By Sarah "Evitta Jainrose" Fournier and Aiden "Ace" Emeric
A Splinter in the Heart of the Earth was a fantastic adventure, let me share my perspective on what you missed!
I arrived at the Church of Aurora on All Hallow’s Eve to see a rousing celebration had already begun. The church was filled with everything a good party needs: a bustling bar, an assortment of food, a casino, music, and a crowd. A magical aura emanated throughout the land, allowing the attendees to shape shift at will, so there were many entertaining creatures to behold, most notably a gigantic chicken. The Blackthorn Bar, operated by Alder with assistance from Grarr served up a wide variety of hot and cold drinks, all equally delicious. I found myself immediately drawn to the Chimeron Casino table, where I played Let It Ride to pass some time.
After a short while, the Queen of All Hallow’s Eve [the Hallowed Queen] made her entrance, formally welcoming us to her party. She excitedly introduced us to a famous bard she hired for the occasion, a quirky character named Merv. Merv had prepared a poem for the celebration, but as they concluded the performance with a chant of “Bagagwa, Bagagwa, Bagagwa!” [editor's note: The name Bagagwa had been used in the poem three times to act as a summoning tool by calling the name thrice innocuously], a figure appeared out of thin air and snatched the Queen’s crown off of her head! In shock, the Queen begged us to chase after the fiend and retrieve her crown, for all of her power was stored within it. Of course, us adventurers grabbed our swords and headed out into the night.
Within just a minute of walking, we ran into hostile creatures covered in candy. Since I was told there would be trick or treating on this night, I had a candy bucket equipped, and as we downed the creatures, I said “trick or treat!” and looted many-a-sweet off of them.
As we continued our journey down the path, we discovered a wizard alchemist in need of assistance. He wished to complete his potion, but was in need of a few ingredients including a fallen star, a pumpkin grown from a soul, a gift freely given, and a light. We excitedly went on our quests to collect the items, which didn’t take too long.
After we had gathered all that was needed, he informed us that he could not stir the potion without his special broom stick. We searched high and low for the broomstick, with trick or treaters harassing us for candy all the while, and discovered it in the hands of a 7-year old candy seeker. I asked if he would be willing to trade some candy for it, but he had grown quite attached to it. Someone else resorted to violence, and got final striked for their treachery. I asked the child why he liked the broom so much, and he said it made him feel safe, and there were scary things in the night. I assured him that if he lets the alchemist borrow the broom for just a moment, we would be able to make the land safe again. He begrudgingly agreed to give the broom back, but only if we agreed to play tag with him… I’m not a runner but I chased that kid down and tackled him to the ground. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough and he wanted to play 2 more times… I was too out of breath for that…
Anyway, someone played his game with him again, retrieved the broom, and brought it back to the alchemist. With relief, the alchemist took back his broom, and stirred the potion, illuminating the cauldron in beautiful colors. Finally, the potion was ready for consumption. As the questing party ate the potion (which became cupcakes), a commotion could be heard in the distance.
Merv had manifested before us, in a pentagram circle with spooky lights surrounding them and the Queen’s crown upon their head. Quickly, Styx disrupted all of the lights, and Merv was vulnerable, but knocked us back every time we tried to approach. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the Bagagwa appeared and swallowed Merv whole! It was quite the sight. The Bagagwa was a massive presence with a pumpkin for a head. We attacked the Bagagwa to no avail; its body was invulnerable. Finally a blow landed on the pumpkin head, and we realized what must be done. We rained strike after strike on that pumpkin head, until it exploded into a pile of candy! We picked up all of the candy, and the Queen’s crown, and made our journey back to the Church of Aurora to celebrate our win with drinks, hot food, and lots of socializing.
When we rose in the morning, we were greeted by a worshipper of Gaia by the name of Aspen. He informed us that Gaia had graced him with a vision the night before. A shard of the Progenitor’s Blade permeated her heart, causing all manner of chaos. The creatures of her grove were inflicted with uncontrolled growth magic, and we needed to retrieve the shard from her heart to grant Gaia and her creatures relief. Aspen led us to Gaia’s Grove within the basement of the Church of Aurora, where we found a seal with a symbol of Gaia. In order to open the seal, followers of Gaia needed to complete a ritual. Within the questing party, I was the only one who called themselves a follower of Gaia, but Traveller had recently become acquainted with her, and had vowed to serve her for a year, so they stepped up to the plate to complete the task. I stood for nature, Aspen stood for healing, and Traveller stood for the hunt, three of Gaia’s domains. We used our collective magics to open a crater in the earth, and one by one we jumped in.
