The Soul of the Lungs
Things remaining to do:
Make an encounter chart for each of the locations.
Make notes on the factions and races they will meet.
Links: Planescape_Campaign
(Sigil-PG 153), Planes_of_Law
(Arcadia-PG 138)
The soul is the reprsentation of Joy. This is the impression to give
everyone. Once they arrive in Arcadia, it will be as if they walked
into a happy dream. Even when they are threatened by guards or have
hostile encounters on the road, it will be "right", nothing will seem
out of place or cause them concern. When they overcome a difficulty,
they will be elated and feel they are lucky to be so powerful. Remember:
LIFE IS BUT A JOYOUS DREAM!
The soul of the lungs is located on the Outer plain of Arcadia
This is intended to be a very short adventure. It is one mostly of
travel. The bulk of the exciting events will be from random or
psudo-random encounters. Thus the random encounter chart will be
critical to the success of the journey. There will be no challenge to
Beourn as he claims the soul portion of his lungs which are guarded by
the ruler of the realm Heliopolis. The party will only be able to find
the entrance to this plane in Mandible, a city populated by Formians, a
form of upright walking ants with 4 limbs.
The journey will follow this path:
From Sigil (the party has a couple of ways of getting there) to
Mandible via a key they will have to find and purchase. They will leave
Mandible and go through the tunnel through the mountains seperating the
first level from the second level of Arcadia called Buxenus. Next they
will travel via land road through Azuth south to Heliopolis. From there
they will travel the fine road to Memphiria. Here they need to find
Khallis Mhektis, the ruler of this city. They will petition him
to release the soul of the lungs to Beourn. Once Khallis examines
Beourn and determins who he is, he will immediatly release the lungs to
him and ask Beourn to remember who it was who helped him. Below are
schetches of the events that will occur in each of the locations they
visit. There should be an encounter chart specifically for each of
these locations.
Encounters
Arcadia: Roll 2d4
1 - Busen - Black skinned shapechanging guardians of the passages to
the 2nd layer
2 - Formian - Ant-Men
3 - Patrol of Mixed Paritioners
4 - Harmonium Patrol
5 - Humans
6 - Dwarves
7 - Pet's of Petitioners
8 - Adventurer Party
Sigil
The party always has a good time here and an encounter to introduce
them to the city guard (the Harmonium) should occur. They will
have money to spend and a unique place to spend it so don't hurry this
part of the adventure. They will need to find and buy a key to take
them to Mandible on the plane of Arcadia. Beourn will pay for the
key. They will hear of changes in the Prime Material plane that
no one can account for. This will begin the lead in to 3rd edition.
Mandible
Once they use the key and arrive in Mandible, Beourn and Ulla will
undergo a personality change (big surprise!). Beourn will become more
fatherly and protctive of the group. He will tell them how much they
mean to him, how much he values their help and how rich and powerful
they will be when he comes into his own. He will instantly know where
the soul part is and how to get there. They will have to meet and ask
the Formians for directions to Memphiria. There will be an encounter
with Formian Harmonium troops. They will accost Ulla and arrest him for
"wrong thinking". He is sentenced at court to a week of mental
rehabilitation. Beourn will demand that the party take rooms in
Mandible and wait for his release. After his release, Ulla is a changed
man. He has abandoned his stance on neutrality and become totally
Lawful Good and a true Paladin of 12th level. He radiates the joy of
love for all as does Beourn. They greet each other as long lost
friends. Ulla appologizes for all the horrible things he did while he
was insane and Beourn forgives him and thanks Ulla for all the times he
was a pain when he was old.
The party will have to be careful that the non-good members of the
party are not arrested for the same thing Ulla was caught for. They
will have to stay in their rooms playing games of chance while the good
people buy their food and stuff.
The Road to Heliopolis
There is a broad paved road from Mandible to the tunnel that leads to
Buxenus. The entrance to the tunnel is heavily guarded. This is the
place where the party will have the most problems. The non-good members
will have to swear mighty oaths to the head of the guards. If they
break the oath, any guards they see from then on will know they have
broken it and will be immediatly arrested.
