The Fights Are Harder - A Bleaker's Gambit: Part Three

Chapter Six

Paved With Good Intentions

“Dast wasn't exactly well known as a gate town on the outland, indeed throughout most of the planes it was practically unheard of. This was sort of its point though. Dast existed on the fringes, not quite slipping into the hells themselves. It was the very embodiment of apathy, denial and all those things that make us turn our backs on the seemingly important. The town housed some unusual landmarks such as the illusory 'House of a thousand dads', or the bottomless brown mines. Dast's strange and unknowable nature drew many learned men to investigate its secrets, like most places on the planes though, staying in one place for too long can have a profound effect on an individual.”


- Anteili Moriarty – The Lesser Seen Outlands


At this point Cardia had picked up a disembodied skull that would constantly tease and taunt her and which only she could hear. I honestly can't remember where the skull came from but I think it was after one of the battles on the way to Navarre. Anyway, with this session being quite the weird one, the skull was at its most talkative, and was another tool I used to keep the players involved.

This time following Azreal, Trust and Cardia, the group have to head for the gate town of Dast, which has its fair share of experts that could translate the ancient abyssal. Getting there should have been pretty straightforward, what with Sigil having portals to practically everywhere. Harry had given the team the key, so all they had to do was find the door, and the gang were streetwise enough to locate two large skeletal hands sticking out of the ground. The solution to activating the portal was simple, just push the arms together to form an arch and activate the key. Instead, it took the group quite a while to grasp this, and eventually had to ask a bystander, who helpfully explained it to them. This wouldn't be the first problem the group would take far too much time debating over.

Arriving in town the group head out and explore the demonic landscape. A messenger contacts Trust, stating that her father is waiting to see her. Intrigued, they head for a strange manor house, wherein a large demon claiming to be Trust's dad starts harping on about her birthright. A nearby door starts knocking, and through it bursts another demon, this one also stating to be her father. An argument ensues and shortly yet another demon bursts forth with similar claims. What follows is a farcical turn of events with many different demons bugging Trust. Eventually another group attacks and gives them a window to escape.

Soon enough they find out what had happened to all the academics. Returning from my last campaign is the Succubus they fought in Wardovia, who reveals that after her escape she has still found herself exiled from the hells proper. The Succubus has been using the enthralled scientists (and the ghost of Damon's youth (possibly being revisited in a future campaign)) to construct a magical super weapon for her to take retribution against her enemies. She offers to get one of her thrall to translate the texts, but only if the group can help her escape the town.

Asking around, the group communicate with a demon that collects pain, and offers info in return for memories of some of the groups most painful encounters, as well as consuming the pain held within Cardia's talking skull. The demon reveals that the portal to the hells is hidden by the mines, and guarded by his upstanding brother. Heading to the mines they confront the gate keeper, who reveals that he cannot leave his post until he is confident that his quarry, the Succubus, is no more.

What followed is a long series of lengthy debates between the players on how to solve this problem. Generally I'd come up with several, notably defeat the gate keeper, kill the succubus outright and just free the academics, or rouse the city's inhabitants in a riot against the demons. I can't remember most of what ideas the players came up with, but I remember that they somehow thought that smuggling the Succubus out of the city would convince the gate keeper that she was dead. In the end though, they just decided to do battle with the gate keeper after all, and as spoils Azreal got his massive sword and shield, and Cardia got a new disembodied head to talk to.

Placated, the Succubus makes good on her deal and returns to the hells, as the team head back to Sigil. Finishing off the session, the team head back to Fell for some more tattoos and return to the prime material realms via Sofia's spelljammer.


Music used:

Again, totally overloaded with the outlands/hells music from the Planescape: Torment soundtrack.


What worked:

As far as pre-planning goes, this session went pretty well. Like session two, I'd planned multiple solutions and gave the group free reign to go their own way. The weird Planescape stuff continued to mix things up, and I think everyone found the House of a thousand Dads pretty funny.


What didn't:


Given the amount of time spend debating on the best course of action, maybe I should have made the groups options a little clearer, but then again, I don't want to hold their hands, so maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all. Also, a battle with Rasputin was supposed to take place here, but it totally slipped my mind.



Chapter Seven

Mammoth Told Me Not To Come

“Nobody quite knew why the tribal lands of Tir had remained independent for so long. Traditionalists will cite the staunch territorialism of its native tribes, mostly dominated by the rivalry between the blue marked Arcadians and the orange marked Golgothans. Others may note that there is very little land of worth on the harsh plains, but look past that and you'll see fertile grassland when you need it, and all the meat you'll ever need if you can take down one of the mighty mammoths. No there was no concrete evidence to show what had stopped a more civilised nation from helping itself to these lands. Perhaps lords and monarchs just like the idea of a land to point to if they need to look superior.”


- David Davidon – Rocks and Robbers: The Feral Lands

This particular session took a lot longer than anticipated. Once returning to the map room, the team conversed with Kerris regarding the translation. While this occurred, Nazrin's now miniaturized Modron revealed that Sakari was one of Magnus Fallon's two descendants, giving hints to nobody about who the other might be. Kerris reveals that he has a contact in the Feywild's Court of the Stars that could translate some ancient fey, but his exile means he can't see to it himself. The only Feywild portal is noted as being on the far side of the tribal lands of Tir, and so the team depart on a quest to decipher the final piece. Some encounters along the way suggest some foreshadowing of Rasputin's involvement, and another overly long combat encounter takes place.

Entering the tribal lands, the group have to undergo some nature checks to make sure they head the right way. Jocasta reveals that she has an old lover in one of the tribes, but mentions she doesn't want to cross paths if necessary. Along the way the team find a group of barbarians doing battle with a mammoth. I was without a sufficient model to represent the mammoth though, so had to draw it on the board for the combat encounter, to which the team bemoaned me of this. Afterwards the team converse with the barbarians, who trade, offer a tusk of the mammoth, and offer general information.

“Being hard and tough was all part of a barbarian's life. You are born, you kill to survive, reproduce and die. There is no room for romantics. So Danya Golgotha's life would have been, if not for a chance encounter with Jocasta Lacroix. As those with past experience of Jocasta know, when Jocasta wants something, she'll be persistent, and for whatever reason at the time, she wanted Danya. To Jocasta, this was just a one night stand, a frivolous fling, but to Danya it was proof that there was more to life than methodical survival. Since then Danya had become the black sheep of the tribe, an idealist, a romantic. Fortunately she was still hard and tough, probably more so than ever, and she may have been a black sheep, but the tribe knew when to offer respect when it was due.”


- Alysoun Mifflinburg – No Dykes to Watch Out For: Mercenaries on the Road Less Traveled: Volume 2

Not long afterwards the group reach a rival tribes settlement. Here they introduce themselves, and are introduced as such to one of Jocasta's previous tumbles. Danya is a character I'd been meaning to do something with for a while, and was one of my previous attempts at hooking Jocasta up before Katie came along. Her main purpose was to annoy Jocasta, and give the group an excuse to throw her into awkward situations, since I think the players would have enjoyed the opportunity to give Jocasta a hard time. As it went though, like a lot else, I didn't have much room to impalement this.

Introductions being over, the group are invited to take part in the great hall feast, after gifting the leader with the mammoths tusk. Since this was mostly a Conan homage anyway, I gave the leader my best Arnie voice, and the team negotiates guidance on entering the Feywild. They find that the portal has been unusually active and the tribes are currently at war with the Feywild's Formorians. The tribe offer assistance in return for putting a stop to these attacks, and give a little side objective of retrieving the leader's father's gold plated heart from the enemy.

Music used:


More Twin Peaks for the dream sequences. I'd grabbed the Lords of Magic soundtrack for the barbarian plains. In fact I don't know why I hadn't done this sooner, since the old Turn Based Strategy RPG had great music for every setting, and I went onto use this in the rest of the campaign.

What worked:


The music really set the scene. The barbarian plains were well realised but also simple. The negotiations felt involved without being overly complicated. The team took the most out of being encouraged to explore. Danya was a forward support character that didn't get in anyones way.

What didn't:


Any combat encounter with all six characters was a bad idea from this point onwards. I wanted more comedy from Danya/Jocasta but didn't put enough work or planning in for it. As for the mammoth, it was painful to have to resort to drawing on the board, made worse that later on I would find a toy of one of those old hairy things the Tuscan raiders ride from Star Wars that was a perfect fit for a mammoth.

Chapter Eight

A Ghost to Most

“And so, once again was our bearded crusader Damon brought back from the realms of the dead to assist his comrades. Presently adorned in a great battle dress bestowed by Ioun, Damon awoke not in the lands of traditional mortals, but the strange and surreal plane of the Feywild. Looking before him, he saw that he had been brought to some strange arena, to do battle with another spirit from some godless land no doubt. Looking up at his summoners, it was only the half-elf Megi that he recognised, but saw that he was in the presence of some divine winged creature, so his arrival must have been blessed with the power of good. So fight he would, and though his body was transparent and intangible, his will was a solid as rock that had just been varnished.”


