Act I: Veils and Shadows, pt. 2

At first, the new plane seemed much like the Shadowfell, dimly lit and nearly lifeless. But here there was an almost palpable aura of decay: the river water was black and stank of rotting vegetation, and the trees along the bank reeked of corruption. The very land was blighted, diseased. A thin, cold mist flowed over the ground, and the moon that shone down from the sky was as red as blood. The Raven Queen had spoken true: something was horrifically wrong here. Clangden attempted to consult the Manual of the Planes to find out where "here" was, but the book, apparently possessed of its own will, showed him only a strange symbol that caused a taste of rotten meat in the heroes' mouths.

Coming ashore near a signpost on a road that ran along the river, the Legend Breakers learned that they were halfway between a town called Aronville and another named New Bronton. Given that New Bronton, according to the sign, lay some sixteen miles downriver, the heroes opted to get back in the boat and sail downriver rather than walk the distance.

Arriving at New Bronton, the heroes were only mildly surprised that the guard who greeted them was a zombie, recalling the Raven Queen's remark about living beings attracting "undue attention." At first the guard was reluctant to permit the Legend Breakers entry into the town, citing a "quarantine," but when the heroes displayed their ignorance of the local circumstances he became more open, taking them to be "newly risen." The guard allowed them into the town and directed them to Prelate Hadric in the town hall.

The Prelate proved to be a hideously disfigured man, missing his lower jaw entirely. He communicated, in a manner brusque to the point of rudeness, through sign language and an interpreter. He explained that the previous year, a magical experiment gone awry had resulted in a massive wave of necrotic energy covering the entire planet and transforming every living thing into an undead version of itself. Half the recently buried corpses had also risen as undead, and bodies had continued to rise at irregular intervals ever since. Prelate Hadric noted that the only bright spot in all this was that an organization he called the Triat had volunteered its services to help stabilize the country, and advised the group to travel on to the capital city of Shan if they wanted to know more. He did not appear at all sorry to see the back of them.

Shan proved to be a partially rebuilt ruin, nearly a quarter of its area taken up by a massive crater centered on what had been the wizards' tower from which the catastrophe had originated. Residual eddies of magic suspended chunks of masonry in the air above the crater, including what appeared to be the nearly-intact top three floors of the tower. A giant scaffold extended out from the rim of the crater to a window on the lowermost of the three, and the Legend Breakers decided to scale this makeshift bridge. They passed several work parties on their way around the rim of the crater, noticing that the leader of each wore a surcoat bearing the emblem that the Manual of the Planes had shown them on their arrival. None of the workers or their supervisors attempted to stop the heroes, however, or even remarked on their passage.

The inside of the tower proved only moderately illuminating. The bottom floor was strewn with skeletons and signs that they had died violently. Old, dried bloodstains and blast marks were prevalent, and much of the furniture had been smashed. The second floor showed signs that the battle had grown more intense as it moved up the tower: hardly any surface was free of blood or soot, and human remains were scattered more thickly on the floor. One group in particular had fallen facing outward from the staircase leading up to the top floor, as though they had died defending it from an attacker. The uppermost floor consisted of a single huge room with an empty pedestal in the center, whose walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in arcane glyphs and runes. Marris was able to determine that the spells woven into the stone pertained to protection and containment, presumably aimed at whatever had previously occupied the pedestal.

There were also a number of skeletons in the top room, again facing outward from a central point, this time the pedestal. Sprawled across the pedestal was one skeleton of decidedly inhuman aspect. Instead of feet, it had cloven hooves; batlike wings sprouted from between its shoulder blades; and great horns curved back over its skull. It was clearly the skeleton of a demon. A partial picture emerged of the final moments leading up to the disaster: a demonic intruder invaded the tower, slaughtered everyone in its path on its bloody climb despite the resistance of the tower's occupants, stepped over the corpses of the last defenders to reach the pedestal, and... what? Did it activate some kind of artifact, or shut one down? Had it intended to cause global devastation, or was that merely an unforeseen side effect? For the demon itself had certainly gained nothing except a swift death for its efforts.

At a loss to answer these questions, the Legend Breaker decided to seek out someone in the city who might be able to shed more light on the matter. One of the Triat officers overseeing a work crew directed them to city hall and one Executor Nalis. Unfortunately, the Executor proved less than helpful, claiming that while Triat researchers had indeed combed the surviving floors of the tower, they had learned nothing of particular value. When Marris, sensing Nalis was not being entirely truthful, brashly demanded that the Executor provide more information, Nalis' manner turned from diffident to actively hostile, ordering the heroes to leave his office and forget that they had ever set foot in the tower.

