#yithini

Dungeon: To Split the Mountain Wide

Renowned for it's beauty and magical reactivity, Thaliasite is a valuable mineral said to spring up where the tears of a sky goddess soak into the earth. When deposits are found, they're quickly mined to exhaustion.

Taking a gamble on of one of these near abandoned claims, a somewhat reckless alchemist has attempted to promote the growth of new crystal through an experimental process involving the channelling of elemental energies and a bit of bastardized geomancy which miraculously resulted in the growth of new crystals and the reopening of the mine.

Some weeks later however and it appears the process has worked too well as the slow initial recovery has given way to explosive new growth; splitting the mountain wide open and trapping several crews of workers in the depths of the mine. The party has been called in after rescue attempts were halted by rogue elementals, as well as attacks by grell from the nearby wastes drawn in by the arcane energies.

Adventure Hooks:

Need a quick starter for a badlands campaign? Have the party be made up of miners/locals from the nearby settlement who's livelihood depends on the reopened mine. No better team building exercise then rescuing innocents from a magically and structurally unstable cave system liable to cave in/explode at any moment.

This literal explosion of valuable material is going to have far reaching consequences, turning the little mining village into a boomtown over the next few months. This will bring all kinds of fortuneseekers, outlaws, and wandering mages out of the woodwork, to say nothing of the more otherworldly entities that will blow in on the wind.

While you could chalk the disaster up to the usual unreliability of alchemical experimentation, a party that digs around a little deeper and keeps a wary eye out may discover a conspiracy by the mineral combine that once owned the depleted mine. The ability to produce Thaliasite could be an economic gamechanger, and the combine is not above engineering a little accident if it means not only reclaiming their former property but also buying out the disgraced alchemist's formulas. If the party finds them out, the combine might just be willing to cut them in for a percentage, maybe make them overseers in their newly revitalized enterprise.

One of the miners the party ends up rescuing is a woman half conscious after getting caught in the shrapnel from the Thaliasite's explosive growth. After some weeks of recovery she rises from her sickbed and begins after asking the party. Apparently having shards of divinely attuned crystal stuck in her greymatter has gotten her in touch with the goddess, who uses her impromptu oracle to tell the party of a trial awaiting them in the near future.

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Wilderness: The Secret of Grist Ridge

Taking its name from the its centuries old owner, the rolling highlands known as the Domain of Daldivain still bears the scars from when it was vast salve farm that fed the armies and granaries of the old empire. Since the empire's fall the people of the domain have maintained small settlements and scattered villages, herding over the the valleys and rises their debt-bound ancestors once toiled to cultivate.

All is not as peaceful as the picturesque vistas of the domain would suggest; cloud drakes, once a rarity and folkish sign of good fortune have become invasive in the region, beginning to prey on livestock and even lone travellers as their numbers swell.

After having several of their homesteads savaged by the beasts, one of the villages has sent for the party: The majority of its residents including the majority of its elders want the party to hunt the beasts back to their lair, but their wisewoman claims to have had a vision that points them to Grist Ridge, the old ruins that lay at the heart of the old autarch's domain. Most have no idea what the mushroom addled crone is talking about, but there is some rumour of treasure in the old mill that may make it worth checking out.

Adventure Hooks:

Early in their journey our heroes encounter a band of warriors led by Haltri Drakesbane, a woman who sees herself as the protector and future leader of the domain's people. Already having proven herself by slaying the beasts that preyed upon her kinsmen's land and several other villages, she's more than happy to ally with the party and split the glory if it means driving the drakes out for good. Her offer is not without caveat: Haltri hopes to leverage strength of arms into a unifying authority over the scattered peoples of the domain, and her detractors (including the village elders who sought the party out) fear what her ambitions may lead to if she goes unchallenged.

Feeling an inexplicable desire to wander, the journymage Enilo (along with his fluffy familiar, Cloudchaser) has sought out the ruins at Grist Ridge, spending days exploring and journaling about his experience. Enilo doesn't know it yet, but he's been called by the goddess of sky and enlightenment to receive a revelation that may change the future of the domain, provided the party's willing to have him tag along during their exploration and later defend him when Haltri shows up sometime midway through the delve to take the ruins for herself.

Though a number of the usual dungeon denizens have made their home in Grist Ridge, there is something malevolent skulking around its deepest reaches, filling the tunnels between the old windmills with the echo of scraping chains and a distant grinding sound that unsettles to the bone. It leaves handfulls of corroded coins from the old autarchy in places where others may find them. The locals know not to touch these, as it seems accepting the gifts of the lurking horror means inviting it to follow you home.

Drafting the Adventure: To the dungeon!

Recently I worked out a framework for running exploration based adventures , and while a lot of people seemed to like it, a few folks wrote in asking how it might work in practice. I’m only too happy to provide an example, as it will likewise give me the chance to demonstrate how to combine a wilderness adventure with a dungeon adventure, which is something I wanted to do anyway. 

