Age of Wonders Campaign

As the party already knew, several hundred years ago, the alien race known as the Korvaks invaded our world. They arrived wielding powerful magic and wreaking terrible destruction. The peoples of our world were still somewhat primitive in their use of magic and were no match for the might of the invading korvaks. When it became apparent that the korvaks would stop at nothing short of total annihilation of the indigenous races, Demmazon finally revealed himself as the one true God. He bestowed upon all people the true ability to wield magic. Instead of having simply shamans and witch doctors, wizards, sorcerers, and clerics were born. But Demmazon knew this would not be quite enough, so he created five artifacts of tremendous, godlike power to be wielded by mortals in the fight against the korvaks that were called Gifts. The Five Gifts were round gemstones, the size of a grapefruit. Each one was tremendously powerful and allowed it's wielder to perform magical feats beyond what any mortal caster could achieve. The Gifts had no limitations, however they each were specialized as well - there were areas of magic that each could focus on a little better than the others. Five people were chosen from among the people to wield the Gifts: Magerris had originally been offered to take a Gift - in fact he was offered the first Gift, to be the leader of the Gift Bearers. He had seen it as too great of a responsibility, as he was already the Keeper of The Aegisstaff, which was the most powerful artifact that mortals had managed to create. He also had not yet fully embraced Demmazon as the One, True God, and he felt unfit to wield that sort of power in His name. It was by his suggestion that Demmazon appointed Vestal Stone, in his place, as the wielder of the First Gift. Vestal Stone was the first Paladin of Demmazon. He had immediately embraced Demmazon as God, and became his first holy warrior. The First Gift was considered the all-powerful Gift - it did not have any specializations like the other Gifts did. It was a clear, somewhat white-tinted stone. The Second Gift was the Offensive Gift, or the Evocation Gift. It was a red colored stone and it was particularly focused in evocation spells. At this point in time, the school of necromancy had not truly been discovered or explored, but it was later believed that Gift also had a focus in Necromancy. This Gift was wielded by a human wizard known as Kjeldin the Destroyer. He earned his nickname during the war against the Korvaks due to the devastation he was able to wreak with his Gift. The Third Gift was the Conjuration Gift, a blue stone, and it was focused in the schools of conjuration and transmutation. An elven priest named Salendaius Moonstrike was chosen to wield this Gift. The Fourth Gift was the Protection Gift, a yellow stone, and it was strong in abjuration and divination. It was wielded by a human named Alantarin the Wise. And the Fifth and final Gift was believed by many to be the Transmutation Gift, but such was the nature of the last Gift - it was actually the Deception Gift, and it was wielded by Thorn Runehammer Runehammer, the king of the dwarves. Thorn said that there are probably fewer than 10 people who knew that secret before he told the party. The Gift was focused in the schools of enchantment and illusion, and it was a green stone. During the war, when the Korvaks' only still undefeated army swept out of the mountains across the valley where Demonmount now stands, Salendaius stood alone before them - alone except for the hordes she summoned with her Gift. There was a city behind her that was relatively undefended, as most of the soldiers had committed to a Korvak feint from the east. The Korvaks' leader was with this army and he and his minions battled Salendaius with immense amounts of magic. They managed to open a rift that brought forth demons. It might have brought forth thousands of them, if not for Salendaius' Gift. Since its strength lay in summoning, it could also be used to prevent it. She managed to seal the gate, and then created the volcano known as Demonmount around it to prevent its reopening. Salendaius was eventually killed in that battle, though she broke the might of their army and gave the citizens of the city time to flee south before the remaining Korvak armies fell upon their city. Her Gift was lost, also, and despite all the searching for it, it was never found. The Korvak leader was a being of immense god-like power himself. Even in open combat with the remaining Gift Bearers, they could not destroy him. The remaining Gift Bearers designed a trap, using their combined power, they constructed a trap that would imprison him in an extra-dimensional, extra-planar space for all time. Unfortunately, they were only able to lure him into the trap by Vestal Stone sacrificing himself. They believed there might have been another way and given time, they would have figured it out, but they didn't have the luxury of time. Vestal Stone insisted that he be the one sacrificed, as it was his plan. In the end, they were successful, but some felt the cost was too great. Magerris later admitted to Thorn that he regretted his decision to appoint Vestal as their leader, not because he was not worthy, but because he was too worthy. "He was the best of us." After the leader was defeated, the remaining Korvaks either fled from the world or were hunted down and killed. After the