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!
Last week, our heroes entered the Fourth Archway and reached Londìr, the Garden of Earthly Delights, where they were almost tempted into abandoning their quest before recognizing their danger. In doing so, they revealed the true form of the realm, encountered the Londirian Kings that rule it, and discovered the location of the Fifth Archway.
As they crossed the Archway, they found themselves in a seemingly timeless forest. Peaceful and still, it nonetheless provided a very different feeling from the enforced contentment of Londìr. To Val'Sham and Anthony, the place felt strangely familiar, as if they had come home, but to a home they had never seen before.
Imagine, then, their surprise when they saw two very familiar figures approaching them. Faelar and the Lady of Souls were here, and welcomed the wyldervay to Sheere, the long-lost Land of the Dead. They explained that Sheere had once been a Dimension that overlapped with the material world, welcoming the spirits of the deceased upon their bodily deaths. But the Land of the Dead was inextricably linked to the Lady of Souls, and when she was forced into slumber, the strength of the Reflection forced Sheere to drift away, becoming inaccessible to souls and triggering the endless cycle of reincarnations that plagued the living during the Reflection.
The wyldervay were astounded, though they were also grateful to hear that, with the Lady's return, the Land of the Dead would soon find its place again where it was supposed to be. Faelar also revealed to them what had happened to him after that fatal day in Nithisis, and how he had sacrificed the last of his mortality to help Mephiston and Val'Sham, becoming a god in the process despite his fear of what that would do to him. The Lady had helped him manage his ascension, as she had helped Mirilè adapt to her new role as a goddess as well.
It was here that the wyldervay learned that, on the material world, years had passed since their starting steps upon the Path. Time ran differently on the Path, and during those years, the Thelalorn and Iranorn had discovered the machinations of Hethner and Hindruukaarg (the latter having allowed the Worm That Walks to enter the copy of the First Archway in his own lair). As a result, both demigods had been executed simultaneously, to prevent the Reflection from causing havoc. Then, the combined Thelalorn and Iranorn had joined forces to prevent the return of the Trienorn, even as the Prismatic Dragon, Danthyrameliath, sought instead to raise his own forces to help the Trienorn return to power upon their ascension.
While neither group could enter the Path of Carmad at that point, and thus could not access Tresis, the Library where the Horn was located, they still could access the land where the Trienorn slept: and Faelar and the Lady told the wyldervay they could find armies waiting for them there, though the two gods would seek to lead the souls of the dead there, to cut a path for the wyldervay to do what they must do.
And they knew what they must do: shatter the Reflection, if possible, and prevent Koradrane Quinom from harnessing the power of the Trienorn for whatever depraved ends his new form had planned to achieve. The Worm That Walks himself had not dallied in Sheere, using his magic to find the next Archway and cross it before Faelar and the Lady could be aware of his presence, hidden as it was.
With the blessings of both Faelar and the Lady, the wyldervay were shown the Sixth Archway, and the last step to Tresis, the Library of Knowledge.
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