Background: the party is sent off to seek an arcane mcguffin contained in an ancient ruin, with the caveat that no one really remembers where the ruin might be. As such they’ll have to explore a stretch of wilderness looking for signs of old habitation before getting to delve the dungeon itself.

Setup: In addition to gearing up The party might want to talk with some locals to get information about where they're going, which will allow you to drop clues about further places they cam explore. Any Entry marked with a (G) can be hinted at in gossip and research, providing them a hint about where to go.

FIRST ZONE : The Ancient Plains

"Cool winds steal the warmth from your cheeks as your party steps into the wilderness, your goal and the mountains far in the distance and a vast rolling grassland before you. This place was the site of a great battle that nearly destroyed your home, but is now quiet save for the murmur of the tallgrass and your own footfalls.

Design Note: The party can either choose to head to one of the locations they've already heard about/discovered, or spend time trying to find a new location with a perception or survival check, with you rolling a die to decide which one to point them at first. Once the random encounter is unlocked, add one die to the pool every time they travel to an area, and two die if their searching for a new area falls below a reasonable dc.

Deity: Yithini, Goddess of the Sublime Ascent

She cares nothing for words or oaths. The sound of one foot after another as you press on against adversity. That is your prayer to the one above. 

Setup: Most folk have little trek with Yithini, as her domain over the sky and other lofty places is both physically and philosophically distant from their unassuming lives. Sure, one might offer a little prayer for better weather, but there are other, more accessible gods of rain and wind to make tribute to first. 

This is just how Yithini wants it, as her patronage extends not only to those places that rise above others, but to people who seek to rise above their current circumstance to reach heights that others could not. Athletes, scouts, daredevils, and those who live in harsh climates all receive her favor, which often takes the form of a surge of supernatural vigor or inspiration just when it’s needed most. 

These boons deliver a worshiper into Yithini’s second aspect: that as the steward of sublime enlightenment. Just as an arduous climb can lead one to observe beautiful horizons, or years of inquest might lead to a moment of transcendent discovery, Yithini’s philosophy of perseverance known as “the Ascent” promises a just reward at the end of rigorous trials. 

Just like the sky she holds dominion over, Yithini is depicted in a multitude of forms, usually that of a mighty creature of the air such as a dragon, roc, or kirin. Othertimes she appears as a woman of indistinct features made of the stuff of the sky itself. 

Adventure Hooks: 

There are three great sacraments one can make to the lady of endless blue: complete a great physical undertaking that goes beyond the limits of what you thought possible, meditating in a tower open to the sky, and defeating a great beast of the air in fair combat. Imagine the party’s surprise when after climbing a mountain, discovering a fallen fortress, and defeating the beast nesting within that they suddenly earn the goddess’s attention. No sooner have they made camp for the evening and begun nursing their wounds does a windstorm pick up, buffeting the party before picking up the one of their number most aligned to Yithini’s ideology/most in need of her help and flinging them out into the empty sky. Buffeted by winds, the purloined partymember will hear a voice whispering a challenge to them, a greater feat of bravery and daring beyond which ascension awaits. Her message imparted, The goddess will deposit the hero serval dozen feet above a nearby mountain lake, the fall damage stopping just short of killing them but possibly giving them a wicked ache to remember her by. 

A theological overlap exists between Yithini and Kord, lord of storms, being that both deities have domains associated with the sky and with achievement. Given that the priesthoods of both gods tend to favor action over ideological prattle, the general consensus is the two are sometimes rivals and sometimes lovers who none the less respect the challenge the other provides.   Such a challenge plays out before the party when a fighting tournament they’ve been invited to hosts both an Aarakocra windcaller and a brawler who happens to be an unwitting saint of the storm. As the two get closer to a confrontation, the weather around town worsens, threatening to break out into an actual hurricane should the two clash. Both deities are pouring more power into their champion in a petty game of oneupsmanship that might do untold devistation should the two champions actually clash. 

It’s common practice for exceptionally tall buildings to have a small statue of a dragon or other flying creature in an exterior alcove positioned near their pinnacle for luck, as this minor concession to the Zenith for the mortal intrusion upon her sky. When a cat burglar looking to infiltrate's a wizard’s tower accidently sends such a statue toppling to the streets below during his ascent, it ends up letting lose a chain reaction that not even the goddess could have foreseen. For one, the cat burglar managed to survive the air elemental summoned to punish his transgressions, which is now rampaging around the city’s lower district looking for the elusive desecrator. Two, the elemental’s sudden appearance in the wizard’s recently tossed study ended up scattering a large number of arcane research notes into the streets below, most of which is harmless scribbling but some rare scraps have actual arcane formulae on them just waiting to be set off. Third, all this chaos is going to draw the party right to one of the wizard’s rivals, who hired the thief to steal important relics and make it look like an overly ambitious smash and grab.