"The Magnus Lexrota.
So long destroyed.
Find it and bind it.
His next reign avoid..."
- poem by Brother Askalon of Callanmay Abbey
The QUEST FOR THE MAGNUS LEXROTA (or the Q4MLR for short) is really nothing more than a thread. It is a simple yet effective device you can use to string together a series of otherwise unrelated dungeons and adventures. Depending on your personal needs, the Q4MLR can be a simple adventure to last your player characters only a short time, or, in my case, can become a huge campaign around which your PC's lives revolve. The only thing you need to create to make the Q4MLR more interesting is an aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding it as more and more NPC's become aware of its existence and in turn desperately want it. You will also need a pantheon of gods to make this work, but which one is entirely up to you.
Here's a quick look at how I plug in the Q4MLR into my campaign. First, here's my background. This is subtext that the players get in a handout before the game begins:
More than 2000 years ago, the kingdom of Abydos flourished and prospered on the banks of the Great River which wound its way through the vast deserts known as the Tempest Wastes. Its ruler, Cheops the Mighty, however was not content. He eyed the rich coastal city-states of the Great Crescent Sea with greed and lust. Though there was little doubt his charioteers could win the small city-states, victory would not come without great price. So Cheops ordered his court magicians to create a device which, when wielded by his army, would crush its enemies. They created a device called the TALISMAN OF CHAOS (TOC for short). Through its most powerful magic, the talisman created chaos and turmoil wherever it went. But what they didn't know is once unleashed, no man, not even a great pharaoh, could reign in the unrelenting chaos. Cheops' enemies did indeed fall, but the magic was so powerful, it also eventually destroyed Abydos as well, and cast all of the world of Mondalith along with it.
For 500 years, chaos reigned supreme until a new pantheon of deities decided to take action. The pantheon of Zeus arrived on the slopes of Olympus. They quickly and easily dispatched the old abydosian gods and began plans to restructure the world. One day, Zeus looked down from Olympus and ordered his blacksmith Haephastus to construct something to reign in the rampant chaos.
The great misshapen god fired his forges deep underground. He and his minions fashioned a wheel made of gold and mithril. It was called the Magnus Lexrota, or Great Wheel of Law (I use a barely passing form of Latin as my ancient language. I think it gives my campaign an authentic feel). Worn around his neck with an adamantite chain, Zeus was able to halt the chaos and begin the rebuilding of society. That rebuilding took form primarily in the Imperium.
The Imperium sprang from the city of Myrrh. Its borders stretched far and wide across the world, and its culture formed the basis of life in Mondalith. At its height, Imperium centurions patrolled from outposts as far north as the Clywiddan Mountains and as far west as the Rhyder Pass. Imperium engineers brought water to deserts, elaborate villas to the frontier and strongholds to wild lands. The Imperial drachir became the standard coinage. And most importantly, imperial judges issued imperial law with a cold and impartial hand. "All roads lead to Myrrh," the old saying goes.
But just as Rome, Myrrh too grew fat and complacent. Perversions and greed chewed away at the empire's foundations. With most of the frontier under the imperial standard and few lands left to conquer, the Circus Maximus became the favorite of the mob. Gladiatorial games and brutal executions seemed the only way to satiate the hunger of the people. Zeus himself grew fat and perverted; known then as Obese Zeus.
Into this mix, a small cult began to form on the streets of Myrrh; the church of Hyperion. Hyperion the Lionhearted was a noble figure of goodness, honesty and chivalry. He attracted a mix of other deities and together formed the basic tenets of their religion: Paladur, god of knighthood and noble combat, Azariah, god of learning and justice, Ulfyn, god of the harvest, etc. These gods and others in the new religion appealed to the a populace weary of a constant diet of dessert without ever having a main course. Soon Hyperion and his pantheon of noble gods challenged Zeus upon the very slopes of Olympus. The War of the gods had begun. It raged on for years on Olympus until Hyperion came to a realization.
The only way to defeat Zeus was to snatch the MLR off his neck and cast it down Olympus. In a great final pitched battle, Hyperion ripped the MLR off Zeus' neck and threw it down the mountain where according to legend, it smashed into eight equal pieces and vanished into Mondalith and history.
Hyperion was victorious. He and his pantheon took their rightful places as the deities of Mondalith. But with the MLR destroyed, the evil gnawing chaos began creeping back into the world. Despite Hyperion's valiant efforts, the Imperium, just as Abydos, collapsed into anarchy and despair.
During the empire's death throes, a man named Viriditus Acies, third son of a Myrrh noble, sailed with some companions and formed a kingdom far away from the collapsing land. Joining with the native clans of Gaels, Vajars, and Goths, he conquered the land later known as the Kingdom of Argandel. The kingdom seemed to be mankind's last best hope in the face of the dead empire and rampant anarchy.
