Learned Confraternity of the Gate: Excerpts

Excerpts from Game Notes

Setting Descriptions:

Temple of Omrá Buí:

  • It’s a large open space, clearly underground, with a cathedral ceiling and elaborate tiling throughout. The ceiling is clearly in bad shape, though, with huge cracks coming through it where old, gnarled roots have broken through – as a result, the back part of the chamber has been caved in, and there’s piles of rubble, dirt and stone in the corners, cobwebs, the whole place seems to be in a bit of a state of disrepair. There’s one doorway that seems to lead up a staircase to the left
  • Directly in front of the Gate is a large round column at about waist-height that is glowing very faintly gold. On either side are two panels – to the left is what I can only describe as one of those things people would use to collect the state quarters – there’s about 20 slots, and in about 15 of them are coins that are identical to the ones Malachi tossed the party. To the right is another panel with a similar arrangement, but with only 5 places for coins, including one gold coin and 4 empty slots.
  • On the central column is a bezel that seems to fit the Control Ring, with a smaller circle in the middle of the bezel. Once they place it, the Gate goes multicolored again, and a hologram map appears above of some sort of landmass. There are 6 bigger lights – Blue, Yellow, Red, Green, Purple, Orange – two of which are particularly bright (Blue and Yellow). Dotted around the rest of the map are dozens, hundreds even, of smaller node points, with one grouping of them around the yellow Node shining slightly brighter. As they select individual nodes, the gate goes transparent and they see various other scenes – include underwater, looking out over a cliff, farmlands, what looks like the inside of a church, dirt, etc. If they try to select one of the ones that isn’t yellow, the Gate goes opaque again. As they’re doing all of this, they start hearing something thumping around above them. They can go investigate, or they can wait. Whatever the choose, they run into Rufus (either he comes down, or he meets them at the top of the stairs – there’s a lever they can pull that drops down the staircase from the Omra Buí temple above and inverts.

Ardmore City Hall:

  • The town square is a large open green space / beautiful marble patio in front of the City’s castle, which is in a state of decoration – streamers, and big banners with portraits of a strong, muscular looking man in various sorts of adventurous poses – riding a horse, fighting off a dragon, knighting a man kneeling in full plate armor.
    o Each of the images make it seem like this guy is hot shit, a powerful and wonderful leader with Hollywood good looks
  • There’s a platform with City Guards arranged in two lines along the front of the platform, on either side of a large plinth with a crystal display case. Inside is a beautifully adorned CROWN, inset with what looks like beautiful gems of every color imaginable.
  • Around the square there are gaggles of people, who all look kind of sullen and annoyed, with another ring of guards staring sort of blankly with their own spears at all of the crossroads.

Recoronation Ball:

  • The open square has been turned into a beautiful open-air gallery with banners and statues
  • On either side of the square are these big bleacher type stands where the citizens of Ardmore are being shuffled in to sit and watch and make it seem like a bigger show than it is. They look bored because they’ve been through stuff like this before. Some of them are playing cards with each other, others are reading, a bunch of them are straight up asleep. They have the look of people waiting at the DMV
  • A band of minstrels, all wearing masks that make them look like very handsome, strong chinned Miggledy’s are muddling through some serviceable party music
  • Dozens of very richly attired people in long gowns and Fantasy Tuxedos are milling around
    • Servers are circulating with little platters of things
    • There are four looooong tables of food, two on either side of the square with bartenders positioned in the middle

Confraternity Headquarters:

Jerome brings them back to what appears to be a small-ish bookshop on a side street that’s built into an old church. When they walk in, a bell tinkles and a young, waifish looking orc with glasses looks up from a book, eyes the party warily, and then nods at the Old Man (Jerome)

