This log contains the chronicles of the esteemed members of the Solar Scion adventuring group, The Soul Shepherds, led by Virtus Tenebris.
Chapter I. Sol y Luna
Session 1. New Beginnings
*October 11th, 2023
The story begins with a young band of rookies on a Solar Sailer (a light-powered airship) owned by the Solar Scion Liara Cetra, it is flying through East Sky in the Mercantile Hegemony Skies Region. The rookies have traveled a vast distance from their home city of Astraloftum and are being shepherded by Liara to go meet with the Elder Luminaria where they will complete their trials to be officially inducted to the Solar Scions. These fresh rookies chosen by the annual prophecy of the Ecclesia Solari are set to become Solar Scions, devoted warriors that uphold the ideals of the Holy Trinity and represent the Ecclesia Solari around Tamasora as the Holy Warriors chosen by the Gods: Natu, Magi, and Tekk.
Liara, the rookie’s current chaperone, flies the ship as the new recruits begin to mingle and get to know each other. Suddenly an S.O.S sounds over Liara’s Sol Phone (a new invention by the Church that allows for instant long range communication ), requesting back up for a kidnapping/hostage situation in a nearby flying city named Aluminux, the City of Aluminum.
The party arrives at Aluminux and meets the head dockworker, a dwarf named Orwille and his partner named Jarla. They learn of a mysterious mycelium infection within the pipes of Aluminux that makes people aggressive. They also learn about each other as well: Silas is a half-vampire (a converted Fomorian), Davi was part of the Solari Inquisition, Diallos receives visions that he interprets as prophecy, Whimsy is a Titanborn and a Crusader, Finley is from the Gardens of Arcadia, and Virtus comes from a venerable pedigree of legionnaires.
The party explores a city that is under lockdown due to an undead presence in the streets and witness sentient Clockwork Automatons defending the city from zombies in the city square. After the party makes quick work of the undead legion, they speak to the clockwork automaton that function as guards for the city and for the Mercantile Hegemony Region. The clockwork automatons express that they feel they have few rights, but they wish to protect the people of Aluminux foremost. There seems to be a large class divide within the Hegemony.
When the party meets with the Guildmaster of Aluminux, they also meet an Aarakocra Solar Scion named Henry Feaxin and the party is briefed that there is an active terrorist situation with hostages being held by a once defunct group known as the ‘Lunari Society’; they are demanding a ransom for the hostages and for the Guildmaster’s blind Owlbear pet. The party continues the investigation in Aluminux to find the hostages before time runs out with the help of Henry.
Session 2. Lunari Society
*October 17th, 2023
The party continues their investigation into the active hostage situation on Aluminux with Henry. The Lunari Society seem to be necromancers hell bent on world domination. They are keeping Aluminux citizens as hostages in exchange for money from the Mercantile Hegemony.
Diallos learns that someone in the city is using a ‘Feather Fall’ spell to make sure that undead infiltrate the city. The party stake out the premises and catch a culprit in the act of ‘feather falling’ the zombies down safely onto the city using a pegasus feather. The culprit from the Lunari Society is a half-Fomor, half-human with sharp teeth and they come from ‘Paradise’, it seems they were experimented on by the Lunari Society. The Solar Scion Henry and Davi the Inquisitor intimidate the Lunari Society henchman into revealing information about the hostages and the captors. The party prepares for a fight with the Lunari Society by skydiving from the Solar Scion’s Liara airship onto the captured cruise ship where the hostages are being held.
Session 3. Hostage Rescue
*November 1st, 2023
The party meets the captors on the deck of the stolen cruise ship. The nefarious group is led by an evil necromancer named Maya O Soldrei and an apostate Solar Scion named Jedar Pike, alongside other villains. The party defeats the Lunari Society’s necromantic army and knocks a few of their members into the Cloud Sea. The rookies succeed in rescuing a majority of the hostages and the pet owlbear from the Lunari Society.
After a vicious fight, Silas Clemons decides to stay behind to bravely (albeit stupidly) bring down the remaining Lunari Society members and their ship alone. Silas saves the trapped Soul of Elyas within the Lunari Society’s cursed creation, but not until Maya O Soldrei casts a horrifying and life-altering spell, the forbidden Soul-Infusion technique. Silas absorbs the saved soul of Elyas but becomes a living Soul Phylactery in the process. Henry buys some time for Silas to jump out of the airship and escape, leaving Henry’s fate indeterminate. The Party is rewarded by the Guildmaster of Aluminux for their brave endeavors.
