Into the Chasm - Episode 1

Drawn by omens around the Great Chasm, five adventurers and a terrified Zimkovan woman are torn from the world by an impossible ice storm and awaken on a lone platform in Zeyfa’s Labyrinth, where ice wolves, wind-shaped shades, and chasm wisps test their resolve before they choose to leap into a maze that may be the only way out.

Timeline

• 1729 DR, August: An orcish horde led by a fierce warrior calling herself the Ravager of Winter rampages out of the Sentinels and across northern Zimkova
• Aug 28, 1729 DR: An army of dwarves from Nidzahar, and a substantial Stoneborn company, defeat the Ravager in the forests east of the Berze
• 1729 DR, autumn: Scattered remains of the Ravager’s horde spread south and east, plaguing Breva
• 1729 DR, fall and winter: Strange omens emerge from the Great Chasm: a summer thunderstorm, out of season in October; a sandstorm, thick and dry, with scorching heat, in November; a boulder of volcanic stone, aflame with green fire, which tumbles down the rapids and floats to the Green Sea; a rainbow of glass that shatters into a hundred thousand pieces, in December; a living sheet of ice that drifts down the Teft like a predator, leaving dead fish and frozen banks in its wake, soon after.
• Jan 02, 1730 DR - Jan 07, 1730 DR: The sky above the Great Chasm turns black, blotting out the sun.
• Jan 08, 1730 DR: The Vejo Vaikai gather some of their wisest mystics, led by Eidrikas, Ekko’s mentor, and protected by Pakrinek, one of the warriors of Kemeko, to investigate strange happenings in the Great Chasm.
• Jan 16, 1730 DR: A cloud of superheated steam obscures the Great Chasm near Kemeko Monastery; fog and mist rise from the depths
• Jan 22, 1730 DR: Kalima emerges from Great Chasm, apparently climbing the cliff face near Kemeko Monastery. She is terrified of the kenku and will not speak to them.
• Jan 25, 1730 DR, afternoon: Ekko, Finnan, Jrain, Justas, Eolo, and Kalima are pulled by an unnatural storm into the Great Chasm. Landing on an ice floe, they survive an attack by ice wolves, introduce themselves to each other, and prepare to explore.

Cast of Characters

• Kalima (kah-LEE-mah; she/her, the Zimka human): a terrified Zimkovan survivor and the party’s only clear guide to the maze.
• Rala (RAH-lah; she/her, hawk beast): Jrain’s bird companion, battered by the fall and sent to scout the snow chamber.
• Zeyfa (ZAY-fah; spirit): cruel west wind and ruling power named over the labyrinth.
• Eidrikas (AYD-ree-kahs; he/him, human): missing mystic and Ekko’s mentor tied to the vanished expedition.
• Pakrinek (PACK-ree-neck; kenku): missing Kemeko companion named among the lost investigators.

Places

• Great Chasm (chasm in Zimkova, Greater Sembara): vast chasm where the worsening omens culminate in the storm that sweeps the party away.
• Zeyfa’s Labyrinth (ZAY-fahz LAB-uh-rinth; labyrinth in Zeyfa’s Realm): hostile maze of ice, wind, bridges, and snow tunnels that begins with the floating platform where the party wakes after the fall. Session context includes: floating ice platform suspended in darkness and with bridges leading deeper into a maze…

Narrative

For generations, the Great Chasm has split Zimkova, an endless cleft of strange lights, impossible structures, gravity-defying winds, and unseasonable growths. As our adventure begins, months of ominous signs have issued from the Great Chasm, bringing uncertainty and fear to the people of Zimkova. When the sky above the chasm turns black for five days, the Vejo Vaikai send an expedition of mystics protected by Kemeko warriors to investigate. They do not return; instead, a strange woman speaking Old Zimkovan emerges from the Great Chasm. These events draw five adventurers – Jrain, Justas, Finnan, Ekko, and Eolo – to the edge of the Great Chasm, where a sudden and unnatural whiteout storm drags them and the Zimkovan woman down into the Chasm. As they fall through the blowing whiteness and plummet into the unknown, each struggles to hold on to their gear and whatever else they can save.

