The Black Moon Saga

 

  Players/Characters

Dave/Karth

Tim/Aye

Tyler/Radovan

Travis/Cicero 

A VOICE FROM THE PAST

“Hear this,” Shadesong said to the five that had assembled behind him. “On this night… we have been betrayed.”

         Thus begins the Fourth Saga, the Saga of the Black Moon, over 500 years ago. Atop a mountain whose name is lost to the mists of time, overlooking a fortress long forgotten, but that once was the seat of power for the Order of Othwyn, Shadesong told his four chosen Crescent Knights that he, and their brothers and sisters in death, would not see the morning. But they, these four assembled, would make the greatest sacrifice of all…

 

FIRE & FREEDOM - LATE SUMMER-EARLY FALL

         As Matilda Pennywhistle escaped the boat where she inadvertently helped Noctil free several Novix (All Chains Rust Saga), four men below deck, none with more than a week or so of memory – and all of these being chained in the hold of a ship – used the fire and distraction caused by her fight with the Iron Mongers and the Novix to escape. A dvaerg, an Orkan and two humans, they had only two things in common – a tattoo of black sword and black crescent moon on their necks; and the fact that all of them could see a black moon hovering just above the horizon, to the west.

         Having no memory, they named themselves Aye, Karth, Cicero and Radovan. On the road, starved, cold and just barely free of their chains, they interfered in an attack on a coach by a group of road agents. Two of the people in the coach had already died – an Imperium Legate, bringing Chief Engineer Vorena Arcadia orders to have the traitor Quintus Antius arrested; and a Wildren Druid, returning to the continent with a rare plant long extinct at the hands of the Necro-King – an aglanomea pictum, who can only survive if within reach of a living being at nearly all times, and whose spores can cure necrosis.

 

OFFERS

         That night, a voice from the shadows reached the one called Karth, offering patronage. The being – a creature of shadow with amber scars on their body – called themselves Nyx, and entered into a bargain with Karth.

         The four followed the moon, and found themselves on the island of Vinovium, where they encountered the eldren sage Anduil Blackquill. This one told them of the Crescent Knights who once bore that tattoo of theirs, how they served Shadesong when this one walked Eld. He showed them his own similar tattoo. He agreed to help them, and look for what knowledge he could gather from his tomes and scrolls.

         During this time, they cleared out a cave filled with pirates, getting some measure of revenge against the Iron Mongers who had enslaved them. They also freed four strange, grey-skinned eldren, who spoke of an artefact called the Purest Vessel, which they had stolen from their former lord, the Warlock Nuare. They spoke of a strange land beneath the earth, of a city built upside down, below which lived hordes of rat-people, the Novix. How they had long hidden the Purest Vessel, and how Nuare had bargained for it from them, only to be attacked by a group of heroes, among which were Vorena Arcadia, Quintus Antius, the dvaerg Sigrid Thorillsdottir and the Orkan thief Jurgen Ostara (The Fields of Asphodel Saga).

         The grey elves spoke of the plight of their people, hidden underground beneath the Magisterium, left to rot and suffer by the haughty eldren who rejected their children born different. Then, they traded the secret of the Purest Vessell’s hiding place to the four, in exchange for freedom.

         When they returned to Anduil, they found themselves prisoners of his tower. He told them of their past, how they were once bound to serve Shadesong, how their army had been defeated by the Order of Othwyn. He knew not how they survived, but could not afford to let go free, to regain their memories, and set themselves once more to the service of the dreadful Shadesong. But some of them argued that they no longer felt the same purpose they one did, that having been given a clean slate, they intended to bend their actions to the service of life rather than death.

         Seeing the care with which Radovan fussed over the aglanomea, and hearing the call to heroism in the voice of Aye, Anduil agreed on a bargain, and they traded the secret of the Purest Vessell’s location for their freedom, as the Grey Elves had just done. However, Cicero took it upon himself to cheat Anduil, giving him false information.

