The Lord Inquisitor Seed Of Ambition Watch Online
Nicodemo Aidara
I am about to start GMing a Wrath of the Righteous Campaign (first time GMing in about a decade). I've been playing with the same core group of people for almost twenty years, so we have a nice comfortable dynamic. I really love the WotR story, but one thing that has always bothered me a little about about adventure paths is that there is so much excellent backstory that PCs never fully experience, and so characters and encounters typically mean much more to the GM than the player. To rectify that, I plan to write either a prologue or a cut scene before each session that narratives the notes and foundations we have in the adventure path. Sometimes these will be directly related to the upcoming session and sometimes it will be something that may not pay off for months. But if I do this right it should greatly enhance the meaning and significance of encounters and events. On the off chance people find these interesting or helpful I'll post them here. Feedback and other ideas are welcome.
The first story (in all probability the longest) was the first thing I gave them to read, even before the players guide). I set it two years after the campaign will begin, and it is the alternate reality where the PCs fail and the demons win. I loved the what if scenario at the end of book VI, and I wanted to make the epic stakes of the campaign really clear from jump. I am using a watered down (at best) version of the mythic rules, but am really planning to have the PCs be outgunned and undermanned throughout the campaign. We kind of steamrolled our last campaign a bit (though it was a great time) and I am looking to give people a challenge. The tone will be more Terminator than triumphant. There are a few references to our prior Pathfinder campaigns (Kingmaker, Shattered Star, Hells Rebels, and Mummy's mask) and the deaths of their PCs, so some specific names/events are there for their benefit.
I also saw this as a chance to address a few of the issues I have in the (otherwise truly excellent) campaign narrative. In this particular case, book V never really sat right with me. I'm not sure why the PCs, in the process of trying to save Golarion, would take a detour to rescue Iomadae's herald. This story (and the cosmology I am inventing to go along with it) makes the herald the campaign catalyst and hopefully makes Iomadae a sympathetic character beyond being a God. So when the time comes the players will be invested in his fate above and beyond the PCs.
Anyway, if anyone happens to read I hope you enjoy it. I'll keep posting them in this thread. And thank you to everyone over the years who has filled this forum with great ideas I plan to steal from liberally and shamelessly
Golarion was dying, soon to be overrun by the abyssal hordes of Deskari and Baphomet, or laid to waste by the forces of the Archdevil Asmodeus, gathering in Cheliax to oppose the ascension of these demon lords to Godhood. It was clear that something must be done, but no one knew what, least of all Iomedae. To unleash her own host upon Golarion, to oppose the demons and devils, would accomplish little more than making her complicit in its destruction. No prime world could survive the storm and stress of full-fledged planer war. For all her power, all her righteousness, Iomedae could do nothing but bear witness. It was not enough.
Within the great cathedral at the heart of her realm, Iomedae the Inheritor stood vigil. The ceilings rose to impossible heights, covered in moving stained glass windows depicting the Acts of Iomedae. Before her lay her oracular well, illuminated in soft, golden light that held the colors of the glass the light shone through. In those waters Iomedae could see everything, except that which was shielded by the oppositional forces of Hell or the Abyss. The surface of the water was calm, and in its placid stillness Iomedae looked upon the continent of Avistan. Had she wanted, Iomedae could have narrowed her focus to a country, a village, a person, or even the stitching on their cloak, but her gaze encompassed the entirety of the continent. At least the parts she could still see. As always, the Worldwound was blocked from her sight, and as the stain of the Abyss spread across the continent, more and more she found her vision occluded.
Iomedae did not respond, did not even move. The Herald waited a respectful moment and then waved a hand over the well. The image in the waters changed, zooming in on northern Golarion, and as the focus narrowed the sickly gray stain retreated, pulling back to its point of origin in the Worldwound. The image froze on the Worldwound and the crusader nation of Mendev. Along their shared border was a glowing line that seemed to fence in the Abyssal corruption of the Worldwound. The line was anchored by recurring hubs of power, giving off a brilliant white light. The wardstones, created by the Herald himself, on the order of Iomadae, almost 100 years ago.
The image zoomed out, the wider field of vision revealing that the grey stain of the Worldwound now covering the entirety of Northeast Golarion. The image panned south, to the great forests of the elven land of Kyonin.
