Teasers for Adventure Twelve - The Grinding Gears of Heaven

[RangerWickett]

The door swings both ways. Avilona was messed up by Kasvarina's mistake. The damaged link drained energy from the plane.

 

[Elfshire]

(Also, are we ever going to get an explanation for Gale's ability to ignore all this and just fly with no time limit? Or did that happen and I missed it?)

Ryan Nock and Russell Morrissey collaborated on a superhero-themed d20 supplement book called "Four-Color to Fantasy," I think back in 2002? I haven't read it, but from what I've heard, Gale was one of the sample heroes inside (as was Tinker). My headcanon has always been that Gale's flight is a superpower rather than a magical effect; though how a superheroine from another world was reincarnated in Lanjyr many, many centuries after the solar system was sealed off from the rest of the multiverse is a matter that I cannot explain.

 

[RangerWickett]

Gale was a Victorian era elf with super-powers drawn from nature, Tinker was a crazy gnome inventor who was her nemesis. It was just a 2-page sample of how to do supers in D&D.

Now in ZEITGEIST, Tinker found a strange artifact that gave him his powers. (Called a Godmind Orb, as a vague suggestion that it was something psychic from the time when the Gidim were afoot.) Gale . . . if I had to have a reason, it's because of celestial fluke. She was born under Avilona, and grew up in anti-magic Danor so the minor air energy that was supposed to reach her couldn't, then left at just the right time of year to be suffused with a lifetime of elemental air power that had been backed up.

*shrug* Yeah, she's basically a superhero.

 

[hirou]

Now in ZEITGEIST, Tinker found a strange artifact that gave him his powers. (Called a Godmind Orb, as a vague suggestion that it was something psychic from the time when the Gidim were afoot.) Gale . . . if I had to have a reason, it's because of celestial fluke. She was born under Avilona, and grew up in anti-magic Danor so the minor air energy that was supposed to reach her couldn't, then left at just the right time of year to be suffused with a lifetime of elemental air power that had been backed up.

*shrug* Yeah, she's basically a superhero.

In my personal headcanon, Godmind Urn is long-lost Gidim artifact, which houses a seed for Overmind-like entity (see Godmind in Danor), to simplify the control of the conquered world. Without proper control it's mostly inert, but Sidjen may have a word about that, especially if party drags Urn with them to Cherage or to that Ber town.

Your explanation for Gale's power makes me think that after the dead magic zone is lifted from Danor, there will be a surge in powerful mages there... Something either Ob or The World After Zeitgeist can use. A nation of supers... *shivers*

 

[hirou]

Previously, the explanation for weakened flight was that Ob agents accidentally damaged the planar connection to Avilona by messing with the flying ziggurat 200 years ago -- before that flight worked in the world, afterwards the five minute limit appeared and all flying animals too big to fly without magic were grounded. The idea that Avilona is naturally hard on fliers doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

The War of the Burning Sky explains that [sblock]some thousands years ago, not sure if before or after Axis Seal happened, Primordial Dragon of Fire mutilated Primordial Eagle of Air, tearing out his heart, all to steal his power (in my headcanon this started the reign of dragons in Ber and elsewhere). The Heart was kept alive for millenia, much stuff happened, but in the titular War of the Burning Sky it was ultimately destroyed, so the world could enter the new age. So the poor plane of air was actually crippled not once, not twice, but four times:

• Dragon wounds Eagle some millenia ago;
• Aquiline heart is destroyed circa Kelland times;
• Ob messes up Avilona ziggurat (at the same time, probably, the pillar of Avilona on Axis island breaks);
• finally, Avilona itself is dragged to Gear, which finishes the Eagle off.

Talk about a hard life for a bird. Also, some of the above may be known to Fey lord of flying, forgot his name, or someone else immortal enough (Ashima-Shimtu comes to mind) if you need to introduce the info in your campaign.
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