Thatonis Rising [Madius Wiki]

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====== Thatonis Rising ======
<WRAP right 15em>
^  Characters  |
|  [[pc:marco_fremont_jnr|Marco Frémont, Jr.]]  |
|  [[pc:persephone|Persephone]]  |
|  [[pc:may_montgomery|May Montgomery]]  |
</WRAP>
Tensions rise between the Confusian nations once more. The year is 1411AE, fifteen years since the drow resurgance and the return of their goddess Lolth, the events have been all but forgotten, and the unity between nations begins to falter. To the north Ormea is once again on the warpath, Urat is closing it's borders, and the woods lining the Elven lands grow darker, yet it is from the fiery desert to the south that the true darkness rises. An oppressive tension blows on the dry winds from Auruic Desert, bringing with it a corrupting malady that threatens to destroy the crops of Miles' Landing just weeks before harvest season. The people are in disarray, and the town cries for heros who will find the source of this evil. The call has been sent... will you answer?

==== Year 1411AE ====
**25th Sun’s Birth**: Persephone has been noticing the spreading of the blight, and upon bringing it up at the town meeting, the trouble is noticed by the church of Seraphiel. Father Andre tasks May and Marco to meet with Persephone and test to see whether an oil of remove disease will help with the blight. Upon testing it, instead a tar-like ooze emerged from the plant, which May ascertained was a partly manifested spirit of malevolence, which was promptly defeated as May presented her holy symbol and blasted it with positive energy (**100xp each**). Bringing this information back to the church, it was determined that emergency measures were to be taken in an attempt to sustain the town through the winter, after which the three will venture toward the south west (the direction from which the blight is spreading), to see if they can find the source of the blight.
\\ **31st Sun’s Birth**: The players finish their preparations to organize anti blight measures to try and sustain town through the winter before heading out to try and find the source of the blight.
\\ **32nd Sun’s Birth**: The players manage to avoid a dire creature of some kind (**100xp each**) in their travels, managing to arrive at the edge of the desert that evening.
\\ **33rd Sun’s Birth**: May notices a brooding darkness on the horizon, the players decide to investigate. Near the end of the day’s travels, they are met by an Ashworm thunderherd and manage to fend off an attack from one of the worms (**200xp each**). That evening, as Persephone is on watch, the brooding clouds overhead reveal in the distance, through a crack of lighting, a pair of enormous figures in the distance, a purple worm clashing with a crawling apocalypse, an ancient, mummified kraken used in long ago wars that was lost in the sands to the ebb and flow of time. Describing it to the party the next morning, Marco reveals it’s origins to the party.
\\ **34th Sun’s Birth**: As the party travels under the brooding clouds, they begin to see that the lightning seems to be converging on a singular point in the distance, and that it has begun to take on an eldritch purple tint. At around midday, the party is ambushed by a pair of monstrous scorpions (**200xp each**), which they barely manage to defeat, choosing to pause for a moment before continuing toward the convergence of the lightning strikes. Not too long after continuing, the party hear a disturbance nearby, and sneakily cresting the dunes, they spot two foul creatures, a Mane and Nupperibo, a demon and devil, looking like they're prepared for a long trip, with an oversized backpack and "travel supplies". May declares that they need to be dispatched, but before finishing them off, the party interrogate the pathetic mane, and learn that they are here to investigate the brooding darkness as well. (**200 xp each**)
\\ **35th Sun's Birth**: The party continue down toward the entrance to the pyramid, and discover a cloaked figure guarding the entrance, a member of an ancient race of Jackal people who worship death, the Maaru. He warns the party that this realm belongs to Thatonis, Lord of Death, and that they are not welcome. As the party tries to pry him for more information, he grows frustrated, and attacks, using dark magic to turn the sands against the party, but through their combined might, they barely manage to defeat him, watching as his body crumbles to dust before their very eyes and he returns to the sands, apparently animated from the very grains that the party tread upon (**600 xp each**). The only thing that remains is a golden ankh, which Marco takes, as they venture deeper into the pyramid. After traveling down a tunnel, the party finds a woman performing a strange ritual on what May recognizes as a Concordant Killer, an ancient assassin of the gods, with a legion of Maaru standing obediently in the darkness between the colossal pillars lining the room. They question the woman, learning she is draining the power from the concordant killer, awakening her own powers of death, but she seems to despise the name Thatonis, claiming she is Anubis, the new lord of death. The explain that her power is spreading a corruption across the land only to find her remorseless and uncaring of their plight, and, before they can attempt to fell her, she grows bored, and banishes them to the plane of malevolence, expecting them to be drained by the wraiths that have accumulated in the area. Luckily, the party are saved by a strange glowing light that seems to keep the dark creatures at bay.
\\ **36th Sun’s Birth**: The party, after traveling a ways away from the site of the pyramid, and encountering some dark scorpions (**133 xp each**), discuss what happened to them, and decide on a plan going forward, agreeing that they should head to the malevolent version of Miles’ Landing, and see if they can decide on a way forward from there.
