The Mountain Plane - Favor Precedent

In the steep facets of the Diamond, where a rushing glint of light meets the cold razor of crystal carbon, there is a swirling chaos known as the Steep Ginungagap, a pit which spans across Time and belches up the beginnings of many universes. The gas produced by these upheavals was called Eitr, and it was the foundation of many magics and a powerful force of scarce-bounded creation.

This Steepest chasm protrudes its maw into many Facets of the Diamond. In each Facet, something different occurs or some ruleset is changed, and the Diamond is filled with the spice of not only life but existence in many forms.

The Eitr flows from the bountiful arms of the Diamond Master, from the belching depths of the Ginungagap, begetting being and world. A solipsist seeking more reality, reality which does not require his hard-won personal efforts. The Eitr often materializes new beings to be spat up from the Gap. But every Facet is different. Some Facets wait ages for life, and others will never receive it. In one, the Eitr imbued rather than formed. It imbued the primordial parthenogenic Gap itself with life and sapience.

This self-aware abyss was known as Sessile Tartarus, first of the Protogenoi. It could perhaps be called a living or an intelligent being; one of pure chaos and entropy and disorganization, but possessed of ineffable motivations and emotions. It raged, alone in an empty world, for destruction and punishment, but it desired.

A shapeless fissure charged with Eitr, steam building pressure in a thing scarcely real, Tartarus coughed and inadvertently gave wracking birth to more primeval beings in a geyser of creative gases. Budding and shaking, Sessile Tartarus the ultimate Chaos struggled toward articulation. It did not want to parley. It did not seek comfort. It wanted to create terror and punishment.

Many of the beings spewed forth by Tartarus never survived for long enough to leave a mark on the world, dying in what would seem instants judged by events, but may well have been aeons. Nascent Eros, primordial god of love and renewal; Nascent Hemera, goddess of daytime; and tremendous Pontus, god of life-giving sea: These Protogenoi died at birth, without ever existing in the world. Rampant in energy, they could not maintain and balance their primordial internal pressures, and imploded or were swept away into oblivion.

Two Protogenoi at least were not destroyed. Lordly Grey Oronos, identified with the impassion of Heaven, rose above Tartarus and began to set out orders, commanding the very Facet with his might. The majestic Arcane Gaia, Steepest Gaia, Earthmother Gaia, the Goddess of Earth.

Together, they cleared a space which would not be destroyed by the Chaos. Oronos stood above all, and Gaia ruled all the infinite detail of the livng earth. But the torrents from Tartarus blew often, though Tartarus did not much care. Its efforts were far-spanning, star-engulfing terror, and it may not even have been aware of the earth teeming with denizens, yet it made life on the earth a mirror of life in the Hellpit, and only the strongest survived.

Biday

A fitting tool. The elemental chaos is sifting from primordial Tartarus like chaff from wheat, like stalk from stem at harvest; Tartarus becoming more and more vocal and less devoid of personality while the Chaos rages throughout the Facet entire. The Chaos seeks a way to sink tendrils into the fortress of Gaia and Oronos; and you swear that sometimes you hear a dark voice muttering incoherently and evilly.

The new earth is plagued with many challenges. Only a god could wring sustenance out of the land as it is, bleak and devoid of most life. Still, abominable things that you did not create lurk in the mysterious hills of the new planet, and you can be sure that they harbor no love for the alleged rulers and creators of this besieged place.

Hrairday

Cronus is wandering one day when he spots a strange sight: hundreds of black, char-colored plants growing up out of bare soil on single stalks and stretching high toward the sky. They are growing in rows and bearing an odd fruit, a sort of colorless currant. The fruit is clutched between the tops of the stalks, which bend down slightly in branches of five or six to house the fruit.

Tetday

The stalk crashes to the ground. Dark liquid wells up at the base, which is quivering and giving off a sharp, eerie noise in a high register.You can see that the plants go on a ways, forming quite the field or forest, and heavier fruit is in the center.

Pentday

Cronus, you and your Scythe make your way toward the center of the strange field. The fruit grows sweeter and sweeter; a fitting nectar for a god. And with each flick of your weapon, the keening noise sounds again before the stalk steels itself and ceases to tremble, the dark liquid pooling out.