The rookies choose to explore the city one final time by buying supplies and magic items from a theatrical and enigmatic figure that goes by ‘Shadecape’ in the Clockwork Bazaar. They leave Aluminux to venture further East towards the Temple of Luminaria.
Session 4. Old Luminaria
*November 8th, 2023
On the way to the Temple of Luminaria for their final trial, the party decide to dive into a relatively calm Sky Sea as a form of respite, but Diallos receives a vision of a Red-Haired Lady holding a baby, a ‘Darkened Sun’ and an ‘Unborn Fomor King’ while swimming in the Cloud Waters. Virtus and Liara rescue Diallos from drowning and the party continues towards the Temple.
The party arrives at the flying ruins of a forgotten kingdom named ‘Luminaria’ the shrine of the Solari Elder, who upon deeming the party worthy, will endow them with the title of Solar Scions and bless upon them holy powers, but they must first summon her by aligning a couple of mirror towers to create a shining viscous pool. They also meet a deaf painter that was stranded on the floating ruins named Agoya and his friend Lumi, a celestial bird native to Holy areas. Diallos also obtains an urn of holy bird ash and Silas consumes the finger of a deceased monk.
The party fights a couple of Fomors known as ‘Harpies’ guarding one of the Mirror Towers, they defeat them swiftly and complete the Mirror Tower Ritual and the majestic Light Dragon, Elder of the Trinity, Luminaria herself appears before them to task with their final trial.
Session 5. Ascension
*November 15th, 2023
The Final Trial begins: the rookies step forth into the dark and mysterious ‘Mirror Realm’. In the Mirror Realm, the party must defeat their Doppelgangers, demonic entities that live in this realm and are perfectly suited to test the party’s resolve. The rookies must defeat their ‘Dark Selves’ to surpass their earthly vessels.
Virtus, Finley, and Whimsy offer no reprieve and defeat their Doppelgangers by destroying their Souls, however Diallos spares their Dark Self by tossing their soul back into their own mirror. In an unprecedented move, the Silas Doppelganger, aptly named ‘Dark Silas’ chooses to help the rookies out by betraying his own dark brothers. Dark Silas informs them that there is a dark version of everyone from the Scions’ world, including a ‘Dark Luminaria, a Shadow Dragon’. Dark Silas and Silas complete a ‘Soul Infusion Ritual’ and become one entity, giving Silas a 3rd Soul within himself. Silas loses both of his eyes due to the inclusion of Dark Silas, but can still see at this point.
The party completes their trials and become full-fledged Scions by the Elder Light Dragon Luminaria. The Elder gives them each respective articles of clothing and armor that symbolizes their status as Holy Warriors.
After having successfully completed their trials, the officiated Solar Scions discuss their next plans and talk about their lives. Diallos receives visions and Davi leaves the party to pursue their own path, unsatisfied with the Church’s teachings. Luminaria and the newly ascended Solar Scions share some food prepared by Whimsy with a couple of fairies. Finley befriends a holy pegasus named Augustus and learns that the spring princess of the Court of Arcadia (fey realm) is missing and that the seed Finley has in his possession is the princess herself! Luminaria tells the Solar Scions that they must deliver her message to all of the Titans of Tamasora:
“Upon the tainted tides, the lifeblood stirs. We have waited for the hour of convergence. Monuments of forgotten power must align, and I as a beacon shall pierce the veil. Mark the Hatching of the Dark Egg, the star of ruin, for it heralds the dawning of a retro world.” -Elder Luminaria’s Message to the Titans
Session 6. Feathers of Time
*November 21, 2023
The newly dubbed Solar Scions are given a ride by Luminaria in her dragon form to the mysterious Spider Island south of the Temple, where they potentially find a Solar Compass that will guide them back to Astraloftum. As they drew nearer, they began to get snared in complex webbing within the clouds, strong enough to restrain even Luminaria in her full size. Whimsy scatters flour to coat the webbing, revealing a clear path that Luminaria takes to reach the island. As the Solar Scions touch down, they immediately get the impression that something is amiss. According to the Elder this island was meant to be uninhabited, but surveying their surroundings they can see old battlements and a figure in the trees under attack, outnumbered by spiders. The Solar Scions spring into action and begin combat against the spiders and barricading their burrows. Before sealing the last burrow, Virtus sees a pair of red eyes hiding in the tunnel. It flees further into darkness before she closes off the entrance.
