One Shot - Era of Renewal
Outline
History
No one knows how long the sun was little more than a star in the sky. During that time of darkness, magic went away and almost nothing grew. Most people and animals died of starvation. Those who lived underground were also affected and suffered heavy losses. Anything that could burn was used to stave off the cold; even books and works of art were not spared.
When the sun slowly returned, no one alive had ever seen it before, not even the elves or the gnomes. Much of what had been learned in the previous era was forgotten and had to be rediscovered. Magic filled the world again, bringing with it the Feywild and the Shadowfell, and new gods revealed themselves. In this new world, safety came first, so warlords gathered fighters to protect against wildlife and roving gangs. Before long, countries were established, and the warlords became the first kings and queens.
Once the world had food, shelter, and security, many advances were made in all sciences, and humanoidkind flourished. Populations and life expectancies grew. Cities and farmholds were founded everywhere, and real, burgeoning societies filled the world. In the country of Baltur, the dwarven Magus made magic a universal power used for nearly everything.
Since the Endless Night, stories have spoken of stars floating high above the world, containing all of its knowledge and housing its best and brightest people. However, they were never seen until, a millennium later, the Magus confirmed their existence. At great expense, one was pulled from orbit, but it crashed hard, shattering anything inside. Nothing of much import was found.
Current Day
Many countries now dot the continent, and life is good. Although there is still warfare and some rulers cannot resist expanding their territory, by and large, most people now live in peace and have enough to eat. The largest cities have a population close to one million and are made up of buildings made of stone and wood. One language is spoken worldwide, and most people know how to read and write.
The Magus of Baltur created Shathûr Magic, which is more powerful than any magic the world has ever seen. It is capable of destroying mountains and teleporting entire armies. Their country is a marvel of magic and engineering with portals linking all cities and towns. In the rest of the world, many mages and priests use their spells to improve life for everyone.
Meta Information
The only existing classes: Artificer, Barbarian, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Wizard. Only followers of Rades, goddess of Joy, Renewal, Serendipity, and Song, can be Bards.
Adventure
It is a period of civil unrest. Stories have been circulating for some time now that the Magus are working on a ritual to bring them ULTIMATE POWER. This has made priests, as well as their gods, and other people, very concerned, as the result could be catastrophic. Should any mortal be allowed to wield this much power? The Magus have clamped down on any opposition to their work, and as a result, it has gone underground.
You four joined these Rebels for your own reasons and have been working together for some time. Currently you are in a hidden base in Gardyl Zirak, away from prying eyes, and receive an urgent message from Magus Kalervo Ubran. Somewhere in the capital of Banad-Gathol, pursued by Baltur’s sinister agents, he is one of the few Magus firmly against the ritual.
Mogdin Strongraes, Hill Dwarf Holy Entertainer, Dance College Bard
You grew up in poverty; even a society with magic as powerful as this doesn’t necessarily take good care of its citizens. But from an early age it became clear you were quite skilled and your parents encouraged you to make the most of your chances, sacrificing a lot for you and your sibling, Irja, who became a skilled brewer.
From hundreds of applications you were one of the lucky handful selected to work with the Excentric Detective. There’s so much you learned, things you still apply in entirely different fields than criminology. This is also where you met the Rogue, Sinji Halruber, and you’ve stayed friends when your career, if you can call it that, took different directions.
You tried your hand at many things, not all of them vocational. But through it all there was always your veneration for Rades, goddess of Joy, Renewal, Serendipity, and Song. Her message of making people happy through kindness and personal performances resonated with you from the first time you saw a bard perform when you were a child.
You’ve been a member of the church for years and just like the rest of the clergy you agree with Rades’ deep concern over what the Magus are doing. While the cardinals are trying the diplomatic route you had no problem finding people who want to take a more proactive approach to this ritual and you joined, what some are calling, the Rebellion.
You like nothing more than making people happy and will go out of your way to do so, no one has a more positive attitude. Your friends have warned you, repeatedly, that you work too hard at all that you do, often you sleep just a few hours as you want to spend all your time helping people. You also spend all your money on others.
