After discovering Kamikaze Midget's Final Fantasy Zero Design Diary on EN World, I got a really barmy idea: why not take KM's concept and put it in the Planescape setting? After recieving some encouragement from KM, I posted the story-hook for a PS/FFZ campaign. Since it has been a while since KM made a new Design Dairy entry, I haven't gotten any feedback on my post. So I decided to repost my story-hook here.
The hook is broken down into three segments. "Hearsay" is a brief summary of what the State of the Multiverse is. "The chant," which is only partly finish-is a discussion between two bloods that goes into greater detail on the current state of affairs. "The dark" goes a bit behind the scenes, as well as suggest where the PCs might come into play.
Comments and Suggestions are always welcome.
Hearsay
It is the tenth year of the Lady's Edict. The year the Great Wheel Broke.
Limbo is gone, its contents-and chaos-spilling out over the the other Outer Planes. Slaadi and Githerzai are scattered everywhere, and planer borders that were once relatively stable shift freely.
And that's only the beginning, berk.
The Norse Power Baldur is dead. Fimbulwinter has fallen over Ysgard. The World Ash is dying. Ragnorok is not far away, and its combatants seem keen on involving as many cutters as possible.
On Mount Olympus, Zeus' sexual adventures have gotten out of hand. No one's giving details, but it's bad. How bad, you ask? Bad enough to sound the trumpets of war across the Upper Planes.
An eerie silence has fallen across the battlegrounds of the Blood War. Baatezu armies and Tanar'ri hordes have suddenly ceased their endless fighting, and now wait nervously for...something. Mabye it has to do with the Titans breaking free of the Red Prison? Or perhaps its the mysterious force that now besiges Tir Na Og? The fiends are keeping quiet about it, that's for sure.
And in the City of Doors, the one factor that enforced the peace-the Lady of Pain-has vanished. Of course, no one can say that She is really gone, but no one has seen Her in 5 years, and upstart cutters are no longer getting flayed and mazed. In Her absense, the Factions have returned to the Cage in full force. Without the Lady, another Faction War seems inevitable. Meanwhile, the Dabus are taking matters into their own hands, killing sods left and right.
The Multiverse is changing, and nobody can say what it will change into.
The Chant
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting on such short notice, Patriarch Tellonus," the traveller said as he greeted the high-up of the Olympian Parthenon in the Lady's Ward with a respectful bow. "I know these have to be trying times for you and your brethren in Sigil." The tall, well built man wore a full-length cloak that half-hid his Hellenic tunic. Now in the temple's sanctum, the traveller did not have to worry about drawing unwanted attention.
The leader of Zeus' congregation in Sigil-and by extention, the Cage's highest ambassador from Mount Olympus-gave the traveller an almost-reverent bow. Tellonus felt the thunderheads clouding the Parthenon lift, if only momentarily. The Aasimar priest had lived through a number of desperate situations before and had faith the gods would answer his call for help again, but never in his barmiest dreams could he have imagined this.
"Welcome to Sigil, Odysseus, son of Laertes." Tellonus' face glowed as the words left his mouth. The legendary sojurner did not miss the delight in the Patriarch's voice, or the hint of relief in his breath. "Would you like something to drink? I have Dionysian Wine in the temple cellar."
"Mabye later," the proxy of Athena declined with a smile. "I would much prefer to discuss matters with a clear mind."
"Of course, Lord Odysseus," Tellonus said as he tempered his emotions. Though the visit was a joyous occasion, the cause of the visit certainly was not. Outside the temple walls, the balance of the Multiverse was in jeapordy. For now, though, hope prevailed over despair in Tellonus's heart. Odysseus' visit was proof the Powers of Olympus would not stand idle in the face of catastrophe. "How may I serve the gods?"
