====== Path of the King ======
===== Initial Brief =====
Rumours gather of a man on a mission, although the nature of the mission varies from rumour to rumour. Does he seek to clean up the deserts of those who would do harm to others? Does he seek wealth and fortune? Does he seek to face the Gods themselves?

Richard Silver has been travelling the continent, approaching cults of the Tyrant King and defeating them. No-one knows for certain why, although rumours abound. What is certainly true is that the wilds have become a safer place since he started.

===== PCs =====
  * [[user:harryh:pc:richard_silver|Richard Silver]]
  * [[user:joew:pc:jimmy_hoskins|Jimmy Hoskins]]
  * [[user:toml:pc:hugh_branch|Hugh March]]
  * [[user:jamesg:pc:haydn|Haydn]]
  * [[user:chaos:pc:toli_nutt|Toli]]
  * [[user:daveh:pc:nice_lizard|Nice Lizard]]
===== Debrief =====
Richard and Jimmy run into Hugh and Haydn, who are fighting off a large group of bandits they had run into. With their arrival the bandits are dispatched even quicker than they otherwise would have been. Richard is particularly pleased to learn that Hugh is a wayfinder, having lost theirs to an attack by Tyrant Cultists. In a theme which will be heavily repeated, a group of Tyrant King cultists attack the party, it is partway through this attack that Toli and Nice Lizard arrive, increasing the number of consumed Tyrant King cultists. Having decided to continue travelling together, a number of duels occur as Richard has to prove his primacy over both Toli and Nice Lizard, the former proving tougher than anyone expected due to a lack of healing on Richards part.

A little later the party encounter Tyrant King cultists shaking down a village for supplies and food. Once again the party deal with the cultists. During this, Richard sees a strange translucent figure which he follows, with the rest of the party eventually following. A short distance from the village they encounter some children being attacked by claw fiends, and despite finding themselves weirdly weakened the party are able to defend the children and defeat the claw fiends. The party follow the translucent figure, discovering a group of Tyrant Lizards attacking some travellers, once again the party protect the travellers.

Soon the party arrive at the camp of some Tyrant King cultists, who invite the party to eat before being crushed. Hugh prepares a potent display of his command of nature by producing a thunderstorm overhead while Jimmy bargains about the exact deals of the duel which is about to happen. Once everyone has eaten, the leader of the cult and Richard duel. Once Richard has proven victorious, Jimmy takes the leader’s eye in order to restore Richard’s missing one.

Following the encounter with the cultists, the party head towards the nearest patch of consensus where they once again witness the translucent figure surrounded by translucent bodies. Then they find the scene replaced with a group of translucent figures who are demanding that Richard submit to the King. After the party have defeated them they find the figures happen to be in the same pattern as when they had first discovered them, with the original figure walking off towards Junnes.

After facing a few sandworms and some flux-dragon-cultists the party reach the centre of Junnes, where translucent figures seem to cheer the party as they walk towards an ancient figure in front of an active dragon gate (both also translucent). The figure drags the moon down from the the sky and sets it rollings while geometric impossibilities pour out of the dragon gate. As most of the party attempt to fight off the geometric impossibilities, Richard is briefly crushed by the moon and Hugh studies the Dragon Gate. Hugh concludes that the dragon gate has been corrupted by Caerleon, and that the only way to end this fight is to destroy the gate. Each of Hugh, Richard, and Nice Lizard take turns at destroying the gate, their combined efforts eventually destroying it.

Following the face off with an Echo of Caerleon, the party find themselves in a verdant space full of powerful creatures who demand to know their weaknesses, before finding themselves before the Tyrant King himself. Richard demands that the Tyrant King explain himself and his cult and is unimpressed with his answer, launching into an attack against the Tyrant King. Hugh brings the power of the Pivot of the World to bear, attempting to convert the Tyrant King into a fiction. Jimmy Hoskins bring his own power to bear, preparing to take some of the Tyrant King’s power once Richard has defeated him. Eventually Richard does manage to overpower the Tyrant King, at that moment the Tyrant King is no longer capable of resisting the Pivot of the World’s power and becomes nothing but a story. A few seconds later Jimmy attempts to claim the Tyrant King’s power only to find that there is nothing there and turns on Hugh, demanding to know what he has done. Hugh explains, much to Jimmy’s annoyance.

With the power of the Tyrant King gone the space the party were in quickly starts to vanish. Richard and the rest find themselves back in Junnes. Toli checks his compass, discovers it is spinning wildly, and the party decide they should leave promptly. They head to the desert, fighting past horrid shit, and head to home. On the way Richard investigates the temple of the Tyrant King in Liarus and has difficulty finding it, all that is left is a monument to his legend, the cult of the Tyrant King as it was no longer exists. People still attempt to live up to the ideals of his story, perhaps more so than when he was a god. Richard apologises for having no money to pay the party and offers to be service to the party at some future date. They head back to Acryn. Richard goes to the Circle and debriefs them, while there he discovers he has a reputation for going on about the story of the Tyrant King. When he explains what happened to Ravensfall he receives nothing but a tired look, Ravensfall is no longer surprised by the actions of adventurers. 

Hadyn, Jimmy and Richard offer to help Nice Lizard with the dragon problem. She declines. 

The party chat about what to do about Zoisimos. Jimmy repeatedly refuses offers of help from Hugh, voicing his distrust regarding Hugh. Especially regarding his possession by a Dragon, his involvement with Xavier and Xavier’s accension. Hugh retorts that  “Nobody in Acryn is innocent of enabling Xavier”, something Jimmy finds himself unable to deny, but continues to distrust Hugh and his offer.

Toli uses the Builder’s divine inspiration and prepares a design for a contraption to help Zoisimos, although he does not know what it does. Jimmy understands some, but not all, of the contraptions design. Jimmy builds the device, Richard channels the power of hope into the device, and then they chuck Zoisimos in and hope for the best. The device grinds and does some stuff with its arms. It prints a new Zosimos. A servant wakes Jimmy to say the printing is nearly done. It is neither a God nor a priest but has a slight ping of divinity. Zosimos realises he is no longer a god but he could be, he seems to have a choice about what he could be. Zosimos starts playing with the device.

Jimmy offers to help Hadyn with his inky eyes and squidgy bones. Hadyn administers an anaesthetic to himself and Jimmy performs the surgery/alchemy. Hadyn now has a stoneskin addiction.

Nice Lizard uses Wounding magic to treat Selphina’s flesh golem. Nice now has multiple adipose. She tries a 1 mana ritual to treat her own. Nice now has 5 seconds warning before one of the appears. 

Jimmy asks the Council to add the Pivot of the World to the banned gods list and after a short discussion the addition is approved. 

==== Effects =====
Hadyn is mostly a normal human now, although he retains the iron plate exoskeleton and has an unusually durable skeleton. Twice per an adventure, after receiving a hit which causes substantial body damage, he may call SHATTER as the weapon breaks against his skeleton.

Selphina’s Flesh Golem problem has now been resolved.

Nice Lizard’s Flesh Golem problem has doubled, although one of them will provide a 5 second warning before appearing.

Anyone with the Tyrant King’s Divine Favour loses it, and finds it replaced with the [[:epic_trees#Inspirational Story|Inspirational Story Epic Tree]]

{{tag>"path of the king" richard_silver jimmy_hoskins hugh_branch haydn toli_nutt nice_lizard the_tyrant_king adventure}}