On alternating Saturdays, Chris runs his Exalted chronicle for our group. The chronicle is set in a modified Creation that mostly plays to how the Exalted setting is presented, but with the agreement that anything that he wishes to change will be changed on a whim, as the events and characters will be presented as the ancient history and some of the most important figures (perhaps gods) of a shared campaign setting in the future, which will mostly host D&D and Pathfinder campaigns.
The Story So Far...
Our chronicle began in K'losis, a city carved into and around a fallen enormous humanoid war machine. There, we had learned some history of the campaign world and that the construct the city was built into is actually the husk of a being from another reality that invaded in the distant past and now there were factions that were trying to bring it and others like it back to life and summon more to this reality! Additionally, it was learned that powerful individuals were involved in these groups, speeding up their timeline by funneling money and resources into their aims.
Reports surfaced during this time of one of the great threats marching across the land as our band made haste to various locations, dismantling cult cells and the portals they had begun to erect. We flew out to face the engine of destruction and were able to dispatch it with the ship's weapons and a sprinkling of our own attacks, then made on our merry way to prevent the onset of the end of the world.
Our leads took us to the city of Palanquin, where we strong-armed our way into their strange cult politics by having enough knowledge and materiel from capturing and destroying construction from other cult cells, thus locking in our access to the working portal in the city that leads to what we had learned were the giant war construct things' home plane.
We took the first opportunity to make the jump through and emerged into a barren cityscape. Once we entered we find the place inhabited by the spirits of thousands of the dead, many of which showing signs of physical trauma. Most of these spirits didn't give us a notice, but one approached and engaged us, answering a few questions about the place, then leading us to a building where a council gave us audience, further providing information about the place. We had assumed this was the home plane of the aggressor war machines, but we were told this was also a conquered world, and their undeaths were spent in servitude.
During the trip through the portal, Exton experienced a vision in which an entity revealed to him that in order to fulfill their task of destroying the colossi, they would have to assemble a collection of artifacts. There were eight in total, but it was unclear if all of them were needed, and only a few were revealed. Our "map" was a tome that turned out to be in possession of one of the party, a key, a sword, the Shield of Ancel, the Hands of Tyr, and the Keeper's Dagger.
The form of the last five named and the two unnamed were unknown to us, but we had a start. Exton told the Circle about his visions and the decision was made to cross back into our world to find the artifacts. When we arrived, we discovered that two years had passed, even though we has spent a touch less than eight hours in the other realm. We assessed our situation and set a few affairs straight once we found that our ventures had continued as usual without us, then we took the opportunity to divine where other artifacts could be located.
Our key was in Brightonvork, an island located in the northwest, and the sword was in the Burning Sands, to the south. We decided to head toward the island and made contact with an older lady who explained to us that if what we were after ever existed, it was at the bottom of the ocean with her father's ship, which sank when she was young. It didn't take us long to ascertain the approximate location of the shipwreck and we went diving, recovering a metal rod with no discerning markings on it, as well as some other valuables from the wreck, which were mostly returned to the old lady, after which we set off for the Burning Sands, at which point we left off.
When we pick up next, I will be taking over for the next arc of the chronicle. The Circle knows that one of the colossi are headed to sea, presumably to Brightonvork, and the other is heading in the direction of the Burning Sands. Are these things now moving to intercept any who are trying to retrieve the artifacts? Are they wanting the artifacts, themselves? Hiow do they know about them? The Circle is so far clueless to the actual history of the items.
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