"Although much has changed in the past few years, the gods cannot see into the City of Doors," Odysseus explained. "They still need the clergy to act as their eyes and ears in the Cage. But the reports have been conflicting. Recent events on the Great Circle make it even harder for Olympus to sort truth from screed. Wisdom is only as good as what can be perceived. Pallas Athena instructed me to come to Sigil and return with as much of the dark of what is happening inside Sigil as I can uncover in 4 days. I would much appreciate your input, because your loyalty to the gods of Olympus is unquestioned." The one-time King of Ithica paused to let his words sink in. "From you, Tellonus, I ask for all that you know to be true about this crisis."
The Patriarch sensed that Odysseus was leaving something unsaid, but trusted that he had good reasons for doing so. "Where do you want me to start?"
"When was the last time anyone saw the Lady of Pain?" Odysseus asked.
Tellenous thought for a few seconds. "The last confirmed sighting was 5 years ago, shortly before the murder of Baldur."
Odysseus lifted an eyebrow. "And no one noticed her absense until now?"
"It's sodding crazy, I know" Tellonus admitted. "But the Lady has no office or residence, as I'm sure you know. The Dabus and the Advisory Council continued to keep the Cage running. Besides, no berk ever wants to see the Lady-unless they're clueless. Folks just went about their daily routines."
"So what happened that caused everyone to notice?"
"There were whispers in the underworld, right about when the portals to Limbo stopped working. It seems as though some common tricks for bobbing the Clueless-like suggesting that Her Serenity was a local goddess-were not getting sods flayed anymore. Everyone at the time assumed it was nothing but barmy talk. And then came the Valhalla Day Massacre..." Tellenous looked away as the memories of that day tore at his heart. Though the Norse and Greek pantheons were rivals, he had a great deal of personal and professional respect for the Asgard's clergy in the Cage. A few he could have called friends, but never did out of respect for the status quo. Now, the chance was gone forever.
One of the Olypian adepts was across from the Norse Feasthall, the heart of Asgardian life in Sigil, on that fateful day. According to her terrified testimony, she saw a figure dressed in black walk into the Feasthall as the Valhalla Day celebrations, famous for its profuse level of bub-drinking and drunken brawling, got started at peak. Two daggers strapped to his belt were the only visible arms he carried. The adept said she noticed something...strange...about the dark figure, but couldn't put her finger on it until it was too late.
As he crossed the threshold of the Feasthall, a curtain of flame roared to life, forming a hemispheric shell around the building. The festivities came to a halt. Above the roar of the flame, the crowd could hear the sound of battle and death. A few outsiders who could not be harmed by fire decided to pass through the fiery curtain. None walked back out. For hours, the Feasthall was cacooned in fire. Only as dusk fell on the Cage did the wall of fire die out, leaving behind a Feasthall annointed in blood.
The huge crowd surrounding the building backed away as the black figure emerged from the scene of the massacre. As he walked, he wiped the blood from one dagger while whistling an Asgardian drinking song. This time, the now-mortified adept recognized what bothered her when she first saw him. Several other bloods in the crowds noticed it too-the unmistakable pressence carried by those of strong enough convictions to earn the personal endorsement of a Deity.
In spite of everything they knew about the Cage, there was no denying who the killer's identity was:
The Hand of Loki.
"There is one other thing I should mention, Lord Odysseus," Tellonus recomposed himself once he finished retelling the events of the massacre to the great wayfarer. "At the time of the Massacre, someone vandalized the largest statue of the Lady of Pain in Sigil. The 18ft tall statue was completely covered in highly complex rebus carvings. Investigators estimate that there was at most a 2 hour window for someone to have made those carvings without being noticed. Since the statue was carved from Elemental marbel, such a job would have been no mean feat."
"Have the carvings been interpreted?" Odysseus asked.
Tellonus shook his head. "Too many of the symbols defy interpretation. The carvings were noticed because a large gathering of Dabus was surrounding the statue shortly after the massacre. They made no effort to repair it, but studied the carvings until antipeak. Since then, several cross-traders have been hired by the dabus to put a bunch of cagers in the dead-book." The patriarch leaned closer to the proxy. "They've even been seen murdering sods on their own!" he hissed.
