Appius

Appius is an apprentice of Pelor from back when he was one of the Magicians. Pelor left him behind on Aand in secret to act as a deterrent in case the other gods tried to exert control over the world. Pelor left him on Hidentia with his original mount, a giant Couatl that can only be awakened if the world is thrown into a certain amount of turmoil. Once this level of chaos is achieved, a Neutral Good mortal would have to go to the Couatl and end it's slumber. Then the mount could be used to stop whatever danger is befalling the world.

Appius was original extremely excited to be given this mission. For one thing, it meant he could stay on Aand while the other Magicians and their apprentices were forced to ascend to different planes. He also took it to mean that Pelor trusted him above all others. He waited patiently, using magic to keep an eye on the world and ensure that nothing too terrible happened that it would be required for the mount to be woken.

When the Isle Empire seemed to be gaining enough power to threaten the gods, Appius grew secretly excited that this meant he could finally serve his purpose. But then the gods made an agreement to handle it on their own and the drow were cursed with sunlight sensitivity which ended their supremacy.

Appius was confused and a little enraged that Pelor joined this agreement when he knew Appius was down here to handle that exact kind of thing. He rationalized it at first as Pelor didn't want to show his hand too early but after a couple centuries of dwelling on this, his paranoia got the better of him and he began to think Pelor had abandoned him. In his anger, he created the Enchanting Storm and sent it across the world, hoping the addition of magic would cause more turmoil and his purpose could be fulfilled. However, with everyone having magic, the world reached equilibrium pretty quickly and the gods all assumed one of the other ones did this and it worked out so they made no efforts to correct it.

Appius was livid with their indifference and his psyche began to crumble. He created a city in Hidentia and stretched his magical limits to create a race of people in the city like the gods did once upon a time. Due to his lower power level, the people weren't as advanced as the rest of the people on Aand. They struggled to understand intangible concepts and couldn't form organized civilization after a century of forced evolution even though they were given a ready made structure for it. This made Appius even more angry and he went on a rampage, destroying parts of the city and killing everyone in it. He began intense amounts of research to find a way to show the gods he was better than them.

After centuries of research, he finally realized he could force turmoil in the world, activate mount, seize control of it and use it to conquer Aand and become God Emperor of the world - something all the gods wanted but had to give up when they formed their alliance. He began studying the enchantment on the mount to determine exactly what would trigger it's release the quickest. He came up with the below actions that needed to be done but found that if he did them completely himself, it wouldn't work. He'd have to enlist help.

* Let demonic energy seep into the world (opens a tear to Yeenoghu's realm on Dbitja; also uses this as a way to attract groups of adventurers he could use for his purposes).
	+ The Sinister Secret of the Lighthouse
* Take a piece of an Outer Plane to the Material Plane (obtain sediment from the River Styx to trade to the Raven Queen)
	+ Find a Way to Hades
	+ Panning for Stygian Sediment
* Obtain a memory from the Shadowfell (Travel to the Shadowfell in order to obtain the location of a Book of Keeping)
	+ A Bargain in Shadow
* Steal a Book or Keeping from an auction in the City of Doors. Will suggest hiring a yugoloth mercenary.
* Retrieve the magic items that contain the essence of each of the 9 gods.
	+ The Hammer of Creation - Moradin
	+ The Star Blade - Pelor
	+ Ring of Fate - Avandra
	+ The Judge's Brooch - Erathis
	+ Wand of Life and Death - Melora/Raven Queen
	+ Bracers of the Storm - Kord
	+ Brimstone Mace - Asmodeous
	+ The Frost's Bite - Auril
	+ Chain of Oblivion - Tharizdun
* Make a deal with an Archdevil in order to kill a Demon Prince.
* Once these are complete, then the party must complete The Final Step

## Speeches

* When first greeting the party:
	+ "We need to talk. I am Appius. Like you, I took up adventuring when I was young and grew in my abilities over time. For years now, I've been keeping to the shadows, attempting to thwart a demonic plot to take over the material plane. Whoever's behind this has been executing a series of disturbances to weaken the gates between our planes and allow them to march an army straight into our world from the Abyss. The rift you closed was one such disturbance. I had planned to take care of it myself but was waylaid by other disturbances in other parts of the world. They're beginning to become too common for me to handle on my own, which is where you come in. You have already proven yourself capable without my guidance, so my hope is that us working together, we can end this plot and save this plane. Any questions?"
	+ "My plan is to continue handling disturbances as I find them, but if I learn of one I can't handle myself, I'll let your group know where it is and any other information I have so you can handle it for me. Hopefully with the both of us working, we'll be able to get to them fast enough to stem the tide of disturbances and keep them out of this plane."
	+ "You are en route to the city of Selwyn on the island of Raepos, is that correct? There is another disturbance somewhere on that island. I don't know much about it, but I do know it has been attempting to hide itself so it could be older than the one you just closed. I don't know if that will make it easier or more difficult. Find this disturbance and vanquish it like you did the last."
* Once he is going to send them to the Shadowfell:
	+ "You all come from different backgrounds, but in essence, your idea of the creation for this world is much the same: the 10 gods you know worked together to create this world and everyone and everything on it. This is only partially true. The fact is that the beings you currently know of as gods once lived as mortals on this world. But then, magic ran rampant and there was no limit to how much you could accrue other than the other powerful beings that might seek to stop you. Over time, 9 beings grew more powerful than the rest and their wars among themselves and their vassals wrought havoc on the world, incinerating every thing that stood between them. Alliances were formed, broken, and formed again and the battle seemed ceaseless, destined to continue for eternity. At one time, the god you know as Melora had a lover that she was obsessed with. She did her best to keep them safe but eventually they were caught in the crossfire and died. This fractured her mind into two: Melora and the Raven Queen. They are the same person, but rule as separate entities due to her split psyche. Eventually, Melora with her fractured mental state was able to get a foothold on multiple sides of the conflict and formed a large enough alliance with a single goal in mind: truce. The alliance managed to coerce the other beings to join and eventually they settled on the 9 of them ruling existence together, since no one of them could take control for themselves. So they worked in conjunction to reshape the world they once called home to be hospitable once again and worked to create creatures and people to populate it. Then they each created their own Outer Plane to reside in and monitor their dominion with one promise: none of them could act directly in Aand again. But one doubted the rest could hold their promise, so Pelor, the new god of sun and healing, hatched a contingency. He tasked one of his powerful vassals with staying on Aand instead of returning with him to Elysium to rule along with him as Minor Gods. This last remaining relic of the past would stay in hiding to ensure that if one of the other gods broke their promise and once again tried to exert their control on the world, someone would be ready to fight them back. That last stalwart is I, Appius. For millennia, I've guarded this plane, ensuring that the promise that was made so long ago is kept. And now it is broken. Now we need help and the one place to get the knowledge we seek is the Fortress of Memories: the Raven Queens palace in the Shadowfell, where she dwells on the past. There, you will be able to trade this Stygian sediment for a Book of Keeping. Now the Shadowfell is less of a plane on it's own and more like one side of the ever-shifting plane known as the Feywild, where she rules as Melora. Because of this, it's difficult to travel there directly, however, the Feywild bleeds into the Prime Material plane regularly, due to it's proximity, as our friend Pill can attest to. Because of this, the easiest way to get there will be to go through these bleeds to the Feywild and then find a way there to flip over to the Shadowfell side to get the knowledge we need. So you will be heading to LeLun."