====== Relight My Fire ======
===== Initial Brief =====
Notices have been put up all around the Church of the Founders asking for adventurers who are willing to look into why the candles which sit upon the relic are burning low. Anyone interested should report to Elior in the Church of the Founders. Pay is offered at 40 Riel.
===== PCs =====
  * [[:user:daveh:pc:geoffry_weathers|Geoffrey Weathers]]
  * [[:user:khimaera:pc:paige|Paige]]
  * [[:user:vickyh:pc:vincent_barma|Vincent Barma]]
  * [[:user:chaos:pc:mar_andreya|Mar Andreya]]
  * [[:user:matthewa:pc:victor_darrish|Victor Darrish]]
===== Debrief =====
The party meet at the church of the founders and are seen by Elior, keeper of the flame. He informs the PCs that he has had a vision regarding the restoration of the Holy Candelabra of the Founders, and is looking for people to help. All they need to do, is get on a boat, head south-east, and follow the portents until the flames relight. After some discussion of what form these portents are likely to take (Elior doesn’t know, but is confident they will be obvious), the party agree to take the mission. Heading for the docks district and boarding a ship.

Shortly into the journey the ship is hit by an unnatural storm and scuppered. The party and crew awake on a shore south of Acryn, surrounded by a strange sight. As well as the debris from their own, they are surrounded by translucent people and debris from another ship-wreck. As the party watch, another translucent figure picks their way across the beach, checking all of the bodies, eventually finding someone alive and dragging them into the forest. As the party follow through this slightly confusing terrain (which includes both the sparse forest expected south of Acryn and a much denser translucent forest) the party discuss the possibility that they are seeing the past. Vincent specifically has seen the events of the beach before, during an alchemically induced vision.

The party eventually reach a village, there they attempt to follow what is happening with the survivor, while not alerting the modern day villagers to the fact that they are all hallucinating. The party discover that the survivor’s name is Darrack, a name which Geoffrey believes to be the real name of the Leader. At this point the presence of what appear to be a Salic crest on a ship-wrecked foreigner starts to make a little more sense, and the party start to wonder if The Leader might in fact be the originator of the Salic bloodline. A little while late the party witness another echo, a now fit Darrak leaving the village to help with the threats of the forest. The party hurry out in order to not lose it.

In front of a cave, the party see Darrak meeting up with a tall woman with a head of red and aflame hair, someone who Anders quickly identifies as the Warrior, having once seen her in a vision. The scene fades out as the party are attacked by a large lizard which looks a lot like the Dragons of legend, and very nearly tears them apart. When finally defeated, the party see the figures fade back in, having apparently defeated a similar (if much larger) lizard. The figure introduce themselves properly, with the female introducing herself as Lynndis.

By following Darrack and Lynndis, the party find themselves in an open glade, the versions of Darrak and Lynndis they had been following have vanished, but they see older versions walking into the glade from the other side. Both look older, but notably Darrak now appears to glow slightly, as if bathed in moonlight. In the center of the glade are a number of people preparing food, but two stand out as they greet Darrak and Lynndis. Both are female, one has long golden hair and completely blue eyes which seem to rippled slightly, the other has silver hair and her eyes are difficult to look at. The party are briefly confused as the figures appear to interact with them, but it eventually becomes clear that the figures are having conversations with others of their own time, which just happen to line up with the conversation which the party is having. Over the course of the conversation it becomes apparent that the two women are Allyssa and Abraxis (The Tender and The Traitor), that the four are planning to found the city of Acryn in part to ensure the dangers of the forest never return, that they are planning to find “a tinkerer” to help with this project, and that the name Acryn is the name of a foreign star used by sailors of Darrak’s nation to navigate by. While the party seem to take seeing their gods eating, drinking and generally being fairly normal well enough, one utterance seems to cause a bit of a stir, as Abraxis states that she generally finds the truth essential to trust and can’t think of a cause worth betraying her friends over.

