Debt Campaign

The Debt Campaign, also known as Arc 6 Part 2, is a story arc prequel to the Malice Campaign. It provides additional context for Chance (1), the Lauriel bloodline, and the ancient civilization that used Chance (1)'s dice to manipulate their own luck.

## Synopsis

Eglath, Lythienne, Quinx, and Carin/Susie were hired by the poor Bigby University to investigate the d2 shrine that was recently discovered by Christopher at the outskirts of town. Their expedition was joined by Damien and Ash, two archeologists.

The party explored the d2 shrine and found the d2, as well as a map that pointed towards many other shrines. They explore a nearby shrine, the d4 shrine, and collect the d4 from it. These expeditions attract the attention of the Cican Kingdom (the Cican royal family is the Lauriel lineage), who give the university additional funding.

During their investigation of the shrines, the Debt Party learns many things about the ancient civilization that built them. Here is a rough timeline/summary of the history of this civilization:

1. Chance (1) is the god/deity of luck, and controlled luck with his seven dice artifacts.

2. At some point in the past, he lost these dice in a game of chance to an unknown opponent.

3. While Chance (1) remained in the plane, the dice could be used to change rolls, but the changes would always be balanced out in the future.

4. Chance (1) left the plane, and the dice rolls would no longer be balanced out, causing "luck debt" to be accrued.

5. The ancient civilization built immense shrines to unlock the power of the dice on a global scale. This included the d10 shrine, which could concentrate the dice's power into a person, giving rise to the Lauriel lineage of wild magic sorcerers. These sorcerers would roll better than other people without requiring the dice.

6. The shrines could only be activated with the help of the Rod of Undoing, an item that cancelled out the luck of anyone Death deemed "worthy" of claiming it.

7. One day someone caused the d2 shrine to roll a 1. This outcome had been consciously avoided previously because the d2 was the 'most volatile' dice type.

8. Chance (1) showed up in the plane, causing apocalyptic consequences because of the immense amount of bad luck present.

After exploring the d8 shrine, the party cut their exploration of the d6 and d10 shrines short to visit Bigby University again and do the d12 and d20 shrines first. When they arrived back at the university, Damien and Lythienne witnessed the university dean Foster and a Lauriel sorcerer murder Grease and Sadie (two engineers at the university helping them create luck-manipulating equipment). Foster is able to escape after convincing the university Lythienne is guilty; they soon realize this isn't the case and Ovaltine (Lythienne's distant uncle) frees them. Ovaltine reveals the Cican Kingdom has cut off funding of their adventure; despite this, the Debt Party continues on to the other dungeons.

The party explored the d12 shrine and find Clockenspiel, a sentient construct. They let it keep the d12. During their time in the shrine, Sadie, Damien, and Ash are kidnapped by Cican Kingdom officials; the party saves them and hijacks their ship, along with the Rod of Undoing they carried with them.

In the d20 shrine, the party speaks to two Cican Kingdom officials, Paulina and Horatio, who had reached the core of the shrine before them. They learn that the Cican Kingdom is at war with Bigby and its respective nation (the Shaprilla Republic) over the dice. The party manages to convince Paulina and Horatio onto their side when April - who had been disguised as a part of the Debt Party and had been unlocking the shrines with her Lauriel luck abilities - reveals herself as Paulina's sister.

The Debt Party formulate and execute a plan to save the good Lauriels and end the war. Paulina and an invisible Carin head to Cican, where they give a false report to the kingdom's monarch; this is aided by Lythienne's Ring of Mind Shielding. They then round up the good royals (one of them has the d6) and head to the d12 shrine, where the citizens of Floral Ridge have been hiding with Clockenspiel's protection from the kingdom and the war. Carin, Quinx, and Christopher head to the d2 shrine with the d2 and Rod of Undoing; after annihilating the guards there and getting the d10 they carried, they activate the shrine by rolling a 1 on it.

The party's intention was for the 1 to cause only the bad Lauriels outside the d12 shrine to be killed, and for the good Lauriels to be saved. Unfortunately, something goes wrong. Chance (1) is summoned and after exiting the d2 shrine, the entire plane of existence is "erased". A voice (implied to be Cuthbert) exclaims that Chance (1)'s interference is the cause of this erasure, but that the d2 shrine's activation was just aligned coincidentally with it. This entity removes Cuthbert's Blessing from Chance (1) and somehow restricts Chance (1)'s dice so they cannot be used to manipulate the rolls of those who do not consent to it.

In the d12 shrine, the necromancers invade the shrine and kill or cryogenically freeze everyone inside. Lythienne is killed and her consciousness is absorbed into her Ring of Mind Shielding.

### Interlude

Order (4) appears to get Christopher, Carin, and Quinx out of the d2 shrine; Christopher accidentally leaves his backpack behind, where it will be picked up by Julian (1) later during the arc 3 interlude.

Several years later, Order (4) has Carin enter into the fogged one's plane of existence to give April the d10 and d20, and move Eglath's chamber somewhere else. Carin is unsuccessful in this task after getting killed by a necromancer and avoiding using the d20; Order (4) exclaims that he'll have to make a deal with someone else to finish the job.

Lythienne waits for 13 and a half billion years until April, who has Lythienne's ring, is unfrozen and placed into the backstory of the Malice campaign (16,000 years before the events of Malice). April survives the Great Flood, defeats some of the necromancers with the d10 and d20, and takes the Book of Truth and Magic Eraser from them. She is able to claim the Book of Truth and learns about the artifacts. She learns about the Fogged Ones and their constant cycle of extinction, body reaping, and renewal, and is distraught by the idea that the plan she fervently advocated (to activate the d2 shrine) may have caused this.

April collects all of the elemental artifacts, and seals them away in Malus alongside the d12. She develops constructs using the Killbeam Orb Lythienne identified in the d20 shrine to guard the catacomb, and then she finds the Mythical Longsword of Adjudication and travels outside the planes of existence to 2^8. She is killed because her arrival there coincided with the Miracle Game, and Chance (1)'s presence cancelled out her immense stockpile of back luck debt. Order (4) then procures Lythienne's ring and the d10 and d20 from April's corpse.