  • The Old Man takes them into the back of the stacks where he pulls on a Large Book (A Treatise on Circles, Their Ratios, and the Magickal Properties Thereof; and Their Useful Applications for Navigation, Wainwrighting, Cookery And Other Such Endeavours Mundane and Otherwise by Magister Normelius Waffrontery.
    • The bookshelf opens and they walk into a large space outfitted as a sort of social area / communal study. QUICK, FIRA, and ARVIN are relaxing by a crackling fire, reading books and lounging around in casual clothing.
  • On the back wall of the room, where you might expect a window to be, is a large, rough-hewn Stone Circle with the bottom cut off – as if the floor were built a few feet higher than the bottom of the circle.
    • In the middle of the room is a large, like a crazy large, round oak table.
    • On the wall is a large map of the whole continent, with about a dozen or so gray pins stuck into it at various locations, including one, you notice, in roughly the area where this bookshop is located.

Festival of Burnéd Drow:

You walk through the gate and are immediately greeted with the thrumming beat of music and an incredible sight. Hundreds of people, all races, all sizes, all genders are milling around in a large open area encircled by the stone wall you initially encountered. It sprawls out about 500 yards in every direction, with what seems to be one main throughfare through the groupings of stalls – behind which, through the gaps, you can see tents, and more people. The main path branches around a wide area directly in front of – you guessed it, another stage – set in front of the massive pyramid from the top of which the orange light you saw through the gate pulses rhymthically – although not quite in sync with the reverberating music you have heard since getting through the gate.

  • Small puffs of variously colored smoke – but also the smell of cooked food – bubble up from one area in particular that you can tell is some sort of mess hall / canteen.
  • You hear gasps, a moderately sized explosion, and then cheering – one on of the side stages, a wizard is conjuring illusions of various monsters – bugbears, giant scorpions, a lizardfolk berserker, even something you guess might be a weretiger – all of which explode in turn into glittering fireworks and applause
  • To the opposite side of the main thoroughfare, you see a young halfling suddenly fall down, seemingly exhausted and disoriented in front of a tent with displays of brilliant scarves, feather boas, costumes of all sorts – you see his friends give him a draft of a potion and drag him off into one of the larger tents to the side of the main path

Immediately in front of you, you see a couple of things:

  • one, a row of tables with people wearing matching shirts with “Staff” in Elvish written on them, checking people in
    • Everyone needs to check their weapons (and anything else they’d like) in a series of magic lockers to the right, and they receive a necklace with a specific number on it which they can then bring back to the staff on their way out to retrieve their items
  • To the left, you see a group of people who… stand out. They’re a mismash of different races but are all dressed very plainly (the fantasy equivalent of cargo shorts and tank tops) except for a couple of them who are wearing full medium armor even though they have no weapons. Some of them are wearing clothing that very prominently features depictions of a hand with one finger pointed up, surrounded by blue flames. They are all sweating excessively, especially the ones wearing the armor.
    • You hear them talking to passersby, while a couple of them chant things like “Stop Necromancy!” and “Turn Back to Azuth!”

Lore & Background

What Are These Gates?:

  • Clef (a ghost) is a researcher, researching the world. He has come to the decision that leaving them open is too dangerous, and they should be closed. He knows Arpeggia, the villain of the first arc. In fact, they were very good friends. Arpeggia allowed Alamance to use the gate (to draw power from it, and thus keep it on), but under no circumstances was Clef allowed to wake up or die
  • Clef at some point will ask where they are, what is this nation called. None of the PCs will have an answer. When Clef tries to think of it, he won’t be able to recall it either. Or when he is. “Oh no, he must be breaking through”
    • “He” is Azuth himself, who is not the God of magic, but an extradimensional extractive capitalist/colonialist who is extracting everything of value from the world in which the party finds themselves
  • Arpeggia wants to open all the gates. The party has to stop her from doing so.
    • (Secretly, Arpeggia’s plan is to open up all the gates and overload them by connecting them to each other, and hopefully shooting the energy back. She loves this world as much as Clef – to save it she has to separate it, to separate it she has to connect it)
  • Clef’s memories are still hazy about some things, but he intuitively remembers how to recalibrate the gates. He’s able to reset the Orange Gate to connect directly with another hub, but warns that it’s extremely dangerous and that they can’t leave them open to each other, otherwise they will overload

