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Meli­nar’s Ex­pa­di­tion to the Mid­dle of Dirt

high fan­ta­sy ex­tend­ed dun­geon crawl. A race ex­plo­ration.

The great­est sor­ce­or of the past sev­en cen­tureis, Meli­nar, a were-­drag­on. Be­lieves all the lands and oceans take the form of an enou­mous fruit or nut hang­ing from the greate cosim­ic tree. The peo­ples of the land air and wa­ter play oyt their pet­ty wars an dpolic­tics up­on its sur­face. Even the deep delv­ing dwarf­s, elves and oth­er un­der­gournd races bare­ly pen­e­trate the rind of this great fruit. Meli­nar does not open­ly con­jec­ture what might be be­low them but he find it plaus­able that this fruit bares seed­s. He has com­mis­sioned sev­er­al groups to mount ex­pidi­tion­s, their goal map a route to the cen­ter and re­turn with its se­cret­s.

Clouds gath­er light­ing strikes tow=er, more sucked in­to tow­er Wiz­ard comes out of hov­er­ing deck, clear booom­ing voice of all can hear dwarfs ar­rive shows globe talks about sphree must have in­side showe we has travvled far and wide I have read many an an­cient writ­ing (him por­ing over tome, him read­ing an­cient mo­mum­net) I know some­htin is there some­thing pow­er­full I can not de I will know what is in the mid­dle! Lock of hair from each mem­ber of par­ty casts mass si­lence spell

Scene “The Four Who Wan­der” Wiz­ard is mifffed that they are here. He ap­pears when they gath­er, they come from var­i­ous di­rec­tion­s/mean­s. “Why are you here?” “I have al­wasy been here” says child as head tilt­s. “So that we may be” monk. “@T%@ @#$!@#” ar­mor. “Are you here to stop this?” “It has hap­pened” Child (refers to 1st breach) Ar­mor shakes head no. Alien blinks. “To stop im­plies ac­tion, ac­tion is not The Way” “Then what is at the mid­dle?” to child. “The an­swer lies around you” Sage Priests have been sur­round­ing and freak­ing out at ques­tion­s. “Yes!”, ex­cit­ed. To him­self “One of the groups will suc­cede. I will know, I must know. “Y­our will is un­bend­able in this child” looks at alien who is pul­sat­ing “The trav­eller is not al­ways hap­py to ar­rive at their des­ti­na­tion” monk. Ar­mor is dis­tract­ed, scans au­di­ence. “But you will not tell me?” “I have” child. “This knowl­edge will not en­light­en” alien “shriek­s” Ar­mor ex­tends arm and force wave plows through au­di­ence monk leaps catch­es dart inch­es from childs head. He flips and throws dart back where it came.

“There are oth­ers that don’t want me to know” “Yes, a great many” “But, you claim I know, will know, but you are not here to hin­der, to med­dle?” “I can not al­ter what is.” “The seeek­er is not al­ways hap­py with what he has found” monk “Joy can­not be found” “Joy is irelaven­t” “The brain does not agree” “He does not be­lieve his some­times coni­cides with my al­ways.” Wiz­ard stares at brain for awhile “It seems we are in­ca­pable of di­rect con­fronta­tion and at least at an im­pass you are wel­come in my tow­er for as long as you wish. “Thank you”, child. “@#$@#” ar­mor. “We are most hon­ored” monk “Un­til then” wiz­ard poofs Ar­mor rock­ets off in­to cloud­s, brain fades from view monk grabes child and rides light­ing bound­ing from golems to up­per bal­cony.

Hooks to start

  • noth­ing go­ing on, bor­ing, noth­ing hap­pens in a month

  • mon­ey run­n­ing out

  • pi­rates, ban­dit­s, not raid­ing (gone to Tow­er)

  • mer­chants stop ar­riv­ing (gone to Tow­er)