We landed in the Chimeron city sewers… filled with rats. It was absolutely disgusting and Orion, if you’re reading this, please hire some sanitation workers. As we slew rat upon rat, we realized that to continue through the sewer tunnels, we would need to collect keys. It took forever, but we unlocked each tunnel one key at a time. Magnus and Kitty were integral to keeping the quest going, and diligently unlocked the majority of the tunnels. At one point, a few adventurers were sucked into a sewer rat abomination ball, and started hunting down the rest of the questing party. Nearly everyone was consumed and I watched on in horror. The sight of 20+ bodies congealed into a ball and rolling swiftly towards me honestly should’ve caused nightmares, but we persist. After a lot of stabbing, everyone was freed from the rat ball and we resurrected them to continue our quest.
When we broke out of the last tunnel, we were greeted by cave miners who needed our help getting their pickaxes back from some rude goblins. Sounds like an easy task, but it was rough! The goblins had a crazy power to make our limbs extremely heavy and practically unusable. The only way to break that curse was to hack away at our limbs 200 times. After getting afflicted with that a few times, I was wiped out, but eventually we were able to get the pickaxes, and get on our merry way.
Next we encountered a rushing underground river. Luckily we didn’t have to make our own boats, there were some ready for us! I hopped into a boat with Avendar, Pawldo, Nestra, Niamh, and Second, and we quickly sailed away. Goblins stalked us and tried to attack from the shore, and boulders fell from the caverns above us! Thankfully we escaped relatively unscathed, and made it to our next destination with the rest of the group.
At this destination, we were met with a pillar that had 5 empty seals, each inscribed with words written in High Auroran. Thank Gaia we had Magus Margaret with us! She didn't know what the words meant; she isn’t fluent in High Auroran. But she is super smart, and eventually worked out that the words were Birth, Growth, Life, Death, and Decay. The cycle of life. Makes sense!
Stone golems resided by the pillar, and told us that in order to pass, we must unlock all of the seals. Others in the party taught the stone golems about the joys of life, witnessed birth and witnessed growth. I spent most of my time speaking with an elder named Boulder, who had a deep connection with Gaia. Boulder told me that in order to unlock one of the seals, a great personal and permanent sacrifice was required. At this point, my very close friend and fellow Gaia devotee Twenaria arrived. After some contemplation, Twen and I decided that we would each sacrifice 50 soul points to unlock the seal. Others within the questing party were also willing to take on a similar burden on a smaller scale, and I am very grateful to them, but the sacrifice had to be larger than we initially gathered. This was a difficult and yet easy decision for Twen and I. We would both do anything for Mother Gaia. Our sacrifice was deemed worthy, and the seal of Death was obtained. Once Twen and I placed the seal, we sought out where many of our fellow adventurers had headed off to; a graveyard in the distance. This was where we’d find the seal of Decay.
The graveyard was swimming with undead, seemingly impossible to keep down. Twen and I called out to Mother to smite the unnatural foes, and we had a realization: we had to kill undead beings next to their gravestones to end their cycle of undeath, and begin their cycle of decay. We relayed that information to the rest of the group and quickly all of the undead were smote. Well, all except Zombithy (sounds like Timothy except he’s a zombie). Zombithy had been enslaved, I mean befriended by Jasper and Jasper had run off! So we shouted across the way to Jasper that he had to sacrifice his new friend, and that’s what happened. With all of the undead slain, the final seal was obtained and we were ready for one more ritual.
With Twen, Raindrop, Styx, Kitty, Traveller and I surrounding the pillar, we called out to Gaia once more, sharing our tales of the cycle of life and swearing to remove the Shard of the Progenitor’s Blade from her heart. With a whoosh, the 5 seals lit up, and the chamber was opened.
Within Gaia’s Heart, Gaia made her appearance. We approached her in awe. The feeling of seeing her before me was nearly indescribable. A joy unlike any joy I’d felt before. Like the first sip of the best hot apple cider after a long day in the cold. Or the feeling of a hug from your closest friend, only 1000 times better. She was adorned with beautiful fall leaves, and the kindest smile. But I couldn't help noticing a corrupted aura about her. The shard of the Progenitor’s blade had been spreading rampant growth uncontrollably, and she was unable to contain it because it is not of this plane. She asked us to retrieve the shard from her heart, and the questing party enthusiastically agreed to complete the task. We bid Mother farewell, and went off into the night.
Within the dark, we were met with a gigantic and monstrous creature, defending a terrifying hooded figure with a face that could only be described as mind-bending. It shone in 1000 different colors, ever-changing and confusing. I imagine that it was the Progenitor’s Blade’s power personified. The defender had incredible strength, killing anyone it hit with a single blow. We focused our attacks on it, and when we had stunned it, the Avatar became vulnerable. We alternated between killing the defender and the avatar, until finally, both fell. Left in the wake of the avatar was the shard that had caused the chaos we’d been facing all day. Not even 5 minutes after we collected the shard, we were surrounded by a new opponent.
