The Trial of the Masked One
Three Gods, reborn as mortals, are about to meet. An apocalypse incarnate will meet them as well. The time of small stories is ending. The great adventure has begun.
Disclaimer: this write-up will skim over much of the important emotional content of a number of conversations, and will be written with disproportionate Dina perspective. It is difficult to fully articulate how certain conversations led to certain outcomes, but it all worked out as it did.
This will combine the stories from the following threads:
The morning of the confrontation, in Kiazerov, Dina and Kipilu met in Dipetsa's guest house. Dina apologized for using Kipilu's image to deceive the system; Kipilu forgave her. Dina revealed that she had prepared an emergency escape option that could leave a lot of collateral damage if used, and Kipilu promised he'd help prevent Dina from being attacked or captured.
Next stop: trying one more time to help fix Purgatory. Dina and Kipilu went to a Kiazerov dancing square, where locals were dancing with their own style. Dina and Kipilu struggled to learn the new dances, and were able to ascend while they stumbled over themselves laughing. They ventured to Purgatory, and found a great sprawling darkness that was being worshipped at its core. People were being fed to it by cultists, slowly to prevent them from dying and respawning. Kipilu and Dina whisked five sacrifices away to Paradise. Next, they ventured to a corrupted shopping mall that had been taken over by radicalized human warriors; children were being collected and sacrificed according to some sort of ritualistic logic on a large scale. Dina and Kipilu whisked away the children, but something about it was strange - Dina was becoming more of the Martyr physically, and Kipilu was becoming more powerful. The two finally came to a disagreement about what to do over the warriors and their leader (some ancient, crazed warrior named Narana). Kipilu wanted to send these souls to oblivion, ending their misery and their harm to the world. Dina wanted to figure out why they would do something this cruel before doing this. The two quickly looked at the past of the mall, and learned that this was just the most recent iteration of a very old organization here in Purgatory. While they considered what to do about them, Kipilu and Dina froze the mall in time - if anyone wanted to unlock these warriors, they would need to get one of these two to do it.
Back in the world, Kipilu and Dina found themselves changed. Kipilu got access to a powerup - basically an instant full rest consumable; Dina got access to a consumable that could turn pain into magical power. Dina's apocalypse body seemed agitated and empowered for a time. While Dina panicked, she accidentally froze the rest of the dancers in the square in time; Kipilu unfroze them. After they finished freaking out, they realized that they had a new tool, and experimented with how it could be used. The Stop power essentially allows one of the two to freeze time around them, which either of them can instantly undo. Stop can only be used when the two of them are near each other, though the un-freezing can be done even if the other isn't there. With that trick in hand, they were ready to go to Asalay and confront their fate.
Meanwhile, in Asalay, Makar was marshalling their allies to get ready for the big day. Dailio helped pick out outfits and prepare Makar for court (Makar chose to dress in fine Ishkibite robes evocative of the Ishkibite imagining of the Masked One). Ezia introduced Makar to her new friend and mentor - Arzet, a third Architect! Makar tackled Arzet and yelled at them for not helping fight the end of the world (and also for gem plague a little). Arzet promised to not interfere with the Dina events. He would stay with Justice, Paladin of Haru, instead.
Makar went to court, realized Kavinara was hyper-militarizing the avenues into a show of force, and told her to stand down and de-escalate. Kavinara begrudgingly did. Kipilu and Dina popped through the portal with their allies and introduced themselves. Makar and Dina quickly began debating morality, politics, and personal choices. Dina kept her word to Kipilu to keep things de-escalated (but was still stubbornly refusing to cede any moral ground to Makar). The two made it clear that they disagreed on a few fundamental points. For a moment, Dina seemed ready to give Makar a temporary truce - Makar could go their way and prepare their defense for the trial, and Dina could go her way. After a moment of consideration, Makar decided to demand the trial immediately. The two walked out of the college and Dina realized that this was a setup - the guards were lining the streets, and the court was waiting for them. Dina and Kipilu used Stop to elude the guards and run off, but Makar was able to wrangle them back with words (it turns out that all Architects and Nemeses are immune to Stop). Makar didn't need Dina de-escalating and distant; they needed a dangerous Dina in a public confrontation. The court needed to see the apocalypse and be afraid. Makar had spent too much political currency here to throw this opportunity away.
