All right, folks- let’s set the scene.
It’s late spring of the year 369 O.L.G. You are all, for one reason or another, in the Bendrock Mountains of Dorhaus. Although not all of you are together to start with, you soon shall be...
Dorhaus is a continent of fairly large size. It is mostly uninhabited; about a century and a half ago, a terrible evil man (or demon, or devil, or... the tales vary) came to Dorhaus and essentially destroyed almost all the civilized folk. For a hundred years and more his fiendish lackeys went forth and slew all that was not evil, be it man, animal or plant. This foul servant of evil, called Fuligin, has since been cast down and destroyed, and now the people trickle back into Dorhaus. Two main groups, each perhaps too ambitious for their own good, seemingly seek to claim the entire continent! Naturally, they have fallen into conflict- and this conflict seems to mirror the Great War of Ethics that has exploded into violence nearly everywhere. The eastern half of Dorhaus is claimed by the Tiger Legions, servants of the Tiger Empress, while the western half serves God-King Malford the Magnificent. The Bendrock Mountains serve to divide the continent in half, and it is in these mountains that you all, for one reason or another, find yourselves.
***
Derrick and Keyth are on the trail of magic. Just as any wizard would, they are seeking the assistance of a great wizard in the vicinity, hoping to obtain new magic formulae of great power. The wizard’s name is Orbius Visionary, and he is reputed to be a fabulously powerful divine oracle. Talk about finding out that he’s in the right place at the right time!
Neither of you are a resident of Dorhaus, nor would you usually expect to find yourself there. But in the course of your studies of dimensional and planar phenomena you have discovered an odd flux taking place in the mountains. Although you and the other spellcasters at the university you are from (in the Delphinate, a magocracy that is not known for its friendliness to outsiders) were able to detect the flux, from the far distance you were at you couldn’t determine much about it. Thus, you have come to investigate, driven both by a strong curiosity and a sense of pride that was invoked in you by the fact that your peers would trust the two of you to investigate this matter. You’ve heard of this Orbius before, of course, and have heard that he resides in the mountains in a fairly hidden enclave of elementalists- the Temple of Elemental Good. You’ve managed to find your way there with the aid of the supply caravan that typically takes the Temple its food and miscellany.
The Temple itself is actually a complex hidden away in the mountains, with a fair number of people bustling around, growing meager amounts of food, herding a few chickens and goats, and worshipping their silly elemental powers that don’t care about their worshipers. Why they bother, you don’t really understand, but whatever; a powerful wizard is hereabouts.
Your inquiries have led you to believe that Orbius, along with the actual head of the Temple, Lester, have gone on a short jaunt to a nearby mountaintop to check something out with one of the students of the L’s school of adventure, but I’m sure that a pair of wizards of your caliber has some way to get up a mountain.
And, coincidentally enough, this seems to be right about where the flux is centered.
***
Big Yin is, in fact, the student in question.
His time at the Angel of Adventure’s school for adventurers has been good. You’ve picked up some basic great advice; the basic mantra is, “Call for healing when you need it; never split the party; clean out one level and move on.”
Great advice.
You’ve had your years of adventure, and indeed, on several of those adventures you’d have benefited from that advice. Done’s done, however, and what’s yet to come is what can be effected by what you’ve learned.
And the chance to show Lester himself something is a thrill!
For, in your explorations, you caught a strange scent last night. Maybe a man who couldn’t turn into a bear would have missed the smell last night, maybe not; but not it’s much stronger. Like a cross between cooking eggs and heated copper.
You’ve led Lester and Orbius up one of the mountains around the school for adventurers and now you’re close enough to perceive the crevice that you saw last night. And, just like last night, there’s a strange orange vapor seeping from the crevice.
Lester and Orbius follow Big Yin; he’s very excited to show them whatever oddity he’s found, and the smell in the air is definitely different from anything you’ve detected before. The vapors coming from the gouge in the mountain ahead are also unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
The gash in the mountain is just big enough for you to squeeze through. It seems to lead into the interior of the mountain.
***
Kaerick spotted the vapors in the evening of the last night, and with his friend Delga- the two of them have known each other, crossing paths in the wilds of Dorhaus, for a good three years- he has set out to investigate. The weird smells, strange orange vapors and such- they rub you both wrong. Something seems unnatural in that.
The druids have given the feral Kaerick a lot of help over the last few years, and the fey folk seem to be acting up in strange ways, growing more trees to help the continent recover from its deforestation and choking former paths with weeds and brambles. They seem to see you as a potent ally against the remnant evil forces that throw Dorhaus so far out of balance.
Indeed, if you were to ask Delga and he were to answer true, you would find that this is exactly the case. You epitomize what the druids need now: the vicious side of nature, the unforgiving tiger that has no mercy on its prey, the wolf that tears at its enemy.
Delga is somewhat more concerned about the orange vapors and weird smell than his feral friend. As a somewhat senior druid in the area, you are obligated to investigate strange occurrences like this. You are also privy to more information about the druidic-fey master plan, but we’ll discuss that should it come up.
In any event, the two of you are also ascending this mountain.
***
The egg is hatching.
It is probably not the only one, Giovanni reflects; you’re pretty sure that there are more.
The Egg of Chaos is a lumpy piece of something that looks like stone, but isn’t. It weighs as much as stone and is at least as tough as stone, but it’s something else. Strange, barnacle-like encrustations dot its surface, giving off a tangy orange smoke with an odor that, while at first somewhat offensive, rapidly became just this side of intoxicating.
Suddenly there’s a cracking sound, and the egg seems to shift slightly visibly.
“Oh good,” says the rosebush at your side. “I was getting bored.”
***
The ghost of Jeremy gazes around with a snarl on his face. You’re pretty sure you got them all- every last one of the Bleakists in the little camp, getting ready to raid the little hidden temple in the seam of the mountain chain below. You aren’t sure what gods they worship here, but you haven’t seen any signs of human sacrifice, tortured commoners or bloody altars, and for now that’s good enough for you. You’re beginning to allow yourself to hope that this is the temple you’re seeking.
You spend a good deal of time in the border ethereal; it’s mentally fatiguing to stay manifested all the time. But the last few hours you’ve noticed that the ether has been full of eddies and whirls, disturbances. The trails lead up the mountain upon which you defeated your latest crew of Bleak-worshipers.
Your thoughts turn to the day, so long ago, when the raiders came and slew most of your people. You recall following the cold trail as best you could until you almost gave up in despair, and the adventurers who almost destroyed you, thinking you evil.
And they gave you new hope, for they recognized the description of the symbols that some of the raiders wore: they were servants of the Temple of Elemental Evil, a place of such unspeakable horrors that you could learn very little about it.
And yet the Temple is overthrown, and your folk remain missing. Even following the trail to the ruins of the Temple itself has failed to turn up the fate of your villagers.
So you set out to find the heroes that destroyed the Temple, and so you have come to the mountains in search of a hidden Temple of Elemental Good. Now you have found the mountains, and a mysterious hidden temple, and weird eddies in the ether.
Something seems propitious.