THE NEW LORD OF GODSMOUTH

         After their release, they encountered another messenger, eager to secure their services. It seemed that their past lives and skills had truly left some mark on the world. The Grey Eldren Cayleth Shine brought to them a gift from Darkath Illrune, the new ruler on Godsmouth island – where the Necro-King’s seat of power had once been. He offered the four ancient artefacts that had once belonged to them in exchange for them travelling to Godsmouth to hear what he had to say.

         Three of the four took the artefacts, and in doing so regained some of their memories, but Karth did not, stating his given oath to Nyx as being the only oath he intended to give.

RATS

         The four travelled to the nearest time for some rest. During that night, Radovan, Aye and Cicero remembered that fateful night when they had met Shadesong atop the hill, the night before his army was destroyed, and he disappeared. The night they accepted to follow the Sorcerer Archietor – who drew open a portal with his Four-Snake staff – and to slumber until Shadesong returned.

          They learned of Shadesong’s gift to them - a clean slate and a purge of their memories, that they might choose a different path for themselves. But they also learned of his last instructions: “Should you wish to remember, you will travel North, to the fallen giant embraced by the rock, and there you will remember, and will be brought to my service once more.”

         Radovan’s sister, Clothgylda, also was to be sent on a special mission for Shadesong, and the coldness of her goodbye to Radovan shook him to the core, even hundreds of years later, as he remembered.

         Radovan discovered upon waking up that the anaglomea pictum had begun to pollinate, motes of green and gold filling his room. As he and Karth hurried to provide receptacles for the spores, Aye and Cicero made a horrible discovery in the main room of the inn: rats.

         The hooded stranger known as Noctil (All Chains Rust Saga) summoned a plague, and then showed his true form as a were-rat. Hundreds of rats spilled from his cloak, and dozens of Novix assaulted the town, biting and infecting the population with necrophage.

         Outside, the four were confronted by a massive horror, a giant Ogre Rat. Though they had the opportunity to flee, Radovan and Aye convinced the others to stay and help the populace.

         As they moved to engage the enemy, the three sole members of the Order of Othwyn – Aleken Tainhammerin, Faine, and Garm Darkstone (The Saga Thanesdottir Saga) – arrived. They had been summoned by Anduil, and were to keep an eye on the four.

         Working together, the seven of them – four death-bound soldiers, and three life-bound sentinels – defeated the Ogre Rat, and forced the Novix to retreat.

         In the aftermath, Aleken and Radovan were able to use the anaglomea pictum to make an elixir that saved most of the villagers from the necrophage. Cicero disappeared into the crowd, intent on finding the Purest Vessel himself, while Karth swore he would come after him, slipping off into shadows, and calling upon his eldritch magic to track his former ally. He made no goodbyes and brokered no deals, save the oath he had already taken. The others were offered a place among their ancient enemy, the Order of Othwyn…

Knights of Life, Knights of Death

A brief history of the wars between the Order of Othwyn, and the Crescent Knights of Shadowsong.

THE ORDER OF OTHWYN

The ancient Order of Othwyn was created by Othwyn and his consort Jaedwyn (both worshipped by the Assyr as gods) to oppose Shadesong for thousands of years; however, the Order has fallen on hard times with the disappearance of the Assyr.

 

Awaiting the fulfillment of a prophecy announcing the coming of great heroes, the crone Aoshi Kiga was quited dispirited to find the prophecy nothing but a fable. While she waited along, underground, for hundres of years waiting for them to appear, she has now resolved that she must make do with what she has on hand.

 

The Order, disbanded after Shadesong was defeated, has now been re-activated, and placed under the patronage of the Eldren mage Anduil Blackquill, who long ago betrayed Sahdesong to the Order.

 

There are currently only three members of the Order:

Aleken Tainhammerin (Orkan Priest)

Faine the Plague Knight (Assyr Paladin)

Garm Darkstone (Dvaergur Priest)

They no longer have a fortress, but travel about, going where Anduil sends them to face whatever new threat arises.

THE CRESCENT KNIGHTS

Among the many who followed Shadesong during his first crusade, there were a few who earned his respect, adn served him better than others. These he elevated to the status of Crescent Knights, taking their mortality from them, and gifting them powerful artifacts with which to mete out death.