- 'Tripshot' Murphy – Same Old Footsteps: The Adventures of Damon Volume 4



Once again we kick the session off with an overly long combat encounter. At this point I was trying to steer away from having combat encounters that feature all six characters, but had to have something to show the Formorian's having a presence in the land. Getting through this, the team reach the portal gate but have to activate it first. Earlier I'd hinted that a druidic influence would come in handy for getting to the feywild, and if the team had decided to summon Lilith or Zantir it would have made activating the portal easier, instead Megi insisted she could do it on her own.

So with a few rituals, some gold and a mixture of some of the vegetative crap they'd picked up along the way the portal is activated. I decided to insist on rituals with ingredients at this point because the group kept finding items that were supposed to be used for Bastillion to make potions out of, but they never decided to explore this element I had presented. Anyway, the team enter the portal and as they decided to go in green they end up separated and dumped at a seemingly random location. From this point on the players just control Megi, Cardia and Nazrin, with Danya as a guide.

Stranded in the endless forest of the feywild, the team nonetheless pass a nature check to get in the right direction. I wanted to play up the strange, seemingly trivial sensibilities of the fey during these sections but the group were having none of it. Arriving at a city all they really needed to do was be polite and they'd get entry, instead they pretended to be slave traders and when that didn't work decided they were going to chop down a tree to turn into a battering ram. As DM I managed to work them around it, because if they had gone down this route they'd have just ended up having to fight the whole city, and that would have been no good.

Finally getting an audience with the Court of the Stars, they are told they will be granted assistance so long as they beat one of the councilors champions in order to settle a grudge. The fey being a tricky lot, it turns out that the champion they have to do battle with is an intangible ghost. This part of the plot was all about working the deceased Damon in as a cameo, since everyone did kind of like him as a character. Chosen as the player's own champion, Damon got boosted stats for the fight, and everyones favorite Cascade of Light overkill. Naturally he won it hands down.

In return for the favor, the Court reveals that there is an academy on a nearby island where they can get the final part of the cipher translated, but it is currently under siege by Formorians and will be purged shortly to prevent its secrets being compromised.


Music used:


More Lords of Magic stuff. This time the Earth and Life themes in order to fit the natural setting of the feywild.


What worked:


A bit of a mixed bag this time. The feywild offered a slight change of pace. The ghost battle with Damon went as expected. Danya remained an NPC that helped the plot along and didn't get in the way or overshadow things.

What didn't:


The combat encounter was too long, which ended up splitting one session into two. The activation of the portal was a bit vague, and I think I should have put more planning into how it was to be done. The quirkiness of the fey folk was not taken very well and just caused arguments more than anything. Having said that, the group did get fair warning that fey people don't operate by the same rules normal folks do.

Chapter Nine

Feywild at Heart

“It's unknown if Tristan's Troupe knew what they were getting into with Rasputin. Indeed, the group had been under considerable strain as it was, with Alrianna's infatuation with Azreal and Tristan's constant refusal of rewards. Duncan, being a follower of Bane, was likely the only one happy to remain in the dark sorcerer's employ after his methods were discovered, but even he was starting to question the sanity of the plan. By the time Rasputin had arrived in the feywild, Tristan had already been double crossed in secret, and Alrianna defected shortly afterwards. At this point though, Rasputin had unlocked greater power from the Palantír he held, and most times insisted that Duncan stand back and be little more than a spectator.”


- Roma Drangasti – On the Road Again


I opened this session with an opportunity for the team to check out some of the stores in the feywild. They'd already picked up some epic loot from the planes already, but I didn't want all that money burning holes in their pockets so I gave them the chance to grab some feywild themed kit. Afterwards they were to head to the docks to travel to the nearby island. This being the feywild though, things were never as expected, and rather than traveling by boat they were to be teleported through a magic stone circle.

Upon arrival they come across a battle site littered with formorians and the undead. Once again, they must use their nature skills in order to find their way through the forest. About half way there their path is blocked by a formorian camp. Wanting to avoid any more unnecessary combat encounters, I'd planned this part as a stealth section, with the group navigating the camp carefully. Later on I'd planned that there would be a quick encounter with Rasputin.

Instead, somehow, Nazrin of all people decided it would be a good idea to negotiate with the purple skinned monstrosities that were bent on conquering every last piece of the feywild, and naturally that went about as well as expected. So the planned stealth section ended up as another combat encounter and in the interest of saving time I decided to add Rasputin's appearance to the mix, resurrecting the fallen creatures as his own minions.

After this the group make it to the besieged university, where they reunite with the other missing characters and meet up with Alrianna, who gives some exposition on Rasputin and his whole deal thus far. The group then meet with the headmistress, who explains that the Court of the Stars kill team is on its way to exterminate the whole island, but she can perform a ritual that'll buy everyone a little more time. With a bit of bargaining, Cardia trades the head of the demon she was carrying, which works as a final part of the ritual, and in return they get the translation and the gold plated heart Danya's leader had asked them to obtain.

They are told how to leave the feywild once the ritual is complete. The headmistress does her incantations and stuff, and the group black out. When they awake, in various states of undress, the place has been evacuated. It's up to the player to come up with their own story of what the ritual did. Have fun with that.


Music used:

As usual, more Lords of Magic and some Phantom of the Opera for Rasputin's appearance.

What worked:

Despite the stealth section going tits up at least it showed that the group was free to make their own decisions and had to deal with the consequences. Rasputin was getting about as much hate as I would want a villain to provoke.

What didn't:

Alrianna and Duncan really were supposed to have a greater arc in the story, detailing their gradual defection from Rasputin, but most of this got sidelined because of the amount of stuff I kept putting in. The last three sessions were only supposed to be one, so obviously I didn't put enough thought into pacing, and some stuff got rushed.

Ask Questions Later - A Bleaker's Gambit: Part Two

Chapter Two

It ain't easy but it's Necessary

“In the years before the rift, Alexandria was already facing a massive economic downturn and it's people were massively dissatisfied with the elitism of its leaders, who had monoplolised magic and denied knowledge to the lower classes. When the inviable rebellion took place, magic was given back to the people. Artifacts were handed down, and rituals were taught to those who could spread the power far and wide. The Library, however, Alexandria's largest and grandest construction, still remained in the hands of the disposed government. To this day the Library remains its own insular city state, hiding itself from the rest of the continent behind a stone wall miles and miles in length and breadth.”


- Emilio Whitehouse – Knowledge is Power: A History of Alexandria



So this was the first Cardia, Azreal and Trust only session, and probably the most tightly focused out of all the sessions. I'd planned multiple paths for the characters to take which meant they had greater freedom to choose their own way. The session began with the characters making their way to the free Kingdom of Alexandria, which they chose to travel to via sea. Bargaining for a boat at the first port they get to, the group manage to avoid some of the more dangerous possibilities I'd put in place. Choosing the wrong captain to take them by sea could have ended with a pirate raid.

The group safely make their way into Alexandria, but their main obstacle lies ahead. The library that contains the map piece is part of an independent state, fanatical about security and guarded by the biggest wall they've ever seen. The group shack up at a border town, where low lives make their trade smuggling people across, and mages bluff their way in as an attempt to get to the library's secrets.

I'd come up with several ways for the group to get past the wall. The Guard Captain of the gate was to have secretly been having an affair outside the Library state, and looking in the right places the group could have discovered this and bribed or blackmailed their way through. There was also a weak spot in the wall, which could have been blasted open. With Katie in the team, engineer minded, with the right ingredients she would have crafted explosives to use. Then there was the fact that the Library is open for the study of magical artifacts, and the option to bargain their way in this also presented itself. Finally there was the standard smuggling plot, where some shady characters could have helped the group over in return for some other favor.

As it happened the group went upon a mixture of several solutions. It was revealed that the head of the smuggling operation, Big Bubba, was an old informant of Kara's from her days working up the Andavian city guard ranks. Bubba could get the group over the wall in return for taking care of his hedonistic rival Quintus, who had been hoarding magical artifacts. The plan was tried and tested, the girls pretend to be 'entertainment' with Azreal as their 'pimp'. Azreal though, was voted as no good to take the lead, pretty much by himself, so it was down to Katie to take the lead.

Infiltrating one of Quintus' parties was easy enough, Kara and Cardia distracted the guests, Katie stood guard while Azreal and Trust robbed the store rooms. The magical artifacts he held were sensory stones (familiar to anyone who'd played Planescape:Torment), and on their way back to the main floor, Azreal and Trust find that Kara had turned the 'sexy dancing' into a bare knuckle boxing match, to which Quintus was throughly entertained.