They awaken on an ice platform, apparently floating in a black void, the false sky of a shrieking white storm overhead. Dim blue light glows from inside the platform, revealing two bridges leading off into darkness and a large frozen statue of a wolf before each bridge. Finnan plays a simple melody on his clay pipe, illuminating the platform. Eolo snaps to standing with both crossbows drawn, Ekko lowers a wing to restrain Eolo from panicked action, Justas rises defensively with axe and shield, and Jrain regains her poise standing beside the young Zimkovan woman she tried to protect during the fall. The woman is dressed in unfamiliar leathers and furs, terrified, and only speaks Old Zimkovan; when Finnan sings to calm her, the wind nearly steals his voice, but the spell settles her. As he starts to question the woman, Eolo approaches one of the frozen ice statues of a giant wolf.

The wolf begins to move as Eolo approaches, gathering itself to pounce. Eolo tries a telekinetic shove and fires crossbow bolts, but the guardian gets the better of the exchange, knocking him down, biting into his throat, and leaving an icy shard pulsing in his neck. Ekko takes the shape of a polar bear, cracking the other wolf’s shell of ice, while Jrain puts arrows into the first guardian. Justas steps into the fight with axe, shield, and a conjured Spiritual Weapon. Finnan’s music and calming magic keep panic from breaking into unchecked fear. As the battle proceeds, wind-shades sweep in from the darkness: one terrible shriek drops the Zimkovan woman unconscious on the ice. The first wolf shatters, and chasm wisps spill out of it, drawn to light. They snuff Finnan’s magical glow, and leave the party fighting by the platform’s dim blue light, trying to shove Finnan toward the edge. As Justas and Eolo weather the wolves’ bites and the party finally defeats the platform guardians, Finnan brings the Zimkovan woman back with a healing word.

After the last wisp is gone, quiet falls on the ice platform. With the last of his calming magic, Finnan turns back to the woman, asking for information in Old Zimkovan. Looking at the ice bridges, the woman realizes with despair that she is back in Zeyfa’s Labyrinth, from which no one escapes. Fighting her despair, Finnan coaxes old stories from her with music. She speaks of her people, who came generations ago to hide from a cataclysm that changed the earth; they found Zeyfa already waiting and demanding appeasement. The only way out, she says, shaking with terror, is to proceed deeper into the maze, towards the beast. Panicked, she collapses. Trying to exude calm, Finnan summons an illusion of a small hearth, and Justas searches his charms for one of Romil’s tokens, which he makes glow with the light of the Kestavo. Scared but steadied, the woman clutches the glowing token while singing an unfamiliar lullaby.

As the woman steadies herself by the illusory, but calming, hearth, Finnan turns from her to the others, introduces himself as Finnan Oakstride, and retells her tale: before Drankor, when much of the land was swamp, as The Downfall reshaped the world her people fled into this place, and became trapped in its maze. The strangers then speak of their own journeys that brought them here, before the conversation turns to what the group knows of the chasm, Kemeko, the Kestavo, and Zeyfa. When Jrain asks the woman what appeases the West Wind, Finnan gently draws her back into the conversation, calming her confusion over what he is and then receiving the answer: when the sun sets and the new ones are old enough, the West Wind demands that one of her people be sent into its labyrinth as a sacrifice.

The conversation stretches into a short rest. Finnan looks for magic, but apart from Justas’s shield nothing on the platform or in the false sky gives a clean signature. Meanwhile the cloud presses lower, the wind howls harder, and the woman curls in on herself, saying the beast does not like waiting. The group tests the platform for means of escape, but are rebuffed. An object dropped straight down is blown violently back; Eolo and Ekko leaping into the void only confirms that the updraft makes escape by flight impossible. With little choice, the party decides to brave the bridges, the maze, and the beast. When Finnan asks, the woman introduces herself as Kalima, and tells the party that all paths lead to the beast. She only escaped by luck, after finding an earthen tunnel and digging through it. Justas and Finnan argue that she is safer with them than left on the platform alone; she agrees to come if she can stay between them, and the group sets out across the bridge into the snowy maze.

Combat

Ice Platform Battle. The fight erupts when the frozen wolves awaken and escalates through wind-shades and chasm wisps before the party stabilizes Kalima and secures the platform.