A Dark Tremor
Willhelm is troubled by information he receives, can Grimmaz help?
Plot points/Scenes
When the heroes are in Eschbach on business, they are passed information by a merchant that he encountered odd happenings around a ruined building to the south on the road to the town. The caravan was attacked by a group of twisted humanoids, that killed a number of their guards. The ruins could be seen from the road and looked to be in use. It seemed to be an old abandoned Roman fort, and they noticed someone strung up on the side of the building dressed in white robes and hood.
They had killed off the creatures, they were close enough to the old fort to see that it had an altar in it. It is covered over with a tent roof, and looked like some type of book on it, and ritual components. Strange odours and flashes of bizarre lights appear out of a small hole in the ground (about 6 feet deep & contains a mix of spell ingredients plus blood). Sounds seem to emanate in the fort as if there are creatures trying to get through from inside the old structure. The place smells of mulch & dirt and seems colder than normal with the smell of sea air & wisps of mist / fog.
If Willhelm travels to this fort, there is a pull towards the grimoire & the need to investigate it. If picked up, there is the likelihood of at least one Gibbering Mouther and more than one Star Spawn Grue appearing out of the mist. If this happens, they attack on sight.
Looking at the grimoire afterwards will offer up 1d6 Conjuration, Evocation and Necromancy spells. This can lead to Willhelm casting one to three 1d3 of them at some time like a spell scroll. The grimoire contains information to the Great Old Ones but is incomplete. It states they live in the Far Realms and their avatars as well as reflections of themselves have existed in the Material Plane since it was created, and these are as old as the dragons. Further information is available too.
It is mentioned all the Far Realms as well as the different Planes have three linked interdimensional Planes that link them together. The first is the Void, the second is the Abyss, and the third is the Empyrean.
The text states that the Void is pure emptiness, devoid of matter & energy. No physical or spiritual energy resides there. Yet life sprang from the Void, such as certain deities like the Hindu goddess Kali. It is the opposite to all other Planes and necessary for the balance of all others. A quirk of it is that all other Planes are drawn to it, like a vacuum needing filled but unable to. Something seems to block it from ripping through the rest of the Multiverse.
The second, the Abyss, is one of failed creations where the discarded rubbish & darkness other Planes reside. It is cut off from the influence of deities who rule over everything else or who can influence other Planes. Any living thing that doesn't have a 'soul' or 'spiritual spark' to speak off ends up here after death. It acts as a prison also to them, forbidding them to influence the other Planes. It is almost impossible to enter or exit it, and most find the guardian of its boundaries horrific in the extreme. A being called Choronzon acts as the Abyss' guardian and greatly feared by all who encounter him. The demonic realm of the same name was actually stolen by the creators of the Heavens & Hells to strike fear in mortals and constantly make bargains with Choronzon to punish those not worthy of entering either. He gladly accepts them as his personal retinue or army.
The third, the Empyrean, touches everywhere. A dimension of pure emotion, wherever there is life any flicker of love, hate, fear or any such feeling is reflected in the creature's soul and makes a mirror image or imprint here. Life is found here of sorts. The stronger the emotion, the greater the risk of it coalescing into a creature referred to as a Neverborn (some call these Daemons). If enough energy is projected in, there is a risk it will create a deity reflecting these emotions to arise here creating a pocket dimension here, along with specific Neverborn in its service. The place is highly chaotic, and some with the right psionic abilities can perceive it, peering into it and drawing power from it. Rarely known old myths state in some cultures that ancient creatures have fled to it, and others used it to travel between worlds by skimming the surface of it. It seems to flow like an ocean, as thin or as thick as it through the Multiverse touching, however fleeting, other Planes.
All three can be attuned to if the right circumstances are met. These are grand conjunctions and are lucky to occur once a millennium or under very specific circumstances. One did occur millions of years ago during the reign of dragons on Earth when the children of Tiamat tried to bolster their power with these Planes. Unfortunately for the dragons it failed but tore a hole in the fabric of reality that gave birth to a pocket dimension that still exists, that of the site of the Black Pyramid. At the same time this happened, it tore through many other Planes drawing power from darkness & evil and coalescing it into the Black Pyramid & surrounding land. At the same time some of the power of these Planes settled in other regions instead creating other places of such evil most creatures avoid now. All the while they draw the fragments of amber that contained unborn gods from the great world tree to many of the sites where they lay or where scattered due to the vagracies of nature.
There is mention of an opposite site on Earth, one of purity, love, hope and kindness far to the east called Shangri-La.
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