Components of the Ritual

[mechahamham]

At the peak of the hill in Moth Cemetary lies an obscene altar that runs continuously with the blood of the damned and dead. The air is foul, stinking with rot, war, and the worst, most vile of unending desires.

 

Here, the Veil between life and death is thin, and the gibbering creatures beyond it reach for the light, desperate in their hunger to devour the pain and torment of the living. At their pinnacle, towering above all else in evil, hatred, and lust for blood is Adamastor, the unwavering, slavering fiend that champions the Banished Pantheon's return to Earth.

 

Adamastor *must* be destroyed, and frequently. Champions of the Living must gather to oppose him. Counterintutively, the best way to weaken Adamstor's lust for agony and death is to draw his undead, unholy form across the Veil, destroying his power before it has time to reach its pinnacle.

 

But how? Rumors exist of a ritual to do just that. Knowledge of the ritual and the reagents for completing it lies in three pieces.

 

The Pantheon's undead warriors and husks run with Unliving Blood. Reinterring enough of those zombies grants the Champions of Life a single drop.

 

The Pantheon's spirit masks are known to contain Fragments of the Veil. As the dead and banished cling to the living world of light, these fragments allow the spirits of the Banished Pantheon to reach into the waking world.

 

Finally, the Parting of the Veil is a text that has been seized by the zealots of Orenbega in their unending duty to oppose the Pantheon. Defeating the spectral Orenbegans will grant the champions knowledge of the ritual necessary to summon Adamastor into the realm of the living.

 

Combining these three components at the obscene altar will summon Adamastor. Those who seek power, those who seek redemption, those who lust greedily, and those who simply want to protect the living will face the undead and unholy. May they not be corrupted by Adamastor's creeping touch.

 

 

Goals: I really like that you have to work to spawn PEACE Keeper in Kallisti. It's not hard to do, and he still appears frequently, even with the requirement. Adamastor currently spawns every hour on the hour, with only a single click required to summon him. I think it would be pretty awesome if there was a mini-game of collecting salvage and then combining it at the altar in Moth Cemetary to perform the summon.

 

It's an opportunity for world-buidling, in-game color, and player engagement.

 

The drop rates on the ritual components can be tuned to allow the ritual to take place more or less frequently. The 1-hour timer can be kept in place.

 

Importantly, a goal here is *not* to inhibit spawning Adamastor. Instead, it's to make the process more interesting than 'Click here to start the fight.'

 

 

Right now, it's basically a 'Click to receive merits' thing. That's not terribly fun.

 

Difficulty: Medium. This may require code changes, but we've got items in the game that can be repurposed or retrofitted to achieve this. In particular, we've got the computers in Bloody Bay and various crafting tables. A recipe can be added to an altar 'console' in Moth Cemetary. Combining the three salvage items grants a 'Summon Adamastor' temp power. The pieces are all there. Just like ingredients at Taco Bell, we need to make an Adamastor Crunchwrap Supreme.

[Rudra]

Adamastor can only be summoned in an Echo zone. The Echoes aren't part of the current game, they are museum pieces effectively. Adamastor can only be summoned once per hour. Other GMs like Scrapyard can be summoned far more frequently than that. (And the Circle of Thorns don't have a duty to oppose the Banished Pantheon. The Circle doesn't really care about the Pantheon unless the Pantheon does something to get their attention. Like they did when Mot was freed in (current) Dark Astoria. The Circle lacks physical bodies of their own to fear being sacrificed, were established likely eons before the rise of the Banished Pantheon's followers, and only are seen at two points in the Banished Pantheon story: Dark Astoria (where being spirits they find themselves far more vulnerable to Mot's presence and so must fight back or cower in desperation) and in the Cimeroran arc where they agree to watch over Mot's idol because only they have the ability to do so.

[Forager]

That's a pretty good idea to liven up an old zone.

 

And as @Rudrapointed out, the background story you proposed and the inclusion of the Circle of Thorns makes a lot of sense given current game lore.

[Rudra]

26 minutes ago, Forager said:

That's a pretty good idea to liven up an old zone.

 

And as @Rudrapointed out, the background story you proposed and the inclusion of the Circle of Thorns makes a lot of sense given current game lore.

That is the exact opposite of what I said.

[Forager]

10 minutes ago, Rudra said:

That is the exact opposite of what I said.

