If successful, those dungeoneers (both alive and dead) will
be elevated to the statues of immortal being and bathed in the unknowable light
of the divine, creating a new Pantheon to watch over the affairs of the mortals
races below. Here, we will use a combination of fate and choice.
Join us, readers, as we conclude our adventure and create a
Pantheon of gods.
For the players:
There are 22 domains of influence in the world. Their fate has been randomly
assigned to each of you. Using the Comments below, tell us all which of the 10
dungeoneers of this delve will receive which of your domains, and why. Tell us
a tale of past triumph and defeat. Since Fane
of the Heresiarch encompasses but a single sitting, you will clearly need
to draw on fictional past adventures of the dungeoneers. The aim of this
exercise is to force players to create interesting and surprising choices,
growing the tale in the telling. Lastly, let’s keep an eye out to make sure
each dungeoneer receives at least one domain.
The New Pantheon
Carefia, Talon, Mikhail, Kaddim, Oros, Nettle, Brand, Tordek, Xann, Nelson
Carefia, Talon, Mikhail, Kaddim, Oros, Nettle, Brand, Tordek, Xann, Nelson
[Tyranny]
[Cruelty & Hate]
[Destiny & Doom]
[Skill & Perfection & Thought]
[Reason & Knowledge]
[Civilization]
[Protection & Peace]
[Destruction & Death]
[Moon & Sea]
[Magic & Alchemy]
[Trickery & Madness]
[Physical Strength]
[Vengeance & Conflict]
[Freedom & Justice]
[Sun & Stars]
[Nature & Wilderness]
[Weather & Storm & Elements]
[Hope & Luck & Change]
[Light]
[Love]
This has made my whole effing week Ross.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you should fail now in this one final task? With the nectar of everlasting immortality on your lips? Can you imagine the heartbreak?
DeleteI was already wondering if this just a ploy to raise our hopes...
DeleteThe victory sweeter, the defeat more bitter; it all fits with the game, so the editor in me is pleased regardless.
Carefia will ascend to the domain Cruelty & Hate. Bathed in the acidic balor blood to her befitting downfall, cursed from birth and destroyed in death - she has always known cruelty - she has always known hate. From the day she watched her father brutally take his own life in her crib, to the day she walks with the gods. And now is her time to control it, for once, for all time, for eternity.
ReplyDeleteThis is why you're the king, Ross! I'll totally make these new gods and goddesses canon should they win the adventure, working them into future adventures.
ReplyDeleteOh Man, we're doomed now. If Sersa says our guys are going to become Canon if we win?....we don't have a chance :p
ReplyDeleteAs if I wasn't pumped before, I can't WAIT to see the final showdown...
Nettle will grant Weather, Storm & Elements to Lord Xann Stormbringer, disciple of the Storm Lord, wanderer of the Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos. As a young genasi, Xann found himself alone on a skiff amidst a lightning storm in on his travels between worlds, his crew dead, his ship all but destroyed. Only a pledge of his soul for all eternity to the God of Storms saved him from certain doom. Since, he has wandered all of reality spreading the word and marshaling followers, so it would only be fitting for him to assume the void in the pantheon since the forces of Heresy murdered his patron.
ReplyDeleteAnd by Nettle, I of course mean myself... Attached to this character, am I?
DeleteBards will forever tell the tale of the [Physical Strength] of Oros, for no man or beast can match his overbearing power in battle. This has been well known since one of Oros's first battles. On an early quest that led them to the frozen north, Oros and his then-allies came across an ambush of Polar Yeti-Rhinos that tore his partners to shreds immediately. As the tale goes, Oros performed the fabled "Dance of the Crimson Death" that day, nimbly darting between his foes, his axe hewing limb from beast, again and again in an absolute majesty of physical prowess. At the end, severely wounded, Oros stood before the corpses of no less than three of these behemoths. Before his recent disappearance (into the Fane!), no one has bore witness to the dance, and lived...
ReplyDeleteAt least that's how the story goes...
