Vakreno Heaps Portal Events
Roleplay from Graeth Geg
Message sent to everyone in "Cult of Bloodmoon"
The priest without eyes once again found himself in front of a large crowd outside the doors of the Echiur temple. This time the plaza was silent. He swept his head from one end of the crowd to the other, as if assessing those gathered with his pair of still-oozing black pits. Those in front could see the sunken cheeks of his face. Clearly a diet of mostly Bloodmoon fruit did not constitute as hearty nutrition.
“I have traveled the Folds searching for an answer to our current infestation of unearthly beings. The Lady Ven took me to a sunless land, blanketed by the ash of volcanos. Within the heart of this charred landscape grew a forest of gnarled, hunched, pine trees, no taller than a common house and the color of the raven, but unending in length. I entered, though Lady Ven could not. The hot ash burned my feet, and they turned black and hardened like lumps of coal. In this forest I found a river which meandered sluggishly further inward. I followed this river until it was swallowed by the ground. At this place was a clearing and in this clearing a tangled, writhing mass of black flesh. As I approached, I could make out this mass as scores of rats, tangled together by the tails.
The Rat King spoke with one voice to me.”
The blind priest paused as if about to unload a great weight from his shoulders……
“The religions of our land, across the islands, have been corrupted. There exists a secret Order which has sought to control the spirits of our people. Those religions that the Mystics have not outright constructed have been at least guided by their hand in an effort to turn their members into living gods with an army of dedicated souls within the Folds. The recent upstarts within the church of Sanguis Astroism have confirmed as much. It is likely our own realm has harbored members of their Order, and might yet still. They disrupt the balance within the Folds…for no mortal should be able to control the spirits of others for eternity.
The recent attacks on our realms are a manifestation of Folds, attempting to correct the balance, striking out in blind rage and preventing the Mystics from attaining more followers. Had we continued our war against Astrum we might have prevented this. Offering the Asturmites to the Folds by way of the Heaps would have restored much order. Unfortunately this is now past us.
There exists an alternative. Scattered through our lands are powerful stones, an embodied form of absolute power and raw potential. The commoners refer to these colloquially as Portal Stones. Should we amass enough and offer them in sacrifice at the Heaps, there is a chance we could once again bring balance to the Folds.”
With that the priest descended the steps and returned across the plaza to his estate.
Roleplay from Graeth Geg
Message sent to everyone in your realm
Graeth stood at the edge of the great Heap with the portal stones. The wind blew strongly in his face at the top, and had he had eyes he would just be able to glimpse the sea behind him. Echiur was back there, and if this plan did not work it might be the end.
This course of action had been given to him while traveling the Folds. By destroying the portal stones in the Heaps, he would help balance out the unnatural conditions created by the Mystics' play for souls that recently shook Sanguis Astroism.
Below him, in the center of the great Heap was a vast pit, now smoldering with the remains of one of Graeth's caravans. Fire to feed the destruction. Graeth took the bag containing 8 of the 16 portal stones and tossed it into the Heap. Immediately he could feel power begin to radiate from the pit. It would take time to build however, and time was not something Graeth was in great supply of these days.
He handed the other bag of portal stones to the commoner Smith. "Guard these with your life, and await a letter for further instructions."
With those few words, he left the Heaps and began the exodus to Via.
A Brief Reprieve
The land shudders as eight portal stones rise high into the sky above Vakreno Heaps and open a portal to...who knows where. From the portal streams an energy that strikes many of the monsters marauding upon the western lands. Wherever it strikes, monsters fall dead, their outer flesh charred black. The other monsters quickly retreat from the corpses of the fallen.
Some peasants hesitantly approach the dead monsters, and find that they are not only cooked through, but quite delicious. As they begin to feast, many comment with laughter on the irony of devouring the beasts who sought to devour them.
A New Resolve
Tonight, having feasted well, the peasants seem to show a new resolve and determination, with one clear goal: Find, or make, a new homeland away from these monsters. More begin to show up at the recruitment centers, and those already recruited and the newly signing declare quite firmly that they don't care how far they have to go or if they don't get paid (much) until they have a new homeland: they're in this to make a new start.
As rumours of these events begin to come back to those in the eastern lands, the peasants and minor nobles alike begin to speak in worried tones of what is to come. Do all these strange events presage a terrifying migration of armies out of the west, bent on carving new homes out of their own lands in the east?
Roleplay from Graeth Geg
Message sent to everyone in your realm
It was now or never. Graeth sent the letter with his scrappiest messenger.
"Use the remaining portal stones."
He had no idea if it would do anything a second time, but he felt compelled to have them used.
A Second Portal
The ground in the area near Vakreno Heaps has been rumbling strangely for a day now. Suddenly, the rumbling intensifies, and a new column of light leaps into the sky above the Heaps, carrying atop it eight glowing stones locked into a circle. At the apex of the column, high enough to be seen from across the realm, the stones break apart and form a much larger circle, crackling energy connecting them.
The space between the stones begins to glow, then the glow begins to swirl, and finally there is a detonation that shakes the ground for miles around, and a complete portal hovers above Vakreno Heaps, shedding an unearthly glow upon the land.
A Deadly Portal
Once again, the land shudders as eight portal stones rise high into the sky above Vakreno Heaps and a portal opens. The portal blossoms with deadly energy, lancing down upon monsters throughout the western lands. This time when it strikes, however, marauding beasts are not burned black: they are completely vaporized, leaving nothing behind but a foul smell in the air and a feelin
