Post/Author/DateTime	Post
stone_dog 12-15-04, 05:09 AM	I am planning a campaign that should start in January and I want to do something... different. Something I've never done before. Before you go on, there will be spoilers regarding the Shadow's of the Last War adventure. Not many, but consider yourself warned if you care about such things. I plan to start the campaign in the Spring of 994 YK. A small band of infiltrators has been requisitioned to steal into a secure Cannith laboratory in the town of Whitehearth. At the same time though, a small force of Emerald Claw soldiers attacks the town and begins to plunder it of all manner of valuables. During this havok the PCs may notice that there is a strange mist gathering about their ankles. Very thin, but as the conflict rages on (hopefully managing to get the feel of a race between the Claw and the PCs to get into the Cannith Lab first and get the Glazed Macguffin) it thickens and drifts higher and higher. By the time the chill of the mist is about their knees things should get pretty freaked out. Hopefully the PCs haven't gotten into the lab by the time the Mist is thickening about their waist, because I would hate to miss thier faces when I describe a rolling wall of the stuff a hundred feet high rushing towards them. Moments before the Wall hits the PCs there is a scream of metal and the heads of the metal hydra lift above the town and begin to spray superheated glass over the entire town as a last ditch effort to protect the lab above all else. The last thing the PCs will feel is a blast of scalding heat and then the chill of the Mist as it rolls over them. Fast forward to a time where the PCs start moving again. Encased in glass they can barely move, but they strain and try to free themselves from their prison. They encounter another band of adventurers trying to break into the (now ruined) Cannith Lab and are mistaken for glass zombies. A few rounds of combat go by. The other party's cleric cannot turn them (naturaly) and this causes some concern, but eventually the other group will notice something odd. "What the... these zombies are BLEEDING!" The lacerations from struggling against the sharp glass is taking its toll on the PCs, but if they try to surrender and plead for aid I will certainly spare them. Even if they don't, the good and just priest of the whatever I feel like will try to subdue them to find out what is going on. A wizard will cast shatter to free them from the glass and the PCs will get a few rounds of parley before the Emerald Claw strikes again. Violence ensues. When the combat clears, the PCs will be alone again after the other party is slain as well as the Emerald Claw squad. With minor prompting they should be willing enough to head into the Lab and complete their mission and head out of the Mournlands with appropriate horror at what has happened to this once beautiful land in the space of what seems like minutes to them. Then some other adventures happen... things occur and other such bits of a campaign take place. Eventually they discover something. They cannot die. You heard me. Cannot die. Oh, they still fall to the ground at -1 and to all appearances are dead at -10 (save for Deathwatch spells... they make the caster's head hurt), but instead they simply start healing at a normal rate. After a day of complete rest (and you can't get much more restful than a death like coma) they get twice thier hitpoints back and probably come to conciousness again. They just can't actually manage to cross over into Dolurrh. Once they figure this out, I hope my grin will be suitably unnerving. The Mournlands have touched them. Changed them in strange and uncertain ways. I'll figure out more between now and then, but for now let me say that there WILL be a penalty for dying. Taint rules are all well and good for short forays into the places where taint dwells, but for an extended campaign of it? Nah. Wasting away right away is a bit much to expect, but surely there is SOMEthing to be done... lets see... HEY! Madness rules in the Wheel of Time book will work nicely! Every level the PCs gain will net them a d6 of variant taint that will chisel away at their minds and slowly twist their bodies. Every time they die they will get 2d6. As the rating gets higher the madness is harder and harder to keep in check. Maybe I can roll on a homebrewed table to see if ghosts show up around the body when it comes back from "death" or a nalfeshee or marut shows up to bedevil the party and try to drag the hapless adventurer back to Dolurrh (where he won't fade away, but instead gain madness at an increased rate. One per hour or something). The campaign will go from a standard D&D type game to a race against time to find cures for their deteriorating condition. The Twelve may have a ritual that binds them together and makes their will to fight this curse stronger when they are together. Buying them more time, but still not enough. They may have to navagate the Byzantine politics of the Church of the Silver Flame to speak with the Keeper in hopes that the Flame will purify them (it probably won't. the evil that germinates within them is too great). They may be hunted by Ashbound or even Gatekeeper Druids who have found out about them and want them destroyed. The Emerald Claw would certainly want to capture them and find out if the powers of the Mist may be harnessed for their nefarious ends. Perhaps they will find out that they are now living seeds of another Mournland and when the curse finally takes its course another blasted waste will arise. Perhaps the only way to stop the curse from taking full effect... is to find a way to die. I am sure there will be colorful stone to hew and crunchy bits to grind into a fine powder for campaign masonry, but I think the basic idea is sound. I must sleep now, but at least I have the skeleton mostly assembled. Now to sleep before my dream addled ramblings grow too incoherant to read.
