Bridge Worlds: Soterion

by Randy Blackwell

  X, Y

  Yaarma: (Yar-ma): These tribal Malakadam inhabit and guard the Emerald Forest. Natural abilities are +4 health attribute, -1 knowledge attribute, and Animal Speak.

  Z

  EXTRA CONTENT

  SAMPLE PLOTLINE: Quest for the Helmet of Soterion

  This plot is written as though all player characters are from or in Philos. The plot may be altered by the narrator if it is necessary. Philos is a good starting place as it is the only completely multi-raced Kingdom. The following plot is an adventure outline for the Narrator to flesh out accordingly to the characters involved.

  Below is a list of the different starting situations for 5 player characters. More players may be added. Player Character 1

  Your grandfather has just passed away

  You remember that as a very young child, he would read you stories from an old dusty book You are now at the age of 14. The book is delivered to your home. There is an unbreakable strap lock on the book but no key

  Player Character 2

  An elderly friend of the family has just passed away

  You are now at the age of 14. Your parents give you a key that he left for you.

  Player Character 3

  An old man that used to tell you stories at the market while your parents visited to buy supplies has just passed away

  You are now at the age of 14. While at the market the old man’s wife hands you an envelope with your name on it. The letter gives you the location of items and instructs you to gather the owners of the items together.

  Player Character 4

  An old man that was a good friend of your father has just passed away. You did not speak to him often but he would always give you treats when he was around.

  You are now at the age of 14. Your father hands you an envelope with your name on it. Inside the envelope is a map. The map, however, is written in some kind of code.

  Player Character 5

  You are now at the age of 14. You receive a letter with the seal of House Lurin (a phoenix). The letter is from Queen Hope Lurin. “This cipher will decode a map that leads to a special treasure. You will be visited by a stranger in the near future. Go with this person to find the others.” ~Queen Hope Lurin.

  The suggested number of players for this plot is 5. But if you wish you may bring several more players in, but keep in mind that the more players you have the longer it will take to run the game. You may incorporate different players into the game before it begins by giving them different pieces of the puzzle, relations to characters, or NPC direction. You may also incorporate players after the game has begun by introducing them through the plot-line.

  Once all characters and necessary items are together in the same place let the characters role-play and decide what to do. One good option the players may take is to seek Queen Hope for help. Another option would be to follow the map using the cipher. Be sure to keep a note of what players come up with good ideas with their characters. Each player may be rewarded extra experience points for good ideas at the end of the game.

  If the characters think to visit Queen Hope, she will provide for their basic needs (i.e. food, supplies, etc.). Be sure to role-play this out with the characters. If the characters decide to move on and follow the map… ask them what they will do next. If they do not stop to buy supplies make a note of it and use that poor decision on them when they start to get hungry/thirsty, need supplies, or shelter. Be sure to encourage team work.

  Using the cipher, the characters will discover that the map leads to the Tithemi Swamps in Caelsis. Uncle Shoa of the Magi

  One of the characters has an uncle who is a member of the Magi. Uncle Shoa is currently in Lake City where the characters are. He will depart soon with the Philos military. Uncle Shoa keeps Kuon in Philos for travel purposes. He has offered his nephew/niece to travel by Kuon if he/she ever needed to go anywhere in a hurry. The narrator should pull the player aside and inform him/her of this at this point of the game.

  Assuming the character will mention this to the rest of the characters they will walk to Uncle Shoa’s Philos home before leaving Lake City. Uncle Shoa has already left but the character has a key to the home and knows the Kuon are inside.Since Kuon are sentient beasts, the characters will have to convince the Kuon to help them. Have them role-play this out. Once the characters gain the help of the Kuon the narrator will need to check character sheets for the ride skill. Character’s without the requisite ride skill will need to ride with characters who do.

