The Farce of Chandar, Act I: Yellowtooth's Warning

Game Master PonyBoy

Who, or what are The Ascended?

He is "The Ascended". The Reaper.

Is this Thok?

(Slowly, DeRolues viscous smile returns to his face)

Indeed. Thank you. You do The Reapers work well.

Does Rick serve The Reaper, and how?

(DeRolue begins to laugh uncontrollably)

Rick? (muwhahahaha-ha) He is no servant (bwahahaha-haha-ha)Smiling Ricamros (hahahahaha-haha-ha) IS THE REAPER!

(He ceases his horrible laugh and with a suddenly serious face)

"Smiling Ricamros" IS The Ascended. He IS the Reaper of Reputation. He IS The Grey Master. He IS Blackfingers. He IS Father Skinsaw.

And you play HIS game...

I chop his head off. Dusty is done playing games.

Perfect. Details on the disposal above coming to fruition?

My plan of disposal?

Burning the body and burying the ashes?

Burn the body to ash.
Have my furry excavator dig 9 different holes, each 10 feet deep and no closer to the next than a mile.
Divide ashes amongst the 9 holes and bury, hydrating the ground with some holy water and perhaps Kal can hallow the ground as well.
This is one head Lock wants no part of.
What kind of soulless pedophile uses poison on his guests?

To clarify, Lock has no issues with poison, only that the jackhole would use it on his guests.
The people who foolishly saved the city.

Ok. If everyone is in agreement. You spend 1 more day on the bridge cleaning up DeRolue, and head back to Seven Snakes as 8th level heroes.

Well I just thought it might be humorous to have him pooped out by local wild life...

Just the idea of animals roaming around with DeRoluerpes makes Lock's skin crawl.

Then it is finished. For now. Until you deal with Selmon. Until you deal with Smiley?

After we 'free' Selmon I'm going to ask him about Ric , using all the aliases DeRolue mentioned earlier and sense motive to gauge his reaction.
If there's the slightest hint that he's working with or for Ric I'm going to convert him into Logan nom-noms.
My spell will be in effect again or still, depending how much time has elapsed .

When do you want to de-bag him? At Randall Bridge (where you are)? We can do the Selmon questions on the forums also.

After the removal of DeRolue we can de-bag Selmon.
If he is complicit in the atrocities then there's no need to have another disposal sight.

Ok. I'll start the Selmon text tonight. Stay tuned!!

With DeRolue out of the way, you turn your attention to Bishop Selmon. Drawing the magical bag from him, you remove the blind fold and gag. Selmon's eyes look swollen and red. Clean areas streak down his cheek bones where it appears massive amounts of tears forged paths through the dirt and grit of the road.

He squints as his pupils adjust to the bright light of day. The smell of smoke and searing flesh still hangs here. He scans the banks of The Sing Song river. Left, then right. Right then left. His head stops at the bridge. He takes in the carnage upon it and his eyes begin to well up...

"Dear Erastil...my god...what have you boys done?"

I will go back through the questions, assuming you would bounce the same information off of Selmon. After, feel free to ask new, pointed questions. Any questions you may not have wanted to ask, for whatever reason, simply omit the answer.

We have decided that each of us come up with three questions to ask our prisoners.

Mine are as follows.

1. Did Ojest take the orphans, was it his idea or did the church kick them out.

2. Is there a connection with the church and smiling Rick?

3. Are these happenings the churches ideas or something else influence?

Bonus question!

Dose he have any good recipes?

1.) (Selmon's voice cracks with anguish) Those poor souls. We shall never be forgiven for sitting idle while those poor, helpless souls were sent to be destroyed. Erastil forgive us all...

2.) (Selmon's face grows stern) He leads them...

3.) They are of the church, they are of the governing body, they are the work of just about all of high town. Anyone with wealth, power, influence...they are all to blame.

1. Who's decision was it to only guard the churches when we were attacked?

2. What is your relationship with Smiling Ric , more specifically why is a known criminal socializing with the noble people of High Town?
3. Why is the church of Erastil, a well-known and good aligned deity alienating and ignoring the other factions present on the council of 7?
Bonus Question: Do you know who attempted to poison us at your gathering in our honor?
It should be noted that prior to asking questions I will be casting Perceive Cues(+5 sense and perception) prior to the interrogation.
Giving me a +19 to Perception and +31 to Sense Motive.

1.) (A look of shame flashes across Selmon's face) The clergy. Those of us who still believed ourselves to be "good" caved in to the fear of war, of death, of pain. We looked the other way. Erastil have mercy on me...

2.) Smiling Ricamros, I assume you know by now, is much more than the leader of the local thieves guild.

3.) What you see in this realm, Chandar, are the temples of Erastil. The books of Erastil. The holy symbols of Erastil. But that covenant was broken long ago. Before the Great Partition, I fear Erastil had already left this realm. His presence still lingers in a few of us, but we are not the mighty clerics and paladins history speaks of, we are afraid, without spines, ashamed. We buy time, praying that upon death Erastil will call our souls from this place...praying we don't end up serving eternity to the reaper...