They called themselves the Apostles of the End, led by Lieutenant Sylvain. They were there to collect the shard for their master, Morgan Aster. Many of us were apprehensive about this due to the extremely dangerous nature of the shard. It had corrupted Gaia and had the potential power to destroy the world if combined with the rest of the shards. Most of us had decided that the shard needed to be cleansed or destroyed. The Lieutenant agreed to allow us adventurers to cleanse the shard, but claimed that it could only be done with entropic magic, which none of us were willing to invoke. Margaret lead a fiery ritual to try and purify the shard, but it was disrupted by the Apostles, and unfortunately resulted in a lot of people turning into goo. I rushed in after the fact to try and revive Twen, but as I worked to heal her, the Lieutenant grabbed the Shard from the ground under me and ran off. I chased after him but don’t remember how that ended… Eventually my soul was retrieved and I was resurrected, but the Apostles were gone, nowhere to be seen. We couldn’t let them get away with the shard, it was too dangerous!
Raindrop invoked an awe-inspiring summoning power and Lieutenant Sylvain materialized before us, holding the Shard of the Progenitor’s Blade. We argued back and forth for a bit, the adventurers insisting that we take the shard as we had defeated its avatar and defender (and also we didn’t trust these people). Sir Avendar challenged the Lieutenant to honorable combat, and won. They seemed to reach an agreement to act honorably and truthfully, and the conversation continued with less hostility.
The adventurers and Sylvain talked and talked, but a resolution was hard to come by. Finally, it was suggested that this shard go to the Apostles, and that us adventurers would take the next one that surfaces. An agreement would be made that each party would be communicative about shards surfacing, and they would be split evenly between the Apostles and us. Considering that the Shard was placed within Gaia’s heart for over a year and was imbued with her power, I was not super thrilled about this idea. However, we needed to make our way out of the Heart of Gaia as the Apostles had invoked entropy to cleanse the shard themselves, and it resulted in some terrifying entropic creatures hunting us down.
With a tentative pact of peace, we all fled the Heart of Gaia and started making our way to the surface. Sylvain journeyed with us, and Twen and I got to know him a bit. We told him that we didn’t want a relic of Gaia to be lost, and we wished it to be brought to Gaia’s Grove to be wielded by Gaia’s Champion once they are named. He told us about his master, Morgan Aster, and explained that he didn’t have much of a sense of humor. If Sylvain returned to him without the shard, he would be as good as dead. Honestly, Sylvain was a very likeable guy, so we wanted to work it out. We requested an audience with his master, and the look on Sylvain’s face was pretty concerning. He didn’t want to piss off his master, but this was important to us! He said he would be able to arrange it. Honestly I was pretty nervous about what we would be facing, but don’t worry dear reader, we lived! I’m writing this article!
We traversed through the caverns, fighting entropic creatures along the way, and Twen and I contemplated what we would say to this terrifying Morgan Aster. I’m grateful to the adventuring party for getting us through the caverns because I didn’t do much to contribute here besides heal a bit and worry about how that conversation would go. After an arduous journey, we reached the Church of Aurora once more, where we found Laika and other followers of Aurora, including Makhta, had been overcome with entropic magic. They had to be slain and rendered soulless by a shard of the Progenitor’s Blade to be cleansed. Thankfully Pawldo with his shard dagger, and Jasper, borrowing the newest shard from Sylvain, took up their arms and completed the grisly task. With the entropic magic stopped, and our friends back to normal, the party’s quest was complete, and Twen and I braced ourselves to meet the Master.
His presence was intimidating, but his demeanor was surprisingly normal. He patiently listened as we explained our devotion to our Goddess, and our concerns about relinquishing the Shard of the Progenitor’s Blade which had become imbued with Gaia’s own magic. The adventurers had already agreed that this shard would go with the Apostles, but for us to let go of a piece of Gaia felt completely impossible. Graciously, the Master explained that he could remove all of the Gaian ties from the shard, so that her magic could be returned to her. Twen and I agreed, and watched as he conducted the ritual before us. With a sigh of relief, we bid farewell to Sylvain and Morgan, and took a nap on Mom’s lap (the ground).
I’m still exhausted just thinking about the events of the weekend, but I am ever so glad that I did not miss it. It is abundantly clear how dangerous the Progenitor’s Blade and Entropy are, and we must do everything we can to ensure that all of that power does not fall into the wrong hands. Although this missive is written from my perspective, I must stress that the things I did and witnessed were not all of the important parts of this story, and I’m sure I missed some things in the chaos. Countless adventurers stepped up to the plate to ensure our success. My sincerest thanks go out to all who journeyed to the Heart of Gaia to defend my Goddess and bring balance to the Grove once more. It is a kindness I will not soon forget.
May the ground underfoot be steady, and the wind be at your back,
Druid Evitta Jainrose Blackthorn
Captain of the Broken Spears
Squire to the Order of the Sable Dragon
Initiate to the Order of the Lunar Aegis
