You have all been written off by the world, whether it was by your tribe, your clan, your family, your overlords or whoever, and so wound up in the Salt Mines of the Big Rubble, where life tends to be nasty, brutish and short.  Then something happened; on the last day of the year, someone or something put all of the guards to sleep and opened all of the shackles, gates and the pens holding the riding mules.  You and all of the other inmates of the salt mines grabbed what you could and took off, following the older guys who said they were Sartarite patriots.  They got your group out of the Griffin Gate without a fight because of a weird fog bank that came down river at sunset and then everyone split up.  Your group is composed of young adults who are only now just reaching their 16th year.  You need to improve your skills before you can qualify for initiate status in most cults, with one big exception.

Your mounts group together of their own accord and take you to a secluded spot on the banks of the Xola Fel river, where a campfire glows with an oddly steady light.  You hear hoof beats and see that some of the other, older escapees from the Salt Mines are leaving the camp site as you arrive; they were in conversation with the shadowy, cloaked figure with the glowing staff who now turns towards you.  His appearance and that of the staff change constantly.  He speaks and somehow you know that he is more than human and your lives will never be the same.

“Serve me and be rewarded!”

These rewards are not required to serve.  The more this man changes you, the more control he will have over your actions, at least at first, but if you choose NOT to be rewarded, he will change only one thing about you: your appearance, so that they Lunars will not recognize you as one of the prisoners who escaped this night.  This will give you a control factor of 1 which you can remove simply by accepting Lanbril’s second offer:

“Become an initiate of my cult.” 

This costs anyone who accepts 1 point of POW, removes 1 control point and ignores the normal skill requirements for initiate status.

This stranger goes on to tell you some of the ground rules of  your service to him.  He warns  you that the cult of Black Fang is the enemy and anyone who follows him must oppose them if you can.  (Black Fang is NOT an allied cult.  This is a change from the rules).  He warns you of five old men you might hear of or encounter.  He warns you not to interact with them in any way, just get out and away and warn him; they are too dangerous for you to tangle with them.  Their names are: Curunir, Mithrandir, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando.  He warns you specifically to be careful around Radagast (he can sense  you coming a mile away) and never to let Pallando touch you.

He offers you the chance to join his (Lanbril’s) cult, even if you don’t meet the initiate requirements.  Four of you took him up on the offer. (Correct?) Those four lose a point of POW and are now followers of the Faceless Lord.  He tells you that you have a great future ahead of you and that you will aid him greatly in his own tasks; at that instant, there is a shooting star that comes from the West and appears to land on the other side of Pavis, about 5 miles or so east of the Xola Fel river.  Lanbril points to the slowly fading strike of light and tells you that it is your choice as to whether you follow that star or not.  He tells you that this year, 1616 is the year the World will Change and he bids you farewell.

It is now the first day of Fire Season, 1616 Solara Tempora.  You have weapons, armor, food, water and riding mules so you decide to head east and take a look at where that shooting star fell, but first you have to ford the River of Cradles and maybe avoid any Lunar patrols, since while no one will recognize you as escaped convicts, you have no papers as of yet.  It occurs to you that since three members of your party are part of the Rhino tribe, it might be a good idea to actually get some rhinos to ride.

The very first luck roll of this new year is quite good and you soon spot the dust cloud common when a small Praxian herd is on the move.  It is a clan of the Rhino tribe (the Spotted Bull clan, in fact) and the clan sentries spot you and their mounts identify your rhino rider members as fellow tribesmen by your scent.  Your Face … I mean your most eloquent party member (Thad or Dwayne’s guys) speak to the clan chief (a scar faced warrior named Red Axe) who sympathizes with your problem and makes you an offer: promise to give him a hand with a problem he has when you have some experience under your belts and he will give you the opportunity to persuade a rhino to work for you.  He has an eye to the future and actually has a few more stock than he anticipated this year.

Your group agrees and each member of the party who is a member of the Rhino tribe goes over to the herd and gives the call that all members of the tribe learn when they are children watching the herds.  You guys are apparently coated with Rhino Nip, because you not only got a rhino each, Dwayne’s character Tessa managed to call a young bull of exceptional quality.

That ended the session.  Everyone gets a check in their Ride and their Scan.  Everyone gets 1% added to your Fast Talk skill.  Everyone gets + 25% to their Cult Lore: Lanbril.  All members of the cult of Lanbril get a 10% add to their cult skills: Feign Death, Foil Restraints, Shadowing, Streetwise, Thieve’s Argot, Voice Mimicry.

