[sblock]I saw a dark figure, standing atop Cauldron Hill, towering over our city.
Borne, adventure 5.
The sun set, and he cast a shadow across Parity Lake, stretching northwest, into the sea, beyond the horizon.
Technically I should have tweaked this because Borne is likely drawn due west into the harbor, not straight to sea, but whatever.
He is born in our city,
Get it?
but his ultimate goal is elsewhere.
Axis Island.
And also things moved in his shadow—indeed, his shadow moved before he did, for while he was mighty, he was controlled by others. I saw smoke hiding his face, for he was made mighty by industry. In my vision, a king chased him out to sea and defeated him by slicing him free from his shadow.
Adventure five. Also, a reference to Peter Pan, who’s sorta faerie-like, and who had no shadow. The idea being, Aodhan punts Borne into the dreaming.
But the cauldron had already shattered, and many thousands were drowned and devoured in its roil.
Cauldron Hill gets torn apart by Borne, and there’s a risk of witchoil and evil spirits coming out.
I saw three birds alight on the peak, the first of black silk,
Mayor Macbannin, deceptive.
the second of black steel,
The colossus Borne, destructive.
both weeping blood. But the third was made of stars, and it sang many songs.
In adventure ten, a portal opens up in the sky over Cauldron Hill, leading out to the Gyre, a sort of blackhole-esque graveyard of the multiverse. Many dying worlds circle it, being slowly ground to dust, and the party can use them to link to their homeworld instead of the worlds the Obscurati chose. There are many ways it can turn out, based on PC decisions.
I tell you this: Cauldron Hill is not safe. Twice will danger arise, and twice will we be deceived into thinking it is safe to return, but we must avoid the place and avoid being tricked. I have arranged shelter in the Cloudwood, where people can be safe until the darkness passes.
Pretty much what it says on the tin.
A woman sat on a leather couch in a waiting room, surrounded by red curtains. She held a gold coin and rolled it across the back of her fingers. A pick lay against the side of the couch. He asked her what she was waiting for, and she answered in a language he didn’t know, saying, ‘The place I’m going isn’t here yet.’
Xambria, who is trapped in her own head and doing an homage to the Black Lodge of Twin Peaks. She’s going to the Gidim homeworld, which is currently inaccessible.
A trumpeter carried a lantern onto the stage of a darkened theater, and the people gathered for his performance applauded, then lit lanterns of their own. The theater never got bright enough for him to see their faces.
Luc Jierre, heading to the Obscurati palace on Mutravir Island if the party doesn’t stop him.
One man tore himself in two,
Alexander Grappa fighting for control over Leone’s body in adventure seven.
and his twin selves fought over a woman, tearing her into three, who ran away.
Three aspects of Kasvarina – heroic before the Great Malice, withdrawn penitent matriarch after the Great Malice, and callous leader of the Obscurati just before her memories were locked away. Also this parallels the three aspects of Srasama – warrior maiden, healing mother, and murderous crone.
Mice skittered around them, collecting cheese fallen amid the rails of a trainyard. Then a train roared down the track past him, but it had no one driving it. In the distance it derailed, and crushed two of the women, but which of the three survived?
I think there are some mice mentioned in adventure three when you find Grappa’s dead body. Cheese is of course a thing Leone loves, and he ends up hiding in a train yard. The train being unguided is also a vague reference to the colossus being out of control, and its presence forces Kasvarina to decide which version of her she will become.
A man carrying a bronze staff with three keyholes is assailed by swords and arrows and fire, but nothing kills him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. Then the sky was dark, and when the sun should have risen, instead a pale glowing cloud floated in the dark.
Stanfield, the deva, turning into a rakshasa at the end of adventure nine. I honestly don’t remember what was up with the three-keyhole bronze staff, though.
Finally, tyrant and murderer languished in prison, hanging from twelve chains and hooks that pierced her feet, her legs, her thighs, her shoulders, her arms, and her hands. But the thirteenth hook that sealed her mouth swung loose, and it fluttered in the breeze as she whispered a map that led everywhere.
Ashima-Shimtu in the Crypta Hereticarum, who once released in adventure ten can provide planar information to the PCs, since she predates the Axis Seal.[/sblock]
