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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 2918467" data-attributes="member: 9626">Discovering a New World: A Brave New WorldAs night fell on the first day out of Rosavilla, the party once again witnessed firsthand the dangers of traveling in Mesion’s wilderness.  While traveling through the woods, the party first heard the howling of a wolf, and then the sound of battle.  The carriages slowed slightly when they reached the source of the battle: what appeared to be a heavily armored man was fighting against a horde of animals.  What was unusual was that the animals were not all of the same species and made no sense working together.  A giant lizard seemingly led the attack, but he was joined by a hyena, two badges, and most inexplicably an enraged deer!    “This makes no sense.  The animals must be insane,” Enrique commented.  Grim could only respond with a quiet sob.  The sight of animals driven to such a horrible state was almost too much for the strong but gentle warrior.    “Do you want us to stop?” Kanatash called to the heroes.    “Sure,” Enrique replied.  “Maybe he’ll reward us.”  As the carriage slowed, Enrique kicked the door out and leapt at the deer, the closest of the threats.  Before the deer could even realize it was being attacked, Enrique calmly stabbed his sword into the creature’s neck.  It collapsed silently.    Anastacia, however, was not pleased.  “How could you do that?  It was just an innocent deer!”    The man, who looked like he had already received a number of wounds, shouted out, “Don’t trust these animals!  They’ve been infected by some sort of madness!”    Anastacia still looked reluctant, but she had far less trouble attacking the slavering hyena.  As she went after that foe, Grim followed with even more reluctance, as fighting animals was such an anathema to him.  Elvis and Enrique, meanwhile, charged the badgers, and Lorren and Luke were content to fire from a distance.    The party made short work of the hyena and the badgers, but they and the lizard wounded the man as well.  Fortunately, whatever madness made such a strange group of animals attack a seemingly innocent man also made them far less effective in combat.  Often, they would cease attacking entirely to stumble in a semi-coherent haze, and the lizard even fled from some unseen fear midway through the battle.  The man, taking advantage of this lull, raised a holy symbol over his head and called upon his god’s power to be healed.  Luke, however, realized he didn’t recognize the god called upon or the symbol (a triangle decorated with rows of animal weapons, like claws and teeth,) and he grew suspicious.  While the rest of the party went after the fleeing lizard, he used his own holy power to sense the presence of evil.      Soon, the lizard was dead, and the party returned to the victim victorious.  The man eagerly greeted his rescuers.  “Thank you.  I am Ralfan.  If you didn’t come along when you did, I don’t know what those animals would have done to me.  I must give you a reward…” but he stopped after seeing the look Luke gave him.    “You’re no innocent victim,” Luke claimed.  “You radiate the stench of evil.”    The party, realizing the situation might have changed, began to surround the man they just rescued.  “Yes, I was wondering why animals would just attack someone, unless that person did something to them,” Grim muttered ominously.    Ralfan narrowed his eyes.  He looked at the party unapologetically, but he replied diplomatically nonetheless.  “Like I told you before, I had nothing to do with this.  Something in this forest drives the animals crazy.  I am grateful for your help, and have no desire to fight or betray you.”  As he spoke, he removed a pouch and tossed it towards Enrique.  “Here is a reward for your services.  If you have no further quarrel with me, I will be going.”  So saying, he scooped up the bodies of the two badgers, presumably for food, and began to slowly back away.    The party turned to Luke, letting him make the decision.  Again, just as when he was forced to confront the Achieve employee, Luke was conflicted between stopping evil and the situation at hand.  Even if the man was evil, he did nothing to the party, nor did he do anything immoral that the party was aware of.  He stood, watching Ralfan leave, until it was clearly too late.    As he turned to walk away at a more normal pace, having sensed that Luke’s inaction was the party’s decision, he added one more warning.  “If you do find the source of this forest’s madness, whatever you do, keep your horses away from it.  They react especially badly to it.”  As soon as he finished his warning, he vanished into the woods.    Enrique carefully picked up the pouch Ralfan left behind, and not eager to open it himself, he tossed it to Luke.  Luke ensured it didn’t radiate evil, and then turned it upside down to test its contents.  100 gold pieces tumbled out.    “Well, at least he was honest,” Lorren admitted.    “Yes, but look at this,” Elvis countered.  He pointed at the ground.  “I was wondering why we didn’t see that wolf we heard earlier, so I checked for tracks.  There’s a series of unusually large wolf tracks leading right to where Ralfan was standing, but they never moved from there.”    Grim groaned.  “So, not only did we let an evil cleric go, we let an evil werewolf cleric go?”    Lorren pondered this.  “He was strange, if he was a werewolf.  Most of their kind isn’t supposed to be so ordered.”    A few uneventful days later, the party finally arrived in Ciudadbonita, where they immediately headed for Magnificent Magecraft, the curio shop they were told about.  