The moment your sight is obscured, the mood of the forest changes. Bulges like muscles move on the black trunks. The trees whip in your direction, joints becoming apparent. Rapidly, the branches fasten like fingers onto your limbs; a hundred of the giant arms move to put you in a headlock. The ground beneath you convulses and the landscape resolves into spidering humanoid forms, all in black and muscle. Three or four formless, spirey bodies, each towering above even Titans, large enough to hold a hundred of the treelike arms apiece, ally themselves for the sole purpose of withstraining you.

Heptday

You are outgunned, Cronus.

+Cronus vs HekatonKheires+
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest
Domains: Time 5 vs Entrapment 4, Str 2
Equipment: Scythe vs None
Circumstance: Eitr Exposure vs Springing a Trap
Spell: None vs None
Insight: None vs None
Allies: None vs Three

The Hundred Handed bundle you up and bundle you up. You are dragged, roughly but without injury, down into the depths of the hills. Here, the HekatonKheires have a lair, a civilization. Tossed at the holdout of Gaia and Oronos by Tartarus, the Hundred Handed explain how they were belched out of Chaos and have crept about the world in as much secrecy as they could maintain. Many of them wave severed stumps instead of arms, but they seem to consider it a small price to pay.

Hrairday

"We have distinctly heard the voice of Tartarus, cursing our existence, castigating us, crying for our punishment."

"Cronus, will you help us? Will you work with us to create the next generation, one less ugly and futile? We would be redeemed if it is possible. We have the power to reorganize our shapes; we are full to the brim with Eitr; we want to become true gods as Gaia and Oronos are: creators."

"We ask that you allow us to study your makeup and attempt to create new life!"

Hrairday

The HekatonKheires will need a small contribution of DM Favor from you to finish this job, as they are attempting to create something new in the world as well as in the Pantheon.

They also contribute Norn Favor and begin formation of a new kind of creature.

[pays Norn Favor and DM Favor]

Hapday

Child of Oronos and Gaia, blood brother of Cronus, hope of the Hundred Handed Ones. This is Polyphemus...and his twin Culet brothers. Each has only one bloody eye, a red orb in the center of their head. They have been pushed and pulled in so many directions by so many wills - and they are unlike any. They are not divine of form; instead they are doughy and fat, though strong. They don't wield great power directly, but they have nimble fingers and strong hands which they do not seem afraid to get dirty.

Triday

+Oronos vs the Giants+
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest, Worldcrafter
Domain: Creation 2, Impassion 1, Str 2 vs Entrapment 4, Crafting 2
Weakness: None vs Appearance
Equipment: Hellprison vs None
Circumstance: Home Field Advantage vs On the Precipice
Spell: None vs None
Allies: Tartarus and possibly Gaia vs Six Giants
Insight: (filled by DMFavor) vs None


The Entrapment of the Hundred Handed is meaningless against Sessile Tartarus. Unwarned, unprepared, Polyphemus and the five Giants are all thrown into Tartarus, where the Hellprison is the perfect thing to trap them.

Heptday

They will not be interred forever in this way - Entrapment is an applicable domain, there are six of them together, and Steep gods do not maintain losses for long.

Hrairday

The Culets agree. The Hundred Handed will bargain for keeping either their personal Favor or their transferable Favor.

Hrairday

[transfers Favor]

Biday

No cost. That is well within your own power.

Tetday

The creation of life is your Domain, Gaia, and so you get the advantage here since you share the Facet equally. You can replace faster than he can destroy. But if Oronos brings it to the point of a martial contest, he is likely to triumph.

Hexday

I will free you in return for whatever Favor you did not give to Tartarus. I want a full personal Favor or your entire current stock of transferable Favor. This is nonnegotiable. Send it to me now. I do not offer more in the way of guarantees but anyone who does not participate will be left behind.

Hrairday

/msg Cronus All agree. You have one personal Favor on each of the three Hundred Handed and the two Culet Cyclops.

Hapday

The rules for Favor are mechanically enforced at the time they are proposed (they resolve in realtime). Of course, you are welcome to try to convince the holder of the Favor not to cash it in, or to offer him a different deal. On Hrairday it will transfer officially and until then Cronus is welcome to assume mechanically that you have handed it over.
If you can hide it in a place no one knows about (with Reality Revision) you can hide and transfer Favor if it has not been claimed by anyone.

Tetday

The Hundred Handed are polymorphous in the extreme. You ascend rapidly, and that is to your advantage, but they have a chance to grab you.

Oronos, the Titans are split between your offer and Gaia's offer.