From here on in it was pretty plain sailing. Big Bubba kept the bulk of the stones, leaving the group with enough to bribe their way through the gate with a bit of information regarding the Guard Captain's extra-marital relations. A few other stones were retained as additional reward. The rest goes like clockwork, and the session ends with the group entering the walled tunnel with armed escort.

Music used:

I'm also going to start discussing the music I used to set the mood. Up until this point it'd been a mix of the Assassins Creed soundtrack, The Call of Pripyat sountrack and a few songs from Lord of the Rings here and there. Oh, and some instrumental stuff from Show of Hands, which worked very well indeed. This session I needed some sleazy 70's style music for Quintus decant party, which came in the form of a sample song by somebody called Youth Explosion that was on my phone by default.

What worked:

Pretty much everything, this session was about as tight as it got. It was funny and challenging in places and the dynamics between characters really worked with the situations they got themselves into. The multiple solutions gave the impression that I wasn't railroading the characters, and that they had greater free reign to experiment and do what they thought best. Kara and Katie both supported the game as NPC's but didn't dominate the plot. Every player was also involved in equal measure.

What didn't:

Not a lot else. The stealth sections could have been a bit more challenging, and the start at the port could maybe have been a bit more interesting, but other than that there were no real failings in what I set out to do.

 

Chapter Three

Carnack's Eleven

“The Library of Alexandria has the reputation for being probably one of the most secure locations in the realms. The massive wall that guards the entire city-state notwithstanding, visitors are escorted at all times, and the structure itself has a standing garrison ready to repel attackers. Along with all this, the library has a complex series of traps and defenses, all controlled my a massive clockwork mechanism that changes its encrypted codes every few minutes. This mechanism activates the building's Guardians, massive stone constructs that demolish anything that moves. The mechanism itself is defended by a game of human sized chess pieces, also Guardians, and the most prised artifacts are kept in a vault which can only be unlocked through seventeen locks simultaneously. Finally, if one were to bypass all these obstacles, they would still have to face the Library's most elite force, The Whisperers.


In truth the Libary's reputation is mostly undeserved. It is built on soft ground with poor foundations, making tunneling surprisingly easy. The guards patrol a gantry when, if accessed, can get you to most parts of the building and the vault's locks are no more complex than that of a standard chests. The only real challenge is the cypher, but bypass this, and take care of the guards and an ambitious villain can be well on his way to some lucrative loot.”


- Zantir Xanderfell - Reflections on the Library of Alexandria


If the entire campaign could be compounded into one session, then this one is probably the most comparable. This was where ambition started getting in the way of things. I'd always wanted to have Carnack lead a team of badasses, and once again I decided to throw it all in rather than save it for some potential future campaign that may or may not happen. Lets not get ahead of ourselves though. Beginning with the groups arrival in the Library's city-state, the players quickly slip away from their escorts, bluff their way into a society presidents house, knock him out and vault his garden wall, bringing them to the front entrance. Once there the guards were currently being distracted by a halfling bard. This was the first of Carnack's group, so lets run through them shall we.

“Carnack Cousland's second attempt at the Library Heist was more well considered than the first. Many of the original team had perished in the attempt or refused to return for the second, so the tattooed mercenary had some slots to fill...


...First and foremost Carnack needed alchemist Bastillion DeRoque, who held the sole responsibility of the previous attempts failure. Bastillion had concocted a sleeping gas that was to knock out all the guards and staff of the library, giving the team safe room to make away with the painting, but Bastillion's gas was not long lasting enough. Unexpectedly, Carnack held no ill will against the alchemist, and Bastillion jumped at the chance to prove that, this time, his gas would work...


...Working as right hand man was Bostock Hawke, an Andavian expatriate of comparable might to Carnack himself. Hawke had been messily involved in the breakdown of the Navarre kingdom, and some say it was he himself that had executed King Ferdinand. In Carnack's opinion though, Bostock's one weakness came in the form of his lover Reece, a former elf slave and swordmage. Reece had his uses, however, as infiltrator for the team, and would be instrumental in helping Bastillion get in place to deploy his sleep gas...

 

...Returning to strategise the plan was Andavian military commander Lucas Anderson. Anderson was known as genius of his time when it came to military tactics and combat deployment, and it was he who had came up with the original plan and played an influence in recruitment. Anderson would oversee the overall operation, issuing orders and changing plan as the situation evolved...


...Halfling bard Elric 'Moody' Woodstock was to return for entrance and extraction. Elric had a long and strange history that had made him unnaturally charismatic. It would be he who would bluff their way into the library, distract the guards, and have a disguised cart waiting to collect the team when the operation was a success...


...Heading the pincer movement of the plan was Rune Blackforge, a dugrgar who had been raided by dwarfs and was an expert on tunnels and construction. She would create a series of passages beneath the building, allowing the team to quickly abscond if things went sour or move about quickly if plans changed....



...The Library's encoded mechanism was the biggest challenge, but fortunately Carnack had roped in Kerris Etherleaf, probably the realms greatest cryptologist and codebreaker, to handle this. The elderin was working for free on this job, as, since being exiled from the feywild for a transgression against the court of the starts, he filled his time seeking bigger and bigger challenges. Deciphering the mechanism was child's play for him, and was at once in control of the entire buildings defenses mere moments after his arrival...

 ...Taking care of the locks was Lilith Morau, a drow who had been exiled from the underdark for turning her back on Lolth in the name of her druidic studies. For a drow, Lileth was masterful at the earth magic, and she could manipulate the roots beneath the soil into working their way into the libraries vault locks, doing the job you would need seventeen lock picks for otherwise...

 


...finally bringing up the muscle was Mai Sukunami, a martial artist from far east who was in the reams on a quest of revenge for the murder of her father. Carnack had promised her aid in this quest in return for signing on for the library job. The other muscle was the undead revenant Garnet. Garnet was the embodiment of justice and retribution but had, in time, found himself bound to Carnack's will. Garnet had no real investment in the heist, but was forced to contribute anyway....


...And in tow, side by side with their murderous leader was Lerissa. Nobody quite knew why she had thrown in her lot with Carnack, but she had a sense of mischief and the power of a maturing warlock to keep her alive. The heist would be another strike against what the authorities back in Farrel had expected of her..."


- Maxil Bluchide: History of the Library: Volume 2



Each character was essentially a challenge. Katie and Kara remained outside to guard the main entrance. It was intended that all characters could be disarmed or persuaded to stand down, since I was planning on them each playing a greater part in the story further down the line. Unfortunately I failed to consider that the most popular opinion of the group was to kill em' all. Bostock bought it against Azreal, which caused Reece to abscond with his body.

I made the players play human chess with an Aztec chess board to get to Kerris, who had to use the defense mechanism to stop them murdering him too. Kerris stood down, because they'd need him later, and the group also managed to free Garnet of his bindings to Carnack. The others all had to flee through Rune's tunnels to avoid the same fate as Bostock, and finally reaching the vault managed to force Carnack into a truce. The final portion of the session was to escape to the roof of the library, perused by enemies, then jumping off it's highest point to land on a haystack and escape with Elric


Music used:

Same as usual so far. At this point each session would start with a character haveing a dream sequence involving a mysterious stranger, tempting them into an unusual deal. These were accompanied by Angelo Badalamenti's Dance of the Dream man from Twin Peaks. These would hint at later things to come in the story.


What worked:


As an ensemble piece it wasn't bad. Each character represented a different challenge that the group would have to change tactics for. Their goal was always clear and present, and securing the map piece essentially sorted their current goal. The Library felt like a well construed concept, and nobody had to spend too long figuring out what to do.


What didn't:


In retrospect what I should have done was present Carnack's Eleven as straight up antagonists. If fighting to the death was given as an actual option then it would have been less frustrating for the players and less frustrating for me wanting them to do something else. Thinking back I really should have guessed the team would just want to kill them, and if I wanted them kept around, should have set them up more as allies than the 'friendly rivals' I portrayed them as.

 

Chapter Four

X marks the Spot

“The death of King Ferdinand signaled an end to civility in the nation of Navarre. With no monarchical authority, no national identity, and no common belief with which to come together, the country practically imploded, socially speaking. Factions and independent states began popping up and warring against each other. Warlords and troublemakers both rose to capitalise on the chaos. Maybe there was a new future coming for the nation, a better one, but when the bodies started piling up on the streets everyone knew that Navarre was no place for a civilised man to be.”

- Clive Brackstow – The Navarre Civil War

Okay. So by this point the first goal in the overall arc had been completed. Action points and XP had been dished out accordingly. The two map pieces were united and the location of the map room was revealed. Surprising no one was the fact that it was in the recently fractured nation of Navarre that had been unsubtly mentioned a few times already. Just before this, Cardia, Azreal and Megi had the chance to question the remaining of Carnack's Eleven on info that would foreshadow things later in the campaign. A chance they didn't take, oh well.