Certain that Executor Nalis knew far more about the tower and what happened there than he was letting on, the Legend Breakers determined to capture him for interrogation.

Experience rewards:
Learning of the necrotic wave from Prelate Hadric: 500xp
Examining the interior of the tower: 1,000xp
Determining than Executor Nalis knows more than he's letting on: 500xp
Total: 2,000xp
Per character: 500xp
Current status: 29,350 + 500 = 29,850xp
To next level: 32,000 - 29,850 = 2,150xp

Treasure rewards:
None this session.

Next time, in Sailing the River of Worlds:
The Legend Breakers attempt to capture Executor Nalis. Will they succeed, and if so, what will they learn from him? Who summoned the demon that invaded the Shan wizards' tower? Can the necrotic wave be reversed, and this world returned to normal?

On gods and angels

There are many gods. No one knows exactly how many, but name a concept and there is probably a god of it. The more universal the concept, the more powerful the god who embodies it. Thus, deities like Viridex (war) and the Raven Queen (death) are among the most powerful gods, commanding legions of angels and other divine servants. There is also a hierarchy of gods, in which lesser deities serve greater ones. Moradin (craftsmanship) commands the gods of metalwork, stonecrafting, woodwork, and other specific crafts. He also holds the loyalty of the gods of architecture, engineering, and other applied sciences. Viridex commands the deities of combat (insofar as combat is distinct from warfare), swordsmanship and other martial disciplines, and shares with Moradin rulership over the gods of weaponsmithing (who, in turn, rules over the gods of specific arts such as swordmaking) and armorsmithing. The Raven Queen rules a host of lesser deities, each of whom hold the portfolio of a specific aspect or manner of death: disease, starvation, overt violence (as distinguished from the covert violence of assassination, which is the portfolio of another of the Raven Queen's servant gods), etc. She also, in her capacity as the god of fate, commands the god of destiny and shares responsibility with Ioun (knowledge) for the gods of prophecy and divination.

The relationships of fealty and rulership among the gods are fearsomely complex, and though many mortal agencies have attempted to chart them, the resulting documents are widely considered apocryphal at best.

Angels are even more diverse than their masters. There are many classes or castes, each fulfilling a different function: observant angels, messenger angels, harbinger angels, warrior angels, and many others. In the larger hosts, those commanded by stronger deities, there will be considerable diversity even within a particular role. The Raven Queen's warrior angels, for example, range from human-sized skirmishers to hundred-foot-tall dreadnought angels, living siege weapons capable of laying waste to a medium-sized continent.

Act I: Veils and Shadows, pt. 1

As the river faded from azure fire back into ordinary water, and the landscape on either side assumed its new aspect, it became immediately apparent to the Legend Breakers that they were not where they had been only moments before. While the general contours of the land were the same, everything around them was dead. The grasses were brown and dried, the trees withered and leafless. More disturbing, the Temple City of Hennes, which had been visible only a few miles away, was no longer there. The heroes did not resist when the boat began drifting, apparently of its own accord, into shore. Stepping off onto a road seemingly placed there for their convenience, the Legend Breakers started walking.

Almost immediately, they realized that their arrival, if not anticipated, had certainly been monitored by whomever - or whatever - ruled this bleak and forbidding place. Approaching a large tree full of eerily still ravens, Marris appealed silently to his goddess, the Raven Queen, for a sign. He received a distinct impression that they were to follow the road to its end. The journey proved an unnerving one, for the adventurers passed many servants of the Raven Queen, each stranger than the last. By now it was obvious that the Legend Breakers had landed in the Shadowfell, the private domain of the Raven Queen. Death knights, shadar-kai, tengu, even vaguely spiderlike creatures which had served Lolth before Her destruction observed the Legend Breakers' progress to be sure they did not deviate from the path laid out for them. At one point, a shadar-kai woman, approached by Marris, instructed him, "Do not dawdle. Our Mistress awaits you at your destination." Suffused with joy at the prospect of meeting the Veiled Lady in person, Marris hurried onward with his companions in tow.

At the end of the road the heroes found themselves before the gates of Mortuus, the colossal black stone fortress-palace of the Raven Queen. Hosts of angels circled overhead, the beat of their vast wings providing the only sound. The gates were guarded by a pair of tall angels, each robed and hooded in absolute black, each with glowing green eyes as their only discernible feature, each bearing a great sword of black metal. They regarded the heroes as dispassionately as a harvester regards his fields, then turned aside to admit them into the divine Presence. Here the Judge of the Dead presided over a court thronged with the empty-eyed souls of the dead, come to be judged for their deeds in life. The grim crowd parted for the four living adventurers to pass through the vast, colonnaded hall toward the Seat of Judgment.

