Initiates

Setting

In Cormire post-Lyvian's Fire, Vasker Raiden still serving as the head of the city-state.

Character Creation

You are in your 18th summer and the child of a priestess of the benevolent temple of Celeste. As such, you must go through an initiation/adulthood ceremony.

Being so young, you have little to no professional experience, but perhaps your teacher-father is a blacksmith, or a butcher, or a farmer, or a city guard. Perhaps you have fallen in with thieves and scalawags, or perhaps you've been a dutiful librarian's assistant, or perhaps you're following your mother's footsteps as an acolyte of the temple.

100 point human characters

• you have an implied Duty to comply with your mother's responsibilities to have her children "initiated"
• you are a teenager, so you no more than 8 points total on skills
• max 30 pt Disadvantages
• exotic/supernatural Advantages require GM approval
• magery / power investiture ok if your story supports it
• if you don't choose Status and Wealth you are average in each
• add Literacy if you want to know how to read
• you've lived your whole life in Cormire (and might have Area Knowledge as a result), but might have some traveling/exploring experience if your story supports it (e.g., dad is a merchant who travels back and forth to Zareph and Serenton regularly)

You each have siblings/cousins and/or acquaintances who have been through Initiation. A mature high priestess and a man-at-arms will march you off into the forest, say a few words in front of a really big tree, and then you come home. The primary complaint you've heard from recent Initiates is the unpleasantness of sleeping on the cold hard ground in the wilderness. →Decide what your character's feelings are regarding this obligation.

Each party member is aware of all the others. There should be some "history" between you, whether friendly or unfriendly or romantic or whatever. →Please work out at least one cross-character relationship prior to kickoff.

Equipment

• Base wealth for teens is $400 (which is the cost of a Shortsword). If you want to spend more, you'll need to spend on the Wealth Advantage (10-pt "Comfortable" = $800, 20-pt "Wealthy" = $2000). Exceptions will be consider if part of your story and with a spend on Unusual Background.
• Due to the long journey ahead, you have been advised to keep your Encumbrance level at Light or below.

Campaign Prelude

High Priestess Ena

It is a crystal clear summer morning, crisp and cloudless. The sounds of commerce and activity are beginning to come alive in the grand granite city of Cormire.

After collecting supplies, a short walk leads you to meet High Priestess Ena on the steps of the temple.

Characters

• Harold, Darren's swift-footed scalawag
• Darcy - Blair's socialite
• Sajad - Ernest's Eastern woodcutter

What Happened

Embark

The three youngsters had breakfast and walked their respective paths through Cormire to the Temple of Celeste, down a side street off the Grand Plaza.

High Priestess Ena greeted them warmly and invited them inside. Within, she opened a secret door and led the teens downstairs, where a glowing green egg as tall as a man sat upright in a cramped chamber. Ena said a quiet word and the egg dissolved, revealing a twisted staff. She explained that Cleste herself possessed this staff when she walked the Gurth long ago, and now it is core to the temple's faith.

The group then proceeded to meet up with a dour merchant who provided a ride out of the city and all the way up to the pass, at which they arrived after dark and met up with Ena's friend Spencer, a man-at-arms with a fabulous mustache.

A brief incident with a pair of lascivious barbarians left Sajad knocked out cold, but Ena addressed the situation with a spell which left the assailants unconscious on their backs as well.

Four days of travel bonded the group, with Darcy and Harold tending to Sajad's dislocated jaw daily.

The following morning, as the group was breaking down camp, a elf woman approached at great speed, riding a white unicorn. Ena immediately recognized and greeted her, but then an urgent debate began. The elf Eelia warned of a great approaching danger and advised the group follow her back to her camp. Ena instead insisted on rushing the party further down the forested hill to the Legacy Tree to proceed with the Initiation. Eelia accompanied, distresssed.

At the great tree, Ena urged the teens to approach it, when suddenly, she, Eelia, and Spencer were struck in the center of the chest by thick-shafted crossbow bolts. Each gasped and fell, and then white smoke emerged from the wounds as blood hissed and boiled.

Quick-thinking Darcy used a spell to levitate the staff from Ena's hand, which Sajad grabbed on the way into the great hollow at the base of the tree. Darcy and Harold followed, and all were immediately enclosed by a warm, comforting mist.

Two monstrous elves then entered the clearing, apparently oblivious to the teens' location, and devoured the hearts of the slain before maniacally cackling and dashing off into the forest.

Stunned, the teens debated next moves as the mist began to clear.

Harold exited the cocoon of the tree and brought the fallen priestess back within. He then moved on to the elf. As he touched her, three male elves rushed out of the trees, an arrow nocked and demanding answers. Haughty, outraged, and grief-stricken, they scold the teens to go home to their mommies, collect their sister's desecrated body, and depart.

Aghast and dismayed, the teens consider their options. Without their mentors/leaders, and the unhelpful elves, their direction is unclear.

They watch with wonder as the tree and Ena meld into a single form.

Then they hear a low-voiced moaning far off in the forest. Approaching carefully, they encounter a 15' tall giant apparently made of tree bark, kneeling, crying, at the base of a small tree that has been toppled. He is a simpleton bemoaning damage to his butterfly tree, and the party coaxes him into leading them to his queen, who, he says, will know what this means.

Queen Ciara greets the party with a subtle silent nod, and then uses one of the giant's tears to reconstruct the scene of the crime against the butterfly tree. A flash of light resulted in three monstrous elves astride massive spiders, which proceeded to crash through the tree and off into the forest.

Ciara raises an eyebrow and says, "Hmm, thirteen hundred years early."

A Higher Purpose

A friendly interrogation reveals that more than 1000 years ago, there was some sort of collaboration between the elves and dwarves to purge the land of "Hellions" by locking the "hellgates". Details are scarce, so the party asks who would know. The queen floats the possibility that the Elder Druids may remember.

Four days of hiking back up the mountains, punctuated by an owlbear encounter that Darcy manages with an illusion, the party steps out onto the broad snowfield, flanked by craggy peaks.

Midway, they spot a white dragon which makes several attempts at a wing buffet to knock everyone over. Then, a projectile slams into the enormous drake, scales shatter, and the beast tumbles several times, screeching, before taking flight again and disappearing into the distance.

A handsome elf in a gauzy tunic leaps superhumanly down through the boulders and introduces himself as Kazat. He hears of High Priestess Ena's demise, at the hands of monsttrous elves he refers to as "Voidbringers". He endorses the plan to consult the druids and offers a ride.

Whereupon he assumes his natural form, a mirror-scaled silver dragon twice the size of the white dragon. The team piles on and is soon aloft, flying downslope to the east for hours to an arid plateau with spidery canyons and twisted junipers.

They rendezvous with Dogger, a burly bearded bloke driving a "wind wagon" built entirely of natural materials. The dragon and the man exchange friendly remarks, Kazat flies off, and Dogger says, "Let's go then."

The wagon's leather sail billows mysteriously and a week-long journey of violent bumps at high speed commences. After a close call with a swarm of giant wasps, eventually, the party approaches an ancient stand of massive redwoods - Druid Grove.

There, Sloane Arakian indicates that the druids are aware of a hellgate breach and have been studying the moon and the winds to figure out next steps. In fact, one of their own recently traveled to the nearest hellgate and Sloane herself witnessed him open it and leap inside. She agrees to accompany the party to the site.

When she sees Dogger, she becomes enraged and runs towards him, cursing!