Obsession: If you see someone unhappy or in need, you will do all in your power to help.
Paladin: Unequal Devotion; they would burn the world for you, and you… know this.
Rogue: Ghost Between You; you both started your careers under the famed Excentric Detective. Your careers then took very divergent courses but any time you are together you can’t help but judge every action by what he would have said.
Wizard: Unspoken Understanding; there's a profound, almost telepathic understanding between you that transcends words, born from shared experiences. But of late it seems you are no longer that well connected.
Baugi Throkoc, Mountain Dwarf Faction Agent, Spelldrinker Oath Paladin
Nothing in your childhood indicated that you’d become a paladin. You grew up in a big family with no less than four siblings, a lot, by dwarven standards. Your father works in construction and so do your siblings now, your mother had a fulltime job raising you all but now went back to her old career; doing the books for small businesses.
From an early age you worked parttime construction jobs, yes, it definitely is who you know. And you were happy, looking forward to a career and a loving partner to start your own family with. And then one day, much like any other, you walked down the road and passed a dwarf and immediately knew something was very wrong, that was no dwarf.
You followed and saw them enter a warehouse. You didn’t know why but just knew something was very wrong. Fortunately you managed to get a friend of yours in the Baruk to have a look and the place was found to be a meeting site for a cult. The dwarf you saw turned out to be a powerful fiend from the lower planes. Clerics and paladins from the church of Mahna, goddess of Magic, Divination, and Truth were called in and defeated the abomination.
And that’s when you met Heta Thilgraes, she was already ancient then, but still filled with more fire and vim than anyone else. The old paladin spoke with you many nights and brought you into the fold, starting you on your way to becoming a force for truth and balance in magic.
For centuries now the relationship between the church and the Magus has been strained. Now that stories of the ritual have become an open secret, it has split the clergy. Some want to continue to try diplomacy, whereas others are talking about taking direct measures to stop the ritual. Heta was the most outspoken, of course, she advocated finding those like-minded among the clergy of the other gods and then marching straight to the Tharbun.
Two days later she was dead. She lived a longer life than most dwarves on record, should have been dead over a century ago, but… You are sure it wasn’t the bad food she supposedly ate; it was the Magus, they were behind it and they will suffer for what they did to one of the most precious people to have ever existed.
You immediately joined the rising Rebellion and offered to do anything at all. You were asked to help bring in more of the Mahna clergy and you were introduced to a fellow Rebel; Mogdin Strongraes. You can’t explain it, but this person is who will bring down the Magus and heal the world, somehow, some way.
Obsession: You will not fail Mogdin, they can’t be stopped from attaining their destiny.
Bard: Devotion; you would burn the world for them. They are that special.
Rogue: Shared Burden; on your first mission together you orphaned twin boys and now look after them when you can. You have a need to make sure something like this won’t happen again, you keep double checking everything they do.
Wizard: Allies; you found so much common ground in how arcane magic should be treated and what limits should be imposed upon it. Recently they seems to have changed their stance a little.
Sinji Halruber, Forest Gnome Investigator, Inquisitive Archetype Rogue
A foundling, that’s what you were called, growing up. They told you that you were left at the doors to the temple of Rades in a basket. They took you in and raised you together with other urchins who had no home for one reason or another. Looking back you can say your childhood was a warm one, you were truly cared for and got a lot of affection, more than many raised in a ‘proper’ home.
Curiosity kills the familiar they told you, but you just could never stop yourself, if anything intrigued you had to know. And your skills in that department quickly grew. Unfortunately not so your sense of right and wrong at that early age. But it took only one, minor, brush with the law and you learned it was better to use your skills for good, and not bad.
It kept you busy enough; not just your fellow foundlings found use for your skills, so did the clergy. And then you were one of the lucky handful selected from hundreds of applications to work with the Excentric Detective. You knew immediately that you found your calling and you absorbed all they could teach like a sponge. Here you also met the Bard, Mogdin Strongraes, and you’ve stayed friends, though you saw less of each other when they changed career.
