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The Apocalypse Stone

Posted by Dungeon MasterFor group 0
Dungeon Master
GM, 3741 posts
Fri 1 Nov 2019
at 15:26
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The Apocalypse Stone

Long ago, before the very beginning of things, the gods assembled in their place of meeting. They agreed to build a world and set in its navel the Stone of Corbinet [kor-bee-NET], the center of its existence and the source of its life. To protect this precious seed, they raised around and above it a fabulous castle, built of gleaming marble and darkest obsidian. But the gods could not agree on who should guard the castle-each desired his or her own champion to have the honor, and none would permit the chosen agent of another to take up the task. Finally the God of Justice addressed the assembled deities and proposed a test to determine the best guardian for the castle and the Stone.

"Let each of us choose a champion to seek the castle," said Justice. "The one who first finds it will become its ruler and will sire a family of guardians to defend the Stone ever after."
The gods saw the wisdom of this plan and agreed. They selected champions who embodied those virtues their respective divine patrons thought most important and sent them forth. These questers traveled the length and breadth of the world, seeking the elusive stronghold. But though the castle was part of the world, as the axis mundi, the umbilicus of the cosmos, it possessed a unique feature that made it difficult indeed to locate: It moved about the world, seemingly at random, appearing one day in one location, only to disappear the next. The champions searched far and wide but could not find their goal. The quest seemed impossible.

One day the champions met to discuss their progress, each admitting failure and declaring the goal to be unreachable. It was at this time that a man, who rode a horse without a saddle and who bore no symbol, device, or weapon, appeared among their number. The champions asked the newcomer which god he served, and he replied: "I am called Pescheour. Each of you embodies those qualities your gods deem best. I am what is best in mortals."
So saying, Pescheour [pesh-UR] turned his horse away without another word and rode straight to the castle. Its gate opened before him, and he passed inside without difficulty and beheld its secret, the Stone of Corbinet. The God of Justice crowned him ruler of the castle that very day, and King Pescheour made a pact with the gods: Neither he nor his descendants would ever remove the Stone from the castle or reveal the secret of its power to any other living creature or being, lest a terrible curse befall their line forever.
The newly crowned King Pescheour gathered to his seat others of purity and honor, and after swearing them to the same pact with the gods, made them his household. With such folk at his command, he was well satisfied that the Stone would be safe. He took a wife from among their number, and together they began a dynasty of guardians who remain the defenders of the castle and its secret to this very day.

King Pescheour ruled in peace and wisdom for more than three centuries and then stepped down from the throne, crowning his eldest son in his place. Still vigorous despite his unusually advanced age, Pescheour departed the castle on horseback and rode away from its gates, never to return. Some of his line speculate that he ascended to the realm of the gods, to sit among their number and serve them; others believe that he simply wandered the world and died in some foreign land. His true fate remains unknown, even to his family, and if the gods know they have not said.

Since that time, King Pescheour's descendants have ruled the castle and honored their pact with the gods. Once or twice in each generation, a lone hero locates the castle and its mysteries; any such worthies are admitted into the household and sworn to the pact, swelling the number of the Stone's defenders. None who gained the castle are permitted ever to set down their burden, and thus its existence remains the most closely guarded secret.

.............

So it continued for millennia. The gods and the descendants of Pescheour kept their pact, and the Stone and castle remained safe. There were threats to the family's charge: irresponsible kin who did not take their duties seriously; assaults from fiends who meant the world harm; and a few weak kings who allowed rumors to leak out, obliging successors to deal with the mess.

The current king, Alain [ah-LAYN], was crowned ten years ago. He was the younger son of theprevious king, Etain, and was chosen to ascend the throne instead of his elder brother, Garloth. Though he did not voice his concerns publicly, the old king perceived in his eldest child a selfishness that did not befit the future guardian of the Stone of Corbinet. He also took a dim view of Garloth' s fascination with the dark arts: While knowledge is an admirable goal, and indeed can benefit the Stone's defender, Garloth's interests lay in less savory and less ethical directions. The old king made his decision known to the assem­bled family and court ... and his sons.

