Tier 1 Breakdown- Levels 1 to 4
Levels 1-4: Local Heroes
Characters in this tier are still learning the range of class features that define them, including their choice of specialization. But even 1st-level characters are heroes, set apart from the common people by natural characteristics, learned skills, and the hint of a greater destiny that lies before them. At the start of their careers, characters use 1st- and 2nd-level spells and wield mundane gear. The magic items they find include common consumable items (potions and scrolls) and a very few uncommon permanent items. Their magic can have a big impact on a single encounter, but it doesn’t change the course of an adventure. The fate of a village might hang on the success or failure of low-level adventurers, who trust their lives to their fledgling abilities. These characters navigate the dangerous terrain and explore haunted crypts, where they can expect to fight savage orcs, ferocious wolves, giant spiders, evil cultists, bloodthirsty ghouls, and hired thugs. If they face even a young dragon, they’re better off avoiding a fight. This is where the players will be working to take down the mind-controlled tritons attacking Meletis and discovering the two corrupt council members who were behind it. They can work to break the mind-control or take down the tritons, they can subtly talk to the council about the corrupt members or reveal their actions more vocally/overtly. They can end up fighting the council members or convincing them to serve their time and leave the Twelve. Additionally, this is where smaller rumors and dungeons can draw the party for a chance at rewards and experience. A brewery invested with rats, a cemetery and underground crypt suddenly becoming haunted, helping the Reverent Army defend against a brief attack at the gates by a group of Returned, finding special magical components and ingredients for the local magic shop, helping the bookseller to determine why her newest shipment is late and discovering a drunken cyclops is responsible, traveling to the other poleis and running into bandits and catoblepases, assisting the satyrs of Skola Vale as a favor to Philandra, helping Perisophia with a small task as a favor to Meelo, etc.- 1-3 Level adventure- A Stop on the Road, where the hamlet of Cartrest has grown up around the Wearied Wagon Inn beside the main road. Recently locals have seen strange lights around a set of ancient ruins nearby. Driven by a mix of fearful superstition and curiosity the locals have scraped together a small reward to encourage someone to investigate.
- 4-5 Level adventure to check out here is Be Seen By Nobody, where the players end up on a strange island from 300 years ago, Isstic. They must escape and the warning everywhere is to be seen by nobody.
Plot points/Scenes
In Meletis:
- Converse about what Tyrael knows about Erebos
- Explore the city of Meletis- magic store, bookshop, Pyrgnos Tower, Observatory, Academy
- Possible encounters-
- Rats in the Brew
- Haunted Underground Crypt- Potential Erebos Tie-In
- Defend the Polis with the Reverent Army- Possible Phenax Tie-In
- Find magic ingredients
- Delayed Shipment for the Bookseller
- Find out about the local Thieves' Guild and how they are being manipulated by the Society of the True Thread, by Phenax
- Determine they want to know if these events, this rise in cultist activities, are going on in the other polies
On the Road:
- Bandits looking for easy pickings
- A Stop on the Road
- Be Seen By Nobody- Very end of travel at this tier, trickery transports them to another realm. Who did this? Ans: Erebos
In Akros:
- Explore the town- blacksmith, fighter's guild
- Take in a fight or partake in the arena
- Iroas's Priests making issues for Tetra, want her to stay and start regularly acting as his champion. Issues of his shady ways start to come to life
- Possible encounters-
- Catoblepases are attacking the outskirts, defend the polis
- A minotaur messenger enters the city looking for help for a group of peaceful minotaurs taking refuge from Skophos
- Iroas's priests take interest in Tetra, wanting them to join them and act as Iroas's champion more permanently. Some of their problematic tactics come to light as well as Iroas's personal issues.
