It is now after 1621. About 30-40 years ago a Seven Mothers / Jakaleel priest(ess) wanted to do a bit of personal development by summoning up some nasty things from Hell. The Lunar authorities concurred that while they like to encourage everyone's progress along whatever lines they wish to take, it would be better if this particular bit of 'learning' happened somewhere else, preferably far away.
So the priestess in her Seven Mothers role collects up a bunch of Lunars
(some other lesser priests, some military backup, some servants) to go
out 'preaching' beyond the glowline. She goes down into Prax, maybe
somewhere a little spooky (I'm using Biggle Stone), and sets up HQ,
which to everyone's surprise is underground but, well, hey, she's the
boss.
So the lesser priests go off doing their preaching and she hangs down in the catacombs doing her thing with demons (yup, this is getting dungeony, but you could make this as simple or as involved as you like).
She finally summons up this creature who says: sure, I'll tell you all sorts of stuff, in exchange for the odd soul or ten. She gets hooked. Gradually first the junior officers, then the more senior ones, are all invited for 'special' duty down below, and fail to reappear. All the time she's learning more and more but never quite enough. In the end almost everyone's been eaten by this thing except her, there's a huge pile of bones down there, she's almost at the breakthrough with the knowledge she seeks, and the demon tells her 'sorry, it has to be whispered straight into your ear.'
Now this is a problem. The creature is enclosed in pentagrams and circles and there's no way she wants to break that. However, it has told her enough to allow her to enter the pentagram the same way he did, so she does a quick hops into hell and back and reappears almost on his lap. She doesn't reckon this would be a problem because she knows enough about these matters to defend herself from him but, of course, he didn't tell her everything.
He eats her.
Unfortunately, the pentagram he's enclosed in is not the sort that will disappear as soon as its inscriber is dead. So now this demon is stuck in there, and he's not sure for how long, and he's hungry.
Damm!
So he animates all the ex-lunars to go hunting around for food for him. Alas, there's nothing left in the stronghold, and pretty soon the area gets a reputation for being haunted, so that all his skeletons ever bring him back is the odd fox or squirrel.
Without sensible sustenance the demon's body begins to deteriorate. He stiffens up, calcifies. But he doesn't die.
One lunar escaped. He was some servant or another who got a glimpse of the creature and then spent a few nasty days dodging murderous skeletons before running away. He's a bit mad.
It's some time after the lunar occupation and PCs are surprised to learn of an abandoned lunar settlement which appears to date back from before Moonbroth. They learn snippets of info from the madman. It is worthy of investigation.
When they get there they find a settlement over-run with scimitar wielding skeletons and other nasties that have been attracted by the creature living below. They'll also run into the odd shade or lune or anything else which was left behind by the lunars. The skeletons are still going, thanks to the demon, but they've gone a bit aimless now.
When they get to the room with the creature in they'll see what looks to be a small (he's squatting) black statue surrounded by five odd lumps of metal. If they examine the metal they will see the tiniest of flames still burning on the top. If they touch anything, creature or statue, or even if they get too close, they'll break the pentagram and the demon will be released (and the flames will go out). There isn't much it can do now, but for a single rather nasty moment it opens its eyes and glares at the PCs. Then the red glow of the eyes slowly fades as the demons soul returns to hell.
He'll remember them.
The five lumps of metal surrounding the demon are candle holders necessary for the ritual.
(2) will make them very valueable to anyone trying to generate
anti-lunar sentiments anywhere - in Prax it is quite possible that
someone will go to each of the 5 main tribes with one of these things
explaining just the sort of thing that these nasty lunar chaps get up
to. If one reaches the Sables it'll certainly come into the possession
of the Jakaleel priests in Pavis.
As soon as that happens (1) means that the priest(esse)s will be going hell for leather trying to find the other four candle holders. Even if the PCs no longer have them in their possession, they will be hunted out.
Ok. That's it. Hope you liked it.
Richard
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Richard Develyn Tel: (UK)-1732-743591 Principal Architect / Development Manager Fax: (UK)-1732-743597 Network People International http://www.nwpeople.com ------------------------------
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