Prologue Campaign - The Advent

Adventure Introduction
The continent of Carmia has a turbulent history. About roughly a millennia ago, the world was a different place. Empress Mormo, now known and despised as the Witch Tyrant, unified and conquered enough land under her name to become grand ruler over Carmia. The United Imperium she created was an empire of unprecedented size. It possessed tremendous power and gave birth to discoveries which today's researchers can only dream to understand, yet it was just as unstable as Mormo's own mind. The Empress was obsessed with unavailing the hidden truths about the world and used any means possible to forcefully keep the realm together and her dubious experiments going. The goal she was so recklessly perusing remained a mystery to this day. But it is save to assume that fruits of her work must have caused the Great Cataclysm.

The Great Cataclysm marks year 0 of the current era. A reality shattering surge of arcane energy erupted from the old capital. With an event of nearly apocalyptic scale, the United Imperium fell apart. Although new realms rose from the ashes and civilisation recovered, the Great Cataclysm has left it's mark on Carmia. Especially in the form of the Scar: A dangerous zone which remained strongly afflicted by the Cataclysm. It is filled with unexplainable phenomena, dreadful horrors and treasure alike.

Lots of Mormo's discoveries where hidden away, but many adventurers set out after the Great Cataclysm to get their hands on the lost artifacts and secrets of the Witch Tyrant. Different nations and eccentric individuals host expeditions into the Scar, but none of their achievements come close to those of House Venatio. This family is known for training the best delvers, for venturing deeper in the corrupted land than anyone else and for owing an impressive collection of powerful relics. It is their mission to retrieve and research the different anomalies of the Scar and to help with the protection of the outside world from hostile forces within.

There are a few legendary delvers, famed explorers who achieved world changing feats. Among those currently active is Luciano “the Advent” Venatio, son of the current head of the Venatio household. When he and his team set out for their latest expedition, nobody imagined anything else but the usual success.

Something went terribly wrong. Months passed. They didn't return. Rescue teams consisting of the most experienced agents of house Venatio were sent out. The search went without a trace for a long time. It only changed when a group of rookie delvers stumbled upon the remains of one of Luciano's team members. It seems like the missing expedition deviated from their original route quite a bit. The lead was on but a completely new area would have to be searched. With most of their best professionals still inside the Scar, house Venatio send a plea to all kinds of adventurers resilient and trusted enough to assemble one more rescue team.

Introduction
The landscape after the cataclysm became just as twisted as the surrounding nature. Portions of land inside the Scar sunk into the ground, as if caverns below had collapsed. This left behind deep chasms and steep cliffs, especially around the borderlands. The town of Farwall is build on the edge of a cliffside, overlooking the old forest inside the Scar, grown over even older ruins. The delver's guildhouse and the adjacent Venatio estate are situated there. It was here where five people met each other, all following Venatio's call for help:

Mettsow, a wise and well-trained goblin martial-artist from Youmon. It seemed he signed in for this mission because he connected to a member of the missing Advent-Team.

Lihim, a strange man living inside the Scar. Although he shows strong symptoms of corruption, he seemed to know his ways through this part of the Scar better than anyone else. His actions likely saved the lives of many delvers. He used to be only mentioned in the anomaly & artifact catalogs before, but got registered as a delver for this task.

Ethan, a professional monster slayer from Garomore, blessed with divine magic. He worked with Venatio in the past, hunting threats that try to wander outside of the Scar.

Polymnia, the private tutor and guardian of Dorothea – the daughter of the Advent. Although she has never ventured inside the Scar before, she has studied reports of it and possesses a talent for magic.

And Scrapper, a drunkard but still a veteran. He allegedly wields strong sorcerous powers and has been delving for about 3 decades. The party was told it is better to have a fool that gives in to indulgence rather than working with a diligent but obsessed delver, since it's the latter one that gets easily swallowed by the Scar.

Preparations in Farwall
They met for a briefing with Tonino, an agent of Venatio that is responsible for expedition-management. He told them how the remains of a member of the missing Advent-Team has been found near The Silent Crypts – a place believed to be comparatively save and a favored location for delver camps, but recently avoided after a series of disappearing delvers in the area. The rescue team must now venture there and search for more clues, all while avoiding to fall victim to Mormo's corruption.

The team has only two weeks for their rescue effort because an echo of the cataclysm, a reoccurring phenomena that can be described as a weak version of the historical Cataclysm, is approaching. Without proper shelter, outsiders are unlikely to survive. Their mission would also be cancelled if one members becomes afflicted by a symptom of corruption simply known as the Whisper.