war, Thorn and Alantarin saw the dangers in keeping the Gifts among the mortals. It was too much power, too much responsibility…too much temptation. The First Gift was buried with Vestal Stone, with his soul as its protector. Thorn gave his (the Fifth Gift) back to Demmazon. Kjeldin did not want to give up his gift, but with enough pressure from both Alantarin and Thorn, he was eventually persuaded to do so. Alantarin thought it would be best if they at least had the Gifts available, in case they were ever needed again. So he retreated to a reclusive temple in the mountains to keep watch over the final two Gifts. The use of the Gifts bestowed unnaturally long life on each of the surviving Gift Bearers. By remaining in close proximity to the Gifts, Alantarin would possibly have been able to be their guardian for hundreds, if not thousands of years, despite having already been a fairly old human when he became a Gift Bearer. With the Korvaks defeated, and the survivors from all races having worked so closely together for their own survival, plus the introduction of true magic, an age of unrivaled peace and prosperity unfolded. The Age of Wonders came into existence. Thorn returned to his duties as king, and worked to improve the relationships between dwarves and all the other races. The superior dwarven craftsmanship was put to use extensively in rebuilding the destroyed cities. Kjeldin tried to return to a normal life, but he found everything to be unfulfilling compared to the power he experienced as a Gift Bearer. He managed to continue for several hundred years, being so long-lived from his use of the Gift, taking part in the rebuilding process and the development of magic and technology, before the void in his life left by the loss of the Gift became too great for him to bear. He tried one final thing to fill the void, by starting a family. He took a wife and fathered two children, a son named Correries and a daughter named Zaraleth nicknamed Zut. For a time, his family seemed to be pulling him out of his funk, but a sort of madness eventually overtook him. He decided he could not live without his Gift. He needed it, like an addiction. When Alantarin retreated to the mountain temple, Kjeldin was not told where he went. He eventually learned that Alantarin was in a mountain range, so one day he just packed up and left, entering the mountains searching for him. He never found the temple and eventually died in the mountains. Correries took his father's death very hard, and when he was old enough, he began to take up his father's obsession. He became a very accomplished wizard, and eventually became a councilman on the High Council of Aegea, serving beside Magerris. While Correries tried to keep his ambitions he'd inherited from his father a secret, he eventually was approached by a man known as Marstalbin. Marstalbin had two tremendous secrets: the first one being that he was, in fact, a Korvak disguised as a human. He was able to actually grow a human shell over his Korvak form, so that he would appear human even in the face of magical detections such as True Seeing. Marstalbin's other secret was that he was a survivor of the fight against Salendaius and he was in possession of his lost Gift. It was the reason the Gift was never found or recovered, despite all the searching. But as the Korvak magic differed so much from their magic, Marstalbin could not actually use the Gift. He needed someone from this world to do it. Correries ambition and just a touch of naivety made him the perfect patsy. So he gave the Gift to Correries and tried to manipulate him to his own ends. Knowing how dangerous this world's god was, the first task Marstalbin convinced Correries to undertake was they created a trap for Demmazon, using the Gift, and then imprisoned him in his home realm, unable to influence the events that were about to unfold. Correries began by raising his armies that he would use to conquer the world. As the Gift was the conjuration and transmutation gift, Correries began experimenting with its transformation powers. With the help of one of his wizardly mentors, a half-elf named Ulanthar, they began experimenting on other elves. Ulanthar was mostly elven, and by all appearances looked like an elf, but had just a touch of human blood - enough that he had a dark side to him not found in elves at that time. Correries and Ulanthar used the gift on hundreds upon hundreds of elves, seeing if they could turn them against their nature - to try and change them from beings of pure good to beings of pure evil. Their failures became twisted, tormented creatures that no longer even resembled an elf. These creatures eventually became known as orcs. They kept their orc failures in a vast prison beneath the city of Trondhammen, in a series of catacombs underneath the manor of a good friend of theirs, a noble named Ethan Dowtry. Another of Correries' allies, a wizard named Riatin, conducted a series of experiments on dead bodies, and eventually created the first undead. Through his experiments, he eventually managed to transform himself into an undead creature, making himself the first lich, and he turned his cohort, a fighter named Cain, into the first vampire. Finally, when the time was ripe, Correries unleashed his armies of orcs and dark elves upon the unsuspecting world, while Riatin led his new army of undead. Much of this information, particularly Correries' involvement in all