The 13th Age 2e Heroes' Handbook presents a number of "icon died during the fight to vanquish the Orc Lord" scenarios. Here is mine.Nature Marches Towards Hell: The High Druid gave up her life to call forth enormous spears of stone and levin. She vanquished the terrible Orc Lord once and for all. The Priestess and the Emperor, both bloody and bruised, canonized her as a saint and recognized her as an imperial hero on the spot.The Crusader, though weary from battle, wielded the dark gods' power to warp the fabric of fate. The blackguard seized the late High Druid's iconic mantle and added it to his own. He and his armies melded into the soil and journeyed back to First Triumph in just hours.Little happened at first. Then, every predatory beast in the Dragon Empire began to gather and move towards unnatural destinations: wolves, bears, tigers, lions, giant insects and spiders, myriads more. Birds of prey joined them from the sky, as did sharks and other aquatic hunters across the Midland Sea and its rivers. Several Koru behemoths broke from their migration routes, and many trees and enormous rocks uprooted themselves and ambulated away.The Archmage, ever desiring to control all of nature, has concluded that they are marching towards Hell Marsh, the Abyss, and the hellholes of the continent. No doubt, the Crusader is amassing these primal forces to serve as expendable troops against the demonic threat.Ecological collapse is imminent. It cannot possibly be too bad, can it be? Who cares if the wilds are sending their predators into the infernal meat grinder? Surely, it is worth sacrificing the Dragon Empire's ecosystems if it means sealing away demonkind forevermore and liberating the beleaguered Great Gold Wyrm, right, right?You there, heroes of the 13th Age. Where do you stand on this? Will you throw your lot in with the Crusader in this final push against the Abyss, or will you uphold the old High Druid's legacy and stop this strange perversion of nature?
Excellent time to fill in the vacant ecological slots with more intetesting fauna. I shall prepare my copy of MGE and the relevant summoning circles posthaste.
I'm sorry but I just can't take "Orc Lord" seriously as a threat on par with ancient dragons, demon kings, archmages, etc. Let alone multiple of them.
>>96429575It is what it is. The Orc Lord is presented as the creation of the Elf Queen. Long ago, during the Dawn Age, he slew the Wizard King, the great tyrant who once ruled over the entire continent.13th Age 2e advances the timeline ever so slightly from 1e. Specifically, one or more icons march out to meet the Orc Lord and his armies, and one or more icons (or maybe none?) die in the fight to vanquish him.It is deliberately left up to the GM to specify the precise details. The Heroes' Handbook gives multiple scenarios as examples.