Dorothea was listening in on the briefing while hiding under the table. Polymnia caught up with her and tried to cheer her up, promising she would do her best to find the Advent. The girl mentions that her father always wanted to reach the center of the Scar, despite the current prohibition by Venatio's patriarch to venture this deep. The only way to reach the center would be to cross the anomaly known as The Wandering Mind, which even veteran delvers are forbidden to enter.

Meanwhile, Mattsow tried to ask other delvers about his old friend, an elf named Mia. The low-rank delver he asked just gushed over the achievements of the Advent-Team and told him that Mia rose in the rank from novice to professional very quickly, as if she has been delving for a long time.

Scrapper, in the mood for some fun before their descend, caught up with Mattsow and pressured him into entering “the fun zone”. He dragged the goblin into a brawler-pub known as "The Alepit", a place where delvers can vent their stress. Annoyed, Mattsow made a snide remark, which led to one brawler challenging him to a pitfight. There is only one rule in the pit: You can only enter after you drank 5 rounds. The goblin monk didn't even need to fight, since he managed to drink the his opponent under the table. After Mattsow brought the man with some acupressure back to his senses (and also doing the same for the hammered Scrapper), the man told him about rumors regarding the Silent Crypts. It is said that a humanoid-looking spider roams around and that it's victims simply vanish. No corpses, no gear, nothing left behind.

Tonino heard that Scrapper dragged Mattsow away and asked the others to look after them. Luckily, there was not much need for intervention since all problems were solved by drinking. But Lihim seemed very uncomfortable with the fistfights in the pit.

After a nights rest, the team got served a lavish breakfast and then underwent one more medical examination, followed by a Whisper-Test, to prove they aren't afflicted by the most dreaded symptom of the corruption.

Polymnia wanted to say goodbye to Dorothea, which was hiding in the luggage meant for the expedition. The tutor explained to the little girl why she would have to stay at the guildhouse/estate and she should leave things to her. Dorothea admitted that she found a useful artifact, three pearls of Eruptive Radiance, when she was secretly rummaging through her father's study. The girl said if she can't use it, the rescue party should it take it with them. But it had to stay a secret, since the house Venatio wouldn't want unauthorized people to have dangerous artifacts.

A Ceremony-of-Descend was held during sunrise. The temple bells chimed while a priest prayed for protection from the Great Curators and the guiding light of The Seeker. Tonino gave each teammember a farewell gift: A healing potion, a bottle of laudanum and a Venatio jackknife that identifies them as delvers on an important mission.

First steps inside the Scar
The party descended with a mechanical-lift into the wilds of the Scar. Since the Scar seems to be always changing and maps made by explorers can look very different from each other, these lands is difficult to navigate through. Or at least it would normally be, but Lihim's skills and guidance allowed the team to progress at an uncanny speed.

The party managed to avoid dangerous beasts, but was stopped when they were crossing through a narrow pass and could not evade a pack of wolfs heading into the opposite direction. Mattsow recognised the animals as normal wolves, unafflicted by any strange affect, and used his knowledge of handling beasts to convince them that they meant no harm.

When they had to cross a wide river with a exceptionally strong current, the team easily resolved it by building a makeshift crossing, using pitons, ropes and Mage Hand.

Later, the party came across a wide meadow, filled with beautiful white flowers. None of them was able to identify their species. When Polymnia used her Mage Hand again to pick a few, a large cloud of pollen burst from them and the team decided to rather take the long route around the meadow.

At the Silent Crypts
The rescue party arrived at the Silent Crypts just after the sun had set. After some arguing, they decided to camp inside one of the crypts and put up traps at the entrances. There was no visible danger inside. Just the feeling of cobwebs sticking to their bodies, but it was impossible to see them. Ethan remembered a folk tale about a poor puppeteer that sold his soul to a devil and was granted the power to control humans with invisible strings. In the story, the puppeteer ended up becoming more and more monstrous and and began to devour the humans instead of just swindling them.

After the team went to sleep, strange things began to happen. A shriek for help pierced through the night. The party was alerted, but they decided to stay at their camp. Lihim however seemed to be troubled with the fact of leaving those pleas be. The screaming stopped after a while, but they wouldn't let their guard down yet. Polymnia and Ethan kept themselves calm by talking about their home and families. Another humanoid voice came back soon, shouting and loudly talking, revealing that it knew about the teams presence inside the crypt. This wouldn't be a good night.