+Cronus vs Oronos+
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest
Domain: Time 5 vs Heaven 4
Weakness: None vs None
Equipment: Scythe vs None
Circumstance: Springing the Trap vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Time Slow vs None
Allies: the Giants and 2 Titans vs 3 Titans
Insight: Waiting Arms vs None


The odds are clearly in the favor of Cronus and his allies. Polyphemus can guard the air, the HekatonKheires are ready for you, and the remaining Titans and Giants press in for the attack, channeling for Cronus' scythe.

Roll to attempt the kill, Cronus.

Heptday

Oronos, you are pinned against the mountainside by the entrapping arms. Cronus' scythe moves closer, steadily, carefully, ensuring that you are truly trapped. Then he lashes out, and the sharp scythe splits you from liver to skull.

You are dead. Your soul is trapped in Tartarus and will be much more difficult to remove than a body would. Death is not official until Hrairday.

Hapday

They have been changed by their time in Tartarus. Clammy skin, a lust for blood and flesh rather than mere energy, fur on some of them - the spawn of the earth are now essentially undead.

The gods are in acceptable condition, if a bit thin and starved and restless.

Tetday

Please put the contract in more explicit language.

Biday

Rhea, you will need to accept.

Triday

/msg Gaia They see no reason to help. They demand a Favor apiece, for starters. And that's only because you're the one that bore them, they say.

Pentday

In your searches, you actually uncover a few who claim to have noticed Rhea hide the baby - the same cave as hid Aides.

Searching there, you locate the baby, carefully wrapped in warm blankets and chuckling to itself in the dark.

Heptday

You swallow baby Zeus. Too late you realize the taste is not what you expected. You gag, but the poison does its work well. You empty the contents of your stomach and swoon briefly into unconsciousness. When you awaken, though it seems scant moments later, your belly is empty and all the children are gone.

/msg Rhea They are, of course, in your possession.

Hrairday

/msg Rhea; cc Zeus The children are gods, and of the second highest Tier. Their development does not follow the normal rules. Zeus' player may take control of him now. The other two were, I understand, Culet gods and will revert to the control of Rhea and the Diamond Master.

Hrairday

As the three of you are all coming into your powers at the same time, you'll need to decide who picks first domain in case of conflict. Domains become more expensive when they are redundant, so order is important. The Lady will bring her dice to settle this matter.

Triday

The Titans are swayed by both the bid and the call to assistance of their brother Titan.

Tetday

+Zeus vs Cronus+
Tier: Worldcrafter vs Steepest
Domain: Death 1, Magic 1, Sky 2 vs Time 4
Weakness: None vs None
Equipment: Thunderbolts, Poison vs Scythe
Circumstance: Springing the Trap vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Death Portals vs None
Allies: Polyphemus, Aides, HekatonKheire, Cyclops vs Poseidon and 2 Titans
Insight: Over the Precipice vs Hostages


Though Cronus is larger, Zeus' army is far more numerous and contains gods of every tier. Many are well suited to their tactical positions. Cronus, it is very difficult for you to use your Scythe - there is quite the press of bodies, but too few of them are yours to channel much into the weapon. The trap is less effective because of your time domain, but Zeus' thunderbolts roar down on you and your men, driving you back. Stumble too far another way, and hundreds of dark arms are waiting to trap you and hurl you in any direction they please.

Hexday

It is not long before the fighting forms a maelstrom, and it is not long before that tempest begins to settle. An exhausted Zeus lets the portals begin to close - just after a Hundred Handed covered in scorch marks trips Cronus into the Void, where he falls after the final Culet Titan. The traces of Aides' poison needles can be seen on each, by the trained eye.

Cronus, the falling Titans both cash in their Favor on you to curse you - each taking away a level of your time domain for themselves - as you all tumble into the living Chaos of Tartarus.You don't expect it to be a fun trip.

Hrairday

Your powers are weakened too severely by the curse.

Hrairday

+Tartarus vs Cronus+
Tier: Steepest vs Steepest
Domain: Death 2, Destruction 4 vs Time 4
Weakness: Insanity vs None
Equipment: Dungeon of Death vs Scythe
Circumstance: Home Field Advantage vs Tumbling wildly
Spell: Poison vs None
Allies: Aides vs  2 Titans
Insight: [filled by DMFavor] vs None

Hapday

You slow the poison's chilling effect on you - it is already a slow-acting poison, so this is an effective tactic. You are still imprisoned deep within Tartarus, however, and with two Titans who seem to be blaming this all on you.

