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Achaea in D&D
So I am in a weekly tabletop gaming group, and we have been playing together for the last 10 years every Saturday night. Recently, I took over as DM (we rotate to whoever currently has a story idea). I was going to run the 5e adventure "Tyranny of Dragons", but since that only takes players up to level 15, the group asked if I'd be willing to add a standalone story to the end of it to take them all the way to the level cap of 20. I decided to utilize Achaea to write this story.
My story, as far as they know it, is that the beings they call the gods are the second pantheon to rule over the world in which they live. Each of them was required to choose a divine patron, and that choice determined which elder god their patron used to be a Celani serving under. The Elder Gods, ruled by The Logos, created the world of Faerun, but eventually fell in a war against The Other, and the Celani rose to divinity after Nicator was granted the Logos' power and drove back The Other. Over the course of their adventure, they have had (and will continue to have) a series of side quests in which they meet the lingering souls of the elder gods and receive their blessings and the last of their power to prepare them for a second coming of The Other. As this story is very strongly connected to Achaea, I thought you guys might be interested to hear about it.
Chapter 1: Meetings and Tests
The first "chapter" of what my players have dubbed the Elder God Saga was a series of tests designed by each Elder God to test the strengths of each specific character.
The first test was given to Alpha, the Modron (mechanical being) rogue. He worships Primus, the first Modron, and so his assigned Elder God was Phaestus. Phaestus drew Alpha and the party to His temple, and then asked Alpha if he was worthy of His power. When Alpha said yes, he was told "Then prove it." Phaestus' temple, designed to test a rogue, was a dungeon of increasingly tricky and dangerous mechanical traps with a boss monster at the end. Alpha proved himself worthy and was gifted with Phaestus' own warhammer, The Worldforger, to wield.
The second test was for Loukas, the dragonborn monk. Loukas worships Oghma, the God of Knowledge. I chose as his elder god Lorielan, the Jade Empress. Lorielan in this world is a Lorielan who never redeemed Herself following the War of Humanity, and is still a selfish, cruel woman. Loukas was asked by Lorielan "Can you do what I could not, and put Creation before yourself?" When Loukas said he could, he was put to the test in a fight against a crystal dragon that very nearly killed the whole party (Loukas was the only one standing by the fight's end). For passing Her test, Loukas was granted The Sceptre of Kx'Krah, a quarterstaff made of crystal.
The third test went to Elayne, the human bard. Elayne worships Milil, the god of singers, so Scarlatti was the obvious choice for her patron. Every night, Elayne would dream of a young man (Scarlatti, though she didn't know it) playing a song more beautiful than any she had ever heard in a forest clearing. Several weeks into the adventure, a golden stag appeared before them and led them into the woods. Elayne turned out to be the only one capable of tracking the stag, and eventually followed it to the clearing from her dream. She realised she was expected to perform and tried to play the song. She actually rolled a natural 20 and played the song perfectly. This allowed the group to bypass Scarlatti's combat test and He appeared to applaud her skill and heart. She was gifted his personal rapier Caer Witrin (crafted for him by his wife Selene before Her death).
The fourth test was for Brenda, the half-orc cleric of Pelor (the sun god). Her Elder God Patron was Deucalion. In a different forest beside the road, the sunlight shining through a spiderweb created a door of light that she walked through. His temple was a mausoleum of darkness filled with corpses. She had to use a combination of fire and light spells to reveal the way through and lay the corpses to rest, until she came to Deucalion's chamber. Deucalion asked her to prove that she can remain a light in the darkness to guide her companions onward. She passed His trial by combat and was granted The Star of Dunamis, a morningstar topped with a stylised sun that she can infuse with divine fire.
The final test came to Mirabelle, the Kenku (bird person) warlock. Mirabelle worshipped the Goddess of Luck, Tymora, and ended up with probably the most changed Elder Patron. Rather than use Hermes, I gave her the patronage of Babel. In the world I created, Babel was born Raclawice, the God of Luck, but was corrupted in the war of humanity into Babel, the Watcher of Oblivion. When The Other attacked Creation and all seemed lost, The Logos tasked Babel with sacrificing His siblings and dispersing their divine strength to humanity, allowing Nicator and his army to drive The Other back. In His temple, the party descended into a void dotted with stars and had to navigate a series of constellations to find Babel. Babel asked Mirabelle if she would be able to sacrifice everything for the greater good, and she had to prove her worth. After passing His test, Mirabelle was granted with a pair of swords, Entropy and Discord, that allow her to attack her allies (if they allow it) to draw their strength into her.
Chapter two will be a series of episodes in which the party are sent to representations of Achaea's cities to seek aide from the humans who fought The Other back in the past. The first episode, which I will post when it is finished (the last session stopped halfway through it) sees Elayne sent to Cyrene to seek the aide of the Imperiate.
