Enduring the Abyssal

Tasked by the Lady to rescue her followers, and establish a sanctuary fortress that will survive an apocalypse of demons.

Plot

This adventure takes place in Morne, a high-fantasy world with diverse races living in an intricate political landscape, currently facing an apocalypse. Tasked by the Lady to rescue an obscure sect of her followers, and establish a sanctuary fortress that will survive an apocalypse of demons.

Opening scene

Now the great plague had stilled the hearths in the countryside, and darkened the windows of the cities of man; Death’s hand sat upon the brow of the Archon and also the farmer; Death took the beggar and the cardinal, the money changer and the milkmaid. The babe died on the breast, and sailors brought their ships to port with dead hands. And the wickedness of man was laid bare, so great was his fear of this pestilence; for the mother fled her children and the son nailed shut his father’s door, and the priest betrayed his flock. Still other men said, “The Goddess is gone from us, or never was at all; let us do as we will, and take pleasure as we may, for all is lost.” And so the wicked went in bands and took the daughter, and killed others for their sport. And some shut themselves away in walled towns, and let none pass; when the bread was gone, they drew lots, and some were given to the butcher so that the rest might live. Some righteous men and women yet held faith, but they were scattered so far that none could see the other’s light, and it seemed the darkness had no end. And the Lady made no answer. Now devils walked the earth, at first in dreams and then in flesh, and Hell had dominion in diverse kingdoms. Those men who died in furtherance of evil yet walked as shades, and even those who died in goodness might be raised by devils and abused. Sacred places were turned rotten, and holy men abased, so the descendants of men could take no comfort, and the prayers of men and women would not strengthen the angels of the Lady, who were grown frail. And the Lady made no answer. Now the greater devils who walked the earth were Ra’um and Oillet, and Bel-phegor and Baal’Zebuth, whose agents were writhing maggots. Two thirds of the fallen had gone even to the walls of Heaven, where a great war raged, a war of bent light and thrown stars and noises that killed; a war of great limbs locking, and the spear, and the sword, it was a war of tooth on wing; a war of machines whose effects were abomination, a war of shaken walls, a war of hammers that, though turned, broke the arm that held the shield. For the strength of the angels of The Goddess was reflected strength, and the source was grown distant; yet the fallen had sat long in the coals of their exile and grown hard, and their strength was their own; and their generals were Harkifax and Malicath and Astarot and Moloch; and the saints who resisted at the gates were Marcius and Novia and Ugo and Richard, for Diamana had gone to look for the Lady. But the Lady made no answer. Some few angels of The Goddess slipped from Heaven by stealth, and hid themselves, whether in the fields or in the cities, and worked against the fallen angels as best they could, and to save the lives of men, though they did these things in secret, for their powers were grown weak upon the earth. Certain treasures from The Gleaming City they hid in the earth as well, in case the walls were breached, and among these were pots of oil and scents from Heaven’s gardens, and nectar, and gold from the tails of stars; and also they preserved certain tokens from the time The Lady walked among men, and among these were Her sandals, and Her crown of Stars, and the bangles from Her wrists and ankles, and also the arrows that pierced Her side. It was the hour of the fallen angel. And The Goddess had stopped the fountain of Her love. And it was said that She had gone to make a new world and new angels and new men. And the walls of Heaven would fall. And all these now struggling above and below would perish. For they had been so long alone in the lower depths, the fallen had made their own kingdom there and declared themselves lords of that place. From the first days of their captivity, they had ignited false stars on the roof of Hells to make a mockery of what was above. They had dug dead rivers and gouged seas that smoked and blistered; they had raised cruel hills; they had set forests of iron beneath an igneous moon. This was allowed them in their exile, but one thing was forbidden. To engender life had been reserved unto the Lady of Light, and the numbers of the alchemy of life had been hidden from even the angels. Yet on the eve of the New War, the fallen under Asterot had set their hands to the task of creation, and tried to bring forth fresh invention; but so far below the Lady were they that they could not quicken any new thing, but only the dead; and