XOA 4: Invasion Equation

Scenario 1 - Hidey Holes

Apparently, their acceptance in "better company" has allowed them to get some Better Digs, an opportunity they use to find out information on Farastay and the High Wizard Tarmon. Their search for information on Tarmon leads them Professor Wilmina Gertz of the Indecipherable Scroll, bartender and Magic School Instructor. They stumble upon a creature lurking in darkness and it tries to attack them, but it gets School'd. It's means of appearance allows them to find its dimensional Hidey Hole and they enter the other side, coming across what looks like the aftermath of a war-torn world. Defeating the first trio of Stalkers they come across, the leave and return with Lady of the Blue. Heading Underground on their way to The Tower they get into another skirmish with 5 Stalkers and come across a petrified computer terminal.

Scenario 2 - Off to Yon Tower

In a strange, but potentially Petrifying Situation, they avoid killing a medusa, freed a petrified man, and the medusa turned out to be Jessica... sort of, well really yes it was, but that's not how it started? The information from Jessica lets them know that they've stumbled upon the casualty site of an interdimensional invasion... and that it's about to happen to Freeport. The team leaves and informs the Adventurer's Guild of what they have found out, which agrees to support them on their next venture.
They return to the Plane and start heading to the tower, stealthily. They manage to avoid patrols and traps, recover a harmonic detection device. They enter the Tunnel and finally have their first encounter... with a big Lizard and Spiders.

Scenario 3 - Wrong End of the Rainbow

Sometimes, defense is the best offense, and the cries of "None Shall Pass" from Hunt as he defiantly held his mystic shield was proof of that as Debreu took care of three giants as the team rescued a maiden from an altar. But even the best saint can get caught unawares, and find himself Touched by an Angler, as he was bought to a watery grave by a froghemoth. Reborn again as Mark Hunt, hopefully the best (and more alert) of both worlds, they returned the maiden home, and promptly got into the Obligatory Bar Room Brawl. There's actually a dark leprechaun who strengthened the orcs in the bar, making this fight a lot worse than it should have been. For their good deed, they are rewarded with another maiden to rescue.

Scenario 4 - Something Bigger

Perhaps it's raining maidens to rescue, but the troops best this foul being, who they nicknamed "Stormy" and after a brief stent with the dryads and their queen, head to the next realm where some Helping Hands point them in the right direction. In It's For You, the characters enter a Titans' realm determined to free the Titan Slayers and succeed in striking a blow against the Titan in his castle... and really tick him off. They leave. Quickly.

Components

Goals

Discover more about the AN

Hooks

• O'takan Farastay was working with Taramon (of the Freeport Captains' Council and High Wizard) and has been set free
• Freeport seems far too important to be as culturally disparate as it is
• What is the Aethersea Adventurer's Association, and why do they seem to hold such clout?

Moral Quandaries

The Team doesn't have a significant investment in Freeport; why are they involving themselves in the first place?

Cruel Tricks

Though captured and found with much evidence, O'takan and his ship have managed to go free, only 3 days after being turned over to the authorities

By the time of this Arc, I'm really looking for more Smack! Bam! Boom!, so I'm offering the players a slight shift in play which will cause the Conspiracy of Tarmon to be a slow uncovering, but their recent discovering of the Shadow Creepers (and the rifts they are coming through) gives a new mystery for them to solve - and lots more critters to fight without Freeport getting turned into toss salad at the same time. -MH

Plot type

Arc

Parent Plot

Seeking the Dome of Heaven