But not more than 100 years after Acies, his descendant, King Robert III, hired a court magician named Tallok. Tallok lived with Robert and his family in the king's magnificent underground palace called Green Castle. Built by dwarves, Green Castle was the envy of dukes, sultans, emirs and archbishops. But Tallok was a schemer and conniver, and unknown to anyone, has obtained the long lost Talisman of Chaos. Soon, "Bloody" Tallok used it to usurp the throne and grip the land in an iron fisted reign of terror. He ruled without mercy for 11 years, using his demons to destroy villages, churches, tribes, and the all-important knowledge of the past centuries. Finally, an army of Robert's former knights and men-at-arms defeated Tallok's dark minions and forced him back into the castle.
They sealed off Green Castle with Tallok inside, but they never could recapture the glory of the House of Acies. Each succeeding king was a more impotent shell of a monarch than the last. 23 years ago, the last one, Thomas the Weary, abdicated the throne leaving no heir.
Chaos has once again asserted its hold. Without the MLR to reign in the TOC, anarchy grips the world again. The once grand Kingdom of Argandel has been reduced to a chaotic mishmash of duchies, counties, diocese and principalities. No one recognizes anyone except the Holy Imperial Church of Hyperion.
Here's how things begin in my campaign:
The characters meet on a rainy night at a small but very cozy little inn called the Virtuous Knight at the crossroads of the Southguard and Callanmay roads. It's located in-between the Duchy of Ulwyn and the Diocese of Callanmay Abbey in the old Kingdom of Argandel. There they meet a hospitable innkeeper named Dorin Tavernmaster.
After they go to sleep, they hear a commotion in the common room below and the stable area outside. A band of marauding orcs has attacked the inn. They characters fight valiantly, but the orcs make off with the innkeepers horses and life savings.
He begs the characters to retrieve the things, offering a lifetime of free lodging at the inn in return. The characters agree. Dorin tells them he thinks the orcs are based in a dungeon located in the nearby hills of Tors Brendyrs. Sure enough, the marauding orcs are from there.
This is where you can insert any dungeon (low-level if this is part of a large campaign, or any dungeon if this is a small diversion). I created my own called Delvingrim; an old sanctuary for a group of wizards called the Grim Alliance. The orcs killed them all and decided to move in some years ago. The lair is a series of rooms built around a great hollow cylindrical cavern.
Whichever dungeon you use, you need to insert two things: Piece #1 of the MLR and a mysterious letter. The letter is written in a strange and ancient tongue which needs to be deciphered by a sage in a nearby village. The letter orders the orcs to carefully guard the piece. It goes on to state that within five years he will be ready to leave Green Castle and re-conquer the world.
So begins their quest to find all eight pieces of the Magnus Lexrota. At barest minimum, all you really need to do is place pieces of the MLR in a string of dungeons (handmade or mass produced). You could make the quest last a short time (reducing the number of pieces to six or four), or do as I have done and turn it into a full fledged campaign.
Each piece found bestows a powerful gift to its user and grows even more powerful when used in conjunction with the other pieces. I'll leave it up to you to describe those powers. Only when completed can the wielder attack Tallok and his Talisman of Chaos. Otherwise, Tallok remains impervious to assault.
But with that power comes ultimate responsibility. It will not take long for the characters to realize just how coveted the MLR is. I try to shroud it in ancient mysteries and wrap it in enough court intrigues to make the entire campaign more interesting.
In my Q4MLR campaign, the following groups try everything from begging to bargaining, bribery to thievery, chicanery to murder to separate the MLR from the characters: Fishtown Rats Thieves' Guild, Chivalric Order of Paradigms, Holy Imperial Church, Druids of the Darkling Vale, Duke Aethelred of Ulwyn, Archbishop Germanicus of Beechanmoor, and the gods Paladur, Morvidus, and Demetia.
In Mondalith, I have built my whole campaign around the idea of the MLR. Try to imagine the Holy Grail turning up in Medieval Europe in the 10th or 11th centuries, and you have an idea how I handle the MLR.
At the end, of course, the characters must fight Tallok. Once they are finished and wind up at the end of the campaign, they return to the Virtuous Knight and Dorin Tavernmaster. Dorin, as it turns out, is really Hyperion. He was testing his world and his own pantheon. He takes the MLR from them, granting them wishes in return. It is up to them to decide what to do next. The possibilities are endless.
I hope this is what you need. If not, just let me know and I'll revise it. By the way, my new e-mail address if newsies@mindspring.com Thanks again for your interest. If you hear of anyone using it, let me know. I'd love to hear about it. Richard