The party meets Carter Moonwing. He is a Solar Scion as well who has been trapped on this Island after a mission gone wrong. He has 5 other Scions in his group, 4 of them have been paralyzed in a Time Stop like stasis and 2 are still missing. He says they froze after touching his fizzing Tome of Time. Luminaria takes the paralyzed members of Carter’s former team with her when she leaves the island back to Astraloftum. Having lost Davi inexplicably, the Scions absorb Carter into their group and agree to look for the missing 2 members.
The team do some investigating on the surface before delving into the spider tunnels, and find some suspicious “dead” trees that turn out to be treants. They seem to be pretending to be dead, even after being discovered. After a pep talk from Finley, the treants show them how to safely traverse the tunnels by following their deep roots.
After many winding turns the Scions enter a large cavern with deep pools of water and rocky platforms. Diallos looks into a nearby pool and gets nipped by a fish creature leaving a venom on his skin where the creature was not able to puncture his skin. Among the rocks hid goblins waiting to ambush the Solar Scions. After some discussion they took the scions “prisoner” and led them to their city proper. Once inside the charade was up and the scions leaped to action, slaying the goblins where they stood.
Session 7. Webs of Fate
*December 6, 2023
The Solar Scions rest and take inventory of goblin loot at a camp in the caves after a fight well won. Some prayers are made to the Trinity while Whimsy cooks a meal. Virtus, after praying to Tekk for his aid in destroying this attempt to start a war with the Solari headed by the Spider Queen, sees a vision in the camp fire. It was Animus and a small ruby dragon named Syrax fighting off the Spider Queen. We go into Spider City and meet a Spider Merchant named Jingma, he informs us that Animus has gone into the Palace to fight the Spider Queen. We defeat Goblins guarding the entrance to the Spider Queen’s Palace with the help of Carter’s mysterious and dangerous Tome of Time.
When we show up at the Spider Palace we see Animus standing over a butchered Spider Queen. Animus tells us that the Spiders were going to wage war on Astraloftum with the help of the Fomors (Goblins and some Succubus), and that the Fomors still have the two heirs to the Spider Throne. Whimsy finds that the two spider princesses are being mind controlled by a Fomorian Succubus that simply goes by ‘Servant of Nirvana’. We prepare for a fight in the Spider City Commons.
Session 8. Battle of Spider Isle
*December 17, 2023
The Fomorian Succubus and her small army of Goblins emerge from the Mirror Realm offering to spare us in exchange for the Spider Princesses and the Solar Compass that Animus has. We realize that the Spiders are being controlled by a weird ‘Brand’. The Fomorian Succubus was apparently Silas’ torturer in his past and she proceeds to tell him that he was ‘a failure of the Fomorians’ and that he will never amount to being worthy of being ‘the Unborn Fomor King’.
The Solar Scions surprise the Succubus and her army with a counteroffer of no mercy and they begin fighting. Silas absorbs the Spider Queen’s Soul and uses it during the battle to try to dissuade the Spider Princesses from fighting the Solar Scions and he succeeds with the help of Whimsy’s motherly love.
Animus and Syrax the Ruby Dragon fend off a Giant Fomorian Spider, Finley annihilates the Goblins’ armies with his powerful Moonbeam, Carter flies around casting Time Spells and protecting his teammates, Virtus and Whimsical take blow after blow from an endless horde of Goblins, and Diallos ruins the Fomors plans by shaking off a powerful Enchantment spell and landing the final blow. Diallos shatters a dangerous artifact of the Fomorian Succubus known as a ‘phylactery’ and releases tens of trapped Souls, all of which Silas inadvertently absorbs as he is a ‘living phylactery’ himself. Silas falls unconscious from the overwhelming barrage quintessential energy. Spider City is saved.
Session 9. Queens’ Farewells
*January 3rd, 2024
Virtus and Whimsy train a group of spiders in combat and defense against the goblins in hopes of preventing further influence.
The solar scions are informed by the spider princess twins that the coronation is taking place tonight and they are invited. They’re told that it’s customary to bring an offering to the new queens and so Diallos, Virtus, Silas, and Finley go off to hunt for fish offerings. They run into Jingma on the way and he gives them the advice of feeding the queens the fish with a flower on top, suspiciously. After procuring the fish, they head back to the ceremony where Whimsy is found bussing it down for the soon-to-be Spider Queens.
