Session 15

Day 68
After a few days of waiting in Ironville and seeking out some info about the Earth Key, the newly named Sons of the Phoenix travel to Ashfield in order to see how things stand there.

Day 70
As they arrive at Ashfield, they see the Starkhold army in the middle of packing up and disassembling the siege engines. As they enter town, it becomes clear, that the war has been stopped and their efforts to do so has been recognized, both by José Stark, Sophie Ran and the Council of Ashfield.

Day 71
Ashfield celebrates the end of the war, and the efforts of the Sons of the Phoenix.

Day 72
The Sons head for the Bluestone Hills, as they have found info that the dwarven king Khorad was the last to have the Earth Key, and he was buried in a crypt in the Bluestone Hills.

Day 74
After repelling an ambush by a troll and an ettin, they encounter about 20 wayfarers from a village called Harp, located north of the hills, near the Swamp of Death (dun-dun-duuun). They tell that they are on the run, because 2 weeks ago, about half of the village fell prey to a disease. Not long after, almost everyone was dead, with plague-like symptoms. Then, after the dead had been buried, they rose from their graves, about 3 days later.

Later during the day, Urnyx led the Sons to the crypt, and they entered it.

Throughout the day, they fought elementals and minotaurs and found some info on how to weaken a "fire demon". They also ran into some nasty traps, especially one that consisted of a flood room and a water elemental. Luckily, the Sons were smart and payed attention, so they could deal with the trap with a minimal of effort.

The Crystal Gong and the Elemental Keys.

A gong made of crystal? Sounds stupid. Sounds like something the elves would make. I mean, what do you think happens when you take a hammer made of magical steel and strikes the gong? Seriously, what good is a gong if you can't use it for its purpose. 

- Knutt Hammershield, year 4873 

Created at the dawn of times, the Crystal Gong is said to have been made of the crystallized tears of the Twins. The Twins decreed that the Gong would always exist and help the people of Gemnos in their darkest hour.

Throughout the ages, it has surfaces several times, each time heralding a big change. It's powers are unknown but it is said that striking the Gong with it's hammer heralds the coming of change, of salvation.

The last time it was used was by King Braenor during the First Demon War. After the war, it was hidden in an ancient dwarven fortress, protected by what is called an undefeatable masterpiece of dwarven magic and artisanship. In order to open and use the Gong, you need four keys and the hammer to strike the Gong.

The four keys are each made of an element (earth, fire, water, air). After the war, the earth key was kept by Braenor, King of dwarves. The air key was given to Eldar Sorrowsong, a powerful elven wizard while the water key was given to King James of Tarradar, one of the heroes of the First Demon War. The last key, the fire key, was thrown in Hellmouth, while the hammer was given to Aurac for safekeeping.

Since then, no one has heard of the Gong. Many sages have speculated as to why it didn't surface during the crisis of mankind that was the Second Demon War - perhaps the keys had been lost, perhaps the Gong had fallen into the wrong hands. Or maybe the use of the Gong simply wasn't recorded.

The four keys have likewise fallen off the map. The air key disappeared when Eldar died, the water key vanished presumably when King James' city Tarradar was sacked by gnolls and the earth key, for long a symbol of the dwarven kings, isn't any longer.

Cosmology by religion

Depending on who you worship, the church will have very different takes on how the world looks.

The churches of the new religion
While there are obviously a difference between the churches of Bane, Bahamut and Cyric, they do however agree on a few things.

The primal spirits, the Twins, Nira and Torax, the Fourteen. While surely gods, and there well before the three new gods, they have been diminishing in power for long and are thus no longer a real influence to the world. People who keep worshiping them are merely prolonging the suffering of their death. These godlings hide in the Faerie World, far away from the influence of the real gods, who wage war against each other in the Elemental Chaos (Bahamut and Bane does at least).

Bahamut, along with his seven archangels, called the Saints of Heaven, rule Heaven, collecting souls of good creatures when they die.

Bane on the other hand, rules Hell with an iron fist. He has nine Lords of Hell, nine demon princes to help him keep the souls of all evil creatures in line.

Cyric sits in the Underworld and collects the souls of those who are neither good nor evil.

The Elemental Chaos, the Astral Sea etc are battlegrounds for the eternal war between angels and demons, between Bane and Bahamut.

The church of the Twins
The Twins are everything. They are Gemnos. They are the only god. They are the world. They do not sit in mortal guise somewhere on an outer plane. They are the outer planes too.

Likewise, the Twins do not fight for souls, and the souls do not go anywhere when their mortal shell dies. Instead they return to Gemnos and people are reborn. Perhaps as another creature altogether.