Rumors

  • Sage Priests are agents of Wiz­­ard

  • Dwarfs are here to stop the Wiz­­ard

  • This will start the third great war

  • The win­n­er will be next wiz­­ards ap­pren­tice, he’s re­tir­ing

  • If Kjore wins they will use Wiz­­rd to de­feat Pe­­los once nad for all

  • This will be the end of us all

In port

  • ship ar­rives leav­ing soon, ride to Tow­er leav­ing with­­on the hour

  • land car­a­­van same deal

Nine Acts 1 set stage - Meli­nar’s in­vi­ta­tion 2 some­thing bad hap­pens - Kjore ar­rive 3 meet the heros 4 es­tab­lish com­mit­ment of heros 5 go fwd to goal 1 - breach 6 re­alise goal 2 sucks make for goal 2 - pre­vent breach by jjore 7 go fwd to goal 2 - de­fend gods from kjore 8 cli­max - 9 wrap up

Goals

  • re­veal to P{C’s truth about mid­­dle about 1st breach and gods

  • posi­bly re­veal thea kjore demons are here to kill gods

  • PC’s are weak and mi­nor in world but still make a dif­fer­­ence

====== Groups ====== Pelos’s group led by Pe­los Gen­er­al Cau­vis (hero of kjore war)

2 cap­tians from foo le­gion(elite re­mote longdis­tance com­man­do type le­gion Left Eye Channled Elowyn Right Eye Men­tal­ist Max­imil­lum Beak Es­sance Rec­tus 3 peeps

Large con­ti­gent ar­rives full wing no­body over­land When kjore ar­rives there is face off be­tween Clau­vis and death knight pe­los builds fort per­haps pe­los sends wnd wing in se­cret

Kjore group
Death knights

They will slay their Priest al­most im­mead­ieat­ly, he haunts them thoudh sages kn­jew gave hi spe­cial mag­ic

Sev­er­al Death Barges ar­rive with 4 at­ten­dent gal­leys. Sev­er­al priestes from dif­fer­ent fac­tiosn which is very un­usu­al. all oth­er boats flee this caus­es crowd­ing which re­sults in pi­rate fued sub priest­ess is at­tned on barge wiz­ard­knows he can­nto slay kjorins as preistes would pro­ly die and that would mean war

wiz­ard syad they brought more the the al­lowed #, they sac­ri­fice theri peope and pile the m on wiz­ards road to un­der the limt cat­a­pult onot cligts or spie to poles along road kjore sends 1 group to each lo­ca­tion of­fered by wiz­ard un­heard of co­op­er­a­tion.

Dwarves Their gods do not live in the mid­dle do they know what in the mid­dle do they want to stop it or help find it help means elim­i­na­tion of sur­face races. “we make our own path” any­hone fol­lows dwarfs get col­lasp­ing tun­nel on them Ar­rive at the last minute in steam mole just as the fi­nal far­well fes­tivites be­gan

Pelos mentalist

in­de­pen­den­t, wealthy ‘aris­to­crat’ de­cides it would be ‘fun’

come with 2 ap­prein­tices(1g­nome), 4 ser­vents, 2 wench­es, guards sort of a poof but stil pow­er­full men­tal­ist los­es his ser­vent and ap­pren­tiss­es is very put out per­haps he goes in­sane af­ter last ap­pren­tice is lost ei­ther way he ac­crues a ret­inue of un­der­ground crea­tures through men­tal dom­i­na­tion

Pelos Gnome group

about 7-10 gnomes

Wealthy Oslo mer­chan­t’s group “Buck­le­mein House” Pays for “van­i­ty group” sev­er­al fa­mous names of ad­ven­tures fg th mu cl bard 5 guys

Fist

not of­fi­cial but with bless­ing of Fist

holy ldr, fa­mous non-­pal knight, sev­er­al pali­don­s, men­tatarm­sand shield bear­ers about 30 in all

Grievan/ Gladius Grey Clak

Famed ma­gi­cian(wiz­ard­men­tal­ist ) thief an pelosian by birth Goes solo!