Tetday

The contract is for the fidelity of Zeus to Rhea. If any gods are sponsored by Zeus under terms other than those initially dictated by Rhea, a 50-50 split on Favor received and charged, Zeus will forfeit 1RHE or all remaining RHE plus 1ZEU.
Zeus, I'll need you to sign here.

Triday

Gain more worshippers, gamble, go on some quests, catalog events, or ultimately go up a Tier.

Hrairday

She has an entire Favor. The rules are clear. If she has not budged come Hrairday, you must acquiesce at that time.

Tetday

Arcane Zeus, your contract with Arcane Rhea has been called in. As you are deficient in the complete Rhea Favor you owe her, you are charged with transferring the remaining sum of Rhea Favor back to her, and giving her a full ZeusFavor as penalty, as per the terms of the contract.

Hrairday

It shall be done. The contract is in effect instantly, though you (Helios) may recall it by this coming Hrairday if you wish.

Biday

+Expletivine Ares vs Arcane Poseidon+
Tier: Campaign God vs Culet Worldcrafter God
Domain: War 2 vs Sea 2
Weakness: Prudence vs None
Equipment: Nine Spears of Expletivine vs None
Circumstance: Choking with blood vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Enchanted Statues vs Enchanted Currents
Allies: Paid Off vs None
Insight: Spring While They Least Expect It vs Read the Seas


It would be good for allies to declare themselves now.

Hrairday

+Expletivine Ares vs Arcane Poseidon+
Tier: Campaign God vs Culet Campaign God
Domain: War 2 vs Sea 2
Weakness: Prudence vs None
Equipment: Nine Spears of Expletivine vs Lightnin' Bolts
Circumstance: Choking with blood vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Echanted Statues vs Enchanted Currents
Allies: None vs the Council: Zeus, Rhea, Gaia, Aides, Helios, Polyphemus
Insight: Paid Off vs Read the Seas


Ares, your plan is thwarted. To every attack you have, Poseidon and his allies have a counter.

Tetday

+Arcane Zeus vs Expletivine Ares+
Tier: Worldcrafter vs Campaign God
Domain: Death 1, Magic 1, Sky 2 vs War 2
Weakness: None vs Prudence
Equipment: Lightning bolts, Deadly Poison, Winged Boots vs Nine Spears of Expletivine
Circumstance: 3D movement vs None
Spell: Blinding Light vs None
Allies: the Council vs None
Insight: United Assault vs Saw It Coming


The gods surround you and try to execute you with swift blows. Your spear travels swiftly among them, but they are too numerous. You do not even manage to hit the same target more than once. Zeus tempers his thunder to remove your head with dignity, as a decision of all.

Roll it!

Pentday

You are executed. Death is not official until Hrairday.

Hexday

And because it is a Facet all to itself, those inside will not be able to reach outside of that Facet. If they do anything outside of the Campaign God Citadel, they will be vulnerable until the week rolls over, as other gods can say an attack is aimed at that moment in time.

Triday

The Refractive Facet known as the Campaign God Citadel has been created.

Pentday

At the same time, Helios has 1 level of second Tier music domain. Zeus' Marshgas player has no levels of any domains. Truly, Aides will have to judge.

Hrairday

Zeus, your dead are piling up in the afterworld. This is not according to plan for you, and you suspect foul play.

Biday

Upon further inspection, you realize that many of these dead are not from your campaign world. Asking around, you realize that the dead are not from the campaign worlds of anyone on the Mount, nor any member of the Council, nor anyone you have talked to.

Furthermore, the keenest of your sentries report seeing strange black rippling circles on the border of the input portals to your afterworld.

Tetday

AIDES vs POLYPHEMUS
Tier: Worldcrafter vs Worldcrafter
Domain: Trickery vs Crafting
Weakness: None vs Vision
Equipment: Slow Poison vs None
Circumstance: None vs Home Field Advantage
Spell: Sunblinding vs None
Allies: Iblis vs None
Insight: Damned If I Do or Do Not vs None


Grey Aides, cloaked in shadow and hidden from the sun-ravaged red eye of Polyphemus, sneaks into the forge and poisons the great coke heaps. We shall see what choice Polyphemus makes.

/msg Polyphemus: Your decision is needed for the Norns, the Lady, and myself to decide your fate. Please respond in a timely manner. This is your 1st warning.

/msg Zeus: You repeatedly notice strange internal earthquakes in the structure of the Mountain built by your mother and father. The demons of Gunun, Iblis, and Aides stamp to a similar rhythm. The belches from the mountain become greater with each passing year. Your campaign world feels it too, trembling in time with the mountain's great roots.

