Stegner

Campaign: Under the Bus
Folder: Characters / Historical Figures
Status: Historical figure; Founder of The Chosen; secretly became Filtiarn
Rules: D&D 3.5
Source Base: Under the Bus source correspondence; later campaign canon

Overview

Stegner was one of the nine original Founders of the Chosen. Publicly, he was believed to have died relatively early in the history of the organization. In reality, Stegner survived and eventually became one of the most important hidden antagonists in the history of Under the Bus.

Stegner was a scholar as well as a member of the Chosen. He was one of the organization's foremost experts on the ancient language used by Pythia the Mad Prophet, and worked with Samos to translate the Chosen's collection of Pythia's prophecies.

His study of those prophecies eventually became the foundation of his own obsession.

Stegner came to believe that Pythia had foretold the rise of a new god from among the Chosen—and that he himself was destined to become that god.

The prophecy was genuine, but Stegner misunderstood his place within it. A new god really did rise from among the Chosen: Orinder eventually became a god. The prophecy's reference to the suffering of the Faithful being ended also had a genuine fulfillment in Thorn Runehammer, whose long suffering from his dead-magic curse and the guilt he carried over the Fall of the Age of Wonders were ultimately brought to an end.

Stegner, however, became convinced that the prophecy pointed toward his own ascension. His interpretation of the ancient text led him toward the imagery of the wolf, which in turn led him to the ancient history of Filtiarn.

Stegner eventually discovered the records of Filtiarn's ancient and failed attempt to ascend to godhood. Rather than simply resurrecting Filtiarn, Stegner sought to become Filtiarn himself.

He succeeded.

Stegner achieved a partial ascension, becoming sufficiently divine that he could no longer simply be killed. He was ultimately defeated and imprisoned by Thorn, who used knowledge gained from his experience as one of the original Bearers of The Five Gifts to imprison the partially ascended being.

Thousands of years later, near the current era, another adventuring party accidentally freed Filtiarn from that imprisonment.

Founder of The Chosen

Stegner was one of the nine original Founders of The Chosen.

The other Founders were:

The Chosen regarded Stegner as one of their own until they came to believe that he had died.

His apparent death eventually became accepted history within the organization. By the time the Under the Bus party learned about the Founders, Stegner was listed among the deceased Founders. The Chosen therefore had no reason to suspect that he was still alive.

This false history was essential to Stegner's later plans.

The False Death

Stegner deliberately concealed his survival.

He understood that the other Chosen would oppose what he was attempting if they discovered that he was alive and pursuing his own path toward godhood. Allowing them to believe that he had died gave him the freedom to continue his work without the organization searching for him.

The precise circumstances of how Stegner faked his death are not preserved.

The party eventually suspected that one of the supposedly deceased Founders might have survived, but by that point Stegner had already concealed his identity behind the name and persona of Filtiarn.

Scholar of Pythia

Stegner was one of the Chosen's experts on the ancient language used by Pythia the Mad Prophet.

He and Samos were specifically identified as the Chosen's experts in the language and were responsible for translating the Chosen's own copy of Pythia's prophecies.

Stegner was also one of the scholars credited with translating Collected Translations of Pythia the Mad Prophet. The surviving translation credits list Fulbright, Lucian, Maimon, Schuyler, Stegner, Strahan, and Virgil.

This knowledge gave Stegner an unusual ability to study the prophecies at a depth that few others could match.

The prophecies were notoriously difficult to interpret. Their ancient terminology could have multiple meanings, and different translations could produce substantially different interpretations.

This ambiguity became central to Stegner's plans.

The Prophecy

One of Pythia's prophecies stated:

From among the Chosen shall rise a new harmony. The suffering of the Faithful will finally be ended.

The copy discovered by the party contained alterations and annotations. The word "rise" had been changed to "ascend," while "harmony" had been changed to "power." The word "Faithful" had also been changed to "Servant."

The accompanying linguistic notes explained that the ancient terminology was capable of multiple interpretations.

One particularly important ambiguity concerned the word translated as Chosen. The word did not have a straightforward equivalent in the ancient dialect. Its possible derivations and associated meanings could lead through concepts including chosen, anointed, worshiped, blonde, treasure, and pet. One possible chain of linguistic association led from pet to dog, and ultimately toward wolf.