Your Rhinos: (be sure to name them)

Dwayne’s Rhino:
STR 48
CON 24
SIZ 44
INT 3
POW 13
DEX 10
Hit points: 34
7 point skin
Gore: 50%, Bite 30%, Trample 75%    devoted to rider

Carl’s Rhino:
STR 44
CON 24
SIZ 44
INT 2
POW 12
DEX 9
Hit points: 34
7 point skin
Gore: 50%, Bite 30%, Trample: 75%   fond of rider

Tony’s Rhino:
STR  44
CON 20
SIZ 42
INT 3
POW 11
DEX 12
Hit points: 31
7 point skin
Gore: 50%, Bite 30%, Trample 75%    fond of rider

The party reaches the area where the falling star struck ground, and realize it has attracted the attention of others. Approximately fifty horsemen surround the impact site, apparently searching the area. The party hides behind the crest of a hill until the contingent leaves the area, then pokes around looking for any information not trampled by the horses. They spot a trail left by a single person heading towards Pavis.

Following the trail, the party approaches a ford in the River, only to spot a Lunar patrol of about a dozen soldiers taking the same path. Once again holding back, the party waits for the patrol to cross, although some members contemplate charging the enemy lines from the rear.

A sudden warcry sounds, and a troop of baboons led by the Iron Baboon ambushes the Lunars mid-stream, and the front line goes down. The party, minds clouded by bloodlust, charges into the fray and proceeds to pepper the rear rank with missile fire, dropping two.

Four members of that lunar cavalry troop managed to DI out; if they got a good look at you, you are going to be identified as kill on sight outlaws, possibly part of the Iron Baboon’s gang.  Your best hope is that the battle turned out to be so hectic  and so disastrous that the survivors can’t say more than ‘baboons working with rhino riders’.  The fifty or so horsemen you saw investigating the crater were either a mercenary outfit or the followers of a rune level, both of which would mean strangers to Prax and most likely, enemies.  Riding up to them and trying to infiltrate their group while riding THREE RHINOS would have gotten everyone killed.  Remember how nomads feel about horses and how everyone but the Sable riders feel about the Lunars; it might save your lives.

Rumors:  You should always keep your ears open for rumors when you are with or near any tribal encampment or settlement.  You were with the Spotted Bull clansmen for about a week and you heard the following:

1. The rhino rider known as Romar of the Silver Shield is rumored to have slain his fiftieth enemy of Prax (defined as being a Lunar, Sable Rider or Chaos monster) and is now considered one of the greatest warriors of the tribe and of the cult of the Storm Bull.  His shield is silver because he has taken something silver from every Lunar that he has slain and has hammered it onto the surface of his shield after purifying it.  He now has a large shield covered with runic silver which is said to be able to reflect Lunar magic back at his enemies.
   
2. The band of baboons and Basmoli who follow the Iron Baboon is growing.  They do not ride mounts but can travel across any terrain faster than anyone other than a Man and a Half.
   
3. Bandit activity to the north of Pavis is getting worse.
   
4. The trolls in the Big Rubble are restless.
   
5. The grass looks good so far, the herds should do well.

After  your fight at the ford and your sighting of the strange group of cavalry that was investigating the crafter, you followed the trail of the human who apparently rode the shooting star that you saw that night and then got up and walked to Pavis.  You were able to examine his tracks and he appears to be a human male of average size wearing nothing more than slippers on his feet.  You follow his trail to Pavis and it leads you to Bad Side, the slum that used to be called Pavis Outside the Walls.  The coming of Dorasor to Pavis more than 40 years ago changed that; now New Pavis is Pavis Outside the Walls and it is that town that draws the commerce and the traffick.  But Bad Side is still here, just as it has been for centuries (even if the nomads raided it and tried to burn it down a dozen times) and it has connections with many of the groups that live in or trade with the Land within a Wall and of course with the cult of Lanbril.

NOTE: All initiates of Lanbril gain D10+2% to their Thieves’s Argot and 2D6 + 6% to their Streetwise(Pavis). All Non-Lanbril characters gain 2D3 + 3% to their Streetwise skill

You have to picket your mounts in the common corral (at the nomad end) but otherwise you are not looked at twice; your rhinos get all the attention.  Because they’re members, the Lanbril initiates are able to get full price for the two suits of bronze chainmail you have to sell and can get you good prices for the two Bladesharp matrices you have to sell: 2500 lunars each.  Do you sell?