Once the gang had reunited in Andavia they spent a night at an inn, then hit a trading camp to spend their spoils. On their way to Navarre they had a combat encounter with some mercenaries, which took forever because each player had two characters to control. Once finished, I revealed that it had been instigated by an old rival of Megi's, my first of many attempts to try and get the players to invest more in the story.

Once in Navarre the team are accosted by some armed thugs and escorted to Bostock Hawke's residence. At this point I was still planning for him and Reece to play a more important role later on, so said that Recce had taken Bostock's corpse and got him resurrected by a local priest (what? This is what everyone does when someone dies), Trust was still set on murdering him though, and I had to resort to using an indestructible laser eyed teddy bear (yes really) to keep her in check and stop her ruining my plot thread. Anyway, after all that, the team find out they need to track down the specific location of the map room.

This next bit was pretty inspired, the group are forced to get information from the 'Half-orc minstrels', a bunch of sort of gypsy type mimes. The entire sequence involved Nero trying to obtain information when I was giving it mostly in mime. Nero's player was practically catatonic with laughter by the end, so the whole sequence was fairly memorable and taken in good humor.

They finally find that the room is buried under a temple to 'the ten who are one', which the group eventually track down. This next part was unsubtly taken in whole from the roman numeral sequence from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which everyone failed to realise. After some wandering around the temple following stained glass windows and statues with numerals on them, they finally realise that 'X marks the spot' and smash through the floor.

Music used:

The half-ork minstrel sequence would have been nothing without Tom Waits' Dave the Butcher, from Swordfishtrombones. A few other tracks from that album were also used as well. God I love Tom Waits.

What worked:

Reuniting the group was refreshingly in character and there really felt there was a bit of camaraderie between our in game personas at this point. As already mentioned, the half-orc minstrels were appreciated by all and will be one of the campaigns most enduring memories. Despite nobody spotting the homage, the roman numeral sequence was also fun.

What didn't:

The combat encounter was overly long because of the sheer amount of players. I failed to motivate any discussion with Carnack's band of characters. Bostock felt unnecessary and was never really used again. Indestructible laser eyed teddy bear.

 

Chapter Five

Bright Lights, Big City

“What had happened to the Modrons over the last half decade was generally unknown. Despite being the spiritual staple of Mechanus, Plane of pure order, their appearances in the outlands had been in decline for many years. Nowhere was this more noticeable than in Sigil, City of Doors, The Cage, The Great Donut, The center of the multiverse. While Modrons were rare even in Sigil, they were still seen now and again as agents or observers. But as the planes changed, so Sigil changed with them, and pure alignment based universes began to see themselves shrink, to make way for new planes of existence like the Shadowdark. In times like these one expects change. Alas though, we were still without an answer: What had happened to the Modrons?”

- Gunter Mackapee – Case Notes: The Foltsom Wainright Case, for submission of review to the Mercykiller Factol

I'm a massive fan of Planescape: Torment. I won't hide that fact. It's my favorite game of all time, and with it come the fondest memories. As a work of fiction, its probably influenced me as a budding writer more than any other piece of literature I've consumed. So naturally, I had to have a jaunt to Sigil and the planes at least once during this campaign. This entire session itself was seeped with nostalgia for Torment, though few of the players themselves felt the benefit of this.

The session began with the group discovering the mechanism of the map room. It's encoded with three languages; Ancient Elven, Ancient Abyssal and Binary. The group recruits Kerris, the elderin codebreaker, to aid them, but he reveals that he can't crack the code without knowing a translation for the cipher, text surrounding Magnus Fallon's original map. Kerris says he'll get to work, but recommends that if you want obscure translations sorted, then you need look no further than Sigil, the titular city built inside a spiral at the center of everything.

For transport, the group get Azreal to track down his some time lover, Spelljammer Captain Sofia Sloan. Sofia is, as usual, bootlegging throughout the multiverse, and agrees to give the group a lift to Sigil, while Jocasta and co stay behind to keep an eye on Kerris. The Spelljammer takes off, and the team have to pass a will check to keep their astral sea legs or throw up as a consequence. During the journey they must do battle with an Astral Dreadnought, though they just have to hold their own for a set amount of turns rather than kill it outright.

Arriving at Sigil, they check in at the Touch of Fey bar with Sofia's associate Harry, who I put my best Ron Pearlman voice on for. Harry can hook the group up with some people who can translate two of the texts, but needs a few favors in return. Azreal, Trust and Cardia leave this session head for a gate town called Dast to deliver a message for Harry, Leaving Megi, Nazrin and Nero to look into some recent thefts. Nazrin, led on by memories of a previous life, finds the fallen Dabus Fell, who creates some powerful tattoos for the group, based upon past experiences.

Tracking down the thief, it seems, whoever he is, is working for a gang known as the beast men. The three infiltrate their headquarters and find that it is the thief is the tiefling Tristan, who has been press ganged into service by the beast men. Megi wants to kill him, but fortunately Nazrin remembers she's Lawful Neutral and forbids it, this still doesn't stop Megi setting fire to his pants though, and Nero, rather unprovoked, punching him in the face. Some bystanders see this, and the formerly well thought of noble starts to get a bad reputation.

With that favor sorted, Harry refers the three to the Society of Sensation, where one of their lecturers, in return for some more of those sensory stones, reveals there is a sole Modron holed up in a secret vault in the undercity. The team battle carrion crawlers and undead in the crypts under the city, where they eventually locate the vault. Inside, a lone Modron has been left with some drones to maintain their presence. The Modron recognises Nazrin from a past life, and is prompted to play a holographic recording by Magnus Fallon. It is revealed that the two had worked together in one of Nazrin's past lives, and that in order to use the God Maker, the precision of Mechanus would be required. The Modron serves this purpose, but can only be fully activated by the genetic structure from two of Fallon's descendants.

The session ends with the binary encryption translated, and more questions than answers.

Music used:

I went hell for leather with the Planescape: Torment soundtrack on this one, which I think drew everyone in. Also used some of Vangelus' Blade Runner Volume 3 for the Spelljammer sequences.

What worked:

This was probably my second best session of the entire campaign. Everyone bought into the quirky Planescape setting. Fell's stat boosting tattoos worked really well and gave everyone a feeling of extra power as well as the personal investment of each boost being unique based on the character and actions they'd taken in the past. The goals were clear and worked well. The combat short and sharp, and the Modron sequence really brought Nazrin's previously indifferent character into her own. Sofia's return also went down quite well as a secondary character (well, nobody tried to kill her at least, which is the best I could hope for at this point).

What didn't:

Summoning Sofia and her Spelljammer was somewhat contrived and convenient, I think I could have come up with a better way of bringing her into the story. As with Carnack's eleven, most players just wanted to kill Tristan, and if it wasn't for Nazrin I would have had a hard time keeping the guy alive.

Ties That Bind - A Bleaker's Gambit: Part One

“So you want to hear the story do you berk? You want to hear about these fair lands and how they were driven apart and then driven back together? You want to hear about Magnus Fallon and the Deva of Eberron eh? About Carnack's Eleven? About the Navvarre civil war and how this whole mess made its way to Sigil, The Cage? You want to hear about the rising of Dast? The formorian war in the tribal lands of Tir? How pirates clashed on the sparrow islands? The siege of Quintus? You want to hear about The Empire?

Nah. There's only one thing you want to hear about. Ain't that right? You want to hear about the God Maker. You want to know if it was real. Well let me tell you son, out there on the planes, the places a man can't get to, they've got a name for this fable. They hang it on the noses of those that see no point in anything. They call it a Bleakers Gambit.”
- An unnamed man during a national survey during the period of malcontent.



Okay. Here we are. After about a year and a half of coming up with ideas, getting models, dice, creating the quests, changing the quests, changing them again, I was ready. I was going in with both barrels. This was going to be one hell of a campaign. Multiple characters, sessions each having a different focus. Thought out loot and random encounters. NPC's with special bonuses to the party. Crafting. Alchemy. Epic weapons and armour. Incidental music. The whole shebang.

Well that was the plan.

The campaign wasn't a massive failure, not by a long stretch. But what it did was teach me were valuable lessons in what works and what doesn't. Problem is, that given it takes us about six months minimum to do a campaign, I wanted to do everything I wanted to do this time, since it'll probably be two years till I get to do another one. I was planning this one right after I'd finished my last one, and God knows I'm already putting ideas together for the next. This long obsession crystallized my desire to go in all guns blazing, and as such overloaded the whole thing with too many ideas. I'll be looking at each session to go through what did and didn't work. But first things first; The Characters.

“After his efforts in Caeoria, Azreal found himself back at the order, filing accounts and dealing with bureaucracy. Despite the fact that he was now considered a worthy hero in the eyes of the Andavian nation, The higher ranking members of Bahamut's Knights were going well out of their way to keep him well out of theirs. Still, that was just how he liked it, and Azreal was happily toiling away the hours in total indifference. As usual, It wasn't long until fate came knocking at his door.”