  Should none of the characters have the skill to ride, the party will need to purchase transportation and/or hire a guide. At this point, the party should be “introduced” to Gavin, a 4th level commoner who provides transportation services at a cost. Gavin is a short, stocky Adam dressed in simple commoner clothes. He has, at his disposal, four wagons that the party may rent at a price, 400 drachma. Should no one in the party know how to drive a wagon, Gavin will also have drivers available: Travis (2nd level commoner), Johnathon (2ndevel commoner), Andrew (1st level commoner), and Simon (1st level commoner). Each driver is available at a modest cost of 150 drachma.

  The party, if unable to pay for travel, may find jobs in Philos to earn the money. Gavin may be willing to reduce the costs in return for party members to work the debt off. Following the map, the characters will first travel to the city of Dunamis in Philos. With Kuon, this is a rather short flight. If traveling by wagon, this will be a three day journey subject to random encounters. These encounters are sometimes hostile. Dunamis will be their last chance to buy provisions. Tell the players something like, “The Kuon (or Gavin) tell you they need to stop and rest for an hour (or for Gavin to purchase supplies). They tell you to meet them in the town square where they drop you off. You are in the city of Dunamis. You do not know anything about this city. What do you plan to do while waiting for the Kuon?” It is up to the narrator what he/she wants to be in the city so have that already planned out so you will know what kind of interaction the characters will have with the locals. This is a good time for any side adventures/quests you as the narrator would like to introduce. Examples are: A run in with the local law (most likely Raphad in Philos), a rogue pick pockets a character in the party while they are wandering the streets, or a merchant starts some trouble with them while they are buying goods.

  Once any side adventures are over the party may rejoin with the Kuon (Gavin) and continue to the Tithemi Swamps. The Kuon will leave the party once arriving at Tithemi Swamps. “This is as far as we go. We must be back to Lake City now.” If the party hired Gavin or his men, they will set camp here and wait. If anyone in the party was rude or caused Gavin problems on the journey, he will leave once the party is out of sight.

  It is dark out by the time they reach the swamps and the map leads a day’s walk into the swamps (a Ranger would know they need to camp for the night). If they continue into the swamps in the dark of night they should run into trouble from the get-go. The Tithemi Swamps are crawling with all kinds of nocturnal creatures like man-eating plants, quick-sand, Lukos, or Haspen.

  If they stop to camp for the night have them role-play setting up the camp…. This is when it comes down to if they bought provisions for the trip and if there is a Ranger in the party. Also make note of if they set up a night watch or if everyone goes to sleep with no night watch.

  If there is a night watch they will be attacked by a Lukos in the middle of the night. The night watach will be able to provide advanced warning so the party will have time to wake everyone to prepare for battle.

  If there is no night watch have a member of the party abducted with the Lukos capture ability. The next day the other characters will have to track him/her down and fight the Lukos to get him/her back before leaving to continue their journey.

  The next day they will begin to move on with their journey towards the location the map leads to. Towards the end of the day they will reach a cave leading underground.

  All characters will be able to enter the cave des
pite size. Any Raphad party member will have to crawl on his belly the entire time inside the cave. There are 3 invisible level 2 Haspen guarding the cave entrance. Once the characters are 100 ft into the cave entrance the Haspen will approach them to begin steeling weapons and useful items from them. At this point, you will need to let any ‘Am Mayim know that they see the group being approached by the Haspen and let the group take appropriate actions. The ‘Am Mayim will be the only ones who can attempt to attack the Haspen and make them visible.

  If there are no ‘Am Mayim in the party the Haspen will then attempt to steal anything and everything they can from the characters. Keep in mind weight limits. The three Haspen will need to work together to steal anything larger than a dagger. Be sure to be fair and make the Haspen roll their slight of hand skill to try to take the weapons without being noticed. If a Haspen fails then their invisibility is broken. If a weapon is too large for the three Haspen to pick up they will try to render it unusable somehow… i.e. pouring acid on the hilt. Once the Haspen are discovered or they have picked everything possible they will attack the characters with backstabs using poison daggers and poison blow darts. Due to the hatred Haspen have for Nepsah, they will focus on any Nepsah first. They will try to kill the Nepsah (hopefully players will remember that Nepsah can fly and Haspen cant).