The church of the Moon and the Sun
The churches of Nira and Torax claim that Nira is the sun, Torax is the moon. They circle Gemnos, perfectly shaped as them. They are the duality aspect of all in Gemnos and when you die, you go rejoin whichever of them you worship.

To followers of the Twins and of Nira and Torax, Gemnos is the world. The Faerie is a magical land from which creation stems, the Underworld is where souls go before they are reabsorbed into Gemnos (or into the sun and moon), and Heaven, Hell, The Elemental Chaos etc are outer planes filled with monsters.

The churches of the Fourteen
The fourteen churches all agree that their parents and grand-parents live somewhere deep in the Faerie. Themselves live in each their own place, their own plane. Souls of their worshipers go there when they die. In parenthesis is included the name of the plane, according to the cosmology of the new religion, at least as far as sages can deduce.

Mask - The Guildhall of Deceit (The Underworld)
The Raven Queen - Mausoleum of Death (The Underworld)
Shar - The Pit of Darkness (The Underworld)

Pelor - Temple of Life (Heaven)
Torm - Halls of Justice (Heaven)
Lathander - Forge of Eternal Light (Heaven)

Mystra - Tower of Sorcery (The Faerie)

Auril - Castle Everfrost (The Elemental Chaos)
Kossuth - Palace of Fire (The Elemental Chaos)
Tempus - Citadel of War (The Elemental Chaos)
Umberlee - Ship of Chaos (The Elemental Chaos)

Erathis - Pillars of Order (Astral Sea)

Just as the new gods, they all collect souls. But instead of spending the souls on creating armies angels and demons to wage an eternal war, they simply absorb them and empower themselves. Just like the church of the Twins and the churches of the Sun and the Moon, the churches of the Fourteen see the traditional (according to the new religion) outer planes as a place filled with monsters, except for the areas under their control.

Religions on Gemnos

There are two distinct religions on Gemnos. Two pantheons if you will.

One pantheon is comprised of Cyric, Bane and Bahamut, along with their angels and demons. It is called the new pantheon. The other pantheon is comprised of the Twins and all their aspects, or children depending on which of the several branches of the church you lean towards. It is called the old pantheon.

The new pantheon
There are three gods. One good (Bahamut), one evil (Bane) and one neutral (Cyric). Each god is all-powerful and claims absolute dominion over their outer-planar domain. Bahamut rules Heaven, Bane rules Hell and Cyric rules the Underworld.

They are called the new pantheon or the new gods, simply because worship of Bane, Cyric and Bahamut started much later than worship of the Twins.

All three gods and churches acknowledge the Twins, Nira, Torax, Mask, Torm, Mystra, Tempus, Umberlee, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Pelor, Auril, Kossuth, Shar and Lathander as gods although they are barely acknowledged as competition. They are part of an old and soon to be forgotten religion.

The old pantheon
The old pantheon is itself divided into three branches. 

The Church of the Twins does not acknowledge Bane, Bahamut and Cyric as gods. If pressed, a priest of the Twins will classify them as powerful angels, outer-planar beings with tremendous power. The Church further claims that Nira and Torax as well as Mask, Torm, Mystra, Tempus, Umberlee, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Pelor, Auril, Kossuth, Shar and Lathander are just facets of the Twins, a humanization of something too big for most mortals to understand.

The Church of Nira and Torax claim that they the twin children of the Twins. It agrees with the Church of the Twins on Bane, Bahamut and Cyric, saying they are merely powerful angels, with no power over souls, save over those who sell their soul or otherwise make a bargain with the angels or demons. They also claim that Mask, Torm, Mystra, Tempus, Umberlee, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Pelor, Auril, Kossuth, Shar and Lathander are just facets of themselves, with Mask, Mystra, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Auril and Shar being facets of Torax, while Torm, Tempus, Umberlee, Pelor, Kossuth and Lathander are facets of Nira.

Logically, the respective churches of Mask, Torm, Mystra, Tempus, Umberlee, Erathis, The Raven Queen, Pelor, Auril, Kossuth, Shar and Lathander claim they are the grand-children of the Twins, the children of Nira and Torax, and gods in their own right. Called “The Fourteen” by the common man, they, just like the rest of the family, do not acknowledge the new pantheon as anything but powerful out-planar creatures. As far as not being recognized as gods by their own “family”, the official stance is merely that it is a claim made by the older religions because they (the Fourteen) are the future of Gemnos, while the Twins, Nira and Torax are the past.

