It's almost 2015, but I think we can all still appreciate an old-school dungeon trek. If things go well, the story can expand from there. Anyway, here's the setup:
Thousands of years ago, there lived a powerful mage-king. In those days, magic users were revered as gods, and he was treated as such for every minute of his millennia-long life. His rule was an era of peace and prosperity, yet underneath is all lay a dark secret. The king had made an unholy pact with the ancient, timeless horrors which lie beyond the veil of reality. They ensured an era of tranquility in exchange for the lives and souls of all his subjects upon his death. In an attempt to circumvent the deal, the king used powerful magics to enhance his lifespan, and for many centuries, the horrors were denied their due.
Halfway through his rule, the magics which kept his seemingly endless life sustained finally began to fail. Desperate to save his subjects, the king embraced the power of the undead, slowly turning himself into a lich, one part of his body at a time. As a further precaution, he prepared a vast network of catacombs, into which he would preserve a sample of his finest subjects, granting them a world existence beyond death, even if the horrors descended upon the world. At first, entry into this kingdom of the dead was on a voluntary basis, but as the king grew ever closer to undeath, he began to grow desperate. Sinking a gigantic amount of his vast realm's resources into the project, he resorted to drafting people against their will, filling the halls beneath the mountains with thousands of undead servants, and filling his shadowy kingdom's coffers to bursting. He also filled these tunnels with magic artifacts, ancient tomes, works of art, even temples carved out of solid rock. In short, it contained everything a realm of undead would need to carry on a semblance of normal life.
Then, the king finally passed the tipping point from life to undeath, fulfilling the pact the horrors had granted. They descended upon his kingdom and in a single night, slew every living thing, down to the last blade of grass. The undead sealed themselves up in the tunnels, and were spared the maelstrom of violence. Thousands of years after the horrors departed, nothing grows in this realm. Its even barren of moss, lichen, fungi, even bacteria.
This is the realm to which a group of brave adventurers have come. They come for any number of reasons: to seek their fortune, to purge the realm of the undead, to finally put the last subjects of the mage-king to rest for good... or perhaps they have darker motives. The choice is yours.
So any takers?
Thousands of years ago, there lived a powerful mage-king. In those days, magic users were revered as gods, and he was treated as such for every minute of his millennia-long life. His rule was an era of peace and prosperity, yet underneath is all lay a dark secret. The king had made an unholy pact with the ancient, timeless horrors which lie beyond the veil of reality. They ensured an era of tranquility in exchange for the lives and souls of all his subjects upon his death. In an attempt to circumvent the deal, the king used powerful magics to enhance his lifespan, and for many centuries, the horrors were denied their due.
Halfway through his rule, the magics which kept his seemingly endless life sustained finally began to fail. Desperate to save his subjects, the king embraced the power of the undead, slowly turning himself into a lich, one part of his body at a time. As a further precaution, he prepared a vast network of catacombs, into which he would preserve a sample of his finest subjects, granting them a world existence beyond death, even if the horrors descended upon the world. At first, entry into this kingdom of the dead was on a voluntary basis, but as the king grew ever closer to undeath, he began to grow desperate. Sinking a gigantic amount of his vast realm's resources into the project, he resorted to drafting people against their will, filling the halls beneath the mountains with thousands of undead servants, and filling his shadowy kingdom's coffers to bursting. He also filled these tunnels with magic artifacts, ancient tomes, works of art, even temples carved out of solid rock. In short, it contained everything a realm of undead would need to carry on a semblance of normal life.
Then, the king finally passed the tipping point from life to undeath, fulfilling the pact the horrors had granted. They descended upon his kingdom and in a single night, slew every living thing, down to the last blade of grass. The undead sealed themselves up in the tunnels, and were spared the maelstrom of violence. Thousands of years after the horrors departed, nothing grows in this realm. Its even barren of moss, lichen, fungi, even bacteria.
This is the realm to which a group of brave adventurers have come. They come for any number of reasons: to seek their fortune, to purge the realm of the undead, to finally put the last subjects of the mage-king to rest for good... or perhaps they have darker motives. The choice is yours.
So any takers?