Reeling, behind you is an endless curtain of yellow fog, impenetrable with howls of agony emanating from it. Across from it, is a wall of squares 80’ high and very thick – you would guess at least 4 feet thick. All at once a heavy fog materializes above the wall, dropping swiftly to obscure the wall in front of you.. A wall that begins to move and make sounds.
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Modrones – the literal line of defense! The squares are all modrones. “Wake up, Wake Up! Potential Threat, Outsiders, intruders, strangers.”
= heard behind the fog
Cloud comes towards you, many voices repeating the same phrases and word in a crescendo.
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Assuming the PCs claim they are non-hostile (if they fight, they will die), the creatures of strange geometry will shout out “INNNN-SPECTION”!!!!! As many Modrones as there are PCs will line up opposite them – this should be a hint to them.
> One of the highest order Modrones will, with a syncophantic follower behind it saying “yes sir, of course sir”, etc. He will make many observations of their slovenliness, unkempt appearance, smwll, any small detail that can be made to be an issue will be.
> It will ask if they are a “unit of true serving soldiers or base vile mercenaries”?
> Assuming they go with the flow, the modrone will ask “Perhaps you are replacements?”
> Well then protocol has not been observed. We have set aside a barracks for you. At the start of a new cycle time, we will review your squad.
This will give PCs opportunity to address all the wrongs and failures of inspection.
Inspection
“You know what to do!” Eyes forward, chin straight, shoulders back, etc. etc, etc.
DC 10 check for each; they need 70% success rate or they will be detained.
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CHA check – How you hold yourself, posture, etc.
WIS check – Perception to notice blemishes, imperfections, etc.
INT check – Military lore to know where and how all dress items, weapons, etc are placed and worn appropriately.
New Recruits and the Send-Off
The modrone Secundus will declare them “Fit and ready for duty!” There will be much argument about what to do with them. The do NOT FIT. Literally, their geometry does not fit on the wall. They must be replacements for minions of one of the guardians! The Modrone Road awaits… the guardian will be expecting you. “To the passage to the six lands!” “Speech!” “Speech!”
They will march with the party singing in a strange language to the parade ground, where the party leader will be required to make a speech. They will be given a red sash and a baton, and weird stretchy hat.
No matter what they say, they will be cheered.
If the speech succeeds on a DC 15 Persuasion check, clouds will rumble overhead at the high point of the speech then dissipate and light will shine down brightly on the speaker.
Modrone Road March
Farewell and Something’s not Right
The Modrones assemble around you, creating a pathway down which you march. They close ranks as you pass, and as you lean forward into some unknown force, you struggle. You march for several minutes into a bright light, comforting and with a cool warmth. You feel pressure ahead of you, and force your way through some invisible membrane after minutes of long effort. The singing and cheers fade behind you. You are suddenly afflicted with great pain! From every direction where an item of violence or war is upon your person, and then it is suddenly gone.
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Each PC takes base damage from every weapon they are carrying. While they are in the land of six circles, these wounds will not heal except through natural passage of time.
IF their leader who spoke at the New Recruit rally successfully, they gain resistance to each type of damage they suffered!
The Long Road
There is a road that constructs itself as you march. Forward and forward, one step after another. Miles and miles pass and all you hear after a while is the sound your feet make as they propel you. Hour after hour, step after step… it could be days, you are not sure, but your mind and body both scream out in pain. You refuse to give in to the strange horizon – you sense an alienness all about you, and the self building road lays brick after brick in silence. The horizon is almost impossible to even contemplate. Nose to the grindstone, you look only at your next step, wondering if the road will fail to appear as you demonstrate ultimate trust in the mechanism carrying you forward… but is it responding to you, are are you being herded? Its your last thoughts you fall asleep while marching…
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SAN check DC 12 = equiv of long rest if failed SAN check
Road to Six Circles
As you shake you eyes clear you stand on a vast road. The mile wide road twists onto its side and rises into the air, circling around a column of witch-light… you sense raw power – an anima fountain. The column and road-ribbon stretch into the distance – days of march are laid out before you. It is confusing and the dimensions are alien and strange. There is no sky per se, and no passage of a sun – though there are times when the “sky” is darker but it never gets completely pitch dark. All around you you can feel a pull, trying to tear the island of order apart in a massive whorl of chaos. You sense the ribbon protects the anima fount with a bulwark against the forces of entropy all around you.
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> DC 15 Perception: It wraps 6 times total, creating 6 different “sections”. Each one take 12 hours to travel through normally as you estimate distances… but its not fully comprehensible what you are seeing, your mind reels under the strain. Colors coalesce and shift, blend and rip apart – outwardly there are appears no consistency or pattern.
The order of the sections changes as the PCs encounter them and march through them – roll D6 randomly until all have been encountered.
It mimics one of the outer planes in places scattered across each land; if you are not already of that alignment you will feel a pull.
The Messenger
50% before starting, 100% after first encounter that a mephit will appear and say:
“6 lands beyond the wall of Modrone there be. Each a guardian with knowledge and powers. To thwart the master is to tame the land. Strange be the denizens, all in pairs set to greet you. Forge ahead to the dwellers of Zermai, beyond the 6 lands, they await your coming. Even now, they see you.” And with that a portal appears in the air 2m away – though the creatures seems not to have expected it, it moves to makes its way into it.
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“Zermai” should trigger history DC 20 check
If the PC’s capture it, it does not know much other than each land has guardians, and some have dwellers that possess great knowledge and wisdom.The PCs may try and use food, magic, and goodwill, or tortue knowledge from the creature.
Guardian Test
All it knows is that “Kray Eerb” is a phrase that he knows that will halt an immediate attack from the guardian of knowledge, if the land has one.
> If the PCs use it upon encountering a guardian, it will attempt to perform a ritual to summon the creature. IF it is dead, the guardian will attack, if it is not, it will ask the creature how it was treated. If it was treated well, the guardian can be persauded to assis the PCs in traveling across its land – minimal time and foes. And the Guardian will exert its presence so that any sanity check wil gain a +4..
AFTER 3 lands, any character who’s source of magic is divine (cleric, paladins, etc.) should make an DC 11 Insight check, or they lose the ability to cast spells of the highest level they can normally cast.