Publisher's blurb:
A shattered, blue, crystal heart glows from where it lies on cold stone, pinned down by chains held by angelic statues. Larger-than-life faces, carved out of the walls, weep rivers of icy water that flow into the fjord beyond the entrance. Two towers stand watch on each side of it, alongside large stone steps leading to the dry levels above the streams of tears.
Metal grids join stone platforms, all of them dusted with snow or sheets of cracking ice. Small chambers lead off from them and deeper into the rest of the temple.
Adventure Seed
Decades ago the god of light vanished abruptly. Without his blessing, clerics could no longer heal wounds or ailments. Lifespans shortened and pain increased. The mortals, desperate, began turning to plants and minerals to compensate for what had been lost—but it wasn’t the same and the world descended into darkness.
An old crone tells you about a prophecy regarding a group of heroes who will return the broken heart of the god of light, banishing the shadows in the mortal realm. She tells of its location within a great vault, high up in the mountains, only accessible by a frigid river.
WHAT’S HAPPENING? The god, upon seeing a mortal woman he loved dying of old age, gifted her immortality and eternal youth so that they could live together, always. But, after hundreds of years, she claimed she couldn’t take watching those she loved die anymore. He never listened to her pleas, so eventually—desperate—she took her life when he was away, leaving him only a letter and a white rose.
Heartbroken upon discovering her, he removed his heart and chained it away in what was once his temple. It has since frozen over with ice and become uninhabitable, as it is filled with an aura that makes those within it feel intense sorrow and despair. You can find the letter, the frozen rose (perfectly preserved), and her body, all sealed in the sarcophagus his heart rests upon.
After removing his heart, the god went into isolation far, far away from where he sealed it. He doesn’t feel anymore, and has become cold and uncaring to the problems of the mortal world. He no longer gifts his clerics the ability to heal, believing that all mortals die anyway, regardless of what he does—so why heal them at all? Their existences are fast, brutal, and gone within a blink. And besides, when those lives are extended beyond their natural course, mortal minds are so fragile that they break...
You have to bring his heart back to him to restore the balance, but first you must claim it. As it has been so long since it was abandoned, terrible creatures have inhabited this place, things which feed off negative emotions. Once inside you need to make checks to continue despite the crippling feelings, while fighting off the shadowy monsters that have devoured all those who failed to retrieve the heart.
If you succeed, you need to figure out how to heal the broken heart before returning it to him. But how will you heal the heart of a god? And can you survive the despair it brings?