The Hero's Gambit - Episode 1
Shortly after the Gambit saved the prosperous Greene River from certain doom, their teammate Token was kidnapped. Meli, a new friend who’s brother was similarly taken not long ago, has joined them to help in pursuing Token to get him back. They determine he’s been taken to the Endless Maze of the Abyss, the realm of the demon lord Baphomet.
Their pursuit of him has led so far through a ruthless druid warrior fort bent on ferocity, and now to the north, to find a cave which should offer a gateway into the Abyss. This road north leads them through the town of Hand’s Folly...
See below also for NPC art, music credits, and some extra world details, since this is our first ‘episode’, but not the campaign’s first session. (it’s session #13 overall)
Enjoy!~ the GM, Bryan
Player characters:
Imagery of the episode
New NPCs!
all made by me via Hero Forge unless otherwise credited
Music credits“New Horizons” by Francis Bonin (https://francisbonin.bandcamp.com/)“Ale and Anecdotes” by Darren Curtis (https://soundcloud.com/desperate-measurez [https://soundcloud.com/desperate-measurez])“The White River” by Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Original Game Soundtrack, 2013)“Ambush in the Wilds” by Francis Bonin (https://francisbonin.bandcamp.com/)“Nightfall” by Francis Bonin (https://francisbonin.bandcamp.com/)
World backgroundOrigin Story (in brief)Ien composed a symphony. An offspring of the primordial god of creation, for millenia, they filled cosmic fields with a shifting tapestry of five equal ‘voices.’ Through Fire, Water, Air, Terra, Essence, they aimed to entertain and delight. They weaved these voices into song for all godkind to enjoy, but eventually the novelty grew thin. The audience drifted apart, drawn away by their own needs and circumstances, and Ien was left alone with their orchestra, without an audience to entertain.Hoping to ignite more universal appeal for their work, they split the voices into two part eachs; positive and negative twin pairs. Fire now warmed and burned, Water nourished and drowned, Air carried and tore, Terra grew and crushed, and Essence gave and took. The Five voices were split into Ten keys. The nature of their music changed dramatically, and finding the boundless cosmos too risky a venue, Ien established a contained realm within which their symphonies could twist and turn in harmony. Ensal was birthed - a world of seas, islands, and a large continent to serve as the stage. Completing the opus, all voices struck a chord to fill Ensal with creatures of every shape, size, and category. The performance revolved on with all the world’s inhabitants, flora and fauna, as the players. All were given one thing in common - an innate connection to hear and speak the voices from which they were created.As creating an entire world is quite the undertaking for a single divine entity, Ien tired after the first few millenia. They decided to rest until new inspiration struck. They rested in the mountain, and have not woken since.
How the Voices shape Ensal This is a world crafted in elemental forces and polarities of the Voices of Ensal - as a result, the forces are uniquely pronounced throughout its geographies and ecosystems.In some parts, the voices sing in unison, creating normalized regions. In others, as few as a single voice find a home, resulting in geographical and ecological extremes.Given most creatures, flora, and fauna are not built to withstand such extremes, most are found among the ‘harmonic’ regions, with less diversity in ‘tuned’ regions, and only the most uniquely built and hardy in ‘discordant’ regions.
Information HighwaysNewspapers are the dominant source of local and regional news - a consistent Ensalan-wide news source hasn’t quite succeeded yet, although it’s been rumored to be in the works for decades.In ‘tuned regions’, and some ‘discordant’ ones, unique tech has been crafted, often in tune with the elemental voices of those lands, to adapt to living amidst more extreme forces.In select and rare circles, an experimental system of arcane connections has begun to proliferate. Officially, these Distributed Relay Root Conduits are managed among a fledgling network of wizards and artificers, who have weaseled enough influence into their respective courts and nobility enclaves to eke out meager funding for the physical supplies, and only just enough so far. There are around a dozen of them so far since first debuting a few years ago.Thus far, “The Relay” has provided inconsistent levels of risk/reward.Mainly they’ve been used to communicate important news, but aren’t always reliable as rogue agents have plagued them with rants, pranks, or malfunction, so they’re treated with much skepticism.
A few additional points about Ensal- Ensal’s the name of the world, Vandesse is the continent- Ensal’s inhabitants have spiritually always had access/contact with the deities of the Torillian world (e.g. Faerunian, etc.) - hence why Strix can connect with Kelemvor, etc.- That said, Aurumean is the most popular faith system/deity, with about half of religious people following it (so about a third of Ensal’s inhabitants) - she’s an offspring of Chauntea of the Faerun pantheon, and offers the same kind of domains (life, day, bounty, nature, etc.)
Map of Vandesse, the sole continent of the world Ensal:
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