Soul's End by Matt Meyer
Let us show the Kingdom its own inner darkness.
Background
Faith is a powerful force, that fills the days of many a man. Life, however, has a way of shaking even our most powerful beliefs to their core. Few know this better than a man called Scar. A follower of no particular god, but of all benevolent gods, he took pleasure seeing the good in the world grow and evil diminish. When a group called the Hidden Kingdom came to his city garbed in their crimson robes, he was understandably curious. As they began taking in those who knew only pain or sadness or sickness, Scar whispered thanks to the gods for the group’s actions. That they vouched undeath as a release from the hardships of life bothered him, but the Kingdom did not seem to have evil as their end goal. More than this, it did not seem that all joining members were required to submit to a state of undeath, with those who did not remaining just as valued as those who did.
It was not long before Scar’s wife, a woman stricken with horrid bouts of depression, heard of the Kingdom. She confided in her husband that she thought of joining the group, if only to be among those who cared for so many others like her. Scar knew his wife’s wishes were pure, and during a nightly prayer to the gods, he asked if the Kingdom was the right path for the woman he loved so dearly. The gods told him that the fate they chose for his wife was best for both him and all he cared for, they did not lie. When the time came for Scar’s wife to see the Kingdom’s agents the first time, he did little to stop her.
He regretted the decision with all his heart as he watched the red robed men slit her throat before his eyes.
Scar, watching from a window at the back of the church, stormed into the room, tears streaming down his face. His wife looked at him with a cold stare, blood dripping from her throat where she stood. Aghast at this horrid display of black magic, Scar fell to his knees, helpless as his wife took the bloodied knife and stabbed him in the heart. As he lay dying, he looked up at his wife, who grinned, turned and walked away, donning a golden mask to cover her paling face.
Scar’s soul did not rest in the heavens the next day. Instead, he knew only darkness. In his last moments, he renounced the gods for what he saw as a betrayal, and for this, it seemed, they banished him to the void between worlds. Unable to forgive the Hidden Kingdom, Scar, through sheer will, returned to his body and managed to crawl back to his home. Now undead like his wife and her allies in the Kingdom, he vowed to end their evil in the most terrible way he could imagine. Scar planned to banish all in the Kingdom, body and imprisoned soul, to the only place he knew fit for their crimes: his old prison, the void between worlds. The gods’ plan to end the Kingdom’s reign began with that decision.
Mission
Soul’s End has a simple mission: destroy the Hidden Kingdom. As things currently stand, the group seeks a way to call on the void that imprisoned Scar those many years ago so they can trap Kingdom agents there. Once they acquire this ability, Soul’s End wants to slowly whittle away at the power structure of the Hidden Kingdom until only Ptolemy stands before them. With the leader banished, Scar hopes, he can fulfill his long held wish: a restful afterlife devoid of anything , but peace. What becomes of his organization after this occurs is up to those that remain.
Structure
There is no set structure to Soul’s End, save that Scar directs its movements in a general sense. The agents of the group live in their various communities and try to collect as much information on the plans of the Hidden Kingdom as possible. All members of Soul’s End meet every winter solstice to discuss what they’ve learned, to forge the next years goals and to listen to Scar’s plans for the coming year. How the agents carry their individual missions out is up to them.
Perhaps the only real rank besides Scar’s belongs to the loose coalition of mages in his employ that seek to create a planar rift to the void Scar once resided in. While they tend to keep to themselves, they do ask the other members of Soul’s End to look for specific items that seem to straddle the border between worlds. The mages have a short list of qualities that describe this behavior, and wish to hear of anything Soul’s End agents find that even loosely fits those descriptors.
Benefits/Drawbacks
All those who join Soul’s End eventually gain the collected knowledge of hundreds of spies, adventurers and common citizens from around the world. While this information generally focuses on the Hidden Kingdom, because of that groups growing influence, Soul’s End tends to know obscure bits of information on almost any topic. Those who have some skill in the arcane and/or divine arts also gain special access to strange planar spells and special training in otherworldly combat and reconnaissance.
Unfortunately, due to their ever-increasing size and continued hindrance to the Kingdom, Brother Ptolemy put an enormous bounty on any of Scar’s agents. Thus, almost anyone in need of money stands to gain from Soul’s End failing its mission. When captured, as some of Scar’s agents have been, the poor souls find themselves subjected to horrid tortures and mind-bending experimentation. Ptolemy and his cult probe their prisoners’ minds for anything Scar does not already know and use every advantage gained to move against him and his.
Adventure Hooks
- The party comes across a piece of adamantine inlaid with strange runes. Soon, agents from both Soul’s End and the Hidden Kingdom attempt to acquire this shard. The party must decide which side to take, if they take a side at all.
- A party member dies, but his soul is captured by the Hidden Kingdom. The characters must retrieve the lost soul and either return it or set it free.
- Ptolemy, learning of an assassination plot brewing within his organisation, hires the party to protect a body double. When the double dies, the Hidden Kingdom puts a bounty on the party’s heads, and their only possible salvation lies in the just as secretive Soul’s End.
Soul’s End by Nevermet Press is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.nevermetpress.com/contact.