- Billo Michigen - Another Time, Another Place: The Orders of Bahamut

 


“As with all Deva's, Nazrin knew not what her divine heritage was, only that she was there for a reason. Having wandered nearly all of Eberron for many years, she had become a competent Artificer, having almost craftsmanlike skill when it came to engineering, though again she knew not where she had learned such talents. Her nature as a force for good repeatedly drew her to adventure, and was one of the first recruited when news of the legendary God Maker relic spread from nation to nation. This job seemed like any other, an ancient relic, an immortal prophecy. This time though, things were going to turn out a little differently for the grounded angel.”


- Matteus Binro – Worlds beyond ours and those who walked upon Them.


As I already mentioned, each player was to have two characters. The intention was that most of the campaign would have them split into two groups of three. This, however didn't always work out, as you will see later. Azreal returned, with the group also being joined by a Deva from Eberron, as a way to introduce a clockwork engineer from that world. As usual Azreal was quiet, stoic and didn't say much.


Nazrin was a new character, with a class taken from Eberron, so I had a bit of fun introducing her into the plot, which I will discuss later. She was a lot more talkative and involved at times, but like Azreal, didn't generally set herself at the forefront of things.


“Due to Farrel's recent expansion, many were on edge with the idea that the small trade nation would soon turn its desires west. Fortunately Megi's presence on the mainland helped ease tensions, somewhat ironically given her self serving character and seemingly afflicted with a superiority complex. When not tied up in the machinations of the Farrelite courts, she would often be found as an ambassador, assuring others that Farrel's ambitions were ultimately humble. Weather or not she was telling the truth remains to be seen, but after the fall of the Navarre monarchy and the subsequent civil war, she soon found more hostility than she initially bargained for, on both sides of the fence.”


- Domasi Aucturis – War on the Mainland: A History

 


“Time had been indifferent to Trust. While her life flitted between picking the pockets of peasants to working as a hired hand for more unscrupulous types, that big score still hadn't come around. While she still had contacts from the old guilds, the recent upheavals in Andavia had made it difficult to lay any groundwork, and Trust expected that it wouldn't be long till she'd be moving on to greener pastures, though how green and how far even she wouldn't have been able to predict.”


-Ezio de Sirenze – Here We Stand: The Teifling Peoples Road to Acceptance


As always, both and Trust essentially fell somewhere between Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Evil. As always, any attempt at doing something good or charitable was always going to fall short with these two in the party, so I had to make sure that all their goals could essentially be self serving. As always this worked better at some points than others. As with pretty much every other campaign, their player generally took the lead with the party, making most of the choices along the way, so I had to try hard to make sure everyone had a stake in said choices.


“His first year in Andavia had been a good one for Nero Celesious Kah. Despite not currently having any real power from his titles, he was still the man to be seen with by the nobility of the nation. Nero spent most of his days training the King's rangers in more advanced forms of archery, and his nights sampling medicines of a chemical variety, or so they say.


Cardia on the other hand has stayed out of limelight, instead doing more research into the workings of the undead and worship of the Raven Queen. Her tribal upbringing surprisingly did not get in the way of her adjusting to city life, and could often be found spending her free time in ale houses and music halls with the best of them.


All the while news trickled up from Caeoria. The nation had now stablalised, its manipulative city states had begun falling back into line, and the tribal nations were enjoying their independence. It seemed at though the two Caeorian's were truly free to tend to their own lives, which often meant only one thing; Adventure beckoned.”


- Bostock Conroy – Family Histories

Finally we have Nero and Cardia. Generally two contrasting personalities, In this campaign Nero would often find himself trying to look like a badass, threatening, and self serving, seemingly on the same as Megi and Trust's level. This would backfire enormously of course. Another part of Nero's character came from his period in the last campaign where he was pacified through opium, and from this it generally came into common knowledge that the man had little willpower when it came to narcotics. This was something else I ran with throughout the campaign.

 


Cardia on the other hand was often condescending but otherwise open minded, and tried her best to do the right thing but often found that this never quite worked out as planned. Diplomacy was attempted more than with Nero, but never quite to solid effect, as we will see later. All in all though, Nero and Cardia's player was often the wild card, and I don't mean that in a good way. Some day's he'd been in the mood for dnd, other's he'd hardly put in any effort at all, so I had to do my best to make things interesting.

And finally.


“Despite the passing of time, not a lot had happened in Andavia of late. Jocasta was still flitting between jobs, still not settled on a calling in life. Katie was working a lot in engineering and architecture, trying to push her old airship to be refitted. Kara had been promoted again to greater responsibility in the city guard, and Sakari was still working in the library being the usual bookworm.


Things continued quietly as most people would expect, but it didn't take Jocasta long to start sticking her nose into things, as was usually expected of her. Jocasta first thought something was up when strange goings on were noted in the knightly orders. Azreal being ever the apathetic one, noticed little, so Jocasta took this to local Chronicler Zantir Xanderfell. Zantir began to unravel a whole den of corruption that was beginning to take root, but unfortunately by the time she had gleaned this information, Jocasta and co were long gone, as Kara had heard whispers amongst prisoners about the return of the God Maker, an ancient relic of legend. Had they held back a little longer, they may have found out that there were more to these legends than met the eye.”


- Alysoun Mifflinburg – No Dykes to Watch Out For: Mercenaries on the Road Less Traveled: Volume 2


DM's NPC's are difficult to use as we have seen from past experience. Considering I was going to be including four (and even more later) I didn't want to overburden the party. This worked better at the start of the campaign than it did near the end. Each NPC was supposed to grant a particular bonus when they were in the party, for example Kara granted a bonus to initiative during random encounters, which were cut mostly due to lack of time, and Katie could snipe marked targets as a minor action, unfortunately no character had the ability to mark targets.

Looking back I really shouldn't have used all four so much in this campaign, and tried my best to find reasons to keep them out of the player characters hair as much as possible, but alas I still wanted to make the most out of the models I had, hence they're continued appearance.

 



Chapter One

In Questionable Company

“Legend has it that the God Maker was created long ago as a pact between the powers. That it is adorned with holy symbols to confirm this pact. The relicry it is contained in is said to rotate between lands, worlds and even the planes themselves. What the artifact does on the other hand, is a secret long forgotten....


.... Magnus Fallon was the only known individual to crack the secrets of the artifact's shifts. It is said that he worked many years with the Farrelite mages, on co-ordinates for an alleged map room that would reveal the present location of the artifact. Not long after that Fallon disappeared, map and all. His eventual fate, like many facts surrounding the God Maker, remains a mystery.”


- Mystra Cropolis – The Relics of Veccna and Other Artifacts of Legend


Our session began on Eberron with the introduction of Nazrin. With a group of companions she is nearing the end of her quest for the legendary God Maker. Finally locating the artifact she must do battle with the notorious mage, Rasputin. After a quick battle Nazrin kills the villain, but as she reaches for the relic is begins to shift between worlds. Cue opening music.

Shortly after we jump ahead to a meeting in the Andavian city lighthouse between most of the characters from the previous campaigns. Kara reveals that she has heard whispers that the legendary God Maker is back in the realms, and that given the civil war going on in neighboring region Navarre, King Richard, or many other leaders, would pay handsomely for such a relic, even if it were just a powerless rusty chalice. Shortly, they are joined by Nazrin, who reveals following leads on the God Maker may be her only way home.

The story of Magnus Fallon is related. The only man who knew the secret of finding the God Maker. It is said he found a map room that would reveal the relics location, and that he made his own map to this location, splitting it in half. Sakari notes that she knows where one half is, as she saw it in the old library of her home village. The other half is deduced to reside in the oppressive state of The Library of Alexandia, where Carnack Cousland once attempted a heist for a valuable painting, suggesting more than a coincidence.

The group track down Zantir, as she was part of Carnack's original eleven who attempted the heist years ago, and discusses its members and tactics. The group then consolidate at the local inn. Trust attempts to track other members of Carnack's group, but fails to find them, suggesting that a second heist will be attempted. Jocasta reveals that the route to Sakari's old village is little known, and not remembered by them as they left by sea last they were there. The only people that recall the way are two old soldiers, Chrissy and Loggo, who have long sworn off adventure. The group mostly gets drunk from here and Nero procures some rare narcotics for his own personal use.

The group split up the following morning, with Trust, Azreal, Cardia, Kara and Katie heading to Alexandria to tackle Carnack. The rest are left to negotiate co-operation with Chrissy and Loggo, who are hesitant at first, then mostly scared off by Megi's offer of money and slaves as reward. Nazrin, being of a race known for being good and pure, manages to talk them round. They then head through the mountain passes towards the village.

