Ashes of Creation Lore Reveal

– The following lore is canon to the Ashes of Creation MMORPG, taken from the 24-Hour charity stream

The Arrival: Barefoot with a toothy grin, Casseia was a sight to behold. Gangly and lanky, she hardly seemed accustomed to her newfound height. No, this overgrown child clung to her tomboy ways as deeply as clung to the wooden ship of her father’s creation. Dangled from the ropes like an eager chimp, the breeze tossed her locks into a matted mess. “Look Strahaigal!” she yelped like a pup to her father, who scrambled to twist the oars in response. Waves of salt crashed over the sturdy oak and filled their shallow boat with a pool of the Fjord. As her laughter grew, Casseia was quick to gurgle a mouth full of the sea. Disgusted her huge tongue was sent into a fit as she tried to spit it all out. Now it was her fathers turn to laugh at his daughter. Bells were soft at first but grew alongside shouts, they were at last home and greeted by the village’s children. Young boys with braided heads jumped and waved as they raced the boat along the shoreline. Casseia beamed, now was the perfect chance to show off. Slowly she turned to her father and eyed his oars with a pleadfull look. A challenge had been issued. The two stared in a battle of wills, her puppy eyes fixed against his strong fatherly gaze. With a sigh he was easily defeated. “Br’ah, intella nu’um, muun ma’alma”. Her jump for glee nearly sent her straight over the side. Practiced arms however were quick to swoop her up. Steadied within her father’s protection, she laughed once more as she took his place at the end of the ship. Timid hands grasped the splintering wood before her audience. With held in breath, Casseia dipped the oar into the crystal waves. In a bid for concentration, she bit down on her piqued out tongue, eyes fixed heavily on the nearing dock. Besides her, her father’s hand began to hover nervously, ready to take over if she had sent them all crashing forward. Casseia swatted his hands away playfully though, it seemed she was a natural. Smoothly she guided them to the side of the dock, as the wooden ship brushed against the pier and moaned, the girl ran to throw the rope upon the walkway for anchoring. Like a tightrope walker, she moved with similar grace along the rails, eager to show off the sailor knot she’d been taught. Ma’arkell leaned back with beaming pride as he watched on in silence. Before her father could say another word, the girl was consumed, waving goodbye frantically towards him – It seemed she was already off in a sprint towards the glade with the other children. He watched on in envy, oh to have all that energy again.

The Betrothed: As the children one boy in particular pushed forward to be close by Casseia’s side. Slyly he linked arms and began to slow down, as the children passed and the chatter faded, Addicus stopped with her behind a nearby tree. With a shove he offered up a droopy flower to the girl, who began to laugh. “What’s this for?” she asked, in her foreign tongue. The boy turned red, “I-I was told girls were supposed to like these sort of things”. Her laughter grew even louder, “What for? Does it taste good? No? Well then who would tell you such a silly thing?”. Flustered the boy’s answer was muttered under his breath. “Come again?” she said. Addicus threw the flower onto the ground, “My mother!” With a cheshire cat grin Casseia desperately tried not to laugh again. The boy noticed and smiled, more determined than ever. Unsheathing his weapon with a playful roar, he was quick to accost her with a wooden sword in hand. A battle ensued between the two betrothed children as she dodged and danced like the hidden people, spry on her feet. Back and forth they slashed one another before more of the children joined in. Overwhelmed Casseia charged into the forestline with laughter as the warlike calls of the miniature army chased after her.

Part Three: The village was but a distant memory now, for they were finally in the thick of nature. Would they hunt for the hidden people today? Casseia had sworn that she had spotted a Hu’ldarth in the glades, which had whipped all the town boys into a frenzy to set their gaze upon it. Addicus, the boy she most eagerly wanted to impress, remained skeptical however. With a snarky grin he assured the other children that Casseia was simply telling tall tales again. Fresh dew of the recent dawn doused the forest damp. A trickling waterfall that was once distant was now a booming thunder that roared with their nearing steps. Stillness swept over the heard of miscreants. Were they still asleep? Two women were half submerged beneath the raging falls, blinking as if to cast this forest from view. Casseia’s eyes travelled the length of their bodies before she inhaled a quick excitable shock, turning to Addicus she pointed for his gaze to follow. Flickering back and forth, impish tails adorned the creature’s backs. The girl slowly bent close to the other children, she let out an excitable word as she practically tackled them with jumping joy, “Hu’ldarth!”. Exchange faces of shock from the whole of the party, once more Casseia’s stories had proven to be right. With whispered giggles the boys eagerly gawked at what splendors the creature might do next. A rustling of the above trees was all it took to break Casseia’s wonder however. While Addicus and the village boys stared on in delight, Casseia’s head turned with ferocity of a mother lion protecting her flock of cubs. With studios eyes she peered into the still forest, hand twitching towards her blade.