In his final hours, Shadesong abde four of them - whose names are forgotten in time - to enter a deep slumber and await his return.

Now that Shadesong walks Eld once more, his Crescent Knights cannot be far behind...

A Timeline Shrouded in Mists

 Here is the general - yet vague - timeline of events in the current spate of Sagas. This post will be updated as needed.

As with most mythical stories, I opted to leave the timeline vague. All of the current events take place over a fairly short period of time - many concurrently - but many in Eld will either never hear of them, or hear of them much later. What for one person is last week, might be many months ago for another. As such, the exact dates and times of the events in the overall arc of the Shadesong Saga remain veiled by the mists of time...

Book 1: Shadowsong

 

Saga 1: The Sacrifice of Saga Thanesdottir - Early Spring

Saga 2: The Fields of Asphodel - Late Summer

Saga 3: All Chains Rust, All Men Die - Late Summer to Mid-Fall

Saga 4: Black Moon - Late Summer to Early Fall

Saga 5: A Skin Made for Fire - Early Fall

Saga 6: Blood in the Water - Late Fall/Early Winter

Saga 7: The Well - TBD

Saga 8: Livsdottir - TBD

Saga 9: TBA - TBD

Saga 10: In the Shadow of our Pale Companion - TBD

Useful Links

Here you will find links to Google Docs containing some of the background information about the various civilizations and cultures of Eld. A useful primer to understand all the various Saga journal entries. These remain works-in-progress: I'm always updating and adding more details as the world fills out during the Sagas.

Cultures & Societies: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zSjUWHTtmoAJwfD2wgE7kGvY4XhkvYSk18lOgWx5_48/edit?usp=sharing

Civilizations:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WuyC00mC5KmoCn2A4t5crx87R366gS581YGEB-OUHU4/edit?usp=sharing

SAGAS

Book 1: Shadesong

1- The Sacrifice of Saga Thanesdottir (Complete)

2- The Fields of Asphodel (Complete)

3- All Chains Rust, All Men Die (Complete)

4- Black Moon (Completed)

5- A Skin Made for Fire (Ongoing)

6- Blood in the Water (Begins August 5th)

7- Lievsdottir (to be cast)

8- TBA

9- TBA

10- In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion (End of Book 1)

The World of Eld

 

The Third Saga - All Chains Rust, All Men Die

 

PLAYER/CHARACTER

Rebecca/ Matilda Pennywhistle, Human Gunslinger/Warlock

SEGOVIA - LATE SUMMER TO MID-AUTUMN

What led to the assassination attempt on Evoallah Sweetsong by the Iron Mongers, you ask? Well, as it turns out, a few days before, she had sanction a raid on one of their ships by a foreign agent of hers. The agent, a foreigner named Matilda Pennywhistle, had liberated a cargo hold full of slaves held in dock on the Iron Mongers' quay. However, in doing so, the stranger contracted a pestilence that had begun ravaging the poor quarters of the city, one that turned those afflicted by it into ravening, dead-flesh eating monsters. For betrayed by the stranger named Noctil, Matilda had unwittingly set free a cargo hold full of Novix. One of the ratmen had bitten her, and infected her with the necrophage.

Several Mongers were killed, and their place among the Shadow Syndicate of Segovia was now threatened by their breaking the anti-slavery laws of the Imperium.

 

But while the ship burnt, and four chained shadows fled the hold (see the Fourth Saga - Black Moon), Matilda had already moved on, heading north to the Karthoum desert, looking for a lost "elven" boy (what they call eldren across the sea) for her patron, as well as for a cure for the plague that now inhabited her body.

 

Along the way Matilda a woman wielding a powerful black-powder weapon and a shadow-laced whip gifted to her by her new patron, the Shadowking Nyx, liberated what first appeared to be a somewhat inconsequential dyavolk slave from the predation slavers (see the forthcoming A Skin Made for Fire Saga).