Along the way they do battle with frost giants, and then face a rather friendly Beholder, known as a Spectator, who throws some predictions their way. Arriving at the village, they find the residents slaughtered, and face this world's Rasputin who has allied himself with Tristan, Duncan and Alrianna (from my last campaign). They do battle with Rasputin's undead minions as he escapes. Searching the library they locate the map with ease, but the fragile floor causes Megi, Sakari and Nazrin to fall to the ground into a tunnel system leading to a small pier. They procure a boat and do battle with a shark, as they leave the others to make their own way back by land.
What worked:
Generally a pretty good session this one. Most characters got into the diplomacy with other characters, though it was still difficult to stop Megi/Trust just intimidating or scaring people off with non-ethical bargaining. Everyone got a fair bit of session time and seemed interested in the story. They also made a lot out of the non combat parts, like socialising at the inn. As with pretty much all other sessions, the music went down very well. Each character seemed to come into their own, and the world around them felt well realised and interesting to explore.
What didn't:
The sheer number of characters was overwhelming, so the sooner the party got split the better. Also there seemed to be little affiliation to each other within the group. With Megi and Nazrin deciding to bugger off in a boat once Sakari had the map, leaving the others behind. The whole quest to Sakari's old village should have been much longer and more in depth, having Chrissy and Loggo play a greater part in the campaign. Instead, I hadn't planned ahead enough to make the most of this quest, but needed something for the characters to do as we'd have had to finish the session early otherwise.

All in all though, not a bad foundation for a campaign, and it went about as well as I could have hopes. We'll see how well I maintain this as the campaign continues.

So the worlds going to end this year I hear...

And now that I have your attention, just thought I'd mention I'm back doing art trades again. Sparodically. I'll update with stuff done so far in about a week or so. Given that I'm sort of doing this now, It looks like I'll be shelving the Jenny Nowhere comic for a bit.

What else? Oh yeah, friend of mine has a blog now. Jaffa's Geek Corner is run by the guy who played Damon/Nero and ran the first and fourth of our Dnd campaigns. Despite the fact that I've been at this blog lark for a lot longer than him, he seems to be much better at it than I am. If we find the time, It's possible we may be working on a webcomic together.

Book is still in the process of being written. Mass Effect 3 comes out next month. More soon.

Update and Things

I know probably nobody visits this blog, but on the off chance you've stumbled across here I thought I'd do a small update for the year ahead.

Currently planning on doing a Jenny Nowhere comic stip in the new year. THE FIRST OF ITS KIND, as far as I know. Dnd should be starting again soon, so expect recaps. Also working on writing a novel at the moment, and It is going quite well. If that goes anywhere I will update its progress here. Guitar on the other hand, I'm struggling with. Finaly Hospital Radio Haven is still off air for the upgrades, but we should be back soon.

Finally a small christmas comic for you all. You can see a bigger verions on my Deviantart page http://elpresedente.deviantart.com/

Down the Water Spout: The Sand and the Dead it Left in its Wake - Part 2

Chapter Four
What're You Farrowing Looking At?

“And lo, let there come a time after one thousand sunsets, when nothing exists but the dust and the sand. When all is gone but the primitives who know not the legacy they breed. Let the faithful be fallen, and let the unfaithful be cursed, and let the blood of both be spread about the land.
And lo, after ten thousand sunsets let the prophecy be fulfilled. Let grief break the soul of a man of steel, and in his grief may he seek solace with the queen. May the man of steel exile those faithful to him, and corrupt those who doubt, and may the dark magics infect the land to bring together the blood of the faithful and unfaithful alike.
And lo, the blood shall turn back time, and all will blossom again.”
- Partial, possibly bastardized translation of ancient Caeorian texts.

Ok, so this session the group set about trying to find a way to foil the King's plan. We unanimously agree that we have to make sure that the descendants of the drow generals are secure, despite the DM trying to imply that we should we doing something else. However, every time we attempted to contact one of the descendants there would be a strange throbbing sound, followed by the appearance of the reincarnated Farrow, with all his deadly powers.

Farrow forces us to do battle with duplicates of our characters, which proves rather challenging as each battle was a one on one. Intermittent with these encounters, its finally revealed that Nero is actually the Kings brother, explaining why everyone was always acting shifty around him. As the DM later pointed out, this was meant to be a massive WHAM moment that we were supposed to uncover ourselves, but either through our fault or the DM's, it never worked out that way. Something I'll have to take note of for when I do my next campaign. We also find out that the whole affair appears to be a scheme to fulfill the ritual to incarnate Lolth.

After several encounters the group decides to commender an airship to attempt to gain the high ground advantage. Rather than attempt to persuade the aviators, Megi and Azreal decide the best bet is just to murder people for it. It's all for naught though, as once again Farrow shows up to burst our proverbial bubble and send us crashing back to the ground.

Chapter Five
Chasing Shadows with Light

“The al'Kah citadel had numerous defenses. The standard unclimbable walls, towers, battlements, portcullises, boiling oil. During the King's madness however, it had become increasingly difficult to find many soldiers willing to take guard duty. Most had fled to join the various opportunistic city states, or become mercenaries. The King had to come up with a new solution. Fortunately his recent pact with the dark arts meant that he could summon a shield capable of holding back all those who were not of his blood.
Blood though, as we know, liked to make its own rules in Caeoria.”
- James Mycroft – Magic fortifications I have had the pleasure of Adapting.

Enough was enough. Word had just come in that the plan had pretty much failed and Cardia, Jingo and the rest had all fallen prey to Farrow and had been captured. It was decided an all or nothing assault on the keep was required. The gates were sealed by a magical shield, but our wilely ways allowed us to scale the wall, impossible though it may seem. Zantir used her magic pipes again to dominate the guards, but it wasn't long before more arrived. Nero gets taken prisoner and the rest of the group get thrown over the wall, back into the sand.
A new approach was needed. Cardia may have been captured, but her mask was likely still free. Knowing that combining the two could unleash great power, Zantir, Azreal and Megi all head to the swamps, and are greeted once again by Cardia's former aide. Without Cardia the undead had now all gone nuts, but were no match for the now seasoned fighters.

The swamp folk reveal that Nero has power over his brothers magics, and if invited into the keep verbally, the group will be able to walk right in. Farrow had to be dealt with first though, and had once again hunted them down. Combining the masks creates three magic rings from the jewels in the eyes, as well as grants the wearers unique items. Zantir gets armour, Megi a staff, and Azreal a... *sigh*... new 'smashy board'. This gives them the edge over Farrow, who draws his power from a giant crystal. One combat encounter later and the dieing Farrow regains his humanity, leaving a final message for Nero.

Chapter Six
Scene Missing

“Why didn't you tell me earlier? It now all makes perfect sense!”

Chapter Seven
The Amazing Journey of Thomas Armstrong

“Incident Report 15-05-2011. T. Armstrong. Haz. Lab 74. Fallowfields Site. Strange occurrence in the lab today. One of the cultures quarantine had been breached, or so it seemed. While the integrity was at one hundred percent, somehow a sandy or dusty substance had appeared within. No conclusion as to how it got there, but the entire lab had to be purged just in case.

Incident Report 20-05-2011. T. Armstrong. Haz. Lab 77. Fallowfields Site. Another occurrence today, now more serious, one of the technicians reported hearing voices in a totally quarantined lab. Checked comms and they all checked out. Coincides with reports from other labs too, but they were dismissed. Winters swears blind that the voices were not on the comms and came from outside his suit. Comms pick up the voices too, but the dialect is indistinguishable. Possible Terrorist threat. Report Filed. Lethal defenses requested.

Incident Report 24-05-2011. F. Gordon. Haz. Lab 77. Fallowfields Site. Serious security breach. Strange environmental occurrence in one of the labs while technician Armstrong was present and armed. Strange light based anomalies and wind/rain like anomalies. Armstrong was engulfed but no remains suggest he was removed somehow. Armstrong possibly linked with Terrorist threat. Report Filed.”

It was time to assault the keep proper this time. Megi had managed to sneak her familiar into the keep to get an invitation from Nero to allow the defenses to be breached. Inside, Raz al'Kah looms sinisterly from balconies, awaiting the group's approach. Checking the dungeons, they manage to find Nero who'd been pacified by the King through large quantities of opium. Consequently Nero was of little use beyond incredibly stoned stuttering. Further investigation leads to the discovery of a guy in a hazmat suit.

This is where it all starts to get a little hazey, and science fictioney. We're told that Tom was a lab technician working in a microbiotics lab somewhere near Manchester. Its unclear if this was supposed to be linked to the story, the main explanation behind it, or just an excuse for the DM to get some use out of his Mr Freeze model. Regardless, Tom is freed and grants Zantir the use of the gun, to which I decide to have her shoot Tom on the basis that Zantir judged him clearly out of his mind. The DM decided to give him story based invulnerability however, and my attempt to cauterize the non fantasy elements failed. Moving on though, Raz still awaited.
Encountering him naturally consisted of Diplomacy-Mad Ramblings-Combat Encounter. And this time the combat encounter was to consist of a goddess herself.

