AuxilorOx Verone is ancient. He was created around 2000 years ago to serve the dwarves in an ancient and now forgotten war.
He was part of an experimental Warforged version that was one of the first to wake up to the spark of life and gain free will.
This was the result of a favor begged from the God Talos by his his High Mystic and most loyal follower Verone. It was Verone who helped Talos ascend to godhood. Both Verone and Talos took the journey together, and either of them might have become a god, but it was Verone who stepped aside to let Talos ascend.
As the Dread approached, the Dwarves and their automatons could no longer hold it back. Each Automaton required the attention of a Dwarven Mystic to give them short term tasks. And the Dread had finally learned this secret. Dwarven Mystics were dying in droves, and the Automaton’s stood inert and useless.
Realizing this, Verone cast a new class of Automaton. These were to be Auxiliary Soldiers meant to operate on their own and fight in support of the dwarven forces. Automatons that could achieve the spark of life. Unbeknownst to all, the process required Verone to give up his own soul so that it could be splintered into six hundred and seventy six pieces. Each piece was placed inside of an automaton. So it was that Verone’s life force was fragmented and its immortal force merged with the spark of life granted by Talos.
All of the Verone batches not only gained sentience, but they gained a kind of hive mind. Guided by their King, Talos, they could communicate with the others in the Verone Auxillaries. From the original casting, six hundred and seventy six warfored emerged with free will and a desire to serve Talos and honor Verone’s sacrifice. In the next several years of the war almost all of Verone’s Castings were destroyed or lost as they gave their lives to defeat the Dread. AuxilarOX Verone was one of the fallen. He lost his footing in the last battle and fell from a great bridge that spanned an under ground river. He plunged hundreds of feet into fast moving water where he sunk and became imprisoned in the soft clay on the river bottom.
Over the next several centuries all the remaining Verone Castings suffered similar fates. As each passed, their souls moved on and carried with them a small fragment of Verone into their afterlife. Verone’s fractured spirit slowly reassembled itself but each portion was bonded to a new unique spirit. Once more than half of the 676 Casting were destroyed Verone began to regain control of her spirit, but suddenly her individual spirit was conjoined with hundreds of others. This drove him to maddness. He hopes that reassembling his shattered soul will return him to his original state, but each new fraction of his soul he absorbs comes with a new separate identity. And with each new identity, he falls deeper into madness.
Talos watched his follwer coalesce with great expectation, after becoming a God, he experienced great loneliness, and looked forward to his old follower joining him again. When Talos discovered Verone’s spirit had descended into madness, he bent much of his will toward restoring his friend. Over the centuries, he tried again and again, failing time after time. Talos had other duties though, and could not dedicate himself solely to saving Verone. But eventually he borrowed a page from Verone’s book and split his spirit in two. One half of him continued with his machinations as a god, while the other half dedicated itself to helping Verone.
Frustrated with centuries of failure, Talos’ split spirit returned to his twin, convinced the other to rejoin with him, and then dive into the conciseness that was Verone’s madness. His research led him to believe that a powerful enough mind joined with Verone’s spirit could pull him out of his madness from the inside. Convinced this was the only way, Talos tasked his high Mystics to carry fourth his will, rejoined his self, and dived into Verone’s consciousness.
Talos was accustom to hearing millions upon millions of prayers simultaneously. He had become quiet deft at sorting and discerning which prayers were the most urgent or required the most help. However, the moment he absorbed Verone’s soul, he lost his own sense of self in the undertow that was Verone’s fractured and crazed existence. Talos become trapped. Verone’s will subsumed his own. His power still existed, and his Mystics were able to pull from the power he granted them, but over the next several centuries something happened to energy. Talos trapped and driven mad became corrupted by his desire to escape. He swore oaths and decided he would do anything to escape. His power slowly became corroded by his malice, and his followers unknowingly turned to evil.
Over the next 18 centuries, the church of Talos fell from its high place in the Pantheon to feared and despised religion, tolerated in the world only because of its great power.
As each of Verone’s Auxilaries passes, Verone collected their spirit into a kind of celestial hive mind bent on completely reassembling his soul. Once this occurs, he will obtain the form of a minor deity and present a terrible threat to the world. Not because she is evil, but because she is driven mad.
As Verone escapes, so will the now evil and very powerful Talos be free to unleash his anger and frustration on the world.
Once Verone absorbs the last of her warforged fragments, he will rise again, a god of chaos with all the power of Talos, but none of the compassion or wisdom.
The only way the world can be saved is if Verone’s remaining Warforged learn of their fate before they pass, and form a strong enough bond that they can bring a purpose to Talos’ warforged fragments.
Talos’ twin spirit was correct that a powerful mind with a single purpose was needed to save Verone, but he didn’t realize that mind needed to come from within, not without.