You joined the Baruk (the guard), with a glowing recommendation from the Excentric Detective you had a great start. Solving crimes was much more than a vocation, you were born for this, working almost every waking hour. You also solved your own past, though you would have been better off not knowing.
It wasn’t your parents who left you at the temple doors; you found out your mother was deemed unfit to take care of you, having many addiction issues, and no one knew who your father was. So two Baruk officers decided to take you away and left you at the temple. When you learned of this, your mother had been dead by two years, both the officers were retired, one had moved away and you didn’t think talking to the other would do you any good.
Your rise through the ranks in the Baruk was nothing short of meteoric and all too soon your job involved hardly any detecting at all, it was a lot of oversight and paperwork. You quit and started your own agency, the Excentric Detective even told you he was happy for some real competition.
You can’t cast a single spell but you’ve seen enough abuse in your life to know that giving people unbridled power and no checks and balances will lead to nothing good. So when Mogdin told you about this new Rebellion and how your skills might be very useful, you wasted no time and joined immediately, becoming friends with the Paladin and Wizard.
Obsession: Whenever I am confronted with something mysterious, I need to solve it, right then and there.
Bard: Ghost Between You; you both started your careers under the famed Excentric Detective. Your careers then took very divergent courses but any time you are together you can’t help but judge every action by what he would have said.
Paladin: Shared Burden; on your first mission together you orphaned twin boys and now look after them when you can. You have a need to make sure something like this won’t happen again, you keep double checking everything they do.
Wizard: Delicious Friends; you see only the best in each other, though lately they seemed to have changed.
Lumi Lehuvert , Hill Dwarf Mage of High Sorcery, Wand Tradition Wizard
You’ve often thought your last name might as well be “leMage”, as everyone in your family is a wizard. If anyone is the black sheep, it’s you, and you’re still a mage! None of your family can claim to be of very high level or importance but all of you are cogs in the wheels of society, keeping it running as smoothly as possible. And you’re proud of that.
But that’s not to say you are blind to the problems that exist in the world, and there are many. Unfortunately the Magus have become so exalted above everyone else that they don’t seem to care anymore, only focusing on their own pet projects and Magic, it’s always a capital M with them. In their floating castles and underground laboratories they never come into contact with the common people and have no idea of their plights.
From a young age you’ve been among those fighting for justice and change. But now stories of this mass ritual have brought things to a head. The point has been reached where not standing up and fighting to stop it, is the morally wrong choice. And so you joined the Rebellion and will do all that is in your power to make sure the Magus will not succeed.
You are earnest to a fault and will not brook any injustice, no matter how small. You will always be as fair as possible and if anyone will have to be satisfied with less than an equal share it might as well be you. Privately your friends and family think you can go on too long, decrying one injustice or another, but none has dared say that to your face.
Obsession: I will help the downtrodden when I can.
Bard: Unspoken Understanding; there's a profound, almost telepathic understanding between you that transcends words, born from shared experiences. But of late it seems you are no longer that well connected.
Paladin: Allies; you found so much common ground in how arcane magic should be treated and what limits should be imposed upon it. Recently you seemed to have changed your stance a little.
Rogue: Delicious Friends; you see only the best in each other, though lately you seemed to have changed.
Fuck all the above! You’re no puny 6th level mage, you’re a 19th level wizard, a fucking Magus. You’re Pinja Galgruc and you won’t be fucked around with! If it wasn’t for Senior Magus Strom Votuth, better known as “the Asshole”, you wouldn’t be in this situation. But he developed this new spell and volunteered you for its first test.
So, they found a mage who was part of this new Rebellion thing and then your consciousness was transferred into her body. It didn’t take much to dominate that weakling, and the beauty of the spell, you have to begrudgingly admit, is that you still have access to most of her memories and manners, perfect for infiltrating and stopping this bunch of losers.
But you have notes! You’ve been “riding” Lumi for so long now that some of your own memories are starting to get harder to access. You do have a soul coin containing your servant Aatu Kasgret, who could answer some questions. It definitely feels like ending the charade and returning to yourself won’t be as easy as promised, this spell needs work!