Publisher's blurb:
The angry face of a stone god gleers down on those below, carved out from the side of a mountain. Waterfalls rush past him, spiraling around a circular platform beneath his broken, outstretched hands.
Paths leading to the platforms are crumbling and the platform itself is a ruin. Fallen rocks and ferns litter this ancient place, while trees dig their roots into the harsh surrounding mountainside.
Below the crumbling bridges curves a steep gully, with sharp rocks littering the shallow water far, far below. The wind creates an eerie scream here, as it passes through the hands of the god.
Adventure Idea
A friendly young man wearing colorful patchwork clothes with a wooden staff approaches you for help. He needs to complete a ritual at an ancient worship site and claims to be the descendant of a forgotten deity. He says he can hear the god whispering to him, in his mind. He pauses often in the conversation, making snarky comments to someone who isn’t there, joking, or laughing merrily.
He explains that the ritual will allow him to fully inherit his godly powers, however there are evil cultists who guard the site. Should you help him past and complete the ritual, he will grant you a wish. He also claims he can perform miracles, but when he waives his hand to show you nothing happens and he instead bursts out in laughter; wiping tears from his eyes.
Arriving at the site you see armed figures in plate armor standing at different points. Each wears a different metal mask, shaped into the calm faces of old men or women. As soon as they see the young man, however, they yell that the Forbidden One has arrived and begin to shoot arrows at him. The man squeals and ducks behind a rock, covering his head with his hands.
WHAT’S HAPPENING? The “cultists” are an order of academic knights, descended from those who nearly eradicated the old god from the world. They thought they had killed all the mortal descendants of his bloodline generations ago, until they received a prophecy about one who had survived and would attempt to reincarnate the god near this date.
They espouse reason, mathematics, and order. If the players try to communicate the cultists will claim their ancestors fought long and hard to eradicate the god. They say you don’t understand the chaos your actions will release should you help the young man. That, despite his kindness, he needs to die so the god can never return.
If you kill the young man, flowers the color of his patchwork clothes will grow up around his body and the statue of the god will crumble. Should you fend off the cultists and help him instead, he will prance around with his staff; beating the knights merrily while yelling nonsensical things at them.
Once the ritual is complete his personality will become even more exuberant and his speech will make even less sense. He will grant your party’s wishes, only each one will manifest in unexpected yet positive ways—after all, you have just reincarnated the god of madness. Once the wishes are complete, he will disappear in a puff of purple smoke and sparks.