To Nelson, I grant Freedom & Justice. Long has the babyfaced one yearned to shake off the oppressive nature of the empires and monarchies of the world. Man and woman alike should be free to live as they will. Such is the reason he assassinated the High King Arconius the Blackhearted, ruler of the Eight Kingdoms. He was caught and almost lost his life at the hands of the Imperial Guard, but what mortal prison could hold one such as Nelson? The Heresiarch represents the ultimate tyranny, and his devotion to freedom and true justice led him down this path, with the freedom of the entire world at stake.
ReplyDeleteTo Brand, I grant Sun & Stars. The ashes of a phoenix were burned into his flesh when alive; the inferno of an elemental carried him to his death in a ritualized sacrifice. Like the Sun that dies each night, only to be reborn anew, Brand was brought back this world to rail against the rising darkness. After his sacrifice at his own hands, after the shamans of his tribe returned him to life out of desperation and created a conflagration that destroyed his entire clan, Brand has known only vengeance. The fires within him refuse to be extinguished, but only the death of the Heresiarch will bring a sense of peace to his eternal soul and allow him to channel the fires into positive forces of light and creation.
To Nettle I grant Nature & Wilderness. His kind has always served the inexorable change of the seasons, and will do so unto eternity. The world is a dark place, and behind even the most majestic tree lies a hidden shadow. Nettle has seen the extremes of both light and darkness, in the selfishness of the Eladrin overseers whose eternal stewardship was cold and paternalistic, in the joyful laughter of fugitive criminals and murderers as they shared a round of ale. After he left his idyllic homeland, Nettle found himself n a big city, lost in a different kind of jungle. He was an easy, unsuspecting mark, and found himself stabbed and bleeding out in an alleyway after some thieves discovered he had nothing of value. His triumph was in learning the true nature of life, of the struggle to find meaning and beauty even in the midst of terror and shadow, and thus the natural world encompasses all things equally.
To Mikhail I grant dominion over Moon and Sea. Sailors speak in hushed whispers of the powerful vampire lord, Mikhail, who sailed by night over the brackish waters of the Dread Sea to arrive in the lands of the living. Subsisting on the blood of his meager crew, this powerful stalker was drawn across the sea by the scent of blood and the promise of a bounty to sate his unending thirst.
ReplyDeleteTo Nelson I grant Hope & Luck & Change for he never stood for status quo always scurrying off dragging the party in his wake. A consummate gambler, whose leather armor has become legend for its ability to defy the odds and save Nelson from the worst of circumstances, Nelson ascends as an agent of change always willing to take his chances on new events and adventures.
ReplyDeleteThe tale is told one dark evening of a storm that illuminated the night sky as though it was day. The soldiers of Prince Racnar’s army huddled in their trenches fearing what bold and powerful magic the Heresiarch hurled at them now. As dawn approached a brave scout climbed out of the trenches only to see the burnt remains of the Heresiarchs forces. A lone flaming figure walked past the scout heading in the direction of the Fane. Kaddim the master of blinding bolts and brilliant beams ascends to the domain of light.
Whoops! Forgot to give Dice his domain of 'Tyranny' before. Fixed now!
ReplyDeleteLord Xann ascends to Tyranny. Before the cannibal kingdom fell, it was a tyrannical terror throughout the southern world. Xann's father, Tantalus, a demigod himself, reigned over the blood-hungry golden archers and their feudal lands with a violent whim. While Xann hunted the Heresiarch, a journey that began years prior to the final confrontation, the cannibal kingdom was wiped to the ground. The rightful heir, Lord Xann will now ascend to his tyrannical position in the skies, instead of on the miserable planet. There he will feast upon the damned lambs and rule with an iron fist.
ReplyDeleteHear ye well young travelers, for tales say the man known as Kaddim was more than a man, but the very embodiment of [Trickery and Madness]! Stories say that he approached a blind man and struck the ultimate deal for great power. It is said that what he went through, no human could survive, but some suggest he is no longer human. Since then, rumors have spread that all who have crossed swords with Kaddim, are met with his laughing flaming skull before meeting their demise. “The laughing death” is what whispers speak of the man these days. I myself once saw Kaddim in action, true story! Every move his enemy made was met with another trick up Kaddim’s sleeve, as if he could see what was, before it happened with his eye. That Eye! An eye holding such dark secrets should never be looked upon for surly it would drive a mere mortal to insanity. And all the while, that unnatural laughter echoed out as each deception unfolded upon his enemies, until they too were laughing just as Kaddim.
