# A random short story from my crazy campaign



## The Cowsmos (Jan 24, 2016)

Hi everyone! This is my first post on this website in a long time and my first post on this account period (I forgot my old login). I've always admired this website for a number of reasons, primarily the purity and pleasure derrived from the creative energy here.

I'm running a space-faring campaign where the adventures are planets and the crew of the starship is a party of demigods. 

A little background about the campaign; the campaign is a heavily modified Greyhawk setting with gates and portals to other published campaigns (Forgotten Realms, Ebberon, Dragonlance, etc.) so there is a fair amount of interloping going on between the settings in my games. It may be a Greyhawk setting, but I don't much care for Spelljammer so I've basically made my own alternative to it.

The system is also pretty heavily modified 3.5. I use rules from The Immortals Handbook (some of them. A lot of them are absurd and I had to modify but that's a whole different kettle of fish), The Expanded Psionics Handbook, The Tome of Battle and pretty much every other published supplement book is at least considered for viability in my campaign if it's something my players want to include in the game.

A little background on the party:

Naïlo Amastacia Sendant: Female CG Half-dragon half-celestial demigoddess of love and healing. She serves as the party's healer and primary negotiator with her absurdly high diplomacy checks. Her philosophy is basically to spread love and healing and freedom as far and wide as she can.

Momento: Agender with slightly masculine features LN Demigod of Wisdom and Death. He serves as the party's Offensive Cleric with a good bit of Swordsage splashed into his combative casting abilities. His philosophy, the whole reason why he was created, is to ensure and protect the natural flow of souls from the mortal realm to their proper resting places in the afterlife. He abhors soul-eaters and any magic which harms the soul directly, thereby circumventing the natural order of death.

Calmar: Male LN Drow Demigod of Law and Darkness. Serves as the party's rogue/skill monkey with a massive sneak attack damage bonus and razor sharp detective skills. He's basically Batman is batman were a drow god. Obsessed with justice due to the injustice which he suffered throughout his life. His philosophy is bringing justice and order to the lawless and using the darkness and stealth as his ally in the battles he must fight.

Mythia Luckwing: Female CG Pixie Demigoddess of Luck & Nature. She serves as the party's magic specialist and mischief maker. Her philosophy is to bring good luck and happiness to those whom respect nature and try to live in harmony with it and to punish with misfortune and curses any who would dare desecrate nature's beauty.

All of these gods are accompanied by powerful cohorts and clerics and pretty much all of the support you would expect a god to have in a D&D setting, but due to the nature of the ship which they travel on, the needs of their church can still be tended while they adventure.

Now! Onto the story! I do hope you enjoy it.

Floating in the staggering immensity of space a most unusual ship with a most unusual crew orbited a twin star system; a system whose worlds had been at war. The ship itself was composed of no Earthly substance, but rather was composed of solidified prismatic magical force. The Hull was translucent and self-contained, shaped like a great rainbow-colored egg flying through the heavens. The ship was held together by magic unfathomable to mortal minds and crewed and powered by gods and priests.

There she stood upon the deck of her ship, gazing out into space upon the star system she and her allies have helped to liberate. With the tyrannical Fire queen displaced, the humble and noble Earth-blooded giants of Dispanthea were finally seeing their warriors return home from a long war. The Fire-blooded giants whom dwelt closer to the planets core were also seeing their troops return home from the mad Queens war. The powerful artifact which had been artificially pumping the giants of the planet with sorcerous ability and destructive ambition had been destroyed by her, the Goddess Naïlo Amastacia Sendant and her divine allies, freeing the people of Dispanthea from war and strife. They were a ragtag bunch of demi-gods and quasi-deities and powerful clerics and great warriors from all across her fathers’ kingdom, but the power they wielded could not be denied, nor the effectiveness of their crusade against suffering and oppression all across the heavens.

