The Setup
Old Things Stir in the Dark...
The world has grown comfortable without true gods. It has been two thousand years since the
Divine Era, when
the Architects conjured species and entire systems of magic from nothing. The
Modern Era has had only what the Architects left behind. Mortals have thrived in that long era of stability. The Architects haven't been forgotten in all that time, but they have become just another set of imaginary gods who live only in the art and hearts of mortal priests and devotees.
The world teeters on the edge of a technological revolution. The printing press has become common across much of the world, ships have crossed the great oceans, and people are becoming more interconnected than ever. Workshops are becoming factories. Firearms and cannons are being refined. People are growing hungry for sugar, coffee, chocolate, and distilled spirits. Discoveries are being made that could change
everything. The great mages, immortal spirits, warlords, and monarchs obsessively race towards the future to stand at the top of this shining and bountiful future, even if it means great suffering from their subjects or conquered lands. Greed and ambition light fires of war and chaos across the world.
As the world hurtles towards great and terrible changes, ancient forces animate in the dust and dark. Old gods wear new flesh and stride to claim this world that has long forgotten what they truly were.
The Architects have been reborn as the
God Squad, a group of powerful warriors with unique abilities and great potential. As the Architects have manifested, so has the ancient entity that hunted them:
The Static. The Static has split into four pieces, each with their own mortal body and immense power. These are the
Nemeses and each one is capable of ending the world if left unopposed. Together, this pantheon of destruction could overwhelm the mortal world and wipe it away before it ever has the chance to decide its future.
Whether this world will be destroyed, corrupted, or left as a shadow of itself is anyone's guess. Nearly as dangerous as the apocalypse are the returned Gods. Will they seek to build a better world or something else entirely?
Cast
Our heroes for this campaign are:
Together they are the
God Squad!
One-on-One Sessions
While most campaigns are begin with all of the party together, this game embraced the idea of
minisessions: one-on-one sessions intended to help characterize each character as their own person in the world before they all meet up. This also aimed to help the characters flesh out their personal backstories (as opposed to the god backstories) and allowed each player to explore the world around them at their own pace.
Each character mini-campaign has a different arc, genre, and set of priorities, but all of them worked to ultimately build together into the main campaign. This covers Levels 1 through 5.
Potha Sessions
Potha Sarana,
Halcyon reborn, incarnated as a daughter of the
Sarana Tribe - a group of Indigenous
Loanuans in the center of the island. Potha fought for a place as a
Meako, earned her
Loanuan Giant Moa, made allies, and infiltrated the city of
Tailotha. After helping assist her people in the
Loanuan Settler War, Potha fled the island from colonial pursuit with a band of eccentric warriors to venture East to find the other
Incarnated Architects. She dodged through warzones, parlayed with the xenophobic
Zesheko, and cut through the
Unwilling-infested
Gauntlet of Green. At long last she made it to the city of
Suwirsha to meet with her fellow Gods.
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Characters introduced include:
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Kipilu Sessions
Kipilu of Tezitkal,
The Hidden One reborn, incarnated as a clutter of wild cats in the forests of
Ikatlan that formed into a single lost
Haltia child. Kipilu was found and adopted by a
Sunekan religious order along with another lost child named Dina. The two lost children grew up together and became
Keepers of Olkum (Sunekan special investigators after being initiated as adults, the two were sent to investigate and raid the heretical town of
Tapatlan. During this raid, Kipilu's childhood best friend Dina was infested by an apocalyptic entity and became
Dina the Martyr. The two friends struggled to deal with this dark transformation and eventually fled the Sunekan realms with a handful of loyal companions. They ventured out to find and capture the other
Incarnated Architects and slowly seeded Apocalypse cults as they went. Over their journey Dina and Kipilu fell away from each other and it became clear that while Kipilu would go to join his fellow Gods, Dina would become their enemy.
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Characters introduced include:
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Makar Sessions
Makar's story is a continental odyssey. Makar is
The Masked One incarnated as a lower-middle-class urban
Windweaver in the
Zeruan megacity of
Etekamo. Makar joined the noble court of Etekamo to secure power and support for their family, and eventually was able to secure royal support to go on a grand voyage to foreign lands to meet with the other Gods. They faced
Kasmir the Rot in the corrupt corporate city of
Vikasha. They intervened the purge dark magic cultists in the
Orporan Civil War. They investigated magical corruption in the golden city of
Asalay. And all the while, they gathered allies and learned of the world's power structures.