"What kind of cagers are they?"
"That's the dark of it-there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the killings. The only similarity is that the folks getting scragged are not likely to have a lot of enemies out to get them-just regular working beings who mind their own business."
Odysseus eyes narrowed as his mind worked at the mystery. He resolved to look do some investigating himself before returning to Olympus. "Have any more proxys openly endangered Sigil since the massacre?" he asked.
"Behind the scenes, there are a few that I know for sure, and whispers of many more. But there have been no public bloodbaths," Tellonus answered. "At the moment, everyone is more worried about another Faction War than they are about the Powers-"
"When did the factions return, anyway?" Odysseus interrupted.
"The Advisory Council of Sigil knew they had to take action in response to the Massacre. None of them thought the existing City Guard was a match for a marauding proxy, and they didn't want to impose the taxes required to make them a match. After a lot of arguing, they decided to invite the Athar to return to Sigil in order to keep the peace.
"Why the Athar? It may be divine bias speaking, but the Defilers don't seem the type suited for maintaining law and order."
"The idea at the time was that someone was needed to keep the powers from bringing their fighting into Sigil," the Patriarch explained, his eyes half rolling at the way events actually turned out. "With Baldur dead, many bloods are betting that Ragnorok is just around the corner. The Council knew that if that conflict spilled into the Cage, the entire city could be destroyed. Because they were hostile to all deities, the Council believed the Athar would show no favorites in carrying out their duty. Unfortunately, Chairwoman Rhys was off somewhere else, or else she might have warned the Advisory Council against making such a decision."
"What the short-sighted berks didn't see was that by inviting the Lost to come back, they effectively nullified the Lady's Edict." The patriarch shook his head. "Even as the Athar were settling into the Barracks, Sigil was hit with a mass migration of factioners. Their fear of the Lady has vanished, and so they fight openly to control Sigil. No place is safe from attack; gangs of factioners roam their perspective neighborhoods, each pressing their own agenda or fighting off incursions by rivals. And unlike the Faction War, the leaders aren't being mazed left and right, which many interpret as an indication that its fine to pick up their fights where they left off."
"Which factions are the strongest right now?" Odysseus inquired.
Tellonus gave a long sigh. "At the moment, the Doomguard and the Sodkillers seem to be pulling the most weight. All the other factions are too paranoid of each other to stand against them. Even long-time allies like the Guvners and Hardheads are now mistrustful." He paused for a second, letting the weight of recent events settle on the room. "As hard as it may be to imagine, though, it could be worse."
"How so?"
"When the factions returned, Many were afraid the Blood War was going to spread from beyond the Hive and into every Ward in Sigil. But so far, the Baatezu and Tanar'ri still tolerate the other inside the Cage." Optimism crept back into Tellonus' voice. "Perhaps Her Serenity has not vanished altogether, or else why would the fiends be holding back?"
Odysseus turned his head towards a statue of Zeus. Tellonus began to worry if he was not the only blood in the room with bad news to give. Just what was is that Odysseus didn't want to tell him? "Is something wrong, Lord Odysseus?"
"The gods also think She is lurking somewhere," Odysseus began slowly, "but not for the reason you just gave. T he 'truce' between the fiends has more to do with the upheavals on the Great Wheel. Even Mount Olympus is in turmoil."
Tellonus' eyes went wide. "Olympus? Wh-my Lord, w-what do you mean by that?"
There was a long pause as the proxy summoned the strength to say the words he knew would shatter the Patriarch's heart. In his mind, he whispered a prayer to the father of his grey-eyed patron. Comfort his soul, mighty Zeus. And forgive him if he goes astray.
He then looked at Tellonus, who was waiting anxiously. "Hera has fled from Olympus."
To be continued...