Singing Urgosh 12-15-04, 05:50 AM	Oh, Stoney... great to see that those good ol' crazy theories and sleepless nights still plague you. Your idea sounnds friggan awesome! One question though- are you talking real time campaign or play-by-post? If it is a poster can I pleeease have in? If it's a really real one, how do you feel about having a player with a webcam? Seriously though, your idea is fantastic and would make a great campaign for any group of players worth the chance to be in on this one. I assume you have some plans/ideas for just what the 'mist' is or signifies and that there is some correlation between the 'undeath' of the party and the eternal death of the Mournlands? Anyway, would love to hear more and discuss this idea further. Stay sane
stone_dog 12-15-04, 04:08 PM	Hey.. Sing-gey! Glad to see you back online! I am talking real time game actually. I've tried a couple of pbp games and the format is just not something I am cut out for. It is a low down dirty shame because there are several fine folk online that I wouldn't mind gaming with save that they aren't in the State/Country! Well, as a whole the Dead Grey Mists are the manifestation of the Dark Powers that have taken root in Eberron. Yes, those are capital letters and yes they are the same Dark Powers of Ravenloft. They have been twisted and decreased in power since the Great Planar Cataclysm (read, the switch from 2nd to 3rd edition) but they are still potent forces unknowable to mortal minds. The Lord of Blades is probably the Dark Lord of this particular area, but he may be a misunderstood hero. I am not certain yet. The party IS connected to the Mournland in strange and mysterious ways. They can probably heal normally in there (which would freak any guide out immensily) and one option they might persue is that if they can dissapate the Dead Grey Mists somehow then their curse may be lifted. This would involve finding out what the Mists actually ARE though in order to act against them and would probably take a trip to Argonnessen to find the heirs of Vvaraak to teach them an Incantation to bring back to the Gatekeepers so that the Dark Powers would be sealed away in their own private Idaho again. I mean Demi Plane. The Mournlands would continue to be a frightening place and probably any difference would be impossible to dicern, but the actual looming threat of more Mournlands happening would be gone. Rather Call of Cthulu ish. The world is saved, but nobody notices. The DemiPlane of Dread would be back in business, but also back to having to steal people away rather than affect a Prime World directly. One idea I am toying about with is that very few of the bodies in the Mournlands are actually dead. They are just in stasis and the PCs were the only ones to break free of that stasis and wander about. If any other bodies were removed from the Mournlands they would start getting up and walking about. Of course, without the good fortune of BEING PCs the curse would take root faster in them. In the course of a few weeks there will be cases of people breathing out Dead Grey Mist as they slowly go mad (can't wait till I can describe one of the PCs as doing this as a sign of the curse advancing). Then little pockets of Mournlands appear like cancerous blights on the world. Maybe the Lords of Dust will get involved at that point. They want to go back to ruling the world after all and they are NOT going to let some upstart demiplane be King of the Hill! Mmmmm... allied rakshasas! Anyway.. back to getting ready for work!
Josh Wilhoyte 12-15-04, 05:34 PM	Well, back where I'm from, we'd say that was a crack-smoking idea. But while smoking crack is a bad idea, your plot sounds like a twisty and crazy amount of fun.
Gurv 12-15-04, 06:35 PM	An interesting scenerio. Insanity rules are good, if you have good roleplayers (which I assume you do, since granting immortality to poor roleplayers would be stupid). Wheel of Time <runs to the Box of yet-unplayed games> has a good system. 2d6 sounds like a good amount, considering that they will likely avoid death anyway if you make it creepy enough.