- Help a gladiator wrongly accused of a crime escape the Arena
- Help a blacksmith forge a new weapon or improve one of their weapons
In Setessa:
- Explore the forested city- take in the Temple and interesting architecture, the Abora Market, the Caryatid Grove
- Examine or worship at the Nexuses of the Seasons
- The winter nexus may of be particular interest as it is said to enter the Underworld, as this Nexus is sacred to Erebos, there will be cultist keeping them from entry and the players will not be able to get in at this time
- Potentially explore the Amatrophon, the Nessian Wood, and maybe Skola Vale- Philandra's home
- Possible Encounters-
- Possibly protect the area with the Watchtower Commanders from an attack from Oreskos, another attack that is the result of Godly manipulation and should in the best case scenario help the PCs to see the Gods are manipulating not just humans but the other races as well.
- Deal with a maddened caryatid or dryad in the Nessian Wood or Caryatid Grove who has been driven insane by Phenax
- Defend from an attack perpetrated by the Society of the True Thread from Asphodel
- Help a ritual to be completed in the Nessian Wood that has been built up in the area that honors Nylea and could potentially gain the PCs an incredible reward
Structure
Exposition
The Twilight of the Gods is here. For a variety of reasons, none too small of which is the fact that Klothys sees what the Gods are doing for power and how these actions will tangle and possibly destroy the threads of fate relating to mortals, it has been determined by Destiny and Fate that the Gods can no longer be, or at the very least not in their present form. Klothys has foreseen two important people within the battle of the Gods and the companions that will help them along their way and must now help to push them into action by guiding them down their own roads of destiny.
At this point, Klothys is working with Nylea to get Tyrael and Tetra in each other's lives. They have also made sure that they have companions with them that can help them to survive and also to live- after all friendship and connection is the only way either of them will care enough to truly fight for change. Nylea pulled Phil into the Fae Realm, a special area that exists over the top of the mortal world between it and Nyx, where satyrs are actually from and where she can exist mostly peacefully. There she delivered a message to Phil to have Tyrael seek the out Tetra, though cryptically, and to look into the inner workings of Meletis. Some of that may have gotten lost in translation. She sent Phil back to find Tyrael and get him out of a jam with a Siren.
Klothys also arranged for Meelo to run into Tetra when they were both curious about a skeleton attack in the woods. This was also their introduction to the fact that the Cult of Erebos is doing some shady ass shit. They seem to be good foils for each other and are necessary pieces of the puzzle if the Gods are to be sealed. With the four of them meeting in Meletis. They are guided to the work of Phenax agents in the Twelve who are using a dagger of mind-control to incite violence between the locals and the tritons. These agents believe they have been sent by Phenax but this is actually the doing of Erebos, and Tyrael is able to determine that based on his history.
This interaction with the Cultists also gives them the beginning of information about the Cult of Phenax, the Society of the True Thread. Phenax is pulling quite a few tricks in Meletis and Erebos too is causing quite a bit of trouble. The gang will proceed to check on local threats and see more and more instances of the Gods' harmful ways. They will be able to start to look into these Cultist groups and see if they hold the answer as to why the Gods are doing this.
Conflict
More and more cultist groups are acting up in Meletis. It is throwing what is normally a peaceful, prosperous polis into chaos.
Rising Action
The PCs continue to explore Meletis and see more and more activity of the cultist groups, infecting everything through the polis.
Climax
They are made aware of the intense subterfuge behind the Thieves' Guild and how it connects back to the Society of the True Thread. They can take on the current leader of the guild to remove him from power and get Phenax's more violent influence out of the guild, leaving someone else in charge.
Falling Action
The must figure out if this type of thing is going on in the other polies and stop the Society from infiltrating Meletis any further.
Plot type
Tier Overview
Parent Plot
Subplots
Related Characters
- Aristarchos Lilloulis Owner of the Third Tower
- Aristeidis Headmaster of the Dekatia
- Erebos, god of the dead
- Hristos Laskaroglou- General of Reverent Army
- Ilias Dimotis- Guild Master of the Hallowed Masks
- Meelos Order of the Scribes
- Nylea, god of the hunt
- Perisophia- Head Sage of the Twelve
- Phenax, god of deception
- Phliandra Bard of the College of Glamour
- Taranika- Regent of Akros
- Zissis- High Priest of the Society of the True Thread & Aphonai Member
Related Organizations