ReplyDeleteI grant dominion over Civilization to Tordek, the undying dwarven warrior, whose millenia old curse has born witness to the rise and fall of civilizations great and small.
ReplyDeleteTo Nettle I grant dominion over Protection and Peace.
ReplyDeleteElders tell the tale of the silver-tongued pixie, Nettle, who brokered peace between the warring clans of Runebeard and Sundershield. With masterful diplomacy and a touch of pixie dust, the fabled bard ended the generational dwarven blood feud without a single drop of blood being spilt.
To Oros I grant Destiny & Doom, for on this quest he became our black-winged angel of doom and wrath! No creature may escape their destiny, and if they were to try, the winged Oros would surely hunt them down and bring them doom.
ReplyDeleteI grant the domains of Skill & Perfection & Thought to be shared by the deities Nettle and Xann, as they exemplified the skills and leadership to save their fellow crusaders from the constant onslaught that these hellish halls have brought on them.
I grant the domains of [Reason & Knowledge] to Kaddim, the mastermind behind so many successful adventures they cannot all be told here. Every night, the lightning mage lectured by firelight, ever roaming the wilderness for the brightest minds and most ambitious souls. He teaches not only the magical arts, but the applications of logic that unites the smallest animal to the largest cosmos. For it is reason and knowledge that lead to ones ability to deceive, to see the light of their ways, and yet all too often drives mortals to madness.
No sharing! Redo skill, perfection & thought.
DeleteThen I grant the domains of Skill & Perfection & Thought to Talon, assassin of the seventh circle, feared through the material plane as the knife in the dark. It is rumored that he once killed an entire bloodline in one night, yet no guard or divination coiuld catch him in the act. It is said his eyes were stolen from dire half-fiend eagles, and that he wears the skins of an ancient drow assassin on his feet to avoid detection. No being could be more perfect in his execution of skills, or foresight in planing.
DeleteOOC: Gotta give Talon some love, even if he was short for this world.
To Talon I grant dominion over destruction and death. Huddled around campfires, mortal men tell the tale of the wandering ranger, who brings death and destruction in his wake, much like a forest fire or a hurricane. Looking to fill the void in his cold stone heart, the shadar-kai travels ever onward, killing man and beast alike.
ReplyDeleteTo Mikhail I grant the Domain of Magic and Alchemy, for beside any vampire lives dark and powerful magic. Tales are told of when Mikhail worked countless nights in secret transmuting his own blood with the essence of the Astral Sea itself in an attempt to create a Blood Star. Some say even now he draws ever near it's full transmutation, and has not been seen for some time. It's success would mean a new Era for his kind to thrive.
ReplyDeleteTo Brand I grant [Vengeance & Conflict], for it burns as strong as one hundred suns. For every act of war, or assassination between kingdoms, there will always be a pursuit of vengeance. As an engine of war, Brand's clan know only of conflict. Throughout his life, any act of war was met with a swift and crushing retribution, relentless in it's execution. Each act carried out made him stronger, his clan stronger. At their demise, knowing defeat, the clan poured all of their hatred and desire for vengeance into a single vessel. A pain no mortal can comprehend, yet it drives him ever forward, and endures.
To Oros I grant Darkness, for it was in his final cataclysmic moments of mortal life that he pulled one of the darkest creations from the vile stone of the Heresiarch's dark chamber and saved the plane of existence. It is his hopes that rising to Darkness will allow him to redefine the concept of the lightless; grant boons to the thieves who stalk the nights, but make the shadow a place of comfort for those who seek it, instead of a place where death lurks and evil hides in cowardice.
ReplyDeleteNow all we have left is Creation & Life, and Love. Aww you guys...
ReplyDeleteTo Nettle I grant Love the Pixie's love for his fellow man was so great that even with his dying breath he uttered the words that would save his comrade rather then try to save himself.
ReplyDeleteTordek the undying dwarf overcame his curse when the kind spirit of Nettle infused with him to strike the final blow on the Heresiarch. Now Tordek is not just undying but rather the master of creation and life!
Awesome work, guys! Let's move on to the second phase: fate.
ReplyDeletehttp://dmg42.blogspot.com/2012/10/snd-02-divinity-fate.html