stone_dog 12-15-04, 11:52 PM	Well, back where I'm from, we'd say that was a crack-smoking idea. But while smoking crack is a bad idea, your plot sounds like a twisty and crazy amount of fun. An interesting scenerio. Sweeeeet. Insanity rules are good,Good, but a bit much for what I am looking for. What I want is something mechanically invisible (to the players), dramatically inevitable(for the story) and narratively simple (for me). if you have good roleplayers (which I assume you do, since granting immortality to poor roleplayers would be stupid). I do have good roleplayers in fact, thank you. even if they were poor, they aren't exactly immortal. Eventually they WILL die from the very curse that is keeping them alive. Part of the Madness of WoT is a wasting disease after all. I inted to keep that part about, just change the cosmetics of it a bit. they will likely avoid death anyway if you make it creepy enough Oh yeah. When they first come back their memories will be pretty hazy, but each death after that will have clearer memories of time spent in Dolurrh (they just keep getting pulled back) and a greater chance that a marut comes hunting for them. More later tonight. I need to get back to work!
stone_dog 12-16-04, 02:53 AM	Now that I know in general what the PCs are going to be going through I need to have game plans ready for when they take matters into their own hands. Naturally I won't be able to predict everything, but I'll have SOMETHING ready to go. Who all is going to get involved with this? The Aurum? Probably not for a while. I just can't picture them caring enough to make them major players. Oh sure, if the truth gets out as to what is going on they might start channeling funds in the direction of groups that are trying to remove the problem, but there aren't going to be thugs with rings on all their fingers breaking down doors. The Blood of Vol? Not as such really, but they would be usefull tools for the Order of the Emerald Claw for gathering information. They might be useful as spies, but the active agressors will certainly be greenclaws. The Chamber will be getting involved, but most likely late in the game. A young and untested member of the chamber might get involved with the PCs at some point and try to help them out with information and other such aids. It wouldn't be very usefull for a while, but might help them to get into Argonessen at some point down the road. I'll have to think about that. I hope the PCs will try to turn to the Church of the Silver Flame. They will probably be rebuked... I should say turned... SENT away by various clerics, but being plucky little PCs they might be able to steal into the Cathedral and somehow face the Keeper herself. they might try to hurl themselves into the Flame and hope to be purified by it, but I won't let them get away THAT easily. No, the Flame wants nothing to do with them. Why? Could it be that the evil growing inside their souls would feed the demon bound in the heart of the Flame and cause it to break free? Perhaps the demon uses all its might to persuade the Keeper that it would be DOOM for the PCs to touch the Pure Flame, knowing that the Curse can only help to weaken its bonds? Maybe the PCs would die and die and die in the Flame and keep adding to their Madness rating until the Curse fulfills itself and creates a new Mournland with the Silver Flame (now perhaps disturbingly greenish) at its heart. Regardless, I don't think that the Flame would be the answer. They may find unlikely (and unwanted) allies in the Cults of the Dragon Below. It would be interesting to have a mob of madmen resque the party, begin worshiping them as divine messiahs and perhaps turn on them when they refuse to produce new abberations to worship. Or maybe they just follow the party around and make life difficult. Like Life of Brian only with mutants cultists instead of just followers of the Shoe and Gourd. I intend for them to get in good with House Cannith, but eventually those ties will snap under the strain of having harbingers of doom on the payroll. The Dreaming Dark might be interesting, but perhaps it is a bit too much to an already busy campaign. They might see a cameo in a handful of dream sequences and the possibility of having to raid an Inspired Embassy for lore. The Gatekeepers will definately be involved. For a good long while they will be trying to end the party's lives and extinguish them for all eternity before they harm the world. Eventually though they will have to realize the error of their ways and become unfriendly allies. Why unfriendly? These are PCs. They are definately potent enough to slay a few rangers and druids. "They killed three of my brothers and twelve of my friends!" "They hold the only key to saving this world." "... I still hate them. And once this rite is done I will slay them with my own hands." Oooo... but maybe the Children of Winter would be interested in HELPING them out! They may be confident that they can drive the Mists away after they have destroyed the old world and made way for the new. Lords of Dust... Hmmmm... enemies? Allies? Both? I'll have to think on this. Regardless I simply HAVE to make a run into Carcosa..... I mean Ashtakala. More in a bit...