 

Extra Life Charity Stream + Pathfinder Campaign

Players: 

• Kevin McPherson – Lead Programmer (Game Master)
• Margaret Krohn – Community Marketing Lead
• John Moore – President
• Steven Sharif – Creative Director
• Clifford Robins – Board Game Creator
• Samantha Paige – Junior Writer
• Alex Khudoliy – Senior Engineer
• Bryan Ferguson – Gameplay Designer

Primary Setting:

• City of Gallentere 
• The city consists of 2 smaller towns (Trellamare & Norseguard)
• 4 sections of the Gallentere Militia known as Stoneguards of Gallentere
• Vorkerus leads the Martial Faction called Red Shields (RS)
• Kalood Mabrock leads the Sorcery Faction called Dweomerveil (DV)
• Desmaria Entaurus leads the Rogue/Ranger Faction called Shadow Striders (SS)
• Sister Winella Fayne leads the Paladin/Oracle Faction called Sanctus Ordinem (SO)

The players are attending the militia recruitment event and have no knowledge of each other prior. Since the town of Gallentere is rather large now, naturally it has attracted higher tiers of monsters. The players are told they receive their equipment tomorrow, including a week’s worth of payment. The players head to the Broken Shield Tavern to grab some mead. While at the tavern a large man with a flowing beard walks in and demands some mead, roaring for some pork belly as he chugs down the remainder of his mead. This man was known quite simply as ‘Bacon’. Bacon is known as the leader of the Turtle Street Gang does work for the Rogue’s Guild occasionally. Nigel (Steven) the half orc picks a fight with Bacon as he chomps down on his bacon. Nigel rolls a strength check to push over Bacon and succeeds – Causing people around them to stand up, triggering an initiative check for the entire party. The one known as Bacon smacks Nigel (Steven) across the face with his pork chop while another member of the Turtle Street Gang attacks Steven’s Tankard character. The initial round of opener attacks result in Alex, Bryan’s characters falling to 1 Health Point and Margaret losing her first character immediately. The second round opens with Steven attacking Bacon with all three of his characters, resulting in the final blow using a broken bottle slashing Bacon’s neck – killing the leader of the Turtle Street Gang. The loss of their leader causes the remaining members of the Turtle Street Gang to lose their morale (-2 points of Charisma).

TheIncredibleDash’s Useless Rock from last year’s Pathfinder campaign (2018) is brought back – This time as a Cursed rock.

Clifford steps on his victim’s neck and twists his foot to smash it. John and Alex shut down some of the small fry while Samantha’s character throws her Tankard at the enemy as her Wizard Grandma attempts to flip a table on the enemy and fails. The enemy lashes back, beheading John’s character. Nigel (Steven) attempts to attack and misses while Rigel (Steven) beheads an enemy and rubs their blood across their face, akin to tribal warpaint. Margaret uses this opportunity to sneak around the brawl. Clifford raises the last remaining member of the Turtle Street Gang and slams him down over his knee, bringing the brawl to an end. Vorkerus the Militia leader thanks the party for helping out and hands them a bag of gold for passing the test. Those that did not pass the test were told to return home and were not allowed to join the Stoneguard of Gallentere. The party members that levelled up take their turns rolling for stat and skill upgrades. Nigel (Steven) attempted to claim 3 traits on his character but was shut down and restricted to 2. Using the 1 gold each that was given to them as their reward, the party acquires their gear from their respective player factions within the Stoneguard Militia. The armor provided by the faction is damaged, patches cover the holes in the leather, the shields have dents in them, but even though battered, its still functional equipment.

