Welcome to the epilogue for the Great Basin, a Pathfiner 1E game that I’ve been running for just over two years!
Now that the game is officially over, I can divulge some secretes and resolve the long-term plot points. As a reminder, the last session saw the death most of the task force, with only Gwen and Meru surviving. Meru had to bargain with Kieros for protection, agreeing to become a mouthpiece for her and advance her will across the basin.
As such, the charismatic oracle Meru becomes the leading political figure in the aftermath of the destruction of the League Against Koncord Eminence. It takes about two months for them to rebuild Forum and the Bastion of the Sky. During this time, their powerful divination abilities reveal that the long-feared invasion of the basin by the Caerwent Empire was still about a year way. The earlier time table was a false positive caused by a misunderstanding of how long it takes to mobilize a full-scale invasion force. During this time, Meru has to focus on unity and military strong, knowing that the Caerwent Empire will test the might of basin like it has never been tested before. Notable events in this time period include:
- Stopping a plot by Janus Brutus to take over the Empire of Xylte. As it turns out, Silvius Albina (the elderly delegate from Xylte who was racist against Oisin) was not totally senile as he was under some powerful hexes cast by Janus. She was planning to create a hostile military junta before expanding and conquering the Commune of Atrxous.
- Meru learns that Niwa Sura, leader of the Keburipemi Syndicate is planing to over-throw the Emperor of the Niven Imperium within the next year. The Niven government was actually ruled by a group of immortal samurai, blessed by a powerful grove of Kami, who seized power from Niwa’s ancestor. Meru, weary of provoking an old ally, powerful crime-boss and assassin, negotiates with her to delay the coup until after the Caerwent Empire has been dealt with in exchange for Meru’s soft support later.
- The Eichen Kingdom was doing research into binding souls to siege weapons. This process requires a strong connection between the souls and the weapons, which is why the Kingdom was sabotaging their own weapons to create that bond with the injured soldiers. This is how Zorro was injured and discharged from the Eichen military. Despite the usefulness that sentient, highly magical siege weapons would have in the coming conflict, the Koncord stepped in, ended the program and exiled the leadership responsible.
Soon, the forces of the Caerwent Empire reached the Basin. Rather than fight a head-to-head battle against superior force, or attempting a counter-offensive into Caerwent territory, Meru recommended a Guerrilla strategy involving numerous faints, retreats and defensive fortifications. Eventually, the conflict ground to a halt and Meru was able to force the Emperor to the negotiating table. After a year of conflict, a treaty was signed and a new border was established just outside the Basin.
In the years after the war with the Caerwent Empire, Meru and the rest of the Koncord shifted to create a prosperous and egalitarian land. Notable events include:
- Keeping an oath and helping Niwa take the throne of the Niven Imperium, while also influencing her into exiling the current cabal rather than executing them.
- Learning that Arendelle was run by a shadow government of planar-touched humans on a mission to control and contain the four Elemental Beasts. Individual members tended to operate as bounty hunters around the basin, but they were largely uninterested in actually governing their nation, resulting in higher poverty and disease rates.
- Ændor was freed from the Empire of Xylte, along with one of their other pieces of conquered land, Roga. In fact, the Empire as it existed during the last session no longer exists, replaced by a more democratic government operating under the careful supervision of the Koncord. Gwen became instrumental and helping gather the scattered Andorian Elves from around the basin and even outside the basin, where an exclave in the mountains was located. Without any members of the royal family left after Oisin’s death, the elves decided to form a Greek-style direct democracy. Eventually Gwen returned to the Underdark, but kept in touch with Meru via magic.
- Dauntless was tracked down, and revealed to be Diana Drache, the doctor who restored Meru’s memory. Since she had not causes any disturbances since LAKE fell, she was “imprisoned” in a remote area of the Eichen Kingdom and bound from leaving a area several square miles in size. Eventually, she became almost a confidant to Meru a place were they could go to escape all the activity required to run the Basin.
- Timer bis zur Erlösung, a spinning collection of stones in the Eichen Kingdom was revealed to be an artifact left by the Caerwent that had survived The Shattering.
After several decades of peace and prosperity, an aging Meru began to contemplate how to preserve the peace after their death. They decided that the systems and institutions they had built over their long and storied career were stable so long as the Sword of Divinity remained protected and safe. Kieros had proved to be a powerful ally, but it was difficult even for Meru sometimes to resist her calls for violence against the enemies of the basin and Koncord. Meru was concerned that eventually the basin would collapse into dictatorship ruled by whoever could wield the sword, so before their death, Meru hid the sword and traveled the basin, leaving hints as to it’s rest place before passing into the next realm them self.
Who knows if we will even learn more about what happened in the Great Basin.