stone_dog 12-16-04, 03:17 AM	The Order of the Emerald Claw are going to be the most likely and visible antagonists. The party foiled one of their plans and it won't take Vol long to discover the peculiar nature of this batch of irritants. These mortals won't die? I MUST study them! In fact, at the highest levels I may just decide that Vol is the only one who might have the key to undoing the curse. Not that I expect the party to bargain with her... oh no. I expect them to raid her fortress, slay her minions (possibly her too, but her Phylactery will be safely hidden. Possibly in a Kunderak Bank. "We have to get in there! The key to defeating the ancient Lich Vol resides in that vault!" "I don't care what is in there, the client is paid up through the millenium.") and steal the scroll, text, Eldritch Machine or whatever that can tear the energies of the Mists away from their bodies and let them die in peace. The Royal Families? Well, if it ever becomes public knowlege that the PCs are walking Mournlands waiting to happen every special agent and mercenary assasin will be gunning for their blood. No one is going to believe this crap about them being immortal or that "dying" will only hasten the curse. Sounds just like the kind of lie evil creatures like that WOULD say! Even if the Powers that Be do believe that their deaths would do more harm than good they simply cannot be expected to let such menaces walk about freely! I hope they are subtle though. I don't want to have the game turn into TOO much of a fugitive rip off. The Twelve would certainly be allies at first. The condition of the PCs is interesting and until the Curse is revealed there would be certain advantages to a group of competant people desperate for lore and magic to stave of a strange curse. Once it is determined that the Curse can't be transmitted that is. "There might be something to help our research in the city of Haka'torvak. We will fund an expedition for you to go there and bring us back anything interesting with these sigils will you?" "This... something will help you figure out how to lift the curse?" "Oh certainly... certainly. The last mission we sent you on worked well enough didn't it?" ".... Our cleric has a segmented eye now because of that "Mission."" "Well, yes, but the binding ritual DID reduce the taint within you right?" "And bound it into several iron vessels that tore themselves free of their moorings to become a beast of Iron and Blood that you still don't have a name for." "Of course... you COULD always try Morgrave University. Were not they your sponsors for a short time? There was some disagreement you had with the Heirs of Dhakhaan because of them... wasn't there?" "...... where is this... Haka'torvak?" Oh it will be good to be the GM again.
Singing Urgosh 12-16-04, 07:53 PM	I really like what you have got here and my wife also reakons it would be a belter of a game to be in on... if only I had my own WOT books I could run something like this myself (ponders menacingly). Anyway, after reading your lengthy and always well thought out ideas i thought I might add in a couple of things that got sparked in my darker conciousness. Karnnath- Even though the blood of Vol is behind the creatio of thier army in the long run, i am sure that the ability to make living people immortal would sound like a more 'moral' option to raising the bodies of the dead. Sure they might go mad in the end, but these would just end up as beserker units or Airship dropped storm trooper style units. It could also make for some tension between the Royal Family of Karnnath and the Blood of Vol as the Family try to free themselves from her influence by sending these 'Hero's' (or anti-hero's) to take her out or provide the family with an alternative to Vol's help and the problem of the Emerald Claw. Elves- Imagine if these PC's made contact with either of the Elven Dragonmarked Houses? Would they see them as some sort of abomination and insult to thier 'Deathless' advisors? Would they send assassin after assassin in ever more elaborate attempts to kill them? Would they think that Karnnath is breeding new soldiers to send into Valenar and Aereneal? What would happen if they confronted one of the deathless themselves? Alternatively the Elven Houses may think these adventurers are the perfect operatives for some highly dangerous missions they need to have completed... by sending in undying assassins they are all but assured of mission completeion and without risking a single elf in the process. Lord of Blades- As this all happned in the Mournland is the LoB aware of any of this? Does he feel threatned by a group of soft, fleshy humans that his minions just can not kill? Is he afraid that humans may be able to protect themselves in this way from his grandiose plans of genocide and enslavement? Or will he be willing to use the party as diplomats for his cause as they now know what it is like to be 'alive' and yet not living? Will the party become champions to his cause and unwittingly allow the LoB to push up his timetable of world conquest? Dragons- Just how close an eye do the dragons keep on the Mounlands? Do they study it to find out what happened or do they know what happened and are therefore amazed at the reports of a party leaving the area virtually unscathed, undying and doing Siberys-knows-what? Well, there are just a few more thoughts of mine that I hope may provoke you into even deeper and more twisted thought, and I am hoping to bump this back to the first page too! Stay sane, stay posting, stay alert but not alarmed!