As they arrived, they noticed that the place had an unusual number of guards.    “Why is this place so well-guarded?” Lorren asked with suspicion.    Gabriela, the store’s caretaker, explained, “We recently received a large number of items from one of our citizens.”  As she spoke, she gestured towards piles of paintings, sculptures, and even large furniture.  “He also warned me that some soldiers might come to the store.  I decided to hire some of the local militia to keep the store safe, and it proved to be a wise decision.  Just a few hours ago, some men in black armor came to the store.  They looked at the items I just purchased, and then left angrily.”    Realizing who those men likely were, Enrique urgently asked, “Do you know a man named Guillermo?  I was told he lives in this city?”    Gabriela looked surprised.  “Why, yes.  That was the same man who sold me all of these items.  He’s sort of a local recluse.  Sometimes he leaves the town for months or years, only to come back and stay in his house for more months.  He lives in a house just outside of town.”    Enrique quickly asked for directions, but before they left, the party also showed her the other reason they came this far.  “Oh, I heard about this one.  News travels fast in my circles,” she commented.  “That is the fake Jewel of Success, right?  I should be able to find a buyer.  I can give you 3,000 gold for it, but give me a day to liquidate some assets, first.”    Their first business done, the party set off for Guillermo’s house.  They found it, as Gabriela explained, several miles from the rest of town, adjacent to large tilled field.  As the party arrived, they noticed that a farmer was circling the farm.  Lorren glowered as he looked at the farmer, but the rest of the party was in too much of a rush to investigate.  As Lorren watched behind him, Enrique first knocked on the door, and then when there was no answer, he simply kicked it in!      The scene in the home confirmed his worst nightmares.  His uncle, his estranged but nonetheless beloved family member, was lying on the ground in a pool of blood!  To make matters worse, his apparent murderers left a few surprises for anyone who investigated the death.  A gigantic bee suddenly stirred from the corner of the house, and a wasp nest tossed onto the floor suddenly shook with activity.  Anastacia, Grim, and Elvis made short work of the bee, but Enrique, blinded by despair, went to the side of his fallen uncle and was immediately swarmed by the wasps.    “Lorren, help us!” Luke called from the doorway.    “But…” Lorren began hesitantly.  He looked behind him and saw the “farmer” take off the instant the door opened and the insects attacked the party.  It was obvious to Lorren that this was some sort of spy or lookout, probably for the same people that killed Guillermo.  But by the time he noticed what was happening, the man was out of Lorren’s range.  He sighed and turned to help the party, only to see that the bee was already dead and his magic was useless on a swarm of thousands of insects.    Elvis retreated to the doorway to help Luke, who was already lighting a torch to scare off the swarm.  “Run!” he called to those still inside the building as he lit a torch and helped Luke.  Anastacia didn’t need to be told twice.  She smashed the first window she saw, dove out of it, and ran for the nearest pond.  Grim followed, but not before grabbing Enrique, who was now poisoned, half-mad with despair, and sickened by the insects crawling on his body.  He grabbed the unfortunate rogue and dove into the pond as well.  With their allies safe, Luke and Elvis split up and made for safety as well.      Several minutes later, the party converged back at the house after the wasps dispersed.  They smashed the hive and began to investigate the house for some clues on what motivated Guillermo’s death.  However, the place was almost complete empty.  Like Gabriela said, nearly everything was sold before the party arrived.  The question was, why was it sold, and will any of it help the party?      Enrique searched the place, but he soon admitted defeat.  “I can’t find a thing,” he said.  “The only unusual things are the nails stuck in the walls.”    “What’s unusual about that?  We know he had paintings that he sold to the curio shop,” Anastacia asked.    Enrique pointed to one nail.  “This one is of a much better quality than the others.”    “Maybe he wanted to be especially certain that painting was in a certain spot?”  Elvis offered hopefully.    The question, though, was which painting.  The party returned to the curio shop, where they looked through the paintings Guillermo sold.  There, they asked about the paintings Guillermo, and if they could see them.  “Ah, yes, the paintings,” Gabriela said dismissively.  “None of them were worth anything; they were of no artistic value.  I could show you them if you want.”  She returned a few moments later and began to sort the pictures.  “Let’s see, there’s an archer preparing to fire at a bullseye, a woman in profile, a still life of various fruit, a picture of a warrior fighting a bullette, and, well,” Gabriella hesitated before handing over a majority of the remaining pictures, “There is a surprising number of scantily clad elf women in various states of undress.”The party examined the pictures, especially the last ones.  Finally, Anastacia solved it.  “Wait, Luke, what was that item that Operative gave you?  It was the one that was supposed to be related to Guillermo.“It was an arrow,” Luke replied, and the revelation hit him as well.  