Prophecy

Prophecy is the art of predicting the future. In theory, prophecy can come from anyone gifted with spell-casting. In general, sages distinguish by three types, when it comes to prophecy. Natural prophets, reborn prophets and unwilling prophets. 

Natural prophets usually show the gift at a young age and retain it throughout their life, until their death. 

Reborn prophets are often much older when they acquire the gift of prophecy. Typically some sort of event or action of sacrifice acts as a catalyst for acquiring the gift. It could be a priest who sacrifices his eyes to better see the future, or a warlock that sacrifices his firstborn in order to remove himself from emotions to better be able to focus on the prophecies.

Unwilling prophets are "normal" spell-casters that for whatever reason are chosen by some higher power to be a conduit for the visions. Most of these prophets have a short lifespan, as only select few can handle the visions of the future.

The common ground of all types of prophets is that they have visions of the future, which they translate to words based on instinct and magic so that future generations can heed their warnings. A few do not "see" the future, but hear it instead.

The wording of prophecies is often extremely ambiguous. Interpreting and understanding prophecies is therefore an unpredictable and unreliable business. True Prophecies are always fulfilled, but not all prophecies are true ones. Or rather, all prophecies are true, but are only one possible version of the future, which can be changed, although it very rarely happens.

The Bluestones

The Bluestones, which are found primarily in the Bluestone Hills, but also in a few other remote hilly areas of the world of Gemnos, are magical gemstones with different properties.

Over the years, sages have catalogued at least three different types of Bluestones. There are rumored to be at least two more, the Soul Bluestone and the Starflare Bluestone, but there is not enough information on those.

Clear Bluestones enable a spellcaster to draw on it's energies and recall a spell he has previously cast the same day.

Jagged Bluestones have one purpose, namely to empower rituals, especially conjurations and divinations.

Essence Bluestones can be used to store spells inside, to be activated at a later time.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the Bluestone, the more powerful it is.

The Arcane Academy

There is no way you can put 200 mages together on a small island and think that something bad won't come out of it. I mean, look at the devastation just one or two can cause. I tell you, it is suspicious that they haven't all killed each other yet. Something fishy is going on out there, across the water. I hear they steal babes and feed their blood to the wizards to empower them.

- Robert Watcher, cityguard in Lochhurst, 5673 

Located on a magical island called Cruul in the middle of Dragon Lake, the Arcane Academy is one of those places surrounded with more myths and stories than anything else, perhaps except Jack.

What we do know with certainty is the following:

Founded by Marlin the Archmage when he was young, the Arcane Academy serves both as a center of magic education and research. It fields the greatest library in the Seven Army Nations, but unless you are a member of the Academy or have an invitation from Marlin or a teacher, there is very little chance you will ever see the inside of the library.

As Marlin said in 5789, when the Academy opened, it was to be a place of learning, where magic-users of all kinds could stay and be safe from percecution, while they learn to practise their arts in a safe environment.

The Academy has room for about 200 students, and most of those will be between the ages of 10 and 25, but sometimes the power manifests at a later age, and thus a few students are much older. Aside from the 200 students, the Academy has about 20 teachers working and living there. Going to the Academy is expensive, or cheap, depending on who you are. Each new student must take a test before joining (in early spring), and the result of the test determines your fee for the next year.

Once you start, you will be required to take and pass a number of classes. The first year only has 3 different classes, while year 2 through 5 have 6 classes, year 6 has 4 classes and year 7 through 10 only has one or two, your area of specialty. Teachings of those classes typically start at 7 am and lasts until 6 pm. Every 7th day is off.

Year 1: Cantrips, History of Magic, Practical Magic

Year 2: Cantrips, History of Magic, Practical Magic, Monsters, Evocation, Abjuration

Year 3: Monsters, Evocation, Abjuration, History, Making potions, Transmutation

Year 4: History, Making potions, Transmutation, Enchantment, Necromancy, Arcane Knowledge

Year 5: Enchantment, Necromancy, Arcane Knowledge, Conjuration, Making Scrolls, Divination

Year 6: Conjuration, Making Scrolls, Divination, Illusion

Year 7-10: Area of specialty

If you wish to visit the Academy, you need to head to Lochhurst and go down to the harbor. There you will find a guy named Remus who has a boat and can sail you out to the island. Taking your own boat just won't do. Many have tried, but Cruul, as mentioned earlier, is a magical island, and so far, it seems that it is impossible to find, unless you sail with Remus. Many have tried and failed. Allegedly, following Remus' boat won't do the trick either, as it always seems to disappear from sight at the most inopportune moment.

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