You are in Bad Side for about a week, so everyone gets to take their checks.  On the fifth day you are in town, something happens at midnight.  There is an explosion inside the Big Rubble and a glowing hemisphere of pink light appears to move and then you realize it is growing in size.  Everyone takes cover (anyone who decides NOT to take cover inside a building or your group’s tent must make a D100 roll) and the wall of pink magic engulfs not only Bad Side, but New Pavis and at least part of Old Pavis as well.  The effect of the magic varies widely and is completely unpredictable: Trickster Magic!

Anyone who took cover is unaffected but anyone and anything exposed is touched by the magic of Eurmal the Trickster.  Clothing changes color, chickens lay eggs that glow, livestock runs loose or away, some people go mad and all of the pigs (even the tuskers of the imperial mercenaries) band together and parade through the streets singing.  They head to the townhouse of the Lunar governor and serenade him until dawn.  Most of what was changed reverts once it is touched by sunlight, but some of the changes are permanent.  Later that day, you realize that your rhinos are practicing their attacks: their INT has been released and they are capable of learning (although their INT is still only 3).

How many other animals who were touched by the Trickster’s magic have had their intelligence released?

What are  you doing next?

Your group fans out and starts getting familiar with Badside (Old Pavis Outside The Walls), once the only point of communication between the Big Rubble and the world outside of the Troll Occupation.  Now, it is a slum, the place of last resort for the destitute, the nomads without a mount, escaped slaves and a center of activity for the cult of Lanbril.  You pickup a number of rumors both in Badside and in New Pavis when members of your party went to the Light temple (a miniature Sun Dome!) looking for work and Elurae beat the heck out of an obnoxious jerk who was on guard duty.  While he might not like you guys at the moment, the cults of Light do not hold that duel against you and you even have a contact in the cult of Yelorna now, but the big news comes from other Lanbril cultists.

It is the Lunar Empire, of course, and it isn’t just because they are the forces of law and order now either.  Ever since the Lunars occupied New Pavis in 1610, things have been different; MAGIC has been different.  The imperials brought something or someone with them, something that affects and limits illusion magic and it has been getting worse.  It manifests as a decrease in the range or duration of lllusion magic by as much as 60%, and it is even worse for the Tricksters than it is for the followers of Lanbril.  The cult of the god of Thieves went to work trying to find the source of this problem but were only able to discover that it is something or someone who radiates a powerful aura tied to the Truth rune and it moves about, sometimes within New Pavis, sometimes in and out of the city, before they had to stop.  Three of Lanbril’s best thieves turned up dead in short order then Lanbril himself appeared in the dreams of his followers and ordered them to back off.  They had been betrayed by their closest allies, the assassin followers of Black Fang!  The Lunar Empire has a track record of adopting local spirits and deities into their pantheon and it seems that one of the Seven Mothers (Jakaleel Blackwitch) managed to bring Black Fang under her control.  This was probably done by Lunar heroquestors, but that is beyond your limited understanding at this time.

Lanbril and Eurmal have marshaled their forces and are now striking back.  The coming of the Trickster hero, the explosion of Eurmal’s magic that rocked the entire Zola Fel valley and rumbles from the Troll Stronglands that Zorak Zoran’s followers are banding together with the Storm Bulls to raid Imperial supply and communications lines indicates that the forces of Disorder will strike where Illusion cannot.  There are gods locked in a war of magic and death in the shadows of Pavis, and you are caught up in it.  Remember that Black Fang is the enemy now but is really just a small, local cult; what if the Red Goddess could bring Lanbril under her control?  The magic of the god of Thieves is perfect for spying as well and you can see the efforts of the Red Moon to get Pavis to marry into her pantheon; if she can gain control of Black Fang and the god of the city of Pavis, then why not Lanbril?  This war may reach farther and last longer than anyone anticipates.

*Note: you all notice that there are no images or statues of Lanbril wielding a staff; daggers, swords, lockpicks, yes but staves, no. More than one (more senior than you) member of the cult that you speak to recommends that you all obtain lay member status with the cult of Pavis.  There are a number of doors that will remain closed to you if you do not.  This will not interfere with any other cult obligations.

Remember that the range and/or duration of Illusion magic is decreased by as much as 60% for all non-Lunar cults.

Now you see why the god of Thieves offered you his deal.