NPCs/Villains (incl. Dialogue)

King Migeldas Frongispilding (Miggledy):

  • Dun dada duuuun  “HERE YE HERE YE ALL SUBJECTS PLEASE TURN YOUR ATTENTION AND YOUR ADORING GAZE TO OUR WISE AND JUST RULER, HIS MOST WONDERFUL GREATNESS KING MIGELDAS FRONGISPILDING
    • He just… sucks. Short, puffed up, wearing ridiculously tailored kingly pantaloons, a feather breastplate in royal purple, a GIGANTIC cape that makes his shoulders look ridiculously wide. A scepter that with a Diamond on top that is so ridiculously heavy that whenever it goes out of balance he has to struggle to hold it back up (the squire eventually runs up behind him and sort of stabilizes it from the bottom
      • “Welcome, welcome, welcome! To all of my loyal and adoring subjects! It’s so wonderful to see all of your beautiful shining faces turned towards me, your wise and humble king! I come before you all today to offer you of my beneficence a most astonishing gift – an invitation to my very own Re-Coronation Ceremony! As you all know, every five years I publicly re-avow my commitment to you, the people of Ardmore, so that you may see how deeply I care about each and every one of you, and so that you have the opportunity to appreciate how very hard I work to keep this fair city great.
        • (at this there are a couple of quiet boos, but the guards all stomp their spears, and Miggledy gives them a dirty look before continuing on)
        Yes, my lovely, beautiful subjects, I love you all nearly as much as you love me, which is why I invite all of you to my Re-Coronation Ceremony in just 3 days time, where one of you will be given the great honor of placing this incredible Crown upon my undeserving head. (he gestures towards the crown). Who will it be? (he’s positively delighted with himself). Well, we’ll just have to wait and find out! It could be YOU! Of course, I couldn’t put on the spectacular event you all so rightly deserve without your support, which is why I must insist on a small, nominal ticket price of just 5 gold pieces from each household, which entitles you all to entry into the Grand Soiree! And remember, it wouldn’t be fair for some to enjoy the festivities while all of you enjoy the fruits of my great and impressive labor, which is why I must, unfortunately, insist that any household who doesn’t send at least one attendee will be charged an incidental 10 gold pieces.
        • More boos
        I know, I know, I agree, it simply wouldn’t be fair for those who are too busy to attend to not pay their fair share as well, as their businesses must be thriving in the economy I created. Oh yes and anyonew hodoesn’t pay AND doesn’t send at least one attendee will be imprisoned yes yes of course but no need to linger on that.
      • Bless you all, thank you, as always, for giving me the honor of being your king. See you very soon!

Alamance:

  • Alamance was a wizard performer (very much a Criss Angel type) who was very excited about learning more about the wizarding arts to become rich and famous. He was researching reports he had heard about there being great magic in the Pyramid in the Great Dryness, which he finally made his way into. When he got there, he found the body of a researcher with a similar notebook to the one the party found. He decided to dabble in necromantic arts in order to see if the researcher could tell him anything – that’s the ghost the PCs found in the desert.
  •  He found he was able to tap into the Orange Magic to do it, but soon after he did, Arpeggia appeared. She initially threatened him, but eventually tasked him with guarding the pyramid. She’d let him continue to use the magic so long as he never, never ever, used the gates, and never asked any questions of or about the ghost. She’s the one who forced him to secure the ghost at the oases, and who built the illusion charms around to keep anyone from interfering with the ghost
  • He agreed with Arpeggia’s terms, and started building his brand. It grew and grew, and he became more and more famous (and more powerful as a wizard). His initial curiosity about necromancy came back as he became more arrogant and his lust for power grew. Burnéd Drow grew out of this, and he began to study more deeply the dark art of necromancy – which grew along with his power for illusion
  • He has been using the Orange Magic to create ever more elaborate performances and festivals, but has not been able to activate the gates (no control ring, no coins, Arpeggia took them) (to protect the gate from being activated, we know, but the PC doesn’t know this yet)
  • Another huge room with a massive chasm in the middle. On the far side, behind rusted grating, they see Almance sitting at a table, shuffling some cards
    • He looks up at them, surprised for a moment, and grin as he continues to shuffle some cards“Oh, how very interesting! Adventures, eh? And you… I think I recognize you” pointing at Val. “Let me guess, you’re here to rescue one of your friends, is that it? Which one is it?
      • He gets up, walks to a side door, opens it and tells someone to “Bring them in, yes, all of them”3 people shuffle in, looking degraggled and utterly vacant. They don’t seem to be gravely injured, just very, very, very tired. One of them is Lynn“The price is this. Each of you draw a card, and for every two cards I’ll promise not to kill one prisoner with my bare hands. Sound go- Wait a second? Who is your cat friend there? Clef? Clef is that you? Now how did you break out of your little oasis? We can’t be having that, Arpeggia would be quite upset. Now come on back over here and we’ll get you nice and safe before we can return you home”
        • He rummaged around in his cloak and finds a small vial (a very high perception check will show it has runes around the top) and pops it open, snaps his fingers and Tabaxi Ted collapses to the ground (magic jar spell for Clef)
        “Alright then, sorry about all of that. I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. All you have to do is pick a suit. Now usually it’s two cards for a prisoner, but I’m feeling generous after that unpleasantness. I’ll promise not to kill these prisoners with my bare hands if you each draw a card, so that’s five.
        • The suits are as follows:
          • Coins / Diamonds
            • -2 to AC
            Cups / Hearts
            •  Minus 10 hp
            Batons / Clubs 
            • Minus 1 spell slot
            Swords / Spades 
            • -3 to attack rolls
        Either the party picks, or he picks for them.
    • The arcana all takes effect, and he says “Well, a deal’s a deal. I promise not to kill them with my bare hands. But magic is such tricky stuff, isn’t it? You never quite know what something means, really, do you? Best of luck, truly, and I do hope I’ll see you again soon. Not too soon, mind you, but soon enough I’m sure. You’ll be quite the addition to the act.”
      • He snaps his fingers and the ledge they’re standing on drops out from under them
      • BIG SLIDE, spooky stuff, arcanic flame crackles around them as they slide down, horrifying spectral dragons, tarrasques bugbears, giant scorpionss a lizardfolk berserker, even something you guess might be a weretiger, a lich all flash in front of them

Rufus:

  • Sentient Bugbear with a Scottish brogue
  • Gained personality and intelligence from falling into a vat charged with energy emitted by the first magical resource, the so-called Blue Energy

Fergal:

  • Young, hyperactive Gnome (with an Irish accent)
  • Doesn’t realize it yet, but has immense future potential as an artificer

Glenn and Daryl:

  • GLENN is secretly a Cleric of the Church Militant of Azuth, on an undercover mission to stop evil uses of magic throughout the land.
    • GLENN: Level 8 Cleric
    • DARRYL is his partner (Lvl 6 Rogue, Lvl 2 Cleric)

Quick, Lira and Arvin:

  • Young recruits to the Learned Confraternity. A mysterious and quiet Tabaxi (with a Spanish accent), a confident Fighter with a flair for style (and an accent strikingly similar to Arpeggia’s), and a hotheaded dwarf with a penchant for punching (Scandinavian)

Malachi:

  • Former Learned Confraternity member; has left the organization to become a secretive hedge wizard

Gráinne & Seamus:

  • Established leaders of the Mt. Gorm Liberation Army. Gráinne‘s day job is as the proprietress of the Horny Bugbear, the local tavern, and makes the hard choices when they need to be made. Seamus is a skilled fighter and a super in the local mine, which he uses to recruit people to the MGLA in an effort to improve working conditions.