Still though, there was much work to be done. She sighed deeply, her great breasts heaving and she exhales a sigh of Prana out upon the command deck which she stood, invigorating all who stood upon the deck with her with life and healing, but also drawing the attention of one who knew her. Her chosen sorceress, a young half-celestial woman by the name of Phillipa Dolton, a.k.a. Petunia, glided up to her goddess’ side and beckoned she speak her heart; “What is bothering you my love? Surely we have done well this day to destroy the vile artifact and free these people. Are you not satisfied?” she asked. Naïlo looked at her and smiled, “No dear. Of course I am pleased with what we have done. It is a great thing and we have brought joy to many and relieved the suffering of many more with our works here on this world, but the evil behind their plight is still at large.” Another of her entourage steps forward and places a loving and comforting hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry my lady,” she spoke confidently, “we’ll find them. And we will stop them. I give you my word.” Another woman of half-celestial blood, Lillianna “Lilac” Aarondale was no sorceress. On the contrary she was one of the greatest swordswomen in all the realms. She had done battle with evil gods and terrible abominations, not to mention the newly empowered giant sorcerers of Dispanthea, and by it all she had protected and loved Naïlo and her church. Naïlo returned her companions’ support with a loving and knowing smile “I know we will dear, but how long? How many more souls can they harm?” It made Naïlo’s heart ache to know that the cost of the sorcerery so unwillingly and indeed unwittingly bestowed upon the giants of Dispanthea had been the very souls of their people. These crafters of this recently destroyed artifact, whomever or whatever they were, had seen fit to liquidate the souls of these people into pure arcane energy which was then cannibalistically fed to the unwary populace via their arcane channeling devices.

Interfering with the lives of innocents by introducing sorcery unbidden into their bloodlines was one thing, but using such an undeniably and horrendously evil means to do so was quite another. This act must be punished. These evil fiends or abominations or whatever they may be, must be stopped lest other worlds be plunged into chaos and warfare by their mad experiments.

The Force screen which served as the “door” to the bridge upon which the three of them stood slid aside and another figure appeared in the doorway. Xircus was a young half-bronze-dragon turned quasi-deity and served as Naïlo's high priest. “Xal’Quanthel believes he may have found some clue as to the whereabouts of this so-called Council” he announced as he strode into the room.

Naïlo turned to regard him, her eyebrow arched and her clawed foot tapping upon the translucent force screen which served as both floor to this deck and ceiling to the lower, “Xircus, dear, aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked playfully. On the Rainbow to the Stars, as the ship was called, crew were not expected to salute Naïlo, but rather were encouraged to greet her with a gesture of love they felt most comfortable with, for such was her life-blood. “Oh, right…” Xircus muttered. He strode over to his goddess, to his first and truest lover, and embraced her, kissing her deeply.

“Better.” Naïlo said when their embrace broke and they faced each other once again. “Now what were you saying about this supposed lead our friend has uncovered?” Xircus nervously rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, it’s not really a lead so much as a confirmation as to where they are not. Xal’Quanthel has remote viewed every cloud and tumbling planetoid caught in the great gas Giants’ turbulence and has been unable to locate them. He believes they may have left the star system altogether. Perhaps even this plane of existence. Given their ability to craft powerful artifacts, Xal’Quanthel seems confident that they should possess the knowledge for interplanar travel as well as the interplanetary travel they have already so clearly demonstrated” he concluded.

All they had to work with when the first arrived in the Dispanthea was chaos, war and only the faintest scattered clues, but through the brilliant detective work of another deity in their band, a drow deity of law and darkness named Calmar, they had uncovered that the creators of the artifact and the enablers of the war which they had come to thwart had indeed to come from another world in the same star system; a great gas giant called Thaura. When first they arrived in the system they had also believed Thaura to be lifeless. They were wrong. These creatures were not only alive, but wickedly intelligent and evil. After their artifact was destroyed, the party of gods were temporarily telepathically connected to this so-called “Council of Thauran Elders” and during which time they swore to vindicate the people of Dispanthea whom were so wronged by their sinister intervention in their lives.

“We’ve got them running scared, my lady” Xircus said with a smile. Indeed, what mortal creature, no matter how well versed in the arcane, would not be intimidated by the threats of a pantheon? “Aye, we do” Lilac interjected “But where have they run to?” That was the question not only the entirety of the crew of the Rainbow to the Stars wanted to know, but also the war-torn world of Dispanthea wanted to know the answer to. “We will find them dearest. Fear not. “

The four of them stood on the deck together, looking out at the twin stars and their orbiting worlds from a great distance, the image projected on an ectoplasmic screen of psionic energy, a construct of Xal’Quanthel himself. He served as the ships’ computer and was powerful lesser deity in his own right. Their resolve to do good; paladins, gods and lovers all, is what held them together in this time of uncertainty. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the Council of Thuaran Elders had not only remained in system, but had already set their plans to reacquire Dispanthea for themselves into motion. In the cavernous heart of the terrestrial world, trouble brewed and revolution against the Fire Queens crumbling empire burned within the hearts of the people.


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