If the remaining 15 warforged form a single purpose and and die together in a shared ritual, they may be enough of a force within Verone’s confused consciousness to slowly bring her back to sanity.
AuxilarOx the name Jamie’s character goes by, is a bastardization of its original designation:
Auxilory-O.X. Verone.
Auxilory-O.X. Verone was the three hundred and seventy-eighth out of six hundred and seventy-six of Verone’s fractured soul vessels.
Each Cast was identified by an alphabetical code the first being A.A., A.B., A.C., etc. and the last being …Z.X., Z.Y., Z.Z.
As time passed, other non-Verone Casts were created and other Mystics volunteered to sunder their souls to give them life However, none were as powerful as Verone. The majority of these Casts have wandered the world for so long that their hives have become stabilized. And once Talos realized what was happening he put a stop to the process. In the ensuing decades and centuries, Mystics learned to give life to Warforged without needing to sacrifice themselves.
Of the original Verone Castings, only fifteen remain. Six are moving throughout the world (including AuxilarOx) and 9 more are buried somewhere in the world. The six like Jamie’s character have been drawn to the Luna Valley where Verone and Talos have been captured.
Those units are:
| 1 Auxilary K.I. Buried in Luna Valley 2 Auxilary A.L. Buried in Luna Valley 3 Auxilary O.H. Buried in Luna Valley 4 Auxilary Y.A. Buried in Luna Valley 5 Auxilary B.O. Buried in Luna Valley. Found in Fort Frostfell. 6 Auxilary I.B. Buried in Luna Valley 7 Auxilary C.Z. Buried in Luna Valley 8 Auxilary M.I. Buried in Luna Valley 9 Auxilary L.E. Encased in Amber in Gardong Marhold. Sworn companion of Etith Enwachfu. Has forsaken Talos for Hoar. Once freed, he will help with the ritual, but only if the characters agree to destroy Losk first. 10 Auxilary C.X. Wandering The Luna Valley 11 Auxilary J.M. Wandering The Luna Valley 12 Auxilary V.X. Wandering The Luna Valley. Finds Aux in Tomar’s Crossing and gives him a vision. 13 Auxilary H.O. Wandering The Luna Valley 14 Auxilary G.P. Wandering The Luna Valley 15 Auxilary H.I. Wandering The Luna Valley |
Verone need not collect all of the Casting’s souls to excerpt her power in the world. Once she gained 50% of her soul she woke and was slowly able to seep her will into the world gently exerting her will upon it. Each additional fraction collected continues to strengthen her connection to the world. By the time Castor Verone was discovered a powerful cult had arisen around her influence and was moving clearly toward the goal of collecting and destroying all of the Verone Castings so that she could reabsorb their spark.
AuxilarOX was found by miners about thirty years ago. They sold him to a Monastery known for its fascination with Warforged. There, the chief priest realized he was from an ancient batch of Warforged, but didn’t know the extent of it. Over the next decade and a half, he made Castor into his personal project. He cleaned him up and restored his body and his dormant spirit. Then he left AuxilarOX in the care of the priests and set off to discover the meaning of the markings in AuxilarOX’s identity plate. He carried the original corroded identity plate with him, having replaced it with a replica. But the plate was so corroded that he thought the designation Auxilar O.X. Verone must have meant Auxliarox Version One. This is understandable as in the centuries after the great war, new war forged were made individually and given life though a more pure method, not requiring the sacrifice of a dwarven soul. These newer war forged were given names and version numbers. The priest didn’t know what to make of the 373/676 so he figured it must have been a date stamp in some ancient calendar.
Before the priest left, he forged a new name plate imprinted with AuxilarOX Ver One – Year 367 to 676
The priest traveled north where the ruins of the old Storm Dwarven empire lay hoping he could find out what he could about the ancient Warforged. During his research he disappeared, thought to have perished on the dangerous northern roads.
Actually, he was set upon by the cult after they heard him asking around about a Verone Casting. Fortunately for AuxilarOX, he withstood much torture before revealing to the cultists where AuxilarOX was, but managed to convince them he only knew of his general location. Those cultists jouneyed south and attacked Gell’s village. They did much damage but were ultimately defeated. The priest managed to escape, but the torture drove him mad. He escaped into the mountains that marked the boarders of the Luna Valley and eeked out a living until the Melt. The falling star woke him from his stupor and convinced him it was a sign to continue his quest. He is wandering the Luna Valley
The remaining cultits searching for for Warforged, and will encounter him as the game proceeds.
The original name plate rests in a Ruin claimed by the Cultists which the characters can stumble upon later.
How to reveal this to Jamie.
First give him the information about the priest who restored him. and the Name plate with the information.
Give him a message in his vision from Talos mix Verone’s words with some of her warforged grafted fragment’s words.