With the tutorial now complete, each of the players locks in their characters for the active party:

• Clifford: Simon +2 Initiative
• John: Rohan +5 Initiative, +6 Perception, 11 HP
• Alex: Olaf +5 Initiative, +1 Perception, 12 HP
• Bryan: Chad +3 Initiative, +3 Perception, 12 HP
• Sam: Gran Gran Nora +1, +0 Perception, 11 HP
• Steven: Nigel Sparrowsong +1 Initiative, 5 Perception, 8 HP
• Margaret: Bixby +6 Perception

Backstory of each of the characters:

• Simon (Clifford) the elf, his dad was a baker which is why he named him Simon the Pie Man. Simon did not want to be a baker in elven society forever so he joined the clergy and became a cleric. He joined other adventurers to bring truth to the world for his cause.
• Gran Gran Nora (Sam) was one of the first people to come through the gateways during the exodus. She used to be a saucy elf back then. When the gods were not looking she hitchhiked her way into Verra. She now embraces Cthulhu, worships him and loves him. Praise Cthulhu.
• Olaf (Alex) comes from a family of hunters. He is a skilled marksman. The family had some struggles and his father fell sick, so he joined the militia to earn some coin. Since he is not as skilled as his father he wants to get better at his job.
• Chad (Bryan) comes from a family of smiths.
• Bixby (Margaret) was blessed as a young child, she was an orphan and street urchin. One day in a dark alley a shadow spoke to her and ever since then she has had strange powers. Shadows move and dance for her.
• Rohan (John) is a thief but nobody knows that. He has stolen over 1000 gold of trinkets and keeps them as a memento. He has a backstory of one day having to steal something worth 15,000 gold.
• Nigel (Steven), son of Rachel and Grolan the destroyer. He is the grandson of Eric Sparrowsong, saviour of the white sparrow’s guild. 50 years ago his family came in from Sanctus to conquer the unknown. Long ago Nigel’s mother was kidnapped by Grolan the destroyer, where she gave birth to Nigel in captivity. Eric led a raid against them, where Grolan got away. Nigel still seeks revenge against Grolan.

 

Desmaria, the Shadowstrider trainer gathers them around, sharing news that the sister city of Trelemare has been attacked. Besides the 3 primary cities the 10 other cities are rather poor. Trelemare has been raided in the recent weeks and kidnappings have been occurring. A strange mist transcends the town, followed by a lot of howls and yelling, then the mist disappears and people with it. Nobody knows how or why, but this mist is causing merchants and traders to steer clear of the city which is hurting its economy. The attacks tend to occur during the new moon, when the night is at its darkest. Nigel inquires as to whether the people of Trelemare have any news regarding a blonde half orc, Gaelan, who is Nigel’s brother. The Barracks are unable to offer the party mounts, as such the players are expected to travel on their own and find a solution to the strange mist. The city of Trelemare is south-west of Gallantmere, roughly a mile away.

~350$ Donation – CDKinetic donates two items to the party
~20$ Donation – Doom on one of Margaret’s characters

Donation items are distributed. 2 of the 3 items are secretly cursed:

• Alex/Olaf – +1 Light shield
• Steven/Nigel – Ring of Animal Friendship
• John/Rohan – Cloak of Resistance

The dice is rolled and Sam/Gran Gran is chosen as the owner of the Cursed rock. The party rolls a D6 for the encounter roll with 6 being the worst encounter. Alex proceeds to roll a 6.

The party encounters a pack of wolves in the desert while on their way to Trelemare. The wolves begin closing in around the party as the players attempt to close the distance between them. Bixby (Margaret) takes cover behind a nearby tree. Gran Gran Nora (Sam) summons and empowers her Cthulhu minion to take down the wolves, ending her turn by empowering Nigel (Steven). Steven quickly swaps to a shield and takes his place at the front of the party to assume his role as tankard. Chad (Bryan) shuts one of the wolves down while Olaf (Alex) snipes another wolf with his bow. Each player is awarded 400 EXP, 120 gold, 7 goblin arrows, 7 goblin daggers and arrows to restore their ammunition.