they wedded dead flesh together with the souls of the damned and made both live again; and they took the fishes of the sea and river and the creatures of the mountain and woods and corrupted them, made them monstrous in size and quick to do harm; because none of these could propagate, save by killing, the devils set their hands to each one, working in secret until they made an arsenal of unclean flesh against the day they might release their bestiary into the world of men. That day had come. The vaults of the seas opened in the dark that was blacker than ink, and the devils’ children snaked up into the rivers that veined between the cities of men; and the vaults of the mountains opened, and heinous things walked down the roads that bound the towns to one another; and great was the suffering of the children of Light. And the Lady made no answer. And still the war in Heaven persisted, and neither could the wicked angels break through, nor those of the Goddess drive them down. So one of the fallen said, “Let us wear their greatest men like skins, and when they speak, they will speak our words; they will speak of wars and purgings, and of dashing the babe’s head. We will turn their understanding so they make their gentle Mother a Lady of war, and we will cause them to set navies to the seas and armies under the moon with generals whose eyes glow like brands, and we will stir human and orc alike to madness by our own deeds, and by our own hands will we hasten the death of men.” And great was the noise of Rot around him as he walked the earth. And Ra’vvvick walked with him with his twelve eyes blazing. And Bel-phegor shook off his mane and walked in armor, received at the tables of wrathful men, who knew him not. And the damned who had deceived men as false prophets rose again, and again lied. And the Lady made no answer. The walls of the Goddess’s kingdom held. And though the devils despaired of breaking the walls and burning the deep architecture of Heaven, yet were the angels stoppered in and could not come safely out; and so, unchallenged in the middle lands, the wicked ones delighted in what they wrought there. So they resolved among them to hold the plains and the mountains in their fist, and not to suffer the cities of men to live; but rather to reign there, on the thrones of their second Hell, with the first as their footstool and the angels of the Lady trapped above. They would weave sackcloth to mask the sun. They would confound the father to kill his son, and then they would kill the father. They would replace the beasts with clockwork things and the birds with dead hands that flew. It had already begun. And the angels of the Goddess stood at the walls of Heaven and sorrowed at the misery below, and fell out amongst themselves, some saying it was better to perish at once, in hot struggle for man’s sake, lest the Lady return to find the earth empty of her creations; others cried that if they left their walls, She would return to find Heaven bereft of angels and smoldering, and a dark thing instead on Her throne. And the world was imperiled unto its death. For now a call had risen up from he who held the Prophet's Chair in the west. And a call had risen up from he who wore the Itar-ha’s crown in the east. And men of great valor gathered in the city by the river and swore to take Tauretaten, and if they could not hold it, to put it to fire and sword. And the valorous men of the deserts gathered in their tents and swore to hold Tauretaten, else to put it to fire and the sword. And so were readied the armies of Armageddon, yet not at the hour long foretold. And the dead stood with the living, and the living knew it not. And the Lady made no answer. ~~~~~ The screech of tires. The sickening crunch of metal. Glass exploding inward like a thousand diamonds. Then—darkness. But death, it seems, had other plans. "I need you, mortal soul. My followers are in danger. You shall be my champion. I shall grant you my power, and you will rescue my followers, and establish a sanctuary fortress that will survive an apocalypse of demons." You opened your mouth to ask for more details on that, but the room dissolved around you before you could speak. Then you were tumbling through a roaring technicolor maelstrom, and a shock like lightning jolted through you. You are beneath an alien sky painted in shades of violet and gold, lying in a crater of your own making. The air tastes of ozone and wildflowers. Around you, a forest of silver-barked trees stretches endlessly, their leaves shimmering with an inner luminescence. Your body feels different—charged with an energy that crackles beneath your skin like barely-contained lightning. You hear a scream through the trees. The time to act is now.

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By: relevantaudience

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