This interpretation helped connect the prophecy to Filtiarn.

What the Prophecy Actually Meant

Stegner was correct about one fundamental point: The prophecy really did foretell that a new god would rise from among the Chosen.

His error was believing that he was that person. The prophecy ultimately had more than one element of fulfillment.

The New God

Orinder eventually became a god, fulfilling the prophecy's prediction that a new god would rise from among the Chosen.

During the Under the Bus campaign, Tim even recognized that Orinder's unusual Chosen powers might indicate that he was the person referred to by the prophecy.

Orinder himself rejected the idea at the time, considering himself merely a humble cleric.

The Suffering of the Faithful

The prophecy's reference to the suffering of the Faithful being ended was ultimately connected to Thorn Runehammer.

Thorn had suffered for centuries under his dead-magic curse. He also carried tremendous guilt over his responsibility for events surrounding the Fall of the Age of Wonders.

The eventual resolution of Thorn's curse and his ascension brought an end to the suffering described by the prophecy.

Stegner did not understand this. He interpreted the prophecy as evidence that his own ascension was destined.

The Wolf Interpretation

Stegner's interpretation of the prophecy gradually drew him toward the imagery and mythology of the wolf.

The unusual linguistic possibilities surrounding the word translated as "Chosen" gave him a path from Chosen → pet → dog → wolf.

For Stegner, this was not merely an interesting linguistic coincidence.

He was already studying the prophecy with the expectation that it contained information about the next being destined to ascend. Once the wolf interpretation appeared, he began investigating the ancient history of Filtiarn.

This led him to records of an attempted ascension that had occurred thousands of years earlier.

Filtiarn's Failed Ascension

Filtiarn was an ancient being who attempted to ascend to godhood around the time of the founding of Aegea.

He was regarded as the first documented werewolf, although even ancient records disagreed about whether his original form was human or wolf.

Filtiarn sought to satisfy the conditions believed necessary for mortal ascension:

Exceptional power that distinguished the individual from others of their kind.
A substantial population of genuine worshippers.
A sufficiently impressive demonstration of power to establish the being's potential divinity.

Filtiarn already had a tremendous following among wolves and wolf-like creatures. His plan was to create enormous numbers of werewolves and thereby turn his followers into both proof of his power and a vast population of believers. To accomplish this, he created a magical plague that carried the essence of his lycanthropic curse. He unleashed the plague upon Aegea.

Once enough people were infected, Filtiarn intended to trigger the curse simultaneously, transforming thousands of people into werewolves. The resulting mass transformation would have been both a tremendous demonstration of supernatural power and the creation of an enormous population naturally inclined to worship him.

The plan failed. Some infected people transformed prematurely, alerting the people of Aegea to what was actually happening. Aegea was able to discover the nature of the threat and stop the plague before Filtiarn could complete his ascension.

The ancient event was documented in The Quest for the Cure.

Stegner's Discovery

Stegner eventually found the surviving records concerning Filtiarn and his failed ascension. He discovered them in the ruins of ancient Aegea, whose underwater library still contained knowledge dating back to the distant past. Stegner also discovered the information necessary to reproduce or improve upon elements of Filtiarn's original attempt.

Among the discoveries were:

Information about Filtiarn's attempted ascension.
Information concerning the ancient werewolf plague.
The knowledge necessary to facilitate a new attempt at ascension.
The disk containing the ancient plague formula later discovered by the Under the Bus party.

Stegner recognized that Filtiarn's failure did not necessarily invalidate the method. Instead, it provided a model.

Stegner believed he could learn from Filtiarn's mistakes and complete the ascension that Filtiarn had failed to achieve.

Stegner's Objective

Stegner was not attempting to resurrect Filtiarn. His goal was much more ambitious. He intended to become Filtiarn.

Stegner believed that the prophecy identified him as the Chosen who would ascend. The wolf interpretation gave him a divine identity toward which he could direct that ascension.

His plan therefore became:

Use the ancient method of Filtiarn's failed ascension to transform himself into a new incarnation of Filtiarn and ascend to godhood.

This distinction is important. The later werewolf cult genuinely believed that they served Filtiarn, but the being they were serving was Stegner.