Great.

Chapter Seven
Habeus Scorpus

“Through the winds of the asteral planes! To the edge of the immaterial! A call went out. Was it conscious? Was it unconscious? Who can say? But it summoned our hero from his eternal slumber, to hark the call. The call of Ioun! He was needed, Oh brave and fearless Damon. Justice needed to be served one more time. How better to serve eternity than to return to his friends to grant them the power. His power. Ioun's searing light would purge the shadows all across the lands of Caeoria.
While the company of heroes battled the great spider queen's avatar, their plight almost helpless. Damon returned, for a fleeting moment, and gave them the power of the light. It is said that all across the land, sleeping children heard his battle cry:
'Cascade of Light Bitches!'”
- 'Tripshot' Murphy – The New Adventures of Damon: The Adventures of Damon Volume 3

Lolth rises, a big spider woman thing you'd exactly expect her to be. Rather fittingly the DM decided to represent her as one of the Transformers range, not sure which one, but it was female and a spider so actually worked really well as a visualization.

The battle took a lot of hard graft. First the group had to face Raz and Lolth's avatar. In true RPG style the battle is always more than it initially looks, and upon defeat the avatar transformed into a vision of Jingo, and upon his defeat into a vision of Cardia, and so forth. Since this was the final battle we threw everything we had at her, and for balance as usual the DM would come up with a few things to even the playing field. Restoring some of our powers and having a visitation of the recently deceased Damon pop by to grant us all the use of his overkill power, Cascade of Light.

Finally the evil was put to rest, the land restored and the day saved. Jingo, Cardia and the others arrive to polish off any final plot holes, conveniently sweeping Tom down a portal shaped one. Through rules of regicide Jingo claims the crown, avoiding any Scorpion King comparisons. Megi, Zantir and Azreal are rewarded with wealth, and Jingo commands Nero to go and travel and have other adventures, with Cardia deciding to tag along as well.

Unsure as to how long this session was going to take I'd planned a 'done in one' Campaign which we never got time to do. May turn it into a short story, so watch this space and you might soon see 'A funny thing happened on the way to Andavia'.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I enjoyed the campaign. Could have been more consistent.

“Regicide. Seen as a dirty word by some, but still a legitimate method of securing the throne. Not many were happy with Jingo's ascension, not least the neighboring nations that had to cope with the unreasonable fact that they had to become diplomatically involved with a centuries old Elf/Scorpion hybrid. Things calmed down in Ceaoria itself, but as always, its future was as certain as its own shifting sands.”
Zantir Xanderfell – Caeoria: The Land the Gods Forgot

“Azreal returned to Andavia with the wealth rewarded to him for his deeds in Caeoria, which was almost immediately reclaimed by his order. Shortly after, his affairs would mostly involve menial tasks at the chapter house. Things would begin to escalate however. In need of action that would put him back in good graces with the order, Azreal soon found himself wound up in politics, a messy and dangerous world for a paladin.”
- Tomas of the order of Bahamut – Oh Shining Day!: The Exalted of Bahamut

“Megi's standing in court was almost insufferable for her contemporaries. Farrel had never made any excursions into Caeorian territory and now a this young upstart mage had walked right into a regime change, singlehandedly increasing the nations standing to an otherwise unknown state. With the political climate in flux Megi had achieved the image of a major player within the space of a couple of months. Her success was to be a double edged sword though, as the cutthroat environment of Farrel's society would have a way of turning back on her.”
- Crispin Lennon – I Don't Want to Spoil the Party: Famous Farrelites

“'Caeoria: The Land the Gods Forgot' became a small time literary sensation amongst the realms of man. Zantir, despite her beginnings, had become the talk of many a nobles court, and was soon in demand as a biographer. Zantir wanted nothing to do with these people, and hated that fact that these people, who she was attempting to be in contempt of, became her biggest fans. She withdrew from the limelight for a while, until former soldier Jocasta Lacroix began pestering her to investigate corruption within the Knightly orders. Events would soon show there was more to this suspicion than simple corruption.”
- Rupert Brooks – Voices in the Darkness: The early realms Chroniclers

“As for Nero Celesious Kah. Well... the man had seen more than a man had any right to see. His nation torn apart, his family destroyed. Jingo never intended him to be outright exiled, but Nero took it as such, ultimately seeing it for his own good. Stories of the exiled prince soon began to circulate. Some said he would travel the land doing good deeds, while others claimed he would simply be found drowning his sorrows in intermittent inns. Whatever the truth, Nero still had a full life ahead of him, and a warrior of his skills would find it difficult to stay away from destiny for too long.”
- Bostock Conroy – Family Histories

So that was that. Next stop my campaign, which has multiple player characters, dozens of NPC's, meandering quests and a globe trotting story. Its either going to be brilliant or crash and burn horribly. Can't wait, see you then!

Too Damn Hot Today: The Sand and the Dead It Left in its Wake - Part One

“When the offer came to investigate strange goings on in Caeoria It seemed as though providence was smiling on me. There was little reported on the collection of city states stranded in the middle of a harsh desert, so any information I could obtain to put to paper would be of great interest to scholars and librarians the realms over. It would also make me a lot of money. The reality of the experience however... well, lets just say that had I known what these 'strange goings on' would escalate to, I'd have probably stayed in Andavia.
What we did discover in Caeoria though, I can safely say, was widespread systematic corruption running all the way to the top. Backwards through time.”
- Zantir Xanderfell – Caeoria: The Land the Gods Forgot

Here we are again. Another new campaign, another opportunity for a well made plan to go out of the window, for both the characters and the DM. This would now be our forth campaign, my third playing a character, and like the others it was dogged with the problem (which Penny Arcade readers will be abundantly aware) of trying to get four men in their twenties together for one night a week which doesn't involve a pub. The DM's own planning for the campaign was pretty tight, but we would go weeks and sometimes nearly a month between sessions, making it hard to remember what the plan was. We all tried our best though. The roots for this campaign began at the end of the last, with two new characters arriving at Damon's funeral. The first, and arguably most important was the DM's guest NPC, Nero.

“Ask anyone about Nero and they'll tell you there just wasn't something quite right about him. For an adventurer I mean. He certainly had the skills, the smarts for the job. As a ranger he was as good as I've seen. But his attitude, he had this sort of... too perfect a hero sort of aura. I mean most adventurers have a part of them that want to do the right thing, or at least work for someone who wants to do the right thing, but by and large its a full time job for them. The average adventurer is in it for the money and the treasure and the respect. They won't go out there and rescue some princess without the expectation that they're going to get some nookie at the end of it.
But Nero he was different, like the money and the respect and all that didn't mean a thing to him, he was out to do the right thing. Which meant that he was either part of that rare breed that are genuinely honest or stupid and out there to do good deeds for the sake of doing them, or he had some serious funding coming from somewhere.”
- Unknown – From an interview in Who's Who of the Realms


Nero was a human ranger hailing from Caeoria, a far away desert land occupied by an apparently Scottish accented culture. Nero was styled to be similar in looks and mannerisms to David Tennant, hence the Scottish accent. The DM dropped the accent about half way into the first session, which I thought was a shame, but he was the boss. Like Megi in the last campaign, Nero being a DM character meant that he didn't get much room to express his personality, and we'll touch upon this later because Nero had a BIG SECRET that we were supposed to uncover gradually, but ended up not coming out as planned.

“ Zantir Xanderfell. Cultist. Militant. Politician.. Journalist. As far as careers go she's had a rather varied one. Part of a minor race of green skinned 'dark elves' who lost their souls due to a centuries old elven curse. Like most of her contemporaries, the fact that her soul had now passed on to the astral plane for judgment meant that any actions they now took within life had no bearing on what fate awaited their souls. She fell in with the usual group of raiders and deviants, with the usual 'fallen elf' fair of spikes, straps, whips, clips, zips and chains. This went on for a couple of centuries.
Eventually though Zantir would become one of the few to turn to good rather than evil, since extremes of either would have no bearing on whatever treatment her soul would be getting from the divine. She turned to politics, and was an instigator of the Reunification Wars, which in the end achieved very little beside even more strained relations between the elves. She was finally double crossed and deposed by a goblin general. Disgusted by how the political system had let her down, Zantir left to chronicle and publicize examples of corruption throughout the realms. Prior to Ceaoria, she had already exposed illegal peddling of opiates by those high in Andavain society, overcoming the prejudice that the human city had originally shown her.”
- Rupert Brooks – Voices in the Darkness: The early realms Chroniclers


Never being one to sit on a character for more than one campaign, I switched again to a new one. Zantir came from a wide range of influences. I'm ever nostalgic for the old Baldurs Gate/Icewind Dale games, especially that you could choose outlandish skin colors regardless of the race you picked. I'd wanted to create a green skinned elf lady since playing Age of Wonders years ago, but never got the opportunity.
I'd started playing Age of Wonders again on a nostalgia trip, and created Zantir as a player character. When our campaign began I wanted to have a try with bard, but she didn't seem to be the lute playing type. So I made Zantir essentially a female, green , elf version of Christopher Ecclestone's character from Our Friends in the North. A disillusioned individual that turned to journalism to expose the failings of the system that let them down. Also, I have just realised that we're two characters in and both are based on ex Doctor Who actors!