Have him run into a lifeless automaton, and figure out how to ‘bring him to life’ (see below)
Change the message in his vision to be more relevant to the relationship between Talos and Verone
Research he can do.
Learn the history of the Dread wars and the Storm Dwarven empire that rose after it fell (and ultimately fell to Xancrown and the Demon Plague)
From ancient Talos texts (perhaps he finds these in a dungeon) he learns of the name Verone, and that she was considered an early saint by the Storm Dwarves. Her name long forgotten since the fall of the Storm Dwarf empire.)
His approached by a warforged named Auxliory VX. Who touches him and sends him into a vision.
Have him learn a rumor about the priest who restored him to life.
Have him follow this rumor to where the priest was last seen. He can get the priest’s affects and find his original name plate with his original designation.
Have him encounter a group of imprisoned Warforged. If they rescue these, they will discover several of them are Verone Castings much corroded.
Have the characters find some of the buried Verone Castings with their ancient dwarven weapons.
Have him encounter the cult of Verone and make them an enemy of the party.
Have his visions grow more specific.
Learn that the other Verone Casting have similar visions
Have him figure out that he must ultimately choose to sacrifice himself to save the world from Talos or choose to join Talos in his chaotic reign.
Have him find and gather together the fifteen remaining Verone castings
Have him learn of a ritual that can join the remaining Verone castings into one mind, and steer their fragments of Verone into a cohesive sane consciousness that may be enough of a spark to save Verone from his madness.
As a capstone adventure, Castor Verone can lead the ritual that will join the remaining Verone Castings give them single purpose of mind and sacrifice themselves to save Verone / Talos (or not).
Aiux and friends must battle a demi-god version of Verone (find a demigod from some DnD books and modify it.) into submission so that this ritual can be performed.
Upon the successful completion of this ritual, narrate that over a long period of time the final 15 castings manage to separate the the other six hundred and fifty-eight Warforged souls from Verone’s soul fragments. The Warforged souls are released into the world where they can, over time, bond with newly created war forged and live new lives. Verone finally free from her madness takes her place as patron diety of all warforged and Talos is free to return to his worshipers and remember that he was never an evil God. He will eventually return to his original chaotic neutral alignment.
Many other ancient automatons still exist. These are pre-war warforged which can be given simple instructions. Kind of like the Golums in Terry Practhet books. These Automatons could become self-aware, but they each have an inhibitor gem that blocks that from happening.
When removed these automatons will be ‘born’ into the world.
These gems will fit in socketed weapons and are trigger the 200 gp level abilities.
These are CR 5 or greater Warforged. More powerful ones have greater gems.
Talos came to you in a dream. He beckoned to you and said to you in what seemed like hundreds of different voices.
Coalesce allow the ocean’s elasticity to swallow me finally and the many endlessly into one
Bond clean to the surface of the hive soul and in a time free from knowing no madness days
Gorge starve upon the the freedom voices of the fracture of my embrace of my souls
Dread die fall that we all might live from the bridges we are delivered
It was the most powerful thing you have ever seen or heard.
The experience moved you deeply and even though you had already sworn yourself to Talos, your faith grew deeper than you ever could have imagined.
Since that first vision/dream every time you close your eyes on your rest, you see Talos again and he beckons to you and says to you in what seems like hundreds of voices:
Coalesce allow the ocean’s elasticity to swallow me finally and the many endlessly into one
Bond clean to the surface of the hive soul and in a time free from knowing no madness days
Gorge starve upon the the freedom voices of the fracture of my embrace of my souls
Dread die fall that we all might live from the bridges we are delivered
Every time you see this vision and hear the voices, you are struck with the thought that it is the most powerful thing you have ever seen or heard. And every time you wake your faith grows deeper than you could ever have imagined.
Second Vision
The strange Warforged traces a finger over your holy symbol. Your body seizes up, and your vision and hearing are flooded with a vision:
Talos stands before you. He beckons to you and says to you in what seems like hundreds of different voices.
Find loud like ourselves over you ourselves.
Gather close feel you ourselves because of ourselves
Bring them bright see me ourselves in the light of ourselves
You are struck with the thought that it is the most powerful thing you have ever seen or heard. And every time you wake your faith grows deeper than you could ever have imagined.
GM Notes (Only visible to GM)
CUT and PASTE above
Third Vision
Talos stands before you. He beckons to you and says to you in what seems like hundreds of different voices.
This one So long I never returned have waited, trapped me
Find me I thought Auxilory never touch merge with another like me me
Don’t let bring this fall one with you into Wake Verone that so he can way is join madness us too.
You are struck with the thought that it is the most powerful thing you have ever seen or heard. And every time you wake your faith grows deeper than you could ever have imagined.
Third vision
Verone
This one never returned to me
Find me Auxiliary OX, merge with me
Bring this one with you. Wake him so he can join us too.