 

Whoopsie. You did phrase it like it was an argument against the idea... but nearly everything you said supported it. Truly, you presented a ton of evidence.

 

They don't care about the Pantheon... except for these times when they do...

 

They aren't afraid to be sacrificed... but they were more susceptible to Mot and had to fight back or cower...

 

They don't have a duty to oppose the Pantheon... they just agreed to once because they were the only ones who could. 

 

2 hours ago, Rudra said:

The Circle doesn't really care about the Pantheon unless the Pantheon does something to get their attention.

 

Yeah. Right. Sure. Like a big giant zombie here to destroy the world. Great point.

[Rudra]

36 minutes ago, Forager said:

They don't care about the Pantheon... except for these times when they do...

They don't care about the Pantheon because they view the Pantheon as foolish children running around causing problems for others. Not them. They only care about the Pantheon when they do something that threatens the Circle's very spirits or Oranbega itself. The two instances of the Circle caring about the Pantheon is when they agree to watch over the idol of Mot because Mot is very much a threat to them and in Dark Astoria after Mot has been freed because Mot devoured several of them as part of his awakening.

 

36 minutes ago, Forager said:

They aren't afraid to be sacrificed... but they were more susceptible to Mot and had to fight back or cower...

They aren't afraid to be sacrificed because they have no bodies to sacrifice. Their bodies are like cars they drive around in. So while they may get attached to their current body, in the end, they aren't afraid to abandon that body and move on. When Mot was freed, Mot was able to directly attack the Circle of Thorns in the area, absorbing/devouring their spirits. (Which may at least have partially been done because they kept him in his idol imprisoned for so long.) In the face of that attack, the Circle only cared about the Banished Pantheon in as much as they were helping feed Mot. The Circle's only real concern though was Mot himself. Some of the Circle were mentally or emotionally broken by Mot's release and subsequent absorbing/devouring of them, and lost the will to fight, so they cowered. Others turned to the PCs to help them fight and hopefully re-contain Mot. Beyond that? The Circle still doesn't really care about the Banished Pantheon.

 

36 minutes ago, Forager said:

They don't have a duty to oppose the Pantheon... they just agreed to once because they were the only ones who could. 

The Circle of Thorns truly don't care about the Banished Pantheon. They didn't even agree to oppose the Banished Pantheon. They specifically agreed to watch over and contain the idol of Mot, a god of death that could devour them. Nothing else about the Banished Pantheon was a consideration. And being spirits rather than living mortals, and with the ancient magics they learned directly from the gods that they even used to fight the gods themselves in the schism that saw the Circle of Thorns break away from the Mu, which is the only faction the Circle actually cares about, the Circle were the only ones able to maintain any real watch over Mot. Something they did specifically because Mot himself was a direct threat to them. Not the Banished Pantheon.

 

36 minutes ago, Forager said:

Yeah. Right. Sure. Like a big giant zombie here to destroy the world. Great point.

The Circle of Thorns have pacts with greater demons like Archus, Lilitu, and Baphomet. They even have very powerful demons bound to serve them. No, the Circle of Thorns don't view Adamastor as a threat to them. They don't care what Adamastor may do to the world at large, because he is not a threat to Oranbega. And the Circle may even have rituals ready to bind Adamastor to them should the Banished Pantheon try to use him against the Circle and Oranbega. Adamastor was banished by one of the gods, the beings the Circle directly learned magic from. So of course the Circle don't view Adamastor as a threat. And Adamastor per his bio was never "here to destroy the world". He caused localized destruction against mortals.

 

Edit: All of which is moot anyway because the Echo zones are not considered active zones. They are there for nostalgic purposes.

 

Edited July 2 by Rudra

[Forager]

36 minutes ago, Rudra said:

And the Circle may even have rituals ready to bind Adamastor to them should the Banished Pantheon try to use him against the Circle and Oranbega.

 

Good point. If anyone knows how, it's them. That's a great explanation for why the players have to get the ritual from the Circle in OPs idea. 

 

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, Forager said:

 

Good point. If anyone knows how, it's them. That's a great explanation for why the players have to get the ritual from the Circle in OPs idea. 

 

🙄

[Forager]

54 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Edit: All of which is moot anyway because the Echo zones are not considered active zones. They are there for nostalgic purposes.

 

No way! Nothing you said is moot. They're your thoughts and ideas... and they are never pointless because of someone else's limited imagination.