Eventually the figure make to move, and in turn the party follow. Again they watch their figures fade in and out, growing older each time they do. During the journey a fifth figure joins them, armour clad, dark haired, and hammer wielding, the party quickly concludes this is the Builder. Near some mountains in the West, they party see the five sealing something monstrous inside a Pyramid, one which appears to have been worn down into a mountain over the intervening years. Following this, their path seems to turn back to Acryn. As the party approach the city they see a much smaller Acryn overlaid on the one they know. Once in the city, the echos become very intermittent, seeming to disappear at a moments notice and often mid-action. The more astute of the party observe that many of these disappearances coincide with recent civil engineering work by the king, and that possibly the figures are simply vanishing within the flux, of course with no wayfinder this is purely guesswork. During their stay in the city the party do manage to witness Allyssa and Abrexis playing with a 5 year old Melinda Salic, a fight between the Darrak and Tarkus, Abraxis pulling a burned and scarred Tarkus from beneath some rubble, Tarkus chasing Lynndis with a bucket of water (both appear to be having fun), Darrak asking if Tarkus’ wife is bothered by how close he is to Lynndis (Tarkus responding that not everyone is a jealous as Darrak), Darrak talking to Tarkus and Lynndis about forging a physical manifestation of their pact to guard the city forever, and an argument between Allyssa and Abraxis where Abraxis claims that what they are about to do is wrong and that it would mean overshadowing those they had sworn to help. Eventually the party pick up the actual path of the echos, heading out of the city and towards Caul.

Halfway to Caul, the founders meet with another party coming the other way. It seems they have agreed to a fight between Lynndis and the Caulish champion. With the Founder’s group acting as if Anders is Lynndis, she is forced to fight what is very likely the Lord of the Rock. Despite Anders being apparently victorious, both the Caulish Champion and Lynndis are seen collapsed on the ground in need of medical attention. Darrak seems please, one step of the forging process apparently completed.

Having returned to Acryn, the party follow the echoes into an unused house near the council building. Inside they find a now adult Melinda Salic with her wife Krista. Krista asks her wife to leave and then turns to the party, telling them to prepare their weapons even as a group of soldiers in the service of the Church of the Leader burst in attempting to apprehend them. As the party attempt to talk (and then eventually fight) their way out of the situation, Krista talks to them about the events about to happen (or have happened from the Party’s point of view), that she will never forgive Abraxis for the pain she will cause Melinda, but that something had to be done to stop the founders. As the fight continues Victor dashes out with the Candelabra, his pursuit prevented by the others still fighting the soldiers. Safely away he attempts to make it to the Church of the Founders, but changes his mind when he finds it cordoned off by the Leader Church and instead heads to the Council Building where he believes the original coronation probably happened.

While attempting to slip past the Black Knights defending the building, the rest of the party catch up with him. Eventually fighting their way into the Council Building. As they enter, they are each beset by visions of Abraxis attacking them. Then as that vision fades, they each witness the death of one of the founders.
  * Geoffrey witnesses the Leader giving a speech to the assembled crowds of Acryn. As a throne is about to be placed upon his head Abraxis steps up behind him and cleanly slices his throat.
  * Anders witnesses the Warrior, asleep in bed as she is poisoned. Later she is seen breathing her final breath, weak and withered, but surrounded by family.
  * Paige witnesses the Builder, his hands crushed with a hammer, bleeding to death on a stone floor.
  * Vincent witnesses the Tender embracing her sister as a blood stain blooms upon her chest, sliding off the blade to collapse on the floor.
  * Victor also witnesses the death of the Tender but also watches as the Traitor attempts to walk away, instead collapsing to the floor in tears as she clings to her dead sister.

Shaken by the visions, but with the knowledge that their job is complete as all 4 of the candles now burn fully, the party leave the council building. Outside they are confronted by Melinda Salic, who confronts the party for the murder of her father Darak The Leader, Allyssa The Tender, Tarkus The Builder, and Lynndis The Warrior. She brands them a Traitor and sentences them to death for the murders and for Treason against Acryn. Shortly after Melinda and her guards attempt to carry out the sentence, with Melinda demonstrating herself to be quite an adept binding and fracturing mage. Eventually the party are successful, and the echoes fade around them, leaving just the image of Abraxis impaled with 20 or 30 swords. A fifth flame appearing in the centre of the candelabra.

