Months ago Sorril Venir, a legendary Paladin, and his companions disappeared without warning. They had discovered a powerful divination spell, and used their combined resources to sense a horrible corruption. As a Paladin of Heironeous, Sorril was well-known for traveling the world and destroying evil. So great was his reputation that even those from far away lands or other worlds heard tales of him before long. Eventually a mephit arrived, carrying a scepter containing the image of Sorril to his main temple in Nyrond. The object itself was a
two-foot long scepter made of a silvery iron alloy that bore no tarnish. It was topped with a crystal globe about three inches in diameter, in which could be seen the distorted and twisted face of Sorril; a handsome, dark-haired man in his early forties.
The priests tried everything they could to free him, including massive circles of devotees and advanced rituals; nothing worked. Wizards of the land did their best as well, whether for reward, knowledge or challenge; but they too failed. Eventually it was determined, through powerful magics, that the only way to free him would lie with the source of his imprisonment... and then there was the message delivered by the mephit:
“If you continue to probe the unknown, you’ll only discover new and faster means of inevitable destruction. You are not even the masters of your surface world. Do not presume to meddle in affairs far beyond you. Disturb not the Labyrinth of Madness again, and live a little while longer.”
Mental contact was eventually made with the entrapped Paladin, but only a few surface thoughts could be gleaned from him:
-Great magic… twisted and corrupted
-Madness beyond reckoning…
-Flesh reshaped… serpentine horror!
The danger was too great, but the implied threat was just as foreboding. Word went out from there to Greyhawk city and many lands across Oerth. Only the most powerful, experienced adventurers even stood a chance to survive where Venir and his group had failed. The first party of adventurers to meet the qualifications was presented with the scepter and the promise that more adventurers would be coming as they could.
A high-level Paladin trained by Sorril himself, was given direct charge of the scepter, guiding the group to the Labyrinth and setting up a base-camp for any new arrivals. Porters, tailors, cooks, and dozens of other support staff were commissioned by the church to accompany them to the site. The journey took them far beyond the borders of the Black Ice, into the depths of the twisting frozen mountains. There, after several weeks of freezing winds and treacherous paths, the mountain was approached. Colossal, jagged and impossible to conquer, the mountain eventually revealed a path that seemingly led only two-thirds of the way up the mountain… Relying on local “guides”, paid or forced to assist, the group made the lethal climb. The trail, if such it could be called, broke into a hidden valley on the interior… one lush with tropical life in the midst of the frozen landscape, sheltered by the mountain itself…
Not to be dissuaded, the adventurers plunged onwards into the heart of the jungle. There they found a primitive culture that spoke a language no being outside that valley had ever heard. Only through magic could they be understood… and revealed as a fearful, superstitious tribe of hunter/gatherers who feared the ‘snake gods’ living on the other side of the curiously lush crater. Hacking and hiking their way through the thick growth, the group reaches a cavern seemingly naturally forming the mouth of a gaping serpent… The land itself was fertile and rife with creatures of prehistoric origin… indeed, the first night a group of two-legged scaled monsters that stood the height of a man and hunted in packs picked off some of the party’s stragglers and support. Cries of strange animals and dying people set the tone for the next morning. Early the group was roused by
Lena Gallus, Sorril’s favored trainee, and an accomplished paladin in her own right.
“I cannot go in with you. It has been forbidden by my order to risk myself as well unless absolutely necessary…” Her hardened countenance betrays only a hint of the injustice she must feel at being prevented from seeing to her mentor’s rescue personally.
“From what we can learn, this is the entrance to the Labyrinth… it goes some distance into the earth…” With a solemn gaze the half-elf hands the scepter bannered with an array of strange sigils and topped with her mentor’s tortured image to Jagrinder, catching his eyes before she lets go.
“Find a way to free him… if you can. but destroy whatever did this.” Closer inspection of the banner reveals a series of twenty sigils, each unique but similar in style… The gaping maw of the cavern awaits you…
[OOC: This is a good opportunity for the group to get some interaction with each other in as players are finalizing their character bits. I'd like to get all characters fully fleshed-out over the next week. The support camp will remain at the mouth of this cave and will be the starting point for secondary characters in the event of a Player's initial character's demise... unless someone uses "Raise Dead" or "Resurrection"
]
[Sigils on the scepter's sash, in order:]