resources:adventure:dark_cloud [Memento Mundi]

WARNING: This is a player-visible page!
====== Dark Cloud ======
===== Initial Brief =====

Against a background of a city in chaos, a growing camp of survivors from the Cataclysm sits increasingly uneasily.  While the Council asks questions about Dragons, about Flux, about Stasis, every day people ripped from their villages ask questions too.  Questions like "Is my family okay?" or "Are my friends still alive?".  Questions that are met with silence from the City.

One such question isn't going unheard, though.  One Pazuzu Caproni is taking matters into his own hands and is going around gathering friends to check in on his home village of Sleepy Hills and find out what fate may have befallen it.

The expedition takes place in an uncertain time though, and dark storms on the horizon spell a concerning omen that professors from the Colleges have described to curious citizens as "Go away I'm busy trying to save the world".  Despite the weather, those going are arranged to leave the northern edge of the city at midday this coming Saturday.

===== PCs =====
  * [[user:seb:pc:Pazuzu Caproni]] - Seb
  * [[user:florencew:pc:Clementine Kinch]] - Florence
  * [[user:alexet:pc:Alonso Graves]] - Alex
  * [[user:4d_enthusiast:pc:Peter Kally]] - Andrew
  * [[user:daveh:pc:Marcus Priscus]] - Dave
  * [[user:emmab:pc:Philippa Blake]] - Emma

===== Summary =====

Pazuzu gathers the party to head to Sleepy Hills and having established amongst themselves that neither Marcus nor Clementine is Cole, the party head out of Acryn and are accosted by Broken Wing Mercenaries stopping and searching people to try and catch Cole.  They try to bring in Marcus and Clem and then also Actual Cole arrives to confuse things but eventually they are convinced and the party head on their way.

On the way to the village they discover a number of dark gargoyles in patches of Stasis.  They fight their ways past the ones that survived and discover to Pazuzu's horror that Sleepy Hills has been the victim of some sort of horrible magical ritual killing a lot of people.  A large crack in the fabric of reality is pouring out magical energy and draconic entities are trying to kill people.  While trying to save Granny Caproni, Alonso is killed by this magical energy but saved by beings made of cloud who turn him cloudy as well.  They then rescue the others for good measure.

These children of Triskelion and Ascension explain that the crack was caused by their sister, Raya, a Dark Stormcloud who appears to want to create a huge hole in reality where Acryn is to allow the Dragons in to devour the world.  The party are generally opposed to this and the Cloud Children take the party to go and talk to Raya because they asked nicely.  They find Raya has been acquiring mages to try and complete her fracturing ritual and are just too late to stop the destruction of a fourth site at the Otherside Gate.  Pazuzu, divinely inspired by the Builder, works with Peter Kally to reconstruct the Gate which strengthens Reality from being broken apart by the ritual and they head on their way to try and stop Raya from finishing her ritual at the Acryn Dragon Gate.

Along the way, the Builder finds the party and explains that Raya is not acting as a child of Triskelion: she is Yara Glassinger, the Destroyer.  He shows them how The Destroyer was originally defeated, after the two of them ended up fighting after years of working together: with the two of them violently disagreeing on how best to honour what they called the Flawless Ones, or Dragons.  A pair of Star Metal Manacles are seen used to bind the Destroyer before she is trapped inside the Orb of the Greatest Work and Clem realises she's inherited these from Batts Marbeq!

The party are armed with weapons blessed by the Builder and go to fight the Destroyer.  Acryn, now aware dangerously late that something's wrong, fight back against the Cloud Children and the party stop the Destroyer's ritual and bind her once again.  Alonso is killed in the fight.

===== Debrief =====

Alonso is brought back to life by Clem using Scar and Unblemish.  Deep scratches appear on the surface of her crystalline torso.

The party take the Destroyer with the Builder to reimprison her in the Builder's Greatest Work.  He thanks the party for their help in finally recapturing her after she tricked him into her release, and offers his observation that the city while saved is now very close to having been fractured apart from the rest of the world by a hairline crack that now encircles the entire city.

Pazuzu, eventually stringing words together into sentences, asks to work with the Builder on finishing the Roc, as does Peter Kally, and the Builder happily takes the two on as Apprentices as they continue to provide insights and collaborate well together.

Marcus takes the information that Acryn is now only a few steps from being knocked out of reality and passes it on to the Raging Tide: this information pays nicely.

Alonso and Philippa make sure the Council, the Leader Church, and the College of the Stars are aware of the city's metaphysical fragility as well.  When word reaches the Council that the city was saved by a party that went out to investigate what it deemed as "not important enough", a reward makes its way to each of the party members.

Clem works to make sure the Circle of the Broken Wing are aware that she and Marcus are NOT Cole and gets documentation, magically sealed by Walter Cargan, that proves that she and Marcus are NOT Cole.

Peter Kally crafts himself a lockable suit of armour to trap his skeleton and prevent it wandering off at night to the Ivory Prince and writes the skeleton and the Ivory Prince a letter to try and reason with it, before making a sealed Flux Grotto and attempting to reason with it over a course of a number of days.  Initially the skeleton is not happy, but over time eventually the Skeleton starts responding to the notes Peter leaves and explains that a debt of bones is still owed to the Ivory Prince.  However, since Peter is clearly unwilling to uphold his side of the bargain, the Ivory Prince says he will refrain from enacting the curse if Peter acts to return bones and memories of lives lived to the //Necropolis//.

===== Consequences =====

=== Pazuzu ===
  * Organisational Ties: the Builder
  * +45R from Acryn Council

=== Alonso ===
  * +45R from Acryn Council
  * [[epic_trees#Arcane Curse]] from Triskelion

=== Marcus ===
  * +45R from Acryn Council
  * +39R from the Raging Tide
  * Documents confirming that you are Not Cole

=== Clem ===
  * +45R from Acryn Council
  * Documents confirming that you are Not Cole
  * Scar from Saving Alonso - the mana crystal that makes up your torso has been damaged: large striations run across it.  The first effect call you take during an encounter that hits your torso also confers REND (only if you take the call: if you resist or dodge it then you do not take this effect).

=== Philippa ===
  * +45R from Acryn Council
  * Respected in the Pro-Darak Leader Church

=== Peter ===
  * +45R from Acryn Council
  * Organisational Ties: the Builder
  * Ivory Prince effect will be suspended on any adventure where you are actively collecting bones, memories or other evidence of the life they lived of the dead you encounter.

{{tag>"dark cloud" "philippa blake" "pazuzu caproni" "marcus priscus" "alonso graves" "peter kally" "clementine kinch" destroyer builder "sleepy hills" triskelion adventure}}
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