North­men group of 10 or so wiped out very quick­ly I do not wish to die down here in the gloom nev­er to feel the sun and wind, nev­er again to sail the great wa­ter

unknown

Thieves guild of Oslo in­line in­front of PC’s “y­our name” “we wish to re­main anony­mous” “so be it” They fol­low PC’s

Berts Ban­dits Bert was a short peo­ples who awas al­ways picked on and beat up. He was smart but not smart enough to out­wit or avoid his bu­lies. It is not sure how it hap­pened, some say Bert made an ap­peal to god foo, oth­ers that he rid­dled a drag­on and won(un­like­ly) or that a benev­o­lent wiz­ard did it. But, Bert was poly­mor­phed in­to a largeogre. He could have be­come cham­pi­on of the down­tro­den and op­pressed. In­st­gead he be­came a venge­full bul­ly him­self. In­flict­ing on­to oth­ers far worse than was ev­er done to him­self. He rules his mote­ly group threw fear each one be­ing de­feat­ed by Bert and agree­ing to join un­der threat of death

Bert has left pet­ty ban­dit­ry be­hind and now hires out as mechanieres typ­i­cal­ly hired thugs to put down re­volts or ex­tore re­treive lost ob­jects Oc­ca­sion­al­ly Bert takes on a job to ex­plore dungeions or clear mon­sters from an area He nev­er works for some­one he could de­feat/kill and just take their loot. Bert has am­mased quite an ar­ray of mag­ic and equip­ment

PC’s will get in­to al­ter­ca­tions with Bert over and over, start­ing at the In­vi­ta­tion

Sage Priests are re­al elves last de­cen­dants. sort of cursed they all know but can­not say truth. cut ears off at birth(­cov­er sto­ry is to si­lence them from the world of dis­trac­tion) but re­al­ly is to hide very point­ed ears, they hear ok

over­gen­er­a­tions they have slaugh­terd those chil­dren with re­al fakey eys and hair col­ors

claim to whor­shp all true god­s, do not list names but Fist Pe­los or in, kjore is not have some of the best li­bray in­for­ma­tion the sole goal is to pre­vent 2nd breach be­liev true nat­gure of world or knowl­edge of first breech will lead to 2nd have se­cret so­ci­ety tran­ing of as­sa­s­ions en­list many spies through third par­ties have a large, ad­vanced cadre of men­tal­ist best on dirt that spy and con­trol

====== Events ======

  • Priest with par­­ty is giv­ing dreams of doom and dis­­as­ter to play­er(s) each rest pe­ri­od. gets caught at some­­point.

  • In re­­mote view­ing ten­t, a big pool that short guy sells tick­­es to

views ex­cit­ing hap­pen­ings around cam­p. Well a kjore deathknight is shot out of sky and is plum­met­ing to earth. ob check to no­tice he is head­ing twds big blue ten­t(re­mote view one) crash­es through tent does some­thing crazy and leaves

  • PC’s find oth­­er team all dead ex­­cept priest is mis­s­ing

  • ne­­go­­ci­ate for a guide in the Great Deep from lo­­cal races

  • deep elves who know what hap­pend trail par­­ty and save day

  • war­­fare be­tween two deep clans play­ers can’t pass must help one to win or peache

  • PC’s im­­pli­­cat­ed in mur­der, used as cov­­er for lo­­cal plot

  • Golem ditched by Kjore find PC’s con­trolled by Wiz­­ard

====== Entrances ======

  • un­der wa­ter the great hole

  • dwarf mine

  • huge canyon

  • drag­on vol­­canohole

  • mon­ro­­vians cas­­tle

  • far north at pole

====== Deep Pol­i­tics ======

===== Deep Race =====

  • Translu­­cent skin, no pig­­men­­ta­­tion, blind, bi-ped. Deep races fight un­armed kung­­fu. Kung­­fu + mag­ic, mas­­sive ac bonus

  • Ants

  • deep gnomes

  • blind al­bi­no orcs use echo lo­­ca­­tion

  • mush­­room peo­­ple. breed hu­­mans for food. plan­et of apes like. lost race of hu­­man­s/elves

  • Dwarves - sub­­­sur­­face

  • Dru­­gar - great deep

  • Deep elevs - great deep / Cav­ernous Lay­er

  • Mon­­dron - or­­ga­nized so­­ci­e­ty, square tun­nels

  • Cav­ern hu­­mans - Cav­ernous Lay­er, cou­­ple of clans

  • Frog­­gies - Caver­­sons Lay­er

  • Race who use di­adems of pow­er (large 3rd eye stones)

  • tool us­ing pri­­ma­­tive fish race hard­boney fils pal­lid­i­um pg 50

  • race lives on mush­­rooms and fun­­giods harvvest dead and liv­ing for fer­­til­iz­er scav­­enger of un­der­­wold