Korhal IV 12-16-04, 10:43 PM	I'm really considering stealing this to replace Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, 'cause some players are about to go through that with another DM. Me likey much! :D
stone_dog 12-17-04, 02:13 AM	Yeah... I am digging this too. Good thoughts there Urgosh! I am going to have to keep those in mind if they start trying to mess about with one of those power groups. Now that I am digging myself this hole... I might as well get some nice furniture to set up down here. I want to visit the planes towards the end of the game. I know this. I will now steal from White Wolf a little*. I am thinking that somewhere in Syrania there is a Goblet that containts a pint of absolute purity. It appears as if nothing is IN the goblet, but if it is upended the Purity pours out and disolves whatever it touches. Sort of a Holy Alkahest. In order to cure themselves of this curse, they must pour the Purity over the source of their affliction. This could be their own souls by means of a trip to the deepest reaches of Dolurrh to speak with the Judge of the Dead who no mortal has ever even heard of (they got this lore from the Graveyard of Angels where the Purity was found). If the Judge agrees to their plight then It will seperate their souls from their bodies and allow them to drink from the Goblet. Finally dying in peace at last. Why go through all this trouble? Why not just hop over to Dolurrh and sip at the cup of Purity? Well they need to actually BE souls in order for this to work. If they die and wander about in Dolurrh then the Goblet will still be back on the Prime. If they go to Dolurrh FIRST then they are incarnate creatures there and still have all their stuff. THEN they have to find a way to safely remove themselves from their bodies (being killed on Dolurrh might work, but it would certainly increase their Madness and there is no guarentee that their souls will just appear next to their fallen corpses). THEN once they are all separated and spiritual AND still have access to the Goblet they can drink it and be purified. This has the happy side effect of allowing them to be found worthy in the eyes of the Judge of the Dead and to be allowed to pass unhindered into the Next Great Mystery (kinda like that weirdly crappy movie about the Sin Eater). Happy ending. Roll credits. But this might not be the path the PCs take! Next up, a few more options for the ending. Then I will start thinking about the middle bits. *Okay, White Wolf AND the Holy Grail blended together. I was actually thinking of a scenario from the Apocalypse book, but when I was done with it it really started looking more like a Holy Grail type thing. Which is good. More tomorrow.
stone_dog 12-20-04, 02:00 AM	Pesky boards down. Messed up my whole internet feng shui I had all set up. Where was I? Oh yes. Alternate endings. Lost track of those, but that doesn't matter. As long as I have another one or two in a bit I will be happy enough. I am sure that one of them will have to do with the banishing of the Dark Powers from the Mournlands and the other should have something to do with Vol. I think I will be looking at three Acts for the campaign starting about 8th level. I like mid level campaigns best. About four sessions or so an Act (give or take naturally). That should make for a nicely paced story that doesn't get too bogged down in itself. Of course, if the players have any side quests they jaunt off to then all the better, but for this endevor I am thinking more along the lines of a movie rather than a series. Act one will be the discovery of the curse and the general concequences there of. This will include the introductory scenario in the first post, a few adventures here and there and the inevitable first ressurection. I imagine there will be a series of rather foolish events as PCs try to test the boundries of their "immortality" and find that each time they die they become a little more damned. Once this is fully realized there will be plenty of room for Act Two. This will be the actual quest to find a cure. A few relatively minor step and fetch events should go by with some descriptive scenes of magical experimentation before the final clue is revealed. I really want to get SOME use out of my Rathess Exalted book, so I think I will tone the magical technology down a few notches and use it for Haka'torvak. There will be much daring dealings with blackscale lizardfolk and negotiations with the Cold Sun tribes and I dare say a Poison Dusk assasin that may well be the nemisis for the rest of the game. So long as they avoid the notice of the Dragon (they would have no hope of taking the wyrm on at 10th level or so) they should have access to a Grand Orrery that would allow fairly detailed divinations. A withered Cold Sun shaman may have to be taken to the site to use the ancient device. Then we go into Act Three which I speak vaguely of in my previous post. They will need to find a way to get to Syrania. I think that Syrania may well be coterminous for this event. No, wait. Remote. But if they manage to highjack an airship in Sharn, circle it high enough to cross over the planar barrier that (for the sake of the plot) exists at the highest reach of the manifest zone all the while avoiding Lyrandar interceptors and airborne Sharn militia then they will cross over into the Azure Sky. Then there is the issue of finding the Angel's Graveyard, for which I intend to use Monte Cook's "Curnorost, Realm of Dead Angels" from Beyond Countless Doorways. Something I summerized here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=298574) a while ago. To find the Great Cathedral that has the Celestial Grail (for lack of better terms) would be a strange undertaking, but no less than managing to get back to the prime and hop over to another plane with a goblet that you can't spill. I won't tell them about the uses of a Glove of Storing, but I hope they figure out that one might be handy. Then to head over to Dolurrh. A slight adventure there, lightly dusted (HAH!) with encounters with the deadly assasin from the Poison Dusk tribe whos rakshasa masters want the curse to run its course. Perhaps a lone Lord of Dust (some one who bet on the other side of the office pool) will appear to the party at night with cryptic hints and a strange artifact that could help them avoid scaled death. Dolurrh itself will be a simple excercise in will and fortitude. A Marut here, a nalfeshee there for color, but the main drive will be keeping the party safe from the overwhelming apathy of the plane. Once they get to the Judge of the Dead (should he be jackal headed? I can't decide) they must plead their case with eloquence and skill. Or just simple desperation. It all depends. Add one last encounter with the trailing assasin (probably raised from the dead as a revenant or something at this point) and allow the party to die, sip from the cup of purification and pass into the Great Unknown. That seems to be the basic skeleton of the campaign. I haven't decided on any other bits as yet since that will be mainly the decision of the players and me reacting to their actions. Who will they go to for help? What payment will these parties demand? Would they DARE go to the Hags for assistance? I can't wait to run this.