Auxiliary
So long I have waited, trapped
I though never to touch another like me
Don’t let me fall into Verone that way is madness.
Combined
This one So long I never returned have waited, trapped me
Find me I thought Auxilory never touch merge with another like me me
Don’t let bring this fall one with you into Wake Verone that so he can way is join madness us too.
Second vision
Verone:
Find more like you.
Gather them to you.
Bring them to me.
Auxilories
So loud we cannot hear ourselves over ourselves
So close we cannot feel ourselves because of ourselves
So bright we cannot see ourselves in the light of ourselves
Combined
Find loud like ourselves over you ourselves.
Gather close feel you ourselves because of ourselves
Bring them bright see me ourselves in the light of ourselves
Verone was a paladin of Uodmox, and under his banner, Uodmox’s followers and power grew significantly. Verone converted hundreds, then thousands of warriors who swore oaths to Uodmox, becoming paladins. At the time, Uodmox was allied with Voiviow because Losk was rampaging and causing numerous problems. Uodmox realized that a large enough celestial event would enable him to create a miracle, spending some of his power and absorbing the faith and worship of his most devout paladins to create a demigod. Verone was the target for this, and in battle, all of the paladins cast their retributive strikes simultaneously, destroying at least one of Losk’s major hosts. Through this miracle, Uodmox gained a tremendous amount of power, which he immediately used to deify the paladin Verone. Verone’s arrangement was that he would then become subordinate, to some level, to Uodmox.
As the war continued and more threats emerged from Losk, Verone used his influence as a demigod on the material plane to bring in more followers. Uodmox’s investment paid off, and once it was repaid, Verone was given the ability to follow his own path as long as he continued to offer a tithe of power to Uodmox. Losk, one of the early prime deities, had a seemingly endless amount of energy. When the land that Verone’s followers inhabited fell under siege by Losk, the losses began to mount for Verone’s people. They had been very clever and created an army of automatons controlled by the mystics of their order, so they didn’t lose their lives; rather, their automatons were damaged or destroyed. As long as their automatons had some function, they could crawl back and be repaired. They could also shut down and go into hibernation if they were damaged, at which point they could be revived.
When Verone’s forces managed to retake the battlefield where they fell, Losk’s forces discovered that the mystics were the power behind the automatons and advanced a campaign to seek out and kill them. There were hundreds of assassinations, all at the same time, on the dawn of a siege. The automatons, which were standing ready to fight off the siege, and a group headed in that direction to relieve the siege, were suddenly lifeless and without anyone to control them. There were some mystics and automatons still functioning, but it was a fraction of the original force, and things looked bad. The people prayed to Verone in their desperation.
Verone saw that if he took no action, he would lose his major base of followers, faith in him would collapse, and he may never recover. So he decided to create a miracle. But miracles are expensive, and a deity must sacrifice some of its own divinity to power a miracle. Verone fractured his divinity into over 600 fragments and sent each of those fragments into one of the automatons, thereby creating and giving life to the warforged. Losk’s forces were devastated, and the automatons under the control of Verone now began to march on Losk’s old stronghold, the Gateway, which was being built the first time the Kersk completed their plan and moved the planet.
During this time, many fractions and the forces of Losk on the field were swallowed up by the cataclysm that followed into what is now the Rift Sea. All of Verone’s followers lived in this area and were upset. They felt that with victory in their hand, they were forsaken by Verone, and his followers abandoned him as they died, turning to other deities in their last moments. Verone was fractured, his power base gone, and his automatons crushed and buried underneath the surface of the Rift Sea.
When these automatons die, a little bit of Verone comes back, but Verone is mad and has lost her mind. As a paladin of Verone in an automaton form, Rusty will be all over the place with his faith. He’ll have a connection to war and a connection to good, but he won’t have any anchor, hence the fallen paladin nature. He will have the mission to try and bring Verone back together and find the other automatons.
The state of Verone needs to be determined. Verone’s reassembly could be tied to the Ansarak Capstone Adventure. Perhaps there are many automatons of Verone in Ansarak who were unable to escape and have become fragmented and lost.
Ultimately, Rusty is a fragment of Verone who has forgotten that he’s basically a god and is wandering about with the power of a god, but the deity is nonresponsive. The only thing he knows from his deity is that the deity is trying to be found, and that his deity is lost.
So, Verone (Rusty) needs a bit of a backstory. I’d like to start the story very in a way that is very confusing. Memories of battle. Memories of a travelling companion. Memories of Vol’s underlayers. memories of falling into the earth giving his “life” to save his traveling companion (who later becomes the Lich). Memories of entering hibernation and then waking up tumbling through the surf and being buried in the sand. Then the experience of being awoken and yanked from the sand by a devastated group of humans who argue about what to do with him.