World of Prime: Campaign Journal #50

 The City of Eternal Twilight

Traveling east, the party unexpectedly encounters desert. The Ranger and Druid recognize this as somehow unnatural, though there is no magic involved. After a few more miles, the source becomes evident: a deep trench is cut into the ground, draining the local water table. The trench stretches east for as far as the eye can see; at its mouth is a construction crew busily extending it further west.

The crew consists of men wrapped in white against the desert sun, two large self-propelled animated cranes, and a massive stone golem. When the party cautiously approaches, one of the men rushes out to block them, holding a staff ending in a flat hexagonal plate, and shoos them a safe distance away from the ongoing construction. At this range they realize the man is dead and mummified.

Uncharacteristically, the party decides not to start a fight. Instead, they follow the trench east. The water gradually gets deeper and faster as the land slopes down; the artifical drought around them becomes older and older, revealing that the crew has been working for several hundred years. Eventually the canal flows into a gigantic bronze portcullis, set into a high wall surrounding a massive city several miles wide. From the height of the slope they can see at least two interior rings of walls, implying the city has been built up for centuries.

But as they approach the city, it becomes clear it is virtually uninhabited. They evade a patrol of mummys and scale the wall at a deserted spot. On the other side are huge stone buildings, some six stories tall, that should be apartments or shops or theaters but are instead simply empty stone structures. Nothing travels the streets, save for the rare patrol of mummified minotaurs in blue hats, or even rarer, a construction crew building even more unused buildings. Inside some of the apartments are stacks of corpses of indefinite age, both human and minotaur.

At the center of the city lies a pyramid, clearly the source of answers to this mystery. Even more appealing: on top of the pyramid is a glowing light so bright that even when the sun goes down the city is bathed in twilight. This must be the recently fabled Disk of the New Sun.

Upon approaching the pyramid, the party is intercepted by a patrol that seems to be looking for them. They allow the patrol to shepherd them into the pyramid, through its winding corridors, and into the presence of the ruler of the city: the mad, mummified priest of Kek.

This high-ranking priest has been dead so long that he appears to think he is Kek, God of Twilight. The party accepts his self-identity, since they are after all models of polite behavior. Kek is not at all unfriendly, despite being somewhat unhinged, and appears to enjoy talking to people who are not silent robotic construction machines. Kek very quickly gives away all his secrets: the giant pool underneath his pyramid that all four trenches (east, west, north, and south) drain into, the portal that transports the water directly to the surface of the sun, and his epic quest to dump enough water on the fire of the sun that it is modulated to permanent twilight instead of harsh daylight and deep nighttime.

The party does not actually know how the sun works, so they are not prepared to dispute his calculations. Instead, they ask if they could borrow his night-light for a bit so as to deal with some vampires.

Kek has a low opinion of vampires in general and the Kingdom of Night in particular, so he is amenable. However, according the Law of Balance, the party must do something for him in exchange. He suggests that the annual tribute of tael from one of his minor client states to the south has been subject to depredation by a nest of Nagas. If the party could exterminate his problem, then he could lend them the means to exterminate their problem. This seems like a good deal, apart from the part where Kek seems largely unable to distinguish between lengths of time like hours, days, and years.

The party joins the procession south, which is essentially just another construction gang. Along the way they are indeed attacked by Naga bandits who remarkably have the ability to neutralize the stone golem by enclosing it in a force cage. This works equally well against the Barbarian, much to his dismay, but the party defeats the bandits and easily catches back up to the caravan.

Eventually they arrive at a small primitive human kingdom and witness the tribute. The village's dead for the year are reverently loaded onto the wagons, to be transported to the Eternal City where they will be reanimated and live in luxury according to their good deeds in this village. The party, remembering the stacks of dusty corpses, chooses to keep quiet, as little good can come from destroying the villager's hopes, and after all, Kek is not particularly oppressing them, taking only the usual overlord's tax of tael.