The tunnel is brightly lit by floating light globes of all colors of
the rainbow. The caves look like they are natural, but are laid out in
such a way that they have a soothing, uplifting effect. While in the
tunnel, the party will be supremly happy and will never get tired or
hungry or thirsty. They will want to sing and dance as they move
through it. Make every effort to have Beourn and Ulla acting
unnaturally happy and cheerful. They will be amusing, humorous and
helpful in every way they can. This feeling of elation will stick
with them even after the come out of the tunnel and begin walking down
the road to Mepheria. The guards at the Boxinus side of the tunnel will
not harass them, but will require them to sign a travellers log. They
won't meet much on the road here, but everyone they meet will be
helpful and invite them to dinners and such. The party should be
careful about acceptiing these invitations as the non-good members
would be noticed which will make the natives begin attemting to convert
them in a non-threatening way.
Heliopolis
This area is more heavily populated than the road. Most of the natives
will be typical of egyptians. There will be lots of pyramids about, but
most of the people live in tents. Anyone will be happy to direct them
to Mepheria. Beourn will lead them to where the soul part is. It is in
the dungeons under the palace of this realms ruler. Beourn will simply
march up to the entrance and tell the guards he must see the king as
something of his is being held within the palace. It will take a while
for them to be admitted. Once inside, Beourn will speak directly to the
king and within an hour or so, the item will be brought up from it's
resting place which is along the realms other treasures and magical
items. The soul part is a small statuette of a androginous dancing
figure about 2' high. Everything about the statue says "Joy!" It makes
one happy just to see it. The more you look at it, the more meserizing
it appears. Looking at it for more than a minute will have the average
person weaping for joy.
Through his tears, Beourn will clutch it to his chest like a father
hugging his child and it will slowly seem to move through his skin. In
a minute, it will have dissappeared into Beourn's chest. Beourn will
wipe his tears and take a deep breath. He will say "Let's go home". The
party has the means of leaving this plane and returning home without
assistance.
Description of Arcatia
Standing on the slope of Arcadia’s tallest peak, it’s easy
to see why this plane is known as the Land of Perfect
Good. Everything here radiates peaceful order. Forests
grow in neat rows, more like orchards than wild woods.
On the plains, grasses grow to only a certain height.
Wildflowers grow in self-defined beds of color, one
never intruding on the other. Fields are geometrically
perfect and towns are laid out in neat squares. Even day
and night are ordered and perfect. All light and dark-
ness comes from an orb set in the top of Arcadia’s
tallest peak. Half this sphere radiates starry darkness
and the other half emits gleaming sunshine. The orb revolves in a
regular 24-hour day. Light changes to dark
abruptly there is no dusk or dawn and each change
signals the beginning or end of another perfect day.
Arcadia is a land of fields, orchards, and woods.
Throughout, there are the perfect forms of beneficial
and peaceful animals from the Prime Material. Even the
animals here reflect the goal of Arcadia organization
for the common good. Nectar-laden bees, industrious
ants, silver-wooled sheep, fat deer, gleaming foxes, and
other creatures that watch and protect their own are
common here.
This plane is one of the most hostile to evil sods.
Squadrons of petitioner militia regularly patrol the
land, seeking out anyone evil. All Arcadian petitioners
can know alignment at will, and travelers are always
questioned as to their alignment. Lawful-good creatures
are invited to join such hunts, chaotic goods are tolerated as long as
they don’t disturb the public order, neutrals of all types are stiffly
requested to finish their
business and leave, while evil types are instantly attacked. For the
petitioners of Arcadia, it’s no failure to
fall when fighting evil.
Arcadia is said to have three layers, though only
the uppermost is known, perhaps due to the difficulty
of dealing with the Arcadian militia.
SPECIAL MAGIC CONDITIONS. The creatures of this
plane (but not petitioners) are immune to illusions and
phantasms. Likewise, a natural animal of this plane
isn’t affected by a prime’s spell that might summon or
control its counterpart on the Prime Material.
NATIVE INHABITANTS. Deva, einheriar militia, giant
versions of normal creatures, hollyphant, and t’uen-rin
inhabit Arcadia. Because of their immunity to illusions, Arcadian
hounds are prized as watchdogs.