of this, was uncovered by a group known as the Heroes of Aegea. They were an elite team of adventurers that were regularly employed by Aegea. They reported to Therados Krom, the commander of the Aegean military. The heroes had their own fortress in the city of Aegea, and were made up of five primary members. One was a wizard by the name of Otheron of the Gems. He was an eccentric wizard who felt that the advancement of technology was a perversion of nature and that magic was the only true pursuit worthy of one's attention. He frequently carried pamphlets he had created himself, extolling the evil aspects of technology. He attracted a group of followers who called themselves Gem Knights, and they managed to create a resistance group who fought back against Correries' orc armies in the south after Aegea fell. The leader of his followers and Otheron's right-hand man was a samurai named Jack. Jack was close enough to Otheron that he was considered to be one of the primary members of the Heroes of Aegea. The next member of the Heroes was a Paladin named Tarn Tanglefoot. He was a dedicated paladin of Demmazon who hated the dark almost as much as he hated evil. He had a Pegasus mount and he was also known for having unusual luck. The Heroes had a cleric named Selenius. Sister Selenius was a fanatic about Demmazon and was not shy about imposing her beliefs on others. She was an outspoken zealot with an attitude, who wasn't very good at proselytizing - she was gruff and impatient with those who didn't immediately see things as she thought they should. Yet she was an invaluable asset to the team, and she could fire laser beams from her eyes. The fifth member of the Heroes was a bard who was called Face. He had crazy orange, curly hair, which was later revealed to be a wig but no one is quite sure why he always wore it, as without it, he was actually quite a handsome, striking man. Face was a sort of visionary as he had died and when he was brought back from the dead, he spoke of having visions of Demmazon. His visions are what led the Heroes to eventually discovering the prison that Correries had trapped Demmazon in. Magerris and his allies recovered the First Gift from Vestal Stone's tomb to fight back, but by then, Correries' armies had already destroyed the city of Aegea. Magerris and his allies sent the Heroes of Aegea into the mountains to find Alantarin to request his assistance and the use of the other two Gifts he guarded, but Correries had their team followed by his sister, Zaraleth. When the Heroes reached the temple, Zut swooped in and made off with the Second Gift, the Gift of Evocation. Fortunately, Magerris' allies were still able to keep the Protection Gift. Correries now had his father's Gift, the one he had spent his life searching for, and he did not intend to let it go. The Gifts themselves were unthinkably powerful, but they did possess two minor flaws - the first one being, the Gift was a physical object. If you separated the wielder from the object, they could not use its power. And anyone who picked up a Gift could then use it. One of the tragic examples of this was when Magerris first fought Correries with the Gifts, Magerris was temporarily knocked unconscious, and the wizard Otheron scooped up the Gift. Not knowing how to use it, he simply focused his thoughts on unleashing the most powerful destructive force that he could directed at Correries. Correries managed to use his Gift to get out of the way, but the resulting blast carved a gap in the mountain range that stretched for miles and is now known as The Gap of Otheron. The second weakness, was that while the Gifts allowed their wielder the ability to do just about anything the wielder could think of, they still had to actually use or activate the Gift. Correries found a way around both of those. He managed to absorb the Second Gift's power into himself, which destroyed the Gift, and allowed Correries to access the power simply by thinking it. Using it's powers became second nature, as automatic as moving or breathing. By doing this, Correries made himself so powerful, that a person wielding another Gift against him would still be at a disadvantage. Magerris had no choice but to absorb the First Gift so that he could stand a chance against Correries. The two of them fought, using their new god powers over the city of Rictaria. The amount of magic they unleashed was so overwhelming, it completely destroyed the city below them, and caused the ground to burst upwards, creating the mountain now called Godsmount. In the mean time, the Heroes managed to defeat Riatin's army, and then pursued the lich to his fortress where they ultimately destroyed him. Correries' sister Zaraleth had fallen in love with Tarn and decided her brother's ambitions were too great and too evil, so she joined the Heroes to fight against him. But Correries and his allies were already so powerful, and both sides had two Gifts, trying to stop them was looking near impossible, and the casualties were mounting. With both sides fighting towards mutual destruction, the Heroes decided to follow Face's visions and try to find why Demmazon was not intervening to stop the chaos. They set off on an expedition to the End of the World, bringing with them a couple hundred troops to deal with whatever trouble they faced. When they got there, they found the massive waterfall that marked the edge of the world. Scientists had debated for years