Following the encounter with the wolves, the party finally arrives in the city Trelemare. Nigel asks around in order to find a figure of authority in the town. The guard tells them they can find a shaman named Watenga down the road, within a tent. As the party moves through the town, they spot a colourful tent with skulls hanging over its entrance. Within the tent, they spot Watenga deep in meditation, the room filled with the scent of incense burning. Nigel immediately requests if Watenga can remove the ring from his finger, Watenga declines.They then ask Watenga regarding the mysterious kidnappings relating to the mist. Watenga shares that the mist comes in from the north, swiftly. Olaf questions the type of people kidnapped, to which Watenga shares that it’s mostly women and girls that vanish within the mist. Additionally the Colonel Portland is suspicious as he constantly fiddles with his stick and has been suspiciously talkative. Colonel Portland has been bragging about tales of his skill, usually fiddling with his walking stick while the mist comes in. Inquiring further into the details of the kidnapping results in Watenga sharing that the mist has swept by twice now, with over two dozen people missing. Since the next day is a new moon, they’re expecting the mist tomorrow. Watenga also offers to sell them the following wards which the party purchases:

• Ward against Poison – Purchased by Olaf
• Ward against Death Magic – Purchased by Bixby
• Ward against Elemental Distress – Purchased by Nigel

Nigel inquires as to whether Watenga is willing to sell any potions, which Watenga shares that he only has a potion that turns the user into an animal when making love. Nigel acquires all of these potions out of curiosity. Rohan then requests a divination – Which results in the divination that he will be victorious. The party approaches the Colonel Portland. Nigel immediately casts detect magic on the Colonel, infuriating him and causing him to approach the party with his men, swords drawn. When questioned on their spell cast, Nigel and the party immediately apologise, claiming they did it to protect the Colonel. The Colonel does not believe them and insists that they follow his orders and listen to his commands as he is a colonel. The party questions why the Colonel has not protected the people of the town. To which the Colonel defends himself by stating that the mist passes by the farside of the town, the area with half-orcs primarily. Magical Intervention donation affects Nigel’s ears and makes it deformed and mis-coloured, distracting everyone. Bixby uses this opportunity to pickpocket Colonel and steal a piece of cloth. While the party tries to figure out what’s wrong with Nigel, Bixby moves aside and inspects the piece of cloth she stole, only to realize its filled with boogers and is actually his napkin, she then drops it behind him and lets him pick it up.

 

~500$ Donated by Fooshy – Turn Steven into a Fox-like Tulnar
~251$ Donated by SoSplease – Magical Item to the party

The magical intervention that struck Nigel earlier fully transforms him into a Fox-like Tulnar with the characteristics of a Kitsune. wDue to the Magical Intervention, Simon the pie man screams and falls onto the ground with blood pouring out of his eyes. Nigel quickly sticks his pussing and deformed ear into Sam’s mouth and Sam begins to lick it. After about a minute, Sam staggers to his feet. Purple black energy ripples out of Sam the pie man, triggering a Roll14. Those that succeeded the roll took 2 points of damage, those that failed took 4 points of damage. The black energy corrupts the holy sigil that belongs to Simon, causing Bixby to run over and stare at it in awe. Simon leans in and whispers to Bixby ‘The Darkness grows”. A dark god takes over Simon, Bixby who has an affinity for shadows is drawn to Simon and whispers back “The new moon awaits us”, implying that they have some relation to the mist.

Before heading to the inn for the night, Nigel heads out to hunt for rabbits as he is now a Fox Tulnar. Nigel attempts a jump to chase after the rabbits but fails the roll and turns to return to the camp, but then quickly uses Magical Ring to befriend animals. The rabbit slows, turns around and then sprints away, immediately the magic animal ring rusts and turns to dust, beginning to crackle, causing a sharp pain in Nigel’s chest. Nigel rolls to safe roll, and successfully evades the Lycanthropy curse. He then returns to the camp, saddened.