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Characters introduced include:
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Arzet Sessions
Arzet is
The Chimera reborn as a humble ranching boy in the
chaos waste village of
Adov. Arzet lived a domestic and insulated life for many years, as he was cut off from the wider world by dangerous magical wasteland. He apprenticed with the feared local wizard, a misanthropic outsider who came to this village for peace and quiet, as part of a deal to get that wizard to save one of his mothers from a dangerous monster. After years of training and servitude Arzet then became a village hero when he saved a local teenager who was captured by bandits. This "idyllic" life was disrupted when the nearby castle of
Rolkirk was subverted and transformed by dark magic into a beacon of corruption and chaos. Arzet gathered a party to investigate but lost most of the party to the chaos instead. To escape the dark presence, Arzet had to use his wizarding connection to call in the
Darzan University, the greatest wizarding institution alive, to take him away. The Darzans helped free Arzet from dark influences but now imprisoned him in their own academic nightmare. Arzet had to work with his fellow students to escape to the city of
Asalay to meet with the other Gods.
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Characters introduced include:
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Act One
Act One is the first phase of God Campaign after the minisessions. This Act is all about discovery, exploration, and investigation. This part isn't about defeating the
Nemeses outright, but about learning how the Nemeses operate and how they can be fought. It is about building connections, gathering weapons, and developing a reputation as heroes or Gods. The
God Squad is powerful enough to command respect at this point, but isn't so powerful that they can bully or intimidate emperors, archmages, or demigods.
Ironically Act One has a slower pace than the mini-sessions, as group sessions tend to be shorter and are more likely to get derailed by tomfoolery. The Act is broken into Arcs, which are different quests that take them to different parts of the world and focus on different threats. This Act is intended to occupy the space from Level 5 to maybe Level 10 - maybe shifting into the next phase earlier or later, depending on how things progress.
Building the Team Arc
This is the arc of the
God Squad coming together, making their plans, and getting settled. The Arc soft-starts with
The Trial of the Masked One, where Makar, Kipilu, and Arzet meet in
Asalay. It then moves to include Potha in the next session, as the full group becomes one in
Suwirsha. The party then explores the city of Suwirsha, learns some spells, meets people, and has fun. After that, it is all business: the Squad awakens the sleeping demigod
Theia the Liberator and her army of ancient paladins, meets with
The Lunar Pantheon, and sets the divine forces in motion to work together against the
Apocalypse.
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Characters introduced include:
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Zeruan Plague Arc
This is the first true mission of Act One: to hunt down a larval
Plague Engine in the
Empire of Zerua before it can unleash a new
Rot Plague variant. The group teleported to the emperor in
Argena, acquired official support for their investigation, and wrapped up loose ends with Makar's family in nearby
Etekamo. The Squad then ventured West into the plagued lands. They found an Empire wracked by war, storms, natural disasters, and apocalyptic disease, led by elites who were incompetent fools at best and maliciously exploiting the situation at worst. Eventually the Squad found that
Prince Mazaru Eramzir, a regional governor, had made a pact with the Rot to extract power from the destruction in exchange for his protection of the larval Plague Engine. The Squad organized the
Kreniko Coup to overthrow the Prince while they snuck through his palace crypts to the Engine. They fought a brief climactic battle against the
Plague Dragon before slaying it and the prince. This victory was great, but also came at great cost. Their noble allies were left mangled and depleted and the
Great Flood of Elorta (created by the Rot's presence) had wiped out an entire city. But still, the
Airborne Rot Plague had been killed before it could begin.
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Characters introduced include:
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Intermission One
This is just a short intermission for the party to train, check in which NPCs, and explore new areas in a non-questing format. In this intermission the party went to train in the city of
Vetuza, which is a dystopian mechanical city in
Maradia controlled by the religious extremist
Mezowar Kingdom. After training and hijinks there, the party went to go talk with NPCs in
Suwirsha.
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Selkie Cult Arc
The current plot arc as of the last time this article was updated. The
God Squad is now off investigating a possible
Nightmare Cult in the
Khilaian Isles. Through
Emesh,
Lunar God of Knowledge, the party was able to secure a foothold in the sacred isles and a controversial elite ally. From there, the party began exploring potential hooks and anomalies in the great selkie city of
Halamahi.
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Characters introduced include:
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