Archon Adventures
January 4th, 2011
Hello everyone and welcome back to Grave Plots, where I bring you new and exciting plot ideas and adventure hooks each and every week. This week, as you will no doubt have heard, is Archon Week. This week’s plots will thus focus on dealings with those champions of good and law.
A Sticky Situation
This hook focuses on the lantern archon, or more specifically on their memorable special ability to join with other lantern archons to form a single more powerful entity. Approximately ten years ago a group of thirteen lantern archons were summoned to the material world in order to confront a bearded devil who had been terrorizing the good people of Amraxis village. The lantern archons pursued their holy mission with the zeal typical to their kind and so their search was quick. The bearded devil was found to be posing as a missionary espousing the virtues of a new “god” come to save the people from the hell of mortality. Once discovered, the lantern archons wasted little time in confronting the preacher, exposing him for what he really was and demanding that he return to the hell from which he came. When the devil refused to go quietly, a battle began and three of the lantern archons perished before they could respond. With the devil’s great strength and deviousness in clear evidence, the archons decided to use their gestalt ability in order to combat the beast on even footing. Normally only nine lantern archons can gestalt to form a more powerful being and the effects are usually temporary; however, in this instance the archons’ desire not to lose any more champions of light led them to attempt something thought to be impossible: to gestalt 10 lantern archons. Through sheer force of will, aided by the power of their selfless wish, all the lantern archons merged to form a single being with strength great enough to defeat the evil bearded devil and bring the town of Amraxis back into the light. And so the battle was won; good had triumphed over evil and Amraxis was free to go back to the way things were – only, one thing went wrong: after having defeated the devil, the archons could not unjoin and return to their natural states: they were stuck.
Thus, our adventure begins as the PCs arrive in the town of Amraxis seeking the guidance of the creature known as the savior spirit, which now guides Amraxis in all spiritual matters. Seeking out the spirit proves to be a simple task, as the people of Amraxis have in recent years become a forthright, honest, and charitable people who are more than happy to direct the PCs to the humble shrine they built for the spiritual creature at the edge of town. Upon arriving the PCs encounter a creature unlike any they have ever seen: standing over 10 ft. tall, it is a luminous being of brilliant swirling color, roiling like a slow turning storm cloud. The being speaks its welcome with an airy voice that seems to come from many different sources. The creature is pleased to see the PCs and is more than happy to give them guidance on their quest, but in return he would ask a favor of the PCs. Should they agree the spirit explains how it came to be and how, so bound, they were unable to return to their heavenly home for the shame it would surely bring. The creature explains how they stayed in Amraxis, guiding the town’s spiritual growth carefully and creating a haven for goodness and morality on the prime material plane. Now that Amraxis is on the right track, the spirit believes it’s finally time to return home; but before they can do this they must return to their natural state.
Over the years the spirit conversed with numerous sages and magicians and learned of a magical substance called the dust of division which would suit their needs nicely. Unfortunately, before the spirit could acquire the dust, it was stolen by an imp and hidden away in the Ledrix gold mine, about half a mile from town. In return for guidance on their quest the spirit asks that the PCs retrieve this dust, explaining that as gold is anathema to archons, they cannot go themselves, and that the imp has placed the miners under some kind of spell so that they cannot be persuaded to part with dust.
The Ledrix mine is just south of Amraxis and is operated by the Ledrix mining company; currently the mine is occupied by about two dozen miners who, while ordinarily kind and rational people, have presently fallen under the influence of an evil imp and will react in a hostile manner to anyone they believe to be looking for the magical dust. The dust itself is hidden away in the depths of the mine, guarded by the insidious imp himself, who does his best to tempt or trick the PCs into betraying the archons. Should they stay true to their cause, the archons speak words of wisdom to the PCs, imparting upon them a single helpful piece of advice that will be of critical importance on their journey. With a final word of thanks the archons depart for their home and the PCs will have made a new ally in heaven.
The Stray Dog
Knowing of the PCs’ heroic destiny, the forces of heaven have sent one of their agents, a hound archon called Peatyr, to the town of Gwendil to judge the PCs’ worthiness. Peatyr traveled around town for a week in preparation for their arrival and, with the consent of the townsfolk involved, created a number of minor but public troubles in order to test whether or not the PCs could put the needs of others above themselves.
When the PCs arrive in town they are immediately greeted by a loveable stray dog which happily bounds about and follows them around during their stay in town. Wherever the PCs go they are asked by the simple and friendly townspeople to help them with various tasks. These should be tailored to best suit the skills of the party (after all, Peatyr had plenty of advance prophetical knowledge about who these people were when he devised these challenges), but some samples might include: a sick or wounded animal needs help; some dire rats got loose in the cellar of the local inn and the innkeeper is worried about her stocks; a large cart of lumber needs to be pushed up a hill; the wizard’s apprentice needs help with her homework; an old lady has locked herself outside of her house; a group of bored children asks one of the PCs to tell them a story; or whatever other minor problems that might plague a small town.
At the conclusion of the day, should the PCs suitably impress him, Peatyr reveals himself to the PCs and informs them that he was very pleased with how they conducted themselves in town today, thanks them for the heroics, and informs them that he looks forward to their future career. With a final reminder that heaven is always watching, he departs to pursuit activities elsewhere.
So that’s it for Archon Week; I hope you enjoyed the Plots, and I hope to see you right here next week. In the meantime, allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.