\\ **37th Sun’s Birth**: Along the way to Miles’ Landing, they encounter King, a wyrmling shadow dragon, who becomes enamoured with the party, especially Persephone, and has taken to calling Marco “Bad Joke” for his puns, and May “Good Joke” for her endearing attempts to cover for Marco’s puns (**300xp each**). Shortly afterward, they encounter a shadow bear, which, despite some frighteningly painful swipes, they manage to defeat (**200xp each**), followed shortly by May noticing that a large boulder along the trail seems to be an illusion covering a flight of stairs going into the rock. Going down the stairs, the party discover the Crossroads Club, a rebranded extraplanar club hosted the manager Nona, a silver haired cheery girl dressed in classic host clothing. She introduces the club to them, and they notice that the club has exits to all of the planes, bar the moral ones and the material, which Nona explains are barred from entering, due to them causing too much ruckus with the opposing morals. The party ask if their currency is accepted here, to which Nona hesitates for a moment, before saying that their gold would be accepted, should they wish to pay with it, before seating them and returning behind the bar to serve. May takes the opportunity to see if she can find any patrons that may have recently visited the material, but feels patronised by the attendants, and possibly also slightly intimidated, as they all emanate an aura of power. Marco takes the opportunity to order some exotic food, and Persephone offers to pay, taking her money to the bar, where she learns the true form of payments: Memories that have “rubbed off” on items. Armed with this information, Persephone instead pays with some knick knacks, though opting not to pay with something too personal, while May is horrified by the information and takes it as a deception on Nona’s behalf. May’s feelings aside, Persephone orders food for King and herself, the bartender offering to let the chef decide what to make for King, which turns out to be a human leg, which further horrifies May, and puts Marco and Persephone in a state of uneasiness, though the bartender assures her that the food is magically conjured, and that no humans were hurt in the process. Additionally, Marco is served dragon stew, another recommendation by the chef, in what the waiter says the chef described as “delicious irony”, though this fact is kept away from King. Eventually the party is satiated, and decide to return to the plane of malevolence, to continue their quest, making their way to Miles’ landing.
\\ **38th Sun’s Birth**: At Miles’ Landing they find an infestation of shadow rats, their incredible density seeming to make them bleed through the plants into the material. May attempts to turn them, using the light that she glows internally with, creating a burst of positive energy, searing away the rats, before they swiftly return, like a wave crashing over a collapsing ship. She decides a more permanent solution is required, and that will require them to gather some materials from the positive energy plane...
\\ **39th Sun’s Birth**: The party arrive back at crossroads club, looking for a path to the positive energy plane, and bargain with the patrons for a means of positive energy protection, but learn that their internal light protects them from the effects of the positive energy plane as well. They find themselves within the North Saronian forests, and decide to follow the rivers toward the mountains, where May suspects they will find the most abundant powerstones, and possibly some Lumi settlements.
\\ **1st Sun’s Wrath**: The party finds a Lumi mining settlement, and Persephone manages to impress them with a haunting melody that deeply moves the Lumi, one of which insists on giving her a magical armor (+1 healing breastplate, that also acts as a masterwork perform item). The party visit the Lumi church and learn that the creatures of darkness have spread far and wide, even onto this far corner of the planet, infesting the mines and feasting on the positive energy of the power stones. A crusader agrees to help them, in the hopes that the power stones they manage to harvest will help them in their plight, but due to the infestation says that they will not be able to send help beyond their lands.
\\ **2nd Sun’s Wrath**: The party make it to the mine and manage to avoid antagonising any of the creatures of darkness, though watching in horror as they feast on the light and multiply before their very eyes. Delving into the mine, they manage to secure a large piece of powerstone, but on their retreat, they catch the ire of one of the creatures, forcing them to flee, and fight it once they get far enough away from the other creatures (700xp each). The party thank the crusader, before parting ways and heading back to the crossroads club to return to the shadowy version of miles’ landing.
\\ **5th Sun’s Wrath**: The party arrives back at Miles’ Landing with the powerstone, and May begins to use it to create a barrier to prevent creatures of darkness infesting the crops any further. As they begin work, they’re interrupted by a presence in the fields, which Persephone pre-emptively shoots at, only to find it’s a shadow of a man who apparently lives in the twisted, darkened version of Miles’ landing hinting at a present population in this version of the land. May however, decides to focus on establishing the barrier, as they proceed to build it.
\\ **7th Sun’s Wrath**: As the barrier begins to enter into the woodland along the base of the Verdant Peak, the party are ambushed by shadow elves, however Persephone manages to prevent any bloodshed by explaining what they are doing. The elves tell them to cease what they are doing until an elder is brought. A few hours later, the party is explaining to the elven elder what they are doing, and why, and manage to agree to close off only a portion of the forest, for the barrier keeps the elves’ game at bay, and thus would starve them, but allowing for a small portion to be protected would enable the land to be grown back after the encroaching calamity. Persephone also manages to convince them to create a small safe haven near the fey shrine on the material, as a place for the elves to retreat, should the creatures of darkness press them too hard (2500xp each).
\\ **10th Sun’s Wrath**: The party manage to finish constructing the barrier of light around Miles’ Landing ensuring that the town will be able to resist against the incoming calamity….