Fight with the Puppeteer
The party wouldn't be lured out by the provoking voices and screams from outside. Polymnia send her Unseen Servant out to report how many creatures would wait a the Crypt's entrance. It seemed to be only one. Soon after, one of Scrapper's Alarm-spells was set off. A masked delver came stumbling in, claiming hat he's just seeking shelter. The party remained suspicious of him and told the stranger to stay away, but he wouldn't listen. Lihim quickly brought him down with an arrow to the leg. Ethan ran up to him and tried to break his arms and legs, but just as he did that, the body on the ground got lifted up and parts of it vanished mid-air, just leaving splatters of blood behind. The empty space next to Ethan began to ripple and the true monster, the Corpse Puppeteer, showed itself by tearing it's disguise of invisible webs apart.

The Puppeteer attacked the monster slayer with a bite, connecting its strings with his nerves, forcing him to hurt himself. Mattsow ran to his aid, evading all the slashes from the Puppeteer and punching at its pressure points. He managed to mess with the ki-flows of the monster, essentially poisoning it. Then, like puppets descending on a stage, the Puppeteer used its string to let numerous corpse-dolls appear, which were stored in a nest of invisible webs near the ceiling. Lihim, Scrapper and Polymnia all got their own methods to deal with the dolls, be it magic, quick reactions or distracting the Puppeteer with irritating words. Meanwhile Ethan and Mattsow fought the Puppeteer head on, dealing massive damage and weakening it drastically.

Scrapper channeled his magic and released a giant cascade of Scorching Rays upon it, striking it down. But in the process, the Puppeteer's strings caught on fire and led to the ignition of the large nest full of corpse-dolls. The party dashed out of the crypt, trying to evade the burning silk and remains that rained down on them. After this, the rest of the group decided to take Scrapper's alcohol away.

Investigating the Silent Crypts
When they finally found a moment of piece, the party tried to get some sleep. Mattsow and Ethan both questioned if they would really need the laudanum that delvers are given to avoid nightmares. Ironically, it was both of them that suffered the most from the Scar's effects in that night.

During the investigation of the bodies of the Puppeteer's previous victims on the next day, the party realized that three of them belonged to members of the missing Advent team. Mattsow was relived when it was confirmed that none of them were Mia. Among the victims' gear, they found an artifact called Immovable Rod and an expedition log. Although it was shred and bloodstained, a few notes regarding their last venture were still legible:

“... challenging the old believes ...” “.... entering the forbidden gate ...” “... as a veteran delver only becomes accustomed to deal with ...” “Why must it be the Whisper ...” “He said we must retreat while they would stay at ...” “... should head to the Nap Room. This relic will save us some time and could even bring my arm back” “... fastest way to Farwall would lead through Vulture's territory” “... must trick them or he will kill her ...” “We didn't realize that the laudanum has worn off ...” “... lured into a trap ...” “... should have just spoken with Vulture ...” “... severely injured and two dead ...” “... setting up camp at the Silent Crypts”

Into the swamps
The group decided to seek out Vulture – a legendary delver formerly known as Elias “the Purifier” which was declared a saint by the Church of The Great Curators. But he dropped out on the hunt for relics and now only obsesses over slaying undead. He should have lots of knowledge and is an ally of Venatio, though he is also rumored to be a dangerous person.

During their journey, the team avoided further risks, made a detour around a growth of strange plants and sounds of humming and was lucky in their search for safe campsites. This didn't protect them from nightmares however. Polymnia and Lihim had to rescue each other when each of them started to sleepwalk deeper into the woods when the other one was on nightwatch duty.

The party reached deeper swampland and decided that it would cost them too much time to walk around. Venturing deeper inside, they soon realized that something was strange when they passed the same trees again and again. Something was holding them trapped. A growth of moss and fungus appeared on a tree that spelled a message in Sylvan, which Lihim could decipher as “To move on, leave me something precious behind”. Mattsow was willing to sacrifice his gold, which was quickly snatched by a hand from a burrow underneath the tree. Polymnia had a realization and suggested to inspect the strange dolls that were hanging from the surrounding trees. Ethan used a ritual to find out that fey magic rests in the dolls and the team decided to burn them. That finished, they were able to continue, though Mattsow lost even more money then the last time he was lending some to Scrapper.

Camp of strangers
At some point, a humanoid voice called out to the party. It belonged to Nori, a tiefling girl, asking them if they could to compare their maps and timetracking since her group got lost. The rest of her team consisted of Amir, a tall masked man who seems somewhat reserved, Platehead, a dwarf with a constant smile and a scar that got him his name, and Bernard, a middle-aged human man that was the only one that didn't wear the camouflage-colored gear of the others.

Bernard invited the party to stay at their camp for the night, which his companions seemed to disapprove at first, but then claimed they wouldn't mind. Scrapper got nervous after Platehead offered him a drink, reasoning his suspicions with “No one gives me free alcohol besides me”. Several of the partymembers felt like something was not right, but they couldn't really tell what it was yet.