how this was possible - why did the ocean not simply empty out completely; where did the water go; and many similar questions. What Thorn knows now is that the waterfall was actually a gateway between our world and Demmazon's world. When Demmazon first created the Gifts, he used the power embedded within this world to make them. But to take that amount of power directly from the world would have destroyed it. So what Demmazon did was he merged his world with ours, filling the gap created in the world with his own until our world could heal. The waterfall was actually the border between the worlds. Demmazon intended to eventually separate the worlds, once our world had healed enough to support itself, but the healing process took centuries. It was the connection between our world and Demmazon's world that provided everyone within the world the ability to access magic without study. When the connection between the two worlds was severed, only people who dedicated themselves to the use of magic were able to access it. When the Heroes crossed over the border into Demmazon's world, they found his temple there, but the temple was guarded by the korvak, Marstalbin. The Heroes learned while fighting the korvak that he was the one who orchestrated the chaos in the world and constructed the prison that prevented Demmazon from interfering. The korvak also revealed to them that Demmazon was not the good diety they believed him to be, but was in fact a neutral god. This revelation nearly crushed both Tarn and Selenius, but they fought through their despair and defeated the korvak. Despite the knowledge their god was not a being of pure good, they knew they still must free him. As the Heroes entered the temple to free Demmazon, Correries realized what was transpiring, and he headed to the temple to stop them, bringing with him his closest allies, Ulanthar and Milaynee and their elite troops. Magerris followed, bringing his own allies, the elf Tarmikos, commander Krom, and Thorn Runehammer. Thorn said that he and Alantarin had discussed the possibility of being able to absorb the powers of the Gifts back at the time of the Korvak war. They had determined that there was too much power in a Gift for any mortal to contain. As it turns out, they were correct, they simply had overlooked the possibility of what Correries had done. While he managed to absorb the powers of the Gift, he did not fully absorb ALL of its power. The rest of the Gift's power was lost, bled out into the world as the Gift was destroyed. Correries also realized what had happened after the ceremony had been completed. He realized that there had been lost nearly as much power as he retained. With this realization, he decided, now faced with Magerris and his allies in a climactic battle, to use the other Gift he had in his possession and split its power between his two closest allies. So there, in Demmazon's temple, he split the power of the other Gift and raised Milaynee and Ulanthar into gods as well. Correries' sister Zareleth condemned his actions and tried to appeal to his good side and show him how he'd walked down the wrong path. But either she was wrong that there was still good in him, or he was too far gone, and his response was to kill her. Tarn was broken-hearted at the death of his love, but his allies convinced him he would only die as well if he attacked Correries. Magerris, seeing he had no choice if they were to stand a chance against the three new gods, and so used his other Gift and raised Krom and Tarmikos. All of the mortals fled from the room, as the newly raised gods began battling. The Heroes pressed on into the temple and finally found the prison that held Demmazon. Correries was not able to face them personally, as it took all of his attention to deal with Magerris and the other new gods, but he was able to send an avatar of himself to try and stop them. But the avatar was not powerful enough to stop them, and the Heroes made it through to the prison. They found the prison was constructed with a combination of technology and magic, and some of the magic was alien. In the end, they only way they could free Demmazon was by blocking the beams of energy that powered the prison, and the only thing they could use to block those beams were themselves. In the end, the Heroes sacrificed themselves by stepping into the beams, being torn apart in the process, but giving Demmazon a precious instant where he was able to break free from his prison. Once free of his prison, Demmazon realized the destruction the new gods would wreak upon the world would be too much, and although the world was not yet fully healed from the creation of the Gifts, the only way he could save the world would be by separating the two worlds and keeping the new gods in his realm with him. Thorn said at this point, that he and the few survivors from the group who had come along with the Heroes tried to flee back to our world, but the massive gateway that stretched nearly the length of the world was rapidly closing. In the end, less than a dozen made it out. Thorn was the last one to escape, and he was actually standing on the border when the gateway fully closed. Somehow, this severed his connection with magic completely, beyond what happened to the rest of the world. He became a walking dead-magic zone. No magic is able to affect him, nor can he use magic in any way. He has been completely cut off from magic use in all forms.