DoctorB's Legacy of Alexander Story Hour

[DoctorB]

Welcome to the Legacy of Alexander Story Hour!

I have eliminated the campaign background from this list. It is now located on my Campaign Webpage

You will find there a description of the world, the characters and some older story hours. I have also included a number of maps of the world and other great info. Feel free to visit anytime.

This campaign is more than two years old in real time. The party completed one story arc in which they rescued the Alexandran Empire from an Undead Army raised by Tychon of Pella, who claims to be the King of Khalkis (the old name for the Empire). They also rescued a strange young man with long white hair named Arin from a glass tube in Khalkis' lair. At the start of this story, they have arrived in Sazon seeking information about Arin's master, Horus, and the Companions of Alexander.

Campaign Introduction:

417 years ago, the Triad, the gods of evil, tried to destroy the free kingdoms in a sudden massive invasion from the mountains of Irmak. They seemed on the verge of success when a little-known noble named Alexander rose to become the greatest general of his era and drive them back. Championing the Seven gods of good, he forged an alliance from the fractious western kingdoms. At the battle of Dranas, he and the great alliance utterly destroyed the army of evil and secured peace and freedom for the west. In the aftermath of his stunning victory, the allies determined never to be caught by surprise again. They elected Alexander to be emperor of all the major kingdoms and arranged for the position to continue. Alexander's own land, Khalkis, had been virtually destroyed in the invasion so it became the seat of his power. Alexander became titular overlord of all the kingdoms and built towers and castles to set watch on the land of Irmak.

That was a long time ago.

Now the kingdoms have fallen back into old habits. With the threat of evil gone, they war with each other and engage in their petty grabs for power. Fantastic creatures known in the ancient days are thought to be myths now. Dragons, and demons are stories for little children. The emperor still exists, but he rules only the lands of old Khalkis now. The Free Kingdoms have not paid the price for their lack of diligence for twenty generations.

Now evil is returning.

The Triad shows signs of preparing another attack from Irmak. While the leaders of the west ignore the threat, the Lady, leader of the Seven, chooses her Champions to fight the rising tide before it is too late...

The characters have been touched by the Lady. They are her chosen champions to serve her and humanity against the coming crisis. They know each other by an undefinable glow of the Lady's blessing on each of them. Some accept her blessing whole-heartedly and become advocates of her in the world. Others resent her influence in their destiny, don't believe their importance, or reject her part in their lives. Whatever their reaction, all the characters are people destined for great things

 

[DoctorB]

Cobbe's Vision in Sazon

[You are dreaming… you think]

The low hills stretch away to the horizon though those opposite you are darkened with the numbers of the enemy. Looking at your own lines, your spirits rise. Lady Breda prances in place. You can feel her eagerness for battle and glory. There is Joy glowing with a blue light astride Blueberry. She gives you a brave smile. Galena also glows but with a different power as she calls on her magic. A shadowy presence to your left is your only view of Liana, but you know she will be just as hard for the enemy to find. Further on your right, you see Bacha marching alongside his Irmakian tribe. He calls out a battle cry in salute. Toiva anchors your left with a troop of Dibran warriors drawn from many cities. They sing a bawdy song about landlocked maidens. A shame no more than the few hundred he commands could fight alongside you.

At your back sits the entire strength of Imperial horse and foot. All of them have chosen to be here and you are confident they will acquit themselves well. Looking closely, you make out the contingent from Pella; among them are Orace and Jarrik. You nod at Krum and he seems to understand. He will keep them as safe as he can. Nearby ride the Grey Knights. One of their lieutenants is familiar in the way she rides and sits. Of course Sheranise would be here. The Lady does not unchoose her champions. Hope rises as you see the brave swords and spears....


Then you look across the field. The enemy blackens the horizon with soldiers. Against your few thousand are arrayed fifty or one hundred times that number. Among them stride trolls and giants, ogres and hobgoblins. Other creatures you have never seen or heard of before walk or shamble among them. Riding a dragon above them is a man in black armor. The Warlord. You realize with honest appraisal that you will die today.

Why would the Lady choose you and the others to be her champions if you were doomed to fall before the might of the Triad? Are you and the others merely the last desperate cry of the defeated Seven? Then you think of what might have been. Where are the shining Argesian knights and the Dwarven legions to anchor your center? You have no berserkers from Varna to confuse the enemy ranks, no deadly archers from Streda and Tolna to fill the air with arrows. Absent is the magical power of Sindaria or the solid infantry of Lublin.

Grimly, you put your past failures behind you. You can only use the ingredients at hand. Wishing for saffron doesn’t make it appear. Failing all else, you rely on duty and faith. You call on the Lady and all of the Seven for their blessing and signal the attack…

[You awaken covered in sweat and reach for your mace. Lady Breda is kicking the sides of her stall. The adrenaline of battle is still with you and you find it impossible to return to sleep

 

[DoctorB]

In Sazon

The Champions are in Sazon trying to find out more about Horus, an important advisor to the ancient hero, Alexander, and Arin's master. They also want to find out more about the Companions of Alexander.

The next day, the Champions went to the Great Library and showed the keepers their token. It turned out they had an appointment to work with the chief Loremaster, and man named Luan. After some difficulty with the oath swearing not to damage any of the library materials or fight in the Library, Luan took the party to a reading room and they began research. After a couple of days of working, they had discovered a great deal about the seven companions of Alexander and that they were somehow linked to Horace, Arin’s master.

On the third day, they were in the Library again when things suddenly changed. Two worms had appeared in the courtyard in front of the Library and Toiva, Liana and Claudia were fighting them when the entire building was suddenly somewhere else. They found themselves looking at an ever-changing chaotic landscape that confused them even while they fought the two creatures that had come with them.
Here is Toiva’s description to Bacha of what was happening:

Cobb and Toiva had a long discussion about the appropriate way to get something done. Joy was pretty upset that the temple seemed to be too caught up in the whole "Yay Sazon" thing. Much research was done in the Library; we learned some stuff that makes it sound like we need to recover stuff from the seven companions of Alexander and return to a battlefield from Alexander's War to call back Horace (or Horus?), the kid's mentor, from where he has sequestered himself until he was needed. We discovered that riding Griffons can be learned from books. Toiva and Liana did some snooping. Joy ate a whole lot of Dibrean food. Galena was aloof. Toiva refrained from adding more verses to the Straw Hat Knight song. There was a wine emergency, involving Toiva and the Knight Defender of the Temple, who protected him for a couple of nights.

And then big freaking worms with tentacles appeared and the entire Library,
including the PC's and some random other folks in the Library, got plane-shifted
somewhere, according to our resident expert on the planes. We killed the two big
freaking worms, taking a ton of damage in the process (Cobb, Alexander, Toiva and Bacha get about half dead each), but more worms are on the way crossing the
blighted and twisted alien landscape infused with primal chaos that confuses the
weak-willed (that's you, Bacha) just looking at it, accompanied by "other
things." Joy did her "Healing Hand" thing. We have closed up the Library. It has
a bunch of magic items, and we are hoping that there is something in the Library
that can get us home, but in the mean time, monsters are knocking at the door.

 

[DoctorB]

The story continues...

As the warrior types (Bacha, Alexander, Toiva) held the front door, the others went into the center of the library where Luan had all of the magic items in the place brought. This was the senior loremasters’ study and already had in it a strange orrery and a large box with mysterious writing on it. Liana went exploring and Galena and Joy got down to the business of figuring out what was going on. Galena had detected that the force that sent them to this chaos plane came from somewhere inside the building but not where. She found that the large box had abjuration magic on it and the writing was old draconic giving warnings against opening it so she decided not to.

At the same time, Liana had discovered some writing on one of the stairwells saying “The Door is Open” in some form of Khal. She, Galena, and Joy went upstairs and detect magic found that one of the cells on the second floor had magic in it. When Liana opened the door, a man appeared and cast a Magic Missile into her.

Meanwhile downstairs, the gibbering mouthers (the other things Toiva saw) had burned through the stone on each side of the door. Something big gray and humanoid with a froglike head ripped the weakened doors away and the battle started in earnest. Three of the worm things and several mouthers entered the Library. Toiva, Bacha and Alexander started a fighting retreat intending to defend the narrow corridor into the main reading room.

Upstairs, the battle was over pretty quick. Liana did not attack right away. Joy cast a searing light that killed the guy where he stood. This was the first living creature she had ever killed. Searching the guy showed he had some kind of spiral symbol and burned into his left arm were seven strange symbols, which Lux said were not language. Galena ordered “bring that arm” and rushed downstairs again to continue the examination of the items in the study. Galena quickly discovered that the symbols were the same as the ones on the strange orrery which had seven faintly glowing symbols. Touching one of these using prestidigitation brought up about twenty similar signs to choose from. The party quickly figured out this object was what had brought them here and that the symbols were somehow linked to this plane. If only they knew the combination for their own plane! Luan offered that there was a room of works no one could read. Maybe something there would be useful. Galena went with him to see while the others went to aid with the combat.

In the main entranceway, barricading the narrow passageway into the main reading room had bought them some time but they found the gray thing was nowhere to be seen. Bacha held the barricade against the strength of one of the strange wormlike things and the others used missile weapons against it. Suddenly, the door to their right burst open and the missing monsters came through. Seeing themselves flanked, the three fighting at the front door retreated to the doorway leading toward the loremaster study. Using the narrow corridors to their advantage, they set up ambushes at four-way intersections. Joy and Cobb showed up to help with healing.

Galena looked through the scrolls Luan showed her and found she could read them. Several were in Celestial, some in Infernal and others in elemental languages. She looked at the Celestial ones first. One of them had a symbol she recognized from the set above one of the symbols on the orrery upstairs. Looking through it, it was an account of someone who had journeyed to the Heavens and returned. He had found these symbols in various places and had just copied them down, not knowing what they were. There were seven. Running back to the study, she lined up the seven symbols from the scroll on the orrery and cast spells into it to power it. With the seventh spell level, everyone felt the library shift.

The fight continued in the corridors as the chaos beasts slowly gained ground. Suddenly a blinding flash went through the building blinding many of the Champions and others. The creatures were gone. Going downstairs, they saw a beautific landscape outside. Galena had transported them to Heaven.

 

[DoctorB]

In Heaven...

Only Joy, Bacha, and Toiva went outside. There they met a celestial who called herself Herald. She said she was sent by the Lady to help them home. After much questioning and very little answering she showed Bacha a vision of his people and assured Joy her great-great-great-grandmother was there but did not let her see her. Finally, Herald gave them the seven symbols they needed to get home. She also sensed Joy’s desire to become a direct servant of the Lady and offered her the chance if she could restore the Lady’s shrine at Merowe.

Galena powered the device again and brought them back to Sazon. There they discovered that Claudia and the city guard had been fighting worms that had come through the Temple. It seems that the door between Library and Temple had allowed the chaos creatures to come through into the world. They also had to answer lots of questions from Lord Victor and others about what happened. After an exhausting day, they convinced Luan to let them stay in the Library with the loremasters in case something else happened. Galena refused to leave the study, thinking she might not get another chance to study the planar orrery if she left.
In the middle of the night, they heard the sounds of yelling and battle…

 

[DoctorB]

After the day of the chaos plane, the last thing the Champions wanted was to be awakened by battle outside. Rushing outside, they found Claudia and Alexander locked in battle with another of the chaos worms. Before they could go out to help, the thing struck with its seven tentacles and dropped Claudia. As Alexander fought on, the remaining Champions rushed in against the creature. Toiva finally killed it with a mighty blow. Unlike the ones in the chaos plane, this one poofed, indicating it had been summoned.

Detecting evil in the area, Cobbe found there was someone on the roof. Liana climbed up after him and heard an invisible person running across the roof. At sight of Liana, he ran to the other side and jumped off. Toiva, Bacha, and Galena circled around the building and when the man jumped, Galena webbed the area. Bacha found him enough with his glaive to kill him. When the man appeared, he was wearing robes and had badly burned hands. He also had a spiral symbol and another scroll case on him.

Claudia, it turns out, was dead from the beast’s attack. Alexander was inconsolable and spent some time in the Shrine of the Lady inside the Temple. He then disappeared for a while.

The others began investigating the spiral symbol.

Meanwhile, Galena found the real treasure of the senior loremaster’s room in the Library: a crystal ball. She and Joy then took the opportunity to try and scry on every enemy, and most of their friends. Here is some of what they found:

The remaining scroll from the Spiral guy revealed a man sitting in a room writing. After watching him for a while, he got up and went outside to stretch and they saw the spiral symbol on a sign. It was a place called the Whirlpool Bookstore and was known for having a very strange collection. The Champions decided this was the source of the problems.

Marigold Healinghand (Joy’s mother) was busy in the infirmary at Shrinehill working on people wounded in battle

Scale (the Priest of the Other) was lecturing to Kua-Toa about the Other

Sorin was involved in negotiations to repopulate the eastern Empire after the depredations of the undead army.

Barak Orsay (a priest of the Triad) was busy overseeing the training of hobgoblins in the mountains (Irmak?).

Lord Victor seemed to be worried about the new political aspirations of Lord Nasser, the old governor of Sazon (chosen because he was politically neutral).
The Yakuni (Bacha’s tribe) was moving from higher mountains into lower ones going west.

Tychon of Pella (the undead king of Khalkis) and Henric Dobos came up blank.

Having discovered where the spiral people were, the Champions prepared to attack the bookshop. They gained permission from the Temple to fight in the city limits to apprehend these criminals with the understanding they would try to bring them in alive. Bacha, Liana and Galena went with Lady Breda to the back door while Cobbe, Joy, Toiva and Alexander went to the front.

Opening the front door, Toiva used his bardic song to fascinate the clerk there. The entire place is piled high with stacks of books on very arcane subjects. Cobbe opens the door to the room the scribe was in and Joy casts hold person on him but it fails. She then blinds him successfully. He had already cast a spell to summon one of the chaos worms. Alexander went in and attacked the clerk breaking the fascinate. With a hmmf, Toiva begins to inspire courage.

In the back, Bacha breaks down the door and he Liana and Galena charge in. They find themselves attacked from guys in a neighboring room. As Bacha and Liana wade in, Galena finds another door leading upstairs and goes up to investigate.

The summoned worm attacks Joy and half kills her before she turns and dismisses it. The other spiral people are no match for the Champions. Cobbe and Toiva are careful to attack to subdue so there will be prisoners to arrest. Alexander and Bacha both kill several of them. Three are left to question.

Upstairs, they find one large room with a creature chained with silver chains in the center. He looks like a large frog-headed humanoid who calls himself a Slaad. After determining he is not evil, they questioned him about how he came to be there. The spiral people were using him to get information about his home plane it seems. The Champions agree to free him if he showed them where the gate was. They broke out the floor and brought him chains and all to the square in front of the Library to point out the gate. He told them there was no gate there or anywhere nearby. The party freed him from the chains and he opened a door and seemed to disappear.

 

[DoctorB]

Research on Horus and Companions of Alexander

From History of the Battle of Alexander,
written by Marko Vandus in the year 43 NE
(Written in Old Khal)

…As Alexander and his generals gathered to plan the following days battle on the plain of Dranas, Lord Horus entered the tent. Remembering the wisdom and skill of Horus which had guided him from the darkest days of the Warlord’s advance, Alexander waited to hear what the old sage would say.
I am leaving you now, Horus said.
Confused, Alexander asked him if he had caused some offense.
No, Horus responded. I have completed a working that will serve you better than my wisdom in the coming battle. The legions of the enemy are too many. Therefore, I will seek to reduce them so that the world will not be plunged into an age of darkness. This working will mean my own removal from the battle.
How can we continue without your guidance? the General asked.
I have already taught you much in the short time we have had together. I will be reduced by what I am about to do but not destroyed. In the years to come you will succeed or fail on your own merits.

But My Lord, what if we require your aid in the future?

The old man looked at each of the seven companions arrayed around their leader. Remember the knowledge and the gifts I have given you, he said. The seven felt his gaze as though Horus was testing them for their loyalty and worthiness. Finally, he nodded.

If you should need me again you must return to this place. Bring before me the seals of our alliance and call my name. Do not do this thing lightly. Only when the world itself is threatened should I be called from my rest.

Before the others could speak or move, Horus turned and strode from the tent, never to be seen or heard from again.
No one knows what the old sage did to aid the forces of light on that dreadful day, but Alexander defeated the Warlord on the fields of Dranas and established the world we know today…

 

[JoyHealinghand]

Merowe

The others don't know much about Joy's orders to restore The Lady's shrine at Merowe. Cobbe heard her say the name, and she has been asking a lot of questions about the Empire of Sand (where Merowe is located). Alexander may have the best clue, since he and Joy had a long talk about the Empire of Sand and it's people's fighting techniques. Joy has the impression that Alexander would go with her if she asked. However, she is not sure what to do. She feels that she is not up to the task at this point, perhaps when she gains greater abilities...(9th level and 5th level spells ) Even then she is not sure if she should tell her friends or not. Well, she can't just run off because Cobbe will get mad again (she only went off for one day while they were all at Shrinehill so that she could do some thinking, and Cobbe yelled at her for it, even though Mother wasn't worried at all), but she is not sure if she can or should ask them to come with her. It is her quest after all.

Joy is just begining to realize that becoming a Divine Agent of The Lady has huge ramifications on the course her life with take--leaving her parents forever, inheriting the shrine at Shrinehill, having her own children..., and she is trying desperatly to work through them. But she still has time; she is not skilled enough yet for this task. It could take months and months before her skill in channeling The Lady's glorious powers improve to the point where she is ready. Until then the Campions have a very important mission (and is that mission more important than Joy's quest?!?).

 

[Piratecat]

Whoot, story!

Admittedly, I know where some of this is leading... and it's good.

 

[DoctorB]

The Ambush (story)

The researchers hired by the Champions found the final piece of the Companions of Alexander puzzle in the list of the objects that Horus gave to the seven companions before the battle of Dranas. The party now suspects that these objects are the "seals" referred to by Horus in his final speech before disappearing.

Alexander was not dealing well with the death of his sister, and Joy tried to comfort him. He finally asked her to use the crystal ball to try and locate his father. She cast telepathic bond to see what was in his mind. He first showed her a picture of a severe gray-haired man. Joy felt that she used it well, but the crystal just clouded and then cleared. Using other images from his mind, she did see another man of a similar age going to fat but wearing plate armor and a dark haired woman overseeing decoration of a manor. Alexander would not tell Joy who they were, but just walked away.

In recognition of their accomplishment in rooting out the spiral people, Lord Victor invited the Champions to receive a commendation from Sazon and honorary citizenship in the city (which gives them legal rights in town. Toiva was thrilled). The ceremony was to be on Nonus 9, second Knightsday.

As the Champions traveled to the meeting, most were on foot except for Joy on Blueberry and Cobbe on Lady Breda. Suddenly, a Slaad jumped out of a side alley and cast Chain Lightning on Joy primarily and everyone else secondarily. Blueberry died in the attack and everyone was injured. Most of the party followed the creature into the alley.

There they found several enemies. Four warriors attacked on the ground while three rogues attacked from the roof along with a sorcerer. Cobb walked into this ambush first, and the others quickly followed. Alexander ended up in a side-alley fighting two of the fighters while Cobbe, Lady Breda, Bacha, and Toiva fought the main attack. Toiva disarmed two of the fighters, then subdued them when they went for their weapons. Joy worked her way in behind while Liana snuck up a wall ahead of the ambush. Liana discovered that another woman in black armor was watching the party from the rooftop. Having snuck up on her, she saw this person fire a composite longbow at Joy with a sneak attack. Liana attacked and hit the woman but not very well. The two of them started fighting on the rooftop with neither gaining the advantage.

At the same time, Galena summoned first a Xorn and then two air elementals. She instructed the Xorn to fight whomever Cobbe fought and sent one of the air elementals against the sorcerer and the other against one of the rogues. The Slaad turned itself invisible, but the Xorn could attack it because of tremorsense while Joy cast Invisibility Purge. The Slaad tried to flee up the building but was caught there and sent to his own plane. At this point, most of the enemies realized that the battle had gone against them.

The remaining rogue on the roof ran, followed by Bacha. Meanwhile, Toiva made his way to the roof to aid Liana against the black armored assassin. The woman tried to cast a spell and was struck twice for her trouble, and finally she just ran off the roof and back toward the entrance of the alley. She was subdued there.

The two warriors fighting Alexander did not realize the battle had gone against their comrades and continued to fight. One of them finally dropped as Toiva arrived on the scene. He cast a sleep spell on the other one only to see Alexander execute a coup-de-grace and kill him. Toiva tried to talk to Alexander about this but the monk just walked away from him.

Cleaning themselves up with a little help from Toiva and Galena’s prestidigitation, the Champions dropped the prisoners, including the unconcious assasin, at the jail. They finally arrived at the ceremony and endured the small talk of some of the important citizens of Sazon. Victor presented them with medals honoring their accomplishment and made them honorary citizens of the city.

While there, Cobbe tried to convince Lord Victor that the real war was coming when the forces of evil attack from Irmak. Remembering his vision, the paladin was convinced he could change that past and give the forces of the Free Kingdoms a chance. He suggested that Victor should send his army east when the time was right to aid in the battle. Though he listened carefully to everything Cobbe said, Victor was noncommittal about sending his forces to a distant war.

When the Champions returned to the Great Library for a much-deserved rest, they saw a notice being posted:

"By Order of Lord Nasser, Governor of Sazon. Due to the infiltration of dwarves intent on destroying the city, Sazon shall now be under a curfew from dusk to dawn and only militia will be allowed to carry weapons at any time."

Spying on Lord Nasser using the crystal ball, the party saw him speaking with a group of guardsmen. Some of those guards were not human but demonic in appearance. Nasser spoke to the group about the importance of patrolling the streets and other mundane tasks, seemingly unaware that creatures of evil were among the audience…