Filtiarn's identity became a mask through which Stegner could pursue the fulfillment of what he believed was his destiny.

The Temple of the Moon

Stegner established or operated the organization that became known as the Temple of the Moon and the Gauntlet of the Moon.

The cult's visible purpose was the worship of Filtiarn. Its deeper purpose was Stegner's ascension project.

The Temple of the Moon maintained a network of temples and used portals to connect them. The organization gathered wolves, werewolves, worgs, and other followers of Filtiarn.

The cult also captured people who appeared to be resistant to the werewolf plague and subjected them to experimentation.

The party eventually discovered that the cult was preparing a ceremony specifically intended to transform an individual into an Aspect of Filtiarn.

The ceremony involved a large number of wolf and werewolf followers surrounding an altar while cultists performed a ritual intended to infuse the central subject with the power or aspect of their god.

This was not simply religious ceremony. It was part of Stegner's larger attempt to reproduce and improve upon the ancient process that had once been attempted by Filtiarn.

The Aspects of Filtiarn

The Temple of the Moon created beings known as Aspects of Filtiarn.

One of these Aspects was encountered by the party during their investigation of the cult. The cultists claimed that Filtiarn himself granted the Aspect its power. The Aspect itself believed that it had received power directly from Filtiarn and did not know the true identity of the being calling himself Filtiarn.

This was important because the cult's followers were not necessarily aware that the identity of Filtiarn had been assumed by Stegner. The Aspects therefore served both as agents of the cult and as evidence that the ascension process was progressing.

The exact magical process by which Stegner created the Aspects is not preserved.

The Werewolf Plague

Stegner was responsible for the renewed werewolf plague that threatened the world during Under the Bus. The ancient plague discovered in Aegea became the basis for his efforts. The plague was distributed through Stegner's followers and eventually spread well beyond the original cult sites. The party initially encountered the consequences of the plague without knowing who was behind it.

The outbreak eventually became connected to:

The attacks on The Chosen.
The cults of the Moon.
The strange ceramic disk containing the ancient formula.
The ruins of Aegea.
Filtiarn and the ancient wolf cult.
The Aspects of Filtiarn.
The massive werewolf armies that eventually threatened the Chosen and surrounding lands.

The source material initially presented Stegner simply as the hidden force behind the rise of the wolves, with his motivation and history left to be developed later. The reconstructed campaign history identifies that hidden force as his attempt to fulfill the prophecy through his own ascension.

The Aegea Library

Stegner and his followers had previously explored the underwater ruins of Aegea. There they discovered the ancient library and searched its surviving material for information relevant to Filtiarn. Stegner chose not to destroy the information he found. Instead, he left guards behind to protect the ruins and the knowledge they contained.

Among those guards were Kuo-Toa whom Stegner had infected with lycanthropy. These lycanthrope-infected Kuo-Toa watched the ruins and attempted to prevent outsiders from reaching the library.

When the Under the Bus party eventually arrived, they were able to enter the ruins and eventually locate the protected portion of the library. This was where they discovered evidence that someone had been using the ruins long after Aegea had been destroyed and flooded.

The party did not initially know that this person was Stegner.

The Chosen's Investigation

The investigation began with the renewed werewolf plague. The party first encountered the wolf cults and eventually discovered that they were connected to Filtiarn.

They recovered a mysterious disk containing writing in the ancient language associated with Pythia the Mad Prophet. The Chosen recognized the language but initially lacked the resources to translate it.

Their investigation eventually brought them to Toreon and then back toward the ruins of Aegea. As the party uncovered more information, they discovered that the ancient werewolf plague and the modern plague were closely related.

They also discovered historical accounts of Filtiarn's failed attempt at ascension. At this point, the possibility that someone was deliberately reproducing Filtiarn's ancient plan became increasingly apparent.

The Hidden Identity of Filtiarn

During the campaign, the party did not immediately know who was behind the identity of Filtiarn.

One of the leaders of the werewolf forces claimed that Filtiarn communicated with him through visions and dreams. He believed that Filtiarn personally granted him power and transformed him into an Aspect. When questioned, however, he admitted that he did not know who the person calling himself Filtiarn actually was.

