Keko Chronicles - Journal
Origins: Part Six
The Mask of Unwanted Sorrows
Roughly five centuries before Lord Quiggs showed up at the doorstep of Samantha and Daniel Keko, in the Nuggles nation of Tahaadi, there lived a wizard by the name of Engrole. Engrole lived in a tower that was nearly 100 stories in height and constructed entirely of Krystals. There, infused with the power of millions of Krystals, Engrole, over the course of his lifetime, made 83 magical masks. Among those masks, was the Mask of Unwanted Sorrows.
There will come a day, perhaps, when I can share the tragic story of how Engrole traveled to the Black Sands Desert and fell in love with Samyrra, a woman dedicated to uncovering pieces of lost technology buried beneath the Tahaadi dunes. It is a story of sadness and madness and Spyder Gods. It is the reason why the power of the Mask of Unwanted Sorrows became corrupted as it did and the reason Engrole, out of shame and despair, locked himself away in his Krystal Tower for 11 years. It is a story that tells of the rise of the Tahaadi warlord, Arkonoth, who was the first to wear the corrupted Mask of Unwanted Sorrows. Oh, there will come a day, perhaps, when I can share that story. But today is not that day. There is a whole series of cards in the back of my mind that will be telling that story.
But I will tell you this: Arkonoth and his Tahaadi hordes were well on their way to conquering Nuggles.
Until the forming of the Twelve.
There came a mysterious King who had no name and had no country. He formed a coalition of twelve individuals to help defeat Arkonoth. Among the Twelve were the twins, Quiggs and Biggs, Madame Ponqui of Waggut-Zee, and Lady Ricrog of the Changelings. The King with No Name also managed to coax Engrole out of his tower to join the group.
Nuggles went to war against Arkonoth. It was a long, costly war that involved 80 percent of the countries in Nuggles. The Twelve were, eventually, victorious. Arkonoth was, eventually, defeated. Peace, eventually, returned to Nuggles. The King with No Name retreated to parts unknown, but not before granting the Twelve the ability to live for centuries -- a reward for their services -- and not before he shared with the Twelve some prophetic words.
“There shall come a child of two worlds. Nuggles-Born, yet raised on Earth,” He said. “The child shall be the Destroyer of Masks and the Bringer of Peace.”
After that, the Twelve tried to destroy the Mask of Unwanted Sorrows on their own. They realized that Nuggles would be much safer if the Mask was no longer around. They tried to destroy it, but discovered, even with their combined might, that they could not. So they decided to guard the Mask, and keep it from falling into anyone else’s hands while they began to rebuild Nuggles. And while they awaited the fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Nuggles-Born.
They waited for 74 years.
And then, Madame Ponqui betrayed the group. She murdered Engrole in his sleep and convinced several of the Twelve, who had given up on believing in the prophecy, to join her. The Mask had corrupted her mind to the point where she believed that Nuggles would only be safe if someone worthy was wearing the Mask, and that she, of course, was that someone.
Lord Quiggs and his brother rallied the rest of the Twelve against Ponqui and her forces. Biggs, an outspoken proponent of restoring the lost technology of Nuggles, constructed a vehicle capable of traveling between dimensions. Quiggs, jokingly named it the Portal to Another World Machine Thingy (P.T.A.W.M.T. for short) which drove his brother crazy, but the name stuck. The brothers would use the P.T.A.W.M.T. to send the Mask of Unwanted Sorrows someplace where Madame Ponqui would never get her hands on it.
I can’t tell you where the Mask is now. I mean, I know where the Mask is, I just can’t tell you because I don’t want to spoil anything.
I know that we will see the King with No Name again. I know that Biggs is still alive and still working on bringing back the ancient technology of Nuggles’ distant past. I know that the Changeling Priestess, Lady Ricrog, is still working with Madame Ponqui, and is forming a diabolical plan to infiltrate Quiggs’ inner circle. I know that Engrole’s Krystal Tower still exists, now buried beneath the shifting dunes of the Black Sands Desert and that Engrole’s 84th Mask is buried with it.
I know that the Nuggles-Born has finally arrived on Nuggles, but has a long way to go before being ready to fulfill the prophecy. I know that allegiances will change as the Keko Chronicles continue. I know that some will live, some will die. And everyone will be changed.
And I also know that someone in our story will be the last person to ever wear the Mask of Unwanted Sorrows.
For now, you get to use it in the game -- as a card that can be very beneficial if played right, but it’s power often gets out of hand with dire consequences. This particular card went through more changes than any other card that made it into the first set. We changed the wording a dozen times trying to get it to “feel” right. We needed to balance the potential of being extremely powerful with the potential of causing a player’s own destruction. Send us an email and let us know how we did.
Next: What is Waximum’s Key?