The Forest Beneath

The players should be successful in scaring off the Caeligo. However, the damage to their Bouy means that it is no longer rising. It has lost too much heat, and instead, they party will start to fall. Remind the players, if neccesary, that the common belief is that there is nothing beneath the Depths. That they will fall forever until they suffocate when the air in here runs out. Prompt, if needed, how each character reacts to being faced with certain, slow, death. NPCs that are still concious are distraught, with specific responses ranging from anger to despondancy.  

The Evergloom

 

But you have only been falling for under an hour when something changes. The window of the Bouy brightens, slightly, and the dark, yellowish-green of the toxic clouds fades. Any who rush over to look out see, stretched out below them, and endless, dusk-drenched forest. It is larger than any island any of you have ever seen. The trees look older than the oldest building on Ilysium. And the ground - for there is ground below you - is rising up to meet you quite quickly. You might want to brace.

  The Bouy crashes down into the Evergloom, the endless forest of monsters and elves and eldritch gods that lies beneath the entirety of the Blue. The crash is not incredibly severe, as the Bouy was not in freefall, but it does still pose some threat to the characters. Players should roll Soak against 3 Bashing Damage. Any NPCs should just take the damage. The NPC with the head-wound, if still alive, will take 3 Lethal damage, due to being unconcious.  

The crash of your bouy has disturbed the ancient forest you've landed in. Broken branches, torn bits of huge, thick, glossy leaves, and upturned soil marr the area around you. The forest itself is... alien, though in this world, the word for that would be 'elven'. Surreal, in its size, in the age and unfamiliarity of the plants you can spot. Even those of you who might have grown up on a tree farm would be hard-pressed to identify anything you see in detail. And then there are the sounds. Whereever you are, you're certainly way off the map.

  Stepping out of the wreck of their bouy, the party is faced with the ancient forest, and, nearby, the crash site of the Pride of Lucrum. Prompt the party for perception checks (Alertness/Awareness+Wits), and add more detail with more successes, though everyone should be able to see the flaming wreck of the skyship. What happens next is somewhat more free-form. If the players do not want to search the crash site, instead drive them to find cover with an approaching storm.  

Encounters

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Whichever encounter the party faces, it should put them in a state of uneasiness. The Thunder Wraith easily killed one of their companions, and the storm that followed was harsh and unforgiving. The elf might have helped them, but they were afraid of something about the party, and certain that they were doomed. Regardless, let the party have some time to catch their breath. They might make a small camp, or just find a spot to sit down for a little while. Prompt the party, if needed, how they feel now that they're not dead, as previously thought, but still lost somewhere entirely elven. Once some calm has been achieved, pull them onwards with an vague sense that they are needed somewhere.   Use a Recognition, then Comprehension, and then Obstinance test. The first indicates how well the members of the party are able to tell that they are all feeling the exact same pull. The second indicates how well the members of the party understand that the feeling is pulling them to a specific place, and there is a larger purpose behind it that they can just barely glimpse at: they are wanted. Obstinance lets the players resist, but only mostly. Instead of walking willingly into the ruins, those who have successes in Obstinance will be wary, and able to stop and check their surroundings.  

The Ruin

 

As the feeling like a thread attached to your heart grows more and more taut, the trees around you thin. You emerge in a clearing, with scarce bits of stone rubble that break through the barren soil. A single structure remains, a set of pillars in the very center of this clearing. There is where you need to go. There is where you need to go. There is where you need to go.

  Let the party investigate, if they had enough successes in Obstinance, or head over. In the center of the ruin is an altar, one of simple black stone. When the first person touches it, a red beam of light shoots up into the sky. The ground shakes, and a creature claws its way up through the soil.  

The beast that emerges from the ground is unlike anything any of you have ever seen. It is writhing, open wounds. It is dripping blood. It is tendrils and limbs and eyes where there should not be. It stinks of death, so heavy in the air that it hits you like a wave. In one of its.. hands, if you can call it that, is a flaming spear. It points it at each of you in turn, the blade at the tip easily as thick as your arm. "Only one of you is WORTHY." It exclaims, and then without warning, it swings its spear in a wide arc to cut through all of you.

  Harbinger's Initiative bonus is +5   The Harbinger of the Scion is there to try and find the perfect champion to send back up to the Wilde Blue. This is a test in many ways: endurance, physical skill, creativity and intelligence, and resilience against the eldritch. Each round, have each player roll a Sanity check. If they fail, they can permanently burn a point of Sanity to pass instead. They may not use Willpower on these rolls. If they choose not to, the Harbinger acts through them on their turn. If they are reduced to one point of Sanity, they have the option on their turn of either ending their own life or submitting to the madness and going fully insane. Either way, the character is unplayable for the remainder of the fight.   The Harbinger makes two attacks each round: one with its spear, and one with its limbs.

Spear: Attack Rating: 6, Damage: 6 L

Grasp: Attack Rating 4, Damage: 0; The world around the fight changes to match the worst fear of the person hit.

The Harbinger does not bother trying to defend against the party's attacks, if anything it relishes them trying to hurt it. It has a Defense Rating of 0, a Soak of 4, and 12 health levels. Significant damage sent its way causes it to chuckle, compliment the individual, and then focus its ire on them. Similarly, using Sorcery against the beast is desired, and effective.   Once the beast is defeated, or when only one character remains, the beam of red light pulses and everything goes still.  

"You have done well to bring me these champions. I will do great things with them. . . . . Unless... You do not see the value in our alliance?"

Respond cruelly to any attempts to speak in character.

"Drop the act. You and I both know what you are capable of. And yet you wish to play pretend, as if you were as weak and feeble as the puppets you pull around on strings."

Kill a character of someone who attempted to speak in character.

"There. Now there's no distraction. Now you can speak to me as an equal. These are tools. We could do much with them, but they are not what's important here. We are. We could shape this world into something so much greater than it is. All you have to do is relinquish control. Cede them to me. And marvel and what we will do."

  If someone takes the bargain, narrate their character's actions as they look over their hands, disregard their companions, and walk into the beam of light. Narrate them appearing on an island in the Blue, glancing around. It's almost like they stare right into the eyes of the player who gave them up. And then they smile. And... Scene.