The villagers are well aware of the Nagas, and even trade with them, so it is easy to obtain a guide to the nest. Once there, the party has little difficulty extirpating the nest, despite their force cages, unusual cold spells, and charmed minotaur guards.

Returning to Kek, they hold him to his bargain, and obtain the Disk of the New Sun for the next one hundred days. Now they march west again, determined to destroy the immediate threat of Morpheus and his plans to return to the world. Foiling the mad Kek's quest to drain the sea and turn all the land into desert and the sun into twilight will have to wait; fortunately, that threat will require another thousand years to be really dangerous.

World of Prime: Campaign Journal #49

The Kingdom of Night (formerly known as the Kingdom of Blood)

There is some downside to old maps; they are not always up to date on the current political situation. In this case it turns out that the old Kingdom of Blood has redefined itself as the Kingdom of Night, a name more fitting to a epic empire.

The party travels west, in search of this mysterious realm, and finds an epic mystery: a lake of darkness in the middle of the day. While the darkness is only 30' high, it stretches across two full miles.

As usual, the party approaches this terrifying encounter with all due caution, conducting tests and examinations while creeping around the border. As usual, the Barbarian eventually runs out of patience and simply steps into the darkness.

When nothing instantly bad happens, the Cleric wraps a rope around himself, steps inside, and immediately trips and falls to the ground, lightly bruising his nose. Meanwhile the Bard begins a remote dredging operation to find whatever magic item is producing the darkness, but turns up only dirt and rocks and mushrooms.

Once the party is convinced they will not be instantly consumed, they enter the darkness, relying on a high-level light spell as their lightstones are suppressed by the darkness. Their first encounter is with a predator mushroom that poisons the Cleric but offers no real resistance to heroes of this rank.

Surrounded in a bubble of dim light that extends only 30' from their caster, they walk through a forest of mushrooms and into a city of shabby mansions. These once grand buildings have slowly decayed over the years, though several of them seem to have undergone some magical repair. Approaching one such house, they sensibly knock, only to be invited in by the house's only occupant: the lady Kairos, an attractive and talkative noblewoman.

She seems to have assumed they are new residents, and excitedly seeks to flatter them into joining her particular side in some obscure gossip competition against several other members of the city. She offers them food and drink, which turn out to be tael-infused mushrooms and a bottle of blood. After considering the total lack of mirrors in the house, and the fact that the lady seems utterly unconcerned with the total darkness of the city, they provisionally classify her as a vampire.

Eventually the Ranger induces the woman to discuss something substantive about local politics. She reveals that there will be a speech by the local ruler tomorrow, and invites them to stay at her house until then. The party accepts, and beds down in a dusty guestroom. The Bard, however, sneaks out to engage in further surveillance, and after several strenuous hours of effort returns just before dawn with confirmation the lady is indeed cold to the touch despite the warmth of her affections, just as one would suspect of a creature of undeath.

The speech occurs in the middle of a swamp of scrubby mushroom bushes, attended by approximately thirty old-fashioned but well-dressed lords and ladies. The ruler, Morpheus, gives an impassioned speech about the need to change current policy and begin looking outside the city's borders. Surprisingly for a nest of hungry vampires, the suggestion is not well-received.

Afterwards, Lady Kairos introduces them to the Minister of Heraldry. This kingdom has rather a larger court than most, with more than just the five traditional roles; it appears that Morpheus has been slowing adding to his court over the years, and the city's only real politics is over who gets to join the court next. They also learn the chief benefit of being in the court is being buried in the vast swamp, rendering the vampire's greatest weakness (its inert corpse) moot.

The Minister is also interested in recruiting them to her faction, as the support of the majority is the best method for getting elevated to the court. She takes them back to her mansion and enters their names into the book of residents, capturing them as a party under the noble leadership of the Barbarian (who spends an inordinate amount of time inventing his heraldic device.