Carter returns to the Airship with Animus to try and get it unwebbed with the help of some spiders and get it running without their former mechanic. He tunes the elusive Engine to the Rubix language and manages to transmogrify the Engine into a giant multi-colored Cube that responds to ‘Rubix’, an esoteric psionic language that only a handful of people in the world know.
Syrax and the party have a conversation after Diallos has a vision. We learn Diallos has a destiny with the Gem Dragons of Paradise and the Ruby Dragon Syrax deems him ‘Argahax’, Draconic for ‘Prince of the Comet’.
Syrax tells us about an undisclosed ‘Ruby Incident’, in which a Solar Scion named Gragun Tides 35 years ago, an apostate of the Ecclesia Solari, sacrificed the entire village of Redhome for some nefarious purpose, leaving Syrax the only creature alive. Syrax blames the Church for the actions of this apostate and for never disclosing the situation to the rest of the world. Syrax says Diallos is his people’s messiah and wants to bring him back to Paradise.
Syrax sympathizes with Silas, mentioning that he is also a living phylactery and that he now harbors the hundreds of souls of his slaughtered village within him…
The party sans Carter offers tributes of fish to the newly succeeded Spider Queens, when Virtus remembers the comment about the flowers. She dashes off back into the caverns in search for flora but comes up short. With a prayer to Natu she is guided to a Daisy Grove within the Spider Caverns being cared for by a very tiny spider gardener named Moot. She takes just enough flowers for the party and gets back in line just in time to present their offerings. Whimsy does not offer a fish but does gain favor through her dance and her maternal guidance to the young Spider Queens. Silas also opts out of offering fish but reminds the Queens of his gift of the Sol phone and continued relations with the Ecclesia Solari & the Solar Scions, he also offers them a hug and words of guidance from the previous Spider Queen’s Soul within himself, which briefly reunites the girls with their mother one last time.
Diallos offers two fish for double the favor. Finley offers a fish and a tulip, which are the queen’s least favorite flowers, and then a lily, which they accept. Virtus offers a fish and daisy, and unknowingly presents the gardener Moot as well, who has hitched a ride on her shoulder. The Queens are pleased with the offerings and the night of festivities continue.
Silas calls Virtus aside to have a talk with her. He explains that he has lost his sight due to the overwhelming Souls within him dividing his vision from the Material World and the Spirit World, his sense of smell has increased dramatically and the smell of our blood is driving him mad, causing his need to feed become stronger than he has ever felt it before. He asks her to promise to kill him if he feeds on any of us. Virtus agrees, but reassures him that he will get his sight back.
Session 10. Clouds of Adventure I
*January 10, 2024
Silas is still blind the next morning after spending a night on the White Hands’s airship, the WH Enterprise. After allowing Silas a swig from his flask, Virtus and Finley discover that alcohol or any sort of drug temporarily solves his blindness. They spend the day making goodberry wine using Finley’s goodberries.
Whimsy encounters Carter in the engine room attempting to decipher how to control an unstable Rubix engine. Carter’s attempts to control the engine misfires and causes it to start absorbing things around it. Whimsy’s children’s drawings almost get sucked up by the Rubix engine, but luckily it was intercepted by Carter using time magic before the drawing was lost forever. Whimsy got upset and warned Carter to get the Engine under control. She leaves Carter to his work to make dinner, where the Solar Scions meet up and dine. They have a conversation about mercy. Silas says he would not kill anyone, Animus finds the notion of mercy to our enemies dangerous. “Leaving an enemy alive gives them the chance to seek revenge. They can hurt someone you love later.” To which Whimsy counter argues “But what if you kill someone you could have loved?”. Virtus meditates by acknowledging Whimsy’s point, but says to Silas, “I hope you know that as part of my Crew, I would kill to keep you safe. I would even kill you to keep you safe from yourself if need be. Keep that in mind.” Finley confronts Animus on his insistence on wearing a helmet and never taking it off, causing him to leave the table. Dinner ends.
The next day, they come close to an Island that a small bee tells Finley is inhabited by a dragon. Syrax is informed about the information and he tells Diallos to go to the Island with him to show him something. He tells the group that it is a dangerous visit as there is an “always watching presence” lurking on the island as well. Carter volunteers to be the distraction while Syrax and Diallos fly to the island to meet what Syrax believes could be his Mother. The other Solar Scions trust Diallo’s ability to take care of himself on this excursion, and Virtus gives him her Sol Phone in order to be kept informed and give Diallos a way to send an SOS in case of emergency.