The disturbance caused by Stop was enough to draw in the Ishkibite Eminence, Mathri the Pious, who served as Makar's judicial witness and the de-facto authority of the proceeding (displacing Kavinara after a certain point). The trial was messy and performative. Dina was angry and increasingly hostile, and charged Makar with three initial crimes: Corpseblight, Leviathans, and criminal worldwide neglect. Makar charged her with three crimes as well: Conspiracy to End the World, Conspiracy to persecute elites, and Conspiracy to create Hell. Makar played the part of the Ishkibite Architect - they implied that they were atoning for their sins, but that they were only the good half of the Masked One. Dina refused to pretend to be Ishkibite, and basically pressed to see if Makar would validate Ishkibism; Makar did, much to the court's general joy. Makar emphasized Dina's danger to the status quo, and validated aristocratic superiority to the commonfolk - once that started, Dina began to get furious. Dina kept moving to end the trial, but Kipilu asked her to keep going, so she did. The trial ended with Makar rallying the crowd to talk over Dina and proclaiming him the victor, and the guards were moved enough to try and capture Dina on the spot. Dina began to respond with violence, but Kipilu intervened and stopped them. Stop was used again, giving Dina cover to escape.
Dina called the trial a fraud; Makar mocked her and revealed that they are, above all, a trickster. Dina stormed out, and asked Kipilu to come with her. Kipilu seemed ready to. Makar followed them, pleading Kipilu to let her leave alone. They were near the gate out of Asalay when Arzet, sensing a disturbance, ran into the scene to try and settle things.
Dina knew that Arzet ignoring Stop meant that he was an Architect. She asked him which one - he answered honestly. She immediately summoned a lightning bolt javelin and seemed ready to attack Arzet. Makar jumped in and tried to intervene, and Dina threw the javelin at him instead. It knocked him out instantly. Dina grabbed Makar and decided that it was time to drag off and imprison these Architects, 3 out of 4 in one swoop. Arzet seemed to surrender, but he and Kipilu were able to de-escalate and then negotiate. If Dina took Makar, she would lose Kipilu and her friends; if she left Makar, Kipilu would be her agent delivering her Arzet. She was torn between her goals as Martyr and her desires and values as Dina. While the Architects weren't fighting back, weren't even lifting Stop to let the guards intervene, Dina couldn't justify more violence, and she couldn't justify losing Kipilu. She stopped moving towards her destiny, and let the talks start again.
Kipilu was able to convince Dina that Makar would be willing to hand over Arzet, and Makar was healed back to consciousness. Makar apologized for the trial, and explained their reasoning for doing it. Dina was not happy about it, but had bigger fish to fry. As the group talked, and everyone seemed willing to let Dina put Arzet on trial in a neutral space, Dina began to fall apart. This responsibility was too much, and the idea of another trial seemed foolish after this one. Nothing made sense, and she started to cry. Everyone tried talking with her one more time, to no avail. She realized that the trial plan didn't make that much sense, and she needed to focus on something more concrete. Dina ended up leaving to go to the Suneka, where she could be sure that her Network would be an improvement over the existing system. She and Kipilu hugged and cried and said goodbye. Even Dina seemed aware that she wouldn't be the same after she finished her Sunekan campaign, and said that even if that future version of her couldn't tell, that she would always love him. They said they would keep in touch, despite it all. Dina wasn't derailed on her apocalypse, but she was off of the Architect warpath, and the foundations for a possible truce were in place.
After the battle, the Gods went and got fish and chips in the selkie district (saving some magically for the Treasure Sphinx). The court was having a party, and Kavinara warned Makar to be careful next time they were in Asalay - there would surely be consequences for what had happened with the King here. Makar also hadn't been fully revealed; it was confirmed that the court wasn't entirely certain if Makar was claiming to be the Masked One, or just standing in as a symbolic representation for the religious court. The Eminence seemed unwilling to clarify, and the fancy time magic seemed to be Dina-initiated, so people were leaning more symbolic than literal for Makar. So, unless Makar wants to claim divinity before leaving Asalay, they can safely wait for when they have better proof and conditions for their godly coronation.