If y'all have any questions or comments, I welcome them. And if you really want your character represented in my adventure (or you really don't), please let me know and I will do my best to make it happen.
My story, as far as they know it, is that the beings they call the gods are the second pantheon to rule over the world in which they live. Each of them was required to choose a divine patron, and that choice determined which elder god their patron used to be a Celani serving under. The Elder Gods, ruled by The Logos, created the world of Faerun, but eventually fell in a war against The Other, and the Celani rose to divinity after Nicator was granted the Logos' power and drove back The Other. Over the course of their adventure, they have had (and will continue to have) a series of side quests in which they meet the lingering souls of the elder gods and receive their blessings and the last of their power to prepare them for a second coming of The Other. As this story is very strongly connected to Achaea, I thought you guys might be interested to hear about it.
Chapter 1: Meetings and Tests
The first "chapter" of what my players have dubbed the Elder God Saga was a series of tests designed by each Elder God to test the strengths of each specific character.
The first test was given to Alpha, the Modron (mechanical being) rogue. He worships Primus, the first Modron, and so his assigned Elder God was Phaestus. Phaestus drew Alpha and the party to His temple, and then asked Alpha if he was worthy of His power. When Alpha said yes, he was told "Then prove it." Phaestus' temple, designed to test a rogue, was a dungeon of increasingly tricky and dangerous mechanical traps with a boss monster at the end. Alpha proved himself worthy and was gifted with Phaestus' own warhammer, The Worldforger, to wield.
The second test was for Loukas, the dragonborn monk. Loukas worships Oghma, the God of Knowledge. I chose as his elder god Lorielan, the Jade Empress. Lorielan in this world is a Lorielan who never redeemed Herself following the War of Humanity, and is still a selfish, cruel woman. Loukas was asked by Lorielan "Can you do what I could not, and put Creation before yourself?" When Loukas said he could, he was put to the test in a fight against a crystal dragon that very nearly killed the whole party (Loukas was the only one standing by the fight's end). For passing Her test, Loukas was granted The Sceptre of Kx'Krah, a quarterstaff made of crystal.
The third test went to Elayne, the human bard. Elayne worships Milil, the god of singers, so Scarlatti was the obvious choice for her patron. Every night, Elayne would dream of a young man (Scarlatti, though she didn't know it) playing a song more beautiful than any she had ever heard in a forest clearing. Several weeks into the adventure, a golden stag appeared before them and led them into the woods. Elayne turned out to be the only one capable of tracking the stag, and eventually followed it to the clearing from her dream. She realised she was expected to perform and tried to play the song. She actually rolled a natural 20 and played the song perfectly. This allowed the group to bypass Scarlatti's combat test and He appeared to applaud her skill and heart. She was gifted his personal rapier Caer Witrin (crafted for him by his wife Selene before Her death).
The fourth test was for Brenda, the half-orc cleric of Pelor (the sun god). Her Elder God Patron was Deucalion. In a different forest beside the road, the sunlight shining through a spiderweb created a door of light that she walked through. His temple was a mausoleum of darkness filled with corpses. She had to use a combination of fire and light spells to reveal the way through and lay the corpses to rest, until she came to Deucalion's chamber. Deucalion asked her to prove that she can remain a light in the darkness to guide her companions onward. She passed His trial by combat and was granted The Star of Dunamis, a morningstar topped with a stylised sun that she can infuse with divine fire.
The final test came to Mirabelle, the Kenku (bird person) warlock. Mirabelle worshipped the Goddess of Luck, Tymora, and ended up with probably the most changed Elder Patron. Rather than use Hermes, I gave her the patronage of Babel. In the world I created, Babel was born Raclawice, the God of Luck, but was corrupted in the war of humanity into Babel, the Watcher of Oblivion. When The Other attacked Creation and all seemed lost, The Logos tasked Babel with sacrificing His siblings and dispersing their divine strength to humanity, allowing Nicator and his army to drive The Other back. In His temple, the party descended into a void dotted with stars and had to navigate a series of constellations to find Babel. Babel asked Mirabelle if she would be able to sacrifice everything for the greater good, and she had to prove her worth. After passing His test, Mirabelle was granted with a pair of swords, Entropy and Discord, that allow her to attack her allies (if they allow it) to draw their strength into her.
Chapter two will be a series of episodes in which the party are sent to representations of Achaea's cities to seek aide from the humans who fought The Other back in the past. The first episode, which I will post when it is finished (the last session stopped halfway through it) sees Elayne sent to Cyrene to seek the aide of the Imperiate.
If y'all have any questions or comments, I welcome them. And if you really want your character represented in my adventure (or you really don't), please let me know and I will do my best to make it happen.
2
Comments
Is there a discord to campaign with Achaeans? I feel like we'd do a better job with roleplay than the people I've met that want to have sex with everything, try and take the reigns from the DM, or otherwise just make themselves annoying or OP
If not, would someone want to start one?