The Rock of Eternity
Entropy, entropy, entropy! Blah, blah, blah! If I hear one more soddin’ Sinker go blatherin’ on about the unstoppable force of entropy, I’m gonna puke! Because I’ve seen it, ya know. With my own eyes I’ve seen the Sinkers greatest secret, their greatest failure…
There was this bunch of backwater primes, centuries ago, who had this special rock. The huge slab of granite, easily one hundred yards in all directions, sat in the middle of a huge flat prairie—a strange sort of place for such a big chunk o’ stone. Well, this rock had been there, unchanged, for longer than anyone in the region could remember, even with some of those darn elves livin’ there. And the thing seemed completely invulnerable to anything anyone tried to do to alter it in any way. Wizard magic, cleric prayers, and even dwarven mining picks had absolutely no effect on the thing. Legends had grown about the rock over the years, about what purpose it may hold, or where it came from, but I’ll get to that in just a bit.
So now along comes the Doomguard. This musta been a couple centuries ago. The Sinkers heard about this enormous, indestructible rock, and figured it would be their crowning achievement and the proof to validate their whole philosophy if they could somehow destroy the Rock of Eternity.
They expended an incredible amount of money and effort and the managed to steal the Rock. Transported it to the Plane of Dust, they did, figuring that the destructive nature of the plane would cause it to decay, to crumble into dust like everything else on that blasted, godforsaken plane.
But it didn’t work! The huge Rock just sits there, now three-quarters buried beneath the eternal dust ocean, but just as large and indestructible as ever! Not a single pebble has eroded from that baby, and it’s got the Sinkers pretty worried, believe me! Nothing they do will crack that sucker, and they keep trying everything they can think of. They post guards around the thing day and night, and kill anything that even gets close enough to THINK about sneaking a peek. (So how did I get to see it? Well, ol’ Gruff can’t go spillin’ all his secrets, now can he?) ‘Cause they know that if word gets out, their philosophy will get a big ol’ black eye, something the Godsmen would just love to blab all over the Cage.
There’s still plenty of mystery around the Rock of Eternity, that’s for sure. It definitely seems indestructible, imperious even to entropy. Now I’m thinkin’ that means there’s a reason for that. Seems to me that the only reason somebody’d build a big rock like that is to trap someone, or something, inside, and make darn sure that they (or it) never, ever gets out. One legend says that inside the Rock is the interdimensional space where all the Lady’s mazes are created. Another says an ancient city of incredible magic and wonder lies within. And the legends from that old prime world say that the thing houses the biggest, baddest, most evil creature in the multiverse, but I shudder to think what kinda creature would need that big and tough of a prison. Of course the legend also states that somewhere there is a unknown key, which will ‘unlock’ the Rock, and if it is ever used it will spell the end of all that is, was, or ever will be. But that’s just stories, just nonsense, I hope…”
—Gruff Rockfist, dwarf Indep and inner planar explorer
Adventure Hooks
- The Unseen Key: A new rumor surfaces about the location of the key that can unlock the Rock. The players must find it before it falls into the wrong hands.
- The Sinkers’ Secret: A Doomguard member secretly hires the players to investigate the Rock, hoping to uncover its true nature and salvage their philosophy.
- Escape from the Rock: A mysterious message claims that an entity trapped within the Rock seeks help to escape. Is it a trap or a plea for help?
Source: Adam Reeve, Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