Once More, to Hell!
Meeting of the Gods
Asalay Trial
Dina Attacks!
Components
Goals
QUEST GOALS
- Leave for Samvara
- Meet up with Potha
- Deal with the Dina situation
- Stabilize Asalay
- Build a united faction
Relations
Protagonists
Allies
Makar's Crew:
- Zofara: A fatalistic warlock who presents as hyper-goth. Sworn to the Scarred One.
- Yago: A berserker from Imorask with a gentle spirit. A whaler who has renounced whaling and now seeks to lobby for shark rights.
- Kamatu: A noir dad sorcerer from Vikasha. Has a five year old daughter, Mitetha. Traumatized and will be leaving to be a full-time dad soon
- Dailio: A selkie childhood friend of Makar. Heading to get his pelt at the Khilaian isles.
- Ezia: A dryad childhood friend of Makar. Studying wizardry
- Kebri: A paladin of Emesh . Naive adventuring boy.
- Fastfin: A shark paladin of Emesh.
- Imora: Imora is a Kobold-born Chorical born of a Calazan merchant, taken as an orphan by the state after her parents abandoned her in Suneka at a young age. Imora has always been suspicious and cynical, preferring the safety of herself and those she cares about to the ideals of some broken system. Imora is a very lonely girl, distant from her fellow priests outside of Kipilu and (to a lesser extent) Dina. Imora is skilled in the areas of stealth, precision marksmanship, and general subterfuge. She is a proud and self-destructive person.
- Topin: Topin is a Vesper, born to wanderers and orphaned in infancy. An excited and idealistic soldier, Topin loves the Suneka and everyone in it. A fellow member of Kipilu's original barracks, Topin is excited and cheery- a fan of making others laugh. He chose to be a Guardian of Hokzin - a warrior, rather than a Fox-priest. Topin is an excellent shot and has earned the right to use a specially-modified rifled musket: an unwieldy but unusually accurate sharpshooter's weapon
Neutrals/Bystanders
Crown Princess and Royal Steward Kavinara: Heir of Asalay, older sister of Akelan, disgraced but recently redeemed. An angry cynic and pessimist who seems to have found some Ishkibite religion during her exile, and who craves redemption in the eyes of God and her brother. When she was young, got involved in the adventurer scene and learned how abusive the city is to its heroes, and became wildly disillusioned; was cut out of the line of succession for her erratic behavior, then tried to coup the government in response. The attempt killed her dad and injured her mom (and set her mom down a path where she died voluntarily crusading at Kenahai ).
Draconic Eminence Mathri the Pious: An older priest and paladin, a mystic enthusiastic about Ishkibal the Dragon.
Dipetsa the Knight Errant of Calazen: An idealistic paladin of Jade, Goddess of Order , who has been tracking the devastation caused by Dina and Kipilu and used the teleportation gates to jump ahead and check them out in person. She has sworn against attacking Dina directly, but wanted to monitor the situation from nearby in case something went wrong. She is confrontational but also very reverent; her demeanor turns on a dime, but is always formal.
Adversaries
Dina: Dina is Kipilu's oldest childhood friend. They've grown up in the same barracks, hell, Dina is the first person Kipilu ever met. Dina was exiled from her birth-home, the village-estate of Zeheno, as a politically inconvenient bastard child of the local estate manager. Dina's always been an outspoken and moralistic child, driven to befriend and defend and generally play the hero and the martyr. She clashed often with her teacher Suya over perceived hypocrisy in the Sunekan system, which see seeks an ideal version of. Dina is a skilled wizard, but has a far greater power now: that of the Fourth Apocalypse, which inhabits her body and allows her to destroy and create on a whim. Dina is wracked by guilt and overwhelming pressure - she wants to fix everything with her power and cheat the system to save as much of the world as she can, but she also doesn't want to kill Kipilu.
Plot type
QUEST
Subplots
Related Characters
Related Organizations
Related Locations
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments