The Through Lines

The Truths: Power Corrupts, Nothing is as it seems,

Overview: In the world of the Seventh-Realm of Edath, the prime material plane of the Seventh Realm, The Bastion of Ascension is a citadel in the middle of the city of The Metropolis of Epoch. It is in the continent of Valtara. It brings together the seven goodly gods of the the religions of Edath under one roof. The Bastion is the home of the The Sons of the 7th Seal. A group that is the hands of the gods on Edath.

The Players move through the Seals, ascending through the tower. Each level of the bastion is in a different location on Edath, but is connected interplaneally. The hierarchy chooses a group of adventurers from amongst their group for the main quest to take the fight to the 9 hells. At the end the party can ascend to Celestia to battle alongside the gods and ascend to epic level.

Pestilence

The city was once a bustling metropolis surrounded by numerous smaller towns. But, a mysterious blight began to sweep through the towns. The first city to be lost was Vonsea, and now is thought to be lost within the blight. Then creatures began to abduct and devour citizens in the night. The clerics and wizards came together to burn out what is known as the Pestilence and we’re able to keep it from spreading. This was the beginning of the Bastion and the Ruinforgers.

Over the decades the blight has receded back due to the efforts of Epoch, but it is still a lingering threat to the towns around the area. Going into the “Lost Lands' 'is considered extremely dangerous due the something called the Emanation. An energy that corrupts and potentially kills those that enter. Occasionally, something known as a Pustule will form. It is a hotbed of things that dwell within the Pestilence. The Bastion sends their mid level members in to stop these before they can spread

Why would anyone live here?

The magic that keeps the Pestilence from spreading is a great wall of divine and arcane magic known as the Barrier. Made permanent a in 119CY by great wizards and clerics. Arcane generators keep the wall going. The magic keeps the land around the area fertile, and generates a crystal in the stones known as Arcanum. So, farmers and miners have all rebuilt cities bordering the barrier. Thinking the reward is greater than the risk.

Towns of Note Notable human towns that surround the barrier are Mystwall, Silverhavenand Dawnstar. There is a dwarven settlement in the mountains to the south known as Agem Orshen. The elves live in a forest to the east in their city the commoners call Elf Holme, but known to them as Ha’methera.

Factions

The Bastion of Ascension

The main group in the city. It’s a religious group that believes the Contagion was sent by gods against the hedonistic place that the city had become before Epoch gained it’s name. They are suspicious of the Ruinforgers because they do not believe the gods sent the contagion. Founded by Brother Marin.

Runeforgers

A smaller group of artificers that are tolerated by the bastion because they created numerous innovations for the city. But they believe that the Contagion was created by magical means.

Black Clerics

A group of clerics from Vonsea (Vahn-see-ah) that have crossed the barrier. They are stealing writs and delivering them to Fang Guard.

Cult of the Nameless One

A group of yuan-ti that work in the shadows of the span to steal writs from devils and feed them to their Unnamed god.

The Nightshade Syndicate

A group of

Breakout

Low Level 1-6

The status quo of adventuring. Going about your adventuring career. Straight forward, it’s you vs the cults.

Threads

• Black writs were found with the cultist and the black cleric
• Tanna sold her soul to save her son. But, the writ was stolen. Seraphexus spoke to the party and told them to leave this be. 
• Astar approached about the writs. 
• Malachi Shadowthorn approached Otto about the Writs
• Mathias was killed by the black cleric. Who was killed by Jowan Cormac 
• The black writs are impossible to read. 
• The Nameless cult attacks the party to attempt to get the writs back. The party will be approached by a cleric of hextor. 

Mid level 7-11

But the cults have trickled into the ascension. The party has been picked because they have family that has sold their soul for them. There are a few bad actors that need to be weeded out. This ends with a big fight where the characters lose against an avatar of Amodeus. It’s way more than you thought it would be.

Mid upper 12-20

The temple is lost it’s too ingrained with enemy. You have to travel through hell and kill asmodeus.

Epic level?

A flooding multi level dungeon. Like jaws.