d20 E.N. Publishing War of the Burning Sky - Trial of Echoed Souls.pdf - E.N. War of the Burning Sky - R5700

War of the Burning Sky

The Trial of Echoed Souls

An Adventure for 1 3 th Level Characters

By Ari Marmell and Ryan Nock

Edited by Ryan Nock

Layout by Eric Life-Putnam

Cover Art by Jeffrey Koch

Interior Art by Darren Calvert

Tim Divar

Leo Lingas

Michael LoPresti

Cartography by Sean MacDonald

Playtested by Theodore A. Brzinski III

Neil D’Cruze

Michael Gallogly

Laura Kertz

Orinthol Jixao

Tom Jones

Hamid Raoof

John the Turner

Everything in this book, other than the covers,

the title and contents page, the illustrations and

maps, “EN Publishing,” the EN Publishing logo,

character and place names, story elements,

and EN Publishing product titles,

is designated Open Game Content.

Campaign Director Ryan Nock

Note on Rules Content: is adventure

uses Open Game Content as well as

material that is in the System Reference

Document but is not in the core rulebooks.

All the information you need to use this

material is presented in this adventure, but

if you are interested in learning more, search

for the System Reference Document online,

available through various sources.

EN PUBLISHING

1646 Ridge Road

Vankleek Hill, ON

Canada K0B 1R0

EN Publishing is an imprint of EN World.

Please visit http://www.enworld.org

Trial of Echoed Souls – Illustration by Jeﬀ rey Koch

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................

Background .....................................................................

Adapting the Adventure ....................................

Recent Events..................................................................

Adventure Overview ......................................................

Who Hired the Assassins? ..................................

Psionics in the Adventure .................................

Where are We?...............................................................

What to Do?.....................................................................

What Good is the Torch? ...............................................

Who Deserves the Torch?...............................................

Seaquen and Lyceum .....................................................

Starting Elsewhere..........................................................

The Burning Sky .....................................................

Act One: Ycengled Phuurst......................

Exploring the Wood.......................................................

Eerie Effects ............................................................

e Forest Looms ...........................................................

Lore and Legends of Ycengled ..........................

Encounters within the Wood .......................................

Who is Aurana? .....................................................

Elves of the Wood Diplomacy Modifiers ...

Taranesti Survivors ...........................................

e Henge......................................................................

Shahalesti Base Camp .................................................

e Darkness Your Guide ............................................

Navigating the Dark Labyrinth...................................

Magical Traits ......................................................

Act Two: Phorros Irrendra ...................

e Lost City ................................................................

Entering Phorros Irrendra ...........................................

City Traits ..............................................................

Finding the Assassins...................................................

Alas, Poor Coaltongue.......................................

City Locations ...............................................................

Concluding Act Two .....................................................

Act Three: The Trial ................................

Most Wanted................................................................

e Temple of Echoed Souls ........................................

The Temple’s Trials ..............................................

Lore and Legends of the Temple of

Echoed Souls .....................................................

Running the Trial .......................................................

Soul Tapping for Dummies ................................

Beginning the Trial .......................................................

Meditation Chamber Boons .............................

Facing the Past..............................................................

The Mother Vision ..............................................

Over Too Soon? .....................................................

Concluding the Adventure............................................

What if They Lose? ...............................................

Appendix One: Enemies and Allies........

Act One Encounters .....................................................

Act Two Encounters .....................................................

New Item: Hurling Bracers .............................

New Item: Black Scimitar ................................."

Act ree Encounters ....................................................

Soul Magic, not Psionics..................................."

Appendix Two: New Feats and Magic ...

New Feats ......................................................................

New Spells ....................................................................

Appendix Three: The Torch of the

Burning Sky ..............................................

Powers of the Torch...........................................

Open Game License Version .a ...........

Trial of Echoed Souls

I NTRODUCTION

Welcome to the seventh adventure of the Wa r

of the Burning Sky campaign saga. e heroes stand

poised to seize control of their fates and decide who

will be victorious in this war, but only if they are ﬁ rst

to claim the Torch of the Burning Sky.

Months ago, the Ragesian emperor Drakus

Coaltongue was assassinated, leaving his empire in

disarray, and a vacuum waiting to be ﬁ lled by the

rulers of other nations. More devastating, however,

was the loss of the Torch of the Burning Sky, the

artifact that had led Ragesia to conquest, capable of

instantly teleporting armies. Stolen by the assassins

who slew the emperor, and hidden in the haunted

elvish forest of Ycengled, the Torch will surely grant

victory to whoever can ﬁ nd.

Ycengled is guarded by the restless spirits of

its native elvish people, the Taranesti, who were

murdered by the neighboring nation of Shahalesti in

a genocidal purge, and the heroes will likely need to

enlist the aid of the survivors of the Taranesti to track

down the assassins and recover the Torch before

either the Shahalesti or the Ragesians can. Once they

get the Torch, however, they realize that it has been

damaged by one of the assassins: the draconic soul

that gave the Torch its power has been destroyed, and

without it the Torch is just a useless club.

To repair the Torch, the heroes head to the

Temple of Echoed Souls, the power of which holds

the cursed spirits of the Ycengled elves hostage, and

where, by facing memories of their own past and

of the dead of Ycengled, they can forge a new soul

to repair the Torch. In their success they learn of

a hidden threat posed by Ragesia, which lays the

foundation for the next two adventures.

A DAPTING THE A DVENTURE

The Trial of Echoed Souls has two main

components. The ﬁ rst is exploring a haunted

forest while agents of a group who killed the

forest’s inhabitants try to beat you to what

you’re looking for. This can easily be adapted

to different settings, with the goal of the

Torch replaced by some other item of power,

secret, or sacred site.