  • bat bllod suck­­ers live lam­presy pal­la­di­um pg 79

  • za­­vor pal­la­di­um pg 103 im­­mue to mag­ic

====== Settings locations ======

  • En­­trance play­er’s choice

  • La­­va tube, ver­ti­­cal like a gey­ser, re­oc­curs hor­i­­zon­­tal etc

  • Cav­ernous Lay­er False sun cav­erns veg­­e­­ta­­tion eco sstems

  • Path along clif­f­­faces long com­­bat here winged some­thing or an­oth­er

  • riv­er to false wa­ter­­fal­l, freak play­ers out, but wa­ter falls through grat­ing

  • grids of mon­­drons their city

  • Bur­row­er Fields herd bur­row­ing cre­ate, lots of passeg­was col­lap­s­es, dan­ger­ous mess

  • An­­cient ru­ins of sur­­face city per­h­ps hitech cit y or left over from the first breach

  • Wind tun­nel tur­bi­nes, ex­haust, pow­er

  • Heat ex­chang­er­s, mag­­ma

  • Bur­ried space­­ship of Demons

  • Lost mines of foo. Great dwaven mi­in the moun­tean sunk and was de­stroyed found un­der­­ground by PC’s

  • Dwar­ven halls of recorde­ing

  • Brasss city

  • Bat­­tle site of kjore/pe­­los dead deathknight, blast­ed with­­­fire­bal­l, light­ing oth­­er­s. No bod­ies but hel­met­s, cross­bow, blood, bro­ken sword of two Peloss. Ap­­pears that Pe­­los uti­l­ized std tac­tics of force con­­cen­­tra­­tion whilethe Kjore just went bez­erk. Peloss came out be­hind

  • large cav­ern with gas floaters

  • Il­lu­­sion of fake un­der­­ground sea ac­­tu­al­­ly a clift

====== Adventures =====

  • get to en­­trance could be fre ride first choice could be wrong

  • ter­mi­­na­­tor plot the pro­tec­­tor hunts all life was cre­at­ed to de­fend one race against an­oth­er now both live in gurel­lia re­­sis­­tance like life

  • priest plot on­­ly if par­­ty has plo pc­s’s learn his se­cret

  • re­lease of kjor de­­mon

  • some oth­­er group opens por­­tal to un­der­­world dead es­­­capes

  • de­v­el dig­ger stam­­pede Pal­la­di­um pg 24

===== Deep Geography ======

Sur­face - above ground very shal­low caves, sur­face dweller digs

Subsurface - mines, cave systems, various huiminod surface underground dwellers often disconnect from deep levels and each other

or­ga­nized know deep races dwarfs gob­li­noids

Cavernous Layer large canverons speerate ecosystem, lakes and waters

deep elves left­overs from 1st breach

Great Deep - lavea steam thermals heat little no water

fire crea­tures el­e­me­nat s fire dwarves dru­gar fire la­va tube like geyser

Bound­ry Lay­er - grav­i­ty re­vers­es this is al­so were dead peo­ple go

Mid­dle - cloud cites mead­ows fields great forests

====== Clues =====

  • book that tells of breach no­­mat­ter how much they read can­not re­mem­ber con­­tents

  • lack of what hap­pened what cat­a­­clysim was

  • big freak­ing ole

  • mix of hu­­man and elf names gods cul­­ture

  • the Four Who Won­der

  • priests try and stop it

  • old road is in­­de­struc­table

  • great sandy, dry river, dead fore­set

  • un­der­­gournd ru­ins of twin em­pires

  • land of the dead ??

  • great gate at the end all met­al (dyson sphere)

  • ra­di­a­­tor fins that melt rocks in­­­to mag­­ma

  • mythos about gods pity man’s ig­no­rance and up­­lift­ing them

  • priests don’t ex­ist be­­fore cat­a­­clysm

  • priests seem to know alot and be around at the right times

  • Fist God is same as one of the Pelosiann gods

  • No one be­­sides wiz­­ard adn priest care what is at the mid­­dle

  • PC’s find group all dead ex­­cept for priest

Truth long ago el­ven na­tion wl­ven wiz­rds fig­ured out the Gods lived in the mid­dle of dirt, vis­it­ed them. An­gered the gods who de­stroyed their civ­i­liza­tions