At this point the party break down slightly, with Vincent and Geoffrey convinced that the candelabra is evil and that by completing this mission they have done something terrible, pushing to take the candelabra to the Leader church. The others are less certain of the metaphysical consequences of the candelabra, but a quite confident that heading to the Leader church will result in them being thrown in a deep cell and never seeing the light of day again. Eventually they manage to get in touch with Farrier Carver who arranges a meeting between the party, herself, and Kjell Caulson. After much discussion, she concludes that no matter the source of these visions they do not seem to be blasphemous or harmful to Acryn, and hands possession of the candelabra back to Kjell. She also requests that everyone write down everything they saw and pass it back to her.

Later Vincent comes back to speak with Farrier, telling her that he might know the location of an heir to the Salic line, something which excites Farrier greatly. When Vincent then refuses to tell her who it is, things escalate quickly. Seconds before Farrier pushes a spear through Vincent’s chest, Vincent admits to being Vincentzo Cargan, saving him from a sticky fate. Farrier is now keeping track of Vincent, and consulting the seers as to his suitability to take the crown (presumably from among a number of other heirs that she is aware of).

While claiming that the faction of the Leader Church who remain in the city are no longer consider her their leader, it seems Farrier’s name still carries enough weight to get the church to back off from the Church of the Founders, with the candelabra returning to the central chamber of the church. Of course with the newly present fifth flame on the Candelabra, it is no longer possible to dismiss the Traitor’s influence on the artefact. A number of attempts are made to break into the church, antagonistic graffiti on the walls of the church has become rife, and it is much harder to get basic services supplied to the church. On the other hand, the number of visitors to the church has increased dramatically, and the church has become a center of quiet resistance to the current state of the city. Of the changes witnessed over the next few weeks, both are easily explained by the heroic stories brought back by the party about the true story of the founders, or the inspiring effect of such a potent artefact of the founders being available for all to see. The only thing which escapes explanation is the rumour which has sprung up, that if you walk the streets near the church after midnight you will hear the sound of metal being slowly scrapped against metal, or that if you watch closely you will see the shadow of a twisted and terrifying creature.

===== Outcomes and Metaphysic =====
  * Victor Darrish gains the Truly Favoured (Traitor) quirk.
  * Victor Darrish gains a permanently blood stained right hand, and a metaphysical connection to the Traitor.
  * Anders suffers from a sympathetic wound with The Warrior, resulting in a random encounter during an adventure where she is both WEAKENED and immune to STRENGTHEN. This also results in roleplay (i.e., non mechanical) boughts of lethargy and weakness. The connection with the Warrior may be relevant to other things at GM discretion.
  * Geoffrey Weathers suffers from a sympathetic wound with the Leader. He suffers from a slit throat that can occasionally make it difficult to talk. He gains access to the [[:skirmisher#fast_talk|Fast Talk]] ability. The connection with the Leader may be relevant to other things at GM discretion.
  * Paige suffers from a sympathetic wound with the Builder. Her hands are permanently flattened (as if cut from a single sheet of paper). She gains access to the [[:journeyman#jury_rig|Jury Rig]] ability. The connection with the Builder may be relevant to other things at GM discretion.
  * Vincent suffers from a sympathetic wound with the Tender, a dagger wound piercing the heart. This makes strenuous activities difficult and results in a massive dry-cleaning bill. He gains access to the [[:journeyman#medicine_-_healing_hands|LIVE DAMMIT!]] ability by placing a drop of blood from the wound upon the target. The connection with the Tender may be relevant to other things at GM discretion.
  * Anders has a shield which is both shattered and not shattered, an echo of the Lord of the Rock smashing the Shield of the Warrior somehow made manifest in a single item. The item is holy to both the Lord of the Rock and the Church of the Warrior. (Potent artefact creation component).
  * The Candelabra of the Founders has been empowered, and provides an additional use of Gaze of the Gods (Traitor) per Adventure to Priests of the Traitor carrying it.


{{tag>"relight my fire" adventure geoffry_weathers paige vincent_barma mar_andreya victor_darrish}}