He quickly pulled out the picture of an archer and realized that neither the archer nor the bullseye had any arrows.  Quickly, the party gave Gabriella a few gold for the picture and returned to the house.  There, they hung the painting on the notable nail, and when nothing seemed to happen, they put the arrow onto the bullseye.  As Enrique did so, he noticed something; there was a nearly microscopic hollow right behind that part of the painting!  After finding the button right behind it, part of the wall slid up, revealing a hidden compartment.  Inside were only two things: a strange black egg the size of an ostrich’s, and a note.  Enrique quickly snatched up the note and read it.  A moment later, barely able to move, he wordlessly passed it to Anastacia, who anxiously read it to the rest of the party.“To Whoever May Find this,” she began, “If you have found this, then I fear the worst has happened, and I am no longer able to fulfill my duty.  I pray to the gods that you are a person of wisdom and loyalty; who can be trusted with this artifact.  What you see here is the single most important and dangerous weapon on Mesion.  Until recently, the Hivekeepers, a secret society dedicated to keeping it hidden, has kept it from the world.  But we have new enemies now.  There is another society that calls themselves Effervo Vesica.  I don’t know what they want exactly, but they are increasingly powerful and dedicated to taking this item, the Infernal Swarm Egg, for themselves.  I believe they have access to great resources, possibly even the wealth of a nation, and from what I have heard from my fellow Hivekeepers, they may have greater, inhuman monsters at their beck and call.  I fear they have almost succeeded, for I do not know if any Hivekeepers are still alive.      “The Egg is very powerful but more delicate than one might expect.  It resists weapon blows generally well, seems to be immune to fire and acid, can partially resist other energies, and slowly heals itself if damaged.  However, a dedicated attack or even something as simple as a great fall could be enough to destroy it, and if it destroyed, all hope is lost.  Even worse, it appears to be tied to Mesion itself.  It can leave this plane for an instant, but if more than a few seconds are spent with it outside of this plane of reality or even in a pocket plane, it will become agitated and then shatter, scattering its contents back into our world.     “Even we don’t know exactly what the Egg can do.  For unknown eons, it was unknown and hidden from the world save for us.  But during the Godfield War, it was discovered by the outsiders and taken from us.  Foolishly, they sought to find a way to control it.  In a seemingly impossible truce between celestials and fiends, they created two artifacts that, if combined with the egg and taken to a control center the outsiders built on Order’s Peak, can be used to take control of monstrosities inside the Egg.  The two artifacts, rods made of strange metal, were split between the sides, with one going to the fiends, and the others to the celestials.  We have no idea what happened to those control rods, however.  Fortunately, this plan gave us one shred of hope, for if both rods are used to control the Egg, they can be used to destroy the Egg harmlessly.    “My last hope, I beg of you to treat this quest with the respect it deserves.  If you are ever unable to take the Egg with you safely, perhaps because you must leave this plane or hide in a demi-plane, find an ally you can trust with it, or keep it well hidden.  If there are any other Hivekeepers left alive, you can find them at a secret headquarters 500 miles east of Dromis Prime.  Go to that city and find the tavern Rhylixx Qvist.  Ask the bartender there if they know of any groups nearby with an interest in beekeeping, and she’ll guide you from there.  Be warned that this headquarters is a fair distance from here, and it is located in the Playground.  Make sure you are prepared before undertaking such a journey.  My hope and faith go out to you, Guillermo Delgrande,” she finished.    “So this egg is the most powerful thing on the planet?” Grim asked incredulously.    “So it would appear,” Luke replied.  “At least now we know what happened at the Parade.  That man must have been a member of Effervo Vesica, and now they have at least one of the Control Rods.”    Several minutes passed in stunned silence, before Elvis asked the question on everyone’s mind.  “So,” he asked, “What do we do now?”    OOC: What indeed?  That’s more or less where we are at this point.  The next game is a little more than a week from now, so expect the next Story Hour update a few days later.  In the meantime, if things don’t get too busy, I’ll contribute a few more excerpts by then.  The next few games, though, should be…complicated.    For the record, though I fully intend to use the dreaded railroad as little as possible in this campaign, I was planning on the party finding the Egg sooner or later.  I definitely planned on letting them find it this low level (they just hit second level at the end of this game.)  I wanted to make this a central challenge to the campaign, regardless of how the party handles it.    And before you ask, no, I didn’t base any of this plotline on the DaVinci code, either in movie or book format.  I do recognize the similarities, what with the old dead relative who belonged a secret society and who had to protect an important, world-changing artifact from a more evil secret society.</blockquote>

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