Changes from the Book

• The Apotheon may or may not try to put a wedge between the Rivals and my party.

Goals

• Find a way to close the rift
• Save Alyxian

Quests

• Save Alyxian

NPCs

• Alyxian’s Parents
• Saquiri - drow who died during a hunt in Alyxian’s youth
• Theo Nathope - maybe spectral young Alyxian
• Perigee the Deva - fought alongside Alyxian at his final battle

Secrets and Clues

• A creature must posses a Fragment of Suffering if they are to enter the Heart of Despair.
• The maximum number of Fragments a creature can possess is three.
• Fragments can be transferred between creatures.
• Apotheon Lore
  • [x] A child is born, eerily silent, and the midwife refuses to hold him. “Look. Even he knows,” she rasps to his mother as she clutches the baby, trembling. “His little soul prepares for the dread omens that will haunt him the rest of his life.”
  • [ ] Two parents place a baby in front of a priest of Pelor and beg a blessing. The priest makes a gesture over the infant’s head, then recoils. “There will be no help for him here. Don’t be foolish. There is no cure for the mark of the red moon.”
  • [ ] A baker hides a mussed, dirty boy behind the counter in his shop, slipping him a tart when no one is looking. Outside, children crow and call for the omen-touched boy, laughing, as a patron furtively mutters to the baker, “He’s full of Betrayer’s blood, I heard.”
  • [ ] A teenager sleeps fitfully under a vermilion moon, its glow washing him in faint red tones. He doesn’t rest easily until a cloud drifts in front of the moon, masking its sight from his slumber.
  • [ ] A young man stands atop a mountain and beholds a green Xhorhasian vista. He holds a handful of lush flowers. The vision shifts, and now he looks out over the same landscape blighted by the Calamity—the greenery is burned to the ground, corpses litter the hillside, and he grips a sword dripping blood.
  • [ ] A soldier crouches over her dead commander in a plaza filled with the bodies of people and monsters. The weight of responsibility settles uncomfortably on her. “Harbinger!” she spits at Alyxian. “War-bringer! Omen! We sheltered you!”
  • [ ] A guttural roar leaves the throat of the young warrior as he cleaves through the foes in front of him. His rapid breathing makes allied soldiers around him skittish. “Omen of malice,” one hisses to another. “Don’t get on his bad side.”
  • [ ] The warrior, now an adult, kneels before an altar in a ruined temple of Avandra the Change Bringer. “Fight for the freedom of others,” he whispers in reverence. His hand, scarred and shaking, grips the hilt of his sword. “Luck favors the daring,” he says with determination. “The Change Bringer doesn’t bless cowards.”
  • [ ] The warrior holds his hands up to the sky beneath the sheltering, silvery glow of the moon Catha, and a drop of moonlight falls into his cupped hands. It turns into a swirl of colors, then takes the form of a small golden amulet. The warrior, awestruck, whispers a prayer as he presses the Jewel of Three Prayers to his chest.
  • [ ] Bleeding heavily, the warrior limps through a burning battlefield toward a wailing child. She screams when she sees him; he flinches, but he picks her up, then carries her toward the remnants of civilization in the distance.
  • [ ] Close to sleep, huddled beneath a tree, and cloaked in a ratty blanket, the warrior runs his finger along the edge of the Jewel of Three Prayers, finding some comfort in its familiar shape.
  • [ ] During a thunderstorm, the warrior bellows, “Why? Avandra, this is not the change I seek! Tell me why I walk these steps!” The roar of the storm is all he hears in response. He rakes his hands through his hair. “Tell me!”
  • [ ] The warrior kneels in front of two moonlit graves bearing the names of his parents. He places incense between them, resting it on a simple box decorated with wedding bells. The box bears the inscription “For those whose love never wavered.” Around his neck, he wears the Jewel of Three Prayers, which carries the blessings of Avandra the Change Bringer and Sehanine the Moon Weaver.
  • [ ] The warrior’s sword cleaves a beast in two. Its corpse falls onto the blood-soaked ground, joining many other victims. The warrior, wounded, stands above the carnage. Two people lean out of nearby houses—then four. Ten. Dozens. They run to him and cry out, some of them sobbing. “The Apotheon!” “They said you were coming!” “We knew it!”
  • [ ] The warrior kneels before an elf monarch. “I’ve heard the most curious thing about you, Alyxian,” the elf drawls. “You keep refusing the titles I offer you. The land, the riches, the servants.” The warrior whispers in reply, “The power to change fate. That’s all I have ever asked.”
  • [ ] The light is warm and dim in a tavern, where the weary warrior listens to a bard’s song: “Don’t kiss underneath the red moon, nor promise yourself to sweet eyes! They’ll leave for another one’s home too soon, or string up your heart in their lies!” He pays for his drink and leaves, despite the early hour.
  • [ ] The warrior stands at the door of a ruined house and peers inside at a huddled, frightened family. They draw back when they see him, but he pulls off his cloak and drapes it over a shivering youth. “Go to the city,” he rasps. “It is a bastion of hope.”
  • [ ] The night air is so thick with the metallic smell of blood that the warrior can sense the massacre before he sees it. He crests a hill and stares out over a city in southern Marquet, trembling with a mixture of anticipation and dread as the light of the moon Ruidus bathes the bodies in red.
  • [ ] Standing in front of a mirror, the warrior considers the toll the Calamity has taken on him—the scars, the exhaustion etched into his features, all the result of the endless clash between faith and fear. He clasps the Jewel of Three Prayers, now complete with the addition of the blessing of Corellon the Arch Heart. “Three divine mantles,” he whispers. “Let us all be free of this duty.”
  • [ ] A warrior stands atop a temple, beneath the towering form of a one-eyed titan, as if intending to test his human-sized spear against the Betrayer God’s massive weapon. “I am cloaked in moonlight,” he whispers, alight with a silvery aura. “My heart is steeled by deep magic.” Brilliant green suffuses the silver of the aura. The demigod faces down Gruumsh’s apocalyptic spear. “And armed with the power to change fate!” Golden light flares, just before the god’s spear thrusts downward and all goes dark.`

Magic Items

• Fragment of Despondence
• Fragment of Attachment