The Bard does some information gathering and finds out that the reason the city is cut off from the rest of the world is that Morpheus is hiding from his nemesis, using the typical undead tactic of simply waiting for the foe to die of old age. This leads the party to the Minister of Poetry, who reveals enough details that the party realizes Morpheus' ancient foe is... Rialto. (See: The City of Tomorrow) The Bard also uncovers a clue to a weapon that the kingdom fears, hidden in a piece of bad poetry about the City of Eternal Twilight.

The party does not disclose that Rialto is now a chunk of broken stone. Instead, they accompany the three ladies on a brief tour of the city, still under the impression that they are new residents. There aren't many sights to see, but one of the more outrageous is the Commissary, where a half-dozen trolls are trapped inside iron maidens and being continuously bled to feed the vampiric population. The trolls, after centuries of captivity and torment, are completely insane, and their howls of distress are heartbreaking even coming from monsters. When the commissary attendant, Lord Oberon, proudly offers the party a fresh glass, the Barbarian cannot conceal his disgust. This leads, with remarkable speed, to a duel, despite the Bard's attempt to smooth the waters.

The ladies are eager to make a public event of it, but the party decides less attention is better. Lord Oberon freely agrees to an immediate duel and draws his sword, acting with such cavalier disregard for his life that one suspects he does not value it. But of course, he won't stay dead for very long.

The Barbarian strikes with deadly speed, attempting to end the farce quickly. However, Oberon manages to survive the initial onslaught, and manages to deliver a minor cut before being dissipated into smoke by the Barbarian's greatsword.

The outcome, however, is not expected: as a drop of blood splashes onto the ground, the three vampire ladies completely vamp out. In an insane frenzy they pounce on the Barbarian, driven to madness by the scent of fresh human blood. He is drained of four levels before the party manages to destroy the fiends.

The party follows the mist-form of Oberon to his house and stake him upon revival. Then they return to Lady Kairo's mans, only to find her returned to sanity and able to refrain from immediately attacking again. Nonetheless, they smoke her again, and stake her corpse, putting a permanent end to her. Naturally they search the house for treasure, but nothing of consequence is found. So they set off for Oberon's mansion, on the theory that an even lower rank vampire might have better treasure.

They are intercepted there, however, buy the Minister of Poetry. She tells them to stop wasting time and hurry with her to the Minister of Heraldry, before he blabs about them to anyone else. When she finds out they've already permanently murdered Kairo and Oberon, she congratulates them on their smart strategy.

The Herald is equally unconcerned with the fate of her fellow vampires, instead focused on a strategy that will see her, and the Poet, and perhaps one or two select others, receiving regular donations of blood. After all, while one can survive on troll blood, it's hardly... living. The Herald thinks they can even include Morpheus in on their private dining club, promising the party ridiculous wealth and power if they go along.

The party trades on their generosity for more information, stalling for time. They are wise enough to know that this arrangement cannot last; in a city this small, with creatures this violent and powerful, the secret will eventually leak out and soon the party will find themselves taking the troll's place. They convince the Ministers to show them how the darkness is created.

The two ladies lead them to the edge of the darkness, where they observe the oldest minister, so ancient that even he has forgotten his own name and is known only as the Office of Night, casting an ancient and permanent version of a darkness spell. The Office is almost catatonic; after casting his spell he wanders off, oblivious to the audience. He has been doing this once a day for hundreds of years, gradually extending the borders of the kingdom.

Standing here, on the border, mere feet from ordinary night, the party loses its nerve. They send the Barbarian out of scent range to fill a wine bottle with blood, and use it to bribe the Ministers into keeping quiet for 24 hours, asserting that they're going to leave and come back with more victims. A transparent lie, but the vampires are so overcome by the mere sight of the bottle that they readily agree to anything.

The party retreats into the darkness, unwilling to stop moving until the sun comes creeping into the sky and protecting them from any pursuit. They decide that their best path is to seek out the City of Eternal Twilight, and investigate the mysterious artifact known (at least to poetic vampires) as the Disk of the New Sun.