4.) They attempted to murder you. You are becoming dangerous to the ruse. You threaten the game you see. Tens of thousands that would have existed in ignorance, at the mercy of the reapers sick will, now raise weapons and fight. The faithless begin to show faith.

Before we kill him:

Who are The Reapers?
Who is The Reaper?
What was The Shade doing for The Reaper?
Does Rick serve The Reaper, and how?
Who, or what are The Ascended?
Is this Thok? (I would imagine my Coup de grace would have been a brass knuckle to the windpipe or something similar, so his face should still be pretty recognizable)

Perhaps we should consider taking him to the Orcs. We could even kill him in front of them to show that we have no hostility towards them. Or we could take his head to them after we have done the deed.

1.) (Selmon's jaw sets. His eyes look past you. You can see great wisdom, deep within them) The Reaper of Reputation, Blackfingers, The Grey Master, Father Skinsaw...He is a god. The god know as Norgorber.

2.) Three supernatural servants serve Norgorber in this realm. "Yellowtooth", a lycan-rat named Silas. "The Secret Shade" a horrid undead shadow. I hear on good authority that you made quick work of these two, maybe another reason for the attempted murder? The third, Venomfist, resides north of the Erikols in an ancient, icy chamber.

3.) It is said that Simling Ricamros is the god Norgorber in his human form.

4.) Norgorbers followers, his congregation, often refer to him as the ascended as he was once mortal and ascended into god-hood.

Whoa.

I rolled an 18 for my sense motive on his spiel, for a total of 49.
I'm looking to see specifically if he's a loyal servant of Erastil or if he's lost and faithfully serves Norgorber and is trying to deceive us.

You sense no deceit. You sense a weak human who hides his true faith in Erastil in order to survive. The kid on the play ground who teams up with the bully out of fear and to avoid getting beat up himself...

Hrm.
Well I don't think we should kill him anymore, perhaps he joins our cause along with any of the true followers of Erastil that he knows of.
Maybe we clean out his church of all of its 'rats' or he and the faithful come and stay with us if the church thing is a lost cause.
Depends on the ratio of faithful servants to those who gave themselves to darkness.

The ratio? Maybe 5 - 10 men. All of which are at the ends of their mortal lives. Old men, coming to terms with blasphemous lives, wasted cowering in fear. The young and the middle aged, they all chase the desires that the reaper feeds daily. Money, power, sin...

It seems your choice is simple. You will die. Either at the hands of Norgorber, or as old men who made the same decision I did ages ago...to live in fear, to cower, to crawl on your stomach counting the years you think you are saving. Either way, death is certain.

But what if there was a way. To save yourselves. To save the meek. To save low town, all you love?

Norgorber was once a man. Flesh, blood and bone. He ascended into a god.

What if you could become gods. What if there was a way for The Heroes of the Well to ascend...Ascend and chase Norgorber from this realm for eternity?

What would you say to this?

For such a way does exist.

Does Ascension come with money, power, sin... seems familiar...

You decide what kind of deity you will become when you take the test. If in your heart, you desire the ascension because you long for those things...then yes, you will become a god who incites those sins in mankind.

If you seek justice. If you seek to save this realm. Passing the test would make you a just deity, a protector.

Again. It is what lay in your heart of hearts when you attempt to ascend.

Seems to me that the wilds aren't represented very much in the current pantheon of deities.
Logan says I should be the patron of wolverines.

I could be the deity of knocking out Orcs...

Well, looks like you'll stay one more night to listen to Selmon's story.

You draw a small cooking fire and crack a wine skin. Targoth prepares some game Lock, Logan and Dusty were able to find. Modest, but enough to fill everyones stomach.

As the night moves on, you listen to Selmon's tale. A tale from the history of some other, parallel world...

You find out the following pieces of information;

-A relic known as the Starstone was raised from the bottom of an ocean called Inner Sea by a man named Aroden.

-By doing so, he obtained divinity.

-Aroden created The Starstone Cathedral. Arguably the holiest location in the multiverse, the relic is believed to rest within the cathedral walls. Starstone Cathedral stands on a stone column in the center of wide and seemingly bottomless pit at the heart of a city known as Absalom.

-Four bridges span the chasm, one for each of the currently four gods that obtained divinity at this site.

-The bridge for Aroden has since collapsed.

-Absalom is commonly referred to as "the city at the center of the world".

-Divinty is obtained by passing the Test of the Starstone.

-The Test of the Starstone is a test that anyone can take by attempting to reach the Starstone at the center of Absalom/The Starstone Cathedral.

-Other than Aroden, only three others have obtained divinty out of a vast number of those who have taken the test. Norgorber, who's life prior to the test is unknown, Cayden Cailean, who took it on a drunken bet, and Iomedae, a worshiper of Aroden who became his herald.

-The test is mysterious. The only publicly know part is that hopefuls must cross the bottomless pit surrounding the cathedral without using a bridge. This always draws an enormous crowd in Absalom.

