CYGN'S CAIRN
Cygn. Sign. Cygnus. Cygnet. Psy'gn. Kine. Coin.
The Eld God's name has many forms.
Their meanings, aspects, entwine.
The heroes do not know this as they enter its temple.
They know only that they are ready to explore a lost Barrow,
into which none has entered for a long, long time.
None has entered because the entrance leads through a wide set of stairs to a pit shaft,
up from which blows a cold, damp air.
The walls and ceiling are covered in moss and vines
which have rooted themselves into cracks in the ancient stone walls and ceiling.
The pit shaft follows the in-game logic that 1 inch = 6 foot.
Every "square" or "move" of a character is 1" / 6'.
At two squares across the pit is twelve feet.
It's a long way to jump.
The Wizard won't make it (unless he uses his magic),
nor will the heavily plate-armor clad Knight.
Only the dexterous Elf stands any chance.
He makes a successful Leap roll (Stat Test), lands niftly on his feet on the far side.
Those vines might be strong enough to support a persons weight.
Moving only 1 square per turn,
the Knight, having succeeded his Stat Test,
cautiously inches his way over the deep, black pit.
Meanwhile the Wizard simply casts Teleport Spell,
dissolves into the air and reappears within the 12 Square Radius of the Spell Limit,
happens to be in the next room wherein he casts Lumos Maxima spell
while waiting for the Knight to catch up.
Two crumbly, rotting tables
and mossy, rotted tapestries
adorn the next room.
Our troupe passes through it.
In the center of the pit stands an inaccessible plinth,
upon which a huge stone statue, ten to fifteen feet tall.
The plinth has the Eld script carved on all four sides.
Only a Wizard will be able to read it.
South
(midday)
"I am Cygn
Magi of Eld
Friend by some
Feared by many"
East
(sunrise)
"In my light,
Power to friends
Who serve my goals."
North
(night)
"In my shadow,
Consequences of my friends deeds
Create my realm."
West
(sunset)
"Bringer of Balance
For every task done
One must be undone."
The Elf takes his lantern into the far room,
discovers a moldy chest,
empty but for blue-purple-green fungus.
They attack!
Killer Mushrooms Brawn 2 Brain 1
They bite and his wound is infected with the green-purple-blue spores.
The Elf cleverly throws his oil lantern at them. They burn.
Foul black smoke closes his lungs, and the knight who followed him in
While the Wizard translated the plinth runes.
The smoke billows and blinds, however;
as they come choking through into the large room,
the smoke is drawn along the cold flagstone floor and flows
as a river, as a waterfall, down into the pit.
The Knight and Elf recover.
They search the skeletons in the corner.
The Wizard begins to leave.
In his mind he hears these words:
"Find My Pearl!"
Two moldy skeletons locked in combat,
each plunging a rusty old blade through the ribs of the other.
The Knight who complained how boring this place is with nothing worthy to fight,
prizes apart the bony hand of one skeleton;
it had seemed to pulse with a soft glow.
A pearl!
The Wizard tells him what the voice had said.
The knight gives the pearl to the Wizard.
As soon as he hods it, that same voice speaks;
"Deaths of two
Brings Life for two."
The Wizard passes his Brains Stat Test
and figures out that Cygn, a God of Balance
What he does not yet understand is the pearl contains two reincarnation spells,
which can be used by its wielder.
It also has many other consequences which its wielder will discover in future.
The characters leave the dungeon.
They may return here.
There may be secret doors yet to be discovered,
levels below, accessible via the pits.
A "clean this crap up" spell
and a rickety rope bridge
may make a working temple of the place,
in time to come.
Cygn has new servants, now
An Eld God not known for many years,
who the Wizard most certainly will research upon return to the Library.
Cygn is working through these characters.
Consequences of their actions will bring balance.
"So he does both light and dark."
"From one comes the other. That is his realm."
The statue, wielding a double-headed axe.