Prince Garloth received the news that he would not inherit the throne with remarkable aplomb: He neither objected nor cursed but accepted the pronouncement calmly, to the surprise of the Pescheour family and retainers. Etain congratu­lated both his sons-Eric on becoming the new crown prince, and Garloth for displaying such wisdom and self-restraint.
Underneath his calm exterior, however, Garloth seethed with rage and jealousy, and his heart was afire with thoughts of vengeance. How could his father betray him so? He was the eldest, the right belonged to him, and he would have it-whether his father was willing or not. If his family would not grant him his due, he swore, he would take it for himself.
Turning to his magical studies for solace, he began with fearful purpose to dedicate his every waking hour to mastering the most ancient and blackest of arcane rites. The Pescheour line was touched by the gods, and Garloth found himself capable of magic beyond mortal ken. He converted his chambers into a sanctum and library, then went into the world, gathering more lore to help him recover what he had wrongly lost.

King Alain naturally disapproved of his brother's behavior and warned him to cease his researches into the black arts. Prince Garloth paid him no heed but continued to seek the forbidden mysteries. Finally Alain, fearing that his brother had become unhealthily obsessed, ordered him to leave off his researches lest they endanger the castle and the family. This commandment, heaped atop the other perceived indignities, enraged Garloth to the point of speechlessness. Gathering his belongings, the prince departed Castle Pescheour for good.


Garloth' s first order of business was to convince his chosen dupes of the legitimacy and importance of undertaking a mission to Castle Pescheour. He believes the best way was to persuade them that in so doing they are actually undertaking the long-hidden test.
Garloth lead the fools to conclude that they, too, may pass this divine trial and reap equally divine rewards. He needs his heroic pawns to know about Castle Pescheour and, to a limited degree, the Stone of Corbinet, but he has to conceal the truth. He has designed a series of deceptions to impart certain enticing details to the marks and has recruited various individuals for that purpose.
First, Garloth duped a well-known minstrel to bait the hook with an irresistible tale of fabulous treasure and great adventure. The questers encounter this entertainer at a festival that begins the story. Next, they meet up with what appears to be a wizened sage, actually an actor hired by Garloth, who has a piece of hitherto unknown lore about a divine trial and an ancient treasure. Then they run afoul of an old rival, tricked or impersonated by Garloth. Through careful manipulation of existing antagonism, the evil prince makes his false story seem much more believable.

Finally, when he judges them convinced by the tale, Garloth reveals himself to his chosen instru­ments- after a fashion. He appears in the form of a spectral knight, congratulating the "heroes" on learning of the divine test, and offers them the means to undertake the trial.

........

Garloth' s plan was to guide his dupes subtly but inexorably along the path that will lead them to the Stone and the final act of his revenge. First, he engineers a series of deceptions, all designed to impart tantalizing bits of information to the heroes. He wants them to know about the castle and, to a limited degree, the Stone of Corbinet but controls the information so that it conveys a distorted version of the truth.
He persuades the dupes that they are undertaking a divine trial so secret and ancient that the gods themselves no longer reveal it to their followers. He draws them in with three planned encounters, each of which seems to uncover a little more of the legend. When he judges the marks convinced of the lore's authenticity, Prince Garloth "reveals" himself as a divine avatar. He bids them journey to Castle Pescheour and retrieve the Stone of Corbinet as proof of their virtue, giving them a signet ring that leads them unerringly to the castle.

........

With the Stone of Corbinet removed from its planar...universal...multiversal resting place, all of the cosmos, planes, alternate and parallel universes became un-tethered. Magic began to crumble as the very foundations they were set upon held no more value. Religions began to melt and fade away as the belief's that they were based upon had no more meaning. The Stone of Corbinet was shattered and pulled in an unknown amount of pieces in an unknown amount of directions.

When the realities came to a stop, Religions, Magics and the fundamentals of life began anew. But the damage was done. Realities blended together, one could walk out of their room in an inn on Faerun, and walk right into the Mystic Tír na nÓg. A dragon once flew from its den near Silene in Libya and ended up upon Mount Doom. A child threw a copper piece in a well to make a wish, and a warforged living tentacle grabbed the child and pulled it with the copper piece....
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