The party therefore began looking for the hidden individual behind the cult. Their suspicions eventually focused on people connected to the Chosen. This included the possibility that one of the Founders believed to be dead had survived. Stegner was one of the principal possibilities.

The party's suspicion was correct.

Eritrea

Stegner murdered Eritrea aboard the Sunchaser during a coordinated attack by his followers.

While werewolves and their allies assaulted the ship, Orinder ran to Eritrea's cabin to warn her. He heard the sounds of a fight from within, but the door was locked or magically held. Using his ability to detect other Chosen, Orinder sensed two individuals of Overwhelming strength inside the cabin. Before he could force his way in, he was attacked from behind and knocked unconscious.

After the assault, the party entered Eritrea's cabin and found her headless corpse lying in a pool of blood. The removal of her head initially raised questions about whether the attackers were attempting to prevent her resurrection or interrogation through magic.

Demetrius possessed a Chosen ability capable of recreating an illusion of a dead person's final moments. Using it on Eritrea allowed the party to witness the circumstances of her death. The vision showed Eritrea sitting behind her desk when she suddenly became aware of someone before her. Her initial surprise turned first to shock and then recognition.

She told the attacker that she should have known he was behind what was happening and accused him of a longstanding obsession with acquiring more power, saying that the Chosen should have restrained him years earlier. The attacker, speaking in a deep, gravelly male voice, replied that this had been their mistake and that Eritrea would not have the opportunity to correct it.

He attacked her with Finger of Death. Eritrea resisted the spell and retaliated, beginning a violent magical duel inside the cabin. During the battle, Eritrea attempted to reach the door, but her attacker magically held it shut to prevent her escape. Eventually Eritrea was badly wounded. She warned him:

"You know you'll never get away with this. The others will stop you!"

The attacker dismissed the threat, specifically mentioning Quentin and the younger Chosen. He revealed that his followers were already moving against the Tower of Plinth, expressed confidence that Quentin was too old to stop them, and told Eritrea that once she was dead there would be no one left capable of opposing him.

He then struck her with another spell and killed her. After Eritrea collapsed, the vision showed a massive pair of hairy claws reach into view and violently tear her head from her body.

The magical attacks used against Eritrea were divine in nature, with evidence suggesting that at least some of the magic available to her attacker may have been druidic.

Importance of Eritrea's Death

Eritrea's reconstructed final moments became one of the party's strongest early clues concerning the identity of the being calling himself Filtiarn.

Her words established that:

She personally knew her killer.
His desire for greater power predated the current crisis.
She believed the Chosen had previously failed to restrain his ambitions.
He was intimately familiar with the surviving leadership of the Chosen.
He commanded or controlled the forces attacking both the Sunchaser and the Tower.
He was himself an exceptionally powerful Chosen.

When the party later interrogated one of the Aspects of Filtiarn, they combined that information with what they had learned from Eritrea's death and concluded that the hidden enemy was probably a former Chosen. This led them to consider whether one of the supposedly dead Founders—particularly Stegner or Angar—might actually have survived.

In Stegner's case, that suspicion was correct. Eritrea had recognized Stegner, one of her fellow Founders, shortly before he killed her.

The Ascension

Stegner ultimately succeeded where the original Filtiarn had failed. He became Filtiarn. However, the ascension was incomplete.

Stegner achieved enough of a transformation into a divine being that he could no longer be treated as an ordinary mortal creature, but he did not achieve complete godhood.

The result was a partially ascended being possessing the identity and power of Filtiarn.

This explains the otherwise confusing distinction between the ancient Filtiarn and the being encountered during the Under the Bus era.

The ancient Filtiarn had failed to ascend. Stegner succeeded in completing the process far enough to become him.

Thorn's Defeat of Filtiarn

Stegner's partial ascension made him extraordinarily difficult to destroy. Even Thorn Runehammer, possessing the final Gift and having reached the level of a god, could not simply kill him. Instead, Thorn imprisoned him.

This was possible because Thorn had firsthand knowledge of the methods used to imprison extraordinarily powerful beings. Thorn had been one of the original Bearers of The Five Gifts during the ancient conflicts involving the Korvak Leader. He had therefore participated in, and understood, the methods used to contain a being whose power could not simply be overcome through ordinary means.