As the Legend Breakers had passed across the threshold into the Raven Queen's hall, a deep fear had taken root in each of their hearts, and it grew steadily more intense with each pace toward the death god's throne. Somewhere around the middle of the hall, their courage failed them, and they tried with all their might to turn and flee toward the fortress gates, hoping the angels would let them out... but they could not stop themselves from continuing to advance. The Raven Queen's divine will dragged them forward, step by horrifying step. Their hearts were pounding, cold sweat ran from every pore, their guts churned like nests of serpents, but still they were compelled to approach the being sitting on the throne. At last they stood before Her, every fiber of their being screaming to flee somewhere, anywhere, away from the living embodiment of death, their hearts threatening to burst with sheer terror... and then the fear vanished, instantly, as if someone had flipped a switch in the heroes' heads.

The throne was of black iron. Against its right arm leaned the sword Nightbringer, the instrument of Lolth's annihilation, its blade of roiling darkness seeming to promise the same fate to all who looked upon it. Seated upon the throne was a woman of superhuman beauty, Her features at once delicate and patrician, Her skin nearly paper-white with only the faintest blush of color at her cheeks, Her hair as black as a raven's wing, Her eyes... Her eyes were the same luminous green as Anriel's. She was clad in a black dress with a strangely protean pattern; in one moment, it seemed to be made of ravens' feathers, and in the next to be woven of spiderwebs. Upon Her brow sat a circlet of silver, set with a single enormous jewel which burned with a violet flame. As the Legend Breakers gazed upon Her, each of them knew in the pit of his soul that She was the Raven Queen, god of death and fate. Marris fell to the floor in reverence, crying, "My Queen!"

The dark goddess smiled very slightly at this display of devotion. "Rise, my servant. Know that I am well pleased with thee." As Marris scrambled to his feet, faith and adoration shining in his face, She raised Her hand, and Marris felt a searing pain in the center of his chest, as if he were being branded. The Raven Queen had blessed him with resilience against necromancy and stiffened his spine against even supernatural terrors. "I know that thou seekest the creature Kharebutu. I know the reason for thy quest. I know Kharebutu's nature and goals, which thou dost not. For this knowledge, I require a service of thee." Marris stepped forward eagerly, "Anything, my Queen. Command me." Clangden, Heinrich and Dunstad were less certain, but nodded assent. Clangden made the point, "I can offer my service, but not my allegiance." The Raven Queen nodded, saying, "Thou art the servant of My cousin, Viridex. I know how jealously He doth guard His minions. Fear not, warfather, for thy soul is safe in His hands."

Addressing the entire party, She continued, "There is a place, not far from here as gods reckon distance, in which the natural order, the delicate balance of life and death, hath been undone. The reasons for this, and the methods by which it was accomplished, are hidden from Me. Yet I am constrained from sending My angels, or any other servant who openly bears My faith. I require thou to go to this place, to learn what has happened and why, and to put it right, if thou can. Do these things, and I shall impart to thee all the knowledge that is needful for thou to prevail against the creature Kharebutu. Is it a bargain?" Again, Marris agreed avidly, the three dwarves less so.

"In the place where I shall send thee, living beings attract... undue attention. Thus it is necessary for thou to feel death's embrace - at least for a time." So saying, the Raven Queen exerted Her divine power and transformed all four heroes into undying death knights. The transition from life to undeath was unsettling, but the Legend Breakers proved their long experience with strange occurrences and adapted quickly to their new state. The Mistress of Bones also caused several new runes to appear on the Sextant of the Planes, saying, "This device will now carry thee where thou need to go. Tarry not, for the balance cries out to be set aright."

Having received their mandate directly from the lips of a god, the Legend Breakers wasted no time returning along the road to their boat. They sailed out into the center of the river and activated the Sextant. Again, the river became as blue fire; again, the landscape phased into a new form; and again, they were in a new world.

Experience rewards:
Meeting with the Raven Queen and receiving Her instructions: 2,000xp
Total: 2,000xp
Per character: 500xp
Current status: 28,850 + 500 = 29,350xp
To next level: 32,000 - 29,350 = 2,650xp

Treasure rewards:
None this session.

Next time, in Sailing the River of Worlds:
What is the nature of this new plane? What did the Raven Queen's cryptic references to the "balance between life and death" actually mean? How will the Legend Breakers' new status as death knights affect them, and what foes will they meet to test them?