bgardner_1971 12-21-04, 08:40 AM	Then we go into Act Three which I speak vaguely of in my previous post. They will need to find a way to get to Syrania. Assuming Syrania is remote, one possibility is for the players to use the Rod of the Eight Winds (an artifact according to Keith Baker). You could say that one of its powers is to use the link to Sharns manifest zone to temporarily make Syrania coterminus in the city of Sharn. To obtain the Rod, the PCs would have to win the Race of the Eight Winds - no easy task. Either one of the PCs could do it, or else they'd have to find a jockey to race for them. Maybe they could get an former winner out of retirement? They'd have to protect the jockey from other teams who would want to eliminate a threat to their win. Certainly the Daask would try an assassination attempt. Then they'res treachery at the match themselves. Making Syarnia coterminus would have interesting affects on the city. Plus their plan would probably draw the interest/ire of the local Radiant Idols who either want to return to Syrania or want to permanently destroy the link to Syrania. All this high profile activity would draw the attention of the authorities, who may be looking for the PCs.
stone_dog 12-21-04, 02:03 PM	... ... Rod of the Eight Winds... Race of the Eight Winds... If I wanted to extend the campaign a bit ... the official regional banners for the Race COULD have threads of specially crafted glamerweave that glow under the light of three full moons. When they are all placed together they make a map and a set of clues that shows the location of the Rod. Yes, yes... I know, just like National Treasure (still haven't seen it though). So the PCs steal EIGHT items of intense regional pride, ******* off just about all of Sharn. THEN they try and highjack an airship and soar into the upper atmosphere in a chase sequence, possibly causing damage to the city itself. Might be fun....
bgardner_1971 12-21-04, 02:29 PM	Of course you can do anything you want in your campaign. My comments were based off a Dragonshard by Keith Baker: The Race of Eight Winds http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041220a The Rod of Eight Winds is the "trophy" for winning the race. It's a major artifact who's powers are largely unspecified, but it specifically projects a manifest zone to Syrania wherever it goes.
stone_dog 12-21-04, 03:23 PM	Yes, I know about that. But the thing is that you don't get to KEEP the Rod if you win, but rather the Wind Guard of the region gets to. So if you are going to steal the thing ANYway then it might as well be an actual quest item. Sure, everybody SAYS that the Rod of Eight Winds is a "major artifact recovered from the depths of the city long ago," but it may well be a mockup exquisitely crafted to resemble ancient legends of the actual thing. Legends kept by the Cult of Eight Winds that reveres the Solars of Syrania as paragons of light keep the myths alive since they actually lost the Rod centuries ago. They want the real thing as much as anybody so that they can commune with the solars they so admire, but haven't been able to see the clues that are right under their noses. A radiant Idol knows where the Rod is and crafted the regional banners with these clues in hopes that adventurers will eventually find the item. It thinks that it can get back into Syrania with it, but is heavily Gaesed against taking actions to recover it. The closest it ever got to working around this carefully worded gaes was to sponser the creation of the Race of Eight Winds a long time ago and seed clues ever so gingerly about Sharn. Or something like that anyway. It will be a while before I get to that point and just about anything might take its place between now and then. ;)