Last time, the party worked their way down to the hidden chamber beneath a temple they'd been figuring out how to enter. We closed right after they got there, with an information stinger that they instantly recognized as Revealing Secrets. Of course, they knew there would be secrets. They're exploring a formerly-hidden ancient genie-rajah city, something lost to the sands for literally a couple thousand years. There have to be revelations and secrets here. But they already had a reason to think the revelations would be Special, and what they saw upon descending to the temple's heart gave that reason focus.
See, due to IRL stuff, the party Druid had to take a long hiatus. Something like eight to ten months? I don't remember exactly but it was a long time. I persuaded the player out of totally killing his character, as departing from the game was clearly very difficult (necessary, but they confided in me it was tougher than any other game they'd had to leave) and I'd seen a golden opportunity for enabling an indefinite hiatus that could be ended at any time. In the final session before his departure, the Druid had used his budding Shaman magic (which calls on and binds the powers of spirits, usually after-world spirits like abstract ideas, dead beings, or ancestral/archetypal things) to call upon the One, the monotheistic deity of the Safiqi priesthood. This was a powerful choice on his part, but it was also costly--he was, in effect, entering a covenant and would be given knowledge and a mission, but would have to pay a difficult penance for his past choices (making a deal with a devil, specifically). So, at the end of that session, after the whole party had risen to great heights and defeated a powerful and dangerous spirit, the Druid walked with the One and was seen no more, for the One had taken him.
When the party arrived at the gates of this genie-rajah city? They found him there, waiting for them, dressed in new, clean robes, with supple, comfortable sandals bound upon his feet. (This was very symbolic, because up to this point, the character has had a reputation of being VERY hobo, doesn't-wear-shoes, favoring a quick dip in the river rather than an actual soap-and-hot-water bath unless visiting hot springs, etc.) So the player had said, "There must be some reason I'm here. I need to find out what it is." And that got my gears going.
So. They've descended into this temple. They know that it has something to do with how Noble Genies come to be--the ones with nigh-infinite lifespans and fantastical powers, as opposed to regular genies, who are more like long-lived but relatively ordinary humans. It has some sort of ritual purpose, with clear "leaders" and what appear to be neophytes, supplicants, or possibly offerings. And then, as they enter the final room, a strange sight. It's not clean, neatly-worked stone like the temple above. It is a partially-natural cavern in the volcanic rock (the city is built inside a semi-active volcanic caldera). They have seen a place like this before: a druid shrine. But why would the genie-rajahs, who ruled over mortals in the ancient days, have a druid shrine? Druids were the ones who led the humans that weren't part of genie-rajah culture, the ones eking out a hardscrabble existence between the genie-built, genie-ruled cities, freeing shipments of mortal slaves and doing their best to be just outside the reach of genie-rajah armies and too inconsequential to smite with noble genie powers.
The party is about to learn why it is that the noble genies now appear seemingly randomly among their population, and another part of why they left the mortal world behind...and the price they have paid because of this choice, a price that has been alluded to several times but only limitedly. A price that (some) other noble genies have avoided paying, but only by not behaving as most of their race has. Deeper connections between historical elements and methods of using supernatural powers will be revealed. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I think I'll prepare a few different directions these revelations might play out--lingering spirits that can answer questions or potentially become hostile.