-The exact nature of the obstacles within are unknown and rumored to change over time and mold themselves to individuals taking the test. Rumors abound of deadly mazes, tests of skill and wit, magic not functioning properly (or at all) and prevention of extra dimensional movement.

-Reaching Absalom may be a journey in and of itself. Only two planes connect between that parallel world and ours....Axis (Norgorbers realm), which you cannot cross, and Abaddon.

-Norgober is proud and arrogant. My thought is that the heroes of the well destroying his third servant, Venomfist, would send him into a rage. He could call forth his herald, opening a planar rift. You could enter the rift, and with a little help from some magic, enter Abaddon. You could cross through Abaddon, into Absalom. You could take the test! As demi gods, you could fight Norgorber!!

Sounds like I'm going to have to get Logan some wings.

I humbly except your kind offer of godhood.

Whoa, whoa Dusty. You gotta pass the test first. The first challenge is solving a problem without the use of decapitation so.......

Ok then.
We'll try evisceration on the next problem.

Sounds like a hoot.

Gentleman. Since we are returning to my homeland, I'm concerned about what must have been some sort of stress induced hallucination I had at the altar in the glacier.

I would also like to sell 3 green dragon eggs to someone... unless theres any objections. How much could they bring in? I looked online but couldn't find a solid price.

Also, welcome, claw dentist.

Dusty, you have a few thoughts. First, Eldak may be interested but he would probably use them to do something awful. The Caladrel use forest drakes (a cousin of the green dragon) to protect the West Brimwood, maybe they would want to upgrade; however, you risk being arrested for high treason by traveling there. Last, Smiling Ric would probably love to have them!

Claudandis, the vision you had....you are correct and it should be taken into consideration before you start hopping planes.

It was rather disconcerting. I don't thinkive seen anything like it since the last time I had heat exhaustion as a child

What did you see specifically?
I recall my vision but not yours.

Darkness . Standing on the edge of my homeland. No sun, no moon, no stars and a future of uncertainty and confusion.

for these purposes, morality is only important to the precise extent it affects the GP value. - some dude on the internet

Say I broached the subject with Eldak when we gave him our scouting report... perhaps he's looking to get rid of some human sized gear....

Also, not even once, did we check for secret doors in the cave with the water elemental... or anywhere else. I'll make a point to be that guy now that I have a high perception.

Seems like darkvision might become a necessity.

That's possible. I'm afraid I've spent all my money on wonderous treasures however. As for secret doors....in a glacier? That sounds stranger than a glacier already is. Why are you wanted for high treason Dirty Man? But all that aside , you had a hallucination as well Lock?

Ooc: I needed to upgrade my gear to mithril to maintain my barb speed in med armor and have no armor check pen anymore. Then I found a Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier, +1 luck bonus to ac and can negate a crit or sneak attack 1/day . Couldn't pass it up with the Fated Favor trait = double all luck bonuses so if anybody wants to stack luck buffs on me ;)
But the big money was 27k for a ring of blinking. 50% miss chance on top of 167hp and 30ac and dr 9-18 dr I can pull out of nowhere seems way too huge. Plus I can walk through doors and walls and all sorts of other useful flavor

Hmmmmmmm....GREEN dragon eggs you say? Seems it would be better if they were WHITE dragon eggs...yes indeed, I would pay good money for a WHITE dragon egg.

I would build my Peanut a saddle so he could ride my WHITE dragon. They would soar across the night sky, majestic and free...

Yes indeed, a nice WHITE dragon would be something.....

I suppose a GREEN would be sufficient to clear the rest of the North Brimwood for me. Do you think they eat Orcs? If they eat Orcs I would consider it. I don't like Orc, the meat is sinewy.

FINE! Only because you have helped me conquer the north but I will only pay half of what I would pay for a WHITE dragon egg. I will pay 25,000 gold for one egg or 60,000 gold for all 3.

(You are welcome to haggle with Eldak via Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Magic, etc. just post your plan and you die rolls).

Targoth has a high diplomacy I think. That sounds better than using my intimidate.

Regarding the visions;

They were intended to show you events from your past that shaped you and images from your future.

Targoth, Rusk, Lock, Dusty and Briston all saw visions in which Low Town, its citizens and their armies were completely annihilated. A vision that became reality upon their return to Low Town. As Scorpion-Smiling Ric yelled....I took it all from you! everything!

Claudandis's vision was different. As he stated, he was standing at the edge of East Island. There was no sun, no moon, no stars...the world just was. Behind him was pain and death, before him was darkness and confusion.

This could mean anything; Maybe it is describing your upcoming journey through Abaddon? Maybe there is only darkness and confusion ahead because "someone" or "something" did not plan for Claudandis...maybe you caught something by surprise and it had no vision to prepare or future to toy with....maybe that gives you an advantage?

Targoth has a high diplomacy I think. That sounds better than using my intimidate.

Ha! Throw the old man's Oathbow in and sweeten the pot!! He's swingin from a Brimwood tree for high treason anyway and won't know the difference.

I would give you a +4 bonus to your Intimidate!!!!