Colonel Portland walks up to the party, declares that he has had enough of the filthy orcs and tulnar for causing the mist, triggering a battle encounter. After a painstaking battle, the party defeats Colonel Portman and everyone levels up. The Vek and Half orcs that watch the battle unfold show their gratitude and the party now has favourable currency with them. One of the other Colonel’s walks up to the party and thanks them – stating Portland had lost his mind, hoping he can count on the party’s assistance in the upcoming night. The party rests up at the inn and recovers +2HP each. The next morning they sort through their loot and prepare for the events of the day. As night strolls by, the mist rolls in thick and the party braces themselves. They hear a noise coming from the North East direction. Nigel leads the way. The party cautiously makes their way through the mist and hear horses approaching. The party decides to take cover and hide, while Olaf (Alex) decides to shoot on sight.

The party fights off the horsemen within the mist and head to the Colonel Yorrick to report their findings. The militia commander is intrigued at finding out the Mist actually comprises of men who travel within it that are responsible for the abductions and not the mystical mist itself. The party probes Colonel Yorrick for additional information regarding Colonel Portland. Yorrick admits that Portland had issues with outsiders, complimented his archery and swordsmanship. The party discovers a trail from where the horsemen had appeared through the mist, but before they can decide what to do, one of Yorrick’s aids hurriedly whispers into his ear. Yorrick turns to the party and gravely states that they had 8 more people taken, all of whom were non-human. The party decides to strip down the horsemen from the mist but Yorrick stops them under the guise of protecting the dignity of the bodies. Nigel’s (Steven’s) attempt to eat the bodies for additional information is stopped immediately. They decide to take one of the bodies with them for clues and follow the trail on foot instead. Once some distance away, Nigel decides to open up the body and identifies that the mist horseman had consumed deer, rabbit and berries sometime before. Nigel (Steven) as a tulnar fox, decides to eat the rest of the body anyways to please twitch chat, but is ashamed of himself. The party follows the trail for about half mile, they are now coming across hills and hear tapping and hear horns being blown. The enemy attempts to ambush them, however Bixby’s Shadow Vision spots them, preventing the ambush.

After barely making it through the fight and losing one of their allies – Simon (Clifford), they make it back to the camp, bloodied and tired, barely making it out. They decide to get some upgrades and stock up to better prepare for future fights. They sell the loot from their previous fight and split it within the party for 64 gold each and return to the enemy hideout for another battle encounter. However, he party is ambushed within the corridor and is brought dangerously low due to hails of arrow fire, the group falls back, regroups and goes back in, only to get wiped out completely – with only Bixby (Margaret) surviving. The party has to introduce their new characters as their previous ones were wiped out.

Gran Gran Nora was eventually killed by The Incredible Dash’s cursed rock as it caused her to take damage while downed. 

 

With the fresh party established, Bixby being the only surviving member of the previous party, heads back into the enemy hideout to sneak around and obtain information on the enemies. She discovers that their primary threat this time are two superior beasts, she returns to the party and they begin discussing a battle strategy. A huge round of donations buff the party as Steven and Alex return after their naps. The party gets overloaded with over 3000$ worth of boons and begins the encounter with heavy CC and rolls for surprise mage balls. After winning the fight, they discover that the superiors they beat had an agreement with Colonel Portland, where Portland said he did not care about what they did with the non-humans. The party loots a heavy Iron shield, Longsword, Locked Crate and 20x Arrows. The party decides to split up and explore different areas of the hideout/dungeon. The middle of the room opens up like a sinkhole, disclosing children marinating in the hole down below. Nigel (Steven) attempts to send one of the trolls down the pit, the troll disagrees and is killed by Nigel for disobeying orders. Nigel then ties the rope around himself and lets himself down the hole, going down 80 or so feet. At the bottom there’s a pile of salt brine. Nigel uses detect magic and finds nothing but salt.

The party finds out that the kidnappings were caused by the slave traders arriving within the mist. However they were kidnapping the non-humans primarily and were being assisted by one of the Colonel’s who did not like the non-humans. The party returns the captives that had not been sold off yet and collected their bounties on the Evil priest (Simon the Pie man) and the two superior guards that the party defeated who were wanted by the Stoneguard of Gallentere and as such are rewarded greatly for completing the bounty. The nodes were strengthened as a result of their contributions, bringing the campaign to an end.

 

The full transcript with Steven in a cow costume, T-Rex lightsaber battle and more can be found below: