Game Night Aug 26 - The Vaults Beneath D Argent

Yup its da giants

With the threat to the city at anend the heroes finally had a chance to speak to Obanar, the last guardian of Argent, and they learned much about the history of the world, and what led up to the abandonment of the city.

Near the beginning of time, there was a great war between chaos and order known as the Dawn War. The gods, and their creations the demihumans, fought on the side of order, while Chaos was led by the primordials, sick imitations of the gods spawned by the constantly churning energies of pure chaos.

One of the primordials Piranoth was brought low and chained beneath what is now known as the Dawnforge Mountains, and it is held captive by the placement of certain ‘divine engines.’ The city of Argent began as a guardian outpost of one of these engines, but over the centuries it grew to become a city devoted to protecting the fragile world from the unceasing attempts of chaos to bring the ordered world back into the flux of chaos. For centuries, the greatest nations of D Erte sent their heroes and champions to the city of D Argent to hold back Chaos.

Then 100 years ago came a world war unlike D Erte has ever endured. All the nations of the world were duisrupted and cast down as the good peoples of D Erte fought against a two pronged incursion by the agents of the Abyss as well as the lord of the undead. When it was over, the Champions of D Argent never returned to the stronghold, and eventually the city fell to ruins.

Besides heroes, the city is run by a race of people known as Torrians. Obanar is a torrian, a race of lion-headed humanoids. It was up to these torrians provide the every-day labor involved in the running of the city, and the greatest among the torrians roase to become Guardians, companions of the Silver Cloaks who were the true heroes of the city of Argent. Obanar was the head guardian, and he went out to locate any trace of the Silver Cloaks after they failed to return at the end of the Undead War.

When obanar finally returned to the city, he learned that the rest of the torrians had held a vote and decided to leave the abandoned city to forge a life of their own. Only Rowthar, Obanar’s young son remained behind. Obanar put Rowthar into a magical slumber until the city was needed again, and Obanar sat down to wait.

For 100 years he waited, until he discovered that giants, creatures of Chaos, were once again growing restless in the mountains. A force was uniting them and leading them to raiding and war. Obanar was shocked when the giants began sending attacks against the city of D Argent, and he began the ritual to wake his son Rowthar. He was interrupted in the middle of the wakening by a concerted attack against the wall of force surrounding the city, and left to fight for many hours on the battlements overlooking the Valley of Chaos to the north of the city. Hours later, Obanar returned from battle, victorious, to find his son Rowthar gone.

Rowthar had amnesia from the long sleep and wandered away to turn up in the capital human city Shalazar, where he met the heroes, who agreed to escort him back. Rowthar was known to them – they had met him at the City at the End of Time, and Rowthar was the very old guardian of that city. He told them that he knew them from earlier, but that the next time they met, he wouldn’t know them, but they would know him. And so it came to pass.

With rtears in his eyes, Obanar greeted the hroes returned to save D Argent and hence the world. His son was successful in finding and bringing back heroes, even though he had amnesia and did not know what his quest was. Obanar was taking them to their quarters and discussing all the things that needed to be done – find the torrians, find som “sky metal” to craft powerful magical aids, when he senses another attack. The giants have returned and are beating against the force field with rocks and clubs. He and Rowthar go off to defend the walls, and Obanar asks the characters to go to the deepest vault where lies the Divine Engine. They must make sure it is secure.

Following a bouncing globe of light down down down, deeper past the empty storage chambers, lower past a chamber full of immense siege engines – ballistae, catapults, wheeled towers, down another light of steps that ends at a dome of rock. In the center of the done is a circular hatchway that lies yawning open. The vaults have been compromised.

The heroes have to fight through three chambers, each with elemental enemies of ice, rock and flame. The enemies were easy to defeat but took time, and Hex could feel a ritual being cast in a nearby room. They fight their way through the elemental enemies and come face to face with a human wizard standing neart a force field beyond which hovers a strange contraption of gold and silver turning cogs. The wizard is in no mood to parley but frantically tries to complete the ritual.