of the party, then all bets are off and the group is back to square one. </p><p></p><p>---They could return to the temple of the All-Father and try to recruit an army to attack Shikdaiah. Epic idea, that. Bloody and pointless too. But they can give it a go if they want.</p><p></p><p>---They could just leave the whole messed-up situation behind. After all, who needs to get themselves stuck in the middle of a religious war anyway? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mirth, post: 751411, member: 5242"] [SIZE=3][b]mirthcard vs. NiTessine[/b][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][b]Dead Men, a tale in shades of gray[/b][/SIZE] An adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 4-7 [b]The Set-Up:[/b] The Church of the All-Father has been trying to "civilize" the northwestern part of the continent for several centuries now. The harsh, brutish savages that live in those cold wastes have been very resistent to the All-Father's efforts. A few months ago, the All-Father gained his first foothold there, a small church in the village of Iklastal ("Gray Water") at the foot of the Haknarok ("Land of Glass"), the natives' name for the glacier that provides the lake that in turn gives the village its name. The new church is being led by Pater Rumalski, a kind and generous soul who has finally reached the native populace by respecting their traditions and allowing them to be practiced alongside the ceremonies of the All-Father, rather than trying to force the Church's ideals on them. While this innovative approach has helped the good Pater gain a following in Iklastal, many in the service of the All-Father feel it is sacreligeous for such "pagan" rituals to be given equal standing. A committee of Paters was sent to oversee Rumalski's operation and decide whether to let it proceed or take over control from him. That was several weeks ago, no one has heard from the committee or Pater Rumalski since. The Church has decided to hire the party to investigate the matter (or better yet, the party may include a cleric or paladin of the All-Father). Just as the group is preparing to head out on their journey to Iklastal, a woman dressed in the garb of the savages arrives in the city with a wagon full of small boxes [b](Picture #2).[/b] She says nothing as she is dragged from the cart and questioned. Screams and sharp intakes of breath are heard as the boxes are opened to reveal the severed and shruken heads of all of the committee members. Conspicuously missing is the head of Pater Rumalski. [b]What's really going on:[/b] Pater Rumalski is still alive, albeit in a very changed form. The natives of the cold wastes call themselves Posonshik ("Little Cubs") and they revere a spirit known as Shikdaiah ("Great Bear"). It is this spirit that Pater Rumalski was trying to help the people of Iklastal connect with his own god, the All-Father. He connected them only too well, unfortunately. At the same time as the All-Father was questioning Pater Rumalski's intentions, the time of the Ulasdai ("Great Thawing") had come and Shikdaiah was coming out of hibernation. With the Great Bear's strength waxing and the All-Father's faith in the Pater waning, the priest was left in a very precarious position. Then the committee arrived. All of the questions, demands, pronouncements and denouncements that followed from this hallowed group angered the Great Bear spirit and it overtook the gentle Pater Rumalski, using him as his agent of retribution. Now acting as the living manisfestation of Shikdaiah [b](Picture #1)[/b], Rumalski has slaughtered all of the clerics and sent their heads home as a warning to leave the cold wastes alone. [b]The Main Event:[/b] The party will only be privy to one side of the story, of course. The Posonshik woman who brought the heads to the temple will only reveal who she is (her name is Massi) or what she knows under great duress or torture. There are those in the Church of the All-Father who are fine with using the latter method to deal with savages. What the party decides is okay with them is another matter altogether. Massi only wants to leave. If she is freed, she will not stop the party from following her home. Despite outward appearances, Massi has no ulterior motive, she is simply loyal and stoic to a fault. She should only break into conversation with the party if they engage her through the most auspicious role-playing they can muster (and even then, she will be a minimalist in every respect). Once the party has arrived in Iklastal, they will be largely ignored. The other Posonshik, unlike Massi, will converse and even bargain with the party, but they will treat them with suspicion and will be reluctant to reveal too much about what has happened. From their perspective, Shikdaiah has protected them. They have nothing to fear from outsiders, for Shikdaiah is now walking among them (in the form of Pater Rumalski) for the first time in many seasons. However, they have no need to embrace outsiders either. If the party searches the village, they will find the small church building empty and cold. Dried blood stains the floor, walls and pews inside and many claw marks are found there as well. It looks as though the committee priests were killed here and their bodies dragged out into the hills towards the north of the village that line the Gray Water lake. Pater Rumalski, however, is nowhere to be found. (He is, in fact, now living in the ancient cave associated with Shikdaiah, located in the self-same hills to the north. The well-picked bones of the priests are scattered about the interior of the cave.) If the party decides to attack the villagers or to attack Shikdaiah in his cave, Shikdaiah will return their attack. This isn't the wisest choice (in fact, it's probably the worst choice). As an avatar of Shikdaiah, Pater Rumalski should prove more than a match for the party, but if help is needed, feel free to beef him up with Druid, Ranger and/or Barbarian levels as well as providing him a few Dire Bears and/or Werebears to help with matters. If the party decides to ingratiate themselves with the locals, and they are successful at parlaying their way into the Posonshik's good graces, then they can slowly pull out details about Shikdaiah's legend and eventually be able to put 2 and 2 together to find out that Pater Rumalski and Shikdaiah are now one and the same. One key to Shikdaiah's legend is that he can be defeated, but only with Yustal ("The Spine Bow")[b](Picture #3).[/b] Unfortunately, according to the legend, when the young hunter Tinook tried to kill Shikdaiah with Yustal, the Great Bear used his massive weight to break off a part of the glacier, sending Tinook plummeting down a huge precipice into a solid floor of ice, breaking the boy and the bow into pieces. Another Yustal has yet to be forged. How is it forged you ask? By using a branch from the Yusa tree ("Spine of the World"). This great tree is only visible after the time of the Ulasdai has finished. This magical tree grows perpendicular to the lake [b](Picture #4)[/b], and the Posonshik believe it to be the entrance to the world of the spirits, literally it is the backbone of the world itself to them. [b]The End?:[/b] Now the party has to decide what to do. Here's how this could end. ---They could attack Shikdaiah without Yustal. They will die. ---They could take the time to craft another Yustal and then attack Shikdaiah with it. Risky, but could very well succeed. Of course, then Pater Rumalski would be dead. ---They could try to converse with Shikdaiah instead of attacking. This could lead to some interesting outcomes. If the party agrees to leave Iklastal and the cold wastes behind, vowing never to try and convert the people here again, then the Great Bear will release his hold on Pater Rumalski. Shikdaiah may even go so far as to reconstitute the bodies of the slaughtered priests so that they may be taken home for burial and/or reincarnation. If the party does not agree or the Great Bear does not interact well with belligerent members of the party, then all bets are off and the group is back to square one. ---They could return to the temple of the All-Father and try to recruit an army to attack Shikdaiah. Epic idea, that. Bloody and pointless too. But they can give it a go if they want. ---They could just leave the whole messed-up situation behind. After all, who needs to get themselves stuck in the middle of a religious war anyway? ;) [/QUOTE]
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