/msg Aides, Iblis: Your minions seem to be forming new micro-cultures as they run the siege. They evolve ever-wilder chants and cadences, dark marches which shiver you straight to the astralstuff in your bodies.

Hapday

Polyphemus stands still, difficult decisions burning trails in his neural pathways. The slow poison works its way into his body, thickly burning smoke from his fuel supply darkening the air. But Polyphemus is a Giant, a Titan, and one who has experimented in strange crafts. The poison reacts oddly, and a hair more quickly than normal.

Aides, you return to investigate the activities of Polyphemus - and find him paralyzed still, forever, his skin and bones hardened into a single collossus of marble.

Zeus, you are haunted by dark visions, always floating around the corners of your eyes. They seem to duck in and out of the craggy places on the mountain...especially in the period immediately after a quake.

Hexday

As you walk out onto the sweet fields of the mountain, the ground feels strangely soft beneath the soles of your feet, like tilled earth right after a rain. The smell, however, is unlike that of fertile farmland - instead, it is the stench of a thousand tons of sick flesh. Boulders at the peak of the mountain rumble furiously before coming ratcheting down the mountain like a storm's wake.

Those at the base notice only that something is impeding the occasional boulder, giving the crashing monoliths the briefest pause before allowing it to roll on again. Those who move higher up see desiccated mortal bodies shambling over the cliffside, mindlessly stumbling into the path of the avalanche. The spirits are clearly riven from their host bodies - indeed, the lost, wandering spirits are far more numerous than the bodies of those who died in shame. You recognize racial features of the nigh-immortals of Aides' World of Darkness mixed with the walking dead bodies of Arcane Zeus' home campaign.

They come from a tortured cloven rockface, climbing from a dark crevasse in what is soon to be a mountain of fire. Uncaring fingers drive themselves into the Steep rock, possessed by a horrid energy, a sort of antithesis to the life-giving Eitr at world's formation. It radiates out and burns a terrible itching scorch onto the skins of gods and demons. Gunun begins a horrible wailing, and is joined by the Erinyes. All divine and mortal flesh on this Immortal Facet is bleached and reddened. The borders of the fracture in the mountain echo this change, swirling and softening into a hazy plane of transition.

More wounds open all over the plane, just as numerous as on the mountain. Animal, vegetable, mineral, and diamond fall through with tortured inanimate screeches. Near the right hand of each god a hole opens in the aether of the atmosphere. Dead spirits swarm through at relativistic diving speeds. You observe that these pits lead into the affiliated mortal Facets, the campaign worlds associated with each god. Other wounds lead into other Facets at random. Some are temporary, flashes of searing change that slice entrants in half. Others become permanent scars in the adamas of the Diamond, gates that will exist forever.

And then the mountain becomes an inferno. Flames leap out in all directions and rise into the sky, all in sunburst formation, creating a fiery mane of flametongue over the whole Facet, where it lingers like the persistent afterimage which brands your divine eyes.

Dead swarm over the earths you rule, infecting the populated areas and terrorizing farmers.
[spoiler]These undead should not exceed 150% of the appropriate challenge for any player character in a campaign world[/spoiler]

Zeus, your roster of the dead in your service contains only negligible counts. Aides, your income of dead from Zeus slows to a trickle.

Earthquakes continue to scar the land, air, and sea, threatening mortals and divine.

Hrairday

Helios, you enter a stable-looking rend in the universe. Shadows swarm about the boundary line as you step through. They do not flinch at the light from your staff.

The place does not appear hostile - it is simply a gleaming field of adamas. Near you, it reflects the firelight of the mountain's immenent destruction.

As Zeus attempts to follow, the portal glows blue and fades to a solid rock wall.

Tetday

You notice that all the portals give off the same blue glow upon being entered. Some close after being entered or even before anyone can squeeze through them. Elijah is nearly decapitated as he passes through immediately after Zeus. Do you try another?

Rhea, this does not seem like a wise course of action to you.

Heptday

[submits roll]
Rhea, make a defensive roll as the gate comes slicing closed.

Hapday

As the world begins collapsing around you, Rhea, you desperately leap for any rend in the fabric of the Diamond. Carefully, cautiously, you take just a little too much time and the gate winks out of existence like a ruptured soap bubble - taking the top of your skull with it. Your brainpan is exposed to the soot. You feel weak, and around you reality threatens to disappear into the Chaos only Sessile Tartarus can hope to weather.

Biday