Wandering Subherd:
Alpha: Unamed Minotaur Bull (you)
-Healthy
-Leather Armor
-Minotaur Sized Bronze Machete (Adept)
Other Bulls:
Unnamed Aggressive Bull - Healthy
Unnamed Wandering Bull - Healthy
Unnamed Beast Master Bull - Healthy
Cows:
Mazlyn the Elf Cow - Healthy
Lady Braith Ellering the Human Cow - Healthy, Unfit to Birth Calves
Nesh the Dwarf Cow - Healthy, Touched by Darkness
Pets and Tag Alongs:
Frell the Ravenkin Bull - Healthy, Elderly, Frightened
Unnamed Swinedragon - Healthy, Tame
Mazlyn is instructed to keep working on getting you into the shrine, while Frell is asked to keep up his research into Nimivid and his daughters.
---
The day passes uneventfully as Mazyln drags her 'bodyguard' around from appointment to appointment. The only thing of interest that happens is that you get the opportunity to quiz your herd on the nature of the Dark Idols. Lady Ellering and Nesh both explain the strange wicked gods to you, and their stories are unfortunately quite different. The human cow, on one hand, is a well educated scholar of lore and history, but while the dwarf is clearly a bit nuts, it seems likely that she may actually have some personal connection to the Dark Idols.
Lady Ellering tells you that the Dark Idols stem from a historical event known as
Reginux's Folly.
---
Reginux was the last true and undisputed King of the Gods; One of the creators of the First Race, to whom the deities of Human, Elf, and Dwarf alike would bow. Shortly after the Dark Lords rose, Reginux noticed that these foul beings drew their power from the evil of mortals, and decided to take action. He decreed that free will would be compromised, mortals would be rendered physically incapable of committing sin. His hope was that this rash measure would starve the Dark Lords of power, and that he could restore things to the way they were after the vile beings were slain.
For a time, this seemed to work. The Dark Lords grew noticeably weaker, and the forces of good slowly began to eat away at their domains, but it was all a trick; The Dark Lords were playing possum. Sixty six years after free was first revoked, just as it seemed the foul kings were about to fall, the Dark Lords sprang their trap, and used powerful magic to give life to the unfulfilled dark mortal desires of the last six and a half decades.
The newly created beings were truly mighty, and set about making war against the gods. Many deities were slain in the initial charge of the Dark Idols, and Reginux, realizing that his decree was only making his new enemy stronger, restored free will to the world. Eventually this restored balance to the cosmos, and the power of the Dark Idol was reduced to the point where they could no longer challenge the gods to direct combat, but not before Reginux himself was killed. In the aftermath it was determined that there was no god left worthy to rule the four pantheons, nor could any single being be trusted with the power to tamper with free will, so it was decided that the Pantheon of each race would be left to their own devices - without a king to rule them.
The Dark Idols now leave the world in a catch 22. If mortals act on their sinful urges, they soil the world and draw it further from the gods design. But if mortal desires are repressed, the Dark Idols will grow stronger. If the Dark Idols gain enough power from mortalkind, they will be able to resurrect the Dark Lords and plunge the world into war once again.---
Nesh, on the other hand, tells you the story of
They Who were Forged by Foul Prayer.
---
The mighty dark lords twisted life into intelligent forms and beings that could be used to challenge the gods and those loyal to them. This granted the Dark Lords legions of servants and soldiers, but also posed them a problem; The Dark Lords, by their very nature, could not receive prayer, but their mortal servants, by their very nature, were inclined to pray. If no solution could be found, the forces of evil would eventually begin praying to the gods, which would compromise their very purpose as enemies to all things divine.
A solution to this conundrum was eventually found. As mighty beings who rivaled the gods themselves, the Dark Lords had many powerful items, artifacts, and servants, and so after some debate amount themselves, they began to encourage their followers to pray to these things. Some of the items and monsters that received prayer were given life and sentience, and of those some received power that rivaled the divine. Today eight such beings, animated and empowered by the prayers of the forces of evil long ago, exist, and we call them the Dark Idols.
Each Dark Idol is still first and foremost a material thing that exists in this world, that could hypothetically be found, exploited, or even destroyed. Most of the Dark Idols that exist today were captured by the ancient minotuars, but were too tough for them to destroy; Instead, they were sealed away in a vault in the Golden City far beneath the labyrinth. The minotaur thought that hiding the Dark Idols would break their power, but it did not stop them from receiving prayer, so all locking them away did was grant them protection.
The Dark Idols have also taken steps to protect themselves; As they gain power through prayer, they cache parts of their divine being in various artifacts, monsters, and people around the world. To truly destroy the Dark Idols one would have to destroy every fell artifact, every practitioner of dark magic, every monster with foul powers, and every hero of the evil races, before braving the labrynth, finding the golden city, breaking into the vault, and unmaking what even the ancient minotaur lords could not destroy.---
You enjoy another good night's sleep, and find Frell waiting for you when you awake. He has been talking to the slaves at the lodge to learn more about Nimivid and his family, and so far the conversations have been fruitful.
Nimivid, you learn, is unhappy as he is little more than a slave himself. He is contractually bound for life to work as the Lodge's slavedriver, receiving only a modest salary, an apartment, and two days off a year as compensation. The only way for Nimivid to get out of his contract is for him to get married to an elf who lives outside the walls of Lithsnow, and to get one of his family members to assume the obligations of the contract in his place.
Frell goes on to explain that Nimivid himself was roped into the contract when his elder brother, the previous lodge slave driver, found a wife around the same time his own marriage was expiring. Nimivid was initially kind to the slaves, but his behavior grew worse as it began to dawn on him that he would likely be stuck in Lithsnow forever. The older slaves, who remember the far crueler reign of Nimivid's brother, are actually somewhat fond of their master, and some even count themselves as the elf's friends.
Of Nimivid's three daughters, two help him out regularly with the slaves.
His eldest, Crulyl, loves the mountain air of Lithsnow, is an avid skier, and wants nothing more than for her father to find a second wife so that she may take his contract and remain in town forever. The thought of this terrifies the slaves, as she makes her father seem humane by comparison; In the past year alone she has beaten two slaves to death and crippled a third.
His youngest, Mastiela is likely the reason that Nimivid has drawn the wrath of The Dark Idol Ineqx; Mastiela, you learn, wishes to be initiated as an acolyte of Ineqx, which her father forbids. This has put the relationship between father and daughter on the rocks, and the pair has been taking out their issues on the slaves. Mastiela has taken to beating the crap out of the older slaves that Nimivid is fond of, while Nimivid in turn has begun to rape the younger slaves whom Mastiela counts among her friends and lovers.
His middle daughter Paylm does not work with the slaves, and spends much of her time traveling for some business or another. The slaves have assured Frell that she is in town at the present time, however.
Frell reckons that with the help of the slaves, he can arrange an unexpected meeting between you and your choice of Nimivid, Mastiela, or Crulyl as soon as this afternoon, so that you may hand out punishments. If you wish to punish Paylm, Frell is confident that he can arrange a meeting if given a day or two to track her movements.
Two days remain until the planned ritual at the Shrine of Ineqx. Four days remain until the caravan bound for Crescent Grotto departs. How do you proceed?
Author
Topic: (SG) Minotaur: Awakening (Read 4672 times)