Thorn was able to reproduce a similar form of imprisonment for the partially ascended Filtiarn. Thus Stegner was defeated without being destroyed. His imprisonment became the means by which the threat of Filtiarn was contained.

The Imprisonment of Filtiarn

The details of the prison itself are not preserved in the Under the Bus documentation. What is known is that Thorn successfully imprisoned the partially ascended Filtiarn rather than killing him.

This distinction is important to the later history of the world. Stegner's survival was not merely a theoretical possibility or an unresolved historical mystery. He remained imprisoned as Filtiarn. The imprisonment endured for an immense period of time.

Over the centuries and millennia, the original identity of Filtiarn as Stegner would have become increasingly obscure. The name Stegner eventually disappeared from most surviving historical accounts, while Filtiarn remained as the identity of the imprisoned being.

Release in the Distant Future

In a much later campaign, Steve, occurring close to the current era, another adventuring party accidentally freed Filtiarn from his imprisonment.

The circumstances of that release belong to the later campaign rather than Under the Bus.

The important historical connection is that the being they released was the same partially ascended entity created through Stegner's attempt to fulfill Pythia's prophecy.

Thus the consequences of Stegner's actions survived for thousands of years beyond the Under the Bus campaign.

Stegner's Historical Significance

Stegner's importance to the history of Under the Bus extends well beyond his role as one of the Founders of The Chosen. He represents one of the most significant examples of a mortal attempting to manipulate prophecy and achieve godhood through deliberate action.

His interpretation of Pythia was simultaneously correct and disastrously wrong. He correctly recognized that:

Pythia had genuinely foretold the rise of a new god.
That god would arise from among the Chosen.
The prophecy concerned events that would have enormous consequences for the world.

But he incorrectly concluded that he was the person destined to become that god. The prophecy was fulfilled through others.

Orinder became a god. Thorn's suffering was ultimately ended.

And Stegner, attempting to force himself into the role he believed prophecy had assigned him, instead became the partially ascended being known as Filtiarn.

Legacy

By the current era, the original Stegner and Filtiarn are likely to be remembered as separate historical figures, if Stegner is remembered at all.

The Chosen's records preserve the name of Stegner as one of their original Founders, but their understanding of his fate was wrong.

The ancient history of Filtiarn preserves the name of the wolf god and his attempt to achieve divinity, but later generations are unlikely to recognize that the being imprisoned by Thorn was once Stegner.

The connection between the two identities is therefore an important piece of lost history:

Stegner, Founder of the Chosen, became Filtiarn.

His attempt to fulfill Pythia's prophecy succeeded only partially, leaving him powerful enough to survive defeat but not powerful enough to escape Thorn's imprisonment. That imprisonment ultimately lasted until the distant future, when another party unknowingly released him.

Established vs. Uncertain Information

Established

Stegner was one of the nine original Founders of The Chosen.
Stegner survived after the Chosen believed him dead.
He was an expert on the language of Pythia the Mad Prophet.
He helped translate Pythia's prophecies.
He discovered the ancient records concerning Filtiarn.
He discovered information about Filtiarn's failed ascension.
He was responsible for the renewed rise of the wolves and the modern werewolf threat.
He was behind the Temple of the Moon and its larger Filtiarn operation.
He sought to become Filtiarn rather than merely resurrect him.
He killed Eritrea.
He successfully became Filtiarn.
His ascension was incomplete.
His partial divinity made him impossible to simply kill.
Thorn Runehammer defeated and imprisoned him.
The imprisonment endured until a much later campaign.
A later adventuring party accidentally freed Filtiarn.

Known but Incomplete

Stegner's exact method for faking his death.
The precise process by which he created the Aspects of Filtiarn.
The exact magical mechanism by which he transformed himself into Filtiarn.
The exact nature and location of Thorn's prison.
The exact circumstances under which Stegner's partial ascension occurred.

Important Interpretive Distinction

The prophecy should not be treated as a false prophecy or as something Stegner merely misunderstood in every respect.

The prophecy was genuine.

It really did foretell the rise of a new god from among the Chosen.

Stegner's fundamental mistake was assuming that he was the one the prophecy was describing.