The world has been bathed in a cool blanket of night for too long. Now it’s time to ignite the flames at the core of the world and jump-start civilisation once again.
In this high level session, the adventurers must light fires and brace themselves against hordes of foes who seek to extinguish them. Once the ritual is completed it powers up the party allowing them to completely flatten the remaining threats.
Setting:
This narrative takes place on an unnamed frozen world with no day or night. One side of the world is completely frozen, while the other bakes under the sun. Life exists in a temperate middle zone, however the adventurers have ventured into the icy wastes in order to complete a ritual that will ignite the core of the planet, causing it to rotate once again.
Story Beats:
Setting wards
Holding back the horde
Culling the herd
Setting wards:
This story begins in the frozen caldera of what once was a volcano where the adventurers prepare a ritual to light a spark that will travel down into the earth to reignite its core. It is a desolate place where the adventurers have had the hope of the world placed squarely on their shoulders.
If the characters do not know each other prior to this, then a suggested introduction is flashing back to the journey to get here. Travel would have taken many difficult days, so players are welcomed to describe how they contributed to the group or why they were chosen for this task.
In the caldera a ritual is prepared that will redirect the sun’s energy from the desert on the other side of the world through the clouds to this precise point. To do so, the adventurers will need set up equipment brought with them to focus the rays, light fires to keep the freezing snow from encroaching into the ritual area, and prepare any additional wards they require to help keep the hordes at bay.
The number of fires required should be equal to the number of players, and spaced to be roughly to one turn’s movement from each other.
As the ritual is prepared, the skittering and howls of night creatures scout ahead of a wave of monsters who seek to maintain this unnatural balance. Bats and wolves, well fed from hunts along the equatorial border. They will harass anyone who stray too close to the edge of the circle, away from everyone else. Their primary goal is to delay the ritual while other stronger creatures arrive to deal with the adventurers.
Holding back the horde:
As the ritual commences a thin ray of sunshine pierces down through the clouds for the first time in years, directly into the centre of the sinkhole. For now it’s barely larger than a blade of grass, however grows stronger as the ritual progresses.
The area just outside the adventurers vision seems even darker than before as the excitement draws creatures from near and far. Now they must hold back the waves of foes while the ritual completes.
Initially, weaker frozen humanoid foes stumble out of the darkness heading toward the fires to extinguish them. While these pyres are burning the ice cannot advance, which prevents anything more dangerous making its way into the ritual area. These weaker foes can usually be dispatched in a hit or two, but will be a constant threat throughout as more pour into the area.
Note: The adventurers may relight any fires that are put out.
The ray gets a little stronger, which causes larger figures to emerge from the darkness. These yetis are covered in thick layers of fat, making them much more resistant to attacks, and favour targeting the adventurers directly. While they are distracted, the weaker foes should still be attempting to extinguish the flames.
At this stage, at least one of the flames should have gone out, causing the ice to rapidly spread across the ground like weeds toward the caldera centre. A four legged creature with a feline grace and dripping icy darkness enters the field and begins stalking the adventurers1. After taking down its target, it turns toward the ray of sun in the middle and moves to disrupt the equipment.
Note: One of these creatures will appear each time a fire is taken down.
Once the first of these feline creatures is dealt with, the sky darkens and the ray vanishes as a black blizzard appears. Peering into the darkness, the adventurers can see a great creature that belongs under the sea. What appears to be a beached whale lies in a pool of inky tar2, which evaporates into the sky to block out the sun. It makes no effort to move closer, and any attempt to target it at a distance results in other creatures leaping to intercept the shots as a reaction. The challenge here isn’t combating the creature itself, it’s figuring out a way to take it down without being overwhelmed by the creatures in the dark.
Culling the herd:
On defeat of this creature, the blizzard lessens revealing one, then two, then multiple rays of sunshine as the ritual is completed and the sun rises on the horizon for the first time in an age.
The return of the sun to these lands has two effects, in that it weakens the foes while powering up the adventurers who can now clearly see the horde they still must face. As the volcano rumbles beneath them, they can see many more of these creatures desperately pooling in order to once again black out the sun.
To finalise everything they have accomplished, the adventurers must now take care of the last of these creatures. To make things a greater challenge, they are now being carried toward the adventurers on the backs of frost giants. The adventurers can now get a clear shot at each of them, however there are now 3 almost to the peak of the caldera who may yet still manage to undo the ritual.
While the previous sections were designed to be a constant drain of resources and time, this final section is designed to be a power trip for the players to enjoy. If running D&D, then a suggested way to do this is fully replenishing spell slots and other consumable abilities to allow the players to really go for it and take down what just was a boss with ease.
Feeling the sun on their skin as they tread through the melting snow and bodies is a novel sensation for the adventurers, along with the pockets of civilisation living in the equatorial regions who are experiencing their first sunset in an age. The adventurers, now legends, have just ushered in the dawn of a new age.
What did you think? Any ideas, feedback, want me to expand, or do you intend to use this in a session? Let me know!
This session was originally written with D&D in mind, and the original prompt for this session was the song “Summon the Fire” by The Comet Is Coming [Link].
Cowritten/Edited with the assistance of Alsanna.
For visuals I’m referencing a four legged BT from the video game Death Stranding, and stat wise I’m using the D&D5e Adult White Dragon.
Yes it’s another Death Stranding reference.