Welcome to our Campaign Coffee. This series of posts, which will be interspersed with regular Monday Coffee posts, aims to look back at roleplaying game campaigns that have shaped the Cosmoneiron into its current state. We will discuss the plots and characters, but also how they influenced the development of the Twin Worlds. I hope you enjoy these. Happy Monday!
In the last installment of Campaign Coffee, our heroes entered the dying world of Tiogair through the Third Archway, discovered the refuge of an ancient sorcerer, realized their nemesis Koradrane Quinom, The Worm That Walks, was ahead of them on the Path of Carmad, and rescued the linthyrren Lilaire from being frozen to death, earning her allegiance as they pursued their enemy into the Fourth Archway.
The wyldervay emerged from the Archway in a beautiful, otherworldly meadow, overlooking a placid lake snaking its way through mountain valleys. The air itself seemed alive with potential, cool and brisk, filled with the scents of a thousand flowers, the sharp scent of distant snow, the pungent fragrance of resins. In the distance, they saw a glittering white castle, beckoning to them like a beacon in the night.
Upon their first step into this heavenly landscape, their worries seemed to melt away like snow under the sunlight. Of Koradrane Quinom, there was no trace, yet the wyldervay did not feel concerned. They felt safe, and welcomed by this strange world. This was Londìr, the Garden of Earthly Delights, as they would come to learn when a nobleborn maiden stepped outside the castle to welcome them to this domain. Here, she said, the just and the righteous received their great reward, and the wyldervay had demonstrated their strength by choosing to step through the Archway even though they knew the danger the Worm That Walks would pose to them.
She revealed that Koradrane Quinom's presence had been a test of character, which the wyldervay had passed, earning themselves rest and their great reward in Londìr. Here, all their desires could be satisfied, and they would live the rest of their days in bliss and contentment, granted respite from their many battles and sacrifices.
As they heard her words, the wyldervay were tempted. Oh, how were they tempted! Part of them wanted to believe her, wanted to believe that the danger had passed or, indeed, had never existed. The Lady of Souls was benign, and no doubt she would not need their help to triumph over the Iranorn and the Thelalorn. Without the Worm That Walks, what use then in finding the Horn of Awakening and restoring the Trienorn?
But the wyldervay were too strong, in the end. The woman's words were a trap, sweeter than honey, yet, more bitter than wormwood. The memory of their friend, Faelar, and his sacrifice flashed in their mind. The plight of those who were locked in endless reincarnations in the material world, and the deaths of those allies who had perished due to that very cycle, in Enu, came to them in a rush and made them realize at last the peril they were in.
For Londìr was a honeyed trap, yet it was a trap nonetheless. It sought to capture, contain, and neutralize those who found its path. The wyldervay confronted the nameless maiden, and challenged her statements, stating their purpose and their strength. And just like that, the woman, the meadow, the lake, the castle and the mountains... everything melted away before them, into streams of colored vapor that seemed to have a mind of their own. The wyldervay floated in a starry, endless void, and before them, the streams of vapor coalesced into twin thrones upon which sat two men.
They seemed human, though the wyldervay sensed they weren't. Dressed in kingly robes, they emanated power, and Val'sham recognized their sovereignty upon this world. The two revealed themselves as the Londirian Kings, rulers of the Formless Realm. The threads of vapor were their subjects, the Londirians, entities capable of taking on any form, granted great power, but utterly subservient to their masters in creating world-traps for their visitors. Everything in the dreamlike realm - not just the maiden, but every piece of scenery - had been Londirians, for they were the only thing that existed in Londìr.
The Londirian Kings found no shame in admitting they had sought to entrap the wyldervay, and that the Worm That Walks had escaped them much like the wyldervay were doing. Yet, the Kings were bound by ancient compact to acknowledge their defeat and reveal the Fifth Archway to those who disentangled themselves from the earthly delights provided by the Londirians. And so, though a small part of them yearned for the peace and contentment the Garden had promised them, the wyldervay rejected that easy way out, and stepped through the Fifth Archway into a realm none had seen for an Age: Sheere.
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