  The Narrator will need to make the stats for the Haspen Rogues before running combat. Be sure to make them dificult but beatable for your player group.

  Poisonous Daggers and Darts (damage of poison):

  A character or two gets killed. This is not recommendable in a normal plot line but there will later be an opportunity for them to come back to life. Don’t tell the player this until the time is right. Any characters that get the poison in their system will have 24 hours to live. No amount of medicine/ herbs will cure them as this kind of poison is unknown. Anyone with the medicine skill may make a skill roll (target number: 24) to determine the poisoned character’s situation.

  As the Narrator it is your job to try to progress the plot-line so if the characters try to leave… trap them with an avalanche in the cave. The only option then will be for them to move on. As the party travels down the tunnel they will see that there is an underground lake they must swim across to get to the other side. Characters without the swim skill may attempt to perform the swimming as an unlearned skill. The lake is calm, with little current (base difficulty of 15). Those who do not have swim will have to be carried across giving the swimmer a larger difficulty (narrator discretion).

  Once the characters have crossed the lake they will notice that the tunnel is leading back up. They will come to a fork in the tunnel. Both paths have gates that the characters must open. One gate is narrow and its path is a little narrower than the other.

  The wide gate: The wide gate leads to death. A level 10 subsurface Drakoni is waiting further down the path. At this point, the narrator will need to determine which character dies. If there was a leader in the decision to choose the wide path, kill him. If it is hard to decide which character to kill, give each player a number and roll a d8 until one of those numbers is rolled. It is important that all the players see the importance of Biblical symbolism in the game. The level 10 subsurface Drakoni will grab the character from under the ground and pull him under unto his peril. Make sure to play out the combat but a level 10 should kill the character. If the character miraculously survives make sure to give God credit. Any players who get the symbolism and go through the narrow path will be rewarded extra memory verse and experience points. Have the player who gets it turn to the verse and read Mat 7:13.

  At the end of the path will be a door of solid rock. The door is impenetrable. The only way to get into it is to knock on it. Make the players role-play their characters figuring it out. If they do not figure it out remind them of the poison eating away at their health pool. Once they have been given more time they still do not figure it out have everyone roll their memory verse skill. Once there is a successful memory verse skill roll or a character figures it out have the players turn to Mat 7:7 then Luk 11:9.

  When knocked on, the door will open and see daylight. There is a lush green field with a dozen sheep and a simple looking shepherd watching over them. This shepherd is the Shepherd of Soterion (the Christ symbol in that fantasy world). Have the characters role-play out what they would do. Observe how they react to Him and respond as the Shepherd accordingly (use scripture as a guide line).

  Upon talking to the Shepherd the characters will find out that He was the one pursuing them and not them pursuing an item. He will tell them that the grandfather read the book to them at His direction and that He had all the items sent out in order to lead them to Him. He will tell them, “The word Soterion is the ancient word for salvation. The item you quest for is the Helmet of Salvation. It is right that you have come to me for salvation. In reference to me, the book you hold says, “And being perfected, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him. If you follow Me, I will give you the helmet of salvation which will allow you to make sense of the scriptures which you hold, but salvation is only for those who follow Me.”

  Sometimes players like to throw the narrator a curve ball. If a player decides that his character would not follow the Shepherd that is ok. This does not mean that the Shepherd will not continue to pursue him throughout the game.

  Those who accept the Shepherd as their Lord and Savior will be able to wear the helmet. It will not fit those who don’t. Once the helmet has been worn once the characters will, from that point on, be able to read the Bible that they have.

  If characters ask the Shepherd to heal them he will heal them then and there. The Shepherd will then cause the entire party to fall into a deep sleep. When they wake they will be in their homes/hotel rooms in Lake City again. All items and scars from the quest will remain on the characters.

  This is the end of the Quest for the Helmet of Soterion.