The second part of the adventure is delving

into the Temple, facing echoes of events in

their history and those of their enemies, and

crafting a soul amid this chaos. While this

idea can be compelling if used in your own

campaign, most of the scenes that occur

would need to be revised to ﬁ t the events in

your campaign. However, we have tried to

incorporate classic mythic archetypes into

these visions, so even if they don’t perfectly

ﬁ t your players’ characters, they are open to

interpretation, and at least seem meaningful.

If you are running your own game, hopefully

you can use the structure of the third act as

an example of how to use the temple in your

own game, be it to restore the magic of an

artifact, to bring a long-dead hero back to life,

or to heal the soul of the world itself.

The temple trial is particularly useful as

a way to let players rebuild their characters’

abilities. By completing the trial they gain the

right to reshape their soul, which can manifest

in picking new skills and feats or even classes

and races.

Background

For centuries the Temple of Echoed Souls was

home to meditative monks who practiced an art

called soul-tapping, in which they could experience

the essence of other beings. Powerful monks of the

order could actually take on traits and powers of

those whose souls they tapped, from acquiring bestial

features to wielding the magic of their enemies.

However, there were always those monks who

would abuse these powers, and they would be

punished. e other monks of the order would all

tap into the villain’s soul simultaneously, ripping it

apart and leaving a husk with no spirit of its own,

and no memories. ese husks were branded, a

simple number replacing their old name, and then

were exiled, left to live as a beast.

Trial of Echoed Souls Introduction

One of these exiles, (for he was the forty-ﬁ rst

monk banished from the temple), returned after he

learned what had happened to him. He fought the

temple’s masters and wrested control of the temple,

crafting a new soul for himself from the echoes of

those he had met since his exile. With his new soul,

one of unadulterated darkness, was content to

drive out the surviving monks and simply remain at

the temple’s heart, meditating on the nature of evil.

He had much to interest him. Not far from the

temple lay Ycengled Phuurst, a forest in which two

nations of elves, the Shahalesti and the Taranesti,

were forced to live by the nation of Morrus. Ycengled

was the scene of constant political backstabbing

and violent struggles of brother against brother for

decades. basked in it, using the power of the temple

to experience the suﬀ ering of those in the conﬂ ict.

But then, sixty years ago, when the warlord

Coaltongue was beginning to carve an empire of

his own, a general among the Shahalesti named

Lord Shaaladel forged an alliance with Coaltongue,

hoping to lift his people above the constant struggles

so they could have a nation of their own again.

Together, the two warlords succeeded in toppling

the empire of Morrus, but Shaaladel was nervous,

for in the course of their conquest, Coaltongue had

acquired the Torch of the Burning Sky.

e Torch’s creation had been a remarkable chance,

a rare conﬂ uence of powers – the ﬁ re of a devil, the

grace of an archon, and, most importantly, the dreams

of a young psionic gold dragon named Trilla.

Trilla was the daughter of Syana, a gold dragon

who served as guardian to the Taranesti. Coaltongue

had taken Trilla hostage to lure Syana away while

Shaaladel assaulted the leaders of the Taranesti, and

in the battle Coaltongue slew the mother dragon.

Trilla’s grief, mixed with powerful heavenly and

infernal magic unleashed in the struggle, transformed

a thigh bone of the devil into the artifact that would

shape the fate of nations.

Trilla escaped, rescued by a group of Taranesti

elves. ey took the young Trilla into hiding, and

pledged themselves to secrecy.

Shaaladel gained the nation he desired, and the

Taranesti were still forced to cower in Ycengled, but

over the years Shaaladel grew jealous of Coaltongue,

and fearful that his nation would fall under the

man’s thumb. Hoping to create a “ Torch” of his

own, forty years ago he ordered a crusade against

the Taranesti to locate Trilla, publicly claiming

that the Taranesti were a threat that needed to be

removed once and for all.

e crusade succeeded in murdering almost

all of the Taranesti, but did not ﬁ nd Trilla, for she

had ﬂ ed deep underground, afraid of a dark power

growing in her. Enraged over this failure, Shaaladel

ordered all the Taranesti who had been captured to

be chained to the trees at the edge of their forest, left

to wither and die unless they revealed Trilla’s hiding

place. None could, and so the Taranesti were wiped

out nearly to the last man.

But the Taranesti did not leave. , wretched

and aged inside his temple, did not want to let the

enjoyment he had taken at their suﬀ ering end, so he

turned the temple’s powers upon the forest, trapping

the ghosts of the dead within the forest’s borders.

Now he can enjoy their torment forever.

Recent Events

In the past half year, the Ragesians have managed

to drive deep into Shahalesti lands, but for now

they have avoided Ycengled. Despite the threat the

Ragesians pose to the Shahalesti heartlands, Lord

Shaaladel has sent several hundred of his men into

Ycengled, his various spies having informed him that

Coaltongue’s assassins have hidden there, though for

now his troops have no clue how to ﬁ nd them.

No divinations can pierce the haunted forest,

which has kept Supreme Inquisitor Leska, current

emperor of Ragesian, from realizing that the greatest

threat to her reign lies there, but she has always been

cautious. Among the thousands of soldiers who

camp near the forest to ensure the security of the

army’s supply lines, one detachment of inquisitors

and elite warriors watch the forest, ready to react at

a moment’s notice.

ere are still survivors of the Taranesti, ﬁ ghting

to keep their forest free of the Shahalesti, though

right now they are resigned to their homeland’s curse.

eir greatest warrior, Fayne Rawnbeck, has been

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