terrainmonkey said:
dude, this looks amazing! this set up is positively cool as hell! i envy your players. you have to tell us how the game went. it sounds like a rousing good time.
Yes. During the whole campaign, I think.
Other Seven Spires Links
ENWorld -
Lake of Blood Session (with Dwarven Forge pictures)
ENWorld -
Maps of the Seven Spires
Blogspot -
Seven Spires Campaign Journal
The Cast
Amalruth Ironhorn, unfettered Horned Devil (ECL 12 to ECL 14)
Jezabell, Quickling Winter Witch (Level 3 to 13)
Mandingo, the Hummingbird Warrior (now dead, Level 3 to 11)
Miriell, female dwarven Paladin (Level 9 to 13)
Nacht, Female Unfettered (Level 9 to 13)
Sa Qebah the Shapechanging Assassin (ECL 10 to 14)
Slydracna, the Mojh Mage Blade (Level 9 to 13)
Here's the summary. Forgive its length:
The Spellwardens in the first part of the campaign saved Spellhold, school of magic, and the whole city of Laelith from the Emerald Death, a sort of plague which appears when the powers of Life and Death are imbalanced, with Life being in much too strong a favor.
This created a reaction from the powers of Death in the region. The Undead, who were until that point monsters mentioned in bard tales and half-forgotten legends, reappeared in the Maze under the city at a dramatic rate. Adimarchus, or "Marcus" as he was known, was a teacher of Spellhold who thought this represented an opportunity to be seized. He was haunted by dreams of incredible power and discoveries, and his will chattered after months of this treatment.
Marcus allied himself with the Pactlords of the Quaan, a most eclectic alliance of monsters including aberrations, fiends and dark elves from other planes. Together, Marcus and the Quaan brought back to life the mummy lord Gwalchmesh, a hideous undead who was the key to an inverted pyramid buried deep below the earth. This pyramid, it was said, was the tomb of the "God Who Was Not Meant to Be", a powerful and corrupt entity which long ago was part of the chorus that created the World.
Marcus and the Quaan meant to open and plunder the pyramid. They thought they could play with power without getting burnt. They were wrong.
Once the pyramid was opened, Gwalchmesh turned against his masters. The Quaan soon lost confidence in Marcus who quickly became utterly insane. The drow part of the alliance decided to exterminate the other members of the Pact and allied themselves with Gwalchmesh. This is during these events that the Spellwarden became directly involved.
Previously, they were investigating murders in the community of the Delver's Cliff, a small village of adventurers exploring the catacombs below their village. Soon, the Spellwardens knew that whatever the key to the mystery of the Cliff was, it was to be found in the depths of its dungeons. They also were charged to find a teacher of Spellhold... Marcus... who disappeared from the school without any warning. The Headmaster was particularly concerned as far as the well-being of his friend was concerned.
It came as a surprise to the Spellwardens to find out that Marcus was a big part of the problems going on around and under the Delver's Cliff. They also soon discovered that the pyramid was opened, and that the mastermind behind all these events, including the Emerald Death and events way beyond their scope, was the mysterious messiah of the God Who Was Not Meant To Be... the Bonelord.
After all the discoveries the Spellwardens fell victim of a trap while exploring the dungeons: somewhere in the catacombs, while fleeing from a Nightcrawler, they encountered the horned devil Amalruth Ironhorn who was summoned by their enemies to kill them but wouldn't bring himself to do it, went through a portal that lead them to I'ix, a plane condemned to eternal winter, searched long for a way to escape, and escape ultimately they did.
(this is when the Lake of Blood session occured: ) Went they came back, they emerged in a huge cave, atop a battle between the forces of House d'Astradeen and the drow of the Delver's Cliff (cf the Lake of Blood thread). They sided with the forces of House d'Astradeen, learned of the death of the God King of Laelith killed by his own concubines during one of the ritual orgies of the Palace, who were charmed by a vampire from the Delver's Cliff, and freed Eldariel, a Trumpet Archon imprisoned below the Cliff for centuries.
Along with the Archon and Amalruth, the unfettered Devil, the Spellwardens decided to end the threat once and for all. While the forces of House d'Astradeen went North to help with the drow siege of the Delver's Cliff, the Wardens went South, directly to the pyramid and its main Seal.
(This is where the last game began: ) They confront a first time the Bonelord in caves near the Seal, but the ageless undead uses a Word of Recall
to sneak away while some of his minions fight the wardens. The minions, including Hill Giants and an Undead Troll, put up a good fight, but the Spellwardens were helped by their determination and some old friends showing up right on time (the Ettercap Razuth, ex-member of the Quaan, who was helped by the Spellwardens and accepted in Spellhold for magical training because of them, Edwin, long lost brother of Jezabell and a warforged from Laelith's city guard).
Drawing closer to the Seal, the Spellwardens defeat Gwalchmesh once and for all (the fat undead on the pictures) and in a fit of mercy, let the drow priestess go (!).
Our heroes finally confront the Bonelord for the last time. After an epic fight during which most of their friends and allies gave their lives, the Spellwardens end up trapping the Bonelord into an Iron Flask (which can imprison powerful anathemas such as the Bonelord). Nacht the Unfettered used all her cunning and skill to pull this off (and a memorable fumble on a Will save from the DM helped a lot too, I should point out).
But their deeds are not over. The pyramid slowly opens, and the heroes have to reactivate the Seal. Eldariel tells them the Seal needs the essence of a being of Good to live on. They need to kill her, and she offers them her silver sword: "Only the sacrifice of a being of Good will put an end to this".
This is when the wardens hear Sa Qebah's cry as she commits suicide. During all these adventures, Sa Qebah the werecheetah, the rogue and monster, the freak, tried to control her urges and amend for the many murders she committed during her life. And now, she found a way to redeem herself. In a moment of silence, she fell to the ground and died, tears at the corner of her eyes.
The silence dragged on. Eldariel was weeping.
The Wardens come closer to Sa Qebah and pick up her body. The Archon picks up the Iron Flask and brings it to her lips. She looks at the wardens as she does so and drinks the soul of the Bonelord. She falls to the ground as well, with a bitter smile to her lips. "This was the only way. Now, the world has changed. The world ... has ... changed."
This is how Eldariel the Archon of the Realms of Celestia left this world forever.
After hours of walking and crawling back through the Maze, the Spellwardens found their way out with Sa Qebah's corpse with them. The world had changed, indeed. The city was no longer Laelith, but "Ptolus". The world was no longer Osterande, Realm of the Spires, but the Empire of Tarsis.
Slowly, the Spellwardens learned more about this new world. They were told by an oracle of the Street of a Million Gods that maybe, by destroying the essence of the being they knew as the Bonelord, they also destroyed a part of the world they loved. Somehow, the world was indeed not the same. Similar, and yet different.
Nobody knew who these "Spellwardens" were, nor did they know how they had become so rich so fast. Slydracna the Mojh bought one of the most glorious estates in town. Jezabell the Faen left Ptolus to find her native village, Ogrebound, without knowing if the location still existed in this new world. She leaves by sea, and never comes back to this part of the world. Miriell the dwarven paladin goes on quests and still helps the Keepers of the Veil from time to time, the only one of the Spellwardens to still be known as an active adventurer. Nacht disappears within the city's underground societies, working her way through the criminal organizations of Ptolus to oppose the Balacazar family for some unknown reason.
As for Sa Qebah, she has been buried in the Necropolis, under a monument to which all the Spellwardens participated monetarily. Nobody in town knows why the monument is so appealing and awe-inspiring. Nobody knows the name of the person buried. Children often wonder about this mausoleum and the legacy this unknown person may have had. They invent stories and come up with great deeds, but whatever they are, the hero always saves the day by her sacrifice...
The memory of the Seven Spires fades away. Even to the surviving Spellwardens, it becomes hard to remember the shores of the High Waters, the faces of familiar friends and enemies. Even Sa Qebah's face seems to fade from the wardens' minds. Is this world better, safer, or even more decent? It doesn't look like it. The Spellwardens have to make this place their home, but do not know what the future will bring.
THE END.
