ZEITGEIST Struggling with sea cave / axis seal configuration

[neyrick]

Hello all,

I've (finally !) started DMing the Zeitgeist AP and, after a few introductory investigations , we've started Island at the Axis of the World, but I can't wrap my head around the actual layout of the Axis Seal and the protruding tree fragment in the sea cave:
- the sea cave description says "A 20-feet diameter pillar of dull gray stone rises from the water" around the petrified tree, but is that part of the Ancients' design too ? And it says the petrified tree "extrudes from the gray stone, 5 feet wide and rising 17 feet above the water.", but if it was embedded in the stone pillar, how could it snap while the stone pillar still reaches the top of the cave ?
How did you describe it to your players ?
- the Axis Seal description in Adventure 10 mentions 8 petrified trees buried under the seal, holdig a golden icon. It also says the icons have been found all around the island in different mines. But even though the seal is kinda big, wouldn't the 8 trees just be right under the seal, in the same area ? Or did the trees twist around and sorta slither underground to reach differents areas of the island ? Or is space magically warped by the energy of the seal ? Or are there other trees, with more icons ? But if so, how come the connection to Avilona was damaged by a "secondary" tree being damaged ?

I'm really confused with the overall setup of the seal, so I'd love a bit of help if someone managed to make some sense out of it. It might be a language barrier thing, me being French and all, so perhaps I just read it wrong.

 

[RangerWickett]

My apologies. It's a small continuity glitch. It happens when you write something in 2010, then when designing the finale in 2013 you realize you need to keep the action a bit more centralized, so you just hope nobody remembers the first bit.

You can just say that the central Axis Seal ritual (which the party can see in adventure 10 and then works with in adventure 13) is in the middle of the island, then there are smaller amplifier locations farther out in the island, including the one the party finds in adventure 1.

(And if the party saves the day in adventure 13, at some point off screen, people will put new pillars with the proper icons for amplification farther out around the island.)

 

[neyrick]

Well, that's actually a huge relief

Thanks a lot for the honest clarification, and the glitch is entirely understandable on such a timeframe. I was just afraid I was missing out on something important about the seal, but I'll just work out something about those amplifier thingies, and the Avilona icon inside it (I'll just keep the stats as is but it'll be a "lesser icon" or something, and the actual icons will be the ones under the 8 trees under the seal).

Again, thanks a lot (that answer came FAST)

 

[hirou]

Wizard did it.

My party (in adv.10) spent a ton of time trying to decypher every last bit of the ritual, so I had to handwave an explanation pretty close to what RangeWickett has said above: the Ancients were going for reliability, not efficiency or elegance, so they produced the focal magic items in double. When Ob modified the ritual (offscreen, prior to adv.11), they removed the need for secondary icons.