We make an amazing discovery when Diallos returns to the ship, apparently there is a massive tower known as a ‘Planar Nexus’ that allows for fast travel around the Sky Sea, but is only visible to us for some reason. Diallos informs us and Animus that he believes he knows how to get to paradise by uniting the Titans’ powers somehow, as he was told by Syrax’s sibling the Ruby Dragon Shareena. We decided to take this information with us to the Ecclesia Solari.
We take a leap of faith and fly to the ‘Planar Nexus’ and Carter realizes that the Rubix Engine is going crazy when we get closer to the Nexus. Carter tries to stabilize the Rubix Engine by uttering a single word in Rubix: ‘Telpor’.
Session 11. Clouds of Adventure II
*January 17, 2024
The Planar Nexus successfully teleported us to a new area in the Sky Sea and we were able to get closer to Astraloftum now! While we did save time in using the Planar Nexus, 2 days still passed while we were all in limbo without us feeling it.
Diallos goes into Carter’s room to check out his personal library. He looks at a book on Fomors and reads about Oozes and how they operate under a shared hivemind. Diallos then gets a vision (that doesn’t feel like a vision) of many bodies decomposing in a pit. This makes him feel very uneasy. Carter walks in on him just as he’s putting the book back on the shelf and Diallos does not tell him what book he was looking at. He leaves, meanwhile, Silas is still blind and in his room, but looks in the mirror out of curiosity. One of the souls in his phylactery body tells him to break the mirror and then cut his hand with the glass. Virtus hears the commotion and enters his room to check if he is okay. She disarms him and heals his wound, but not before a blob exits his body and escapes the room. Although Silas is blind he can sense where the blob has gone, suspecting that it is a manifestation of one of the souls inside him.
The blood blob finds Diallos on the top deck and it attacks him. Virtus and Silas hear the scream, and chase after, Virtus making sure Silas doesn’t run into anything while he tracks down the location of the blob on the ship through his bond. They find Diallos and a short combat ensues. Diallos damages the blob that has seeped into him with a word of radiance. Virtus taunts the blob to attack her and when it leaps from Diallos at Virtus, she swats it with her Warpick, splattering it dead on the deck. After some speculating, Silas voices that the soul must have turned into an ooze when it exited his body and this shakes Diallos. After the crowd disperses, Virtus asks him if he’s alright. Diallos says he’s physically okay but then explains to her about his vision, and how it felt more like a nightmare, and admits he’s scared. Vitrus tells him that he mustn’t let the Fomors get to him, and that if they encounter any more oozes, she will make quick work of them in an attempt to lift his spirits. She also casts heroism on him for good measure.
At dinner, Virtus needles Animus to let her fly the ship and he reluctantly agrees as he is very tired from manning it for the entire trip. Virtus flies the ship for a day. They spot an Ore Island crawling with Pirates and a green island with lots of foliage. They vote as a group not to stop and investigate. Silas tries to prank Virtus with a Silent image of a boulder crashing into the ship, but he is blind and Diallos misguides him so that the rock is strangely clipping the ship’s space. Confused, Whimsy attacks the boulder and damages the ship, to Virtus’s alarm. They mend the ship before Animus notices the damage.
Animus and Virtus duel, tie, and Virtus breaks Animus’s helmet revealing his deformity to the others. Animus has an outburst of anger. He threatens Carter’s life for having interfered with their duel and storms off to his room. Whimsy breaks down his door in a “I’m both respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your mother by coming in anyway!” kind of way and gives him his mended helmet back and some kind words as a mother. After that, she tells him to apologize to Carter himself. Virtus approaches Animus after recovering from the concussion that resulted when she headbutted Animus’s helmet into pieces with intentions to boast on her improvement in Animus’s absence. Instead, Animus opens up to Virtus about the pressure of his image and the anger problem he’s been dealing with for years in secret. He slaughtered the spiders in a fit of rage and regrets snapping at Carter. She tells him that he needs to get himself under control and promises to have a rematch with him under the condition that he speaks with the Abbot at Diallos’s temple to train in bringing order to his mind and emotions.
They continue their travel and reach the gate just before Astraloftum. They need to page in to avoid being disintegrated but their radio is not working. They need a gem and Carter Recalls that Tails was holding onto something in his paralyzed state. He uses his chronurgy magic to retrieve it from Tails’s vice grip and it is in fact the topaz Gem needed to power the radio. The Solar Scions finally approach the city of Astraloftum.