Shadowrealm Archive Free 60×20 Multi-Level DnD Battlemap & Adventure
The Color of Magic
While traveling, you arrive at a coastal town full of strange architecture and colorful buildings. It’s a sunny day, but it looks as if a darkened sky is brewing over the horizon, suggesting an impending storm. The townsfolk are mostly friendly, but they express concern about the black skies over the ocean.
They explain that it showed up around two weeks ago and was initially thought to be just a storm. However, it hasn’t moved since, and when some of the town’s men inspected it by boat, they discovered that the ‘storm’ was more like a wall of dark, airy ink. To make matters worse, it surrounds the town’s most precious location – a small island containing an ancient magical library holding countless centuries of knowledge from around the world.
The bravest men attempted to navigate the ink wall in a boat but were found dead the next day, washed up on the shore near town. Their bodies and the remains of the ship were pale white or gray, devoid of all color. Since then, no one has dared to approach the island.
The townsfolk explain that if you want to know more, your best bet would be to speak to the town wizard, Agriel, as he’s very smart and has been working on a solution to the ink wall since the incident with the men washed up on the shore.
Seeking out Agriel, you find his residence in a stone tower overlooking the rest of the town. Knocking on his door, it opens swiftly, and you’re greeted by a barn owl that motions for you to follow her up the stone steps to the second floor of the tower.
Entering a circular stone room, you find Agriel surrounded by bookshelves reaching up to the ceiling. He is mumbling to himself, studying two large tomes while sifting through the other tomes on the shelves around him with a magical blue, ghostly hand.
When he notices you, he starts for a moment before reclaiming his balance. When you explain your interest in the ink wall, his eyes perk up. He explains that he has managed to ascertain that the ink wall is magical in nature and seems to function similarly to a cyclone or hurricane, with a destructive outer area and a stable, safe inner area.
Agriel continues that the stable, safer inner area appears to be directly above the temple, suggesting something nefarious happening within. He has come up with a way past the ink wall to investigate but was unable to get any assistance from the townsfolk, as even the bravest among them don’t want to end up like the pale, dead men on the beach.
If you ask what Agriel’s plan is, he explains that he intends to open a small portal between his tower and the temple grounds within the stable area. Most of the time, these small portals are unstable, but at such a short distance, it’ll be a minor jaunt.
Agriel claims he has to stay at the tower to hold the portal open should anything go wrong, which is where the townsfolk were supposed to come in to investigate. Still, if you would be willing to help in their stead, he would be forever in your debt. Agriel explains that the temple is not something the world can bear to lose; losing all that knowledge forever would be a travesty. So, if something is happening over there, it must be stopped.
If you agree to help, Agriel happily grins, explaining that he can open the portal when you’re ready. When the spell is completed, you find yourself at the top of the temple, standing on a glass dias in a desolate landscape. Everything is black and white, greyscale, and a heavy wind is blowing what appears to be dust. There is no water to be seen, and no sun above you, although an eerie gray light pervades everything.
The stairs of the temple lead down to the dust-covered ground, and in the distance, you can see two stairwells leading into the rest of the subterranean areas of the temple. Tiled passages take you past colorless water and statues before you reach an end chamber where a being of shimmering, ethereal books and floating parchment awaits.
As you approach, however, you notice many of the ethereal books that make up the Archivist’s body are torn or distorted. The Archivist greets you in broken common before attempting to explain that the magical balance in the library has been disrupted.
It continues, repeating words occasionally that a malevolent force known as the Inkshade has infiltrated the library and has begun draining the arcane energies from the library’s vast collection of magical tomes, which the Archivist holds in his possession. These energies share a connection with certain colors within the material plane, and so the Inkshade has begun to consume the colors as well.
The Archivist implores you to help restore the balance and save the library by providing you with a magical amulet, the Prism of Hues, which can reveal previously invisible Inkshade fragments that are feeding within the library. When defeated, they will release their stolen arcane energy and thus color.
The Archivist explains that by collecting and restoring the stolen colors, you can weaken the Inkshade’s influence and eventually confront and defeat its true form.
As you progress, defeating all the Inkshade fragments throughout the lower library, it begins to transform. Colors return to the world, and the once desolate landscape starts to flourish. The Archivist appears before you just as you reach the top of the stairs to return to the surface, expressing gratitude for your efforts. The temple is more stable now.
The Inkshade, enraged by your interference, finally appears. A rumbling overhead is heard as the Inkshade takes on a nightmarish form – a swirling mass of darkness with piercing eyes. The Archivist advises that now that the Prism of Hues has recovered much of the arcane energies and color of the library, you can use it to aid you in your fight against the Inkshade. As the Inkshade becomes more vulnerable, it launches desperate attacks, distorting reality with shadow illusions and summoning more Inkshade minions.
Upon defeating the Inkshade, it disperses into mist, almost like it was but a bad nightmare, and the library temple begins to return to its former glory, with lush greenery and aqua ocean shores. The Archivist expresses its deepest gratitude, offering you access to the library’s most profound secrets and granting you a boon of magical knowledge.
As you leave the magical library temple, you find yourself back in the familiar world, the teleportation spell completing its course. The experience leaves you forever changed, armed with newfound magical insights and the memories of a journey through the shadows to save a realm of knowledge.
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