THE SPHERES OF CONCORDANCE
Though all things are part of Io, he knew that his children would follow their own paths once they had spun from him. Their choices would sometimes clash and lead to confl icts. Io does not take sides in draconic struggles unless they threaten to disturb the balance of the worlds, but he wishes peace to all his children. Thus, as his last act of creation, he spun off droplets of his blended essence as places of refuge from strife and hatred. These droplets became floating
heavens called Spheres of Concordance, places where dragons could ease their hearts and minds.
A Sphere of Concordance is a place of peace and plenty, where dragons and their kin can relax without fear of strife, regardless of color or alignment. All is provided for, and every item of beauty is there—myriad gems and crystals, ethereal music, shining gold, and warm sunsets. Nowadays, only those who can discern how to seek the spheres can know a given sphere’s location. It was not always so, however.
In the time after the Blending, it happened that Roknar, the dwarf deity of avarice and wealth, discovered a sphere. (See page 19 of Races of Stone for more information on Roknar.) Ever driven by his own greed, he seized it as his own and fastened it deep within the earth, using chains he had stolen from Moradin’s forge. Roknar and his followers then slaughtered the dragons who came there for succor until the cries of his murdered children finally reached the ears of Io.
Io saw the chains and smelled the blood, and a mighty fury welled up in his heart. He fell upon Roknar with wings that crossed the sky and flames that burned the earth and the air. Though he could not fell the dwarf god, Io drove him as a ball of fire to the outer reaches of the worlds. He snapped the chains and set the sphere adrift, and then he began to sing.
Io sang of fury and then of peace, of loss and of restoration, and he mixed the blood of his children with his own tears and the glorious notes. His great Song spread through all the worlds and reverberated in every sphere, attuning the spheres to the souls of dragons so that no other creatures could sully them. Io said to his high priest, Noathirthos the Treasure Keeper, “Only you and those you teach can know the way to the spheres. Keep them safe.”
This is how the Singers of Concordance came to be. Only they can still hear the echoes of Io’s Song. Only they can lead a child of Io to a sphere, and they guard the peace within.
Io has never since become so furious; as long as the Song still thrums throughout the worlds, he never will again.
Adventure Hook
The Singers of Concordance are a small group of wandering priests of Io, mostly halfdragons, who travel among and minister to dragonkind. They are also the only ones who can take others to a Sphere of Concordance, which makes them targets for greedy or spiteful beings.
A group of mid-level PCs, one or more of whom have draconic ancestry, stop at a small shrine to Io amid rugged hills. There they encounter one of these peripatetic clerics, who entreats the dragon folk and his or her companions to help rescue a singer who has been taken. Cultists of Roknar kidnapped the singer several days ago and dragged the priest into a fortified temple underground, where he is imprisoned with a dimensional anchor spell. The cultists are torturing the priest, hoping to extort passage to a sphere.