The Herald nodded, and the image in the well shifted back to the east. The Dwarves of the Five King Mountains sealed themselves underground, conceding the surface settlements and cities to Aponavicius, and so now the combined Abyssal armies, led by their mightiest generals and an ever-increasing number of Nahyndrian infused demons, were opposed only by the Inner Sea Alliance of Cheliax, Andoran, Taldor, and Absalom. The combined Armies of Andoran and Taldor moved through Galt, dividing the country between them and doing their best to pen the demons in. All of Golarion had awakened to this new existential threat, and powers across the Inner Sea rose to meet it. But every battle sees more heroes ended then created.
Iomedae stared at the map of Golarion, and watched the darkness envelop Andorran and Taldor. It began making its inexorable way towards Absalom. No matter how she focused, her sight could not penetrate the gray darkness. After a long while she replied.
In terms of where this is going - the herald is sacrificing his soul to travel back in time to the moment at the end of Book I where the wardstone is destroyed. In the narrative timeline depicted above the PCs fail and Golarion is lost. The Herald's intervention, using ancient and forbidden magics, will intervene and ensure that when the stone is destroyed its energies are transferred to the PCs rather than corrupting the crusaders on the border. This will destroy the herald from the original timeline and curse the one in the new timeline (which will pay off later when he is captured). I plan to have the herald be the person who gives the PCs the devotion point boons at the end of book I - and if the PCs mention that they just saw him moments ago he will have no idea what they are talking about.
This second prologue is about Arueshalae, who has an incredible backstory that I want the PCs to fully appreciate. Our campaign starts next week, but we are likely only getting on session in between now and August (kids, travel, etc) so there is plenty of time to work on the third
6 Erastus, 4705
Arueshalae rolled over, arched her back, and stretched, her movements languid and unhurried. She smiled at the dying crusader next to her, a craftsman surveying her work, and felt immense satisfaction in a job well done, as she always did. Not that it was difficult. The seduction and corruption of these mortals was all too easy, but that hardly mattered. The challenge was not the point after all, even after 70 years of predation in the Worldwound. It was the assertion of dominance, the spread of corruption, the act itself that mattered. And with that reminder, she quickly said a prayer and performed the rites of obeisance to Nocticula, demon lord of Succubi, and her patron.
His voice trailed off, though his lips still moved. A particularly wicked thought occurred to her then. What if she were to steal inside his mind, and violate even these final, private moments. It was not something she had ever done before, and she found herself aroused at the thought of such intimate corruption. But what was Arueshalae if not a pioneer? It is why she crossed through to Golarion, after all. She focused on her victim, pushing past his surface thoughts, willing herself to go deeper.
And found herself in yet another memory, the couple exchanging their vows. The air felt closer, and there was a weight and pressure to it that that made Arueshalae feel alien to herself. She did not stay to watch. She just wanted out. She spun around and once more stepped through the space between dreams.
Arueshalae crashed from memory to memory, from dream to dream, her body starved for air it did not need, her mind reeling under wave after crushing wave of emotions she could not name and did not understand. She felt assaulted, violated, powerless, and above all terrified.
I've written two more of these, probably the last ones I'll write for book I (my group plays once a month for a long day, but we missed some summer sessions. I suspect we'll wrap book I in November. This third prologue imagines the opening of the portal at Threshold. I condensed the history to make it more of a dramatic moment than a gradual unfolding. I also wanted to introduce Suture, Opon, and Wiiver to the players before book VI. This won't pay off for two years, but it'll make those encounters more meaningful, hopefully. I also wanted to introduce Areelu prior to the PCs encountering her at the end of book I.
The tower of Threshold was visible across Northmounds, a five-pronged stone spike rising from the High Carins, towering over the surrounding outbuildings that housed the wardens. The sky was dark, angry, taking on an unnatural deep red hue, flecked with orange and purple. There was a faint buzzing on the wind, increasingly common throughout the Northmounds over the past several years. Small portals would open throughout Sarkoris, disgorge a handful of insectoid demons, and then close. It was hard not to blame the arcane practitioners sealed in the tower, but the leaders of Sarkoris assured a nervous populace that the magic practiced in the tower could not escape it. That was how it kept Sarkoris safe. That was its purpose.
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