 

It is said Matilda travelled all the way to Dujrah, where she met with a seer, who told her of a dark future darkening her path. Later, after finding the lost eldren boy, she entered the Dreaming Caves to the west of the city. It is said that there, she encountered an old crone named Aoshi Kiga, who guided her to the hidden palace of the one they call The Salt-Eyes - Khavir, an Assyr bent on restoring the desert of Karthoum to the lush glory it was before his people destroyed it all in their war against their masters, the Gurak.

At Khavir's palace, Matilda learned how the Gurak had been decimated by a plague - the necrophage - and while their progeny the Assyr, were immune to it, they nonetheless spent the entire power of their society - and in doing so destroyed the green paradise that was Karthoum - in an attempt to destroy the plague. Their land in tatters, many fled west and north, disappearing in the mountains (the Saga Thanesdottir Saga). A few remained, living in the ruins of their once grand and powerful civilization, while humans moved in and took their place in the ancient cities of Karthoum - now a vast desert of white sand.

 

What occurred at the palace no one knows... What is known is that, some time later, Matilda emerged from it, healed, but leaving in her wake an ancient shadow, once long dormant, now finally awakened once more… Shadowsong. The stranger was now charged with a new quest: to find four people who recently fled a sinking slaver's ship, whose only distinguishing feature was the mark of a black moon and sword tattooed on their necks (the Black Moon Saga).

The Second Saga - The Fields of Asphodel

 

PLAYERS/CHARACTERS

Brenda/ Chief Engineer Vorena Arcadia, Imperium Artificer

Tony: Centurion Quintus Antius, Imperium Paladin

Brent: Jurgan Ostara, Orkan Rogue

Jen: Sigi Thorillsdottir, Dvaergur Fighter

SEGOVIA - LATE SUMMER

Demoted to Engineer, and banished to the distant port-city of Segovia to build sewers, Engineer Vorena Arcadia discovered even more problems. Her workers, it seemed, kept disappearing in the tunnels beneath the city.

 Meanwhile, in Laudanum, Centurion Quintus Antius discovered that the artifact he stole in the Tomb of the Ice Ogre carried with it a curse that inflicts a strange disease on whoever touches it. After two of his servants die and he is himself infected, he travels to Segovia to see Vorena Arcadia, hoping she knows something about the curse.

 Also moving in on Segovia was Sigi Thorillsdottir, a dvaergur envoy of Red Beryl sent to establish connections in Segovia. She was assisted by the Orkan rogue Jurgen Ostara, Heilwig Ostara's ne'er-do-well brother, representing his Master Merchant sister's interests. The two were charged by Evoallah Sweetsong, who has just survived an assassination attempt by the Iron Mongers after she exposed their slave-trading to the Imperium, with finding two of her missing folk in order to secure her help.

 The dvaergur and orkan descended into the sewers, encountering Vorena and Quintus, as well as a strange man with the features of a rat named Virgillius. The creature, a novix, guided them to a hidden chamber where the two missing workers were about to be sacrificed by a cult hoping to open an ancient sarcophagus hidden beneath the city. They arrived in time to prevent the Imperium agent Lucia Nero from completing the ritual and summoning whatever horror lied in the sarcophagus.

 Virgillius convinced them to help him return to his home, deep beneath the earth, in the ruins of the ancient civilizations of the Third Epoch. The plague that has seized Segovia, he says, has but one cure - and it is in the hands of the Novix's vile regent, King Hadesius.

 In Asphodel, the heroes helped Virgillius rescue the Novix hero Arex from the dreadful prison Tartarus. Then, with Arex and the rebellious Novix, they stormed the Palace of Hadesius, where they recovered The Purest Vessel.

 They also discovered that the Black and White Speakers of the Novix were working with a group of Grey Eldren, attempting to retrieve the Purest Vessel themselves in a bid to immunize themselves from the necrophage before unleashing it on the Magisterium. Betrayed, the heroes fought not only the Grey Eldren Warlock Nuare, but his other accomplice, Lucia Nero. In the fight, the Purest Vessel was lost (taken by a group of Grey Eldren), and while Nuare was slain, Nero escaped to return to whoever her true dark masters are.

 The heroes returned to Segovia, intent on bringing the dire news to Laudanum.