“Megi was now well respected in Farrelite society. If she wished she likely could have lived off her status, comfortable and content. She knew better though, since on Farrel, if your not constantly out finding ways to keep above your rivals, you'll end up with a knife in your back. Having been recently associated with Damon of Ioun, she had met with the mysterious Nero who offered a grand adventure in the faraway land of Caeoria.. Looking into the records of the Farrel grand library, Megi found that Caeoria was practically untapped for its arcane mysteries.
In the interim before the expedition, Megi cavorted around court, partaking in the usual mental and social shadow boxing that Farrel was notorious for. Her rank and status meant that she could obtain many diplomatic documents that meant traversing the nations would not be a problem, and that she would be shown the due respect, or so she expected. On a foggy Farrel morning she set sail to rendezvous with Nero, palms tingling with the anticipation of what power would be up for grabs.”
- Crispin Lennon – I Don't Want to Spoil the Party: Famous Farrelites


Now no longer a DM character Megi was on top form, and by top form I mean doing everything she could to get first dibs on loot. Unsurprisingly her player was the same who had Trust in the earlier campaigns. Megi did fortunately have her diplomatic status to get us out of (or in to) a few problems, but by and large most of the time the other characters couldn't shake the feeling she was trying to stay one step ahead of everyone else. Despite the fact that it was Zantir who was the 'dark' one and supposed to essentially have a sadistic streak, in the face of Megi she was positively the grounded one. As with Trust before her, torture and murder was the order of the day, and it still didn't get us any further in the long run.

“Azreal of the Order of Bahamut. You are accused of the following sins against the Church of Bahamut: Gambling. Gambling with estates and property bestowed upon you by the church. Gambling and losing estates and property bestowed upon you by the church. Sentence: Demotion to Paladin Errant. You will not be granted replacement lands proportioned to those lost lost. Recommended penance: Follow the orders creed of performing good deeds of valor and charity, and if possible obtain funds with which the church estates can be repurchased. You're current judgment is pending. For the great Blue Dragon God, go in glory.”
- Holy Order Decree sealed by Chief Justicar McNulty

Our final player decided to switch back to Azreal this chaplain after finding Lerissa the warlock a little difficult, however he soon met with more frustration as Megi, despite being a mage, seemed to be able to take more damage than Azreal could, and he was supposed to be the tank. Personality wise, this was the same old Azreal, saying very little and voting for the most direct, violent course of action possible. Hitting things with his “smashy board” as he would put it.

So thats our line up, and the campaign begins proper at Nero's behest.

Chapter One
Baby It Could Be Worse

“The land of Ceaoria was not a nation as such but more of a collection of states. While ruled by a king, the prime responsibility of administration was left to rulers of the separate cities. It was fortunate then that when madness gripped King Raz al'Kah after the death of his wife that the cities could continue to function independently without his guidance.
Not so fortunate however was that in his grief and dabbling with ancient magic, the King had cursed the nation with a plague of undead wanderers, mindless and deadly. To compound matters, several of the independent rulers jumped at the opportunity to expand their own mini empires.”
Zantir Xanderfell – Caeoria: The Land the Gods Forgot

Our session begins with Nero regrouping with his former mentor Farrow, who is suffering from a deadly poison. A solution is proposed by obtaining the antidote from local cleverman Viqtor Zheng, who resides in the cities library. Despite the obvious signposting, Megi is convinced that it can be circumnavigated by simply killing Farrow then bring him back using a raise dead ritual. After some heated debate, Nero states that the death magic within the poison would negate such a ritual. Megi eventually drops the idea, but this would not be the last time she'd try and get round a problem by suggesting this solution.
Once the group arrive at the library, they find Zheng wrapped in grief. It turns out that his baby son had been kidnapped by local despot and nutter Marix. Megi once again suggests offing Zheng and looking for the antidote themselves, and while supposed paragon of justice Azreal sees no problem with this, Nero is starting to think that recruiting Megi was not such a good idea after all. During this sequence, our DM full on dramatised Zheng's tearful state, to such a point that we were all unsure what was in game and what wasn't. Brilliant.
The son had to be obtained from Marix, so the group then head to his city, Marix, which does not fill you with confidence in a mans sanity. Through the desert a few of the dead need to be contended with, and upon arrival at the city fail to convince the guards to let them in. Megi tries to flaunt her diplomatic papers, but in the end it falls to Zantir to use her magic pipes to dominate the guards and let them pass. When they meet Marix, they find he'd covered the baby with tattoos, and babbles nonsense about dark prophesies, as these types of people do, and is suspiciously mistrustful of Nero.
The session finishes with Marix eventually agreeing to part with, but would only do so if someone would stay with him. Zantir agrees to stay, on the grounds that she seems to be the only one to take his stories seriously.

Chapter Two
I'm sorry but I haven't got a Clue

“The swamp people are an affront to civilized society. They have no concept of trade or economy, and no practice at all regarding hygiene. They do not recognise their betters and have still not submitted to leadership of an organized government. They call themselves Caeorians but they have no right to use this name. Living side by side with those 'frog people' they contribute nothing but the spread of superstition and paganism. Worse of them all is this so called 'Queen of the Zombies', who says that the walking dead can be tempered and put to good use. It is the work of devils, and they are a hellish people.”
Lester Gryphon – An open letter to the people of Ceaoria regarding the occupation of the marshlands.

Zheng grants the antidote in return for his son, and Farrow is cured. Fortunes turn however when Farrow falls foul of the Kings curse, and instead of rising to life, he returns to undeath, as a deadly wraith like being. The group are forced to do battle with the now unreasonably powerful Farrow, who even has the power to summon Zantir to the location in an attempt to destroy her too. The group manage to force him back, and he fades into the mists, promising to return.
This leaves Nero as now sole leader of the resistance. In an attempt to combat the undead hoards, the group travel from city to city in search of allies, only to mainly find opportunistic bureaucrats with ambitions of turning on each other. Zantir contributes blueprints of Katie's airship from my last campaign, in the hopes that the nations air force can be bolstered, but again this just results in the leaders seeing a more effective way to double cross each other.
After a few close shaves while traveling, word is finally heard of a strange people living in the swamplands, who apparently have the knowledge to control the undead. Heading to the marshlands, they are contested by a few of the regions strange creatures before they meet the populace proper. Cardia, the so called queen, reveals she has a magic mask that can control the living dead, but she is not willing to give it up. Fortunately she gives them the location of another such mask, in the caves on the far side of the desert.
Within the caves though, awaits something not quite human. Something in the darkness, large, and pinchey.

Chapter Three
The Benedicuts Tedium

“To look at them would reveal no unusual qualities, they would be indistinguishable from the average human, but the Caeorian nobility concealed a secret and deadly bloodline. Centuries ago the drow elves lived on the surface of Caeoria, within the center of an endless jungle. During their time of dominance they conducted spectacular and profane rituals to their god Lolth. All things must come to an end however, and a brutal feud with followers of the Raven Queen resulted in the extermination of most of the areas plant life and the majority of the drow themselves. They persisted however, one way or another, turning their back on their dark god or interbreeding with the human populace. By the current era most of the drow are all but gone, but their legacy continues, one way or another.”
- Gabriella Burke – Mapping the Realms Underdark: Appendix A

The scorpion creature is revealed to be Jingo, a remnant of the drow empire and once one of its foremost lieutenants. He has since mutated into essentially a scorpion version of a drider, but retains his mind, and more importantly his humanity. Jingo fills in some of the blanks, revealing centuries ago he and his fellow generals were working on a ritual to incarnate Lolth in the physical realm. He agrees to part with the mask, which Zantir feels is in her best interests to keep hold of rather than Mrs Evil Plan and Captain Indifferent. The masks power is put to the test, allowing control of the undead it looks upon, and could be further enhanced when fire is used to create a spotlight of sorts.
Further investigation of the plagues source leads to a hive of blind monks hiding in catacombs below a ruined church. These as it is revealed are what are left of the followers of the Raven Queen, and the only one to retain some of his mind, Benedict, relates more of the tale. Took us a while though, since I feel the DM really hadn't planned exactly how he wanted us to uncover the plot, he didn't want to hand it to us outright. Turns out the blood of the drow scattered throughout the populace has a desire to reunite itself, which would complete the incarnation ritual, it was this reason that the king unleashed the curse, in an attempt to capture those of the blood.